Summer in Lindon - A meeting with an old aquaintance in Duillond

As the repairs on the house have begun in earnest, I have followed lady Ealendil to the market in Duillond. No need to be in the way of master Bregedúr and his workmen. However, Ealendil is very quiet about the reasons for this rather sudden trip, only mentioning that she had caught wind of an old acquaintance of hers that had come down from the Vale Thrain, and she much wanted to meet with him.

At one of the southern market squares, we meet with Master Lifund, and old naug out of Gondamon, and trader of "diverse and exotic" things. I am baffled, I have never met him before, but Ealendil has lived here longer than me. After many cordial greetings and inquiries into current ongoings, talk turn to more serious matters, and Ealendil let’s slip that she has long wished to visit kin of her mother living in the Golden Wood, but the crossing of the Hithaeglir has become ever more problematic.

This is news to me, I knew that she wanted travel there, but thought she had abandoned the notion for the time being, considering all roads there are almost closed.

Master Lifund, apparently a naug with an extremely nimble mind, quickly interjects, and tells her that it probably would be better for her to travel further up the Vale, to Gondamon, and meet with associates of him that may be in a position to better aid her. And just like that, she promises she will do so within a week.

I am most confounded, what is going on? On the return back to the house, Ealendil is more quiet than usual, seemingly preoccupied. I give up, in time she will tell me, of that I am sure.