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Andarien licked the fruit's juice from his lips and stared at his sister. "I can't eat the what and the what?" he asked, not understanding the English words that she'd said.

He waited for her answer before taking another bite, just in case he ate something he wasn't supposed to.

Andarien blinked at her. "Oh," he said simply. He looked back at the fruit in his hand, and turned it over and tugged at the little green tips of the skin that were sticking out. "It's kind of hard anyway," he frowned. "I don't think it would be very good."

He turned it over again and took another bite, sucking some of the juice out of the fruit.

"But the inside is yummy," he said with a grin.

Andarien eyed his sister suspiciously. "But you're going to come with us to our room when they take us there, right?"

He wasn't as clingy to Miyuki as she had been with their parents, but he did want to make sure that she wasn't going to go off without him for a long time.

Andarien nodded. "Okay then. Don't forget!"

And he turned his attention back to the fruit he was eating.

River smiled at Miyuki. "Good. I know he's a picky eater, so it's good that he can expand his tastes a bit."

"What kind of food does he like?" Lalwen asked curiously. "Maeglin would know, but she went to find Mama."

"She would know?" River blinked. "How?"

"Same way Mama knows everything, and Grandmother," Lalwen shrugged, reaching for a pitcher of cider. "I don't have that ability, at least not yet. I might someday though."

"Well, I'm sure he'll get a good variety of new things now that we're here," River grinned. "They have stuff here that we don't have the Westland or the Borderlands!"

And it was true. Looking out over the table, very few of the fruits at least were recognizable.

"That's true," River nodded. "It's kind of hard to find a variety of food when most of what we eat is packed a long time before we eat it. Especially at this time of year, the only thing we can really get fresh is meat."

Lalwen smiled. "That is lucky for you. We don't get to enjoy a lot of meat here. It's hard enough sometimes just getting enough fruit, but really there's almost nothing to hunt." She paused, then added, "That's what Uncle Pengolodh says."

"Lots of different kinds of fruit, what vegetables can be grown, roots and tubers," Lalwen ticked it off on her fingers. "We keep some birds for eggs, and when we have too many birds then we can eat them ... there are some goat herds and we get milk from them, but sometimes we eat the goats too ..."

She tried to think of what else they had.

"We had fish once, but it wasn't good at all," she said with a frown. "Mama said it was because the fish were too old, because they had to come here from the ocean."