Fret, Numnutz, and Kendalf came into Unravelldel, already chastened by their complex adventures, and they had only just travelled beyond their own area code.

"Here," said Kendalf,"Here I must leave you for awhile."

"What?", said Fret," You can't go now."

"I've got a job to do too, Fret, where I'm going, you can't follow, what I've got to do, you can't be any part of."

"But--"said Fret, bursting into tears, "You said you would never leave."

"Look, Fret," said Kendalf, "I am pretty well all wise, but it doesn't take someone all wise to see that the problems of three little people -- well, two little people and a wizard -- don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. We'll always have the shire, we didn't have it, we'd lost it, until you came to --"

"What is with him?" said Numnutz.

"I don't know," said Fret, shaking his head, "Every once in awhile he just goes off like this, as if he is tuning in to some frequency not available to the rest of us."

Kendalf pulled most of himself together. "Anyway, Fret, you will be in good hands here, for it is time for you to meet Rick O' the Fielding, Don Minstrello of all Minstrels, who will carry you forward into the next chapter."

"But, but Kendalf," cried Fret, "Have you no words of wisdom for me to take with me through these deadly days?"

"Oh, certainly," replied Kendalf, "Don't wear your sweater inside, or you won't feel the good of it when you go out."

"Anything else?"

"Dress like a winner, be a winner."

"And?"

"I've tried rich, and I've tried poor, and rich is better. And remember, you don't have to marry money, but go where money is."

"Thank you Kendalf, I will keep those precepts in my heart."

And Kendalf disappeared in a cloud of what appeared to be self-raising flour.