Fennelisa's Letter to Ash
Ilvin 30, 718

Dear Ash,

I hope that you get this letter and my gift. I also hope that you like it. I made it from driftwood. Phillipus says that driftwood sometimes is very old and so I thought that was appropriate for your gift.

I hope everything is well with you and that you are keeping out of trouble since I am not around to help you if you do. But then you have been getting in and out of trouble for a while before we ever met.

I also gave gifts to my parents. I know that you met Dadda and Momma but did you meet Erecford and Symelle? They're nice folks. My tenacus also received gifts and Sir Reius, a knight of Larani that I met. Well, I sent it to him even though I wasn't sure that he would get it. I hope that he does.

It was difficult getting the gifts done because I wanted all of them to be special. Dadda has a piece of a stag's horn and his mate (the deer's, not dadda's) chased me all the way to Fobin. Momma's was a doe's fur but not the same doe who chased me. Erecford's has a piece of a boar's tusk that I had to spend an hour up a tree, be chased after by a boar and attack three poachers to get! And for Symelle, I had to find an boy eagle a girl eagle because he was lonely. I roamed the mountains for days to find her!!

The worsed were for my tenacus. I wanted to do the Fobin shield for Primus Caius but with a taburi on top. I had started when Toribir passed by and saw what I was doing. He said that I shouldn't do that. Do what? I asked him. Do the Fobin arms without permission. He said that I had to get permission from Horik Baral to do that. Alarmed at possibly breaking Legion rules, I went looking for Horik Baral. I was out of luck because he was away on business but close by. I was told where and went to see him. I arrived where he was visiting an old friend and explained things to him and he said that it was okay to use the Fobin shield since it would be a Legionnaire who would be wearing it. Releaved, I was about to leave when Horik Baral's friend asked me if I would be able to do him a favour. Horik Baral protested but agreed when his friend convinced him. They had an dispute about something and a friend of theirs could settle it. He asked me to deliver a message to their friend, wait for the answer and return to them with it. It wasn't far, so I agreed.

I left the cottage of the friend of Horik Baral and arrived quickly to tjeir friend's house. He laughed when he read the message and wrote something on the note I delivered and gave it to me along with 5d for my troubles. I was on my way back when three bandits jumped on me! I only had my sword of St-Belsirasin, of all the luck, but drew it. They laughed and said that I couldn't beat them all together. When I went to attack one, another tripped me and I fell on my sword. It hurt a lot but I new that I would be okay. So I faked being dead. The bandits laughed even louder. They turned me on my back and started to search me, one pulled out my sword from my gut. That's when I pretended to get up and told them that I wanted my sword back. The bandit was surprised. He hit me with my sword and saw that I wasn't hurt, I told him that they can't hurt me because I am the ghost of all their victims and would chase after them forever. The bandit hit me again and he saw that he didn't hurt me again. He dropped the sword and begged me not to harm him. When his friends saw him on his knees, they surrendered too. I arrested them and brought them to Fobin to be locked up. I was able to bring Horik Baral his answer and he won the bet argument with his friend. He was happy that he gave me 5d, too! I also got a reward for capturing the three bandits! I was able to finish Primus Caius' gift after that.

For Antonius, I wanted to give him a horse with wings on its feet on top of a shield but I needed a model. So I asked Beccaria, his horse to pose for me. But we had to do it in secret so that Antonius wouldn't know about his gift! So I asked Beccaria to meet me in the forest where we could work alone. We were alone with Beccaria posing and me carving when we heard terrible noise from further. We went to investigate and it was two really big and ugly brown gargun bullying a small white gargun! I didn't like that so I asked Beccaria if he wanted to go help. He didn't want to at first, he said that gargun are gargun and that they're smelly and ugly. I told him that Antonius would be angry at him because it didn't matter if he was a small white gargun but that he was being put in danger by the other gargun. A real hero doesn't care what a victim looks like only that he's a victim and that's it's a heroe's job to help!! Beccaria seemed to like the idea of being a hero so we rushed the gargun. I was glad to have brought my legion sword as well as my St-Belsirasin sword. We were able to scare off the big gargun away.

The white gargun was scared of us at first but we got him to trust us. He was happy to make friends, said that the other gargun were always mean to him even though he always did things for them like cooking and cleaning and stuff. I said that I was glad he wasn't their friend anymore. Beccaria and me were happy to do a good job and went back to carving and posing. The white gargun followed us. We told him that he didn't have to follow us and that he could go home. He looked lost when I said that and said that he didn't know where his home was. I told him that we could help him find his home and he was happy with that.

He followed Beccaria and me back to Fobin. The guards on door duty were alarmed because they thought he was a messenger from a white gargun camp come to tell us about more trouble after the last messenger came. But we told him that he was only lost and that we would help him find his home. The white gargun told me that his name is Bazal. I asked Phillipus if Bazal could stay somewhere until we found his home for him and he said that Bazal could stay in the stables. The stablehands were not happy!

Bazal was a pest! I know he was trying to help and thank us for helping him but he was always causing trouble like when he wanted to bring me food. Or help me clean our quarters. Or when he came to scrub my back in the baths and fell in the water! The water wall all dirty and full of fur. We had to close the baths and wash them out, the slaves complained so much that we were told that my tenacus had to clean it out! Of course, Bazal wanted to help and made an even worse mess!! We were lucky that someone recognized what clan Bazal came from and we sent him home!

For Cornelius I didn't know what to do for him but I knew that he was a follower of Save K'nor. Not that that helped me a lot because I didn't know a lot about Him. I did know that there was church of Save K'nor in Geshtei so I decided to go and asked them about ideas. I came to the door and knocked, a small shutter opened and someone asked me what business I had there. I explained what I wanted and the person was not too happy then to see me. He told me that they weren't a gift shop and to go elsewhere for my errands and he closed the shutter. But Cornelius is going to be so disappointed I said! As soon as I said that, the shutter opened again! Did I say Cornelius he asked me, and what was my name again? I answered and he opened the door so fast that he scared me. In fact he scared me so much that I started to have the hiccups. Come in he told me with a smile. He brought me to room where he gave me some cider and little cakes and soon an older man came into the room. By that time I was awful tired of my hiccups, I just wanted to leave. But the man asked all sorts of questions about Cornelius, myself, my friends, my adventures and my sword. It took two hours before he would even answer my questions and he left before I could ask him anything. The first man came back and said that they were happy that I came to visit them and to please come back anytime.

“Stop” I told him. He looked at me as if he was stupid or something. I told him that I hadn't found anything about what gift to give Cornelius. I had trouble because I still had the hiccups. He said that he didn't know Cornelius at all but that I could consult their books if that would help. I said sure even though I wasn't sure. I was searching in books that I had no idea what they said (what difference does it mean if the world is flat or round? Or that very high winds are very fast? Or that some very far off republic has a wall a thousand leagues long? A thousand leagues!!) I was getting tired and my hiccups were a bother. Other people in the room were giving me dirty looks because I was too loud.

This old man told me that if I held my breath and let it out slowly that my hiccups would go away. I did as he said and the hiccups were gone! I thanked him and he said that I didn't look like any follower of Save K'nor that he knew. I said that I wasn't and that surprised him because he said that they didn't let just anyone read their books. He said that his name is Justin and that he is a mendicant. He was there to write down some of the things that he saw and heard in his travels. He was really nice. He told me stories and finally suggested that I could do a scroll and quill for Cornelius. He said that he wasn't surprised about being asked questions and shown the door. And that then understood why they let me read their books since I gave the priests a lot of information that they were not sure about.

That's when I noticed that it was dark outside. I said goodbye and ran all the way to Fobin ( well not all the way, but close). When I got there I was on report because they were about to call me absent. I got demerits and people were disappointed in me! I was sad the next day because I had let people down. I was doing chores during my spare time to work off my demerits when Mike, Phillipus' squire (I call him Mike, he's nice), came to me and told me that Horik Baral and Phillipus wanted to see me fast! I thought that I was in trouble for the last day so I went expecting the worsed. When I came into Phillipus' office, Phillipus and Horik Baral were talking to Justin, the nice man from the temple of Save K'nor. They were joking and laghing but became serious when I walked in. Phillipus was telling me that he was disappointed about me but when Justin came to talk to him he understood why that I was late the previous day and that they wouldn't talk about it anymore. Horik Baral said that they would take away any demerit that was left and that the demerits that I had worked off already would be enough. And he said that if I had other things like that that I needed to do to tell them first so that they wouldn't think the worsed of me!! Then he walked out and Phillipus said that I could go back to whatever that I was doing and escort Justin to the guest quarters. I asked Justin what he told them but he wouldn't tell me simply that it wasn't important and he smiled at me.

Justin stayed at Fobin for five days. He met Arinian and they liked each other immediately. He seemed to know MXYPLIK (I call him Complicate because his name is difficult to say and write. He heard me once and just smiled when I became embarrassed, he said that I was the best variation on his name that he had heard). Of course the members of my tenacus liked him as well and so did Beccaria, Aki and, of all things, so did Skitty!!! Justin was surprised to see Skitty in Fobin when he asked around and he learned that Skitty was my friend he said that he was not surprised. I still don't know what he meant even though I asked him. He keeps secrets even more secret than you do!

I was sad to him leave though. He was always very nice to me and everyone liked him but he said that his journeys had to continue and that he couldn't stop too long in one place. I asked him if he would come back here one day but he was sad to say that we wouldn't meet each other again.

Well, Ash, those are my stories. Again I hope that you are well and that you are taking care of yourself. I hope that you can visit Fobin soon but when I get some leave time, I'll go to Coranan and visit you.

With love always,

Your friend,

Fennelisa

of Clan Asarn, daughter of Vaynder.


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