Cry for the Wolf, Chapter 5. by Richard Walker

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SUMMARY: Introducing two new characters, longtime companions on the road who stumble across the wake of Myranna's trail as they make their way to Fallond for the faire, as well.

Let this be delivered in all haste to the right worshipful Pelewy Danse at Fallon, her loving brother Coris.
Right well beloved sister I greet ye well, wishing to hear if ye need anything, since I understand from our agent in the free ports that you were ill, so that our mother and both the lads were sorry and concerned for ye, as am I. I got Father's letter written in the free ports dated the twenty-third of October last and understood it well. I pray to the Goddess in this wilderness of infidels that you have now recovered and are fully healed.
I humbly ask ye to be indulgent to .this letter, for it is written in haste in mine own hand and without the help of anyone else, for I well weet that ye had rather have it of mine own hand.: than that of any other. Let it be known, an it please ye, that I am in fine estate, both of body and of soul, blessed be the Goddess. For the great dearth of dwarf kin that I have met here and on mine travels there has been scant love in my life, which only. makes to me the filial sort that much more pre~ious. I have had good cheer of many new friends met upon the road, of especially one hight Mallos, of some slight elfin ancestry. He is easy good company and a marvel on the harp, but I do miss mine home and family in Fallon so it rends mine heart these days. I must own that I am sore surprised that despite mine faithful correspondence I have had no letters nor notes nor reports of any kind of yer own hand to convey the state of yer own heart or welfare. Consequently, I beg ofye to set pen to paper, or have father's clark do so for ye, even so I may have some news of ye direct. I'll own that we did not part on the best of terms and it pains me so that mine heart aches whene'er I think on it. Ye'll weet well how hard it is for me, but I implore the favour of yerself and yer good lady my mother and yer daily blessing, which I value more than any worldly goods, though I says it as has never said such to ye before. If aught lie between us whereof ye'll not write, I beg ye to shed some light on the matter that I may assay to redress it, an I may. This task I do not undertake lightly, indeed, more to the purpose, I feel it is long past time for me to return home again. Those reasons and issues for which I originally departed the household to see the wider world are mostly moot now, or far better sorted about than once they were. I have made of myself much the dwarf I wished, and that I don't think I could ever have done at home. I know my leaving hurt ye and mine absence pained ye, and for those things I am most heartfully sorry. Not words ye probably ever expected to hear from me, I'll own. What other words I might conjure to help make the hurt between us grow smaller with the passage of time I know not, but I shall try, certes! Ye shall see. As I'm sure the years have changed ye, so the years and my long travels have changed me. For the better all the way around, I pray the Goddess.
If all goes as expected, I look to arrive some month or thereabouts before the Shanrian All-Feast, but as I have so often found, travel swings on the whims of weather and nigh universally crotchety innkeeps, so look for me anytime up to the time of the faire itself.