November 8,
1216
Hello Jenn:
I haven't written in a few months as I've been busy trying to adjust to
my new home. Lorum is going to visit the May Queen soon so I thought I
should write and send the other letters with him. He's an interesting
fella, that Lorum. He always seems to have his pet rabbit around him.
He kind of looks like a rabbit too, probably from spending too much
time with lagomorphs. Anyway, he's quite a ventriloquist -- although he
only uses it to make his rabbit talk. Sometimes I can't even tell how
Lorum does it, and I think I'm pretty observant. Catorse says the
rabbit is demonic; but he's such a cute little fellow that it's hard to
imagine he could do anything bad. Lorum's cute too in a "my- 90- year-
old- great- grandmother- could- beat- the- crap- out- of- him" sort of
way.
Speaking of Catorse, he's kind of scary, in a "I- know- what- you- did-
and- it's- only- a- matter- of- time- before- you- end- up- in- a-
deep- dark- dank- dungeon" sort of way. I wouldn't mind him
staring at me but he is married and you know how I feel about the
sanctity of marriage. His wife, Cecilia, is very nice to me. She keeps
baking me cookies and pastries, although I can only eat a little before
I feel bloated. They don't have any kids yet -- I suspect that Catorse
is shooting blanks, if you know what I mean.
I've spent the last three months learning how to take care of horses.
The High Priestess would be so proud! It's not as easy as it looks.
There's a lot of brushing and hard work involved. The local zookeeper,
Alophonso, is my teacher. I like to call him Fonzi which I don't think
he minds. He always seems to have a bunch of animals around him. I
wonder if he knows how to care for a Betta? I'm thinking of getting an
aquarium for my room. Anyway, I'll soon try to learn how to ride a
horse. How hard can it be? If an irritatingly-blonde-bard can do it, so
can I, right?
Speaking of marriage (two paragraphs ago) Viator just got married a
couple of days ago to Zilia, who's the daughter of some nearby minor
noble. When I met her I thought that she couldn't be older than your
sister! What, they ship off their daughters so soon around here? I
almost choked on my punch. Turns out that she is older than Amanda,
although only a year or so, which is still too young. I think that her
father pushed her into getting married, what a turnip!
|
The wedding
festivities were quite nice though. Three days of fun fun
fun. I met this guy, Intentio of Flamb'e -- I guess they like shish
kebabs where he's from. Anyway, he was very polite and let me talk and
talk. I was telling him some of the things I've learned as a horse
handler and he was very interested. I don't think the other people like
him though. In fact I think they chased him away later on. Oh well,
maybe I'll meet him again.
There was also this giant sea turtle at the party. Someone kept giving
it bowls of punch which it seemed to like. I tried to ride it but it
threw me off. Eventually I did ride him, I think. That night was kind
of hazy -- I rode **something**. Maybe I had a bad reaction to the
punch because I remember feeling very woozy.
Someone gave this nice rug to Viator and Zilia as a wedding present. A
couple of the little ones were playing on it and I joined them to keep
them company. I don't know what happened to the time because the next
thing I knew they were dragging me off to the poetry contest.
I can't say I did all that well. My storytelling skills have atrophied
since I've left. I did tell the story about the strange guys who came
to town to rescue Her Worshipfulness toy. Naturally I had to embellish
it more for the crowd, but I don't think they appreciated my subtle
humor. After that there was a singing contest, which I placed second
in. I must say that the little ones loved me, although I don't know
what's up with the grown ups. It's like all the humor got leeched out
of them.
The wedding itself was nice. There was a small fire but it was put out
quickly. It's so great seeing people get married -- hits you right
here, you know? Think someday maybe it'll be you and me?
As a last note, Aubrin has taken to calling himself Aubrin the Evil.
I'm sure that sounds impressive but I don't picture him as the evil
type, from the few months I've known him. Oh well, I suppose if he
wants to try it out he's welcome to it. But you know what I say: leave
the evil-doing to the professionals before someone gets their eye poked
out.
All my love,
Larissa |