Letter to Gideon 2

Writing this on the back of the first latter,
 
Hey Gideon... again. I realize you'll be getting all my letters at once since I haven't got the chance to post them yet.
But writing things down after a long day clears my mind.
So I left my last letter at around midnight. As planned Terrin joined us around midnight to start the traditional trials in the Bramble.
He used some strange magic to ward off sound and blurred the festival still going on around us, I've seen it happen to others in the past but never realized how strange it felt being inside this ward.
 
Terrin explained to us some ancient truths of these lands *This next section is heavily scratched out as Alistan realized it's a Tarn secret*, about how Tarn used to be the site of an ancient Fey kingdom called Immerglade, which fell in a war against the Fey Kingdom of Neverhold. How the Queen of Immerglade's fate is now unknown. How ruins of the Immerglade Kingdom were still to be found in The Bramble, which is now a cursed place. This place would have a puzzle for us that if solved would give us a reward. Terrin explained that the reason the villagers of Tarn do this is because some ancient Elven sorceress told Terrin that the next King/Queen of a restored Immerglade Kingdom might come from one of the victors of this puzzle/test. Which is also a reason to keep this secret safe as it would attract unwanted attention. He then gave us a tip for the puzzle, and warnings for the poisonous thorns. He then handed a healer's kit to Hayley to use on Gael and Ileas who were still wounded. And with that he left us to go on our new quest.
 
Gael and Luke helped us maneuver the thorns and quickly we got to the ruins of the tower Terrin talked about. Here the thorns and vines formed into humanoid figures and started attacking us. *End of scratched out part* It was a difficult fight, Ileas went down and I had to throw myself between Lil and a Vinemonster to protect her, only to then end up in vines alongside her. Luckily Gael dealt a killing blow to the monster to free us, allowing us to clean up the other monsters. *Start of Scratched out part* We then handled the puzzle, it had to do with shining a light at a runestone symbolizing noon, Hayley managed to figure it out and Luke used magical light to creat the right shadows. From solving this puzzle a chest appeared with our reward. Some stones we later learned could be used to communicate between other holders of these stones. Pretty nifty stuff. We were also introduced to Sylvesse, Gael's mentor and a giant magical white stag, he was merely observing our trial (probably out of care for Gael) and told us he'll be watching our travels as far as Hillfield before using his antlers to create a path before leaving us. *End of Scratched out part* And me and Lil raced to the town, it was a tie.
 
This ended our day as we decided to go to sleep to catch our caravan the next day.
When we arrived at the town square in the morning and met up with everyone and our trusty new companion Thorin (the horse gifted to us by the farmers). We were also introduced to Onvyr, an old elf who was going to lead the caravan. The caravan would exist out of five carts, our cart, three merchant carts and a carriage for the noble children Edward and Elsa. Omvir needed some extra guards up front so we volunteered our group to scout ahead and be the vanguard. Should keep us busy and the first to enter the fray if the need rises.
 
Right before we left Sheriff Edna came to say goodbye, she had a longbow for us as a reward for the task we did yesterday. Think Gael took the bow after that since he's our best shot.
 
And then the time came to set off, we said our goodbyes to everyone and set off on our trek to Hillfield.
The first halfday was rather boring, we were 10 minutes before the rest of the caravan scouting up ahead, me taking Thorin besides me to lead him down the road.
 
At lunch we got talking to Edward Colline, son of the lord, he honestly seems like a great guy. Much looser than his father, wants to become knight and also likes swords, how could I hate this guy? He proposed he'd ride along with us for the second half of the day since his carriage was boring him. Elsa on the other hand, seemed to be fast asleep in the carriage. Hope the dancing didn't tire her out but Edward didn't seem surprised, it does make her seem very different from the girl I danced with. Luke jumped at the occasion to wake her up and eat with her in her carriage. Bit weird to isolate her from the rest of us but she didn't seem to mind. Can't deny I was a bit jealous but my heart is in conflict, to pursue a girl I barely know and strain my friendship with Luke or be a good friend to Luke and pay back the debt I owe him for allowing me to dance with her? If I had to guess I'll probably do something I don't expect to do after Ileas and Lil egg me on. Anyway, she also didn't want to stay in the carriage and came to our cart. I'm just happy the two kids can socialize with the the rest of us now without their dad holding them back.
 
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, Edward tried to pry the details of the trial from us. But Gael gave some cryptic anwer on how he could do the trial too. Anyhow, towards the end of the day we saw a camping site up ahead. Lil and Dadroz went to get Onvyr and Gael went scouting ahead. For a while nothing was going on but then Hayley jumped up and said Gael was in danger from Reinards. I immediately grabbed my sword and stormed off towards the camp, together with Hayley, Ileas and Edward. Edward and Ileas ran like the wind and left me and Hayley in their dust. By the time we got there the situation looked quite dire. Gael was bleeding on the ground and a human, who we later learned was the bard Robert Talespinner, was also lying face down with a Reinard emptying his pockets. We later learned Gael jumped in to protect Robert and tried to hold them back as long as he could.
 
The fight was quite good, Edward is skilled with his blade and got the final blow in. *start of scratched out section* Sylvesse also showed up to protect Gael as he was fighting the Reinards alone *End of scratched out section*. Right as we ended the fight the rest of the caravan showed up and we set out for camp, Robert seems to be joining our caravan and I spent some time sparring with Edward. Now as I write this letter the campfire is ablaze and I can't wait for us to get to Hillfield.
 
I can't wait to get to Hillfield so I can post this letter and see our family there.
 
Talk to you soon,
Alistan
 
P.S. You noticed I scratched out some stuff, Lil reminded me some of these are secrets of the village and we can't just share them with anyone. Just take our word that the trial went well and we had some good fun.
P.P.S. I know talk to you soon means nothing since you're reading these letters at the same time. I've added a date so you can hopefully appreciate the time between them