Dandelynn

Winter, Herne. After all that had happened with Ryheric's chestnut colt Boltin in Rohan, and hearing Tarsorel speak about the ill fate of Grace, it occurred to Ryheric that while Boltin received a proper send-off from Brynleigh of Rohan, none of the other horses lost from his company in the last two years had received proper acknowledgment. Going with his gut, he detoured the group off the road and led them to the river. Small floating shrines were made and set adrift.

Dandelynn was sad. Ryheric had never known her to be melancholy before, or lonely like that. It called for some wild, drunken revelry fit for lifting a barmaid's spirits. Dandy partook of course, plenty of booze drunk. The dining table broken. Eirik later crashing into the pantry from a "sleigh" ride down the stairs. There was music, raucous laughter, plenty of food and drink ... and an absolutely trashed house strewn with hungover bodies by the end of it. Just as it should be. The most important part was that Dandy's cheer was returned to her in the end.

The dance in Combe after Bryn's threat was ended. Ryheric got them all drunk as skunks, shouted defiances against darkness and startled the entire group into a bursting revelry where none of them needed to hide, any longer. Freedom was never safe but it was pure, and nothing compared to it.

Late autumn, Combe. Ryheric came to visit Tate. His mind and heart grounded. He knew Tate needed him to lend stability and strength, so they spoke in depth for the first time. Tate was quick of mind, excitable. The dark side of it was the recent hysteria; talks of something Tate knew about his own fate. An object from his dreams that he sought like treasure. Atharann came looking for Ryheric once Tate had calmed to reason. They spoke, and Dandy found herself accidentally eavesdropping from her nearby room in the inn.

Aeldiet, Emmawynn, Dandelynn and Ryheric sit and talk about Emmie's past as winter approaches near the Chetwood, Breeland.

After discovering that Emmawynn found Bree to be full of sad people, Lane took the girls of NOF on a barhopping trip in Bree to show them the normal and happy side of the city. Several of the guys crashed the trip, including the Dark Bard, and they all ended up in her favorite tavern, the seedy smuggler's bar called the Spotless Note, where her protégée Maxim and a few other smugglers and other likely criminal figures engaged the group in dancing.

*The table was broken in the drunken debauchery. A great slab of it was carried up the stairs where Ryheric gathered his companions to board it. Eirik prepared to push them down.

All of them drunk and enjoying a moment of revelry and folly for thrill and life!*