-Gospel 13: Now the lands have settled, The Divines watch over the humans and praise them for their life. The humans live like the old times as hommage to The Lord and the way he accepted to live. The Demi-Humans found new ways to live and lived in harmony with themselves. The Divines promised to keep things this way until the return of The Lord. And it has been so ever since.-
Around the kitchen table, the family was clamoring over each other, asking questions, and rereading letters that had come from the black wrapped package.
"But how Juniper?" Jorgen asked excitedly.
"That's our girl, Jorgen. If there is trouble she will always find her way out of it." Juniper smiled and used the edge of an apron to wipe away tears from the edge of her eyes.
"Momma, is Priya coming home?" The twins asked almost exactly the same time.
"When the messenger gets home maybe." She said and patted the two on the head before pulling them in for a hug.
Corvus crossed his arms and shook his head. His wife sat in the corner and smiled quietly. She felt a pang of sincere guilt over her disappearance since Priya was working for her family.
Jorgen shuffled through papers. "So the caravan was attacked, she kept by slavers, purchased and released, is being held as a guest at the dwarven family house of Jorgensen, and just waiting for us to confirm that she can come home. This can't be that easy. If it was they would have just shipped her back home the first time they could."
Corvus' wife smiled and spoke quietly for the first time. "Not entirely. The southern lands operate differently than here. We are all held under laws set down by the government as given to us by the church. In the south families, towns, municipalities, and other regional sections run areas that may have wildly different ideas and ways of doing business. It's possible that family law doesn't allow outsiders in or out without confirmation. She was probably taken because of her last name. Families normally protect their own members."
Juniper put the paper down she was holding and looked at Jorgen, "But you are an orphan, right? Not a dwarf?"
Jorgen smiled and patted her hand. "I am an orphan and because of that, I can't honestly answer that now. Not after seeing that man from the porch. Didn't you see the resemblance? Maybe I am half-dwarf or something. I don't remember my parent's face or their history. Only snippets of memories here and there from them. They died long ago when I was little."
The twins grinned, "We are dwarves!" They laughed at each other and shared a high five. Their mother waved at them to knock that off and kept her face on Jorgen. "So what do we do now?"
Jorgen rubbed his chin and looked out the window into the dark night. They needed to draft a letter. The first letter had been from someone named Ryegor Jorgensen asking that they do everything they can to explain the family ancestry. He then went on to describe how they came to be familiar with their daughter. He explained lastly that because they had housed, fed, and cared for her if she was not a member of the family she would be indentured and put to work to pay off her debt and would be unable to leave until she could. The amount of gold he listed would take decades to accumulate.
"So what I need to do is write down as much of my history as I know. We need to give it to the fellow out in the barn. He seems happy with us so let's hope that is in our favor. After that, we wait, again."
Juniper sighed. "Can't we just travel south and go get her?"
Corvus shook his head and piped up, "It's not that easy mom. You need a reason to cross the border as a human. Dad might make it over claiming to be a lost member of the family but he would probably face the same problem coming back. Plus he knows absolutely nothing about anything down there."
Jorgen put the paper he was reading down and sighed, "He is right. I could make it in but getting back out would be an issue and getting the gold to get back home would also be an issue. You are talking several months round trip. Half a year would be a ridiculously quick trip in my own mind."
Juniper sighed and looked down at the paper. The thought that her daughter was taken as a slave once and now being kept as a kind of hostage under threat was overwhelming to her motherly instincts. Part of her wanted to run the whole way from here to there and dare anyone to stand in her way. The thoughts of her being used as a slave nearly brought her to tears.
Corvus coughed softly and took a sip of water. "I think we write the letter, send it, and let Priya settle it out on her own. That stubborn girl always gets out of things. And wasn't she off chasing him still? She may not even come if she can. None of us can remember his name or face but she swears he stayed here nearly a week and she's gone to find him. It's her golden goose. She has to find it."
They all looked at each other thinking of good ideas. None presented themselves. After some talking and yelling they agreed that the best course of action was to reply with their thanks and ask for a good decision her freedom.
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Juniper went to her bedroom and cried. She wasn't mad at them but only mad that she couldn't go save her daughter. She should be home with a man, any man, and not off where she wasn't safe. But she knew that wasn't her headstrong daughter. She would chase life by the horns. If Jorgen was stubborn about order and even numbers, his daughter inherited that same trait but only with stubbornness.
Jorgen stayed downstairs at the table. He had pulled an old book from a shelf that rarely saw any use. It was full of old pans and pots and blankets that were for guests. Jorgen hid this book away from the kids because it was special. He put it on the table and opened it. The front of the book had the same emblem as the wax seal did. He opened it up and looked at the first two pages. They formed a family tree. He looked at it and watched the family names as they worked backward to just one name.
The fact that the book was so ornate and told the tales of brave warriors and cunning smiths, he hoped his family had all been royalty. He never looked into it because he had never seen heraldry quite like it.
He flipped to the last filled pages and looked. His parent's names were written in bright vibrant black ink. They listed out his family name and his parents. It showed they had two children, Jorgen, and another child who died during birth.
Jorgen sat down and wrote out a three-page history of his family as he knew it. He described family stories and traditions past down to him from his mother when he was still an excited little 6-year-old boy. If he had known he would only get her for 6 years he would have looked at her face. Now in his 50's he couldn't picture it anymore. And the sound of her voice was gone too. She was a shadow of manners and etiquette. The only thing he remembered was a smile and his father's very overgrown beard.
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The next morning Jorgen had collected all the letters they had written. The twins had written one for Priya to go back. Corvus and his wife wrote a large letter and included a small wrapped package. Juniper had written a small letter and wrapped it in blue cloth. She wanted her to remember what home looked like.
Jorgen put all of their letters behind his to Priya. He used the blue cloth to wrap them all and then bound them together with twine. It was a vibrant and bright blue package of hope and love.
Jorgen had walked out of the house with the formal letter for the Jorgensen family hidden from view. It was a stark difference from the other more commonplace letters they had kept. He was afraid that if the children saw it they would be concerned that it was too formal.
Jorgen walked to the barn and knocked on the inside door. "Are you awake Loxes?"
A shuffling noise from the back indicated he was awake and soon he was walking out into the open area of the barn. He had his traveling pipe out and lit and was enjoying the quiet before his life of movement resumed. For someone like him, being able to spend a quiet morning without having to walk everywhere or hire a coach was to be treasured. Men like him had no home to go back to.
"Yes sir, I am. I take it you have letters for me? I told you I would take 24 hours if you needed it."
Jorgen shook his head. "No need for that. When you drop that kind of bomb on us we spring into action."
Jorgen motioned for Loxes to follow him outside. "I have to tell you something sir."
Loxes followed him to a stack of wood and sat down on the makeshift bench. "What is that sir?"
"You know I always grew up thinking my first name was weird. Jorgen sounds like a name for those mountain men in the north but I don't have any of their height. I have a book from my parents that I have saved all this time. I guess Jorgen really was my last name before, Everyone has always called me Jorgen Jorgensen because Jorgen was all I could say after my parents died. When I was orphaned I had no idea what happened or many manners or anything. Everything I know comes from the family journal. I have kept those ideas alive.
I have written a letter to the man name Ryegor and given him all the information he has requested. I am not asking to come to the southern lands. But if you could pass along that we are alive and well and just want our daughter to be free to make her own decisions, I would appreciate it."
Loxes smiled and took the two bundles into his hands. He looked at the plain wrapping on the letter that Jorgen handed him with his family history and smiled. It was a real envelope, those were expensive handicrafts in this area. The seal was wax also and had a "J" in it with farm fields behind it.
"I assure you I will pass on the message. I will hand-deliver this to my employer and this blue parcel to its recipient. I can not tell you what is going to happen, but if I may be so bold sir, do you realize where you come from now"
Jorgen looked over his shoulders for anyone coming. "I do, I always thought my parents were exotic one way or another. I realize now what it was. I hope that family ties mean something for my daughter."
Loxes smiled and put both packages in his lap. "I wouldn't worry. The nice thing about family houses is that no family goes wanting. If anything ever happened to you the family would rally to your aide, even being so far north. If you ever decided to move south, you would be welcome as well. But that's just my experience. The family isn't as prestigious as some other family names but we have our history and it is bold."
Jorgen smiled. "Thank you for the assurances. Would you like breakfast before you go?" Trying to change the subject quickly. Talk of his family made him uncomfortable. It brought back bad memories of the times shortly after they died.
"If you have leftovers you can put in a bag I will head south immediately."
Jorgen nodded. "They will be on the chair on the front porch. Safe travels and be speedy. I can't wait for my daughter to walk back across the fields again."