Talking to my mother.

Her Kinswomen is the Revend Mother Philomela, the abbess at that monastry, so Eilis was sent there because there were no women in her household to look after her and teach her the ways of a lady. Lord Bryn never remarried after her mother's death.

The Abbey is suited to rich young women, so is not particularly austere. It may be beneficial if she were to marry one of us - Caradoc might make the best husband for her, since he is honourable and has enough wealth to be an equal match. If his good side could be made apparant to her on the way back, then it could be to our advantage.

Tywyd and Cerled goes to see Lord Bryn. They are given a ring for Eilis to recognise, and a letter to take to the Abbess. They also take charge of numerous horses carrying clothes and supplies for Eilis on her return journey. The ring has the mark of King Vortigorn. Caradoc meets with the local priest, who asks him to help some monks at a nearby priory and currently has problems with wolves. It is on the way, about a day and a half away.

The folowing morning we head off with our new retinue. Ahead of us is a leper that Caradoc met earlier whilst with the priest. He is riding a large horse, which looks suspicious, so Caradoc rides off ahead to catch up with him. The rider stops and waits. He then turns back and heads off at a gallop towards the forest.

We catch up with Caradoc, and head onwards into the forest ourselves.

We camp for the night, setting up tents and I set traps for rabbits. There are some wolf howls in the night. By morning, we wake to find that we have caught 3 rabbits, which we have for breakfast.

By mid morning we come across a small road side shrine, where there is a small, shrivelled ederley monk who is tending it. Well, was, because he is currently being harassed by a wolf. We ride down the wolf, Caradoc killing it. I check on the monk, who has three nasty wolf bites. I bind his wounds, but he lapses into unconsciousness.

Caradoc and Cerled ride off to find the priory to get help.

The rest of us stay with the monk, and put together a litter. As we are setting off, a giant wolf stalks into the clearing. It is prowling, watching us. Both Tywyd and I draw swords. As the wolf attacks, more wolves circle round from behind.

I deal it a fatal blow, as it takes a bite out of Tywyd. The servants try to fend off the other wolves, but one falls. At this point the others turn up. I decapitate the giant wolf to finish it off, whilst the others defend against the other wolves.

We get to the priory, and people's wounds are cared for by the monks. The monks tell us that there is heathen mound which has a stone upon it. One of the brothers heated the stone with fire, then poured cold water upon it, causing it to crack. From it came a sound of a woman wailing. Later that evening, they were assaulted by wolves. They believe that it is the cause of their wolf problem. The wolves come out at dawn and dusk, and there is the wailing of women at night.

We stay in the priory that night, but are woken at midnight by the wailing of women:

Where is he that was king. Gone over the sea. Where is he that is king. Gone to war and his doom. Where is he that will be king. Lost until sword leaves stone.

In the morning, we ride out to the mound where the stone is. It is blackened and cracked. On each of the faces there are curly patterns marked on the rock. Tywyd thinks they are faerie doorways onto other places. He is of course wrong, because I know that they mark where evil places are.

Whilst we are discussing, three dogs come out of the trees. One is red and white, one is white and one is red. They are followed by a forester, dressed in very high quality hunting garb. He comes and joins. He introduces himself as the Knight of the Red Knives.

We discuss things. He asks whether the monks are likely to cause any further trouble. He says that he was betrayed by his brother, who broke an oath, and that he is now forced to carry out the oath of his brother, as a servant of the ladies of the forest.

The ladies hold the Isle, their power comes from water, it comes from the west. Then the Romans came. They are still in a few places, at Glastonbury and other places. They are ladies of the lakes. Their leader is Vivien. The Knight leaves us. As we leave, we notice that the stone is now unblemished. We head back to the priory, and inform the monks that they probably want to stop breaking things that don't belong to them.

We leave most of the heavy tents and things behind at the priory, and head south to the Isle of White. As we leave the forest, we are accosted by a group of grotty outlaws. They are dealt with without too much of a problem, but we have a big argument about what to do with their wounded. In the end, we tie up the three survivors and throw them across our horses, and take them down to the shireeve at the port where we are headed. One survives.

We catch a ferry across to the Isle of White that evening. There is a longship docked at the port on the isle.