Exton

The next few days seemd to fly by, what with all the Yule preparations - shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts, baking, decorating - and much, much more. Since Yule is a religious festival, celebrating the rebirth of the Sun, there's rather more for us to do than for your average householder.

I leave shopping and wrapping to the women; they know about such things - while I take Star and a small army searching for natural decorations. Given last year's experience on this assignment, it seems only prudent to have guards to protect Star and Ruarc.

Our final group includes Tannr and K'thyri, both sworn to Star; Wish and Pike; Gareth and Nick. We bought a pair of those mini-radio things with headsets. I'm wearing one, and Nick has the other. He's servng as our "eye in the sky", so no one can take us by surprise. Keon couldn't be here, but he loaned us a pair of HellHounds, and they'll make coleslaw of any goblins who show their ugly faces.

We need to find Yule logs, holly, mistletoe, evergreen boughs - all the symbols of Yule. The logs will come from deadfalls, and we'll be careful not to damage the plants when we take what we need. That's Star's department; she has an extraordinary rapport with all living things, maybe even more so than Rowan.

Our little group bristles with weapons - especially K'thyri - and it's partly in relief, partly in disappointment that we turn toward home, laden with enough greenery to deck half of Exton....