A Feather on the Breath of Ellulianaen

  ~

  Milélyn followed Halomlyn to the town, into the stable, but he was not happy. “We are breaking with the gryphon-lore by accepting their hospitality!”

  Halomlyn replied, “Does not the gryphon-lore say that it is very rude, brother-in-law, to refuse hospitality when it is offered? In any case, she has been seeking news of Hwedolyn for us, and I believe she has found it and as soon as you and Thwyrlyn are rested we must set off to find him. Why are you so late to arrive, anyway?”

  Milélyn said, “I am sorry, brother, but we were waylaid by a false report. I flew to the farms and hermitages on the northern edges of the plains, and asked the farmers, in the darkest part of night, what they had seen. One of the farmers told me he had seen a gryphon, flying above on a moonlit night more than a week before. I thought that it might have been Hwedolyn, but after two days of fruitless searching I talked to some of the other farmers, in the dead of night, and discovered from them that this farmer was old, and his memory is failing. I realised that when he had seen a gryphon, it was almost certainly you that he had seen, on that moonlit night, but not a week ago as he thought. So I immediately left that borough, and we flew here as quickly as we could.”