Galadriel

As a heat wave rolls over the horizon on its journey through the Shifting Expanse, a lithe Guardian can be seen accompanying it. His scales are the colour of the wet sand that borders desert oases, and even from beneath his goggles, his Lightning origins are plain to see. He stops when he arrives at the entrance to your lair, nodding his head.

"Hello," he says, smiling shyly, "I have a letter for..." he pauses here pull out an envelope and squint at it, "Celeborn and Galadriel. It's from Nyfin, one of my clanmates." The guardian hands off the envelope, raises a hand in a quick goodbye, and sets off for home.

Inside the envelope are 6 pieces of parchment in horrible condition. Pieces are missing from them, their margins are rough and torn, and most of the letter is crossed out, leaving only a cumulative page of text - and even that is smudged with ink, the handwriting barely legible.


Celeborn, Galadriel,

I know that it's been a long time since I ran away from home, and I'm sorry that I didn't write you sooner. (There is a large spot of ink after the first sentence, as if the author held the pen here for a good while as they were thinking of what to write next.) I'm not good with words, but I felt I should at least check in with you. (There are a few lines crossed out here.) I was a cage fighter for a number of years, and (The next lines appear to be furiously scribbled out, then the letter continues.) I gambled most of my earnings away, and when I got hurt badly enough that I was put out of commission for a while, I kept gambling. (The ink from the scratched-out lines bleeds to the other side here.) I went into debt. I went to prison. I got bailed out by a stranger, and I live with her clan now. I've taught a lot of dragons how to fight. I know I was never great at reading and writing, but I hope you guys are doing okay.

Many attempts at the closing lines are blacked out, and the letter ends abruptly.

Galadriel is concerned about his happiness, though so relieved he is alive. The letter has enough of his essence on it that she does a quick spell, burning one of the fragments with magical herbs. She then takes the new incense to her scrying bowl, and summons up the current image of her son. She sees that he is clothed richly, and at present, relaxing with a group of what she assumes are trainees. He is laughing and looks well. She looks in again, this time with Celeborn in the evening. She finds Nyfin in his own part of the lair, which looks comfortable and he is sleeping peacefully. His quarters look like a comfortable nest, not a cell or pen that an endentured servant might have. They are well pleased, and realize that this letter wasn't a veiled or even subconscious plea for help, just the honest wish to let them know he was okay now. They dispatch a messenger to take him a box of his favorite snacks with a simple note "We love you".

Puzzled to have a courier waiting for him when he returns from a long day of recruiting, Nyfin retreats to his quarters when he realizes that it must be a package from his parents. He finds himself flattered that they remembered his favourite food after such a long time, and despite having such a long day, a sudden spark of emotion reinvigorates him. After writing a note reading "Be back soon" (in chickenscratch, of course) to his clanmates, he hurries to his clan's hoard, knocking many things over as he looks for the herbs he remembers his mother using in spells and putting in her tea when he was very young, and races out to the familiar pen, picking up a squirming hippojay foal and slinging several full fishnets over his shoulder to feed it on the long journey ahead.

Having barely stopped to rest, Nyfin is exhausted by the time he lands heavily in front of his parents' nest. The hippojay foal is soundly asleep, and the skydancer gently sets it and its supper down in a nearby cluster of scrub.

Looking up to meet the eyes of his very surprised parents, Nyfin chokes up. His jaw hangs open, struggling to find the right words to say, before snapping out of it and bringing Celeborn and Galadriel into an embrace, the muscly dragon touching orbs with his bewildered kin, happy to finally have closure after so long.

Though Nyfin returns to his fulfilling life in his chosen lair, Galadriel raises the Hippojay, and every time she strokes it affectionately, and feeds it tidbits from her plate, she thinks of her son, Nyfin.