Dear Kestrel,
If you are reading this it means we were not able to meet before I made my preparations to return South. Much has happened since the last time we met and I believe I should explain things through, since I have made a vow to help you on your quest.
It has been little less than one year since I made my stay on these Breelands. But I have been away from my own land for almost a decade. I was yet young and restless when I first stepped on the road and my heart was broken. I was convinced the sight of the open green fields and the sound of my people's voice would forever hurt me.
That is until I met others like me. Exiles if you may call them such. People who were also stray from our father's people and this awakened in me the desire to once more hear the songs of Rohan, to see the red of my land's trees during autumn and to feel again the gentle presence of my king's laws. In fact, it made me realize that for a long time I needed not to stay away from home.
As they began to prepare a long and dangerous travel to the South, I saw myself involved and doing all I could to gather enough coin and supplies to help. But as the days neared the departure of the North, I felt a heavy weight on my chest that would not allow me leave the North without me losing a part of myself.
You, Kestrel, was my last tie. I was thorn, for I did not know if I would ever have a chance to find another company willing to cross through mountain and danger, river and strife back to where my father's fathers have lived for hundreds of years. Yet if I was to return with a broken promise in my mind, I could as well have remained behind. But when I was sorting out if I should or not give away the belongings I could not carry, the satisfactory answer has appeared on my front door.
A friend of old have reached to me, arriving on these strange lands of the North. A man of Gondor, who fought besides me on my first years of exile arrived in Bree and heard I was also here. He intends to stay on the North for a very long time, I believe, for he, too has a quest of his own.
Adanaer served with me when I was a free rider in Gondor and I could not find anyone I would trust more at my side, except for Eorl the Young of the old days of my people. He is wise and instructed. In fact, he was the one who taught me the letters. And he kept me alive on dark times, with little more than his wits, a bow and good arrows.
I told him little of your own journey, but he accepted to take my place at your side if you would have him. He lives in my old house, in the village of Pickgrove, near the Yellow Tree. I trust him as if he was my kin and my blood brother and I am sure he will help you out with the same loyalty I would, but with much more skill, I believe.
I am sorry I cannot say goodbye in person, but I already waited too long for news of you and I must take my leave before we near winter, otherwise the passages through the mountains will be blocked. Take care on your quest and be well.
Under the care of Barliman Butterbur,
Hraidar
PS: if you ever see yourself on the South, seek me out. I still do not know where I will stay, but I was born in Grimslade, the Westfold and my family lives there still.
