Chaos and Letters

Jul 02, 2025

If I thought that last night was chaotic, the next day put it to shame. It seems the rest of the party coming for the meeting had met at the Gateway and were coming together. Everyone was excited and scurrying around. Work was canceled. Renatus wanted me to do one thing, Seamus and his friends wanted me to do something else, and I was constantly being called in by the administrators to give tours to one group or another, all the time with Benedicta at my elbow.

And to add insult to injury, both Gregg and Meical were among the new arrivals. It turns out that Meical’s Father was an expert in languages, and so had been called in over the ‘Dragon’ problem. Indeed, it turned out that this was the very reason that Meical and his family had been staying at The Day. Meical’s Father had been consulting with Prince Seth about the new Spearman language. So I was very, very busy indeed.

But I got through the day somehow, making everybody slightly disappointed but no one truly upset.

Heidi had had a much better day. The Fishergirls had come back and even more Dwarf girls had come over. It seems Father was not the only Dwarf to take the elders instructions to heart.

But of all our family, the one who had the best day was Mother. I arrived home just before dinner and found her sitting in her chair crying. I went over to her and said, “Are you ok?” Her uplifted joyful face answered for her. She sniffed and reached and gave me a folded piece of paper, or rather sheaf of paper, from her lap. It was a letter from Gertrude.

Dear Mother,

How are you doing? I am fine. I am having a good time staying with the Troll family, although it was rather hard to adjust at first.

I hope I did not embarrass you too much. I would have told you what I was planning on doing, but I had such a hard time convincing myself to do it that I was afraid of what you might say. I knew that you would know that it was the right thing for me to do, but like me, you would have found it very hard. It was hard to arrange without telling you. I went to an Elf wife who helped me sew the clothes, gave me advice on the Horseman culture, and really encouraged me.

But I don’t know that I have ever done anything harder than coming out of our wagon that day. I thought my heart would beat itself out of my chest. And then, when I got to the horse, and realized I couldn’t get on it, I almost died. Thank Heinrich for me, but tell him I hope he never has occasion again to push me up like he did then.

Oh, Mamma, the Trolls are such nice people. I hardly ever get to see the Father; he is always out with the animals. But the Mother is so patient, and kind, and gentle; and the children. They are only about two years old, so they are all still with their Mother. (Two years old among the Trolls is a lot older than it would be among us, but they are still with their Mother.) They just love to play with me. But they are never noisy. Their loudest voice we would hardly count as a whisper among us.

My trip with Nhomhisosh was wonderful, although very hard. He really opened up and shared things with me, about what my life will be like among the Horsemen. My ears were burning the entire time. He said things to me that- well, I don’t know. Maybe Father shares things like that with you when he is alone with you.

I was very worried that I would hold the whole party up when I needed to get down from the horse occasionally. But Nhomhisosh handled it very well. He would just ride out ahead and to the side of the group, and then whenever I needed to stop for a while we were out of sight.

His Father hardly talks to him now. Apparently among Horsemen boys their Father ignores them when they are first born, and then starts to take a very active interest in them when they first get their own horse-- training them to help in the hunts and all. Then, when they start to get close to being men, their Father starts ignoring them again. Nhomhisosh explained why and all, but it was still hard to watch. It did leave us more time to ourselves.

When I got to the castle…

I read the rest of the very long letter. It seemed that Gertrude had detailed every minute of every day since her arrival at the castle. Poor Gertrude, she must be very lonely. But she was adapting very well. It sounded like she was learning Horseman very well; she threatened to write her next letter in that language.

Mother noticed I had finished reading the letter, “Oh, Heinrich, I miss her so much, but I am so happy with what she is doing, and how well she is doing it. I can’t even imagine being in her situation. So far away from home and family, living so different, and pledged in marriage to someone… so different.”

With that she took the letter from me and began reading it again-- her tears beginning halfway through the first page.

Island People

Island People is a young adult fantasy book centring on a young prince. The book starts with his kidnapping and follows his adventures as he not only escapes from his kidnapper but gains critical allies and friends.

The entire book is scheduled on Substack, and there are several sequels. This is a book I wrote years ago, so it is in a bit of a rough form. Critiques and comments are more than welcome, they are requested.

Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!

Being ‘restacked’ and mentioned in ‘notes’ is very important for lesser-known stacks so… feel free! I’m semi-retired and write as a ministry (and for fun) so you don’t need to feel guilty you aren’t paying for anything, but if you enjoy my writing (even if you dramatically disagree with it), then restack, please! Or mention me in one of your own posts.

If I don’t write you back it is almost certain that I didn’t see it, so please feel free to comment and link to your post. Or if you just think I would be interested in your post!

If you get lost, check out my ‘Table of Contents’ which I try to keep up to date.

Von also writes as ‘Arthur Yeomans’. Under that name he writes children’s, YA, and adult fiction from a Christian perspective. His books are published by Wise Path Books and include the children’s/YA books:

The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid: A Christian historical fiction chapter book about four orphans who go to live with their aunt on a dairy farm.

The Bobtails and the Cousins: The sequel to Preacher’s Kid. The aunt has married, and the cousins come to visit. Meaning town kids dealing with chores and manure and…

The Bobtails go to France: The sequel to cousins. The Bobtails, and Preacher’s Kid, get to take a trip to New York, London, Paris, and a small town in France. To get some cheese.

and

No Ordinary School: A brilliant but socially clueless boy gets recruited for a special school. Where he makes a lot of money, gets a girl, and solves a mystery.

As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations.

Arthur also has a substack, and a website. On the substack you can listen to some of his published books. Free.

Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,

Von