The man led Marchan along a hallway and then down some stairs into the hall where Marchan and Trevor had first been held. Lord Roger was sitting on the dias and noticed them come in. He stood and called Marchan forward. On the dias, sitting with him were Trevor, Canod and the Jestor. Everyone else in the hall stood when they noticed that Lord Roger was standing.

'I am greatly in your debt, young master dwarf,' Roger said. 'These three have told me of your activities last night and I remember your rescuing us last night. Welcome to my home. You are my guest as long as you need to be.'

Marchan bowed. He was rather embarrassed to have all these men standing for him. He took the empty chair on the dais, which had extra pillows on it so he could comfortably sit up to the table and speak with his neighbours. The Lord Roger sat again and everyone followed suit.

A feast was laid before them. The Lord Roger spoke to Marchan, 'We were saving this for the Fall Rejoicing, but your arrival and saving us and our people from that brigand has got us into a truly festive mood. We decided not to wait for the Fall Rejoincing.'

Marchan bowed as well as he could from atop all those pillows and focused his attention on the food. There were many things that he did not recognize, but the baklava and tabulie got his mouth watering so he was willing to try the rest and found he liked it.

After the meal the Lord Roger took Canod, Trevor and Marchan to a smaller room where they could relax a little more. Roger was very interested in Marchan's quest.

'You would be well advised to stay here for the winter. The birds are flying south and the nights are getting colder. I suspect a very cold winter.'

******

As Marchan was digging himself out of snow one morning he wondered why he hadn't taken that offer from Roger. Canod had led them up into the mountains, well provisioned from the Lord Roger's stores. At first they had had good weather, but then a storm had struck, then another and then another. They found the easiest thing to do was to create snow forts and wait out the storm. No one, not even Marchan, could see as the snow blew around them. It wasn't easy to build the snow fort, but it cut the wind down and they were able to huddle together and their ponies to keep warm. Trevor had it worst. His larger body size meant more space to lose heat. When they stopped among trees that they could burn a fire helped considerably. The days they could walk were sunny but very cold.

One cold sunny day, they came across a small house in a valley with smoke curling out of its chimney and falling down over the roof and disapating as it fell to the snow aroudn the roof. The snow piled up around the house. They walked around looking for a door. Eventually they found a hole in the snow that took them into a tunnel that led to a door. Trevor knocked. They waited a little while then Trevor knocked again, then opened the door. Beyond them they could see an mostly empty room with hay scattered around. They went in and saw another door on which Trevor knocked. This time they heard voices beyond the door and a man came to the door.

The man was thin and his face pasty. His hands rough. As soon as he saw them he said, 'Travellers!' then opened the door a little farther and motioned them to come in. 'Come in, come in!' he said.

They found themselves in a kitchen. Around the wood stove in rocking chairs were a thin woman and a girl. Beside the woman was a younger boy huddled and on the girl's lap was a small child cuddled into her. The woman spoke, 'Here, let the travellers warm themselves by the fire, Joanna. And get some water so I can make them some tea.'

The girl rose and motioned to them to take her chair, while the woman also rose and offered her chair. The girl then lifted a bucket of water and poured it into a small kettle which she placed on the stove.

Meanwhile, Trevor spoke to the man, 'Our ponies are freezing,' and before he finished his sentence the man spoke up.

'Let's get them into the stable then. Come and we'll get them,' and he put on his coat and boots and left with Trevor.

Marchan stood close to the stove and warmed himself. They hadn't been in such a snug place for months. Slowly he felt the life come back into his hands and arms. He looked over at the young boy hiding behind his mother's skirts. Marchan smiled at him and then spoke to the woman.

'Thank you for your hospitality, Ma'am', he said. 'My name is Marchan. This is Canod and Trevor went out to see about the ponies.'

'My name is Joan. My husband's name is Pedro. This is Joanna, Micheal and my baby Sam. I'm sorry we don't have much to offer you,' said the woman. 'I'll prepare what I can.' She turned to Joanna and said, 'Please start turning the mill, dear. 'We'll need more flour to make enough bread.'

The girl nodded and went to a cupboard and scooped out some grain and a small hand mill and pouring in some of the grain started grinding.

'Oh,' said Marchan, 'We have provisions, you needn't bother.'

'You are our guests,' said the woman. 'I could not not offer you something.'

'Why thank you,' said Marchan.

Just then Trevor came back with Pedro, carrying some of the provisions. 'Look Joan, let's feast with these folks tonight,' said Pedro. He opened one of the packages and out came dried fruits, sausage and cheese. Joanna's face lit up and Trevor said, 'Yes, let's feast a bit. Our provisions have been lasting longer than we expected and we're not worried about running out before spring now.'

Marchan nodded and so did Canod. They were tired of rationing their food.

The meal was a cheery one. The company was quite welcome and their hosts were gladdened both by the company and the different food. Apparently they had been subsisting on bread made from fresh ground wheat that they had grown the summer before. They had some seed potatoes and other garden seeds, but that and the grain was all they had left, besides a bit of salt and spices. Even their cow had dried up for the winter.

After the meal, Pedro pushed back his chair and asked about their journey. He admitted he had not seen such a travelling group for many years. Few enough journeyed over the mountains and fewer still were willing to stop at a house in the hills, lest it be a theives' hideaway.

Marchan started, but his grasp of the language that Pedro spoke was still rudimentary. Canod helped when he could, being the only person in the room who could speak both languages fluently. Marchan described running from the village he grew up near and meeting with a great lord in the Kingdom of Teh, how many people of that kingdom treated dwarves and his flight to the Great Capitol, his meeting with Richard and Trevor and their help in finding that there once existed a community of dwarves east beyond the Bay of Chitay.

Trevor picked up the story and described their quest from the Great Capitol past the borders until they had met up with Canod who picked up the story and described their climb into the mountains.

Pedro looked long at Marchan after Canod desribed Marchan's ability to see so clearly in the dark. At the end of their tale he said to Marchan, 'In the morning, if you could help me with something I'd be much obliged would be glad to help you on your journey as best I could.' Then turning to Trevor and Canod as well, 'Anyway, you are all three welcome to stay here a few days to rest up. The sun is returning from her marches in the south and the days are getting longer. You'll travel faster if you get some rest and the storms should be easing up soon.'

The thought of staying for a few days was a great comfort to the travellers but Marchan wondered what kind of help that Pedro was hoping for. The conversation though turned to what lay ahead of them. Pedro had travelled both ways out of the mountains. Eastport was still a little north Pedro said they had only one more pass to climb and then they would come to a river and they could follow the river down from the mountains and the river fed into the Bay of Chitay just a few miles south of Eastport.

Trevor asked about canoeing down the river to Eastport. Pedro thought there were a few falls and rapids as you went down the river, but they were welcome to try.