This is a letter to Duke Brendan from a certain Eloise, an unseelie troll childling, day after Midsummer (June 24), 1998, describing events that led to the predictably so-called "Midsummer Night's Nightmare" and, though she does not mention it, the death of Sir Edward of House Gwydion, a seelie troll wilder, slain in combat by Shane Charge, unseelie troll wilder. She doesn't mention my arm, either, the little slut. -- Moog. In your service,
Sir Golannon ap Fiona, scribe, Duchy of the Loon

you said that anyone at the countesses house who you talked to could come talk to you, so i want to talk to you but im afraid of your guards because of what happend last night. so i am writing you to tell you, and if you wanna talk to me then you can tell your guards to be nice and i'll come see you. Unlce tyr will even probly buy me a new ribbon to come see you. Uncle tyr is really nice and i think you don't know how nice he is and he's getting blamed for things that he didn't do. it's not fair. See, bobby and i were sitting in our hangout. ANd the grownups were being really boring, 'cept this one man who shot a magic bullet and said HE"D find out if the duke (which is you) was being held prisoner, cause we all thought you were being held in bondage by that weird jonjon who was torturing you with his puppet. which is why bobby ate his puppet, to protect you. So we followed the magic bullet man and ran and ran, to try to save you. ANd when we got to the palace, the bullet man said "Im working for Lady Somebody (I am sorry I don't know her last name) and the guards let us pass 'cause he was on important royal business. So we ran through and through the palace. Oh, and aunty redcap came with us to make sure us kids were ok and not getting into trouble. And then uncle tyr, because he had told me to be good and stay home while he talked to other people, but he saw me go running through the park and came after me to tell me to go home. So that's why we were there. ANd some Sloo-ah lady I don't know, and i don't know why. But then the bullet stopped at this big door and we couldn't open it, and the magic bullet man, who musta been like one of the guards i thought, he was annoyed. And the count was there and yelled at us to stop, but of course we stopped because the door was closed! And we were on Official business, so I figured I listen to the bullet man, who seemed to be maybe undercover even secret to the COunt to seek out answers to the conspeerisy that Nick told me about in Cassidy's. I mean, maybe it was the count who was hurting you! So bullet man said to hold the count and the other guards off while he opened the door. and he gave bobby and me magic to do it. So I made the count's cloak go over his face, so he couldn't see or mess with anything the bullet man was doing. But there were lots of other guards, and when we moved to them and the count to distract them, they pulled their weapons on us, and one of them attacked unclee tyr. Well I had to protect uncle tyr, didn't I? We ahd been perfectly safe and these goblins were there and this other redcap who was mean and snarly at uncle tyr and me. SO I tried to use my cutlasss to cut the redcaps a-killees tendon because he was commanding all the oblins too, and if I made him stop attacking then the'd stop, but he was really strong and he cut me instead. Then he and his goblins all ganged up on me and I got really hurt. And I was just trying to get away, running, but they hurt me lots. ANd I don't know what was happening but suddenly we me bobby and tyr couldn't move, and all the bad people could still move, and the redcap was still mean to me and was trying to take my sword away but the count wouldn't let him. ANd we stayed stuck while there was lots of noise and baynality behind us, and a whole bunch more guards came and bumeped into Tyr, and then we all got unfroze, and tyr rushed to me to hold me and get me safe. We were trying and trying to just run out, and I was watching uncle tyr's back because we had been in there and let in the front by the guards on official business and then attacked anyway, after being welcomed. ANd the count was nice and let us go, so me and tyr and bobby ran like crazy to the gate. ANd there was all this screaming and horrible noise, and there was Shane, who is really nice, and he was being held and hit by guards, and he was crying Where's Will? I must find Will! Because they are really close like Uncle tyr and me, and Will had been in there, trying to help us but he couldn't. But all Shane knew was there was a horrible mess and noise and Shane was in there I mean Will was, and he HAD to go in. ANd the guards had let US in, so why not one more? ANd after all this, it was aweful, because a guard said we had started some kind of war, and Bobby and me didn't know why or anything. We didn't mean to cause a war, we were just following some undercover man who was working for the guards, and other people came to make sure we were safe, and guards drew their weapons on us. SO please Mr duke, your hiness, don't hurt uncle tyr, don't mess with his name. He only acted to fulfill his oath to me, and he meant you no disrispect. ANd he was hurt really bad by Sealy people once, so he knows how it can happen. Me, sometimes Sealy people are nice to me, and I know that maybe they just don't know what its like for the rest of us. You said we should trust you, so I want to give you a chance because you are really scarey and awesome and even stronger than uncle Tyr and I don't want you to only listen to some people and not the people who were really there and started it all.

I hope you're not sick anymore. we were worried, really!

your subject,
Eloise