The elves’ health continues to slowly improve as a whole. Garm in particular has regained his strength with surprising haste. He is the only one of the Mörkalfen capable of leaving the infirmary and braving the shrill cold.

I showed him around Vinterstad today. He studied the terrain inside the circular walls in stoic silence. He surveyed the quadrants, the roads that divide them, the hills to the north and the marshes in the southwest. He asked what plans I had for the compound. I’d never thought of Vinterstad as a compound before. I asked him to clarify his meaning.

He told me that he saw a village around the hill where my homestead sat, and that the northwestern quadrant’s layout was incorrect. He said that he saw an expanse of stables – large stables that would accommodate several sizes of beast. He then turned to the southwest and described vast greenhouses fed by the stream.

I admit my demeanor soured at the notion of a stranger and guest telling me how best to utilize my land. I asked what he thought I had done wrong with the southwest quadrant. He smiled at me and said simply, “You’ll see the way.”

As we walked on, I discovered the reason for his interest in Vinterstad’s layout. The Mörkalfen are excellent carpenters and metal smiths. Garm spoke with great pride about the village he called home, its buildings and its people. Hard work and excellent craftsmanship are highly valued in Mörkalfen society, and they take such pleasure in their work that it plays much more of a social role than it does one of survival. They are a very close-knit people.

They also have great mastery of beasts, he tells me. He is very experienced in animal rearing and healing, hence his critical eye on the stables. I told him in passing of the great white hart I had seen in the Black Forest past the marshes. He seemed troubled at my mention of the great stag. I asked him what was wrong. He paused for a moment then smiled. “It is useless to interfere with the way of things,” he said. He then told me that we would look for the hart together.