Journal of Guard Laewe in the Winter of the Long Icicles
Espionage on Lockhaven
All today my eyes saw nothing but the snow and the trees. My ears heard nothing but the wind, and the hidden brook I walk beside, and the winter birds that take no heed of my passage. My nose smelled nothing but the crisp sent of snow and the fresh sent of the pine I make my bed in for the night.
That first night in Lockhaven I spent in the small but homey guests quarters, arranged as an open common room with several hearths about the walls and pillows and bunks for sleep or, if one preferred, space to lay out one's bedroll. Only one other mouse shared the room with me. She was a thin, sleek furred beauty spending the winter with the mouse she was want to be married to. In keeping with my part I sat up late talking with her and listening to the attributes of her love. She said much to make me think a day tramping through snow with only my thoughts for company has its benefits. According to the young mouse, her love is the bravest, wisest, smartest, most skillful warrior since the Black Ax. Hmph! The Black Ax, I told her, won his fame with luck and bravery and that wisdom is found in far rarer quantities than it is needed.
The next morning I woke early and made my way to the kitchens where I set to my task with gusto. There is no surer way to commit espionage without detection than gossip. I plied my trade first with the cooks as I helped prepare breakfast then with each mouse that straggled into the dining hall. Most of their talk was, as expected, mere prattle but I learned several bits of information important to my quest. For example one mouse with a splint on her leg moaned about a bad problem with a pair tufted forest owls in between Rootwallow and Shorestone and how enforcement had been sent but that no mouse had been able to do much besides provide some protection for the towns. Another mouse talked of a thief? in Copperwood who had taken food left unwatched in the night but had left coinage for it. That night the another mouse living just to the west of Copperwood claimed to have seen a ghostly figure cloaked in green and grey who had slipped through the trees and left no prints. Of course, the guard added, it was snowing heavily that night so any prints would have been quickly lost. After a day of telling and receiving stories I retired to my bed and was asleep before my companion returned to hers.
