"Dear Yucca,
I hope this letter finds you well. I know we are to mail the invitations this evening, and we shall, but I have been asked by a Captain of Bree to assist in a skirmish battle briefly. I should not be long and look forward to seeing you tonight. I am including some pies for you to have while you wait.
All the best to you,
Bainith"
(Yucca, in response, begins sending out letters. A letter is sent to Gwyndir that was not saved (we think Eledu burns them to keep Gwyndir from being a hoarder) but there is a copy saved of the letter sent to Valanyonnen)
"Hi! I thought I should write you too 'cause I was trying to think of where I would go if I were Bainith and I got distracted and I know he likes you a lot and gets upset that people keep walking in when he's trying to spend time with you 'cause I guess he's shy like Gwyndir maybe. But I thought if I were Bainith and I got distracted maybe I'd be distracted with Val so I thought I'd write you to see if Bainith was being a silly hobbit-elf and forgot he wrote me! He said he had to go do something for some nice captain in Bree and that he was going to be all big and brave in a battle but he sent me some pies and said he would only be a little late for our meeting to write invitations to people for the wedding (which is kind of silly because you know I can write very nice letters and I would have been happy to write them alone but Bainith wanted to help me write them.) And he said that yesterday evening, right after supper time, but then he never came over so I thought he was probably tired being all strong and elfy and maybe he went to take a nap but he didn't come over this morning, either, and so I think he forgot since he's hobbity like me. I wrote Gwyndir, too, because I know he and Gwyndir have been doing a lot of strong elfy things together lately and I thought maybe Gwyndir would know where Bainith was since he's not at home or the kin home and I thought maybe they got mad at each other again and Bainith left again but I haven't heard back from Gwyndir yet so then I thought maybe you'd know. If you could tell Bainith that it's okay he forgot and I'm not mad and that I'm waiting for him at my gammer's house, that'd be really nice. Thanks!"
(In response to this, Val sends a letter back.)
"Dear Yucca,
first of all I would like to thank you for your letters; before I met you and Bainith, I never used to get so many of them.
Unfortunately I have not seen Bainith since we parted the other morning. I do hope he is alright, perhaps I should start looking for him. He might have lost his way, since he is not too familiar with the world that lies beyond the boundaries of the Shire.
I never thought I would say this, but I would rather know him safe with Gwyndir than out there on his own.
Please let me know when he returns. Until then I shall not rest, but comb Bree and its surroundings for our missing friend.
Greetings
Valanyonnen (My apologies for the name; it means 'Born on Valanya', which is a week day)"
(Yucca, of course, returns the very polite gesture of the letter-writing.)
"Hi! I'm glad you like my letters, I think that letters are a really nice thing to do and I like writing them but sometimes people just don't like them very much. Gwyndir hardly ever writes back anymore because I think he gets a little overwhelmed and maybe he's not very good at reading or writing and has to get help. But he wrote back to me real fast this time and was worried a lot too because he said he hasn't seen Bainith since he saw you two together the other day and that he hoped Bainith had bumped into you in Bree and lost track of time but then you wrote and said you hadn't seen him either so now I'm writing to him again too to let him know that you haven't seen him. Maybe you'll see Gwyndir when you're in Bree with your comb and if you do tell him how pretty his horse is because I dressed it up for him to make him happier. Bainith's gammer mailed me too and said she hadn't seen Bainith and was worried about him eating well because you know how skinny he is because I guess that's an elfy thing but it worries us hobbits so we try to make sure to remind him of all the mealtimes. I'm going to go see if he's anywhere in the Shire because I know the Shire really good and I know all the best hiding spots from when we played Hiders and Seekers together so if he's there I bet I'll find him real fast. Also, your name is still very big and I'm going to keep calling you Val, but I told my gaffer how you had a really pretty name and asked what my name meant and he just smiled and gave me a muffin."
