Year of the Boar, Twelfth Month, Day 5.

 The farmers assured me that although it is not unheard of for bandits to appear in the vicinity, it is far more likely that they are either still occupied with the fighting or they have decided we are not worth the effort of recapture. If they were interested in pursuing us, they say, we would already have been returned to their camp, There is small comfort in that, I suppose. I have not let them know who I am, choosing instead to maintain the fiction that Haru and I are sisters on our way back to the House having mistaken the direction and run into the bandits. 

I tried to gain as much information as I could without arousing suspicion for as kind as the small-holders have been, I do not know them and have no idea where their allegiances might lie. They have a leader of sorts; Tokiko, a wizened woman who must be at least in her eighth decade and yet possessed of a full head of hair so thick it makes mine look as if it is thinning... She wears it in an enormous braid which she wraps right around her head several times. The suspicious side of my nature wonders when a small-holder has time to be taking care of hair like that but of course, I cannot ask... She is certainly shrewd and possesses vast knowledge of the local landscape so we have been able to plot out a new route back to the House which she has drawn on our map for us.  She has also confirmed the date. It may be that my entries over the past few days are not dated quite correctly but I do not see that it matters so long as I can correct it now...

It occurs to me to wonder, not for the first time, whether this hamlet is a little too conveniently placed and that just because I have not heard of other Houses having a network similar to mine, does not mean there are none... In fact, if I ever settle in a House again, I will make certain to expand my network considerably so that I have people placed everywhere. The birds are useful but have their limits; were I to have hamlets like this strategically placed around and about, messages could come and go far more frequently and in less time than it would take to wait for a bird to return. Of course I will also make sure that I have far more birds available to make sending word much easier... 

Ah well, these thoughts will not do me much good now. I must concentrate on the task at hand and get Haru safely home and then be on my way. Since we were both incredibly tired and do not foresee any immediate danger, I have decided that we will stay one more night so that we are fully rested and can make good time on the rest of our journey. If we take Tokiko's new route, we will be able to save ourselves several days but we must, she says, prepare ourselves to travel through field and woodland; there are no proper roads or indeed many places to stop save for one or two more small-holdings before we reach the outskirts of the House grounds. These are the ways of those who live outside the immediate confines of the House; these are the routes which have been taken by poachers, messengers and traders for hundreds of years...

Messengers, she says.... why would small-holders have a need to send messages anywhere at speed...? Then again, my history lessons did not teach me much outside the ways of the Nobility so what would I know...?