To the Cay

Dispatch- By Pigeon courier

Miss Connolly, I hope this message comes quickly and finds you well.

My trip to Caledon was speedy and safe, and soon I set out with my fowl-of-burden to join the voyage of discovery to the new isle of Phillip.

I paused before leaving Kittywickshire at Kittyswitch, residence of the beautiful former ward of the Bardhaven estate, Miss Kiralette Kelley. I had hoped to see her before I begun the long journey, unfortunately, she was nowhere to be found. I left a note explaining my journey, and conveyed my most tender sentiments and hope for her safety. How I shall miss her!

I pressed on through Caledon's highways, to Mayfair, where, at the Bardhaven house, again I searched for Miss Kelley to no avail. Baroness Bardhaven looked slightly unnerved by the emergence of Phillip, but seemed oddly glowing despite this, and politely offered me a spot of tea before I joined the Baron, who already departed for the Cay to ready the ship for our voyage. I declined, and pressed the wagon on to the Cay.

The ship lay waiting, the loading of provisions having begun, there I found my fellow journeyers- The Noble Duchesses of Carntraigh and Loch Avie, Their Graces Gabrielle and Eva; The Baronesses Amber and Darkling (although the last is a foreign title, I understand), and together with the Baron Bardhaven this formed a very Noble company, indeed. The learned Doctor Sputnik attended as well, with his companion Miss Lightfoot and we together formed the common element of this voyage of discovery. Barnss Amber has brought a decrepit maid-servant, much advanced in years and of questionable reliance.

I summoned my pack-bearers forward, and they seemed to draw much amusement from the onlookers- I took no notice of this, knowing their true worth and usefulness.

Baron Bardhaven deigned to converse with me by asking what wine I would drink with a penguin, I was about to answer that the penguins preferred rum to wine, when our attention was distracted by some fine barrels of provisions coming aboard.

I sensed a familiar scent as it passed, and could not place it though it distracted me greatly.

Unpacking my goods from the Pengis, and relieving them of their burdens, I combed them, then set them to a well-bedded pen, stocked with a bucket of fresh catch, with which they seemed quite content. Finding myself with a bit of time, I lit to the deck and surveyed the Infant Isle closely with a spyglass. Phillip rises into the air from a green, verdant base, a large cone capped intermittently with the flashes of fire that betray looming activity. Rumbles course from the isle, the lands of the Cay echoing it's vibrations in small shocks. Dr Sputnik has advised me the situation is dire, that this activity threatened Caledon as a whole- these calculations have been confirmed by Dr Beaker of the Society, and this danger causes me no little concern.

Around the ring of the base of the Isle I have spied small plumes of smoke that could be taken as campfires and evidence of native presence, but could also be but venting of the volcanic activity, so I draw no conclusions here. Until the isle is set foot upon, we shall not know.

I do assume the isle will not be fit for parcelling, owing to it's unstable and volatile nature. But, then again, I have seen worse lands well-occupied, so we shall see. The Boat now leaves the harbor, and we begin our journey in earnest. As I sit on the barrel of apples that so distracted me, and continues to vex me with a familiar feel, I stare back fondly at the Caledonian shore, wondering if I shall ever see it again...

I close, your servant, etc

G. Abel