Hour the Fourteenth
Well, I suppose that journal tradition states that I must introduce myself on the very first page. It feels mighty silly to introduce myself to an inanimate object. Not too sure about the 'inanimate' part, though. I hope it is, but the merchant who sold me this journal said some rubbish about magick and stuff. Well, I think it's rubbish, anyway. I ain't no sorceress. No, my soul is still here and untaken, thank you very much. In fact, I like to say that I wouldn't know any magick even if it hit me in the head. Though, if magick hit me in the head, I'd have bigger worries than being accused of witchcraft.
Anyway, I am Daulice West, explorer, adventurer. Like, a cowgirl without a horse. Or a cow.
As I'm writing this, I am sitting in the Breaching Whale Tavern. Not sure what a 'breaching whale' is, but I hear it's on the east side of the planet. Bloody easterners. They live the soft life - they have rain, they have herbs, they have no worries at all. What do we westerners get? Dry, cracked deserts and the Praesents. Well, the Praesents and Cactus. Cactus is a tier all on his own, a being of neither benevolence or malevolence; the raw spirit of the West. West with a capital W, mind you.
This day's weather is better than most. We're at the beginning of the Rain Moon - ten or so days of wet weather before the hot and long Midyear Blaze. This is a pivotal point in every westerner's lives. It is the time when people decide: will they be strong and endure, or be cowards and run away to the east, having enough time to make it to the mountain border before the heat came back and they died of thirst. The runaways have caused the rain fallen during the Rain Moon to be called the Coward's Rain. Runaways like Ihnein, a person I thought was my friend until he ran away to the east under the Coward's Rain. Such a person does not deserve to be my friend. He is a coward for running away, and he'd also become a fool if he came back. The Law of the West states that runaways will be killed upon reentry. And that if the runaway had any friends, they'd get the honors.
I have a vial of poison and a spare dagger in my pouch that I'm saving for Ihnein. It would be his fault if I killed him, anyway, so I have no remorse.
Anyway, this is what we'd call a 'Mourning Day', for though the clouds passing overhead were heavy with rain, no drops fell, and now villagers have thirsty throats with nothing to quench them except for the bitterwater in the well, pumped up from an underground spring. They endured the bitterwater for months before, but now it probably tastes even worse considering the villagers had hoped for the fresh water only held in clouds in the sky. And in the rivers of the east.
Well, I'm getting ready to head out towards Naerhav'n, which is about a five hours' walk from Rusty Falls.
By the way, Rusty Falls? The highlight of the town, the actual rusty falls, are disgusting. It is said that a suicidal man who wants the easiest way out will take a drink from the waterfalls in Rusty Falls.
Thankfully, I won't have to pass them on my way out.
Hour the Seventeenth
I saw him. A minute ago, a mere minute ago. I was crossing over the bright orange sands, checking the sky, hoping for more rain. I'd managed to run into another line of clouds, passing overhead like a flock of carrion birds. As it was before, they were heavy with rain. I aimlessly walked forward, not even paying attention to what I was doing. The prospect of rain was so inviting. Better than the bitterwater I'd been drinking from a hip flask the entire time. Then, I tripped over a rising dune and got a face-full of sand. Swearing, I pushed back off of the ground and cautiously stood up...
...and then I saw him, standing there. Staring at me. It was Cactus, of course. Who else would it be? He looked the same as always. Cactus was thin as a stick, but stood tall over everything. His face was blank, lacking any of the features of a normal human other than an oval-shaped head. He wore a light-brown sheriff-looking jacket over a plain white shirt. Strangely enough, the jacket had sleeves that stretched all the way over his noodle-like arms. On his head was a dirt-brown fedora, and pinned to his jacket front was a badge shaped like a crescent moon. He did not move at all. Just stood. Waited. Watched.
I wandered a bit forward and then knelt in front of Cactus.Well, a bit away from him, but still in front of him. You know what I mean.
Cactus carefully regarded me for a few agonizing minutes. Felt like an eternity. Then, he simply blinked out, vanished from thin air, leaving no trance.
Then, there was a boom of thunder, and slowly it began to rain. Fresh drops of water splattered onto my head, and I quickly got out a rain-jar I bought from a merchant long ago. It was a small bottle with a wide detachable top, so water would fall on the rim of it and slide into the jar itself. The jar was semitransparent and brownish.
Quickly, I took off the rain funnel from the top of the jar so I could take a quick sip. Water, fresh water! It was almost as if Cactus had given me a gift, with that rain shower. However, that's not very plausible. More than likely, it was a coincidence - Cactus did not gift anyone, and if he did, it would be in a subtler way.
I popped a cork onto the jar and placed it in my pouch along with the rim and my journal, which was thankfully safe from the rain.
I used the remainder of the rain to gain some distance. Eventually, when it stopped, I sat back down on the ground - briefly - to write this entry. I have a few more hours to go. Well, maybe one or two. Judging by my watch - a handy little thing that pretty much produces its own energy to run (gets really steamy, though, so I usually turn the generator off when I'm confident it'll have enough energy left to serve me for awhile) - it's around the forty-third minute of the seventeenth hour. I should arrive at Naerhav'n by the nineteenth. Sun will be setting by that time.
I better hurry - I do not want to be out at night, not near Naerhav'n.
Hour the Nineteenth
I made it to Naerhav'n. I'm sitting on a bed in an inn of some sorts. Right now the sun is setting, its rays casting amazing colors against the dusk sky. I've turned my watch's generator on. Set it by a window, so the steam will waft out into the sky.
Going to try to catch some shut eye.
After all, I can't be falling asleep when I am meeting the Adlet.
