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Dear Diary, Well, we loaded everything up. That was a job. Took a couple tries. First we had to put all the suitcases down and everyone had to settle for a small duffle bag. For me that wasn't hard. A pillow, a blanket, a magic candle, my trade goods, some waybread and a water bottle and I am good to go. It doesn't hurt that my equipment magically cleans itself so I don't start smelling after a few days on the trail. The more I think about it, the more I am certain that the boar is larger than it was. I think it is part of the magic. Anyway, this wasn't going to be a trip where we each took several changes of clothes, cots, beds, sleeping bags and the entire kitchen sink. Most of the time everyone is used to traveling light (and Wolfie offered me some of his space in his duffle bag), but honestly.  Well, my mom always told me not to spread tales, so I'll say no more.

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Indigo (Greek/Canadian) Parakyle (Alaskan/Shidhe) The Twins (French/French Virgin Islands) Robert-Etienne "Wolfie" (Normandy) Ariel (American) Amber (Canadian) That is a list of who decided to go. I'm wondering if Tinda will catch up with us. He had some sort of assignment he had to fill for his dad over spring break, and a load of special homework. I think he would much rather just take a visit to a market, though he made some comment about how some things are even worse than death and how his father had always put shopping in that category. We came through at dusk, and the market was quiet, no one but the guards noticed us -- and Kore -- she was resting by the central square. I'd told everyone about her, though Amber really took a liking to her on first sight. Kore is the first good person I've met who rubbed Ari the wrong way, though they got along fine after they kind of got over meeting each other. I think the fire and the ice just don't mix. Given the time, since it was near sunset and getting dark, we moved to an inn on the square that Wolfie had checked out earlier when I was talking to Kore, and we put the boat in the stables. Wolfie had checked those out first. We decided to spend the night, do some shopping, and then leave for the Triad (the name of the islands) about lunch time. Kore had said that the trip was best made in the daylight. The gentle smoke rising over the square and the city, the deep purple color as the sunset faded and the quiet wind from the sea were all so fresh. The inn was fun in a subdued way. Quiet, good food (though we all ended up passing on the ale except for Wolfie. He didn't drink much and he mixed his water with it, four to one -- four draughts of water to one of ale. Said he always did that in a strange land, where the water was new). A couple lamps in the corner above the fireplace, which was a pleasant banked warmth against the cold of late winter and early spring on the sea coast. Our familiars stood guard while we slept, and there wasn't much disturbance except for a thief who Ari's familiar caught and sat on. The familiar was purring to the thief in the morning. I'm not sure he was pleased to have spent the night wondering if the griffin was going to eat him, though the city guard laughed as he bound the thief's hands and walked him through the square. The market was fun, though we didn't find anything. Kore was patient with us, though as noon approached she started pushing us so we would be ready in time. I've seen my mom do the same thing with her sisters in the lodge.

So, we wasted some time, but had some fun and got several rutters for the trip. I wasn't sure if we would have a hard time getting rutters or not, though Kore told me the route was well known and established and not one that pilots would hold secret and dear.
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Back to the morning, Wolfie was still excited about this visit. Usually he seems just a little distant, as if he is trying to hold back. We talked about our plans while we sparred in the early morning, before everyone else woke up. In a strange town we couldn't run, but we could work out in the yard of the stables, which was inside the inn's walls (think of a box with the Inn making a U that covers three sides and the final side -- the one that faces the market, being a two story building, the bottom for horses and storage and the top filled with grain and hay. The common room opened directly onto the market and there was a gate between the common room part of the building and the stable that let people into the courtyard. The courtyard had a well in it and squares marked off in tile marking parts of the flagstone. The owner told us that if we had a caravan or needed outside storage, those areas were for rent.  It was there I sparred with Wolfie while everyone was asleep. At irst he was in his human form, fighting with his chain against mine, his shieldwork against my skills. Then he shifted and it was his wolf form against my scythe, then his hybrid shape as I used my chain in its polearm shape. He is using the hybrid shape more, though he still likes to run in the wolf form and walks around with the group in human form. He's fun to spar with, it is kind of like dancing with him. The bags of spices and color dyes and other things for trade went over well. Not that there was much sea silk for trade, but we traded small amounts of things for similar things, paying attention to what trade families from the five families islands were buying. I was going to buy some non-magic needles when Wolfie whispered to me -- which is when I found out that he had brought needles with him for trade in that collection he had hidden from me. The ounce of chrome I had offerred for trade drew a crowd and I got a blood gem for it. I was glad that I did not let on that I had any more -- chrome seems to be valuable here. The pennies bought food and the inn-keeper was happy to take them, and we also bought some kraken bane, though we planned to fly high above that. We didn't say so, moving the boat on rollers. As we moved towards the docks, several people suggested that we were foolish with a boat that small, even if it was magical. The air was still brisk, even if it was getting towards noon. . We got the boat into the water and began to sail out towards the mouth of the bay. The sea chain was down and we slipped out into deeper water, putting the guard towers behind us. Then the boat began to rise into the air and we began to make really good time. Made me think that perhaps we should have taken the couch, except we couldn't all have fitted on it. Back when I was interested in Ari's older brother I'd have liked being that close to everyone, but now, well, it was crowded, but I'm glad we had a little room. I curled up against Wolfie and went to sleep, while we sailed on. Now most rutters show a shallow bank area to sail over in the night on the way to the triad. The winds are pretty stiff and consistent, so on the first day we made over two hundred miles (I know, I should give the measurements in nautical miles or fathoms or something).  The distance from the port to Ostend, all said and done, is about nine hundred miles all told, though over two hundred miles is the distance ships try to make the first day with the good winds and the safe space where the shallows are. I could look down and see ships with their sails furled in the night as we kept on.   Then it was a slight dogleg and we had a good days travel for the next day. In an open boat on the water it would have been a killer of a trip, we'd have all be so seasick I don't think any of us would have made it. But as we went, it was great, though we were getting a little tired. Those who could run on the air took turns stretching that way, and the familiars would frolic. We saw a lot of ocean, mostly quiet, except for waves, though we did see a kraken come to the surface during the day -- they do that sometimes and fire falls on them until they slide back under the water. Kind of a powerful magic that hates the krakens. I'd say that the trip was a leg of just over three hundred miles, a dogleg shallows of just under two hundred miles and a second leg of about four hundred miles distance. Each rutter has a "best" place to leave the dogleg to make the fastest and safest transit. Strange how the world is now, with the sun returned and mankind regaining strength. There are a lot of places on the mainland that are still a long way away from recovery. Then, with the last light of the day, I could see the port city we were headed towards, the great walled dome. Kore had told me of how when Shattered Norns was plunged into the great sunless dark, the walled dome had held against Chaos and the people had lived inside of it as if it were all the world. Now people from the mainland and from the isles of the five families both join those of the city in venturing out to reclaim the countryside. The island is large, with major holdings all the way across it. I was glad we had passed by the Witch's island. The rumors are pretty bad, and Kore told me that many were true, a land of undead and evil.

Kore left us at the island, said she had things to follow up on, though we talked about the war back home. I had wondered if this wasn't the sort of thing that called for an assassin. But who, she asked. "Chirac" Wolfie piped up -- count on him to see the true enemy, forever, as the Isle de France, regardless of the merits. "Seriously" she said. The little bush for starting a war? His allies who are with him or those who are against him? No one in this war is an open vessel for chaos, a walking vortex of taint befouling the world.

She was curious how the war had gone, though surprised to find that for most of us, it wasn't "our" war. That the attacking force was smaller than the defenders and yet completely dissolved the enemy armies with less than thousands and tens of thousands of casualties seemed like great magic, but I could tell from listening to her that who had broken what law of nations and who was a proper target was no longer as easy of a question as it was when it was a matter of who had become an open vessel for chaos.

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We stopped so Kore could leave the port and to get more news, but we were careful, leaving a guard at the boat and watching our backs in town. Kore had the name of a safe harbor pilot, a good strech of the docks inside the dome and a public house with a good reputation. Since we were on good terms, she took me (with Wolfie in his "dog" disguise) and we wandered through the dock front area and into the market area listening to rumors and getting feedback. I was able to purchase two rutters for the isles of the five, seems like in the old days all the refugees who survived the seas went there, the last resort of men at the edge of the world. Since the sun came back, the trade has gone the other way. But rutters are common and easily purchased.

This is a picture of Wolfie in his half-wolf/half-man form as we were getting ready for a race. I'm faster in a race than he is in that shape, though he outruns me when a pure wolf. He can morph his bladed chain into himself or use it as a weapon in this form, the same for his shield. Usually he morphs, though we spar both ways.

Copyright 2001-2003 Stephen R. Marsh and Heather N. Marsh E-Mail comments and suggestions to: story (at) adrr (dot) com We would love to know how you got here and what you think about the site All Rights Reserved Terms of Use / Story Index

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