User:FJH/fjh frtrss/str nishsigunkokeb/150malachite

Malachite in the Age of Heroes, 150

4 Malachite
While traveling I was bothered by a pack of wolves, about four or five. This is a pretty normal occurrence for me and so too is easily dismissing them with a swing of Nato. I've tried throwing some of my meat in hopes of diverting their attention in the past for I really don't want to kill them but they barely notice it. This time, however, something strange happened as I faced them down. At first it was a dizzying feeling but that quickly turned to one of extreme clarity like drinking some really good beer. Really good beer. My hands and feet moved as if on their own in a manner that I could only call incredibly efficient and graceful. The pack vanished, first in whole limbs flying across the forest floor, then ultimately the wolves seemed to vanish right before my eyes as Nato swiped through them. It was as if their shadows didn't even know they were gone for a brief instant. I don't remember most of it clearly.

After another dizzying sensation and normal clarity, there was nothing left but the clearing met, Nato, and a few limbs of a wolf. I'm not sure how most of it happened. Was that Nato, the deity of war? Drurumuth's influence? the stagnant water I had drunk a few hours before?

5 Malachite
I decided to return to Lershicasot to offload the Deinonychu corpses since I figured they would weigh me down unnecessarily. Once again, the priest and the priestess had swoon and lay about the temple floor, leaving me the job of taking them to the meda hall beds for rest. As I was doing this, I noticed for the first time that both the Priest Gisu and the Preistess Dothan were mising their right hands from the wrist on. I certainly hope self-mutilation isn't a ritual of this Nato-ism. In any case, I as I was moving the priest I happened to pass by one of the pillars of the temple and noticed it was carved with a full body image of Nato, whereas before I had only seen his head on my coin. The inscription read "Human deity of war and death." "War and death," huh?

Oh, look a masterful depiction of a willow in shale! I hope that doesn't make me sound too much like a tree hugger

Aredas the shopkeep, despite appraising the lizard creatures called Deinonychus as expensive 250Γ affairs (they were valued by weight?), refused to take them off my hands, even the mostly perfect corpse of that Aleæaæaädöa one. I thought it was rude of him to do that but said nothing of it as I still had the business of selling off the rest of the baubles I had found around that cave earlier. I thought about donating them but there weren't any charities and none of the objects were toy-quality goods for the children that would be adopted from Batowocgi.

Dacap wasn't in, so I didn't get to meet with him.

12 Malachite
Returning to the northern part of the ocean, following the map, I found δräpëgàèjûvîp ïhùpàwïxäth èdæh. Yes, I forgot what this place was called in the common tongue and the map isn't translated. It's not like I write this stuff down. Oddly, this area was still considered a part of Neathäa. The cave itself was very much like the one from before, with the exception of lacking jewelry lying about on the ground to collect. After making certain there was nothing around the perimeter that would corner me once I entered the tunnels, I ventured inside. The inhabitants of the caves were sparsely-numbered Giant Bats and, once again, I was not interested in killing them. After one of the bats plowed into me from behind and threw us both to the floor in a scratching, screeching, and struggling mess, I decided that I didn't have any choice in the matter. Those bats were tougher than I expected for their size and even when their wings were clipped they posed something of a threat; but, they died all the same. Once again, I'll say that I regretted having to kill them.

In any case, Giant Bats, but no wolf, which thoroughly tried me just thinking about it. If this was its den, then it was probably out hunting or being hunted or whatever wolves do when they're not in their dens. I decided to camp at the mouth of the cave in hopes that the wolf would wake me up when it got back. I started hoping that it was that werewolf from the swamp way back when and then I could get it to feign being dead and I wouldn't have to kill it; might even be able to bring it to MalignedTepids and apologize in its name.

13 Malachite
I was teasing a bunch of Slugman around the camp and pondering if I would have made a better Animal Trainer than a dragon slayer when the first wolf in hours charged at me from over a hill from north the cave. This was hopefully Pâshôlébïbèìmäbàlìpé Yeah, I forgot his untranslated name too and at that point I was--beginning to hope that it did want to do battle. I don't know why and what I can say in my defense for that feeling, but I approached it squarely and it continued to charge my position. The wolf was much larger than any I had seen before but I could only surmise it was still just a wolf. I reached into my backpack and produced a piece of cow meat. At the time I thought I could avoid combat by baiting it to not bother me giving me just enough time to get a hold of this feeling of bloodlust.

Somehow it all went wrong. As I threw the meat to the wolf, the meat flew through the air, into the wolf's maw, through the back of the wolf's neck, and landed some far way off. The head and the neck of Pâshôlébïbèìmäbàlìpé landed somewhere different from its body.

I hastily stuffed its corpse into my pack along with the Deinonychu ones, dropped the limbs I could find into the cave, and started running around away from that lethal chunk of cow as fast as I could so that the Slugmen wouldn't be harmed by it. They complied timidly enough. When they had gotten far enough, I snuck myself as close to it as I thought was safe and ignited some berries just near it. I hoped that burning that foul piece of meat would lift whatever cursed it to kill the mouth that tried to eat it. I'm not sure if it worked; I ran off.

16 Malachite
I arrived back at the towers of Malignedtepid quickly, in part due to recognizing the route, in part because I ran the first third of the journey. I was still thoroughly bothered by that evil beef that had been calling my backpack home for some time and was wondering if I should sanctify the whole thing and its contents. The Bugbears were indifferent to my tale, or my victory against the wolf, and instead the few that did care only asked if I had more meat. In a way, I had decided that I should have expected the wolf slaying act merely a trial of trust with the way no one seemed to care about it. When that thought had initially occurred to me, I realized that killing the wolf may have not even been the correct solution to the trial.

The Demon, however, seemed unaffected, if you could ever say it acted affected. The exploration was long and I only found its burning form in the third tower soon as I was about to call it a day. I rounded a much more well-lit corner than the rest and immediately had to pull myself all the way back around. The obsidian walls refused to give way, forcing the powerful fires of the Demon through only the corridors, bathing everything near it in a violent but quite agony. The room itself must have felt like the inside of a volcano depending on however long the Demon had been in there. After I had recovered, I drew Nato to block my eyes and started sowly moving as close as I could to the chamber; but, I never got close enough to see around the corner before I was told, much like before, to speak. Rather than try to talk again, I merely drew the corpse of Pâshôlébïbèìmäbàlìpé from my pack and threw it towards the farther end of the corridor. Even though it was still rather moist throughout, the corpse still caught fire long before it even hit the ground. The environment became brighter and hotter, forcing me to step back some and close my eyes, even shielded by my axe as they were. When the light died back to its previous levels, and things weren't so merciless, at the end of the corridor were nothing but what appeared to be a pile of bones. Even they were started to catch fire.

As before, there was a long silence before I was told anything. I was told that north of Malignedtepid was the ocean Amareromi. On the coast to the east I would find the human town of Möashiim'amein and traveling directly north of that, on the other side of Amareroami, I would find my dragon. Silence followed. I was to return here if I succeeded, was also told.

I pulled back from the Demon much like before and rested my exhausted form on the side of the door leading out of the tower. Once again, my waterskin was dry and what alcohol I still possessed in my pack was bubbling, leaving me nothing to quench my thirst. Speaking with Demons was more exhausting than I expected, especially when they were on fire like that. I was hoping that Futumafat would run back up to me at any second with another map but she never came. The instructions were very vague after getting to Möashiim'amein: unless it was right where the ocean turned northward, I'd have to trace the whole northern shore of the ocean just to find its den! Additionally, there was no body of water depicted on the map I was originally given. I asked around with what Bugbear villagers I could find hoping that one of them knew something about maps but the most help I received was one Bugbear smearing a blueberry across the page. I hope he was a cartographer painting me my ocean and not a clothier using blueberry as a dye. When I tasted the blue substance to see whether it was just dye or real blueberries, he made a big fuss about something and the Guards escorted me out of town. Perhaps, Drurumuth was much more interested in me accomplishing my mission than I thought, to give me a rushed armed escort out of Malignedtepid.

I do hope blueberry dye becomes popular. It tastes pretty good.

20 Malachite
I found a part of the southern coast of Amareromi. The jungle is getting thick; following the shore would probably be the most reliable way of finding the village. In other news, my skin is still tanned after having left the Bugbear capital. I wonder when that goes away.

25 Malachite
Still tan.

Even the shore of the ocean offers me little respite. Wild animals of all sorts, though most on all fours, jump out of the shrubbery and attempt to rend me limb from limb. I faced down three Deinonychu yesterday and fought most of the battle with my back to the ground and the beasts on my chest; there wasn't enough of the corpses left worth keeping. Just before I started writing, I was attacked by four big lions at the same time. They surely would have overpowered me had I not been able to use the trees to block them from all approaching at a single time. Also, lots of running. I'm surprised at how nimble I have become over the last few months.

26 Malachite
At the top of this mountain there is a sign that reads "You are standing at the summit of Fragile Furnaces, the largest inactive volcano in all of Igathögred." The sign was accredited to the efforts of the humans of Safehelped. At least that meant I was on the right track, that there were humies around. I searched all around the mountain but there were no Dwarves here; I might have not been a surveyor and might easily be mistaken between pots and crowns but even I could tell this was very good mountainhome material under my boots. The view from the peak itself was also incredible - I couldn't see across Amareromi, but I could see a large mountainous island out there and blue all around it.

No matter how great the view up here is - because it really is an awesome view - this entry is not intended to be about that. I had started considering about how I would face this dragon. I've never seen a dragon. To be honest, I've never seen an engraving of a dragon. I only know that they're large in body and wings, have green scales, and breathe fire. It sounded more like I was going against a god of judgment rather than a creature. As good as I could throw, I'd never be able to hit the mountain in the middle of this ocean; no matter how hard I swung with my axe, I'd never be able to break open the crust of this mountain to its molten core; no matter how thoroughly I wash it, this blood stain on my pant leg would never come out. I probably will need some help facing this dragon and by that I mean not just the kind that would egg me on.

I wonder what homesickness feels like. Maybe it's just other Dwarves I miss seeing because I can't remember much about Äkimkulet. I remember that its stairs hurt when you fell down a flight of them, but not much more. Reading back Okay, so I DID write some of this stuff down I also noted an oddly shaped entrance.