It's been almost two nundines since i received a dream from the mywe about the slave town, and another three nundines more since my dreams reminded me of my irani cousins in valbridge. I would not ordinarily so resist the call of the sela to reunite with members of the familia, but i have been ironically hindered by circumstances here in the unhindered lands, as well as the care of my bearscorpion leander. I could not remove the bubble around his stinger until this morning because the healing had been slowed down by an addition infection of necrotic vitiligo. And of course, i'd grown fond of having him around.
Leander has been very patient with me throughout his physical care but i know he has been longing for real freedom and to go on the hunt again. So i indulged him after carefully depressurising and unwrapping the bubbled stinger, noting that the flesh of his bulb was no longer eating itself, and rubbed a bit of salve onto it. He loyally followed me out a ways to the palalnaszipe banks and we spent some time re-acclimating him to the use of his tail by hunting terraquatics. It did not take long; his nature is as strong as it was when i first met him and he is a skilled predator.
So before long he was pursuing larger prey, but i think he too has grown quite used to me because if he got too far down the riverbank he would stop and come back to me. I consider it that he sees me as an ally, perhaps an equal, and certainly not a threat to him or his ways; because i would hate to think i have accidentally broken the spirit of a proud wild beast. It was this consideration more than anything that led me to head into the eastlands once again.
My faith in his ability to fend for himself restored, late this afternoon i took leander up into the hills from which the palalnaszipe river gets its name, and we easily found a sleuth of other bearscorpions. I doubt it was his original tribe, but they seemed to welcome him easily enough. He still looked to me as if to ask whether to leave me or not, so i tossed him a piece of rat meat, and then tossed another larger one toward the sleuth and pointed at them. He romped off with them and last i saw was offering his second treat to the alpha, before i walked down the hillside and lost sight of him.
As one might expect it did not take long for me to pack up my meager belongings; my blades çerhêni and dszeni are always with me, and all i had at my little temporary home cave was the satchel containing a few salves and dried fruits if i could not forage anything from the land. I trekked out from there toward swynwall or dorburne - either barony will take me about the same amount of time to reach, though i believe the closest dwarfholme waystone is on the edge of dorburne. At an easy relaxed pace i travelled for ten ghurries, stopping a few times just to rest my feet and eat some sweet leaf from the ground. Sitting here around my outhearth for the night i estimate i have travelled about eighteen verstă, and with another eighty or so verstă to go, i will take it easy and plan to reach dorburne early the morning of this sâmbătă.
When last i saw any of the iranis··· the only one i saw was ardos, who in fact came to my aid in some small way. He was at the time bound to a magical item of the familia that led him to assist any selunari in need, and though my requirement was small he was in the area anyway assisting another caravan. It was good to see him though i expressed some concern couched as humour as to his getting involved in other people's dangers. Looking back now, i regret having ever said that and i am glad that he shrugged it off. After hearing everything that the adventurers did against bleak -- and i am certain ardos and radi were involved in that as well -- i feel inadequate for thinking that other people's problems were not my own. Whether familia or eshdir, all are connected and all share the burdens of the world. Which is why i wish to find the mywe that requested help, as well as finding my familia.
Prior to that visit with ardos, i had not seen him since i was only three lustres, or fifteen years old, when i went through my manmaking and left the kingdoms for the unhindered lands; and i have never met the younger twins, banradi and taios. It's almost hard to believe that over another three lustres have passed since then. I have heard uncertain whispers that perhaps the iranis have lost their parents. I know they aren't truly alone, that there are other familia in the eastlands and particularly in valbridge (much to my former chagrin under the late baroness cavdottir's rule), and the three of them have each other··· but i still feel this is where the sela is calling me, to these particular cousins and this particular time and place.
The hour grows late and the fuel of my outhearth is waning. If anything else exciting happens on my trek i will record it; otherwise i will pick up the narrative when i am reunited with the iranis once more.
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