Berrybottles' Travel Guide to Terra

Day 3.8

Observation Journal Entry #8

Evening, Light Rain

Dinner: Heiress Vine Stuffed Tomatoes – Very large tomatoes that have been hollowed out and stuffed with shredded lettuce, chopped carrots, sweet onions, black olives, cucumbers, yellow peppers, and finely diced broccoli with feta cheese sprinkled on top. The dressing is made from the blended tomato insides with basil, oregano, garlic, olive oil, sweet mountain vinegar, and valley honey. All of this with a side of toasted, buttery, lemon zest garlic bread sticks.

Hello Travelers,

I do so hope, with all my stars, that you have been doing well. How am I doing—I'm guessing you ask—well, I'm in the same predicament as before. Trying to help, even though I'm going to get into SOOOOO much trouble.

Oh, emotionally/matrimonially unavailable Prince Lann of Bloodbriar... What am I going to do with you? I cannot even begin to count the ways this could go very, very badly for me. And for you too, for that matter. Though, I get the feeling you don't really care if this ends in chains. But I do! I care! I can't pull off a chains look. I can't even pull off the look I have now! Oh why, oh why did I say yes???

Oh yeah... I know why...

Bonewood Herb Cheese.

Damn it!! That really was good cheese. Apparently, criminally good. Ugh! Well, whatever, my friends, we're in it now. And by in it, I mean we're up in the Crow's Nest, freezing our little toes off while we see if one of my mothers answers. As the sun has gone to bed, I needed to use the stars to send my message. But, as they're at a greater distance, and I'm not the strongest Watcher, this may not work.

I've cast a few Sun Speak spells before; most during my training. It's not a very complicated cast, and I followed the steps perfectly—raise my arms above my head in the direction of the light, close my eyes, hum the Sun Speak song, whisper my message in tune on the second verse.

That part always makes me giggle, because messages don't rhyme at all, but I instinctually want to make them rhyme because, well, it's a song spell. So, all of my messages are like,

"Hello mommy, are you there?

It's me Autumn, your child fair.

Call me back when, you find time.

And I'll be here, cherry lime."

I sang a message once, with one line ending in orange, so I just sang, "orangey-orange", for the entire follow up line.

I just realized, I have absolutely no idea why I'm going on about this. I think it's because I'm a little lonely up here, and writing to you makes me feel better. It's been a while, and still nothing. I might try again on a different star. Maybe a little brighter one?

I know! How about I tell you another story while we wait to see if I ruined an easy level spell or not. Hmm. What one?

Let me look about and see. Oh, well, since we're nearing the Lulli Waterrises, how about the tale of why the water flows in the opposite direction.

Note: For those who don't know what a waterrise is, it's the exact opposite of a waterfall. The water flows upward instead of down. Quite the spectacle, even in lands of magic. There are many 'scientific' explanations of this phenomenon—syphoning, pressure, heat, to name a few—but there's also the folktales too. Of how, when we're at our most dire of moments, wondrous acts of rescue can occur. Things we shouldn't have survived, but we did. Things most like to refer to as, miracles. And the Lulli Waterrises is quite the miraculous tale!

I hope you're sitting down cozy with a good beverage, because this is a bit of a long one.

To set the scene, this is about Cloudburst. At one time, long, long ago, it was a village before it eventually changed into the luxury resort it is today. Located near the summit of Mount Greenstone, it's settled upon a rather sizeable island, and sided by a fork in an extremely large river. Beautiful views of thick forests, tales of strange illusive beasts, and stones so green one would swear they were looking at grass. And the river waters are sworn to have unbelievable healing properties.