Larissa's diary

[cellio]

December 5 (Thursday), addendum

Mellan has been hitting on me, a lot, these last few days. And he's more persistent now that I have this new mirror. He actually told me tonight that he thinks fireballs are sexy, but he declined my offer to show him one up close. He seems to think that if I'll just run away with him we could rule Draneken together. Um, right.

There is some very unnatural-sounding howling in the distance tonight. This makes me nervous.

December 6 (Friday)

The world is falling apart and I don't know what to do about it. This is so wrong!

Turok died today. He was swallowed whole by an enormous plant. Man-eating plants? This is just wrong. And before that, Prolix attacked me and then Kyle in the middle of a fight with something that attacked us! So one of the two people in our group who I implicitly trusted is dead, and the one that scares most of the rest of us is back to his aggressive habits. Oh, lovely. And we're sitting in no-man's land between a freakish tropical gorge full of monsters and a duchy we're supposed to be quietly dumping a prisoner in.

(I've never figured Kyle out. He seems like a nice-enough guy, though he keeps to himself a fair bit. But he keeps referring to magic as "freakish", and I don't know if he trusts me. I hope he understands that not all magic is bad, even if some magicians are.)

Even Mellan seemed to be affected by what happened today; he's being very quiet.

December 7 (Saturday)

We crossed into Tergia today. There was actually a guard-post, though the folks in Draneken would have to be crazy to attack through the gorge. There was only one guard, so it seems like Tergia knows that.

We freed Mellan at the border and he took off. I think he fully understands what a bad idea it would be to return along the path we took.

We asked the guard if he can direct us to a priest. Maybe we can return Turok from the dead. I hope so. I miss him. The guard didn't know about priests but did direct us to a druid grove a couple days' ride from here.

We came to a small town at nightfall and stayed in the tavern. Most of the people there were women and older men; the young men are all up in Cardior fighting the war. We decided not to inquire too much.

They don't have a priest here.

December 8 (Sunday)

Tonight after we made camp Hrolf insisted that I go out flying with him. Since Turok died I just haven't been in the mood for much of anything, and I guess he's feeling neglected. I don't blame him, and I didn't mean to take it out on him. I mean, he, Liandra, and Turok are pretty much my closest friends in the whole world (along with Brion, but in a very different way), even if I've only known them a few months. It's been a change-filled few months, though. Who would have thought?

We talked for a long time tonight. Prolix can mock us all he likes; I know quite a few people who aren't as smart or as insightful as Hrolf is.

Hrolf asked me if my bond with Turok is like the one with him, and it's not -- but I couldn't really explain friendship to him. And I've never had a friend die before -- let alone in such a stupid, pointless way!

We should get to the druid grove tomorrow. Liandra says that they can't raise the dead but they might be able to reincarnate Turok. I wonder how weird that would be -- to have Turok's spirit in a different body. It would probably take him a while to get used to that, but at least he'd be alive! And our only other option seems to be to get lucky nad find Dorl Tavyani in the next couple days -- and find that they have a priest who can and will raise Turok -- and that's just too big a chance to take.