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| Kay Ingild |
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Maybe I'm a little too quiet. A little too cautious.
It's
taking me a very long time to figure out who I am and where I fit in. I
feel as though I leave no mark on the land as I pass through it. Never
bothered me before, but it's starting to.
There are mysteries
here. I can feel them, just outside my grasp. I could fill the air with
questions, but I have so many, and it's hard to put them into words. I prefer to keep my eyes open, listen to scraps of
conversations around me, read as much as I can, and hope I stumble
across the answers by myself.
 (Image may be subject to copyright. Read the note at the end of this page.).
When I first arrived I spent most of my time
at the Marble Dale Park,
gathered as many different creatures as I could, and sought out fight
after fight to help them grow. Adiomino and Neno Veliki offered
much-appreciated and sorely needed advice, and I am grateful to Spartiatis and Sagewoman, who generously gave me creatures.
Over time I found myself drawn away from battle;
there were so many different places to explore. When I defeated
the Loreroot guards and could travel freely through that land, for a
while I
lost the motivation to fight. But I couldn't quite bring myself to set
aside the halberd I carry, and I've taken up arms again because I want
to see how my creatures will evolve.
I found it hard to believe that anyone at all could get lost in the
labyrinth... until I realized that they must be trying to get through it
without making a map. Crazy!
When Awiiya is asleep and his leaves are furled, it looks to me like
someone has taken a hatchet to his branches. I'm a little embarrassed to
remember this, but the first time I saw him asleep, I ran around asking
people if something terrible had happened to him.
I'm glad that Wolf regained his ability to transform, but he gave me a bit of a fright the other day.
The
land of Loreroot... quiet and calm. I like it here; perhaps I will make
it my home. The hospitality at the Root of the Matter Inn is
impeccable.
Conversations at Awiiya's Way can be remarkably interesting. Unpredictable, too. (I still think magenta is a colour.)
Story Night! So much talent on display. I'm glad I was able to produce
one little story to share, and I hope to contribute more. I'd like to be
useful... perhaps I can help advertise the event?
I have signed up with the Bunny team for the upcoming birthday celebration. What have I gotten myself into?
 (Image may be subject to copyright. Read the note at the end of this page.).
A few victories, early on, made us bold.
We'd travelled to the island for the same reason as everyone else. For power. And in those first few weeks, we tasted it.
Every day we trained, and every day we fought the others in great battles. We fought and died to prove ourselves worthy of the ancient stone sculpture that granted strength to its favourites and brought us all back to life to fight again and again for its sake.
I have a dozen theories as to why the others gained an advantage over us. Some of us lost focus. Some of us, myself included, turned to the study of magic, assuming it could be used to support our warrior friends, but experiments led to failure time and again. Some of us trained poorly. Some of us missed critical battles…
Our early wins became a flood of losses, and our opponents gained the favour of the great stone artifact. Its favour, and all the power their bodies could bear. The great battles became farces. A single one of them, by the end, could massacre us all before any of us could move. And we had no choice but to fight every day. We couldn't resist the call of the battlefield, even knowing that our blood would feed our enemies' ever-growing strength.
Sometimes, very rarely, they let us win. That was even harder to bear.
I lost track of the days, by the end. They all finished the same way, fading to nothing as my life bled away. But one day I awoke, not there but… here. Wherever this place is.
Perhaps the artifact released my soul out of disappointment. I certainly did nothing to deserve respite.
Is this a sort of afterlife? Perhaps, but… perhaps not, as people here still seem able to die. And there is no life-giving artifact to automatically restore those who fall.
Can you blame me, then, for being cautious? I don't want to lose what little I have. I'm sure this aversion to any sort of risk is holding me back, and maybe one day I'll break free of this too, but until then…
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