Recluse Family/Saffron
Saffron (Recluse ?)
"OK, just don't call me a Recluse. Those bastards never treated me like family. I earned every smidge that they "gave" me by hard work and sitting for all their boring lessons. None of them ever liked me.
I'm a good hunter and a strong worker. So when I went out on my own I made a shed for myself. I hunted, skinned and tanned large and small game, salted the meat, and sold what I didn't eat in the villages. Finally i had enuff cash to travel the seas. So now I'm far away from those blasted Recluses, those pompuss pessants.
This new land is called Bellu-a-terra. It looks pretty, but the people here are pretty mean. So was my mom, leaving me with those - you know. So were those Greys and Browns and their kids and most villagrs I know. I gess people are mostly mean, so I like mostly to be in the woods or hills. Things are pretty there and nothing is mean to me.
I walked about halfway across this land and finally came across a band of other forest folks like myself. I hope theyll treat me better."
Febuary 24, 1008
"Ha! It's been a while and I ain't haven't thought about this old scrap. Lots has changed. Of all things, I came across that old guy, Purple. He was a Noble in Mesh when I found him and now he's the bloody Ruler, darn it! Well, he's not so bad, I guess. He let me stay in his estate a while back, but that's just too cushie for me. Then again, living in the woods isn't all as sweet as I thought it was gonna be, either. I got real good at it, but there's always some sort of monsters running around.
Worse, there's these thing right outta hell itself. They're called daimons and let me tell you they are awful. They caught me twice already and it took all the coins I had to bribe my way out. They bother me real bad when they are near. I was actually hunting them, sort of, for one of the Nobles, and I went up north where they were just popping outta the ground, I think. When I got near their hole the first time, there weren't any around, but there sure were just a while before. They stink, you know. I mean they Stink. But worse, for me anyway, the stink gets in your head, I mean my head, anyway, and when the stink is real bad. well, maybe you won't believe me, but the Stink makes voices in my head. It's not the daimons talking, because I heard them talk and it isn't normal words.
But when there's a lot of them that were around before, and then you go by, the Stink is so bad and it gets in your head and it has voices. They just keep screaming, I mean Screaming! all the worst language you ever heard and then some curse words you never heard before but they are so bad that you know it's a cuss and it makes you sick. Makes me sick, anyway, and I got a strong stomach. Such filth! Well, it's no garden party in their prison either so I try to stay out of their way, and just in case I try to keep enough cash so maybe I can get out of their prison if they get me. Heaven forbid.
Oh, and today I just found this Ancient Book of Forbidden Knowledge. So that's why I thought I should write about it.
November 14, 1008
Seems I have some time on my hands, so I'm going to write down some stuff to send to the Librarians when I reach land again. I think I was still living in the woods the last time I wrote. Not that I've spent many nights in a castle lately, but I have a bigger tent and a decent cot, so I haven't slept on the bare ground much. Yes, things have gone fairly well for me in the last few years. My occasional exploits in service to Mesh finally convinced most Nobles that I should be a Knight of Mesh. I'm happy to say that Duke Mercer of Twillen has been especially good to me and financed several squads under my command. Every leader of Mesh has been very good to me, really.
It seemed like just a few weeks after I was knighted when Mesh liberated the woodland of Bajit from the wretched grasp of Vlaanderen. The region was in very sad shape when we acquired her, and she needed a Lord quickly. It was a nice surprise for me that the leaders agreed to appoint me as Duchess of Bajit the next day, although some others had also asked for the job. When the time came for the 'official' appointment to the estate most nobles voted for me to keep at the job. The mansion was mostly burnt out when I arrived, but I got a lot of material donations for repairs as well as very much bureaucratic work over the next weeks.
But the Vlaanders couldn't be happy with my progress in Bajit. You see, it lies right outside their capitol, Reeds. So the war raged on, Vlaander took Bajit away from me, Mesh gave it back, Vlaander took it again, and back and forth and on and on. I'm a little proud that each time Mesh regained Bajit, they gave me the mansion again. That didn't make me too popular in Vlaanderen, and after many defeats in that area Vlaanderen finally had things go their way.
Three days ago I was with a couple other squads in Mokut awaiting reinforcements. Vlaander had been tearing things up in Bajit for a few days, but we did not have the force to push them out yet. That morning they really turned the tables. They came into Mokut with overwhelming power, killed most of my men, crippled the rest, and arrested me. The other Knights with me suffered about as much too.
Vlaanderen doesn't maintain their prison very well at all. I was talking about the bedding I've used earlier. Well, this was the worst I've ever seen, except for the days I was in daimon lands far to the north. I had to sleep on the bare stone floor. Cold, hard, lumpy, it was painful within seconds. There was no way to find sleep on that floor. I ended up leaning in the corner. I think I slept about four hours in that posture. That's enough about bedding, right?
So I never heard from the Vlaander judge in two days. The jailer was pretty decent to me, but as night fell today, he came in with two buddies and shackled me. I was loaded into a cart of fabric rolls and spools of rope which was headed for the dock. I don't know how Vlaander law works, but I suppose that my repeated occupation of the mansion of Bajit was some kind of offense. I was deported.
Once we were far from shore the captain of this ship had my shackles removed and put me to work mopping and cleaning the ship. Most everyone says we are bound for a land called Dwilight. I've heard rumours of that world, but none that make me feel that I know anything about life there. No one knows how far off this land is, how long the trip will be, or how difficult the seas might be. It's been a calm sea for the first few hours since dawn today. I'm kind of hoping for good things in this new land. But I know I'll miss so much of my good life in Mesh.
