Journal Entry 3
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Day 3

I walked for a while before finding the flattest rocks to fall asleep on, comfy, I know. I remember the dream I had, it was weird, it felt real, someone yelling gibberish, with the occasional number thrown in, it sounded like lat and long coordinates, I don't know, I was preoccupied by something else as soon as I woke up, so I didn't think to hard on it.

What woke me up, however was not something I'm bound to forget any time soon. There was something making chewing sounds near my head, around where my wrappers from “dinner” where, an oat bar. I panicked, grabbed my flashlight, and turned it on, blinding myself, and this creature going through my trash. It started squealing like I had stuck it with a hot poker, and ran away, from what I could see it looked like a giant rat with a bunch of legs, like a millipede, and unfortunately, it ran deeper into the cave, not back towards the precipice, where I came from. I was conflicted on whether or not to celebrate, on one hand something that size must be drinking water from somewhere, on the other, I was 100% certain I was not on earth, not even the faintest hope left. I inspected the damage the creature, the... rattipede I'm gonna call it from now on, did to my stuff, and thankfully it had just started chewing my trash, not having touched my bag yet. I rolled up my sleeping bag and blanket, put on my layers, and started walking down the cave.

After say, 8 hours of walking and resting, I noticed the faintest glow, I turned off my light for a minute, letting my eyes adjust, and was stunned, there was something glowing in the distance. I don't know how far away it was, but I could see it, see some glimmer of light, and I wont lie, I ran for it. It took maybe a minute of running, as the glow got brighter and brighter, until I was at it. It was this fungus, or rather, what was behind this fungus. A faintly glowing crystal, showing the start of some sort of round shape, it was mesmerizing, as it was slowly changing colors across the spectrum.

I slowly reached into my bag and withdrew my chipping hammer, and started to chip away the rock around the object. I was in a daze of sorts at the time, maybe truly hypnotized by the crystals light show, and slowly but surely I was able to clear enough rock away from this perfectly smooth glimmering crystal. It was slick like melting ice, and was about the same size and shape of a symmetrical egg, like two rounded out cones stacked back to back

.

I must have been working for a while because when I got done, I was tired, and wanted to call it a day, but that's when I heard it, the skittering of legs. I looked up, and saw 3 of those rattipede's scurrying at me in the dim light of the crystal. I quickly stood up and backed away, reaching for my bat, and pulled it out with a stumble, as my legs had fallen asleep on the ground. I readied myself for the fight to come, and boy did it come all right.

The lead rattipede stopped at the crystal and sniffed at it, before trying to nudge it away. The two behind it kept charging at me, and leaped as one. I swung with the bat and hit both, the first one went flying into the second one, knocking number one to the ground and number two into the wall with a crunch. I winced at that sound, like the crunch of leaves, and thought it was dead. The first one got up and leapt at me again, squeaking wildly. I reached out with my left hand and tried to smack it away, but it grabbed onto the leather of my glove and wouldn't let go. I started freaking out and waving my hand around like it was burned and ended up smacking the rattipede against a wall with a crunch. It then fell on the ground unmoving. Shaking, I stepped back, gasping for air, I looked around, and saw the last rattipede turn around and look at what happened, then it ran off, without the crystal, squealing. God I hate those things.

I walked over to the crystal and carefully picked it up, sighing in relief, happy I could further examine my prize. I walked over to the rest of my stuff and the two dead bodies, and put it on the ground while grabbing my chipping hammer and putting it away. I looked at the still glowing lichen and decided to take that with me, I don't know why, but it seems like the right idea. After carefully folding it away, I turned to grab the crystal to see it had rolled away, all the way to the closer rattipede body, and was resting against it. I walked over, thinking it had simply rolled down the gentle gradient, and picked it up. That's when I noticed that the creature seemed to have been mummified, like it had dried up. Surprised I dropped the crystal and it fell to the ground with a light crunch, and rolled over to the other body, like it had a mind of its own.

I admit, I started freaking out a bit, a crystal egg that rolls to bodies, that's crazier than rattipede's. It came to a stop resting against it, and then I saw it, the drain of the body slowly turn to a dry husk. I sat down to process this, first, that's magic, no two ways about it, that's magic. Secondly, does that thing absorb moisture, or blood. I spat to the side of me, and saw it shake a little towards me, but not move. Okay, it just likes moisture, okay, okay, cool. I'm 70% moisture, why isn't it coming for me. I walk over to it, and take off my left glove, when I realize, that little bastard actually got through my glove and broke skin. I freak out a little more, but quickly calm down, and start to squeeze the blood out just ahead of the crystal. It immediately starts rolling to it, like a giant magnet. That answers that question, it only goes after blood outside the body, or just dead things, hopefully. I reach down to pick it up with the bare hand, and it almost hops into my palm, drying the cut, and my whole hand, instantly. It feels heavier now, and a little smaller, its also warm to the touch I realize, not feeling it before, when I was wearing a welding glove. I figured it was time to go and put the crystal away, put my glove on, grabbed my bag, and started my journey onward.

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