Day 46,
It’s been a long day of hiking, so I’m going to try to keep this short and not keep everyone else up. I’ll do a more detailed writeup once I get back home. Right now we’re camped in a spot that I’m told isn’t far from the crystal cavern itself. As I understand it, going through the cave tunnels to get to the cavern is going to be a hike in and of itself tomorrow.
This morning started with Cass and me getting up at first light and making our way to the crystal collector’s storehouse. Fortunately, I still had the backpack that Lin had given me for the lake trip so I wasn’t stuck carrying rocks in a picnic basket. The collectors greeted us and I was introduced to their fourth member, Zephyros (or “Zeph” as they all called him). Daianna, who seemed to be the most in charge, explained once more that it would be a long hike, practically to the other end of the island, much of it on trails through the jungle rather than proper roads and told us this was our last chance to back out. Cass and I both insisted that we were up for it, and without much further fanfare the collectors started loading up our packs with dun crystals, having us put them on and walk across the storehouse floor several times before either adding more or taking some out until they judged that we were carrying as much as we could without being likely to get too exhausted. It was quite heavy and even now my shoulders and back are sore from the unfamiliar weight, but I could hardly complain when Daianna and Butat (the two that came with us) were carrying what looked to be near twice as much.
We took the western road out of the Village and followed it until early afternoon. Much like the eastern route it was a corridor through the forest for the first couple of hours with dirt roads branching off periodically. Down the coastal-facing branches you could see the trees getting thinner and catch glimpses of farmland. As we made our way north the forest thinned until we were winding our way between and over fields of rolling hills, much of which had been made into farmland and pastures for grazing cows and sheep. Or at least, creatures that looked like cows and sheep from a distance.
We spoke little on the trip, focusing on keeping one foot in front of the other while supporting the weights on our backs, until we reached the point where the cobblestone road began curving toward the east. Here Daianna said we’d soon be branching off onto one of the trails into the wilder northern half of the island. She added that while the cavern entrance was more centrally located and we were still relatively close to the west side of the island, turning off here would let us circumvent the Blossom Field. Apparently cutting through that is “not helpful for getting work done.”
The trail we took started off as a dirt road not too dissimilar from the one leading to my house and Cass’s family farm, but after half an hour or so the jungle came back (or perhaps it’s better to say we reached the northern jungle) and the path gradually began growing narrower and rougher until we were going single file. I suppose this is part of the reason they carry everything themselves instead of by wagon and beast of burden. There was still clearly a path from generations of collectors making the trip on a regular basis, but the footing was often uneven from roots and rocks or weathering by rains and constantly winding around larger trees. More than once we had to walk along streams until it was narrow and shallow enough to cross, and occasionally Butat was forced to pull out a machete and clear new growth that had begun to clog the trail since their last trip out.
He stopped doing that however once we crossed paths with the Wandering God. It was a sudden thing, we rounded a bend in the trail and there –
Daianna’s telling me to cover my lantern already and go to sleep. I’d best not annoy her any further. She’s not showing it as much as Butat, but I think they’re both on edge and blaming me for the fact that we keep hearing the sounds of the Wandering God following us. They insist that it’s not hostile to humans and that we’re not in any danger unless we go out of our way to provoke or offend it, but I’ve gotten the impression that this sort of persistent attention isn’t normal.
