...

Caelum decided to defend the cave the whole night, and I would have offered to help but he seemed... a little too bitter, so I avoided asking. I ended up watching the cave anyway when Caelum took a quick power nap, then some shit happened, I dunno I didn't pay attention. So, that leads me to here, curled up with a blanket in a rocky corner. It's uncomfortable, but it'll do much better than awkwardly waking up snuggled next to someone I'm not close with. All's quiet here, although one of these guys has a snoring problem. Wish I could pinpoint who it is...

...

Oh, well. I'm gonna try and get some sleep. I keep hearing ominous rattling from further in the caves, so that might be a bit difficult to bypass. I wonder if anyone else can hear it to? Might just be the sleep deprivation.

...

[The next date is written for, well, the next day, unsurprisingly. There's a hastily written sidenote, barely legible, that reads: Research Foretellers - alternate magic forms??? - call Russell]

...

Well, guess what became of that ominous rattling? More Heartless! Lots of skeletons!! And I missed breakfast to, what an awful way to start the day. We ended up trudging our way through the caves afterwards, stopping once for food and again to fight more Heartless, until we got to a field covered in lots of wounded soldiers. Reminded me an awful lot of training back home, but with no young teens lying there bleeding out. Terrible image, sure, but that's all I can see at this point. We had this rough go with even MORE Heartless, like an awful lot of them it was ridiculous, but marvelously destructive at the same time, y'know? Then we helped out the wounded soldiers with our own funky medical tent. I helped out with some bandaging along with a few others and got to learn a little about one of our healers. Taewen, I think their name was? They're a lycanthrope! Makes me wonder if we'll ever have a vampire join the ranks...

...

The fun thing about the medic tent was that I completely missed whatever mess happened outside of it. There was lots of arguing and general mayhem, it made me think of a night where my parents were home. It sucked. Not as much as what happened next though! Finishing up medic stuff, we lead the soldiers out of the area so we could clear the field. Guess what? We got attacked. Not by Heartless, no, no, but by KNIGHTS. TWO OF THEM. Why this peeves me off I'll get to in a second.

...

I realized I never recorded what happened here before. I don't remember how long ago, I wasn't very present that day or anything useful, but we were attacked by Knights. One big burly dude and his tiny brat of a sidekick, right? Friends of that one lady we had trapped in the basement. So, that lady got busted out and some of the team's belongings got swiped by the little gremlin, and everyone was rightfully out for their asses regardless of the consequences, which brings us to today.

...

The one lady we held prisoner originally and the big burly dude decided to pop by for an ass kicking, whether it be ours or theirs was entirely between us in the moment. No shame there, but it all went to shit real quick. Apparently, some team members had a whole plan in motion to capture those two that didn't work out too great, and they got away when the gremlin showed up to essentially distract us, an act of betrayal in the moment from what I could tell. Along with a... very grimy Wayrren. I could smell him from several feet away... Anyway, we kicked her ass instead and took her prisoner after getting the team's shit back, which was ideal in the moment because one is better than nothing at all, amiright? Plus, Caelum was less mopey with Wayrren back in the gang, it felt like a pretty good win to me!

...

Something that confuses me is that towards the end of the fight I... kinda blacked out? Or is it astral projecting I'm thinking of? Either way, I felt super disconnected from myself, yet my movements were mine... Plus, I looked an awful lot like Igni but more, how do I put this, super uncomfortable??? My abs felt a cool breeze they never get to feel, I do not care for stuff like that at all!! ... Maybe on occassion, but not like that! I looked like a ridiculous dancer but moved more like a puppet... Hmm. It was probably just a brain trick from all the battle stress. I'll look into it later.

...

Ah, but it felt good to walk back onto the castle grounds after all that. So good, that I'm in the kitchen enjoying some celebratory toast. Next, maybe a shower. I think I've earned it today! Along with a nice nap... Or maybe just sleeping for the rest of the day, who's to say? I don't think anyone needs me for the remainder of the day, right? ... Yeah, it's all good. If they needed me, I wouldn't be eating toast.

...

I should end this before it gets obnoxiously long. It's a journal entry, not a memoir!! ... Not yet anyway.

Journal of a RoseWhere stories live. Discover now