This is an emu leather journal. All craftsdwarfship is crude at best. The pages smell of some strange, exotic poison. The name "Talvi Diamondknight" is etched onto the front beside an image of a cavy in emu leather. This item menaces with nibbled pages.
Unknown date
I'm havin' to write in a new journal now, cuz the first one got filled up, and then I ate the one after that... so this is my third journal, but its only the second one that I can read now, cuz there ain't no second one no mores.
The past year was the roughest ever. Everthing went wrong, an' all at once, too. It started when Mr Frog an' Splint were up in 'is office together... He weren't never lettin' me in there anymores... But then it got worse... One mornin' I woke up, and there weren't one single lil' cavy left in the whole fortress. I cried... I cried and went lookin' for 'em everwhere... I wanted to put up engravin's of the lil' cavies, but there weren't no clear spots of wall that SolPyre said I could engrave on... Plus, he don't think much of my drawin' skills anyhow...
I finally found one lil' cavy... But someone else said it was theirs, and I couldn't have it. I ran back to my cavy room an' cried m'self to sleep... It was like th' whole world had ended and such, all at once... I didn'... oh, gods, I didn even get a chance to say goodbye!
So there I stayed, for well-on nigh half a year, doing nothin'. I said I was on break... but really it was my heart was broke more'n my job. It's like... it's like I had children - dwarf children, not cavy children - I always thought of 'em as my babies... Well, 'cept for Tobias, of course. He was the fat one who was always unner my bed... He always stayed there, and when I remembered him I crawled under the bed to look for 'im... But he weren't there. I took up the socks he'd nibbled unner there, held 'em close to my heart and cried, layin' where he'd always laid. Joseph tried to comfort me, an for the first time in a while I let 'im. I was so sad an' all... I laid there for well-on nigh a month.
Mr Frog'd come an visit me ever' now and again, and so'd good ol' Mr. Splint. He cares 'bout me too, but not like I did for Mr Frog. Bombzero always took me food an' water and such... Sus - the new mayor, real nice man, he was, an' smarter'n he thought, too - said I didn' have to work none until I felt better. Him an' Draignean did a lot of changin' with job rules - and speakin of Draignean, he brought me a calendar journal since my old one was filled, an' I started writin' in it to pass the time - it was so nice - there were numbers on every page, and I could fill a page every day an' never get lost on what day it was. I was startin' to get happy again.
The words on the following page are smudged with teardrops.
Then one bad, sad day when Miss Bombzero brought me my supper like she always did, I asked what it was... she looked away and didn' wanna say, and I guessed it - I was eatin' my cavies. I threw up - weren't fun - I was eatin' my kids! I was jus a cavy too, affer all.. I ain't never gonna forgive m'self for it, no, never. I dunno who said they oughter be turned t' food, but now I jus' wish I'd went and tole Splint straight out that they were mine, an' nobody should eat 'em. There weren't even that much meat on 'em all!! ...well, 'cept for Tobias, but sometimes I thought he was half hippo. I ain't never seen a hippo, tho' - I jus' know they're s'posed to be big. Like elephants, who carry their tusks around and push things over with 'em, and fight with 'em like maces. I'd love for an elephant to give me one of his tusks one day, I would... but I'd rather have m' cavies back... I'm gonna miss lil' Georgie boy an' Elana... so bad... and... they'd just got married, too - Georgie boy'd finally got up the courage to ask her out! And then they got ate... jus' like that.
But that's why my second journal ain't around no more. I wouldn' eat meat, cause I thoughts it might e'en be cavy meat still and such... So I would eat pages. It was a calendar journal... There weren't as much meat on it as a real calendar, but still. Mr Frog knew it'd been me eatin' the calendar pages - I dunno how he knew, but he's a real nice dwarf, he didn' tell nobody. But he did spray stuff on my old journal t' try to keep me from eatin' it... Well, it didn't work - I still ate it - but I felt real sick for well o'er three months til it went aways.
Unknown Date
I didn' get a chance to finish m' last entry - Sus came in to talk. He'd always been talkin' to me - got me my new journal, too. He put a lil' picshur of a cavy on the front, too, bless him... Such a sweet man - he reminds me so much of my older brother back home, he does... or did... Anyhow, he'd come in every now'n then to say hello an' sit for a spell, talkin' bout how he was mayor and stuff that was happenin'. Splint got possessed by some old ancestor spirit and made a lil' toy hammer... He hated it, tho - said it needed to have a mug on it with spikes. He started havin' Solpyre draw up designs for a mughammer - a giant weapon of sorts with a pole attached to th' handle of a giant mug... I ain't much'f one fer weapons, I ain't, but it sounds nice... A weapon you can drink wine out of, iffn you wish.
Anyhow, Sus got caught in an ambush... They wouldn' let me see him when he died - they said he'd changed... I missed him so much, gods... Mitchewawa is the new mayor, and he don't never come t' visit me. He's always busy and such. gods, I miss Sus. He was such great fun t' be around. I suppose Mayor Mitchewawa is smarter with common sense and book smarts... but I dunno. I'm gonna miss ol' Sus... he was like an older brother t'me.
Mr Frog and Splint ain't workin' on weapons no more - I dunno why. They just kind of stopped. Mr Frog's bein' mysterious - I hain't seen him for a good while now. I did hear him, tho - standin' outside his door. He keeps it locked now, mainly cause he don't want nobody to see his friend. He's got a friend like Joseph, but he don't want me to see, or nobody else. He did spray the pages of this journal with somethin', though, and I don't wanna eat it. Plus, it don't got any pretty numbers on the pages. Though... I guess I could put numbers on the pages myself...
Oh, and afore I forget, Fischer ain't a man. I was wrong. I didn't never like her, 'cause I thought somethin' was up with her - turns out Fischer's a she. She's got a beard'n all, though - or maybe it's fake, I dunno... But I'd always thought it was a man.
I still don't like her none. But at least she's good at killin' those evil things that killed Sus. They said they had a necromancer in the trade depot... I asked Splint, runnin by, what one of them necromancers were - he said they brought dead things back to life. He left, but I'd gotten an idea - I'd immediately thought of my cavies, and I ran down to the kitchen.
I threw open barrels, dumping 'em out and rolling 'em over until I found the meat I wanted - I was cryin', too, but cryin' with happiness. I wanted to laugh an' sing all at once, I did - the great, happy necromancer comin' to bring my cavies back to me! I was hopin' it was Georgie boy's meat I'd grabbed, but I wasn't sure. But I knew what I had to do.
There was a dwarf who came to see me ev'ry now an' then - 'is name was... well, I forget his name, Terra somethin'... But he was good at hidin' in the shadows, and while I was sad he taught me how to do it some, so long as I didn't look at his face - he said he'd be sick if I did. I hope he gets better soon... But anyhow, I snuck in through the shadows, sneakin' to the trade depot, and then I saw him! The necromancer man. He looked old an' wise, an' I was sure right then he could bring ol' Georgie boy back to life - an' then I'd have a cavy! But... one 'f the militia stabbed 'im right through the heart and he fell dead afore I could reach him... I cried, and threw myself on 'im, screaming at Fischer, askin' her why she did that, but she only rolled her eyes and marched off to kill the stuff outside.
They had to drag me away... I feel embarrassed 'bout it now, but oh well... Just like my grandpappy used to say - you cain't have a copper pick without a mockingbird's... oh... I forget... but anyhow, Bombzero went and sat down with me - said it was chicken I'd picked up. I didn' know! I'd just wanted my Georgie boy back, is all. Just any one 'f my cavies... gods, I hope Mayor Mitchewawa gets lots of cavies from the caravans this year. I miss 'em so. An' I hope Mr Frog starts forgettin' to lock his door again, too.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2278460 times)