Hello again! Today was lots of fun!

Though I doubt it was supposed to be.

As I was eating breakfast a tall thin man in a severe black suit knocked on my door. He introduced himself as Mister Cain and said he had been requested to teach me mathematics, geography and history. As I listened to his dull dry monotonous voice I could feel my soul being slowly mummified by boredom.

So I slowly and quietly shut my door in his face, ducked out the window, and hid in the garden. I spent a while stalking through the gardens. Finding nifty little spots to hide and avoiding the fussy and petulant Mr. Cain as he stomped his feet daintily on the stone walkways. Odd fellow seemed afraid to get his shoes dirty.

I hadn't even grabbed my shoes when I left. I was wearing a pair of comfy brown slacks and a simple white short sleeved shirt that had already been covered in dirt and grass stains from my exploration of the garden.

As he flounced off in defeat I saw Lena moping about in one of the gazebos.

I snuck up behind her and swept her up then flung her high into the sky. She swapped her sighs for a scream of terror that turned into a peal of laughter. She made an iceslide extend from a nearby pond to catch her. She then sped down the glistening ice and into the pond. Nice dive, nary a ripple.

As the ice dissapated back into the pond Esmeralda stormed into the garden. "Oy, Lummox! Why did I here Lena screaming! Where is she?! If you hurt her-" She was cut off by Lena's reemergence from the pond inside a giant hand made of water. The hand grabbed me and next thing I know I am over the walls and headed for the street.

With a flash of firey wings and a smile on my face I managed to make a perfect landing. Until I saw I had done so directly in front of the departing Mr. Cain. With a yelp I lost control and instead of sticking the landing was launched into a bruising series of somersaults by my momentum. I bounced down a set of stairs into a narrow and rather dank alley. Where I saw a snoozing man with a mask on his face. Polished silver with three black arcs in a mockery of a smile and closed eyes.

Perfect! I made a similar mask out of tinglewood. Mine was red with golden-yellow arcs, and brighter red flame patterns rising from the mouth and eyes. Now I wouldn't have to worry about being recognized, and I felt like a badass. To further that feeling I had also molded a set of vambraces, greaves, sandals, and a cloak all out of tinglewood. All red, and all flame patterned. I felt awesome. Still do really.

It did take some effort to get the cloak to hang properly and flutter dramatically. I had to make the tinglewood really thin. Worth it.

I swept off into the backstreets of Heaven looking for something interesting. I found a bunch of unconcious and mostly naked men. Not very interesting. I think I will come back at night sometime and try to find out why they are unconcious and only wearing undergarments. That sounds like more fun.

Fun times eluded me until I reached the bridge. This one lead to the side of the river I had never been to before. I guess hightown since the other side is lowtown? I decided to explore the other side of the river to find some excitement.

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Luckily I had barely crossed the bridge when excitement found me. A group of actual guards, as opposed to the lazy slobs at the lowtown gate, had me surrounded as soon as I set foot on the paved roads of hightown. These men were polished and pretty. Clean shaven, strong jawlines, heroic bearing, the lot of them. Bunch of wimps though. I only lightly roasted them and they were all in full retreat and screaming. Eyebrows grow back right?

Anyway, after that I roamed the streets. Super boring. Nothing but stone and metal. All in the same shapes and colors. Super dull. Ugh, I hated it so much. So I went looking for the nearest bridge to find a way out of the stupid boring place. I found one with a sign saying Hell. I hadn't been there yet and it sounded kind of fun. So I went to Hell.

Now, Hell was interesting. A massive round building dominated the island. Surrounding it were all manner of loud buildings called tavers or fubs. Some people tried to mug me so I robbed them. Others saw I had a big jangly bag of jangles, and they invited me to come in shady looking buildings and ganbel. I asked one of them about the big round building and he called it the arena. Where people go to fight and die. Now that sounded like fun.

Turns out you need to register and pay a fee in order to fight. They don't just let strangers from the street jump into the ring and beat up everyone. Well, I guess they just don't like it when you do that. Because I totally did that, and they couldn't actually stop me. They said they wouldn't give me the preyz or whatever but thats fine. The fights were boring anyway.

As I headed away from the arena a giant man with arms like tree trunks walked in front of me and then growled at me. So I meowed back and went around him. People here are weird. I guess people everywhere are weird though? So I won't hold it against them.

Oh, speaking of weird people. There was that guy.

Old Rick he called himself. Doesn't actually look old though. Maybe an adult? Anyway he is this weedy little fellow with one hand who I met today. I was walking along in Hell when he comes flying out of one of the many alleys this whole city is full of. He was bleeding from a cut on his arm and what looked like a broken nose. He looked around himself for a second and when he saw me his eye lit up and he came scampering over to, and then behind me. Three big fat men with not enough hair to go around came out of the alley after him.

"Big bro Red Mask! These are the guys I told you about!" He popped his head out from behind me and shouted at the three confused looking fat men. "Big bro has your money! Take it up with him, see ya bro!" Then he scuttled off. The fatties tried to take my jangle bag so I beat them up. And down. All around really. This jangle bag is great idiot bait. They just keep coming for it!

After I knocked them out and took their jangles for my own Old Rick came skulking out of the shadows.

"Whew, damn man. I had heard you were strong from my boys, but you really are something else aren't you?" He sidled up to me and stuck out his one hand. "Names Old Rick, I run the 'Riverstench Boys' thief gang. Sorry my boys tried to rob you today." He swept a long greasy lock of possibly brown hair out of his eyes as I gazed at how dirty my hand had become after he shook it.

"So you might be wondering why I got these three to attack you. Well it is a long story. You see-" he went on and on for ages. I stopped listening pretty quick and just watched as his black teeth flashed in his rapidly moving mouth. I tried to count how many he had left. Not many anyway. Finally I patted him on his greasy hair and walked off. I tucked my hand inside my cloak and burned the scum off of it.

Now its night again. I am back in the House of Dancing Wings watching the dancing wings and writing and wondering when Lena will be good to go. She seems very happy here. Should I just leave her? It doesn't feel right. But it might be what's best for her. Esmeralda is being oddly quiet tonight. Hardly saw her at all really.

Hm, come to think of it. When was the last time I saw Julius? He better not be getting in too much trouble.

Goodnight.