Hello again. Today was interesting.

After enduring more chatter from the loud and annoying Prince (I found out I had been misspelling it, how embarrassing!) We had breakfast of some unlucky slithers, and a small but succulent swamp grunter that wandered into our camp after smelling the cooking slither.

Following the vague and unreliable assertions of Franny. We followed what may or may not have been his trail back to the staging area.

Apparently, it is something of a custom to send would be nobles and royals into the Fallen Lands to get some experience and put some into in their blood. I guess they must have lots of nobles and royals lying about, because if they are anything like Franny I reckon most of them die horribly.

Anyway, they gather supporters and all that, and set off into the Fallen lands from staging areas. Places where they great barrier can be lifted temporarily. 

I asked about the great wall and was told that it was a historic relic. Used as point of national pride for all the lands bordering it. But it had long been unmanned and served no practical use.

Shame that, its a really cool looking.

Nowadays there are smaller more modern fortresses guarding the staging areas. I asked about what would happen if the barrier failed and Franny looked at me like I was stupid. I didn't like that look so I nudged julius who napping on my head and he lazily engulfed the offending Princes head in flames again.

Haha.

After he calmed down and stopped smoking he informed me that long long ago some really smart people had somehow made the lands inside the barrier power the barrier. Words like leylines and corrupted element channels were thrown around. But once he started to get technical I stopped really paying attention and watched a small round fuzzy rodent with little wings hunt bugs overhead.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Cute.

Long, long, long story short. As long as there is land inside the barrier the barrier will persist. It is also slowly purifying the land and the dangerous things inside are way fewer in number now then they used to be.

Could have fooled me.

Time passed as it tends to, though I do feel like it is going slower lately? And Julius went hunting through a likely berry patch for lunch while I was cooling my heels in a slow creek and ignoring the still talking prince.

I did a really good job of ignoring him.

So good in fact that I missed it when a large slimy thingy with whiskers came out of the creek and nabbed him by the head when he went to get a drink. 

I only noticed when some mud he kicked up hit me in the face. Luckily, or unluckily, the creature had no teeth, and I was able to extricate him fairly easily and intact.

The creature had rather thick leathery skin so I steamed it after removing the organs. It had a strong taste, but not bad.

Francis ate it in big angry bites. Taking revenge maybe?

After lunch we followed the creek as it meandered slowly towards the wall. 

I showed Julius how to steam skate. He loved it. 

He bounced, skidded, and skittered across the waters surface. Leaving a steam trail and the occasional unfortunate underwater denizen in his wake. Aything that got in his way was burned through like a comet through the night sky. 

Most notably a very large and viscious slither like creature. It had no scales and was fatter and flatter than a slither, with two sets of teeth. One smaller set inside the other. It came bursting out of the water that seemed too shallow to hold such a bulky creature. Mouth gaping to swallow Julius whole.

Julius went right down its gullet and just kept going until he burst out of its back.

That was dinner.

Francis had actually stopped asking questions by this point ,and was just gaping at us as he slogged and slopped through the wet sands and muds of the creek banks. I supposed we could have made better time if I carried him. But I didn't particularily want to touch him you know?

He was filthy and had started to really smell after lunch.

He got really excited when he saw a distinctive stone and some old charcoal from his first campsite in the Fallen lands. We were close but the sun has going down so we decided to just camp there for the night ,and make an easy day of tomorrow.

Stars are nice tonight.

Goodnight.