Dear Diary,
Hi.
I’m mostly writing here to check if the handwriting in this book is really mine.
Looks pretty similar so far.
I don’t remember writing any of this. I don’t remember a dungeon, or a floor with six shops. I can fully believe Avi trained dracoraptors as mounts, but I can’t quite picture him as Via. I absolutely can’t picture Gin or Emmy as kobolds.
And I was on first-name basis with dragons? That’s kinda where I draw the line. I’m sure Bonecrusher the Black and Painbringer the Gold are very nice people, but they do insist on being respected. Calling them by their names would end in death.
The kobolds do love parties, though. Sometimes at night we can hear their music echoing down from the mountain. A part of me always wants to sneak up to their cave entrance and watch, but that’s an exceptionally bad idea. Avi is worried Cali will try going up there when she gets older.
Not that they’d hurt her if she was caught. They aren’t evil, but they are kinda mean to outsiders. I think they’d pull her into their caves and very politely not let her leave.
Sorry, that’s a tangent.
Calvin isn’t mentioned anywhere in this diary. How did he get it if I didn’t know him? How would he know I even had a diary?
I mention Emmy a couple times, but she isn’t the one who gave this book to me.
Maybe I should just ask him how and where he got it, that’s an idea.
…I just wrote “I mention”. So I guess I do believe this book was mine.
If it was, then, let’s see…
Avi, still the love of my life, is the town’s vet and wild animal tamer. We have all sorts of pets that very much shouldn’t be pets. Yesterday he and Cali found a cockatrice, and they spent twenty minutes explaining why we need to keep it. I can usually say no to one or the other, but now that Cali’s old enough to join her dad on “Friend Finding Adventures” I’m doomed. Living with the two most adorable people in the world has disadvantages.
And of course I talk about them before myself. I run a diner. Our house is built above it, and we have a great view of the river. Three people work here; me and Bacon, and Samurai on the weekends. Or whenever she’s bored and has nowhere better to be.
Mika is a blacksmith. Well, that’s her official title. She and Emmy are the Makers of Things. Metal, glass, fabric, wood, if you need a Thing made, they can make it! Unless that thing will be used to bring wild animals into town. Mika pretty much refuses to make things for Avi, which I admit is probably a good thing.
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I should add, Mika and Avi are good friends. They’re in the town’s band together, and get along well as long as no animals are mentioned.
Aya is the town guard. If anything goes wrong, she can help. She has a fighting class once a week for adults and kits. Kimi’s kits have been banned for “enthusiasm”, and now get private lessons.
Samurai is also a guard, but only when needed. Mostly she’s a hired worker. Need an extra set of hands for literally anything? Samurai can help!
Samantha runs the general store and makes alcohol. She’s very good at both.
Samuel and Staab are fishers. They have an area where they keep fish, so I guess they’re also technically fish farmers, but anyways. Together they provide about a quarter of what everyone eats.
Gin runs a bakery. Occasionally she tries to sell other food, but while it’s always delicious, it’s too unhealthy to last long. The town isn’t big enough to support two restaurants, and my diner sells food people want to eat on a weekly basis. Not food that makes you go “wow, I’ve never heard of deep-fried asparagus before, let me try that once and never again”.
Gigi runs the hair salon and has a peach orchard. Yes, everyone knows to get a haircut before harvest starts.
Y is a healer/doctor. In cities they say the jobs are separate, but for our town Y just does everything. He does a good job. With how many times Avi has been attacked and bitten by wild animals, I should know.
And Kimi, who I thought… No. She is my sister. I know she is, even if I never said it in this diary. And my sister is mayor. She does all the taxes, makes sure all the infrastructure runs, takes care of paperwork, and somehow still manages to give Aya a headache with experiments.
…Last week, Kimi and Y made an airship prototype and sent their younger two up in it for a test. It works great, but they forgot to add a way to get down. They asked Aya to somehow shoot the balloon without endangering the kits, which I’m sure wasn’t difficult at all, nope.
Cali was super jealous she hadn’t been invited on the adventure, and Y has promised her a seat on the next airship they make. I… I trust them, but a lot of times I’m glad I don’t find out what my girl is doing until after the “adventure” is over.
I think that’s all the names I saw in here. I’m not sure who Nat or Mar are, they might be kobolds? I know a Larissa who runs a merchant ship, with two men as her crew. Maybe they’re the party of “real players” I talked about a lot? A long time ago there was a Lily here, but she moved to the city before Cali was born.
…Yeah, the handwriting is mine. Somehow. I still don’t remember writing any of it.
I’m running out of space on the page now, so…
Goodnight, Dungeon!
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image [https://assets.zyrosite.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=crop/Aq2BZoKQ8JcNgKvj/fiver-cat-couple-4-dJo69QbOpMfr3KQp.png]