Sunset: 1900
- 1195 Viscountess Fiyelles I of the Viscounty of Verbobonc born
You Take the High Road…
29 April
For Buraku, the next day passes in much the same manner as the previous one, with two exceptions. First, he is incredibly sore from the previous day’s ride, a situation that Selene assures him will take care of itself in a few days. Second, they reach Seltaren as predicted, just a little before nightfall. Selene is true to her word, leading them to a nice-looking inn and telling Buraku that the night is his to do with what he will. Buraku takes full advantage of the freedom.
Although he sleeps late due to his evening’s indulgences, true to his promise, Kentaro once again hits the road in the morning … well, in the early afternoon anyway. His diminished capacity, and truth be told, his lack of true desire to proceed with any great alacrity, conspire to ensure that he makes little progress again this day. He barely manages to clear the confines of the Janquil Valley before he stops at an old, familiar inn some 6 or 7 miles short of Fort Lehman. Still, in his defense, he doesn’t drink quite as much this night as he did last night, to better accommodate an early start and a long day of traveling.
30 April
Buraku is very annoyed when Selene awakens him just after dawn to get underway again, but she will simply not hear of any delay. Still, the half-elf has his memories of last night to muffle the sounds Selene makes, flapping her gums eternally about how to kill lycanthropes and how to stop a lich in its tracks. When last night’s escapades begin to lose their luster, he focuses instead on the fact that he does feel slightly less battered for today’s 30-mile-long ride to Cela Pass. Afterward, he settles for making unwinnable bets with himself as to whether Selene is trying to kill him by riding him to death or battering him into submission with interesting tidbits about how to defeat gargoyles and mummies and infrangible gobsnoblers and gods-know-what-else. She would, he feels, be slightly less annoying if she at least occasionally got truly perturbed about things; but no, she seems to take everything in her stride. He wonders idly whether she was like that when she was alive, or if it’s just being dead that gives her that imperturbable attitude. He doesn’t like to ask though. Instead, he decides to save the dead jokes, accusations, etc. for a time when they will really matter. He has just about come to the conclusion that she intends to reach Greyhawk by nightfall, even though that city is still some 225 miles away, when she finally, blessedly, calls for a halt. Buraku responds to the call by falling dramatically off his horse and crawling to the nearest flat bit of ground and pretending to be asleep.
Kentaro actually wakes up early. He packs his bag carefully, saddles his horse almost tenderly, and prepares for a good, long ride. Unfortunately, during the six-mile ride to Fort, he recalls the time he last rode this particular trail. He and Kinnaka were on their way with their boss Dainel to meet some noble or another for the purposes of being recruited into the Lord’s own personal spy ring, a gig that was actually going fairly well before Morpheus intervened and dragged them off to … Kentaro cuts the thought off, but it’s too late. He has already sub-consciously made the decision to stop upon reaching Fort Lehman. After all, he’s gone far enough today.
01 May
Noon on the first day of May finds Buraku watching whistfully as yet another good-sized town disappears behind him. Cela Pass looked for all the world as if it would have some decent entertainment, but Selene would not hear of their stopping. They have already ridden 15 miles today, enough to satisfy most people. Selene, however, is intent on getting them to someplace called Castle Blanco. Now, Buraku is certainly interested in seeing a real castle. He’d been in plenty of faux castles in the past few years, but never an actual walled fortress, and he has to admit, even if only to himself, that the thought is intriguing. Thus, he (mostly) silently accepted yet another 15-mile ride, only to be terribly disappointed to find out that Castle Blanco, although named after an ancient pile of stone that may well have once been a citadel worthy of the name, is today just another fairly typical large town. Fortunately, once again Selene allows him the freedom to enjoy his evening relaxing and sleeping in an actual inn. However, having learned from his last night off, Buraku actually goes to bed fairly early, and would have actually gotted a decent night’s sleep if that journeyman limner hadn’t had a flexibility and appetite he had rarely encountered before…
Kentaro awakens in a foul mood. His sleep last night was broken by a dream that kept repeating every time he closed his eyes. Now, in the morning, he can’t exactly recall what the substance of that dream had been, only the feelings that it left him with. Discontent. Anxiety. Restlessness. In fact, he feels so bad that rather than get up and face another day in the saddle, he rolls over, pulls the blankets tightly around him, drags the pillow over his head, and ignores the constant gnawing guilt over the knowledge that he should be on the road. Tomorrow, he promises, tomorrow he’ll get back into the swing of things. He spends the entire day in bed, except for occasional trips to the communal facilities and to sling another few bits at the landlord, who tries to roust him on the grounds that he had only paid for one night.
02 May
Buraku is actually happy to leave Castle Blanco, although their destination, another 30-mile ride away, is a town with the questionable name of Sourload. Not an auspicious beginning, and the occasional downpour that drenches him every time he has just begun to dry out keeps him in a mood to match. It isn’t until the first buildings of Sourload are actually in sight that he finally realizes he has experienced almost no pain in the saddle today. That, plus the dual additional realizations that A) he is, for the first time since early this morning, nearly completely dry, and B) the town actually seems to be somewhat interesting, put him in a good mood. That mood is shattered upon the realization that Selene has no intention of giving him another night off. Damn her anyway!
Kentaro is up and on the road well before lunchtime. His goal is to get to Olmarr Keep today, a goal that he actually – amazingly – achieves. Ok, so it’s not that impressive an accomplishment, the distance from Fort Lehman to Olmarr Keep being just a tad over 10 miles. All in all, he muses, as he stables his horse and grabs a room at a likely looking inn with a very welcoming common room, that he has managed some 20 miles of riding distance over the past 5 days. Those sorts of numbers are not exactly going to put him in contention for the lead position in the annual Djekul-Soull sled-dog race, but for some reason, for the first time since he started, he feels really good about being exactly where he is. Then after retiring to his room following an evening of liquid refreshment, he enjoys a full night of peaceful, relaxing dreams. In the morning, he awakens fully convinced that he is finally where Morpheus wants him to be.