Arion+Thirteen

Octava Fourth, Late Afternoon

Things have once again taken a turn for the dark and twisted side of nature. The day started off (much earlier than I would have liked) with a messenger at the door. The messenger led me out of town to where another messenger was waiting. He looked like he had been traveling for quite some time with out rest. He was also a griffin rider… not one to be taken lightly. He handed me a scroll and informed me that he would await my answer. Strange.

As if things in my life hadn’t been in utter chaos since I arrived in Bel Aman’dur… What I read in the scroll made all of what we had been through up to this point seem like a children’s story told over a campfire at night. It was a letter from Sir Drayton Sleid. He had some rather disturbing and disheartening news concerning his travels in the south. He described to me the circumstances under which he found Eli. There is a connection between the missing children, Eli’s flight from Estea, and the Mandosian Knights. To add a bigger punch to this problem, he informed me that there is another group after her as well… a group I don’t know how to identify. Drayton referred to them as Inquisitors. I will have to keep an ear out for that one.

Along with informing me of the troubles in the south and the mysteries surrounding Eliana, Drayton has asked for my help in recovering several artifacts to keep Eli and those like her safe. He seems to think that I have enough traveling knowledge to make their attainment possible. I have the day to think on it. His messenger, Fallon will wait for my reply. I will probably tell him yes, but time to think is a precious thing around here.

While I was deep in thought over what Drayton had said, the kids, Lia, and Jen had somehow managed to transform the kitchen into a mess of flower and baking utensils all around me (there was rumor that the goal of the mess had been lunch, and the outcome was muffins), so I took the kids to the pond… space for me to go think and a chance for them to get clean…

The day just kept getting better and better from there… at the pond, outside of town we were attacked. I don’t know what the creatures were, but they seemed to be the same creatures Drayton described to me in his letter. He mentioned that they had been assaulted near Estea. He also pointed out that Eli was the only one who was able to keep the creatures at bay… As frightening as it is to think there is something that the High General of Havenland needs protection from; I saw exactly what he meant. Somehow Eli mustered up a force that drove the creatures away.

The creatures seemed like something out of a nightmare. They were smallish, with bat like wings, and claws and teeth long and sharp enough to rip a being to shreds. It turns out they have some sort of venom or poison too… Kirin was struck by one, and had to be rushed to a healer in town. There have been other rumors of these attacks happening more frequently outside of town… for now I think it would be best to limit the time spent out of the protective walls of Oriscina.

If I decide to take on Drayton’s charge and search for these ‘relics’ then the trip must be sooner than later, especially with the threat of these creatures moving closer all the time. I am going to ask Mother if she wouldn’t mind taking Eli with her to Nys. Eli can keep the creatures away from them as they are traveling, and Mother knows how to disappear in a crowd when need be. Together they should be relatively safe for the time being.

Dark times are heading our way, and I am afraid things will get much, much worse before they get better.

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