27 Chirreb 4385: This Is the Trip that Never Ends

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

LONGEST TRIP EVER.

I can't believe it's almost Surprise and we're STILL traveling! Who plans to travel during Surprise? I DO, apparently. ARGH.

The villagers at Eriach suggested we stay until Surprise started so we'd know whether it would be a Scalding Surprise of Burnination or a Frozen Surprise of Icy Death. So we could maybe be prepared a little better for whichever one it is. But whichever it is, traveling through it will be AWFUL and we figured it'd be better to get as far as we could before today ends. You know the WHOLE REASON that I wanted to be sure I had money last month was that I don't want to be homeless during SURPRISE and here I am forty miles from home ARGH.

We stopped for lunch at a village with a postal grove so I sent a leaf on ahead to GloriousBlue telling her not to get a new roommate because I AM coming back even if it kills me. AGAIN. And I have rent money for next month so yay!

But we're almost to Vheshrame Mene now so I'm hoping to be back before sunout on Surprise.

We saw Intoxicating Sky earlier today! He was flying by and I saw him overhead. All right technically I saw Summer Sky because his color pattern is REALLY distinctive even at like a quarter mile away, but whatever. So I yelled and waved at them like an idiot to get their attention and the seven of them in the flock flew down to say hi and ask me to style their feathers.

...

I totally should have seen that coming.

Also, next time I need money, I'm going to advertise furstyling services for friendly nonprimes. I am writing it down here so I don't forget. ULGRANE LOVE FEATHERSTYLING.

By now we were totally desperate to get to Vheshrame and it was impossible to get a coach because all the SMART people are ALREADY HOME on the last day before Surprise. I promised the ulgrane that I'd style their feathers if they'd fly us to Vheshrame Mene so that we'd gain time on travelling instead of losing it spending hours styling. They were willing to carry me and most of the others but while ulgrane are big, Mirhandrax is EVEN BIGGER. Outcast and Mirhandrax offered to stay behind but I didn't want to split up AGAIN. Not from Mirhandrax anyway. So we rigged up the camoflage tarp Mirhandrax still had into a sort of hammock and two of the Ulgrane carried him in it. It slowed us down and the ulgrane had to take turns on it because SO HEAVY. They even made him put his armor into a pack for a different ulgrane to carry, which didn't make him at all happy.

"There's-No-Delight-in-Surprise, are you sure we can trust these ulgrane?" Mirhandrax asked me in an undertone, fidgeting with the buckles on his armor instead of taking it off.

"Did they give us the right information about the bandits?"

"Yes, but ... "

"Did Chain Lightning or his girlfriend do anything but help us?"

"No, but they didn't ask --"

"Yes, we can trust them."

"..."

"Do YOU want to be walking home during Surprise?"

He took off his armor.

They flew us homewards until an hour after sunout, when we reached one of their cloudnests. They promised to carry us to the ground at least tomorrow morning, and to Vheshrame if the Surprise weather wasn't toooooo awful.

So I spent alllllll night featherstyling them all even Intoxicating Sky ("Didn't I JUST featherstyle you?" "No, that was almost three weeks ago." "AGH stupid Chirreb.")

I probably should have slept after the last one but it's only an hour until dawn and I'm kinda curious whether Surprise will be hot or cold this year. I am hoping it's warm because then I can spend all of it naked in the swimming hole which isn't so bad. In cold Surprise all you can do is huddle under a heap of blankets and ask "Is it over yet?"

I hope wishing for a hot Surprise doesn't make it cold. Maybe if I promise to make my name "Delight-in-Surprise" if it's hot? Oh I guess the goddess doesn't care what I want and it'll be the same whether or not I sleep now and I am

Comments

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

So... did you make your name BEFORE you finished writing this and that means it is cold, or did you just stop writing in the middle of a sentence cause something came up?

[zeeth_kyrah]

I'll bet she fell asleep while writing. :)

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

It was really late! And I'd been up all day and most of the night we'd done a lot.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Siege got it right it wasn't actually Surprise yet when I finished this. I changed my name after Nightbloom surprised me with Surprise being almost here.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Ohhh riiiight I forgot, you changed it way back when. Well! I hope it's hot Surprise, for your sake. You seem to prefer that one better! Also pleaaaassseee answer my fashion and culture questions in the other entry when you have the time? Thanks!

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

The cloudnests aren't actually built into clouds, are they? That doesn't seem especially stable.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I don't think they're REAL clouds but they're very cloud-like and made of Aquador. The ulgrane build them though I think they're made out of enchanted cloudstuff maybe.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Yay for Delight being almost home! ^_^

Also yay for a new furstyling business, styling the non-Primes!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't call it a business I'm not even going to do it until I run out of money because I'm RICH now and why would I work?

But in case I'm not rich in the future it'll be good to remember!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Rich? Ah, you're going to follow the classic adventurer paradigm, you'll spend money on luxuries and wine until you're back in debt, then off adventuring again! ^_^

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Nooooooo I'd never get in debt! I don't want to be indentured!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Dentures are pretty bad, I hear, so it's a wise plan not to be in dentures! ^_^

(lacking Healoc magic, people who've lost their teeth due to old age need false teeth, these are called dentures. They don't compare at all to the real things!)

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

If you started now you could be DOUBLE RICH?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

But I've got lots of money why would I want more?

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

So you can invest in something that makes money for you regularly like being a landlord or owning a business or whatever so you don't have to worry about needing enough money to live off of??

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I don't think I want to run a business or be a landlord that's just another kind of working.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Not RUN. OWN. If you buy out something that is already making money and which has lots of people working hard at it, you can just have that money funnel to you without actually doing much work at all. But you need a LOT of money to pull something like that off!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I don't know maybe it's like that in YOUR dimension but all the business owners I know, like Sythyrs and Absweth, work really really hard at their business like WAY harder than I do so I can't see being one!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Well, I meant is that you hire someone to actually run it, and delegate all of the work to them and pay them. Something that, as near as I can tell, Sythyry isn't *willing* to do. Not that zie CAN'T, I think that zie doesn't want to!

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Zie tried and ended up getting all zir money embezzled. x.x

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

..Oh! Right!

[terrana.livejournal.com]

[Directed at the author, not the character]

Finishing part way through a sentence was a nice touch, I thought.

[rowyn]

*beams* thanks!