21.Friends over the seas

Dear diary,
 
It’s been a few days since I last wrote. I am not sure how to feel now. A lot of stuff happened on our blessed boat, as it usually does anyway. Both good and bad. Anyway let’s take it slowly.
 
As we were sailing the beautiful western sea, that we think connect the Siomalos sea to the Great Southern sea, Pullius from his vision noticed, in the woods nearby, some people. They were chasing something, by the looks of it. He couldn’t tell. At first I thought they were hunting something or maybe fighting some other humans and then it hit me. Wait a second, people?! Here? I cannot believe it, we’ve finally reached some civilized lands. Happy noises everywhere. Talion told us about people living in these parts of the world. They were ancient Blessed people. I thought about their culture mesmerized at the thought, until Gerky shouted he saw some people and a bigger man? On the shore. We looked closer and it looked like a fight between humans and… something. We sent Verfy, Eve, Heron and Pullius to investigate and calm the situation down. Me, Nixie and the crew remained on the ship. I saw them rowing towards the crystal blue shore and just about when they got there, a lot more humans appeared. We were very far away, it was very hard to understand what they were doing. After some time we went there, at Talion’s call, and they told us what happened. Apparently they fought of some humans which tried to kill, *cough* Xi’Xi a Strygian *cough*. (??????????) She(?) represented an ancient race, one of the four first created, Talion told us. Me and Nixie were very confused as to why they did that. I mean, I kind of understand why they helped her, but why kill so many people? We quarrelled for a bit on the subject, but before we finished anything Xi’Xi asked us for our help. She had lost her sword during that fight. We bonded, somewhat, and Nixie began to tell her our story and the fact that we have to kill Xantinya. I meant draw, because we obviously couldn’t speak her language, nor she ours. Anyway, we had to do try and gather some herbs for Drenizek so we decided we would go, with the prisoners we had, into the woods towards their settlement.
 
On our way we got into a trap. We were surrounded. We narrowly avoided a fight. Heron and Eve got between Xi’Xi and the humans, as they were both about to cut each other’s throats. They spoke a different tongue, but one of them, a sorcerer knew elvish. So Nixie and Heron started negotiating. At Heron’s advice we freed the prisoners we had, as an act of good will. We tried to reach an agreement, but they were constantly insisting that we give up Xi’Xi. Truth be told, I agreed with everything they said. We were hardly in the right and we were the ones that should pay. I really felt like we shouldn’t win this argument. Eventually we reached some middle ground. We learned that the strygians and this particular village were engaged in some very old war, so we held on to that thought. Nixie proposed she, I mean we, would take Xi’Xi on our boat with us, so that she may not disturb them ever again. In exchange they would let us go freely, give us that sword and send us some supplies for drenizek, mainly herbs and honey. Oh I love honey, even if I am completely terrified by bees. How can something so sweet and warming be made by such frightening little creatures. Anyway, their leader made Nixie swear she would uphold our deal on an elvish iron sword. It had a faint blue-ish glow to it. I could see Nixie was troubled, but she accepted and swore, before the Almighty that she would not betray what was spoken that day.
 
And so we returned on the shore, where we had to wait till next day for the herbs. We continued where we left, the fight. Mostly me and Nixie were disappointed in how the rest dealt with the situation. I mean, things could have gone much better. People shouldn’t have died… I understand, they wanted to protect the surrounded, endangered girl. But.. Eh. What’s done is done. If I was there yes, I would have done things differently. Or maybe not, who knows. I was a bit too harsh with them. Eve left at some point as night began to set. I knew she was bathing probably so I went after her to talk. I was upset, yes. But I still love her and want to see her happy. So I went to apologise for being harsh and tell her that I was indeed a bit upset. We talked for a bit. She told me something.. a bit hurting. She said she thinks we’re together, or rather, I am together with her because I like to see her admire and worship me and for our bedroom time. I don’t know.. I felt weird, disheartened for a moment. But I quickly calmed down. I know my poppy. She was sad, yes. Because I was mad with her. And sadness brings with it a lot of dark thoughts. We had so many moments where I could feel her heart more than enough times to understand what’s between us. So I tried to calm her down and assure her none of that is true. We ended up having a nice quiet time on the beach after that under the sky.
 
When we returned to the rest of the party they were drawing stuff on the sand to communicate, which was funny, but effective. We tried to convince Xi’Xi to come with us and talk with her kin to stop harassing the people of this village. Please. I am not sure how much she understood, but we seemed to have agreed on something at some point. I am not sure on what. She plunged into the water and swam away. That sounded like a problem to me, because when the humans would come tomorrow they would definitely ask to see Xi’Xi. So I thought of gathering some shells and make 2 crowns of friendship to use as an excuse, somehow if that were to happen.
 
When morning came, alongside our dearest herbs and humans, so did the dreaded question. I quickly answered she was going to collect shells for the a crown as a symbol of peace, and showed them on of them. Meanwhile Talion and Drenizek started to waste as much time as possible by thanking them for the herbs. It was hilarious, Drenizek would make these pompous statements which Talion, slowly, would elaborate even more. It was amazing. Or so did Eve told me because I don’t speak elvish. Soon enough their patience ran dry, but luckily Xi’Xi came just then, to our relief. I quickly ran to set up for my small little lie and make them believe our story, which I think they did, and after that we made the exchange and bid each other farewell. Xi’Xi told us she would come on our ship and that she spoke with her kin. We were all relieved, Nixie especially I am sure. We embarked and set sail. After a few minutes we saw some weird figures on a shore we were passing. There were more strygians waving and some of them channelling something. Soon enough our boat started to move faster. A lot faster, crazy faster. To the point I even fell from the acceleration. Xi’Xi was waving at them too. It was an awe inspiring moment. One of them, I believe her father, was wearing some sort of cape, probably resembling some sort of authority in their… village? City? Underwater caves? I am not sure how and where they live, but I must be fascinating. Talion told us some more about sstrygians after the fact. His old party inquired more on the subject.
 
The strong current we were on helped us cover a lot of distance really quick. It was even very steady. I had an easy time preparing some potions for Drenizek who was getting worse and worse by the day. Now he had a fever. God bless potion making, for it has a cure for almost anything I believe. I prepared him some concoctions to drink. A lot of them. So he could endure and hold on just a tiny bit more until we get to Enneth. He was angry we had gone through so much trouble just to make him feel better. But it wasn’t like that. We would have done even more than that for even less. We all care for him, Nixie the most of us all.
 
Later that day, in the afternoon, Xi’Xi wanted something to eat. We offered her some of our dried meat but she rapidly refused, so naturally we thought of fish. I mean, I thought that might be offensive at first, but turns out she love fish. We had no time to stop and fish though, so Nixie tried her magic and sent out a call to all life around us to come. Eventually a few fish started to jumo in our nets, then more fish and more and more. Xi’Xi was overjoyed when she saw them. But suddenly we heard a loud bang and the ship began to shake violently. A huge, blue whale started to rub against our boat. Soon enough we were riding on her back. It was terrifying and awesome. I’ve never seen a whale before, not in the flesh. I even saw that little orifice they have through which they squirt water sometimes. I am not sure what it is for. Breathing? I never thought of studding marine life. At some point we eventually began to fall of her back and we slammed into the water, breaking a few holes in our boat as a result. Repairs slowed us down a bit, but we managed them quickly. The rest of the day was uneventful. As if that wasn’t enough, haha.
 
The next morning wasn’t that exciting and happy. Drenizek, who was feeling better, called us to tell us he would like to leave the ship on a small rowboat towards wherever the sea would take him. He would what?!?! We tried to stop him. Heron had a weird approach of almost scolding him for leaving and calling him a coward, while me and Verfy tried to calm him down and get him to stay, but eventually it seemed like something he would really want so we kind of gave in. I wasn’t content with that. He was desperate, desperate to stop us from having problems because of him, but for us it wasn’t a problem or a struggle. We did that filled with kindness and hope. We wanted to save him. Nixie was the one who changed his heart. She was in tears and, I am sure, in physical pain. She told him she would never forgive him for leaving us like that, while barely keeping composure. It was the first time I saw Nixie cry. That’s when Drenizek fell down on his knees and fainted eventually in Nixie’s arms. He was in a bad condition and we had to hurry even more to get to Enneth.
 
May the Almighty give him strength and favourable winds for us.
 
PS: I found a note with my name written weirdly with a small smiley face on it. Drenizek really wanted to leave… I am glad he stayed. We must save him.