What a trip its been

The masking ceremony, a major event for the school, making masks that best embody oneself and nature, I must think of a way to best embody this without making it too simple, as there is more to me then what is just under the surface as it were.
 
Also when many students get to see their parents again, some coming from quite far away. Of which I was pleasantly surprised to hear even my parents and sisters will be able to make it despite home being many months away by conventional travel as I have travelled around due to some friendly magic, mayhap it may be possible to visit them at times in the future in the same way, it would certainly save a few years accumulated over time getting from wherever I may be at the time to there and back again if I may someday learn the trick.
 
I introduced my friends to my dad, mom and two sisters who came (it is understandable that my brother wouldn't come, he usually spends most of his time in books and being the official record keeper of the family, is the one that make the most sense to stay behind and keep things in order while the rest of the family visits).
 
The reactions were varying, Ruin seemed to not understand what the big deal of the whole ceremony was and why peoples families were coming to see, possibly a little jealous as well, but my family tried to make her feel welcome and ask questions to get her talking.
 
Illiara was mostly detached with short polite conversation as is to be expected there, someday I will get her to open up and be more happy and sociable, even if it takes 50 years.
 
Cualli was friendly and seemed to enjoy the conversation, as the only one so far to have beaten the game I expect he had a few more questions he wanted to ask of them but didn't, perhaps for another time?
 
The ceremony itself was quite a spectacle, with a wide range of masks made, some students seemed to hide the nature of theirs for some reason, while others such as I were more than happy for anyone to see mask that represents them most.
 
Shortly after completing them however the ceremony was beset by a large number of many toothed grumpy insects, with everyone there, be they family, teachers or students taking part, all succeeded in driving them away, with some taking more fun in the endeavor then others (there was a running tally, and while my family did make a good show of themselves did pale in comparison to Cualli's who are far more used to conflict)
 
Afterwards was a great scurry of activity to track down how such an attack by a multitude of many legged menaces could occur on the school in such a fashion, and many underground tunnels were determined to be the case, with various groups sent down to deal with or map them, of which we were given said task of mapping these underground tunnels.
 
And boy have I never realized how drastically different being truly underground is, I have been in the dark many times, with nothing but moonlight or the faintest trace of it and been fine, but underground where there is nary a spark or hint of light in any fashion is a whole different beast, and most unpleasant one at that.
 
Thankfully Cualli had a few extra torches he lent so as I didn't end up more than simply a hindrance stumbling around blindly in the dark, following behind those more acclimated to these lightless hallways of dour solitude.
 
While mapping each passageway, I have tried to place a sigel at important points to help mark areas for navigation, or that might warrant further investigation at a later date as they will last quite awhile.
 
During these investigations we found more of bane of literature creatures, quite literally by punching our way (or Ruin punching her way) into their bedrooms, they were understandably upset but we have mostly cleared the underways we have been through, be it them, or the buzzing bees of stingerdom.
 
Of which one of our fellow students apparently is allergic too, and through the barest skin of our teeth we were able to save, so they could be brought safely to the surface, before we encountered a most interesting, or dangerous pair.
 
One was a very large insect with a thorax seemingly full of blood, attempting to be ridden by another dangerous looking one with a pick, who seemed to either know we were coming, or planned to come after us or the school at some point as they said something about us showing up as saving them the trouble.
 
We were able to soundly defeat the pair, with the scarily heavy strikes of the angry flaming Ruin, my rapier and the others.
 
Well the others are getting ready to move again, so I will continue at a later time, after further adventures in the deep dark.