alone together

in our race to get outta da city, most everyone piles into the tobicart besides miguel and v’s snake friend who climb on top, and bwicky ‘n’ me who sits up front to drive. bricky steers us right through the forest, the fastest way out of arnknoka. tobicat was smort and gave bricky special purple eyes so he could drive better in the dark, and it was real pretty. i wished i coulda helped in some way, but with everyting dat just happen i just feel,, numb. all i can does is stare back at the smouldering red miasma overtaking arnknoka. all dohs peoples, plus tobicat’s heritage gots all fucked up.. but why from dr smiley? i dont know why he makes bricky do the bad things, or why they targeted the myrin peoples at all. how does he know mr peepers either?? i wanna kill ‘im so bad, and maybe then brickyfriend wont look so pained all the times.. (hopefully tobicat doesn’t notice da claw marks from me gripping my seat so hard..) this big world is just so scary so far, and complicated. i wish i could lean more heavily on my brickyfriend, but i also can’t help but think of “m” now when i sees him and i thinks bricky can tell. that part makes me even sadder.
 
the further we gets into de forest, our view of the city is overtaken by da canopy of trees. the last ting i sees is the big yellow peeper eye slowly closing as de sun rose in da sky, and finally some of da tension in my body can release. im snapped back to the moment by a hefty “thump” sound at the back of the cart, which we soon learned was lincoln (if no one liked him then why did we waste all his meat??! forever sad)
 
de mood hangs heavy, but after we ride for a while we eventually stop to make camp and rest. it feels safe enough. our group finally had some time to discuss what just happen, and of course everyone had questions fer bricky. we are putting together the reasons for his eye colors, and who receives each desigmation. so far da only one wifout a color is cap’n v, which is funny simce he is da one who was gonna make monies offa dis.. hm. tho i gotta say i am getting jealous dat i hafta share the green color wif miguel. bwicky also ‘splains a lil about his power to steal from people (maybe like mr. shad said he was stolen froms??) im sure its useful but it seems like even bricky feels a little icky about it.
 
i was soo sad when im too tired to help bricky hunt and gather, but he was so nice to tuck me in and pat me before he left. while i sleeps i keep my bag with the evil rock inside close to me, boff so i can keeps it outta the ground and also keep bricky safe from it..
in de night, some tabaxi survivors come by our camp while making their way home to da mountains. i couldnt keep my eyes open for too long, but i could see luna and tobias sacrificing their rest to help thems.
 
once everyone was rested and getting awake, bricky also made his way back from hunting. i knew it was gonna happen sooner or later,, but bricky asked me to see tha stone. luna and i agwee dat he could touch it, but i still gotta hold it. when he put his hand to the rock, his eye made a new color! it flashed silver three times, dhen went back to normal. did he receive something from the stone? or sent something through it? the stone itself must also be important, but we can’t tell how yet.
we used the rest of our time to craft and process some supplies, and dhen had to decide where to go from here.. im happy we all still want to travel togevver, and my frien is also my best lead to finding dhat fucking doctor (who i now has even more reason to mutilate dhan ever). in da end our group decides to go back to the docks at kal-marha so we can take v’s boat towards the kenku village where supposedly dhere’s a dog monster. (if dhis is anovver demon i swear to fuckim gods…)
 
speaking of demons, when miguel finally wokes up he is all of a sudden mad that we took hims away from his stage in da city. we try to ‘splain how his manager is the bad guy and lied to everyone, but he refuses to listen. after all dhat hellfire ‘n’ shit we all went through while he slept, it was pissin me off. before i knew it, i outbursted at hims and he got real sad again.. i said no one likes him, but it was wrong to speak for anyone but myself. i gabe him my precious snack as a peace offering, knowing it wouldnt be enuff. i dont thinks even my death would make miguel feel better at this point..
 
 
thankfully our journey to kal-marha was quiet and uneventful, so the group got to spend extra time gathering for supplies. some of us did better dhan others, like tobias and bricky. tobias got so many meats! i tinks we all felt more secure in our travels knowing we weren’t gonna starves. i like dhat our cook is also big good at hunting. and bricky found many glowy things, which drexla seemed interested in so they must have some neat uses.
since i finally had leather pieces, bricky had a very cute idea to make a wearable satchel for jenks, luna’s best kittyfriend. it wasn’t the prettiest, but i tinks with bricky’s help i been getting better at making new leather patterns like dhat. i should see if anyone else could use a leather tings too.
 
once we get to the docks at kal-marha, it is noticably somber. nobody knows much about de festival tragedy besides the fact dhat relatively few survived. v takes over, with drexla in tow, to situate the boat stuffs. we all got to sit and watch them haggle with other weirdo captains over borrowing dheir gangplanks, which woulda been easier to carry if dhey asked for my help.. shit, anyone’s help. but ay, its not my fault they dont asks hehee. (note, v was struck by lightning twice in this one afternoon.. i was right to stay away from dat guy still. but i feel so so bad for drexla, who was in his pocket for the second strike,,)
once the gangplanks are set up, and tobias coaxes his poor horsey onto the boat, it comes time to push the cart. i am so hyped for this! either it works and we’re big strong accomplishers, or it fails and itll be real funny. i can’t wait to find out which itll be. i kick off my special boots so my claws don’t tear through them, and i begins to push alongside luna and bricky while tobicat is in front pulling and steering. we do well but halfway up the steep incline stalls us. dhe planks are creaking under de weight of dhe wagon, and my claws are all i has for traction while we all hold this massive weight.
all a sudden, bricky starts ta sing a peppy lil song – about me? about bogbean?? i only ever heard my name in sing-song when dhe moonbright childrens would snicker and taunt me.. but this song wasn’t mean like theirs. his song made me feel a whole other wave of strengff i didnt know i hads, and with one last heave we were able to get the cart onto the boat! we win!! tho probably didnt feel like a win for luna and bricky when the counterweight made them flew into da ocean.. (bricky smells even weirder when hes soggy)
 
now dhat all our stuff was here, we could set sail. as we left the harbor, i couldnt help noticing how v’s relationship with his crew isn’t what id expect. his buddies aren’t very friendly, even to him, and it seems like they care a lot about fulfilling a specific goal – a list of names?
 
now it’s another two weeks to yooktia, the kenku village. drexla has wasted little time getting to know the ship, and immediately started modifying their weapon. we was sitting around watching her play with it, when she struck something dhat looks a lot like one of her new crewmates.. (if this one dies i can’t bare for them to waste the meats again. i call dibs!)