first milestone, arrival at the sacred clearing

After lotsa walking along the river, the cart finally made a big stop. It was cozy until some angry red Miguels came and attacked! Some was a good fighter and almost killed the boy cat and the captain – hahah wouldnt that be funny! But then a crazy one was by my frien and i felt like, strong, but different. I haven’t ever fought for someones else before. I had enough strength to make my tail, and tho my brain was fuzzy, my one focus was getting between the bad guy and Bricky. I got that red guy real good and chopped his whole head in half heehee. ‘Cept the metalest kill hasta go to Luna, i saw her make a whole red guy look like candle wax soup. It was pretty to look at but also scary how easy that was for a nice lady to do.
 
Another week of travel through the forest tunnel til we get to the festival place. It gave me time to find some new plants! One of them i actually saw before, and i have to make sure im extra careful with it so no one gets hurt. I wasn’t allowed to touch it that time, but bogbean is 8 now and so much responsible.
 
Then we finally got into the festival city. There were soooo many aminal kinds that seemed to know each other. All smiles, unless you’re a leonen (new word! so smart) or Luna, then they looked mean. like the opposite of a friend.
 
I got to see the whole place from Bricky’s tall shoulder – i felt like a bird being so high up! The people at stalls stocked with thingies were really mean to you if they found out you weren’t gonna give them a shiny. So we rejoined the cart to visit the lightning rock. The rock was gigantamus, and covered in white prints from every single aminal ever, with one in the middle scratched out. I ‘member seeing the same style of prints all over the swamp village. But they had always been there, way before me was there. I wonder what they are, what they mean.
 
While me, Bricky, and Miguel tried to find our matching handprints (not lucky) we saw the Captain break the cat rules and he really touched the rock! It did somethin to him, but no one knows what. And i can’t tell how he left his handprint with no paint?? Anyways we all left before captain scaly got us all in trouble.
 
We ended up meeting a friend of our black cat, but i don’t understand why they would be friends. One is nice and feeds me, and the other one is loud and puts chains on people for shinies. Not that i like humes, but no one deserves to exist that way. I wonder why we have to pay for food but the mean gold cat doesn’t.
 
I can tell itd mean a lot to my friend to see that enslaved hume freed, and i woulda gladly given my shiny pieces if i had enough. I think he sees his reflection in that guy, because when Luna asked tons of questions to him earlier, he said only sad things. Like he was from a place where everyone is told what to do and they couldnt even think of doing anything else. It sounds a lot like slavery but i guess they had a nicer sounding word for it.
 
For being from such a hard place, im surprised my Bricky friend is as nice as he is. Ever since i sewed his head back on, he has stayed close to me and even gives me extra bread! He just pulls it out of NOWHERE like a magic. I think doing nice things for people helps make you their friend, and then you just keep trading nice things forever to show how much the last thing meant to you. At least, i hope it can be like that. and maybe other people traveling with us could be like that too.
 
Later on, our leonen and the captain left to some meeting so i stayed with everyone else to watch the food cart. Can’t let anything happen to someting so important (seee, im so responsible and mature wow!) i dunno what Drexla went to do, but when she came back she had a victorious look on her face and was covered in a strange slime. It didn’t smell any good so i didnt want to try to lick it.
 
Now that we’re settling down, i don’t like the idea of sleeping with so many hundreds of strangers around us. I cant tell if Bricky rests the same like everyone else, but him and Luna being here makes me feel like i can have a real sleep even around all these people because theyre strong in their own ways, and big.
 
But, having made a new friend sometimes makes me forget that we are being delivered somewhere. The night air sours as i remember those nasty words – “you’ll do nicely for my plan.” fuck that guy. And fuck the captain, he knows more than he says. Ughhh dont think about that now! I pick at the grass until i can think about other things.
 
Looking up at the stars, i can tell by the patterns that my name day is coming soon, as Hebe taught me. The wind smells about right, too. My last thoughts before doing a sleep are of the swamp, and how “home” feels more about people than about places.