Sooooo you may be wondering, whomever you may be, why I haven't approached Barrel. He's my buddy, I'm his buddy, we're buddies. Buds. Pals. Been through thick and thin together. Why haven't we reconnected?
It's... it's complicated. I'm not sure how else to put it.
Approaching Barrel was the first thing that leapt to mind when I saw him. It seemed so natural, so right, to plow into the crowd of giant scaly monsters and tackle my ol' buddy. Even if he is the size of a building right now, where I'm used to him as a teensy-weensy little thing. And, uh, even if one of the other dragons would likely step on me before I reached Barrel.
But I didn't. Because, for once, I stopped to consider the issue. There are plenty of reasons for me not to make myself known to Barrel. Time for a list!
- We parted ways on awkward terms. Barrel didn't wanna leave, but his... impulses... threw him into a hormonal tantrum. I told him to go. He went. It was sad.
- Also, my kid (the bad one) was kinda mentally controlling Barrel the last time we met. How do you apologize for that? "I'm sorry my son is a magical dickhead?" Try saying it out loud. You'll feel silly.
- Barrel has a family in progress. I've seen him cavorting with a female dragon, and she's got a biiiiig belly. Like, Libby-sized belly. There's a whole brood brewing in there. That might seem like common ground we can use to reconnect, but Barrel's family is under threat, and I don't want to distract him. He needs to concentrate. I won't help.
- I'm travelling with Barrel's former 'master', Jeffrey. Jeffrey was not a kind lord. Barrel might think me a traitor. (Jeffrey's also not too keen on revealing himself. He wanted to kill himself, yes, but getting eaten by a dragon... more frightening than he's willing to face, I suppose. I'll take that as a good sign.)
- We've been apart for over a year. I guess I just don't know how he'll react. Y'know? That makes me shy. And nervous. And stuff. Things.
Yeah. List over.
The Contest continues today. The physical contests that dominated yesterday seem to have given way to more cerebral pursuits, and in these Barrel is kicking ass. We watched him play a game of Seven-Penny Roller Rinks this afternoon - giant Seven-Penny Roller Rinks, I should say - and he managed to score a 52 on the second fractal. Knocked the fifth and seventh opponents right out of the game with one swift Elbow strategem. Is my buddy brilliant, or what?
Contest aside, the search also continues - and we've discovered some of the first evidence of boots. Specifically, boot prints. Found 'em beside a berry bush maybe three miles from Evan's cabin, sunk right into a patch of soft cloudmoss. Plain as day. I can't tell if they're Libby's boots, and they kinda... disappear... as they move away from the bush... but still. Who else would be up here wearing boots?
At any rate. Gotta be off. Evan's troubled by the increased activity of the local sky dwarf population. He says they like to stick by groves of mint-green trees, as we discovered before, yet Logan spotted a squadron of the little bastards flitting angrily across a field of thorny redcaps (coughing mushrooms, for the uneducated). Evan wants us to keep an eye on 'em and see what they're up to, and, uh, I guess I volunteered. Maybe I'll find Libby in the process? We'll see.
Sincerely,
Dragomir the Wanderer
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