Day One-Sixty-One: So what do kangaroos look like?

Well, the rats came to see me today. Things are NEVER good when the rats come to see me.

Life for the guards has gotten chaotic since Captain Cedric went missing. It's not so much that we don't know what to DO, 'cause it's easy to pick a wall and stand near it for eight hours… it's just that we don't really WANT to do that, if we can avoid it. Turns out Cedric was the only thing keeping us focused.

So. Hey. Why not take a day off?

A few of the guards stuck to their normal routine, but me, I figured I deserved at least half a day off. So after Libby left for her shift I snuck back into our room and hopped in bed. I was worried about Captain Cedric and the way he looked a lot like a kangaroo, of course, but I'm always so drowsy on Mondays…

Anyway. Turns out my attempt to misbehave didn't last long, 'cause I felt something tickle my feet in mid-dream, and I figured it wasn't the line of women who'd been dancing through my head. (Still not sure why I'd dream about women. Guess it's something men just do.) And when I peered down at my toes, yeah, a rat was peerin' back at me.

I'm used to the rats tailing my every move now, so rather than freaking out I just asked what it wanted. It motioned for me to sit up, and when I did I discovered a whole SWARM of the little bastards on the floor, staring at me. And pointing at you, diary.

I opened you up, and here was the message I found:

"We don't normally interfere in matters that do not concern us, but this situation has escalated beyond control. And your foolish boxing match tipped matters over the edge, so YOU, Dragomir, must help us set things right.

You, and everyone else in this castle, have been under the impression that Prince Logan's pet is a kangaroo. We presume this is the result of never having seen a kangaroo before, because you would have known that it looks nothing LIKE a kangaroo. It is, in fact, a werewolf.

Your captain has, therefore, been nursing a mild case of lycanthropy over the last three years, thanks to the werewolf biting off his… 'thinger', as you usually put it. We suspect that it has not advanced until recently because the limb in question was severed from his body. Now, however, Cedric has been exposed to many more bites, turning him into a full-fledged beast.

Lycanthropy is a tricky ailment. It works like a slowly-replenishing glass of water: every time a werewolf bites something else, it transfers a portion of the disease into that creature. In doing so the werewolf is drained of some of the disease, to the point that it is, eventually, no longer a werewolf - though if any of the werewolf taint is left over in the body, it will, eventually, expand, changing the creature into a werewolf once again.

We suspect this odd behaviour is the result of a glitch in the code a mystery that will never be explained. Ever.

The only known cure for lycanthropy, beyond extreme forms of magic, is a suffusion of wolfsbane laced with silver powder. Unfortunately, your kingdom has never stockpiled wolfsbane, and your king stupidly decreed that all forms of silver are banned, as they're too reflective and hurt his eyes. We have no easy solution for your problem…

… and it will be a BIG problem. Soon.

You had best get out of bed and search for your errant captain, Dragomir. This is your fault - and besides that, you're the only one who can suffer a werewolf bite and not worry about the effects. Don't ask why, we won't tell you. (You can, of course, still get ripped to pieces, so be careful.)

We will keep watch over you during this trial, and help however we can.

The Rats"

When I finished reading and looked up, they bowed, hissed at me in a tiny, creepy chorus, and scampered from the room.

So… find Captain Cedric, eh? That… that doesn't sound like my idea of a fun time, diary. Even with rats helping me out, which isn't comforting, since they don't look like they can do a hell of a lot against a WEREWOLF.

The werewolf thing does explain a lot, though.

I should get started. Better make sure NOTHING distracts me, this is too important to ignore.

Be safe, diary - I fear for both our lives.

I really wish I could carry a damn weapon,

Dragomir the Hunter