What you are about to read is taken directly from the diary of Ivanova. As such, beware of foul language and the frequent usage of foreign words.

Faren'ta 12, 53589. Chietdar Village

I'm leaving the village soon, tonight or perhaps tomorrow. The ol' wanderlust has kicked in. De'al doesn't want me to go, but she understands that I must. It was completely out of the blue too... it just suddenly leapt out of a bush, thwacked me with a stick while screaming, "GET YOUR ASS MOVING, BITCH!!"

Well, metaphorically. But if the intensity to move on could be put into words, that's what it would have sounded like. The weird thing is that I haven't felt the urge to travel for quite some time. Years, actually. Luris and Kel'ar are both long dead, and their daughter, De'al is an old grandmother! This has been, by far, the longest I've stayed in one spot. I'll miss this place, but my time here is almost done, and something new awaits me.

Ah ha! But the rumours were true! Reyna has been insisting that corsairs were coming to the village, and I've just spotted their ship from my window! Damn, even from here the ship looks massive... and gorgeous! It's a ten-masted monster, no doubt made from hard eirken wood. Mmm, a lovely sight! I just love wood ships, driven by nothing but waves and wind!

It looks like it was once part of the Zan Empire's navy, but I won't know until it gets closer. There's a good southeasterly wind though, and this bad mutherfucker's got three banks of oars. She's plowing in as fast as she can, and I'd bet good money that she reaches here by dusk. The size of her makes me wonder if it's Jetheria's ship. Ooh, I hope it is! Jetheria is supposed to be the finest swordsman of this age!

Oop, someone just started ringing the alarm bell. No doubt it's Agrell's doing. That's one thing I've always found fascinating about the Dar'elein: prophetic names. Whenever a baby is born, a Seer is always the one to give it a name. Through the sands of Time, they'll have a glimpse of some aspect of the baby's personality, physique, or abilities, and draw the name from that. Agrell is the town lookout, which is of little surprise since his name means "Long Eyes."

I had an absolute gigglefit when old Seer Gir'na was called to name me. She insisted that she would not name an outsider, but Kel'ar managed to cajole her into it. Iria'kel is what she named me. It means "Dark Sword." Pretty ironic since I'm Darkness incarnate, and swords are my absolute favourite weapons! I must admit that it's one of my favourite names. Well, out of the ones I can remember, at least. I'm so terrible with names!

I think I'm going to go down to the Elders now. I'll see if I can convince them to hide the villagers in the caves while I take care of the corsairs. By this time tomorrow, I could be in a whole new place! Hm, better pack, and then I can go slaughter!

Month? Day? Year? Floating on the Sea

There were more corsairs than I thought. I figured it was being rowed by galley slaves, but no! It was extra corsairs who were rowing that ship! Apparently they had heard of my reputation, and wanted to put me down. Well, I put them down! Or up, I should say. Blown up! Hah! What a delicious fight! Jetheria was as good as I heard, so it was kind of a shame that I had to slay him. Speaking of slaying, I bet the villagers all think that I'm dead. My head wishes that I was dead, what with the way it's throbbing. Someone crept up behind me while I was about to set fire to all the gunpowder, and the next thing I know, WHAM!! Right in the temple with a belaying pin! I must've set the powder off though, because I'm all bloody and burnt, and floating on a good-sized portion of the scorched hull. And I'm definitely being drawn somewhere, since I seem to have passed through dimensions while I was unconscious.

It's weird, but I think I recognize the stars overhead. They're not the ones that were visible from the village, or anywhere else I can remember, but they're very familiar. Half remembered or something. They're clear though, very clear. Brighter than they should be, or at least brighter than I remember. How strange.

Shit, this bump feels like the size of a reknar's egg! I'm going to have a headache for a week! This is no time to try and recall vaguely familiar stars! I'll just put this book away, and try to get some sleep. Next to laughter and actual medicine, sleep is best for what ails ya!

January 19, 2003. The Silent Island of Crow (cool name!)

I've made landfall, and I think that this is the place I was drawn to. It's very strange. Okay, the island itself isn't strange, nor the fact that I was drawn to it. It's happened to me before. No, the thing that is strange about it is the feel of the place, almost as if it were a nexus of some kind. A vortex, focal point, or crossroads of sorts. But this isn't the strangest thing about it.

The strangest thing is the inhabitants... or should I say, inhabitant. This island is a sizable one, with wildlife aplenty, but only one person lives here, or so he says. Let me just go back a bit before I get ahead of myself.

I was lying asleep on that hunk of deck, having a dream where I was trapped in a prison of glass and being taught useless things while surrounded by idiots, when something began prodding me awake. Now, even on the best of days, I do not take kindly to being woken up at all, but as soon as I opened my eyes and saw who was waking me, I kinda froze. It was a kid, or at least, it looked like a kid. He was shorter than me at least, dressed in a blue and white sailor outfit and wearing a golden crown. He was holding a stick (which he must've used to poke me awake), and he pointed it at me and asked, "Who are you, and why are you filthy?"

Now, I hate kids. No, I loathe them beyond all reason, so I should have hated this snobby little punk who poked me awake, right? You'd be wrong on that count. I opened my mouth and said the first name that came to mind: Ivanova (which surprised the hell out of me. Nearly 70 years of being called Iria'kel, or just Iria for short, and I spit out a name I haven't heard in ages), and that I was filthy because I'd been slaughtering corsairs the night before and didn't get to change. He gave a little giggle then, spread a blanket on the sand, sat down and said, "Corsairs are dirty, and I do not like dirty things! Did they scream? Did they cry?"

Let the records state that I am not a people person at all. Hell, I'd be more likely to pick a fight than have a conversation. But for some reason or other, I immediately hit it off with this fellow. He said his name was the Emperor Beluga, and I ended up sitting there for most of the day, telling him how I slaughtered corsairs and other misadventures of my past. Night came and he said he had to go home, and asked if I would still be here tomorrow. I said I saw no reason why I shouldn't be, so he scampered off after saying that he would tell me a tale in the morning.

After that, I wandered around for a bit, and I found this sort of volcanic area with some divine hot springs. By G'Quan, I haven't had a soak in a hot spring in ages! I think the last time I was in one was with Ryle. Ah, but I do miss him. Wonder how he's doing? Bah, I'm sure I'll hear from him soon, so there's no point in fretting about it, is there?

Anyway, after my bath, I opened a doorway to my old home. It's always surprising to me whenever I use it. 70 years since I was last there, yet there wasn't a speck of dust anywhere! Very handy. So, here I am, lying in a bed and dressed in pyjamas I haven't used for nearly a century, writing in a book that has never left my side since I got it, and eagerly awaiting the morning so I can go tell stories to someone I just met. Well, could be worse. He could be a large, hairy, sweaty man who insists on wearing tight leather and being called "Cynthia", so I can't really complain much!

January 20, 2003. The Silent Island of Crow

Just got back from telling stories with the Emperor. Like I said before, he's a strange fellow. He looks young, but there's something in his eyes that is much older than he appears. And he's one of the few people I've met that has a sense of humour like mine! I must confess, it's most refreshing to crack a joke without having dirty looks shot my way.

We ended up just wandering around for most of the day, making up random stories to pass the time. Beyond asking why I'd been in the state he found me in, he didn't ask me anything about my past, and so I returned the courtesy. Maybe he's on the run from something, or maybe he's just private, who can say? If he wished to dish, I'll lend an ear, but I won't go digging. Prying has gotten me nothing but trouble in the past!

Since I was no longer dirty, he invited me into his underwater home, and we had some tea and crumpets. After that, we went wandering around the island, pretending to be able to control the weather when it got really windy, and made fun of stupid people we knew. As I said the other day, the Emperor is a strange guy. I like the way he talks! We got to talking about poetry for some reason, and off the top of my head I spouted this thing:

I am a tree planted in poisoned soil
I wish to leave
But I stay
I scream to the world
But there is only silence
I am a freak
Who has yet to dig herself free

No idea where it came from, but I like it, and so did the Emperor. He laughed and said, "What a fine specimen you are!! Am I ever glad to have a freak so crazy and diabolical as you!! Am I glad!! Enjoy and indulge in the evil goods that live on this island! Explode in it I say!"

So, in his own quirky way, the Emperor invited me to stay on the Silent Island of Crow. I think I just might!

January 21, 2003. The Silent Island of Crow

I'M STUPID! I forgot that I wrote down the stories that the Emperor and I made up yesterday! I'll just scribble them here, because they were funny as fuck!

STORY #1:

And the day was long and dreary, but I managed to toil painfully through the light... and when the darkness came, I stood up and EMBRACED THE black, shimmering NIGHT!!!

The night, how I loved the night, along with all dark things; my pale skin is scorched by the sun.

I dove into my closet and sat in the dark pits of the corners, whistling softly with a weary and raspy breath a lovely but melancholy song, looking through the slits and jagged holes of the giant, ornamental closet doors.

No one will see me in my dark place, hidden with my knives so covered in blood, but should I clean the blood off or leave it be, or maybe I should find some more people with lots of blood and paint my walls with it, for I so hate white.

So I sat there, sharpening my crooked rusty knives, moving back & forth, moving back & forth, saying softly, "What should I do, Unicorn... Shall I go hunt or shall I stay in this dark solace and cower? What should I do... What Should I do... Tell me Unicorn?"

And Unicorn replied, "Let us kill and dance in the dark, spraying blood on all the little children asleep in their beds and dreaming happy things... Just think what they'll do when they awaken to the sight of blood!" And I giggled at the thought.

And while giggling, I jumped onto Unicorn's golden sash around her back and we rode off, crashing through the walls and terrorizing every older being. As we got crazier and crazier, the light on the Unicorn's horn glowed brighter and brighter... to such an enormous amount it swallowed the whole Victorian House whole! As it reached to almost the purest white, a loud scream, mixed by all the agony in the house, shot through the roof, sounding like a teapot gone wacko!

It was Stupid Brother who screamed, Stupid Brother who always ruins my fun... but not tonight... now singing the song of the Gentlemen, Unicorn and I crashed into Stupid Brother's room to put an end to his fun destroying once and for all!

And we dove into his mouth and created little bits of spider webs that grew spiders and their eggs... that opened up into new generations of itty bitty spiders and the brother died and THE BROTHER DIED! We rode off happily into the moon where we fed off its cheese and cracker craters.

The End.

STORY #2:

"Well, I finally did it!" The girl giggled to herself. "I killed them all! Everyone! They're all dead!" She screamed, lifting her bloodied knives to the sky.

And the skies turned round and round, so blackened by the enormous ever swirling clouds. She yelled and yelled, each yell heightening in volume, and reached to a shrieking scream that shook the ground, making thunder clap and crows squawk their heads off! "My babies..." She said.

Like bits of burnt cloth the crows came, twisting down down down to the girl. They crowded around her, each fighting to take a perch on her blood covered arms. As one they let out a screech and took flight, girl and all, over the decimated landscape. "Look at what I did!" The girl said to her crows. They squawked happily in return.

She smiled so happily as she flew in the air, so softly so blissfully in the air. Her terror ended, her hell set her free, and just over the dancing full moon, they were waiting for her...

Her crows took her up to that blissful place. Her castle in the sky where she could rule over all! She would go on picnics and have tea and crumpets. She would be QUEEN!!

And she smiled once again, her smile reaching to her very cheek edges, showing her wonderful glossy teeth with braces. And up they went, into the sky, into the castle, but when she neared the castle ledges, she happened to find blood all over... and the higher she went, the more blood appeared. She thought, "How could this be so? When the blood should be on the ground, and not in the sky!"

And then she screamed again for her enemy was standing there, in HER castle, covered in the blood of her castle friends! She was angrier than she had ever been, and the only thing she could think to do was to KILL HER ENEMY!!!

So she shook and shook and shook to her angry self and screamed and screamed and screamed! She swayed away from her crows and they dropped her into the castle... right on top of her enemy. As she flew down, she took a knife and plunged it into the enemy's head! Enemy screamed as she died but the girl didn't care. Her enemy had killed the others. But she would fix that.

Her eyes turning black, she extended her magic and brought back to life all those her enemy had killed! The crows swooped down and flew the girl around the castle, amid the cheers of her subjects.

The End.

Oh and they did have a nice time feeding her enemy's carcass to the birds! How shiny their feathers came to be!!

STORY #3:

Petra became very wroth sitting in the dusty, stiff air of the little box-like classroom. She shook her feet and pat on the ground, waiting so impatiently for the bell to ring. She could not wait any longer.

"Why must this day take so long?" She said in her mind, "Why can it not end, and then I can shop for my most treasured possession... cheese!!"

As she sat there, her shoulders became more tense and feet hitting stiffly to the linoleum floor. Her tolerance termination was at its peak! The clock ticked loudly and so slowly as she squeezed her pencil in her tight shivering fists. And as her last ounce of tolerance broke, she shrilled a high shrill and leapt from her chair, soaring through the roof and up up UP into the sky! But soon she began to slow in her ascent and gravity came into play, pulling her down towards the unforgiving ground!

Her little toes stretched to reach the ground. They let her land nice and quietly. She looked backwards to see her class staring at her with bulging eyes and open mouths. Petra waved her hand and smiled. She giggled and skipped her way to the merry cheese shop, located down the red brick street in between a barber shop and a butcher shop.

She skipped down the street, the merchants waving to her with friendly "hello"'s. Everyone loved Petra, and Petra loved her cheese!

She lowered her head into the window and smelled the fresh aroma of cheese. "Open" says the door, so Petra jumped into the shop and slid her feet through the aisles, looking at each shining cheese selection. And golly it was a good sight! But alas, to her shocking surprise, sat in the middle of the aisle surrounded by lush gardens of parsley and mint leaves, a STRAWBERRY! "Why is there a strawberry in a cheese shop!!" She yelled out!

The shopkeeper approached slowly. "This is the Queen of Strawberries, and she wishes to buy some cheese from this shop!" Petra looked at the offending fruit with disdain, "I do not like strawberries, whether they be royalty or not! BE GONE FROM MY SHOP, FOUL FRUIT!!!"

The Queen rose from her banana peel throne. "HOW DARE YOU!! I SHALL MAKE SURE THAT YOU- AGGGAAAAGAGAHHAHHAHAAA!!!" The Queen screamed as Petra skewered her on a sample toothpick with some cheese. "Hm, strawberry and cheese is actually pretty good!"

And she turned her and turned her with her tongue in her mouth, and washed all the juices to and fro. What a delight the queen of strawberries was! Petra heard her scream each time she bit into her textured red body and as frightening as the shrills of the queen's voice sounded, she could not help but giggle at hearing it!! That is, until... she began to have her stomach turn. "A stomach ache, arr!" Petra cried.

The End.

February 4, 2003. The Silent Island of Crow

Heh, bit of a gap there! But I've been a bit busy, and haven't really had the time to write in here. Let's see, the Emperor and I have been exploring the Island. He told me that he built it himself to escape all the noisy and stupid people around. And he built this place maybe a week or two before I arrived, so it still has that new island smell. He showed me his flock of crows, and the belugas from which he took his name. His sister lives here too, but she stays in the lighthouse, so I have only met her once, and it was only briefly. She seemed nice enough, but the Emperor rushed me away from her in a big hurry. He told me that she is cute, but very evil. And not the good kind of evil.

This place also seems to be able to sense the emotions of people, and alter itself accordingly? A depressing fog is never not around the Emperor, and black thorny trees seem to sprout wherever I go. It's weird, but cool! I don't know if I've ever seen a phenomena quite like this anywhere else.

Aside from exploring, we've been making up stories and having tea and picnic lunches. Oh, and we had a bonfire too. Unlike the Chietdar Village, hellish demons seem to have followed me to this place. It's happened before a few times, but in places where dimensions crossed. As there seems to be more demons around than I've ever seen before, it lends credit to my theory about this place being on some kind of dimensional nexus. I told the Emperor this, and he gave this evil little cackle, rubbed his hands together, and said, "Lots of killing! Ar! Ar!" in a scary pirate voice. It was awesome!

Along with the demons, my old friend Misty the Psycho Kitty (she hates when I call her that, but tough titties, kitty! I do what I want!) has found her way back to me, so I've asked her to look into the nature of this place. She was always better at that kind of shit than I ever was.

Ah, but we are now not so alone on this island, for a little while ago someone new came to our shores.

She calls herself the Lady Syrenna, and she brought with her a massive forest! The Emperor and I were getting supplies to go exploring the mountains to the north, when we looked up and found that a huge forest was suddenly present where none had been before! So off we dash, and we find this blonde lass in a green dress pacing back and forth, surveying the new forest. She told us her name, and that she had escaped from a place where her forest was being killed, so she ran off and took it with her. The whole bloody forest!

And just like with the Emperor, I hit it off with Syrenna right away, which is really weird for such an antisocial person as myself! So we've been hanging out with Syrenna, talking of things and stuff. Apparently a large purplish dog thing (called an Oyhan) escaped from her forest, and that we are to be on the lookout for it. The Emperor wanted to kill it, but Syrenna poo pooed the idea. She seems very protective towards animals. And her forest.

Another thing, she's pretty easy to launch into a gigglefit. The three of us were having lunch under the shade of a tree, when Syrenna started eating this banana. I start saying stuff about how it's so firm and thick, full of creamy white potassium and how she loves to stick it all into her mouth, and a bunch of other penis related things, and she goes completely red-faced and giggles in this angry sort of way. I also started saying the same things about mushrooms, and we got into a mushroom fight. It was some of the first non-fatal violent fun I've had in years. I really like these people, and I barely know them!

One way to get on my good side, though, is to invite me to participate in violent activities! Weee! Syrenna said that we can hunt these nasty critters called skullers, and we're going to have a big ass hunt in a few days! We're to bring silver or oyster shell weapons, which are the only things that hurt these Skullers. Hm, I'm running low on silver, better pour some more. Well, I'm off for now. I have weapons to make!

February 6, 2003. The Silent Island of Crow

Weapon making is always such a fun and relaxing way to spend time! Just getting to zone out... nothing but the sound of a hammer against metal and the roar of the forge... honestly, the only way it could get better would be if it didn't have to be so bloody hot to get metal into a workable state! Oh well, small price to pay for making killing implements!

Lady Syrenna has also been showing me how to make oyster shell weapons! The easiest way is to take a whole bunch of shells - the bigger the better - and sand the rough parts of them down until all you really have left is the mother-of-pearl inner smooth bit. You want big shells so you can get flat pieces of this stuff! That's because once they're smooth, you take those flat bits and fasten them between two pieces of hardwood (I can't remember what she called it, but she showed us this wood that was naturally hard as steel! It was wild!), and then sharpen those shells so they're basically razors! I definitely need to try my hand at making one of those!

Oh! Another weird thing happened! I keep having these dreams where I am trapped in a building with a bunch of other people while these random, faceless weirdos drone on and on about nothing, right? Well now I have seen both the Emperor and the Lady in these dreams! I brought it up to them yesterday, and they said they had similar dreams too! And that they saw me there as well!

I'm not really one to be freaked out by shared dreams (I mean, I lived on Reksis Prime for almost ten years, and communal dreams were the norm there!), but there's something about this place where our dreams are taking place that... well, it scares the ever-living fuck out of me! The whole thing just feels like it's trying to shape us all into cogs to work some vast machine, only it's breaking all our teeth off so that we're all just wheels not touching and the machine that we are supposed to be powering is broken down, and that no one seems to care, because the ones driving it are already at a place where they have everything they want, so who gives a fuck about all the broken parts that got them there?! It's awful and I hate it, and it's the first time in years where I have actually dreaded falling asleep, because the dreams in this bullshit place are way more exhausting than being awake!!!

The other two agreed with me on that point. None of us are a fan of these dreams!

But another weird thing has been happening in them recently.

So when I first started having them, no one really had a face. It was that dream feeling where you knew, at the time, who all these people were, but once you woke up, you couldn't place them even if your life depended on it? But then we all recognized each other in the dream. Plus, we recognized someone else, though none of us have actually seen them in our waking moments.

This new person seems to be a woman, our age, with pale white skin, pale blonde hair, and pale greyish green eyes. Despite being so washed out in colour, she made an impression on all of us, enough that we can actually recall what she looks like! The Emperor even drew a little caricature of her, and it was who Lady Syrenna and I saw too!

We have decided to call this mystery girl "Moody", though I honestly have no idea why! Lady Syrenna said the name, and it just felt... right. Which is really fucking weird! I wonder if this Moody is going to be the next person to arrive on the Island? Maybe she will appear while we are having our hunt? Wouldn't that be just the bizarre cherry on this whole nonsense sundae that these dreams are serving us!

Beyond the dreams, though, there is something weird underlying this whole place. Maybe it's the whole nexus thing? This place feels connected to way more than just a handful of places, which is wild! I think I'm going to see if I can get in contact with Misty and see if I can get her to investigate the nature of this place. She was always better than me at digging into the fundament of things without going completely off the deep end, which is something I am prone to doing!