From the Journal of Aframos Longjourney, Pilgrim
With notes by Avos Torr, Scholar of Rheve Library
Rokday, Nineteenth Cycle, Seventh Year, 81st Turn
Forty-Fifth Day in the Trees
How very peculiar. I open my journal to write an entry, and I find someone has already written a great deal.
It's strange. The handwriting is clearly mine, but leaving aside the fact that neither of us remember any of it, the person who wrote it doesn't sound like me. We would not act the way we are described. Torne acts foolish, but he surely would never poke around a strange machine. He's not that foolish. And Souja, of course, cannot talk. Who wrote this, and how did they manage it without my knowing? I am certain these entries were not there this morning, and the only time my pack was not on my back was when we stopped for lunch. Even then, my pack was in my sight the entire time.
There is a nearly identical story in the other book. However, rather than being from my Journal, it's signed Haversh, a human accompanied by a gnome, Garlickin1, and a human girl named Tabisha. Also, they came out of a desert rather than a swamp. Most of the other details, down to much of the conversation, is identical. This makes the creature I found today seem a bit small.
Well, it is small. But it seems unimportant. Still, I feel that I should at least describe it. It took Torne several minutes to catch it, at my request.
It is about the size of a mouse. It has a thinner body, but the light-brown fur is very similar in feel. It moves about quickly, looking very alert. We currently have it inside of a cup, where Souja looks at it with a great deal of interest.
The interesting thing about it, to me, is that it has six legs. I have often noticed that most creatures with fur, feathers or scales (excepting fish) have four limbs or fewer. Birds, wyverns, Baro, humans, dogs, horses… But there are very few six-limbed creatures. Most of the exceptions I know of are winged, like dragons or griffons. Most creatures with more limbs are kreshli2, or kin to them.
I thought it very interesting for that reason, and had Torne capture it for me, which he did after much scrambling around the rocky hillside it was scurrying over. Now it doesn't seem nearly as interesting.
Now I almost wish we had taken the right fork instead of the left this morning.