From the Journal of Aframos Longjourney, Pilgrim
With notes by Avos Torr, Scholar of Rheve Library
Erevday, Twenty-second Cycle, Seventh Year, 81st Turn
Seventy-Second Day in the Trees
We remain in the darkness. It is a strange place. I begin to see better in the dark, as does Torne, though we still need the lamp. But we now see things further from it. There are strange creatures in this dark environment.
Today, we saw something very pale moving through the gloom. It was only a faint white smudge on the edge of our vision at first, but gradually came into view. It moved on four legs, and had sparse near-transparent hair on bone-white skin. It had four legs, each ending on large, thick feet with long toes ending in small claws. Its ears were wonders to behold, twice the size of its head, and ribbed to support their own weight. Little tendrils grew from its nose, and when it touched nose to earth, they twisted about, as though searching. There were no eyes in its head, nor was there any place to put them. Where sockets should have been, there was only blank skin. When it neared us, its head shot up suddenly, and it gave a series of warbling yips, cocking its ears as it did so. It turned to face us directly, and then ran off, releasing a cloud of dust from the decaying leaves. We heard another series of yips a bit later from much further away, though I cannot be certain that it was the same one1.
There are spiders here, too. They are not so large as a tarantula in body size, but their legs are much longer, stretching as wide as my two hands together. They are grey in color, like dust. Their webs are odd. Instead of stretching between two places, they dangle like veils from the branches2. It would be sure to be moved terribly in the wind, except… Except that there is no wind now. There is not so much as a breeze. The air is still and dead in this place. Strange. I cannot remember just when the wind stopped. I am sure there was wind when we last saw sky, but I cannot remember when it stopped blowing around us.