04.10.22 - Remember Belcassel?

In the morning, Marko, Jerome, and I started climbing the wall to get into the Sisterhood.)The whispers told me that Shadow Mother was just a day away according to Mr. Moonshimmer, but we were visiting the memories so we would have to see him tomorrow.) At the top of the wall, Marko immediately fell through the branches, so I flew down to save him while Jerome climbed up. It was very musty and I couldn’t really see anything because there was a very tall mist. It was also very dark like that time a long time ago before the family when Shadow Mother wasn’t there. It felt like something was there so I asked if it was Shadow Mother. Then someone told us to remember.

The whispers told me that Jerome had made it over to the biggest tree. They said he met the nice tree lady Shadow Mother once knew. She gave Jerome some fancy leaf water and told him she felt like they had met before, but she couldn’t remember because she had been there as long as the tree had been and she hadn’t met anyone in a long time. Jerome asked her why so she told him everything down in the abbey was dangerous unless you were around her tree.

There were whispers and darkness around us that got thicker the further Marko and I went until we could hear the voice of The Horned Shadow talking to someone else about needing to find a back entrance to get into the abbey. We followed the sound of her voice until her glowing form came into view. I don't remember her being so bright which makes sense because she attacked us as soon as we found her. She made Marko look really bad when she hugged him. The whispers told me that the the nice lady sent Jerome to help us and Klaub was on his way because Mr. Moonshimmer told him we were in danger. After we fought the bright Horned Shadow a weird cat person showed up and vomited on Marko and Klaub and made them look even worse. Then, The Biggest Shadow appeared out of nowhere with a bunch of green smoke that kinda looked like Shadow Mother. There was some weird magic happening and it hurt a lot. Jerome kept saying I was a pretty bird before trying to light the ground on fire, so it was a pretty go time. The little sparks he made with the fire were very pretty too.

After we took care of the bad shadows from the memories, Jerome took us back to meet the nice lady. Marko jumped in the well the whispers had told me she made the leaf water in and Jerome didn’t look so good. Everything was very scary in there so Klaub told us it was time to leave. Klaub was being scarier than normal so we decided he needed a goat to cheer him up. When we brought it back to him, he was not happy to see it or us, so Jerome told him the peyrable of Pey and the Lady in the Water. It was all about being nice to everyone and helping people you like. And, giving gifts is the best way to make people feel better.

We packed up our wagon and said goodbye to Mr. Moonshimmer before heading towards Purrgatory. It was a nice journey and we saw this giant stream the whispers said was called a river. Marko wanted to catch some fish so we stopped for a quick lunch.

Around sunset, we came to a very wet town where all the buildings and roads were built on stilts with a big rocky place on the other side where we could see a large house built on the hill. Jerome told us that this was Belcassel where his dad and sister live and we should go see them! As we entered the town, it was full of lizard people and big lizard’s with bird wings like birdragons. There were also some weird birds that looked almost like me! Jerome stopped the first people we found and said some weird words to them that the whispers told me were him asking about the town and telling them who he was. As soon as they heard that part they ran away like he said something scary, but he had stolen one of their wallets so maybe they were just scared he would take all their money. Then, Jerome opened the shed they had been standing next to and we found some big barrels of alcohols, the xxx kind. Klaub noticed that there was an old picture of Jerome hung on the building that seemed to say that if we found him we could take him to Belcassel to get lots of shinnies. I tasted the alcohol and got very sleepy so I took a little nap.

The whispers told me Jerome began freaking out about how he looked even though he looked how he always looks, so we decided to stay the night while we got permission to see his dad to get our shinnies. We left our horses with Mr. Zock at the Mossy Grove and we got the special room at the Rattlin’ Bog where Jerome got his hair cut and he washed his clothes. Klaub asked the dude in charge if anyone like Shadow Mother had been through recently and they said that someone of that description had come through a few weeks ago and went to visit The Branches up at Belcassel but they hadn’t seen them since. Klaub asked if anyone knew anything about the missing kid and we were told that Jerome and a weird bird had gone missing in the middle of the night a few weeks ago without a trace or explanation. Mr. Dude said that there would be trouble if he had run off to be a wizard and work against The Branches then there would be trouble. He also told us that we shouldn’t have or drink any alcohols while we were in town because they don't like it here.

We settled in for the night, but just before we fell asleep a note was slipped under our door saying to meet with Mr. Snapping Branch for breakfast very early in the morning. When I woke up in the morning, I had a very bad headache.