Ardes 25, 5680

Six years ago today, I departed Atalan on this expedition. Since then I’ve traveled countless miles, seen countless sights, and been through countless strange situations. Of the seven people traveling with me, only two were among those who left Atalan with me, and even they weren’t with me the whole time.

It’s difficult to be certain with the twists and turns in the river, but I believe we’ll now be heading primarily toward the west. I base this more on observation of an apparent break between the mountains in that direction instead of the course of the river winding through the valley. This reinforces our hope that we’ll soon reach the coast. Even so, it will still be a long time before this expedition ends. I am certain those traveling with me are anxious to reach our destination.

Since Boktoseethet is unable to continue his military training under Alkaar, I’ve begun to work on perfecting his archery. He already knows the basics of using a bow and arrows---what boy growing up in a remote village doesn’t?---but there’s always room for improvement. By the time we reach Atalan, I expect Boktoseethet will be worthy of joining the Red Exemplars, although he’d still need to prove himself to them in actual battle.

Following our discovery of the massive spear earlier this month, we hadn’t noticed any other oddities until tonight. We’ve been traveling between the river and a tall cliff most of today, and are camped beside the cliff tonight. After finding several broken boulders with some squared edges, we took a closer look at the cliff. There is evidence to support that this cliff is the result of extensive quarrying, not natural events. Dawn even found a strange glyph carved into the cliff face at one place, although none of us can guess what it represents. This leaves us wondering if there is any connection between the spear and the quarry, or if they’re just coincidental evidences of past habitation in this valley. Perhaps we’re closer to the end of the passage than expected.