Dolthe 21, 5677

We’re going back to Kaluna. Taking prisoners to Sehol would be too much of a burden on us, and Pelmarco, despite having the authority as a Red Exemplar, will not be doing any executions. He says it wouldn’t be right since he doesn’t live in the area or know many of the people in the community. Having the authority is one thing, but using it only works when the people of an area know and trust the person. I think Pelmarco wants to do more than just drop off prisoners when we get to Kaluna, so we’re going to hurry back to Kaluna as fast as we can. I hope that it won’t take us more than two weeks. The prisoners will be tied to the tusks of the telefs while we travel, and we’ll try keeping the telefs from knocking down trees and other things that would do serious harm to the prisoners on the tusks.

The telefs seem to like having the stripes painted on them. A light rain last night washed off most of the paint, but this morning we saw them muddying their tusks, and then wiping the tusks on each other to leave stripes of mud. They certainly aren’t anywhere near as artistic as we were with the paint, and many of the stripes they put on aren’t straight, but if they have the capacity to learn this much, they must have more intelligence than most beasts. Perhaps that is why they enjoy our company.

Elendra’Tel is able to move around the camp now. Her wound was deep, and removing the arrow was a difficult task for Krista’Mil. She might have a basic understanding of Sisterhood medicines, but she doesn’t seem very skilled at providing this type of medical care. Pelmarco ended up stitching the wound. I guess it’s one of those skills the Red Exemplars need to know when they’re fighting frequent battles. Fortunately, Elendra’Tel had plenty of her medicine that drives away the pain. I hope she has enough to last until she is well enough to make more.