The boundary between the Razhin Jungle and the mountains is growing too close to travel easily. Where previously we had open lands and rolling hills, we now have thick jungle on one side, and tall cliffs on the other. It’s also only about a month away from summer in the southern hemisphere, although that makes little difference since we’re now extremely close to the equator. It’s very hot all the time, and I think even the telefs are suffering in the heat. Soon we’ll either reach the sea or turn around and head south. Either way, I’ve pretty much decided this is not the passage I seek.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen Krista’Mil eating odd foods since she recovered from the poisonous frog she ate three months ago. Either Rar does a good job keeping her too occupied to forage, or she’s decided it’s too risky to forage for food in uncharted lands. She now takes some leftover meat from each meal, dries it by the fire overnight, and then eats the meat throughout the day. This is something the rest of us are actually willing to eat, so she makes enough to share. Pelmarco calls it road food, and says the Red Exemplars sometimes use dried meat as their main food throughout the day.
We came across another of the permanent marker stones like the one we found last month. Unlike the previous stone that was badly worn and eroded by time, this one had two numbers carved on it, labeling two arrows, one pointing north, and the other pointing south. The arrow pointing north has the number 190, and the arrow pointing south has the number 260. None of us is sure about the numbers, but I’d guess the 260 is the distance between this stone and the previous stone we encountered. If that is correct, then maybe the 190 is the distance to the next stone, or perhaps the sea. Perhaps we’re traveling along what once was a path or road through this region, and never realized it. If we could learn the history of the stones, we might be able to get a better idea of their purpose.