My bag is nearly ready; despite having a relatively small and efficient list of stuff in my head, it has grown since I began packing. I found the flint lighter that I might need to start a fire, a few books and paper, for reading, for tinder and... erm... Well, you know... As I was rooting around in the supply chests, I found my old compass I had made quite some time ago! I had though I'd lost it, but apparently not. I put that into my pocket, packed the salted meat, fish and bread into separate pieces of paper and then put them into the bag and then put the other items. I filled the quiver with a few fresh arrows, and slung it over my shoulder along with the bow and the diamond pickaxe. I was able to loop the sword through my belt, and I found the tent and was able to affix it to the top of my bag, once rolled up! I picked up the bag, underestimating the weight of it and fell back down! I was kind of glad I had, because despite the current mass of the bag, I had forgotten the sleeping bag I had used back on the island! Going through the chest upstairs, I found it, squeezed it into the bag and carefully hauled it onto my back. After a bit of stumbling, I said my goodbyes to Chiron, and left him in the house. I set off towards the gate, in enlightened spirits, despite the task that lay before me!
I quickly find my location on the map with help from the compass after I headed off East. I had just left the edge of the wall behind, and I continued walking due East with my map in my right hand and the compass in my left. I stopped every now and again to check my location on the map with my surroundings; I was incredibly surprised at the accuracy this map. The distances between noticeable points of interest gave me the impression that the scale was about 1cm = 100m. That meant I had to search an area approximately 9,000,000 metres squared! Well it was considerably smaller than that because I was only searching the Eastern side, but that was still pretty large. THEROS had never stated due East, so it could take some time in finding it... After about an hour, I had made it to a small location on the map where the was a pool of water. I had headed in this direction because I thought it might be where he could be found. I had marked other possible locations on the map as well, where I though this Jonas might have set up camp. As I climbed over a small hill, the pool expanded outwards from me towards the East! It was a very idyllic and serene, but there was no sign of a house mine. I marked this location on the map for later. It had a small gravel beach and it might come in handy later on!
I continued travelling East, but veered off slightly to the North, where the map showed another pool of water. This one was considerably bigger and perhaps would be a likely place for a miner to set up. So far I had seen numerous places which would have been ideal to set up my mine, but I had already set up my house and mine, and I was happy with where I was. The distance was quite long to this pool, taking me well over two hours to get to it! I was rather enjoying the walk; it gave me fresh air, exercise, time to think and time away from my area. Despite it being my home, it sometimes seemed claustrophobic being in the same place all the time, to the point where I was sick and tired of the same old scenery! This walk to the house was doing me the world of good! Towards midday, I made it to the edge of the second pool, realising it was actually two! A huge cliff extended in the distance towards the South, and from where I was, I could make out numerous useful deposits of coal and other ores! I was tempted to go up and mine it, but it would only weigh me down, and I had plenty of coal and iron back home!
I decided to rest here, seeing as though it was a nice open space, and there was water available. After setting up the sleeping bag on the floor, I set out the meat and bread and settled into a hearty lunch! I spent an hour resting, taking in the scenery; it was beautiful in this open area. It was almost like a valley, surrounded by soaring hills and cliffs on practically all sides! Finishing up the meat, I went down to the pool and took a drink. The water was crystal clear, and tasted mountain fresh! I stooped closer to wash my face; my brow had accumulated quite a bit of sweat and it had begun to annoy me. It wasn't incredibly hot, but the water was definitely refreshing! I went back to the sleeping bag and then lay down on it, staring into the sky. There was no hurry, so I took my time in relaxing! After about half an hour, I heard a wolf bark, and I instantly sat up! Looking around, I quickly found the wolf, off to the East, walking around the pool. Was that the wolf that brought the messages from THEROS? I sat there, staring at it for some time, hoping it would turn towards me, but all the while it stood facing away. After a few moments of waiting, it turned toward me and looked in my general direction... No collar... It was a wild wolf... If it cared about me being nearby, it didn't show it. It stood there, staring for some time, before turning and running off towards the North. I shook off the daze I was in, and decided to set off again. The giant cliff that lay a little further East of the pool I was near would provide an excellent vantage point to survey the surrounding area. It may even cover the landmass at the edge of the map! I packed up my stuff and set off towards the cliff.
It took me three hours to scale the cliff... I'm not happy to say... I spent about an hour circling the entire cliff to see if there was any possible place I could begin my climb, but because of the structure, the paths I did find ended rather abruptly! As a result, I had to travel a little to the South to find a path that connected to the cliff from a smaller hill. I found one path that I navigated through trees and past wonderful waterfalls, but once again I was met with a dead end! After a bit of back tracking, I found a suitable location to cross; it was a little thin and looked like it might collapse, but after testing it, the rock and dirt held fast. I continued travelling North along the cliff to try and get to an ideal location to view the Eastern side, but the entire cliff was lined with trees in almost every direction! It was hard trying to tell where I was; at one point I thought I had made it to the Eastern side, and then I saw the pool I had sat close to... From here, I found East and continued on until the path ended. I then followed this edge of the cliff along to the North until I found the perfect place to scout out the surrounding environment!
Looking out across the Eastern edge of the land, I couldn't see much. A thick fog had begun to settle to the far East, obscuring my view. I sat down on the edge of the cliff, and took out my map and compass again. Comparing the view with that on the map, I worked out that I was looking at the landmass on the edge of the map boundary! If the house wasn't there, I would have to check a little further out of the region! As I looked out across the East again, I noticed a small area of what appeared to be exposed stone... This doesn't seem very helpful, but I knew it was rare for stone to appear on the surface. I marked the general on the map just in case. If there was anything there, I would need to be closer to be able to penetrate through the fog! I then looked at the top left and top centre section of the map, and noticed a small island a desert region... There was an odd section to the top left section of the small island which looked like something may have been excavated... After studying it a bit more, I thought about it and couldn't come up with any reasonable explanation for a natural formation to look like that. Was this where Jonas had lived? I stood up and walked to the Northern most tip of the cliff, and looked out towards the North-East... I could just make out the island through the fog, but I couldn't see enough detail to make a decision. I would start off that location next, but as I began to get ready it started to rain! To make matters worse, the sun had just started to go down in the West! It had been hard to track the sun due to the huge number of trees on the cliff, but I had just noticed the dramatic lack of light! I had thought it was the light... I quickly ran back to the small flat piece of land I had been on before, and settled under a tree, untying the tent from the top of the bag. I began to assemble the tent, with a bit of difficulty due in part to the lack of light, the rain, but mostly due to bad design! After ten minutes of messing around with tent posts and support rails, I had erected and secured the tent to the ground.
I crawled inside and placed the sleeping bag onto the floor and set up a few torches. The ground was a bit damp, but I think I caught the rain just in time. I pulled the leather flap across, fastening it to the side and lay down on the sleeping bag. It was surprisingly comfortable, and the leather tent was sturdy and reasonably soundproof. I took out a book and began reading... "Hasif Stathen's Guide to Minecraftia Botany"... It's a better read than it sounds!
It's getting late now... The rain's still going, and I've opened the tent flap to watch the lightning! Right now, I bet Chiron is hiding under my bed, scared out of his wits! Usually he'd be on my bed, burying his face into the covers! He's a tough nut, when it comes to protection, but a flash of light or clap of thunder and he turns into a bowl of jelly! I'm sitting here now, still watching it; I love watching thunderstorms, I don't know why. I've always loved them, ever since I was a kid. I love the fork lightning the most! I loved it so much I learnt about how it works! I was fascinated by electricity every since then... I learnt how lightning and thunder always come in pairs, and that lead onto general electricity. I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that my mum was none too happy when I decided to "inspect" the wiring for the house lights! And there we go! An excellent flash of fork lightning! Brilliant!
Syeonyx signing off
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