Before setting off back to stable ground, I looked at the map, and the locations I had ringed; I was particularly interested in the strange square bay in the middle of the island to the North, the exposed stone to the South of the island and a strange patch of white on the map! I couldn't see the cause of this white from the top of the cliff, but I suspected it could be a result of snow... I made my way to the Northern edge of the cliff, to have a quick look at the island; from where I stood, it seemed small, and wouldn't take too long to get to, maybe an hour.
I put the map away and made my way down to the Western edge of the cliff where I had found a path up to the top. With a bit of care, I managed to get down to the bottom within an hour. The sleep had rejuvenated me, and I felt full of energy! As I got to the bottom, I took the map out again, along with the compass to use to get my bearings. At the bottom of the cliff, I headed North, back to where I had seen the wolf yesterday, near the pool. It was a good place to get my bearings as the cliff served as a very accurate landmark! I got to the pool and stopped, faced East and looked up from the map to the cliff. Right, I had the direction set. Now all i had to do was choose a location to go and investigate! Well, on the map there was a single point of interest to the North and two to the South, so I decided to work my way from North to South. Two points of interest surely couldn't both be coincidental! I headed off in a rough East-North-East direction, navigating the loose ground close to the pool of water. I then began to head North, towards where the island was located, and I reached the edge of the water bridging the gap within an hour. Now all I had to was cross! After a few moments, scouring the edge of the land, I found a sufficiently narrow crossing, which for my sake was also relatively shallow! I say "relatively" but it came to the top of my thighs! It wasn't too deep though, and it allowed me to keep the map and compass in hand as I went across. After about ten minutes, I neared the edge of the island, and the current eased off... This made it easier to move through the water, as I wasn't battling against a current pushing me in two directions! I got to the other side in a little over fifteen minutes. Quicker than expected, and a very refreshing walk... Can't argue with that!
I sat down on the grass a few metres from waters edge, trying to relax my legs; it had been hard work pushing against the current, and my thighs had begun to ache... After a few moments, I stood up and resumed the trek, heading towards the North-East side of the island. I was expecting to see a house, or another form of shelter somewhere nearby, indicating the location of this Jonas, but there were only trees, dirt, sand and a few mushrooms. There weren't even any animals! After a further half an hour of walking, I made it across to the strange square bay. After not finding a house, what I saw was pretty much as expected...
I sat down at the edge of the hill before the bay, taking in the sights. It was rare I got time to view much of the scenery. It seemed a lot of scenic spots in this area were to the East of my wall! However, I was quite proud of my house set up near to the huge cliff! It was bigger than the one I had slept atop yesterday, and yet I had never attempted to scale it... Maybe I should. Then again, I had been put off it by the sight of strange shadows and figures lumbering around beneath it... After awhile, I stood up and decided I should continue my search to the South. Seeing as though there was a huge body of water between the island and the next place of interest, I decided it would be best to go back to the main landmass I had come from, skirt around the cliff and continue heading South. It didn't look like there was much in the way of a connection between landmasses, but I had already found out that this map held only so much detail...
nbsp; As I knew where I was going for the most part, I put the map back into my bag, and kept the compass out. I had memorised most of the map by now and I knew it was simply a case of heading almost due South until I found a likely crossing spot to go further East. I waded back through the water, to the other side again, once again taking about fifteen minutes. I had slowed down again because I hadn't noticed the beautiful scenery that I was now facing. I had originally been facing away from it, but now that I was heading back towards the cliff, I could see the beautiful scenery around and on the cliff. I continued across the water until I got back to the shallow end and was able to job slowly out of the water. I slowed down and began to head South as I hit the mainland, making sure that the compass pointed in the right direction. I don't know why, but for some reason, a strange query popped into my head just as I got level with the cliff: "I wonder how accurate this compass is?"... I hadn't really questioned it before, but now I had a lot free time to think about things, and it just popped right in there! There was a simple test, which was to look at the sun! But by now it was about midday, and determining compass directions was difficult. I took the map back out, and compared it to the compass. According to the sun, the map was drawn with the top illustrating East. I turned the map around accordingly so I was holding it upside down as I headed South. The map was right; to the West was the clearly drawn cliff, which I could now see, to the North - or behind me - was the island with the odd square bay, and up to the South was the stone beach! I compared the directions of the map with the compass; the compass was almost spot on, with the needle pointing towards me, indicating North! I put the map away, and began to look around again. Well, at least I wasn't going to get lost... I hope...
After two hours of walking, I had made it to the far side of the cliff! It was considerably bigger than I had imagined, and even the map didn't display its true scale. As I continued, I noticed a small trickle of water coming from above, round a small corner of the cliff. As I progressed, the trickle turned into a small waterfall. As I rounded the corner, the small waterfall erupted into a huge gushing torrent of water, erupting from a small source a few hundred feet up the cliff wall! The water had gushed all the way down, tumbling over rocks, outcrops and trees, to form a lake which met near the edge of the sea! It was beautiful! So much so, I had to take a photo of it! I had a long way to go to find something more beautiful than this!
After standing and staring at it in awe for some time, I decided to go on my way, and I took out the map. I could determine that I had finally reached a small section of land that joined from the main landmass to the small area with the stone beach! This meant no more wading through currents! The sun had started to creep into the Western side of the sky, so I hurried along, making use of the map and the compass to locate the stone beach. There was so much beauty here, and the resources seemed incredibly abundant, it made me think why I hadn't set up here! Then again, I had thought that my drop-off point was a location rich in ores and resources too! And it did have a certain beauty to it, which I couldn't really appreciate anymore, what with the current events. It's nice to get away from it all! After two hours of seemingly aimless wandering, I found the stone beach; it wasn't what I was expecting to find at all! I thought this was a sure sign that this Jonas person had settled nearby...
I began to search small patches of stone, looking for any rough surfaces, indicating tool markings, but it was all weathered smooth! I had found a few small holes which I thought might have been dug out due to resources present, but as with the rest of the beach, it was all natural. Here was the greatest chance of Jonas being found, and there was nothing, not even signs of mining... After a few more minutes of looking around, I began to find exposed patches of coal and iron. If Jonas, or anyone, had settled here, or nearby, they wouldn't have left that behind! By this time the sun had started to go down, and the sky had the same gloomy appearance it had yesterday before it begun raining! I was going to set up the tent on the stone beach, but with it being rather low, and too close to the waters edge, I decided I better not risk it. After a few minutes of looking around, I found a suitable hill to set the tent out. Despite yesterday being the first proper attempt at assembling the tent, I didn't seem to have learnt anything, as it took just as long to set it up, possibly longer! After half an hour of messing around with the iron supports, I had it erected, and just as it had begun to rain! It rained a lot in this area, but then again I was fan of the rain! I laid the sleeping bag down, and took out the map. The one place of interest left was the strange white area, which was rather close to where I was, maybe an hours walk. If there was nothing there, it would be a case of walking up and down the length of the land, looking for anything to suggest habitation! I just hoped I didn't go off the map, into unchartered territory.
It has stopped raining, and there is that wonderful smell in the air that you get after a heavy rainfall! The tent is once again proving its waterproof properties and keeping me totally dry. I fastened the tent flap and I'm getting ready to go to sleep... I'm hoping there won't be too much walking tomorrow... I'm knackered!!!
Syeonyx signing off
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