W'toyar-tak-tair Ovweraiyi
Officer Kalti Reketiyai of the Second Rank
The Tuhran city of Yek'tra has been captured. Terms of surrender by the rest of the Tuhran forces should arrive by the end of the week.
Everyone under the second level of rank has been honorably discharged. Three instances of protest have occurred at various points in our encampment, but most find going home sufficient.
As a soldier in the second rank who can read and write legibly, I have been offered a special task which will require careful documentation.
To this end, I have confiscated a blank book from the Yek'tra city library and plan to use this to record said special task.
W'toyar-tak-yek Ovweraiyi
Expedition Overseer Kalti Reketiyai
I, along with a number of other officers, am assigned to command an exploratory force, tasked with assembling a crew, and granted a transport vessel. I plan on drawing my pool of recruitment from the disgruntled, discharged soldiers.
I am the only officer of the second rank, and the lowest ranking officer, to be assigned a task. My team has been provided a mission without a certain destination and hence the mission with the most risk. The target location is Retkokua, the mythical homeland of the giant Kauaru.
W'toyar-tak-wuo Ovweraiyi
Expedition Overseer Kalti Reketiyai
The remaining mobile army rations were distributed among the expeditionary forces. Because of the uncertain length of our trip, our team was the last served but the best served. Our supply can last three seasons, according to Explorer Iorow Rakplau.
On that note, I have met with the sailors and captain of the transport vessel and have brought along nine additional adventurers, bringing the number to that of a standard squadron. We set sail for Wlitowa tomorrow.
Yek-tak-w'toyar Ovweraiyi
Expedition Overseer Kalti Reketiyai
We have landed at our final port on our map, at the tip of the Wlitowa continent.
On collecting our final supplies for the voyage, we were set upon by two females: Iwyi and Roai. They claimed to be twins with Kauaru blood. Their heights supported their claims, and local knowledge didn't provide opposing alternatives. They asked to join the voyage.
I conferred with Explorer Rakplau. He noted that the addition of the twins, especially given their size, would provide strains on the food supply, lowering the it from three to two seasons. I decided that the difference of one season would likely not lead to any additional discovery and so agreed to the twins' proposition.
Yek-tak-w'toyar Krotraryi
Expedition Overseer Reketiyai
It has been one season, to the date. Through careful rationing, we have about twenty days left in our supply before we must return home. I am marking one instance of animosity between Iwyi and Iorow. I am also recording the rumor that Roai has been skipping key rations, moving the food back into the supply. Normally I wouldn't enter uncertainties into the logs, but there is now a visible difference of the health between the twins, giving the rumors credence.
Yek-tak-wuo Krotraryi
Expedition Overseer Reketiyai
I am marking Roai's death in the logs for the sake of her family and town back home. I was unable to obtain exact final words, but secondhand sources approximate them as "One Kauaru will return home alive, and one will return to be buried." The coroner declared that the cause was malnutrition.
The food supply has increased one additional day because of her passing, but morale of the crew is measurably low.
War-tak-te Krotraryi
Expedition Overseer Reketiyai
We have discovered land on our final day of supplies. The terrain is marshland, and the grasses there are neither substantial nor edible. Explorer Tekay tried eating handfuls of grass in front of the crew to test its viability. This act raised morale slightly and briefly.
Our first act upon landing was to bury Roai. It was impossible to dig a hole large enough in the soggy ground, and we could not find better candidates. Fortunately, Roai was heavy enough to, when set on the ground, sink below the mud-line. We placed a marker there memorializing her death, though we do not expect it to last long.
War-tak-tair Krotraryi
Expedition Overseer Reketiyai
We have begun our trip inland. We found neither evidence of animal life nor that for the precursors of the Kauaru. Iorow insisted that the marsh would make settlement impossible.
Explorer Tekay, as per the orders of the ship doctor, has been left behind in his cabin. The doctor failed to explain why in understandable terms, but both the captain and I mandated that no one eat the grass.
The only crew member with above-average morale is Iwyi. Her high spirits seem to raise those of the others up. I am marking her addition to the crew as a good idea.
War-tak-yek Krotraryi
Expedition Overseer Reketiyai
A small advance party came back with reports of a small concentration of bitter, cyan fruit trees. Of the advance party, Iwyi was the only one who could reach them. She had distributed the first fruits to her comrades and brought the rest back in her dress to the main group before requesting to eat. I planned on distributing them, but Explorer Iorow countered my orders and demanded that the fruit be confiscated. Because of my trust in Explorer Iorow's knowledge, I agreed and changed my orders to meet his.
I am recording physical confrontation and insubordination by Explorer Aytre. His actions gave Explorer Iorow a concussion. While he did manage to seize and eat a fruit, Aytre was promptly disciplined with twenty lashes.
War-tak-wuo Krotraryi
E.O. Reketiyai
Iorow was right, but he might not live to gloat about it. The advance team, save for Iwyi, has reported ceaseless pain, unnerving the healthy and forcing a pause. Iorow has a bruise on his head which seems to grow larger with each passing hour.
I'm calling a retreat. It is clear that there is no benefit from continuing further. The discovery of this new continent should be more than enough. Perhaps a better-equipped team could take my place one day. In the meantime, I have surveyed the continent up to this point and have drawn a map of everything we encountered at the back of this log.
Wuo-tak-te Krotraryi
E.O. Reketiyai
Iorow is dead and so is the ship's crew. We don't know what happened, but Explorer Tekay is nowhere to be found. I figured burying them beside Roai would be fine enough, but Iwyi insisted that we make a separate grave for the non-Kauaru. I reluctantly agreed. Hopefully the two markers I've denoted on the map would be enough for future explorers to find. Already, I can only see the top of Roai's grave marker.
Our supplies weren't heavily damaged, and there are fewer mouths to feed. That said, we'd be sailing a ship with an inexperienced skeleton crew. This doesn't bode well, but we have no choice.
Wuo-tak-yek Krotraryi
Kalti
Well, it didn't take long for us to hit a storm. Our ship collided against a rocky island, and our nonexistent sailing skills couldn't salvage it. There are no trees here, and nobody's going to bother touching the grasses. That said, it's a considerably nicer place to die. The ground feels solid, and the breeze feels nice. Iwyi keeps on trying to fix the ship, saying that it's all her fault and stuff like that. I dismissed her from service. Honestly, I don't even recall if I recruited her. The journal doesn't say.
Wuo-tak-Ah who cares
Kalti Reketiyai
This will be my final entry into this journal. I'm going to try and bury it somewhere where the elements can't get to it. I've walked the circumference of the island, and I've mapped out every accessible square cubit of it. It's on the second-to-last page, right before the map of the continent. I hope someone will find this, and I hope this saves his/her crew from eating anything on the mainland.
And hey, since I'm selfish, here are some personal thoughts:
The Tuhrans didn't seem like that bad of a people. You got a problem with that? Execute me. I'm already dead.
Roai, at least when we met her, was really hot. Iwyi was- Still is? Yeah, still is- pretty too, but it's not the same.
Iorow was unbearable. He was always right. That's why he was unbearable. T'koray was worse, though.
All right, that's it. If you get this, please name the island after me.
Signing off,
Expedition Overseer Kalti Reketiyai
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