Chapter 246: Day 245

Day 245,

Back on the island of vines and crabs, and thus back on our original outward bound course.  Going to go take a closer look at those trees that I didn’t get a chance to last time while Maiko catches another vineful of crabs for tonight’s dinner.

 

And once more we make camp surrounded by tiny round flightless birds.  I had been a little worried about any crabs we brought with us escaping and becoming an invasive species, but as it turns out the birds have enough of a taste for them that I don’t think that will be an issue.  They’re rather less cute when they’re holding a crab down with one foot and plucking legs off with their beak.

The others have already begun to settle in for the night - with Maiko once again sleeping in the boat to avoid being a bird magnet - but despite the soreness in my back and arms and tenderness of my palms from rowing (I may have overcompensated in my attempt to make up for not being much help on the way out) my mind remains bothersomely active.  And so I turn to my usual insomnia cure of rambling writing, although gently stroking the bird that’s decided to nest on my lap for warmth helps too.

Oh yeah, speaking of animals, we saw a whale yesterday.  Or something that I’m pretty sure was one at any rate.  Didn’t get around to mentioning it with all my musing on naps and friendship.  And sort of getting cut off early both times I sat down to write.

It was shortly after we set off from Iole’s island in the morning.  Lin was the one to spot it and point it out to us since she was facing east, away from the direction we were moving as one does while rowing.  It was pretty far off, but it was big enough for her to spot the blow spout and for the rest of us to make out a lump on the surface of the water that wasn’t a wave.  Mostly though we just saw the fluke briefly go up as the creature dove back down.  What a sight it would have been to see it up close.

Although, knowing the bounded nature of this sea, I'm a little surprised to learn that this world has whales, particularly ones of that size.  I would have thought they’d need a wider area to roam and support a population.  I suspect this implies that the sea gets deeper than I’d previously suspected as well.  Given Pat’s story about the edge of the world (if I take it to be true and accurate) with the water getting shallow the way it does toward the edge, I imagine there must be some steep dropoffs/rises in the depth of this bowl we’re all living in.

I find myself thinking once more of that metal pillar.  Could it have been a boundary marker of some sort?   Part of the reason we don’t see large sea creatures like that closer to the Village?

If I go into Cloud Tower would I find an answer to that question?

Okay, my leg’s falling asleep before the rest of me.  Need to figure out how to shift position without disturbing this bird too much.

 

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