22/01/02 - Day 7 Dear Mom and Dad, I apologize for not writing in so long, but I've been on quite an adventure. I lost my computer along the way, and this message is getting to you by way of a necco merchant. I'm out in the wilderness that is Faidia! It's amazing how big this world is. There are actually very few large cities besides Tower and a few other places. Let me tell you what happened. Site 4 was in the middle of a large forest best traversed by river, so I drove to the nearest river landing as Fern instructed me. He didn't seem keen on boats at all and turned down my invitation to come along, so I went on by myself without a guide. I think that was my first and most dire mistake. At the landing I got passage on a boat run by a water melcey named Aver. Aver was a grizzly little animal if I've ever seen one, I believe he was older than I was, and he didn't talk much, just padded back and forth on the ship and watched the water. He was good at his trade, but not very forthcoming on information. Site 4 is particularly huge, you see. Chevei are an equine species that inhabit various areas of Faidia but are most numerous in their semi tropical forests, and one herd can occupy an entire forest, an area encompassing hundreds of square miles. I needed to find the specific spot the herd would be gathered at so I could find them quickly during my visit. I asked Aver about it and he growled something to the effect that he cared not for the activities of hillbilly herbivores and went back to examining the current. I shrugged it off and just sat back on the boat, examining the map and planning out a course I would take after the boat dropped me off. Aver dropped me off on this rickety little dock that looked like it was about to fall apart from heat exhaustion. By the time we got there, the air had gotten so muggy and hot I could barely breathe it in. I was glad then that I had packed light. I waved goodbye to an unresponsive Aver and walked along the bank, trying to find the road. There were a few little huts made of grass, neat and tidy with piles of wood stacked up, but there didn't seem to be anyone around. They were very small houses, so I guessed they belonged to melceys. I found the road and started along it, batting at tiny insects as I went. I hadn't been forewarned against any lifesucking insects, but they still made me nervous. They reminded me of mosquitos or what Southern Americans call "no-see-um's," and they were all over the place. I was hoping I'd run into some more houses or another village where I could pick up a guide. But the road began to fork in various directions, the only sign I could see of life in the form of dusty melcey pawprints. There were no hoofprints, which would have given me some kind of clue where chevei were, but so far there wasn't anything but these horrible little bugs. Then it rained. My stuff was all safe in water proof bags, but I was soaked through to the skin in minutes, and it got dark extremely fast, except for the frequent and bombastic lightning. I thought I was going to get washed away in the torrent of water that started flowing down the road. There was still no sign of shelter and I had already walked some miles away from the landing, and I was exhausted and hungry. I found a place to sleep the night under an overturned tree a little ways off the road, but I spent a very miserable night under there, fearing all the time that some unfriendly creature would come make a snack of me during the night. The next morning was long coming, and it dawned with pastellic colors and dripping foliage. Sodden and looking the worst for wear, I returned to the road. To my surprise and joy, I hadn't been walking long before a cart came along, pulled by what I was thrilled to identify as my very first chevei. It resembled a horse in many respects, except for its coloring and a few other features; this one was radiating shades of green. The cart was full of what looked like wooden milk churns, the wheels caked with the light sandy mud on the road, and the person drawing the chevei did a double take at the sight of me. She was a small-proportioned young woman with long, curly red hair wearing a large straw hat and a light dress. She wasn't wearing any shoes and her feet were covered in the mud. She wouldn't have looked terribly out of place on Earth, actually, since her hair was a natural red tone, not like Fern's. She and the chevei didn't seem to know what to think of me until I mentioned my name, and at that point she smiled and laughed. She was the person I was supposed to meet! She had gone down to the landing but too late to catch me. Now she was returning to the herd, or "akali," as she called it, to introduce me to the chevei. Her name was Ceewin, and the chevei mare pulling the cart was Saiyte. Ceewin took me to her cabin, a larger hut in the forest, and gave me fresh clothes to wear and something to eat before taking me out to see the chevei. They are really graceful, gentle creatures, a stark contrast to the carmors I had just seen days ago. Chevei live in groups called "akali," pronounced "ah-caw-lay." They are a fairly ancient Faidian species that lives wild, although there are many Snake chevei living in Tower and other cities. In mannerisms, they are a lot like horses. They are sentient like melceys, just not as intelligent, and although they can speak, they prefer silence. My introductions were a bit sketchy at first; if Ceewin had not been there, they would have simply melted away into the forest at the sight of me. They are shy and flighty animals, except for the bolder stallions, who will defend the other members of the akali if threatened. Chevei are not used often for work, and are only ridden bareback; they do not tolerate saddles, bits, and so forth, as Earth horses do. The churns Saiyte had been transporting contained a special milk made out of grains for the chevei foals who had been recently born in the akali. Ceewin explained that there are other subspecies of chevei besides the ancient forest strain that inhabit mountains, savannah, tundra, and other areas, but they are fairly rare. Carmors love to eat chevei, so the dragons cut down on the territory safe for the chevei to occupy. Chevei have a variety of characteristics you definitely wouldn't see in normal horses. Of the ones I saw, they can have paws, cloven hooves as well as solid hooves, long droopy ears, curling ears, donkey-like ears, and other features. It all depends on their genetics, which Ceewin and other chevei breeders have figured out in order to predict the characteristics a baby chevei will have. It was such a relief to lie down on a soft bed after a night on hard, cold ground, with fresh clothes on. I took plenty of notes during my stay here, but the whole climate seems to encourage outright laziness. You can hear the river from here, and the trees up ahead always seem to be whispering to each other. I sat on the porch for hours with my legs up on the railings, watching the chevei browse among the tree trunks. It's peaceful and sleepy here, so I'm planning on staying several more days. Ceewin said she'd take me to more places in the forest of interest, like their ancient trees and other smaller species of creatures that live here in the woods. There isn't much of a postal system out here and it just gets worse the farther out I go, but I'll try to get my hands on another willing merchant. I found my computer again, but it was rather full of mud, so I have to find a repairman. Poor computer. I hope everything is all right at home. Love you all! Yours, Gary