Hello again. Today I took for myself.

While I certainly enjoy a good party, and the one last night was epic! And I certainly missed my friends fiercely. I sometimes need to just step aside for a while, and savor the silence that only truly comes when you are alone.

Its times like this, that you can hear yourself most clearly. Your deepest thoughts, often just faint echoes in the distance, become close and coherent. Normally, when I'm around people I just kind of sit back in my mind, and ride the flows of the group. It makes being around people much easier. I barely think, just react to their actions. Introspection fades.

Reading what I've just written. It almost seems like I'm saying that when I'm in a group I just follow the leader. An unthinking drone. Thats not what I'm trying to say. It's hard to express. I guess the best way to put it is... My mind is a stream, and my self, my thoughts I guess. Is a fish in that stream.

When I'm alone the stream flows slowly, but deeply. The fish sinks into the depths. Exploring oddly shaped rocks in the stream bed, or examining interesting bits of debris in the water. Slow, deep thoughts. Time is spent pondering things. Feeling out the shapes of ideas in excruciating detail.

It's relaxing, and calming.

And when I am in company. The stream is rushing rapids. Shallow, and fast. Speeding through cataracts at breakneck paces. Strangers stand on the banks, throwing things into the rushing water. And the fish, is just along for the ride. It'll catch glimpses of things it'd like to see in more detail. And It certainly finds the foreign bits that others have thrown into the stream very interesting. But it doesn't have the luxury to slow down. The rushing water forces it along, unable to take its time. It must react now! Respond immediately! No rest! No pause!

It's exciting, and exhausting.

So when I've been in the rapids for days, I find it necessary to settle into a deep pool. This metaphor is getting stretched pretty thin, but the fish takes that time to remember the stuff it saw in the rapids, that foreign ideas and thoughts. And ponder them.

And that is how minds grow. I think.

So today, I left a note telling my companions I'd be back by sundown. I grabbed a sack full of leftovers from the feast last night. Some bottles of good booze, and a cask of fresh water. Then I stole a small boat, and sailed just a little ways away from the docks around Fukai.

I spent the whole day there. From sunup to twilight. Just letting the waves rock the boat, and thinking. And snacking of course.

I thought about where I've been. Remembering wonderous sights, and beautiful places. Desolate landscapes, and verdant forests. I though about the creatures, I'd seen, fought, tasted, and avoided. I thought of Crusher, that massive shelled creature from my early days. I thought of the Little green men, or Legumes as I had decided to call them.

I thought of that annoying fella who led me out of the place I had woken up in. What was his name again? Florence? Freddy? I could just look back in my journal, but that seems like too much effort to waste on such a thing.

I remembered the airship that had taken me from the city. So much more advanced than anything else I've seen. Actually. I've noticed the tech levels of the people I've come across vary wildly. I could speculate as to why that is, but it'd just be speculation.

Looking back, the world is a strange place. I have so many more questions that answers.

Well, not like I'll find the answers sitting on my keister. If I want to know more about this world, them I'm gonna need to find people who know stuff, and ask them.

But first, we owe the Iceni a visit, and we've got some buried pirate treasure to find and enjoy.

Then, we can find some answers.

Goodnight.