Hey Diary,

  We reached Clover. I was scared the city was gonna look totally ruined, like all the towns we passed, but it’s not that bad.

  I mean, yes, it’s bad. But some walls survived, and a handful of buildings have already been completely rebuilt. So that’s good.

  It’s double good that the Traveler’s Guild has been rebuilt, so we have somewhere to stay. They only allowed one room per party, since they’re letting people who don’t have houses stay here, too, meaning tonight all five of us will be in a room that only has one single bed. That’s fine with me, since I can sleep on my flying carpet. I think Maeve and Echo decided the guys can sleep on the floor; I was too busy making sure the horses had a place to sleep to get involved in that argument.

  Tomorrow we’ll be filling the wagon with emergency supply boxes and taking them west. We’re going to take a Mage to a town named Chicken so he can help with the rebuilding process there.

  This will be our first passenger! Echo doesn’t count, since she stayed with us and is basically a part of the family now. This guy will only be with us a single day, and then we’ll never see him again.

  A part of me hopes he’s nice, because people being nice is always good. But I also hope he isn’t too nice and friendly, because then we’d become friends, and then we’d part ways and never see each other ever again. But then I also hope he isn’t a jerk, because sitting in a wagon with a jerk all day doesn’t sound fun at all. We’ll just have to see.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Anyways, I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but I am so glad to be away from the ocean. There’s no more sand in my hair, and there isn’t salt randomly crystalizing on my fur, and I’m not afraid of giant waves, and it’s great. There was a little tiny earthquake today, and I didn’t have to double-check that I wasn’t standing on sand!

  Yes, the ocean is pretty, but something being pretty doesn’t mean I want to be near it ever again. Maybe I could get a painting of it, and put it somewhere. I’d say I’ll hang it in my room, but I don’t have a room.

  I never really thought about that before. I don’t have a room. Weird. I don’t feel, like, sad about it or anything. I have a wagon to put things in, and a flying carpet to sleep wherever I want in. But I don’t have anywhere to put a painting.

  Maybe someday I’ll feel sad about that. But today is not that day. Today I’m sad that there aren’t any restaurants open in the city for people to eat at. Because all the buildings those restaurants were in have fallen down.

  Two blocks away someone set up a grill and started making hamburgers, and sold out in half an hour. Which says something about how desperate people are for food they don’t have to cook. We got to eat in the Guild hall, but I had to cook for us, because the usual cook was busy, y’no, putting his house back up or something.

  Yeah, it’ll be a while before life is back to normal.

  But it’ll get there.

  Signing off,