This IS the Path!

 We are back to ourselves, but that might make this reality even more strange for it's partial normalcy.

The people are people, mostly as I'm used to, but the world around us (though world is hardly an accurate word) is vastly different. We seemed to be on some sort of ship, but the materials are different. Instead of wood, most of it is steel. There were other materials that I can't even identify.

In any case, we awakened -- yet again -- surrounded by the teleportation glyph, this time in a small room. We were met shortly by our contact in this realm, Lady Blackbird. She said a lot of things that didn't make much sense at the time: Nightport past Haven, Uriah Flint, the Pirate King in the Remnants. We were interrupted by flashing red lights and much activity, so we hurried to the bridge. This is where the real wonder of this realm was apparent. We appeared to be sailing through a starry night, but with no water below us. Just this strange ship in the night sky. We were lit partially by a huge blue mage-light of some kind on our left. Someone called it a star, but that made no sense to me -- stars are tiny, this was possibly larger than our ship.

Apparently the red lights and commotion were about a boarding party, as one entered the bridge not too long after us. Led by a bounty hunter named Veronica, she was there to take Lady Blackbird. We were torn. Her crew looked far more capable than we did, and we still had no real information of what was going on and what we were supposed to do. We thought possibly to let them go, then pursue and stage a rescue. However, though Veronica said she would leave us all in peace, once she had Lady Blackbird in custody, it was suddenly clear to me that she was ordering her crew to kill us. This pretty much made our minds up, and battle was joined. As it turned out, they were much more show than substance, and we finished things with few injuries.

In the aftermath, we tried to figure out what was going on. We talked to the crew, but they were essentially hired hands, with some local information, but no understanding of what we were going through. We found Lady Blackbird in her room and proceeded to try to get some answers. Avery was, shall we say, very direct. He intimidated and interrogated her, and while she didn't seem particularly intimidated, she did give us some information. There was much that she was "not allowed" to tell us, and some of what she said didn't make a whole lot of sense. 

Lady Blackbird is an alias. Her real name is Natasha. According to her, the three of us volunteered to be a part of "ERPEC" or "the Corps," but as part of the training process, our memory of that volunteering was wiped. We are then sent from reality to reality (maybe into other people's bodies?), doing what we can to stop the machinations of "K," who is destroying universes. In the middle of this stream of information, she imparted that while this process is partly a way for the Corps to evaluate us as agents or operatives or whatever, it is more a journey of self-discovery.

Finally! A sure sign that this is the path Master Quoth set me on! I am doing what I should be doing.

Bears?!

 I must write this down now, lest I dismiss it as a dream later. For all I know, it WAS a dream -- or IS a dream. Perhaps this whole journey has been a dream and I will wake soon to begin my travels and learning.

But, I AM learning. Could Master Quoth have created a dream for me to travel in without actually leaving the monastery? It seems more possible than the events that have occurred since going to sleep that night.

In any case, the events of the past day were...interesting. I woke from blackness into blackness. For some reason I was sitting in a chair, and tied to it. But, the more notable detail was that I was not in the correct form. I existed as a honey badger. This is not metaphorical, but literally a honey badger. The two companions I met the day before (was it only one day?) were similarly transformed into a black bear and a polar bear, though distinctively themselves despite the transformation. They were tied to their own chairs, and we had scarcely begun to take in our odd circumstances when they became odder.

A door opened and a grizzly named Flora. She had assumed we worked for a bear named Big E. Yet again, we were at a loss over information that someone thought we had. This is becoming a pattern. Apparently, this Big E had stolen her honey...ledger, which she needs to run her black (bear) market honey speak easy. She thought it would be in a safe in an office in the basement of a warehouse on the other side of a lake. After "agreeing" to retrieve it, we left, walking through a VERY strange building to find a VERY strange world outside. 

There were scores of carts outside. All armored and driven by some magic -- not a single horse or ox to be found. There must be so much battle here that all the carts are covered with armor. They moved faster than the fastest chariot. Nethara was able to figure one out, and we zoomed to find our destination. She located it and we got in fairly easily. We were almost able to beeline directly to the basement and the office. Avery battered the door down, and then battered the safe in (once Nethara had found it). I was able to pry it open and grab everything out of it, but it made a lot of noise that didn't stop.

As we ran to escape the building, all the doors we had gone through had gates descending on them. We were unable to slide under them all, and I lost my center. I panicked, and frantically clawed through several. As we exited the building, two large black carts bearing bears arrived. We ran, but they followed in their armored carts. They had some sort of loud firecracker slings, but Nethara had been given one as well, and stopped one, where I threw an odd staff I had procured and pierced the driver of the other. Having eliminated our pursuit, we returned to Flora's place and gave her everything we found.

There was one page that meant absolutely nothing to Flora, but the symbol it was marked with was familiar, though I've never seen it. I know that it is evil, though I do not know HOW I know that. It said only "Thanks for the favor. We'll be in touch. --K" I fear this will have more far-reaching repercussions than honey. Oh, but the honey is good.

During our foray, I was suddenly reminded of a vignette from my childhood. I saw it as if I were there again, in Master Clegg's study. Finding his stars and teaching myself to throw them properly. Ruining several of his woodcuts. Why that memory? What am I trying to learn? I will need to meditate on this soon.