None

~39 AD

On top of a barrel within a house in the Morin Khur ravine/river village.

Beatel

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A snake appeared in the village today, it was seen slithering behind the house of the old woman, Ekh Nogutani.

I have done the warding rituals as she requested, as she believes one may have placed a curse on her to call the creatures so they may strike at her in her sleep.

I do wish to believe her, for my former master and I cleansed many such curses, but she has made many such claims over the years.

She is haunted by her past.

She was one of the only survivors of her khuren being attacked in her youth, she will not speak of this often. The village knows, but we pretend we do not, for her. We all have silently agreed to allow her to pretend to have been from the city above.

Like her, I found myself here after a lifetime of wandering. But it is my assumption that my life, despite the horrors that I have witnessed, may have been less hard on me than poor Nogutani.

She has a kind soul.

Animals and children take easily to her, even horses that startle at the slighted of movements find calm through Nogutani's gentle touch and faint whispers.

Perhaps there is even something for me to learn from her.

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