Part 2, from the Travel Journals (Iana's story #29)

From Prince Roderick's Travel Journals


3 days counting, before April, in the year 217 - Evening

There has been an incident. We might be stuck here longer than we thought. I do not quite know when it happened. It occurred sometime after our visit to the village matriarch.

"Grandmother is resting. You'll have to wait Strangers." The matriarch's granddaughter said, but allowed us to come in to wait. She kept her face turned wore a simple veil over her head, so we only saw her left side in profile. I could see only shadows on the right half. She led us to chairs by the hearth and fetched mugs of something warm and strangely spicey. She said Blind Thomas was allowed to stay only if he didn't play with his lute. Blind Thomas soon left, clutching the lute under his arm, saying he'd be at his usual spot by the well, practicing if we needed anything.

The home of the matriarch was the largest I'd seen in the village of Lost Hope, with a covered porch around three sides of it, while inside was a large stone hearth, and two other rooms besides the main room and kitchen. One room was where the matriarch slept. There was a bed also in the main room. It was occupied by a girl who appeared soundly asleep. We kept our voices low, to not disturb her, until the granddaughter told us, "Don't mind her. She'd can't hear us, or even if she does she won't wake up. She has to sleep during the day and is awake only at night."

"A curse?"

Travel Journals, Part 1 of 2 (Iana's story #28)

I wonder how many fairy tales I can pack into this story. Is too many too many? I think I'm being a little too one sided with Grimm's fairy tales, I need to go out and find others. George McDonald, Oscar Wilde, L. Frank Baum, and from different countries, Japan, India, China, Australia, and Africa. Although those will be more like folk tales. 

Finally, some of the secrets were revealed in the last chapter. Below, Roderick's story continues. The last time we heard from Prince Roddy, he'd finally discovered the cursed village. 


Prince Roderick's Travel Journals, Part 1

4 days of counting before April, in the year 217 -Evening

We arrived yesterday in the cursed village, the Lost Village, or as Thomas the blind tailor calls it, the Village of Last Hope. It was hidden cleverly from the main flow of the Trade River by an embankment of tangled forest and thorny bushes. We followed a small stagnant stream up, pushing aside the overhanging branches. The water so thick with mud and dead

Prince Roderick's Travel Journals (#20 of Iana's story)

Previously from Iana's Story, and where last we left Prince Roddy, and now his search for a cursed village continues.
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From Prince Rodericks' Travel Journals (#20 of Iana's Story)
10th day of counting before April, year 217

The search continues. No village. Only endless weed and riverbank. The weather soured, which gives Leric plenty to complain about. He refuses to leave his quarters. Holing up in the coffin-like bunk would make me ill too. The head space on this barge nonexistent. A child's leg room not a grown man's. I haven't had time to write as much these days, the crew short handed as it is. Perhaps this venture should be abandoned?