Great jumping horse radishes, that was bizarre. All at once, almost as if a wave hit me, all of my memories came back. Quite intriguing, temporary induced amnesia. Not only did it make me forget everything, but it also gave me quite a headache. Well, I must say that monster is most bizarre. I still do not remember bringing it to the manor, so I would guess it not only temporarily removes all memories, but also permanently removes a section of time in which the target was likely in close proximity to it. I would estimate that the time would be about 30 minutes, and I can then guess as to the reason for the cloth. That creature releases some sort of gas or pheromone that disorients and disables would-be attackers. I must have been using the cloth as a way to prevent or, because I did pass out from it, slow it down long enough to get back to the manor. I cannot believe I was scared of Shadow while I had no memory.
Well this is interesting, I will need to be much more careful with this monster, as I have no idea how much time passed after I passed out. Any attempts to learn anything about it must be done with extremely meticulous note taking, as there is the possibility of forgetting it. Where has Griffin gotten off to? I will need his help with this. We can do a sort of tag-team operation, taking turns and notifying anything we find to the other. Although this necessitates having a means of communication, well, I guess letters will have to do. First I would like to determine how long I have before I succumb to the creature’s effects. That will dictate anything we plan on doing. I must go find Griffin and tell him about it.
March 29th
Well, I have found where everyone went. One of the scrying tortoises we found began to lay eggs. Everyone in the manor went to watch, with Griffin keeping an eye on the whole process, so I guess now we get to the inevitable: they likely know about the existence of monsters by now. This is most certainly a conundrum.
March 29th
Quite the contrary. We had an interesting conversation about strange beasts and unexplainable occurrences. Maryanne has a few from over the years that could be interesting to look into, furthermore she even has a few mysteries from when she was in England as a young girl. Archibold, god rest his soul, had not only hired her as a maid, but decided to care for her when her parents died. She did not go into much detail about it, it seems it was just a sudden disappearance, but that would be interesting to look into. Unfortunately, that took place nearly 30 years ago. I did not tell her about the octopus monster. Neither did Griffin, I guess he wants to keep that between us. She now knows some of the truth about Shadow. It is downright unnatural how much she has grown in the past months. She is more than half the size of her mother already, there is no way Maryanne did not know that she wasn’t a normal dog.
You know, I think my fears were unfounded. A cycle of previous betrayals has caused me to doubt the people closest to me, I should put a little more faith in them. That being said though, I think I will continue to play my cards pretty close to my chest, as they say. Wouldn’t want her to get paranoid, now would we?
Interesting. I must say this is most, most interesting.
March 30th
Right back to business today. Griffin and I spent nearly all day working on that memory monster. I have concocted a potion of sorts, I guess you could say. It is a vial that contains some of the stuff secreted by the memory monster. In theory, if I throw it, it will break and whatever is in its radius will become incapacitated. I have also found something interesting about the gas. The 30 minutes preceding when the gas is FIRST inhaled are erased permanently, as well as roughly the next 20 minutes. Total permanent loss varies but it never equals more than an hour.
March 30th
I just realized that I never actually described that monster. It is a hairless little blob-looking quadruped. Sections of its skin are scaly and cause itchiness when touched. Its skin hangs loose around its small body and it has an overall unpleasant appearance.
March 31st
I have confirmed the symptoms and determined the gases I captured to maintain effectiveness. That is contradictory to most of the monsters I have found. Usually, any special behavior or a body part loses its abilities when separated from the body. It is fortunate that the gas is able to maintain its uses after being harvested and removed from close proximity of the monster, as I imagine it could be very useful in the future.
April 2nd
Today I thought it would be a good idea to try to find the mermaid again. I had been thinking that if it does not go well, I can merely use the gas to erase its memory as many times as needed. In theory, I should then be able to lure it out and capture it. I did not need to use the vial of memory gas. I should say it went well, for no harm was done to Griffin or I. I had been wary of the beast’s strength ever since it revealed it to me by tossing me out of the water. The mermaid also had viciously sharp teeth and nails, which surely could have been deadly.
Yesterday, we had discussed capturing her. In hindsight, Griffin must have warned her, because when I arrived at the lake, she was waiting at the edge of the water. As I prepared the net, still hidden within the tree line, Griffin interrupted me from my task with a hand on my shoulder and we then engaged in a brief argument.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Do not drag her out with a net.” He told me.
“We don’t know if it is dangerous.” I had replied.
“No. She is right there at the edge of the water. Treat her like a human.”
“Why on earth should I?”
“Just trust me. Let her be in my care.”
“Fine. But if something goes wrong, it will have your head.”
He nodded and I followed his lead out onto the sand. The mermaid’s hair bobbed in the clear water. Her grey eyes had a certain warmth as she looked up at Griffin, who knelt before her. They began to converse in a mixture of clicks, whistles, english, german, and hand signals for several minutes. Patches of scales on her face and body lit up occasionally as they communicated and after a few minutes, she extended her arms towards him and Griffin pulled her into his arms. He then stood up, pulling her out of the water, and walked towards a clear area of grass. He set her down then leaned forward and whispered something in her ear. Whatever it was that he said, she repeated some of it and then he kissed her passionately on the lips.
What happened next was incredible. She began to transform right in front of our eyes into a human. Her tail shrank and split apart, the pale blue scales fading to clear, smooth skin. There were marks on her legs and arms that stayed, though, curving gracefully around her thighs and down her shins. There was still a smattering of scales that had not disappeared. Her palms and heels had tiny scales, as well as dots of reflective skin around her shoulders. Her toenails were the same color as the fins of her tail, and she had what looked like blotchy white birthmarks on her fingers. She looked in awe at her legs, running a hand down her thigh.
Griffin is teaching her how to walk right now. He has gotten her a walking stick to make it easier.
April 3rd
Strangely, I wish I still had some of that wolf meat. While it is true that I only kept it at the time to survive the winter, it seems I have acquired a taste for it.
Today has been and will continue to be a slow day. Griffin has brought the mermaid back to the manor. She will be staying with us, at least for some time, so Griffin decided to give her a name. He decided on the name Daphne, which is a name from his home country. The manor is slowly filling up: Shadow, Daphne, Archibold’s maid, who is now staying here as well. Yet I feel a sense of melancholy. While I would not call them all family, although perhaps Griffin is different as nothing is better at forming bonds of brotherhood than danger, my home has begun to fill up and with that I only begin to notice just how empty it can sometimes feel. The holes left in my life by Father, and then Archibold, even though for a short time, have become more noticeable. It certainly does not help that last night I had a dream again. I rarely dream. On the infrequent times I do, I often wake up fresh from some fight, usually triumphant. Those are the only dreams I ever seem to have, which makes it far more intriguing that I have been revisiting old memories while asleep. This time it was of that first summer after Father left. I hardly even remember the events of that day, despite having just relived it while asleep. I mostly feel that sense of abandonment and confusion. Why is this happening? This is not the first time I have dreamed of past memories. It is most definitely out of the ordinary, and if I have learned one thing, it is that there is always a cause when something ceases to be ordinary.
It will be hard to find anything about this phenomenon, though, so I have little hope of figuring it out.
On another note, I think I have figured something out. I think the man that I saw that day may have been Archibold. If so, he looked vastly different. Easily 30 pounds lighter and with warm brown, albeit receding, hair. This would certainly make more sense. If Archibold did have contact with Maryanne after Father left. He just looked very different back then. It was close to 20 years ago, after all.
April 5th
Nothing interesting has happened outside of the manor. I am thinking I will at last begin to expand my search radius. I will have to rely on other people to inform me of anything strange happening, which will require going out and talking to as many people as possible.
Griffin will probably go with me for most of it, although I expect him to spend more time at the manor. Daphne knows nothing about the human world, so he, and Maryanne, have been teaching her various things. Griffin is starting with communication, while Maryanne has focused on clothing and manners. She is quite receptive, quickly picking up on what Maryanne is doing and imitating her. It took a while for Daphne to get even remotely comfortable around Shadow. She is still a little nervous and tends to avoid even being in the same room.
Something strange also happened today. Griffin was entertaining her with one of the scrying tortoises when he says he saw someone through it. While it is true that we have been keeping them near the manor, I had yet to see any sort of civilization or human life through the tortoises. That was what made it unusual for Griffin to have claimed to see someone. I have set up a written note propped in front of the tortoise. If the person finds it again, they should see my note and we can hopefully begin a correspondence. It would be interesting to learn about how big the area containing scrying tortoises is.
April 5th
The person we saw through the tortoise appears to be a young woman, between the ages of 17 and 22. She had a dummy made of wood and straw, on which she was practicing various fighting moves. Griffin and I were going to take turns watching the tortoise waiting to see the person again, or for some kind of response. Alistair switched out with Griffin, though, as Griffin went to help Daphne with something. He has claimed responsibility for caring for Daphne almost in its entirety. She seems to cling to him because of that, or maybe it is the other way around. Anyway, Alistar came running to fetch me and that is when I saw the girl through the tortoise.
It now makes a little more sense to me. Alistair recognized an insignia on her jacket at some point and told me it belonged to a well-to-do family he had at one point encountered in England. If she is their daughter, which Alistair says she looks to be, then there is no doubt that she is running off to a secluded part of a forest to practice activities she would be looked down on for partaking in due to her status, especially combined with her being a woman.
I quickly wrote out a new note in English and sat waiting for her to finish her wrestling practice. She was doing various pins and body throws for at least 40 minutes before she took a break. It was at that point that she noticed the tortoise, and my note. With no way to write back, she clumsily motioned with her hands until I understood and now I await her reply of readiness.
This is remarkable! To think there is a scrying tortoise as far away as England! And what luck that these two tortoises would be linked, otherwise I would not know how far away some of these tortoises live.
