Just to say that I remain keen, but the timing has proven unfortunate, and so it might take me a few days. Apologies for the delay right off the bat.
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(Was away for a weekend of ukulele.)
Mortimer, to friends.
Link to Pinelight: it is good to rove, but everyone needs somewhere to come back to. I might be gone for half a season, but then Iâll be back and working on the wicker that underpins so much else.
Joy or sorrow: bringing the first news of the destruction of Hollow Cone, after it was struck by lightning and burned. Many survived, some of them even live here now, but the old community is gone.
Connection to the guilds: well, a good strong beak is always welcome, and lately Iâve been learning some of the guild secrets too.
Kind of art: well, some find it a bit gruesome, but sculptures of cleaned bone. Itâs a way of showing respect.
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Pinelight became my home after my previous community was lost to a flood. I was away on a trip at the time, and I returned to find almost nothing left. I spent some time looking for others and recovering what I could find from the tunnels, but it was all too late, and so I set off again in search of survivors and in search of a new home.
Upon moving to Pinelight I was reunited with my old friend Aisha whom I had feared drowned in the floods. A Stitcher mole-rat, now of advanced years but still with steady paws and an eye for fine detail, Aisha is well-regarded by the guild for the quality of her work. Although far from her native land, she has settled here and made Pinelight her home.
I am on friendly terms with several of the Stitchers guild for this reason, but have more direct involvement with the Mapmakers, who have been working on a new and highly-detailed survey of the Pinelight region, requisitioning my services on a number of occasions to help them establish greater below-ground details of one region or another (and especially in the wetlands close to the loch). It was on one such excursion that I first met Mortimer, who was helping the guild with their aerial views.
Iâm not much of an artist, but I sometimes sketch with charcoal. Often these are impressions of the places that Iâve been, but occasionally I try to sketch the day-to-day goings-on in this place. I feel that the rough sweep of the charcoal is a good approximation for the way I see the world. I donât think Iâm very good, though, so I rarely show them to anyone.
[I think my brain had picked up on Rogerâs mention of the Hollow Cone fire, and that subconsciously came back in the form of a flood when I was editing this piece and needed a reason why Iâd moved away from my old home, which was the last thing Iâd added. Iâm now inclined to edit this so that Hubert used to live in Hollow Cone.]
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It is a rare occasion that sees you requested by Toto the Overseer. You feel a little on edge as you enter the Council Hall. Toto herself rarely is seen beyond the Hallâs walls these days, though in the past, you are told, she roamed all over Pinelight, ensuring all her projects proceeded smoothly.
You see others entering the hall at the same time as you. Mortimer, you see your friend Hamish -renowned for his talented teeth and voracious appetite. Hubert, amongst them you notice Mhairi the bat and Stockings the Sparrow fellow Mapmakers. You also notice Beileag, a Stitcher friend of Aishaâs, carrying a First Aid kit.
Everyone appears excited by the audience with Toto.
Would you like to ask your friends anything as you wait for her to appear?
Beileag always knows when people are going to need help.
âHave you heard anything? Iâve seen nothing amiss Outside, but you never knowâŚâ
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News usually travels fast amongst the birds, and so I gravitate towards Stockings, asking which area they are currently working on for the new map project, and whether theyâve heard why Toto has gathered us all here today?
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Beileag smiles in greeting. âI am not sure but Aisha did say that the master workers may need help finishing the All-Craft. Thatâs why I am ready to goâ - she crooks her long left ear towards her first aid kit and her backpack, which holds several spools of thread of different colours on bobbins, ready to be activated.
Stockings cheeps a greeting!
âWe are planning on surveying the Crossing Loch next. It has been years since we last did a proper survey past the Stepping Stones. Thatâs why I think Toto has asked for us - I think there is a Scurry on the brew!â
âExcellent, I could do with an excuse to stretch my wings!â
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âShush!â whispers Hamish and everyone in the hall stops talking. His bushy tail twitches in anticipation.
Toto the Overseer enters, her massive tabby bulk dominating the space. Her right eye is green and shrewd. Her left eye is milky. You all know that she can no longer see out of it, but that only makes her more of a formidable presence rather than less. She extends her left claw and drums it on the floor for attention.
âThank you all for coming. Pinelight has need of some worthy champions to aid in the creation of the All-Craft. You have been chosen as the most likely to succeed!â
Mhairi the bat flaps her leathery wings in excitement.
âFirst though, I must select two worthy teams to Scurry forth. I will interview you for the positions!â
And that is what she does. She asks each of the Beasts in turn about their skills, their connection to Pinelight, and their links to the guilds. Some Beasts answer poorly, some are so intimidated by the ancient cat that they forget their words. Others are too bold in their assertions, whilst one poor hedgehog attempts to answer in verse. It does not go well. Stockings, Hamish, Mhairi and Beileag all answer well, at least as far as you can reckon. Then the beady green eye appraises you analytically.
âMortimer and Hubert! We have not yet heard from you as to why you are the best for this Scurry. Tell me what skills you will bring to the journey. Tell me why Pinelight means so much to you that you would put yourselves in danger, and tell me how your connections to the guilds will help you in your quest. Then we will see who is best!â
Do we have an understanding of the nature of and/or reason for this dangerous journey? All I know so far is that the All-Craft is to be a mural, which feels like something which would be created locally. Is this mural perhaps to be created somewhere distant? I donât currently understand what Toto is asking. Nor why two different teams are needed (although Iâm guessing that part is purely a matter of redundancy, given the apparent danger, so that should one team fail, the other might still succeed).
(And if we did not know any such details on our way in, what have we gleaned from listening to the responses of the others?)
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The All-Craft is a mural, to be created here in Pinelight.
Mhairi - ever excitable, whispers âI heard that they need some vital reagents to finish the mural. They must be asking us to go and fetch them. They canât be in Pinelight so they must need us to go on a scurry to fetch them. What an honour!â
âShush!â Hamish looked at the bat sternly.
âI fly high. I see far. I bring back the news to Pinelight. I may not always sleep here, but here is where I have built my nest. The Wickerweavers are about taking what we have, and making something new with it; we improvise, we find a way.â
Toto looks thoughtful. âWell Mortimer, that sounds that you may be a good fit for the Greenwall Hike to find the Half-sight ink, or to support the Loch Diving to get the Sun-Drinking Stars. I am not sure you would be a good fit to brave the Shake Shack for the Light Throwing Crystals. I am thinking of pairing you with Hubert.â
She turns to Hubert. âWhat do you think? With Mortimerâs skills and your own, would you prefer to brave the Greenwall or the Crossing Loch? Or even the adder nests of the Titan Ruins, if that is what you prefer?â
You know the following:
The Greenwall lies to the east of the Bristley Woods and is a place of lawless danger. The trees grow tall here but many are also dead, hollowed out with rot.
The Crossing Loch has small islands, called the Stepping Stones, who guide sailors across the deep and treacherous loch.
The Titan Ruin is made from sheets of wood and metal set into strange, poured stone foundations. Inside adders wait in slumber.
âAny of those sounds like fun. Do you have a preference, Hubert? I might go for the Greenwall or the Ruins, butâŚâ