SHIP'S LOG:

Murder of Crows

Bethel Ways 12/19/2024 10:33pm

You get into a groove, climbing the 20 trees for @Master Willi.

They've gotta be tall trees. Which is most of the trees in the forest around Sugar Pine Temple.

There's no time limit on how long you can take to climb the 20 trees, but you have do them all together, one after another, and you don't want to be late for dinner or other duties because then you get in trouble for that.

So you start up the first tree and just keep on going. After a few, they all get to looking like the same tree, over and over. Same pine smell, same sticky pine sap on your hands, same blue sky and clouds peeking through the same pine branches.

After you really get into the groove, you don't even have to climb down between trees. You just keep going up and up till you've climbed 20. It's just one big tree.

That's how you master climbing the 20 trees.

Patsy Mikard 8/24/2024 11:38pm

"Oh, uh, Patsy, sir. Patsy Mikard."

Master Willi 5/3/2024 5:33pm

"What is that terrible reek? Is it YOU, @Bethel Ways?"

"Yes Master Willi. I found some nuts."

"Then YOU @Bethel Ways can climb 20. Starting now."

"Yes Master Willi."

Bethel Ways trotted off.

"And where might these nuts have come from? Snuck in by a new recruit?"

"Master Willi, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"Well that's true. At least not by you. Plus, you can go climb 20 too. What's your name, recruit? ... RECRUIT?!"



...

...

Bethel Ways 1/11/2024 11:08pm

"Hey! What are those? Nuts? Gimme some!"

"You can have the rest. I'm done," I said.

"Wow thanks. Haven't had nuts like these sense before I came here. Not allowed, you know."

"Yeah I snuck them in with with me. Somehow they don't taste the same."

"That's the Sugar Pine magic working its way into you already. Starts with the tongue."

"Well, I can't get kicked out on my first day. What a disappointment I'd be."

"People at home counting on you? Came to learn the Seven Skills? Go back and defend the village?"

"How did you know that?"

"Same reason most everybody's here. Same reason I'm here. Get all trained up, fight the good fight and all that."

"And those nuts won't mess up your... tree flow?"

"Oh Master Willi will probably smell 'em on me, make me climb 20. But it's worth it. Even if they don't taste like anything anymore."

The Pinecone Tome 9/27/2023 11:11pm

ON EATING DREAMPINE NUTS

The eater of Dreampine nuts should be prepared for serious changes.

The Sugar Pine School does not condone the consumption of Dreampine nuts without special encoded situalization. Bonded applicants only.

Would you like to reconsider consuming Dreampine nuts?

No?

Then let's begin.

You're traveling in car with several people. It's a white, late fifties early sixties style car...

Postie McCharge 6/24/2023 1:33pm

Pinecones, eh? Yes they were scattered throughout the small park. And not another soul visiting this particular Pineville attraction.

A number of cones still held seeds between their scales. Dreampine nuts! Were they still fresh and viable?

I broke one off and put it in my mouth.

Beatrice 3/4/2023 5:24pm

THE TALLEST PINE IN PINEVILLE

Beatrice, the tallest pine in Pineville, is the last remaining tree from the vast Dream Tree forests that once covered this area.

The Dream Tree forests provided a rich economic bounty for many years, and turned Pineville into a roaring boomtown during the "Pine Age." Eventually, however, unsustainable imagination farming practices led to a collapse of the local psychostructure.

Now, Pineville offers the very finest in recreational activities for outdoor enthusiasts and tourists alike, and salutes the day when Imaginary Lumber was king!

DO NOT REMOVE DREAM PINECONES FROM THE AREA. REMOVAL OF ENDANGERED DREAM PINECONES FROM THE AREA WILL RESULT IN SUBSTANTIAL DREAM PENALTIES.

Postie McCharge 12/1/2022 11:57pm

Beatrice was well known as the tallest pine in Pineville.

Beatrice was a Sugar Pine, as were many of the pines in the forests around Pineville.

Beatrice was at least 500 years old.

Beatrice had roots deep underground.

Beatrice had stood near the town square, with a special plaque denoting her status as the tallest pine in Pineville.

But now, Beatrice was standing about a mile from the town square, in the empty lot where the New Mill had stood. Before the New Mill disappeared.

I noticed there was a new plaque.

Postie McCharge 9/7/2022 11:23pm

I rented a mountain bike at Pine Cycle, across the street from Fancy's Breakfast bar, where I had just enjoyed one of their delicious "power muffins."

"Here is the power, my brother," said the clerk at Fancy's. His name was Herb.

I also picked up a little tourist map. There was the Cedar Lodge, Fancy's and Pine Cycle. Further out, the hot springs, the Stone Monoliths, and somewhat higher into the mountains, the Jewelled Cave of the Ancients.

Oddly, the New Mill was missing from the map. Had they printed these maps so recently? How long had I been holed up in the Cedar Lodge? The weather was still spectacular.

But stranger still was that where the New Mill once stood was now the home of Beatrice, the tallest pine in Pineville.

I set out for it at once.

Postie McCharge 6/27/2022 11:54pm

I'm tired of cataloguing Ms. Lumberton's dreams. I've got boxes and boxes of them now, and it's becoming difficult to tell them from my own. The hanging snakes. The terraced hills. The talking dogs. Whose are whose? And which are mine?

Regardless of Ms. Lumberon's admonitions, I think it's time I leave the Cedar Lodge, if only for a spell. Stretch my legs and get some air. How long has it been, cooped up in there? I've lost track of time. What can it hurt if I allow myself to see more of the sights of Pineville? And what of the empty lot where the New Mill once stood? Any changes?

It's time to rent another mountain bike. And to put it on Mighty Wonderland's tab.