SHIP'S LOG:

Murder of Crows

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.

Postie McCharge 3/30/2022 10:38pm

Ms. Lumberton sent me a new dream:

Sunday Morning
There is a cabin in the woods, but it's up in a tree. A treehouse, but it's just like a little cabin, high up in a tree. With a big deck. Then I'm at the top of the tallest tree in the forest, and it's really high, and I'm looking down and know I'm going to fall because the tree top is so flimsy and I'm not even holding on, just trying to balance on the branches but there's no way and I feel myself falling and startle myself awake. Except I'm not awake. I'm on the deck of that tree cabin, sitting at a small table, looking at waffles and bacon and a steaming cup of coffee. I want to ask for maple syrup but I don't want to offend my hosts.

I've been compiling Ms. Lumberton's dreams on index cards and filing them in a green cardboard recipe box. I really need to get out of my rooms at Cedar Lodge and get some fresh air.

Postie McCharge 1/22/2022 10:52pm

Ms. Lumberton's been sending me transcripts of her dreams. She says it's the way to find where New Mill went, on account of all the dream lumber that went into it, and Ms. Lumberton being present at the curing.

Thursday Morning
Something like a long wooden cigarette boat crash landed in Polliwog Pond, splashing through and beaching itself on the southern shore, towards the Pottery Factory. The vessel had two parts, with the second half attached by a sort of accordion hinge in the middle, and was called the Fernec-Vervay. I approached the ship and spoke to its crew, a man and a woman from a southern sea. I asked if they knew of XXXX, and they said it could be found in their hometown, on the edge of the southern sea. They asked if XXXX looked like an image they showed me my mind, and it was her, and she was wearing the rimless circular spectacles with the double row of swarovski crystals over the bridge of the nose and I said yes that was her. They said I was welcome to visit them.

I am only to think about her dreams, and not leave Pineville Cedar Lodge until she has dreamed more.

Postie McCharge 11/29/2021 11:11pm

While awaiting new instructions from Ms. Lumberton, I am availing myself of the amenities at the Cedar Lodge and the greater Pineville area, which include:

Geothermal hot springs
The Jewelled Cave of the Ancients
Fancy's Breakfast Bar
Mountain bike rental and award-winning single track courses
The Stone Monoliths
Beatrice, the tallest pine in Pineville

I rode the bike out near where the New Mill was, and there's still no sign. Just a big flat clearing.

I wonder when Ms. Lumberton will be getting back to me. Sometimes I dream I've received a new letter from her, but then it's misplaced and I spend the rest of the dream looking everywhere in my hotel room for it. Other times I dream that her letter is in the form of a paper airplane, and it flies out the window and out of my grasp.

"Yes, waiter, I'd like another of those... what do you call it again?"

"Sarsaparilla, sir?"

"Yes, one of your Sarsaparillas. Thank you."