A Cheap Book with some Writing (Journal-ish, feedback would be nice :D)

[Kurt S.]

Kurt opened the doors to his room in the Mizzenmast inn, courtesy of Baderon after he had helped solve a few problems around La Noscea. Before that he had taken to sleeping on whatever space was available to him which was usually around the lower docks of Limsa Lominsa. It wasn't a house of his own but at least he had a roof to stay under whenever the rain decided to pour on him. 

 

It was considerably late into the night when he returned to his room. Which was why there was no barking to greet him, his puppy, Apple, had already fallen asleep on the bed, no doubt waiting for him to return. Though it would be later still before he would retire for the night and after the day's recent incident perhaps it would be prudent to take a break. It was a miracle he had even survived the day. 

 

He withdrew from his satchel a small, worn book. The pages were all blank. It was a good bargain he had gotten while perusing the markets of Uldah after a particularly nasty contract in the Copperbell Mines. Though what mattered was at the end of the day, him and the three others he had fought with were still in one piece. He set the book on the solitary desk in his room and then proceeded to the Armoire to change. His axe was stowed alongside a spear, a sword and a shield.

 

No longer feeling the weight of his armor and sporting a green kurta, Kurt returned to the desk and sat down, staring at the book. Tonight, he would finally start chronicling his journey since the moment he stepped off that boat in Limsa Lominsa. It was a task he had put off largely due to the lack of material to write on. He wasted no time writing the events that had transpired in the weeks that have passed. His mother said that keeping track of events in his life would be useful later on as well as help him improve his writing ability. 

 

It has been weeks since I have stepped off that boat. That beautifully cobbled together piece of wood that had outrun pirates. Weeks since the time I was encouraged by my own mother to become an adventurer like her. I had no idea what I was doing back then, just following everyone else's instruction. Go here, pick that up, put that over there, kneel before this pirate captain in an establishment ominously called The Missing Member which had a disturbing lack of male patrons.

 

I promised myself never to set foot in that establishment again, I had only done so since Baderon said it might help me get my name around Limsa Lominsa. He did say that there are people out there that might need my help and that I should help them.

 

You'd think that running around a city several times would help me memorize the layout of it, but I will admit that even now I still find myself lost in Limsa Lominsa. At the very least, I know my way to the Marauder's Guild, the Bismarck and the Drowning Wench without turning into a dark alley that had pirates in them. Those were the days, I never want to revisit them ever again. 

 

Up until now I wonder where this whole adventuring business would take me. First it was Limsa Lominsa, then it was Red Rooster Stead, then Summerford, then Aleport, then suddenly I'm granted permission to use airships to travel to Uldah and Gridania. I think I owe much of my mobility to Baderon, he had uses for me and thought that he might send me to his counterparts in Thanalan and the Shroud. I wonder where the next stop would be. 

 

The gil is good here as well though I've heard tell that being a mercenary is better. There was just one flaw in that plan. I don't think I'm good enough to join a mercenary outfit and I'm deathly shy, I probably wouldn't survive the glare of a merc captain. If I was given a choice between a pack of Coeurls or entering the Quicksand for no good reason, I would choose the former. My knees just buckle at the sheer amount of people who frequent that place and I'm almost always just hearing their stories, wishing I had equally interesting ones to share. 

 

As for prominent people, I guess Baderon would be the first on the list. He runs the Drowning Wench and has a lot of contacts in a lot of places in Eorzea it seems. He's the one giving me contracts to work on, usually I'm alone in those but sometimes I'm with other registered adventurers. I try to savor those short "sometimes," which probably means I need more friends. 

 

Still despite my prominent fear of talking to people, I still managed to stare down Ifrit not a few hours ago. Yes. The Ifrit. I was with three other adventurers and I'm not ashamed to admit that they carried me to victory. But that so called primal paled in comparison with a rather frightening encounter with an arcanist robed in blue with an intimidating red tome.

 

I did what I had to do and that was to stop the arcanist from turning Apple into something she's not. Then it hit me that she might also turn me into something I'm not. Thankfully, she was amiable enough but still despised Apple for some reason. Her name was Adeya and it was apparent that she was jumpy around dogs. Must be a miqote thing, I've seen coeurls and mongrels fight and in some small way miqotes were probably related to coeurls, if the tail and ears weren't any indicator. In any case she had was working for the Arcanist's Guild, and I had to stop her from launching into a deep discussion about geometries. I was not mentally prepared that time and I don't think I will be. 

 

It never occurred to me how hard it must be to be a marauder. Anyone could hold and swing an axe but it takes a marauder to use that axe to split a boulder and still chop down a tree. That was what they did to test me. I had to split open boulders and then split open a nest of megalocrabs. Their shells were tougher than the boulders but I had help and again I'm not ashamed that I was carried to victory. Now I get contracts from both Baderon and the Marauder's Guild. 

 

I'm sitting on a pile of gil thanks to those two but it is hardly enough for a house on the Mist. Oh how I dream of one day living there and then gloat to my mother that I live by the sea and have a big house of my own. Though she would probably just laugh at me and say that life is still better at East La Noscea and that there are no shortages of things to practice her skills on and that she also has a garden blooming with gil making fruits. One day, I'll find a be all, end all solution. 

 

On the cooking and fishing end, I'm not having much luck with either. I had met someone named Avis who commented that some place called the Drydocks probably wasn't a good spot to fish and I would have to agree with her on that. The fish I find in the docks weren't anything special but I suppose its in how you cook it. Speaking of cooking, I am grateful at least that I haven't died yet sampling my own dishes. Nymeia knows my dishes aren't ready for the public. 

 

What I think I need to do on is to swallow my fear and brave the Quicksand. But that's too terrifying so I'll just pray to Nymeia to guide someone out there to me or the other way around. That I'd be plunged into something that was bigger than me, like my own other before me. Though that is only wishful thinking in the end. 

So I finish the first entry.

 

Kurt stopped writing, content with the content of his first entry on his own journal. He had left the pages open to let the ink dry properly. He could regularly chronicle his journey now or at least whenever he had access to his room in the Mizzenmast Inn. This book would stay in this room along with Apple. He would not bring them to Uldah or Gridania, they were safer here and he knew Baderon more than he did Momodi or Miounne, though both were reliable as well.

 

He sat back on his chair and stretched his sore body then got up to transfer to the bed, he did get hit a few times in the fight but the armor plating held, perhaps it was due for repairs and he could do that on the morrow. It was probably another long day on the morrow but small attempts that are repeated would yield big results. It was his optimism speaking and conveniently disregarding the fact that he had only 18,000 gil as opposed to the millions he'd require to purchase and maintain a home, if there was even a lot available for purchase. 

 

Pushing the thoughts out of his head, he finally succumbed to his heavy eyelids. Tomorrow would be a long day for someone else, he felt the need for a long break in adventuring tomorrow.

[Kurt S.]

Kurt returned to his quarters in the Mizzenmast well into the night once more. He had spent two days in Uldah and another in Gridania, carrying his sword, his axe and his spear with him. As usual, Apple was already fast asleep on the bed. He walked over to the armoire in his room and stowed all his equipment away. 

 

Certain that everything was securely in place, he turned his attention to the book on his desk. It was time for another entry into this chronicle. 

 

I had honestly thought I would get some much needed rest the day after I fought Ifrit with the other adventurers that hailed from the three city states. Instead he found myself unable to cope with inaction and soon donned my armor and grabbed my axe and asked Baderon if there was any work nearby for me to tackle and get some more gil in my pocket. He pointed me to the Moraby Drydocks. I had only been there once to help the Yellowjackets repel a pirate raid, therefore I was still unfamiliar with the surroundings. 

 

As an added incentive, Baderon had also told me that if I could complete enough levequests he might be able to persuade a certain member of the Maelstrom to give me a permit for a chocobo. That was the original plan. Instead after, defeating an exceptionally large mongrel the locals called "Padfoot," I had run into a Roegadyn warrior that fought with the measured ferocity of a predator sitting on top of the food chain. He called himself Gentle Sun, which probably meant that he wasn't the kind of Roegadyn in Limsa where all of them had hard to pronounce names. 

 

In any case, he seemed like an amiable enough fellow who launched me into a discussion about marauders, warriors and why my notion of warrior was only partly correct. It seemed that true "Warriors" were trained in a Volcano somewhere. Though the name of said volcano escapes me, I know it was someone's spine. I'm almost sure of it. In any case, it is in that volcano where people like Gentle Sun were taught to unleash their inner spirit animal and watch it tear into their enemies. This Gentle Sun became a Not So Gentle Sun when he began to showcase his power against a group of kobolds near Red Rooster Stead. 

 

Of course prior to that, I had to help him find his lost chocobo since he had accidentally scared it off while responding to my challenge that I could probably outrun his chocobo. We ended up searching far and wide for his chocobo only to find it hiding on one of the ships in the Drydocks. Though how we couldn't spot a chocobo that was exceptionally large was beyond me. Its leg was just as tall as I was. In any case, he had told me to ride with him to Red Rooster Stead. Some small part of me screamed no, but the rest of my body decided to hop on anyway, swayed by fatigue. 

 

After he had showed me his capabilities, he had asked if I was interested in the outfit he was working with. They guarded things and got payed a lot. It only meant that he was a mercenary or something like it. I told him that I wanted to get stronger first. I really do, he was a goal to reach. If could channel my inner beast and let myself loose without downing friend or foe alike then I am sure I would be ready to join the ranks of his company. They were called Kindred or so Gentle Sun had mentioned. We parted ways and soon I found myself in Uldah, on my way to Copperbell Mines. 

 

The miners needed someone to go and clear the place of monsters again. I and a few adventurers, who I assume were Uldahn locals proceeded to clear the mines again. It was hard, backbreaking work but the pay was nice. My mind did wander over to Gentle Sun's offer the day prior. What if I could get a large pay raise if I could prove myself to the Kindred. Maybe then I get to buy that house and no longer be a burden to the Mizzenmast. I am sure they have one less room to give to weary travelers which means one less room generating income, but I have to take the blessings as they come to me.

 

Of course, I had only finished my contract at Copperbell and decided to stay in Uldah for a while, sample the drinks in the Quicksand. It felt like a good idea, up until a very tall Elezen began accusing me of not saying hello to someone named Chou. I insisted that I was just an adventurer taking a much needed break. She insisted that I was a pirate and that I still need to say hello to this Chou person. In the end, it was all just misunderstanding because the Elezen had poor eyesight and mistook me as this Chou's father. I find it strange that even though I have no woman in my heart nor have I been intimate with one nor even look old enough to have a child of my own, I'm still accused of having a child. 

 

Well a misunderstanding was a misunderstanding. Of course, seeing an opportunity present itself, I offered to help the Elezen and their company look for this mystery man of theirs in exchange for a sum of gil. This Chou person and her companions looked loaded with gil if their fine clothes were any indicator. The Chou person in question was a Hyur girl and they said her father had this Nanka with him. Apparently a Nanka likes to mate with anything that moves so it should be easy to bait out in the open and hopefully its owner comes to get it. 

 

Chou and her company were very strange people though. They all looked like they loved Steamy Garlean Fiction. I do not even want to know what that is and one of them accused me for owning a Giant Lust Hammer. I don't even fight with hammers. I don't even want to know what a lust hammer is. And it all started because I was trying to look less harmless because they said I looked dangerous with an axe strapped to my back or a sword strapped to my waist. I ended up walking out of my Hourglass room with a paddle strapped to my side. It was a mistake that spawned an entirely different line of conversation between all of us. One that lead to the Steamy Garlean Fiction. Something about men loving men if the Elezen's words were anything to go by. 

 

The important part was that I got hired to do the job and would only get paid if I had any information about their mystery man. I'm going to have to thank my mother that she beat the sense of an honest person in me. Chou had also hired another Elezen who somehow got into the conversation. Went by the name Ludiveen, not Ludivine. I got corrected after calling her divine. I still don't know why I said that but I'll leave it as is. 

 

After I was hired, informally, I retired for the night to catch an airship to Gridania where I trained to become a lancer. I felt that I needed to have more reach than my axe could offer me. The trials of the Lancers' Guild were much easier compared to the Marauders' Guild. For one I did not need to split rocks. Though I had to adjust to the weapon in my hands, it was a foreign thing. Fighting with a spear was hard if one did not know how to effectively use it. I am one of those who cannot effectively use it for now, but I am training to be better. 

 

I thought that I might also extend help to Miounne while I trained to be a better lancer. She had pointed me in the direction of the North Shroud. There was nothing different about it, I just had to hunt a different stock of wild animals and contend with Ixali every now and then. There was this man who had probably made it his life's work to harass the Lancers' Guild. He had even gone as far as tampering with my training and moved the stone of courage to a place filled with voidsent.

 

He probably thought I had never faced voidsent before. I may have been terrified once but that was before I realized they could be cleaved in two. In any case I had received lectures from both that Elezen man, whose name I couldn't be bothered to remember and Ywain, the Guildmaster on courage. Except that I already learned courage while I was being tested as a Marauder. One does not simply stand his ground against a large pack of wolves. 

 

In the hopes that I would avoid any more of those Quicksand episodes I decided to utilize a ticket this man named, Jandelaine, had given me for helping him acquire a new set of tools for his job. They were extensions of his soul or so he said. In any case he was an aesthetician. I needed one to give me a new look and hopefully not look like someone else's father. I hope that no one would view me that way again, I have highlights and everything in my hair now.

 

Kurt finished the entry of his journal, finally lacking any other events of note to record and retired for the night.

[Kurt S.]

The sun was only setting when Kurt returned to his room at the Mizzenmast. He was immediately greeted by the barking of Apple, the puppy he owns. She was ecstatic that her human was back and ran circles around him as he moved toward his desk in the room. Contrary to most days he returned Kurt was not armored head to toe but rather carrying a bowl of food with him. He wouldn't dare neglect to feed his dog and he's been away from her for too long. He couldn't bring her along because the jobs were just getting more dangerous with each passing day. Setting the bowl down on the floor for Apple to dig into, which was filled with choice cuts of lamb, Kurt turned his attention to his small and cheap journal and began writing down what had happened recently.

 

I had already resigned myself to a life that involved moving between nations and doing whatever job that needed doing no matter how mundane it would be. The pay was good after all and we didn't have to live out in the streets of Lominsa anymore. We had enough that won't be hungry and still had some leftovers which goes straight to my equipment.

 

Recently I've been finding myself sent to Uldah more frequently. So much so that I even have my own room in the Hourglass courtesy of Momodi now. Well lets just say that after a very nasty contract in the copperbell mines working to reinforce a Flames squad sent to clean up the mine, I found myself sharing a drink with one of their officers. Of course, the officer in question didn't know my part in the recent Copperbell stint and why would he? I'm just another statistic anyway. 

 

The officer in question went by the name Nako'li. At least I think this was how the name is spelled. In any case, he was interested in opening up a trading company in Uldah. Now I've seen my fair share of trading companies come and go in Uldah and this particular miqote wanted to enlist my services. I voiced my concern and he voiced his reassurances. Sure there'd be money but it won't last long in the cutthroat Uldah. 

 

Except that in the end, I ended up being under his employ anyway. He had dangled bait in front of me and I was happy enough to bite it and get hooked. Nako'li would teach me how to harness my own aetherical energies and translate them into world around me. I would be akin to thaumaturges that incinerate entire fields of opponents. I also believe that it will work well in tandem with my axe. A swing here, an ice spell there. I'm looking forward to my training. Another thing is that I still get to work for Adventurer's Guild that in itself probably doubles the amount of gil I'd be getting. Maybe I'll own that house in the Mist after all or maybe an empty plot of land to call my own. I sure hope so. 

 

And who knows, maybe this Nako'li character might just become a business kingpin in Uldah. Well I've already thrown my lot in with him. Now the next question is just how usefull I'll be to him.