My mind was distracted all day by the nightmare. I packed the remainder of my things and headed to the north gate to meet Antonia (Olin followed me there *sigh*). On my way I stopped in to see my friend Eron to see if he had any information on Rex Thyne. He said he had no ideas but he tends his herd all throughout the Grunlow Plains. Antonia was waiting for me at the gate and we set out. Together we left the city of Distress behind us. Our journey is going to take us north and east through the Grunlow Plains, across the Pass of Sorrows, down into the Valley of Shadows and finally to the Lake District. It will take us four to five days to complete assuming nothing happens to slow us down. The "Green Giant" is easy to navigate and the trail is well marked. I hope we run across Rex, and if we do I hope he can share with us what he knows and has seen. With Olin tagging along this is going to hinder our investigation. I know why my father insisted he come and I understand it. Doesn't mean I have to like it.
The Grunlow Plains are beautiful this time of year. The flowers and crops are at their
peak and the wildlife is very active. Our first stop for the night is a small village called Bountiful. It is comprised of a small inn, a tavern, a blacksmith and a provisioner. We acquired ourselves a room at the inn, secured our horses in their stables and headed to the tavern. The tavern wasn't very busy. We ordered some drinks and sat at a corner table near the front door. I'm not quite sure Olin was comfortable sitting with us "girls". We sat there quite a while trying to listen in on other people's conversations for stories about the disappearances. Nothing was being said about it. When suddenly a lady and her husband rushed in looking for their son. They were both in such a crazed state of panic. At first their ranting was just a jumbled mess of screams and yells. Finally, the barmaid was able to calm the male down enough to get something understandable out of him. He said their son had just disappeared moments ago, and they couldn't find him anywhere. Antonia and I glanced at each other knowing this may be a huge clue. Antonia approached the mother of the missing child and tried to console her and calm her down. She wasn't having much luck. The barmaid was having an easier time with the father as he was starting to become more coherent. I went to the father and asked him where this had happened. He told me that he and his son were putting the horses in the barn for the night, and while he was locking up, his son had gone to shut the gate and never came back. His son, Jakob, is only eleven years old. I can't imagine the fear that must be going through their minds. I got tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat hearing the story. I did manage to get the location of their farm, but it was getting dark and wouldn't be worth investigating it tonight. It will have to wait until morning, just our luck. On the other hand, we are lucky that the farm is in the direction we are travelling. I think I even saw Olin get a little choked up by tonight's events, and on top of that, I've talked him in to going to the farm to check it out as a service from the capital city of Distress. This is the first time I've heard of a person vanishing, but it has to be related...it just has to be.Oh yeah, Olin also made contact with our first person so a message could be relayed back to my father. So far so good!
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