2011-05-18: PAWS Journal
Journal Entry ….. Another day has come to its end here in the small village of Paws. One would think that living this close to the ocean that the salt would dull a person’s sense of smell, yet the smell of death still lingers in the cool night air. This week has brought an abundance of sick individuals to Paws, everyone from the common farmers to the well-known guards. It seems our only existence is based upon caring for the sick or disposing of the dead. With the area becoming swampier and the small graveyard to the southwest already full, we have no choice but to use the ocean for the burial of so many. On my daily trek to the ocean, to relieve my wagon of bodies, I ran into one of those small ground holes. The sudden weight of my wagon seemed to open up the ground and a putrid smell of mold and stagnated water seemed to start spilling out. We have always had a few gators wander into the area, I think may be because of all the storms, and the gators just tend to wash up and make a home. Today I only seen one gator that was prowling around and sure enough he smelled a feast onboard my wagon. One of the bodies was not quite secure enough and tumbled to the ground when I hit the blasted sinkhole. I stopped the wagon and was in a bit of a hurry, to gather the body back onto the wagon, but sure enough, as I reached out for the poor fellow so did a gator from behind a small patch of trees. Now, that was not the strange part, a gator stalking a corpse, the strange part was the gator sniffed at the body and instead of consuming it, the gator turned and all but ran away. I did not think too much about the incident until now. I remember the corpse being one of the last to die here today. It was the gent, which was wheezing and coughing in the healer’s small abode. What type of disease did this stranger bring to this already desolate area, one that not even the creatures of the bayou would partake in eating his corpse?
Journal Entry ….. A few days has passed since my last entry. I am still puzzled over the gator incident, but I have chosen not to tell the others that live in this area. I do not think there is a need to make a fuss over an area that discards the sick and the dead. I will be heading back to the ocean tomorrow to drop another load of bodies in. A burial fit for a king, so I here. I just think it is lunch for the fishes.
Journal Entry ….. I saw the strangest thing today, on my way to the ocean. What you may be wondering could be so strange in a place filled with diseases that no humans should have to face. I found a dead gator and I know that I may be going insane, but I believe it was the gator that sniffed at the dead fellow the other day. Okay well maybe he did not just sniff at the gent, he might have taken one or two nibbles. Anyways, for a dead creature’s carcass to be left along out here in the land of not so plenty is strange indeed. I also spotted a weird sight at the edge of the shore. It looked as if something had made a path back up to the mainland. The reason I say something is that the tracks were not those of a human, nor any animal or creature I have seen around these parts. I suppose I will have to report this to the leaders of Paws in the morning, no need disturbing them tonight. It seems the small hole that was seeping out that putrid water the other day has grown into quite a large puddle. Maybe an underground sulfur spring, it sure does stink like sulfur.
Journal Entry ….. I should have kept my big trap shut! I told the leaders of Paws about the strange set of tracks that led up onto the mainland and I am now set to guard the area and report to my findings to them in the morning. There is no way anyone could possibly sleep out here, the once small puddle has grown into many small puddles so the smell is wretched and with all the noises, the ground to damp to lay on, and the bugs are biting the ….
I fear I do not have long so instead of running, screaming, or drawing attention to myself I decided to try to describe this creature. If it finds me, I will surely meet my fate tonight. From what I can tell it swam up to the swallows and took on the form of almost a human, it seems to be able to move on land, at least from one sulfur marsh area to another. It smells of a foul smell worse than that of rotten corpses. It looks as if it is leaving a trail behind it, as if a slug would do. I can make out something that looks like a claw…. I thought it spotted me for a moment, it did…….
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