NOVEL WEB Taylor turns six
14 Alturiak
My feet ache from dancing so much, and my hands are numb from the cold.
Today was “The Grand Revel”, a festival sponsored by the churches for the various gods related to festivities and the arts and other such things. Traditions for the day include large-scale dancing in the streets, and eating a variety of various candies and other sweets. There’s also some sort of Valentine’s Day type of romantic… something. I’m not entirely sure on the specifics of the last part. I didn’t ask, and nobody was really talking to a bunch of little kids about it.
I decided today to not pay much attention to what bugs were in my range that could be found on beds.
The more general festivities had Tulgor acting as a chaperone for a lot of the neighbourhood kids we typically spend time with. Business was slow though for a lot of professions in the city thanks to how trade functionally stops from the ice and snow, so you had a lot of the parents who had those sorts of jobs spending more time with their kids. So Tulgor had some coworkers or people he was familiar with around as well, I guess it was some sort of dad union.
Most of the activities consisted of joining in large dance circles surrounded by bonfire to try and stave off the cold. The day was a bit warmer than the month had been so far, but spending much of the day out in the cold trying to keep warm via dancing loses its appeal somewhat quickly. Unfortunately Pelsot was feeling quite festive today, so we spent much of it outside.
I can’t wait to actually make my own better insulated winter clothing. I'm wearing a hand me down pair of gloves that were once Pelsot’s and they let my fingertips get pretty cold.
The treats were good though, either sold at stalls or in nice warm indoor taverns. I have realized I have far more of a sweet tooth than the rest of my family, who seem to enjoy more spiced dishes.
19 Alturiak
Today was my sixth birthday, Tayvra’s sixth birthday.
I am glad I had an idea of the expectations from Pelsot’s and Virla’s, no chance of repeating the same mistake as Last Sheaf, not that I was actually the one giving the gifts today.
Thankfully I think suspicions over that day have mostly settled. Pelsot has been less… burdensome to deal with. Not like I’ve actually decided to do much since meeting the lizardfolk, not much cause to go anywhere that isn’t the library to learn with Orsik.
The whole event was nice, good food (more of that bone broth!), going out to play with the others, and some minor trinkets were given. Tulgor’s was my favourite, a small carving knife with a pretty good handle. I’m apparently allowed to carry it with me, though Virla waved her finger around telling me how I needed to be careful with the responsibility and so on.
Unfortunately Neeshka seemed more annoyed today than most. I made the mistake of trying to pick her up while she was curled in front of the fireplace. Now I’m stuck with sensitive scratches on the palm of my left hand.
I will never understand what Jespa sees in the furball, nor why Neeshka seems so forgiving towards her compared to me.
25 Alturiak
Tulgor’s birthday has come and gone. As is tradition, we ate his favourite food. His was some smoked fish resembling salmon, on toasted bread with goat cheese on it.
It called back some old memories from the early days back with the undersiders. Lisa or Brian would come back to the loft after stopping at the boardwalk, buying coffee and expensive bagels. Lisa would get those overpriced cream cheese and smoked salmon sandwiches.
I avoided crying while we ate. Barely.
I don’t think the others really noticed. I don’t think I could have come up with an answer if they asked.
1 Ches
Today was…
It was Rhystertide, one of the largest holy days for the faithful of Lathander. As the story goes, it is the anniversary of the day his first prophet was healed of his blindness and began preaching the faith of the Morning Lord.
The priests bundled up in richly coloured robes meant to evoke the colours of sunrise, from oranges to pinks. They wear eyepatches for the day, I guess to represent the blindness of the prophet.
Naturally though, because it’s still winter time, they mostly stuck to the northern area of the Castle Ward or the Sea Ward. So Tulgor brought us northward for the event. Once again, I felt like I didn’t belong there. I feel like I perhaps should avoid temples at this point, nothing has happened but the unease is unpleasant to deal with.
Once we left though, I felt drawn eastward. I’m not sure where, exactly. Maybe the City of the Dead? I didn’t have an excuse to actually lead us there, and the winter has made me feel lethargic. I’ll investigate it the next time I’m near there, I’m sure there will be some festival or another that would justify the visit.
Otherwise, I’ll just wait for the end of winter. Whenever that is.
19 Ches
Today is the Spring Equinox, or more importantly, close to the end of winter. I might finally start to be able to actually get things done again.
Hopefully, it was still chilly today and there’s still some snow on the ground even with a lot of it melting. Black ice is also something of a problem in certain spots, I saw what I think was a foreigner slip and land poorly on their tailbone.
It being the Equinox though, meant that Orsik gave me a special lesson on the topic. Namely, going into some detail on the Fey and the Feywild.
The Feywild is some mirror plane closely connected to the Material Plane, Faerun. Tied closely to the elves, druids, and primal nature, the Feywild in a chaotic magical place where time and distance are fairly arbitrary. There’s a wide variety of fey, many somewhat reminiscent of the older fairy tales my old mother would have read to me before bed.
I resolved to avoid it as much as possible, since my mom had elected to read to me a lot of the older classical versions rather than the modern sanitized ones.
The Spring Equinox was a special time, said to be the day where the barriers between them were thinnest. In the most untouched parts of the world, one could easily cross from one side to the other. People would stay indoors for their own safety. It wasn’t foolproof, but I assumed it helped if it was a widespread belief.
Waterdeep was quite urban though. A sort of antithesis to the Feywild, and so had little worry for such things. The fey preferred the unexplored wilderness to bustling city streets and farms in the surrounding area.
Instead, the city had people dressing up in mock fey inspired costumes. Dancing and pranks and other frivolities filled the day. I ditched Pelsot to go to the library, and studied with Orsik.
There were a handful of other minor religious holidays occuring today as well, given how it was a midpoint for seasons in a lot of places. The church of Lathander had some sort of special song going on that I elected to disregard given how their church made my skin crawl. The faithful of Mielikki also had a special feast at the Shrines of Nature, I gave it a wide berth as well.
I somehow imagine that they would specifically object to my presence on a holy day, given how they seemed to notice the last time I was nearby.