Once more I look to the sky that has captivated me since my arrival. However many times I examine it, I cannot quite believe my eyes.

Peering through my telescope, beyond the bright cirrus clouds, and the sunlit atmosphere, opaque as the sea, little lights speckle the sky. This world has as many daystars as nightstars, and they are constantly on the move, creating new constellations every night.

At dawn and sunrise, the fabric of the sky appears mottled, as if looking up the canopy of a large tree. I do not make this comparison to be romantic. Though this world appears to turn on a 24-hour schedule like our own, the nights are only 5 hours long, for it is only night when the sun is eclipsed by an enormous, trunk-like pillar in the distance, stretching from the earth to the heavens, like an arboreal leviathan.

If I can find a black silk cloth, I should like to examine the sun. I suspect its movement is as erratic as that of the stars, albeit on a longer timescale. However, that would require finding civilization.


▸ Examine the compass
▸ Flip through the notebook
▸ Walk towards the pillar, up the mountain
▸ Walk away from the pillar, down the foothills