The Oasis

We ended up in a simple farmhouse, deep in the middle of winter. Looking outside, there was a man approaching on horseback. We went outside and greeted him. Turned out he was a family member named Zalon, who was also looking for the Donaghue's oasis. He had come to this place in search of a man named Igare. As we were investigating the house, an enormous black man in overalls approached, and shouted out, wanting to know who was in his house. I walked out to meet him. He was angry that Hanu had dug up his yard, and wanted to know who we were. He said his name was Azibo, and denied knowing about the meeting. We left and decided to look for more information. As we chatted, we came upon the realization that we had not inquired about his family, and this was the location that Zalon had been told to go to, so we decided to go back and question the man further.

When we knocked upon the door, however; there was no answer. We decided to split up, with me and Hanu taking to the air, and Zalon searching on horseback. After a couple of minutes, we all converged upon a trail leading into the woods.

Following the trail, we soon came upon Izibo, who seemed to have hastily packed his footlocker, and was headed somewhere on foot. When Zalon shouted out, asking if he was Igare, Azibo started running, soon shifting into some kind of antelope. I knew I had no hope of catching up to him, but I did have an idea. I motioned for Zalon to follow me back to the house, where I climbed into one of the cupboards, motioning for him to follow. I told him I was going after Azibo, and got him to follow. We went through the cupboard back to the menagerie, then back through the chest to Azibo's footlocker. We burst out, along with all of his stuff, and I fell to the ground, rather ungracefully.

Azibo shifted back to his human form, wanting to know what the hell we wanted. Zalon and I were both on the offensive, demanding of him why he was running away. He said he didn't want anything to do with Chaos or Amber anymore. That he gave it up. We tried to convince him there was no where he could run from the Abyss, and he should join us on our journey to the meeting, but he would have none of it. Finally, we gave up, and decided to continue on, although Hanu and Zalon helped Abizo repack his stuff first.

It was a gruelling journey, with me and Hanu travelling on Maya, following Zalon as he stepped through shadow. All of the openness, the emptiness...I could barely stand it, and had to stop myself from running off and hiding at the first opportunity. Finally, after almost two weeks, we arrived at some sort of monastery.

We asked who owned the monastery, and were only told "Her Holiness." Despite several attempts, the monks would not tell us her name, only that she was expecting any travellers wearing from travel and seeking respite. When we wanted to go inside, however; they wouldn't let me take Hanu or Huey! I tried to insist, but it was useless, and I got the impression they would kill them rather than let them in. Finally, I gave up. I wanted a shower, and food, and just to get inside. As the nun was leading me to my room, (they used single sex buildings), I tried to get an audience with "Her Holiness" in order to straighten up this thing with Hanu. I was told that I had to go to the city to meet her, but they would arrange it.

The showers were weird, some sort of sonic thing, no water, but after getting clean, and changing, the nun took my other belongings and led me to a room where I could rest. It was stark and bare, but the bed was comfortable enough, and soon I fell into a deep sleep.