Pages found of a diary of Elder Lucanora, first chief of the 3rd era:


Day 1: still on this stupid raft. Sure wish I hadn’t been “picked” to be with this lot. If you ask me this whole thing is a waste of time; I mean, if there were anything out there wouldn’t we already know about it by now?

Day 2: bored, bored, bored, bored... did I happen to mention BORED?

Day 3: Some clouds have been spotted north of here; some of the adults are beginning to get a little worrisome.

Day 9: Finally found this diary. We came across a horrible storm that completely destroyed our raft. Luckily everyone wasn’t too hurt. All the adults are busy trying to find shelter and food now. No one knows where we are now.

Day 10: While exploring our new ‘home’ some elders came across a theatre or public assembly hall and in the center hung a cloth robe with ancient runes. I could honestly care less.

Day 11: not sure how to write sarcastically but here it goes, yay; we found food. oh joy. now we won’t die... at least of hunger.

Day 12: Bored (yet again) can’t WAIT to find something new to do around here. At least the sharks offer some entertainment.

Day 13: I’m beginning to wonder why I even bother writing in this now. The adults, or so they claim to be, have finally deciphered the runes by the theatre, they sat all of us near the campfire to tell us what it said. They claim that the runes say how the cloth robe is somehow magical (yeah right) and that it will only fit one person, and that person is destined to become the next chief of the village. Woopie. So much fun. Maybe I’ll go feed the sharks again later this evening.

Day 14: This diary may be the next thing I feed the sharks. I’ve been everywhere on this stupid island. Nothing to do. It’s not only that I’m bored, but I’m the ONLY 11 year old girl on this ISLAND. Maybe if I stole that robe I’d have more fun.

Day 15: well, it’s now or never. Not sure why I'm even writing this but, I’m about to sneak out and steal that stupid robe.

Day 15: ... what am I going to do... the robe not only lifted off easily, it fit me like a glove! Does this mean I’m to be the next chief?! I have to go hide and think about this...

Day 16: Tried to take off the robe this morning but it’s somehow stuck. I just know once everyone notices the robe is missing I’ll get blamed. Why oh why couldn’t someone else have taken this thing. I stayed hiding near the broken bath until nightfall, then snuck down to the beach. Thought that maybe water will help loosen this robe but it didn’t.

Day 16: On my way back to the bath, I was seen by the annoying 4 year old brat, Juni. He was busy bringing in some worthless seashell he had found on the beach saying the researchers could use it, I mean seriously, what scientific breakthrough could be found from an abandoned sea creature’s house? The elder adults just arrived to sentence my punishment. Hope this won’t be my last entry.

Day 17: Wow. Not only was I not punished, but everyone bowed down before me! Apparently all the adults had already tried on the robe, but it wouldn’t fit any of them. They hadn’t thought that it might fit a child, they all just figured they had to be real old, like 40. Not much else has changed of course, I just now have to wear this stupid robe.

Day 18: Let me just say how sick I am of HONEY; breakfast, lunch, and dinner HONEY HONEY HONEY. Juni was busy running around laughing and building sand castles on the beach and being COMPLETELY annoying as usual. I wish I could just build sand castles and run in circles.

Day 19: For breakfast we had, guess! HONEY! yay. Someone found this seed and planted it, not sure what will grow (if anything) but that was about the most exciting thing that happened today, well that is if you exclude a mushroom I found. Hope it wasn’t poisonous because I chucked it in with all the other food, er I mean HONEY.

Day 20: I can remember back before our journey. Back when there was tons of food and no honey. Back when my friends would all be “Juni”s. I know I’m just 11 and I shouldn’t be worried or bothered with anything, but I’m getting a little lonely. Someone let the fire go out today, such a bother to get it back lit... well heh not for me, I just told this adult to get wood and ... he did... hmm, now that I think about it, he didn’t even ask questions. He just did what I told him to do. Weird.

Day 21 ... or 22? I forget now. It doesn’t really matter anyway. Its not like we have school or anything. I’ve found my favorite spot to just sit down and think. It’s atop this, well this path that winds up to a mountain then just stops at this green door. There isn’t anything on the door, really I don’t see why anyone would put a door there anyway. But the main thing isn’t the door but this cliff’s edge. At this edge I can see everyone and everything. I just feel at ease when I’m up there, looking down at everyone. I even enjoy watching Juni as he runs around picking up completely useless things then runs to give them to the adults.

Day ... lets just call it 23: The seed finally sprouted today, looks to be a banana tree. And just in time too, as the honey FINALLY ran out today. The rains are starting to really come down lately. Unless another hut gets finished, I’m not sure what we’re going to do. On top of that, the builders just left their work to watch fish on the beach. And these are supposed to be the adults? I decided to go down and make sure they got back to work which they did without any troubles.

Day 24: The hut is almost complete, had to track down another worker to help out. Tomorrow I turn 12 but there will be no birthday celebration. No laughing friends to play games with. I just turn 12. Maybe tomorrow I’ll start teaching Juni some things.

Day 25:
Morning:
Well, no one remembered today was my birthday. Didn’t really think anyone would anyway. Today I tried to teach Juni how to pick bananas from the new tree. He really didn’t care and we both ended up building sand castles instead. The more I’m around Juni, the less he’s annoying. Go figure. It’s sorta weird but I don’t really feel any older. I wonder if other animals count how many years they have lived like we do. For that matter, I wonder if other animals have any concept of days, hours, months, well, time in general I guess. Such weird questions I’m beginning to have. Oh, also today, a couple of people came up to me asking ME (of all the people on this island) to settle an argument they’ve been having like I was some sort of judge or something. It (the argument) was over which one had discovered a potion which made people (if the drank it) to do something REALLY crazy (it made one of them scream Blannesamagawa loomajoobamooga!! for 8 hours!) I ended up saying both were responsible and they both seemed to be ok about it. It’s weird that day after day more and more people are becoming... well using me to solve all their day to day needs. Like they can’t think for themselves or something. woah.... could it be the robe? could this piece of cloth be changing things in my world? nah... that couldn’t possibly be it. Magic doesn’t exist... doesn’t it? I remember my mother telling me these stories about how her mother became an elder and told her of the “old ways” and how magic was a part of everyone’s life. I always thought her stories were just that; stories. Just something to tell the children to help them go to sleep. I mean, if magic did exist, then, well then ... ugh! nothing makes sense anymore. Why can’t I make sense of things anymore? Surely being 12 didn’t change anything. Surely becoming 12 doesn’t make me any more an adult than ... than ...
Magic. Magic is for children. I am not a child. Not anymore anyway. Not since I ... put on this robe... weird. Could one simple piece of cloth have so much power? Nahh, it couldn’t be.

Afternoon:
Juni came to see me after lunch. He wants me to come see something he’s found. Never knew someone could be so happy about something. We both went to see what he had found but I couldn’t see anything special about it. Just a bunch of leaves covering an old piece of rock. I couldn’t help telling the adults about Juni’s find, his face was just so happy; I couldn’t let him down. As it turned out, Juni found something that the adults were VERY interested in, the rock behind the plants held some sort of mystic writing that got everyone’s attention. Something about the dead; although right now the stone is blank. With everyone celebrating over what Juni had found, I silently escaped back to my cliff where I could just relax and be proud of my villagers.

Dusk:
It rained yet again just after everyone had finished supper. With the hut finished, no one got too wet. Decided to re-read parts of my diary since it was that or go outside and get all wet. I just realized that I wrote about “my villagers” ... even as I read it I know why I wrote it. Nothing has changed since the time I wrote those words and I still feel the same way about the people here. I no longer consider the older people to be anything different than the people who are Juni age (which there aren’t luckily) still, I find it pretty weird that I think this way now. Anyway, I think I’ll head for bed now.

Day 26:

Morning:
Remember how no one remembered my birthday yesterday? Remember how I forgot if it was the 21st or 22nd? Well, it turns out it WAS the 21st, and I was a day off for my birthday. Everyone else knew; and threw me a surprise birthday party this morning! Just as I left my hut, Juni tackled my leg screaming, “We have to save them! Follow me to the beach!” so with Juni still firmly attached to my left leg, we hobbled over to the beach where everyone was waiting. As soon as we got close enough, they all yelled “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” The people here are really turning into one big family of strangers. The gifts weren’t all that grand, mostly turtle shells, feathers, and sea shells. I can’t begin to describe the countless hours of fun and excitement those gifts brought. That was sarcasm, again, if you didn’t catch it. I stayed on the beach for most of the morning, just listening to the waves and playing in the sand. For the most part, I was all alone on the beach, but after maybe a couple of hours, Hawin, the adult woman with a child, came and sat next to me. We both just stared into the vast waters although she has this OBVIOUSLY fake smile as sat. She asked if I was having a great birthday and how I was doing, you know stupid adult-trying-to-talk-to-a-kid kind of stuff. I told her how it was cool and all but I just couldn’t really have any fun because there weren’t any kids my age. Then came something I totally wasn’t expecting... She lost her smile as she turned to look at me to say, “The fun you’ve had in past birthdays have gone. Although you are quite young, you ARE our chief, whether you want to be or not. In the future you will be faced with some very tough choices. Choices which are not easy to make for anyone, but choices that have to be made. Does any of this make sense?” I lied and said, ‘yeah’ just to make her get off my back. So that was one morning wasted. Think I’ll go check on the researchers, see what they are up to... well after lunch that is.

Lunch:
Ok, maybe all that honey was not so bad. The stupid sharks are keeping us from all that good fish. Anyway, at least with the bananas ... hmm ... can’t really finish that sentence. I can’t really think of any useful thing you get from bananas. Oh well, maybe that other seed the adults found will give us something better to eat.

After lunch:
Juni almost knocked me over running past me with a huge feather in his hand. Was I ever that full of energy? Was I ever that awestruck with something so not fun to play with? Maybe the researchers can study Juni. I need to ask them that tomorrow. When I did get to the researchers, half of the people were walking in circles with this confused look on their faces and the other half just kept shaking their heads saying, “Nope.” I leapt on top of a nearby table and did my two-finger mouth whistle that made everyone stop instantly and turn to face me. Oh... such power I have! Mwhaha... well that’s what I am thinking now, not back when I was standing on a table with everyone’s full attention and not ONE thing came to my mind to tell them. You could hear crickets in the silence. Even Juni, for the first time that I know of, stopped all motion as everyone seemed to lean towards me waiting for what I was going to say. The sad part is, I too was waiting for something to say. Now I can think of thousands of good things I should have said. Stuff like, “You all need to get organized with what you are studying” or maybe something like, “Ok now I want everyone to focus on medicine.” But the only thing that came out of my mouth was, “Has anyone seen that strange pile of rocks?” Well, it did get something done, half of the “Nope” people left to go start moving the rocks in the pile to another pile. Yep, that will accomplish so much. Tomorrow I will re-read this journal to know what to tell the researchers.

Evening:
With a second hut now finished, everyone is able to have more privacy. I no longer have to hear Juni ask me what I was writing every other word in this journal. Ari and Yurah accidentally got their laundry mixed up today at the waterfall, but if you ask me, they did it on purpose. They have been working together in the medicine area so at least one of them can help anyone who gets sick. That was my idea by the way, and a very good one at that. I thought it would be bad to have just one person who knows something, then if they get sick what would happen? I have passed this idea to the researchers and builders too. They all liked the idea and said I was on my way to becoming a very good chief. On a separate note, I can’t help but thinking about what Hawin told me this morning. Even though I totally brushed her off, I can’t stop thinking and wondering what choices would be so hard for me to have to make? Surely I’d never have to choose anything like who gets to eat and who starves... would I? Oh well, I think that’s enough for today. Maybe if I gave this journal a name I wouldn’t feel lonely all the time. Or is that a sign that I’m going crazy? Whatever it means, it can’t hurt to name it.

Day 30:

Ok, for starters, I haven’t come up with a name yet for you (speaking to my diary) Secondly, for the past four days Juni has stolen and hidden this diary from me thinking it’d be fun to pull one on the chief. Well, after the 4th day of and I didn’t make a huge deal over it, he returned it to me saying I was mean because I didn’t play along with him. Is it me or as I get older Juni gets even more younger and more annoying? Oh well, maybe he’ll grow up eventually as well. Oh, and thirdly, I’ve made a huge decision to go with purple. Why purple you may ask? Well, why not is what I have to say. Oh my word, you (this book) don’t know what I’m talking about do you? Well, everyone has requested we throw a HUGE party celebrating the 30th day of our arrival. I was asked what the banner’s background color should be and after 2 days of intensive thinking, I’ve decided on the purple. Of course it was that or green, so it really wasn’t THAT much of choice. Oh! I almost forgot, we finally finished that bath now so everyone (who knows how to swim) can enjoy a nice hot bath.

Day 30 (later):

WOW... that’s really the only thing I can think of to write. Another raft landed on the beach today, no adults; just three kids. One, who happens to be 11, told us how they left shortly after we did but... from some other island... weird. Anyway, the adults have welcomed them all and they seemed eager to help us setup for our celebration. The other two children were varied in ages; one was a year older than Juni (named Kharla) the other was 9 (named Thrua) Kharla was very smart because she also knew Juni was crazy. Thrua felt, so I think, out of place and lonely so I tried to keep him company; besides, it wasn’t like I could just walk up to ... to ... WOW I don’t know the 11 year old’s name! How embarrassing! UGH! I can’t just like go up to her and ask her name! Oh wow how did this happen?! Maybe Thrua knows. I’ll need to ask him later, maybe after the celebration.

Day 30 (party / celebration):

At the celebration, Ari and Yurah announced they are going to be parents! I can’t wait to hold their child! Well, I guess I’ll have to wait *pouts* ... hmmmm I guess I can show actions with the * ... oh well, the party went on wayyyy past Juni’s bed time. Luckily he, Kharla, and Thrua fell asleep just after the elder Ulira gave her story of how her family first landed on the island, Isola. Just as I was about to head back to my hut, an adult asked me; the chief, to say something about this glorious day ... so of course I couldn’t think of anything to say. This wasn’t the greatest of times for me to not know what to say, but I did. Luckily for me, a strange wind picked up and almost put the campfire out. Is was at this time that another adult gasped and said, “Wow, I couldn’t have said it better.” Then we all went back to the huts to go to sleep. ACK!!! I just remembered, I hadn’t asked what that girls name was!!!

Day 432:

First of all, let me just say that after the party, I didn’t really feel a need to write down everything I’ve experienced every single day. So for now, I think I’ll just jot down what I think was really important. Woah, now that I think about it; it’s been over a year since the last time I wrote! After the party, things were pretty much the same as any other day; well except for the occasional rain and “new discovery” which everyone (but myself) seems to be soooo great; like when did being able to fix broken down ruins become the greatest thing? Anyway, to catch up on things I think are too dull to write down, we now have 48 people on the island, two have passed on (more on that later) and everything is, well, OK I guess. Nothing really new, nothing really big has happened in a long time. I know I’m only one whole year older now as the “leader” of this isle but, It’s starting to get a bit tiresome; I mean, yeah it’s great knowing that I hold the ultimate say in things; and I LOVE teaching the younger ones but, well, I just hope things start to get more fun around here.


Day ... er, Year 12:
WOW. I totally forgot this diary even existed! I think I’ll re-read this thing tomorrow when I find some time. First and foremost I would like to take this time to say that... BEING OLD STINKS! You have to be SOOO mature, I can’t even belch anymore without getting yelled at. They keep saying “You’re in your twenties now! Act your age!” like I know what people that age are supposed to act anyways? Anyway, gotta run; got TONS of clothes to wash.


Year 41:
After cleaning out my old hut I came across this diary. I am now quite weak and frail... Our village has had a very prosperous, well, life. Yes, I think it is now safe to call this village alive. The people have rebuilt everything so that the isle can sustain the people for quite some time to come. It’s funny how I was “picked” by the island to lead the people here at such a young age. The fact that a new leader will be choosen when I leave makes me wonder. I wonder if the new leader will be another child. I wonder if it will be Juni’s grandchild that gets choosen; such a nice child, even though he could learn some manners at meal times. This may be the last entry in this diary. I wonder if the next leader would share the same problems I had to face. Tomorrow I will place this book under the hook in the great auditorium where this Leadership Cloak will be replaced when I leave this island. For all those who read this diary, young or old, I hope it has given you enjoyment and (maybe) some helpful tips in your path to becoming this island’s leader.

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