Chapter 1
My story should start like this. It doesn't, but it should.
The smells of dead fish, seaweed, and the mud exposed at low tide fought against cheap rum, bad food, and unwashed sailors. The battle was eternal and the outcome irrelevant to the lives of most people.
"I heard your conversation," the old man whispered. "For a tot of rum, I'll share my story."
The captain turned to look the old man over: he was stooped -- almost shrunken. He hadn't shaved or even tried to trim his beard in years. He seemed clean, however, which was unusual for the impoverished sailors waiting around for a ship that would have them.
"If you want a berth, forget about it," he snapped. "I don't need advice from a broken down old hulk."
"I'm not dispensing advice," the old man said. "I'm only telling a story. You learn what you will."
"Keep it short," the captain said. "I'm busy."
The old man shook his head, his beard following in the wake of his chin. "You're in a tavern," the old man said. "But, I'll keep it short. Don't get off the boat."
The captain sighed. "That's not anything I can use."
"We're the same," the old man said. "Many years at sea."
"And?" the captain prompted.
"The world was a lot bigger than I understood."
"Don't assume I'm ignorant," the captain said, anger straining at his voice.
"I heard your conversation," the old man said. "And I have a story you want to hear."
Chapter 2
My story starts in North Carolina: we need to get to Southern California. It's family, and it's important.
Because the boat is laid up, we're looking at a cross-continent journey. The old man warned us "Don't leave the boat."
We try not to fly. It's an environmental nightmare. Driving may be bad because it uses a fair amount of hydrocarbons, but air travel is worse. Besides being degrading, we can't stop along the way.
It's the stopping along the way where problems seem to brew and boil over.
What could be more complicated? Drive for four or five hours each day. Ashville to Nashville. Nashville to Little Rock. Little Rock to Oklahoma City. OKC to Albuquerque.
Getting across the New Mexico? Trouble.
Specifically, finding the Sky City rest area on I-40.
The path requires navigating three separate traffic rotaries. All small, perched on the sides of hills. Each with limited signage.
The parking lot has arrows going in, but no arrow going out.
First the Epic Struggle then the All is Lost moment.
This is followed by the call of a raven.
Ravens speak to your heart, directly. They avoid the complications of words and the nuanced "right" and "wrong" interepretations.
In this case, the raven was laughing because we're not up to even the simplest of side-quests.
Stupid raven. I can find my way back out. And back to I-40. And on to Flagstaff. It just takes a lot of wrong turns. And multiple laps of the traffic circles.
Chapter 3
Exploring the area South of Flagstaff, we find ourself in more trouble.
The next raven that gives me a side quest is getting slaughtered. There's nothing here. Nothing. It's mesas and pine trees. The distant hills never get closer. And they seem to look the the same in every direction we face.
"Refresh yourself at the well. Be sure your bucket is empty."
Damn raven. Talking in riddles.
It's trees. We're lost in trees.
CA says it's metaphor. When we find ourselves, we find the path forward.
Bah. It's not metaphor. It's a side-quest for treasure or something we can use. The idea came from a raven, it should give us a magical ability, isn't that the way it works?
Chapter 4
After some travel, we're in Blythe, California.
A lizard told me to ignore the raven. Lizards are not a thing you hear, even in your heart. They communicate by moving. It's like watching a dance; you interpret it to understand the lizard's meaning.
It also said "the borders you fear are only in your mind."
Well that's nuts because the Colorado River is a right impassible border here. If you blow up the picture, you might see the raven on the island. Taunting.
Chapter 5
Sierra Vista, Arizona, seems nice. Except there's a problem.
The Sonoran Raven is here.
Let me just warn you now: Do not take side-quests from this jerk. There's no treasure. No magical skills. Nothing.
Chapter 6
Tucson. Tucson seems safe from the raven's weird ideas.
Desert is desert, right?
Come to find out, they're all different. Today, I'm surrounded by saguaro. That means I'm not even in the right desert anymore. I'm looking for Joshua Trees. Yucca.
Stupid raven.
The group of javelinas lying in a ditch offered as good a side quest as any stupid raven. They were dreaming of better places.
At this point, I'm failing to get any treasure from these destinations and locations. The raven is taunting me.
And I keep listening.
Chapter 7
Ongoing side quest. Yes. It's the wrong desert. But. We're making progress.
Well actually, we're moving around a bit. I've started looked around at the bigger picture; the broader vista.
Maybe we'll find the right desert. Maybe we'll find our way back to where we started. Maybe Mesa Verde will give us some way to see our path forward.
Chapter 8
The raven can make all kinds of promises. I'm not going in there.
Even if there is a soulless undead guardian of a portal to another realm, it's probably also full of mouse poop and smells bad.
Chapter 9
Is that the "death lies on this path?" Or is it -- maybe -- "lunch for large raptors" advertising.
So. Our main quest looks sketchy right now. There are spiritual barriers. Things we can't fathom.
Down at the bottom you can see some of CAs party. I don't know how many survived. But. It doesn't look good to me.
Chapter 10
Can you walk on the knife edge? Stupid raven. I'm not trying that.
Maybe the side-quest is metaphorical? I listened to the song "Knife Edge" by EL&P.
"Will you still know who you are?
When you come to who you are?"
Great. Just great.
It's not treasure.
It's not the friends we made along the way.
It's personal damn growth.
Moron raven. These side quests are dumb.
Chapter 11
Heh. Finally. A side quest I can handle. It's just like computer programming.
In the olden days -- before punched paper cards -- we etched the code into stone.
This is the algorithm for good deer hunting. The raven will be pissed I completed it so fast.
And for those who remember the olden days, this was how specifications were produced. They, too, were carved in stone.
This section shows the list of stakeholders waiting for the software to be written.