Connects to: 00.06, 01.04, 02.11, 04.00, 06.03 and 26.01.03.
On the shores of the Ocean of Bitter Regrets are five staggeringly tall mountain peaks, perpetually shrouded by a thick red mist. Each mountain is the domain of a different cloud giant clan - collectively known in human lands as the Pirate Kings.
Unfinished journal
I awoke on the beaches of a strange land, with no memory of my life before this moment, a white feather clutched in my hand and a name on my lips: ‘Lisbet’.
My clothes were sodden, but I couldn’t tell if they were wet from the sea or the rain. A storm raged over my head, so I got to my feet and walked inland.
A crude path was cut through the wiry grass. I traveled upon it for some time: it was cut into the mountains. I head voices ahead, but had nowhere to hide: the side of the mountain was to one side and a sheer drop on the other.
Around the corner came two giants, easily four or five times my height. Their hair crackled like a summer storm, but they passed by without seeming to notice me. They were not so much larger than me that I should have been impossible to see—but maybe they have big minds that cannot even process the existence of one as insignificant as me.
I had gained some ground by this time and when the path looped back along the mountain I ignored the turn and scrambled along the rocks. Sure enough, I came to a point where I could see the see.
I simultaneously noticed two strangenesses. The mountain was just half a mountain and the sea lapped at its base along a straight line. It was almost as if the gods had cut away half the mountain to make room for the sea.
In addition, atop the storm clouds that had plagued me upon the beach was a huge castle in basalt.
The cutting away of the mountain had left a network of caves exposed to the elements. I crawled into one of them, and found a nest with large white eggs in it. I was about to fall upon them and suck them out when a small figure struck me in the knee and I fell.
She looked like a woman, though she was a child’s size. She called in a strange, squawking tongue and a flock of birds of many kinds appeared at the cave face. They swooped and pecked me and I ran from the cave.
