dura diary

I left home today. Grul took me to the docks in D'hog to see me off. He says he's not mad, but it hasn't been the same since the accident. I didn't want to make it worse by bothering him about it again. Still, he sewed me a patch for my uniform. It came out all wrong since he can't hold the needle right anymore with his missing fingers. It's supposed to be an 'N' but it looks funny. That's okay. I still love it!

I just told him again that I'd fix it. I wasn't cut out for the Wall anyway. Besides, I kept hearing about all the cool stuff the Imperial Scholars got to do, and when they told me about Nera I knew I *had* to go! He kept warning me about leaving and how everything in Sarea was going to be different. He never says he's worried but I can always tell because his nose wrinkles.

The boat's pretty cramped. It's a good thing I'm not super big, so it's not that bad, and no one's looked at me too funny yet. I can't wait to get there.

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Okay so its not so great. I don't sail a lot so I got a little seasick. A rat stole one of my dried melon pieces and when I stepped off the dock some blue girl tripped me and I fell on my face. I'm lucky I didn't chip my tusks. Then there was this other girl with super green hair that looked like she was about to hit me and tried giving me advice? I think it was advice? I don't know because she was super scary.

I thought about trying to run back on the boat, but I met another girl with green hair who looked a lot less like she was going to hit me. Alva and I are roommates now, and I'm in House Unicorn. I like it better than Dragon because all of them look really really angry and are very loud.

Alva's cool and pretty and has a funny crab with crystals on its back she keeps around. I'd never seen one before! I wonder how they grow there like that? Even if a lot of the people are weird this place is amazing. I'm sure it'll get better, I just need to learn to blend in and be useful while I learn.