June, 04 Been raining all day. Crawled into one of his burrows, the one on a hill, that surely won't get flooded. Snuggled down there and drifted off to sleep, soothed by the gentle pitter-patter of raindrops falling on the ground.

June, 03 Went to the dances but found no one around except for the weird wooden creature that stood still playing its beautiful music. It was still dark in the forest, so all the other creatures were probably asleep. Or maybe they just didn't want to go out late at night? Well, it sure wasn't a problem for a nocturnal animal like Ursch, so he started dancing by himself to the soft melodies of the wooden deer. The next moment Louise appeared from the woods and joined him dancing. Then another friend came, and they all moved to the bridge. The moonlit pond lay before them now in all its mysterious beauty. The atmosphere was magical, and Ursch thought it was a perfect ending to the whole Rally season.


June, 02 Accidentally found out that while he'd been getting beautified in Ruxandra's salon, his friend Acaltic had fought on the ring and lost the fight. Feels bad for not having been there to support him, wants to make up for it. Knowing the stag's passion for tea, went to Heligan and exchanged the remaining feathers he'd found at the hunt for 3 more bowls of t e a (even though he'd already gotten one as a prize before), all with different flavours. Bought a bottle of elderflower cordial too, for a hot summer day. Ok, now he's got plenty of things to treat his friends to. Spent the last two feathers on a lucky dip and got a beautiful necklace that he doesn't know what to do with yet.

June, 01 Had some uneasy dreams about Talúla: she was in danger and he wanted to rescue her, but couldn't move because something heavy pressed him to the ground. Woke up with a start, not knowing where he was at first, for it had grown dark while he slept. 'Something heavy' turned out to be a huge raven that had blatantly nestled down on top of the sleeping aardvark. Scrambled out from under his 'weighted blanket', muttering something to himself, snorting with indignation. His friend who had come here with him was nowhere to be seen. Ursch looked around and, as his eyes fell on the tombstones surrounding this part of the Ruins, suddenly remembered about the Memorial Walk that was about to start in an hour. Heard some movement, turned back and saw that the raven had woken up too and was greeting him with the flapping of its wings. Only now did he recognize Tarter in his raven form! Greeted him back — it was good to see a familiar face, and the aardvark was really glad he didn't have to go to the sad event on his own. Picked up some flowers to lay at Flyleaf's memorial and slowly headed to the gathering spot together with the raven. They came a bit early, but it didn't take long before the others arrived. The procession was solemn and beautiful, some creatures wore black pelts, others carried candles and flowers. When it ended Ursch returned to Fly's memorial to spend some more time there and later visited Fly's favourite tree as well, where he found Tau and sat with him for a while, remembering the friendly white stag and wondering if it could be his kind spirit rustling the leaves above their heads.


May, 31 Spent the whole day chilling at the Ruins with one of his best friends. They happened to be on the side that he doesn't visit too often, the one facing the graveyard. The place made him think of Talúla, whom he had met here before. Hasn't seen her in a while now, wonders if she's ok. Sniffed the ground and caught the faint familiar smell leading to the spot where she had often sat. Lay down there, followed by his friend. Plunged into his thoughts and accidentally dozed off.

May, 30 Gave the feathers back to the witch and was offered a reward. Didn't wanna go for a lucky dip this time, so instead of a pig in a poke got himself a ship in a bottle!
Wanted to do something useful, so made an improvised swimming ladder together with his friends in case that poor underwater guy who smelled of dove feathers was still somewhere in the pond.

May, 29 Woke up late and set off on another feather hunt shortly before the dances. Some of the feathers were hidden quite well — would've never noticed them if not for his keen nose. Thanks to it, however, managed to find more than a half in a blink of an eye. Convinced that the rest of the search would be a piece of cake, put it off till later and headed to the river bank, where dancers were already gathering. One particular creature (?) immediately attracted his attention. It was a deer-shaped thing (couldn't tell if animate or inanimate) standing near the bridge. It smelled of wood and looked like it was listening to the sweet tunes emanating from its own shiny golden horns. The dance began, and the music grew louder as more dancers kept joining — this time there were so many, Ursch didn't even get to dance with all of them. Lively foot-tapping melodies followed one another, and he didn't wanna leave even when most of the other creatures got tired and sat down to rest or wandered off. But he still had some feathers to search for, so he bid his last partner goodbye and departed.

The remaining feathers, however, weren't as easy to find as he'd thought. The smell lead him to the pond once again. The underwater deer was still there. Poor fellow, it must have been the witch who put him in the pond and cast a spell on him, making him smell exactly like some of her dove feathers. Well, at least his pose had changed and he was obviously alive. Somewhat relieved, Ursch bowed to him as if the deer was his old acquaintance, and went on searching. At last he found the feather: it was resting among the willow branches! Had a flashback from two years ago, when he had been knocking pinecones from a tree at the arena games. Hadn't won back then, but the experience came in useful now. Threw himself at the tree and watched the feather spiral down. Picked it up and continued his search. Soon found himself back at the river bank, where the weird wooden deer was still quietly playing its music. Spotted another feather right under the bridge. How come he hadn't smelled it before? Probably because during the dances there had been too many creatures around, with all their different smells mingling together. The last feather was a particularly sneaky one, but in the end he found them all and went to rest in his burrow with a sense of accomplishment.

May, 28 His previous judgement about everyone losing interest in fights proved wrong, for there were quite a few competitors today. He himself did lose his interest a bit though, and his distracted attention was soon caught by the sight of some unusually crowded colorful spot at a distance. Intrigued, he came closer and saw Ruxandra doing a body painting on a fawn while other customers of the beauty salon waited for their turn. Ursch felt the urge to make off, as he's afraid of fawns, but it was too late: Ruxandra had already noticed the aardvark and was greeting him enthusiastically, encouraging him to get something from her salon. His eyes followed her inviting gesture and settled on a pile of flowers, flower wreaths and garlands on the ground. He asked if he could have one of those and was immediately given a gorgeous garland of humongous flowers of a few different colors. The fawn didn't seem to pay any attention to him, so Ursch thought he might as well stay here a bit longer and get some festive manicure for his large shovel-shaped claws. But hardly had Ruxanrda started painting them in rainbow colors before she was called to the fighting ring! Ursch watched the fight from the salon, but didn't go to vote, as his nail polish hadn't dried yet. Well, maybe he should have, because Rux lost the fight in the end. Got up to comfort her when she returned to the booth, but she didn't seem upset at all and even gave one of her flower crowns to the winner. After his manicure was done, Ursch went to fetch something sweet from his burrow to give it to Rux as a payment. Smelled a familiar scent by the pond and followed it expecting to find his friend sleeping behind the nearest willow tree. Intended to wake him up and show off his brand new look. Suddenly a creepy little fawn jumped out from behind that tree instead! "Oops, I think I'll call another time, bye." Entangled in the flower garland and stumbling, he hurried back to the salon, relieved that the kid didn't follow him. Thanked Ruxandra for turning him into a beauty and gave her a pink egg with candies inside which she gladly accepted. Didn't want to return to the pond where the creepy fawn was, so went to admire his reflection in the fountain instead.


May, 27 Attended the dance event again and was delighted to see it getting popular. Got to dance with f o u r wonderful partners this time!

May, 26 Had a most thrilling feather hunt today. Roamed the length and breadth of the forest, his nose scanning the ground, faultlessly detecting even the subtlest smells. One smell was particularly misleading though, it lead right into the pond, and Ursch had to dive in there to make sure there were no sunken feathers underwater. Instead he found a sunken deer body that gave no signs of life. Perplexed, he got out of the pond and continued his search, found two feathers nearby, but the smell kept drawing him back in the water, so he had to dive again and check one more time. Nope, no feathers anywhere near the deer body, nor underneath it (turned it over to make sure). Very weird. Suddenly remembered the body had been there on the first hunting day too. Must be some kind of a trick to distract the searchers and put them off the track. Well, he's not gonna fall for it next time!

May, 25 Another day of Competition, but there were so few fights this time, that Ursch even fell asleep as some point, tired of waiting for the action. Was disappointed at first, but then gave it a thought and came to the conclusion that the lack of fights might actually be a good sign, indicating that the forest inhabitants are becoming less aggressive and more friendly. He's always been a pacifist himself, so he'd be glad if that was the case.

May, 24 After some thinking, decided to try his luck and exchange 7 of the feathers he'd found earlier for a lucky dip. He would still have another 5 left for the future, besides, he was determined to find the rest of the feathers during the next hunts. So he thought he could easily spend some and didn't regret this decision, as Heligan generously gave him plenty of wonderfully smelling things in return for the feathers. Among those was a bowl of some good tea, which he'll probably drink later with his friends. Took all the prizes to one of his burrows, where he stores all his belongings.

May, 23 Needed a good rest after yesterday's activities, so he slept through the whole day in a warm circle of friends.


May, 22 A lovely day. Went to the dance where he met Rosinka and her friend from the reading club. Surprised to find out that this fellow is not only a bookworm, but also a very good dancer! Danced with each of the deer in turn and had some rest in between, watching the two as they danced with each other. More deer joined later, after the partner dances were over and they all formed a dancing line on the bridge. Had a good time, will definitely come here again. Hopefully, there will be a larger crowd next time.
Spent the rest of the day playing the witch's game: sniffing around for hidden feathers — something he's really good at, as his long nose never fails him. Didn't fail this time either — found all the feathers!

May, 21 Went to see the Sparring Competition. Fun to watch, as always, although he still shudders remembering the day when he tried participating himself, two years ago. At first it wasn't that bad, his first sparring partner, Midori, was very kind and merciful — she must have deliberately given in a couple of times, and the spar ended with a tie. Ursch couldn't believe his luck, but the euphoria gave way to fear as soon as he realized that there was another fight ahead now, which took him completely off guard, as he didn't count on going through to the second round. To make things worse, his next opponent turned out to be a giant snow leopard, so in the end it was more of a chase than a fight. At some point the leopard almost caught him, and Ursch instinctively did what any aardvark would do: he started digging the ground, raising a cloud of dust and throwing clods of dirt at the giant cat. This gave him a chance to escape, but of course the spar was lost, and Ursch was determined to avoid fights at all costs in the future. So now he's just sitting among the spectators, thinking to himself that fights are much more fun when they're watched from a safe distance.