Viendenbourg
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 17:13:07 +0100
From: "Scarlett Kiteway"Add to Address Book
To: newsletter@thescarlettkite.com
Subject: It's Scarlett from Perplex City
Hi. My name's Scarlett Kiteway, I'm 20 years old and I live in Perplex
City. Last year the Cube - a very precious object - was stolen from the
Academy where my dad, Sente, is the Master. The Cube was concealed
somewhere on Earth. We need to find it and get it back.
Some pretty weird things have been going on in my life lately. First my
friend's computer was targeted by a military trace when he searched for
the phrase "Reynolds ionizer"; he found that the trace had originated
in the Tanraga region. Then I found the same phrase in a note written by a
dead journalist, with another word, Viendenbourg. At the military
archives, an old man gave me a map of Tanraga, with a place marked
Viendenbourg, but other maps of that area show nothing there at all.
Now I'm travelling through Tanraga myself with my boyfriend Brede and two
friends. We'll soon be within walking distance of Viendenbourg. But I
think I'm being followed; and last week I thought I saw the old man
from the archives here on the train.
There's a lot going on in Perplex City; maybe by sifting all the clues
that are out there, you'll find out who stole the Cube. But I'm
following my own lead. My story is here and you can follow it with me.
--------------------------------------
We've been travelling for two weeks now and I realise I haven't
properly explained how our holiday works, or shown you a map or anything. I
can't send a map over, but I've loaded up a quick one on my website at
http://www.thescarlettkite.com/hikemap.jpg for you to have a look. It's
quite cunning, really - the idea is basically that you hike from one
pre-designated rail stop to the next, and then take the train through
to the next part of your hike. A lot of students do this sort of
travelling; you take a tent with you to sleep in during the hike, and
then have a couple of days on the train to rest before the next leg of
the journey. The train company even take on your extra bags to your
next stop for you. Our journey goes in a wide loop, so that it's not much
further to come back than it was to go. We're planning to make five
hiking trips with rail journeys in between. Number 4 takes us closest
to Viendenbourg. It won't be easy to make it there and back in time to get
the train, but I'm more curious than ever.
In any case, this has been our first week of proper hiking (Hike 1) -
and my feet are sore! It's been great though. We've seen some amazing
places - we took the Absent Woods path, walked through the Wentome
Hills and saw the seven-tiered waterfall at Amanra. We even took a dip in the
pool at the base of the waterfall. It's been a wonderful week - I'm so
glad we came. There's a thing that happens when you're walking all day
-
your mind slows down, your thoughts become clearer, everything seems to
pop into focus. So I think I was just a bit stir crazy last week,
imagining that someone had been going through my stuff or trying the
door. I was just trying to see conspiracies at every turn, but I'm
feeling a lot sunnier now!
The other great thing about a long trip like this is the people you
meet. This kind of trip is popular with students, so there have been a
few people taking the same route as us. We've met up with a party of
six students from the University (I didn't mention that my dad's the head
of the Academy - those University people can get a bit touchy!), a
honeymooning couple and a guy named Allain who's travelling by himself.
Allain's pretty cool, actually. He's shy and keeps quiet a lot, but he
knows a lot about botany and geography - we walked with him for a
couple of days and he told us about the way this area's ecology had developed,
the kind of plants you find here. When Sanj got stung by some
hoare-ivy, Allain climbed a tree to get some berries for him to rub on it which
took the pain away. Cool, huh? If I wasn't dating Brede I think I'd be
interested in Allain. I think Margot's pretty into him ;-).
Anyway, Allain's travelling on the same train as us right now.
Yesterday night, a bunch of us all had dinner together - me and Brede, Sanj,
Margot, the guys from the University and Allain too. It got quite late
-
one by one everyone else went to bed so it was just me, Allain and
Brede.
Allain seemed more comfortable talking when it was just the three of
us. We discussed our itineraries. Amazingly, he's taking almost the same
journey as us, with the same stops and treks. Except that, on that
fourth journey, he's planning to spend longer than us.
"Yeah," he said, "I've got a little private excursion I want to make.
Off the beaten track." Brede said: "Why, where are you going?"
Allain ran his hand through his hair, looked down at the table and then
back up at us. "I know this sounds crazy," he said, "but I'm going to a place I'm not
even sure exists - Viendenbourg."
From: "Scarlett Kiteway"
To: newsletter@thescarlettkite.com
Subject: It's Scarlett from Perplex City
Hi. My name's Scarlett Kiteway, I'm 20 years old and I live in Perplex
City. Last year the Cube - a very precious object - was stolen from the
Academy where my dad, Sente, is the Master. The Cube was concealed
somewhere on Earth. We need to find it and get it back.
Some pretty weird things have been going on in my life lately. First my
friend's computer was targeted by a military trace when he searched for
the phrase "Reynolds ionizer"; he found that the trace had originated
in the Tanraga region. Then I found the same phrase in a note written by a
dead journalist, with another word, Viendenbourg. At the military
archives, an old man gave me a map of Tanraga, with a place marked
Viendenbourg, but other maps of that area show nothing there at all.
Now I'm travelling through Tanraga myself with my boyfriend Brede and two
friends. We'll soon be within walking distance of Viendenbourg. But I
think I'm being followed; and last week I thought I saw the old man
from the archives here on the train.
There's a lot going on in Perplex City; maybe by sifting all the clues
that are out there, you'll find out who stole the Cube. But I'm
following my own lead. My story is here and you can follow it with me.
--------------------------------------
We've been travelling for two weeks now and I realise I haven't
properly explained how our holiday works, or shown you a map or anything. I
can't send a map over, but I've loaded up a quick one on my website at
http://www.thescarlettkite.com/hikemap.jpg for you to have a look. It's
quite cunning, really - the idea is basically that you hike from one
pre-designated rail stop to the next, and then take the train through
to the next part of your hike. A lot of students do this sort of
travelling; you take a tent with you to sleep in during the hike, and
then have a couple of days on the train to rest before the next leg of
the journey. The train company even take on your extra bags to your
next stop for you. Our journey goes in a wide loop, so that it's not much
further to come back than it was to go. We're planning to make five
hiking trips with rail journeys in between. Number 4 takes us closest
to Viendenbourg. It won't be easy to make it there and back in time to get
the train, but I'm more curious than ever.
In any case, this has been our first week of proper hiking (Hike 1) -
and my feet are sore! It's been great though. We've seen some amazing
places - we took the Absent Woods path, walked through the Wentome
Hills and saw the seven-tiered waterfall at Amanra. We even took a dip in the
pool at the base of the waterfall. It's been a wonderful week - I'm so
glad we came. There's a thing that happens when you're walking all day
-
your mind slows down, your thoughts become clearer, everything seems to
pop into focus. So I think I was just a bit stir crazy last week,
imagining that someone had been going through my stuff or trying the
door. I was just trying to see conspiracies at every turn, but I'm
feeling a lot sunnier now!
The other great thing about a long trip like this is the people you
meet. This kind of trip is popular with students, so there have been a
few people taking the same route as us. We've met up with a party of
six students from the University (I didn't mention that my dad's the head
of the Academy - those University people can get a bit touchy!), a
honeymooning couple and a guy named Allain who's travelling by himself.
Allain's pretty cool, actually. He's shy and keeps quiet a lot, but he
knows a lot about botany and geography - we walked with him for a
couple of days and he told us about the way this area's ecology had developed,
the kind of plants you find here. When Sanj got stung by some
hoare-ivy, Allain climbed a tree to get some berries for him to rub on it which
took the pain away. Cool, huh? If I wasn't dating Brede I think I'd be
interested in Allain. I think Margot's pretty into him ;-).
Anyway, Allain's travelling on the same train as us right now.
Yesterday night, a bunch of us all had dinner together - me and Brede, Sanj,
Margot, the guys from the University and Allain too. It got quite late
-
one by one everyone else went to bed so it was just me, Allain and
Brede.
Allain seemed more comfortable talking when it was just the three of
us. We discussed our itineraries. Amazingly, he's taking almost the same
journey as us, with the same stops and treks. Except that, on that
fourth journey, he's planning to spend longer than us.
"Yeah," he said, "I've got a little private excursion I want to make.
Off the beaten track." Brede said: "Why, where are you going?"
Allain ran his hand through his hair, looked down at the table and then
back up at us. "I know this sounds crazy," he said, "but I'm going to a place I'm not
even sure exists - Viendenbourg."
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