"Amirhan desert mission, day 338
"This morning Ismen had not gotten the memories from the Ismen in the non-snowy time line..."
"That's my memories, shouldn't I be the one logging about it?"
"This is my log. You can do your own. That way we get both versions of events and by combining them get later a more accurate understanding of what we have done. I have told you this before."
"True, but it seems today it doesn't matter much whether we do a joint log or separate logs."
"... Fine."
"So I woke up, and didn't have the memories from the other-worldly me in my head, like I've had pretty much every morning now. It was very weird, and I felt like I was missing half my memories from yesterday, even though I remembered as well as ever what I myself did. It's really quite incredible how fast the brain gets adjusted to a new situation and sets that as the new norm. Other than giving me new insight on the function of the brain, it means we don't have any idea what is happening in the other time line and that something has obviously changed, since the memories aren't coming through any more. We debated what to do with this information for a while, but since we don't have any new information other than something is different, or possibly that nothing is different but that Amirhan has developed some new quirk for us to puzzle over, though that would also mean something about this particular thing has changed, even if Amirhan being weird hasn't changed. Anyway, since we don't have any new information, it is best to act according to the information we already had, which means we proceeded with our plan to get to Ashakati and see if we can get through to the other time line from there."
"Satisfied? Good.
"So, in the morning we packed the rest of the things we took with us. While packing them onto the sled, we realised we have too much with us. The solar panel we attached to the sled to get power for the motor would be partly covered, and not wanting to take any chances of it not producing enough power, we decided to leave behind some of the equipment we were planning on taking with us. We were planning on taking some non-essential things with us anyway, to serve as backup parts in the non-snowy time line, if we get through. We left early, since even though we estimated the journey should only take a few hours, depending on how fast we would dare to move through the desert, we wanted to make sure we did not get stuck in the middle of the desert for a night in case something went wrong. Possible things that could go wrong were the motor breaking, which we had equipped ourselves to handle, as long as it did not break too badly, and the temperature rising and the snow melting from a slippery surface to a sticky surface again, which we could do nothing about if it happened. But the temperature has stayed below zero for almost two weeks now aside from that one day, so the chances were the ground would remain frozen."
"Also anything else could have gone wrong, this being Amirhan."
"Well, that is true. But there were not all that many scenarios that we could in reality prepare for. We had equipment for fixing the sled, including the motor, we had with us rope that we used to tie all the things and ourselves onto the sled, in case we had to do a sudden turn and we would not accelerate as quickly ad the sled beneath us and would be thrown off the sled, and some extra rope for other possible uses. A medical kit, some fabric that could be used as a sail if the motor broke beyond fixing and the wind would happen to blow in the right direction, which it did not. Although it has not been very windy today at all, which is good, and made our way a little bit easier.
"Either way, we took what precautions we could take without making our travel too much harder and against those possible problems we might face on the way."
"It's quite funny actually, now that I think about it, how much time we spent worrying about all the things that could go wrong and taking precautions against all kinds of things for a journey we have taken so many times during the last year."
"Well, previous times if something went wrong we could simply walk to the village, and even though it might have been quite a walk, it would have been perfectly doable in one day. Almost the only things severe enough that could happen on the way it made sense to prepare for were animal attacks, even though there are not that many predatory animals in Amirhan, especially not ones that are active during the day, and against hyperthermia and dehydration, but being in a desert we have to take precautions against those all the time. This time, if something had gone wrong, it would not have been fixed with a medical kit, a cooling blanket or some water. We could have gotten stuck in the middle of a desert with no way to get in any direction, if the motor had broken. We would have been stuck there until something changed and it became possible to move around walking again, or until we starved to death. Or maybe we would have come up with some other plan while stuck there, since we would not have had nothing but time. And maybe there would have been a strong wind some day in the correct direction and that would have given us enough speed to get out of the desert.
"Either way, this is all what if. And as important as it is to prepare for these things, afterwards we can now simply be happy the only problem we had on the way was one of the blades of the motor coming lose and almost hitting Ismen in the head. Luckily it missed, and we had made a couple of extra blades to take with us for this precise possible event, so he got it fixed in no time and we could continue our journey.
"We got to Ashakati in the afternoon, and everything matched the description we had gotten from Ndali and Enembe. There was no one here that we could see coming into the town, and there clearly had not been anyone moving outside since the snow came. We headed to Khorixas' first, and as we already believed, there was no one home. We spent some time roaming the town with the sled. There were no signs of life anywhere in the town, confirming the information we had on the situation.
"We have spent the evening at Khorixas' place, cooking a better meal than either of us has gotten for a while, since he had some ingredients in his cupboard we have not had access to for a while, and since he is not in this time line, we did not feel bad about eating his food. He will never know. We think.
"We thought about spending the evening trying to figure out how to get to the other time line, but since Enembe and Ndali jumped there from here by simply sleeping in town, we decided to see if it is simply a thing that happens over night, and if it is not, spend tomorrow trying to figure out our next move. There is really nothing more we can do tonight.
"Anything you would like to add, Ismen?"
"No, I don't think so. I think you covered today quite well. Let's just hope we will wake up tomorrow in a world without snow."
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Your topic for tomorrow (the last topic!) is Flower.
~matu
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