. : Journey o1 : .
. : [ - Stray - ] : .


A bolt of lightning fell crackling violently from the sky, just as if it held all of god's wrath and anger inside it and after it followed its rumbling sound, deep and rolling like a tidal wave. The rain kept singing its rueful song of loss and mourning, the song that made every creature dream and think of things gone and other things to come despite the havoc the thunder generated. Struggling to walk in this mess was a sole Canis. It was a Canis not famous for excelling in anything that involved physical abilities. He was hidden underneath a plain, grey-colored trenchcoat but it had little effect against this kind of weather as the wind just had the tendency to blow the rain in such a manner it was impossible to hide from, the tiny dropplets making their way in from between his clothing, drenching him to the bone.

However, said Canis thanked himself for having been gifted with a good memory. This way he still remembered the address that was written on that piece of paper even though it was nothing more but a crumbled wet mass of unreadable material now, hidden deep in one of the coat's pockets. He sneezed. The mere force of the sneeze, combined with the weary state his body was in, threw him off balance and he found himself falling on his side. Of course, none of the people in that place would stop and help a poor traveler. For all they knew he could be some sort of criminal. He wasn't though. At least not the kind of criminal that should be severely punished by law. So what if he had hitched a ride without permission now and again? And what if he had to trick his way into staying a couple places or stealing food to eat...?

He was coming from a tiny village literaly at the edge of the world. It was a small settlement built at the edge of a barren crater somewhere in the central area of a rather large island. Daruma there still worked the earth themselves without making the use of a lot of machinery. In fact it was almost banned to make use of machines because of a legend he believed his people had fabricated... so he ended up being confused most of the time here in the mainland with all those fancy things going around... though he was able to get the hang of most gadgets that fell in his hands easily after a while due to being sharp as he was.

So, one would wonder, what exactly was a traveller such as him doing so far away from home, in this place were outlaws and criminals gathered? He was there in search of something. In fact he was there in search of a certain inn called the Bug Madame. That inn combined a bakery, restaurant and additional laundry services and was number one among places you could stay with a little money. It was also number one place where a large amount of information gathered -according to a close investigation of people's stories and some written references he conducted himself- and the law of information was that as long as you could pay the right fee you could obtain it.

Of course we have already established that our traveler is poor, having to hitch rides and steal to eat. In his case he wouldn't find himself able to obtain even the slightliest bit of information as he would barely be able to afford a syllabe in place of all his current belongings. And what good is a syllabe of information, really? No. The Canis had something else in mind. He would gamble away that information... with false ante he didn't have. What would happen if he lost? God help him then! Of course he wouldn't risk exploiting that odd power of his in front of all these people! To even think of such things was preposterous!

To recap... our traveller Canis from far far away came in Omnigenus and entered the outter limits looking for a place where he would trick his way into getting information when a sudden storm he hadn't predicted came upon him. Worn out by the rain that pelted him and the long walk which his physical state didn't favour he found himself falling over just by sneezing. He didn't exactly understand what hapenned afterwards as he found himself blacking out. He must have hit his head somewhere... but he wasn't sure at all at the time.

At this point, of course, you might be wondering... what kind of information did the Canis need that he would travel so far, under such conditions, putting even his very own life on the line? This is a mystery we can't talk off just yet, so we might as well not.