September 23, Fall, year 36

There is a distinct lack of festivals around here. It makes day-to-day life very dull. Because there's not that much to do either. At home we'd be busy with… let's see… Oh, the Harvest Festival—they actually have one in October, I'm shocked—and the fall cooking festival, which is the one that I like to enter. Because as we've learned, fancy dishes and I do not get along without quite a bit of coaching and watching.

Makes me glad Skye can cook, otherwise I'd probably live off of sandwiches and soda, or something equally bad. Heheh.

He actually takes quite a bit of pride in his cooking, not that it's a big surprise. But the surprise is that when he first came down to Earth, he didn't have the faintest idea about how to cook anything!

And now he insists on telling the story himself, because me doing it second-hand wouldn't be right. Silly boy…

I wouldn't say that I didn't know how to cook anything… I knew how to make very simple foods though. Things like a multitude of sandwiches and how to press juice…

You know, the easy things.

I was… insufferably arrogant at the time as well. I was still very much the proud and pampered Prince who was used to having things go his own way. And in a way everything did, for as long as I stuck around a Goddess Pond I would get food from my family.

But I didn't want to linger around half-populated islands, I wanted to see what was out there. And in quick, short term I leaned. People, and not the type that I was used to dealing with.

You must understand, while I knew magic it was the very basic of types. I could freeze people, and heal myself, and that was about it. I wasn't a thief—that idea didn't come to me until much later, when I was on the brink of starving and decided to do what I had to, in order to remain alive—I was a pampered Prince of the Moon.

Well, I got that beaten out of me rather quickly when I hit the mainlands. I stepped off the ferry and was almost immediately cornered by some thugs, who were interested in the rings and bracelets I was wearing.

Oh you laugh now… Alright, I admit it, it was a foolish thing to do. But I had no knowledge of what the intelligent thing to do was, now did I?

It took several groups of thugs before I learned to keep my mouth to myself and hide my jewelry when walking into the dingier parts of town. On the last time I failed to learn this lesson I was rescued by a young lady officer, who carted me off to her precinct to give a statement.

At this point I had started to become wary of the humans I encountered, but she didn't seem too bad. She was a little rough, sharp, and short tempered. No, worse than you my love, much worse. She didn't quite hammer the lessons of the world into me, but she did a good job of trying. I think I ended up with more bruises from Annette than I ever received at the hands of gangs.

But the lessons were good ones. Teaching me how to keep my mouth shut so that I stopped getting roughed up took the longest, I think. And when she got the chance she showed me the basics of cooking. It was probably the only thing that made her smile.

Well, I made her laugh a great deal while I was trying to figure out the use for pots, pans, dishes, soup tins, and so on. It might be hard to believe, but I burned more than my fair share of what should have been decent food.

For a while Annette was even unwilling to let me boil the water for her coffee. Not that I can blame her, I was a complete fumble-fingers a the time.

Not long after I managed the basics, Annette was shot in the line of duty. She left all her belongings to me, which was quite the shock… So I stayed in that place for a while and honed my cooking skills as best I could without a teacher. Once that was done, I went looking for people who would be willing to show me how to make more complicated dishes.

Which is how I got started on the path to making the most perfect curry ever… and started me down the path of thievery.

But I have taken up enough of the book, I think, with this one story.

You're not getting out of it that easily. Just you wait, when it gets this boring again I'm going to make you tell us that story. It can't be that bad of a tale.

I'm getting the look. I hate the look… That look of 'I'll tell you when I feel like it and no sooner.'

Gah… that look always makes me want to smack someone. Distractions, distractions…

Well, I did manage to get Skye to fill me in on the hunt for his father's killer. If I didn't understand Akio's motives I'd be wondering if maybe he didn't have a hand in the whole mess… but there would be no point to it, he's got a wife and a Palace to rule once his father-in-law and mother-in-law step down from their thrones. Skye says it shouldn't be more than ten years before they do so, they're one of the oldest families of Moon People.

Er, I mean, the oldest of the families of Moon People. Argh, the in-laws are a pair of old fogies, there! That makes bloody sense! Hmph.

Anyways…

After I badgered him enough he finally told me what the knife from my dream was. They call it a 'soul-stealer' but it's really just a magically enchanted blue dagger. Actually, all of their weapons are made from the stuff, it's a malleable metal that's a bit of Mystrile and glass mixed together, and then enchanted. You wouldn't think it would wok, but apparently it does. He even had Akio show me one.

It's almost identical to the one in my dream, but Aki's had a wood grip, sanded smooth with contours for where his fingers would fit. The one in my dream had a leather grip, with silver gilt-paint on it.

I should know, I certainly saw the dratted thing from more than one angle!

Agh, and it still gives me shivers to think about it.

…and I'm not about to turn down a backrub offer. Mmm, I'm gonna go melt for a while now.