Unseelie adventures of S Mouse XI

STILL AWAITING REPLACEMENT EQUIPMENT DUE TOMORROW'S PACKET BOAT. HAVE SPENT MUCH TIME IN FASCINATING CONVERSATION WITH LOCAL MICE ESPECIALLY ONE CALLIOPE MOUSE WHO HAS BEEN MORE THAN HELPFUL. THESE REPORTS WILL HOWEVER REMAIN PROFESSIONAL AS BEFITS SCIENTIFIC NATURE OF EXPEDITION.

WHILE AWAITING EQUIPMENT HAVE GATHERED FURTHER FOLK TALES FROM LOCAL MICE. TALE BELOW TOLD BY ONE T MOUSE PICTURED ABOVE, WELL-KNOWN LOCAL CHARACTER SPOKEN OF AS NOT ENTIRELY RELIABLE.

how the mice came to the island.

since before the beginning of time the mice had travelled on the great red ship. the red ship sailed upon the infinite oceans of the world and sometimes a little beyond, passing over the rim of the world into the borders of those strange places beyond.

in those days a tale was told among the mice of the ship that once the great red ship had sailed only in the places beyond the world: that she had travelled between other worlds beyond the world, worlds which are not the world we know. the ship, in those times before the beginning of time, had sailed from one strange world to the next, travelling through the vast spaces between them and trading with those who lived on these worlds.

but the ship had grown tired of journeying thus, and had chosen our world on which to settle, journeying only occasionally beyond the edges of the world, that the ship and the mice might remember the other worlds and the spaces between them.

this was the tale told by the mice in those far days at the start of time.

one night, as the mice and perhaps the ship slept in the infinite oceans, a new and astonishing thing happened which never before had happened in the history of the world. often of course this was the case in those days: when time itself is not old all things which happen are new and astonishing.

what happened was this: as the mice and perhaps the ship slept a new island arose from the deeps of the ocean, and it arose under the ship. it arose so softly that only the ship understood that she was no longer upon the ocean but on land, on land that, in a few days, would be dry land. but the ship had voyaged on the oceans and beyond them for a very long time and she was content that its long voyaging had now come to an end, giving out only a slight creak which did not awaken the sleeping mice.

the next morning the mice awoke to something they had never known: stillness. always the great red ship had been moving with the movement of the sea: now it was, for the first time, still. the mice did not know what do do, but the ship reassured them: this land was now their land, their new home. and so they built a ladder and climbed down the side of the great red ship, stepping for the first time on the land that would soon be dry.

thus did the mice come to the island, where they have lived and thrived. and the ship? the ship rested from her travels and slowly faded into legend. but she is still there to be seen, by those who know where to look.

THIS IS THE TALE TOLD TO ME BY T MOUSE. TOMORROW, HE SAYS, HE WILL TAKE ME TO SEE THE GREAT RED SHIP OF THE MICE AND PERHAPS I MAY SPEAK WITH HER.

SUSPECT HE IS PULLING MY TAIL IN SOME OF THIS.