//------------------------------// // Uni the Second // Story: From the Expedition Journal of Temple Scrivener // by CloverQuill //------------------------------// Month of Uni, Second Day, Year of the Manticore I finally observed these jungle dogs for myself, today! They are very interesting dogs, indeed. The smaller dogs are, like my fellow explorers said yesterday, quite friendly. We believe that the smaller dogs are all female, but it is rather difficult to tell their genders. As I mentioned previously, all of the dogs are extremely fond of clothing. They wear it all the time, and even when they were, we think, complaining about the heat they never once removed it. Despite the less than desired results with the translation spell yesterday, I still had Lyra cast it on me. It is very strange to hear a language without any translation.1 I didn’t realize how much I depended on it translating all of a being’s language until now. Funny how we take such things for granted. Their body language is sometimes very strange. The first thing anypony that has worked with dogs will note, is that none of them show their necks to the other pack members. They also are severely limited in displays, without their ears and tails. One would think that this would lead to further dramatic body movements, but instead they have many strange gestures with their paws. Their snouts are very short and their faces quite mobile. Without the spell cast on them, it is hard to be sure. But they seem to smile more like ponies, to show no hard feelings, than like plains or diamond dogs. We tried to bring an offering of friendship, in the form of some charmed pendants on beaded necklaces. They found the offering to be a kind of joke, but thankfully accepted it instead of taking insult. I wish we could understand what about it was amusing. We attempted to communicate through gestures and crude drawings that the necklaces were charmed by Princess Twilight herself, with the usual charms popular among their cousins. Horseshoes, hearts, moons, and the like2. I’m not sure how much they understood, unfortunately. They did show me their altar to Celestia. It is very strange. They have two small glass and metal totems that they place upon the black altar with great care, and they all take turns watching the altar. They were very concerned about how close we came to it. We were not allowed within touching distance and, we think, that they were nervous about Lyra’s magic. Despite their attempt to communicate about their totems seemingly magical powers, she could detect no magic flowing from the altar to them. I was able to observe a rather mild charge suffusing the area around the altar. After I brought it to Feather Duster’s attention he also confirmed that it was faint, but there. The dogs seemed conflicted about showing us the totems being used and today decided against it. I hope that we will gain their trust enough to see these peculiar items activated. We tried to communicate our names today, after giving our peace offering. The translation spell still doesn’t work, but their names sound something like: Cayt, Jon, Ee-lye, Mare-ee-uh, and Jayn. I’m looking forward to strengthening our friendship with these new dogs tomorrow! -Temple Scrivener 1 I confirmed on arrival at basecamp that Lyra Heartstrings still posses sufficient thaums to cast Tingle’s Tinkering Translation and observed her successfully cast it. The subjects so far appear to absorb all direct magic. 2 I charged the pendants in the following manner: Glass horseshoe pendants charmed with Penne’s Probability Potential. Crystal Heart replica pendants charmed with Cœur’s Copious Courage. Gold Princess Celestia’s cutie mark pendants charmed with Wark’s Warm Wreath. Silver Princess Luna’s cutie mark pendants charmed with Fir’s Fecund Fertility. Wooden rabbit pendants charmed with Boer’s Big Bounty. Antler point pendants charmed with Ace’s Accurate Aiming. ╬TS