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We haven’t been in touch all this time because, let me remind you, there’s A LOT OF SNOW. We cleaned it, cleaned it, cleaned it - it all ended with me almost ruining my back, and today it... melted. I love the local climate.

But from complaints we move on to more pressing news. The holidays are just around the corner, and therefore our entire friendly team is slowly starting to go home. Berenice returns to Recinia; I’m going to my relatives in Rozhev, the rest are going elsewhere too. Only the vigilant alvas on duty remain here, as well as enthusiasts who are simply crazy about work. Thank God, I don’t consider myself one of those people.

Therefore, news about our excavation will stop for these two weeks, but we will shower you with all sorts of New Year, Christmas and any other things. Stay in touch!

This morning I was pouring water from the tap into a cup, and at exactly the same moment I had an idea for a new post. Now many of us have normal water supply systems, and therefore very convenient and easy access to water. What were people doing, say... in the fourth century?

Wells and walking with buckets on a rocker to the river immediately come to mind; a little later, perhaps Romanesque aqueducts and lead water supply, which did not make things any better - were there other options?

As it turns out, there is. One of the most sophisticated (in the good sense of the word) options was among the elves of Sordava - the same one that is the capital of the Glinnar Dimonarchy. It would seem that a wide and deep river flows through the city (Edevis), take as much water from there as you like, right? It would have been possible, of course, but Sordav was already a very vertical city. The local evalgars calmly reached a height of eighty meters and were completely covered with assorted dwellings, bridges, passages and anything else. It’s as if climbing up the stairs thirty (or even more) meters with buckets in your hands appeals to few people.

As far as we can know, at first the option of buying a number of pumps from the Kharassukhumi doors and making a full-fledged water supply system was seriously considered. He was rejected: almost the entire city is one continuous forest, and servicing underground pumps would be very difficult, if not impossible, due to the abundance of intertwined roots. And in the end they did the following.

Since the city is in a lowland, three aqueducts were built to it: one taking water from the upper sections of Edevais; two more are from lakes in the south. They made something like water tanks, and then it was simply brilliant. The pipes were made from the wood of dead evalgars, which, immersed underground, were magically implanted into the root system of already living ones. Thus, we achieved two things at once:
— there is no need to maintain anything, because the wood is very durable, moisture-resistant, and most importantly, alive and capable of regeneration;
— the roots will not accidentally destroy the pipes, because these pipes are part of the roots.

Of course, this way the Alvas could only use cold water, but that’s still very cool, right?

The other day, nature decided to make a frank muck. On Thursday, it rained all evening and night, and at that time it was about -5 outside - and as a result, everything around is now covered with a centimeter layer of ice. I have claws on my feet, I can still somehow walk, but the rest is very hard. Sad, in short.

So, armed with a triple dose of ginger and cinnamon teas, I'll tell you a little about a thing that is considered one of the earliest descriptions of interspecies romantic relationships in our Orean history.

This little thing is a poem called "Layğr ed fuamāyāe sawūr" - translated from dzhearta, this is "A Song of Strange Love." It was written in Eryakhshara, somewhere in the 9th-8th centuries BC. The author is unknown, and this is not surprising: even now, interspecies love in society is not strongly approved, but then it was completely shameful. It is generally accepted (based on the analysis of the text) that the famous poet Vizhir gur Heshsh at Kuyab, who lived at that time, wrote the "Song", but this is not very accurate.

The poem tells how the lyrical hero (or heroine), having met a person, falls in love with him/her quite unexpectedly. The first third of the poem is a lengthy discourse on why it happened and what to do about it; the second is a brief episode of happiness, when the hero finds the strength to confess his feelings to a person and it turns out that they are mutual; the third is separation (most likely eternal), the lyrical hero rethinks his life in the context of the events that happened to him and finds the strength to live on.

The poem is also interesting because it was written in something like free verse: there are simply no typical means of expression characteristic of the then Eryakhshar poetry (alliteration, an equal number of syllables in lines). Why this is so, we are unlikely to ever know.

Finally, we will show you a couple of stanzas from the very, very beginning.

That night went crazy

The rain was like
Azur splashed in the well of heaven,
And the water poured down.

That night the people came
You were one of them.

The face of a man on whom water runs,
faceless, on other people
Seems like.

Were your eyes? Palms, smell, or
something else - than from others
were you different?

Why you
without even touching
remember?

(Original:

Kam şebāj ţakrilajaypyāv emq —

Eryāj
Azūr şapurimirimyāseḑ ħelaxt,
Yī abalad sūryā hayɠōvv
vad.

Kam şebyāseḑ maşyā rağjind —
Sār yekē ḑin vadar

Meşfēyē maşyā ed abalyāv oţsavayp
ameşfayna ħer, melţē maşyāe antarayram
vast.

Ganbeşr vadundhal? Qardā, xşads, paḑ
jal māe—ed jadyāv antarāyrzem
jivoţħōskar?

Ejjadyav şard
nequşp ħer
şemanam?)

Yesterday we had a very stressful day in a good way, on which we were finally able to take a break from the bad weather, and from a disgusting mood, and simply from fatigue. Sponsor of a successful weekend - Acherus!

First of all, we went to bed last night somewhere around three in the morning. At first Acherus played the violin, then Berenice brought a lute, I grabbed the guitar - we ended up having a very sudden and amateur concert. I don’t remember exactly who, but someone opened a bottle of wine, and the evening was a great success.

Further, I can say with confidence that Acherus is the best sleeper? Solezhets? which only I had: he just passed out instantly and slept until the morning. He also smells like oranges.

In the morning we gave up on all our business and went to Hveitstad, to the sea. And they walked along the shore and around the city itself until the evening, until they were completely numb. And then they drove to the very outskirts of the city, went out to a deserted beach where there was no one, and Acherus showed his Dragar magic in action. With just a few words, he created such a fire show that our jaws dropped at once - it seems no one even thought to start filming.

When the time came to leave, we said goodbye to our new comrade for a very long time. He promised to come more often, and we will wait for him.

It turns out that if you sit at home in wet and cold weather and do nothing, sooner or later a draghar in human form will come to you. At least that’s exactly what happened to us today. This is the same friend of ours (if you can call him that) who helped write stereotypes and then answered a little questions.

As it turned out, he was very bored and had absolutely nothing to do, so he decided to visit us. We were in complete solidarity with him, and therefore we sat him down at the table and fed him without further ado. And this time it was not we who asked him questions, but he himself told us some things that we would hardly have thought to ask.

• his real name is Acherus (Âcêrxus [ɒ.tʃʌ.ʀus]). No one except his fellow Dragars will be able to identify him by it, so he calmly revealed it to us;
• Dragars, it turns out, have their own techno-magical internet. The principle of its operation, as he himself said, he is unlikely to be able to explain, but it works - and well;
• in private, draghars (even those with human or similar bodies) prefer to communicate telepathically;
• Dragars (unlike elves) need six hours of sleep every day. Even those with human/Alvian bodies;
• all, all, all the Dragars of the world have one single language with dialects quite far apart from each other. But telepathic communication eliminates possible difficulties, since words are also supplemented by images;
• Specifically, Acherus himself loves green tea so much that he could drink it around the clock. True, then he becomes too cheerful and active, and begins to cause inconvenience to others;
• and he also loves to play the violin.

At the end of our conversation, he somewhat embarrassedly asked if he could stay with us for the night. The only free space left was on my bed, so I honestly warned him that if he doesn’t mind my loud snoring, then let him spend the night with us for good measure.

So today, late in the evening, we are planning a big violin concert. I have already agreed that the first composer on the program will be Sibelius.