# The Journal of Jonas



## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

So taking a writing break from my other works, I decided to have some fun with the 40k universe. This story is written as a journal so expect a journal written like structure. Enjoy.

The Journal of Jonas

_...As I told you before, I am a bit more stead fast when it comes to my enemy, not running away in fear at the sight of a demon or xeno like most other guardsmen... However, this thing on the other hand almost made me shit my pants in terror..._​


Day 1


Usually I don’t write journals or logs of any sort, but I felt like this part of my life is the perfect time to start one, for even though I’m alive and well at the moment, something tells me that I won’t be getting off of this planet… so might as well leave behind a decent story before I pass, of course, if anyone finds this journal. Thus this journal will be a written account of my life’s experiences until I am found by Imperial (or at least friendly human) forces.

To start off with, my name is Jonas Hagrid. I am a private with the 100th Durrath Regiment, twelfth division. Before I joined the guard I had a four year higher education on my home world of Corrinth, at the University of Iola. After graduating with a degree in engineering, I joined the Imperial Guard and have been in service for three years. During those three years, I have been through multiple campaigns. I have dealt with demons, aliens, heretics and other monstrous creatures. Thus unlike other guardsmen, I have some insight of Imperium’s greater enemies. But rather than being emotionally unbalanced like most men who face the worst of the worst, I have become stronger emotionally and mentally surprisingly. Such things like a blood letter decapitating my captain no longer stops me from facing my enemy would be a good example of my ‘evolved bravery’ as I would put it… But I will admit that I am still kind of creeped out by spiders… Those fuckers are nasty. But besides of my mature brave emotions, I am still quite a normal guy on most levels compared to others.

Now that you know a little about me, it’s time to explain where I am now. I will have to start the day prior to where I am now.

Yesterday, my squad was sent on a special recon mission on this planet, named “another rock” by our sarcastic sergeant. The mission was straight forward: Land, explore, report, and head back. Just a meat and potatoes kind of mission. As usual we get yelled at and threatened if we mess up on this mission. But being a more experienced squad compared to all of the other squads, we knew these threats weren’t all that bad… Because most of the time something else kills you in a more gruesome way. After being yelled at, we left briefing and started to prepare for tomorrows descent.

So we boarded up with our usual gear the next morning; a lasgun and three days of rations. Everything started out flawless; we got on our reinforced valkyire and descended into orbit, heading to what they claimed to be an open valley. Everything looked good until we hit the atmosphere. Once we were in those clouds, everything went to hell. Electronics failed, navigation systems crashed and all forms of communications died… Just the thing we needed. The pilot screamed that everything died due to severe electromagnetic energy that the clouds gave out, but everyone was in too much chaos to give a shit about the explanation. Everyone was freaking out, some praying to live while others swearing for our foul luck. Me? Well I was too busy thinking of a cute girl two days ago, thinking that this was just bad turbulence and someone was having motion sickness… But then I panicked like the others when I found out that we were going may day.

We didn’t realized how close we were to the ground when we got out of the clouds. We found that we were nose diving straight into an ocean, one that looked particularly violent. After that revelation, it wasn’t long until we clashed with the body of water, sending those who weren’t in their seats into the back of the ship. Some died of the pure impact, others drowned. Me? I ripped out my seat belt and broke through the back window before the ship was fully submerged. It was pure luck that I got out and even luckier that I was only a half mile away from shore. When I broke the surface, I swam like hell to that shore, completely forgetting that my squad was suffering a horrible fate. With the assistance of the tide, I washed up on the rocky beach in little time. I could see the last bit of the valkyire finally going under, the symbol of our regiment the last to go under. I felt sad for those poor men to be honest. They were ready to serve their fellow man and instead were taken by the ocean.

Seeing that I was alone and without any form of communication I decided to reach higher grounds, for I found the tide coming in closer and closer each passing minute. I decided to walk north, trying to find a nook or a small slope to climb up, for the beach that I was on was below a steep and cragged bluff. I did find one, about a mile away. I climbed up it obviously, but was shocked at what the terrain looked like over the bluff. Over the ridge I found the land to be rocky and barren, covered with snow and… Ash. I scooped up some of this ash but found it that it wasn’t fresh, just old ash preserved by the cold weather. Judging it, I concluded that this might be a volcanic area, but I couldn’t really prove it… For all I know there could have been a forest fire with a fresh sheet of snow.

I walked around, checking out the landscape to see where I really was and found the place to be empty with the exception of seagulls and some birds. With night coming closer, I decided to find a place to rest, not expecting any rescue team anytime soon. After a bit of searching, I found a small cave and set up my bag there. And that is where I am at now… I shall write more tomorrow night, if I am alive.

-Jonas Hagrid.




Day 2

Woke up in the morning and ate one of those disgusting rations. If the Emperor is such a merciful and loving being, why couldn’t he add a little salt to these cans of shit? After chewing the smudge down, I walked outside and scoped the area around, finding it to be the same as yesterday but lighter on the overcast part. Considering myself dead in the records of the Imperial Guard now, I didn’t expect any help whatsoever. So choosing the obvious choice, I decided to pack up and find some form of civilization, hoping it to be friendly. I checked my bag before I departed the cave, finding to my surprise that there was a las pistol, a pair of binoculars and a nice size box of matches, a surprisingly great slew of stuff for someone who is in the middle of nowhere. I decided to move west, finding my immediate east to be a large and treacherous ocean.

The farther I moved towards inland, the less fog there was to be seen. Eventually all of the fog dissipated and there was nothing left but blue skies and a winter sun. Besides the weather, my conclusion about the terrain from yesterday was proven to be true. The land was rough with hills and cliffs, all covered with a blanket of snow. And you guessed it as well: dormant volcanoes. The volcanoes were dotted over the landscape as I moved west; occasionally one of them would be semi active, spewing out a slow stream of smoke. It was beautiful and a desolate landscape I will admit, nothing like I have seen before. I kept going till what it felt like to be noon… Or in this case till I was hungry. I found a ridge to eat my disgusting lunch on, the view helping me to find any signs of life besides the small rodents and birds. But to my dismay I found nothing again. But I kept going. Over the rocks and threw the valleys I moved across the land at my own pace. Again like yesterday, I stopped and searched for a small little hole in the ground as night closed in, finishing the day by writing this entry.

-Jonas Hagrid. 



Day 3

Just like last morning, I got up and ate a thing of dog food the Imperial Guard calls ‘food’ for breakfast. The weather was a little cloudier than yesterday, but I still see patches of blue and the occasional glimpse of the sun. I packed up and traveled west as planned. Over the course of four hours of traveling, the terrain went from cragged cliffs to more rolling hills and eventually the foothills of a mountain range. I stopped and spent about ten minutes with my binoculars trying to see if there was a pass through the mountains before I had lunch. I found one eventually, but it looked like more of an overpass across the mountains rather than a steep valley that I wanted. But it would work for the time being.

After my lunch I started to go up the pass, about ten miles from where I ate lunch. At first it was a steep thin path, but later it started to smooth out and widen up. I looked back and checked the time and was amazed at the distance I traveled… Making good progress to somewhere in other words. About sunset I decided to stay low for the night. I dug a snow cave with my standard multi-purpose shovel and thought it was good for now. I will right again tomorrow night.

-Jonas Hagrid

_P.S. I found the camera in my bag from last week when me and the lads went to town on Eros, it has only a few picks in it, but at least some of them had some nice broads in it. That will keep me sane for a while._




Day 4

I was awoken last night around 3 AM by a terrible noise. It sounded on the lines of a roar and a snarl, a rather intimidating combination. Overcame with stupid curiosity I peeked my head out of my little snow hole. I saw nothing in the night except for boulders and the sparse short trees. I thought at first it might be some alien creature on the lines of a wolf or bear, but after thinking it through, that roar felt way to powerful to be any creature of rational size. As I said before, a lot of creatures and enemies don’t strike that much fear in me compared to others, but hearing this monstrous howl of both power and intimidation that was very very far away, I was… a bit nervous. But after the fear left me, I crawled back into my sleeping bag, finishing off the night’s sleep.

When I was out of the cave and packed up, I again headed west. In about an hour I finished hiking up the mountain pass and reached the lowest peak of the mountain I was on. It was kinda low of a mountain but it still gave me a good clear view of where I was at. I scanned the valley between the mountains with my binoculars and all I found was small pine trees, a decent size river… and a scorch mark the size I have never seen before…

Is it my own foolishness or is it human nature that we must flock to areas of mass destruction? I may never know but that scorch mark called me. After spending a good chunk of the day climbing down the other side of the mountain (much easier and faster than going up), I arrived to the valley and made my way to the large patch of destruction. But before I was in clear view of the scorch mark, I tripped over and landed face first in the snow. Usually that is something I don’t worry about, just cuss and continue moving, but what I tripped over didn’t feel… Natural. I looked back and to my surprise it wasn’t a tree root or a rock, but a body! I quickly turned around and uncovered the snow on the corpse and found it be a body of a space marine! But the condition of the body was in horrendous shape to my astonishment! The armor was incinerated beyond recognition and the skin and flesh were burnt to nothing, saving for the few remains of the bones. It was so charred that I couldn’t even make out which chapter he was from. This find both inspired hope and fear in me. Hope as in the space marines are here, hence maybe some form of help! But fear in the fact that this might be connected to the roar from last night.

I wondered around to see if there were any more bodies around the area, possibly in the process find a communication device or rations as well. I found corpses all the way from the bank of the river to the middle of the scorched ground, which was were the biggest concentration of them. They all suffered the fate of the other marine I found: burned to death. I wondered what would cause such a firey death to such great men. Orks? Eldar? Maybe even Chaos? But I felt deep inside that it was none of them who did it. I finished searching around and found some supplies… most of them destroyed by the fires but some were still in good condition. A space marine knife, a flamer and two krak grenades… another good find. But I saw that night was closing in. I found some cover to sleep in by the river and ate the last of my rations… Which is good because maybe I can find some wild life here to eat instead. 


-Jonas Hagrid.


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## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

Day 5

Unlike the previous days, today was really fucking cold. I had to pull out the emergency windbreaker in the bag and wear it under my flank vest to warm myself up a bit. Since last night I ate the last of the rations, I had to find food for myself, something that I found better than those shit rations. First thing that I came to mind was the wild fowl, an easy and safe source of food around this quite empty valley. Why a safe source? Well, for all I know there could be some dire predators out there, plus those birds are in abundance. Took a couple of shots with my las pistol and eventually blasted one of the heads off of those birds. Now that I had the meat, I needed a fire to cook it over… which wasn’t much of a problem when you have a flamer in hand. Plucked the bird, gathered up some scrap wood and bam! Breakfast and lunch is made… which didn’t taste like shit, thank the Emperor.

Today I decided to investigate the remains of the dead space marines again. Like last time, I scanned the area for any signs of life or useful tools, this time more clear with the morning light. To my luck I found several flares and bolt pistol in good shape. But I found that the bolt pistol was far too large for my hands and would be too heavy to carry it around, so I just left it. I checked the middle of the massive burned area from yesterday and found it to be the same… Except for one thing. A short distance away from the main body, a lone space marine corpse leaned against a small tree stump, something that I didn’t see last early evening. Unlike the others, it was not incinerated, but yet heavily scarred and ripped up. I checked the body out and finally found who were the men who died here. They were Space Wolves. I don’t know why they would be here, nor do I know what killed them, but it was a sad sight to see such valiant men burned alive. I closed his eye lids and departed as an act of respect.

I was about to leave when, by pure luck, I stumbled upon some sort of communications device. It wasn’t big and had a small screen, but I guessed it was used for monitoring their position and to receive orders from HQ or something on the lines of that. I was elated to see it working fine, but my hope was crushed when I saw the red words across the screen: Mission Aborted. My chance to be rescued was foiled. With that chance thrown out the window, I decided to move on. 

Seeing this valley quite bare with the exception of a few trees and a river, I took out my binoculars and looked for a way out. At first I was looking for a nook between the mountains or an overpass, but I realized that the best route was following the river! Thank the Emperor that I thought of that, otherwise it would have been hell trying to get out. I started to follow the river, heading west/north with the current. I followed that body of water for the rest of the day, making excellent distance. Again, I stopped at nightfall, finished up my fowl and slept in another snow hole.

-Jonas Hagrid.





Day Six

Again I was awoken by that same monstrous roar two days ago, this time it was louder and much nastier. I swear I was on the verge of freaking out. This growl of ungodly proportions was definitely a product of a fucking large creature, not some wolf sized shit like I thought it would be two days ago. Again, after the roar, there was dead silence. I fell back asleep, but it was an uncomfortable sleep to put it at best.

The next morning I had fowl for breakfast gain, something that I am not complaining about. I packed my stuff and moved onward up the river, again hoping to find people of some sort. It was about ten in the morning at best when my luck started to turn for the better… For what it seemed like at the moment. In the distance on a large bank in the river, I saw someone! Yes, a human being! A rather large human to be exact… Unusually large. With joyous adrenaline through my veins I jogged up to that person’s position, calling out and grabbing their attention. The person found me, and started sprinting towards me in return… sprinting too fast I could say. With the distance closing in I finally got a good look at who was running towards me. It was a space wolf… a rather insane looking space wolf…

I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the crazed space marine. His maniac like expression told me that this might not be a friendly encounter, so I pulled out my flamer, ready to burn him in the act of self defense. But he was too close. He grabbed me by my flank jacket and started yelling at me, asking if I have seen him. I had no bloody idea what this crazed wolf was talking about but I could tell that he was talking about a thing at least. He went on about how something killed his squad and how now he plans to extract vengeance on it. With those words I could immediately tell that he was part of that squad twenty five miles back. I was about to ask if he could bring in some aid and help to get me off of this rock, ignoring his plan for vengeance, but he then silenced me when he saw something in the sky. He pointed out and screamed with delight at what he saw. Before I could even turn my head to look as well, he grabbed me and we sprinted off to where ever he was going, screaming out that we must kill it in the name of his fallen brothers. It must have been two hours of insane running before we stopped. He dragged me up the slope of one mountain, still insanely mumbling to himself about how he will render a beast of great size. Then it came to me like a divine revelation, a horrible and insane revelation: he was going to kill the thing that destroyed his squad, and this thing is most likely to be the creature responsible for those terrible roars in the night. I tried to break free after that realization, but I couldn’t break free from his inhuman grasp. 

We reached the tip of the mountain and we found it to be not a mountain, but a dead caldera volcano. He dragged me down into the bottom of the volcano, leaving me at the outer rim. He told me that he will bring divine wrath upon the beast in the name of Leman Russ. I told him good luck nervously. Good luck? If this thing he was talking about killed his entire squad in one go, he shouldn’t last a second. I saw him sprint away from me after those words, watching him head towards a cave of enormous proportions that sunk in the ground, like a gaping mouth. It was easily large enough for a warlord titan to walk through. He pulled out a power axe and started screaming out war cries and battle chants, obviously trying to catch his murder’s attention. I hid behind a giant boulder, for deep down inside I knew things were about to get ugly fast. I peered around the corner to watch it though, hiding myself enough so I don’t look so obvious. As I told you before, most creatures of chaos and xenos don’t strike too much fear in me compared to my fellow man, only make me a bit nervous at times. But when I saw the eyes lit up in the deep cave, I was scared stiff… Scared as in I-was-about-to-shit-my-pants. The space wolf kept screaming, succeeding at getting the attention of the beast inside. He repeated the words:

“Nidhogg! Nidhogg! I shall avenge my brothers with your death Nidhogg!”

That finally summoned the creature. I will say this once and once only: greater demons are huge, squiggoths are enormous and avatars are gigantic. But this “Nidhogg” was just fucking unbelievable. The great beast walked out of his cave and stood up. It must have been about fifty five – sixty meters tall, not including its two tails in length. It height was so great that it would easily dwarf any greater creature that I have ever encountered. Its four wings blocked out the sun in the valley of the caldera, and boasted two mighty antlers on its head, antlers that looked of great age. In simplest terms it was a fucking colossal dragon.

I knew in the beginning that the space wolf had no chance in even scratching this creature. He charged at the monster, again screaming at the top of his lungs. The dragon in return simply picked up the marine, who was barely as large as its smallest finger. He stared at the marine, and with a flick of its wrist, devoured the man. The only thing left of the marine was his power axe on the ground. “Nidhogg” took the axe and threw it into his cave for some reason. I on the other hand after seeing this beast devour the marine, hid behind the boulder, praying not to suffer the same fate. But instead to my luck, the dragon looked around and then turned back into its cave, disappearing into the darkness.

It took me about an hour and a half to get out of the caldera. By the time I reached the top rim, it was already dark. I traveled down a ways and found a sheltered area to spend the night. I dare not start a fire, least I be seen by the dragon. I finished the night by writing this and fell asleep with no dinner. Emperor save me from such a fate.

-Jonas Hagrid.




Day Seven

Since seeing the beast I had a very uncomfortable sleep last night. Never before have I seen a creature of such awe and power, let alone to strike so much terror in me. I checked my surroundings after eating the remains of my two day old fowl for breakfast. I could see that I was land locked between two nearly impossible to climb mountains on both sides and the slope before me was too steep to go back down. That left me with only one choice of moving on: traveling through the caldera. It was suicide I know, but it was either risking my life to get back down to the valley or risking my life to travel close to Nidhogg’s den. Either way I was fucked so I choose the dragon. At least my death would be swift…

After a bit of time, I was at the upper rim of the collapsed volcano. I could see the giant mouth like cave at the end, obviously with Nidhogg in it. I used my binoculars to see if I could just walk around the rim and descend on the other side. It my dismay I could not. I would have to travel down into the collapsed volcano like yesterday and climb up the other side. Again, I was screwed either way with both decisions, but might as well try. I slowly climbed down the steep slope, placing my feet only on solid earth than loose rocks. It was a miracle getting down and now I was back at the same spot like yesterday, behind that blessed boulder. I was about to creep forward but a thunderous roar echoed from the cave. I dove behind the boulder without hesitation. Nidhogg was awake and angry. I was in the fetal position after I hide, trying to make myself as small as possible so he didn’t notice me. I felt the thunderous footsteps on the ground, guessing the mighty beast was coming out of the cave. The next thing I knew I saw a giant shadow looming over me. I was done for I thought; this was the end of me. I heard it snarl and with a gust of wind, he was gone. I looked over the boulder with extreme caution and he was really gone. This was baffling for a moment. Where did he go? He was just there and now he’s gone. I looked up towards the sky and there he was, flying away into the distance at great speed. Again, my life was spared.

I slumped on the ground with great relief. Now I could make some distance without being in great trouble. I got up and dashed across the caldera floor. The lowest point to climb over was next to the great cave, so I was forced to run by it, but that wasn’t a problem since Nighogg wasn’t there. But as I was half way across the cave’s mouth, a shinning glimmer caught my attention inside. Again my stupid curiosity got the better of me. I stopped and took a closer look at the glimmering light in the distance. I could barely make it out, but the shining light somehow convinced me to come closer. Without any thought I entered the giant cave. Nidhogg wasn’t home so seeing no consequence of disturbing the surroundings I pulled out a flare and threw it into the cave. The sight was spectacular. The cave floor was littered with an endless ocean of weapons, armor and artifacts! It sparkled and glowed with the colors of gold and silver as the flare illuminated everything. I walked about these treasures with amazement. But it wasn’t the amount of riches that surprised me, but what they were. I found master crafted power weapons, deamon weapons, eldar artifacts and other various treasures. Yes, I said it, deamon weapons. I heard of the tales of the temptations of these cursed weapons, but some strange reason none of them called me. I could see them glow with life, but none tried to woo me over to darkness. Strange isn’t?
I continued with my looking about, and to be honest, desired some of these treasures. But all of them were either cursed, too large or completely alien. But after a while I found something that was light, small, and practical. I picked up what looked like a sword, but possessed a complex and interesting structure. Describing it would have taken to long, so here is an illustration of the blade. Sorry, this is the best I could draw.










From what it looked like, it had two batteries down by the pummel and a turn dial switch right on the hilt. The blade was the most surprising part to me, being designed like a fork prong than the traditional full blade. Unlike the others, it wasn’t all gold and sparkly, in fact it was all the colors of steel and only some gold trimmings. At first I was skeptical about the uses of this sword, the whole blade design thing looking fragile. So I dicked around and found an artifice breast plate. Thinking at first that the blade would shatter when I try to pierce the reinforced steel/adamantium plate, to my surprise the sword punctured it like a hot knife through butter! After seeing this, I knew it was keeper and useful. I discarded the space marine knife in my bag and wrapped up the sword with a tattered cape on the ground. The blade’s weight was decent, and it was big enough for one hand only, something that was perfect for me. I decided that I had spent enough time in the dragon’s lair and that he might come back any moment. One my first step though, I lost my balance on some uneven treasure, falling backwards. I fell back and tumbled down deeper into the cave, stopping when I hit a mound of some sort of stale material. What I crashed into crunched and snapped, something that was not metal unlike the others. I grabbed another flare and lit it to see what I landed into: a mountain of bones. I jumped back at the first sight. The flare revealed that this was no simple mound, but a mountain of bones and skulls. I continued to scan the mass of bones, staring at awe and fear at the endless body count. It must of took thousands upon thousands of victims to create such a mound! But the most disturbing of all was not the amount of death on the pile, but it's shape: a bed.

I needed to get out. I frantically sprinted out of the cave as my flare started to die. I scrambled up the seemingly endless mountain of treasure and reached the entrance. To my horror, I saw in the distance a giant brownish black blob in the sky. I knew what it was. Like fucking hell I booked it up the slope of the caldera crater. I didn’t care if I was noisy or quiet, I needed to get out of here now! Every minute I could see Nidhogg coming closer and closer, and with that my heart raced even faster. I could hear his wings beat in the distance, sounding on the lines of a tempest heading towards me. After I reached the top, I literally slid down the other side. I crashed right in front of a dead tree and swung around it and hid in the bush. I watched the mighty dragon fly back down, disappearing behind the crater’s walls.

Everything else after that was a blur. I raced down the dead volcano with great speed until I reached more fertile areas. I pitched camp there and ate some local berries for my dinner. I will never travel back here ever again.

-Jonas Hagrid


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## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

any comments?


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## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

Day Eight

I heard him leave last night. I heard his thunderous wings, sending him off to the unknown. His departure woke me up in the middle of the night as I remembered. I watched him ascend over the caldera’s walls, like a shadow against the sky, disappearing into the darkness. It was a strange moment I will admit, seeing the giant beast fly off. I mean, I was nervous and a little on edge when I saw his silhouette on the moon, but at the same time I was in… Awe. I’ve heard of great monsters and personally have seen some, but none of them have ever generated so much fear and… respect from me. I sat there looking at the star filled sky after he left my view, wondering on where a creature of such magnitude would go in the night. My deep thinking though didn’t last long after that, for sleep once again grasped me.

After I left camp, I descended down the caldera’s west side. I was in luck that I spot the river from the previous valley, my prediction coming true about it passing by here. I continued to follow the nice quiet river, making good progress though out the day. I noticed the farther that I moved west, the more vegetation was around. In fact, the trees here are three times bigger than the ones on the base of the caldera. It was quite pleasant really, seeing more abundant life around the area as I traveled farther with the flow of the river. In fact, I spot a deer for a change! Fancy that!

I had a small rabbit for lunch, the best I could do with this shitty las pistol. As I chewed on the sweet meat, the deep recesses of my mind reminded me of the blade I had on my back for some strange reason. Maybe it’s just my odd mind that brought it up… Or the fact that the tip of the wrapped blade was jabbing at my butt. So after plucking off the last bits of tender meat, I pulled out the strange sword and unwrapped it. Unlike yesterday, the sword’s details looked much different. The work and design of the blade was even more bare and bleak than the darkness of the cave made it to be. It was industrial, technical, cold and intimidating, strange characteristics of an object in a sea of golden treasure. But that didn’t stop my interest in the blade’s function. So once again I dicked around with it like any ‘sensible’ person. I sliced small branches in half, hacked up dead wood and cut off small chunks of river rock. It was a very sound sword (as proven against the breast plate), but it looked like it was… hiding something from me. So I messed around and remembered the knob on the hilt. When I first tried to turn it, I found it to be stuck. But then I lifted the knob up and twisted it. It scared the shit out of me. A blue and white flame exploded out of the hilt, lining up with the two sword prongs as I turned the knob up. The flame cracked and flickered as it formed a blade like shape. The hilt and handle slightly expanded also, emitting a bluish-white glow, like it was venting some steam or so. Again, after “turning it on”… I screwed around with it like the ‘genius’ that I am. 

I took a swing at a giant boulder near the river. Without any effort, the sword sliced and fried the rock. I just kind of stood there with my jaw on the ground after seeing such killing power that this sword has. No wonder a dragon would guard such a weapon….

After an hour of murdering the landscape around me in a joyous manner, I pulled my act together and marched out of my now destroyed lunch area.
Over the course of the day, the weather changed from cloudy to sunny, the trees grew larger and the grass thicker. I guessed I moved about forty miles today… Good progress if you ask me. Nothing else remarkable happened after I left my lunch spot. I shall write more tomorrow.

-Jonas Hagrid




Day Nine

I’ve been keeping a mental note about the elevation and terrain over the past eight days. I started out by an ocean, climbed up a mountain range and volcano, and now I am slowly exiting the mountain range. Also the landscape went from barren to sorta-barren to sparse vegetation and now woods. This is nothing important, just an interesting observation.

After some fresh morning grub I continued following the river, from which where I’ve started now has turned into an extremely large river. 

To be honest, nothing new has happened with today. I’m just going to get some dinner and fresh water then hit the sack.
-Jonas Hagrid




Day Ten

I woke up to the sounds of laughter and screeching in the early morning. At first I thought it was a dying child so I got up and started to sprint to the origin of the noise. I really couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the screaming was coming from, but all I knew was that I had to get there as fast as I can to save what I thought was a poor child in distress. When I thought I was closing in on the spot, I suddenly fell to the ground, completely unconscious.

I woke up from my blackout to the same screaming sound, except it sounded much nastier. My vision was at first blurry, but I could see over me were five giant figures, laughing and taunting at me. Before I could focus my vision, I was lifted up and thrown to the ground. They did this again for a few times, each time harder than before. The fourth time I got up by myself and actually got a good look at them. I jolted back in shock when I saw the men who were harassing me: Noise Marines. I saw them laugh and taunt me, entertaining themselves about my defenselessness. I was trying to hold in my vomit, for their hideous looks were almost too much for me to stomach. While I was keeping my vile down, one of them suggested blowing my brains out for fun, while another wanted to literally rape me… Saying that he was a little ‘aroused’. While they were bickering and deciding on what to do with me, one of them came back with my bag. They dug in and took what they pleased, including the mysterious blade. They taunted and insulted me again as they took my survival tools, saying that I didn’t need it after they were done with me. I secretly prayed for the Emperor to save me at this point, for I knew this time I was in very deep shit.

Just when I thought I was totally doomed, the marines stopped moving. They all slowly stood up straight, like they were trying to… hear something. At first I couldn’t identify what they were trying to hear, as nothing came to my ears at first. But when everyone was still and quiet, I too could hear the faint noise they picked up. It sounded like… flutes and trumpets. It was rather a disturbing noise, even unto the marines, but at the same time it was enchanting. The patter and rhythm of the flutes and trumpets were played in an insane but yet soothing way, a sporadic and melodic rhythm. While I felt this spelled trouble, the marines on the other hand put down their blast masters and actually tried to find the source of this unnatural sound. The whispered to each other, claiming that this tune was of the most beautiful and wonderful thing that they heard, easily surpassing the sounds of dying men (like that’s anything close to beautiful). While they slowly wandered around, my confused mind decided that this was all too much, so I got up and grabbed the few things left, including the sword. Apparently they were too enticed by the sound to stop me from escaping. But as I was about twenty feet away from them, the flutes and trumpet sound became louder and much fiercer. No longer were the noise marines charmed by this sound, but now started to show signs of fear. I knew I needed to move on, but I too froze with them. But just like that, the disturbing sound stopped.

Silence was heard afterwards. I watched the marines stand still on full alert, muttering about this strange musical phenomenon. With their minds fixed on the sound, it gave me a sliver of time to move farther away from them, moving me out of danger a bit. I took a few steps backwards, barely making any noise. They were almost out of my eye sight until I backed into something soft. Immediately I felt a gush of warm and sticky air stream down my neck and back, feeling like someone was breathing down on me. I dread to look back, but again, my curiosity took the better of me. I slowly turned my head around and stood face to face with a giant dark red beast. Upon seeing this creature, I jumped back a bit in terror. It smiled at me with its disturbingly human like face, covered with a mane and beard of quills. It started to move forward, turning to the left like it was circling me. I saw that it had the body of a lion, it’s tail end covered with a massive volley of quills almost a meter long. This thing was easily the size of a hell hound tank. I continued to walk back slowly, trying to hold back the panic building inside of me. The monster also continued to slowly follow me, but then stopped about a ten feet behind. It then lowered its front half of his body and then brought it back up, sending out a tremendous roar… one that sounded like a orchestra of flutes and trumpets.

That was my signal to get the fuck out of here. I turned tail and sprinted off through the woods. I heard the massive creature behind me, feeling that it was catching up. I dodged through the trees and brush like a rabbit, but I could hear the beast simply just smash through all of it instead. Even though everything was a blur, I still could see that I was heading back to my favorite group of chaos marines. At first they thought I missed them, aiming their blast masters at me with glee, ready to blast me into oblivion. But once they saw the giant red beast behind, they too panicked. I heard the sounds of torment blast off as they bombarded the creature. I could tell their defense was a failure after I heard their screams of death, their pleading to their gods. I cared not though; I continued to get out of there.

But my escape was short lived. I tripped over an exposed root and landed face first onto the ground. I was fazed after the landing for a bit, figuring out what the hell just happened. But to my fear I could hear the beast in the distance coming closer. Instead of getting back up, I frantically crawled into some thick brush nearby. I watched nervously as the red creature stopped where I was once was, looking around to see where I went off to. It looked like it didn’t have the time for my hiding, so it ‘grunted’ and turned around. Again I thanked the Emperor.

I just laid in the brush for what seemed to be two hours. I didn’t want to risk being found immediately, so I decided to stay a bit, surprisingly much longer than intended. I got up and for some reason decided to check out the fate of those noise marines. Are they alive, or are they dead? Might as well find out for my safety. About another twenty minutes moving slowly through the terrain, I found my prior captors dead on the ground. I could see that one was mauled, his body torn in half by the giant stroke of the beast’s paw. The others… well… were dead in a much more odd way. I found their bodies to be torn to shreds, like a shotgun blast straight into an unprotected chest. I looked at their mutilated bodies and found foot long quills either stuck inside their flesh and armor or punched all the way through. I analyzed one of the quills and I could easily tell that this was from the beast. But… How did they get into the bodies?

It was getting dark and I needed to find a place to stay the night, but staying in these woods and near the river would be dangerous. I decided to move to new ground… Quietly.

It felt like ten o’clock before I found a suitable spot. It was in thick brush on a steep overlooking slope with a large tree looming over, a good place to hide. I was about to write this day before I fell asleep, but sounds of death and pain in the distance found me. More victim’s of the great red beast? I didn’t want to know. But those sounds weren’t over. I heard thunderous blasts and screams over and over again, this time coming closer and closer. For my own safety, I peeked out the brush to see where this horrible event was coming from; least it was coming towards me. Darkness was the first thing I saw, but when my eyes tuned with the darkness, I could see what was going on: a battle.

It took place in a small clearing near the river bank. In the distance I saw more of those horrible marines blasting their weapons. I could hear panic as scores of the men would just explode randomly, their bodies ripping up in the process. I moved closer to the battle, trying to see what they were fighting. Then it just made sense. These marines were fighting against the great and horrible beast. I could see it finally come out of the woods, hunching over and whipping it’s barbed tail at them, unleashing volleys of quills. These quills pierced the cursed power armor and tore them to shreds like the previous bodies I found. Finally, when the multitude of these men diminished into a scattered few, the beast chased after them, devouring them whole one by one. After the small warband cease to exist, it moved back into the forest, letting out the faint tune that sounded like pipes and trumpets.

I slept lightly that night. Thought I was safe, the creature’s tune and voice still haunts me.

-Jonas Hagrid


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## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

I know the old fashion rule of "Just because someone hasn't posted, doesn't mean no one is reading it", but any comments or thoughts?


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## Chaosrider (Feb 3, 2010)

its a good read you got here. bit of checking grammar might be needed. can't really tell, i'm not that knowledgeable about that.


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## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

Chaosrider said:


> its a good read you got here. bit of checking grammar might be needed. can't really tell, i'm not that knowledgeable about that.


Thanks. The grammar part might be a combination of the writing style and some mistakes that I didn't catch at the moment. Thanks anyways.


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## Kale Hellas (Aug 26, 2009)

once again we come to the fact, i love your writings, their always impressive.


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## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

Thanks Kale, I really appreciate that.


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## arturslv (May 12, 2010)

Just finished reading it, and I think it's awesome. Keep up the good work.


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Really good work here TOG! Look forward to future installments.


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## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

_Here is a short tid-bit_



Day Eleven


I got up without breakfast… a perfect way to start the day as usual. I packed up my stuff quietly this morning, fearing that the beast was still in the area. So continuing I waded back to the east side of the river as I was originally traveling, finding that side to be easier to traverse. As I continued alongside the river, I came across the place where the skirmish took place last night. Again I found the punctured bodies of dead chaos marines; their blood and flesh strew all over the place. I could have continued on and left the area, but instead for odd reasons I decided to investigate the remains of the deceased. As I walked over the fallen, I found long barbed wooden like spikes everywhere, either in the bodies or stuck in the ground. I yanked one out of the chest of a marine and looked at it. Immediately it came to mind that it was a quill from the great red beast, much like yesterday. From its looks it measured about two feet, much longer than what I found yesterday, and weighed only about a pound. The thing was also surprisingly nasty for a quill, being straight but yet twisted and sinister. I chucked it across the field when I was done, honestly feeling good when seeing it pierced a corpse of a dead traitor. Without anything else, I turned my back on the field and began to continue onward. But after my first step, I heard a faint whispering close by. I immediately turned around, concluding that it was probably the great red beast behind me, ready to either tear me to pieces or eat me. But I saw nothing; just dead bodies and the morning sun. But again I heard the whisper, this time more strained and forceful. I looked around more, trying to pin point this voice, but couldn’t find anything! Was it my mind that was playing tricks on me?

Again, I was about to leave, but I was stopped another time when I felt something tugging at my pant leg. I looked by my leg and could see a black and pink gauntlet grasping lightly at the loose end of my pants. My eyes slowly followed up the gauntlet and found that it was a dying noise marine who was trying to grasp my leg. I remembered the feeling of cold sweat overcoming me as I saw the traitors tainted eyes, all forms of bravery slowly dissipating the longer I stared at him. I tell you what, I fought chaos and its forces from afar… but not close up… So much for my nerves of steel as I foolishly claimed earlier.

I was about to scream out, but the wretched monster motioned me through his expression that he needed to tell me something. Again, my inner sanity wanted to hack off the head of the traitor and run, but the foolish side said to stay and listen. I slowly crouched down against my humanity to the marine, trembling at what could his message be.

“Fly you fool… Fly like the winds of fate…”

At first I was flat out confused at this message. He wanted me to run away… but yet yesterday he wanted to kill me. This information didn’t process well in my brain, but it all made sense when I looked up. There across the bloody opening on the other side… was the great red beast, licking its lips as he stared hungrily at me. Sure the fucker was about two hundred feet away from me, but to its size and athletic ability… that was about twenty five seconds away from me… If he didn’t want to lob his barbed quills at me.

I fucking booked it from there. I unconsciously ran back towards the bank of the river. I was sprinting so fast I swear by the Emperor that I could out run a space marine at the moment. But I heard the thunderous paws of the beast behind me, bellowing out its twisted tune like its hunting cry. But that cry only motivated me more to run senselessly faster. I knew this chase wasn’t going to last forever, for it had either two outcomes: I either get eaten… or I get eaten.

Even though I wasn't thinking straight, I noticed that my body couldn't keep running like this... I was getting exhausted. My body was still full of adrenaline and panic, pushing myself to the limits of running, but still I could feel my lungs and joints giving out under such inhuman stress. I could hear the great red beast coming closer behind, hearing it knock over brushes and small pine trees with its chimeria sized body. 

In the distance I heard a loud thunderous rumbling noise… Like one continuous ocean wave hitting a cliff side. That roaring noise reminded me of water and through blind interest I looked over to the river and found its current no longer smooth and calm, but rough and fast. After that connection, the conclusion came: the river was going off a cliff… A waterfall. It was the end I thought. A quarter mile up and I will reach the end of the river; a massive chasm… and right behind me is a hungry-death-dealing-beast. I surely thought I was doomed.

I finally did reach the edge, finding the bottom of the cliff to be roaring water and slick, sharp rock. It was a sixty foot drop to the bottom, so it gave me two options to die now: get eaten, or splatter myself on the ground. While I was subliminally debating on what I could possibly do to see if I could survive, I watched the great red beast come closer. I looked at its horrible grin of sadistic pleasure, now realizing that it wanted me to run up here to this cliff… finding the chase to be its entertainment before finishing me off.

Every step that it took closer to me, I took a step back. Again and again, I continued to step back away as the beast continued to step towards me. I finally bumped into a pine that grew on the very edge of the cliff. By bumping into that pine, the pronged blade that I have carried since Nidhogg’s lair jabbed the crack of my butt. I pulled it out and was about to throw it over the edge out of pure frustration and panic, but an idea came to me before I foolishly discarded the blade. It was an insane, stupid and crazy idea… but if it worked, this wouldn’t be the day that I died.

The beast was no more than thirty feet away when I put my last minute plan into action. I took off my beaten back pack and threw it at the great red beast, striking it directly in the face. It didn’t really hurt him, but it distracted him for a moment. But it was those few precious seconds that changed the situation to my favor. I pulled up on the blade’s dial and twisted it forward, summoning forth once again the blue and white flame. The beast saw this last stand as an insult and sprinted towards me, intending to finish me off once and for all. But like a desperate animal I jumped towards the side and swung the sword at the creature’s front left leg. It let out its hideous tune of flutes and trumpets as it crashed into the tree that sat on the edge of the cliff. I watched the massive beast’s body hit the ancient pine with such force that both the beast and the tree fell off the cliff. The beast again bellowed out its insane tune of defeat as it and the tree fell towards the jagged rocks below…

After watching the beast’s body disappear under the deep plungpool, I turned back and laughed… laughed at the crazy fact that I walked out alive from this near death experience. I saw the beast’s leg that I swung at sitting right in front of me, bleeding out the last drops of blood. I grabbed that severed limb and threw it over the edge as a sign of victory. With that, I closed my eyes and quietly gave thanks to the Emperor for saving my life once more… but that was short lived.

From the bottom of the plungpool I heard an angry roar of trumpets and flutes. I froze in horror to see the beast that was supposed to be dead, dragging itself out from the turbulent waters below, still missing its front left leg. I wanted to scream in frustration and disbelieve this sight, like some horrible nightmare, but I watched it pull itself out and look towards me, giving off an angry look with its human face. It roared again at me, and with a gush of blood from its stumped limb, its once severed leg grew back instantly. I didn’t know what to think at that moment: I cut its leg off and then it grew back immediately… like fucking magic. It sneered at me, expressing to me that it was not worth it going back up there to finish me off. I watched it then disappear in the dark and dense pines below, humming its eerie tune…

I sat by the edge of that cliff for about an hour or two, trying to process this entire event so it made sense to my human brain. After a slow but successful mental recover from that situation, I grabbed my stuff and headed back up river, crossing it at a safe and shallow point to the other side. I moved back towards the water fall, but took a turn west at the ridge, now following the edge of the cliff rather than the river. Again I followed along until night was upon me; from there I made camp, wrote this exhausting and terrifying day in this journal and hit the sack.

-Jonas Hagrid.


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