Editing Coin's Journal (section)

==Entry nine, dated Sexton Prilovis (7/5/347)==
[[File:Coin, Entry 9.mp3]]
I believe it is done! I believe I can find the Yggdrasil and I believe I can enter it. I do not know if this is brilliance, luck or fate. No, it is definitely not fate. She would not be happy with this.

Over fine mountain wine, Gumtoe told me of a region up in the mountains of Mithaniel Marr that contains a cavern that seems capable of moving. Living at the base of the great crag, he has seen many set off to explore. Their reasons vary: treasure, adventure, exploration, even mages hoping to tap into the converging leylines that reside deep beneath. Very few return. Apparently, it can be found rather consistently under the correct conditions and Gumtoe has reluctantly agreed to discover this information from his contacts within the town. Despite this consistent inconsistency, of those who have returned, they describe a cavern that may be more than rock and mineral. All describe an overwhelming fear wash over them. For some this was enough to trigger the survival instinct and see them retreat back into the safety of Mithaniel Marr's undulating hills. No two describe the same place.

As I lay in bed that evening, unable to find sleep despite the cups of wine coiling through me, I had the revelation. 

Before the written word, oral tradition was passed down, re- and mis-translated forgotten and altered throughout generations. What if the Yggdrasil was the victim of this warping? The Yggdrasil is supposed to be taller than anything else in the land, yes? What if the ash falling from the tree was actually snow. And instead of roots it was actually a powerful confluence of leylines diving beneath the earth like magical arteries and veins. It is my belief that Mithaniel Marr IS Yggdrasil and if the tales in the Libris Mortis are correct, the Yggdrasil is where I will find the answers to questions that perhaps should never have been asked.

In the coming days I told Gumtoe of my plans to enter the Yggdrasil. The climb was rocky and made perilous by chasms, cliffs and stones. Later, it grew cold and snowy and we often slipped and fell as we plodded upward with staffs and axes. Finally, the air grew thin and the sky changed color and we found it harder to breathe. For three days we climbed higher and higher towards the roof of the world; then we camped to wait for the clouding of the moon. We were privileged to have clouds upon the second night, a night of the full moon. Thick and majestic the clouds sailed, slowly and deliberately onward; ranging themselves around the peak high above and hiding the moon and summit from view. As the dim light of the moon reflected and refracted through the swirling vapors and screen of clouds, new paths revealed themselves to us. As I write this final entry, we sit at the mouth of a cave that did not exist the two nights before.

I enter after my next rest with enough supplies to last for some time. Gumtoe and Inugs will be returning, the latter with the task of delivering this journal to The Magistery. In saying our farewells, we smoked from Gumtoe's pouch of aromatic leaf. Inugs asked what was in the cavern. "Perhaps a labyrinth," I offered in jest. Another yarn dating back to myth that has proven closer to fact than fiction. "Do you suppose, Gumtoe, that I will encounter a minotaur on my quest?"

Gumtoe didn't laugh. He only sighed and turned his eyes to the ground. 

"The only minotaurs in that cave are the ones you carry in with you."