May All Your Days Be Purple

     What has happened since last we spoke? I know what didn't happen. That would be the morning photoshoot that I had planned. It's still in the plans, but those plans changed on Monday. I woke up and felt the need to work on painting the logo. I like where it is right now. I figure that I am halfway done with it, and it is well on it's way to coming close to what I would like it to be. I say close, because I really don't know if I have the skill to make it truly photo realistic. I have a limited talent, and that really isn't it. My style does lie in realism, but not to photo realism. I'm going to give it my best effort though. In the end, I still think it will be something that I'm proud of, it just falls on whether or not my partner approves of it.

     Even though I'm at the halfway mark, I still consider that I only have the base done. There is a lot of detail that has to go into this to get it to where I will finally call it finished. I will know I'm at that point when I start fighting over whether or not, what I do to it next, ruins it or makes it better. That is the point where you need to stop, because that is the finished product. When you start wondering if the next stroke will screw it up entirely, you are done. I know what you are saying. It's just paint, can't you paint over it? Yes you can, but the chance that you will get it exactly where you had it before is not likely. Could that end to it being better, quite possibly, but more than likely, no. A painting is never finished, it is simply at a point where the painter can no longer improve on it based on their ability. That is the point I have to get to.

     I did make video yesterday though, it will be out tomorrow at 5 in the evening. I did go out and get some pictures, while I was doing it, and incorporated a few of them in the video, but here is all of them.

     I didn't really do much to those pictures when I edited them. They are mostly just cropped, but a few of them I played around with the color saturation and what not. The last one it is clear on. To me, that is what it looks like in a hurricane, minus the wind, but if you have ever gone outside during a hurricane, that is what it looks like. It also makes Saki look like it's superimposed, and that is from the actual photograph.

     As I said the video will come out tomorrow. I have to apologize now for the audio at the end. It gets a little garbled for my outro. I think it is because the battery in the GoPro was very low. I meant to change it out when I stopped to take the pictures, but I completely forgot about it. I should say, that I hope it was only because the battery was low. I will do some testing on it tomorrow to see.

     I did some writing today, so there is another chapter ready for The Patchwork Knight, only 4 more to go to meet my goal for the week. I also went out and did another PR. This one was good, but I'm going to save the pictures for Instagram and Facebook. Sadly you are going to have to wait until the 23rd of August to see the video. That is when it is scheduled to go live. That means, I have the next four weeks covered for the PR after I get the blog post written tomorrow, and I'm not scheduled to do another tasting until the 25th of August. I'm probably going to go a little stir crazy, but that will give me plenty of time to work the painting, as well as writing The Patchwork Knight. I also get to make videos for the good ol' CS. Oh, I forgot to mention that the finances are now taken care of for the foreseeable future. Well, six months or so. If some of these projects don't start paying off by then, that is when I will officially have to begin looking for work.

     Things that have priority right now, are, of course The Patchwork Knight, and I also have to get a video ready for this Sunday, then I need to work on a bunch of the Remember When series, I can get a few of those done in a day on the weekend. I want that early morning light for those, as well as the Morning Photo Ride 3 video, but I'm putting that on hold for a little while. I want to learn the camera a little more before that one. Afternoon lighting is much more forgiving than morning lighting, and although I've learned a lot about how the camera works, I still have some things to learn and figure out to get the shots I know I'm capable of, and of course advance my ability as well. You will get  brief look at the camera and the case I got for it in the video. I love that case, I can put everything in it. All the GoPro equipment and the Canon. I used it today for the PR, and it was a tight fit for everything to be in there at one time, but it worked out great.

     That brings us to Favorite Song of the Week. I told you a while back that you were going to get a lot of songs by this artist, since they are finally allowing the songs to be on YouTube, and this is a very special one. This song was written way back in the 70's and became famous when Sinead O'Conner did a version of it in the 80's. This is the original version performed by The Purple One himself. One quick point about this song. If you know the Sinead one very well, you will notice a line that has been changed by her. I can't remember why she changed it, but I think it was because to her the line sounded better her way. The line in question is, "It's been 7 hours and 15 days, since you took your love away.". The original line is, "It's been 7 hours and 13 days, since you took your love away." She may have thought her way sounded better, but it changes the dynamic entirely. Prince wrote it the way he did, because it is short of having to say 2 weeks. If you break down Sinead's version, it translates out to, "It's been 7 hours 2 weeks and a day, since you took your love away." I know that 15 works there, but it changes the whole dynamic of that sentence, and your mind plays with you a bit. I know this is going way over the top for this, but it is something that always bothered me. Don't get me wrong, I really liked her version, but come one, this is Prince. If you take the time to read the part at the beginning of the video, you will find out that this is footage taken while Prince and the Revolution were rehearsing for the upcoming Purple Rain tour. The footage is fantastic, and makes me miss him even more. Let's just get to the song already, geez I can talk about Prince for hours on end. Her is Prince & the Revolution (really just Prince, he wrote and performed everything on the cut of this song) with "Nothing Compares 2 U".



     I really love the way that starts. That tiny sounding back and forth of the organ, and then BOM BOM of the heavy guitars. It's just great. I know that they are saying that he has 50 years worth of music releases hoarded away in the vault. I've known about the vault for years now, but Prince didn't want that music out in the world, so I'm very torn over whether or not to listen to it when it is released. He didn't think it was up to his standard, and maybe it wasn't, but maybe he was just too much of a perfectionist and it is better than he even knew. I guess I will make that decision when it comes to it. May all your days be purple. Peace in and goodnight.

Took The Last Two Days Off, Kinda

     This weekend was meant to be very relaxing for me, and it was, but I couldn't stop looking at the numbers for the recent PR. Here is the thing. The last two posts, I've boosted on Facebook. What that means is, that I pay a small fee, to have the post go to an audience that isn't exactly in our orbit. An attempt to expand our base if you will. This time, I didn't boost the post, here is what I found. The two posts that I boosted reached a combined 1900 people which lead to a grand total of 25 clicks. That means, of those 1900 people that saw the post, only 25 of them clicked on the link to watch the videos. The last post that went up, which was Little Z's, reached 320 people on it's own. I can't track how many people actually clicked on the link because I can't get that info unless I pay for it, but I can tell you that the Little Z's video is about to out perform the last video that we boosted. I'm not sure what is different except that I asked people to share the video or the blog post. I do believe that that is the reason it is performing so well. I have to thank you for taking the time to share the video or blog. It is helping out a great deal, Actually a great deal more than having Facebook promote it on Facebook and Instagram. This is exactly how I wanted the PR to grow from the beginning, from people that watch it and share it. That is the true audience that we are after. Once again, thank you.

     I did see Antman and The Wasp on Friday, and it was everything I hoped it would be. It's funny, and entertaining. That is all I wanted from it. I've fallen away from seeing the whole string of stories in the Marvel Universe. I did finally see the latest Thor movie, but that was when it showed up on TV. I'm going to do the same with Infinity War as well. I don't know if I just want to go out and see every movie as it hits the theaters anymore, with the exception of the ones I really want to see. I'd say go see it, but I don't think it will be in theaters much longer than this week. If you haven't seen it, wait until it hits TV.

     I did ride yesterday with a couple of friends, it was a short ride, but I did get to test the GoPro with the lens filter on it. The footage looked pretty good, but it wan't worth making a video out of it. I do have footage from today's ride, but I won't know if a video is worth making out of it, until I load it up on the computer. I'm almost betting it won't be, but I do plan on making a video tomorrow morning. It will be another Morning Photo Ride. I'm only going to go to one location in this one, but I'm using the new camera, so I should get some dynamic pictures. That is the hope at least. I may save that for a Sunday release instead of doing it midweek. I have some ideas for a midweek video.

     After yesterdays ride, I did lift Saki up on the old Skylift and cleaned it off, so that it will look good for the photoshoot. I took a picture of it in the air, rather artsy like, and then I got one after it was all spic and span.

     Those were both with the phone and not the new camera. I plan on saving that for the big stuff with the video coming up. The lighting on the second one looks cool because it is all neon light from my "It's 5 o'clock Somewhere" sign. I light that up whenever I'm out for a ride or doing anything with Saki, and I do find cleaning to be very fun, especially when you can lift it three feet in the air.

     Despite riding today, Saki is still clean and prepped for tomorrows photoshoot. In the meantime, you can watch the video that I posted today. It's another in the Remember When series, and this one takes me back to the High School days. I have one more of the series ready to go, but I have a bunch more that I want to do, so I may just do some of those this week as well. Here is Remember When (The Pits).

     There is not a whole lot to do with making theses videos, but they are fun. It's always fun to take a look back, and I have some little funny memories coming up.

     I didn't do much writing this weekend and no painting was done, but I hope to get about 5 chapters of The Patchwork Knight written this week. I still have one chapter ready to go for this coming Saturday. I want to get a lot of work done not he painting this week, but that may get put on the backburner because of all the other things I want to do. I do have a PR tasting coming up on tuesday, that will be two of them ready to go with two weeks before another one gets launched, and I'm really looking forward to sharing the next one with you. These last two have been exciting for me, because I want people to see them, because I think they are they best we have done yet. It's kind of like when you have a good present for someone and you can't wait for them to open it. It's like that.

     That's all I have for you tonight. I'm going to go enjoy the rest of my evening, and watch some Dark Matter on Netflix. Peace in and goodnight.

The Patchwork Knight (Chapter 37)

      We rode through the day, stopping briefly to rest when the horses were too lathered to go any further. As the sun was falling behind the trees, we noticed a small amount of movement ahead of us on the trail.

     "Is that your caravan ahead?"

     "It could very well be. Sir Pitre, could you use your sight and see if it is them?"

     I entered the Euphoria and reached out for my stone. I wanted all the help I could get to see everything. It was the caravan, but something was wrong. 

     "They are under attack! Let's go!"

     I spurred my horse into a sprint. The caravan was nearly a half of a mile ahead, and we would need all speed to get to them to offer support. As I got closer I could see that it was another ambush, but this time it wasn't archers, it was soldiers with swords and shields. The caravan was outnumbered and was falling to the advance of the Raiders. When I was a hundred yards from the battle, I reigned my horse to a stop, dismounted and sprinted into the thick of the fight. I drew both swords as I ran, my father's in my right hand and mine in my left. The blades sprang to life in my hands and they wanted to be fed. I slashed through the thick of the Raiders, and the blood flowed like rain as it flung from my blades. I could see Sir Jacob holding a line of Targen Knights in the front of the battle. I cut a path through the Raiders to him.

     "Sir Pitre!"

     The other Knights took notice when Sir Jacob called out my name. I stood along side him and we began to advance through the Raiders. With each Raider that fell, the line of Knights would take a step forward. I noticed a ruckus from the back of the Raiders. Raiders there were turning and falling to some unseen force. I began advancing in that direction, my blades slicing through anything that stood in my way. I began to see what was causing all the commotion. It was Sir Paljin and Rolf. They were hitting the Raiders from behind and doing a great deal of damage. They had the element of surprise and I was going to make sure they continued to have it. 

     "AAARRRRRRRRRRRR"

     I let out a roar to gather the attention of everyone within ear shot. It worked. The Raiders moved towards me, focusing all their attention on what they could see and hear, and not what was sneaking up to take them from behind. I spun and twirled taking 5 men with my blades. I advanced further towards the unseen assassins, continuing to draw attention to myself instead of them. 

     I didn't notice that I had left the side of Sir Jacob and was now standing in the middle of a scrum of Raiders. I had all their attention and the began encircling me and leaving me room. They didn't want to come near my blades. I slowly turned with my swords at my side. I surveyed the look on each man that stood at the front of the scrum. Fear was in their eyes, but it was a double layered fear. They had no choice but to advance on me. If they ran they would die anyway. 

     "Come on then. I haven't got all night."

     The scrum advanced at once. My blades spun to action. My sword blocked blades as my father's sword opened large wounds in those that got close enough. Bodies began to pile up around me in a circle. Raiders began tripping over their fallen brothers to meet a fate equal to those that laid on the ground. Swords began coming from a higher point. I would spin low, and then raise into a spinning leap that would knock swords away and leave the bearers open to the blade that wold follow. 

     On one of those leaps I began to see that the Targen Knights had encircled the encircled. They had joined Rolf and Sir Paljin and began taking them from behind. 

     I had lost track of time, but it seemed like hours when I finally saw the first Knight burst through the line of Raiders that had surrounded me. It was Sir Jacob. He bashed a man to his left with his shield and stabbed the man to his right through the side. Both fell to the ground. The rest of the Knights broke through shortly after. The Raiders were all slain.

     "Sir Pitre are you alright?"

     "I'd say that the Patchwork Knight is looking better than the rest of us."

     "PATCHWORK KNIGHT, PATCHWORK KNIGHT, PATCHWORK KNGHT!"

     All the Knights were shouting before I even had a chance to answer. I looked around and it wasn't just the Knights, it was also the villagers that had survived the attack. I found Rolf and Sir Paljin in the crowd. Sir Paljin was raising his sword and thrusting it with each word. Rolf looked confused, but began doing likewise.

     I began to see the carnage that was lying around me. Countless men laid dead at my feet. I could see the blood splattered on the Knights that were chanting for me, and the look of a mixture of fear and relief on all those that had to stand by awaiting what would happen to them if I or the Knights had failed. I raised my swords high in the air to get the chanting to stop. It stopped almost immediately when my swords reached their full height.

     "You are the heroes of this day. You saved these people from an attack from archers and then held of an infantry of Raiders. These people standing here are alive because of your efforts. I only arrived to help, and I wasn't alone."

     I waved for Sir Paljin and Rolf to come stand beside me.

     "Your very own Sir Paljin who took an arrow in his effort to find me, rode into this battle alongside me. I would also like you to meet Rolf. He was a Raider." The crowd let out a gasp at the sound of this." Do not fear. I captured him at The Crossing, and when given a chance to run, he stayed and helped me tend to Sir Paljin's wound. He also rode into this battle alongside of me, and fought against those men that were attacking you. He has chosen not to be a Raider, and we should see him as one of us."

     When I finished I began the chant of "Rolf and Paljin", it took hold with the crowd and their names could be heard for miles.

I'm Keeping It Short And Sweet

     What has happened since Tuesday? Not a whole lot. I did write the review for the next PR, and released the latest PR, I'll have that video here for you momentarily. Oh yeah, I got some more of the painting done on the logo for the PR. It is coming along better than I thought it would at this point. I still have a long way to go on it, and it turns out that it's going to take me longer than I originally thought, but it's moving along in a direction that I can see that I might be able to pull my idea off. If not, then I do have options that I can explore, but until then, I'm all in on the painting.

     I played around more with the camera, and found the setting I was looking for so that I could do what I know. Turns out there is a manual setting on it, so I can adjust exposure, shutter speed and what not. I just had to turn it to Manual. I did find out a bunch of interesting things in the process. The camera has built in filters. I can take a picture that looks like a watercolor painting. It has a fisheye lens setting. It even has a miniature setting. What that is, is that I can take a picture and it will adjust it to make it look like everything is a miniature. I didn't even know that existed, but now I do, and I plan on playing with it a little. I will always love being able to adjust my own settings on the camera, it's what I know, but having these other options, and there are a bunch more, I can have some fun with some pictures I would never have thought about taking. I do still have to learn about the video options, but that will all come.

     I did use a few of the pictures I took with the new camera for the upcoming PR blog. They looked pretty good, I had to scrap most of them, but I got a few quality shots, even without knowing what I was doing. I'm planning on doing another Morning Photo Ride soon, but this time, I'm going to use the Canon, and see if I can get some really cool shots, I might even try out that miniature setting. I just have to figure out how to transport my trip-pod on Saki. The tri-pod is large and bulky. I might be able to strap it to the new camera back pack that I just got. I needed this bag, so that I can transport the camera on Saki, but he bonus is, that I can stop all the GoPro equipment in there as well. It's going to do double duty for me from now on, instead of a regular back pack or my satchel. I use the satchel for the PR right now, but I can use that back pack to transport all the gear, plus my power bank, and notebooks. I take notes when I do those reviews. One day I'll share a picture of my notebook. It's a disaster, and the handwriting is pure chicken scratch, but I can translate it.

     Alright, let's just get to this new video from the PR. I'm really proud of this one. I went a little artistic with this one, because of the location of the place, and it worked out really well. I hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to share it with all your friends. I need your help to make this bigger than it is now, which isn't very big, yet. I say yet, because I have seen some significant movement on the media platforms for this, and as I have been saying, It's moving in the right direction.. Anyway, here is the review for Little Z's Pizza in Cocoa Beach.



     I have the next chapter of The Patchwork Knight, and I'm taking the next couple of days for myself. I'm not all that sure what I'm going to do, but video creating is in there, and possibly going to a movie. I have a few that I want to see, but I think Antman and The Wasp is first on the list. I'll give you my review of it when I do watch it, so keep an eye out for that. I know, this isn't a whole lot tonight, but every once in a while I need to give your eyes a break. Peace in and goodnight.

We Ate A Lot Of Pizza

     I finally sat down, and began painting the PR logo. I started by just doing a simple black outline on the letters and the pizza. It went well, not great but well. I'm way out of practice on this, so my hands were a bit jittery. That is ok, because the plan all along is to build this up in layers, so that by the time I get to the finished product, It will look smooth and seamless. Well, that is the hope. I began filling in the letters with color, and as I was just finishing the T, I realized that I was an idiot and I did exactly what I had to fix a couple of days before. I was painting it the wrong color. That is when I found out, that I didn't buy any green paint or even any blue so that I could have mixed my own green. That put a stall on things. I did pick up the paint I needed today, so I will get back to it tomorrow.

     With that out of the way, I had a big eye opener on Monday as well. I went to that print shop I was talking about, to get the stickers made of the new logo. The guy was friendly, and had a lot of great points, but the price was way higher than I was willing to pay, especially for a sticker that I plan on giving away. He had to up the limit of the print to 250 stickers, and it came out to $316. Yeah that much. I can't pay that much for a sticker that I'm simply going to give away. That means I had to do the thing I really didn't want to do. I found a company online. I'm having 100 stickers made, that will be good enough quality for giving them away for free, and it only cost $43. Big difference there. Now the quality won't be the same. These will be full color stickers , but they aren't vinyl which would last a lot longer. Here is my thinking behind the whole thing. I give away these 100 stickers, if the promotion works, I get some more subscribers to the YouTube channel. When that happens, that is when I can start creating better quality stickers so that I can sell them for a few bucks a piece. If it doesn't get me any new followers, then I'm only out $43 and I have a cool sticker of my logo to put on my tool box. Anyway, the stickers should take two weeks to complete. The site said anywhere between 10 and 15 days for the production, and then there is the shipping time. I'll let you know when they come in, so that you can get your hands on one.

     I am really proud of the next video that we have coming out for the PR. With that in mind, we did a tasting today, and I am even more proud of the video that came out of that one. Sadly you will have to wait two weeks and a couple of days for that one, but the next video is coming out on Thursday, and I will be launching the blog post at the same time, 6PM New York time. Because there is a PR video and blog coming out this week, I decided not to do a Wednesday video for the CS. I thought it would just be too much, considering no one watched the last video I posted on Sunday. It seems that people don't like the drone videos. I love those videos, but it appears that they are only a passion project. I'm going to keep making them, so you will have to artfully dodge them when they come out.

     Today's experience with the PR was incredible. I had the new Canon with me, and wanted to try it out a bit. I did pick up a mini trip-pod, but I think I hate it. It kept creeping lower and wouldn't stand up straight for any length of time. It does have that adaptor for the GoPro, so I may just end up using it for that. I didn't shoot any video with it, but I did get a few pictures.

     That is the gas brick oven large pepperoni pizza at the top. I'm clarifying that because we had more than one pizza, and I will get to why in a minute. The second picture is the coal fire oven, then cannoli cookies, and finally our to go package. When we walked in, the staff was a little freaked out, because we had all these cameras going and filming and what not. The asked and we told them what was going on. We never call in advanced because we want it to be as organic an experience as possible. My partner ordered our usual large pepperoni, since we had never eaten there before. I asked him if he asked for the coal fire pizza, and he said no, didn't even think about it. One of the servers overheard me asking him, and she must have relayed it to the kitchen. The gentleman that we talked to when we first entered was the coal oven chef, and he sent the server back out to ask us if it was ok if he put a pepperoni in the coal oven as well for us. I said that would be great. I have no problem buying another pizza to find out just what they have to offer.

     The first pizza came out, and it was outstanding. That was the pepperoni above. As we were eating that one, the chef came out and began asking us what kinds of foods do we like eating, and specifically what do we like most on a pizza. Instead of making that coal fire pepperoni pizza, he made us personalized individual coal fire pizzas. My partner who will only eat meat on his pizza had what they called the Italian Sausage. It had soppressata which is a cured salami that is out of this world good, Italian Rope Sausage, and raw bacon. I know what you are saying, it's the same thing we said. Raw bacon? They have to use raw bacon because if they precook it, it would burn to a crisp in the coal fire oven. The oven is at a temperature of over 800 degrees, so the pizza cooks fast, and that bacon came out exceptional. I even say in the video that is going out for the review, that is how bacon should be done from now on. I won't get that, but I want it.

     The gentleman made a pizza called the Italian Bomb for me. It had soppressata, raw bacon, Italian Rope Sausage, onions, portobello mushrooms, and Italian chilis. That pizza was unbelievably good. the chilis had a fiery kick that was quelled by the fresh mozzarella and then all the other flavors mingled and danced around my tongue. Before you ask, yes I have pictures of both of these pizzas. No, I'm not going to share them here. I posted them on Instagram and Facebook and they will be involved in the video. What I'm getting at is, that there are several ways to see them if you want.

     Last but not least were those cannoli cookies. They were the perfect way to finish off that meal, and we have a ton of left over pizza. They told us that they have a baker that comes in twice a week just to make those cookies for that store. People have begged him to put them in his own bakery and he won't do it. They are truly an exclusive to Genna's Pizza Company. My mouth is just watering thinking about those cookies again. Sadly I don't have any of those left, we ate them all there on the spot.

     It's Tuesday, so it's of course time for Favorite Song of the Week. If you thought I would put anything up other than the second song release by Twenty One Pilots two weeks ago, you clearly haven't been reading these blogs closely. You should have just anticipated this, and readied yourself for what was to come. Here is my favorite band in the world, Twenty One Pilots with the second song that they have released from their upcoming album, "Nico and the Niners".



     There you have it, the Skeleton Clique is alive and well with a touch of reggae. I just want to leave you with this. What I'm doing with these videos, and the writing, this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. I have never been happier in my life, despite the stress it sometimes brings. I really truly love what I'm doing right now, and it is moving in the right direction. Keep an eye out, because I am moving up, and I'm looking to take people with me. Peace in and goodnight.

One Drawn Out Weekend.

     It has been a weekend. One that was far too relaxing. I didn't have much to do. I did make a video yesterday and released it this morning, but we will get to that a little later. I of course got the new camera in, and it is so much more advanced to what I was used to, that I have a ton of stuff to learn to get where I want to be with it. I did do some video recording tests, to see how it works with and without the microphone. As expected, it is much better with the mic on. Oh, I guess I should share a couple of pictures of the new camera.

     This thing has everything. You can connect via wifi or bluetooth with it. I have to read up on exactly how to do that, but for now, I'm going old school and just removing the SD card and uploading stuff on the computer. This is one of the reasons that this weekend has been too relaxing. I want to get out and do some filming with it, but I do need one very simple thing, and that is a tripod. I have a really good one, but I had to order a small piece for it, so that it will work with this camera. The Tripod I have utilizes a quick release, and doesn't have the traditional threaded bolt. I need that piece to be able to use that tripod, but I do need a mini tripod. That is the one that will be really helpful with the PR. I can't just go to places and set up a giant tripod, so I have to go out this week and buy one, I checked Target today, and they didn't have one that I thought was good enough. It appears that Best Buy may be my best choice. I think I will do all that tomorrow.

     All that includes checking into getting the stickers made of the new logo. I made one giant error on Friday, I didn't really take a good look at the tracking for that camera. When I ordered it, it said that it would come by USPS since it had a lithium ion battery. I failed to notice that it was actually coming UPS. The mail comes usually by noon, so I knew I had to be here to sign for the package. It wasn't until 4 o"clock came around that I actually looked at the tracking. I couldn't go out in fear of missing the package and it didn't come until after 6. That meant that the place I wanted to go for the stickers was closed. That just means that the stickers will take a little longer.

     I played around with the camera on Friday night after getting it, and that is when I realized just how advanced it was. I went through everything and worked out some of the tech involved in it, but I still have a long way to go. I did go out Saturday morning to make that video and took the camera along just incase I would have some good opportunities for some pictures. Cruckshank didn't let me down. Cruckshank is a little sanctuary that I had forgotten about. It is home to a very large population fo Scrub Jays. They put up with he drone (I didn't disturb them at all), and when I was done flying, I walked out and got a few pictures. I wish I could have gotten a shot when one of the Scrub Jays landed on my head, but I wasn't fast enough. I did get these instead.

     The little guy in the pictures is the one that landed on my head, he was quite the ham for the camera. I didn't walk very deep into the sanctuary, because I really didn't need to. The Scrubs let me know they were there as soon as I entered. I need to go out there with the camera this week sometime and get some more shots. It's been a long time since I've walked Cruckshank. I did get the scene from above while I was there. That is the whole reasons I went out there, the pictures were just bonus. I really like how this video came out. I think it creates quite a bit of emotion, and it's truly amazing to see the world from this view. It took me two hours to edit this little gem, so I hope you enjoy it. 

     I cut that down from 12 minutes of raw footage. I'm getting better at this flying thing. I still didn't take any risks, by getting it too close to trees. I'm still wary after that first time out and crashing. I don't know if you noticed it, but I finally added a watermark to the ol' channel. It's in the lower right hand corner. If you scroll over that logo, it brings up the subscription button, so feel free to hit that button and subscribe.

     Oh, I did notice one other huge mistake that I made. In my hurry to get everything in order with the PR, I made a mistake with the logo. Since the color scheme is based on the Italian flag, it is paramount that I get it right, and I reversed the colors. Instead of green, white, and red, I had red, white, and green. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but it actually is. If we are going to be the go to for pizza reviews, we should have the common sense to have our logo looking appropriate. I did it with the painting as well, and that is when I figured it out, but since I haven't laid any paint down yet, and it is only blocked out in color pencil, it is an easy fix on that. I do plan on starting the actual paining tomorrow. I'm going to do that in the morning, and then hit that print shop and Best Buy in the afternoon.

     That is all I have tonight. Don't forget a new Chapter of The Patchwork Knight goes live tomorrow morning. I changed the time on Friday to see if it would get more action, but it didn't seem to matter, so I'm sticking with the 6 AM release time.I of course put Chapter 36 up right here yesterday, so if you want to read ahead you can. A new episode of the PR goes up this Thursday, and we are doing things a little different with this one. First off, this is the first one with the mic added in, so that audio is quite a bit better than older videos. We are also releasing the blog at the same time as the video, so everything will be live at 6 PM New York time. I had to move it back an hour, since I have my guitar lesson at 5. I should be home by 6 to hit publish on the blog.

     Oh, I do have one other thing. My stomach is feeling better. It didn't start diminishing in pain until last night, but it is finally going down. I still have no idea what it was, but things are looking good right now. Anyway, that's finally it for tonight. Peace in and goodnight.

The Patchwork Knight (Chapter 36)

     We rested along the trail for another hour before heading after the caravan.  We mounted up and rode along the trail at a firm trot watching the trail of the caravan as we went. A few miles down the trail we came across a burned out village. The caravan had stopped there over night. We could see the disturbed earth from the horses and carts. They had circled everything to create a makeshift defensive wall.

     "This must be where they stopped after the attack. You can see that the carts and wagons were circled up."

     "Over here!"

     Sir Paljin and I turned in our saddles to see Rolf near the base of the forest on the far side of the burned down village. We rode over to see what it was he was looking at. As we rode near him, we could see the mounds of earth. They were fresh graves. Clearly the caravan had buried those that fell in the ambush. We counted 5 very large mounds. They could have fit 4 people to each grave. They wouldn't have had the time or more likely the energy to dig individual graves, so 5 would have had to do.

     "I'm sure that it pained Sir Jacob to dig mass graves for those that died."

     "Desperate times call for desperate measures. He would have had no way of knowing if they were being followed or hunted by the Raider General that ordered that ambush at the trail."

     "This is true Pitre. Are you sure that you are only 14 years?"

     "I am."

     "You speak like a man that has seen far too much of this world. We are still a day behind them, and it will take nearly a week to get to the Crystal Palace along this trail. We should be able to ride at a faster pace than the caravan can go. If everything goes well, we should see them with in another day."

     "I hope you are right. We should leave here and gain as much of the gap as we can."

     We rode away from the village in a gallop, it was time to make up some time. For the rest of the day, we rode at a gallop, resting the horses when they needed. As the sun began to fall, it was time for us to rest. We were definitely weary from the trail and riding all day. We found a clearing near a small lake and tied our horses near the water.

     "I'll take the first watch, you two get some rest."

     "I won't hear of it Sir Pitre. I know for a fact that you have had no rest for two days. I'll take the first watch, and I'll wake Rolf when it is time for his watch. You need an uninterrupted sleep. Rolf will wake you for your watch early in the morning. Is this ok with you Rolf?"

     "It is. I can't believe he is still standing. Pitre take the rest, it will do you some good."

     "Two against one huh, I've faced greater odds, but none so compelling of argument."

     I found a tree between the trail and the lake and laid my bed roll on the ground. I watched as Sir Paljin found a tree near the trail and sat down watching both directions of the trail. Rolf laid his bed roll a few yards from Sir Paljin so he would be close by for his turn at the watch. It was only a matter of a few blinks of my eyes before they could no longer hold their own weight.

***

     "Pitre, wake up."

     I woke to Rolf shaking my shoulder. The night was still in full and it was quiet.

     "I'm guessing there was no trouble during the night?"

     "Non at all. Sir Paljin is resting under the tree near the lake. The only thing that has moved has been the horses."

     "That's good. Now you get your rest, we will be hitting there trail at first light to catch the caravan."

     Rolf wandered back to his bed roll near the trail. I walked past him and the tree that Sir Paljin had set the watch and walked down the trail from where we had come. I entered the Euphoria and used my sight to see if anything was coming along the trail. It was clear as far as I could see, so I walked along the trail in the other direction. It too was clear. The night was quiet, far more quiet than I was used to. It seemed unnatural. I later learned in life, that silence was a cost of war. Battles affect everything around where they took place. Living things don't like the smell of death, and they abandon the areas where it is prevalent.

     The sky began to grow light as the sun slowly made it's way to the horizon. I had this feeling that this would be the last peaceful night that we would have, so I let Rolf and Sir Paljin sleep until the sun was fully above the horizon. I woke Rolf first since he slept nearest the trail.

     "The sky is fully lit, I thought we were leaving at first light?"

     "I thought it would be better to let you two sleep a while longer. There is no telling when we will get a night like this again."

     I could see Sir Paljin beginning to stir as we made our way towards him. 

     "It would appear that the night remained calm. That is both good and troubling."

     "How so."

     "It is good that we were able to rest completely, but it is troubling in that there is always a calm before a storm, and this was a far greater calm that I believed would be possible right now. That mean s the storm that is coming is going to be a far cry from a whimper."

     "If that is the case, than we are rested for a battle. Do you need anything to eat before we set off?"

     "I could use a bite. I still have some jerky in my bag. I can share."

     "Well, Sir Paljin it appears that breakfast is served."

     I let the two of them split the remaining pieces of jerky and I snacked on some dried fruit. I still had a saddle bag full of that and dried vegetable. We finished our brief meal and gathered our bed rolls. We rode from that peaceful clearing into the unknown in search of a caravan that was badly in need of our assistance.

Pain And Glory

     I have been in pain since Tuesday evening. There is something going on with my abdomen, and I'm not sure what it is. It's a dull pain that hasn't diminished and quite possibly has gotten a bit worse. I'm not overly worried yet, but don't ever look online for potential diagnosis. I typed in abdomen pain and everything came up cancer. This feels more like it is in the abdominal muscle as opposed to being internal, so It could be just muscle fatigue, but I don't know why that would be. I'll see how it feels in the morning. If it gets worse, then I may have to go to a doctor or something, but if it remains the same, I'm really not sure what I'll do about it.

     There are more things to talk about other than my stomach. I did more work on improving the PR on all platforms. It's not perfect, but it is as perfect as I know how to get it. I cleaned up the Instagram, reorganized Facebook, enhanced Twitter, and did a few additions to YouTube. The Instagram make over seemed to work out the best. We got more followers yesterday and today, so that is something.

     I have been doing a little research as well, and it appears that of the top pizza related blogs, we are getting similar and sometimes better numbers than they are, and they are on a national scale. To me, that means that when we start getting a national audience, we will be getting some pretty big numbers. I also found out, that what we are doing as far as the writing goes, is on par with everyone else, but we can improve on the picture we take, so that is the next focus, and I have something on it's way that is going to help out in that area, more on that a little later. As far as videos go, no one is doing what we are doing. There is the occasional pizza review for what ever big chain has a new pizza, but no one is going out and actually going independent pizza shops and letting people now how they taste. We have a unique product with content that is only getting better each time we do it. I think we really have something here. We just have to find our audience, and I think that will be coming.

     Now for that little bit about the thing that is on it's way. I went ahead and ordered that new camera. If you are reading this on Friday as opposed to Thursday night when I post it, the new camera will probably already be here. It is a Canon T7i, I got it in the video creator kit series so that it comes with a directional mic and a SD card. I also threw in an extra battery. This isn't just going to be for video making though, I'm going to start getting back into my photography, and this will help bring you much better pictures of some of the things I want to shoot. I will be able to manipulate the focus and exposure so that the pictures will have a more artistic feel than what I can do with a phone. For the time being this camera is going to be used for Counterfeit Squirrel stuff. Once I figure out the ins and outs of filming with it, that is when I will bring it into the fold of the PR. I might just start doing life vlogs with the camera when I need a quick easy video. Which I do need to make one for Sunday. I still don't have anything for this week yet. I could do an unboxing video of the camera. I don't know yet. I have a few ideas that I could do within the next couple of days. It won't be the big video I want to do yet. I'm do need to work on that. It's going to take some time to get the footage I want and then put it together, but soon.

     Speaking of videos, I did release one yesterday, that was a short little life update, and to talk a little about the logo. I'm hopefully going to go tomorrow and talk to a place about making the stickers of the new logo. I found a couple of places where I could get them done online, but I want to support a local business and have them made somewhere around here. Remember to support local businesses when you can. Anyway, here is that video.



     I went a little punk rock for the music, and I like the way it came out. It was a very simple edit, but I did learn a few new tricks while creating this one. Sometimes the simple ones teach you the most.

     Chapter 12 of The Patchwork Knight goes up tomorrow on Medium, don't forget to check that out. I will have Chapter 36 up on Saturday right here for you reading pleasure.

     That's all I have tonight. Peace in and goodnight.

The Highs And Lows

     It has been a real productive day. I had that meeting with the brand manager for the PR, and it went well. I learned a lot. With learning a lot, we have a lot of work to do. As soon as I got home, I began tweaking things that I could do based of the recommendations they gave us. The Pepperoni Report has a new look for the blog, with some minor changes to all our other media platforms. Then biggest change is on the blog, but there will be more coming.

      We arrived early, a half hour early to be exact, which is what I had planned for. It was a nice office building, and they had a small monitor in the waiting area that welcomed us. When I say us, I mean me and my partner. It welcomed us by name.

     They made us feel welcome and important as if we were real clients. They are doing this for us pro bono at this point, and because of that I didn't expect much from it. I got a lot out of it. We talked with the owner of the company, who gave us a blueprint for creating a business proposal, that will help us define our roles and what we are responsible for. That means, I can finally officially become production and my partner can be marketing or something along those lines. We have to talk it all over in the coming weeks, but we have an idea of what direction to go it now. The brand manager also wants us to creating a holding company in order to protect our interests. It will cost us, but in the long run it will be a small price to pay if this really takes off.

     We got to spend time with their media expert and she was the one giving us all the advice on how to make our presentation better on social media and the blog. As I have been learning more ways on how to create content and thumbnails and all that stuff, I found that I've been going in the right direction, but her advice put us lightyears ahead of what we were doing. This was only free advice and not a full blown marketing plan, but this points us in the right direction, and like I said, gives us a very big boost.

     In order to get the full affect of what she laid out today, we will eventually have to get a website up and running. This blog is great, but it is very limited in how we can promote ourselves and our other social media, so the blog will eventually move to a website. When that happens, I think we will be growing at a pretty good rate, but that is down the road, for now, we know we are doing some things right, and learned what we need to improve on to find our audience. The boosted post on Facebook did ok, but still fell way short of what I would really be happy with. Basically the post said that it reached over a thousand people, but of those thousand, we only got 19 clicks from it. That is less 5%. If a post is promoted right you should see about 30% return on it. The brand manager told us of one that he just did for a company that got a 90% on it. That would be huge for us, but that company also paid a great deal of money for that. I won't give you exact numbers, but companies pay him a low months salary for one day to get those kinds of results, so what they gave us today, was not only greatly appreciated, but incredibly helpful.

     I now have a better defined path to follow on this little journey I am on, but that defined path also brought pressure. It didn't hit me until after I finished tweaking things for the day, (I still the to tweak a little more) and was finally sitting down and relaxing. I began feeling it, and the panic attack wanted to take hold of me, but I fought it off. The thought kept creeping in, that not only am I going to have to work harder at what I do, but I will end up doing all the work if my partner drops the ball. He warned me today to keep on him, because he is afraid that he is going to screw this all up. In my eyes, that should be the motivation right there, for him to keep on the ball with this. I shouldn't be the one to stay on top of him. I have to stay on top of myself, to stay motivated to keep improving. That is the scariest part of all of this. It's not failing and having to find another job. At least I gave it my all,. The having to motivate both of us, is the truly terrifying part of all of this. If he truly thinks he is going to screw it up, he will. I just know that from general experience. If someones says they are going to do something, they will begin to believe it no matter how negative it is. Negativity can grab a hold of you and not let go. He really has to turn his thinking around, and I don't know if I'm the person to do that. That is why I have the feeling that I will end up doing the production and the marketing and the networking. I will give my all in order to succeed even if he doesn't, and I will just take over because it is easier to do, even though it will weigh heavily on my mental well being.

     I'm just going to take it one step at a time, and that first step is getting the business proposal done. The brand manager gave me a lot of things to read to get a better understanding on how to actually write out the business proposal, so I will be doing that for the next few days.

     Now for something different. I goofed yesterday and released two chapters of The Patchwork Knight. After all that trouble of going back through and checking the scheduled release dates, I still managed to miss chapters 10 and 11. I will go through the rest of them again, to make sure that doesn't happen in the future, but I'll leave those two up as they stand. Nothing I can really do about it anyway.

     Oh, one more thing with the PR. I had a setback with the painting of the new logo. I went to my handy dandy box of paint, and found that it was basically empty. I have no paint for the project, so I will be getting paint tomorrow so that I can begin finishing that little project up. That will be relaxing for me.

     It Tuesday so that means it's time for Favorite Song of the Week. This band is one that I have talked about on numerous occasions and because I'm writing this very sentence, you probably know who it is. I have their logo tattooed on my arm, I've seen them 8 times in concert in different locations across the country, and they are the reason I picked up and learned to play the ukulele. They are none other than Twenty One Pilots, and they have a new album coming out in October (still waiting for the pre-order to be announced). They released two singles last week, one with a video and they other and audio version. I chose the video for tonights FSOTW. Let's just get to it already. Here is Twenty One Pilots with "Jumpsuit".

     I would normally end this with my usual peace in and goodnight, but seeing how TOP is back, and I am the skeleton clique. I will end it the way they end all of their shows. We are Twenty One Pilots and so are you.

I Changed Saki's Oil

     I just got done making a video that will go up on Wednesday evening. Since I'm waiting for it to load up, so that I can put the end screen annotations on it, I figured I'd write this. I have a plan for three or four other videos that I'd like to get done this week. I'll just have to see how that goes.

     I got all my finances figured out, well, it's not solidified completely yet, but it should be in a week or a week and a half. I figured out that I should have 7-8 months before I absolutely have to get another job. That is, if nothing that I'm doing now, pays off. I'll get to some of that in a bit. I got some rants coming.

     This isn't a rant, but a mess up on my part. I found out that chapter 9 of The Patchwork Knight went up without being part of the partner program, so it was free for a day. It was completely my fault. I forgot to click the little button at the top that make it eligible to earn money. The reason I found out, was that I couldn't find the friend's link so that I could share it with those that asked me for it. That's when I saw it. This post is ineligible to make money from the Medium Partner Program. I fixed that problem and then went through all the rest of them to make sure that I had everything in order. Turns out I missed three of the chapters, but everything is on track now. Oh, by the way, if anyone has some good pictures of mountains or caves, I would be interested in using them for The Patchwork Knight. I will give you photo credit and link it to anything you want. If you have anything like that, let me know so we can work something out.

     I went riding yesterday with a friend of mine and friends of hers. She kind of goofed and told me to meet them at one place, not realizing that the place she names was 5 miles away from where she actually was. I was going crazy. She was telling me she was there, but she wasn't. I sent her a picture of where I was and she finally told me the right place. She just goofed up on the location. They were both diners, but with different names, and she named the place I was at. It was kind of a short ride, but we ended up at this great little German Beer Garden. Since I don't drink anymore, it was a bit of a bummer for me, but it was a nice place, that looked like they had some great food. I might have to go back and try the food sometime. I was still full from the breakfast at the diner, so I only had iced tea. The total drink of choice in a beer garden. Maybe I'll do a video for the place and get some footage of the food. That could be something I do this week.

     I also changed the oil in Saki. It is such a great feeling riding right after an oil change. The bike never runs as smooth as it does right after an oil change. That fresh oil working its way through the engine, is just pure joy. I never mentioned this before, but the oil I use adds a banana scent to it, so it's real fun when you put it in. I have to stop after every pour and smell the bottle. It slows me down a little, but it's totally worth it. I was thinking about making a how to video for it, but that would have definitely slowed me down. I would have to set up the cameras, move them around, check the shots, and footage after each take. It was too much work for the few views I would get. I don't mind putting a lot of work into a video that I think is artistic, but one that is a simple how to, not worth the effort. Plus, it is more of a zen thing when I'm working on Saki. I just relax when I'm wrenching on the bike.

     Tuesday is the big day. We are finally having a true meeting with the brand manager for the PR. At least that's what I'm being told. Did you think the rant was coming? You were right. The latest video and blog post went up this week. I put a ton of work into, and have been promoting it selfishly for the past three days. I boosted the video on Facebook to see if it could get more views and possible subscribers. I have posted the the video on my own page, on this blog, on my Instagram, and on the PR Instagram. What has my partner done to promote the latest video and blog? Seriously, what has my partner done to promote it, because I don't know. I haven't seen anything on his page, I haven't heard if he notified the restaurant about the blog and video to see if they would post it on their Facebook page. I even checked the restaurant page and there is nothing there. So it is more likely he he didn't let them know rather then they didn't post it. These are the things that drive me crazy. I put a lot of work into all of this and he only has a few things that he has to do, but he just doesn't do them. He even told me that he was going to post the video on his Facebook page on Friday. Guess what isn't on his timeline?

     The last time we met with the brand manager, it was only dinner and no real business was discussed. I'm real appreciative of this guys time, since he isn't charging us anything for it, but I don't feel like I'm gettin anything out of it so far. I did go back to Facebook on his recommendation of how it helps to promote the brand, but that is really it. It really truly feels like I am doing all the work with little help. My partner texted me the other night saying he was having dinner with the brand manager and he wanted to know what I wanted out of the meeting. I have no idea. I have no direction or experience with these types of things. I texted my partner back the I wanted a blueprint on how to proceed. I only know what I'm doing right now, and I'm terrible at networking. That is what I need, I need to learn how to network properly, but it would be real helpful if maybe someone else would learn how to network so that I could just focus on the writing and the video creation. Do I really need to add one more plate to my balancing act?

     Let's count the plates. Writing this blog, writing The Patchwork Knight for Medium, creating videos for my own channel, creating videos for the PR, writing the blog for the PR, creating a new logo for the PR, painting said logo for the PR. There is also the , me wanting to get back into my photography, and I have thought about once I get my finances finalized, I will buy a new camera, that will double for photography and video creation. I could do more life-vlog type of videos with a new camera. I could also use that for different types of shot with the PR. That's a lot of stuff. Am I being a dirtbag to ask someone else to learn how to do something for the thing that both of us are supposed to do? I'm really asking that question, because it feels like when I ask him to do something, that I'm asking him to do something that I should be doing myself.

     The video is uploaded and almost ready to go for Wednesday. I just have to add the end screen annotations. Those are the little things that pop up that allow people to click on the logo and subscribe, or another video link for something that might be along the lines of what they want to watch. I'm going to go finish that up so that you can see it Wednesday evening. Peace in and goodnight.

The Patchwork Knight (Chapter 35)

     We rode out after a brief meal. Rolf shared his jerky with Sir Paljin and I laid out some dried fruit and vegetables. It wasn't a big meal but it was enough to get us started. We were more energized by the thought that we had people to help.

     We ran the horses as hard as we could, I checked back on Sir Paljin to see how he was doing from time to time. It appeared that his healed wound had no affect on his riding. He rode as if he had never been wounded the day previous.

     It was late morning when we arrived at the sight of the ambush. There were bodies of Raider archers laying on the ground, but none of the caravan. That could mean only one thing.

     "The caravan got away. I count thirty bodies. I was wrong about my initial count."

     "Looks like Sir Jacob had enough time to gather the wounded and the dead. That is a good sign. Rolf, do you recognize any of these men?"

     "I don't believe so. Wait, this man here. He is a Captain in the army. I have only seen him as he walked through the camp, but he was with our vanguard."

     Rolf was standing over a rather large man near the tree line. He must have been the last one out of the forest to join the fight.

     "Is it standard practice for the Captain to be the last one to join the fight?"

     "Yes, but look at him, he wasn't on his way out, he was on his way back in. That looks like his sword over there under that tree. He was run down trying to get away."

     "Bravo to Sir Jacob then. He routed them when the odds were evened."

     "Where is the trail Sir Paljin?"

     "It is a few hundred yards to our north. We should be able to find it on the left side of the trail."

     "We should move these bodies off the trail. I understand why Sir Jacob left them, but they could lead to that vanguard finding us."

     "I agree."

     We all worked together over the next hour carrying the bodies of the archers into the woods and hiding them under limbs and shrubs. It was messy but necessary. If the vanguard turned around and followed this trail, they would know that this was the trail we escaped down. That in turn could lead them to where we were going.

     As soon as we were done with the bodies, we mounted up and rode for the trail that should take us to the caravan. It was as Sir Paljin said. Even at a trot, we got to the trail in minutes. Cart and horse tracks turned on to the trail. I told Sir Paljin and Rolf to ride ahead, and I was going to mask the trial as best I could. No need to keep giving our enemy a path to us if we could avoid it.

     I cleaned the trail with a freshly cut tree limb. I cleaned for a hundred yards in all directions, then I got on my horse and marred the trail leading to our trail head and beyond it. I rode back and forth for an hour, building up tracks to make it look as though an army had passed through. It wouldn't full everybody, but it would fool most. I only hoped that however came down the trail wasn't proficient in tracking. When I was done, I cut through the woods to get to the trail that the caravan was on. If a qualified tracker came through, they would notice the single trail of tracks and know that the trail had been cleaned. I couldn't risk that.

     Sir Paljin and Rolf were probably an hour and a half ahead of me at this point. I only hope that the trail runs straight until I catch them. If there is a fork I would have to try and track them. The caravan should be easy enough to follow on the trail, so I'll stick to following those tracks.

     I rode hard for two hours before I finally saw two riders in the distance. They were still goin at a trot, so I should be able to catch them in a half hour. My horse was getting tired though. All the work we did marring the trail and then the hard riding to catch Sir Paljin and Rolf were taking it's toll. I had to slow down and let it rest. I slowed from a flat out run to a gallop. That should still get me to them in good time.

     I couldn't tell who was who from this distance, but I saw one of them raise their arm and wave. They then pulled off the trail and dismounted. They had seen me and were waiting for me. I slowed my horse to a trot to conserve even more energy since they had stopped.

     They had their horses tied to trees and they were sitting in the shade waiting for me as I rode up.

     "You took longer than we thought cleaning the trail. I dare say that you must have done a thorough job. We expected you to catch us within an hour."

     "I created false tracks to lead them away. I only hope that my falsehood looks true enough."

     "The trackers for the Raiders are novice at best Pitre. We don't get training, the title is given to those that show even the slightest ability to see a track."

     "That is some cheery news then. Sir Pitre, we have been following the trail of the caravan. It's been rather easy. I suspect that Sir Jacob won't stop until he either comes across a well fortified location that would be easy to defend, or the Crystal Palace. That being said, the Crystal Palace is a four days ride along this trail. He will undoubtably have to stop before the Palace."

     "They are still a day ahead of us. Even if they do stop, It will take us a lot of hard riding to catch them sooner than later."

     "Rest your horse and off we will go."

     We rested the horses for an hour. While they were getting cooled down, I searched the area for berries and vegetables. I worked my way through thick brush and trees. I found random berries but no edible vegetables in the area. I did find a small steam of clean water to fill all the water skins. I had to rush back to the trail to gather all of them.

     "I found a small stream to fill the water skins. Give me all that you have so that I can fill them before we ride off."

     "Do you need any help with them?"

     "I should be able to manage for myself. You two rest up a little more while you have the chance."

     "Pitre, you have been going non stop since I left you at The Crossing."

     "This is true. I don't believe he even slept the night you showed up."

     "I feel fine. You have nothing to worry about with me. Besides I'm the only one who knows where the stream is."

     "Fair enough, but when you get back, we are going to hold of riding a little longer so that you can get even the smallest amount of rest."

     "As you say Sir Paljin."

     I gathered the water skins and made way for the stream. As I neared the stream, I could hear a rustling coming from it. I slowly made my way through brush and saw a small pack of wild boar drinking from it. I would have to wait for them to finish. If I disturbed them they would likely attack. I would let them go in peace as soon as they were done. I took the time to slip into the Swordsman's Euphoria, and reach out to the stone. I looked at the world around me in that golden light. I could see the aether attached to the boar, with it's purplish glow. It didn't flare off of them like it had Arial or my father. It was a thin line of light that surrounded them. While I looked around I saw something that stood out. It was feint golden glow. It was high in a nearby tree. I pulled more of the aether from the stone and adjusted my sight to see closer. It was tree lion. It was resting in the tree, staying cool in the shade. I had never seen that golden glow from anything other than my father, and myself. Tree lions were rare, and stayed away from people. They were large with brindle coats. My father told me about them, but I had never seen one until now.

    The boar were beginning to move away from the stream after having their fill of water. I crept slowly so as not to startle them as they left. They were a good deal away, but no need to call attention to myself. I checked on the tree lion, and it continued to just lie lazily on the large tree branch. After filling all the water skins, I made my way back to the trail.

     "It's about time, did you take my advice and just rest near the stream?"

     "No, there were a pack of wild boar when I returned, so I waited for them to finish. I saw something unusual while I was waiting."

     "What was that?"

     "I saw a tree lion resting in a tree."

     "Aptly named those tree lions."

     "You saw a tree lion?"

     "I did."

     "Pitre, that is a sign of good luck where I'm from."

     "I thought you didn't remember where you are from."

     "I don't remember everything, but what I do remember is the tree lions. There were many around my village, and it was always good luck when we saw one. It meant good fortune."

     "You had many tree lions around your village? They are very rare here. I have never seen one myself. Pitre, can you take me to it, so that I can see it as well."

     "I'm not sure you could. It was rather far from my location at the stream, I only saw it be using the Swordsman's Euphoria."

     "You did what? You used the Swordsman's Euphoria to see it. How did you do that?"

     "It is something my father taught me. I used it to enhance my sight."

     "Can you teach me?"

     "I'm not sure. I've only tried to teach one person before, and I was terrible at it, my father took over the training of my friend Arial."

     "Can you try? You might be better at it now."

     "Ok, I will try, but I make no promises. You need to go into the Swordsman's Euphoria."

     Sir Paljin began doing the first movement. I watched him go through the movements and then saw the look in his eyes as he was nearing the end. He was in the Euphoria.

     "I need you to concentrate on your eyes. Feel the Euphoria as it ripples around you. Feel it begin to collect at your eyes, and focus on having it help your vision, to make you see something closer than it is. Look down the trail at a distant tree and try to bring it closer to you."

     I watched as Sir Paljin stood in deep concentration, then a surprised look came across his face and he quickly shook his head.

     "That was miraculous Pitre. I saw a tree about a hundred yards away as if it were right in front of me. It surprised me so much that I lost my focus."

     "That's good, and expected. Now the you know what to expect you will not be surprised by it, and will be able to hold it longer, but I fear that you are still not ready to be able to use it to see the tree lion."

     "Sadly I have to agree with you. I nearly jumped out of my boots when the tree was right in front of me. You say that your father taught you this technique."

     "Yes. This isn't something that you learned at the academy."

     "No, we have no knowledge of anything like this. We use the Euphoria to aid us in battle. We are able to last longer than average men, move faster, and strike harder, but I never knew there was more to the Euphoria."

     My father had told me that he hadn't taught the Targen Knights all the movements, but he said nothing about not teaching them things that would clearly help them. I wondered what else he hadn't taught them and why.

     "What does it look like when you are in the Euphoria?"

     "What do you mean?"

     "Do your surroundings look a little different when you are in it?"

     "Oh, you mean how everything looks a little blue."

     That is not how everything looked to me. I saw a golden hue when I was in the Euphoria. I fell into it quickly to see everything around me. Sir Paljin did have a bluish glow around him, but Rolf, Rolf had a golden glow. It was similar to the boars, in that it was a thin line, but it was golden.

     "Yes, that is what I mean. Rolf do the Raiders have anything like the Swordsman's Euphoria?"

     "I have never heard of such terms. Is it some kind of magic? It must be if you can bring a tree to you."

     "It isn't magic. You remember what you told me about that girl in your camp?"

     "You mean Elandra. The stories she told of controlling an energy?"

     "Yes, it is like that. There is an energy that when you go into the Swordsman's Euphoria, you can use to aid you."

     "Can you teach me this Swordsman's Euphoria?"

     "I don't know. I clearly have become a better teacher, at least with Sir Paljin here, but I don't know if I can show you what you need to learn to be able to do it. Also, it takes a very long time to learn."

     "This is true. It took me nearly two years to learn how to achieve it."

     "Two years?"

     "Yes, why, how long did it take you to learn?"

     It was then that I remembered my father's word about not telling anyone about all that I know.

     "Oh, it took me a year or so. I don't remember truly how long it took."

     "A year or so? That is faster than anyone I've ever heard of. You truly are amazing Sir Pitre."

     If he thought that was fast, he would have died of shock at how long it truly took me. My father was right to hide some things, but why so many. I guess I would learn in time.