It's been an odd day, but there has been progression.

The Trunkline wasn't more than a few miles past Hollow Shades Mountain when we got one of those magical parchment notes from the Princess herself. We were ordered to double back around and construct a branch track to an outpost on the edge of Hollow Shades Forest.

Of course, we complied and made our way backwards. We had all hoped that if we just pushed on, we'd make it to a safe place to rest our heads. As it turns out, we got a little more than we bargained for.

The letter had left out the fact that the outpost we were laying track to was now officially under the control of the local deer that occupied Hollow Shades. Even though antlered folks were unfamiliar with the Railway and how it was built, they did their best to help us along. Personally, I think they did a great job given their experience level.

The deer were actually much friendlier than we had originally perceived. There had been a few skirmishes with pioneers not too long ago, but these guys seemed to have none of that. They traded their own gods for ours, helped fix up the worst of the wounded; they even invited us to make camp smack dab in their own village!

A good majority of the crew was completely accepting in the deer's offers, I've heard murmurs that a few actually want to stay. Maybe they actually didn't have a home to come back to before now. I also couldn't help but notice that some crew members only begrudgingly accepted the deer's help. A lot of them didn't make conversation with the locals, preferring to stick to their own little group. I even heard a few whispering about "reclaiming our base". They didn't seem serious, but I'm still concerned.

The trio has probably recovered the most. Swan's singing again, even learning a couple of the natives' songs. She's even taught them a few of her own.

Jack looks much happier as of late, and I get the sense that a few of the deer have taken a liking to him. He's talking to a few does as I write this, the lucky stallion.

Rook though, he doesn't seem to have changed much. The medicine doe removed a surprisingly large chunk of gravel from his hoof and wrapped the appendage in this sort of leaf-bandage-gauze thing. She didn't speak the best Equish, but the basic message to Rook was "don't work too hard." The workhorse acknowledged the warning, but I'm pretty sure he isn't going to slow down if it means bountiful progress. At least he was nice to her.

Today's been filled with the unexpected. Hopefully we can get everything back on track in a couple of days and press on. I think we're a little behind schedule.