June 28. It’s amazing what you can find out here. This morning I looked up and a coyote was standing right there, looking just as proud as can be. Me and him just eyed each other for a moment, and I could swear he winked at me before he disappeared. It’s been a mighty long time since I’ve seen anything bigger than a lizard. Real nice to see.

July 3. The sunset tonight is spectacular. I plan on watching it all the way through to the last light, ‘cause let me tell you, there ain’t nothing more beautiful than Mother Nature herself. I ain’t the kind to wax poetic at the drop of a hat, but that sunset almost makes me want to try my hand.

July 11. Found a new type of flower today. Little yellow thing with five round petals. Maybe I’ll sketch it later. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s amazing what the desert cooks up. You look at this place, you might say nothing could survive out here. You’d be dead wrong. There’s a lot to find out here. There’s the big ones, coyotes and buffalo and such. There’s the cactus, of course. There are the flowers and the lizards and the big black beetles. Those taste real nice, too. There’s a lot of life out here. I ain’t expecting to get lonely quick.

July 14. I had beetle soup for supper tonight. Mighty good, too. I said a few days ago I wasn’t expecting to get lonely. Guess I was wrong, dang it. I just can’t help missing clan life. Waking in up to the smell of cooked salmon and going hunting with my buddy Orrick. I love it out here, I really do, but I miss having someone to talk to. Someone who talks back, I mean.

July 18. I thought I saw someone else out here. Looked like a coatl, but I couldn’t tell much more than that. Didn’t get a chance to find out, though, cause whatever it was disappeared like it had never been there. Maybe I just imagined it.

July 19. Saw a rattlesnake today. Mighty big one, sitting on a nest of eggs to protect them. I watched it for a while, and it let me get pretty close before it started rattling. Seemed like it didn’t mind me being there so long as I didn’t get close to its eggs. It was real pretty, looked like bleached copper. Everything looks bleached out here.

July 23. Thought I saw another dragon again. Disappeared too quickly to tell, though. Dammit. I miss my clan.

July 25. Woke up by being hit in the face by a tumbleweed this morning. Nothing else of note.

July 29. I saw the other dragon again. Either I’m going crazy out here or there’s really something out there. This many times, it’s no mirage. I tried to follow it this time, but it was too far ahead of me and I lost track of it before I got close enough to shout.

August 4. It’s sweltering out here, it really is. If I hadn’t seen it before I’d swear that other dragon was a mirage. But I saw it again today, closest I ever saw it. I tried to shout and get its attention, but I don’t think it worked.

August 7. Found a blue tailed skink this afternoon. Cute little bugger, pretty big for the species. Then again, there’s a lot of variation between specimens of skink. I'll start countin' the different kinds in tally marks.

August 8. Found a big old cactus out in the middle of an empty patch of desert. Just standing there like it owned the world, standing there where nothing else was living. Really amazing. It was a real beauty, too, tall and green like it was in a jungle. Small spikes and even one flower bloom on it. There’s life that flourishes, even out here. I think there’s something beautiful in that.

August 14. Oh boy do I have a story. This is going to take a while. So that dragon I’ve been seeing these past few weeks finally showed up for real. Her name’s Naiara and she’s real nice and pretty too. Turns out she knows this desert near as well as I do. Maybe better. She’s been watching me for a while, trying to figure out if I’m a danger. Guess she decided she could take me. Probably could, I’ve never been much of a fighter. She lives out here too, apparently she’s some kind of wanderer-witch. I don’t really know that much about it, but she’s good at magic. Real good. And she loves the desert. She understands, she understands why I love it out here. We watched the sun go down last night. Well, sort of. We were also occupied with some… other things. After all, it’s been a mighty long time since either of us saw anyone else. It was a good night. She woke me up by rolling a tumbleweed in my face. I swatted her, but both of us knew we didn’t mean anything by it. We’re going to be traveling together for a while. And guess what? I’m not lonely anymore.

September 2. I've been so caught up in all the natural splendor out her I've been forgettin' to write. That and Naiara tends to capture my attention. We stumbled upon a nice waterhole a few days ago and 'ave been trying to make it home. I finally tackled a tumbleweed before it could get me, and no I use all the sticks to build us a fire at night. It gets cold so it's nice to have Naiara by my side.