Timothy Johnson, 05 Aug '12

        At long last I have paper to write on. It has not been easy living here in the last months, the island inhabitants have been quite accommodating to me but they can only provide so much. There are none of the basic necessities I have been accustomed to. I will try and document the events leading up to the creation of this first book whilst they are still relatively fresh in my memory.
        I have no idea how long ago it was, it could easily be more than two months now. There was an... incident... it doesn't matter now what happened, all that is important is I am stranded here. Alone.
        The first nights were tough, the wildlife here is something to behold, the animals grow larger than anything I've ever seen. I made my shelter in the tall trees here and moved onwards during the daytime. I did not know what I may find, or if I would find any kind of civilisation at all.
        The inhabitants here were terrified of me when I first found their settlement. I made my way along the top of the cliff, the path down to the village is very unworn, I knew straight away that they do not leave the cliff face. They fear the surface though I do not know why, they have the hunting skills to tackle the beasts from the forest.
        I struggled to make headway with them because of their fear. The situation now is better, I am brought gifts of food twice daily by one of the younger girls in the tribe and their men built me a hut to live in. It appears to be the largest on the cliff with a finer shape than the others.
        There is great unrest in the people here when I leave the cliff and return to the surface, though I am now allowed to come and go at my leisure this wasn't the case initially. I faced spears and angered voices when I first tried to return to the cliff-top.
        The dried leaves they write on are not abundant enough for me to use for any work, I would exhaust their entire supply in a week, this has been the reason for my frequent returns to the surface, I have been preparing wooden tools and making paper from the shavings.
        I now have a full compliment of building hand tools and a supply of paper that will last me many months.
~
        I have finished my plans for a new living space on one of the larger stacks just out from the bay. I tried to communicate my desire to move off the cliff to the tribe leader and he seemed pleased though it is difficult to tell through his nervousness when near me. I will begin construction of a ropeway tomorrow to transport my building materials.
~
        Construction is going well. I have several bodies helping on the instruction of the elder. They work hard, if I could be sure they would build to my specification unsupervised I would leave them to it!
        The girl who brings me food is teaching me their language, everyone has been apprehensive to talk to me until now and talks in hushed voices when I am out of my hut so I have picked up very little of their language. I picked up their number system very early on from looking at their writing, they can count to twenty four on their fingers. It's a very efficient way of counting for them.
~
        One of the women who has been sick for the last week with an intense fever died today; my new home hasn't got a roof yet but I'll be staying here for a few days to see how this plays out. I suspect that my presence may be blamed for this and I don't want to give them any excuse to get hostile towards me.
~
        The burial was quite beautiful, all of the people worked efficiently and diligently to prepare everything. A party of four left the cliff face to collect wood from the surface to build a boat for the body. One of the strongest men swam out to the furthest stack as they set the body drifting out of the bay into the night. As it past beyond the outer edge of the bay he threw a flaming spear to ignite the boat as it floated out on the still water over the horizon.
~
        I was not expecting any help in construction today, with the funeral only last night I expected mourning today but I now have two additional bodies helping construction. We should be finished in a few days.
~
        Since the burial I have received a gift from each of the women here every morning. They can make some very intricate carvings. I will have no shortage of paperweights and ornaments for my desk. The gifts and additional help with construction are welcome, even if I now realise they come as a consequence of the woman's death. The people think I hold some godly power over them. Such an idea is laughable but whilst they wish to appease me it isn't far from the truth.