2003-09-16 - 12:03 a.m.

How did this happen? You always want what you can’t have, I guess. Miles I can deal with, miles I can find a way past, if I have to walk for a week, I can find a way to deal with miles. But what do I do when I reach the destination and find a wall so thick the sledgehammer I’d need to break through it is too big for the strongest man to carry?

I suppose all I can do is sit outside it and hope the one hiding inside lifts the gate.

The problem is, she may choose to dump a vat of boiling oil on my head instead.

I’ve had a whole line of gates opened for me and now I’ve found the last one covered in pikes and slits for archers, backed by cannons and swordsmen, and all I have is a megaphone and a wagon full of time. I can’t fight it, I can’t break through, I don’t know how and I wouldn’t even if I could. All I can do is try to talk her out, wait for her to let me in there like I have so many times before on my travels through her land and hope she doesn’t finally decide to hack me to death and drag me away.