I have to admit today to considerable nervousness, maybe even fear; but also incredible excitement. I was out to the west of my cabin, where I’ve been cultivating torchweed to use for lighting. As mentioned previously, I found a stretch of dry (ish) ground out that way, and the torchweeds seems to prefer growing in mud at the waters edge. Anyway, I was gathering up some samples, hoping to develop breeds which sustain brighter and longer lasting luminescence after being cut.
In the mud, I found the print pictured below. Part of me wants to withhold judgement, telling myself that this is an alien biosphere and I should not apply norms from Earth. On the other hand, These just look like tracks, and I cannot conceive of what else they could be. If my assumption is correct, this would be by only the second large fauna I have encountered on Somnius. The glowlies are the size of a large dog, and they represent the only other fauna I have witnessed, apart from insects. The cries I hear from the canopy far above sound like some sort of animal, but thus far I have been unable to climb high enough to reach even the lower branches of a Tree of Life.
The prints I have rendered below is over half a meter in diameter. The progression and number of tracks makes me think quadruped. A large one. I keep picturing in my head something like an Elasmotherium but of course such blatantly convergent evolution is highly unlikely. And it is irresponsible to even make such conjectures with nothing to go on but a mudprint.
This has me a bit worried. If I am even slightly correct this creature could be a danger to me, even if it is nominally docile. I haven’t had to worry about such things before, and this is very unsettling. I suppose I will now have to test my dedication to non-violence towards the indigenous life. Samuel would laugh at me if he were still around.
Hah. Non-violence. When the time came, I did not hesitate against my own shipmates. Did I value them less? Some days my own motivations escape me.
Idle ruminations. No way to change things now.
Note from the Directors: We have thus far been unable to recover the image referenced above.
Staff Commentary on this fragment can be read here.