Companions

Nobody walks every mile alone — the fictional trail company, as the journals remember them.

All people and creatures below are fictional, from the original expedition journals.

Sarella — balloon pilot

Eleven flights over the Sky Islands route before the Dandelion carried our narrator. Diagnosed the upside-down map in one glance, explained the Tuesday circuit without explaining it, and taught the balloonist’s knot with the patience of someone who has watched many passengers learn it badly. Keeps the pretty-but-wrong map in her shed “for the tourists.”

Peto — islander of Verdant Ledger

Terrace gardener on the fourth Sky Island. Traded seeds for a spare pencil. Answered “how do the islands stay up?” with “Very slowly” — the journals’ favorite answer to any question, ever.

The surveyor (forty years earlier)

Unnamed; known only through a tin box in a cairn on Little Quill. His handwriting is better than hers. His last line — “The islands drift. Do not trust the distances, only the order” — is the most useful sentence in the whole expedition.

The survey party (Lantern Deep)

Four people, eleven lanterns, one Dimming. The leader knew the correct procedure (sit down, stay put, wait) and the correct attitude (calm, with snacks). They navigated out by crystal-hum and moth-light and never once suggested this was unusual, which tells you everything about survey people.

Committee — glow-moth

Landed on the journal during the Dimming, glowed for two days, led the party along the water channel, departed at dusk. Not collected. Status, per the journal: thanked. See the field guide entry.

The grandmother (mentioned once)

Owner of the red bandana, origin of nothing else on record. The journals keep her to one mention, which is either restraint or the beginning of a longer story. The routes page may know more someday.

Source notes

All companions are fictional characters from the original expedition journals. No real people are depicted or described.