Year of the Boar, Ninth Month, Day 6.

I was exhausted last evening and could not even muster the tiniest bit of energy with which to record my thoughts. Since I spent the entire day on foot with little to interrupt my journey but the odd crow swooping into the furrows of a field in the hopes of scavenging some food, there was little to record in any case.
I woke when day broke as the sun burst through the last vestige of night and though my feet still pained me I decided that it would not serve me to remain where I was and so I gathered my belongings and resumed my journey.
I cannot describe the ache in my feet and since I now have sight of the border, I thought it safe enough to sit for a short while and rest. My thoughts are a jumble. It seems so long ago that I left home to come to Yuika's aid and I have not achieved what I intended to. I am tired and I wish I could have rested at the castle a while. Sitting here writing these thoughts with my back against a tree, my choice to pose as a servant rather than donning my Silks and walking into the House of Dying Crane through the front gate seems particularly stupid... but I suppose I made my choice and I must make the best of things. I can only hope that the temperature does not drop much further before I reach Purple Lightning because if I have to spend many more nights in the open, I shall freeze before I arrive. Intellectually, I know that it was the right decision; I should have had to have answered far too many questions had I simply walked in and announced myself but at this moment, I wish I had thought twice.
The closer I move towards the mountains, the colder it seems to become but perhaps it is merely my imagination playing tricks on me. I do not know what the weather is typically like in the Seventh Kingdom but since I shall be travelling just on the other side of the mountains, I suspect it will be just as cold and that thought does not fill me with joy. I wish I had been able to obtain a better map of the Seventh rather than having to make do with the partial one I found at the inn but as it is, I shall have to walk towards the south as closely to the border as I can or risk getting lost in the wilds of the Seventh. It does not seem as though it is too far to the border of Purple Lightning from the border here but I shall not really be able to tell until I am actually on the road again.
I allowed my thoughts to wander earlier and I cannot help but think about The Chief. I have been so single-minded about coming to Dying Crane and then pursuing father's wish that I go to Purple Lightning and I wonder now if I have made a big mistake. The Chief offered me the kind of life I dreamt about while I was shut up within the walls of Pale Twilight and he stirred feelings within me that I could barely have imagined and yet I turned him down and I do not know why. I told myself that it was because I had made a promise that I must keep but to whom did I really make that promise? Yuika had no idea that I was even on my way and even if she had, I owe her no allegiance.  The same questions present themselves again and again and still I have no answers. Since I have no answers, I find myself with no choice but to continue as I had planned and hope for the best.
I will sleep here tonight and be on my way as soon as I wake. Perhaps the gods will smile on me in the morning and send me another kind traveller with a wagon or at the least, a spare horse.