[The shaky handwriting doesn't go unnoticed. It doesn't fail to make Yuan feel bad, either. Not that he's to blame; two of the three times he left the barrier (discounting Malnosso kidnappings, of course) he didn't have a choice in the matter anyway.]

The first time was a few years ago, when a tunnel system appeared that led into the desert. At the time, that was still terrain that lay outside the barrier, which is why we set out to explore it.