cw: descriptions of animal death
The journal of the dragoon is penned by one Alexandre Blaiddyd of House Blaiddyd, a once firm standing minor house in Ishgard. They were famous for their impressive strength and duty to their country. The contents inside are, at first, a similar set of pages. The daily training logs, the names of new recruits, the names of those lost.
As one continues to read however, the descriptions of battle, as detailed as they are, speak little in comparison to the lists the man left. Names of the dead. Those who do not come home. The dwindling supplies, only refreshed by new eager dragoons filling the ranks where their compatriots fell.
Alexandre, towards the end, writes that it is akin to watching young chicks be placed into the mouth of a stationary grinder.
'Here they chirp up at the farmer caring for them flapping unready wings, soft with down and bright with life. They do not understand the meaning of the hand upon the crank.'
'A few may stand on the heads of their kin to escape, but the ground below shall be no kinder.'
Despite writings of offered morale through visits of commonfolk to the front with food and gifts, with long nights at the taverns that once dotted the lands, it is clear that the morale -- if there was ever any to begin with -- had long since withered away. The journal merely ends on a description of a hunt for a large wyrm that had been terrorizing the countryside for many a moon.
Alexandre, with his injury, was sent with three others to tend to the beast while the rest of the platoon's efforts were focused elsewhere on the line.
There are no further entries after that, several pages afterwards being left blank.