Chapter 8

The long-awaited and feared night arrived. The air was cool and humid, the sky covered with a thick purple mantle that obscured even the full moon, pale and barely visible. Slender black trees formed a dense and compact barrier, framing a small garden.

The four boys slept on improvised mats, unrolled on the grass, the result of the intersection of twigs of various sizes; the dim light of a torch illuminated the surroundings and the pallor of this lighted slightly their faces, hardly distinguishable due to the surrounding darkness that masked their relaxed and well-marked features, modified according to the rules of the game and therefore more squared.

As if seized by sudden anxiety and strange, unoptimistic thoughts, a girl was not sleepy, and, referring to her habits that were sometimes not very respectable but justified, she followed her instinct as he led her towards the glittering sand. She waited for her companions to fall asleep to take time for herself and read the mysterious book found in the dungeon.

Samuel

I woke up with a start, after having had a nightmare. I was breathing hard and my heart was beating wildly, like drums at a concert.

I saw that Jane was not there. As you might have guessed, she had walked away again.

I thought she might be in danger, so I got up to look for her. It was about two in the morning, and one person does not leave the group for no reason. I decided to continue with my aim: friends are not abandoned in any situation.

I was very agitated and had goosebumps: it was starting to get cold. I looked at my sleeping companions and, as I tried to take some steps towards the beach we were on for the first time, I noticed the peaceful faces of my friends and tried to imagine what they were dreaming about, even if it didn't concern me.

Not far from them, there was a place I had recently discovered, where I went to spend most of my free time.

It was a cavity between the rocks, where you could safely shelter from the wind and the sun, and also allowed enjoying a wide view of the sea.

A moonbeam illuminated that place.

A strong sense of anxiety assailed me when I saw footprints of heavy and shuffling footsteps on the ground, a sign that, for that passage that leads to my hiding place, someone had passed before me. With difficulty, I managed to get close to the place. The heartbeats increased and my head throbbed, but it was the lesser evil, I was staggering, a little from tiredness and a little from the wind, I was dizzy and afraid of falling, like that, at any moment. The sound of thin drops of water alternated at regular intervals with that of the strong wind, which scraped the ground and raised the dust. I had no idea what I was going to find, but I was aware of what I was looking for. My curiosity turned out to be stronger than the fear that held me back, stronger than the same mental limits imposed by anxiety and uncertainty.

"You're strong Sam, come on," the boy repeated over and over to himself.

" You can do it". For a moment, he sat on the cold silver sand, looking for a valid reason to continue. The caressing wind ruffled his hair, a bit long and untidy. The air we breathed was heavy, humid. He also couldn't help but notice the moon.

" You are beautiful. Even if you shine with reflected light, "he thought. But he had stayed too long to admire her and his legs had fallen asleep. He took advantage of the situation to take a tour of caution, before heading definitively towards the Rocks.

Francis turned over several times, he could not find a comfortable position to go back to sleep. A loud noise had awakened him, and considering waking up as a good time to meditate on what to do, he thought it appropriate to reflect in such a way as to take advantage of it to get to work by going to the mine, rather than continuing to fantasize. He had, in that mind of him that today would be defined almost like a constantly active forge, many projects, several ideas that other people would have considered absurd and incomprehensible. All of his schemes, the palaces he built on solid foundations and hints of great and far better things to come, constituted various mysterious reasonings, which no one but himself and a few other people would have guessed and understood. This helped to make him a meticulous, precise, diligent person.

He knew he had a character, after all complex, but from the manners, he was a simple person.

He did not imagine, however, that one day someone would follow his reasoning and that he would make clear the concepts that he still could not fully understand.

"Francis" a now known voice broke the silence, almost as a flash would do as it tore through the sky, where it would be a preamble, an announcement to a new and impending storm.

"Yup?" he said firmly.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing special," he admitted.

He didn't want to waste time on useless explanations.

"You, on the other hand, why are you awake?" he asked Joy, whom she didn't answer verbally, just bent her head wearily to one side and glanced at the empty mats, a sign of the distancing of their friends.

Francis gave a start.

In addition to his thoughts, what worried him was the absence of those who had been tempted (most likely) by something, perhaps attributable to a feeling in addition to friendship, which became impossible, as they were too much and decidedly different.

He, a simple boy, loved to have fun in the most harmless of ways; she, a complex, mysterious, daring, workaholic girl.

Not only that, their union would have been damage for all and themselves, but it would have slowly led them towards self-destruction.

And what's more, they hated each other. In company, they were almost friends, they barely tolerated each other. By themselves, however, they would have broken out in a heated argument, with her not tolerating her superficiality and he who could not help but laugh or make trouble.

On the other hand, they would have compensated.

"Sorry, but do you think those two are engaged?"

"Whom do you mean ... Oh no," she said, and then broke into a loud laugh.

"It's absurd that you think these things. Those, it's already a lot if they don't beat each other every three for two. "

"Ah well, better that way," Francis concluded.

"Earlier, when you asked me what I was thinking, I refrained from telling you that I'd like to take a ride in the mine at night"

"Alone?"

"Yes ... unless you want to come with me."

"You're crazy. But just so much outside, like a balcony. "

"If you say so."

"Good. And you're not going to go seriously, I hope. "

"Why not. There are minerals in the mine, and you know how useful they are. "

"Yes, you are right, but I tell you, don't go digging at night! I know you have seen the cave, that it intrigues you and all, do you feel brave? Welcome! If you listen to me, you won't risk getting hurt or killed by some monster. Why don't you just stay here and rest? Don't care to survive? Who doesn't tell you that there isn't some friend of yours standing there waiting for you? " the girl warned me.

Francis

"Okay, you convinced me," I said, rolling my eyes.

I didn't want to be blamed, especially by Gaia: I knew she could go on undeterred for hours, if not days.

"You will postpone this mission. Now would you take me to Jane and Sam, please? "

"Okay, she starts walking you. Take the torch."