Logbook #044 - (The) Strings and Stones

Listening to the stories evermore for an hour. Maybe even more, could have been days, even. How long was it? I can't remember. There was one too many to remember everything. How long could it be? I just beg for an answer, it feels terrible. I feel sick, tired and lonely. Even with this being entertaining me. Now, it feels like as though she is just an "it". A machine, a talkative machine. A machine that is talkative and probably broken too.

A Broken Record.

"Why are you telling me this? This has nothing to do with the things you told me you wanted to show me. This isn't me, this is some other person from a different country, life and also dimension." A little restless and annoyed by the lack of emphasize in "linearity", what he got was none of it. Like a book that has squandering of a madman.

The being smiled sweetly as she fans herself with her left thin and feeble limb as she levitated a book on her other. As it glowed a dark reddish illumination, it acted as a small beacon that attracts the eyes when trying to be retracted. It was too attractive. Strangely attractive.

Skittering with her many little feet of her monstrous body, she looks at William, head held high and chest forwarded as her bug eyed sockets engrossed in concentration. "Ahh, I guess I have wandered too much….in my words." The hostess said as she licked her lips, puffing the wrinkling fleshy intruding that was called a "lip".

"Please, enough. I am now exhausted. But rather than a rest, I wish to know how to get out of this place." Having enough of this wasted energy that was supposed to be used to understand, rather than god or whatever upper being that seduced him to take his own life a breath away, has now grabbed him in this person's clutches, whoever she/it was suppose to be.

"Sire, you are but an insect ready to break out of your shell" The hostess said as she made a smile towards him in a kindly and sweet manner. Her innocent behaviour is too akin to the ones close in his heart. It reminds him of his family, his sister and that girl, that curious girl. Why, why are you reminding me this.

As the critter crawls towards him closely, William puts up a brave face as he looks down to the strange creature as the light from the book dimmed slowly, ever slowly. A flickering that hypnotises him, slowly making him fall to a soft pad of a slumber. (I have to resist this…) He repeats in his head as he took small steps backwards, a tip of the hell and the tang of a toe.

Making sure that he is in the right mind, his sweaty palms reached towards his hips as he pinched it quietly ad firmly. Feeling the twitch of his muscles responding to the pain, he was flabbergasted to his point of view that was is happening is the real, not a false reality nor a dream. But rather something new and intruding towards his private space.

"Relax sire, you are my guest here. Just take a break from all your worries and rest your head on my comfortable satin couch." Winging her hand like the flow of the sea, she directs his attention towards the chair she summoned quietly.

"Take a seat sire…." Her eyes widened as she made an obsessive and dominating manner which struck William in fear as he slowly obeyed her orders as though he wasn't controlling himself but rather a puppet pulled by a master's strings. 'Seat…." The voice whispers in this ear as his sight started to blur.

This is a clockwork orange, it feels so familiar. No, not once. Multiple. A familiar feeling. A feeling that he hasn't felt for an everymoment of time.

Reaching his hand forwards towards the creature, he loss his ability to mutter a word as he slowly fainted off. As his eyes slowly closed, the creature mouthed something which he couldn't hear as he felt a feeling of falling from an infinite abyss.

(What do you want…. From…. Me.) He whispered from his head.

***

"Be careful, brother. We are in thine darkness here. I don't have enough to alchemize my light." Stella muttered softly as she held her staff.

As the group walked down and down and down in this strange cave. Brother Wolfe was worried if they wouldn't accidentally lose themselves. He wished for a dead end as he was following the little light that remained conjured from his sister Stella's shoulder-sight.

"Stella, anytime more. I worry we might stumble into nowhere." He spouted out suddenly as he gets irritated simply by a sound of a pebble clicking. "Goodness Gracious…!"

"Shush, I can't believe you are such a kid, Wolfe. No worries, if we are ever in danger, I will take care of you and the others." Valour glamoured out as she chuckled loudly, which echoed throughout the interiors of this pipelined tunnel.

Wolfe agitated, he make a disgusted fast as he snickered a splice of saliva which sprinkled out from his mouth and dispersed to the dry and cold air.

"Stop annoying him, thy don't want him going aggressive again, do yah' Valour?" Stella scolded her younger sister as scruffs Wolfe's messy hair before patting his back hard as a way of concentration.

"Ahh, cracks. If he is going to be a coward, let thy be. But I don't care how he feels, he should probably grow another cell in his noggin' first obviously. Then maybe I can act a little more kinder to him."

Willow growls in boredom as she rolled her eyes. Carrying the youngest sister Wisp between her shoulders, she moved forward faster to avoid herself from the starting commotion. Even if she did, there is still the echo that reverberates back at her, wishing she could have just not followed in the first place.

"Do not listen to their petty noises, Wisp. It is not good for your young heart." Willow reminded Wisp as she was busily playing in her head imaginations and dreams. The voices that happened through only went in through one ear and out the other.

"….?" With no reply, Willow just mutes herself and continues her journey forward. That was the only way, after all.

As the journey only continued forward, they finally managed the end of their journey. Well not to say much of an End, but more of the beginning of the end, a newer place to explore rather than walk aimlessly with no idea.

"A place, a place!" Sister Wisp shouted in excitement as she tries to struggle herself out of Sister Willow.

Gaining the attention of the three busy in conversation people, they turned their heads towards the excited voice as they stumbled their eyes in a discreet yet creatively made area of commerce.

"So it was true after all, the mercenaries were right. This place is a dungeon." Wolfe mutters as he walks towards the strange architecture that the so-called dungeon expressed. Rubbing the strange smooth etching that the cave has on it, he noticed there some shards of strange rocks that glowed when in contact with some amount of light.

"Is this smooth stone? Why the glow like glass? Stella, help brother please." Wolfe's asks as he wave his hand towards her for attention.

"Hmm, smooth stone?" Called by her brother, she walks towards him as she inspects the strange rock that he was pointing at, rubbing it and inspecting the strange writings on the wall, etching a language they never seen before. Not even in their own vocabulary. "No, no...it is not." She replies back as she rubs the stone after Wolfe's retracts his own fingers.

"These are some sort of crystals. I never seen them before. They could be new and weren't written in the books." Stella replies as she smiles, curiously excited of discovering something new that she can record for the Alters in her Alchemist Arcadia.

"Can you move please, I would like to take some scratchings off these things… it would be interesting to experiment with thy."

Willow curious with her older sister's finding, she watched over from behind as she still held a grip on the energetic youngster.

Valour, on the other side of the group, inspected a strange door which hand scratch marks and some dark dried splotching on the ground, remains of beasts, or just an accident on a drunken mess. "By devils accord, this is not safe place to be..." She chuckled as she grins in excitement. "Now, how am I to open this door?"

As she inspected the large stone like door, it had similar etching similar to the ones written on the wall. Below it were strange holes which were suppose to hold on something, but what, what was it suppose to hold?

Turning around, she watched her siblings for awhile as she then turns directions and looks around for any clues of a way of entry. Rather than only a tool or key, probably an alternative could work too.

"Hmmpf..." She smirks in attention as she walks to and fro around the grounded and dusty container of an area. "That stone they are checking on. That could be the key…?" She asks herself as struts towards them with a cocky attitude.

"Move it!" She shouts as she shoves the others to the side as she pulls out a small steel-made dagger and stabs the soft wall which compacted the crystal. Crumbling easily like breadcrumbs, the crystal pops out and falls onto the dusty remains of the few grains of sandstone.

"Why did you do that!?" Willow surprised by the loud sound and the shove she had to handle and balance upon, made her waist ache.

"Why?! Have you even noticed what remains other than that "interesting rock", A door." Valour grinned as she laughs, bending down, she picks up the crystal rock and sprints towards the door.

"Wait, don't! It could be dangerous." Wolfe shouts to her as Valour reaches the crystal towards the key hole of the door.

"Relax, it's just a key and a hole, it's not like it is going to explode or something." The cocky sister exclaimed as she places the crystal into the hole. Slowly strange sounds were made as they realised the etchings around the walls starting to glow. A purplish hue with red seed like orbs.

"Fuck! What have you done, now?" Wolfe looks left and right as scared as a rabbit as he grips hard onto the scabbard of his sword. "Fucketh thee..."

"Vulgar languages, silence!" Willow reminds Wolfe as she shakes her head. Noticing the glowing light reaching the stone door, it slowly made a strange rub of sounds before lowering down a new room to enter. It was pretty empty, only having some sort of basic necessities such as a bed, an end-table and a table strewn with rotten fruits and dried meat. Other than that, no jewellery nor anything valuable. Except for a strange throne of a chest which was locked somehow with no lock nor string.

"This place is not interesting..." Valour sighs as she kicks the bed, causing the corner to break off and stumble the rotten sticks to a strew of dust. "...All this security for nothing!"

Stella pulls out the crystal from the key as she notices that looking through it, it reflected off a strange light that seemed to attract to a nearby object, The chest!

Poking her brother's back, she whispered into his ear a sentence of orders as she then points towards the nearby chest. (Maybe that can make Sister Valour happy….)

Sighing and nodding slowly, he takes hold of the intact crystal before softly tiptoeing his way to the chest. Following the orders of looking through the crystal of sorts, he noticed he could see familiar etchings on the rims of the chest. Clicking his tongue, he thought on how to solve this strange puzzle until he decided to reach his index finger onto the symbols.

One of the letters dissipated out of thin air and went invisible from the chest. It surprised him but he calmed down and bravely continued his tries. "Stella, Valour, I think I found something interesting..."

"Really?! Something actually interesting?" Exasperated, she walk towards her brother and crouches down to see what he was up to. As the sound of her metal armour crunching, she was limited to only a knee stance rather than a full on crawl. The armour was heavy and she had no choice but to endure the pain that spikes when the nail that fastens the leather straps poked into her abdomen.

"Not yet, but I think we are close..." Wolfe replies. Tapping the strange symbols in accordance, following the sentences that was strewn on the other room's walls, he managed to crack the code of the chest as it made a clicking sound. A sound similar to a lock opening. "Whatever this language is, I hope the treasure are actually interesting..."

As he pulls the chest open, the crystal he left on the floor cracked and burst to dust as a strange spark of light blinded everyone in the room into a perfect white.

…

"Stella? Willow, Valour, Wisp?! Sisters?" Wolfe calling out to his siblings, he regains his sight only to be shocked by the change of his surroundings. His sisters were gone from sight, the only thing presented towards him was a beautiful tree, fluttering purplish leaves and strange protruding which produced bulbs similar to fruit trees.

Following his instincts, he carefully picks himself up and walks towards the tree. Making sure there was nothing else, he nears himself to the unfamiliar tree and watch the leaves somehow flowing in random directions even with no wind or some sort of current guiding the air.

"Where am I?" Curious, he reached his hand towards one of the fruits produced from the tree and plugs it off. Reaching it towards his nose, he sniffs it before taking a curious bite off it.

It tasted sweet, like honey. It was textured and had a very rough feeling in the mouth. Yet it was juicy and crunchy at the same time. It felt similar to a pear or an apple but not at the same time. Strange, very strange.

"It tastes good." He said to himself as he swallowed the bite he had of the content in his mouth.

Taking another bite of the fruit, he felt eerie behind the nape of his neck. As if someone was watching him in this strange infinite plane of a world.

Turning around as he chewed on the fruit, he looks left and right as he unzips his rucksack and places the half-way eaten fruit into his bag.

"No, no. Concentrate. I need to find my sisters first. Eating later." Walking seamlessly in this strange white plane of existence, the only difference it made was walking further away from the tree.

Nearby him, a soft sound of chattering could be heard which frightened the man-boy. "Whose thy? Come out!" He stutters as he unsheathed his sword.

From another direction, the chattering repeated. Only this time, slowly sounding akin to a pout of laughter. "Why are you laughing? Did I do something wrong?!" He asks the chattering as he turns once more to the directed voices.

"Oh no, you didn't. Don't worry." The voice replied. "I am just laughing at your behaviour. It is unlike any other. Silly boy, I mean you no harm."

"My behaviour?" Embarrassed, realising that he was starting to act cowardly and timid again, he regained his stance and sheathed back his sword. Coughing and clearing his throat, he inhales a puff of air, before calming himself down. "Alright, there, there. Now, please show yourself"

"Before I reveal myself to you, can you please do me a favour?" The embodied voice asked kindly.

Wolfe nods before stretching his stiff shoulders. "What is it?"

A blow of air was blown into his right ear which caused him to stumble in fright and drop to the floor. An ache spread onto his arse as the scabbard of the sword poked hard onto his thigh. "Hey!"

"Alright, alright...Really sorry, mister!" The voice replied as a figure before him appeared. Reaching a formed hand towards him, the apparition looked similarly of a man yet a figure of a feminine kind. The voice none man nor woman either.

"What are you…?" Wolfe asks as he accepted the gifting hand of help.

"Me? I am what you call a…Guardian. The name is Legacius. Pearlanus Legacius. Nice to meet you, Mister Endicrianus, Wolfe. I have been waiting for you and your sisters arrival. I am your father."

"...And your mother."