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muinaru-novel-blog · 7 years

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Chapter Five - Missing Pages

Erik jogged through torrential rain to the portico of the old manor, hauling with him the airship within its large box, and his aunt anxiously followed behind, clutching her arms in a futile effort to keep warm. Once the pair were indoors, Sophie said to her Nephew, “I better go, before the roads flood,” quickly she knelt in for a hug and consoled, “You’ll be alright alone for a few minutes, right? Your father should be home soon.”

Erik nodded, “No worries, I’ll be fine.” Sophie left with a wave, leaving Erik in the house alone, holding onto a large box and standing in a puddle of rain water, which ran off from his coat and drenched hair.

Erik took the box into the living room, where his mother slept the night before, and carefully tore out the bizarre airship affixed upon a decorative stand. He peered into the airship and gazed through the miniature windows at small silver object. Gingerly, he pried open the roof of the helm with his thumb, giving him access to the captain’s quarters underneath, where he found what was indeed a small pocket watch; no bigger than a plum, which was complete with a delicate silver chain. Underneath the pocket watch was a small scrap of tightly folded paper.

Erik wiped away the drips of rainwater running down his forehead with his hand, which he dried on the fabric of the sofa, and removed the sheet of paper and the pocket watch.

Tentatively, he opened the pocket. He found inside a miniature clock face on one side and the addition of an equally small compass dial on the other side. Erik wound the watch and listened to the mechanism, ensuring that it ticked. Its tick was gentle but steady and so he set the time and pocketed it.

The folded paper, which had been lying underneath the watch, had yellowed in age but was kept relatively well preserved. Erik held it out by the light of the window. The handwriting on the paper was instantly familiar; it was the same as that seen in the little charred book. The paper was divided up into two columns: one held a list of degrees and the other a list of hours and minutes. He pulled out the pocket watch, opening it with a rapid flick of his thumb, and smiled as he gazed at the dials.

Erik stood up and rushed upstairs to his room, proceeding to the bed side table, where, lying on the surface, sat the little charred book that he’d found in the fireplace the night before. He pinched the book firmly between his fingertips when suddenly the cover become rapidly hot, forcing him to drop it onto the dusty floor. As he blew his finger-tips cool, he noticed that they were now completely dry, whereas before they were once damp and pruney.

Erik gazed down at the little charred book, now lying dishevelled upon the floor, and saw, embossed on the cover, marks resembling his fingertips. He crouched down and touched the cover with his now dry fingertips, discovering the new areas were made of stiff leather.

A large drop of water then dripped from Erik’s forehead and landed on the cover of the book. Within an instant the droplet effervesced into a swirl of steam and another immaculate spot of leather formed.

Erik rubbed his hand through his hair vigorously, collecting moisture onto his palm, and smeared the moisture across the cover of the book, which immediately effervesced, creating streaks of new leather on the cover as well as drying his hand in the process.

With the affirmation of his quick experiment, Erik rose confidently and rushed to the bathroom with the book. He plugged the basin and filled it up with water; right up to the edge of the overflow hole, just below the taps. He grasped the book firmly and plunged it into the basin, submerging it deep into the water, but, as the water settled, Erik was left looking at nothing but a drowning book, flaking away under the water.

Erik pulled the book from the water and observed a sorry sight of soggy pages that bleed streams of ink out into the basin. Frantically, he grabbed a towel and began dabbing away at the cover. However, it was in vain and the dabbing only made matters worse, as the towel lifted a great amount of the ink from the page, but still he stubbornly persisted, rubbing and dabbing away at the pages.

Suddenly, Erik was shocked to a halt by a loud crackle of thunder that interrupted the peaceful rhythm of drumming rain. He gazed at the window, which was boarded over by old planks that were nailed to the frame. His lips deviated to one side before he rubbed his damp hair and smeared the residue of moisture across the book. Again, the water he’d collected from his hair effervesced as soon as it touched the book.

With a loud exhale, Erik rushed to the window, opened it, and proceeded to bash away the planks on the other side. The wood was old and the planks easily tore away from the securing nails with only a little physical persuasion, shattering into splinters and tumbling down to the ground.

Once there was a large enough gap, Erik suspended the book out of the window, exposing it to the torrent of rain. Immediately the raindrops effervesced as they hit the book. Erik quickly brushed through the pages, exposing every surface to the weather.

Miraculously, the leather healed back to its deep-sea blue colour; the ink rose out of the pages and the words were enriched back to the original bold-black colour of the day they were written; and the pages restored back to a crisp white colour; and the golden trim along edges revived.

The book was now fully restored. Erik pulled it back inside, which, despite being out in the rain, was completely dry and warm, however, his arms were wet and very cold, and the wind, which blasted through the window, had engulfed his body with a bitter chill. So, Erik quickly slipped the book into his pocket and left to his room, where he abandoned his wet coat and grabbed his duvet before retreating to the living room.

Erik lit the fire and sat back with the book cradled in his palm. The book was titled, “The World of Mylox” below it read, “Written and Illustrated by Dr J. L. Kingdom”. Erik muttered under his breath, “What is Mylox.” He shook his head and opened the book, proceeding the introductory page that read with the following embellished entrance:

If you are easily perturbed or susceptible to excessive palpitations, then I would heed from reading further, for this book details territories of great vastness, natural phenomena beyond current scientific analysis, and fantastical beings of great diversity of physique and temperament, of which exist in both the state of nature and civilised.

The book is a collection of my observations and studies, which have been organised and reduced for a digestible read. It is, in a sense and very preliminary scientific journal of Mylox. Although there are of course many other texts written by the strange beings …

Erik yawned and flicked the page, but stopped when his eyes stalled up the sentence:

I knew I had found something special when an image a creature, like nothing found on Earth, drank from the lake in the reflection but was not present beside me in reality, and, additionally, I was not present in the reflection. It only lasted for a moment and faded as the pace of my heart began to soften.

Moments before this spectacle, I had fallen from a ledge and injured my wrist. I was fearful it was broken, which would have been dreadful situation out in the woods. The fear therefore, I propose, gave me sight into another world. Preposterous, no doubt, it will be perceived, this why I have been patiently collecting my writings …

The introduction rambled on for another two pages and so Erik skipped ahead to the index, which was filled with many usual chapter headings and sub-headings, which went on several pages in a miniature font.

Erik casually perused the headings until he reached a sub-heading that read, “Mirror enchantment”, the parent heading read, “Red-Amber Trees”. Hastily, he flipped to the section of the latter title. The page began with a short introduction:

The red-amber tree is so called for the vibrant blood-red amber it produces. Once it seeps out of the tree it hardens very quickly, forming into a stone. It is this harden red amber that appears to permit the water’s teleportative power into Mylox …

The next page started with the sub-heading, “The Locations of Red-Amber Trees”. It detailed the habits of which the trees grew, followed by a list of the known locations of red-amber tree. Erik examined the list until he found the name of the town of which he currently presided: Hardwick. Each of the towns of the list was coupled with a page number next to it.

Erik began flipping through the pages towards the page coupled with Hardwick, but stopped when he caught the sub-heading: “WARNING” with “Dangers of the Red-Amber Trees”, written underneath. The pages explained briefly that the red amber was not produced by any tree on the other side, but instead the same breed of tree produces a viscous, indigo fluid that is poisonous to hold. Therefore, it is imperative to take some red amber through to the other world, otherwise there would be no way to return. Furthermore, the red amber expires in the other world after approximately a month, transforming into the viscous, indigo fluid.

Erik reread the page carefully before continuing to the page detailing the whereabouts of the red-amber tree of Hardwick. The paragraph began as follows:

As explained in the chapter, “The Locations of Red-Amber Trees”, time and space is warped around the trees, …

Erik paused and twitched his thumb on the page. He had not read all of the chapter and had no way of knowing what this referred too. But, eventually, he shook his head and continued reading:

Thus, finding a red-amber tree is not a simple matter of wandering and exploring but must be measured using the calculations and procedures in the aforementioned chapter, …

Again, Erik bit his lip with bemusement but continued reading:

However, I have already procured the precise directions, which detailed in the table of the proceeding pages. One only needs a watch and a compass to navigate through the warped pockets of space and subsequently time.

Simply, note the time from the marked starting point and follow the direction of the compass as stipulated, until the passing of the number hours and minutes, as stipulated next to the directional degrees, has transpired. Continue through the list to arrive at the red-amber tree.

Erik again reread the section before nodding to himself. He opened the pocket watch and gazed at dials before returning to the book, which warned:

The Hardwick red-amber tree is particularly dangerous and should be approached with caution. It has grown out from a lake and as such has given the lake the teleportative ability. Therefore, if one should simply touch even just one of their living cells to the water, they will be pulled through to the other world, (willing or not). This means, if one should not acquire a stone of red amber beforehand, they will be forever restrained in Mylox.

Also, a minor note, the aviary population around the lake will protect their habitat fiercely, so try not to make them feel threatened, otherwise it may provoke an unwanted barrage.

Erik turned over the page, finding the two columns, one of hours and minutes next to another of degrees. His eyebrows skewed with suspicion and he brought out the small scrap of paper he found in the airship. He opened the scrap of paper and placed it next to the columns of the book. The lists were identical.

#Muinaru #fantasy #Adventure #novel #story

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