Possessed (Keys To The Elements Story 3)

Chapter 8

I took a fast walk around the tree trunk and inspected the carved words. I noticed something else though. It was tiny but I had recognized it was the same printing as the other carvings.

"Donatella, take a look," I said.

She crouched down beside me and took a look at the words that were engraved onto the very bottom of one of the sides of the tree trunk.

"I'm not who it seems," she read outloud, then stood up quickly. "I think I know what it means."

"What?" I wanted to know.

"There was a group of rebels who never was interested in Alastair's discoveries. In fact, they thought the abilities he discovered were useless to this world. Not only that, they believed Alastair Clinton never existed."

"But he did. He walked around and talked, just like anyone else," I countered.

Donatella nodded. "That's right. But the group believed Alastair Clinton was just a pseudonym for someone else."

Alastair was a mysterious elf. Nobody knew everything about him even though he was super well known in The Elf Cities. Everything that Donatella said would make sense but...

"Why would they think that? It's such a radical idea. Why would anyone believe that hunch?"

Donatella pressed a finger onto her wristband, which she called a beeper. It had a small screen on it, with a few buttons. She pulled up a photo and showed it to me. I immediately recognized the elf in it as Alastair Clinton.

"What about it? That's just a photo of him at a press conference."

"Look at his shirt. It has something embroidered on it. It's hard to see because it's the same colour as the clothing, but try to take a look," Donatella pointed out.

Woah. She was right. Alastair was wearing a dark blue polo shirt and there were a couple words printed on it. I squinted my eyes to take a better look and gasped.

"Wait, can you read it?" Donatella questioned, excitedly.

"Could you not?" I asked in surprise and also a bit of superiority. Donatella glared at me and requested for me to tell her what the shirt said.

"It says David Kentucky," I stated.

"See? He has another name. My only question is why would he wear something with his real name obviously written on it? He knew photographs would be taken."

I put my hands on my hips. "Donatella, aren't you a self proclaimed genius or something? I remember seeing this photo in the news. Wasn't it his last press conference before his passing?"

"Yeah..."

"Exactly. He knew it would probably be his last chance to reveal his actual name. Something that would lead people to find his discovery years later. He assumed a genius of some sort would figure it out and that's us," I explained, satisfied that I was able to help in some way.

"Huh. That's not bad. I must be rubbing off on you," Donatella smirked triumphantly.

"Oh, come on." I rolled my eyes. "I was able to read the name and I was able to figure out why he would wear that shirt."

Donatella smiled. "But I'm the one who knows exactly where David Kentucky lives."