Silent Ruler [DNF]

Chapter 5: Flickering lights

The headache George felt when he awoke was out of this world. He groaned in pain and felt a building pressure behind his left eye.

As time passed so did, fortunately, also his headache. He carefully propped himself up on his elbows and was relieved when it worked surprisingly well. The clothes were damp, which indicated that he couldn't have been out cold for that long. With a bunch of deep breaths and plenty of curse words, he eventually managed to get to his feet.

His eyes darted to the symbols on the wall and was surprised to see that they were still glowing. He took a few steps back to getter a better view. Though it almost caused him to fall into the lagoon. That's when it hit him that he was facing a difficult problem in a near future; getting back.

After lots of procrastination, George eventually took a deep breath before plunging into the water. At first, the expected panic of not being able to swim, paralyzed his body. With desperation he tried to recreate how his body moved the last time.

Maybe it was the amount of concentration that went into his swim strokes that caused his mind switch into the same survival mode as previously. With ease he swam through the tunnel and finally broke through the surface on the other side.

He was surprised to see that the book still laid on the side. He had guessed that Dream would've taken it considering how pissed he was that it was in George's possession. His eyes widened as his gaze landed on the title; it was readable.

He pushed himself out of the water. The golden inscribe spelled out one single word, or rather name.

His name.

His fingers were itching to read more. However, he concluded that he should head back and switch to dry clothes first.

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Darkness still lingered as he got back to the hut, which thankfully were empty. Under his bed he found a box with three sets of clothes. They were vastly different from the dull black clothes he was used to. These were beige, green (or so he assumed), deep blue, white. Even a red hat with white dots that looked an awful lot like a mushroom. He picked out a pair of loose beige pants and a blue blouse, which were unbelievable comfy.

He hung the wet clothes to dry and found a mirror in the little bathroom part of the house. That's when he froze. One of his eyes were no longer the familiar deep brown color. Instead, it was about the same color as the stalagmites and stalactites in the cave. He was at loss for words. How the hell did that happen? Even more worrying, how was he going to explain this to the others? Your eyes don't just change colors randomly.

He sprinted out of the bathroom and began searching through the clothes and was so relieved when he found a pair of big goggles with toned glass. Surely it would cover his eyes.

Anger suddenly began to form. He was so done with all the secrets, Dream's hostility that he refused to explain and the uncertainty about what the future withheld. Should he stay here for the rest of his life and just accept that he might not ever get an explanation to why Bad told him to flee? He wondered what his parents were thinking. It had crossed his mind that the guards had tried to kill him because his brother wanted the throne. A throne he never even wanted in the first place.

His anger only increased at the realization that none of his family members had never even tried to get to know him. Cause if they had, they would've known that he hated the fact that he was the heir to a kingdom where wars and violence was praised. George himself was a pacifist, someone who despised how his dad ruled.

As his anger reached a certain point, something bizarre occurred. The hut was lit with oil lamps and plenty of candles were stationed practically everywhere. And as his anger peaked, all the unlit candles flared up at once. Even the flames in the oil lamps shook.