Divination

Chapter 4: Across The Plains

I woke with a start to the sound of a large boulder rolling down the side of the mountain to my left. Everyone woke up with me at the crushing and cracking sound. I stood up quickly and ran over to the edge to watch the boulder crash into the awaiting bottom. I got a sudden lightheadedness from how fast I had stood up. Lukas ran over next to me.
"Where on Euroshen did that come from?" He asked. I could hear a small fear in his voice. I couldn't blame him. A couple feet to the right and that boulder would have killed us all.
"Probably from up there." Argent answered, standing up and stretching her arms.
Lukas turned to face her, a small hint of anger hiding under his face. "You aren't at all worried that the boulder could have killed us?"
"It didn't, so forget about it." Argent answered kindly. Lukas sighed and walked back over to his sleeping cloth and began neatly folding it to place it back into the bag. Ticon and K-minor were doing the same. I noticed K-minor's new instrument next to her and walked over to her.
"Just wanted to say again. That it was really cool for you to have made and played that beautiful instrument yesterday." I said, smiling. She turned to face me. But instead of her peppy, happy smile. I was met with tears streaming down her eyes. A worried look appeared on my face. "K. What's wrong?" She wiped the tears off her cheeks with her palm and looked back up to me, smiling. "It's just that..." She paused. "Nobody has ever complimented me on my music." She said, more tears forming in her eyes.
I leaned down to her. I hardly knew what I was doing, I never had the urge to comfort anybody, but for some reason, I felt like I needed to hug her. I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed her lightly. I released her and stood back up. "You're going to be a great musician one day." I said. I turned around and started walking back towards Lukas and Ticon. As I did, I turned around and looked back at K-minor. She had gone back to putting away her sleeping cloth. I kept looking back. She picked up her new instrument and stared at it for a moment then pulled apart the two sections and placed them back into her bag. A small grin appeared on my face and I continued to walk back towards Lukas.
"Lukas," I started. "How long till we reach the peak?" He refocused himself and stared up towards the peak. He stood and stared at it for a second and then faced me. "Around another five hours. Give or take a few minutes." He answered. I nodded and walked back towards the mountain.
I looked back to everyone. They had finished gathering their things. "Okay everyone." I shouted to get their attention. "We are going to start the ascend again." I said quickly and then turned back to the mountain. I took a step on the new surface. I began climbing again. After my first few steps, I felt the soreness kick in from yesterday. My legs shook with pain, making each step harder and harder to complete. I turned back towards the others, who had also began climbing. It seemed the same had happened to them. We weren't making the time we had planned. As I climbed, the sharp ache continued. I finally reached a good sized ledge and rested my legs. I was heavily breathing, very uncommon for me.
I sat there a little while, and as much I wanted to stay, I had to continue up. Lukas had already passed me. He hadn't used his muscles as much as me yesterday, making him much less sore. "Tired already?" He asked down to me, giggling a bit after he was done saying it. I snorted and got up. My legs may be hurting, but my competitiveness overruns that. I wiped some dirt off my pants and got back to climbing.
I climbed furiously and passed Lukas quickly. I noticed the aching in my legs subsided when I didn't think about it. So I didn't. We climbed and climbed until the afternoon sun was covered my dark, ominous clouds. A shadow spread out over the land and the thought of a storm spread in my thoughts.
A wind began to pick up and my hair flew constantly in it. Almost on a rhythmic pattern, the wind controlled my hair. It covered my eyes, got in my mouth, and forced me to forget about what I was thinking and refocus on my aching. The climbing became nearly impossible again, as each step became a game of pain. The wind was starting to become drastically strong. I could tell that Lukas was beginning to question our safety, as was I. I located a flat area to wait out the windstorm and headed towards it. The rest noticed my change in direction and mimicked my movements.
I reached the edge and sat down, resting my aching body. Lukas and Argent had decided to climb side-by-side, to try and take their minds off the climbing and arrived at the same time. Argent spoke. "Your hair is bugging you isn't it?" I nodded in agreement. She must have noticed how horrible and crazy my hair looked. I couldn't see the hair on my head, but I guessed that it was going in all directions possible. I noticed she had put her hair into a tight braid, unlike mine, which was in a ponytail. She walked over to me and grabbed my hair. She began tugging and pulling on it, causing me a lot of unwanted pain.
While Argent was manhandling my hair, I noticed that K and Ticon had reached the ledge as well, heavily panting. "Come and sit down." Lukas ordered, patting the ground next to him. K and Ticon didn't bother to walk over and sit by Lukas, they plopped down the second they heard Lukas talk.
Argent stepped back from my hair and examined my hair. "That will have to do." She said. I grabbed behind my head and found a neat, tight braid of my hair, the end held together by a tightgrass weed bracelet. I gazed upwards, at the mountain peak. We were very close to the peak, only about an hour or less away. "Could we keep climbing?" K-minor asked. "We're so close."
"According to the looks of these clouds..." Lukas pondered, while staring at the dark clouds. "A rainstorm is not far behind this windstorm. I seems like we will have to spend the night on this ledge." As if all at once, Ticon, K, Argent, and me all sighed. "Let's set up a shelter, then." I said. Everyone nodded and reached into the bags pulling out their sleeping cloths and large blankets. "We'll have to use the blankets to make a shelter." I said. They didn't seem too happy about having to give up their warm blankets, but they handed them over to me. "Argent, Ticon. Mind gathering some long, sturdy sticks?" I asked them. They nodded and ran off to find some sticks.
As we were setting up, a small sprinkle began to fall on the mountain as the light grew dimmer and dimmer. Argent and Ticon returned carrying long, thick logs. They laid them down on the ground for me to examine. I chose the six that would best benefit the likelihood of the shelter staying up. I stuck the logs into the hard ground with the help of Argent, Ticon, and Lukas. K-minor opened the blankets and attempted to throw one over the shelter. The blanket missed its destination and was instead picked up by the wind and carried over the ledge. K-minor yelled and ran after it, stopping at the ledge, watching it fall gracefully towards the awaiting ground. K-minor turned back towards us awkwardly. "Sorry." She said, innocently. I could tell she really was sorry, so I didn't even speak about it. We still had enough blankets, so there was no reason to be angry.
Finally, the light had completely disappeared, leaving Euroshen a dark, windy plain. The shelter had finished construction and a warm, inviting fire had been kindled inside. The rain had picked up and was beginning to feel almost like small pelting pebbles being thrown at me. I did a quick survey around the area before heading back into the shelter. When I arrived inside, I was met with same thing, I'm always met with. Lukas' face stuck in a book, Argent fixing her hair and her clothes, which seemed perfect to me. Ticon examining the ground and shining his handy shovel, and K-minor, practicing her voice. I sighed and walked over to the glowing flames, that illuminated the inside of our shelter. The pelting against the tent silenced, signifying that the rain had stopped. Or at least taken a break.
We each sat there, doing our stereotypical things for a moment, till K-minor broke the silence. "Nice tent, Siyra." She said, eyes gleaming towards me. I could tell that she was starting to look to me as a some sort of a role model. I smiled and nodded back to her, thanking her, without words.
Everything was silent again, after K-minor's kind thanks. I listened to the chirping symphony of the crickets. The sounds seemed to communicate with one another and hum in a hypnotic rhythm, that entranced me. The cricket's lively sounds were put to rest as the rain began falling down from the infinite clouds again. The rain seemed more violent this time and the wind followed the rain's violence. The water gushed and wind whistled into our ears. This would be quite the night. Lukas must have had enough, because he placed his massive manuscript back into his bag and pulled out his sleeping cloth. The others saw Lukas and followed his example. In ten minutes, only I was left awake in the glistening light of the fire.
I felt restless, so I decided to take the night watch. As if we needed one. Not a single animal would be out during this extreme storm. Especially not on the steep cliffs. Luckily, I found something to pass the time. Whittling. I picked up a tall, large pole and whittled it away. I removed the brown, textured bark and replaced it with a smooth, light brown inside. I had successfully whittled the entire long stick down to a strong, smooth stick. But, I still felt restless. Maybe, I should try making something more artsy... I thought. I grabbed the stick and my knife and began again. This time, I weaved intricate lines and symbols into the wood. It carved around and swirled till the base of the stick. I decided I would carve some words into the base of the stick. I didn't want boring Wanmeian words, so I snuck over to Lukas' wool bag. I picked the bag up and reached my hand inside it. I shuffled through samples of rock and preserved bread, until my hand grasped around the massive manuscript.
I pulled the manuscript from his soft bag and walked, silently, back over to where my whittled stick lay. I opened the book to the very first page of parchment. "So that this book might help this ever troubled world. So that this book might shine light on days past, or days worried away. So that this book may open the minds of scholars now and in the tomorrow. So that nobody may suffer again. That is this book." I sat there, pondering what I had just read. Who thought that Lukas could actually be, somewhat, poetic? I asked myself. Never in all the manuscripts had I seen, I had never been greeted with something as meaningful as this. Lukas wasn't writing his manuscript to be famous. He was writing it to help Euroshen. I smiled and turned through a few pages, ignoring the content on them.
As I brushed through the pages, my eyes caught the Page of Contents. I looked down the page and let out a small gasp. There were so many categories, my brain could hardly keep up with them. I ran my finger down the page, passing Botany, Animal Study, Animal Study 2, Animal Study 3, and another six sections of animal study. Finally, my finger ran past Languages. I peered at the page number, 497. I stuck my hand in a random crevasse between the parchment and lifted the heavy pages. Page 455. I turned the pages again, and again, till I landed on my desired page, Page 497. A large chapter heading read, Languages. The page had its own mini-page of content. Yet again, it was much too large to simply pinpoint by looking at. I drew my finger at the top of the page and ran my finger down the parchment again. I passed Dandenese, Wanmeian, Sandian, Ickvian, and much more that I hadn't even heard of before. Finally, my finger landed on Anciesity. He could write more than one thousand pages of information, but he can't put his topics in alphabetical order?
I flipped to the designated page, where the ancient language of Anciesity was written. The page had a massive collection of complicated symbols, word phrases, and speaking patterns. Amazing Lukas is able to speak all these languages. I leaned my elbows on the supporting book and thought. What exactly do I want written on this stick? Power? Eternity? Wanmei? Siyra? It hit me. My friends. I flipped to the Anciesity Language : Names and Pronunciation of Names.Lukas had conveniently wrote how to write and pronounce names in Anciesity, and a few other languages I couldn't read.
Anciesity names and the pronunciation of said names, is a very simple thing to understand. In fact, according to my studies, the way Wanmeians say names is nearly the exact same as the way the Ancients said names. The only true difference is the way N's or "Nik's" (Anciesity for N), S's or "Sik's" (Anciesity for S), U's or Uk's (Anciesity for U), and L's or Lik's (Anciesity for L) are pronounced. The difference is exactly how it sounds. Whenever there is an N it is pronounced "Neh" and in proper sayings, it is pronounced "Nehk". This rule applies for the following letters mentioned above, N, S, U, and L. Besides these four letters, the only difference is the symbols it is written in. To see the symbols and their corresponding Anciesity symbol is below.
My eyes were drawn down to the array of symbols Lukas had drawn. Next to the symbols were, like he said, their corresponding Wanmeian symbol. I guess I should write my name first. I picked up the whittled rod and took a firm hold of the base. I grabbed my dagger and looked for S. I found the Anciesity symbol and began my intricate carving. I looked down and up a repeated amount of times till I finished my name. I turned the stick a bit and began on Lukas' name. I continued to whittle his name and once I was finished I moved onto Argent, then Ticon, then K. I decided to add "minor" to her name as well. It looked kind of lame just having a single symbol. I yawned suddenly. I guess the constant reading and whittling had worn me out.
I closed Lukas' manuscript and laid my rod on the dirt ground. I walked over, back to Lukas' bag and slipped the bulging book back into the bag. I walked quietly back to where I had been whittling and laid on the hard ground, though it didn't bother me. I closed my eyes and pretended to drift. As I drifted off as I thought about what had happened today. The snow would begin soon. The thought kept coming into my sleeping mind. I kept throwing it away and refocusing on the day. As I was just about to fall into my deep sleep, a final thought came into my mind. It felt as though it wasn't mine, yet it crept into my secure brain. Just. Let. Go. My eyes closed.

The bright, pulsing yellow sun awoke me, with its rays laying comfortably on my face. I opened my eyes and closed them immediately again. The brightness hurt me. I blinked my eyes rapidly, trying to make my eyes adjust to the harsh sun. The others must have had the sun as their alarm, because they awoke when I did. I stood up and felt the sudden rush of blood to my head. My hair weaved and curled in an odd fashion. Argent looked up and smiled at my bed-head. I grunted and went outside to admire the beaming sunlight. As I stepped outside and was struck by the harsh sunlight. I kept blinking my eyes, trying to adjust to the sun.
Argent joined me outside the tent. She had a comb in her hand and was brushing her hair downwards violently. A massive amount of curls and knots had formed in her hair from the constant act of sleeping outside. "So..." She started awkwardly. I looked at her, one eyebrow raised. Argent usually wasn't one to be awkward. Something was up.
"What do you mean 'So...'?" I asked her. She shrugged.
"You know. 'So...' how was your sleep? That kind of 'So...'." I laughed quietly. She was so strange and not afraid of being social. I envied that part of her quite a bit.
The tent began rustling. Everyone was waking up. I took one last look at the beaming sunrise and then went back inside the tent.
Lukas had woken up and had already packed his sleeping cloth and other belongings. K-minor had also woken up and was just starting the rub the exhaustion from her eyes. Ticon had already packed everything and began walking towards me, near the entrance. "Are we all ready?" I asked, enthusiastic to get back on the trail and finally finish this expedition.
"Yes." Lukas said, quick to jump on the question. "By my assumption, we should finish the mountain by midday, giving us plenty of time to see and document what's on the other side of these mountains." He said grabbing his book from his bag.
"And maybe even see where the path leads too." Argent spoke, returning back into the tent. She had finished brushing her hair and her hair was back into the perfect and straight format she always enjoyed.
*The rest will be posted soon! Thank you!*