ONE (Book 1 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 5

The start of our new journey seemed a lot like the entirety of our last one. It was full of Sarphi not really knowing how to read the map and Aknon nearly tearing it as he ripped it out of her hands on several occasions. I had eaten most of my food pretty early on after we left the main city, or rather fled.

The countryside in which we were travelling was rather boring and uninteresting, as there was nothing to see for miles apart from grass and the occasional animal, which Sarphi tried to pet and get to know. We could've gotten a carriage or something of the sort, but I got rather travel sick and it would've cost most of our coin, even if I flirted with the driver.

"And the green grass goes on, and so the green grass goes on, walking along, with Sarphi and Aknon," I sang quietly to myself as I strummed my guitar. I felt boredom sinking into my bones and changing my molecular structure to something which wasn't humanoid, which was a bit dramatic but that's how it felt. I couldn't even call myself human, but neither could most of the population of the land. I'd come up with a few words to describe whatever my siblings and I are, but they didn't quite appreciate them. In retrospect, I probably should've avoided the idea of us benign cursed or monsters sent to create chaos with our beautiful music.

"You're getting unoriginal," Sarphi mumbled as she trudged behind me. I'd given her a few piggyback rides today, but it was still an exhausting journey.

"I'll beat myself unconscious with that guitar before it sends me unconscious," Aknon remarked.

"We have another day of walking," I pointed out. "If anyone's dying from instrument misuse, it's me." My desperation was clear, almost as clear as Aknon's to keep going.

"What's that?" Sarphi asked, changing the subject completely as she hurried up to me, pointing to our right." It looks creepy."

" So do you," I replied automatically before following where she was pointing at. But I had to agree with her. In the middle of the field was a pair of glowing eyes. What was even more strange was that's all we could see. Despite it being broad daylight, the only part of this creature visible was their glowing eyes.

"Cloaking spell?" Aknon suggested as he walked backwards, pulling on my hand to keep walking. "People will do that to know their animals are safe from being stolen. And it's a good way of identifying them."

"We should do that to Acer," Sarphi joked lightly. "But there's something unsettling about this." It was an understatement. I felt like the wind had stopped and we were in a stare-off with the creature.

But then it disappeared.

"And I like that even worse, let's go." Sarphi took my other arm, which still held the guitar, and dragged me forward alongside Aknon.

"It's a pair of appearing and disappearing eyes, what harm could be done?" I asked sarcastically, hoping to use reverse psychology against the universe. I knew just as well as anyone else that you never wanted to say those words, because then the universe just throws something terrible at you. "Let's just hope that they're only eyes and there wasn't a body attached to them."

"A sentence nobody should say," Aknon said with a sigh. "If it's an invisible creature, it could've just closed its eyes, concealing them." He began to pull on me even more. "Let's go before we're mauled."

I didn't complain as we walked quicker down the road, almost moving at a run. It felt a bit ridiculous, but after our travels, we held very little trust. It was even difficult to trust each other sometimes, due to our experiences with dopplers.

It was nearing nighttime, and we were still walking along the dull countryside when lights came into view.

"Sarphi," I hissed, shaking my sister awake, who had been on my back for the past hour or so. I kept her up there with my tail wrapped around her and her tail wrapped around my waist. "Sarphi, wake up!"

She mumbled some incoherent words and lifted her head off my shoulders. "Did Aknon fall in a ditch again?" she asked groggily.

"No, I didn't." Aknon was very angry we wouldn't let that go. "Lights ahead."

She groaned and got off my back, holding my hand as we kept walking. "Are they people or is it a village?"

I narrowed my eyes. "It's got to be a village, right?" I asked. "Who's walking the road this late at night?"

"We are."

"We've been walking for ages," I continued talking, pretending like Aknon didn't say anything. "We have to come across a village or town at some point."

"Is it on the map?" Aknon asked Sarphi with a groan. "Because I didn't see it."

"No," Sarphi said with a shake of her head after she got the map out, twisting it all different ways until it was the right way up. "There's nothing on the map. Maybe it was built after the map was created?"

"You can't build a village in a day, not without magic." I drummed my finger against the back of my guitar lightly, just as I did whenever I was anxious or thinking. "It has to be people."

"They do seem to be moving, or is that because we're moving?" Sarphi looked up from the map at the lights and then down again.

"We'll find out soon enough," Aknon replied. "The road is headed right for them, just be cautious."

At those words, we all touched our daggers. It was routine. This was all so familiar and different at the same time, which was a blessing of being on the road. It was never dull, but it could be terrifying. You never came across the same thing twice.

As we approached the lights, it was a lot easier to see what was going on. But it made little sense even as it was in plain view. It was a little village, but it was also moving. I'd heard of things like this, almost like caravans, but it's an entire village of buildings moving as though the houses had grown legs and were marching.

"Should we bother stopping?" Aknon asked us, his eyes wide with admiration. He loved magic such as this.

"No." "Yes."

Sarphi and I answered in unison. I wanted to stay and experience the moving village in all its glory, maybe it would make a good song. But Sarphi seemed content to keep walking. Sarphi was talking like someone who wasn't carrying their sibling on their back.

"As always, I'll hold the last judgement." Aknon didn't say what he wanted to do, but he just kept walking towards the moving village. "Do you think it stops?"

"Probably not." I shrugged. "Could be on some kind of time sensitive schedule."

"Because who will be walking around in the middle of the night? They might have some sort of internal emergency systems or something." Sarphi tilted her head and hummed. "Make a run for it?"

"No," both Aknon and I grumbled.

"Let's just see if we can see any important buildings, like an inn or tavern. Surely, they won't be closed yet." At least I hoped the tavern wouldn't be closed yet.

We approached the buildings sooner than I'd initially expected. It wasn't long before we were chasing them, quietly running after them to check the signs. Most of the houses looked the same, so it was easy to find the buildings which stood out. There were only around five of them. One was a blacksmith, one was a store, one was a tavern, one was some kind of long hall, and another was the inn.

It looked rather small, but it held a sign which swung with the motion of the building. The sign read 'Bird's nest inn', with a little picture of a pair of birds carved into the wood. The two seemed to be in love as they leaned into each other with their eyes closed.

"Finally," I breathed out as the three of us managed to catch up to the inn, jumping inside the building one after the other. "Rest."

The interior of the inn looked warm and cosy. I immediately felt the heat from the dying fire as I entered, which I wasn't a huge fan of since I preferred the cold. There were various animal skins across the floor, which looked very comfortable. There were four or five tables in the main room, alongside a large desk which was in front of a door, which I assumed to be the staff's own quarters.

"Bit late," a voice from behind me caused me to jump out of my skin. "What can I help you with?"