WORK IN PROGRESS River ~Chronicle Of The Spirits

7.

"Do you recognize it?" The Elder asks with a soft voice.
He is still sitting but now resting his arms on his legs and looking straight at the book.
Pardon....MY BOOK.

'Mystics'

"Yes, indeed I do."
He signs me to sit next to him.
When I do, he takes the book and questions me again.
"Now go on. You were getting ready for bed. And then?"
Now looking straight at each others eyes I can see that this is serious as hell.

"Crap."

"I read the book a bit and went to sleep."

"Happened something unusual?"

"I am not sure..."

He looks at me with a raising eyebrow, a sign for me to explain.

"And there we go", I sigh and continue.

"There was a page, which was ripped out before and reappeared when I began reading again. But it was completely crinkled and there was not a sign that this piece of paper had ever been ripped out. So yeah... And the content did not fit in the story of the book itself as well."

Surprisingly, he just nods.
"Where did you get it? And how?"
"At the book store"
"And how did you get it?"
"Uhm, well, I bought it..."

"Genius.
Now don't ask me how I bought it or with what, duh."

"Hmm...and why?"

"Still not much better."

"Because I wanted to read it. I liked the story... It's kind of a hobby, you know?"

Silence.

I take the chance to ask him about the book. Since it looks like he knows that this book is somewhat special or whatever...

"What kind of book is this and how did it get here?"

"What are your intentions here? And how did you get here?"

"Hey, don't start avoiding the question with asking a question." I say.

Suddenly his eyes darken somehow.

"Ah, this is scary ...shit"

"Excuse me?" He says with a hushed and slight tensed voice.

I bow my head in apology and say:
"I am sorry, Sir."

He begins to chuckle.

"Chuckling?"

"Don't call me 'Sir'. This is weird. Just Feycal. Since you are not one of us, I am not your Elder. So you don't need to call me like that either.
So now, answer my questions, please."

"Not one of us, huh?"

"So, I don't know what and where 'here' is. And I am also curious how I got 'here' ."

"Okay. Do you remember what was written on the paper?"

"Not clearly...
It seems to me like an unclear or weird kind of address but at the end something like 'this paper is useful but be careful' was written on it." I look up at him in hope to get an explanation but instead I see him reading in the book.