"Ah—"
Evan suddenly wakes up from his dream-turned-nightmare as his body suddenly twists against the hard dirt. With deep breaths, he slowly calms himself down. He feels pains in his back as he realizes the downside of sleeping on such a hard surface. Evan looks around the temporary camp briefly and notices Nea is nowhere to be seen. The panic slowly but suddenly kicks into his head.
"Hm...? Nea? Nea!?"
Thankfully, Evan then hears a noise just beyond a bush outside of the camp. Evan looks in the direction of the sound and gathers his things together into his bag. Nea is standing next to a tree that looks to have some markings etched into it.
"What're you doing over here?" Evan calls over to her as he begins to walk there.
Nea turns around to Evan to reveal that the amulet is starting to shake and glow. Nea murmurs as she raises the amulet with her hands towards Evan to show him the amulet's strange behavior.
"That's not normal, right?" Evan pauses.
Nea then points to the tree with the etched markings on it. Evan as curious as ever, slowly goes towards the marking and runs his index finger down the etched-out lines.
The appearance of these old etches looks to form multiple and very old drawings from a standing hill with a dip in the middle between the two, to a waterfall splashing down over what looks to be a cave. The most noticeable and detailed drawing however shows what looks like an ancient stone table.
Evan takes one look at at Nea with the amulet and then quickly back to the tree.
"This was right where we slept?!" Evan blurts out. He begins analyzing the markings etched on the tree even closer from left to right. He slowly notices that each drawing has a small arrow leading from one to the other, starting with the hill drawing, then followed by the waterfall drawing, and finally the tablet drawing. He inspects the waterfall a bit closer
"A waterfall? Where is there a place like this?"
Nea tugs on Evan's trouser leg to follow her a bit further past the tree with the markings on. The two cautiously continue until they reach a vast valley, devoid of life. The eerie silence puts Evan slightly on edge as every footstep resounds like thunder.
"Well... That's probably it then! Downwards seems logical with the dip in the hill marking. We should probably get a move on before any more soldiers catch up." Evan suggested.
Evan offers his arm down for Nea to climb up and to get her on his back.
"Come on. What you say we get this ordeal over with?" Evan attempts to keep his voice steady, thinking about what he's been through thus far, and shines a confident smile to Nea. She smiles back in return and climbs up Evan's arm as they proceed on this mission of theirs. Evan with Nea on his back now proceeds to slowly walk down the valley steadily and carefully so they don't fall when descending on the incline.
Eventually, they get to the bottom level of the valley where they both look around briefly. Afterward, they both can't help but notice the amulet is shaking violently and glowing brilliantly now that they are further into the area.
"We must be getting close!" Evan hears the running sound of a waterfall in the distance. "I can hear a waterfall! But..." Evan takes one good look around ahead of him and finally addresses the elephant in the room. "Isn't it a bit... quiet here? I mean, there's not even any birds or animals anywhere." Nea looks blankly at Evan, not understanding a word he said.
"Right, right. I forgot." Evan mumbles.
Nea turns to look at a bundle of rocks that looked to be once stacked together to form a hut. Whilst Evan is still moving, she swoops down to grab a rock from the pile and analyzes it closely until looking back at the hut remains. She stares at it for a while until she suddenly sees a vision showing the Novalites who lived here during her time. Nea loses her bearings for a bit as the vision dissipates which also makes her drop the rock. Still shocked, she rubs her eyes to refocus her eyesight. She also blinks frantically as well afterward, as if to get the image back. Then, Evan's voice recalls her attention to the main focus at hand being to get to this ancient stone pillar.
YOU ARE READING
Kindred Connection
AventureA tragic history of an unknown tribe is almost entirely wiped out of extinction 100,000 years ago from our present-day by a devastating creature within the Earth's core known as Calamity. This magnificent tribe who were known as the Novalites contai...
