Chapter 6 - The Ugeratic Plant

Sybil was stirring the mushrooms around the pan when Leopold and their other siblings came through the door. Sybil had forgotten to light the rest of the candles in the house, so she quickly went around the house lighting each candle. As she lit the last candle she saw Woody Kemp waiting outside of the house with a book in his hand, on the book was a small piece of paper labeled "Top." Once she put the handheld candle on the closest counter she made her way out to meet him.

As she walked outside he tore the paper off of the book and handed it to her, "For participating in the test today, you have been rewarded with a small book," as he explained this to Sybil nervously, she opened the book, to find it was written entirely in ancient writing. "Each book has been made specifically for each individual in this town, you are not allowed to share that you have received this book or share it around with others." This last sentence seemed like a question to Sybil, "Will you keep this a secret?" it felt like he was asking her.

"Thank you," she answered back. Once she did he shuffled away from the house, looking at the surrounding bushes and trees as he did. She returned inside and took the small book to her study. The book had a leather cover with writing carved on it in ancient writing. She put it directly on top of her desk before quickly slamming the door and making her way to the pan in the dining room to finish preparing the mushrooms for the night.

Chris decided to sleep over at this friend's house again tonight. It was either he did that or there wouldn't be enough room in the Greene house for everyone. Nelson went to bed earlier than usual, only because he would be sharing the room with Faye tonight and didn't want to wake her up when he went to bed. Chris's bed was right next to the window on the side of the room so Nelson got up to look out of the window for a bit. No one in Rivumpt ever went outside during the night because most people's jobs were jobs that could only be done during the daytime.

Nelson continued to look out the window until everyone else in the house was fast asleep. During this time Nelson didn't think about anything, it felt like he hadn't done that in a while. He looked at the flowing leaves in the trees above the other houses, all of their lights were out. "What am I going to do in five years, when I become an adult?" he thought to himself. No adult in Rivumpt was required to have a job, but Nelson felt like having a job was part of being an adult. Before his mom was bedridden she would wash everyone's clothes, including those outside of the Greene family. While Nelson looked out the window and thought about it, he was reminded of Tarrin and Yarrin somehow. It felt as though the thought suddenly burst into the front of his thoughts. "I should go and help dad travel all across Wimborne and back," he decided as he looked at the dirt at the floor of the west side.

Nelson looked closer at the ground and the several branches from the trees above when, from the corner of his eye, he saw the door of the Sadiq family's house open. Out of the darkness from the house came Mr. Sadiq, as he strutted out of the house. In his right hand was a book with a blank black cover and a handful of mysterious objects, all of which were black. "Imaan told me her dad was burning plants today? Is that what he's holding?" Nelson thought to himself, before seeing the shovel in his left hand. Nelson continued to look as the man walked from the left edge of the window, to the right. As the man passed through the middle of the window the bushes from the edge of the town rustled, Mr. Sadiq quickly behind him, at the rustling.

Once Mr. Sadiq looked back, he started to move his head toward the direction of Nelson's window. Nelson immediately crouched below the window with the speed of a local hare. Nelson sat there unable to climb into his bed, for what felt like hours. Nelson sat for another five seconds before hearing Mr. Sadiq walk away, the sounds of the feet on the dirt rang like the bells he had rung for Matt that morning. The footsteps gradually got quieter, and when he stopped hearing them he peeked his head slightly up to the see the window and didn't see Mr. Sadiq standing there. Nelson stood up and looked at the window one last time, before going to bed. As he got in bed and looked out the window he saw the dark and short figure he had seen earlier that day appear.

The figure stood in place before it ran to the window. Nelson launched himself and his blankets away from the window, looking away from it before hearing a thud. Nelson didn't move from his position until he fell asleep minutes later.

Nelson was woken up by Faye the next day. The light from the sun hadn't woken him up, like it had yesterday. Nelson put the clothes he brought from his room last night on and left the house. The weather was cloudy and humid. Faye ran ahead of Nelson, as he walked toward the bridge still trying to entirely wake up. When he reached the bridge he saw Sybil sitting on the railing of the bridge, balancing herself so she wouldn't fall over into the creek. When Nelson reached the bridge, Imaan shortly ran behind him.

"Do you two have anything to share today?" she asked them as she jumped off of the railing and onto the wooden bridge. Nelson shook his head and Imaan told her, "No, nothing." Sybil walked away from the bridge and to the east side. Once she started to run Nelson started walking to the east and Imaan ran toward Sybil. Once she got to Sybil she continued to run in place as she asked her, "Do you think we can both read and study about something together at your place once I finish racing Leopold around the east side?"

"Sure, just be sure to come to the study in the back of the house. Directly straight from when you walk through the door."

"Thanks," Imaan said, as she bolted to the middle of the large field. She ran to meet Leopold and a large group of kids. Leopold had challenged her to a race yesterday shortly before everyone left to eat their dinner and go to sleep. Sybil walked past the large group of kids and made her way to her house to study before Imaan came to join her. Nelson slowly moped to the center of the field, he was still tired from the night before and the humid weather made him more weary than usual.

Once he made his way to a tree he sat down under it. Otis walked up from the opposite side Nelson had come from, "Did you not get enough sleep or something?" he asked him.

Nelson started to pick at the grass below him, then responded to Otis's question, "Didn't sleep very well."

Otis sat under the tree and handed Nelson an apple he picked from a tree. As Nelson took a bite of the apple he heard a kid yell, "GO!"

The race between Leopold and Imaan had begun. Imaan took off immediately and left Leopold behind, but couldn't keep that pace up for long. Soon, Leopold caught up to her and she began to run faster. Both of their legs were moving faster than any kid in Rivumpt could, apart from Nelson. Both Imaan and Leopold have always been physically strong and would often fight about who was stronger because of it. Although Imaan was four years older than Leopold, they were both just about as physically strong and fast. They both continued to run until the path came under a tree. Imaan ran past it with no trouble but saw that Leopold had immediately stopped, she looked behind to see he had tripped on one of the tree's roots. She helped him back up and helped walk him to his home.

"Sybil!" Leopold yelled, as he and Imaan entered the house, "Where are the towels!" he asked. Sybil came out of her study and pointed to the dining room, where the towels were next to the stone fireplace where they cooked their food. Imaan helped Leopold walk over to it and he sat down, there was a bucket of water next to the towels he used to get them wet. He put the towel on his knee, where he had scrapped it, "We can start, Imaan," Sybil invited Imaan. Imaan looked back at Leopold, who gave a reassuring look, and she entered the study. Sybil's study was a small room and was cramped having both Sybil and Imaan in it, but Sybil sat in her chair and Imaan stood to the right of it.

"What did you want to look at?" Sybil asked Imaan, as she put papers and books in messy piles at the edges of the desk to clear a space in the middle.

"My mom and dad's illness, I guess, more of my mom's illness now. Now that dad doesn't have it anymore, I want to find out why he doesn't have it," Imaan murmured Sybil with uncertainty, as she looked to the far left of the room at the large bookshelf.

Sybil got up without saying a word and made her way to the bookshelf, she pulled out four books and sat back down. She laid the books out. The first one had a green cover and the title "Plants," the second one had a normal leather cover with the title "What we know of the human body," and the last two were "Ancient Creatures and Monsters," and "The Cave of Callah."

Imaan pointed to the latter two books Sybil had laid on the desk and asked, "What are these last two books for?" as she raised her voice.

"We should reread the Haragcstic section, and your..." as Sybil talked she and Imaan both heard limping from Leopold in the dining room behind them. They both waited in silence until Leopold left the house, and shut the door. "...your dad also spoke in ancient tongue, and has similarities to The Cave of Callah."

"What even is The Cave of Callah, that sounds like it would be fiction," Imaan stammered to Sybil. Sybil opened the green book and started to flip through the various drawings and descriptions of plants, ignoring what Imaan had to say. They both looked through it until they flipped the page to a plant Imaan recognized, it was the plant her father had been burning yesterday.

"My dad was burning this plant yesterday," she enunciated to Sybil. Sybil read the description of the plant at a rate Imaan couldn't even attempt to reach.

"Your dad was burning plants?"

"Yes."

"And this plant? The Ugeratic? Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

Sybil pointed to a sentence in the book, "This plant is grown outside of Rivumpt, in a town called Wintertop. It only grows in the snow. He must've gotten Randall Greene to get it for him."

"Wintertop? Isn't that name a little on the nose?" Imaan jokingly told Sybil, who looked blankly at the book and continued to reread the description of the plant.

Sybil pointed to a paragraph in the description, "The plant is often used for religious ceremonies and rituals, when it's planted it fertilizes the surrounding land for use of religious practices." Imaan read the text as Sybil moved her finger down the paragraph.

When Imaan finished reading the paragraph she asked Sybil,"Does it mention anything about burning it?" Sybil read over the text again checking for information on burning it. Sybil finished reading over it, "No, there's nothing," she said as she looked toward the bookshelf, determining if any other book would help.

"Anyway, about my mom's illness," Imaan told Sybil, trying to move her hand so the page could be turned to another plant.

Sybil kept her hand firmly planted on the top of the page, "We're not done looking and this one," she exclaimed, as she kept her usual monotone expressions.

Imaan kept trying to move Sybil's hand, "It's not going to help us right now, and we need to hurry up with finding the cure to my-" Imaan tried to forcefully turn the page but when she tried to jerk the page, it tore. Sybil closed the book and got out of her chair, she picked all of the books up and put them back on the shelf, "We're done for today," she told Imaan.

"Sybil?! We need to find the cure as fast as possible, I-we need to-"

"We don't know the sickness or the cure, there's nothing you can do about it."

"We don't know that, maybe if we keep looking we'll find it."

"We're done for today Imaan," Sybil declared, as she moved Imaan toward the front door. Imaan walked briskly toward the door without protest, looking down. Sybil opened the door for Imaan and Imaan walked through it, grabbing the door as she walked out. Once she left the house she slammed the door shut. She looked up and saw Otis standing in front of the house, "Stop hiding it, what has been happening between you, Sybil, and Nelson?"

"Nothing," Imaan told him, while walking away from the house and toward the field of children. As she did, Sybil opened the door again.

Otis turned his head toward Imaan as he exclaimed, "I know that's not true, Sybil and Otis have consistently been meeting up recently and you only recently joined."

"We've just been-"

"Nelson also just ran out of Rivumpt without warning or explanation."

Nelson sat under the tree while looking at the leaves rustling in the wind. The children were playing across the field which made it relatively quiet for Nelson. Otis and Leopold had gone to where the children were, to entertain and play with them, and Nelson was the only one who had stayed under the tree. Nelson continued sitting until he heard Otis coming back to continue their conversation from earlier, the conversation had been about the outside world. Nelson had been thinking more about the outside world lately, the story of Tarrin and Yarrin made it seem more interesting and complicated than life in Rivumpt was.

As Otis got closer Nelson looked up, to see behind him, and asked him, "Do you think the fish in Yarrin taste any good?" Nelson asked, as he looked up and saw a black figure the size of someone Nelson's age, it had been the figure from yesterday and last night. Nelson jumped up and the figure ran toward the bushes. Nelson ran through the bushes, "It was right there, and I couldn't see it. I'm going to see it, I need more information on it," he thought to himself as he barged through the bushes separating the east field and the flower field. Nelson got through the bushes and didn't see the figure, out of desperation, he looked to his left then looked to his right. To his right, the figure was moving through the bushes. Nelson chased it in the flower field, as it rustled in the bushes.

He kept chasing it until he was cut off by the creek. He moved through the greenery that separated the flower field and the small cliff, until he was able to see down the creek.

Once he did he saw the figure again, the figure was running down the creek bank. Once it came across the end of the bank it deformed itself to attach itself to the edge of the small wall. As the figure got smaller and smaller, as it ran away from Nelson, he listed its attributes in his head, "Black, short, body structure of a kid, can change its shape."

Once it was gone, Nelson moved through the bushes again and ended up on the furthest east side of the town, where he could clearly see the back of Sybil's house. He ran past the house to return to the tree he once sat under. Once he ran past the back of his house he found Otis talking with Imaan, who was marching away from the house and ignoring Otis, and found both of them looking at him as he got closer.

"Where did you go?" Otis asked with his raised voice. Nelson put his hands on his knees to catch his breath and looked toward the door of the house to see Sybil standing in the doorway. He looked back at the ground and Imaan stopped moving away from the house.

"Otis!" Sybil began, "Come inside and we'll explain it," she told him as she left the doorway and entered the house. Otis immediately followed into it and Nelson followed shortly after. Imaan hesitated before reluctantly following the three into the Benson house.