The Notebook

As I stood motionless infront of the crypt, I noticed that it was made up of stone bricks. It looked as if it blended into the structure of the forest. The entrance was covered with strange vines and creepers. Strange markings were drawn on it.

On both the sides of the entrance, there were stone slabs which had strange symbols on them. It felt as if each slab had only one symbol on it but I could also be wrong as the symbols were undecipherable for me.

On the top of the entrance, something was written. It was in a strange language. It wasn't English and nor was it Narle. I wasn't able to read it.

The inside of the entrance looked dark and eerie. However, there was something inside me that was telling me to still enter the crypt despite its appearance.

'Well, from the antics of the Mokakas earlier, I'm pretty sure that they wanted me to enter the cave. Let's enter and see what happens. I can now only hope that this curiosity of mine doesn't end up killing the cat…'

As I was thinking, I flushed out the Candela Clock from the inventory. From the faint glow of the rock, I conferred that it was already around 3 in the afternoon.

Putting back the curved dagger and holding the black dagger in my right hand and the rock in my left, I entered the structure. The Candela Clock's glow was not much effective but I was still able to use it as a torch. It was atleast able to light up the proximity around me.

As I entered the cave, my eyes slowly got accustomed to the darkness and the dim light I was carrying.

Soon I realized that it was a narrow tunnel, wide enough to only fit a couple of people. The tunnel would have been a nightmare for people with nyctophobia or claustrophobia or maybe not because it wasn't actually that narrow.

***

For the next thirty minutes, I was only moving further inside the tunnel. The light the rock was emitting had become slightly dimmer.

There were no forks in the tunnel. I was just constantly moving forward along both the walls. The radius of the tunnel was also more or less the same throughout. Its black stone walls were smooth and plastered with mosses.

The strangest thing about the tunnel was that it was meandering! There were multiple turns in the tunnel but none of them opened into a fork. Thankfully, none of them were sharp turns so I didn't actually maneuver my way around. It was a pretty simple walk.

'If it wasn't for the fact that the walls look to be actually made of stone, I would have even considered the fact that I was inside a strange snake type monster! Or maybe I am inside a monster and the walls are just an illusion!'

There was no information about any snake type monster in the monster encyclopedia, which held the information about the eleven most common monsters and beasts. That was the only reason why I was reluctant to believe that this was a monster.

Also, by staying alert all the time, I had grown something like an instinct. It was something inside me that would make my skin shiver a bit when I was in danger. It was similar to how a prey feels when a predator is close to it.

However, I still couldn't trust it completely! Despite having strong instincts, the preys would still get killed and eaten by their predators!

'I will now head back, maybe this actually is a monster!'

As I shivered at the thought and was going to turn around, I noticed the shadow of an entrance ahead of me. It was difficult to find out what lied behind the entrance due to the dim light. Yet, I stepped ahead and entered the unknown darkness.

What lied on the other end of the entrance was a small clearing or a room of a cave. The room wasn't big but it was bigger than the tunnel. The roof of the room was arched in a dome curving outwards.

As I looked around the room while being careful of any traps, I noticed a wooden table was placed in the opening. On that table, there was an old lamp. It was an oil lamp made up of glass.

Just as I noticed the lamp, I placed the glowing rock on the table and flushed out the Pyres ring from the inventory.

Click!

With the help of the rings, the lamp was lighted. The whole room got covered with bright yellow light. I looked all around the room as the light devoured the darkness.

I placed the rock and the ring back into the inventory. Not even for a moment did I let go of the dagger from my right hand.

As the stone room got more clearly visible, I noticed that the structure was indeed made up of rocks. It wasn't made up of rock bricks but it was as if someone drilled through a mountain and made this cave. This whole structure was probably underground as I didn't see any mountain.

The walls of the room were also covered with mosses but they were less in number than those on the walls of the tunnel.

After I was done admiring the room, I looked at the wooden table. It was a simple table with no desks. There was a notebook kept on the table.

It had a black leather cover and white pages. The notebook was as thick as about an inch. It was tied with a thin thread wounded across it.

I picked it up and started to unwound the threads. One side of the book was tied so as to let the pages be kept inside it.

'Is this someone's diary? Did someone use to live here? There are no signs of any life…' I thought while opening the notebook.

The diary that Princess Josephine gave me was smaller than this one. That was the reason why I was calling it a notebook and not a diary.

As the thread got removed, I opened the leather cover. There were some strange characters on the first page of the notebook. They were similar to the ones on the entrance.

'Does this guy speak a different language? I won't be able to get any information at this rate. Huh?'

As soon as I flipped the page, I got shocked. My pupils constricted, my face became tense. I was staring at that single page with wide opened eyes. My breathing became unstable.

My heartbeat started to rapidly increase. My stomach started to churn with nervousness and fear. Every sound around me quieted down. My throat became dry. There was cold sweat at the back of my neck and my body hairs were erecting like crazy, giving me goosebumps!

I never knew that something so familiar could give me such a big shock!

'This! This is written in English!'

On the second page of the notebook, there was a small poem. It was written in a mystical and beautiful handwriting. To my surprise, it was also written in English!

Flip! Flip! Flip!

I quickly flipped through the other pages of the notebook just to find out they were empty. Amongst all the hundred plus pages of this notebook, only two were used.

While looking back at the poem, I started to read it in my head.

When you lose life, when in agony,

Go to the dark lands and use the key.

Control your heart with a strong mind,

Grab your past, don't leave it behind.

I am still searching for the cure,

But I hope atleast you can endure.

'What is this? Is it directed towards someone? Is it directed towards me? I don't get a single thing this poem is saying!'

Although I was confused, the poem did affect me quite a bit. It wasn't because I thought the poem was actually good, no, it was because of the language.

'Either English was still spoken in this world or there was someone else here who was also from Earth! And if he found a way to go back…'

My heart started to thump loudly on that thought. My feet got rooted to the ground. Just the possibility was enough to give me that small light of hope!

As soon as I saw that light, the light inside the cave disappeared. The lamp extinguished. The darkness came back and it came back stronger.

Just as I noticed my surroundings becoming dark, a strange kind of feeling started to build inside me. It was an unknown feeling which was similar to fear.

Soon I felt a suction force at my back. It was as if my consciousness was being sucked out of me.

As I slowly lost my consciousness, the notebook and the dagger fell from my hands and I was able to say only one word, "Wha-" before my consciousness was dragged inside a void.