Deciphering and Return

The sign consisted of three lines placed diagonally on a red wooden board, written in a black paint that even Wanderer could tell was amateurishly applied.

The Golem began by deciphering the smaller lines, hoping to work their way into deciphering the language before getting to the truly important stuff. Immediately, they found an issue with the book they had been gifted, or rather, an issue with the Golem’s own upbringing. For the book was not just the words for places and objects, but the more nuanced elements of language as well, and it wasn't the easiest thing to work out the exact concept the pages were trying to convey.

The Vessel found themself particularly stuck on the diagram for the word RARESTRSHA, which was depicted with the word floating above a collection of bolts of cloth, with a single bolt blocked out by a black asterix. Presumably, the word detailed the absence of something, but they couldn't work out if it was about the action of removing, or stating if something was already gone, let alone how to use the word.

The book did have explanations of how to speak and where to use the individual words, problem was this was written in Orshraka, and as such would require the use of the book to work out. It occurred to the Golem the book probably wasn't meant to be read alone, but Wanderer had very little choice in the matter.

They put the book down for a second to clear their mind, reflecting on the words they had already deciphered. Up to this point, the smallest line had stated that “no person should enter” which didn't give much information about the mystery, they already knew that the humans didn't like people coming in.

Eventually, Wanderer came to the decision that they should skip that particular word, and any other hard ones, then try and work it out from context once the whole sign was deciphered. Over the next hour or so, the Golem made it back to the little cave and continued to try and work out the sign, snuggling up to Emio who was uncharacteristically receptive. Eventually, through much struggling, frustration and a few context clues, the Vessel settled on an approximate meaning.

“This mining action is under the control of the Arshkresha group. Control of this land is properly granted and personally protected.”

“This land is very private and rejects the laws of good generosity. It can not be taken.”

“No person should enter without being told to”

Doubtless Wanderer’s translation was incorrect on the fine details and more specific concepts, numerous times they had to simply guess, but they figured it was good enough. For the most part, the sign had just told them what they already knew, but from the phrasing of it seemed to confirm one of the theories they had.

When they were confronted by the men, they seemed to have an unusual amount of aggression, despite seeming to believe the Golem was a person in disguise. This, combined with the insistence on protection and ownership of the land made the Vessel think that the Arshkresha group, as they called themselves, were being attacked or antagonised by another group of humans. What's more, this group must have tried many sneaky and subtle ways of taking or entering the land, as the men immediately assumed that Wanderer was one of them in disguise, despite the costume festival having ended.

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The Vessel did have to admit that they had made a few logical leaps in the creation of their theory, but in truth they had little else to go off so they just left it at that and felt proud of themselves for working something out.

Once they finished pondering, they flicked through the book's pages once or twice, admiring the pretty drawings of real world objects and abstract concepts and played a game of finding how many things they could recognise and match a word to. They found the invisible lizard the merchant had been riding on, called a Lershrete and the pale, light wood so many things in the desert had been made of, Osrahetre, which apparently came from massive blades of grass.

This little game went on, finding words for mountain and tree, sand and city, bird and song. They even found the name of the great volcano in the center of the desert, which is where the physical form of Orsha rested, Okrash.

Soon, Wanderer became so engrossed in the book and the wonder of discovering its contents that they didn't even notice the Verdestry in their arms, getting more and more impatient. Indeed, they were so engrossed that they only stopped ignoring the little monster when it whacked them on the head before settling there itself. Wanderer was shocked for a second at the unexpected violence but soon realised what was happening, packing their book away and readying themself to travel again. They could read the book anytime, there was no rush to get through it, there was, however, a rush to get going as Emio was becoming impatient.

Luckily their escapades had taken long enough that the sun was beginning to set, cooling the sands to such a degree that the Vessel and their friend could get across. As Wanderer began to scale the wall back out of the ravine, a sudden thought occurred to them.

“I can finally search the city for a library, I can read!”

They had been so distracted lately that they had forgotten the entire reason they wanted to read in the first place, that is, to discover the secrets of the desert. All this time, the secret mechanism behind the fog and lightning remained a secret, why it rose every night and mesmerised the living causing curiosity to gnaw at their mind. But now it was simple, all they had to do was sneak back into a city and find where they kept the books.

They were not unaware of the complications of that sentiment, especially considering how they would be actively hunted in any city they went in, but their rest had cleared a few things up for them, mentally, and they felt they would get a chance to go in the cities once again.

Either way, that was a problem for later.

Cresting the rock wall, the Golem quickly set on their way, eager to take advantage of the cool of the night to finally get to the graveyard they had seen from so far away. It was practically at their fingertips now, pillars of bone now easily spyable under the dying daylight, Wanderer would reach it by the end of the night with time to spare.

Cresting a particularly large dune in order to get a better look at their destination, Wanderer was surprised to notice two things had changed about the world around them.

The first was that, to their left on the horizon past the black sands, the tick infested sea of grass had already fully regrown to its former height, despite having burned away only a matter of days ago. It made sense, in a way, that something that was so easily destroyed grew back equally as fast but Wanderer always had the impression that the growth of plants was a slow affair, and this threw a bit of doubt in that whole process.

“I really do know so little about this world. I will have to try and read about the grass as well if I ever enter a library again.” They thought.

The second thing that stood out to them was the lack of anything that stood out. It was toward the end of the day, but there should have still been some life in the desert, the last of the lizards soaking up the sun or the last of the vultures looking for prey. But instead there was nothing, not a single living thing wherever the light touched, with the exception of a few lonely cacti hawking their fruits to nonexistent animals.

Wanderer always knew there was less in the desert than elsewhere, they could hardly walk two steps in the forested valleys of their birthplace without stepping on some natural marvel afterall, but this was different, for once the desert was well and truly deserted. It was uncanny and off putting but try as they might they couldn't find a single reason for the disappearance.

Shaking their head, the Golem tried to shed the bad feeling and continue forward, hoping the animals had all just turned in early for the night. Besides, there wasn't much they could do even if there was something bad coming, they weren't staying in the canyon for another day just to try and avoid some uncertain calamity. If something came, they would simply have to deal with it as best they could with the skills they had, that was their decision.

With that resolution, Wanderer set forth with a determined pace with Emio trailing behind, on a direct route to the monolithic graveyard, buried in the sands.