He took a few steps along the wall and reached out for the object. The object’s exterior was hard and felt cool to the touch while interior was covered in a material that felt similar to the wolf skins the elves used, except that it was much softer and had a smoother texture.
Alz examined it for a few seconds before lightly shaking his head and he slowly lowered his body to place the helmet back on the ground.
However, as he was putting it down, he noticed a small image imprinted on the wall beside the device. It was a picture of the device placed on a dark outline sitting in a cross-legged position.
The dark outline greatly resembled the body structure of elves, with two hands, two legs a torso and a neck which connected the torso to the head. The proportions were also approximately the same as looked like a miniature blackened out outline of an elf to Alz.
Alz’s hands stopped as he stared at the image. A few seconds later, he returned his gaze back to the device and lightly placed it back on the floor.
His gaze then turned back to the interior of the large room before him as his eyes burned with curiosity.
From the various signs he had encountered thus far, it was highly likely that this place was left behind many ages ago by a civilisation that had vastly superior technology as compared to the elven tribe.
Just a simple door to this room left Alz in awe. It was made of an extremely hard and heavy material which he had never even heard of back in the tribe and yet this civilisation was able to shape it so evenly and use it as a door, something his tribe would have never been able to accomplish.
Alz ignored the protests coming from his legs and slowly shifted his weight away from the wall. After about a minute, he finally managed to stand without the support of the wall but his legs were shaking uncontrollably and gave off a strong sense of instability.
He shot a quick glance at his legs before setting his sights at one of the shelves which was not surrounded by the transparent material as he slowly made his way over to the shelf.
As he approached the shelf, a musky scent gradually increased in intensity. The scent felt similar to the scent of the forest Alz was used to and reminded him of home back in the village, bringing a smile to his face.
When he finally reached the shelf, he looked at the shelf that stood before him with a hollow expression, bearing no traces of the smile he had before. He soon snapped out of his thoughts and lightly placed his hand on the shelf, observing it.
It gave off the familiar scent of wood, yet it felt distinctly different from the wood obtained from the trees in the forest above. This wood was stronger and looked more vibrant than those he was used to.
Alz then proceeded to grab a book off the shelf. There were multiple characters printed on the front cover that looked similar to the inscriptions on the sides of the shelf.
He lightly flipped open the front cover, revealing a yellow sheet of paper with multiple brown spots over it. Alz could vaguely see neat rows of finely printed characters on most of the page which set off a flash in his mind.
He realised that these books were just more advanced form of the scrolls back in the library, objects used to store information.
His heart started to beat furiously as he looked around at the rows of full bookshelves which filled the room. However, when he looked down at the page again, his thoughts froze and his heart sank as he realised a major issue with his train of thought. He could not read anything.
He sighed as he looked at the yellow parchment, but he was still curious about how the book way the book worked as this alone could potentially lead to innovations in information storage which would also be invaluable to the tribe.
However, as he tried to flip the page over, the instant his fingers touched the paper it started crumbling. Suddenly, as though a switch was flipped, all the pages started crumbling to dust and the disappeared in a matter of seconds right before his eyes.
Alz first revealed an expression of shock. He stared down at the empty book cover in his hands confused. He quickly grabbed several more books from the shelf but without fail, all the pages crumbled entirely to dust the moment he touched them no matter how delicately he tried to do it.
[This is useless.]
His eyes watered, his shoulder slumped, and his lips protruded into a pout as he complained to an invisible audience. After noticing how brittle the pages were, he had given up any hope of obtaining any information from the books in this place.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He turned his head away from the shelf and looked around trying to find something useful. Suddenly, his eyes started shining as a soft gasp emerged from his mouth. He realised that he had overlooked something important and wanted to immediately confirm his suspicions.
He tried to dash to the nearest bookshelf which still had a transparent material coating it but the excitement made him forget about his body’s current state and his leg gave way when he took the first step, causing him to fall flat on the ground.
An awkward smile plastered on his face as he raised his head. He slowly stood up using his left hand for support and walked over to the bookshelf, this time slowly and carefully.
When he got to the bookshelf, he softly stretched his finger out at the transparent layer but it swiftly pierced through with almost no resistance. Alz thought of a possibility and hurriedly went to check all the books.
Thankfully, the pages this time were soft and supple, showing no signs of the brittleness displayed by the pages found in the other shelf. This left Alz in amazement as he shot a quick glance back at the transparent layer.
The pages this time were a clean white, displaying all its printed content without obstruction. They also had a slightly grainy texture to it which made it comfortable to touch.
Alz looked at the book in his hands in amazement when he realised how thin each page was and how many pages a book actually contained.
Sadly, the contents were written in the same script as before and he was still unable to read any of it but he had already obtained an idea towards improving the scrolls in the library so he did not feel as dejected as before.
As Alz thought about the feasibility of the idea, he thoughts flowed towards how much more information they would be able to record and how much his mother would praise him, but his thoughts reached an abrupt halt as this point.
He fell backwards onto the ground as tears begun to flow out uncontrollably. His curiosity and excitement at the new discoveries covered over his negative emotions but they were constantly at the back of his mind, threatening to overflow.
He despised himself for not staying being and running away on his own. Whenever his mind was not distracted, he would think back to the faces of parents surrounded in wolves, back to the time when his father stabbed himself to draw the attention of the wolves and how he cowardly ran away.
He had been trying to distract himself since he woke up, because he knew it was dangerous. He could not forgive himself, but his parents’ last words rang in his mind whenever he was about to burst, so he could only call himself a coward, a coward for refusing to follow after his parents.
After a period of self-loathing and venting, he gathered his emotions again and stood up. He looked at the books in front of him with an indifferent expression and slowly walked around the entire room.
His excitement towards the books disappeared when he realised that he could not read anything and he had already learnt how books were designed so there was not more he could gain from any of the shelves.
When he walked past the one of the tables, he saw a small piece of paper on it with multiple words written on it. The paper was yellow and brittle like the pages from the first shelf but there were still some words which could be seen on it.
There was also an entrance to another much smaller room, which contained many empty labelled boxes which were messily scattered in the room.
These were the only things he could find but none of them was of any use to him, so he quickly disregarded them.
He soon found himself back at the entrance, standing in front of the hemispherical device where a green light was still being released from the bulb at the front with an electronic beep following after each time.
However, he noticed that the light was dimmer than when he had initially entered the room and the beeps were also getting softer.
He did not know why or how this was happening, he had a feeling that when the light no longer blinked and the beeping stopped, the device would no longer be able to function as it was intended.
He would probably have no way of repairing it and he would just miss this opportunity. He did not know what the device was for, but he knew that the makers of this room would not have placed it here for nothing.
The instructions on it were also the only things in the room that were not written in the ancient script, but with pictures so there had to be deeper meaning behind placing it here.
The beeps audibly softened with each beep to Alz’s sharp elven hearing. The difference was minute yet it was steadily getting softer each time without doubt, as though rushing Alz to make his decision.
After staring at the device for five minutes, Alz finally gritted his teeth and sat down in front of the it. This was a risk he was willing to take, as he no longer had anyone waiting for him at home, no one to welcome him back when he returned, no home to return to.
Therefore, he made his decision, prepared to accept any outcome as he placed the device on his head.
After he finally placed the device on his head, contrary to expectations, nothing happened. The device continued to beep and each beep still got softer each time at the same rate. Alz could not see it but he felt that the green light was probably still flashing along each beep.
Just as he started to wonder if he misinterpreted the picture, something finally happened.
The flashing green bulb stopped blinking as a solid green light appeared in its place. The time between each beep started to reduce as the machine started to beep more and more frequently.
Alz felt his mind become foggier and something felt like it was entering his head. Despite this, whenever he tried to focus his mind, the sensation became less pronounced as though nothing was happening.
Just then, smoke started to rise from the device and the green light started flickering. The beeps joined to form one long beep and Alz felt a sharp pain suddenly hit his head.
The pain was several stages beyond all the injuries he suffered combined. As the pain assaulted his mind, Alz felt the image before his eyes darken as he once again fell into the realm of unconsciousness.
The light on the device extinguished as Alz was falling backwards onto the ground, rolling off his head as it sat on the ground once again, only this time, the green flashing light and beeping was replaced with a thin stream of smoke which soon dissipated into the surrounding air.