I was looking forward to the winter ski camp. I could finally test out a few ideas of mine again. Or I would have if it wasn’t canceled. Over 6 meters of snow fell overnight, destroying the ski camp. And there were no other decent ski camps in a 200 kilometers radius. So no ski camp.

It really shows how chaotic the weather can be. Since this planet is at least 10 times larger than Earth, the atmosphere probably is too. But so far, I haven’t seen anything too unusual. It might be fun to look into that.

So I went to the school library. It was empty this time of the day, since most students had classes, so there was no queue behind the desk of my favorite librarian. With a school this large, there were several, but I preferred this one. In front of me was an energetic young woman in her 20s. She was really enthusiastic about learning and spent most of her time reading. And with all that time invested, came results. If I asked about any general piece of information, she would know the answer. And in the rare cases she didn’t, she could at least point me in the right direction.

And this time was no exception. When I asked her about the subject, she lit up. She excitedly picked up a book from the shelf behind her and gave it to me. It was surprising. The place this book was placed in was her favorite spot. All the books she was fascinated by were there and I read quite a few of them before.

Looking down at the book in my hands, I trembled.

“The second mystery of the world: Abnormal phenomena, by Don Freecss”

My brain froze, as I read the author’s name. A legendary figure that survived on the dark continent, or as he liked to call it, the New world.

I managed to regain my senses in time and there was even a chance that it wasn’t the same person. With interest I enquired more, to which she was more than willing to answer.

All the clues I was told pointed in the same direction. There was no denying that it was indeed that man.

Holding back my excitement, I left the library and in haste, I forgot to ask about any other books by the same author. A problem for another time, I suppose.

***

I sat on a hill, overlooking the school property. The bright sun was hidden behind the leaves of a tree, providing a nice shade, perfect for relaxation and reading.

A thin book was placed in my lap, opened on the first page.

“The world is full of unknowns, things not yet discovered by the human kind. There are the mysterious creatures, possessing strange abilities, the strange phenomena, capable of destroying continents in seconds and the origins of humanity, who just seemed to appear out of nothing. These are the three questions that have been plaguing human minds for all of recorded history. Yet there are no answers to be found.”

I know the answers to all of these mysteries, but the question is if he knew. Because if he knew the answers when he wrote the book, he should have been aware of nen. And if he was aware of nen, there is a chance that some secrets are hidden in this very text. And secrets of a man such as himself could have great value. With a mind full of questions, I continued reading.

The topic moved to a bizarre phenomena right above me, the skies.

Supposedly, after reaching 6 kilometers above sea level, winds would start to pick up exponentially and by the time you reach 10 kilometers above sea level, nothing can withstand its force.

Even mountains are affected by the winds. After 8500 meters, there is significant wind erosion and by 9000, nothing would remain but a relatively flat peak, since everything else has been sanded off through the milenia.

These extreme conditions together with the curious nature of humanity inspired an ambition. Ambition to reach beyond the sky. Much like the space race between the Soviet Union and the United states of America, the race towards the skies held high prestige. It was a showcase of technological might and at the same time supported its advancement.

The highest point reached by a man-made object was 11.25 kilometers above sea level, at which point even a steel alloy designed to withstand such forces deformed. This record was set 11 years ago, as mentioned by the editor. At the time, when the original version was written, the record was just 9622 meters, or 615 meters above the highest mountain.

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The previous excitement vanished, as the topic shifted to natural disasters. More accurately to cataclysmic storms which wiped out countries overnight. There were 6 recorded instances, when such violent weather was observed.

The first and by far the most brutal was right around year zero, when humanity just migrated to the known world. A hurricane so devastating that it annihilated over 30% of land and affected the whole world. There wasn’t an inch of land undamaged. Countless islands were wiped away, never to be seen again.

And this wasn’t the only occurrence, but luckily for humanity, no subsequent disasters were nearly as devastating. At least not globally.

The only thing they all had in common, were their origins. The distant sea.

Many voyages were made to explore the far away waters and all came back with horrifying news. These types of storms were a MONTHLY OCCURRENCE.

The only salvation was the fact that the chances of reaching the continent were extremely low.

The outside world was truly dangerous. Humanity was stuck in a bubble of safety, beyond which there was no survival. It was humanity's crib, yet also its cage, preventing exploration of the vast unknown.

All that just raises more questions than it answers. Did humanity choose the known world over everything else, or was it accidental? If it was chosen, why? Why do we need such a barrier to the dark continent? Is it meant to keep things out, or keep us in? Who knows.

Back to the topic of hidden messages. I tried to extrapolate hidden messages and stumbled on something. But that something was useless. It was a message that had many holes and inconsistencies, probably because of the rewrites through the centuries. I tried to fill in the blanks with my existing knowledge, but all I got was some basic information about the water divination and aura types. Still, it proved that there was indeed something hidden. I just have to look harder to find it.

And if I got my hands on the original version, I could find more. So a visit to some book collectors is in order.

***

Piano is truly the best instrument. The music it can produce just sounds better. And to top it all off, it has a huge variety of pieces it can play. For that reason, there were more works written for it than all other instruments combined! And out of millions of works for piano alone, there are bound to be some truly amazing ones.

And besides relaxation and personal satisfaction, it can also be used for monetary gain. Both as performance and as well as profiting from Beethoven’s, Chopin’s, Mozart’s and countless others works. Truly shameless. But I don’t really care about all that.

Along with many other extracurricular activities, I joined piano lessons at the start of the school year and have been attending for 7 months. I must say that my progress was outstanding. I even surpassed James, who attended for the first few months, before losing interest.

Even the piano teacher, a relatively famous performer and composer praised me.

*

One day, I was playing in the empty classroom, when I felt a presence approaching the building. Just as expected, the music teacher came to get some papers from his office.

I started playing “Für Elise” and pretending to compose it. This naturally surprised the teacher, who could hear the music from the hallway. He peeked inside of the room, only to find me, sitting behind a piano, enjoying the process of composing.

After more than an hour, I reached a decent level and stood up, only to hear the sound of clapping. I put on the best “deer in the headlights” expression I could and saw the music teacher.

He came over and congratulated me, praising my skills and talent, while I just stood there, not moving.

Slowly, I started to react and awkwardly thanked for the praise. I explained that I had this idea and wanted to test it out. It came out better than expected and I just continued.

The middle aged man laughed heartily and patted my shoulders.

The conversation continued, until I revealed that the piece I “made” was one of my favorites, which greatly surprised him. From my words he understood that I had more, which I confirmed. He asked me to play them, to which I readily agreed.

I chose “He is a pirate” from “Pirates of the Caribbean”, since it was the only song that I replicated for piano, could play it in full and had an epic vibe to it.

As the sounds of music reverberated through the room, the teacher’s face turned more and more excited, before slowly calming down. He was enjoying the music.

Minutes later, the room grew quiet, as I finished playing. I turned around, looking at the teacher expectedly. He had a smile on his face as he said:

“It is a masterpiece. My friend is going to love this! He is a music hunter and he will surely support you. Sadly, he is on a trip, but he should be back by the end of the school year.”

“A music what?” I truly did not expect that.