Clairomagno’s Footnotes for the Friendless (New Vastland Translated)

“It is against our flesh where the sun is mute but heard.”

A sea of total blackness and faint constellations littered the skies, but their eyes quickly adapted to the darkness. Besides, clumps of sun-pierced clouds would roll soon enough and shower light at their destination.

“So, what exactly is this...Deyja desert supposed to be?” Scarlet grunted in short breaths. Her hands, at this point, felt like they were getting skinned by the tightly coiled rope.

“No idea, but I believe it’s a warm place.” Cassandra snorted. “Isn’t that right, Tricia? Fact check, please?” Alodia rolled her eyes as she assisted Scarlet on pulling the boat to shore.

“I do believe that most deserts tend to be warm.”

“See?” Scarlet let out a resigned huff as she turned her attention back to the rope.

“Yeah, okay. This was your idea Tricia, and I want actual answers.” With one last pull, Scarlet and Alodia managed to drag the boat out of the water.

“I believe we should just ask around.” Alodia remarked.

“That would require us to actually get into this damn thing in the first place,” Azazel replied, hovering awfully near the opaque force field that shielded whatever was hidden in the Dweller’s Continent, “Any ideas, ladies?”

While Scarlet and Alodia tumbled on the beach to rest, Cassandra and Tricia ran up to Azazel to explore their mind roundabout, as they call it, for ideas. Azazel suggested trying to crack it using pure force.

“After all, if it’s a force field, wouldn’t we just need more force than the force that the force field has?” While a sound idea, it was ultimately rejected by everyone who had a brain, but mostly because it wasn’t pitched very well, with all the fast speech and half-baked ideas everyone hurled around.

“We’ll just tire ourselves out,” Cassandra grabbed a stick by the shore to poke it, learning that the field just curves around the protruding object, “because, think about it, how are the five of us supposed to generate enough force to break into this forcefield that is supposedly strong enough to protect an entire continent?”

Azazel smiled like a bratty kid. “Good question, no idea.” Cassandra sighed as she handed the stick over to Azazel, who promptly went into a javelin throw position, shooting it out to the ocean sky, with the colors of dawn further creeping at the horizon, “Not like you guys can come up with anything better.” Cassandra shrugged, continuing to poke the force field, this time with her finger. She looked at Tricia whose eyes were focused on the challenge before her, like how she was back in Kane Academy. Lips thinned, fingers cracked, and then snapped.

“Say, Scarlet...how did that bird get out of the Dweller’s Continent?”

Scarlet, in a daze, pulled herself up from her sleeping position, resting her elbows on the sand. “Huh? What’re you talking about?”

“The messenger bird, how did it get out of the force field?”

Scarlet shrugged. “What are you asking me for? But my best guess…maybe it's like that Surwulf thing. All things from inside can get out, but not all can come in."

“Reading the classics, are we?" Alodia snarked. Scarlet shrugged, saying: “Yeah, cause Surwulf is actually, like, cool and stuff. And the words make sense.”

“You mean you don’t have to pull up a dictionary all the time?”

Scarlet clapped, “Exactly!”

Tricia looked up, seeing that the force field covered even its skies, “But then how would the messenger bird come back? Surwulf’s door only allowed the gorgatues to get back in if they remembered the secret knock beat,” Tricia quickly turned to Scarlet with a smile, to which the redhead replied with a confused expression. “Humor me for a second. Let's assume this very real situation is just like the very fictional world of Surwulf. To enter something that is not ours to open, we need to know the secret knock beat.”

Cassandra tapped her finger over her philtrum, trying to hide her look of disbelief. For nicety sake. “So...you think the messenger birds have learned a secret knock beat to get back in?” Tricia laughed.

“No, that wouldn’t make much sense, but what would be its equivalent? In a book revolved around music like Surwulf, it’s a knock beat, then for a continent where only people like Lucio live...then it has to be...”

She stepped back from the shield, placing her middle fingers over her ring fingers. In a flash, her body lit in spots of green before subsequently disappearing. With her hands forward and elbows bent, she took a large step and pushed into the field. The shield contorted and sucked her up, disappearing to the other side. The four remaining girls gaped at that spot, frozen.

Only for her to reappear a second later, “I got it!”

Alodia stood up, brushing the sand off her cargo pants and calf length boots, “So only dwellers can go in. Which, and let me get this straight to my fellow non-dwellers, is only two-fifths of our group? Great, glad to see this was a complete waste of time.” Scarlet stood as well, but only to remove her shoes and socks to take a dip in the ocean water.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“No—not at all. I don’t think it’s a dweller thing, but activated pollum.”

Alodia crossed her arms and scrunched her face as she felt a headache coming, “Yeah, okay, pollum, which is a dweller thing. How the hell am I, Scar, and Zel supposed to come in then?”

Tricia’s lips pressed into a thin line once again. She stayed silent as the others were looking with undivided focus on what she was planning to do next. She thrusted her hands into the force field, and not a second later, she pulled it with a mighty strength, tearing the field like it was fabric. However, slowly but surely, the field sewed itself back together. The material was akin to slime, gravitating towards each other like magnets, sealing the hole.

Alodia nodded, “Okay, I see where you’re getting at.”

Tricia readied her fingers for another pull, “Team CAS, if you don’t mind, I’m going to need your own dweller girl’s help with this.” Cassandra placed her middle fingers above her ring fingers, and just like Tricia, a wave of green spots flashed around her body before quickly vanishing, “It’s on three, alright? On.”

“Got it, pull on three,” then, they both sunk their hands into the force field, which to Tricia suddenly turned cold as ice as the back of her fingers came face to face with Cassandra’s, and she must’ve visibly shuddered since Cassandra muttered out an apology.

So one by one, they pulled and let go of the shield, letting the three non-dwellers pass through with relative ease, and with the two of them left, they pushed through the force field themselves, and their eyes welcomed one of the most beautiful views they’ve ever seen.

Dawn in the Dweller’s Continent was breaking.

The sky was a mixture of royal purples and fiery reds, blues of the ocean and greens of the grass, blessed by a multitude of stars, while in a distance sat a city that shined like gold which held a fire that billowed to the heavens, swirling, where any soul lost in the desert would be able to see it. They heard music, where the beats and voices were akin to loud claps of thunder—tap, tap, TAP.

Two colorfully-marked statues and curved horn-like structures could be seen at its entrance, attached to walls that sparkled everytime it was hit by the light of the fire.

With no time to waste and words to say, for they were all hungry travellers looking for a day’s rest, they started their tread in that direction; only to find the sand beneath their feet gradually changed color from midnight blues to pale yellows, matching the slow ascent of the sun, and then the fire that seemed to be their guide, spiralled into nothing, disappearing into the city. With the sun up, they saw more of the landscape. Besides the city within reach, they saw giant lakes that reflected the sky and patches of flowers surrounding every area. The party approached one of the lakes, this one leaning on a gradient emerald green, becoming darker as it approached the center.

Alodia carefully navigated the flower bed, squatting near the edge, while Scarlet sauntered towards it, occasionally tugging up her socks to raise them back to their usual height, with Cassandra trailing not far behind her. While Team CAS was taking their sweet time to reach the lake’s boundary, Tricia pulled a contraption built above her long, shin lengthed flap. The two inch, corset shaped apparatus under her chest was tailored to be comfy, lined with thick, soft leather, and structured with an outer metal plating. A small mechanical noise, like the release of a switch, revealed what were essentially paper planes, with clear, thin strings that were wrapped short around the metal bands attached to her fingers. She approached the lake’s brim and was bewildered by the sight of green sand that surrounded the waters, fading to the surrounding yellow shade.

She untangled one of the strings, dropping it to pierce the lake’s surface, creating a small ripple, and when she pulled, discounted the idea of growing algae, as the water was indeed green, visually striking against the white tips of the origami planes.

Azazel was the first one to pop in, “So, does anyone wanna make a guess why there’s a lake in the middle of the desert? And can we safely swim in it,” she uncollapsed the double edged spear that was clasped on her back holster, twisting a hidden barrel to reveal a thick chain that attached each end of the weapon, “because if it is, I’m going to take a bath in one of these bad boys.”

“Looks radioactive,” Alodia replied, “And even if it isn’t, we should probably get a real bath somewhere else that isn’t in the middle of the desert,” Cassandra and Scarlet agreed, suggesting they continue their onwards movement to the city.

On the other hand, a few meters away, Tricia twisted the plane’s string around her hand, and touched the water that remained on the plane with her bare fingers, in which light undulated, and with it, revealed organisms shaped like beans.

Scarlet clapped, pulling the attention of the four other girls, and pointed at Cassandra, “Speaking of cold, did you close it up?” Cassandra tilted her head and knitted her brows together, “Safe to assume you didn’t.”

Cassandra looked at her pale hands, seeing the build up of frost around her fingertips. She placed both of her middle fingers over her index, and the green spots lit up once again, eventually fading. “Guess I didn't.”

“Hey, Tricia, you too, did you close up your stream?” Scarlet moseyed up to the girl in question, who, instead of replying, walked closer to the lake and dipped her hands into the water. In a flash, light penetrated the once dark lake, which revealed a cavern so deep, even their eyes couldn’t see its end. However, they were able to catch a glimpse of not only glowing organisms, but also flowers growing between cracks, similar to the ones in the surface, facing downwards into the cavern.

Tricia pulled out, shaking her arms dry, then doing the same hand gesture as Cassandra earlier. They were silent for a while, till Alodia turned her attention to a now frozen blonde.

“Swimming, huh?” to which Azazel subsequently replied by walking a few good meters away from the lake turned cavern, crossing her arms. Alodia snorted as she herself decided to take a step back from the lake, “Wouldn’t ’ya know it; magic land has magic lakes! Color me surprised.”

“So, can anybody actually crack a guess on what this is?” Cassandra wet her lips, as her argent skin started to burn under the growing heat. Scarlet crouched near one of the flower beds, which she noticed all pointed towards the faux lake instead of swinging with the southern winds, which she swore wasn’t the case earlier. She cut one by its stem, handing it over to Tricia.

And despite her wide background in all things biology, Tricia was dumbfounded with the flora’s details. It was oddly arranged, for one, with layers in fives, twos, and then eights. It had a pappus, but no seed heads. Color wise, it was strikingly beautiful; however, her brain couldn’t conjure up any relevant info or images.

Alodia spoke, “Any chance that it’s a namuh hunting flower?” Scarlet stayed silent for a moment, “I mean, besides the fact that the wind’s getting pretty strong and they’re still pointing at the lake—its pappus isn’t flying off.”

Cassandra snapped her fingers in rapid succession. “Guys, shouldn’t we leave? If it’s really a namuh hunting flower, then that would mean—“

“There’s something down there.”

Scarlet grimaced, humming a noise of affirmation. “Azazel, off your ass. We better get moving.”

Azazel stood up so quickly she almost lost her footing, the clanking of metal making Cassandra cringe.

They turned their back from the lake, and avoided others like it, until finally, they reached it—they reached civilization.