Chapter 2
Odd-Looking Book
As time went by, I grew taller, now reaching about half the height of our doorway or half my imar and now also familiar with my name 'Rafyr'. I am now able to do simple tasks like washing the dishes or helping imar prepare food. I can also now get a glimpse of the mounted objects on the walls. Including an odd circular object that they're arranging something to every morning.
The flow of time also feels a lot slower here compared to earth. I can do multiple chores and finish 300 pages of two books and the sun will still be bright in the sky during autumn. I counted the days that passed every season on a blank page of a book and it took 136 to 141 days until I could feel the change of climate. Since we're a bit close to the northern hemisphere, we experience longer nighttime during winter and the opposite during summer.
Imar also homeschools me about the manners, language and culture of this area. About the area she taught me was the entire kingdom that spans a hundred kilometers from here. She also mentioned about taking a trip to the capital to visit my relatives from apar's side. However, the capital has since closed the gate when I was born because of a deadly disease spreading across the city.
Today we're on the dining table where my imar is teaching me about wildlife like the trees, plants and the creatures that inhabit them. While she was explaining all the creatures that they call Hanres with the help of the book with the visuals of them as well. None of them really caught my eye or she has not yet mentioned the one that I am eager to learn about. That's when she flipped the last page of the book, concluding the lesson about wild life that took three days. That's when I asked, "Imar, was that actually all the Hanres that I can only see in this kingdom?"
"Yes, Rafyr, you can also see groups of them beyond this land but encounter something you still may not be familiar with," Imar said.
"Like what?"
"You'll see one day, they're truly not distinct to each other, you'll know a hanres when you see one."
When I heard what she said, I no longer cared about what I saw back then. It may not be a creature, just thinking about that makes me sick.
Creatures like Imar taught me, have more functionalities than just having four legs or two. They're not something you consider as animals because of their genes containing things like arcane. Imar did not mention that, as she only described their abilities and their purpose in nature.
Every night, I was able to fall asleep in a matter of seconds after hearing sounds from the sky. I never bothered knowing what was behind that phenomenon before Imar taught me about giant creatures that fly above the sky while making a groaning call that sounds like a whale. The sound that lasts for a minute helps us calm down and relieve stress. She said that they make this sound to help hunt their prey from the lakes and seas.
I haven't seen one with my own eyes, but the illustrations from Imar's book showed their characteristics. They have a big pointy beak, a long body and giant wings that extend from their nape to their undertail. Their two long legs as thick as an oak tree supports their weight. Whenever they make a groaning sound, the bottom of their chin expands like a balloon and makes another sound as it shrinks. As amazing as it sounds, there are other creatures mentioned in the book that are equally wondrous.
{-Ω-}
The sun's setting, Imar no longer brings me outside during this hour but she still goes out alone. Apar on the other hand is setting up the fireplace with the woods he chopped. While I am by myself upstairs on my bed trying to kill some boredom by continuing reading a big anthropology book that imar gave me last week. I did not have a good library of books during my early age till adulthood in the past as I am more exposed digitally.
As I flip the last page of the book, I carry it out of my room with a lit candle on a chamberstick and take a peek downstairs to look at my parents. In the living room, Apar is still cleaning our fireplace with the firewoods just set aside while imar is not around. The hallway I'm in is dark as I leave the stairs and head to the left with just the light illuminating from the staircase and my candle.
I open a door half taller than me at the end of the hallway—revealing a staircase on the left. Each step I take makes the stairs creak as I ascend to the room—gently squatting upon reaching the top to place the book on the ground. My candle barely illuminates the surroundings, aided only by the faint, cold light from a window in the middle. It is enough to locate the light pull switch that is three feet above an already placed wooden three-step ladder. The pull switch clicks after pulling it, bathing the room with gentle, warm light.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Everything is tidy with stacked crates by the corner beside the elegant carved wooden fence of the staircase. There are bookshelves on either side of me that reach the sloped ceiling, and one below the window holding objects covered with cloth. I step off the step stool, place the candle by the window to get the book I placed on the ground, and locate open spaces on the bookshelves. The book can't fit in any open space of the shelves I find, even pushing as hard as I can, so I look for more. On the higher shelves that reach the ceiling, one catches my eye at the second highest section.
My arms wiggle as I try to reach the section, holding the book with both hands, but even with the step stool, I'm still half a shelf too short. Feeling desperate, I look around and stop at the stacked crates in the left corner. Sweat drips down my face as I carefully lower the crate, making sure it doesn't topple over with me, and push it into position. This time, I am able to reach the section, and the book slips right in but stops halfway. Letting out a heavy sigh, I take the book from the shelf again and stand there, staring down at my feet.
It has gone dark outside the window by the time I finally manage to slip the book all the way into the shelf after organizing. However, I am left with a new book that I took out earlier from the back of the shelf. It has no illustrated cover, title, or author—just a carved resemblance of a tree in the middle and patterns around the edges in thin metallic material. I place the crate beside the others, unable to lift it back up, and switch off the light, leaving the melting candle as the sole remaining light source. The candle's light is flickering as I pick up the chamberstick and crouch to grab the new book I took out afterwards. I walk down the stairs with creaking sounds again until my candle's light leaves the room in the dark.
After closing the door, the crackling noise of the fire downstairs greets my ear. There are chopping sounds and the murmuring voice of my parents as I walk in the hallway. Passing the staircase and peeking downstairs, the living room is filled only with the glow of the fireplace, with no one around. There are shadows of my parents from where the kitchen is at the left and voices of them too. Their conversation is a bunch of intimate whispers, loud enough to be heard upstairs until the sounds become giggles and gentle moans of Imar. A flush of heat rushes to my face as I take my eyes out and walk straight to my room while avoiding making sounds that will alert them.
The candle's light eventually dies as I enter my room and there is only darkness. I gently drop the book and chamberstick to start locating my lamp while only relying on my arms. One of my fingernails hit something causing a high pitch sound and starts to search for a switch until my finger goes through a ring. It clicks as I pull and it illuminates half of my room beside my bed with warm light. I breathe a sigh of relief as I return to the book and chamberstick, only to find the book wide open.
It has drawn illustrations, catchy patterns on the edges and fancy looking lettering. The shade of dark on where it lies is making it hard for me to read anything, so I grab it along with the chamberstick and lay on my bed. I place the chamberstick just beside my lamp, occupying both my hands with only the book. There is nothing that interests me much as I am on a page that only talks about the use of herbs. The herbs that it shows are unique looking, even one of them looks like a red oregano but has less but bigger pointy edges and grows in clusters of three. I flip to the next pages just to find something that will interest me until I stop.
The page I am in shows patterns, some are interconnected that form a circular shape with symbols in the middle. Each of the symbols resemble something while drawn in an esoteric style that I don't quite understand myself. They're hexagonal while some of them are roundish triangles with a round cut on the bottom and interconnected circles inside the corners. After navigating, I flip to the next page where it shows a single image similar to the ones shown earlier and big texts written below.
My eyebrows furrow as I read the text that says 'a burst of fire will ignite once drawn with blood of any living or carved into a living object or flesh'. The next page has a different symbol that is a roundish triangle. It has a similar description below excluding the burst of fire, instead it says 'water will flow'. Every page that I flip shows different variations from the previous pages, until I am shown drawn creatures.
The creatures look different, they don't look anything like the hanres I was taught nor they look like the hanres outside the borders from the other book I've read. They are eerie looking as if just looking at it makes me freeze at my spot and feel paranoid. 'You'll know a hanres when you see one' was what Imar told me and I can tell. These drawings are not showing me creatures that have furs or any recognizable anatomy. They're hell spawns, or what the text says below them 'Arapolos', 'one who is sent out by the old and new divine'.
The next pages show the kinds of Arapolos with their drawings and description that fits in a single page. Despite how different they look from each page, they seem similar to something I've seen. So I look for it, flipping through every page like a deck of cards until I recognize a page that I missed, as I turn it back, I see it. Skinny, pale white, multiple arms and long hair hanging low that block its face. It feels like encountering it again and staring at me like what it did back then.
There is no name written like the other ones, only a long description about them. 'Who once severed the arms of many, the victim's arms now bound to its flesh for eternity' It is what the first sentence says. The multiple armed arapolos used to be torturers of wicked prisoners according to the book. Thievery crime was what led them to get the severed arm treatment from these guys even for something light such as stealing food. I am in disbelief after witnessing something beyond my knowledge and understanding.
As I close the book, I gaze at its cover with my eyes full of affection. It is the book that has all my answers about this world and makes me eager to learn more. I am glad to discover this even though I am not sure how it got into my parents' bookshelves. Despite the answer to my curiosity laying in this book, some of them still remain far from my grasp.