He had always thought cemeteries were weird. The bigger ones especially. A bland, somewhat green landscape with rows upon rows of headstones. Jack now found himself standing in one.
“If you’re here for the funeral, just follow this path here. Can’t miss it.”
He turned to face who just spoke. He was an older man. White hair, white beard, dressed in formal attire. The man gestured to the path.
“T-Thank you.”
“It’s what I’m here for.”
Jack began up the path, but stopped after a few steps.
“Who’s funeral is this anyways?”
The old man didn’t even turn around:
“Yours, of course.”
“Ah, r-right…” stammered Jack.
The path continued up and over the gentle slope. There was a single tree and at its base he could see a number of people.
“How could I forget who’s funeral I’m attending?” he mumbled to himself.
The path, though long, was rather short, and after a long walk, he came to its end. It dumped him right next to a small clump of people, he recognized a few of them.
“Dan, my man! How's it going?’”
One of them looked up.
“About as good as any funeral,” he chuckled.
Dan walked over and sat down next to him.
“I was worried you might not make it!” he slapped Jack on the back.
“Well I’m here. Speaking of making it, who else came?”
“Well…” Dan straightened himself out. “There yours truly, and the rest of our buds. Your parents obviously came too...”
He paused and pointed to another group.
“Those folks over there are from that academy you visited that one time...” he trailed off. “Oh! There’s also that dog over there. A pitbull I think?”
Dan pointed to something that clearly wasn’t a dog.
“Last I heard he wasn’t takin’ this too well,” he whispered. “You should probably just give him some space.”
There was a long silence
“Say, Dan?”
“Yeah?”
“You... know what did him in?”
He scratched his head.
“Himself, I think. Two bullets to the back of the head. They had a history. Apparently he finally stood up for himself after all these years and that’s what he got.”
Jack frowned.
“If there's one thing that makes my blood boil, it's people like that. Assholes for shitty reasons.”
“Damn straight Jack.”
He stood up from his seat.
“Well it was nice seein’ you Dan. I’m gonna go say hi to some folks.”
“See ya’ later dude.”
He strolled over to where his parents were standing. They stood next to one another, any closer, and they would have been on top of each other.
“Hey Mom, hey Dad.”
His mother looked at the ground and sighed.
“That’s what he used to call me when he wasn’t in the casket.”
His father nodded.
“Is… Is he still in the casket?”
“Probably… Go and have a look.”
Jack walked over to the casket. It was set up on a stand under the shade of the lone tree. He reached out and flung the lid open. He found himself staring up at him.
“Nice of you to show up,” he said, sitting up.
“I came as fast as I could…”
“Well I’m glad you made it,” he said, reaching into the casket. “I wanted to give you something.”
He handed himself a glass of lemonade.
“Thanks man,” he said taking a sip. “It's been way too long.”
“Like a week and a half or so, right?”
“Yeah somethin’ like that.”
Jack awoke to find himself tangled in his sheets. He half heartedly attempted to remedy the situation, but when he found himself in a comfortable position, he stopped. After what was probably a few minutes, he sat up. Much to his surprise, he found Celsia’s bed empty and neatly made. He pulled himself to his feet and rubbed his back, mumbling something to himself. With his bed lazily put back together, he headed for the door, but not before checking for his keys.
* * *
Today was a cool, overcast day. It had been noticeably cooler than he had expected given that he came here in May. Luckily he was dressed appropriately, thanks to his hiking attire. Jack made a mental note to address the weather at some point in his questioning.
Speaking of questioning...
He made his way to the library hoping to catch Kolbert, he had some questions, not that he ever didn’t.
Jack pushed his way through the doors, garnering a few glances from some passersby. The library was, like usual, practically empty, besides a few usuals. He found Kolbert back where he normally was, writing. Jack came up to the desk and Kolbert peered over his glasses.
“Well if it is not my favorite walking miracle!” he said gleefully.
“Miracle?”
“You came out of the circle alive!”
“Right…” he scratched his head. “You know about that?”
“Of course! I am the one tasked with putting the report together.”
He shifted in his seat and leaned forward.
“That must have been an experience.”
“It sure was, I never thought I’d ever see living rocks.”
“They are not local to your home?”
“Nope, most of this isn’t. The wildlife, plants, arcane, you name it. We don’t have even a bit of it.”
“Not any arcane? How… how then do things work?”
“You’d be surprised what one can do once they know enough,” he sighed. “I thought the same about arcane when I came here, but it seems evident you know enough, just in a different way.”
“What do you know?”
Jack chuckled.
“That is an absolutely loaded question. Maybe some other time.”
“Fair enough…” Kolbert paused, thinking,” Oh! Bernard, err... instructor Helfo, told me about the drawings you made of the circle. Would you happen to have them on you?”
“Yeah, you wanna take a look?”
“I do, and, if you do not mind, I would like to transfer the drawings to my report.”
“By copying?”
“By coping.”
Jack pulled his notebook from his pocket, flipped to the appropriate page, and handed it to Kolbert.
“Here they are.”
He examined the page for a moment.
“This is very high quality paper.”
“I guess that’s one thing we know. How to make good paper.”
“Do you?”
“No, but some back home does.”
With his pen, Kolbert expertly copied the drawings as Jack watched. It was a dip pen by the looks of it, made obvious by the occasional dip into a shallow cup of ink, hence the name. He was done relatively quickly.
“You're quite the artist Kolbert.”
“Oftentimes pictures do a better job than text,” he said placing the pen in its holder.
“We have a saying for that: ‘A picture tells a thousand words.’”
“That…” he paused. “Is an excellent way of putting it.”
Kolbert turned his attention back to the notebook and pulled up a corner of a page questioningly.
“You can look, chances are you won’t be able to understand what I wrote though.”
He flipped through the pages and briefly examined the text, stopping longer to inspect the images.
“I take it this is your written language?”
“Sure is.”
Kolbert scratched his beard. He handed it back to Jack.
“With that out of the way. What brought you here today? More questions?”
“Naturally. Do you have any maps? I’d like to see a map.”
“Would you prefer something local or…”
“The largest you have.”
“Then give me but a moment,” he said standing up.
Jack watched as Kolbert disappeared behind the shelves. He came back with a large leather envelope.
“This is the largest,” he said, pulling it out and spreading it on the desk.
“Damn...”
Jack stood up and leaned over the map. It was a single continent. Water on all sides. It included sparse borders, presumably of the nations here.
“Right here is Ester,” Kolbert pointed to a spot on the map. “This dot here is about where our capital, Chaplane, is.”
Ester was situated on the Eastern half of the continent right on the coast, what stood out was the massive cape that jutted out into the ocean. It’s borders relegated it to a moderate area on the map, either it was somewhat small, or the continent was rather large. His gaze quickly shifted off the map to a small bit of text in the bottom corner.
“What’s this here?”
“That is the scale, this line represents about three days travel by carriage.”
He pointed to a line within the text that Jack had mistaken as being part of the words. Judging by the scale, the continent was most certainly large. He wagered it was larger than North America by a few magnitudes. Just by eye, it appeared to take somewhere over fourty lines to reach the opposite coast.
“Is this the only land you know of?”
“We think there maybe more,” Kolbert adjusted his glasses. “There have been some who have sailed for cycles and never found anything, so it is nothing but a theory.”
“Is that where you think I’m from? You brought that up when we first met.”
“I was referring to some of the more remote areas here as well, we have not mapped the inland completely, but that was a possibility.”
“Well…” Jack straightened himself. “I know what my world looks like and I’m confident to say that it has no land mass like this.”
“You have it all mapped?”
“Pretty much. Everything but the bottom of the ocean.”
“You… would not happen to have a copy of it, would you?”
“No, but I can try and draw it from memory.”
Kolbert, somewhat excitedly, handed Jack paper and a pen.
“Just the paper please, I have a pen on me.”
“You do?”
“I do.”
He presented his mechanical pencil. Kolbert looked it up and down.
“Is this glass?”
“Nope, that's plastic. It's sorta like glass, but doesn’t shatter.”
“Does it use ink?”
“Graphite. Think of it like writing with charcoal, but a much finer point.”
“You called it a pen? What pen does not use ink?”
“Most people mistake it for a pen, so I just refer to it as such. It’s really a mechanical pencil.”
He gestured for him to lean in.
“It's called that because when I do this:” he hit the button a few times. “The graphite nub gets longer.”
“Incredible! The best paper I have ever seen and this ‘mechanical pencil.’ How privileged your writers must be!”
Jack chuckled.
“Now, the map?
“Ahh... yes, yes.”
To the best of his ability, Jack carefully drew the basic outline of the major continents of Earth making sure not to damage the paper. He didn’t bother labeling anything. When finished, he handed it to Kolbert, who studied it closely.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“This certainly has a different architecture to what I am used to,” he said gently tracing the lines with a finger.
“Let me give you a little tour, Kolbert.”
Jack came around the desk and pointed out all the major continents, oceans, and gave them a brief description.
“To think someone not even half my age could know as much about their world as you do. Here, most people have not even seen a map, but you…” he paused. “You know all this?”
“I’m flattered, but I’m by no means special, to most of my people, this is considered common knowledge.”
“To think a place like that exists… Tell me, what did you call your home again?”
“The United States,” he pointed to the map. “They’re right on this swath of land right here.”
He lightly sketched its borders in.
“I sense that your skepticism is dissipating?”
“I suppose,” he said, straightening himself. “You have supplied an answer to every question and a great amount of detail about this world of yours. Either you are telling the truth, or you are a very imaginative liar. I settle on the former.”
Jack sighed with relief.
“I have no reason to lie. I just want to figure out what happened. Speaking of which…” he leaned in. “Could you do me a favor?”
“What might it be?”
“When you could spare the time, could you look through your resources here and find anything, any book, that even sounds vaguely like my situation?”
Kolbert scratched his head.
“You remember what I told you before, right?”
“I most certainly do. I accept your favor under one condition.”
Oh boy, he thought.
“That is?”
“If you have the time, come and visit theis curious old man. Yes?”
Jack laughed.
“You got a deal,” he said, holding out a hand. “We shake hands to seal deals too.”
With a smile, Kolbert leaned over the desk and took his hand.
Jack stepped back outside. The campus center was fairly busy for an off day. Normally he would have ignored it, but a small group had attracted his attention, mostly because he noticed others glancing towards it. One of them had some sort of dog like animal, presumably a companion. On closer inspection, he spotted Celsia among them. Knowing better than to interject, Jack opted to sit on the nearby fountain and watch.
It didn’t take him particularly long to figure out that whatever was going on, it was not in Celsia’s favor. She was leaning against the wall with three others surrounding her.
What a textbook giveaway...
After a moment Jack decided, against his better judgement, to approach the conversation.
Maybe this is my chance to get on her good side?
He slowly got up from his seat and strolled over to the group. Celsia almost immediately noticed his approach. It didn’t take long for the others to notice her averted gaze and turn around.
“What perfect timing!” said one of the girls.”
The smugness of this girl practically reached out and cracked jack across the face. He already wasn’t a big fan. On the other hand, the dog-like creature had an intimidating aura. It looked like the bastard son of a crocodile and a large dog.
“What? You were talkin’ about me?”
He quickly answered his own question.
“Don’t answer that, I already know the answer
“Oh my,” she giggled. “When I heard you sounded stupid, I didn’t imagine it was this bad!”
The other two giggled on cue
I sound stupid? Y’all sound like a bunch of genderbent Shakespears who sold her chromosomes for drinking money.
Jack stared at her long enough to make her visibly uncomfortable, then turned his attention to Celsia.
“Didn’t you have somewhere to be soon or something?”
“W-What?” she said with an eyebrow raised.
“Yeah,” he winked. “You went on and on about going to the library today for something.”
“I said no such thing.”
“He is crazy as well, Celsia,” butted in the girl.
He whipped around and locked eyes with her.
“Did I ask you?” he hissed.
The smugness wiped itself from this girl’s face. Everyone, including the now growing crowd, was taken aback by his sudden aggressiveness.
“Do you have any idea who you are talking to? That is Ada, the Ada!”
“Don’t know, don’t care. Rude little girls are all the same to me,” he said plainly.
The smugness had quickly been replaced by anger.
“How dare you!” Ada turned to Celsia. “You need to teach this companion of yours some manners!”
“For once I agree with you Ada.”
“Then let us arrange some punishment. Perhaps a duel?”
A murmur resounded through the spectators.
“You really die on this tiny hill, huh?” he scoffed. “I’m not fighting you. I take no pride in punting, or getting punted by little girls.”
Ada laughed.
“Who said you would be fighting me? Companions fight companions!”
The croc-dog snarled, revealing a lot of teeth for a mouth that size.
“I don’t think you have been properly introduced. This is my pet Opie, my vahmit companion.”
“I am not fighting something called a vomit,” he snorted. “C’mon Celsia, let’s go.”
He turned to Celsia, she had a look on her face that really didn’t sit well with him.
“I think this is fair.”
Jack stared blankly for a second.
“You what? You’ve lost your marbles if you think I’ll fight! Do I look like the type who can fight!?”
“Then let this be a lesson as to how we do things around here. You dug yourself this hole, you get out of it.”
“You’re goddamn nuts!”
At this point a sizable circle of students had formed around them leaving Jack and the Opie in the middle. It made noises that certainly weren’t friendly. His mind swirled with a mixture of fear and outrage. Was he really about to be mauled in front of this many people?
“You people are a bunch of savages!” he shouted. “If I get home alive you’ll have hell to pay!”
“Keep rambling on like that and you will lose!” said Ada.
“Who said we started?”
She smiled.
“I did, right now.”
Opie began approaching him. The blood drained from his face. This was actually happening.
Hell! I’m not even armed! Wait…
Jack frantically dug through his pocket while keeping his distance. He fished up his keys and picked the sharpest, placing it between his knuckles
“O-Opie my man, you shouldn’t listen to her. She’s using you,” stammered Jack. “One of us is going to get hurt and it's probably going to be me.”
He was running out of space. Opie knew. With an incredible burst of speed, the croc-dog lunged at Jack. Instinctively, he threw his hands up. In the brief few seconds he was still upright, he managed to deliver a blow, mostly by accident. Though his other arm had landed itself in Opie’s mouth. The weight of the animal threw him onto his rear and the momentum carried his head to the ground, knocking him out.
* * *
Jack awoke to find himself lying down in bed. He lifted his head to look around the room. It was much cleaner, and well put together than any other he had seen, but still had the marks of frequent use. He dropped his head back down on the pillow and a deep, all to familiar pain shot through his hips.
“Why do I keep waking up here?” he grumbled. “And why do I have to wake up like this?”
To his right, the door handle clanked as it turned. In walked an older man. Their eyes met.
“I was wondering when you would wake up,” he said with a gentle smile.
The man was likely in his forties and wore plain, white clothing.
“You say that like you’ve been waiting a while…”
“It certainly was a while. You were out for five days, I have been taking care of you all this time.”
If Jack had been drinking anything he would have spit it out.
“Five days?”
“Unconscious for five whole days. You woke up today, your sixth day here.”
Jack gingerly looked around the room.
“Where’s here?”
“The infirmary, you were torn up bably, lost a lot of blood as a result. Vahmits are absolutely brutal if you let them be and Ada let her loose.
“How’d you know it was a she?”
“The males look quite different.”
Instinctively, Jack reached for his journal but found nothing. As if he knew the man answered:
“Your things are on the bench at the end of the bed.”
“That’s fantastic,” he mumbled. “Whatever, it can wait.”
He shifted his attention back to the man.
“I’m Jack by the way, but you probably already know that,” he paused. “Are you the uhh…”
“I am the nurse here at the academy at the academy, Jonthin of family Larinth.”
“Nice to meet you… Jonthin. Can I call you that? I haven’t wrapped my head around the formalities here yet.”
“You are quite the odd one,” he chuckled. “Yes, you may call me Jonthin, that is quite alright.”
Oddness goes both ways, dude.
He walked over to the bedside and pulled up a chair.
“I came here to check on your wounds. They have been healing nicely, but I have been keeping my typical routine,” he held out his hand. “May I see you arm? Your right.”
Jack brought out his right arm from under the sheets. What immediately struck him was the series of large scars on his lower arm.
“Oh man…”
“This used to be far, far worse. Down to the bone in some places.”
“Shit. Bone?” said Jack, clearly concerned.
“Yes, bone. Even then, it was just a flesh wound,” Jonthin said plainly.
“Yeah and like any other wound it can get infected, lead to septic shock and death.”
“I can assure you we cleaned the wound thoroughly before sealing it. As for this ‘septic shock,’ I cannot say.”
“It’s a complication of an untreated infection,” he sighed. “You seem confident in your assessment though, and not like there’s anything I could do myself at this point.”
Jack took a moment and studied the scars further. They had the parabola shape of a typical bite such as that of a dog, but the individual scars connected to some degree, like some sort of blade injury. It looked like Opie had adjusted her grip multiple times based on the multiple arcs of scars.
“How’d you seal this so quickly anyways?”
“No flesh wound is a match for the arcane arts.”
“Well I’ll be damned!” exclaimed Jack, “You can heal wounds?”
“I cannot. In fact, most cannot, even with the help of a scroll. The Headmaster is one of the few who can, so you can thank her. It is a sought after ability even though it is only capable of sealing simple wounds. It prevents many needless deaths.”
“I see…” he trailed off. “It leaves scars behind?”
“Nothing is perfect. It is also taxing on both the caster and the patient.”
“That’s why I was out for so long?”
“Part of it, yes.”
There was a brief silence.
“On the talk of thanking,” said Jonthin. “You may want to thank that young man… Otono I believe? He pulled that beast off of you.”
“I suppose I should thank you too?”
“No need, this is my job.”
There’s such a thing as too humble… he decided it was best to keep that one to himself.
“Well thank you anyways,” he continued. “Say, Jonthin, could you fetch Celsia for me?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then certainly. Though it will be a while to get word to her.”
“That’s fine, I ain’t going anywhere.”
Jonthin nodded and left, gently closing the door behind him. Jack bided his time by staring at the ceiling. This one was far more interesting than his room’s. Just as he was starting to get restless, he heard a gentle knock.
“I was told you were awake,” said Celsia, closing the door behind her.
Jack silently stared at her, waiting, then sighed.
“You have nothing else to say?”
“For what?”
“Quit being so obtuse, you know exactly what.”
“I was not the one to anger her!” she yelled. “How is it--”
“It’s my fucking turn to be an unreasonable prick, Celsia!” he snarled. “Why don’t you sit down, shut your fuckin’ mouth and listen for once?”
Surprised at his, explosive, out of character aggression, all she could do was blink. Jack, face twisted into an unnatural scowl, gestured towards a chair. She sat down.
“That wasn’t so damn hard was it?” he grumbled. “Now, let me ask you. Does the word ‘Arthritis’ sound familiar?”
“No…”
“Have you known any old people who can barely move their joints without pain?”
“My grandfather complained of it,” Ceslia answered quietly.
“That’s arthritis. An autoimmune or age dependent disease that attacks the joints associated with older folks.”
“What does--”
“Shut it,” Jack growled. “I’m getting there.”
He continued.
“Four years, six or so of your cycles ago, I woke up and I wasn’t able to walk. Not because I couldn’t feel my legs, but because I felt them too much. It hurt too damn much to move anything below my hips. It just happened, no warning, no nothin’.”
She sat silently looking at the floor, listening.
“Practically every other day I could barely walk. Even on good days if I sat the wrong way or fell, I was out for the day. The worst part was lying down absolutely destroyed me. All it took was a few moments and I couldn’t move again.”
He paused, taking a moment to shift slightly in bed, stopping when he winced.
“I still remember having to just stand there for what felt like, and was, ages,” he said through his clenched teeth. “And if I had to move before those ages past? I’d drag myself with my arms.”
Jack stiffly laughed.
“Oh man, I still remember all those times I had to drag myself to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Good fuckin’ times man, good fuckin’ times. Fantastic times even.”
He rubbed his eyes, then continued.
“It took them two years to figure out what the hell was wrong with me…”
Jack took in a deep breath and let it all out slowly through his nose.
“It was arthritis, the old person’s disease,” he said quietly. “Ankylosing spondylitis, or Arthritis of my lower back. The pain was so intense it affected my hips. They put me on some medicine and I’ve been better, not fixed, since.”
Once again he paused. A deafening silence filled the room and not even Celsia dared disturb it.
“But now…” he turned his head to face her, “Now I haven’t had my meds for well over a week, I got slammed onto my back by that stupid vomit thing, and I was lying down for five whole days.”
More silence.
“Tell me. What do you think has happened?”
Celsia remained silent, still as a statue, she stared at the floor.
“I asked you a question!” he barked.
“You cannot walk,” she answered meekly.
“Yes, Yes, Yes! And all because of you! You!”
In that instant, Jack violently threw the sheets off himself. He rolled out of bed and landed on the floor with a thud and an agonized grunt. Celsia shot out of her chair and rushed to him.
“Wait!”
“Don’t fucking touch me!” he slapped her hand away, “I’ve done this shit for years without any help, what’s a few more days!? Anyways, I thought you weren’t interested in helping animals?”
Jack stiffly propped himself up and looked her in the eyes. She was crying.
“Sit!” he said through his teeth. “It’s about time I showed you how we do things where I’m from. It's not too different from your way. Your fault, you fucking pay for it. You get to watch.”
After an agonizing few minutes of complete silence and struggling, Jack finally managed to prop himself up on the bed.
“Of all the people to get stuck with, it was the problem girl…” he mumbled.
She snapped upright, and her face twisted into a scowl.
“I am not the problem here! You are!” she shrieked, “It was already bad before you got here. I did not think it could get any worse, my only solace. If you just kept your mouth shut none of this would have happened!”
Jack took a moment to process what she said.
“Have… have you gone fuckin’ mental!? Do you think I do these things on purpose to embarrass you!? Just how dense are you!?
He slowly, and incredibly shakily, stood up straight.
“I was trying to help, I knew it wasn’t a friendly conversation, so I tried to help. I’m not as dumb and blind as you think I am! I gave you so many outs of that situation but you’re so dense you couldn’t take a single hint! I even fucking winked, the most cliché giveaway! You being bitter, angry, and dense is not grounds for this bullshit!”
In a fashion somewhere between shuffling and hobbling, he went and gathered his things.
“Jesus Christ! I try to help someone and this is what I get!” he shouted at the wall, “You people fucking wonder why I don’t bother with anyone anymore!”
Jack flung open the door and rounded the corner to see a handful of listeners, among them, Otono.
“Jack…”
“Otono, dude, you’re a great guy, the best even, but now is like a super not good time.”
He ignored the rest and hobbled to the stairwell at the end of the hall, propping himself up on the wall as he went.
* * *
The weather had cleared not that the sun was setting. Jack admired the colorful sky from his seat on the ground. He rested his head against the rough stone of the outer academy wall. It was somewhat of a miracle he had gotten to this spot in his current state. For a while he vacantly stared at the sky.
“I don’t know what’s worse: here, or home,” he groaned, “The one thing I do know id I just should of fucking done.”
Jack sat in silence until the faint glimmer of a few stars appeared. He figured that they were probably other planets. Even then the glow of the single smaller moon dominated the sky, the other was absent.
Celeste they called it, right?
The sun continued to set and he sat and watched, almost long enough to fall asleep. Just when he was about to drift off, he snapped awake to the sound of footsteps.
“How the hell’d you find me?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.
Celsia shrugged.
“I just know when I want to know.”
She sat down in the grass leaving a sizable gap between them. They sat quietly for a time.
“I’m not mad anymore. I think,” said Jack softly. “Just... tired… and sad. I think. I’m always tired, that’s how it always ends.”
“T-Truely?”
“I get over these things quickly, too quickly.”
“That sounds nice.”
“It isn’t. Ironically it makes me angry, because I know I shouldn’t, but if you couldn’t have guessed…” he sighed. “I get over that too. Everything just sort of floats by me. Lazily but somehow so fast.”
“Like water under a bridge?”
He paused.
“I guess.”