Evie tugged on Lucas's sleeve. Trying to drag him to the very much monstrous sound, Lucas knew better than to get close to freaky noises. But she was quite annoying, and right now he was feeling very weak willed. "Fine. But only if we stay far away, also I lead"
It was probably a bad idea. But Lucas would be lying if he wasn't curious about the noise.
"Deal!" Shouted Evie before putting her hands over her mouth, Lucas sighed before keeping her behind him. They walked past more straw roofed buildings, noting how empty and lifeless they looked.
Lucas guessed it was a literal ghost town if not for the faceless man, who could be a ghost. Can't rule out everything. But looking around. Like really looking around showed him all the tiny details he usually glossed over.
The main detail that would greet anyone who looked up was the gigantic moon. But if he looked closely, Lucas could make out the barely seeable silhouettes of nine other moons.
The grand moon shone bright. Which was made all the more easier with the absence of clouds. No stars either. He swore he could see something moving on the moon. Though that one might've just been his eyes playing tricks. Anywa-
"Wake up!" Shouted Evie as she tugged on his sleeve, trying to break him out of his daydream.
Lucas blinked for a moment before realizing the vile sounds were closer than before. He guessed a turn around the corner would greet him with the thing making the sound.
"Yeah, now be quiet. Wait over here, and I'll check it out. Only when I say it's safe, then you can peek, right?" Said Lucas, prompting Evie to nod her head.
Walking to the edge and using a house to cover himself. He peeked his head to see what the noise was. What he saw nearly made him puke.
A tall creature. About fourteen meters tall and five wide. It looked like a barrel about to explode. Strong ribs held back gushing intestines and large organs that tried to escape the beast's barely holding on stomach.
It had two long thin arms about twice its size, ending with sharp human hands. Which were currently used to eat someone. An armored man. Head to toe in steel. Though from the looks of it. It hadn't done much to help.
He was being held above the creature's mouth, legs held up while his upper half was heading towards the mouth.. Which was more like a pit with jagged teeth then a proper maw. Dammit…I'm gonna puke, we have to leave.
Lucas silently apologized. But before he could leave the man unfortunately spotted Lucas hiding behind the home.
"Hey boy! Help me! Together we can take down this beast! I swear!" The armoured man pleaded, scared for his life. And at that point Lucas froze. He had left Evie not that far, so she should've only heard yelling. She wouldn't know they'd abandoned someone in need. He could lie if she asked.
Lucas held eye contact with the man. The choice was obvious. His logical side demanded he move and take him and Evie somewhere far.
But his heart. It ached, it didn't want to leave a man to die. Not when that man begged like a dog. However, the silence seemed to be enough for the man to assume Lucas's answer.
"Coward! fine then! Flee. Know that heaven will welcome me with open arms! While a coward like you! Will be thrown into the depths of hell!" He yelled with rage before a second blood curdling one sounded not long after.
Lucas was long gone by the time of the second scream. He grabbed Evie's hand and dragged her away. She looked panicked but followed him. They ran for half an hour before Lucas stopped running and slowed down. He looked around the area. Finding nothing too suspicious, he moved himself and Evie to the least destroyed looking house.
Which was a small one story home. Like the rest of the outskirt houses had a circular straw roof, stone and wood making up the structure.
After getting inside. Evie immediately complained. "Ow! You ran too fast! My legs feel like jelly!" Complained Evie.
Lucas pieced words together ready to counter Evie's complaints.
"Shut up!" Said Lucas in a rash voice, causing Evie to flinch. Huh? That's not what I wanted to say! What th- Ah. I get it. Lucas looked at his hands. The shaking returned and along with it, dark thoughts.
Lucas had to find a workaround. He wasn't in the right place to deal with heavy feelings, he needed to banish them again. Unfortunately Lucas couldn't just push them back to the dark place in his mind. They persisted long after any attempt.
He wasn't ready, he needed to stop them. The shaking was worsening. Evie would notice soon enough. He needed to get himself under cont-
"Um..I..my papa gets angry like that. Mama usually takes deep breaths with him to make him calm…do you want to too?" Asked Evie cautiously. As if afraid to light a fuse.
"Yeah. That would be nice" Replied Lucas in a tone he didn't recognize. It wasn't calm, nor was it mad. Something for another time. Right now he wanted to focus on the task in front of him.
Evie held up her right hand, and opened it wide. She put her free hand's index finger at the top of her thumb, "follow me! You start at the top, and then…then you breathe in and follow your finger to the spot between your fingers then breathe out and take it to the top of the other finger. And then you keep doing that until you're calm...at least that's how mama does it"
Lucas followed her instructions. And started the hand motion.
Breath in. Breath out.
He kept it up for two rounds before he felt the shaking turn tail and leave. It wasn't dealt with, but it would behave for now.
"Hey…thanks Evie, I.. I'm sorry for saying shut up, I didn't mean it" Said Lucas in a sheepish tone, his hand at the back of his neck as he stared at the floor.
"It's okay, mama and papa get mad at me like that. But they were really stressed! When they think I'm asleep, they start to argue, but they patch it up…Auntie says they've always been like that though" Said Evie, her voice was trying hard to be calm. But Lucas heard it. She was scared and his earlier yelling probably didn't help.
"Hey, how about you just go to sleep ok? I'll watch out for anything bad" Suggested Lucas, Evie nodded along and found the comfiest looking spot she could. Which wasn't much, barely more than hay stacked roughly on itself in the back, opposite to the door.
A few wordless minutes passed by before she spoke up.
"It's cold" she looked at him like that would fix anything. Well maybe it would, his coat was quite warm after all.
"Ok, um.. here" Muttered Lucas. Taking his coat off and passing it over. She quickly snuggled in with it. Misia would probably hit me if she knew I was giving away her coats like that. Mused Lucas.
He sat in the middle of the room, facing the door to deal with whatever decides to come in. He hoped nothing would, but hope was probably worth nothing here.
Lucas wondered if they were alone but he doubted that. And plus if anyone was here, he had a good guess on who. Coin was probably stuck here too, Lucas didn't know how but he could just sense it. Coin was somewhere here.
He wouldn't have the faintest clue where, but walking around the outskirts might let them meet. Nah too risky. His eyes drifted over to Evie. She looked peaceful. Her hair laid around her like a pillow. His coat did look funny covering her tiny body but it did the job.
If he was having conflicted feelings on this. Then she was probably far worse. He couldn't imagine it. Being torn away from family and stuck in this death trap. That must be horrifying.
He moped around with his thoughts for a while longer before getting up and checking the house. Around it was a closet, the badly made bed Evie was on. And a few chairs scattered around.
Otherwise the place was completely ransacked. Lucas decided to check the closet. Maybe he'd find something neat, walking over and opening the closet didn't net much.
Aside from a bunch of rags, there wasn't much, just dust and decay was all he could see at first glance.
Jeez, what a bu- what's that? A small opening covered in spider webs and not much else. Reaching in and feeling around, Lucas felt a square-ish shape.
Pulling it out and taking a look at it, Lucas found a book. A surprisingly mint condition one, it wasn't anything special. Just a leather cover and several pages.
Popping it open and flicking through the book showed Lucas empty pages for the most part, except some with their corners cut had writing. Lucas started at the first of these pages.
"log 3. Yesterday, the monster attacked. The group I was traveling with was slaughtered. I and a few others escaped. Unfortunately it was on our tail for the better half of two hours. Thankfully we ran into the 'Demon barrel' as Mast has dubbed it.
We managed to ditch the monster with the demon barrel. We pray they kill each other, but I know better than to play make believe. Whichever one lives will grow stronger. Anyhow Mast has dubbed this one as 'Ambush Demon' though I am less fond of that name and will be making my own.
'The stalker' is a beast with the make of a large wolf corpse, though their head is that of a viper and their hind legs are that of a bird's. I was unfortunately rushed and was unable to write the look of the demon barrel. A mistake I will fix in the next log.
Nevertheless I must end this log as we are going into the city. I will report on more later"
Lucas was curious. He turned the pages back and found no log 1 or 2. If he had to guess the book was missing pages, probably something magical.
Lucas skipped ahead to see how far the author had gotten.
"Log 66. I fear I have been betrayed. The rest have somehow escaped, meaning the ritual succeeded. But I am alone. The ritual has failed me.
I still hold hope however. The Lunar Spire must have some secrets. I will have to be wary. The corpse mother is watching for me. I will have to take out the other beast.
I am on a time limit unfortunately. The most I can do is 14 more logs. But I will have to abandon this journal. It has my scent and the stalker will surely know it by heart. I beg if anyone finds this journal. Please listen to my warnings and advice"
Lucas was quiet for a while. He eyed the book he had in his hands. Turning it around before stopping.
66 logs…
They found a way to escape. Which was good, but the book was missing the logs that the owner had written down. He looked over it once more and sighed. Mast was mentioned. And Lucas really hoped Mast was just a common name. Better not to think about it.
Lucas had seventeen of the logs. All of them he'd read later, because right now he was tired. But he couldn't just sleep. He had to stand guard.
So Lucas came up with an idea that would hopefully be a good substitute. He picked up the closet and placed it in front of the door, that should keep out most things. And if it couldn't. It would make enough noise to hopefully wake him or Evie up.
Either way he had at least a plan. He went to the middle of the room and laid down. Closing his eyes and falling into blissful rest.
…
…
…
…
Lucas would then open his have a very mature reaction to his current situation.
Where the hell am I?