The curious librarian trailed the smoke from the air, as if seemingly nothing else in her head but the grey vapour that pollutes the dark age. The land slowly descended before her foot, following the old gravel that she had never travelled through. She felt as if something pushed her to this trail, and it's not just by her curiousity.
"I wonder." She said. "Anything but whatever he said."
"I knew there was something we could do here. The wall...it has to be broken..."
The hill slowly turned into a coast, sand piling above the grasses and old houses welcoming her eyes. This place is ancient, that's what she can deduce from the looks. No one from this town had ever been through this side, especially since the border was thick. And yet, not a place for a coconut tree to flourish. This coast is silent and dead.
"What the...? Am I seeing this right?" She pauses, glancing at the wall of the hill with shock.
The only thing that separates Great Stone from this silent land is the thick wall that has outlived many lives on this land by centuries. Yet as time passed, gaps began to form in its skin, giving the librarian a chance to travel past the wall. It was a heavenly view for the librarian.
Could it be the time she finally sees the truth? The gap shines with a sun that was lost today. The wall is as thick as she remembers, but the granite was dying with time, and green had grown through. The wall was broken, with only a gap enough to fit her through the outside.
"Alright, alright! This is my chance..." She tightened the coat string on her sleeve. "What will be in the outside world? Could it be paradise? Or a wasteland?"
"Could it be something new? Something beautiful? Or something ugly? It must be something wonderful!"
"Alright, then. Outside, here I go!!"
The librarian crosses the unthinkable. The granite wall was thick, like a long tunnel to the unknown. But the light shining on the other side was surely not a deceit, as the heat of the sun could be felt on her skin while she was pushing herself through the narrow space.
"*Cough* *Cough*" She struggles. "It better be worth it..."
"Better be..."
It was suffocating to breathe through the dust, and the air pocket was so small that the librarian had to cover her nose to avoid the falling dust. Green vines growing above her head, marking ages of obscurity within this town. But she had no eyes to see this beauty while everything around her was crumbling with suffocation and doubt.
"Eugh...augh..."
"Ughuhu...why is this so...hard...?"
The librarian slowly felt dizzy, charmed by the wall's curse to turn back before her life was taken. But curiousity would have killed nothing today, because she had made it halfway through the granite. There's no turning back, and there's no stopping now. She only had to make it halfway before she could breathe life again.
"I have to do this. I had to!"
"There's no reason for us to wait! What is...what is the purpose of this wall anymore if we were to be doomed?"
"We must go! We all must go!"
The tightness reminds the librarian of what she had truly suffered through years of the wall's build. She had never chosen to live inside of it, yet the town was too afraid to let her go. Silence, obedience, and false confidence—these were all too sore to continue.
The faithful believed in what they wanted to believe, but not what they deserved. Now that the sun was gone, there was nothing to believe, but there was also nothing to see. The darkness has continued, but that's where the librarian excels the most. The lack of moral prohibition finally gave birth to rightful law.
"Let me go! Let me see the outside! Let me embrace what was taken from me!"
"I have nothing! I have nothing more! Now give me my eyes!"
"Give me...my true eyes! The outside!"
She was near! The sun finally shone upon her eyes, but her breath was weakening. She tried to be quick, but the wall had another plan for her. The dust grew even thicker than before.
*Thoughts* "Uhuk! Uhuk! no, no, no..."
*Thoughts* "I can't...I can't be like this. Please! Don't do this to me..."
*Thoughts* "I can't! What do I have left...? Please, it was just close!"
*Thoughts* "Please! Please! Please!"
Fear drowns her thoughts because death is one moment closer to her. The librarian felt every part of her skin stiff and numb without a breath, ready to become one with the wall. Is it finally the end of the librarian's legacy?
"I...I think it's finally here..."
"My fate...my ever-meaningless fate..."
"Nothing matters anymore...nothing...."
The sight of all she had loved brushes before her eyes, and the wall seems to have deceived her into submission. Once again, the librarian finds herself returning to the town. It's time she finally reunites with all the people like before.
"No...no...no!!"
"*Cough* I will not fall! Never!"
"Never, you hear me? Never!!"
But the librarian refused. The fate didn't end here for her, and the wall could not contain her ambition and wish anymore. It means nothing to her anymore than an obstacle, for the end is inevitable to everyone but her. The truth shall reveal what was rightfully belong to her!
"Aaagh!" She breathed once more as her body left the confined space.
The librarian escaped the wall's crushing will with her bold ambition for a new light. Only truth shall ever be the one judging her, and not the construction of time. The fresh air and the bright sun ail her journey's wound in the reward of her struggle.
"Woah..." She ponders. The coast was lively, filled with a sand she had never seen before. The ocean—the one big wave she thought would never be seen—brushes through the edges of the sand before pulling back into the vast water again. It was truly unjust that it was hidden from her.
"Beautiful." She shed a tear. "So beautiful..."
Finally free from the darkness, the librarian enjoys the beautiful beach with sand under her feet, spreading her arms for the scent of the ocean and grasping the very same sand with her hands. It was warm, flowing through the gap of her fingers with a sensation of a satisfying crush in her grip.
"Woo! Yeah! This is freedom! Woo!"
"Hahaha! Take that, you blind citizens! Who's the enlightened one now?"
"Yeah! I'm the only one! The true librarian! The true human ever! Yeah!"
She spent the rest of her time squandering on the coast, enjoying every moment of her reward in her new paradise. The wave hits her foot with warm water, one that she had never felt outside of her home. The sand buries her toes, but it's not like she would've complained when she had never touched them before.
Such a wonderful place, even the sun still shines amidst the storm here. Far from the town's outcry, the librarian finds herself an enlightenment she couldn't refuse to enjoy wholeheartedly.
"Yeah! I'm free! Alas, I'm...I'm too free. Maybe I'm taking it too much now. I mean, who do I even bother? I would have to return anyway. There's no reason for me to stay and—huh?"
But then, something else struck her eyes. The smoke she had been searching for has been closer than ever! It was on the same coast as she was stepping in, meaning that someone was here with her. The librarian's heart beat so fast, wondering who could be outside the wall.
"Oh, another mystery! Alas, what awaits me now?"
She travelled all the way on foot to the coast, following the smoke to the north where its grey vapour turned darker. But in her trail, the sands turned grey and pale, scattered with bits of metal that pierced through her feet. Each step only ache her further.
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! What is this? My shoes..."
"Metals? Why is it here? But there's no metal in beach?"
As she heads closer to the vapour, a hut is waiting in the distance where the smoke escapes the chimney. The librarian couldn't believe her eyes that someone was and still living outside the wall.
The house must be lonely, bearing the beauty here without a companion to share. There are no fences, meaning the one living here has no one but himself to worry about. Cages are everywhere, but there was no lock or key for it. It contains nothing but ignorance.
"Woah..."
But when she got close, the hut was smaller than she thought it would be. The size is deceiving, as the roof stands only as tall as her waist. Someone who lived in this place must have been a child or perhaps a teeny tiny human. That 'someone' is still here, doing his errand without realising what has happened now.
Knock! Knock! Knock! She knocks on the metal door.
"Eh..." She crouches.
The one inside notices her knocking and immediately rushes to the door. They must have been surprised to hear someone in front of their house before. She could hear clanking inside, like a fight between two engines before the knob could twist left and open. But what she saw behind the door was no human.
It blinks, "Hi there. You're not supposed to be here, aren't you?"
The house owner was standing there. The librarian thought it was a machine for a moment, but the creature had no wires. It has no mouth, but it has a voice that speaks nonchalantly to her ears. It has a skin, but it is cold and rusty like metal. It was standing, but it was not frozen. It's a construct with a maker not found.
"H-hi....uhm..." Eve was shaken with fear. Her fingers trembled as she tried to maintain her face. "Hi there...hehe..."
"Uhm...are you...Are you living here...?"
"Yes. I'm the one owning this house. I am the man living in this metal." The thing replies.
The creature was sentient, contrary to what the librarian thought. It was definitely not a machine if it had a thought, but who could have made a construct like this? It seems out of this world with its unnatural blue colour. The creature barely resembles anything Frayfolian geniuses have ever made.
She was wondering whether she had to be awed or afraid by the construct. It appears calm and aversive with violence, but the vivid figure of its grip shows it might have a fist to kill. Moreover, it bears the horn of a devil and the eyes of a beast.
"Oh, that's...amazing..." She replied. "A living...thing. A construct! Yeah, you're a construct, aren't you?"
"I can be considered as one." The construct replied.
"Haha! It's amazing! The outside world was truly a treasure worth venturing!"
Truly a wonderful thing! Not only did it seem that the librarian was facing the edge of the world, but she had also seen what she believed to be forbidden to her. The construct is nonchalant with her tone, but it was very cautious, and so is she.
"Creature, what is your name? I need to know you!" Eve goes for the strike. The construct was a bit bothered.
"I am a human from the town beside this coast, who had been concealed from the outside world by a wall for years of my life!"
"Long have I been waiting for the day to leave the wall, and when I found the crack of this town at once, I knew I found myself a prospect in my heart! But I still lack the clarity of truth! I need to know more!"
"What was hidden from me? What was robbed from all of us? Tell me! Tell me!"
"That's a load of words. But the name's Charger, human." The construct replied. "Charger the Great."
The construct calmly welcomed her into the outside world, where the worthy librarian found herself a new path in her life at the brink of extinction. The sun still shines outside the calamity, as the two wander by the edge of the wave together and chatter about the world.
"My name's Eve Ainsley. But you can call me Eve or Ms. Ainsley."
"Pleasant to meet you, Ms. Ainsley." The construct tipped his tin hat before her.
The librarian introduces herself to the construct. Though it had never heard of the wall before, it was driven by curiousity upon learning from the librarian's words.
"Ending?" Charger asked.
"Yes. This land is prophesied to meet its end on the fifth day under a terrible storm by a prophet. Madness is everywhere, and there's no future to tell what would come."
"I talked with the prophet about it, but the man shows no fruit to all of us. The doom was inevitable, and fate was sealed."
"I knew he was lying, considering how many of us here are still trying to find salvation. But the thick wall prevent us from talking to the outsiders or even finding freedom as we wanted."
"I took my turn and went here in hope that the wall would provide me with an answer. An answer to not only salvation, but also a path."
Even such a place will not last because of the foreseen end. The construct seems reluctant to believe, but knowing the librarian's honesty just by looking at her eyes, he knew that it was undeniable. But he wasn't afraid, because he knew he didn't have to.
"How unfortunate. Looks like I had to start the skiff again before Friday, huh?"
"Skiff?"
"Yeah. See the boat stranded over there hanging by a tin thread? That's what brought me here to this land. I thought this place was barren of life and I was the only one. I guess it was too late to find out there's people here..."
"Wait, wait, wait..." The librarian pauses. "You can leave this place??"
The librarian was overjoyed to hear that the construct was a smart one. It offers her a chance to leave this place together by the ocean before the demise came close, and it seems the two of them were also not going to join the seemingly 'end'. It's like hope, but it was true and absolute. It was an opportunity.
"Please tell me you can carry more than yourself." Eve inspected the boat with her fingers, scratching its deck. The wooden seat was tough.
"Sorry, Ms. Ainsley. It didn't look too good to be honest." The construct enhances its metallurgy outside with the librarian.
"What? Aww!"
"Ha! Got you! I'm just kidding, lady." Charger laughed. "That skiff carries my entire tin house here with ease. It probably can carry three more people."
"But why do I bother to carry a stranger on my boat? Especially when I need my tin house?"
"Aww! Come on!"
The librarian leaps with joy, for she has never felt so happy to be alive. There had never been a brighter day for her than today, and it seemed the light shone only for her. The truth unveils a new dawn behind the cage of eternal dusk.
"Although I had a problem." Charger stops her. "The boat's engine got damaged, and I needed some scraps to replace some of those cheap gears."
"Well, what if I make a deal? Since we both are desperate to leave now, wouldn't it be great if the two of us worked together to leave this town? You need scraps, right? Well I need me and my lover a place to leave this place."
"I can find you a scrap. But you have to let me through with your boat."
"I can find it myself. No need to push me."
The construct was ready, with a bag full of air for it to be filled with the wonders of human make. It was only a moment of command for them to leave.
"Oh, really? Good luck, then. Because you'll have to pass through the wall first, and if that doesn't bother you, then it would be the darkness and the humans inside that bother you." Eve stands proudly while bragging about the construct. Yet it froze afterwards.
"Darkness?" The construct pauses. There's a fear in his tone.
"Yeah. What's the matter? Afraid?"
As the morning turned into noon, the clouds became darker than ever, and the beach became cold. The darkness began to spread here, and they have no time to waste. The journey began.
"Come on. You're not afraid, aren't you?" Eve teases with such a snark. But the construct was all silent.
"Or are you?"