It's been another day, and the wanderers are still alive. One more day was left before this town was turned into ashes, but it seems that something isn't finished yet. It is as if something was missing from their ship.
The weather was odd today, as if it were too warm for something too cold to happen. Three wanderers were confused about what had happened. But as they gazed behind their lovely town, a hailstorm had already swept through with snow.
It would've been a perfect time for leaving. What else did the librarian and her friends need to wait for? Time's ticking, and the snow's growing high. Everything they loved would've ceased under the winter.
"Oh...oh, Fire! What is that??" Yelled Cyrus.
"It appears the snow came unpredictably in our paradise, priest." Charger replied on the boat. "It's time we leave?"
"Well, are you ready for it yet, creature? Because I think I'm already had everything!"
"I...I don't." Cyrus mumbled.
Yet the cleric, the very selfless and sensible cleric, seeks another path. With his skin, his soft, warm skin, a skin that could not resist the pain of another. Pain, the blight of the faithful, can only halt what was already destined perfectly under the librarian's plan.
Neither the librarian nor the metl liked it when they had to leave a perfect plan for an unreasonable act. They refuse to let the cleric feel the sorrowing pain of another, knowing that nobody would've been alive had they been smarter than they believe.
It hasn't stopped him, and it will not. The cleric, against the librarian and the metal man's will, forced himself back into the wall and disappeared into the fog, rejecting enlightenment and taking simplicity as an answer. He simply attached himself to a loose string and tried to pull back what was already broken.
"I'm not going back until I'm certain everyone's fine!" He yelled as he hit the wall.
And so he left the librarian, back to the wall where the sand is their stairway to in and out of the paradise. As he refused, the librarian and the metal became furious. They were mad that the cleric would be so ignorant.
But what are they about to do now? They wouldn't leave him. But there's no way that they would have to return to the city. All that lives there had already turned to ashes and unmissable. The librarian could barely tell what was what from behind the snowy fog.
"Charger, we need to do something! We can't let Cyrus get away!"
"We? You mean you? I'm leaving this place, you know? Snow ain't my way of living!"
"What? Come on! We need to do something! We don't know what happened to him!"
The librarian wondered if she had to take the risk, but her friend was more adamant about pursuing the truth. Their escape is already docked on the water, ready to float away as soon as possible.
Yet the lonely seat on the skiff could've been a perfect place for the cleric to be enlightened by the truth, finally embracing her path and starting a new life with him. That's why the librarian believed that she couldn't leave without him.
But the metal seeks no empathy to share. It knew that survival was necessary through any means. The world is not ready to witness what he had to offer, but it is the truth for the cost of someone like the librarian to be free. That nobody could ever be attached to the past to understand the future.
"Forgive me, human. But I will not risk myself having to wait for another day." Charger said as he turned the skiff on.
"It's either you join me now for an escape of your life, or you can join the others for your lovely demise."
"So, what is it? Him or me?"
The librarian had to make a difficult choice between her friend and the cleric. Though she was willing to embark on a long journey, she couldn't dare to leave all her faithful companions unnoticed.
One glance at the snow and it was enough for the librarian to make her decision. Blinking at her friend on the boat with doubt, the librarian had chosen her path carefully. She had found herself stepping through the wall and passing through.
"Are you fucking kidding me??" Charger yelled.
"Fine! I'm leaving you two now!"
That metal isn't happy with her decision, but the librarian had already convinced to return home. Respecting the librarian's decision to leave the fellow, it decided to continue its journey alone selfishly. A long wave of water awaits afar.
"You'll regret this, human! You'll regret it like anyone else!"
"Human! You'd better return now! I'm not going to stay any longer!"
But to say that it would do so without hesitation was an exaggeration, as it may have grown a little heart beneath those cold metal layers. Doubt and worry soon filled its heart, and the metal was not as confident as it used to be when it was alone.
"Human! Human, are you there?"
"I'll count to three, then! One..."
"Two..."
"Two and a quarter..."
"Two and a half..."
"Two and three-quarters..."
"Two and four-quarters..."
Its heart's beating rapidly, and its fingers would've slipped and dived away from this island immediately if it weren't for its fear of the waiting silence ahead. The metal had decided it didn't want to go without its friend.
"Hrgh!!" Charger jumped off his skiff, rushing to follow Eve from behind.
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Atop the hill, where all the dried grasses and dust of old houses stand, rains with snow that freezes to the librarian's bones. Alas, everything that has been built for will soon be buried in time.
Further into the Eastwood, the librarian found not one but many trees giving up on their lives. It can no longer be called Eastwood without a forest. Still, she continues her search for the cleric among the snow, following the lightweight sensation in her head. Not one had lived in this town anymore.
"This is what I've been waiting for! Long have I waited for snow to rain so that I don't have to look down on this...horrendous land." Eve rubs the snow into a hat above her head.
"It is ugly, flawed but no incentive to improve past comfort. But now, I have seen the trail paved with struggle and saw only a survivor worth living with her belief."
"It is futile to resist it. Desperation for hope is the root of all downfall. Only those who seek the opportunity shall outlive the end."
The librarian hated the scorch, for it hurt her skin and eyes that were consecrated with questions. Sensitivity killed the need for truth to be seen as an object, leaving those in curiousity suffer the pleasure of ignorance. She loved the cold snow—the painful, irresistible need to open the truth beyond the sensation under the sun.
For as the day when the sun didn't shine, all lies have finally ceased in the town of Gold Creek. The forest, the hill, and the valley had once deceived the land into thinking that its sensible belief should ignore all possibility of true enlightenment.
Whereas the believers wore thin clothes every day to embrace the sun, the librarian wore thick clothes to prepare for the snow. Hence, her survival was no doubt.
She had found nothing in the snow but more snow. The remnants of Eastwood seemed to have been buried deep beneath yesterday's malevolence. But she had learned from that sight itself that no belief could outlast the judgment itself—all will be reckoned with death eventually.
"*Sigh* Did you find anything, Charger?"
"Nothing, sorry."
"It's alright. We still have one more town to go. Let's check out before—"
*Creak*
Drawn further into the forest, it didn't take long before she felt a strong presence growing in the trees. Air flew fiercely past her head, silence turned into a creaking, and something was watching her through the twigs.
"Huh?" She pauses. "Charger, did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
*Shrug* *Shrug* *Shrug*
She thought it was a mere illusion, but there's nothing that could deceive her here from the repeating shrugs of leaves and twigs among those surviving trees. Whatever lies behind these barren lands shouldn't have lasted longer without embracing the apathy of history.
"Hello? Who's there?"
*Shrug* *Shrug* *Shrug*
"Cyrus, is that you?"
The trees were alive! This one visitor came from the dying tree it had been playing with, with skin made out of wood and a head lifting a snowball. But hollow from the eyes, sight is as good as a rock. This one creature seems to have been lost and mistook the trees as its family members.
"What the...?"
*Faint* "Hey, are you still there? I can hear your voice, but I can't see you!"
The tree can also speak! It seems to have a thought and courage inside, unlike the citizens in this town. It chatters like a human, and it has the voice of a child. Yet it stood almost as tall as the librarian's neck, begging for her humility.
"What are you?" Charger asked. "You look like you're not from this land."
*Faint* "I need your help! The forest! The forest is dying!"
"The forest?" Eve asked.
The librarian sought pity for its blindness, knowing how crucial eyes are for a living being. So she tends the misfortune into her arms, guiding it before it wanders too far. But deep down, her heart was beating rapidly with excitement and fear.
"I don't know what happened with the forest, but they're stopping talking to me!"
"Their body felt cold, their voices went sullen, and they are withering! I'm scared!"
"Can you tell me who you are? I wasn't aware there was a visitor in my own home around here..." Eve said calmly.
The creature replies, "My name? I don't have a name! I'm just a creature that has lived in this forest for years. But I think one of the trees called me 'Willow' here."
"You've been here for years? Then how do I never see you?" Eve asked.
"Because I don't wander out too far to the human world! I chose to nurture my tree family everyday so I have to stay inside the forest."
"But something bad happened! A few days ago, the trees were talking about how loud and dark the world was!"
"Then they talked about too much rain!"
"Or how the air is too hot!"
"And now, they were talking about how cold it was! And they didn't talk again to me!"
The tree was crying. Pain and suffering are everywhere, but it is blind and cannot see them. Trees are drying and decaying, except for one. And the tree was crying and panicking, that it had found itself out of the forest only to find one human to help it.
An enlightened soul in search of truth, just like the librarian. But this one could not comprehend its surroundings and seemed to live through ignorance of the outside world.
*Sobs* "I don't know what was happening. I can't see, and I was scared because everything is dark to me. Now I've had no family left..."
*Sobs* "What do I do...? What do I do...?"
Curious, the librarian took the opportunity to learn more about the tree. She asked if there was more than the tree inside, but the tree was the only one that had lived for years. Left without anyone and still blind, it can only rely on humans now.
"Wow, you know about this, Eve?" Charger scold.
"N-no? If I do, nobody would've seen this creature right now!" Eve pleas. "I swear, nobody had find something like this in the forest!"
The librarian saw the poor tree and decided to give it a haircut for the first time. A truth is a path that can lead the feet into a proper place from the endless void below. The tree awaits the truth, unaware that what it heard would've torn its hope.
"Willow, I can tell you what happened." Said the librarian.
"Y-you did? Tell me! Tell me!"
"I could. But you wouldn't wish to know. It would be a harsh truth you must accept."
"I can! Please! I need to know what happened! I've been searching my way out for a help! I cannot leave without an answer! I must know what happened so I can help them!"
"Very well, Willow." Said the librarian. "The truth is...the forest is meant to die."
The tree was shocked when it heard the word coming out of the librarian. Its sightless eyes cannot confirm her words, and its skin was too cold to feel the harsh truth. Its denial of her answer and the revelation are stronger than even the citizens.
It says nothing forward to her answer, only leaving her with silence as it returned to the forest gently with its arms tapping across the air, searching for those trees again. And then, it had disappeared without a word.
The forest was silent again.
"That's...really boring," Eve replied. "Where's the denial? Where's the anger? Ugh, that's even worse than what these people react for!"
"What do you expect, human? Do you think every answer is worth responding to?" Charger lectures. "Not every living being wanted to know the truth, which is why people are easily subjugated to false conviction."
"If everyone wants to be comfortable, then they make prison their house so that they never leave! But burn the cells and gave them release, and they'll blame you for turning their bricks against them."
"Now, can we find that guy already? I have a feeling this cold is almost killing me...and I can't feel the cold!" He wiped his face with a dusty handkerchief.
The librarian is relieved to have the truth unveiled for the tree, now that it no longer lives in the lies like the people here. She continued her journey with the metal to find the cleric, through the only place where the civilisation stands stronger during the darkest days—Frayfoil.
"So are we ready to finally accept that we are killing a person now?" Eve mumbled.
"Killing? We do not kill a fool. A fool killed themselves. You have to understand, Eve..."
"If a blind man refuses the irrefutable sound of anarchy and destruction, then they had refused life itself. Do not pity them..."
"I do not pity my kind for their ignorance, but I do pity their pebbles that had to live with such fate."
"And as for these people..." Charger pauses. "I could only pity their eyes more."
"Yeah..." Eve nodded. "I guess you're right."
"Don't cry over these people. Never." She said.
She knew that she didn't know anything if a blind man still refused the truth. But she learned that she couldn't offer a hand to people who had refused the talent she had. Yet still in her heart, she wonders about the fate of that tree that had listened to her. Wondering if it could change its heart for once.
"No, no, no..."
"It can't be..."
"That human must've been lying...she is! How can this forest be destined without my knowing?"
"How? How? How?"
"I can't believe her! She might've been lying about all of you!"
Willow pauses, "Or can I...?"