Remembrance

Chapter 10: Day One

Chapter Ten: Day One

"Good morning, Alaina!" Laurance chirped as his shoes clicked on the stairs. I was sitting out next to the wall, looking through the journal again. I had a piece of paper next to me, almost like a map I was creating to see where I was or where I was going to go to.

"Morning..." I said back, looking up from the journal.

He smiled lightly, "Find anything so far?" He asked, starting up a conversation as he stood beside me.

"Kind of... the writing flow is kind of changing in the second half of the entries... There's like this urgency to finish up or loose papers addressed to Garroth that I'm guessing never were sent and then more letters from him." I said, flipping between pages and showing him the letters in the groups I found them in.

He tilted his head, "That's a lot of letters..."

"For a two-month period? It's a lot, yeah..." I breathed out. I flipped to the next page before I frowned, "It stops midway through this one..." I started breezing through it.

April 23, 14XX

I don't have a lot of time. I found a few trails of footsteps near the campfire from last night and everyone is gone again... I keep hearing things rustling in the trees. Every time I go investigate; I turn up with nothing. Raine is extremely restless too. She starts pacing around me whenever we stop and when we get near some parts of the tree patches, she starts to rear up.

I saw what looked like lights a little further west. I'll try going that way soon. Maybe someone else can help me out.

"That was two months ago." Laurance said. His eyes widened before he looked at me, "I think that was a week before I found you."

My eyes focused on the paper before I turned the page. The date April 29, 14XX was on the top of the page, but the only thing written was Run.

"Run... It's written differently. But why?" I looked at Laurance as he didn't know why either.

"I don't know... but we could go out and look at the wreck and see if that does anything," He suggested.

I bit my lip, closing the book and sliding it and the map into my bag. I started getting up as a few other pairs of steps started to come from outside.

"Sure." I said softly before a couple of the guards walked in from their early morning shift.

Garroth was a part of the group, him not noticing us at first as he talked to Reed.

"How was that for your first walk?" Garroth asked, Reed looking at him with a respectful smile.

"It was simple for being a long first," Reed said, "A few more times and I'll be able to do it."

Garroth chuckled, "Good. It should be calmer since there is a wall rather than just a perimeter." He said lightly.

"Yeah. It helps with the memory as well-" Reed paused when he saw Laurance, "-I-I mean it's sophisticated for the style of your village's set up." He stuttered, looking back at Garroth as his posture straightened up more.

Garroth rose a brow in confusion before looking at Laurance, "Oh. Good morning, Laurance." He greeted, his eyes glancing at me for a moment, "And good morning, Alaina..." He said softly.