StarFall (Completed)

Ch. 13 (part 2)

Before I could react, or utter a thing, she turned her gaze from me, and wiped her eyes.

Madison rose off the ground, and straightened her outfit. "Come on, Adderall, those boys have been quiet too long. Better go see what mess they've gotten into now." She sniffled, and walked off. "Bobby's probably gotten himself killed, again."

A slight smile sprang from the corner of my mouth as I stood up. "I'll never be free", I wasn't entirely certain, but her words felt heavy, as if weighed down by some immense, unseen force. One she couldn't bear to shed.

She was right though, it was too quiet. I emerged from the narrow path and caught up with the others.

"What's going on?" I said to Miller, who stood silent next to me.

"I'm not sure. But we found something."

He turned and walked off, I followed after him, Madison trailed behind me. Bobby stood before us, back turned, he stared at something I couldn't quite see.

I pushed up next to him. "What's got you so quiet? Not that I'm complaining."

He motioned to something below us. I stared inquisitively at the dirt-covered oddity. Knelt down among the dirt, I wiped the strange finding off, and gasped at what we had uncovered.

A troubled journey

Wandered long

Those were the words I could not look away from. Etched into the ground beneath me. Carved deep into the raised stone platform buried below.

My mind raced with possibilities. Was this some kind of clue? Was it meant for me? Questions clouded my thoughts, until Miller crouched down next to me. His hand felt over the carving.

"The missing pieces..." He whispered under his breath.

"What?" I leaned in.

He turned to me. "Can you read it?"

I looked at him, my face wrung up with confusion. Could I read it? Could he not?

"Why can't you read it? It's plain as day."

Miller looked back at the carvings. "It's gibberish to me, but it's clearly important. Stone carvings buried mysteriously in the ground are usually pretty important." He smirked.

I half-smiled, and leaned down close. "Alright. Well, it says--"

"Hold that thought." He pulled his hand away from the dirt and wiped it on his sweater. He took out one of the books from his sack, and a writing utensil.

"What are you doing?" I said, peeking over his shoulder.

"Making a note of it."

"Why?"

"I think it might fit into the poem." He motioned to me to translate it.

I read the strange markings back to him, and he wrote the brief words on some faded paper, and placed the closed book back in his sack.    

He stood. "I'm not sure where they might fit, but this could be a step in the right direction." 

I rose from the stone carving. "So, there's gotta be more of these things, right?"

He nodded. "I think so."

I couldn't contain myself, I lunged forward, grabbed onto him, and hugged him tight. "I told you. I knew you could figure it out." I was ecstatic. "Thank you," I said before I released him.

He looked flushed as he cleared his throat. "Don't thank me yet, we don't know how many more of these we need to find. Or what order they go in."

"That doesn't matter. Not right now. We're on the right path." I closed my eyes and let the cool breeze tickle my skin, blowing my hair about. I smiled, opened my eyes, and turned to them. "Come on, let's keep going."

Onward we marched, into the dark depths of the unknown. We were all broken, and worn, but somewhere within all of us, I was certain there laid hope.

✴ 🎀 𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎😍𝓊 𝓉🌸 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎❤𝓃𝑒 𝒻💗𝓇 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉❀ 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑒𝓃𝒹 💮𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇❢ 𝐼𝒻 𝓎💗𝓊 𝑒𝓃𝒿🍑𝓎𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓅𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒 𝓋🌺𝓉𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓉☯𝓇𝓎 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 🍪𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝓈❣ 𝐼'𝒹 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓇𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝒾𝓉. 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝑒 𝓉🍑 𝒸🌺𝓂𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝒶𝓈 𝓎💗𝓊 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 ❁𝓇 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓎☯𝓊'𝓋𝑒 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓈𝒽𝑒𝒹 𝒶 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉 💞𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓉🍩𝓇𝓎. 𝒟🍪𝓃'𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝓈𝒽𝓎❢ 𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎🏵𝓊 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒽💙𝓅𝑒 𝓎💙𝓊 𝒸🍬𝓂𝑒 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝒻💙𝓇 𝓂🌺𝓇𝑒❢ 🎀 ✴