The Cold Forest 4: The Aftermath
Thanks to TRCIII and Pooka Hare for great editing you have done, rest is on me...
Chapter 22: Professor Zhou
In the middle of The Gobi Desert, a small team of archaeologists was excavating a new site, found a few days back after a freak desert storm.
The Gobi desert is a vast, arid region. It's known for its dunes, mountains and rare animals. There have been many discoveries in this desert, such as dinosaur fossils that were found in the Flaming Cliffs.
But this team was working on a site that was on the opposite side of that discovery.
After that sandstorm, a small stone structure was unearthed; by a small team of soldiers on patrol.67-year-old Professor Zhou was notified about the discovery and was told to take a small team of his students to do the research work.
Mr. Lin Zhou, or Professor Zhou, had spent most of his life in this desert doing research at various sites.Never in any of his research had he found any kind of clue that could provide him with any lead to this. He was amazed when he looked at the few pictures that were sent to him with the official letter.
He gathered six of his best students, told them to pack a small bag. They were going on a small trip for some research training. They left early in the morning and reached the city nearest the site around the same afternoon. They traveled there by tourist bus to avoid any kind of rumors, and the very next day, he and his team left their lodgings for the site. It appeared to be similar to a small temple. The entrance was half-broken but still, a person could easily enter the structure doing a crab walk.
First, Mr. Zhou entered the temple, followed by his students. Inside, the temple walls were made of burnt stone.
Unlike some sites, the walls were empty; there weren't any drawings on the walls. The temple-like building had four huge pillars supporting the central structure. Those pillars had some weird symbols on them, something which the Professor had never seen in the past.
The Professor was fascinated by this variety of symbols that were inscribed on the pillars. He wasn't sure what those symbols were depicting, but he knew there was some meaning behind those symbols that were inscribed there.
He pulled his camera out of his bag and started to take photos of those symbols on the pillars. A huge crack was formed at the back wall of the temple, where the sand was spilling inside.
The crack was small, barely a foot-long in size, but it appeared manmade as if someone had used a huge sword to make that slash.
There were also nine dot-like circles surrounding the crack. Although the crack appeared to be manmade, the dots surrounding the crack gave it a symbolic appearance.
After taking photographs and a few samples of the stones, the team left the temple. When all his students had exited, Professor Zhou prepared to follow them. He was about to walk out of the broken gate when he felt a stone beneath his shoe. He looked down and picked up the stone; it was as dark as it could get. His old eyes also noticed some kind of engravings on the stone that would bear closer examination. He pocketed the stone and retired for the day.
After having dinner with his students, he entered his tent, sat at his research table and took the stone out of his pocket to examine it under his table light. He tried to read the language but he failed at recognizing a single word. None of the characters matched any language he knew. The symbols on the stone were quite similar to those he had seen on the pillars.
He had studied many languages, especially the lost ones, but the stone's inscription was unlike any other he knew. After trying for hours, he knew he couldn't solve the puzzle alone. He decided to inform his reporting officer about the stone in the morning and ask for some expert assistance.
He walked to his bedding arrangement and turned the light low before lying down to sleep. Except for the noise of insects, silence covered the whole area. A distance hooting of an owl could be heard now and again. A small gust of wind blew outside of Professor's tent. The dark stone lying on the professor's table shook a bit and then turned still. Again it moved on the table, and after a moment, the stone stilled once more. Again, the wind blew outside the tent.
After the gust passed, silence fell on all existence, and this time it was different. None of the insects were making noise, nor could the hooting of the owl be heard anymore. The stone started to move and shake and appeared to be vibrating or moving to some invisible tune. The movement of the stone kept increasing with each passing moment.
Slowly, a small dark cloud of smoke rose from the stone. The smoke was dark than night; it appeared to be absorbing all light. The low light within the tent was gone; darkness covered the entire tent.
The dark cloud spread across the tent and moved toward the sleeping old man. The professor was sleeping soundly, lost to the bizarre occurrence that was happening inside his tent. The cloud crept closer to him and started to loom over the old man. In a swift movement, the cloud came down on the sleeping man and entered the old man through his mouth.
A dark color started to spread across the body of the old man, his entire body turning dark for a brief moment. Within a second or two, the dim light in the tent resumed and everything returned to normal.
Again, insects started to make noise; the hooting of the owl also resumed. The night continued to gradually pass as it should.
Suddenly the eyes of Professor Zhou were open but there were no irises in those eyes. They were as dark as the smoke that had entered his body. The old man stood up and walked out of the tent.
A small cluster of clouds was hiding the stars from shedding any light in the vast desert. Darkness had covered the entire region; nothing was visible but the head of the professor moving around as if he were observing his surroundings, seeing everything.
He walked out of the camp area and came right before the archaeologist site and looked at the Temple structure. If it wasn't so dark, one could have seen the disgust and anger on the professor's face.
The Professor started to walk outside of the site area and kept walking in one direction, without looking around or looking back. He continued walking; many nocturnal creatures passed by him but he didn't pay any attention to them. He just kept walking, till he crossed a huge dune; behind the dune, a huge Gobi Bear was standing and taking a whiff from the air.
Its eyes landed on the old professor, but like all of the other creatures, the professor also ignored it and kept walking in the same direction. When the bear saw the professor's back, it decided he was prey and rushed to attack Professor Zhou.
The professor calmly turned in his track, raised his left hand toward the brown bear. A small, dark ball of smog came out of his hand and hit the rushing bear in the face.
The bear started to wobble and after stumbling a few more steps, its lifeless body fell to the ground, on the sand.
Without giving it a second glance, the professor kept walking, and after continuing onward for a couple of hours, he reached another dune and stopped right before it.
He raised his hand and another dark smog ball came out of his hand and landed on the dune. Slowly the sand started to slide down, uncovering a small cave-like structure that was hidden below.
The professor marched forward and entered the cave without any worries. Despite the lack of light, he walked as though he could see everything inside the cave. He reached the center of the cave without any trouble, and precisely in the middle, a huge basalt stone was situated. The professor approached the stone and placed his hand on it. Dark smog rushed out of his hand and entered a small crack in the stone, then started to spread across it. With a loud boom, the stone cracked open.
He caught sight of a small bracelet hidden inside the stone and reached with his right hand to pick it up. Without wasting any more time; he walked out of the cave and started to walk in the same direction he was traveling before. Saffron light was shining on desert sand, but the old man had already covered too much distance for anyone to see him!
Chapter 23: A New Dawn
Erik was confused to find himself in the forest. It was dark; he never entered the forest at night. But suddenly, he remembered the dream that he had in the past. It appeared the same as that dream.
He heard the sound of the stream; it was dark around him so he carefully walked toward it. After a few meters of walking, he was out of the lush greenery and he saw the stream flowing before him. He walked closer to the stream when his eyes caught sight of a dog--or at least that's what he thought at first.
He quickly recognized it; it wasn't a dog, but the same fox-like wolf cub that had now grown big. It was as big as a bulldog and it had red fur on its body, which was emitting red light. Those fur strands appeared like they were burning with fire.
Suddenly, the wolf turned its head toward him and saw him standing on the other side of the stream. It had an expression of anger which turned angrier at seeing him! It quickly stood up and rushed toward the stream and took a jump; the fox-sized wolf was in the middle of its jump when everything turned dark.
-
Erik woke up in his bed with a heavy headache. It was worse than the previous ones. He was sleeping naked in his bedroom.
The memory of all the information that was provided by Tanha came rushing to him. He also thought about that letter, but again some alien emotions started to give him headaches, so he stopped thinking about it.
One thing was clear: something was wrong. The wolf bite, then him lose control over his body. Some kind of instinct dominated his senses. Changes in his body increase in his sense of smell and hearing ability. Also those weird dreams and doing things that he didn't remember doing.
'And then the event that happened that night.'
If what the letter said was true, then Alice's real name was Minerva and she had a twin sister and both of them were witches. Last night during a rescue mission to save Minerva's sister, he had somehow fought the hunters and killed them.
He killed people! The thought itself was unnerving for someone like Erik. All of this information was disturbing his heart and mind. He took a shower and went down to the kitchen. He found Tanha wearing the same yellow dress while cooking.
"Good Morning, Master!"
"Morning."
He sat at the dining table. The thought of Alice-Minerva leaving the town again came to his mind; it started to give him another headache so he dropped thinking about her and instead focused on his breakfast.
He thought about the dreams. When he had the first one about that small wolf cub, it was a weird dream. Then in the second one, it was the same wolf but it was now the size of a fox.
"Tanha, what do you know about werewolves?"He asked the question to the demoness who was serving him his breakfast.
"They are cursed beasts, Master. Like the bastard version of Hellhound, but a lot weaker."
"Oh! Do you think I am a werewolf?"
While he knew Tanha wasn't a reliable source of information, since he barely knew her, one thing was clear. Currently, she was the only one who knew more about him than he did.
"Haa, hah hah!" Sweet laughter came out of the demoness's mouth. "Master, you are anything but a werewolf!"
He wasn't satisfied with that answer, but he looked at his breakfast and started to eat.
She spoke again, "Master, werewolves are unique creatures and there are various stories about their origin. And if you think you are a werewolf, then don't worry; tonight is a full moon and we will see the truth."
She appeared to take things very casually; now that he could see her face, she was enjoying the moment like she had gotten some kind of good news.
While explaining about werewolves, Tanha knew very well that Erik wasn't one. Then the question was, what was he? She had never heard about any human or beast that could replenish their life force.
There were stories of four mythical beasts but they were long gone. He didn't have dragon or Fae blood within him, since there were none in this realm anymore.
