Diary, we traveled a fair distance today through the great woods, I reckon we're only 2 days away from the village of Stoneworthy where we can get some fresh supplies. Then it's just a weeks travel to Quortstown which is where the next Mogwai gym is. I just know I'm going to earn my 5th gym badge there! Scarlett is unstoppable and Static is getting better every day. Static and I trained all evening, he seemed eager for the practice, I think he hated losing that battle last week even more than I did.
Diary, today we came across another Mogwai trainer so of course we had a friendly battle! His name was Jin and he had a pretty impressive leafwing Mogwai, but unfortunately for the leafwing, I had Scarlett. Ok, it wasn't a quick battle, and Scarlett came away with quite a few bruises but we were victorious! and that leafwing just got lucky. As it turns out, Jin is from Stoneworthy and knows a shortcut back so we've decided to travel there together tomorrow morning. He'd been sent out by a professor in Stoneworthy to collect plants for some kind of experiment so Static and I helped him out. It was the least we could do after completely destroying him in that battle, ha! I'm very much looking forward to sleeping in a proper bed at a hostel tomorrow, and getting some proper food and bath. I very much need to bath.
Diary, today Jin and I headed to Stoneworthy. The journey was silent, there doesn't appear to be much wildlife around and any wild Mogwai I did see appeared fearful or anxious, surely they're used to humans this close to a village? Jin also thought it was strange and even Static was acting much quieter than his usual energetic self. We arrived at Stoneworthy shortly after noon, even here seemed quiet, something must be amiss; although when I look around at the lush green surroundings and the cherry blossoms I find it hard to believe anything bad could happen here.
Diary, something bad is happening here; something very bad but I cannot say what. This morning I awoke to grey skies and strong winds then snow started to fall. Snow in springtime isn't unheard of but the freezing temperatures it has brought with it, is. Also, the snow seems different, it's hard to explain but it just doesn't appear to be the fresh glittering snow I am used to, it seems dark and dull. Clearly, this is the work of a very powerful Mogwai that can control the weather! Maybe even a legendary Mogwai! That would be a sight to see indeed, I went to see Jin and his professor today in the hopes that they might have heard of such a thing, sadly they did not. They seemed worried about this mad weather but I'm quite excited. Scarlett and I spent the evening trying to track down this Mogwai but the snow is too widespread to decipher which way it may be. I've decided to stay at the hostel for a while, we can't travel through this snow.
Diary, something really, really bad is happening here. The strange snow continues to fall and now earthquakes have started. Could one Mogwai be powerful enough to cause all of this? Perhaps there are two mythical Mogwai out there, perhaps someone has upset them, disturbed them from their eternal slumber maybe, or stolen a precious egg. I must find the professor and see what he knows.
Diary, things has gone from bad to worse, a nearby volcano has started to erupt and the earthquakes got stronger and stronger until a huge crack went through the village, many houses have collapsed and now most of the villages population, or what's left of it, is staying at the village hall which luckily still stands. Jin and the professor are missing, as many people are. Scarlett, Static and I have joined a party to try to find them and help people out. We've had some luck, but not much, then we ran out of luck entirely. Strange dark Mogwai started appearing, they are grotesque and eerie and vicious. I've never known a Mogwai to attack a human for no reason, but these do, and more often than not the human loses. Scarlett and Static have been able to protect the village from most of them though, it's a good job they're all so small.
Diary, larger ones have started to approach the village, poor Scarlett and Static are exhausted and I'm exhausted from healing and helping them. We've barricaded ourselves into the hall for now, a small party has gone out to find whatever hell hole these things are coming from and block them away like they were before. Please hurry, guys.
Diary, the party returned today, some of it did anyway. They tell me that these nasty creatures are coming from some kind of black road, that these monsters come out of it but anyone that enters are lost forever. I don't know what's happening to this world of mine, and I don't know how long we are going to last in it much longer.
Diary, last night I couldn't sleep, like most nights I laid and worried about the day to come. How can I be so tired and awake at the same time?
The village halls clock showed midnight and chimed 13 times. 13 times? I know clocks don't do that but that's what I heard. Either that clock is broken or I am. At the last chime I gave up trying to rest and sat up, that's when I noticed the clocks pendulum was suspended at an unlikely angle, when I tried to open the door to it I found that I could not, assuming it was locked, I reached for a torch nearby to view it better with and found that I could not pick it up. It was as if someone had glued it to the floor! I didn't have more time to inspect this however as I noticed something moving behind me. It was a tentacle, and it was coloured, only with its contrast to the grey wall it came through did I then realise that the dark room had lost all colour, the walls and chairs and people, everything except myself and this tentacle.
I moved closer to inspect it, I poked the strange flesh, then as quick as a flash I found that it had grabbed a hold of me and was pulled me through the wall. Although I struggled I could not loosen this tentacle's grip of me. Colours and fragments of images flashed past my eyes until suddenly it's just greyness around me and I think I can see other tentacles carrying things beside me.
In the far distance I see a huge black tower with a blue gem atop, shortly this tower is not so very far away and I am pulled through its walls and unceremoniously dropped onto the floor in a flash of blue light. In the middle of this room is a horrible, tentacled monster. Beside me are three strangely-dressed men. And then the monster is gone and instead there is a woman with silver hair. The three men seem as confused as I am, one tends to the silver-haired woman who seems to be unconscious.
I decided to summon Static and Scarlett in case that monster came back, I'd like to see it grab me with them two protecting me! The men seemed startled by their appearance, almost as if they've never seen a Mogwai trainer before, one even drew a crossbow on them! It's a good job I learnt to speak English at school so I could tell him to put it away, otherwise Scarlett might have fried him, haha!
So these men wake up the silver haired lady, who says her name is Deirdre. She waves her hand and makes chairs and tables appear with drinks on them, an astonishing illusion. I decided to stay standing, the Mogwai were cowering near me so I knew we weren't safe yet, and I had to stay vigilant.
She talked to me and the three men, about what, I couldn't say. She spoke about some war, and children of Amber and of the Courts, about a brother named Brand who doesn't know we exist. I grow a little board of her nonsense and ask her where the monster has gone, she replies that she was that monster. Oops. She didn't seem too upset at me calling her a hideous monster though and carried on with her rambles.
Something about her grandfather taking the "eye of the serpent" to inscribe the pattern, her brother waging a war over whatever the "throne of amber" is, a unicorn that has a part of this serpent eye thing and the importance of finding some book that contains a prophecy. Then she finally catches my interest as she says my home is some kind of parallel universe and that fixing this pattern will save it. Suddenly the welfare of Japan lies with me. Shit. I assume the three other men are in the same situation with their own Japans. They don't look no more special than me, they don't even have Mogwai. I very much hope fixing this pattern won't be too difficult, I can't let Japan down, I won't let my mother down.
This pretty woman changes into the horrible creature again and throws us to someone she thinks can help us, and suddenly I hear that clock chime again and we are left in a dark room that looks like some kind of bunker with this someone holding what I think just might be a gun, but a much larger one than the ones I've seen on tv. She was startled at our appearance and was hostile, but we managed to talk her into believing us, which was difficult as she thought Dierdre was dead. She says her name is Cordella and she wears a suit of metal which is badly beaten, her spare suit was left in the corner and whatever she was fighting with has left one hell of a mark! The leg is cut right through! This apparently explains the limp she has.
She mentions that the black road means that someone has died. Is this the same black road my companions saw back home, I wonder.. and then my thought is broken by something else she says, "I wish Random had warned me".
Random was my father's name, the musician who died at sea. Or did he die at sea? Maybe Random is just a common name here? Either way I don't have time to chase some man who may or may not be my father, not when Japan needs my help. This Cordelia goes to bed, in another bed is, apparently, the queen of Amber. If I knew what Amber was I'm sure it would be quite exciting.
My new
companions and I settle in for the night. I took a blessed shower to
wash away all that dirt and volcano ash, unfortunately before checking
whether or not there was a towel, which there wasn't. No matter, it's
so good to be clean again! What a long day it's been! If I wasn't so
exhausted I'd probably find it hard to sleep tonight after all this
madness.
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| Hero of the Hour - Kohaku | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |