//------------------------------// // The Book // Story: Worlds in Words // by Ravenmane //------------------------------// This all began a year ago when I had a vision. In it, I saw a cleft, a crack in the Earth out in the desert. A few weeks after that I got a letter regarding a group in New Mexico. The group was interesting and I was curious. There were pictures in their letter, ones I had seen in my dreams. It made me more convinced that I should come and at least see what the thing was about. I was not the only one who had these kinds of visions; I met others after coming to New Mexico who shared these dreams, or visions. Some described a great desert bird, others about a dead city deep below the ground. The one thing that linked us all together was the cleft. We were taken out to the site in several jeeps and buses. The area was blocked off with barbed wire and ‘No Trespassing’ signs but this was our place, a site of some of the most curious things we would ever see. I was part of the first team, a group willing to delve into the unknown and bring back what we could find for everyone else. We brought back tablets with strange text and various tools back to the surface. What we didn’t bring back up was even more interesting: books. In these books was more of the strange writing but also a panel, the panels would show us amazing things. I was the one who hypothesized that the panels showed us the text made visual. This thought made us start to consider what this civilization was capable of. Everything we had sent to be carbon dated was ancient, tens of thousands of years old. The deeper we went into the caves beneath the cleft the darker it became and the more wondrous the civilization became. After three months, we had followed a cave system into a great shaft that went straight down for miles. Some fastened ropes and climbed down, others found stairs and walked, but I was with a team that grew fascinated with a device we found on the far side. It resembled an elevator, but we were not sure if we should try to operate it. If this was as old as everything else then it may break if we tried to activate it. In the end, I volunteered to try it out. It was shaky at first, but the elevator worked perfectly and what would’ve taken hours to scale instead took minutes. When I reached the bottom, I found myself in a great hall. With a large pack of supplies on my back, I set off down it. After walking for a few hours, I came across a grand cave, like a large bubble in the earth. As others joined me, we began to explore the cave, eventually finding ourselves among a dead city buried underground. We found power and running water down here, but also some low technology, like skiffs moved by oar. The city had many new artifacts that we sketched and brought back for others to see. Over the next few months, we set up our own community down here. Using the city’s lights, after we figured out how they worked, we began to grow food hydroponically. The lake in the city had surprisingly clean water, and that became our water supply. We puzzled out which buildings were houses and took up residence in them. Journal Date: January 3, 2011 This is my second journal after coming to the settlement. Most of my money has gone into following this project. I believe, since my first journal is gone, I have to be even more careful now that I have a small building all to myself. I had lost my first journal to a cave-in, and with it, all the things I had written of. I will try to be brief for now. The team that studied the text has made a nice little translation book that helps some. I can read the books a little now, but I don’t have a full grasp on the people as a whole, there just isn’t enough information. Samuel, my neighbor, was one of the first to try something we called linking. I was partially right about the books with the panels. Samuel told us all of the things he saw after touching the panel in the book. We were all curious about these books, but some who linked were never seen again. This had put me off the prospect of linking for quite a while. I had the city to study, such strangeness I had never seen in all my years as an archaeologist. Technologically they were advanced, at times even as far as we’re concerned. Stonework, using bio-luminescent fungi as lights, and a few things I can only speculate about. Not to mention the strange method of movement that is in some of these books. Before adding in the books, they appeared to have unusual ways for compensating with the fact that they lived so far underground. Journal Date: May 10, 2011 I have isolated myself from the group, my own work now a more pressing matter than the group. After the last time we lost someone, I became more convinced that they were growing too impatient. Our numbers have swelled, but our intellectual numbers are shaky at best. On my own, I have come across a vast library, filled with curious books. Among these books is what I can assume to be a plethora of study. One book is curious though. It is about a foot thick, eleven inches wide, two feet long, and it is one of those linking books. I am afraid that I will have to study it sometime. Journal Date: June 26, 2011 I’ve managed to decipher the last of the books in a set. This is the library of a strange scholar. He wrote several of these linking books for others. Those who took them abused the books by taking the inhabitants as slaves or drained the worlds of resources. The journals go on to mention this book. According to the journals, the colossal linking book that now sits at my bedside is his only non-tarnished world. Amazing things these linking books, if it is even possible, to make worlds then this would be the greatest accomplishment on Earth. Even if it only works part way and simply makes a way to a preexisting world then this is beyond anything we could ever imagine. There was an advisory on the last page of the final journal: there is no going back, take one with you. I managed to find a second book, one that appears to return here, I have tested it already. I think I should prepare myself before the trip. Inks, quills, pens, books, food, water, all will be required. Journal Date: June 30, 2011 I, Professor Nicholas Creed, will not be taking this journal with me; I’ve decided to leave it so I can look back and laugh at my own expense when I return. This linking book is unusual: it has no name, no number, no coded markers, or anything. I’ll give it a proper name when I return. If someone has come to find me, then I wish for them to know they will have no way back, unless they take it with them. ***** I put the journal down and opened the nameless book, turning to a page with the panel. It exploded into a plethora of shades of green and a stone ruin came into focus. I hesitated for a moment but did like, I had seen others do, I pressed my hand against the panel, vanishing from the place I had called home in a flash. The trip was instantaneous, seeing as how I now stood before a large stone ruin. I set my pack down and fished out a flashlight, managing to glimpse the heavens as well. The thick forest wasn’t the only reason it was dark here night was upon me. My adaptation to the dark cavernous city helped me see, if only barely. Now that I had a better view of it, I would give a cursory guess that it was either a large temple or a castle. I cautiously walked inside. As I looked around I saw several broken stain glass windows and everything’s lower level of focus brought me to the conclusion that the average inhabitant was shorter than I am. I came across a large mosaic after exploring for a few more hours. “Well,” I muttered, “no humanoids in this mosaic. Journals said sentient life.” My eyes narrowed on the mosaic in a more accepting train of thought. “Equines perhaps?” Everywhere I went in the building confirmed that the best possibility of a sentient species is this equine race. However, this is a ruin; perhaps they moved on, simply abandoning this place to the decay of time and plant life. I’ll make camp tonight and try to leave the forest in the morning. ***** I woke instantaneously to the bright sun. I spent so much time underground that my eyes got used to not seeing such a blinding light. After a few minutes of trying to get accustomed to the drastic change I found a shady place and ate some, I would need my strength for the trip ahead of me. Travel through the forest was strange; it gave me the chills just looking into it. The deeper I went, the more I felt like I was being watched from everywhere. I continued I tried to figure out this world, speculating what was lurking in the forest, and even why it was hidden. I had to get used to the occasional rustling in the brush. After a while, I saw a shape out in the distance, it looked like a horse so I moved towards it. A roaring back from where I came from made me run after about five seconds. Soon however, I was face to face with a zebra; with earrings? “What creature now comes before my eyes,” she said with a hint of surprise. Her ears perked, “one who seeks a place to hide?” I managed to nod; the rhyming meter threw me for a loop. “Yes, a hiding place might be nice if what that was is looking for me.” “Do not worry troubled one, soon it shall be gone. Dangerous things are deep in forest from where you have come.” Her reply to me was calm, and it helped reassure me of what I was hoping for. The roaring creature seemed to be going away from us. “I am new around here,” I said as I tried to calm down, keeping the method of getting here quiet. “Could you please point me towards civilization?” “Yes I can troubled man,” she pointed her hoof back behind her. “The path going this way will help you see this land.” “Thank you.” I walked away, following the path. It was nearly two hours before I was greeted by the blinding sun once more. With a hand shading my eyes, I looked out to the plains and a small town in the distance.