Krafft's Notes on Anomalies

William never thought he would come here for the second time so soon.

Maybe after months of torture, things finally turned around. Soon after they separated, he met a local villager who said he was willing to lead the way down.

Not wanting to be delayed by Kraft's attitude, I was anxious about not being able to get in in front of the treasure house. There may be other reasons, but I couldn't think of so many at the moment. As if his feet were moving on their own, he stepped over the solid rock of the mountain again like inertia, lit a torch at the entrance of the mine, and went straight into it.

By the time he realized that he was a little too impatient, he had already stood at the end of the mining area again, with the slightly stooped old man walking in front.

With the flame of the torch swaying in his hand, William stopped here, subtly thinking whether what he was doing was unreasonable, but found nothing. The sailors behind him stopped and waited for the captain's instructions.

When he heard the footsteps stop, the old man turned his skinny neck with protruding bony spines, twisted half of his body, and pointed at them the clear specks of the turbid eyeballs sunk in the shriveled eye sockets. The barrel-shaped chest with distinct ribs stretches out the loose clothes, and you can see the deep depression that is no different from other local old men. The loose skin on the front of the neck sinks, which inexplicably reminds William of a broken sail entangled in a broken mast by strong winds.

Considering his age and physical condition, this old man should not have been able to continue working. He was not very familiar with this new mine that had only been used for a few years. However, a surprising force supported this seemingly shaky body, and it climbed up the mountain path that was difficult for young sailors to climb without stopping, taking every step accurately in the cave where light and shadow intersected.

"What's wrong? Can't bear to part with two silver coins?" His voice was a bit sharp, like the sharp end of a pickaxe scratching the surface of a mineral crystal. The sour tone seemed to be mocking, or it might just be that his throat was being eroded by dust in his difficult breathing. .

This feeling made William very uncomfortable. The age of the guide made it difficult for him to believe that he had worked here, but he had not tripped over any uneven ground along the way. This was only a problem for an old man with dim eyes. It may be due to experience.

"Have you really mined here? I heard that this mine has only been in use for a few years."

"No." The rickety old man opened his mouth, and the mouth with few remaining teeth seemed hollow. When William and others felt that they had been fooled, he continued the second half of the sentence, "Because I didn't come here for those stones, but I promise to compete with others." Everyone understands it, including further down.”

He raised the torch with his wrinkled hands, and the half-extinguished burning material loosened and fell, and sparks wandered on the black soot. "Come on, I know where you want to go, a place where those people will not take you."

The light of the insufficiently used torch gradually dimmed, but the old man had no intention of replacing it. He crossed the deepest trace of human beings here - a small groove where the torch was placed, and headed towards a deeper and more primitive part, as if he didn't care about what was behind him at all. people.

Several people looked at each other and followed him before he walked away.

The sound of footsteps echoed in the deep red mine tunnel, and the slope became steeper as it went deeper, leading into the interior of the mountain. It reached the point where one had to pay attention to the stability of his footing to avoid losing his balance. But the old man was walking on flat ground here, and his speed never slowed down.

As William and the sailors struggled to keep up with his pace, few had the energy to notice that the red color was fading instead of deepening with depth. When the second torch was lit, they suddenly realized that the descent time had already exceeded the time from the foot of the mountain to the entrance of the cave. They left the red iron ore distribution layer and walked in the cool-toned passage.

Not only the red color, but also the annoying dusty yellow color that had been accompanying them everywhere for many days was also fading away. The gray and pale dry rock material squeezes in from outside the cave wall, excluding the main color that dominates the ravines and low mountains.

The old man put down the crude torch, and the flames on it were completely extinguished. The entangled burning matter dissipated, leaving only the bare stick.

He didn't prepare the second one from the beginning, and he still walked straight forward after it was extinguished. William followed closely, trying to help him light the way ahead, but then he found that he didn't need it at all.

The rickety figure stood outside the circle of light, half-body leaning into the darkness, but his steps were more steady than those illuminated by torches, and every step was solid. It was as if the mine tunnels here had stairs specially laid for him. He went down step by step at a distance that was just right for him to see and lose him at any time. If he took one step slower, he would be out of sight.

Maybe it was because his clothes were a little thin, but when the gray-white color began to penetrate into the cave wall, William felt a chill that was like soaking wet. It's not that it's moisture, but that this kind of coldness cannot be blocked by clothes like ice water. The wetness seems to turn the cloth into an accomplice of low temperature, sucking away heat from the body bit by bit.

Just like a torch, they left the southern hills and arrived at...

They couldn't tell where it was. Even though the Iceberg had arrived at many large and small ports between the center of the kingdom and the ice fields, this kind of cave had never been seen by William. It belonged alone here, underground in the southern hills covered with thick dust and yellow rocks. A heterochromatic gray-white rock formation that is more barren than barren.

It first appeared in the form of mold spots, like when checking the food storage in the cargo hold and touching a cabinet door that was not locked last time, and pinpoint white spots grew on hard biscuits and bacon. An inexperienced and sloppy sailor would just close the cabinet, but a seasoned sailor knows that when you find the first cluster, it means that there is something else entirely beneath the surface.

Down below, that grayness spreads, crowding out the yellow rocks for more space underfoot, on the sides, and overhead. It is not like iron ore integrated into the mountain and dissipated, but oil and water are layered with clear boundaries.

A sense of déjà vu came over him, and William traced back to the weirdest and alien part of his not-so-distant memory. They had just experienced a very similar scene last night - walking along a long, dark road, standing at the alien boundary between yellow and white. in front of colored rocks. But he didn't have much time to stop and think. The old man had no intention of stopping and resting. William could hear his chest pulling like a bellows, breathing deeply.

The steps were carried faster and faster, walking on the yellow and white ground. This transition was extremely short. It felt like it was left behind in just a short while and completely entered the gray and white rock formations.

William pinched his nose and felt that he was getting smaller. He followed the cavity through the strange-smelling flesh, looking for the intact flesh below, but fell into the long white mold. There was nothing here that he wanted, and some kind of The texture is a mixture of dryness and deterioration, resembling loose gray-white bones that have been exposed to the sun for many days. The surface is covered with dust, and there are vaguely striped creatures drilling through the top, creating holes for entry.

He was distracted. In the urgent follow-up, William didn't understand how he had such rich associations. It originated from memories. The rocks of different colors up and down at the end of the mountain road had some kind of symbolism, and they were like this on specific occasions. It is clear and guides people to think in that direction. In the gray-white part, there are long links that are neither snakes nor insects, and the strips are winding, connecting the two poles of dusty yellow and gray-white.

"Old Goli! You are Old Goli!" William shouted towards the front.

At the edge of the halo, an old and thin face turned darkly, opening its toothless jaw. The firelight illuminated the mouth and the bottomless cave behind him, and the ischemic mucous membrane was as gray as a rock wall. A horn-like reverberation sounded from his throat, or from a white, hollow place deeper in the cave. The vibrations were conducted by the rock wall and the cold current coming from nowhere. It was so close and amplified that it made people unsteady and shaken. Falling off rocks and dust, extinguishing torches.

The vibration was winding and long, coming from some kind of huge body that pushed through the rock formations.