Krafft's Notes on Anomalies

In the endless darkness of the night, in a simple shelter made of dirt and dusty yellow rocks, Coop would recall the twilight hours when Craft left behind his hasty instructions.

…

Coop opened his slightly stinging eyes and braced himself.

The flame of the linen wick danced, emitting the stench of burning fiber mixed with grease. If you stared at it for a long time, you would feel the black smoke from the flame hitting your eyelids, causing pain behind your orbits and forcing you to squint your eyes.

But just after squinting for a while, sleep flowed out from the corner of his head, and he pushed his forehead to the table without realizing it.

He had to find a topic, anything to prevent himself from falling asleep during the vigil. Peter, who was in charge of the second half of the night, had already fallen asleep and could not be disturbed. The only one who was still awake was a colleague who could not be called a colleague.

"Mr. Craft said it's best not to read in dim light."

As a person with no long-term academic development intention, Kupp firmly followed the principle of "almost enough", but Yvonne's behavior of flipping through the pamphlet in the middle of the night still gave him an inexplicable sense of oppression and created a desire to join. This urge to commit acts of self-torture.

He turned sideways and glanced at the booklet. The crooked characters were followed by something that was probably a simple drawing. The girl's instinctive frugality made her writing more crowded. The lack of auxiliary lines and the beginner's hesitation in writing, inadvertently created an additional encryption effect. .

Although the progress of the learning content was synchronized, Kupu just couldn't find any words he recognized on this page.

Yvonne obviously didn't want to listen to his preaching. When she saw him looking over, she closed the book naturally, just like in the past few weeks, it had become a habit, "When did you say that?"

"About..." Coop didn't expect that she would be more serious with him. He hesitated for a while, and then noticed that the girl opened the small book again nonchalantly.

No, you can question me, Kupp, but Kraft did say it right. He didn't want to be labeled as "faking Kraft's quotations", even if he thought about it.

Coop tried hard to recall for a moment, and accidentally found a scene when Yvonne was about to turn the page, "About the time in Solace Harbor, not long after you arrived."

She shifted her gaze from the booklet and looked at him with some suspicion.

"I remember it was night, and Father Adrian only lit one candle, which couldn't illuminate the entire table." There was hesitation in the tone at first, and then it became faster and faster, like the lips being opened and closed with formed words. , "We were all present when Mr. Craft said that."

The chat was indeed effective. He felt that he was temporarily out of his drowsy state, and his spirit became active in thinking. He described the situation at that time along with the remaining memory scenes that had mostly collapsed.

He happened to have some impression of this, just like he had a vague understanding of those two words when Kraft asked, blurted them out, and then doubted himself.

"Ah." Yvonne opened her small mouth and spit out a modal word with a bit of surprise at the end. Maybe, maybe, probably it was because of such an incident. After being reminded, she had almost no memories.

For Kraft's sake, close the book and stuff it into the small package.

But she hasn't thought about what to do next. She has long since passed the childhood period of sleepiness all day long, and she is not as tired as an adult. Today, with her mind, she also sensed that something big had happened, making it difficult to sleep.

Due to her age, she couldn't help, and her energy could only be used on the only "business". After putting down the book, she squirmed left and right in front of the table, fidgeting.

Coop acted like an elder and continued the topic. In fact, he wanted to say that this matter was not a day or two ago, "You have a lot of time, there is no need to rush, and Kraft is not an impatient person."

And he probably never thought of arranging any work for you, Coop thought. He came into contact with people in the academy, and the youngest Lucius was about the same age as him.

Considering that Yvonne started late, only Kraft would agree to the request to "study medicine" and start teaching reading and writing from scratch, at least a year or two. He didn't even dare to think of how many years it would take to "help".

The time cost and the money that will be invested will be a lot. Generally, small businessmen's families may not give their biological sons such an education. Yvonne Tong Yanwuji really dared to mention it, but Kraft actually agreed.

The speed of this moment and a half is nothing compared to the investment in the future, so there is no need to rush.

Thinking about it now, if I had said "I want to learn too" at that time, maybe Kraft would have agreed?

Coop shook his head to dismiss the nonsensical thoughts. He never felt that he was the material. Answering two words at once was just an accident. As an adult, there is no comparison with the mind of a child.

"Don't worry," he repeated sincerely, "no one will take anything from you."

Yvonne lowered her head and remained silent. Sometimes what drove her was more like a lingering sense of insecurity. Kupp could vaguely sense that nine out of ten people in the Yantide area who had prematurely lost the care of their previous generation were like this. Obsessed with expressing one's own "value".

The intuitive expression is to compare with others. No matter what it is, there just needs to be a visible standard.

This cannot be explained in a few words. He moved the chair to the wall and leaned against the dirt-covered wall to make his back more comfortable.

"Thank you," the girl said after a long silence, "but I still want to do something. Can you tell me what happened?"

"As you can see, Captain William got lost in the mountains, and Mr. Craft has to go and find them." The process is correct, but the specific execution details are a little bit different.

But he had a kind of blind trust in Kraft. He couldn't tell where this trust came from, from the feat of facing the wriggling light directly, or from the subtle influence of daily words and deeds.

"No need to worry."

Because there is no point worrying.

Looking up at the narrow window high up, there are no stars or moon in the night sky. There is no reference point. I don't know how to define the first half of the night. I hope Peter can wake up consciously and take over.

Coop took a nap, feeling increasingly sleepy, but not wanting to fall asleep. That face lingers in the memory, as if it will emerge from a blind spot outside the light at any time.

There is also the face on the rock painting, the boy's face, which is repeatedly thought of during relaxation, alternating in the form of indeterminate images, sometimes overlapping each other.

At that moment, he felt that the boy was somewhat close to a certain broad and flat face on the rock painting. The face shape was obviously very different, but there was a similarity like a blood connection, like a middle-aged father and his son standing together.

"How strange."

"What's weird? I always feel like you didn't tell me everything..." Yvonne put her hands in the air on her chest. This action seemed to be imitating Kraft, who would do this when he had nothing to do and nothing to take. Doing it, with her image it is really impossible to create that inexplicable sense of ritual like prayer.

"Dong dong dong!"

The two looked at each other, and then looked at Peter together, making sure that the sound did not come from inside the house.

"Dong dong!" The knocking sound that interrupted the chat sounded again, coming from the door. "Is anyone awake? I left something at home."

They remembered the voice as that of the house's original owner, the sturdy woman who wielded a mining pick with ease.

Yvonne was going to open the door, but was held down by Kupp who stood up quickly. She looked back in confusion and saw him covering his mouth and making a "silence" gesture.

【go there】

He pointed to the small and hard-to-notice space under the bed where Peter was sleeping soundly. Half of the luggage was piled there. The remaining space was not big enough for an adult, but could barely accommodate a child.

"What is it and where is it placed?"

Kraft didn't like choruses, and Coop had his own pet peeves, and doors and windows that made noises in the middle of the night were number one. The knock on the door swept away sleep and took your breath away.

Coincidence? The homeowner who had just moved in next door happened to have forgotten some essential items.

Only when invisible, these thoughts are so active, driven by fear that they may not even be aware of. Combined with those unreasonable things and the mysterious totems of paganism, they guess the worst possibility.

Turning behind him, he realized belatedly that he wanted to ask someone for advice. There was a flood of darkness outside the door, and the gloomy night could hide the worst contents and their associations deep in his memory.

[Now this is a place I can’t take care of]

"Hell." Coop muttered to himself. From the moment the gate gate was lowered, he was the one in charge here.

quick! He made a gesture to Yvonne, walked to the bedside first, pulled out Kraft's mixed bag, and made way for her.

Peter woke up with the bed shaking and his mouth being covered. A belated response came from the crack of the door, "Firewood, I need to get some firewood."

The guide looked confusedly at the sky outside the window and shook his head to deny the possibility of local habits.

"Please, open the door. I have to come in to get some firewood. I won't disturb you too much." The voice sounded a little pleading. It was the woman who took them to the mountain in the morning.

"Okay, wait, at least let me put on some clothes." Coop took off the hammer from his waist, looked around, and handed Peter a stool.

Kraft couldn't care less this time, but the good news was that his hands didn't shake.

A new fantasy book with a werewolf as the main character. It feels very good. Interested book friends can check it out. (˙▽˙)