311 Little Paradise (2/2)
”I remembered tearing up in happiness back then.” Raven chuckled as he remembered the memories fondly.
That was the moment that Raven dropped his guard for the first time and returned to his old self. The peace of this place gradually washed away the exhaustion and provided him a home that he had been longing for. He recovered and lived like a mortal. He made the hut his home, fished for food, took a bath at the stream, read books under the shade of the trees, made friends with a deer and so on.
He gradually forgot about it all, and for some period of time, he was tempted to drop everything. His revenge, the pain, the memories, his vows, his struggles, his pursuit of strength. He wanted to move on and forget about it all. At some point, he thought that dying in place like this isn't so bad of an ending. He wanted to rest so bad and just embrace the peaceful environment around him.
”Come to think of it, that is the scariest thing about this place.” Raven muttered, ”It is so peaceful. So much so that it convinced me to lay down and slowly wait for my death.”
This place made him forgot about what's outside, at some point his mind was telling him that what he experienced in the wilderness is nothing but a long nightmare. His mind kept on telling that it is not real, and this peaceful place is the reality. Here he was safe and sound, far from the dangers and pains.
But Raven's will, which was sharpened by his experiences, prevented him from running away from the truth.
”Well, it's not like this place doesn't have any secrets anyway.” Raven chuckled and stood up from his seat. He then gave furniture a simple gaze and chuckled some more.
As soon as one entered the hut, they will be welcomed with a simple interior. It's wooden walls were empty and the wooden floor was neat. There is a circular table in middle and four wooden chairs. There is a bed and two pillows stuffed hay along with a small drawer on the side. On the left wall, there is a window which could be opened by pushing it up and attaching the suspenders on the bottom rim of the window.
All in all, everything inside this hut appears normal. But what gave it away, is this one book hidden under the bed. Something that Raven never thought was there in past.
The book was a diary of an unnamed person. It contained regular entries, detailing what that person did everyday. However there are two things here that made Raven's suspicions rise.
One would be the fact that the diary was written in Elven language. In the past, Raven was so used to speaking and hearing different languages that his brain noticed this late. The other thing would be the last that the last entry in the diary was from a thousand years ago.
These two things bothered Raven so much in past. He thought that whoever lived here was probably an Elf, which would make sense as to how nature was teeming with vitality here but if that's so, then where did this person go?
Raven never saw any evidence of the death. He also tried blaming it on time but he couldn't since if a Elf died, then he should've seen the remains even after a long time. Elven people have an astonishing vitality, their bones should stay around even after a long time but Raven saw none. And he also refused to believe that this person just buried themselves somewhere.
Raven also knew that this person should have no way of getting out of this place since there is no particular entrance or exit here. In past, Raven was dropped here by a big flaming bird. In this lifetime, he had to make an entrance and that didn't even last long.
This also raised another question for him. If the last entry on the diary was from a thousand years ago, then how come the hut didn't accumulate even a speck of dust?
It had been unattended for at least that long, the fact this hut was still intact after that long is a miracle on itself.
All of this raised Raven suspicions in past, and this caused him to search for clues around to solve his mysteries.
He search the whole place for clues, every single tree, flower, and animals. He even search the bottom of the stream but found none. He searched high and low only to make fun of himself since he had been an idiot.
The clue that he was searching for, was under the bed.