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| Goatswood |
This is a 12-part story, originally posted at iRez. It's part of the Avatar Blogger Month event and featured at the Avatar Blogger Crossfit exhibit at LEA11.
9. The
Priory Ruins
“What? You
mean in here?” The innkeeper could hardly believe it. The solitary tomb at the
Priory Ruins belonged to an abbot who died a few centuries ago; he was said to
walk the streets of the village at night.
No one
really enjoyed wandering in the darkness, chancing to bump into a centenary
spectral appearance, so the tomb could be a safe place. “We can easily slide the lid,” said the
stationmaster confidently. It was not the first time he strolled through this
place and Augustus was seeing a different side of his friend, a more undaunted
one. “We could drop the box in here. It’s only bones and dust. See?”
“I see, I
see, but… Somehow I think this might not be the right place, Ernest. What if
someone…”
“Decides to
come over to an old tomb with the lid partially open and go… oh, look, a strange looking box
without an opening?”
His friend
was right, Augustus thought. The likelihood of anyone coming up with the idea
that this was a good hiding place was very dim. Besides, it was dark and the
ruins had a dire reputation when it came to ghostly entities.
“We should
try to open the box before we leave it here. You have the key,” whispered the
innkeeper, turning the box around a few times and shaking it. Only its weight
betrayed the fact that it seemed empty. “Are you sure the key goes in this box?
I don’t see a keyhole.”
“I am sure.
Remember when I took my vacation last year?”
Augustus
nodded, suspicious of a slight movement in the shrubbery, probably from the
wind.
“Well, I
went to the library in the capital and found out that this is a Japanese Himitsu-Bako,” he proceeded to explain.
“A… what…?”
“Himitsu-Bako. It means secret box and it
has a few tricks before you can open it. Look.”
Ernest
started sliding a panel on the side of the box, that panel exposed a small
crevice that the stationmaster pushed, which made a small square panel click.
“See? It’s
like this until you can finally open it.”
“I still
don’t see a keyhole, dear friend.”
“It’ll
appear, when we move the right pieces in the right direction and in the correct
order.”
“Have you
opened it already?!” Augustus thought that Ernest looked way too confident for
someone who was doing this for the first time.
“Oh, no, no.
I have managed to find only a few of the correct moves, but not all.”
A sudden rustling
of leaves in the back silenced the men immediately. It was completely dark by
then and the slightest noise could be heard as if a storm had broken out. For a
long minute or so they just stood beside the tomb, silently, waiting. Their
eyes were adjusted to the dim light of a crescent moon, but they couldn’t see
anything out of the ordinary.
The windows
of the Mansion, overlooking the small patio between the Church and the ruins,
let only bits of light go through the thick curtains, far from enough to bring
light to where they stood and even less to their ideas.
“Ok, let’s
hide this box before someone shows up,” said Augustus back in command. “We’ll
come back for it when the train leaves.”
The
stationmaster agreed.
While the two walked away, certain of having accomplished their goal, a
shadow crept from inside the tomb, holding the Japanese box.
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