And it comes with an illustration!
A small book. That’s all she had really recovered from her old life. It was enough though. The small book was just enough to put a smile on her face and let her relive the happiness of that time, if even for a short moment.
Truthfully, Sil was supposed to be watching her troupe rehearse. They had a show scheduled for the weekend, and normally she liked to get in as much practice as she could. However, instead of watching to catch any fumbles or mistakes from the performers, the young shape shifter was engrossed in the small leather bound book in her hands. It was a journal. Sil liked to keep log of all the expeditions she and her two partners went on. Every once in a while a small smirk would appear, or it would seem that the woman was trying to hold back a laugh. She would be careful in turning the pages, afraid that seventy-five years’ worth of aging would not be kind to the poor book.
Sil paused after turning another page, pulling a photo from the inner binding of the journal. It was just as old as the book, and the entire image was in shades of brown and gold. There were three figures in the picture, two young women and a young man. They were all sitting on the floor, examining a map in between them. Obviously someone had snuck up on them with the camera, as none of them quite looked like they were ready for the picture. Sil put her hand to her mouth, letting the journal fall to her lap, trying hard to hide the surge of emotion that rushed her.
“Who are they, Mademoiselle?”
Sil jumped, twisting around to locate the origin of the voice. When she discovered it to be Ace, the resident magician, she relaxed and turned back around. “Well, the one in the middle is myself.” She explained. Sil noticed Ace sit beside her, and could see a slightly puzzled expression on the boy’s face from her peripheral. “This appearance is rather new. Changing faces helps me to avoid discovery from certain people I would rather not like to encounter.” Honestly, Sil had never really changed disguises much before she escaped from Gothique. She kept the same appearance for years after she left her community. Returning to her explanation, Sil pointed to the other two figures in the photograph. “The woman there is a vampire by the name of Eliza Hurns, and that is Joel Linden. He…” Sil paused, giving it thought. Joel had been in his twenties when Sil knew him. There was no doubt in her mind that he had passed away by now, as he would never allow Eliza to change him. “He was human.” The woman finished, giving a bit of a sad sigh afterwards. “They were my partners back when I was a professional treasure hunter.”
Looking back down to the open journal, Sil gave a bit of a chuckle. “Ah. I remember when this was taken now.” She set the photo back on the page, not really needing it for the story. “Our usual employer, Vladimir Von Helson, had hired us for a job that required us to travel deep into the Otami Jungle…”
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Hot. Hot and sticky. That’s what it was, and she did not like it one bit. The fair haired woman trudged behind her vampiric partner as she sliced her way through the thick jungle brush. Every once in a while she would pick up her feet enough to step over a rock or a fallen log that was in the way, but other than that, she just trudged behind. The two women had begun their trek early in the morning, but it was well past noon by now, and the heat was starting to show its ugly face. This only made the humidity more and more suffocating, and the insect population more and more present. The vast amount of mosquitos didn’t seem to be bothering the vampire woman ahead of her, no, they stayed clear of her and fed mostly off of Sil. She smacked yet another flying pest off of the side of her neck, giving a bit of a grunt in annoyance. “You know, we did come here on an airship. Why did they not just drop us off closer to the location?”
Eliza paused for a moment, soon shrugging and returning to hacking at the vines and limbs in front of her. “Most likely because it’s covered in plants. They probably can’t see it from above.” This was true. Apparently the ruins hadn’t been touched in a couple of centuries, so it would make sense for it to be invaded with vegetation. Nature was strange like that. Once the outside interference was gone, it didn’t take long for nature to return and take over once again. Eliza quickly ducked down, covering her head as a bird flew out from the brush she was just about to cut.
Sil watched the bird fly off, chuckling a little to herself. “So how much longer do you think it’ll be until we get there?” From what they had been told before arriving, they were in search for ruins that lay deep within the jungle. Explorers had found it weeks previous, but they were not able to get within its inner sanctum to find out just what treasures it hid. Lord Von Helson knew that the two treasure hunters had fit into tougher places, so he hired them to clean it out and bring back whatever they had found to him. It was a typical job, one like they had gone on many times before.
While they were stopped, Eliza pulled her canteen off of her belt and took a swig at it. The dark haired woman scrunched up her nose, twisting the cap back on and hooking it back onto her belt. “Urgh. I don’t know why Joel always gives me watered down blood.” She then took her pack off of her back, opening it up to dig in it to locate the map.
The shape shifter looked around, crossing her arms loosely. “Because blood is expensive right now, Liz. Besides, you’ll get more hydrated from water than the blood.” She shrugged a little. “And the blood would probably go bad pretty quickly in this heat anyways.” Sil couldn’t help but laugh as Eliza childishly mocked her in protest. There were some definite advantages and disadvantages to being a vampire. The immortality and super quick healing were probably great, but always being hungry for blood must have been a chore. It was also probably a lot harder to get said blood now, unless you wanted to risk being hunted down and staked. No, for the vampire that wanted to keep out of trouble, their precious life source came at a hefty price.
It was another moment or so before Eliza finally fished the map from her pack. Why it took so long was a mystery, as it probably should have been at the top of everything. The vampire unrolled it, scanning the marks on the paper that show just where they had already traveled. She lifted her head, looking up ahead of them, then back down to the paper. “Well…” She paused, pulling an old compass from her pocket. “If we keep heading in this direction, it should be about another half hour or so.” She stood back up, rolling up the map once again and turning to look at Sil.
“Hrmm.” The shape shifter pulled back the corner of her mouth, thinking. “We’ve been out here since five this morning. From what the explorers told us, we should have been there by now.” A bit concerned, Sil pulled her pocket watch out, flipping it open to check the time. She soon looked up to Eliza though, with a look questioning just why the vampire was laughing.
Eliza pointed the rolled up map in Sil’s direction, still chuckling lightly. “Well, if you hadn’t wanted to stop earlier at that river, we would have been there by now.” She started laughing again when Sil gave a huffy, puffed out cheek response. Shaking her head, she pulled out her machete once again, starting to hack away at the foliage before her. She didn’t notice the glare that Sil was giving to her back, but she could hear the young shape shifter grumbling as she followed.
The rest of the hike went on fairly quickly, as the two women found themselves joking and messing around with each other the rest of the way. Sil found herself not really paying attention to what was going on in front of her as she and Eliza spoke, she was merely following the sound of her voice and footsteps. She probably should have been paying more attention, however, as she soon found herself running into Eliza’s back, sending them both toppling down to the ground. Sil gave a squeak in surprise, quickly pushing herself off of Eliza and started to apologize.
Eliza gave a bit of a chuckle, pushing herself up as well. “Its fine, Sil. We’re here, though.” The two women looked up to the ruins ahead of them. It was towering, and Sil wasn’t quite sure how they hadn’t seen it before. It managed to block out the overbearing sunlight, which left a giant shadow over the small clearing. Vines and other forms of flora cascaded down the sides of the ruins like water, almost completely camouflaging it against the jungle around it. Eliza looked to her partner with a toothy grin, getting up to her feet and heading for the entrance.
Adjusting her pack on her shoulders, Sil followed closely after. The entrance wasn’t blocked off by anything, probably from the explorers that had been there previously. It was easy enough for the two small women to slip in and drop their packs for the moment. Sil gave a small bit of a nervous chuckle. “It’s probably going to be hotter down in there than it was outside.” She commented, trying not to make the whine in her voice obvious. Eliza didn’t seem to care, as she just opened her pack and started digging through it. The closest walls of the ruins were lit up by the sunlight, but looking down what seemed to be a corridor, it quickly led to pitch black darkness. Sil turned to dig into her own pack, pulling out a long flashlight to help illuminate the rest of the area.
The two began to make their way further into the abandoned structure, looking around at the various designs and etchings on the wall. The path ahead of them was fairly straight forward, but Sil could see Eliza making marks as they went along, just in case. The vampire glanced over her shoulder, looking back to Sil. “The explorers said that they had to stop pretty close to the entr-AAH!” Quickly, Eliza disappeared, vanishing into the darkness.
“Liz!” Sil dropped her flashlight, lunging forward and hitting the ground at the end of the pit Eliza had dropped down into. She grabbed onto the vampire’s wrist, having to shift the muscles in her arms slightly so that she didn’t lose her hold.
“Sil! Sil let me drop!” Eliza called, a sudden excitement filling her voice. The shape shifter blinked quickly a couple of times, a look of confusion on her face. When she looked down into the pit, she could see the glitter of Eliza’s flashlight reflecting on something at the bottom. It sparkled with a gold tint, and a smile crossed Sil’s face. Was this really so hard for the explorers to reach? They must not have been very good explorers then. Sil leaned forward into the pit a little, lowering Eliza more until she felt comfortable enough to let her drop. She then turned around to grab her flashlight, following her partner into the room below.
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“It turned out that Eliza had broken the floor into the chamber below. There was another way into the room, and the explorers who had been in there previously didn’t know about the short cut.” Sil gave a small chuckle, shaking her head. She looked back down to the photograph in her hand, chuckling a bit more. “It took us twelve trips to get everything out of there.” Once again, she paused, actually laughing this time. The laugh died down, and the woman gave a small sigh. “We didn’t think we would be able to get the airship off the ground. Von Helson was impressed. Very impressed. He let us keep about thirty percent of the treasure we found.” A soft smile spread across the woman’s face. It wasn’t the smile that she normally gave people, usually filled with ulterior motives, but an actual smile. Genuine. Happy. “Eliza wouldn’t let us complain about the cost of blood for months afterwards.”
Flipping through the pages of the journal, Sil quickly skimmed over to writing, checking to see what other sort of adventures had been written between the cover. She stopped on the last page with writing, however, a confused look dawning on her expression. The last entry was written in someone else’s hand writing, and was dated far later than the last entry Sil had added herself. The date was from around twenty years ago, and as Sil began to read over the text, her expression dropped.
Dear Sil,
I don’t know when or where this letter will find you, but I hope it finds you well. I certainly know that I have seen better days. It’s been right around fifty-five years since Eliza and me have last seen you. Eliza still searches adamantly, but I am not in the health for such a venture. I know you are still out there somewhere, Sil, and I wish I could have gotten to see you one last time.
After your disappearance, Eliza and I continued treasuring hunting. We were employed full time by Mister Von Helson, but after a few years, the work just didn’t seem right anymore. Not without you. Eliza still works for the Von Helsons, though her treasuring hunting days are over with. We still kept in touch over the years, and no, I still would not let her bite me, no matter how much she wanted to.
We managed to track down your community at one point in our search. They were exactly how you always described, Sil. We were in awe, and even more amazed when they seemed to be much more welcoming than we ever expected. They told us that you had not been seen since you had originally left them, and they had no information where you might be.
I just hope that you know we never stopped looking. We never gave up hope that you were still alive and looking for us too. It was written in my will that if someone by the name of Sil Alsopp were to appear, that this journal would be mailed to her. In the back you’ll find ways to get in touch with Eliza, if she hasn’t found you already. More than likely I will have passed on by the time you receive this. I hope that your Great Spirit watches over my soul like I know you always asked her to.
My biggest regret is that I’ll never be able to see you again. I wish you all the happiness the world can offer you.
Love, your dear friend,
Joel Linden
Joel Linden
Sil was silent. She stared at the pages, reading the words over and over again. She knew that Joel wouldn’t be alive, but it still struck her like sudden news. Her hands trembled as she tried desperately to hold back the tears that sat on the edges of her eyes. During her time at Gothique, Sil had always assumed that her two teammates just never bothered to look for her. That they thought she was dead and didn’t try.
When she spoke up, her voice was quiet and shaky. “Ace…” She paused, unable to get any sort of words out at first. “Will you please go get me a picture frame?”
