Preon looked at me curiously from the armchair beside the fireplace.
“We took a nice walk through the forest. Nothing special.”
I didn’t lift my eyes from the embroidery I was struggling to sew, focusing as hard as I could.
“Mmmh. You shouldn’t wander too far from the village. The forest can be dangerous.”
For a moment it sounded exactly like my aunt Cana speaking.
“I was told dangerous animals are never around in winter anyway, since they hibernate.”
I answered without thinking, but even without looking at him I could sense Preon’s reaction, like he hadn’t expected that answer and felt slightly offended.
He stood up without saying anything else and added two logs to the crackling fire.
“Ah!”
Preon nearly jumped.
“What? What is it?”
“I want to go to the library to look for some books.”
Now that I thought about it, maybe somewhere there were books that could help me translate the text.
“Now?”
“Yes, now.”
Preon looked at me with a resigned expression.
“I’d say it’s a bit late today. Why don’t we go tomorrow morning?”
“But I-”
“Tomorrow morning.”
His tone left no room for argument, so I decided not to insist. After all, the library wasn’t going anywhere.
“Alright, alright. Tomorrow.”
For the rest of the evening I kept practicing my sewing while Preon moved into the kitchen to wash the dishes and make sure everything was in order.
The next morning greeted us with a light snowfall.
Preon told me he would go out with Tao to cut some firewood, so I headed toward the inn alone carrying the ancient text, a few blank sheets of paper, ink, and a quill.
I opened the door on the right and admired the books inside with satisfaction.
There were many. So many.
I had never really thought about it before, but perhaps there were even too many for such a small village.
But at that moment I had other things on my mind.
“Well then… let’s get to work.”
I had no idea where to start or what exactly I should look for, so I randomly picked a book from the shelf in front of me and opened it.
I heard someone knocking on the library door, which was still open, and footsteps approaching.
Tristan stood in front of the table where I was sitting, buried under several piles of books.
“Am I disturbing you?”
“No, not at all. Actually… I should probably tidy up this mess. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Let me help you or you’ll never finish.”
“Well… thank you, then.”
“Have you read all these books? You’ve improved a lot since you arrived.”
“Read them? I wouldn’t finish them in a thousand years. I’m doing research.”
“What kind of research? Maybe I can help.”
The offer tempted me, but I wanted to succeed on my own.
Then I looked at the chaos of books around me and sighed.
I would never manage alone.
“The problem is that there are some words I can’t read, and I want to understand how to. They’re strange… it’s like they’re familiar, but at the same time completely unknown. Do you know what I mean?”
“Hmm… not really. Can you show me an example?”
I thought for a moment about how to explain it, then looked at my paper.
“Ah, here. Like this one.”
I wrote one of the human words on a blank sheet and showed it to him.
“That word should be… hmm… right. Bond. It means bond. I’m pretty sure.”
It struck me as odd that even he hadn’t read it easily.
“Is it really that difficult? Even for you?”
“Of course. That’s a word written in the old human language from a few hundred years ago. We don’t use it anymore. Though there are books written in that language somewhere around here.”
That made sense. The Elvish part was written in a dialect that probably wasn’t spoken anymore either. Humans must have changed their language too. I should have thought of that earlier.
“So you can read it?”
For a moment I started hoping I could translate the entire text.
“Knowing a few words and knowing an entire language are very different things. I’m sorry, I don’t know if I can be much help. But why do you want to learn our old language anyway?”
“I don’t really want to learn it. I just found some sentences and got curious about their meaning.”
“Oh? In which book did you read them? Can I see?”
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Still a bit hesitant, I handed him the page with the original text.
He scratched his chin and ran a hand through his curly hair.
“No, never mind. I barely understand anything here. And I think it’s not all human, right? Didn’t you write the translation above each sentence in your language?”
His words made me freeze.
That… actually made sense.
Maybe the same text was written twice, in different languages.
I had been so convinced it was a single text that the possibility had never crossed my mind.
“Right!”
I jumped to my feet triumphantly.
“Thank you so much, Tristan. You’ve been a huge help.”
He looked confused but shrugged and smiled.
“You did all the work. Anyway, I almost forgot why I came here, we’re preparing lunch. Want to eat with us?”
I gladly accepted.
We finished putting away the remaining books and joined the others at the table.
With a satisfied stomach, I returned to the library.
I placed the sheets on the wooden table and sat down.
The text consisted of ten lines, five in Elvish and five (as far as we could tell) in human language.
That gave me some hope that it might truly be the same text twice.
With all the concentration I could muster, I began translating the words that seemed simplest and most familiar.
After nearly reaching the point of tearing the papers apart for the third time, I decided it would be better to take a break.
My legs felt stiff as I stood and stepped outside the inn, welcomed again by the softly falling snow.
Snow looks like tiny crystals. How beautiful. So bright…
I looked around.
Part of the snow-covered village was sparkling as a ray of sunlight filtered through the clouds.
I started walking in circles in the square, stepping through the fresh snow and leaving my footprints everywhere.
Soon I began laughing and running around by myself, completely carefree.
I spun too quickly, slipped, and fell onto the ground.
I stayed there, out of breath, with no desire to get up.
Above me were gray clouds and snowflakes falling softly onto my face.
Like crystals…
I closed my eyes and focused.
Hmm… crystals…
“Of course! Crystal!”
I jumped to my feet, more carefully this time, and hurried back toward the inn.
I brushed the snow from my clothes before entering and returned to my seat in the library.
“Where the sky is blue and the rivers are crystal.”
I wrote the sentence proudly on the paper alongside the rest of the translation.
Another line was finished.
Only one and a half remained.
I studied the page to take stock.
Where the sky is blue and the rivers are crystal
and every living being is free
…
flee toward the light and find peace
so that one day …
I couldn’t quite understand what it meant, but it sounded almost like the description of a place.
The sentences didn’t seem unrelated.
Surely the human lines were their translations.
But the word "bond" Tristan mentioned wasn’t in the line below. Maybe he was mistaken?
The text started in human language, so the corresponding Elvish line should have been the one that said flee toward the light and find peace.
None of the words resembled bond.
I’ll ask him again later. Maybe seeing the translation will help him remember.
Without losing heart, I kept reading the remaining words again and again, hoping inspiration would strike like before.
“Hello, my friend. How’s the translation going?”
Liz entered the library looking curious.
“I finished.”
I waved the paper proudly in front of her nose.
“Aaaah! What does it say? What does it say?”
She grabbed the sheet and tried to read it, but after two seconds she handed it back with a disappointed look.
Of course she couldn’t read Elvish.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you want to read it?” I teased.
She pouted and gave me a fake threatening glare that didn’t convince me at all.
“Ahem. May I have your attention.”
I stood up, held the paper in front of me, and began reading solemnly:
“Where the sky is blue and the rivers are crystal, and every living being is free. From man turned into a savage beast. Flee toward the light and find peace so that one day I may embrace you again.”
“Oh. Right… so… what?”
Liz looked at me as if expecting the explanation.
“So… I have no idea.”
I sighed bitterly.
The first two lines and the last two could make sense together, but the third one seemed completely unrelated.
“Maybe the human sentences are important after all,” I muttered.
“Human sentences? Wasn’t it written in your language?”
“Actually, no. Look…”
I searched through the papers and handed her the original text.
“Only half of it is Elvish. The other half is in your language.”
“Oh, you’re right. You couldn’t translate it because it’s old human? I can’t understand it either. Honestly I don’t know how long ago the language changed… but why don’t you try asking my parents? Maybe they’ll understand something.”
Her suggestion shocked me.
It hadn’t even crossed my mind.
Not even Tristan had thought of it.
Of course older people might know.
Cursing myself for overlooking something so simple, I gathered my things, thanked Liz, and ran toward Bianca and David’s house.
By the time I left their house the sun had already set, not because the translation had taken that long, but because they had filled me with questions… and delicious cookies.
I admired the fully translated page in my hands with satisfaction.
We who invoked the distant land,
where the sky is blue and the rivers are crystal,
where serpents run with the wind
and every living being is free.
She who protects us from the world of blood,
from man turned into a savage beast.
Little soul born from the bond of two,
flee toward the light and find peace.
My child, return home soon,
so that one day I may embrace you again.
I still didn’t understand what it meant.
Even Bianca and David said they had no idea what it referred to.
But at least I had made progress.
Maybe one day I could return to the cave and find more clues.
Even though the mystery remained unsolved, I felt satisfied and walked home thinking about when I could continue my research.
“There you are at last. How did it go? Tristan told me about your translation work.”
“Great! Look, we translated everything! David helped me and explained all the human words! Isn’t that amazing?”
I happily showed the paper to Preon, who read it with curiosity.
“What does the Elvish part say?”
I read the entire text aloud, translating it into human language, and enthusiastically told him where and how I had first found it.
“So the ‘nothing special’ from yesterday involved an adventure inside a magical rock?” Preon said, half amused, half scolding.
“Uh… women’s business. You wouldn’t understand.”
I gave him my most innocent look and he rolled his eyes.
“I’m going to start preparing dinner. Will you help?”
“Yes, sir.”
I jumped to my feet and followed him into the kitchen.