Thursday, October 02, 2003

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**WORK IN PROGRESS ~ DRAFT ONLY**

Cruz waited patiently for the phone to ring. There was no question the call would come today. It had been 10 days since he had spoken to Carey about the book they found in the ruins. The forests of Northern New Hampshire were full of dilapidated settlers camps and cottages, stone circles and wells left by residents long moved on. When they had been hiking that day Cruz and Carey had been thinking of nothing more profound than fresh air and perhaps an idea for their AH401 seminar paper.

When they sat down on a crubling foundation formed from lichen covered field stones to break out their lunch kits nothing but talk of the game last week and parties planned for homecoming was on their minds. "You going to the Omega Moo jam this year?" Cruz asked, pulling the cap on his Aquafina bottle.

"I don't know" Carey said. He crubmled up his napkin and shoved it in the pocket of his pack. "Lynn wants to go but I really hate chick parties."

Cruz snorted and tossed the plastic cap at him. "That's cause you got a chick, idiot."

Carey laughed. "Whatever." He leaned down to pick up the cap that had fallen down into the rocks behind them and saw a flash of white in a crevas. Reaching in he felt around carefully and realized that it was a book.

Carefully, Carey brought it up and set it gently down on the rocks. There was nothing but an inlaid gold symbol on the dark leather cover. No words on the spine either. The odor of wet leather and mold assailed him as he opened the book feeling the smooth leather and stiff pages resist under his fingers.

"What ya got there, man?" Cruz peered curiously over his power bar wrapper at his friend.

"What's it look like?"

"Shut up. I mean what's in it?"

"I don't know yet, I'm trying not to tear it up."

The brown pages were stuck together in spots and crackled loudly as Carey gently leafed through. Rune type characters, strange drawings and formulas in a bizzare script covered the pages he could safely separate.

"Just looks like an old grimoire to me. Probably a witch or shaman lived here a hundred or so years ago and this wall is where they hid it. These woods were full of 'em."

"Is there anything in there that would make a good seminar topic?"

"Hell if I know, man. I can't read runes."

"I'll bet the prof can. She loves that crap. Take it back to her. At least we can get brownie points for digging it up and 'showing the proper scholastic interest' in it." Cruz laughed again and pulled out one of his extra t-shirts. "Here, wrap it up in this and we'll put it in my pack. You're too lame to carry that kind of weight anyway."

Carey shot him a menacing look and took the shirt. He spread it out on a rock, layed the book down and wrapped the book securely. Then he put it in his own pack and stood up to pull the straps up over his shoulder. Taking a moment to get his bearings Carey said "You better hope I don't get back to the car before you do, chump." And headed off back up the trail to the parking lot.

Cruz scrambled to secure his gear and get his pack settled while he was heading up the trail behind. "You suck, man."

As they were cresting the hill, Cruz still felt something in his pack poking into his back so he looked around to adjust it a bit. Suddenly, a furious flapping of black wings surrounded his head and Carey heard his scream from up the trail.

posted by Kimber at 11:20 AM :: ~#~

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