The Island (Part I)
I stood there, stunned, for the next few minutes. Finally sense came to me and I decided to take refuge inside a building. I entered the library and looked around…in the middle of the room I saw a stand. It looks as if it were designed to hold the Tablet. At least one thing was for certain, Esher did not acquire a hold of the Tablet and that comforted me after he revealed who he really was to me out there in the storm. When I looked up I took notice that all of the books on the library's bookshelf had been removed, and that nothing but dust was held there now. Two hundred years earlier the books that had rested on this shelf were burnt from Sirrus's and Achenar's act of evil. Though after their burning of the books a few remained intact. Those that Atrus believed to be most valuable were hidden in locations throughout the island…locations that now seemed to be inaccessible. I now peered over at the empty shelf to the left of the bookshelf. A large black spot was positioned in the middle of the shelf, a mark of the evil committed by Sirrus. The black spot was created when Atrus burned the linking book to Sirrus's prison age, Spire. On the outer rim of the burn was a small spot of red…probably a piece of the red fabric that once covered the linking book to Sirrus's prison age. A similar scene appeared at the other shelf across the room, except for that there was a small piece of blue fabric from the cover of the linking book to Achenar's prison age, Haven…but although both of the books were destroyed it wasn't the end of Sirrus and Achenar, their ages had still existed, only those particular links had been destroyed in Atrus's anger.
The next place my eyes shot to was the fireplace, too bad I didn't remember the code used to turn it around…if it would even turn around nowadays. There was probably no power supplied to it, nor even if it had power the gears may have been too rusted and degraded to turn it. The next thought that occurred to me was what if Atrus had left a linking book in one of the secret locations on the island. I made a mental list in my mind of all the places I could remember. The fireplace, the gears, the cabin located on the now capsized ship, the book behind the glass in the rocket ship, and I couldn't remember the last one, but I did remember that all of the places on the island were listed on the map located in the library. I turned around to look for the map, it was not where I had expected it to be though, it had been knocked down since the abandonment of this age. Thankfully the locations were all lit up on the map.
"Of course!" I thought, "…below the tree elevator! That won't do me any good though, there's probably no way to get down there now…besides…I never liked the Channelwood Age." The only thing left I could think of to do in the library was to check and see if I could open the secret hallway behind the bookshelf that had once led to the Tower of Rotation directly behind the library, but unfortunately the pictures that moved the bookshelf out of the way had been removed. So I left the library and reentered the storm.
Down the way I could see the old clock tower and the log cabin through the trees, but since the rocket ship was just to the right of me I decided to examine it first. As I approached the brick and stone walkway to the ship a lightning bolt struck the power line leading from the generator room to the ship, causing sparks to fly out and the sound of the thunder nearly knocked me off my feet. Truthfully this place was actually eerily peaceful, except for the occasional loud crack of thunder. There was a certain romantic, as in the artistic style, feeling to the entire island.
I clung to the hand ropes that lined to walkway to the rocket ship. The wind at this end of the island was far more intense than it was back in front of the library or down at the dock. Perhaps the storm was increasing in strength, or perhaps I was starting to weaken. Anyways, I made myself over to the interior of the rocket ship, luckily enough the door to it was open and I was able to step inside. The controls for the "lock" the was used to hide the linking book to the Selentic Age had been reset…I could move the controls but I could not remember the correct combination, even if I did there's a good chance that nothing to on the other side of the window that lay directly above the controls. He turned around to face the back of the rocket ship. The organ, or piano, or whatever it was as still there too. Except when I placed my fingers down onto the keys the notes did not play.
"So much for that…" I said. The only sound I could hear besides my voice was the sound of rain when it was hitting the metal roof of the rocket ship right over my head. I've always loved that sound, it brings back happy memories that I can't exactly place. Kind of like the way a smell can remind you of something very familiar. After watching the lightning strike the other clouds in the sky from the interior of the rocket ship for about the next ten minutes I felt fatigue grasping a hold of me. After all it had been a long day. I lied down on the floor of the rocket ship and tried to pull the door closed, but I managed only to get it about halfway. So I gave up on the door and slept.