L.O.S.T

Chapter 2

“Ty, please come out…” Quentin pleaded from the other side of the door, I purposely barricaded it with Seto’s bed and a bunch of chests I found lying around in the corner of his room, and no one was going to disturb me right now. I heard loud huffing come from the other side of the door followed by a muffled thump. I can assume Quentin is resting against the door.

“I’m not leaving until you come out!”

“Good luck with that…” I muttered. I sighed as I sat at Seto’s cluttered desk, it was a pain to navigate around all the books, but I didn’t want to move them. I know Seto hates it when his stuff is moved around because he complains being unable to find anything when things aren’t how he left them. I know Seto isn’t here right now, but it comforts me if I act like Seto can still get mad at me from wherever he is.

I’ve been searching for some sort of clue since the funeral, which was four days ago, and I have found absolutely nothing. Nothing! Even for Seto this is one hard puzzle. I’ve gone through every book in his library, even the ones on his desk, which I carefully put back where I found it, and nothing has struck me as odd or out of place! No riddles, hidden messages, concealed spells, the only place I haven’t looked are in those chests and Seto’s netherwart farm, but what would be there….

I sighed and leaned back in Seto’s chair, I could hear faint snoring coming from the other side of the door, Quentin…. He fell asleep; well this is the perfect opportunity to get something to eat. The loudest gurgle erupted from my stomach as it agreed with my thoughts; I crept quietly to the corner where Seto’s bed used to be. When I had moved it to create my barrier so that no one would disturb my peace, I found that Seto had a secret hatch that leads all the way to the kitchen pantry. This must be exactly how Seto would get food so he could work long hours in his room and never starve.

I bent down, grabbed onto the wooden latch, and heaved upwards with all my might, this thing practically weighs a ton but Seto probably uses magic to open it. I wonder when he even put this in, heck how we never heard him! The hatch came off with a groan and I stumbled backwards as I stopped myself from falling and making too much noise, I didn’t want to alert Quentin that I was doing something. Resting it against the wall I quietly climbed down the ladder, I had to personally install the ladders because before I fell down the hole peering over the edge trying to determine how far it was. And let me tell you it was a pain to climb back up, sometimes I envy Seto’s magical capability he doesn’t have to worry about this stuff.

Following the dimly lit path, that I also lit myself, I climbed up the other ladder that would lead me to the false wall in the pantry. When I had first found this, I almost couldn’t find the wall again because it hides itself so well when you place it back. I listened quietly for any noises around me and when I was satisfied, I pushed out the wall in front of me and walked out. I rested it against the wall and stumbled for the lever to turn on the lights. Once the lights flickered to life, I looked around and started to grab some food from the chest, apples, carrots, some porkchops, etc.

“Dammit, he just won’t come out! Not even just to speak and no matter how hard we try he always slips past us and gets food!” I heard Adam yell, at least a few feet away.

Shoot, I thought to myself I hurriedly used my shirt as a little bowl to hold the food and quietly closed the chest, “Calm down Adam, he just… needs a little time,” that time it was Jason, they were even closer now. There was a pause before Jason spoke up, “Hey Adam, did you leave the pantry light on?”

I was right by the light switch but now I couldn’t turn it off, I hurried tried to make my way to the passage. Why does this pantry have to be so big! Literally, it is huge and I was on the complete opposite side of where the passage was located, “Uh no…”

Almost there! I dropped an apple, thump. “Ty!” Adam yelled, fast footsteps ran to the pantry, I dropped a porkchop in front of me and slipped on it. This caused me to skid all the way to the passage; I fell forward, not having any hands to stop me from falling sucked. The door swung open and I dashed to my feet spilling all of my stored goods out of my shirt, “Caught you!”

Busted….

I turned around slowly and edged in front of the passage, I hadn’t put the wall all the way back because I wanted it easier to find, maybe they won’t notice it. Adam was glaring at me pointing a finger as he leaned into the pantry; Jason was behind him frowning, not at me but not at Adam either, just frowning in general.

“Dammit Ty, you stow away in Seto’s room for days and sneak out when we aren’t looking to go steal food. We keep a watch on that door everyday yet we can’t figure out how you get here, why are you doing this to us!” I leaned back onto the wall and pushed it in all the way, I watched as Adam stormed towards me.

I put on my best, ‘I don’t care’ attitude, “What gives you the right to stalk what I do?” I huffed.

“What gives you the right to act as if you’re the only one who cares about Seto; we’re all just as upset that he’s gone as you.” Adam grumbled and grabbed me by the wrist as we walked out together, Jason followed behind us.

“That’s not what I think Adam; I’m just the only one willing to look for answers.”

“Well I have a whole team to look out for, and we all have a job,” we stopped walking, already out of the kitchen and in the main hallway that lead to the meeting room, “Now that we’ve caught you don’t think we’re letting you out of our sight.”

I wrenched my arm from Adam’s grasp and he turned to face me, “Don’t act like my mom Adam, I don’t need to be watched, just leave me alone.”

“No Ty, I won’t, you’re delusional, Seto’s dead but you don’t want to accept that.”

“Don’t make me the messed up person here! If anyone is delusional it’s all of you, you feed yourself lies and try to hide your suffering. Well as the leader shouldn’t you be ‘thinking of the group’s well-being as a whole not one man.’ Why don’t you get your priorities set and stop worrying about me!”

I spun around before Adam could say another word and ran off, I heard Jason yell to me, “Ty! Wait!” I heard one pair of feet chase after me, must be Jason. Maybe I was to mean to Adam, no, he deserved it. I ran out of the front door to our base and past the fence line stopping at the Great Oak tree that rested not too far from the base. It was tall with a huge trunk and leaned to the left; I climbed up it and rested in the lowest branch, letting the breeze calm me down.

Seto loved this tree, said it reminded him of a story his mother used to tell him, a story about a little boy who cared for a tree since it was a seedling. The boy gave the tree so much love and care that it grew fast and was stronger than any tree that anyone had ever come across. No one could cut it down. One day a riot broke out in that little boy’s home and as the town burned, the boy ran to the tree. He had nowhere else to go and the tree welcomed him warmly, wrapping the boy with its leaves and branches and protecting him from the fire. When day broke and the fires died down the boy was released and while the boy was unharmed, the tree was horribly scarred. The tree had focused all of the love that made it strong into the area the boy was so that the boy wouldn’t burn, the tree withered away the next day and the boy mourned for the tree. After the town was rebuilt, the boy made a grove of trees there to honor the one that saved him and he called the grove The Heartfelt Grove.

Seto told me that he wished this tree was that tree from the story. I remember laughing at his and telling we should just name this on Heartfelt. All of this happened before we formed TeamCrafted, but we made the base close to it so Seto could go there when he wanted to.

“I knew….you would be….here….” Heavy breathing came from below me and I jolted up from my peaceful thoughts and fell out of the tree. Looking up I saw Jason smiling at me, he held out a hand to me and I took it. He pulled me up and then leaned against the tree.

“Come to try and bring the delusional kid back also?” I muttered, he looked at me funny then laughed.

“No silly, I came to just talk, I realized maybe what you’re saying is true. Maybe it is us that are running away; maybe we are the delusional ones.” I look at Jason, shocked, I forgot how understanding and easy to talk to Jason was. He’s there for everyone really, and maybe the others are right in a way too… I hate to admit it, but smiling hasn’t really been our thing since Seto left, nor laughing either, but Jason here goes and does both. Though I don’t like the funeral at all, maybe it did some good to them. Finally getting the chance to smile.

“Sorry…” I murmured quietly, saying sorry is a hard thing for me to do honestly, but I had to this time, I owe all of them an apology.

“For what?” I watch Jason tilt his head in confusion.

“For acting so rash and stupid, I’m just stupid, stupid, stupid…” I sighed, “I keep dragging you guys into my problems, I’m just really--”

I was cut off as Jason pushed himself off from the tree and walked over to me. He thumped me lightly on the head, “Sure you act a little bit rash, but you’re not stupid so don’t go calling yourself that,” I rubbed my head as Jason told me that, “and don’t think you are dragging us down, you’re not, we’re just worried about you. We care about you Ty so keep on ‘dragging’ us down; we’ll follow you to the end.” Jason made quotation marks with his fingers when he said ‘dragging’ as he made his point across.

I nodded dumbfounded by his words, Jason laughed and said, “Come on, let’s go back.”

We left Heartfelt and made our way back to the base, not even 5 minutes later a huge gust of wind stopped us both in out tracks. The trees began to thrash around furiously and Jason and I ducked down shielding our faces from twigs and dust being flung around.

“What is going on!” I yelled to Jason, I have no clue if he heard me or not because the next thing I knew the wind had stopped. When I looked up, I was alone.

Alone.

In a dark void, I was floating aimlessly, I felt no ground, I felt no air, but I felt freedom. No noise, just quiet bliss, I walked and I walked yet I couldn’t tell if I was moving. Where am I anyways, why am I here?

A bright white light flooded my vision, I squinted my eyes and shielded my vision with my hand, but no amount of covering could get rid of the light. As quickly as it had come it had vanished, in its place was a….bird? It flew closer and I realized it wasn’t a bird, but a piece of paper folded to look like one!

It was right in front of me, I held out my hands and it gently floated into my palms. The deafening sound of wind exploded into my ears again and I clutched my ears. Shoving the piece of paper in my pocket, I scrunched my eyes shut and ducked to my knees as I waited for the noise to stop.

The air around me was quiet; the only noises I heard were faint voices, almost like whispers. I jolted awake and sat up abruptly, my forehead connected to someone’s face and we both cried out in pain. I fell back down onto the bed I was lying on rubbed my forehead. Quentin came into view, with an obvious mark forming on his blue skin.

“Jezz your forehead is like a rock, someone remind me never to stand over Ty when he’s unconscious,” Quentin remarked as he grabbed a bottle of cold water and pressed it to his head.

“Ty! You’re awake!” Jason rushed over to my side and I turned my head to look at him, this time I sat up slowly.

“Uh, yeah, what happened?” Adam, Mitch, and Jerome were waiting by the front of the infirmary; this is where Quentin tends to the injured. Quentin is really good at being a doctor having vast knowledge on herbs that help pains and stuff like that.

“After that weird gust of wind came you fell on unconscious, I had to carry you here when the winds died down,” Jason answered my question.

“What, you didn’t see what I--” I started to say something but then stopped myself and thought back to what happened. There was nothing but darkness, and then a blind light and a paper bird…. My eyes widened as I realized something, I reached towards my pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, “N-no way!”

“What?” Jason asked me and the others looked up curiously and walked over.

“T-this shouldn’t be in my pocket!” The piece of paper still resembled that of a bird, “I got this in my weird dream I had after the weird wind came forth.”

“What!? Isn’t that like impossible?” Mitch asked.

“Not if you can use magic,” I carefully unfolded the piece of paper. When completely unfolded it appears to have been ripped out of a journal of some sort, and on the paper was some hastily written notes. I bought the paper closer to my face and read aloud.

“Run, the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning starts here. Chief! Cacti are pricking our men to death, help. Shiv, bring me my shiv, if you don’t we’ll die, and I won’t let it end! The bandits are here sir. Defend the village with your lives it is not time! Now, do it now or move. A success, leave the gate open. For Orbit! Yea victory is near! Calm down, don’t stop. Zero enemies sighted sir; I think this is a little iffy. Pedro, keep an eye on the forest, for your thoughts are very grim. Roger that, oh wait we’ve won now! -SS”

A/N I know what you’re thinking, wtf was that?! Just calm down, no matter how silly and retarded this looks; there is a clever-ish reason why this is here :) Let us see if you can figure it out. Though, truthfully I suck at making puzzles so it’s ok if you can’t figure it out I: lol

“What the heck was that? Jason did you accidentally hit Ty’s head when carrying him here?” Adam said, I noticed Mitch and Jerome holding back giggles.

“What? Hey! I’m right here and I didn’t make that up, it’s literally written here!” I shouted back to Adam.

“Let me see,” I handed the paper to Adam and I watched as his eyes scanned it over, "You're right, but how do I know you didn't write it?"

My arms shot up in anger as I yelled, "Oh come on Adam, can't you at least trust me me a little bit, I'm not joking when I say I got it while unconscious."

Adam sighed, "Right, then who is SS?"

I opened my mouth to say I didn't know until an idea hit, "Wait let me see that again!" I jumped out of infirmary bed and snatched the piece of paper from Adam.

"Hey, I didn't say you could walk around you butt, I haven't finished the examination," Quentin huffed at me.

I rolled my eyes and said, "Don't worry, I'm fine... but I think I know who sent this."

"Who?" Mitch and Jerome said at once.

Looking up I grinned at them, "Seto," then I dashed out of the room and ran to Seto's room. The others had followed me.

"Seto!" Adam exclaimed behind me, "What proof?"

I was feeling around the wall by Seto’s door looking for something as I replied to Adam’s question, "This note is signed by someone called SS, and SS means Seto Sorcerer."

"Well it could be--" Adam started but I turned to face him and cut him off.

"Will you stop doubting me for once in your life?" I hissed then turned back around as it found what I was looking for. My nails hooked into the hardly noticeable dents in the wall and gently pulled out. The wall began to move and I removed the panel to reveal another entrance into Seto's room.

"Holy Notch! Was that always there?" Mitch yelled I nodded as I climbed in.

"Can you hand me that?" I pointed to the panel resting against the wall and Mitch handed it to me before they realized what I was doing.

"W-wait Ty! You're not gonna wall yourself in again are you!" Adam screamed as he banged against the wall when I didn't answer he said, "Will you at least come out for lunch. Ian made your favorite," he pleaded. I felt bad but this is the first lead I've had on Seto, and I have to figure out what it means even if it looks silly and sounds silly.

Seto always has a reason to everything he does, it's no different now.

I hope you enjoyed Chapter 2! :D This is really fun to write, tell me what yo think so far and what you think will happen next. I'm curious :)

IDK when Chapter 3 will come out, but I am already working on it lol. :D

~WrittenDarkness