glowfic | between then and know

It has words on it. They aren't in any language she's ever heard of, of course, but they are words, written very tidily in an unfamiliar alphabet.

Glen isn't worried by this.
She'd have been more surprised if the words were in a language she could understand.
She takes out the translator and slowly turns the pages of the book, one by one, giving the translator information to work with.

When she's finished with this book, she'll take out the smaller one, and let the translator record it too.

The first book contains quite a few diagrams and illustrations. Some entire chapters seem to consist mostly of abstract figures drawn in beautiful coloured inks and enclosed in neat circular outlines, each accompanied by one or two paragraphs of text and a legend labelling the colours used.

At the very end of the book, the final appendix begins with a copy of the sixteen-connected-circles figure from the front cover, each circle filled in with a coloured ink and labelled with a name. This is followed by a lengthy and currently indecipherable chart, of which the first sixteen entries are marked in the same coloured inks as the correspondingly labelled circles. If she thinks back to opening the chest, she might recall that these sixteen colours also match the marbles that rolled out of it.

(The second book has more of the feel of a journal, in contrast to the first book's professional tone. Whoever kept the journal had very neat handwriting most of the time, but they still can't compare to whoever wrote or printed the first one. Interestingly, although the journal-keeper wrote no charts and drew few illustrations, here and there the journal contains one of those abstract circle-enclosed diagrams.)

Edited 2016-01-18 15:52 (UTC)

Glen finishes going through the books and sets the translator down. It could take a while, depending on the complexity of the language.

The diagrams will provide some context, but it won't be enough. The translator will need to rely partly on trial an error. It's so much easier to decode a language when native speakers are available.

If the translator doesn't make any progress in the next few hours, Glen will return to the books herself. For now, she wants to explore the surrounding area. She drops off the books first.

The surrounding area continues to be just as dead and just as flat as it was yesterday. It will be very easy to find her way back to this hill, because it's the tallest thing in sight from any direction.

Glen decides to climb to the top of the hill.

Edited 2016-01-18 16:01 (UTC)

From the top of the hill, she can see:

The shorter hill off to the west, with its pool of slightly gross water.

A black blotch in a dip in the ground to the northeast, which might be a pit or a discoloration or something else, it's hard to tell at this distance.

A faint glimmer far off to the east which is either quite a lot of water or a mirage.

A dark smudge close-ish by to the south, near enough to be categorized pretty definitively as a hole in the ground.

As for the hill itself, it is much the same on top as it was around the sides: a mix of dry cracked earth and solid grey rock, with many smaller rocks distributed throughout the former.

Glen takes a panoramic image, and then clambers down the hill and starts walking to the hole.

The hole: is a hole. Its edges are loose and crumbly, probably not safe to walk near; there is water at the bottom, taking up the last foot and a half of an approximate five-foot depth. The water looks even grungier than the stuff from the hill-sheltered pool, and there's less of it.

Hmm. Well, she won't die from thirst. But food looks like it's going to be a serious problem.If there isn't life around the only sources of water she's seen, there might not be life anywhere.There is oxygen in the air, which suggests plant life, but that might be long dead or hundreds of miles away.

Maybe there will be insects inside the dead trees? The bones might have edible marrow, though the idea makes her feel ill.

She circles the hole, keeping a safe distance form the edge.

Edited 2016-01-18 16:48 (UTC)

Under an overhang at the edge of the pool, visible only from the opposite side, there is a small pile of what are either white sticks or more bones. Apart from that, nothing interesting.

A rope would have been useful, as would a bottle. She can put some water in a plastic bag though.

Glen gets as close to the edge as she dares and looks for a way down.

No good way to climb down there without caving in part of the edge. It probably wouldn't be too bad if she did cave in part of the edge, but there's definitely a risk of injury.

Glen wants to inspect the objects, but she really can't afford a broken leg.

She decides to head towards the glimmer in the east.
If there's life, it will be near water.
She'll walk for an hour, keeping an eye out for any living things, and see if the glimmer appears any closer.

The ground has a gradual downward slope in this direction.

Eventually it becomes pretty clear that there is, in fact, a lot of water ahead. Either an ocean or a very large lake. But it's farther away than the hill she just came from, and at an increasing downhill slope: it could easily take her another hour and a half to walk there and then four or five hours to get back to the hill.

She debates whether or not to continue.
She already has found water, shelter, fire, and clues about this world.
It could be a bad idea to leave that behind.
On the other hand, she can get back before nightfall if she really needs to.
She can't afford to waste time here. Her food is very very finite.
If there's nothing edible near or in the water, she needs to know that as soon as possible.

She forges ahead.

Dead trees, dead trees, a small sinkhole she has to detour around, so many dead trees, a dip in the ground of unknown depth filled up almost completely with sun-bleached white bones, even more dead trees...

At last: the ocean, or possibly lake. At its edge, the dry cracked earth transitions into pale golden sand. There is nothing growing along the shoreline, at least not visibly.

The water is nastily cold, although after this long of a walk at this temperature she might very well find it refreshing. And it's much clearer and nicer-smelling than the stuff from the hill-pool and the hole-pool.

Glen heads to the water and dips in fingers in and touches one to her tongue.
Is the water still? Is it clear? How far in can she see?

There are gentle swelling waves that mostly don't obstruct the view through the water, and it's clear enough that she can see the bottom for about thirty feet out if she stands just above the line of wet sand where the waves strike. In that interval, there is no visible sea-life of any kind.

The water is too cold to taste of much, but definitely salty.

Edited 2016-01-18 18:58 (UTC)

This isn't good.
Glen doesn't want to go swimming, so she decides to walk along the shore, heading North.

The shore curves slightly, wobbling inward and outward in long arcs.

There's not a whole lot to see except dead plants and water.

How dead are the dead plants?
Glenn digs up a couple, looking at their roots and seeing if they have any seedpods or dried fruits.

They look pretty dead. The roots are dry and brittle; there are no obvious fruits or seeds.

Well, this is just wonderful.
She takes out her translator. It's not finished, though it does seem to be making progress. It had tentatively identified several common words and the basic grammatical structure.

She decides to keep walking along the shore. Maybe there's something to see, and she'd hate to make a return trip.

She'll head back to the hill later, at an angle that will intercept the odd splotch she saw from the hill.

Edited 2016-01-18 20:48 (UTC)

There is nothing to see along the shore except more shore.

The odd splotch, when she gets close, turns out to be a pit so deep that even with the sun high overhead she can't see the bottom. It's maybe ten feet across, irregularly shaped, and since most of the edge is made of solid stone it's even safe to walk right up to. Probably.

(The translator, meanwhile, has verified to its satisfaction that this language uses a base 16 number system. Now it understands all the numbers.)

Edited 2016-01-18 21:03 (UTC)

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