Galen - The Untold Tales of Frelanna Forest

Chap 41: Oswarth's diary

***Galen’s POV***

In the library, I found an old notebook being covered by animal skin. It had been there so long time that I just picked it in, dust slowly followed it and dropped to the floor.

On the title, it was hand-written “My diary - Oswarth Hartridge”:

“Very long time ago, when there was no history book mentioning it since it was beyond humanity’s discovery and knowledge, there was an ancient dragon who was famous as one of the strongest creatures ever seen - Azeas. Despite being a dragon, a monster with the size of a building, Azeas didn’t have the desire of destruction. Instead, it loves studying, seeking wisdom and knowledge of the world. No one could guess what the purpose of Azeas was, until today, I have discovered a terrible truth behind the origin of my family’s curse - The House of Hartridge.

18th April…

Suddenly I remember… When I was a child, I used to hear my father telling me a bedtime story. They were all unpleasant stories for my brother and sister. But oddly, I feel very curious about it and have decided to do research to see if his story could be true or not. That was why I have written this book, with the hope that someone could take it outside and reveal this truth to the world outside…”

Reading at this point, I released a long inhale. Why did Oswarth - my ancestor, want to bring this diary to the world outside and something happened to the house Hartridge that no one had ever known? I wondered, while continuing reading his diary in the cold darkness. Beside me, the weak fire lamp was put on the book shelf, dancing and lighting on the diary’s paper.

After this introduction, everything Oswarth had written was his research progress and was well written. I read them swiftly, until there was a page catching my attention. On that page, I didn’t write anything. Instead, it was replaced with a picture of a dragon and a human looking at each other. I could guess that dragon figure could be from Azeas, but the human in the coat… who was it?

“27th September…

That was Knen. Today, I just found out his name - Knen Hartridge, in a very old picture being found in this mansion’s library. I’m very sorry that I couldn’t know what his full name was, but we can be sure that it was also his family name. As far as I discovered, Knen was the very first person who owned this family name Hartridge. We never knew what his life was in the past. I just know he used to be a human.

One day, he had come to Azeas and asked a request to him. What was the request that Knen asked Azeas to do… If you are reading at this part, everything that I will be writing from now on would be just my theory so please do not believe it first and believe on your own instinct what the truth is:

I guess… Between Azeas and Knen, they both had signed a contract in order to discover this Enderland. Azeas was seeking wisdom, Knen was seeking the power from Enderland. Both sides had gained the profit. And so on, our ancestor Knen allowed Azeas do to anything to not only his body, but also the entire of Hartridge family members until this family tree would go extinct. We have granted the godlike power thanks to the experiments provided by Azeas: The synchronization of human body with a Ender monster. As the result, Azeas could get more knowledge about the flow of aura inside Enderworld from House of Hartridge.

But trading back, countless of our family members couldn’t handle the power of Enderworld and they ended up dying. I got this horrifying information after my uncle passed away five years ago. Afterward, I then saw his name inside the secret board inside the secret mansion of my father. There, the names of the family members dying from the failed synchronization had been carved there and I saw my uncle’s name was among them too….”

Reading at this part, I didn’t understand why I could feel the breeze being blown through the basement had become colder and colder. It also meant… the hidden basement in this mansion was around this library as well?

The following pages were Oswarth’s diary noting his life…

“6th November, an odd foggy day…

When I was eating lunch, my eldest brother asked his father a very surprising question: Where our mother is, and why she had never come back since he was eight years old. My father just looked at us, stared at us, silently yet very menacingly. I still remember how scary he was back then when my brother mentioned her. But eventually, he just gave a sight and answered us that she would never come back anymore.

As a child, I never knew who my mother was. Everything I heard about her was from my eldest brother, who had the slightest memory of her. He told me that our mother was a beautiful and gentle woman. But different than us who had silver hair, she had brown hair and a pair of topaz-colored eyes. However, 20 years ago, she suddenly disappeared from the mansion and left three of our siblings alone. We were now living with father. He was a good father, very caring us. But sometime, I do feel something ominous troubling him too. I could notice it through his soulless eyes, looked like he was carrying something invisible on his shoulders and he was needing someone to save him.

13th December…

As our guess was right. Today, our father guided us outisde mansion, led us to a empty terrain. He then suddenly went crazy and attacked three of us…

He turned into his Black Magic form - a giant horrible monster with black miasma and scary red eyes. He told us to kill him, before he killed us. In order to protect ourselves, we didn’t have other choice… but… yes we did. Even until now, I don’t want to believe that my hands had been splatted by my father’s blood…

14th December…

It sounds hard to believe but… When I’m writing this diary right now, I couldn’t remember what happened to me today anymore. I just remember that I just woke up and was about to go to outside mansion with my siblings, in order to do the proper funeral for my father. But then, my vision went blank and I coudln’t remember anymore.

But now, I’m having a very strange feeling inside my body. Something was moving inside my body. My arms, my legs, my stomach, my head,… Strangely, I could feel its existence and it is running through my body right now.

When I’m looking at my hand, it was spreading a black miasma, same like the thing spreading from my father and it began scaring me.

I don’t know what I shall do anymore. Something might happen right after my vision got blanked and this thing was stuffed inside me. Will it corrode me like my father’s fate…?

16th December…

Yes, that’s right. I asked my eldest brother about this strange feeling. So not only my brother, also my sister is having this same feeling. He explained to me that this is the curse of House Hartridge according to the contract of Knen and Azeas. The things living inside our body right now was the Ender monster and it is now in incubating phase. Once it had gone mature enough, it would be synchronization phase and this phase will decide our fate: If we succeeded, we will inherit the power of Black Magic. If we failed, we wouldn’t handle its power and ended up dying.

After hearing that, I didn’t know anything anymore and could just hug my brother, my sister and we cried together. We had decided to sleep together, so if somebody lost the control of the Black Magic, we would suppress our bodies to save each other. I do believe that the three of us would be alright!

21th February…

Today, my sister couldn’t handle the Black Magic and passed away…

I don’t have the mood to write a diary today. So let’s call it a day.

25th February…

I'm fine, after my sister’s funeral. And yes, my brother and I do found her name automatically being carved in Hartridge House’s basement hall. It was Azeas who did it.

Curse you, Azeas… Why… Why do we have to be in this fate?! Is this our fault to be born as a member of House Hartridge??

That’s why I have been longing someone who could end this suffer and save us please!!

9th September…

My brother had given up his life after 6 years being Enderlord. Today, it is my turn to become Enderlord…

Just right this noon, Azeas had come to me. Because my brother and sister didn’t have any children yet, so he forced me to kidnap a woman from the world outside to become my wife and have the next generation of children. In order to continue the Hartridge bloodline, I had to do that…

Upon becoming Enderlord, I also already give up my fate and would follow everything as he said. Yes… We are House of Hartridge… we are carrying the huge life mission which is contributing the discovery of Enderworld to the humanity outside. If this is for the sake of the other, I’m willing to let this body… this soul of mine sacrifying…”

No no no!! This is totally NOT right!! I mumbled when reading at this part.

But then in a sudden, I wasn’t aware that something was coming right behind my back…

Bang! With the experienced instinct, I immediately dragged myself at the side and crashed on to a book shelf nearby. The conflict earlier also made the fire lamp fall onto the ground and shattered, leaving my sight being dived into the infinity color of the black.

“It’s not the time to panic!” I thought, while trying to calm myself down. In the situation where vision became useless, the other sensations such as hearing, smelling and sensing were the most crucial. The flow of the breeze, the sound of something breathing and the terrible smell of the corpse, I got goosebumps when realizing that a monster had been lurking in this library!

However, if the monster was near the prey like this… why it hadn’t attacked me yet? In this case, there could be a possibility that the monster couldn’t see me either and it detected the enemies by the vision. In this case, I just didn’t need to cause any noise, slowly pass by in front of its face and escape this library. If I remember correctly, Oswarth used to write that there was a hidden secret way leading to the hall carving the names of the dead Hartridge family members. Then it be that monster was being placed around this area in order to protect the hall…

I picked a coin of money from my pocket and quietly threw it far away at the corner of the library. Kieng… As the coin dropped to the stone floor and echoed the sound of the metal, the mysterious monster heard it, immediately roared a terrying noise and rushed itself to where the coin was thrown. Using this case, I hugged Oswarth’s diary tightly and ran as fast as possible, heading to the weak spot of the light coming from the library entrance and got out of this scary place.

What on earth is happening inside the family of Hartridge but aunt Felica never let me know?? I thought, with my heart racing inside my chest cage while trying to climb up the stairs of the basement. Behind me, the monster seemed to be aware that it was tricked, so it was now chasing me from behind, causing the stone to shake along with its immersed weight.

Also, there might be something wrong: If the library area was so dangerous, why Madam Norn still guide me to go there?? Unless…

When I reached the door of the basement, Madame Norn was already waiting for me there. She was looking at me, but with a very bizarre sight.

“Madame Norn!” I called her when I eventually arrived to the door “Close the basement door now! It’s very dangerous….”

But then, when I didn’t have finished my sentence to call her yet, an unexpected thing happened to me that I didn’t have enough time to react…

The first second, Madame Norn had disappeared. Replacing her image was the ugly figure of the goblins - Aunt Felica’s underlings.

The second, that goblin creature pushed me down, back to the stairs of the dark basement and closed the door in front of me. And then, their voices appeared as if they were whispering beside my ears, leaving me alone ready to be eaten by that monster.

“You must join us….”