Book 5} Chapter 41
Attack
攻撃

I turned around to see Emma dash off somewhere.
"Emma?" I asked softly, watching her run off.

She then stopped and looked around in confusion.

"So the roots are weak against the cold," the kids talked among themselves.
"That's why they stopped moving."

I helped the kids put their scarves on.

"It's so cold here..."
"Yeah. Colder than where we fell," they shivered.
"It's the same forest, but the temperature is so different."

I looked up, "There's no sunlight coming in," I commented.

"So then... As long as we're on this cold ground where there's no sunlight... we have no fear of getting attacked by those roots and falling underground?" Gilda said.

"Probably," Emma said, I noticed she was back with us.
I grabbed my own scarf and put it on.

"Well then! I'm glad it's winter! Or we would have been eaten!" Don exclaimed.
"Actually... seems like the hole doesn't open up unless it's winter. The book says that Alvapinera is a legendary cave that one can only enter in winter," Nate said, handing him the book.

"It would have been better if it wasn't winter," Gilda commented.
"But thanks to that, we found out just how predictable the outside is. And what the book means," Emma added.

"A guide-book, eh?" Don muttered.
"Yeah. Hidden in the story are various hints on how to survive the outside. Dangers and how to deal with them. The enemy's weakness. And..." Emma trailed off.
"Emma! Found it! This is it!" Ray called out.

He brought what looked like plants.
I smiled, "Is it?" I asked him. He nodded and I felt all my fictional dreams come to life.

"Uh, what's this?" Nate asked.
"Water," Ray replied.
"They appear in Ugo's adventures. Anemones that can store fresh-water," Ray explained.

Don stared at them in shock.
" I'll let you do the honors, m'lady," Ray said, handing me a small knife with a wink.
"Damn right, thank you, m'sir?" I said with unsurity making me chuckle.

I cut the plant open, holding out a jar against it to collect the water.
"Oooo!" the kids said in awe.
"This is just a plant. But they were called Anemones in the story. And according to the book, this water is drinkable. We don't have to go all the way to the river. In an unknown environment, the biggest concern is obtaining food and water. We don't know what's edible or what's poisonous. So it's great that we can get information on those things," Ray informed the kids.

I closed the jar after all the water was out, smiling slightly.
I handed the jar of water to Ray.

"The outside does indeed have a lot of dangers. We don't know much. There are many enemies. More than we imagined. But we'll be okay. We're not alone. We have each other. We have an ally. Let's go see Mr. Minerva," Emma said with confidence.

I smiled, { Well said. } I thought, then frowned. This wasn't going to be as easy as Emma thought.

"Let's survive. First, let's get through this forest. Come on! We can do it. Let's keep going!"
So, we continued on our way.

Time Skip

"I see," I heard Ray mutter.
I turned to see him looking at the holographic screen again.
"Hm?" I asked, moving closer to him.

"This is our current location. Both B06-32 and B00-15 describe positions. What you call coordinates. The number on the left indicates the distance to north-south, the number on the right to east-west. No, when we left the house, we came from the northeast. And we're heading south now, so..." he trailed off, looking deep in thought.

"Location B06-32 is South. To be accurate, we're heading toward the eastern side of the South area," he concluded.
I thought about it, then perked up, "Holy shit, Ray, you're right!" I exclaimed.

"Y/n!" Emma exclaimed, pointing to the kids.
"Oh... sorry," I then muttered, glad that none of them heard my profanity.

Emma then turned to Ray, and stared at him, before... "You're so scary!! How did you figure it out so quickly? So scary!"
"With this many clues, anyone could figure it out," Ray responded.

"When I first looked at the pen at the house, there was no alphabet and the numbers were 00-00," Emma added.

"Oh! I see, we're east from the house. We were at B01-14, so we came back north a little bit," I said with a smile before helping Chris across a large branch.

"So? How did you know that this was a location? Besides, how do you know to go to Point B06-32? How do you know Minerva's there?" Ray asked Emma, I stepped back to join them again.

Emma was silent for a couple seconds, a guilty expression on her face.
I smirked slightly, narrowing my eyes at her. I wrapped my arms around her from behind as we walked.
"Come on, Emmmma, spill your secrets," I told her before tickling her.

She burst into laughter.
"Wai-" she tried to talk, but that was covered up by her laughter.

"O-Okay! Okay! I'll spill!" she then said.
I let her go with a chuckle.

"Here," she then said, catching her breath, handing me the pen.
"Norman said, "You'll understand if you look at the pen." And if I didn't, to "Show Ray and Y/n and they'll understand,"" she said.

"So you didn't figure it out, eh?" Ray smirked.
"I got half-way," Emma grumbled.
I looked at the Morse code, leaning my arm on Ray's shoulder.
{ Touch me? } I thought with confusion, cracking the code.

Ray then touched the owl and it changed.
It was the owl, again, with a full circle around it. Then, a blank box, then numbers.

"I was able to open it up to there," Emma stated.
"Well, you're not good with these things, so..." he trailed off, then perked up.
"Ah, I see. That's what it is," he said.

"So you do understand!" Emma exclaimed.

"Emma, Y/n, that book. The other one we couldn't figure out. The book about mythology with no Morse code. That book is the code book for this pen," Ray explained.
"A code book?" Emma asked.
"Yeah. Look. There's the same label with no Morse code, right? So you use this book to decipher the code. 13-18-02 is the code. You can move on if you enter the answer. For example, we look in the book for page 13, line 18. The second word. The word is "human." "If you need help, come see me."" Ray continued.

I looked at it.
" "I'm at location B06-32." "From William Minerva,"" Ray and I said in unison.

"It's a message from Mr. Minerva!" Emma exclaimed.
"Norman probably saw this," I said with excitement.
"Then there's the next code and its answer. So there's information split up and..." Ray trailed off and I looked around.

"Ray," my voice wavered slightly. He nodded, "Something's coming," he muttered.
All the kids froze, looking around slightly. I saw Nate tense up, muttering a few things in panic.

I then turned, "Holy shit..." I muttered.
"RUN!" I then shouted.
And so, we started to run again.

そして、私たちは逃走中です。再び。

Okay, so. I feel like the main character, how I made her, is kinda boring xD
But uh, don't worry, she'll be more of a badass soon.

1/28/2020
Word Count: 1148