Mappin' Some Routes

[stelmarisa]

"Alright." Making sure that the door really was locked, Elias pulled out the page of transcriptions he had made and placed it next to the map on the table. Flipping it over, he pointed to the three words at the bottom of the parchment, where he had copied down the three words and a small symbol. They were written carefully, the rough strokes of the letters precisely recreated:

DANGER. STAY AWAY.

"It's written in blood," Elias said quietly as he showed Chris the words. "And I'd bet my life that it's human blood." The words themselves might not have been that concerning to a pair of pirates, whose entire lives revolved around danger, but the medium in which they were written had unsettled Elias deeply.
"I think it was written with a finger, too." He indicated the strange formation of the letters, the rough lines. "That was no pen, or brush. And this symbol..."

He dragged his finger down to the shorthand symbol that had been 'painted' below the words.

"Beast."

[Winters-Feather]

Chris' eyes scanned the documents that Elias placed on the table. They narrowed at the foreboding words, written in plain Common for all to see, though they did not seem to waver the pirate's expression or will.
"Human blood," he repeated as he scratched his neatly trimmed beard.
That certainly was weird. There wasn't any bones by the wall. It could have been that whoever wrote them was either dying at the time and was carried away or simply used his or her blood to write on the wall before making a rushed escape. In any case, it certainly was peculiar, though his mind did not linger long on the subject.  The blood did not phase him, though the queer symbol drew his interest.
"A beast, you say?" he asked, the clogs of his mind turning rapidly.

Youth... Life... A fallen star... A warning... and a beast.
Chris' eyes widened as the spark of discovery ignited in his mind.  
The man reached out for the dagger, holding it up for Elias to examine upon closer inspection.
"Perhaps that statement refers to the shadowy beast that held the star like jewel in it's claws," he said, "Those scrambled  words that you spoke of... 'youth', 'life', 'time', 'madness', and 'forever'... There was more, wasn't it? There was more!"
His tone rose as he became more and more excited. The pirate was usually calm and collected, but this... This was a fairy tale they were chasing after, a living breathing adventure just waiting for them! It was bound to be deadly and dangerous, aye, but was he not man or pirate enough to face such challenges? Not to mention absolutely absurd.

Chris clapped Elias on the shoulder, his tone returning to normal.
"If... what you say is true, and only if," he said rather slowly, "Then I believe we are hunting for an instrument of eternal youth."
 He waved towards the dagger and the transcripts in his friend's hands.
"Somehow, this beast of ours has something to do with it. I don't know how, but it does."
The pirate paused for effect as he let the gravity of his words sink in. He still couldn't quite contain it all, himself. Other than the wall and the dagger, how did they have any proof that any of this was true? Maybe his interpreted the information wrong. They certainly would have to study more on the subject. Still... Chris had a feeling that his theory wasn't as far fetched as it seemed.

[stelmarisa]

"Mhmm, a beast." Elias answered distractedly, examining his drawing of the symbol. "It doesn't exactly tell me what kind it is... I don't think it means any kind of animal." He was frowning curiously, confused by the realisation that this symbol might not be all it seemed. His eyes never left the parchment as he slowly sank down into the chair beside the desk. His mind was working in what seemed like overdrive and he pulled his book of translations towards him, in the hope that there would be some kind of explanation in that.

He looked up, a little startled, as Chris held out the dagger to him and spoke so excitedly. He took the dagger cautiously, turning it over and over in his hands. Something felt... wrong about it to him, although he couldn't place his finger on what.
"Yes, there was more." He looked up at Chris questioningly as the man got more and more excited. "But it will take a while to translate the rest, I-"

He was cut off by Chris's next words. His eyes grew huge as he processed the meaning of what his friend had just said, his heart seeming to stop.
"Nooo!" His tone was disbelieving, but with a distinct tremor of excitement. "Nothing like that exists - does it?!"

He started to rise, then dropped back into the chair and pulled his page of notations back towards him. It seemed so far-fetched, but... if it was true, then... they may be on to a treasure hunt of extreme proportions.

[Winters-Feather]

Chris' eyes twinkled with excitement at his friend's reaction.
"I don't know," he replied, "We can't be for certain. That's why it's important we examine the text inside out."
To emphasize his point, the man tapped the papers with Elias' scribbles as he gave a triumphant smirk.  Yes, they were making excellent progress, though his friend's interpretation of the word 'beast' troubled him. It was true that it didn't necessary had to mean animal, but... What type of creature were they dealing with, then? Was it even a creature or a living being at all?

Contemplating on these thoughts, Chris leaned against the wall next to the door as he ran a hand through his hair. If this proved to be a treasure hunt worth following, they would have to be careful how they handled this sort of information with the rest of their crew members. They were a rowdy and wild bunch, willing to go to extremes to get what they wanted. It was true they had their own code of honor, but though they were a family of sorts, you could never trust everyone on a ship. And with information like this, chaos was bound to ensue.
The pirate sternly glared at his companion.
"But before we do," he said quietly, "Until we can gather more information, not a word of this is to be spoken to the rest of the crew, save for the Captain. It would stir too much excitement. Not a word. Am I clear?"

[stelmarisa]

"We will, we will." Elias responded somewhat testily as Chris tapped his papers. He was a little protective of all his documents, especially this one on which he had transcribed the all-important cave writings. His mind was also occupied with thoughts of the beast, the tiny beginnings of a thought starting to form as he gazed at the sumbol.

"I think..." he murmured, but never finished the thought. He was starting to flip through his book of translations furiously, stopping at various pages to make a quick note, whilst Chris stood in thought. He was startled when his friend spoke again, and looked up in surprise.
"Of course." He nodded earnestly. "No, it would cause chaos. Especially amongst the lower ranks - if they thought we were looking for something of this magnitude they would never proceed with caution."

After acknowledging Chris's concerns, he turned back to the page he had been on, frowning at it deeply. "This beast... I think it is yourself." He looked up at Chris solemnly, and read from the book.

" 'The awakening of a beast unto one's own soul and the destruction of humanity it causes within.' "

[Winters-Feather]

Chris nodded, pleased that Elias agreed with him. He could trust his companion to keep true to his word, which was nice; trust on such a mission was vital. That over and done with, his posture relaxed as he listened to Elias speak as he flipped through the documents on the table. He looked rather troubled about something, and Chris was keen to know why.
"'Yourself?'" he repeated with a hint of surprise in his voice.
The animal depicted on the wall looked like a far cry from being human, yet Elias looked quite serious about his interpretation. Chris grimly listened to the words the man read.

"The destruction of humanity that it causes..." he muttered as if testing the weight of the  words on his tongue.
The star... the beast... the knife... So did that mean that whoever possessed the star turned into such a creature? Or was the ungodly image a metaphor for the damage  that it would cause? Obtaining it wasn't much of Chris' concern. If they had to kill to get it, then by all means would they kill. No, it was maintaining such an artifact that he was most interested in. How could one harness such power to use it to their own advantage?

[stelmarisa]

The idea of the beast being oneself was certainly a new development. Elias traced the symbol over and over on the page as he mulled over the possibilities. The actual image itself, as far as he could tell, didn't have much more of a specific meaning than the one he had read out to Chris. Probably, you would have to be very familiar with the language and all of its nuances to truly understood the deeper meanings.

Well, neither of them were going to become fluent overnight. It looked as if they would have to rely on their own senses, and the written words in order to help... The written words! Elias' eyes lit up and he flipped the sheet over, scanning the transcriptions.
"Madness!" he exclaimed suddenly. "'Madness' is repeated over and over again in this writing." He looked up at Chris as everything started to fall into place.

"I think it sends you mad. Maybe searching for it, or trying to understand it... or even the aftereffects of using it?" The details were still out of focus, but the answer seemed a lot closer all of a sudden.

[Winters-Feather]

Chris was so lost in his thoughts that he had almost jumped at Elias' burst.
"Madness?" he repeated, narrowing his eyes.
The man didn't much like the sound of that. The sea was a cruel mistress, but a vulnerable mind could be just as deadly to both those that possessed it and those in their company. Elias' words only seemed to discourage him further.
"But are you sure?" Chris argued as he placed a fist on the table.

"If we are going to hunt down such a thing as a fallen star, we need to be certain. Otherwise, everything will be for nothing," he argued as he picked up one of the sheets of transcriptions.
"Is there any way I can help you break down and analyze all of this?" he asked, peering over the many notes. It was a lot of work to do in such a short period of time. However, the cat eye figured that if most of this was based off of a code that originated in Common and if Elias had a text that could translate it, then why couldn't he help?
"The sooner we get through this, the better," he added. He was itching to go on this adventure, and the faster they'd get through the research and become confident in their findings, the better.

[stelmarisa]

Elias shook his head, less perturbed than Chris. The idea of madness was a frightening one, but also one that intrigued him. What exactly did it mean? He itched to find out what form this 'madness' took, and what it did to the sufferers... As always when gripped by curiosity, he felt the urge to turn to a book and study the matter, but he had a feeling that there wouldn't be a helpful tome on this subject.

"No, I'm not sure. But it seems to be pointing in that direction." At Chris' next question he pulled out the book that he had been using to translate, passing it over to Chris somewhat reluctantly.

"It's fairly simple. Many of the words and symbols can be directly translated, and I've grouped them together like this-" he indicated his notes. "By the words that most commonly appear together, as there doesn't seem to be an easily translatable alphabet. But the words that I've grouped together are normally in similar groups in the book, so you just have to find them and figure them out."

He handed Chris one of the pages of notes that he'd made, and gestured him to sit down. "You're right, it will go faster if we both work at it. Once we have all the words, it should just be a matter of unscrambling them." He didn't add that that could well be the hardest part of the venture.

[Winters-Feather]

"I see," Chris muttered at Elias' rather blunt response.
He figured it was just as well; they had no guarantee. It was a bit frustrating, but the pirate knew that this was all just a part of the adventure. The pirate accepted the book and began to flip through the pages as Elias explained everything. He had learned to become a scholar during his time in the navy; the task at  hand didn't seem so much as daunting as tedious.
"All right, then. Let's do it," he gruffly said as he took his place and began to go go through the notes, taking great pains and measures to make sure everything was accurate.

As Chris worked in silence, he began to notice patterns popping up. "Light" seemed to be a common enough word, as did "soul", "death", "chaos", "den", "fire",  "between". Just as Elias had said, words such as "madness", "life", and "beast" were prevalent. Others just seemed to be random and less important, such as "nameless" and "lame".
By the time the pirate had put down his quill, he looked out the window to see that the sun was beginning to set. Brilliant orange and yellow hues seemed to dance in the room as the shadows started to grow. The man grunted, a little surprised  by how much time had passed.

[stelmarisa]

Some time later, Elias and Chris had managed to translate all of the words, but they still weren't in any kind of readable pattern. Elias had long since put down his pen and taken to frowning at the parchment, trying to figure out the meaning. As Chris looked up he followed suit, stretching.

"Did you get anything useful?" He cast a look over at what Chris had written, noting the similarities to what he had found, and groaned inwardly. Unless Chris had picked up on something he hadn't, it looked as if they would remain stumped.

"So far, it just looks as if we've got the map, and a lot of clues, but nothing concrete." He rubbed his eyes tiredly and resting his elbows on the table, head in his hands. "Maybe we're missing something."

[Winters-Feather]

Chris only grunted in reply, staring hard at the words and letters. He could see why his friend was frustrated; there were many scrambled phrases, and it didn't seem to make much sense. The pirate picked up the notes and tried to figure out their meaning. He didn't think the code was a physical trick. It wasn't like he could overlap the papers; these words were written on a wall first, after all. Other methods didn't seem to work for it either, so he discarded all of them.

"A star that drives you mad," he gruffly murmured to himself as he read the words.
There has to be a way to understand this.
Chris' eyes turned towards the map, when a memory abrutly occurred to him.
"In pale ghost sands," he said as he turned to Elias, ignoring his friend's fatigued state.
"Engrossed in text... a story, a prize, and something about wise eyes? Didn't you say the map had a riddle like that?"

[stelmarisa]

Elias looked up from the desk as Chris spoke, taking a moment to recall the riddle that he spoke of.
"Yeah, there was." He leaned back, pushing over his translation of the map to Chris as he recited:
"In Sands as Pale as the Ghost
A Text in Which you are Engrossed
This Tale will teach you of my Prize
Told only to the Wisest Eyes."

He frowned. "Well, we went to the beach, and we certainly did find a text that we're engrossed in... but I thought the next clue would be a little clearer than this. Maybe we're not wise enough." He chuckled.

"What made you ask? Did you have an idea?"

[Winters-Feather]

Chris smiled thinly at his friend's joke.
"Yes, that may be true," he rumbled as he paced the room.
"But it's that first line that got to me, see... "In sands as pale as a Ghost"."
Chris paused as he turned towards Elias.
"What if we were meant to take that a little literally?" he asked.
" 'Sands as pale'," he repeated,  "Pale sands... what if we were meant to go to Whitesands?"