Started writing August 15th, 2023. End result on December 20th, 2023.
"Kira..." A soft voice calls out. "Kira, it's time to wake up." It's Maven.
"I don't wannaaa," I groaned. Given that it's 7:30, and I usually wake up at 12-1 pm, I sure as hell didn't want to get up.
"Alright, fine," Maven said as he got up and left the room, turning to Haten. "Your turn, dear."
Before I could open my eyes, Haten came, diving onto the bed with full force. She elbowed me in the stomach and then proceeded to shake the ever-loving shit out of me. "I'M AWAKE!" I screamed in her ear.
Haten started laughing. "You said you'd get up early," she smirked.
"Nah," I said as I turned her over into the position I was in and started to shake her like she did to me, but in a non-angry way. I raised my voice into her ear, "CAUSE THIS IS WHAT I WOKE UP TO EVERY DAY THROUGHOUT 9TH GRADE."
As I stopped shaking her, Maven came into the room.
"Having fun you two?" She teased, she was in apron with batter covering it, "Breakfasts almost done, I just need to wait for the pancakes to be done."
Haten didn't get the teasing, but I got it. Narrow eyed, I gave an expression of "What do you mean by that?" But eventually I got out of bed after Haten left the room and got dressed. I went from, now my room, to the dining room downstairs, meeting them both in the dining room.
"You two better get packed for going to the mountain later," Maven pointed out.
"Oh, don't worry about that. Before my family... became... hellish, we went camping very so often. So, I have some pre-packed backpacks full of stuff; MREs, canned food, a medical aid kit, that sort of stuff. Got three of 'em." I responded.
"Great!" Maven dreaded packing, to her it was the worse part of any trip, "Hope the sky looks nice, would make for some great pictures at the end of the day. Maybe some sight seeing on the way too?"
That reminded Haten of something, "Oh, oh, could we go see the terracotta cave valley?" Haten asked, her eyes gleaming.
"The what now?" She said it so fast I was confused.
"The terracotta valley! You know, the weird underground place inside the mountain?" She replied, "You haven't heard of it?"
"No, not at all," I replied.
Haten gave me a pamphlet about the place
The real reason our mountain draws in so many tourists is the peculiarity of its insides. A rocky shell on the outside conceals a vast underground network of red terracotta caves. Though it appears man-made, with strange statues, architecture, and other signs of humanity, there's no trace of human activity. It's as if nature is replicating human works. The place even features filtered water, albeit with a peculiar taste. With a massive roof and a sprawling underground river where parts overhang, it's aptly named 'Terracotta Valley.' The network is intricate and bizarre, with some suggesting it inspired the natural aspect of a trend called 'liminalcore.' It's truly a captivating sight.
The entrance of the Terracotta Valley
I didn't even know half of this existed. Just some of the pictures were... mind boggling. After going over the pamphlet, seeing the natural architecture, I couldn't even explain it. "This shits real??" Clearly, I didn't believe it.
"Yeah! I've always wanted to go!" She was excited, "The school was gonna make a field trip there, but well... now I don't think anyone's going to go..." Yet it made her sad, it was like she was distracting herself from what was really going on around her.
"Eh, it's fine. At least the three of us can mosey on down there and explore some." I tried to cheer her up some,
"Yeah! You, me and Kiramah can have more fun than at school!" Maven pats her on the back.
She cheered up a little bit, "Thanks you two." She gave a warm smile.
"How long is it gonna take to get there?" I ask Haten
"Not too long! Probably... five-minute drive?" She responds, looking for another pamphlet, "Yeah about five-minute drive." She says holding the paper to her face.
"Who's driving?" I ask, "Excuse me let me rephrase that question, Maven, do you want to drive?"
Haten exclaims, "HEY! I can drive too!"
"No," I responded, "You can't. You have 9 speeding tickets, 3 parking tickets, and a slow ticket. You somehow went 140 in a 30."
"Hmph! Fine. I didn't want too anyways." She pouted,
"Of course, I'll drive, dear! We'll take the Wolls out there." She gave a heartwarming smile as usual.
"You got a Wolls Woyce??" I was pretty flabbergasted.
"Heck yeah!" She wasn't the one to swear, "I was getting paid around a million a year. That's with taxes hun~" She remarked proudly. She led them out to the garage.
"WOAH. For the years I've known you, I've never seen your cars, Maven!" I exclaimed; she surprised me every minute. Yet the attention I was giving her was starting to show on Haten's pouting face, I'm surprised she didn't say anything at the time.
"Alrighty, hop in dears." She opened both of their doors.
When we got in, I looked at my phone to see the time. "Uh guys... Did anyone check the online calendars the other day?" The date read 11652, 9629 years in the future.
"No, why dear?" Maven asked,
"Haten check your phone." My tone was serious, something even weirder than everyone disappearing.
"Alright?" She picked her phone up and checked the calendar, hers read the same thing... "11652"
"What the hell? Why in god's name are we 9629 years in the future?!" It clicked in my mind that not only the population changed, but the universe did also. Looking on search engines related in random characters:
Yet I didn't comment on that.
"This shits getting weirder and weirder by the day." I muttered,
"Nothing to worry about right now, so it's fine Hun." Maven comforted him, "And guess what~ We're pulling up on the entrance to the park!"
"Already? Didn't expect that." We made time, but I guess it's not really surprising considering there's barely any cars on the roads anymore. The mountain was in sight, but I noticed something weird about it. "Maven, do the peaks seem... burnt?"
"I see that too, Hun." Maven looked to the tips of the split mountain, "It's always been like that, one of the theories is that the peaks were split the way they are by a meteorite. Weird, isn't it?"
I nodded, a top that was scorched and still has what looks to be charred rock, what a weird sight. But we made our way to the hiking trail's beginning and took our backpacks to make our way to the top. It was as boring as any other hiking trip I've been on, but eventually we made our way to the top of the mountain where the entrance was. The rock and dirt transitioned into a charred rock, but then we stood in way of the cave's entrance. From charred rock to a red-orange colored terracotta, it was bright in the same way snow was.
"This is such a weird place." I said, as I took a step onto the soft but sturdy terracotta.
"That it is dear." Maven replied.
As soon as we took a step, we were met with a statue. It was small but was more or less a squished balled on a larger squished ball with indents as its mouth and eyes. We roamed for a while, following a rope set up to help guide tourist. But then Haten had an idea...
"Kira!" She said loudly, "Look at that!"
What stood in front of us was a large imitation of what seemed to be random architecture. It had stairs leading to what looked to be a false light, and holes leading into a fake darkness besides for one clear opening. It gave me an eerie feeling but comforting as well. As if a tingly sensation was running down the back of my neck telling me to be weary.
The area in question
"We should go explore it!" Her voice was echoing off the large red-orange walls, "It'd be fun to take some pictures over there." She said as she took my hand a hostage and dragged me to what looked like an entrance, Maven wasn't far behind. As soon as we made it to the entrance, I looked left and right, and again, I was caught off guard. It was impossible configurations of shapes and sights, as if paradoxes that our eyes could barely describe.
Looking at some of the walls and following them with your eyes would always lead you back to where you began, but you never made a circle or a loop; it just ended up there, or the floor would be there, but when you stepped on it, you almost went through, even though it looked solid. A few times I almost fell through, and when I got close to it, It smelled like mildew and wet carpet. When I looked further down the halls; there were turns that didn't make sense. It was like that one police box from that famous show... what was it called? But if you walked down it, you would turn once, and should've been at the entrance of where you began, but it didn't. It continued and went further, even though it should've overlapped.
"This place is hurting my head." I really wanted to go back, "Can we head back?" I asked.
Maven felt the same, "I agree with Kiramah. This place is... painful in a sense."
Haten pouted, "I guess." She was enjoying herself here.
But we decided to head back from where we came. It really was a weird place. As we came back, we noticed something we didn't before, there was a stream just off to the left of water. "Didn't part of the pamphlet say this water is drinkable?" I asked Haten.
"It did!" She said, taking a metal bottle out of her backpack.
I followed and dipped it in the small stream. As I took a sip, it tasted like almonds, a very weird experience to say the least. "This stuff laced with cyanide?" I asked jokingly, "You taste it as well right?" Turning back to Haten.
"Yeah! I taste it too. Quite nice." Haten loved it.
Seeing that she did, I decided to surprise her later. I gathered some bottles for her. It was quite uneventful as there was again no one around, something we couldn't escape. A place which should've had tourists and people out of country was barren, just like everything else. I know the real reason we went on the trip at the time was to distract us at the time, mainly Haten. It was an unforgettable experience, short live to say the least.
The day ended with us staying the night there, discovering hotel keys conveniently located near the entrance. The rooms were carved into the cave, maintaining the same style and vibe as the actual place. It was a nice touch, although there was only one bed. Since no one wanted to sleep in separate rooms, I, Kiramah, decided to sacrifice for a noble cause and let the girls sleep in the bed while I took the floor.
Yo, Simon here, abrupt ending into a author's note I know. I just recently started giving attention back to this. I had something go on during August and I forgot entirely to write this for a while. Then around the end of October and the beginning of November I had something else go on, bad to say the least, which was around the time where I was trying to make writing part of my weekly routine. But nonetheless it derailed it, so I should be back to releasing chapters for both this and TZC soon and starting two other projects; All Things Acliorah and Stories of Shru. Both are going to be filled with short stories, one about some events that are mentioned in TZC that I'd like to expand or give more thought to, and SoS will be stories Shru, a character not introduced yet but is important to TZC, will tell over his life. Some involving him and some he's monitored.
And yes this and other chapters of other works that are older will be updated over time.
