Wandering in the Desert

The title sums up what I have been doing the last three months. Wandering with a man who refuses to speak and one who cannot. Quiet never bothered me before, but this quiet is different. There is so much pain in the quiet.

I have no purpose it seems. I am basically following Honani where he goes..and he goes in circles following nothing. But I shall follow. And wonder.

Back to the beginning

It is often said that when one has no other place to go, that he should return to the beginning and start anew. I am now heeding the old advice, as I have always done. My party and I are journeying back to where I met the grandmother so many months ago. Perhaps there is more evidence to be uncovered. I spoke to Honani concerning this, expecting him to say something about the folly of following stories. He said nothing still, but gathered what remained of our small camp. We've been walking now mostly non-stop...I'm not sure when and where to hold, and Honani never shows sign or weariness. Onward, we go. We are getting very close to the village, now. Again, something feels wrong. But then, wrongness is a familiar feeling these days. It doesn't bother me nearly as much as it did in the beginning.

What bothers me most is Running Bear's seeming lack of a life force, his spirit. His body lives, but nothing else. I haven't yet had the time or the freedom to enter the spirit world again and search for him there. I fear what I will find there. So far, all I have found there has led to despair. This entity also seems to be taking more of an active role. I see it at times, standing under a ruin or perhaps a solitary tree. It seems to choose things that are spiritually significant..Trees are life, the ruins are portals to the old world. And the time of day is often just at the break of day or the falling of night..When the world is more open to entry from the spirit realms. I fear it will only get stronger and stronger..as it seems to feed off of emotion and energy. Maybe it can be combated in that manner..It looks like time to begin another journal.

Revival

So much has changed. Chumana betrayed us, Running Bear is worse than dead, and Honani no longer speaks. We were betrayed. I should have payed more attention to her dreams, to her ramblings. I thought she was just frustrated at her situation. But it appears The Emissary got to her, just as he did The Chief. We awoke one morning and the spirits were gone again, just as they were at the temple.. And we saw it then. We saw the One with no face. And The Emissary. And..Chumana. She was smiling, and carrying my notes in her arms. There was blood on her face.
"Hello, hello, Zia. Oh, you trusted me, I can see it in your eyes. You should never trust a Snake. These notes are really beautiful, you know. So much work, for so little result. Running Bear, Honani, my family. It's time for us to go. Don't worry, Father is dead. I was allowed to exact my revenge. You're free now. Come."

 Honani lunged for her then, screaming about traitors. And Running Bear...He tried to stop them from fighting. She reached out and touched his face and he went...limp. He just collapsed. She smiled again, and turned to Honani, who looked horrified. He dropped his weapon and backed away from her. "What did you...What did you do to him? Chumana! What have you done! You are no sister of mine. You betrayer. Betrayer..You have no other name to me now." 

He walked away then, disappearing among the ruins. Just her and I now, and the Emissary. There was also a man in a suit. A man unnaturally tall and long of limb..devoid of face. No face. Oh, no..It is real. Spirits save me, IT IS REAL. It seemed to gaze at me, and the world began to shift...

I woke up next to Running Bear among the ruins, with the Sun Symbol painted underneath us. I was unable to move...Honani found us several hours later. Wordlessly, he lifted me in one arm and Running Bear in the other. He carried us up and out of the ruin to a campsite.We've been here since then, no one speaking. Running Bear won't wake up, his spirit..it's gone. That's the only way I can explain this. He's just a shell. Honani refuses to speak or make a noise. My notes are lost and my mind wanders. And I see It sometimes, in the distance.

A Man With One Hand

I saw him today, this man with no hand. The Emissary. He was atop one of the buildings across this narrow canyon..He was staring very intently at something in his hand, when he noticed me watching him. He raised his handless arm then, in a mock sort of peace greeting. He seems so arrogant, so...sure of his plans. This is worrisome indeed...Something will happen soon.
I have seen the Faceless Figure in dreams again. Calling out to me, the same as before, but this time I run. Not because I am afraid, no, I am not afraid of it.Rather it is because of what Zia tells us. This creature, if it is indeed of the Seventh Realm...it could destroy our spirits and leave our beings hollow. It could do with us purely as it pleases, if it even has those sinister thoughts.

I have always believed though...That maybe some of these beings were misunderstood. That their actions were wrong in our eyes, their motives misinterpreted and turned to evil. I do not presume such things about this creature, but sometimes I wonder...What it would be like to attempt to reach out and converse with it somehow. I shall have to give it some thought...It would be easier if the thing was physically present, instead of just a dream..

Stolen?

We are not alone here. Someone knows. They stole this device I use to make posts, and a multitude of other things. Including the notebooks and the papers with the legend. All gone, every bit of written or collected research. Even stranger is this: I found the device sitting by my head when I woke up this morning, with a note attached. All it said was "Courtesy of the Emissary." Chumana glared and stalked away when I mentioned that name, and now going over her introductory post, I see why. It's all beginning to come together now...The hand we found in the temple, the one-handed man that stirred things up in the village. I wonder where he comes from...What disturbs me greatly is this: The grandson that got me into this mess....He is still missing, he had links to that temple...What if he became snared by this...this thing. This faceless, haunting spirit, this escaped thing from a realm no one dares even mention.

Even as I type this, the others shy away and cringe. No one talks about the seventh realm, the place of locked-away horrors and abominations. Stories are told of the things that live there that can give a grown man nightmares...I believe this thing is an escaped entity. Yes, I am assuming that it is real. Too much has happened for me to believe otherwise...What else could disturb the ancient spirits so greatly that they abandon their homes and sever contact? No, it is real, and we are among the things it desires... Why it does so is now what I wish to figure out. I don't believe it wants us dead, I think it could have done so already. That it has a temple tells me that it desires something much more...


Sinister.

Strange dreams have taken a hold of this place. Every one of us, even Honani, is experiencing them. I wonder if it is because of all the time we've spent sitting in the ancient meeting home reading, studying, and debating the legend. Strange shadows on the walls, and a one handed man. The dreams are different for each of us, and I won't go into detail about them, but they all contain those two things. A one handed man....Running Bear and I found a hand in the temple.Perhaps his spirit is trying to contact me, trying to warn me. Only my dreams don't seem like warnings. They seem like..a threatened invitation. That's the best way I can describe the..strange, pulling feeling I get. I want to walk into the shadows.

The walls are closing in. I can feel them. The spirits are restless. The enemy is close at hand. But which enemy?

Dreaming

Zia, no offense, I think puts far too much weight on one dream. I do believe her ideas have merit, especially knowing what i know about our father, but..sometimes, dreams are just that. Dreams. 
I did dream of the faceless creature of legend. I saw it first as a hazy black shadow against the wall of our refuge, but the longer I gazed, the clearer it became. It stepped from the wall then, and I saw it as clearly as I see the waking world. Something over seven feet tall, dressed in an odd manner that I've never seen the like of before. It had limbs, but they were very elongated, as if something had stretched them. It held out one of these arms to me, but I didn't move. The blank white face seemed to study me intently. Something strange did happen though...The longer I stood staring, the..mood seemed to change, and so did the creature's arm. It flickered between a hand and a..tentacle, I think is the right word. As suddenly as it appeared, it was gone. I realized then that I was back in the waking world.
I rolled over, and realized that the wall in my dream was the exact same one as I was sleeping against. Honani grumbled something about sleepwalking, but he talks in his sleep constantly. Just another one of his strange sleep-comments. (He may very well try to kill me, after seeing that publicly posted. Hmm. Something has to take our minds off the situation at hand. Why not a little murder?)

We heal, slowly but surely. Zia says it may take another week for my brother to be able to use his arm, since my father's arrow cut into a  nerve. My leg is fine, though it does hurt to walk on. My father attacked his own flesh and blood...he is an honorless coward, and for that I am truly sorry I did not kill him where he stood. 
But for some reason, I was afraid when I saw him. Not fear of him, but fear as a general sensation. Fighting him was difficult...as if something didn't want a blow to land. I spoke to Zia, and she says it may just be the peaceful intent of the spirits dwelling here..But that doesn't make any sense and she knows it. I know what she wants to say. I know she wants to blame it on the creature in that story.
My sister, Chumana, says that she dreamed of this thing last night, but that she felt no fear, only welcome. I always knew telling stories in the darkness made thoughts run wild. Just not that wild..