Meadow Whisp's Arc

Chapter 8 of 10

Meadow brought the book to the table. He set the caged sword beside it and opened the pages wide. The lizard climbed from its basket and followed. Its burned scales still glowed, cracks of orange light running down its back. Meadow had figured out one thing. The lizard's glow lit the symbols. But that was all. Two marks would shine gold, one on the sword, one on the book, and Meadow still had no idea what either meant. The secrets stayed locked. He needed a way to read the lizard's answers. He grabbed a scrap of paper and a stub of charcoal. "Show me," he said. He pointed at a symbol on the blade. The lizard pressed its nose close. The mark lit gold. The matching mark in the book lit too. Meadow copied them both, side by side. Then he turned the page and did it again. And again. His hand cramped. The pile of copied marks grew. But Meadow saw it now. Each sword symbol matched one book symbol. The book was a key. If he learned the pairs, he could read the pages. He worked faster. The lizard crawled from mark to mark, patient, its whiskers twitching like a true small dragon. By afternoon he had mapped them all. Meadow went back to the first page. One mark at a time, he traded sword-sign for book-word. Slowly the lines turned into his village speech. He read them aloud, voice shaking. The book spoke of the trees. Not as wood. As living things. Ents, it called them. Giant and old. Some had teeth and claws and hunted. But others were peaceful. The book said Ents had lived in this land for thousands of years, mostly kind. Then Meadow read a line that stopped his breath. His own tree. His home. The great trunk he lived inside was an Ent. A sleeping one. It had dozed for a thousand years, gentle and still. And soon it would wake. In a few weeks it would open its eyes and walk, leaving to migrate, then return. Meadow stared at the words. He was not crazy. The trees did move. Some had teeth. He had been right from the start. He turned the page, hungry for more.. the The writing began to explain about a caterpillar wearing a top hat reading this very book it began to say that the ancient secret power within meadow could be unlocked by simply . One word stood dark and heavy: CONFIDENTIAL. Below it, the page was torn. A ragged edge ran across the paper. The rest was ripped away. Meadow ran his thumb along the tear. The lizard lit the last whole symbol. It shone gold, then dimmed. There was nothing left to read as the next few pages all said CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL MEADOW CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL UNLOCK CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL UNIVERSAL CONFIDENTIAL, then the rest of the book was stained ripped cut And censored.