Quote:
Originally Posted by mookiemookie
Some time later, Mookie finally had reached the top level of the lighthouse ruins. The view was incredible. He could see for miles in each direction. There was Castle Collinswood and the POW camp. He could make out tiny figures entrenched along the beach past the POW barracks. There was the nunnery that he had overheard others talking about in the camp.
The sun was setting across the sea to the west. Glitters danced across the waves. There were no ships in sight. Undiscouraged, Mookie began to search for something that would be of use to him...
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"I wondered when one of you would find you're way up here."
*Startled, Mookie barely kept himself from stumbling backwards off the ledge. As he grabbed the sides of the little alcove for support he looked in shock at the figure who he could have sworn was not there a minute ago.
"How did I miss a man sitting in this small space" he thought, wondering whether he could leap to another of the little nooks before the old man could react.
"Oh, don't be startled", the old man said gently, "I won't harm you. In fact you're quite safe for the moment. No, nothing to fear from old Will Tiresias."
Mookie's nerves were just starting to settle when a piercing cry from the window behind the old man made him nearly jump out of his skin again. The old man stepped aside (as far as one could step aside in that tiny space) to reveal the source of the scream - a seagull had landed in the stone window.
"Oh!" Will Tiresias smiled again. "That's just Ernst. We keep each other company. He enjoys my conversation, which is good because he's the only company I've had in awhile. In return he shares the fish he catches with me. Aside from that I have a good supply of salt tack, and with all the rain and fog I never have to worry about water.
"But you didn't climb all the way up here to listen to an old man talk about his home life. Having a little trouble, are we? Things that go bump in the night? I was here when the Germans came, you know. Living in the castle, like my fa...oh, I'm sorry, I'm rambling again. I watched them move in, and watched that one fellow's experiments. Didn't do him much good, did they?
"He wasn't the cause of this, you know. Not directly, anyway. It's the Island itself. Something about the island that's not quite...right, if you know what I mean. Brings out the best in some men, and the worst in some. And, apparently, the beast in some as well. *chuckles quietly*
"You can fight this, you know. Ernst helped me hide some things, didn't you Ernst?" To Mookie's shock, and a little delight, the seagull cried out again as if in response to Tiresias' question. "Oh yes, we've been watching. I watched as the Germans made their little garden in the back yard. Put all their boom-toys in the ground. But we saw them, and we kept track. Even made a little map. Hid it somewhere around here, in the room across the way, I think. Or maybe it was under the lamp. No, in that next little nook of a room, under the stone chair. Has every single mine on it, it does. Has the paths where there aren't any, too.
"I also know about a little...something...that can keep the beasties away. Ernst showed it to me. Or was it that old Mother Superior who used to run the nunnery? Strange one, she was. Said she knew my family even before my grandfather...oh! Sorry, my mind was wandering again. Ernst helped me hide the thing. It's in the Widow's Den. Funny name, that. I've always wondered where it came from. My father wouldn't tell me, and my mother...well, that's a story for another day.
"What was I telling you again? Oh yes, the Talisman. Keeps the dark things at bay. Why haven't I gone back for it? Well, haven't needed it, have I? They can't climb up here you see. Of course there's no food up here except what little I have, so you could starve to death if you tried to stay here, all of you. You could try to take mine, but Ernst wouldn't like that, would you Ernst?" Ernst didn't say anything this time, but Will Tiresias' eyes seemed to glow a little at that moment.
"What? Did you say something? Oh, but you were going to. I can tell, you know. The Talisman, wasn't it? Got your curiosity going, didn't we? Alright, if my company bores you that much, I guess I can let you go. We don't mind, do we Ernst? But you'll have to go back to the castle, yes you will. Look under the thirteenth stone. Oh! That doesn't help much, does it. Count from the hollowed-out stone, the drinking scupper. You'll find it.
"Best of luck to you. Ernst likes you, you know."