Chapter 9 - Contemplation

Jude did not sleep that night. Instead he contemplated the mystery of the skies above him, of the aurora, and of the script of the kryons. Why was it that a race so different, as was now evident after seeing their skeletons, could have a script based off such an occurrence so common on Earth? Could it be that their homeworld is like our own?

Not sure of the answer, Jude let his mind wander to other subjects, until it returned to the topic of Survivor’s diary. Curious as to any mentions of the aurora, he flipped through it. He found only a single entry that mentioned the aurora. It appeared to have been written about a year and a half ago, judging by the seasonal references in nearby entries.

“My mind wandered today to the topic of the aurora. I have no recollection of the aurora in the pretime, though I had heard of them. Not even during the invasion did I see them. Yet I now realize that I see them on a nightly basis. What causes this, and why are they so common? Has the entire structure of our own atmosphere and solar system changed to create these? Why now do they occur?

“But such things matter not. What matters now is only survival, and the raising of our young…” The entry then turned to other matters.

What significance was there in this? Jude could contemplate it no further. He removed the cube from his sack again, and began turning the faces.

Colors flipped around the three axes as Jude turned the faces. He continued rotating them in all of the three dimensions, as he contemplated whether it was even possible to achieve his goal.

And then he saw it. The green face was completed. Nine squares, all of the same color lay there, sides and corners aligning. The other five faces were still incorrect, but the knowledge that it was possible to solve a single face gave Jude the hope that such a feat as completing the cube would be possible.

Jude put the cube away, and slept with the knowledge of both the mysteries of the aurora and the cube in his mind.

That night, Jude dreamt for the first time since his exodus from the camp back in the City. He saw Survivor as he was before his death, penning his journal as the others were busy about their tasks.

Though he was not writing in the journal, no, but drawing. He was drawing a map. The map displayed two primary land masses, one in the east and one in the west. The eastern one was larger, and had many interesting features. A large sea to the west, and large mountains in the east were clearly visible. To the south was a large desert, and jungles.

The western continent was labeled as cities, though mountains lay to the west. And a place was labeled that said “We are here” on the western continent, on a small island. This didn’t seem possible to Jude, as he knew that the island he grew up on was very large.

And then Survivor opened a new page in his journal. And here he wrote the flowing aurora script of the map that Jude had seen, and translated it into a Roman text, though it was not of Jude’s language.

At the bottom of the page he drew another script, and then wrote beneath it six words. Ukl shïkal ûkaj kif ukl Kryonomicon.

Jude woke with a start. Jerking his head back and forth, he scanned the area for any signs of movement, or too see what it was that had startled him. Seeing nothing, he assumed it was simply a case of being startled in his own dream by the return of the six words from the journal.

And then, as curiosity filled him, he opened Survivor’s journal again, in search of the pages he had seen in his dream. Nothing was there from the dream, save the six words. But what did they mean, and why were they kryon words that Survivor had written?

Unsure of the answer, and unsure of what to do next, Jude decided to do some more exploration in the buildings that were nearby, in the hopes that he would be able to discover more information about the world before it was razed by the kryons that would help him figure out exactly what had happened during that fateful time.

And then an interesting thought struck Jude. Supposing that the aurora-text was indeed kryon writing, why was it that Survivor knew how to translate it and read it? Could it be possible that Survivor knew more about the kryons than he chose to tell? Or could it be that it was an innate thing among both kryons and men, for both hail from worlds with auroras? And how could he, as a man who never had the opportunity to meet or speak with a kryon, learn to decipher this script and unravel the mystery of the six words that were repeated over and over in his mind, ingrained from the strange page in Survivor’s journal?