{Reverie}

A strange Legend

Recap
We spent the rest of the night sitting their, basking in the cool waves that enveloped my legs with a rhythmic motion. Small conversations here and there, but mostly we were silent. Not a bad silence. But a nice silence, as if we were having an entire conversation by looking at each other. The waves seemed to settle down, slowly fading into the endless expanse of ocean that sat miles and miles in front of us.

I could definitely get used to this.
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I exhaled, my breath turned into a small cloud of gas that disappeared quickly once it left my nose. I looked over to my left to find the same dark mullet sitting just inches away from me. I smiled to myself and slowly got up out of the water. The small drops trickled down my legs and rushed back to their home in the calm body of water beneath me. Keith looked up at me, his quizzical look was enough to make me laugh.

"Where are you going?" He asked, and softly grabbed my hand. I blushed at this, since no ones really held my hand before. Other then family of course. "Come with me, I brought something else along with me. I want you to see it!" I laughed a little once again, and dashed back to shore where my lonely bag sat squashed between gravity and the cool beach grains. My legs fought with the waves, trying their best to get to land as quickly as possible but to no avail against the thick waters. I heard vicious splashing behind me, and turned to see Keith right at my tail. "What is it!?" He asked, the excitement flooded his sparkling eyes. "You'll see!"

I got to shore and wrangled with my bag, and produced a small, leather book from the smallest pocket. I opened it and scooted over closer to Keith so he could see the contents. Inside the pages, thousands of small little doodles bled onto the yellowed paper. Doodles of stars and constellations, a few boats, but it was mostly just the sky. The beautiful sky that I loved more then myself. Keith bent over the book, his neck crooked. He smiled and flipped through a few pages, looking down at the fragile paper. "You really are a Starboy huh?"
I giggled and handed him the book, crossing my tanned legs. "You could say that. I guess the sky.. was just always a safe space for me. A place where I could just scream it all out, and no one but the stars could here me. And the sky was never just a big explosion of gassy balls. They have patterns." That was another thing I loved about the night sky. The stars had patterns. The planets had patterns. Keith smiled again at my words. I looked over to face him and frowned a little embarrassed. I always seem to just space out and ramble on about a bunch stuff he probably wasn't too interested in.

"Sorry.. I rambled again."
"Don't be sorry, I like that you can share that kind of stuff with me." Keith's pale, slender face turned a light shade of red, and my face copied his. I could feel the heat river to my face, clearly wanting to be one in the same with Keith's blush. He smirked, and went back to looking through the book. I scoffed a little under my breath, and looked back to the ocean. I chomped on a small granola bar that had fallen out of my bag when I got my journal. It tasted kinda salty, and it was super gooey. This had to have been there for a few weeks at least. I waved it over to Keith. "Want some?" He sniffed at the grainy bar and gagged a small bit. "You could have just said no, you dramatic little.." my voice trailed off and he laughed a booming laugh in response.

After a few more moments Keith gasped and stood to his feet. "What's wrong??" I asked, the panic clear in my voice. "Nothing.. nothings wrong. I've seen this symbol before... but where..." Keith started to walk off, and I quickly followed him. "What symbol? Where is it?" He shoved the book into my hands and I looked at the last page. In the corner of the paper was a small triangle, with three stars flying out of its centre. A ring incased the symbol. "How have I never noticed that before.." I muttered to myself as Keith's stride picked up, he was practically jogging now, heading for the forest that sat past the old wooden dock. I've never been in the forest before, and never seen this symbol. I wonder where Keith saw it...

Soon our feet had carried us into the forest, we were deep enough in I couldn't see the beach anymore. Keith continued to weave in and out of trees and bushes, looking around anxiously. "Keith where are we going?" I asked finally. "I've seen that.. I've seen that symbol before. I was with Hunk, fooling around in these woods. And I saw it. It was on a tree trunk.." his voice faded away as he rushed more into the wooded world. "Why would this symbol be on a tree trunk?" I hurried behind him, trying my best to keep up. He suddenly turned around and grabbed my shoulders. "Lance, where did you get that book?"
"My grandfather. It was his. He found it buried under a bunch of sand on the beach. So he decided to keep it. But why does that matter?"
Keith looked back and kept walking hurriedly through the trees. "Because... in my schools library I found this big book. It was filled with a bunch of weird looking creatures. Plus on the very first page it had, what looked like a legend of some kind."
"Keith really? This is kinda ridiculous! It's probably just some story for kids!"
"Maybe.. but I was always taught to believe in the unexpected."
There was a small silence.
"What did the legend say?"
"A mystical land hidden by thy imagination. A world filled with monstrous things, only someone with an outrageous mind could believe it. The key to this universe, just beneath our noses is a tree rotted by waves, and old leather handwork lost at sea."
I took a moment to process the words, then finally Keith took a moment to stop. "How do you even remember that whole paragraph??" I asked in disbelief. "I got bored, besides. The book was actually interesting so I read the rest of it. And that legend kept coming up in it. Like.. word vomit."
"Did you just quote Mean Girls?"
He laughed and nodded, I laughed too.

After what seemed like days of walking through , and checking every corner of this forest, Keith and I found ourselves at a clearing. It was right next to the cliffs. One wrong move and you'd be sinking down into an aggressive ocean. It would eat you alive. I plunked down on the grass and huffed, I was so tired from all that walking. I focused on the sky as I laid on the grass, it tickled my neck but I didn't mind that. This spot had constellations, many constellations that were clearly seen from this spot. It was amazing. I should remember this and come back when I don't have Keith, who is on a determined mission to find this symbol on a trees bark.

"Lance!! Lance!! I found it!!" I heard him scream. I ran to him, weaving through a few rocks and boulders. It looked like a shrine, which creeped me out a little if I'm gonna be honest. "Look!" Keith pointed to a big tree, it's trunk was big and rickety. Rotted. I looked behind it past the small rock enclosure that held the tree. Waves. Giant waves banged themselves against the cliff and reached the backside of the trees trunk. A tree rotted by waves, and old leather work lost at sea. Was Keith really right? He followed some old legend in an outcasts book at his school library. And it worked? Who is this guy?

He pointed to the bottom of the trunk, the trees roots were sticking out of the ground in some places. On a big root that was flat and shiny, I saw it. A triangle with three stars shooting out of it. A ring enclosed the symbol.