Hidden Volumes

This story starts with you. Yes, you. You were walking in the woods at the time. I am sure that you remember now. It was that day that you were feeling uncomfortable. You had noticed the clues that I had left for you in that beautiful way that the inner mind notices and yet refuses to alert the consciousness to the truth. The items that were not quite how you had left them even though you noticed no guilty details.

I trusted that you would go out into the woods as you usually did when you felt strange. I admit that I have been testing you in a way. But I would like to think that it was never that manipulative. I never meant to change any of your behaviors. I love how you act. I wish I had not forbidden myself from your notice. That was too long ago for me to change. Too late to change my mind. I knew the repercussions.

When you felt stressed you headed into the forest. My theory is that you are those that are most closely connected to the world. When humanity is lost the only way to fix itself is to return to its origin: nature. You realize this.

I had planted something for you to notice this time. Every other time was simply observation. But now it was time for some truths to be revealed.

When you go into the expanse of forest, there is a natural path that has been carved out over the centuries by wind and rain and current. Fauna has taken hold along the banks of this river, leaving an area of rock along the right side and fertile soil along the left. You are the kind of person that travels along the rocky side, watching your footing lest you slip into the shallow waters. The water itself is not dangerous (in fact it is quite clear most of the time). Man has a strange fixation on fearing the deep areas of water. Deep areas of water turn dark and hold unknown creatures and lifeforms that can perform unknown abilities. This somehow creates a much stronger horror even though falling into shallow waters brings more certain and immediate harm. I suppose that fear of potential greater harm would be stronger than a short instance of certain injury.

Nevertheless, you balanced your way along the treacherous slopes from ease, your dexterous body unconsciously learning from all of the past mistakes in this place. The calm river slithers its way through the wilderness and into a clearing. The clearing is made up of a large rock that makes its own river of sorts towards a high peak, leaning away from the river at this point. Because plants find it quite difficult to grow in that rocky terrain, there is not a lot of overgrowth in this area.

There was something different in this place as well. I had planted something for you to find and was there at that time, hiding, waiting for you to discover it. You enjoyed climbing the riverside rocks and enjoyed climbing the rock hill for likely the same reason. You put your hand in the usual handhold and felt something move. Puzzled, you picked up a book that was perfectly painted into the stone. You climbed to the top of the hill with your new possession and panned through the pages.

It was my book but I felt no joy over this event. I have become so calculating over the years and spent so much care over secrecy that I have not had time for joy. I only feel the slightest remains of remorse over this fact at this time. Now that this time has finally come, maybe I will have time to regain my emotions and personal life.

The books contents contained my life’s work. I listed my strategies of secrecy, my discoveries, and my notes (legible and illegible alike). There was nothing that I did not attempt discovering. Cryptic mysteries, lost species, and fantastic places were all scrutinized in my presence. I created things as well and hid them in their own places. Theories about the Loch Ness monster and Benjamin Franklin conspiracies were included within the book, but those were the things that bored me quickly. You also got that feeling sometimes (more like a lot) when you became excited about an idea but became quickly uninterested.

The discoveries that I have enjoyed most was the one that other people did not focus on. Creatures that glowed under certain conditions and plants that produced mysterious substances were a few of my writings. Tardigrades (also known as water bears) have become my favorite creatures by far. I have performed many studies with them because they are so fascinating. They can do so many things that seem impossible to the average human being.

You looked around after reading a few of the many pages. I was too hidden for you to notice. You hopped down from the rocky, over-sized chair you had placed yourself upon and returned home. You retraced your steps along the rocky side of the river, carefully cradling the new package in your arms, not fully understanding the details. That was okay. You would understand eventually.

I watched you return home and place the book on the kitchen counter. Unfortunately I could not study your behavior more and had to return to my own home of sorts. I went to the rocky hill that you had rested upon just a few minutes earlier and treaded towards it, remembering to not leave any tracks or traces of my presence. Hidden in the stone facade was a door that I opened and walked inside.

I am not exactly sure how it happened. I had created my home in this area for my studies a long time ago. Just over a decade later, you arrived and built your home in the area. I did not like the idea of an invader at the time. I did not need to be bothered with the impedance of supervision. However, I began to enjoy the facets of observing human behavior. You began displaying many of the interests that I also shared.

Now that much of my work has been completed, it is coming close to the time that I shared it with others. I am not very trusting, as you might tell from reading this, but I have decided that you would succeed me. I will give you the responsibility, honor, and danger of the information I have gathered. It will likely affect you in ways that are different than how it affected me. I know that I am not usual. What I do know is that you will understand eventually. I just need to give you the other twenty-three volumes of my research books.