The mystery of the forgotten hobby

One mysterious day a girl called Astrid had been doing some art in her very cluttered bedroom and suddenly…  ‘ring’ ‘ring’, Astrid picks up her phone quickly and she hears her friend Clea on the other line..

“Hello Astrid, how have you been doing?” Asked Clea intrigued.

“Hey! I’m doing fine! Is there anything you wanted?” I asked in curiosity.

“Actually, yes.. I was wondering if you could help me out…?”Clea asked sympathetically.

“Okay..” I continued.

“So basically since the lockdown started I’ve been trying out new hobbies and well I feel like i have already tried all of them! I wish there was like one that nobody knew about.. Maybe it would be fun.. But what am I saying? Why would there be a mysterious hobby that nobody knows about?”Clea explained.

“Well I wish I could help more but the news about the red virus is going to broadcast soon so let's watch it! There might be crucial info about the virus or maybe some other news that we don’t know already..” I stated.

“Okay sure” Clea responded.

Clea hung up the phone, guess I’m going to watch the news now …

(Astrid turns on the tv and switches it to the news channel)

“Hello and welcome to global US news, I am here with my partner Alex, and we present you the news!” The reporter stated.

“Ah good morning Owen! So how is the situation looking with the red virus?” Alex asked the reporter.

(after 5 minutes of talking about the red virus)

“So for our next report, there have been reports that there are clues about a mysterious hobby that humans have never discovered but again this is only a hint and we do not know much about it.” The reporter stated.

(Clea calls Astrid suddenly )

“Have you heard the news?” Clea asked in shock.

“Yeah .. it’s kind of weird how we were talking about it as a joke and now the news is talking about it…”I answered.

“Hmm.. maybe we should try and go follow the hint?” Clea asked intriguingly.

“What about red virus?” I responded in a concerned tone.

“We could just wear masks and be careful!”Clea answered confidently.

“Okay then come over so we could be together on the trip!”I bubbled gladly.

‘Clea hangs up the phone’

( Clea goes to Astrid's house)

“Hii!” Astrid says.

“It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other but we’ll catch up later .. Now where were we?” Clea asks.

“We were going to go to wherever the clues lead…” I said.

“Ah right,”Clea responded.

“Okay then let’s go! What is the first clue though?” I asked in general curiosity. 

“It is a riddle that even the news doesn't understand.. How would we be able to decipher it ?”Clea responded softly.

“We will work as a team, and I’m sure we can decipher it!” I exclaimed.

“Okay then… The riddle is..” Clea suddenly gets interrupted by the news which is still going for some reason..

“We are here to tell you that we found a second hint… now there are two riddles that the FBI is trying to decipher and they still cannot get the answer, we bring this news to tell you that if you find out the meaning of these riddles, to tell our team or report it to the FBI.” The news reporter exclaimed in a serious tone.

(Clea turns of the tv)

“Okay soo, as I was saying.. Riddle one is, The bark of the sky is the top star and Riddle two is, the top star lies in a mysterious forest of the unknown cave.” Clea continued.

“Okay let me think..” I responded.

“Oh of course! Those two riddles have correspondence to each other! The top star lies in a mysterious forest of the unknown cave- this means that there is something star shaped near a cave? Or..” I continue.

“Or a path to a cave!” Clea interrupts.

“Of course how could I forget about the starry cave.. But where is it?” I responded immediately .

“Well let's look at the first riddle..The bark of the sky is the top star.. The bark of the top star.. Like a tree or..?”Clea confusingly asks.

“Hmm..Bark like a dog? Or a tree?” I answer intriguingly.

‘Ring’ ‘ring’ 

“Oh my friend Alec is calling.. Maybe he’ll know the answer to the riddle” I asked in curiosity.

“Hey Astrid! How have you been doing?” Alec asks cutely.

“Well i’m okay.. You?” I respond with extra cuteness.

“I’m doing fine, haha!” Alec answers.

“Have you heard the news?” I asked with curiosity and seriousness.

“I don’t really listen to the news much anymore lmao” Alec exclaimed.

“Oh- Well there is this mysterious forgotten hobby that the society had never known about and they only found two clues so far and the clues are riddles and we can’t decipher the meaning of them.. Maybe you could come over to help..?” I explained .

“Of course!” He answered softly.

( Alec travels to Astrids place)

‘Ring’ ‘ring’ 

 “Ah the doorbell!” Clea said.

“I’ll get it,” I said excitedly.

“simp”Clea whispers under her breath

I give her a joking death glare.

I open the door and Alec walks in.

“Hello Astrid!” Alec exclaims.

“Heyyy.. I’ve missed you so much.. It’s been too long.” I responded.

“Yes but let’s get on with the mission.”Alec says seriously.

“Right so our two riddles are; The bark of the sky is the top star and Riddle two is, the top star lies in a mysterious forest of the unknown cave.” Clea says.

“ Yes and we have figured out that the mysterious forest has the infamous starry cave.” I added.

“But we do not know where that forest is..” Clea added.

“Not many people do know-” Alec answered.

“But the first riddle- the bark of the sky is the top star-” I said in a confusing tone.

“Yes that riddle! The Bark is the star aka the star pathway, and bark is a kind of dog noise..” Alec continued.

“Oh! I know! Tomorrow will be the National day of dogs!” I said in excitement.

“Yes and the leader of the dog pack should lead us into the forest!” Alec exclaimed.

“Yes but won’t it be blocked up?” Clea asked.

“It might be but we will wait somewhere near it and once everyone else goes, the security will probably go to..”Alec responded.

“We’ll see for ourselves tomorrow but now we need to get some rest.” I said caringly.

‘They all went to bed’

That night…-

“Astrid! Clea! Run! Quickly!” Alec shouts to us

We all run outside as quickly as possible and run for our lives…

Then suddenly something sho0ts us all. We die. But then i realise .. I am in bed right next to the sofa in which Alec is sleeping..

I waited till they woke up and decided to tell them the bizarre nightmare I had..

“Oh god Astrid.. Are you okay?” Clea asked

“You said something shot you, do you remember what?” Alec asked me.

“I’m okay .. and I think it was a person who tried to kill a dog but accidentally shot me in the dream..”I responded.

“Okay then let's go to the mystery forest, I think I might know where it might be..”Alec exclaimed.

We all went with Alec to the mysterious forest where he thought it was and the name ‘Bark forest’...

“Oh my of course! But hasn’t this forest been abandoned for a while?”Clea asked.

“Yes but maybe we could find the answer by going to the forest's high point from there with the star we would be able to see where the starry track is and we’d be able to find the cave which would hopefully lead us to the answer!”Alec explained.

“Okay then, lets go!”

(They go to the forest)

“Wow there are a lot of dogs here!” Clea says in a surprising tone.

“You’re not wrong, although it is National dog day so i’m not that surprised” Alec stated.

We hid behind a bush until everyone was gone and headed towards the forest's peak point.

“Okay phew we are finally here and-” Clea said before Alec interrupted “the sunset is beautiful …”

“You aren’t wrong it is so romantic and very -” I whispered on the floor of the hill.

“Very inspiring..”Alec finished my sentence.

We sat on the hill until the star game out and showed us the starry path..

“I see it!” Clea exclaimed.

“Let’s go follow it, quick!” Alec shouted with excitement.

We got off the hill and followed the starry track until..

“Wow what is that?”Alec said with surprise.

“Woah it’s beautiful …”I Gasped when I saw the magnificent cave.

“Let’s go in and find the bark tree symbol.” Clea smiled with excitement.

..

“Where is it? … ouch what was that?” I wondered.

“Ah I see you found the symbol..” Alec giggled with excitement.

“It says ;The answer of the mystery is in the middle of the sun symbol?” Alec wondered with curiosity.

“The sun symbol is close, it's on the moon path! Follow me!”I exclaimed.

..

“So where is it?” Alec wondered.

“Right behind you silly!” I Blurted with excitement.

‘Right behind us was the moon symbol on it; a code and it says; The code is the opposite of the wind symbol’

“The opposite of wind? What would that even be?” Clea asked.

“Fire, it is the fire symbol about a ten minute walk, let’s go!” Alec said with curiosity.

‘After walking for ten minutes’

“It’s right there -” Alec spoke as he saw the symbol only says the code is two equals ^.

“Okay now what does the thingy say exactly?”Clea expressed with excitement.

“It deciphers to 27798400 and it says to eliminate the repetitive numbers and remove the zeros so the code for unlocking the wind symbol is 27984.” I explained.

“Okay come on let’s run to the wind symbol and unlock it, it’s only a few minutes run!”I Reassured.

‘After reaching the wind symbol they unlocked it’

“Soo.. What’s the answer?”Alec Asked.

“The answer..oh god run!...no no !....”

“Ahhhhh!”

…

3 years later

…

“Hello and welcome to another convention which celebrates finding the mysterious hobby !” The mysterious host named Clare exclaimed.

“So we picked a lot of your questions and we decided that tonight we will answer them!” Clare declared.

“The first question is.. ‘What is the hobby exactly?’ - well it’s official name is a name that arrived from the japanese name;(ski runi sumi suo) and it’s english translation translates to ‘skio wall sumo suo’ or just ‘skio sumo for short’!” The second question is… ‘what does this hobby describe exactly?’- it is a sumo and swimming type of sport and or activity, at least that’s all we know! And finally the last question is.. ‘Where did you find the name?’- we found the name of a bag of some traveler that was laying on the ground with the answers, the travelers are still not found.” Clare stated.

The crowd in the background starting asking about the travelers and the hobby itself but Clare declared the speech over and now, there was only the actual convention left, where there was not much to do apart from things that were to do with the actual hobby itself and the history behind it which there wasn’t much info about it since the whole thing was covered up, but what actually happened that night? Where did the travelers disappear to? How did it all happen?

Well we just do not know that at this point, although we might in a few years or so..

Or maybe earlier.. Who knows…..