The Mystery of the Mask: Part 2

The dirtied hooves of the horse galloped out of the forest and over large hills, rising up and down in strange peaks and valleys. The man traveled for almost an hour before he saw the city gates of a town ahead.

Sitting under a willow tree was a young woman named Karmen. She sat quietly as the weeping branches covered her from the bright sun. She was quiet; never spoke to many people in her town Horizon Hamlet. Most of the residents were rough and abrasive, and since Karmen knew she’d one day live somewhere else she didn’t bother to overcome their adversity.

As Karmen sat under the willow tree she saw a stranger ride into town on a horse. He was heavyset with a curly beard that swung low under his round chin. The stranger jumped off the horse and stood in the town square by the fountain. He held his hands out and waved them rapidly.

“Please help! Listen to me!” the stranger cried. The townsfolk of Horizon Hamlet gather near the stranger as he begged. “Please, you have to help!”

“What’s the matter?” a tall man with a long nose pressed him, seemingly agitated by the disruption. “Who are you?”

“My name is Lionel. I come from Crater Town.”

“Ha! You’re one of those people? Get lost, freak.”

“Wait – no, sir! Please! You have to listen! We’re going to die!”

The long-nosed man laughed in his face; the rest of the town joined in. Another woman with a wide head and missing teeth smiled grossly at him. “What’s going on, crater man? Another meteor is coming? Or will that one magically vanish, too?”

“You have to listen – there’s a boy, he wears a mask. A dangerous mask.” The crown mocked him by oohing at his fantasy story. “It’s evil, it’s possessed him. Darkness is spreading. You have to help!”

“Or what?” The long-nosed man shouted.

“The boy says we have one day. We don’t have time! Just come, please, I beg of you!”

“One day until what?” the wide-headed woman snarled.

Lionel paused. He knew danger was imminent but he couldn’t explain. Disaster was coming but what specifically was hard to say.

“You don’t even know what you’re running from, if any of this is even true!” the long-nosed man mocked him.

“But the boy is… the mask… I saw light, orange light, shoot out from his hands…”

“Don’t treat us like children, you bastard,” the long-nosed man shoved his pointer finger against Lionel’s chest. “We know exactly who you are, crater man. It was your people who left our village for some fictional rock in the sky centuries ago. You chose to follow it, you deal with your own problems. Including the ones you make up.” He pushed Lionel back, who fell in the dirt. The town laughed as they left him sitting in a cloud of dust. Lionel clenched his hair in exasperation. Doom was coming and they ignored him.

Lionel looked down at his shoes and wondered if this was the end when he saw a different pair of shoes approach. He followed the shoes up the body to see the face of Karmen. She stood over him and expressionless.

“I believe you,” she said.

Lionel looked up at Karmen and doubted her, uncertain what reason she had to believe his story when everyone else denied him. But in desperation, he had to trust her. “Okay,” he whispered. “Okay.”

Karmen extended her hand and picked Lionel off the dirt. Lionel brushed himself off as he spoke quickly. “There’s a boy with a mask that holds evil powers. It’s taken control of him and is spreading darkness over the crater. I don’t know what will happen but it has to be stopped. Do you have a horse?”

“Yes,” Karmen replied.

“Okay. I don’t know, either, what we may find when we return. But whatever it is, its likely horrible.”

Karmen simply nodded. Lionel was stunned by her courage, unfazed by the looming horrors they were riding to. Perhaps she was unafraid because she didn’t believe him. Perhaps he had help after all.

Karmen followed behind Lionel as they exited the city walls of Horizon Hamlet and looked out over the hills.

Lionel looked at her curiously. “I should not ask this, but why have you decided to help?”

Karmen did not look at him, rather she surveyed the hills. “I am a cartographer. I have collected maps from centuries ago to study the changes in our land. I’ve seen almost everywhere… except your town.” She pointed back and forth over the breadth of the hills. “These hills, they’re oddly shaped, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” Lionel answered without exactly agreeing.

“Your town must be named Crater Town if it’s in a crater, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know why my town is called Horizon Hamlet?” She paused, letting him wonder. “Because when it was first built, the city was built on a plain.

Lionel surveyed the hills in confusion. “What plains?”

Karmen turned her head towards Lionel and looked at him. “Long ago, there were just plains here. I have a map of Horizon Hamlet, around the time your legend of the meteor supposedly happened. There were no hills. The ocean was further away. And yet, no one has chosen to mark Crater Town on any map. They deny your existence. More so, the hills have changed as time has gone by. The hills were never here when they first formed. They were on the other side of your forest.” She trotted forward a little and looked over her shoulder. “Something happened the time of your meteor, Lionel, which is undeniable. And I want to know.”

Lionel met his horse beside Karmen and smiled humbly. “Let us go, then.” They rode over the strange hills.

After about an hour, they reached the edge of the forest. As the entered they heard a screaming. A man as pale as snow and as bony as a skeleton ran towards them in a painful limp, like a fawn that had just been born.

“Go! Turn around! Turn around!!” the pale man cried.

“I know what’s happening,” Lionel declared, “I’m from Crater Town.”

“No! No, you don’t understand! The mask is alive!” The pale man stumbled his way quickly to Lionel’s horse. Lionel could see the man had an uncanny face, his teeth were oddly sharp. “The mask was with the meteor! It came with the meteor! It came with them!”

Lionel shook his head in disbelief. “Who are you? How do you know this?”

“I had the mask, it had me for years!”

Lionel slowly turned his head as a fearful realization swept through his body. “Are you… the masked man?”

“You have to go! He’s trying to awaken the Monehemoth!”

“The what?”

“It was never a meteor! It was a beast!” The pale man gripped Lionel’s pants leg as his knuckles whitened. “He’s trying to awaken it! Jynx is trying to awaken the Monehemoth!”