Daniel's journal contained many things including the points that allowed monsters to appear. That research was the most important of all studies because then Daniel would be able to focus on simple things.
Just like in Lake Musi, Daniel had suspected that there was a monster in the lake, seen from the gurgling water that appeared, then the bird that suddenly drowned was sucked in, and the water suddenly receded drastically. If it was a natural phenomenon, the experts, the Musi Lake Team, would provide clarification in advance. However, no news could explain everything.
To be honest, the drastic receding of the water in Lake Musi could happen because the water monsters buried in it were trying to get up. In awakening, he needed an element that was compatible with his body. Therefore, as the monster awoke, it would absorb an enormous amount of water.
In addition to the potential points, Daniel has also written whoever he suspected had disappeared and been replaced by monsters. There were quite several suspicions Daniel has listed, some proven and some not. Mr. Parkin was one of them, who still looked tame at this point but almost ate Daniel on one occasion.
The real Mr. Parkin owned a very large farm, which was filled with high-quality, fat animals. In a fairly short time, the old man reported the loss of his livestock. A sneaky way to cover up his crimes because Daniel knew that it was Mr. Parkin who stole his livestock to be eaten raw.
For now, the fake Mr. Parkin still had some livestock that he can consume on his own, and maybe in his travels, he stole other people's livestock to eat or kidnapped some humans who were passing by for food.
Daniel hadn't finished his monitoring of Mr. Parkin, and now his journal was destroyed by burning. As he recalled, there was a pattern Mr. Parkin made for a journey. From there, Daniel could see how the movement patterns of the monsters were to find their prey. This was a serious problem because humans were food for them.
Now Daniel froze in silence. The clock showed at half-past nine in the evening. The journal was still unfinished and a few raging thoughts were rushing through.
To prevent forgetfulness, Daniel wrote down everything that was bothering him. Everything revolved around the fighters he had met that night including the clothes and weapons they had.
Far from Daniel's room, he could hear the sound of broken objects and slamming doors. Then there was a shout of debate. Daniel went to see what was going on. As his hand opened his door a little, he saw Uncle Ted arguing with Wendy.
Since that kidnapping and fighting incident, Uncle Ted's been a bit complicated. He was tighter and more disciplined than before, he couldn't tolerate the slightest offense. He used to act like that when Daniel and Wendy were kids, but over time Uncle Ted seemed to entrust a lot of things to them because he believed that they were adults.
However, he suddenly turned out like this, as if someone had asked him to do that.
"I don't care if you guys are having a party or something normal. But I won't allow you to camp outside with your friends, especially if there aren't any adults watching!" Uncle Ted sounded stern. From his deep voice, he looked like a member of the military now, rather than a peasant with an athletic build.
Wendy protested and screamed. Her face was covered with walls, but Daniel could imagine what she would look like now. Surely her face was flushed with a neck tightened from being ready to explode. Then her nose would bloom, like a sudden rising cake.
Wendy shouted, "This isn't fair! You did this because you caught Daniel wandering in a far place, right? If that's the case then you should be mad at Daniel, not at me. I'm fifteen years old, I have the freedom to do this. And I will celebrate my friend's birthday. He is a friend! Don't you know what that means? And there are adults. There's Catty's cousin (the birthday friend) there. He's eighteen years old, and he's brought a few people along."
"The definition of maturity between you and me is different. An eighteen-year-old boy is not old enough for me to take responsibility. Moreover, your numbers are quite large, and some eighteen-year-olds won't be able to manage everything properly. Not even adults can."
Wendy screamed again for disapproving of Uncle Ted's prohibitions and rules. Daniel could understand how frustrated Wendy was right now. It was also how he felt when he heard that Uncle Ted had burned his journal. But he couldn't do anything. It was better to keep quiet as if you had contemplated everything than vice versa. Uncle Ted would give him a little wiggle room if he obeyed.
"I HATE YOU, UNCLE!" Wendy climbed the stairs to her room. Before she could enter the room, she briefly turned to Daniel and shouted again. Then the door slammed as if it could knock down the house.
Uncle Ted rubbed his temples with a fret. Daniel hurriedly pulled himself back to the room and continued writing his journal. But before that happened his figure was caught the eye of Uncle Ted.
He said, "Hurry up and sleep before I get mad at you too!"
Daniel didn't answer anything and chose to close the door. After that, he immediately turned off the light and pretended to be asleep.
An hour later Daniel crawled from the top of his bed to his desk. He turned on the small lamp on the table and continued writing. His hand movements were so rushed as if he was being chased at the time of her death. But what happened was that Daniel wrote so fast that he didn't want to lose all the things that were going on inside his head.
Towards midnight, the window seemed to crack open. Even though the key latch had been lowered, there were still some strange noises that had sounded familiar to Daniel's ears. The cloud of shadow now curled up at the end of Daniel's bed, in an area that was not touched by the slightest light, neither the lamplight nor the moonlight shone from the sky.
Daniel glanced at that and found the boy with transparent eyes now grimacing beside him, standing upright with very pale skin. His body was wrapped in a black robe, with the hood still over his head, but unable to cover his glass-like eyes or perhaps the clearest water in the universe. Daniel was able to see a little of his silhouette reflected in the boy's eyes.
"You came again? Do you still want to drip me with water? What's the point of that?" asked Daniel in a low voice, afraid he might wake Uncle Ted. His elbow was now holding onto several sheets of paper containing the new journal he had just written.
The transparent-eyed child only grinned a little. In his hand was a glass bottle filled with water. If Daniel noticed that water was not like most water, it had a silvery flame in it. Daniel just found out about it tonight, maybe because of the darkness around him and maybe because he was awake by now.
"It's not a healing fluid, is it?" Daniel guessed. To be honest, the water reminded him of Luna's energy ball that was used as a healing tube for him one week ago.
Then a grin appeared again on the lips of the child with transparent eyes. He was indeed didn't have many talks, but now he answered. "Finally you know what this thing is." along with the silvery water that had now trickled down Daniel's chest.
Coolness spread and Daniel's whole life seemed to be restored.
***