Who knows how long it had been since Silver first started doing movements in the air?
He had long lost track of the time.
Silver, who was scared at first, slowly adapted to the feeling of weightlessness. From gradual lift-offs to slow descent, and then to literally dancing in the air.
This was probably the best feeling he had ever felt.
Although he could only levitate in the confines of this house, it didn't take away anything from the royal experience of flying.
Never in his life had he thought that one day he would be able to fly, well he didn't imagine he would wake up in another world altogether either.
Only after what felt like hours did Silver descend down for good.
'I can do this every day and never get bored!'
The novelty of this experience, he won't be able to describe it to others, after all, it was flying we are talking about.
'Phew. Looks like I overdid it…'
Silver felt like he had spent hours doing all sorts of tricks and dances.
'Worth it though…'
The thought of doing this every time he came to this house only excited him further.
For a moment he even thought that it was unreal, as if to prove himself wrong, He once again shot into the air and started moonwalking. Which was terrible.
***
Silver had concluded all the fun activities, he had to control himself a little.
Finally focusing on the task, he dispersed all the creations that were laying on the ground.
He then ordered the white fog to reconstruct his body, but this time, he constructed the body he had built up for over eighteen years.
The white fog gathered up as he wished and started replicating what Silver had in mind.
After a near-perfect Silver Dellsworth was done being created by the fog, Silver charged at it and entered it like a suit.
'It'd be a lie to say that I didn't miss this feeling…'
He could sense and perceive things just fine even without the white fog but then he won't be able to interact with things.
Only when he had a body made up of fog could he touch the things here.
Silver got accustomed to the feeling of his old body, which didn't have the same explosive feeling as before, only further proving that the white fog could not replicate things other than its appearance.
'This should do it. Now for the main part.'
He had already spent a lot of time here, he still didn't know if there was a time difference between this place and the outside, so he got to work quickly.
'I need to find some clues…anything works as long as I can get information about the things that I should know.'
He moved towards the table and the chair set. Earlier, he was actively trying to avoid seeing the silver watch but he assured himself that it at least wouldn't harm it when the clicking sound broke him out of the deadly trance,
Also, it was still hard for him to just avoid it, after all. It was such exquisite artwork.
When he was next to the table, He gulped and decided to go for it.
"..."
"..."
"Nothing…?"
It looked like what he feared didn't happen.
'Whooo. It would've been bad If I lost control again and got thrown out.'
It was only right for him to feel this way, he didn't even know how to come to this place on his own initiative as of yet.
'I don't even know when I will get a chance to come back in after today…I have to do something about that too.'
The things that he needed to do kept piling up slowly. He needed to get things done or else he would be in a bind later on.
Not losing control had somewhat boosted his courage.
This time, he wanted to observe the silver pocket watch clearly.
'It's in a terrible shape…'
Last time, he was so entranced by the overall presence of the watch that he didn't clearly notice the state it was in.
'One major crack and several minor cracks on the outer dials, the hands are crooked and some are downright missing. The silver surface is eroded and the chain is in fragments, but…'
The state was really terrible. Any genuine antique collector or watch enthusiast would probably die of anguish if they were to look at this.
This damage to the clock could still be explained. It could be a result of a major fall or extremely rough use. The only thing, however, which cannot be explained was a black lusterless glass fragment that was nailed directly in the middle of the watch.
'This is most definitely glass, but how can glass even damage metal? I've heard of Rupert's drop but that black glass doesn't look like it. It's even extremely thin.'
Silver was not able to understand as he could not imagine a scenario of this extremely thin being strong enough to pierce the watch like this.
'I'm jumping to conclusions again…'
But, Silver decided to take a step back again. He had already explained to himself the fact that the logic and common sense that were ingrained in him from a young age would not be reliable here.
'That's right, the illogical and senseless things that I have witnessed in these last few days are already nearing a dozen or so…'
'Well, it takes time for habits to die.'
Silver didn't necessarily need to abandon his adherence to logic and sense, he just had to accept the new terms through which they abided, and he understood that to some extent too.
'So, until I know any better, Let's not try to jump to conclusions.'
While in the process of looking for clues, Silver had picked up yet another habit. The habit of not adhering to incomplete logic and sense.
'As they say, the more wrong you are, the closer you get to the right, you just have to keep learning from your mistakes…'
Looking back at the glass fragment, Silver unknowingly had chills down his spine.
'It's like looking ou–'
Halfway through that thought, Silver froze up and stared some more at the lustreless glass.
'No shit—!'
Looking at the glass made him feel the same trepidations he felt when he looked outside in the distance towards the entity beyond the black fog.
'The feeling of being looked at is not there…'
The only thing that was different, however, was that Silver couldn't feel like he was being stared at.
'Is there some sort of relation between this glass fragment and that entity beyond the black fog..?'
'Maybe what the entity wants is actually this glass fragment and that is why it always looks here.'
'...'
Silver shook his head, his mind was coming up with all sorts of speculations but nothing would be of help to him as of yet.
'I'm not stupid enough to think just giving the glass to the entity would make all things merry.'
There were many things wrong with such an action at so many levels.
'Let's just give it a name first. Can't keep calling it an entity.'
Silver felt the need to give a proper name to the entity outside and so he started coming up with various ideas, but on a second thought, he could just keep it simple and give it a name at its face value.
'Since it keeps watching me, and it is outside the fog, and because it's scary– Let's call it Watcher from Beyond The Black Fog, or The Watcher Beyond.'
After he felt like he was past the first hurdle, if one considered giving a name to unknow as one, He got back to the ridiculous conclusion he reached and why he should not be relying on it.
First, it was not known what the entity, the Watcher Beyond was after, he cannot jump to the conclusion that he was after the glass fragment.
Secondly, he may very well be looking for the person in this house.
'If you think about it, the black fog is actually preventing me from looking at whatever it is, and it acts like a protective barrier all around the house. It may also hinder Watcher Beyond to some extent. It is clearly the arrangements made keeping the person in this house in consideration'
So approaching it first would be the last thing to do in this situation.
Lastly, considering that the Watcher Beyond really was after this glass fragment, Silver was still opposed to the idea of touching it.
'Last time I barely touched the clock and got thrown out, who knows what would happen if I tried to touch the glass fragment.'
Even if we take a generous hand and consider that he won't get thrown out if he touches the silver watch, then what? Should he just throw the watch with the glass fragment outside the window for the Watcher to take and leave?
'That's not happening, It has already saved me two times and it looks like it won't harm me in the long run. How can I just throw it out after it saved me ? I raised myself better than that.'
After listing down all the things that were wrong with his first assumption. Silver knew that he was again in a passive situation.
'Who do I even ask about this? I can't even ask because I don't understand shit here and even if I did, what would I tell them? Do I tell them that there is this place I can go in sometimes, I can fly In there and make anything as long as it is not alive, even stuff from another world! I live together with a glass fragment that is choking the silver watch and some white fog who is the only one happy to play with me and oh, there is also this black fog who is terrifying but it seems to be protecting me from some sort of crazy stalker who is beyond the black fog and it keeps staring at my window unceasingly.'
"..."
"..."
"Sigh. Life is not easy, even in another world."