The new journey began for the librarian, for which her fate was destined anew in this revelation of the Tin Man. But the soul this lost had given up a spark, and the boat wouldn't move further without its cog. So now the librarian had to reignite it, with a paradise filled with song, feast and an air that was definitely a human-made. A paradise in Great Stone Plaza.
Great Stone Plaza is holding an event in the town, with Dion Carven as the host and everyone to feast as they like. Metalionettes are accompanied as servants for the people.
"Welcome to the Great Stone Plaza, Charger." Eve carried him to the south on her head like a child, disguised with a long cloak around his body.
"Here, you can see how 'humans' enjoyed their life. Is this what you did on the coast there?" She teases.
And the townsfolk cheer upon their new ruler who had sworn fealty to their town. With banners hanging and balloons floating, the prince claimed the rule of Gold Creek for his ever-prospering. A parade of salvation brings the Great Stone into a new age of enlightenment—or so it seems behind the curtains and golden chalices for an agreement.
Charger looks around the festival—a joyful place for joyful humans.
"Y-yeah! I did this too!" Charger reaches for a hanging belt by the building beside him. The metal lock tempted him, but he couldn't go for it.
"But you can't compared mine with these people if I was one against hundreds! I mean—I, too, enjoy collecting belts for the metals."
"Yeah..." Eve toned with a taunt.
"But I'm not here to judge you because you are my new righteous friend, Charger. And for that, I want to introduce you of my town for the last time as a fellow human."
Eve brought Charger to a more crowded place where they could see people wearing more in their hems.
They wear red for his name, while the prince wears his thickest to earn his fame. There are expensive wines, a piece of never-ending music made of the town's voice, and a conservatory of those made in the prince's will between copper and metals. His figure extends even before he was deemed worthy of its place.
"See that? That's a human life for you. A lot of these people would like to be with you, Charger."
While Eve was talking, Charger had collected a few scraps on the plaza for himself.
"Really? You don't even look like you wanted me at first."
"Aw, come on. Just because I showed you cold shoulder doesn't mean I'm all mean to you, you know? Besides, why do you think those machines are there?"
*Robot voice* "Attention, citizens and bystanders. Please remain further from machines or harm to come."
*Robot voice* "This playback indicates an unsuspecting passersby."
"Oh...that doesn't look like me, though. Is that why you think I'm not alive?"
As the Tin Man embraces the first sight of a living town, he feels a leap of heart seeing the faces of people enjoying their lives unburdened like him. But all those feelings numb in his cold, mouldy skin of a metal. The scent of Arlitean wines, the taste of sour grape jam on a slice of bread, and the touch of a Frayfoil-made finest sets of vases are nowhere for him. It was a stale reminder that he was not like them—perhaps not to ever be.
Eve brings Charger into a bakery at the plaza. There's plenty of bread served on the shelves, and few people are enjoying their noon treat.
"Here, take this bread and feast yourself." Eve grabs a slice of bread with jam for Charger.
"How does it taste?"
"Nothing. Although I feel relieved munching on something for once." Charger munches from his jaw.
Eve brings Charger into a wine distillery at the plaza. A few kegs of wine are free to take.
"Here, the best wine from the small town of Arlitean in this land. How's the sour and dizzy feeling?"
"Nothing. Although I can feel my chest lubricated with something watery and cold." Charger drank on a glass of wine.
Eve brings Charger to the pottery at the plaza. It was not crowded, but there were arts she loved to view when she could lay a hand on a lump of clay once.
"What about the newly sculpted vases? Can you feel the soft clay turning to a coarse ceramic?"
"No. Although I could see the beauty in the pattern similar to my hometown. Or another world with flowers."
"There's a world with flowers like this? Tell me, it's urgent."
"Maybe later. Come on, show me more about this place!"
But he was happy with it, feeling the life he never had for the first time thanks to the librarian's reach. But all of that was not enough for her to show alone. For as she looked in the distance, she saw the cleric with a frown she had never seen for years. Longing without a friend, he sat alone with his mind.
"Let's find Cyrus so he can see the kinds of creature you are. That man would surely LOVE to meet a new human every day."
"You had me curious, Eve. But now you had me intrigued. Bring me to this Cyrus you're talking to." Charger walks out with a drumstick in his hand.
She visited the frowned sun-kisser, who sat lamenting and thinking of the old days of Great Stone—one he had lost from the prince's mightier chair. But his eyes believed the sun still sparked here, even behind the clouds of judgement, that he wanted to suppress the emptiness, with where the heat still lingers.
*Slow musical background*
"Thanks for visiting my grand musical performance, teacher. I know this one didn't sound like what I expected because the prince changed the musical schedules, but I'm glad you came to help me." Paul stands on the stage with his friends, following the oil-based instruments.
"You're welcome, too. Play me a harmonious tune and try to make the surroundings sound less—!" He scowled, yet his smile was forward.
"Hey, Cyrus! Glad you're having fun with the show!"
"Yeah, fun..."
"I know you wouldn't resist it, friend. Nobody could ever hate a genius with a sense of humour."
"Yeah, sense of humour..."
"You sure would have loved this pancake, Cyrus! They sell for a cheap price over there! Actually, it's like two hundred pounds but you know what I mean."
"Yeah, pancake..."
"Eh! I mean, that was nothing but a bluff. Who could have been interested in that?"
One boy and a girl passed by Cyrus with a smile and a porcelain joy.
"I'm interested in that performance! Reminds me why we never get to theatre before!"
"Yeah, this piece of cake at the end of the party was an icing on the cake! And the cake was for his talent."
"Hey, you two! Don't get too comfortable with that man! Go for something fun like tossing some balls in the park or exercising! You're wasting your time like I do here!" Cyrus yells.
"And I'm saying this as someone your age."
"Cyrus, what's wrong with you?"
"Yeah, not usually you''e being annoying. That's just a show..." They left Cyrus alone.
"It's more than just a show! It's a—forget it..."
"Looks like nobody really can talk to me right now. How ridiculous..." Cyrus sat where there were fumes filled with smoke.
It was laughable. How she knew little about the fire, yet she knew the cleric was holding the match for too long to remember how to extinguish it. For his fire was small, now felt even dimmer. She couldn't feel more shallow than mud, but her friend still needed her. And the librarian was a friend only of that man now.
Eve chuckled at the thought of his looks. No fame, no people, just Cyrus and himself.
"I don't know what to do now, Eve. A lot of my students have started talking about that prince since I brought them here. Saying something about him being somewhat a deity or a chosen man."
"But I've seen a false prophet dreading a river dry less pathetic than this. But my mind is not at ease, Eve. Not until I could grab my hands at that head of his and seep the dark wisdom from his head."
The Tin Man appears bold and brave, fearless unlike the cleric. But the cleric was too saddened, and he felt no feeling to befriend anyone in this dark time.
Eve carries Charger from her back, ready to show it to Cyrus.
"Well, I don't know about you. But I have a guest for you to introduce."
"G-guest? That's a rare word I've heard from you, Eve. Where can I see the guy?" Cyrus looks around Eve with a curious face.
"Here he is! Meet my new friend, Charger the Great!"
She shows the creature to Cyrus like a prize teddy doll she just won at a carnival. A long silence follows, forwarding the introduction. But a different response came instead.
But he was confident with himself. The Tin Man brought joy to the cleric as a human. The tone, the mask, and the call he could do to make a fellow human like him feel as he does. He was exceptionally alive.
"Woah, did they get a miniature for those machines, too? Give it to me." Cyrus grabs Charger from Eve's grasp.
"Wait a second, what kind of machine is this? How does this thing works, Eve? Is there some kind of switch or—"
Charger moved his limbs irregularly. The sound of beating metal can be heard inside.
"Hello, I'm Charger the Great! I'm a sentient being like you, too! Say, you're going to teach me how to become one of your people, too?" Charger waves.
"Uh-huh, another 'sentient' machine again, Carven? Impress me with something new." Cyrus taps the machine.
"Why do I even bother? The Carven really wanted to tease me with his magic, isn't he?"
"No, friend! If I was a toy, I would have been on the back of the shelf. Plus, I'm as alive as you did!"
Cyrus pauses, now with a shocking revelation in his eyes.
It didn't take a few blinks for the cleric to realise how foolish he was. But each second the cleric learns something from the Tin Man, the more he wishes he didn't. From a plaything he squeezed with his fingers, the plaything reminded him that he had tortured an innocent. His soul left his body temporarily, with each critic from the Tin Man about his jealousy.
"Eve? Is this thing—responding to me? This is not a machine, right?" Cyrus mumbled with a soft yet alert tone.
"I'm not a thing! I'm alive! Like you." Charger pokes Cyrus' nose.
"Where did you get this creature? Did you—did you get this from a trash while I'm out? A dark magic trash?"
"Dark? He hates darkness. This guy over here is my new friend and his name is Charger the Great. He's a piece of sentient rock who's going to solve our royal problem with the Carven."
"What??"
Cyrus looks left and right at his surroundings before dragging Eve into an alley with Charger.
Her smile — the smile of a librarian's hopefulness and innocent laugh was somehow an insult to his beating fear. It was the first time the librarian had seen such pouting from a kind-hearted, love-bloomer cleric. All that comes into his mind is now just anger meant to be lashed. And the Tin Man still is not yet a human.
In a tight hallway with smoke waste fuming above them, they are shrouded from eyes.
"What did you give to him? Did you ask for a bone from a man in exchange? A liver of a dying old man? A blood of a baby?" Cyrus mumbled with concern.
"Relax! He's not a wraith or a wish maker. As far as I can tell, he didn't make me a wish yet..." Eve holds Charger above her chest.
"Eve, I need to know what happened here."
"Are you going to burst again like you did with the prince if I did?"
Cyrus pauses, "Run me the details and I'll see how calm I could go."
What the librarian brought to him puts him out of his breath, and he loathes such silence after his life is returned from that sight. But it was only a laugh, which the cleric turned into a cold, reprimanding dismissal. When she has her laugh over, the cleric is as haste to turn a hot kettle.
Eve shares the explanation with Cyrus shortly, starting with a smoke and ending with another smoke.
"And I was about to tell you I'm here to start the boat so we can leave from this storm at once. You know, so we don't die?"
"Can he do that? Can he...make a boat?"
"I can! I am smart, you know? I've been on my own! Making a plank of wood floating is like flipping the back of my palm." Charger bragged with his arms flipping full circle.
His wail is as loud as he denies her words, defying the opportunity for simplicity. No favour is better than the reflection in the mirror, where he remains a cleric with little about the Tin Man. The smiles fade quickly into a bum, from which the cleric was too blinded.
"Come on, Cyrus. Don't be ridiculous. He's out here helping the two of us and you're wasting your breath for what? Give me some ups."
"For what? So you can kill us both on the ocean with that thing? And do you think you're ready for that?"
"Yes, I am. The man had the boat ready. He just needs a piece of machine to finish it. Which is where the prince is hiding it us from."
"But, how about the others? What about your parents and friends?"
"Oh, for goodness sake, Cyrus. Can you not spread doubts and think about it first? Think about the goods?"
"I already think about it. It sucks. This weather sucks. Everything's sucks. But going out to the free ocean? That's worse than sucks."
"I'm not going anywhere while leaving my students in danger, especially for you."
The words coming out of his mouth were a slip, and he quickly shut up at the sight of Eve's changing face.
"I...I mean..."
"Go have fun with your friend, okay? I'll be here if you need anything."
"And I'll be here too just to make sure you didn't do it yet. Okay, bye..."
Cyrus walked away from the alley with a pitying face and a tap around his shoulders.
Without a weep, the cleric parted in a sweep. The blindness in his heart leaves a sorrow for the librarian, who nearly weeps at his abandonment with the Tin Man. But the tears she flows do not belong to her, for the rain had wet her cheeks bitter. The Tin Man stays to calm her, but she is too frowned upon to be happy to utter.
"What now, friend? Sounds like your friend didn't like his fellow ones."
"Aw, don't be so silly! He's just not used to something new. Besides, now that he knew about you, you should have been grateful to have another human friend." Eve mumbled with a wide smile.
*Whisper* "He likes a new friend. He just can't admit it at my face because he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of you."
Charger gasped, "Wow! If I knew that earlier I wouldn't pressure him. Cyrus, please come back!"
"No, no, no. It's fine. We'll get to him when we're ready, okay? So...what about the boat now?"
The sky showered at her while people turned a blind eye to the weather. The librarian was left with the Tin Man and their escape, with hesitance set on the back so they could prepare for a long voyage. But the moment they were fully embraced, their happiness was short-lived. Fate had another plan for them.
"Eve, is it just me or this place getting—wet?"
"Yeah, it's probably the aftermath of the rain. I knew the prince it was going to happen, anyway. But I'm sure as long as we don't get too long in here, we can leave this island immediately and reach out for—"
A drop of water hits her face.
"An island...?" She weeps the water on her face.
Once a drizzle on her face, now a cry to share. With heads turning upwards goes a hail amok, where those who charade and parade before the librarian now shared her pain in a watery dread. Dress and tables were ruined, wires were sparking, and music rhymes with a shout as everyone fled before their dries. Their dried, beautiful lives cry for help. But nobody could be saved from what was coming.
Another chaos ensues as people flee, covering their heads from the heavy rain. Machines remain still yet aware of the wetness around them.
"Aah! The omen! The second one!!"
"Run for your life!!"
*Robot voice* "Machines indicate a high level of humidity in proximity. Entering a sheltering phase."
*Robot voice* "Citizens of Great Stone, remain calm and head for a nearby shelter."
"The second storm." Eve touches the air with its dripping tears on her palm.
"Oh, I don't like this! Hide me somewhere safe! It's cold and dark here!" Charger searches for a shelter.
"No, no, no, no! Hang on, everyone!!" Cyrus yelled in rescue for his students.
"Ah, no! Not the instruments!" Paul was swept, and so did his friends.
In a sweep of a flood, everything was blue as a river from the red blood paint of the prince's curtains. The librarian was soaked from head to toe, like others who were clinging to their shoe, while the Tin Man was fighting for his life, which the sparks soon born.
All that beautiful and glorious was now shredded in pieces, from which tears flew from the clouds and the eyes. But as the party seemed to end, the prince stood on the balcony to change that mind.
"Yeah! Woo! This is amazing, Eve!" Charger yelled as he held onto a wall.
"I like this! This feels...familiar! Like a human!"
"Good for you! But where's the prince when we needed him?" Eve yelled.
"Fear not, citizens of Great Stone!" yelled a man from the balcony of the ballroom.
"Prince Dion, save us! This storm is fierce and is trying to kill us all!"
'Save us, Prince Carven!"
"Remain on your feet and watch, my beloved people. I shall bring this storm to an end." He raises an apple.
"An apple? What does an apple could do with a storm?" Cyrus yelled in annoyance while his hand was searching for a survivor.
With an apple in his grip, of the precious shelf in his home, a sacrifice he threw onto the clouds adrip, as it ceased and the people witnessed in a blaspheme. Praise the prince for his noble act, for the doom was delayed to another day of his rest. Eyes in tears, hands were soaked, but their lips were arched with the biggest smile.
The students reappear out of their dry spots, all while watching Dion on his balcony dry.
"It...ended? It just ended?" Lisa mumbled.
"He ended with an apple?" Paul uttered.
"I can't believe this...he must have been a god," Trud mumbled.
"No! He's not! He's just a man!" Cyrus yelled in defiance while holding a man out of the barrel.
"Don't listen to him! This could be a deception, made by him to fool us all!"
"Do not give your faith to him! Do no such harm!"
"What's wrong with that guy?" Charger mumbled.
"Don't mind him. When you are devoted to your teaching, you don't easily grasp new things anymore." Eve thought.
"Oh, then. What about that boy? Is he..."
"He's the guy we're looking after. But I don't know what to say about him after that whole performance."
Yet in that moment of glory, the prince hasn't forgotten his place. For that eyes now belong to him, his message is clear for a hint. No more jokes, no more laughs, and no more gags from the town at his sight. The prince awaits for the greatest message to share.
"Citizens of Gold Creek, I came here to save your town from the disaster in hopes I could learn how to divert this calamity at once."
"But I fear the skies are getting too mad with you, and each grip let loose would only raised another, fiercer, and more merciless wind to your children. For that, I demand that my position be taken more seriously than before."
"I demand that I must be put into this town's new ruler so I can be more efficient and haste against your disastrous days. I, Dion Carven, demand that Gold Creek listen to their new king!"
"For if a man stood here so small like a peasant while bearing a knowledge so big, then he will not produce anything but a shame and indifference. If I were to change your world, then I deserve to be put somewhere on a hill so I can see all of your faces."
"Say, shall we make it true as the clear sky I've made onto you?" He raises his arms like a king, demanding to be heard by the entirety of the town.
And the citizens looked up upon him, from which the librarian stood unchanged yet appalled. The cleric was no match for him, and the Tin Man was finally happy to be alive and full of adventure. But the journey was far from over.