Wishmaker Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Read chapter 21 of Wishmaker by Larch on NovelPedia.

Buildings made of cold metal and ground stone were built in endless rows that curved and stopped wherever one chose to linger with their gaze. They were tall, not tall enough to obscure the moon but just barely reaching its bottom with their twisted yet sturdy structures. The street looked tidy, welcoming even. Filled with fruit stands that had no customers or owners and stone roads that felt aged and worn. Pieces of it even crumbled under Valentine's feet where he stumbled and looked back with a low snicker. There were many signs hanging across the buildings, made of aged wood that looked like scorched wood filled with abstract symbols and drawings pointing towards their entrances. Focusing on the familiar yet incomprehensible symbols surrounding him, Valentine sighed and returned to exploring the Cradle. I can't understand any of this. Everything was written in the unknown language he had seen in the notebook Sunday took from him; however, this time, it did not look as easy to discern as last time. The letters looked crude, curved in places they should not have been twisted, and always ending with a dot or a line that led to the next one and the one after that. Overall, it was a mess. Perhaps it would be a good idea to learn it later, though he doubted his ability to do so. He strolled through the curved streets with unhurried steps, always taking a moment to take in his surroundings fully before moving on to another area. This way, he passed through the empty construction site, through the stranded streets, and towards the main one, a larger street with bigger, decorated stands and wider roads that held them. Hm? What's this? Coming up to one of the stands, Val noticed a multitude of exotic fruits neatly stacked in wooden crates for display. Tiny signs with numbers ranging from ten to forty were nailed above each of these delicacies, most likely the price for a kilogram of said fruit. He held up one of them carefully, holding it in his hand and noticing how similar it looked to an apple. However, it was dyed grey, with a slightly thinner shape that looked like a mix between an orange and a pear. Lifting it to his lips, he smelled its textureless skin and bit into it with his teeth. The next moment, he spat it out on the concrete, looking at the remaining fruit with disdain. This thing tastes worse than a lemon; who on earth eats these? His face twisted in unnatural ways as he placed it back on the pile of similarly ashy fruits and ventured further into the endless streets, passing through stores and small factories that looked like the ones from the nineties, built with common red brick in a cubical shape. Following the trail of dimly lit moonlight, he entered one of the smaller factories, pushing the metal door on his path aside with little to no trouble. As the smell of smoke and waste reached him, he noticed a multitude of conveyor belts stacked over each other so high that the ceiling could barely contain their number; even the entrance was just clear enough to walk around it. They were empty, like most of this factory, which had no product or workers to make it. Looking at the empty place with a disinterested look, he turned back to the trail that led him through the conveyor belts, not caring whether or not he could actually make it past them. He tried to push himself between them, going headfirst and managing to see the other side that led to yet another metal door, but his shoulders were too broad to fit in the little space it had to offer; his skin struggled against the rubber until he let go and stood up with a resigned sigh. Dead end for once. Valentine looked around for a second, noticing that the place seemed similar to a maze except the fact that everything was left in the open like an unfinished stage. Easily see-through and not as hard to finish as it would seem at first glance. It did not take long for him to find a path around, turning to the set of dark stairs that led to the next floor filled with metal