One-Eyed Monster

Igor's excitement was beyond words; he picked up rocks from the ground and threw them into the Moonflow Stream.

"What are you doing?" Kadi was naturally thrilled to see Igor fully revitalized. However, Igor's occasional over-excitement made him seem like a madman, doing things that perplexed everyone.

"Continuing the experiment," Igor said, throwing another stone.

The first stone went PLOP! into the water, missing the rocks in the stream. The second stone made a CLICK! as it clearly struck a rock.

"What's the purpose of doing this?" Kadi asked, confused.

Chuckling, Igor said, "I'll tell you in a bit." He deliberately maintained an air of mystery for Kadi, then continued throwing several more stones into the stream.

Kadi pouted. Igor was actually keeping him in suspense. But he soon accepted it; Igor's actions were always cryptic, so there was no need for him to dwell on it this time.

The thrown stones made various sounds—PLOP! CLACK! GURGLE!—continuously feeding information back to them.

Igor observed the stream for a while. At times, he stroked his chin, deep in thought. Other times, he picked up a twig and sketched on the ground, occasionally nodding.

Igor looked like a painter studying a distant landscape, mimicking the motions of a brush, and then nodding in satisfaction as if completing a masterpiece.

Kadi yawned. Igor had been sketching for quite some time. If one added the time he previously spent studying the traps and the route, it had been a very long while. During all this time, I feel like I haven't done much, Kadi thought. It seems like Igor is always performing a one-man show.

But what can I do? Kadi mused. Even though I'm a monster from Guru Mountain, whether in Ghost Wind Valley, here at the Moonflow Stream, or even back at Dawn Peak, I've never shown the qualities—or rather, the abilities—a local monster should possess.

If anyone were watching, they'd think Igor had completely stolen my spotlight, Kadi thought. I seem more like a lackey, only stepping forward when needed. Most of the time, I just follow Igor, quietly being a good little monster. Just like now.

Igor sketched on the ground for a while longer, then lifted his head and smiled widely.

"I think I've discovered the secret of the Moonflow Stream." Igor looked smug, as if he had discovered a new continent.

"Oh." Kadi wasn't as excited anymore. After enduring for so long, what was there to be excited about? Anyway, Igor will handle everything, he thought.

"You see, I just threw seventeen stones into the Moonflow Stream. Three fell directly into the water, five hit rocks submerged in the water, and four hit rocks at the water's edge and bounced in. And the remaining five," Igor chuckled, "they actually hit the secret of the Moonflow Stream."

"Hmm? Is it the result reflected by those different sounds?"

"That's right. Falling into the water makes a PLOP! Hitting a rock in the water makes a CLUNK! Bouncing off a rock and then into the water is a CLACK-PLOP! But there's another, stranger sound: PLOP... CLACK... SWOOSH—" Igor did his best to mimic the sounds so Kadi could understand.

Actually, Kadi didn't need Igor's imitation. He had been listening attentively and could distinguish all four sounds clearly even without Igor's description. What could these ordinary sounds possibly reveal? Kadi wondered. They're so common, they surely don't mean anything noteworthy.

"Five out of seventeen stones made this sound, indicating a high probability."

"What high probability?"

"You'll know once you try it yourself." Igor began tossing a stone in his hand.

Kadi did as Igor suggested, walked over, and picked up a stone.

"There, that direction, give it a throw."

Kadi didn't say another word and threw the stone in that direction.

PLOP! CLACK! SWOOSH—WHOOSH—

"See? It's that sound again."

Kadi looked in that direction. It was upstream of the Moonflow Stream, where the water flowed down from the small hill, resembling a small waterfall.

"What does that mean?" Kadi asked blankly.

"Well, the water source of this Moonflow Stream should be from a spring somewhere on this small hill. The water flows down naturally, forming this stream. If the flow is big enough and it flows down from this hill, what do you think it will form?"

"A small waterfall, I guess. I think that part over there looks a bit like a waterfall," Kadi murmured, blinking his eyes.

"Good, we'll put this aside for now and talk about the song from the Moonflow Stream."

"Isn't the song a trap?"

"Right, the song is a Time Trap. But, as you said, the song from the Moonflow Stream is a real song, not an imitation. So, I recalled the song I heard last night. A prominent feature of this song is that it's very ethereal."

The song is real, I'm sure of that, and it is very ethereal, Kadi thought. But what does this have to do with the secret of the Moonflow Stream? He couldn't grasp what Igor was implying with all this talk.

"Hmm—" Igor pondered. To convince Kadi, a simpler analogy is better, he thought. He quickly searched his mind and found one. "You've seen a cave before, right? If a gust of wind blows into a cave, doesn't it make a sound?"

"Yes, it does."

"Isn't that sound also quite ethereal?"

"Hmm..." Kadi mused thoughtfully.

"Listen to this again." Igor threw another stone in that direction.

"This..." Kadi listened intently. After the PLOP, the subsequent sound was distinctly hollow and ethereal.

"Are you suggesting that there's a cave inside this Moonflow Stream?" Kadi finally understood what Igor meant.

"That's my conjecture, and I was about to suggest we go down..." Igor didn't even finish before Kadi shot off towards the Moonflow Stream. Heedless of the cold spray, Kadi quickly scrambled over the rocks to the turbulent area where they'd been throwing stones.

"I'll check for you if there's a cave behind this little waterfall!" Kadi declared, then plunged in.

"Hey! Igor!"

Kadi's voice came from the Moonflow Stream, but Igor couldn't see Kadi at all.

"You were right! It really is a water-curtain cave!"

After hearing this, Igor was extremely excited. He also quickly moved and ran towards the Moonflow Stream.

Despite it being winter, Igor wasn't bothered by the coldness of the water. As he climbed, his body was quickly soaked.

Igor, after all, was not Kadi and didn't have Kadi's physique. His climb up the Moonflow Stream was noticeably slower than Kadi's.

By the time Igor scrambled into the water-curtain cave, Kadi had already shaken himself dry and was casually sitting on a rock inside, one leg comfortably crossed over the other.

"Once again, you were right. You are really something, Igor." Kadi's face blossomed into a smile.

"It was just a guess; it still needed verification," Igor said, shivering. He felt chilled to the bone.

"Well, I've already verified it! This really is the secret of the Moonflow Stream!" Kadi exclaimed. "The cave goes all the way through! I can see the white mist on the other side—that must be the White Swamp!"

Kadi's eyesight was extraordinary; he could see great distances. When he spotted the vast white mist, his excitement was immense. The White Swamp! We're finally getting closer! Thanks to Igor! Kadi felt he was one step nearer to his dream.