The journal of Peter Baker, 1/23/701 ABW

Much happened over the last several weeks, starting during our town’s annual twelve days of holiday celebrations going from the end of one year to the start of the next. Many gifts were exchanged and much information was learned, particularly surrounding that weird dream and the man at the focus of it, the demon Dolmonuc, and it came from the most unlikely source.

Early one morning roughly three days into the holiday, my family went to the house of Becky’s friend Margor, a regular occurrence for as long as I can remember since our dad has been friends with Margor’s father, Hiroforr, for such a long time and we’ve all gotten to know each other pretty well, especially since Hiroforr works as a driver at a local delivery company and as such, we see him around town and especially at school pretty often. Anyway, the only visitors besides my family and his was this strange boy named Scarlon who I always see at Hiroforr’s house during the winter and who I swear looks the same as he did years ago. He’s a nice guy and extremely friendly, but I’ve always found that there’s something…off about him.

We hung out for a while and exchanged some gifts, mainly video games and movies with Becky and Margor getting an expansion for that board game they got recently and is rather fun. When all of the gifts were exchanged, they left the room to try the new expansion out presumably to figure it out before showing it to me. My parents left the room to help get dinner ready, something customary since my dad is a professional chef, leaving me in the living room alone with Hiroforr. He looked at me with a stern expression on his face with Scarlon hidden in the corner of the room, barely out of sight. I rarely saw that expression, so I knew this was serious.

“Peter.” Hiroforr began. “I heard from Margor that you are looking to research a demon named Dolmonuc. May I ask why? I know you have a keen interest in history but that name is not taught in schools often, especially around here.” I then told him about my last class and the dream I had during it. “Hmmm. The fact that a random substitute teacher would have a lecture on such a dark day in our history is interesting enough, but the accuracy of your dream? That’s something else entirely.”

“Accuracy?” I asked.

“Your dream has more accurate depiction of Dolmonuc than any painting or sculpture I’ve ever seen.” Hiroforr answered.

“You speak as if you met him.” I replied. It was then that I remembered Hiroforr was around at the time and would have witnessed the events first hand. “Oh. You did, didn’t you?”

He nodded in response. “I barely got away from that man with my life.” Hiroforr then got up. “I wasn’t going to do this but after what you just told me…” I saw him head for the hallway, walking right past Scarlon. He seemed to say a few things to him before disappearing from view and came back a few minutes later holding a wrapped box in his hands with what I assumed was a historical artifact inside. That in itself wasn’t unusual as Hiroforr has amassed a large collection of historical artifacts over his life and inherited many from his father, the legendary orc our county is named after. In fact, he has so many that he has given me at least two each year, one for my birthday and one during the holiday celebrations, and those have really added up.

“Another artifact, Hiroforr?” I asked as he placed the box on his coffee table.

“Yes, and one that is of importance to this affair.” He replied as he sat down and gestured towards the box. “Open it.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice as I ripped the package open, revealing a rather ornate knife made out of materials I had never seen, kept in a scabbard with a clip on it to keep the blade secure. “What is this?” I asked as I picked it up, pressing on the clip so I could pull the knife up just enough to see the blade.

“That is Dolmonuc’s knife.” Was Hiroforr’s only response.

“His…” I then thought back to the last moments of my dream when the demon drew a knife out of his robe to strike. “Are you saying this-”

“Is what you saw in your dream? Yes, Peter. I believe it is.” Hiroforr said before I had a chance to finish my sentence.

“How did you even get something like this?” I asked.

“A gift from me.” Came a voice. As I looked up, I saw Scarlon walk over and sit next to Hiroforr.

“From you?” I asked. “How do you mean?”

“That is a long story, Peter. One that is too long for us to tell right now.” The boy said.

“Yes. As it is there are a few things left to figure out before I tell you that tale. Just…keep this gift a secret from everyone you know until then. Don’t even let anyone see it.” Hiroforr said.

“Even my parents?” I asked as they liked to look through every gift I got.

“Especially from them. Now don’t worry.” Hiroforr grinned. “I do have another gift to give you later that they can very well see.”

“You guys do know I’ll just start researching this as soon as I get home, right?” I asked as I placed the knife in the inside pocket of the coat I was wearing, hardly noticeable.

“We do indeed.” Scarlon began. “In fact, I hope you do come across it on your own. Good luck.”

With that, I heard my dad shout to us that dinner was ready and all three of us quickly ran to the kitchen. There isn’t much to say about the rest of the evening. Margor and Becky got back to their game right after dinner and my parents cleaned up while Hirroforr and Scarlon started playing a rather strange board game in the living room, one that I’ve never been able to figure out. What did I do? I joined Becky and Margor’s game for a little bit, though we didn’t finish. Becky and I eventually went home with our parents, but not before Hiroforr gave me one last artifact as his “official” gift, which was just a gold coin said to belong to some pirate.

I ran up to my room as soon as I got home and placed the coin in a case next to my desk before hiding the knife in a compartment in my dresser that only I know about and started going through some of the books in my collection hoping to find some information on that blade and Dolmonuc. I don’t have anything yet, but hey. My collection is vast when it comes to history, so this will probably take awhile. Not to mention things have been…busy. I’ve gotta go, but I hope I’ll have the chance to write more about some of the other events that have transpired recently in the near future.