Gone. Gone forever. For Jack has gotten Capped and is now eliminated from my life. Yesterday he visited the Tripods and now they control his mind. Ever since his fourteenth birthday I worried about him slipping away. Now the Tripods control his mind, and his life.
Before the Tripods came and ruled the Earth, humans had ruled it. They believed in no such thing as Capping. But now, well ever since the Tripods ruled, all the humans here get Capped as soon as they turn fourteen. They must go to Sir Geoffry, the Lord of our Manor, to proceed in his/her Capping. Even though he his old he still must bow down to our masters, the Tripods. Dressed in white garments, Jack was slowly lifted up by a bionic tentacle. Then he was swallowed.
In the afternoon we have fun and games with delicious banquets while people visit and laugh. Even though I should be enjoying this I wasn't. Jack was my best friend. I knew him for as long as I can remember. Now he was not a little boy any more, he was an man.
When Jack came back he looked the same beside his white shaven head covered in a hard metal cap. Soon his hair will grow back over the cap with it's usual jet black color. But, the cap would still be there, with him, the entire way until he dies.
Sometimes the capping goes wrong and the tripods can't control these humans minds. These humans are called Vagrants. And sometimes people try to run away to prevent capping, but the tripods ALWAYS find them, but I plan to take the risk, and run away.
May 8, 2890
Honestly, I would call my mission a quest. Missions are like something to deliver such as a letter or something, nothing dangerous. But, quests are like something you do you go and sacrifice your life for something completely dangerous. If the myth was true, then I would be the one. The one that discovered the land that lied without the world's masters, the tripods.
As I was walking along the grainy gravel pathway alongside the forest, I had seen a man. He was an old mad with deep sagging wrinkle decorating his cheeks and part of is forehead. You could see he had been Capped, for the luminous metal on his head peeked out behind his diminishing hair and glowed in the bright sunlight. As I walked up to the old man I realized the expression on his face was like he wanted me to come over and let him tell me something no one else knew. As almost always I was right. He told me his name which was Ozymandias, and then asked for mine.
Ozymandias told me he had noticed that I had not been Capped for there was no sign of metal on my pale scalp. He had told me about a place. A strange place surrounded by white mountains. But that was not what was strange to me but he mentioned that there were no tripods there, that meant no Capping, no worrying about some bionic thing controlling my mind, (as what happened to Jack). At first I did not what-so-ever believe him . He was Capped, the Tripods controlled his mind and so he was loyal to the great pieces of scrap metal. Ozymandias chuckled a little and explained.
At first I thought he was a Vagrant. There were lots of those. Nothing so significant. Ozymandias must have seen my confused face because he then said,
" No, I am not I Vagrant. I have been Capped by humans, not some bionic nonsense."
It had made sense and boy, this man was as old as I thought he was. He gave me a map and specific instructions of how to get to this dangerous place but I was going to go, weather I make it alive or not. I was on a quest and I would not decline the offer.
Will Parker
~~.~~
May 11, 2890
As we departed from the Orion and Captain Curtis wished us luck and filled my almost-empty pack with more dried fish, milk, and cheese and gave Henry his own pack filled with food too. We stepped into the darkness and walked into a tavern. We remembered Captain Curtis's words stating that we should not talk to the people there. As we entered the tavern immediately people swarmed us with questions in a language we have never heard. Confused I look up and see a boy about our age with some metal contraption on his face that looped over his ears. A large man with a beer belly interrupted my thoughts and shouted something in their language. Soon the people in the tavern lifted us up and lead us into a dungeon under ground.
As night fell the boy with the weird contraption on his face opened the door to our cell. I started to say thank you and then caught myself.
"It is okay. I am one of the people of this land but also know your language." said the boy.
I felt relieved and thanked him. I asked him what his name was and which way was southeast. He replied Zhanpole but we call him Beanpole. Beanpole had told us that the contraption on his face helped him see better. He was glad to show us the way and asked us why. Henry and I told him our quest to the white mountains and he joined us.
We just departed from the Shamand-Fair, a kind of train thing with twelve horses to start it and then four horses to carry it the rest of the way. We trudged forward going southeast, a lot longer than fifty to a hundred miles. We all traveled light headed it was still warm and the clouds had come up. We tried to look for shelter before dark halted us. It did not rain that night and we headed out that morning. What laid ahead of us was the ruins of the City of the Ancients.
When Beanpole, Henry, and I all reached the great city we looked around. There was some sort of cart with wheels and filled with skeletons seeming to sit in the back. As Beanpole and Henry fought over how the cart moved and what it was. I walked over to some shops and peeked into the windows. In one shop I picked up axe, a flask made of translucent blue material, and a knife and put it all in my pack. As I trailed along the path of different shops and saw one surrounded by a spiky wire. I walked inside and saw gold rings, set with diamonds and other stones, brooches, necklaces, bangles, and Watches! I picked out a gold one that had a heavy bracelet which expanded when I stretched my fingers inside it. So I guess my father and I were both wrong about his Watch being the only one. Now, I had one too.
Will Parker
~~.~~
May 13, 2890
"Come on!" I urged the one and only stubborn Aristead. It was the middle of the night and only hours after Eloise had told me she was going forever. Now I had just snuck out of the castle into the royal stables. The stable boy was a sleep near the entrance, so I had to be very quit. As I finally got Aristead out of the stable I quickly grabbed his harness and saddle. I had just mounted Arestead when I saw a huge mound of metal laying on the ground. It was a tripod. It had been there all afternoon for the castles tournament. Now it was sleeping on the ground. I slowly crept around the sleeping beast and went onto the difficult path covered in trees so the giant could not spot me as easily.
Almost five minutes had gone by and I could breath a little easier. I had gotten Aristead around the Tripod. I slowed the gorgeous brown stallion to a fast trot. About thirty seconds later I felt a tight grip around my waist, and was lifted up, higher and higher. I saw a hard metal tentacle around my waist. The Tripod had seen me go out into the night and now, it caught me. The Tripod was carrying me up like a rat, except rats could nibble on your hand forcing you to let go. This was different my mouth meeting the hard luminous metal would do nothing to the Tripod. As it carried me even higher, I looked down from the dizzying height. Then, the tripod swallowed me.
I awoke by the early sunlight and the birds chirping. I was a little light headed and found Aristead a couple of yards away. Then I remembered the night before. The tripod and how it lifted my up. I could not remember anything that happened after it had swallowed me. I quickly felt my head for any sign of metal. It was a sigh of relief, I felt my own furry scalp and no sign of metal. It was about 7:00 and I was just a quarter of a mile away from the castle. The towering stone mansion would soon be up and stirring with life in about and hour. I quickly mounted Aristead and galloped off.
It had been hours since the poor creature had gotten a rest but I urged him to go on. Soon I saw figures ahead, as small as ants, but I knew exactly who they were. Henry and Beanpole. I soon reached them and leaped off Aristead. They looked surprised to see me and the obedient beast beside me. I had told them about the tripod and how I was ready to set off. Henry and Beanpole told me that I should leave Aristead behind and I asked why. Beanpole replied by telling me that three boys walking would be less suspicious than three boys, one on horse and two on foot. We took of Aristead's harness and saddle, covered them in rocks behind a bush, then let Aristead out into the open pasture free, unlike me, but I would soon be. We were going to the White Mountains.
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