Figuring Out How to Stop the Weakening
Days and nights mixed together as I looked
hard at Taina's messy notes. Her ideas about
how sounds could mess up machines were
easy to understand but smart. She thought
that some sounds could stop the machines
from working or even break them. One set of
strange marks kept catching my eye – they
seemed to show up when I felt that weird
fuzzy feeling in my head. Could this be the
secret to stopping the weakening of our
minds? The hard part was trying to
understand these machines with just these
notes and what little we knew. We were very
curious if we could actually figure something
out. We moved slowly, thinking carefully about
everything Taina had written.
My fingers, dirty with ink and charcoal from
Taina's drawings, touched the looping marks
again and again. They were next to drawings
of small, boxy things with sticks sticking out,
which Taina called 'thought catchers'. My own
memories of the weakening – the sudden
blankness, the feeling of my thoughts being
pulled away – made me shiver. If these marks
meant a sound, a special kind of sound…
could we use sound against them?
"Look at this," I said, my voice rough from not
talking much. Gareth, his face was as he
sharpened his claws, looked up. Silas, who
couldn't stay still, walked back and forth in the
small cave we were hiding in, his ears moving
at every little sound outside.
"Another one of her puzzles?" Gareth asked,
sounding tired.
"Maybe not a puzzle," I said, pointing to where
the marks crossed a drawing of the 'thought
catcher' with lines going out, labeled 'vibration
break'. "She seems to think these special
shaking… these sounds… can stop it from
working."
Silas stopped walking. "Stop it how?"
"I don't know exactly," I said, feeling annoyed.
Taina's notes were like a treasure map written
in a language we were just starting to learn.
"But she talks about 'too much', 'getting in the
way'… like trying to hear too many things at
once."
It was very hard for me. I wasn't smart
scientist. I was a werewolf, a hunter. I
understood the world through instinct,
through the language of the forest. Trying to
figure out this complicated thing about
sounds and machines felt like trying to catch
smoke. But the other choice – letting our
minds be weakened, losing our thoughts –
was something I couldn't even think about.
Days became a slow process of trying things
out. We found parts from old human
machines, using Taina's simple drawings as a
guide. Elara, her quick fingers surprisingly
good at working with wires, became our
builder. Silas's good hearing helped us find
small differences in sounds. Gareth, always
thinking practically, worked on making cases
and things to make the sounds louder from
metal and wood we found.
One evening, after many tries that only made
sparks and strange buzzing sounds, Elara
shouted happily. "I think… I think I found a
sound!"
She held up something made of old radio
parts and a hollow bone, with wires twisted
around it. A quiet, high sound came from it.
"This mark," she pointed to one of Taina's
marks that I had been looking at a lot, "it
seems to be this kind of sound."
Hope, small but still there, grew in me. "Could
this be it?"
We found another old human place, this one
full of broken 'thought catchers'. Carefully
watching for any humans, we set up Elara's
machine. She slowly changed the sound,
using Taina's notes and Silas's sensitive ears.
As the high sound got louder, strange things
started happening to the broken 'thought
catchers'. Some of their lights blinked
strangely. Others made a mixed-up, unclear
sound.
"It's doing something," Gareth whispered,
looking surprised.
Elara turned a small knob. Suddenly, one of
the 'thought catchers' on a nearby table made
a spark and stopped, with a little smoke
coming from it.
We all felt very happy. Taina's ideas, even
though they seemed strange, were working.
We could fight back against the weakening.
But our happiness was stopped by a low,
angry growl from Silas. His ears were flat
against his head, and his eyes were looking
hard at the edge of the open area.
"Something's coming," he warned, his voice
quiet and tense. "Big."
We changed into our wolf forms, our senses
becoming stronger. The air shook with a
heavy, steady thumping sound. It wasn't the
sound of human feet or their machines. It was
something else, something old and powerful.
The trees at the edge of the open area started
to shake a lot. A creature we had never seen
before walked in. It was huge, easily twice as
big as a bear, with thick, hard skin and
glowing red eyes. Strange, metal pieces stuck
out from its back and legs, making a strange
humming noise.
Fear, cold and sharp, went through me,
stopping my happiness. What was this thing?
It felt… wrong, not natural.
Then, I saw something even more worrying.
On the side of the creature was something
familiar – a 'thought catcher', bigger and more
complicated than any we had seen, with a
stick sticking out that glowed with a sick
green light.
I suddenly understood. This wasn't just a wild
animal. It was connected to them. Controlled
by them. And it was coming right for us.
Gareth roared angrily, jumping at the creature.
But it hit him away with a huge paw, and he
crashed into the trees. Silas, fast and quick,
ran around its legs, trying to find a weak spot.
"The sound!" I yelled at Elara, my mind racing.
"Can it hurt this thing?"
Elara, her face white with fear, quickly touched
the controls of her machine. The high sound
filled the air, but the huge creature didn't even
move. The green light on its 'thought catcher'
blinked faster.
It turned its glowing red eyes on me, and a
strong mental pressure hit my mind. It was
like the weakening, but stronger, crushing me.
My thoughts mixed up, and I couldn't see
clearly.
This wasn't just about stopping our own
minds from being weakened. They were using
it as a weapon, in ways we couldn't have
imagined. And this monster showed how
scary their progress was.
Just as the creature jumped, its big jaws
opening, a beam of pure white light shot from
the forest, hitting it in the chest. The creature
roared in pain, stumbling back.
Standing at the edge of the trees was an old
werewolf, his fur as white as snow, his eyes
shining with an old power. He held a stick
made of twisted wood, glowing with the same
white light.
"Run!" he shouted, his voice loud in the trees.
"I will hold it back!"
Who was this? We had never seen him before.
But his power was clear.
Gareth, dizzy but getting better, helped Silas
stand up. We looked at each other,
understanding without talking. We had a
chance, a small one.
With one last, desperate look at the old
werewolf fighting the monster, we turned and
ran into the darkness, the secrets of the
weakening – and the scary new danger –
heavy in our minds. The fight had just started,
and the danger was bigger than ever.