The place looked ransacked – many books were shredded by claws and pages were scattered around the room. In a neat pile on the table were a few pages that were untouched and titled “The Singularity Bestiary – Entry 567845324 – The Blics.” 

 

Just as Mark lifted them, the text on the front page changed to “Greetings Mark”. Mark dropped the pages and scrambled backwards, frightened. “Surprised?!” Mark cautiously nodded but could not speak as his voice box was charred. “It’s alright. Just down what you want to say with the pen”. On the table was a pen and some golden gears. Mark grabbed the pen and wrote: “Please explain what is going on here!” 

 

“There are these beings called the Blics that resemble an upright pile of boxes with a tiger head and 1-foot-long claws. They’re predators that hunt in packs and are fireproof. Drake enchanted me to have a personality and collect information on them. The Blics didn’t like that, so they ransacked the place.”

 

 Mark wrote “What should I do now?” “You should go out and try to survive. Actually, if you hold up the gears to your skull they should act as a prosthetic eye, but you’ll need to manually turn the gears to look around”. Mark lifted all but four of them to his head, deciding to save the rest for later. True to the enchantment’s words, they clicked into place on his head. His full vision returned, and when he rotated the tallest vertical gear about 90 degrees he could suddenly see both forward and upwards. “You’re done? Good, now leave..Goodbye.” 

 

Mark walked away. After walking for a while, he froze and dived behind a rock. There was a creature that fit the description of a Blic. The Blic looked at the rock, but didn’t see him and walked on. A chilling cry ran out. Shoot Mark thought. The Blics hunt in packs and that meant that there was more than one present there. He shifted the prosthetic eye to look backwards, lit his lighter, aimed and threw. The kindling on the ground caught fire. The Blics were fireproof, but they were mesmerised by the blazing fire. And then, Mark ran! The Blics, who were staring at the fire, didn’t notice. A mournful cry rang through the forest and the fire was suddenly extinguished. Who or what did that, he couldn’t care less.