The Age Of The Dawn (a Survival Map Story)

Author's Note: We were already about a year into Althea (BlackReaver 5) when I first began writing this story, but due to the new map, I had to rewrite it by changing some key aspects.

This story was created to bring an idea of mind and fantasy to the realm of MCS. The characters are based as humans, and as is the world. Blocks do not exist, as minerals are just minerals, and non-existent ideas of Minecraft have been created into this world.

I hope you enjoy a story, that's been 1 1/2 years in the making.
I will try to update every other Saturday.
Next Supposed-Update: --/--/--


Prologue, The Story Begins.

The day was dry with the heat of the sun as it burned the surface of the world at the transfer of a desert and forest. The dunes of the desert created waves of dust as a smooth air casted itself over the heat of the land. The forest itself created a small beat as the leaves brushed against the clear skies. Birds chirped from the shade of the trees, singing tunes in the heated summer air. While lizards drank from the desert watering hole a little bit away.

A lone figure walks down the dirt path that spread from the north to the south. The figure walked with a hat over his head, and a large pack strapped to his backside. His once grey cargo pants revealed scuff marks of dirt and sand now, with torn areas near his shoes. His shirt was white with stain marks and darkened by the sand. The figure breathed heavily, lungs trying to reach for clean oxygen of the desert. He reached for his canteen on his belt, unscrewed the top and lifted it to his lips, finding it empty on all accounts. He looked at the canteen, and dropped to the ground with an ‘Umf!’ He didn't move, he didn't speak. He laid there under his heavy backpack, dealing against gravity as it sat on top of him.

Hours went by, yet the figure did not move from the sandy dirt of the desert. A silhouette appeared from the setting sun of the desert. As the silhouette moved towards the man on the ground, it came into vision that it was another person. They rode a horse through the slowing heat as the world began to transition into the black of night. The person also wore a hat over his head, covering their upper torso in a wet cloth. They jumped from the horse, onto the dirt path. The man lifted over the figure who had collapsed to the ground and inspected him. He put his ear to the figure’s chest.

“Well you are one lucky bastard. Heh.”

The man picked the person up off the ground, and threw him onto the back of the horse. He climbed back on, whipped his wrists back, and buckled the horse forward toward the forest, into the dark of the night.


Chapter 1, Awakening.

“Drink my friend.” Water slid down the figure's throat, and coughed it back up. “Slowly. Your body has been deprived of water for some time now.” A rough but kind voice said, as he poured more water into the collapsed figure’s throat.

“Whe-Where am I?” He asked, letting out deep breaths.

“You’re in a safe place now, though I should probably call you a fool for trying to cross Swift Sand Desert by yourself. Along with all that stuff you carried on your back.” The light from the lantern flickered, revealing a white bearded man. He wore glasses with red lenses, a red suit, and a blue t-shirt underneath stood before him as he reached up for potions on a shelf. “What’s your name son?” He reached back up for something else.

“Uh…” He shook his head off the man, looked at the small lantern. “Um, Terry.” The man looked back at him with a curious look out of the corner of his glasses. Then grabbed a hand sized sphere from the cabinet.

“Well; Terry. I don’t know what you did on your way through that desert, but you have two broken ribs, and sprained ankle. Even being as young as you are, you still need to realize that your body has limits.” The man took the patterned orb, and placed it over Terry’s bare chest. “I need you to breathe slowly, this will sting.”

Terry calmed himself down, and slowly began to breathe out his breath. The orb grew bright, and suddenly there was a snap.

“Gah!” Terry let out in a whimper as he clung his hands to his rib cage with a sudden jerking motion. Suddenly, Terry realized he could breathe easier again, like force wasn't being applied to his lungs anymore. Terry let out another whimper when the orb glowed over his ankle. “What did you do to me?” He asked the man.

“I repaired the shattered ribs you somehow accomplished to get, and fixed the muscles in your ankle. So they should function as though they wouldn't have been damaged in the first place.” Terry sat up in the bed and looked at the man.

“Who are you exactly? And why did you save me?”

“Me? Save you? Heh. That’s funny. No, it wasn't me who saved you, I’m only the kingdom’s doctor. High ranking, but also a doctor. You were saved by a local wanderer by the name of Jetty, though everyone just calls him Jet. And as for my name, it’s Dzyriq.” He laid his back up against the cabinet.

“So, where am I then?” Terry asked Dzyriq with a worried look. “And where are my things too?”

“You’re in my home and shop at the moment, and your things are downstairs in the back room of the shop. You are all healed up, so you can go grab those and be on your way.” Suddenly a bell started ring from downstairs. Dzyriq nodded his head to the doorway, and vanished down the stairs. Terry moved himself from the bed, grabbed his shirt off the bed stand, and scurried his way downstairs.

The back of the shop was cluttered with empty bottles and potion stands. A few cauldrons sat on the far right wall. There was very little light coming in, other than from the small window on the door that lead out to the front of the shop, and the same type of door that lead to the outside area. His backpack sat on a small island table in the middle of the room. He grabbed his pack, and wandered out the front.

Dzyriq stood in front of a customer shoving potions into his leather knapsack. The customer was young, about Terry’s age. The kid looked up to see Terry standing in the doorway.

“Holy shit he’s awake!” The kid jumped over the counter-top and ran over to Terry. It stunned Terry a bit, he grabbed Terry’s arm, moved it up, grabbed him by the palm and began shaking it. “Name’s Jetty! I’m the guy who saved you after you collapsed on the ground. I brought you here because, you know, Dzyriq is the best healer in the entire Kingdom!” Terry just stared at the kid with a wondering face, and motionless eyes.

“Well…um, thanks? Sorry, I’m not great with greetings...” Terry said stuttering in his words.

“Ah, it’s fine! Really! Look, why don’t you come meet the people around th-”

“Look, I really should get going. I have a package that needs delivering, where do I go to get back on the path to GoldenWilde?” Jetty grabbed Terry by the arm and tugged him along. “Hey! What are you-” Jetty reached into his pocket and tossed some gold coins over to Dzyriq who caught them with a single hand swipe through the air.

“I’ll catch you later Dzyriq! I’m going to show this guy around!” Then they walked out the door and into the light of the day as the door slammed behind them.

Chapter 2, Baa-Baa Black Sheep

“Seriously! What are you doing!?” Terry yelled at Jet who dragged him by the arm down the gravel path.

“Look, I’ll let go if you chill out.” Jet told him. Terry sighed, and nodded his head at the young adventurer. Jet let go, and continued walking at a steady pace down the gravel path with Terry behind him.

“So, where are you taking me?” Terry asked Jet, who was playing around in his knapsack looking for something.

“I’m taking you to GoldenWildes. You said you were going there right?”

“Ya…?” Terry said curiously.

“I’m taking you there, then. Well, technically you’re already here, as we’re inside the territory. We’re just on the far outskirts of the east. Won’t be too long till we’re at the major marketplace.” Terry sighed and kept walking behind Jetty. The early morning breeze was picking up at a steady pace. It was nice to feel cool wind after walking two days in straining heat. Clouds overhead casted shadows over the forest, creating beautiful rays of casted light to the ground. Terry breathed in the fresh air and relaxed with his hands in his pockets as the wind blew through is scruffy hair. Jetty cut into Terry’s relaxation.

“So, uh. Stupid question. But what’s your name?” Terry looked at Jetty, “Sorry, just I never got to ask about you. Dzyriq only told me you had woken up and that was about it. You don’t even know how long you were out, do you?” Come to think of it, Terry didn’t know how long he was out for, a few hours maybe? It didn’t really cross his mind when he woke up in the hands of a total stranger giving him water, then fixing his ribs and ankle.

“I don’t know, a few hours, maybe the night?” Terry said as he shrugged his shoulders at Jetty. A surprised look shot across Jetty’s face, that didn’t make Terry feel good.

“You were actually out for two days or so. Your dehydration, and exhaustion really took a toll on you.” It really surprised Terry now, two whole days unconscious? The trip across the desert really did take its toll on him. “So, are you going to tell me your name or am do I need to make one up for you myself?” Jetty smirked at his own comment.

Terry was about to start talking when he was cut off.

“Hey! Stop that thief!” Someone yelled behind them. Terry and Jetty looked over their shoulders and saw a man right behind them, before they knew it, he had shoved them to the ground. The man took off bolting down the path. A man dressed in a black wool coat continued to run down the path after the thief.

“Come on dude! Let’s go catch that bastard!” Jetty said as he unsheathed a dagger from his belt and chased after them. Terry got up and followed after Jetty with his own silver sword drawn from his holster. The thief was fast, faster than any of the three of them making chase to him. What was it exactly this guy stole? They began climbing a hill, even then the thief was even fast enough to out run them. Jetty began slowing down.

“Here! Use this!” He tossed a blue potion to Terry from his bag. The potion glowed an aqua bluish color. “It’s a Swiftness Potion, drink it, and you’ll go faster!” Jetty drank the potion, and took off running faster than before. Terry looked at his for a second, uncapped it and took a little drink. Almost immediately Terry’s leg muscles began to feel stronger and more flexible. He threw himself into a running position and took off down the path after Jetty. The forest flew by his eyes, motion seemed to have slowed, but he was going faster by the second. Jetty was right in front of him, and thief right in front of Jetty. He lifted the dagger above his head, and slashed it downwards towards the man.

Before it had registered, the man turned around at a sudden pace, kicking Jetty in the air who let out a cry of surprise. The thief stood his ground, he was frisky looking, wore a striped blue vest, and had a white dress-shirt underneath it. He pulled his own dagger from his belt, it was wavy looking, made to do nasty amounts of damage to whoever’s skin it penetrated. Jetty hit the ground, and let out a groan. Terry lashed forward with sword drawn, swinging in the thief’s direction. However, he was fast, dodged everything Terry threw at him. (Continue to next post.)

 

Chapter 2 (cont'd)

“What!” He swung left. “The!” He swung right. “Hell!” He missed, the opponent dropped to the ground, and kicked out Terry’s leg from under him. Making Terry collapse to the ground. The thief ran back down the path, as fast as he could. Though Terry couldn’t bring himself to run anymore. The potion must have worn off on him.

“Oh shit...” Jetty said in disbelief looking down the way they came.

“What?” Terry asked. Jetty pointed towards a dust cloud with a large, muscled man running in front of it. He had blonde hair, and black glasses. He wore a red tank top with pouches on the straps going down to his belt which held up ragged black jeans. The man ran past with great speed after the vested man. “Who’s that?” Terry asked in amazement.

“That’s Throttie…”

“Who?”

“Let’s just say that thief is in for a very hurtful beating. Come on! Let’s go see!” And Jetty was off down the road again just like that. Terry followed to see what all the amazement in Jetty’s eyes had gotten over because of this guy.” He chased after Jetty, and learned pretty quickly as to why Jetty was amazed by it. When he arrived the thief had been smashed through three solid trees. The man spoke up after cracking his knuckles and neck.

“I’m going to give you two options punk, and you better listen to it because I'm feeling the need to beat some sorry ass people today, but I guess you'll do just fine as a replacement.” Terry could hear the power in his voice alone, the way he talked made him sound in charge and his look just added to the intimidation tactics of this Throttie guy. “Surrender now, and I’ll bring your ass back to the jail where we're going to lock you up in until we decide what to do with you. Or, I beat you till you're no longer conscious and drag you back there myself.” He said sternly to the thief but the man did not back down. He pulled his blade from his vest and charged. Throttie didn’t move, he just stood his ground and looked at the man as he ran right up to him. The man threw his arm forward for a shanking movement right at Throttie’s chest. In one swift movement, Throttie countered the man. He threw the man’s arm off trajectory by shoving it with his right hand, the man tripped over the sudden change of weight and in a split second received a back of the head blow from Throttie’s fist. Knocking him out before he had even hit the ground.

The fight was over by the time it had started. And the man that just pummeled another man into total submission with a single move surprised Terry. By the time it was over, the guy in the black wool jacket had caught up, gasping for breath on his knees at this point.

“Heh. Hey Throttie…man, I really got to do more running again, don’t I?” He said breathing heavily in between his words. Terry looked at the man, his black hair and dark brown eyes made him stand out weirdly from other people he had seen.

“Hey Neddzy, and ya. Here.” Throttie ravaged through the pockets of the thief and pulled out a necklace with a black-metal sheep on it. The eyes of the sheep were made of diamonds. Jetty looked at it with beauty going through his mind.

“Wow Ned, I’ve didn’t know you had something like that.” Jetty told Neddzy as he put the necklace on.

“Indeed! It’s a family heirloom, it depicts all that my family has accomplished in the past twenty-five generations with the raising of the world’s finest black-wool sheep.” Ned told Jetty. Throttie spoke up.

“If you guys don’t mind, I’ll be taking this guy now back to the capital. Hope to see you guys there, be safe!” Throttie threw a black pearl on the ground and disappeared with a flash of purple.

“So, Jet. Who’s your friend over here, I don’t think I’ve seen him around before.” Ned and Jetty both looked at Terry. Terry let out a small chuckle, went over to Jetty and stuck out his hand.

“Name’s Terry. Terry Silverstone.” Jetty looked at him, gave a smile and shook his hand.

“My name is Jetty Fortuneson, but you can just call me Jet if you’d like. Sorry if I get annoying at times.” They both laughed a little. Ned cut in.

“If you two are going to loli-gag all day, be my guests, but as for me. I’m heading to the capital!” He said as he walked away waving. Terry looked at Jet, and nodded his head towards Neddzy.

“Well? After you.” Terry said to Jetty. Jetty smiled and lead Terry towards the capital of the GoldenWilde territory.

Chapter 3: Welcome to GoldenWilde!

The market was bustling with people roaming the streets of the shops. Windows of storefronts showed off vibrant colors of reds, oranges, and yellows. The people themselves were no different, each of them wearing different types of clothing, each giving their own personal charm to street. Some people stood outside and tried to direct people towards their stores. Terry could smell the scent of food in the air from mushroom stew, to freshly baked pumpkin pies, he had never been so dazzled in his senses before. Jetty was walking with his arms crisscrossed behind his head. His walk had a swagger to it, making him appear more confident in a way. Terry looked away and found himself being busy at the sights of the shops again. The architecture of some of the shops was less generic this time and more interesting with the use of marble, and some sort of turquoise brick he'd never seen before.

"Lost in amazement I see." Jetty said looking over his shoulder at Terry. "Don't get too amazed, after tonight the shops tend to get a little vacant, and the marketplace usually is never as busy except for maybe Celts-day."

"What happens on Celts-day?"

"Everyone comes in the early morning to grab their supplies for the week, whether it be hunting, adventuring, building, or making rescues to the poor saps trapped in one of the thousands of cave systems that run underneath GoldenWildes's Territory.” Jetty said using his hands to express the things, eventually he just wandered off into his own train of thought.

“So, what’s going on today that’s making it busy so suddenly?” Terry asked cutting Jetty’s rambling off.

“The festival tonight, for you know, the typical kingdom mumbo-jumbo.”

“Festival?”

“Yeah, the kingdom is holding a festival in the capital as a celebration for being around for the past six-hundred years or so. We’ve gone through several name changes over the years, and we move to new lands when we majorly run out of resources in the areas.”

“So you guys are pretty much the equivalent of nomads on a kingdom sized level?” Jetty shrugged his shoulders and kept walking.

“Sure I guess, though when we do run out of resources; we kind of just leave everything as is and let nature regrow and take everything back. Mass expeditions are interesting too, we go on week long tracks at times just to find a new land and establish the capital. But, someday I hope to go visit our past territories.” Jetty paused for a moment as they walked through the mall district. “Oh, hey before we head into the capital, I got to go pick up something from a shop.” Terry nodded. As they walked through the mall, it wasn’t as busy, but the shops were starting to close up, guessing that the festival was about to begin. Shop owners closed the glass doors, and locked the handles together using chains. When they left the mall, the streets were fairly vacant with only a few wanders in red, orange, and yellow outfits. Eventually Jetty stopped in front of a building. The clay it was built out of was white with a tint of what looked like pink, and the windows were tinted black.

Outside in the grass sat a kid who seemed to be about eighteen or nineteen. He wore white jeans, white shoes, a white t-shirt, and a white beanie on his head. His long hair was also white and draped down over his face. When Jetty approached he tilted his head back and moved his hair from his face which revealed bright red eyes.

“Evening.” He smiled at Jetty.

“Evening Wat. Got the glow dust?” Jetty asked. Wat picked up something from behind his back, to reveal a small pouch with glowing bits of dust sprinkling from it. Jetty seemed to jump in joy a little bit at the sight of the small object. Terry didn’t have time to ask. Jetty flipped a coin to Wat, and Jetty ran back over to Terry.

“Come on Terry, let’s head to the festival."


The Festival was amazing, confetti fell from the towers that surrounded the walls to the East and the South. Large torches lit up the streets against the bright red clay walls that made the night slowly turn into a vibrant dusk. The people that roamed around the capital square wore clothing of various colors and shapes. Young children weaved through the crowds with playful joys of laughter and no sign of their parents in sight. Jetty made a sign for Terry to follow.

Terry shoved his way through the crowds as they pushed back and around him, it was almost like being lost in a sea of lava with all the colors of red, orange, and yellow that surrounded him. He eventually caught back up with Jetty.

“You’re going to want to check this out.” He said in his ear over the crowds roaring chants. Terry peered over Jetty to see a fence that blocked them off from a large section of the road that lead up to a large building on the hill with a balcony that overlooked the rest of the square in the front. Suddenly, the crowd burst into celebratory screaming and cheering. Jetty and Terry peered out into the roads to see men walking down it, waving their hands as other characters came to meet them with great enthusiasm for their arrival.

A man dressed in greyish green light armor walked forward to greet another man dressed in royal, festival themed light armor. The armor glowed bright with its beautiful colors and mixtures of black inks in the fabrics. (Continue to next post.)

 

Chapter 3 (cont'd)

Jetty point to them, “The one on the right is our fearless King, Nat. He’s descended from a long family of royals that have passed down their kingdom for the last six centuries to him who now holds it in his power to keep it as is.” He then slid his finger over to the man in the cloaked red, yellow, orange and black armor. “That there Tech, he’s considered by a lot to be one of the coolest Overseers. He also is in charge of our land’s technological advancement guild, Technical Territories, to further increase us in the way we build and structure ourselves.” Two people followed from behind Tech who was still shaking hands and talking to Nat. They held hands, and waved to the crowds of people who cheered and laughed at the two. Terry couldn’t see why, then he got a closer look.

What appeared to be two women walking next to one another, was a man in a woman’s dress who carried an umbrella on their wrist. He wore a purple dress with sleeves of white and crimson royal red. The real woman next to him wore a beautifully black sparkling dress that reflected from the torches that blazed across night sky. It shocked Terry for a moment to see those two together, he tapped Jetty on the shoulder and pointed at the couple who walked down the white path.

“What’s the story with these two?” Terry asked while holding his gaze to the couple.

“Oh, that’s Mojo and her husband Piotr. Weird couple I know. Piotr is another one of our Overseers, he watches over the small towns around the territory, making sure they stay up to standard on the rules, and are fair to their civilians. Mojo on the other hand, she’s not an overseer, but she played a very large role as a community builder.” Jetty told him with his eyes located out in the road. Nat was now shaking hands with someone else who also wore a black outfit, but was in robes this time instead of armor. The trims on the arms and head cloak were golden orange, what appeared to be a broach on the front of the robes was flashy in how it looked and appealed.

“That there is Oracle Aqua the Fifteenth, he has an established kingdom far from this land, but he holds a major presence in GoldenWildes as an Overseer. However, it’s established in a large war between several clans for domination, and soon might not be around much longer.” Terry kept peering over the masses and watching as body guards dressed in blue and red escorted the Overseers to their positions. The crowd burst into cheering once more with the sight of two familiar faces and a new one to Terry. It was Throttie and Dzyriq, walking ever proudly as people in the middle of the lane. It caught him by surprise that he’d come face to face with two Overseers already and not know about it until now.

“They’re Overseers?” Terry said with a hanging jaw.

“Yes-sirre! But what you don’t realize is that the one who’s walking in the middle, is really the one you should be looking at. While Throttie may be the criminal hunter, and Dzyriq the healer; the one in the middle is the meaning of ‘Judgement’. Stanky, is his name, and he’s the final verdict of all criminals across the land, and has the highest percentage of people sent to the Land of the Lost Souls.” Terry examined Stanky, he definitely played the part of a scary person, he wore scaled green armor, and a helmet that looked like a prehistoric monster. At his belt he wore single handed battle hammer with an axe on the backside of the brute weapon. “Trust me Terry, you don’t want to get on these guys’ bad sides, you could seriously get yourself screwed over if you were to piss them off.” Terry made a nod in astonishment as the last of the Overseers walked by and began to establish themselves up on the balcony that oversaw the square.

They all sat down, with their body guards by their sides. A blanket of silence began to fall over the crowds as the sounds of crickets filled the summer air. Nat took a look around, stood up and came to the railing.

“Welcome everyone! Welcome! Welcome to GoldenWildes official establishment, and our six-hundred year celebration as a kingdom!” The crowd cheered and the silence fell again.

“I’d like to officially welcome my advisors, and your Overseers. Let’s have to them stand and take a bow.” The Overseer’s stood up and took a bow out to the crowd who clapped back, they went back to seating when it had settled down a little. “We’re gathered here tonight to remember the lands we once thrived and travelled, and how my grandfather’s, and father’s old kingdom, Althea, brought us all together. How travelling those thousands of miles with only fragments of our old society on our backs made us stronger as a kingdom, and how we established of what is needed to be a thriving kingdom once again!” Chanting formed across the crowds with cheers and screams of happiness. Nat raised his hand to have them settle. “Now; Warriors, Hunters, Architects, Traders, Travelers, Explorers, and Mayors. It is time for us to start anew! It is time for us to go on and be that successful kingdom we’ve always been, and always will be! It is time to go forward and begin ourselves the new world of which we wandered for so long. It is time my friends, it is time for a new age of prosperity, a new age of people who will join this kingdom, and a new age for your King to experience. Welcome my friends, to the Age of the Dawn!”

The cheers roared into the night sky with loud booming blasts of fireworks. Jetty quickly pulled out a firework from his bag and dumped the glow dust into it. He closed the top, and lit the fuse. The paper rocket shot to the sky, making a loud sound as it exploded in the air. Particles of glowing dust fell from the sky, lighting up the square more than ever, and soon, the world was ever silent once again.

Chapter 4: The Hunters

The festival had gone on for hours into the night. Music began to change as the attitudes of people changed with it. The music started out fast, with the people dancing about the main square in a festive fashion with alcohol and roaring cheers of laughter. As the night went on, the drunks themselves began separating themselves from the rest of the crowd. The crowd themselves began showing signs of exhaustion as the loud moaning of yawns began to slur out their speech. The crowds began to leave in slow moving crowds as the sleep began to take over. Some even fell asleep right in the square themselves, though no one did anything about it as to say the festival was a glorious battle of a man’s nerves and excitement filled his blood.

Jetty and Terry had been on the road for a half an hour or so, stumbling around from exhaustion. Terry could feel the alcohol in his system slowly creep in on him as the world around him was spinning. He regretted getting into a lot of things tonight, but he kept thinking back to the reason he was here in the first place but couldn’t snap his mind to it. Jetty ran to the side of the road and puked, soon after he collapsed onto his back.

“Why ded I hav taget ntoo tat c-” he puked again. “Wit you.” Jetty slurred as he worked his way up. Terry could barely remember the contest, and just about everything after that. “I kahn take dis anmore.” Jetty dropped to his knees and started rummaging through his satchel. He hiccupped as he pulled out a small bottle of milk. Jetty took a sip, almost as soon as he drank it he began to seem a little less loopy. He handed the bottle over to Terry who was still spinning in his head. “It’s a bottle of poison-clearing milk. It’ll drain out your system of any abnormal remedies, but you’ll get a splitting headache later.” Terry looked at the bottle, titled his head back, and took a drink. Terry’s head cleared up, his vision straightened up, and his body no longer felt wobbly.

“Thanks, also another thing I should thank you for is bringing me to that festival.” Terry said with a smile on his face. He tossed Jetty the small bottle.

Rustling came from the trees, they looked over their shoulders. The rustling got louder as it charged towards them. They reached for their weapons on their holsters. Terry’s silver blade shined in the night, and Jetty held his dagger downwards in his hand for a quick stabbing position. Another noise followed the rustling, it sounded like squealing. Jetty took a step forward and a pig came bursting out of the brush in front of them, arrow stuck in its’ neck, squealing into the night sky more than a wolf on a full moon.

“What the hell!?” Terry shouted. Another arrow flew out of the brush and hit the pig dead in the side of the eye, smashing through the skull, and out the other eye. The pig hit the ground with a thump, the squealing came to a stop. Terry peered over his shoulder, there was moving through the trees and he could barely make out a figure that walked through the grounds. A man dressed in red color, with a noble purple lined cape and red material walked out from the forest. His beard was as black as the night sky, and his aquatic eyes glowed like the blue moon overhead.

“Danny!” Both Terry and Jetty said.

“Evening guys, or should I say morning at this point?” He said in a kind, light hearted voice. Jetty introduced Terry to Danny back at the festival right before they had their little drinking contest at the tavern. All he knew about him was that he was a Hunter which explained the pig now dead at his feet. “Well damn,” Danny said in disappointment as he crouched over the bleeding pig. “Almost a clean kill, but I guess that leaves me out of the game for tonight.”

“Game?” Jetty asked.

“Oh, my tribal members put a game on for tonight to see who could get the most clean kills on some animals. I had four, but as you can see by this one, it’s not a one-shot clean kill.”

“Sounds interesting,” Terry added. “Do you use any spells on that bow of yours?” Terry peered at the bow on Danny’s back which looked to be made of an aquatic blue material.

“It’s actually a Legendary Bow.” Terry stared at it with interest now. “The bow is made of prismarine shards, thousands of them in fact, and after days of trying to trek through it with several failures I managed to kill the Guardian and take my reward.” He pulled the bow from his back. “It’s infused with a Power, and Infinity spell. As well as a spell that makes the arrow travel faster through water than on land.” He point to the markings on it the bow’s handle. It revealed the fist marking of Power, the infinite symbol of Infinity, and a drop of water for the Aquatic spell. Danny’s attention went back to the pig where he pulled a large silk cloth from his from his satchel and spread out the cloth across the damp dirt and cobble path in front of the pig.

“You two mind helping me move this?” Terry grabbed the pig by its hind legs while Jetty grabbed the front legs.

“Three, two, one; lift!” Terry commanded, they hoisted the stiff animal over onto the cloth, blood dripped from its eye socket, staining the cloth. They dropped the pig down with a heavy ‘Thump!’ Danny pulled his arrows from the pig’s head and neck, more blood oozed out as well as bits of brain being stuck to the arrow shaft. Jetty almost puke again. Danny made a chuckle at Jetty’s misery a bit.

“Blood make you sick boy?” Jetty nodded as he began to recollect himself. “Aye, I’ll admit, it’s not the greatest job in the world; but it keeps the kingdom as well as the guild fed.”

“I’m not much of someone who kills his food to eat, I prefer to just buy it and go.” Jetty stated coughing over his voice. Terry’s stomach made a grumble, Danny peered over at him.

“Anyway, you two appear to need some actual food. Help me drag this thing back to the camp and we’ll feed you some of the best food in the kingdom.” He tied up the cloth and stuck a tree branch through it. Growling came from the forest on other side of the path, Danny peered into it. “Come, we need to go before the Dead get to us.” Danny crouched underneath the branch and pushed up, balancing the pig on his shoulders. Terry and Jetty followed him.


The forest was dense in black. The shreds of moonlight that broke through the trees didn’t help much as they followed after Danny who was in front of them by large lengths. His red clothing made small glints as he ran through the moonlit areas. As Jetty and Terry began closing in on him, he sped up, soon the blue moonlight evaporated into an aura of red and orange through the trees. Danny had disappeared into the light, and Jetty and Terry smashed through the tree line into a clearing with Danny standing there waiting.

“Good, you guys managed to keep up, even without the potions.” He said smiling with impressment.

“Potions?” Terry asked catching his breath.

“Night Vision and Speed are kind of essential to a Hunter’s job at night.” He replied, “Well, let’s show you around.” Terry straightened up and looked around. They had entered a clearing of some sorts, tents were setup everywhere with lanterns lining where the opening and forest met. Hunters wandered the opening, dragging their kills inside a larger tent. With a peek inside through the flaps there were more kills, it was where they stored the dead animals.

Danny dropped his kill near the entrance of the tent, he talked to some Hunters who gave him a nod and picked up his kill and dragged it in. He signaled to Terry and Jetty to follow.

“This is incredible, almost as incredible as the festival itself.” Terry said in amazement.

“I wonder if all the other guilds are like this.” Jetty asked joining in on Terry’s own amazement.

“Wait, you don’t even know what the other guilds are like? Aren’t you part of a guild?” He asked Jetty. Jetty had a shameful look shoot across his face. They passed a game of Siliviel where one of the four players had just won the hand and the board and he jumped up in cheer.

“No, I haven’t seen any guilds, I’m just a Citizen. Which is the rank given to those who have yet to be brought into a guild.” Jetty smacked himself across the head. “Ah dammit all!”

“What?” Terry asked in surprised question.

“I forgot to bring you to the Application Quarters.”

“Application Facility?” Terry asked.

“If you want to become an official citizen to GoldenWildes we’ll need to bring you to the Application Quarters. It’s where settlers become official Citizens. It’s not a big jump in rank, but it keeps us from kicking you out or throwing you in jail if you do something wrong.”

“Well don’t worry, we’re drop by it later I guess. No need to go rushing into things. Not like I have anything to go back too anyway.” Terry thought of what his life used to be like. How happy he used to be back then before everything happened.

“Anyway,” Jetty caught off Terry’s thought process. “I hope to become an Explorer someday. Though that requires finding a catacomb which is really difficult to find.” They finally caught back up to Danny.

 

Chapter 4 (cont'd)

“I’m sure you’ll do fine.” Terry gave a smile to Jetty then looked back at Danny.

“Come! I’d like for you to meet our Guild Leader.” Danny told them. Terry and Jetty followed him through a long tent, and out the other side. There was another clearing on the inside of one. However it was smaller, and on the sides of it were all surrounded by wood and cobblestone. In the center a camp fire sat that lit up the whole clearing. A man sat on the other side of the fire, inhaling a pink cloud of gas. He opened his eyes and looked at those who had interrupted him from across the fire. He had eyes of green that reflected that of the forest around them. His beard and hair were a light coconut color. His clothing was a thin leather coat that went down to knees, around his waist sat a belt with various cartridges and small potion vials. Underneath his jacket was a thicker brown leather held together by buckles. His pants were dark grey wool with a holster going around his leg.

“Greetings my friends.” He spoke in a rich, soothing voice. “Come, sit down.” Terry, Jetty, and Danny took their seats on chopped logs that were pounded into the earth. “So, Danny; who are these two that you brought in front of me?” He asked.

“Some fellow wanderers. I found them out on the path, also met them at the festival. I was hoping to give them some food.” The man raised his hand for Danny to stop who followed on command. He looked to Jetty and Terry.

“Do you two have a place to rest for tonight?” Terry looked to Jetty who shook his head. “Very well. Danny! We’ll fetch these boys some food, and a place to spend the night.” Danny stood up and bowed his head, he walked out of the encirclement. Terry stood up and put his hand out.

“Uh, you didn’t need to do that, but-”

“No problem!” The man was shaking his hand before he could finish. “Call me Kenny. I’m the leader of the Wolf Guild Hunters. We specialize in forest and plain areas for our hunting.” He looked over Terry’s shoulder at Jetty. “So what’s your names if I may ask? You’d be surprised how many people rather not talk at all.”

“That’s Terry, and I’m Jetty. We were on our way back from the festival and got a little carried away with the drinks.” Jetty explained too Kenny.

“Ah! So you like the drink then huh? Well, you’re clearly straightened out, and I can smell the damn milk on your breath. Heh. Here, breathe some of this in, will totally clear out your system, even repair things that need repairing.” Terry took the bowl of pink dust from him, put his nose to it and breathed a little in. His body began to feel good again, and wasn’t sore. He handed it to Jetty who also took a sniff. Kenny took the bowl back when he was done.

“What is that stuff?” Jetty asked him with curiosity.

“It’s basically powdered Regeneration Potion, just without the crappy taste.” Kenny laughed. Danny and several other Hunters walked through the front tent flaps. They carried a cooked pig on a wooden platter, apple in its mouth. Kenny looked back at Terry and Jetty.

“Well? Who’s hungry?” He asked.

Chapter 5: After Party

The Hunters walked in with food from meats, to vegetables, to fruits. They came in by the dozen, with more and more food; leaving and entering the middle opening. Two Hunters strayed from the group carrying in the food, with a leather sack of sand and a bucket of water. They extinguished the fire using the water, and threw sand on top of it to dry the ground and put out any remaining cinders. A couple more Hunters entered the area carrying not food, but large pieces of oak wood. They constructed it quickly with nails, creating a long table with enough room to fit sixty or more. Remaining Hunters who weren’t still bringing in food were piling up the table with the food, organizing it so that all the large meats were placed on the ends and in the middle. The smaller foods were placed in between.

The smell of steak, chicken, and ham filled Terry’s nose. His stomach groaned for a taste of the food. Iron torches were placed around the opening, it gave off a roaring orange glow as the moon itself seemed to dance in the festivities below. By the time it was all over, the table was assembled, the food was placed, and the Hunter’s were hungry. Kenny stepped forward from the crowd of his people, he grabbed the leg of a turkey and chowed down into it. It signalled the start of the feast. Hunter’s grabbed at the meats and vegetables, being careful not to take too much. Jetty and Terry sat next to one another. Terry grabbed for the steak, while Jetty reached for the vegetables and fruits. Hunters tossed food to one another from across the table, and even down it. Jetty became startled when a Hunter pulled a trick, shooting a red apple from his bow with an arrow, sticking it right into Jetty’s wooden plate. After calming down, he was amazed by the performance of the Hunter and laughed.

A horn began to siren across the group from the end of the table. Kenny stood up and revealed himself to his unit. He jumped up onto the table in which people moved their plates from his path as he walked waving around a bread roll.

“Hunters.” he paused, “And the beautiful Huntresses.” There were some giggles from the girls. “We’re within a new land, a new territory for us to unravel and hunt. When I turned ten, my father, and his father before him became some of the best damn Hunters throughout the kingdom. Twenty years have passed since I myself became a Hunter, climbing through the ranks and to be granted Warrior status by our fair King. Who of which, I heard you were cheering your tongues out earlier.” He took a bite of the bread roll he had been holding. “But you know what!” He swallowed. “I myself have never seen such a greater amount of animals to hunt within my life.” The crowd agreed with him with slight nods and ‘ya’s coming from them.

“Since Althea’s beginning, we’ve hunted, we’ve prided ourselves on our archery skills, our swordsmanship skills, and our stealth skills. We’ve survived the dark age of our kingdom, now we must revive ourselves, and force ourselves onward into our Renaissance that will be GoldenWilde’s territory.” The crowd began to clap. “Come hunt with me brother’s and sisters! It is time for us to show that bitch Mother Nature who is the boss and fight on!” Within that phrase, Kenny managed to rile up the whole crowd, people were cheering and throwing food into the air with celebration as if food was nothing more but a petty treasure to them.

When the crowd settled down, they began to finally eat. Terry ripped into the deliciously cooked steak covered in spices. The food tasted amazing, as it crossed across his taste buds with richness far beyond that of which he had over the past few weeks. Jetty devoured the apples he had managed to grab. Cores of apples sat on his plate.

“Don’t eat meat?” Terry asked him.

“I do, sometimes. I prefer the sweet and sour tastes of fruits, and the bitter taste of vegetables. They only seem to be more diverse in where I can get them.” He chomped down on a carrot. “Besides, fills me up more.” Terry shrugged it off, and went back to his plate, he began to eat at the t-bone of the steak, removing the bits left over, he didn’t want to waste any of it. He drank some fresh berry wine to swallow the meat, and added more spices to it.

“I see you like the steak.” Kenny said, looking over at Terry. He nodded and went back to eating it. “You haven’t gotten much to eat at all for a while now, have you?”

“I was going across the desert before I collapsed and Jetty found me.”

“Which was a week ago.” Jetty said. Kenny looked at Terry with interest.

“Desert, hm. Isn’t that the direction of? Gah, what is it?” He paused for a moment to think about it, he snapped his fingers. “The Thonerin Kingdom. Ya, rumor has it no one has heard from them in a while, kind of curious as to know what’s going on out there.” Terry looked at him with a worried look. He ripped some meat from the bone with his teeth. “You wouldn’t happen to know would you?”

“No, no I wouldn’t know.” Terry replied. Kenny shrugged his shoulders, and went back to take a bite of his lamb when he caught a sight of something at Terry’s hip. A surprised look shot across Kenny’s face as it went completely pale, and nearly choked on the food already in his mouth.

“Are you alright?” Terry asked Kenny politely.

“Ya, I’m fine. Just noticed your silver sword is all.” He replied while looking at it with curiosity, like it was a holy treasure he’d come across but was skeptic about it’s use.

“Why? Is it rare to see someone with a weapon like this around here?”

“No, it’s just-nothing.” Kenny went back to eating as sweat formed on his forehead. Why did this cripple him so much? Did he find out who I am or-No, he couldn’t have. Terry looked over at Jetty who was now just barely holding his head above the table with his arm as his eyes began to shut. He lost his balance on his arm and smacked his head on the table.

“Ow…” Jetty moaned as he rubbed his forehead. Terry looked back at Kenny who was chuckling at Jetty’s blunder.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a place where we could stay, do you?” Kenny gave them a nod and raised his hand which was slightly shaking.

“Selena!” He yelled over the crowd. A girl looked over to him, got up from the table and walked over. She had long black hair, and wore red light leather armor. A red ripped cloak covered her right shoulder, and a shoulder pad on her left shoulder wore a black skull. “Selena, please show our guests to your tent for the night, they can use their sleep.” Selena gave a nod to Kenny and snapped at Jetty and Terry.

“Come on you two.” Terry got up and pulled Jetty by his collar to get him moving. They exited from the middle opening out into the encampment area. The place was more vacant than it had been when they had originally passed through, there were some Hunters wandering around watching the forest line. Two of them were cleaning up the corpse of a zombie that had wandered in. Jetty was just barely managing to stay awake.

“So Selena, how’ve you been?” Jetty asked.

“I’ve been good Jetty, how about you? From what I can tell, you’ve made a new friend since the last time I saw you.” She replied with a smirk.

“You know each other?” Terry asked as they passed storage tent in which Jetty made a face at the smell of the animals inside.

“She taught me how to fish when we were kids. Oh, and Selena, this is Terry. Terry, this is Selena, she’s the youngest Warrior in the entire Kingdom.” He introduced to each other.

“Well, I must say it’s always interesting to meet someone who makes Kenny sweat.” She snickered at the thought.

“You saw that?” Terry asked.

“Everyone saw it. Kenny’s not exactly a fan of silver items with good reasoning.” Some Hunters stumbled by drunkenly while singing a tune about a raven, or something of that nature from what Terry could figure out from the slurring.

“So, why does he not like silver?” Selena turned around and faced Terry. She looked him dead in the eye. Her gaze sent a chill down his spine and sweat form on the back of his neck.

“You know, there’s a reason we’re called ‘Wolf Guild’, and it’s because of Kenny.” She gave a sadistic smile with that remaining chilling look. “Kenny is a Werewolf.” Jetty and Terry looked at her in an almost horrored expression.

“You’re kidding me right!?” Jetty said with disbelief.

“If I was kidding you then I would be. Kenny is a Werewolf, plain and simple. The blood of the Wolf runs in his family and has for several generations. Everyone in the guild knows, and everyone in the Hunter Clan knows.” Terry and Jetty just looked at each other with shock then looked back at the center of the encampment. Selena started to laugh. “Oh, don’t worry you two, it’s not like the storybooks that your parents read you to scare you before bed. He has control of his beastly side. So don’t freak out and think he’s going to kill you.” She continued walking; Terry and Jetty followed with terrified haste.


They finally stopped in front of a large red tent. The stitching was weaved with white and black strands of rope, keeping the tent to the ground and sealing any holes in it. When they stepped inside, the place felt larger than it looked on the outside. A large pillar in the center of it held it up by six beams that crossed over the top of the ceiling of the tent which were steadied on top of six more, smaller, less dense pillars. The inside was lit up by the warming of glowdust lanterns which gave off a sunset vibe.

“Well, welcome to my home away from home.” Selena said, ravaging through a chest of blankets and wool. Terry looked around some more, there were chests laying underneath bed stands with no mattresses. Small desks sat around the center pillar with animal bones, branches, and string laying about. There were some jars near the back of the desks, filled with alcohol to preserve the zombie and skeleton heads in them. The eyes of the zombies looked Terry with hunger as the jaws clamped up and down slowly trying to take a bite. Animal heads on plaques hung from the smaller pillars, and salt barrels rested around the back area of the tent. “Here, you idiots.” Terry took back his attention to Selena who threw a silk blanket, and wool filled pillow at him. A hide mattress had been placed on one of the bed stands for him, and Jetty had already collapsed on his.

“Thanks Selena.” He gave her a respectful bow, and threw the pillow on the bed. “But, where are you going to sleep?” Selena gave a flick her finger and pointed up above her head.

“Up there.” She pointed to a hammock that hung from two of the beams. Terry gave her a questionable look. “When you’re living out in the woods, would you like to bare the chance of getting eaten alive by something in your sleep?” That didn’t make Terry feel good. “Well, I’ll see you two in the morning. She climbed up to her hanging bed, and clicked out the lights. Terry plopped onto the bed and thought for a good time. He thought of his first day in Golden Wildes, he thought of why he had come here, and he thought of why he needed to remember what he promised.

Tomorrow morning, I have to make it to the Temple…

Terry drifted into sleep as the night’s eye watched over him through the slotted entrance of the tent.

 

Chapter 6: Enter Sandman

“Terry help me!” Terry quickly spun around in the darkness of the cold forest, and dust of snow grabbed at his feet. The blue moon shined onto the winter snow through the dead trees. His brown coat was soaked in dark blood as was his sword. The sleeve on Terry’s coat was ripped down the right arm of which he held his sword, pure red blood slid down his arm with a constant rate. “Terry!” A voice screamed.

“Sarah! Sarah where are you!” Panicking, he began running through the winter night. “Don’t worry Sarah! Don’t worry!” There was no response back, he picked up his pace, fearing it was too late. The jagged dead trees slowly became twisted in their branches and trunks, and the world began burning around him. Walls of stone seemed to form out of no where and barbarians of evil smiles and stares ripped through people with swords and bows drawn. Murdering every innocent in sight, Terry ran into a nearby shop when he stepped in he was faced with a woman. Terry stood in frightful fear as he had entered the room. He could no longer hear the killing of innocents, or the cheers of the massacres, but silence. But he was left with nothing more but the shattered wall of a room he once used to call home, the woman that sat in front of him, beheaded. Her silver blade was broken, and covered with the black thick blood, and the handle of the Bear with the ruby red eyes. Her chestnut hair crawled in the pool of pure red blood of which it now sat, whispering with small waves, and the eyes dripped blood with sadness in them. Terry walked to the woman, and collapsed to his knees, he dragged his hand across her head and cried out in agony.

“I’m sorry Mom.”

Chapter 7: The Journey Ahead

The sounds of birds singing woke Terry. Sweat stained the pillow and his fast paced beating heart stomped in his chest. What a dream. Terry, rubbed his head and leaned up. The tent was still dark, but he could hear Selena and Jetty outside talking. He dragged himself off the mattress and fell to the floor with a loud knock into the wooden frame of the bed. Terry pulled himself of the ground with a stretch of his body. Jetty threw open the flaps of the tent, letting in sunlight nearly blinding Terry.

“Thought I heard you scrambling around in here; come get some breakfast.” Terry walked through the entrance, and was surprised to find Hunter’s running around with item deliveries and cooking foods. A small fire pit had been made in front of Selena’s tent where they were cooking bacon, eggs, and pancakes. Kenny was cooking the food, which felt unnatural for Terry as he was the Guild Leader. Selena was taking full size bites of everything at once, eating it down like an animal.

“Smells good.” Kenny peered up from the makeshift grill and greeted Terry with a smile.

“Ah, Terry. Come sit down and enjoy one of the finest breakfast’s in the world.”

“You say that about everything Kenny.” Selena said sarcastically. Kenny laughed as Terry took a seat on the chopped log.

“Indeed I do. But your father is probably more repetitive than me.” Selena chuckled at the comment, then burst into laughter. Terry took his eyes off of Selena and saw kenny handing him a plate with his breakfast on it. A little girl jumped onto Kenny’s back. Kenny let out a groan, and then smiled with joy. “Hello sweetie.” The little girl had light brown hair running in a braided ponytail down the back of her head.

“Hi Daddy!” She yelled in a cute, semi-high pitched voice. Kenny lifted her off his back, and placed her on the ground with his hand around her shoulder. Terry bit into the soft vanilla rich pancakes, they were stuffed with cocoa beans, delivering a very delectable taste.

“Want some breakfast?” He asked her as he flipped a pancake over on the fire-oven.

“Can you add some of these berries for me?” She stuck out her hand revealing glowing pink round berries. Kenny took them from her and inspected them closely.

“Ah, Swissal Berries. A sweet delectable treat for my little sweet?”

“Ya Daddy, you know they’re my favorite snack in the whole world!” She expressed with her arms in the air. Kenny gave a chuckle and threw the berries on top of the pancakes. His daughter looked up from the fire stove and watched as Terry tried to rip through a tough piece of bacon. Terry stopped and looked at the little girl, he gave a slight wave of his hand. “Who are they Daddy?” Kenny looked up and over at Terry and Jetty who were sitting on the logs eating their food.

“That’s Terry and Jet, Sweetie.” Kenny said, “Terry, Jet, this is my daughter Ametaisui. Say ‘Hi’ Amy.” He looked at his daughter with a smile.

“Hi!” She gave a wave of her hand, with a smile of joy across her face. It warmed Terry’s heart in a way, to see happiness still thrived in the world.

“So, you two.” Terry finished eating, and Jetty was having another round of eggs and pancakes. “What do you plan on doing today? I’ve never seen you around GoldenWildes before, and it’s fairly obvious that you’re new. So what are you doing here?” Kenny asked as he slid the pancake onto a small plate and handed it to his daughter. Amy ran off and sat with some other children far off near some Hunter’s ripping bones from a pig.

“I’m trying to deliver a package, you wouldn't happen to know where Western Grove village is, would you?” Terry asked with sweat forming on the back of his neck. Kenny looked at him with razor like eyes.

“You wouldn’t mine to tell me what the package is, would you?” Kenny asked as he stood up, his eyes became yellow and shallow.

“Just some Ghast Tears.” Sweat was beginning to form on the back of Terry’s neck. Terry took a look at Kenny’s finger tips which were now growing claws and slight fur.

“Don’t lie to me Terry, I can smell the Silver in your backpack. Now, I’m going to say again, what are you doing here?” Kenny took a step-forward. Terry gulped down his words, and moved back in his seat. He could hear Kenny sniffing the air slowly and waiting for a wrong movement with his eyes.

“Calm down Kenny, no need to try and scare the poor bastard with the Big Bad Wolf. His nightmares were interesting enough already.” Terry shot a look at Selena who was eating her pancakes.

“How did you know I had a nightmare?” Staring blankly at her. Selena thought about it for a minute.

“You were flopping around like crazy last night, I heard plenty of it.” Selena explained to him as she slid some food into her mouth.

“Come on Selena, just wanted to have fun with the kid; after all, I did feed him both breakfast, and dinner.” Kenny looked back over to Terry who was still somewhat panicked. “But do anything that harms my daughter, I’ll be chewing on your bones.” He unsheathed his claws and showed off his razor sharp canines. Terry nodded his head to him. “Good, glad we understand each other.” He looked over at Jetty who had turned into a ghost. “But seriously though, what are you doing here? There’s the extra silver in your sack I can smell, but they’re not daggers. Especially since you’re carrying around your sword.” Kenny pointed out.

Terry shuffled in his seat and spoke. “I’m on my way to the Temporal Enclave Sanctum. I need to pay my respects to a…” He paused. “Fallen Relative.”

“Ah, I see. When I lost my wife I was heart broken, but out of her death I received the miracle that was my daughter. It was her who named my daughter, and I promised her that I would protect Amy from everything. As for the Sanctum, you’re going to want to head west. It’s a protected territory by the mages of the Kingdom. The remaining ones at least.” Selena gulped down her food and stood up from the log seat and cracked her neck and grabbed her satchel from the ground.

“Well, I better get going. My Father is going to want me to home by tonight.” Selena stated as she gave her plate to Kenny. “I’ll be back in a few days. Try not to destroy anything like last time.” Kenny’s face turned pale when her voice tone changed to serious.

“Hey, uh, Selena. Your father’s place is out east, right? Why don’t you take these two with?” Kenny point at Jetty and Terry. She glanced at them and wandered to the forest. “Nah, they’ll only slow me down. Catch up with me if you guys can.” And she was gone as she bolted into the dense woods. Kenny looked back to them and rolled his shoulders.

“Well that figures.” Jetty slouched over onto his knees. “She’s never been known to sit still, always trying to get ahead of everyone else on everything.” Jetty looked disappointed at Selena’s leaving, but Terry figured that it was because he hadn’t seen her in a while. Terry handed his plate over to Kenny and went back into the red tent, Jetty followed. The lights of the thing were on now, possibly from panels on the central pillar on top of the tent. Terry walked over to his shirt which was completely covered in holes.

“Damn.” Jetty looked over who was throwing on his armored shoulder pads. There goes another shirt.

“So, you’re off to the Sanctum huh?” Terry nodded. Jetty’s face became as bright as a glowdust light. He clicked his satchel over his shoulder and shoved his dagger into the small holster around his leg. “Well then I’m coming with you! We’ll need to travel back east though, ”

No, no, you can’t come with me. “Sure.” His mouth spoke faster than his head could think. “Well, Western Grove village is back east. Which is ironic to say the least. Think we can make it there by nightfall?” The flaps of the tent were thrown open again by Kenny who was now carrying a leather bag stuffed with different things. He handed it over too Terry.

“What’s this for?” He said staring at the bag. Jetty had run over and peered into it.

“Well, you’re heading over to the Sanctum. I personally figured that you could use some new gear, especially since the dead never seem to die there.” Terry rummaged through the bag. Inside were Potions of Healing, some food for a few days travel, new lightweight grey armored pants and armored black jacket with a green t-shirt tucked in-between the two. A two ringed chest belt that would connect over the shoulders complete with pockets for items, and a place to put his scabbard for his sword. “I had some Hunter’s gather together some stuff for you, since you probably need it more than we do. Oh, and Jet. Selena left this for you.” Kenny tossed a black satchel over to Jetty. The bag was marked with a green eye, and Jetty studied the small plaque below it.

“The Bag of the End: A bottomless bag that can store up to limitless space.” Jetty looked at Kenny with disbelief.

“She said that it can’t be destroyed and that it gives you the items you need the most that you’ve stored inside of it.” He responded. Jetty threw open the flap of the bag, he pulled out a trench coat of his own. It was lined with strings of blue lapis on the outside, folded inside the coat were some armored shoulder and elbow pads made from animal skins and small amounts of iron stitched inside the animal skins. There was a belt with two extra straps to connect to the main belt, the two extra straps had dagger holders. Jetty inspected one of the holders, he clicked off the strap that went around a large steel handle, and pulled a green shining dagger from the holster.

Jetty’s smile lit up like the moon on a dark night.

 

Chapter 8: Into Darkness

Terry and Jetty had left the camp hours earlier, traversing their ways back towards the main capital square. Terry’s new equipment fit comfortably around him, making it light-weight and breathable for him to fight in. Jetty’s was no different; his duster wrapped around him, but revealing the blue vest around his torso, and the black bandolier that held his new emerald dagger, and his older iron one. People who passed by gave a look at their new outfits which were different from the night before.

As they passed through the square, and Jetty stopped for something in the red towers; there were Guardians and other volunteers cleaning up the mess of the party that was the festival. Seeing the Guardians without their armor was different to Terry. Shouldn’t they be protecting the King? He didn’t dwell on it too much. Jetty came storming out of the red tower entrance with something in hand.

“Here.” He handed Terry a black leather notebook as he closed up his bag. Terry gave him a questionable look.

“What’s this for?”

“That right there, is your identification papers and official GoldenWilde Journal. It’s marked with the laws and your jailing records. But, let’s hope that you won’t ever need to use those. You can even write in it for later if you need too.”

“So I’m officially a citizen now. Correct?” Jetty gave a nod and began walking off towards the market. He followed and looked at the journal cover. It was black with a vintage red seal of wax on the upper left corner, and a strap that kept the book closed. Terry gave his own smile towards his new life that sat in his hand and slipped it into jacket pocket.

They passed through the shopping district. It was shoulder to shoulder crowded with people competing in a bid for some swords that were displayed. They shimmered different colors with rubies, diamonds, and emeralds infused into the blades. More auctions were going on for large sums of building materials and food. The mall was no different in terms of crowdedness, people were in shops by the masses. Buying up anything and everything they could.

“Everybody is buying something to go with their assorted ranks. Or trying to achieve.” Jetty explained. His comment made sense. Terry noticed the different shops on how they all assorted to different standards. He figured that the shop owners themselves were officiated traders, and the shops selling meats, arrows, and other forms of weapons were Hunter trading posts. When they arrived at a tunnel, Terry noticed the immediate change in the terrain. Jetty took a spin towards him and pointed out as if he was a tour guide of some sorts.

“This tunnel leads to Orlanburg, one of the Kingdom’s largest cities, but also it’s fastest falling.” Jetty turned back and proceeded into the tunnel.

“Fastest Falling? So, is the city corrupt or something?” Jetty shook his head at the question and explained.

“The city’s mayor, Owen. Has gone missing on us and hasn’t been seen for a while so it’s been hard for it to keep up with the demand of citizen upkeep. I also hear the town co-mayors haven’t been dealing with it, so it’s been a free-for-all.” When they entered the tunnel, they were met with more shops, but lesser maintained from the looks of it They were dark and dragged down by the formations of rocks crumbling downwards. However, a smaller shop that crossed over the pathway seemed to be in good shape with marble flooring and beautiful shining aquatic bricks that lined the place. They made their way through an opening in mountain side and proceeded through another tunnel. What they entered was a very large amount of flat land with a community of homes in the distance a little ways. There was a small sign with the scratched in words of ‘Welcome to Orlanburg’.

“Huh, I expected more to be honest.” Terry admitted.

“Ya, it’s been awhile since I was here. Thought it would be more built up. Guess not.” Jetty looked around and spotted a crowd gathering around a large plot of land. “What’s going on over there?” He ran off and Terry followed behind him.

The crowd had gathered around the edge of a cleared plot of land where a man just beyond the line of which the crowd stopped. He wore ragged clothing, tanish; and appeared to be an agile but stern stance to him. He stood in the middle of a circle that had been drawn into stone with chalk.

“Please my friends. Stay back. We’ll have this job done with soon enough.” His voice was deep with an accent to it. Presumably from whatever region he dwelled from. Terry and Jetty peered over to see three more people standing in a cross formation from the rag man. Terry spotted the albino character from the previous night.

“Oh!” Jetty exclaimed. “Those are the Architects!” Just then an aura of a night time blue rose from the chalky circle. The people that stood in the circles began going into movements as the ground began to shake with a rumbling force. Stone pillars rose from the dirt and bricks of clay formed before Terry’s very eyes. It was a sight to behold as a structure began to form out of a flat landmass. The Architects movements were strong and powerful, as they swiftly moved their bodies around the circles in great speeds. The structures began coming together as glass began to fill in the gaps and smaller details exploded outwards from the building’s main structure.

There was a pause in the actions of them and the lights. The ragged man shifted his foot over a sub-circle with a leaf drawn into it. He carefully readjusted his foot again and a green light casted itself from the outline. He slowly moved his fingers and hands with a slow movement of his arms. Almost as if watching a million years of plant evolution happen before Terry. The untouched areas of around the plot were growing with floral. Beautiful amounts of flowers sprung from the roots of tall trees as they protruded into the blue sky.

“I get it.” Terry spoke up finally over the awe of the crowd. Jetty looked at him. “Those circles they stand in are used to extract elements from the planet. In turn, creating whatever they need it to be.” Jetty gave a nod at the comment, but added onto it.

“It’s true, however, it degrades the area around the planet for a while with all the natural resources ripped from it.” The architects had finished doing what they needed too and came to join the crowd. The ragged man must have overheard their conversation when he stepped toward Jetty and Terry.

“What you also saw, is the power of four architects at once. Something like that isn’t common. One Architect by themselves aren’t able to do that, we can only create small portions at a time and normally take longer to complete.” Jetty shifted in place and finally spoke up.

“Oh, Terry, this is Exavious.” Exavious stuck out his hand in a proper manner and Terry shook it.

“Greetings. Retired Overseer, and current Architect now stands before you.” He flowed with his free hand.

“Uh.” Terry paused. “Terry Silverstone.” Exavious let go of his hand and peered over at Jetty; who was rummaging through his satchel. He ripped a map from the bag and unfolded it, he showed it to Exavious.

“We’re looking to get to the Sanctum.” He folded down one of areas. “Which way outta here are we heading?” He asked. Exavious gave him a somewhat annoyed, yet laughable look. Finally, he pointed to a path that lead out into the savannah beyond Orlanburg.

“You come all this way to get directions from an Architect?” He chuckled. Jetty looked somewhat disappointed.

“Dammit. That’ll bring us to the ocean. That’s at least a day or two of getting across in boats.” Exavious had walked off before Jetty could look back up from the map.

“Hey!” he shouted from a distance. “Follow me. I know a way to speed your trip up.” He made a wave to them and chased after him.


The place was loud. Louder than the market by a long shot. Especially when the large metal boxes came streaming down the pipeline. Jetty had his ears shut from the loud noises that blared in the station.

“What is this place?” He exclaimed over the sound of people. Exavious was remaining calm and just sat there with his eyes closed and relaxed. Another metal box machine came roaring through. Silencing the crowd down a bit.

“I find it funny that you didn’t know about this place Jet.” Exavious acknowledged. Jetty uncovered his ears. “It’s a train station. Built by Stone, and helped constructed with the help of others.” Jetty was paying attention to the details now. “It has an entire system that will travel all throughout the Kingdom. Currently though, it only has a few lines. The ones that go from the North to the South, and West to the East are the main lines, and smaller ones with break off from what I’ve heard.”

A train came blaring into the station with a loud screech as the brakes kicked the metal of the wheels. The metallic scream yelled over the crowds in a force that brought hands to the ears. As the train came to it’s hardened stop, the doors of the cabins that connected it opened with a smooth motion. People from the cars flooded outwards into the already existing crowds, making for the exit stairwell. Terry turned to see Exavious relaxing in the doorway of the train, he gave a nod and pointed with his thumb towards another station section. Large letters were spelled out into the wall as ‘East’. He gave a nod of thanks to Exavious as he disappeared into the crowded train car. Terry grabbed Jetty by the neck color and dragged him along towards the new station.


The train ride had been long, and stressful for Terry. It was a good few hours to get to the Eastern Colonies Station. He had become stiff in his back and cracked it like no other. People on board the train had been either talking way too damn loud about stuff or trying to keep their children quiet when they started screaming and crying. It was a headache. Jetty had slept through most of it though, except for the last fifteen minutes or so in which he was complaining about his neck being sore. It was a breath of fresh air, literally, when they finally got off the train. The eastern colonies weren’t much to look at for the time, the place was clearly still being established. Homes were still skeletons of what their future bodies would hold, and brick foundations were being laid for what was most likely the commerce district of the area. Not long after they were back on the road towards the Sanctum.

The mountainous region was difficult to track through with all the sharpened edges of the cliffs. They had eventually made their way down to a riverbed and walked from there by following it. The river was surrounded by a thick forest on the cliff edges, and with the river being no more than a few feet deep it made Terry uneasy. The perfect place for an ambush of thieves. He held his guard up as Jetty lead the way.

Hours went by, and the river had dried up near the end with nothing but a puddle left for a beach.

“Looks like we’ll have to traverse through the forest.” Terry stated. He then sighed as he looked up at the sun which was now turning orange and yellow with it’s resting eyes. “We’ll have to travel in the dark.” Jetty nudged him on the shoulder, and handed him a small vile of dark blue liquid.

“It’s night vision, we’ll be able to see through the darkness with this.” He said. Terry took the small vial from Jetty and uncorked the cap. He took a sniff and was enthralled in the vegetational scent of it. He took a sip and nearly choked on the taste.

“Doesn’t taste as great as it smells.” He coughed. Slowly, the darkness of the forest was lit up beyond him, almost as if seeing beyond the shadows. Terry lifted himself up, and made a hand motion to Jetty. “Come on.” Jetty nodded, and Terry took off into the forest with Jet behind him. They could hear the growls of the undead as they began to rise from their daily slumber. A skeleton rose from the dirt beyond him and drew it’s bow. Terry grabbed for his sword and drew it as the moon casted through the branches. The monster fired an arrow at him in which Terry shattered with a single swing, charged through and cut the skeleton in half. Terry managed to get a glimpse of Jetty cutting the throat of an undead when blood gushed from it’s artery. Jetty took a second swing with his dagger and cut the creature’s head off. The walking corpse fell to the ground, as more undead rushed to their position.

“Dammit.” Terry muttered. He quickly counted in his head, somewhere around twenty to thirty had arrived for a feasting.

 

Chapter 8 (cont'd)

“Run!” Jetty wailed into the forest. They both took off running, somewhere behind them Ghouls were screeching into the night alerting the other undead of the hunt that befell Terry and Jetty. A Ghoul came charging up behind Terry, it’s skin rotting and skeletal structure was showing, the gasp of air that Terry heard next was the warning to kill the thing before more problems occurred. With single movement, Terry pushed himself off the ground and sliced the monster’s neck with a spin around. On the second spin he cut the area just under the eyes completely from the head. The ghoul’s body collapsed shivering and shaking as life of the nerves were cut off completely.

“There’s an opening!” Jetty yelled back. They ran for it, giving every ounce of breath they could to escape the forest and hopefully even the odds.

They burst from the forest into the opening of tall grass, where the mob of undead that had been chasing them were finally gone.

“Did we lose them?” Jetty asked; panting. Terry looked back at the forest and couldn’t hear anything but the moans getting softer.

“Ya...we lost them.” He observed. They sat there, in the cold dead of night, listening, waiting, and watching the trees for anything else that was unwanted. There was a silent snap. They both drew their blades instantly, covering each other’s backs. There was another one. They stayed focus on the trees. The ground moved from under their feet. Terry looked down. CRACK!

The ground had given out, they were falling, screaming, their blades had been dropped and now spun out of control in their eyes. Something hit Terry in the back as he let out a yelp. Jetty must have hit something too as he screamed in agony and pain that ringed in Terry’s ear. Something smacked him across the jaw, hard too. Terry’s head was spinning, he couldn’t see straight anymore, and with a thud he hit the ground. He let out a sore groan. His sword fell from above and landed right at the base of his foot pointed down.

Slowly, he stood up and checked himself. He checked his back, his jaw, his limbs. Nothing seemed to be broken, nothing but some gashes and cuts stung on his arms and face. Terry pulled his sword from the ground, he looked around, it was a forest of some sorts, grass was growing down here, and trees were living without sunlight. Terry was hoping to see Jetty somewhere.

“Jetty!” He yelled. There was no response. “Jet!” He yelled again. Terry listened, there was a sigh of pain a little ways off from him. He limped towards the sound. The foliage was thick down here for a lack of sunlight, but all that was guiding Terry at this point were firebugs that flickered in and out. The moan came back up again. Terry rushed through a bush and found Jetty hanging from a tree upside down with strap of his satchel tied around him and a branch of the tree.

“Hey…” Jetty said, trying to work up a smile. Terry took a step forward.

“Want me to help yo-” Jetty snapped the latch on the bag, dropped from the tree and hit the ground hard.

“Ow.” He said, his face in the dirt. He stood up slowly, trying to regain his balance. “Alright, nothing’s broke.” Jetty turned and revealed his dagger stuck in his shoulder. He looked at it and pulled it from the padded armor. “Thank goodness that was there.”

“So...where are we?” Terry asked. Jetty took a good look around and shrugged. Terry should have figured. “Well come on, there has to be an exit around here somewhere.”

Terry was amazed by the place, as he looked up, he could see large roots clinging to the ceiling. This must be how this forest is capable of growing down here. There was a whisper in his ear. He turned to Jetty.

“You say something?” He asked.

“No, did you?” Jetty asked him. Terry heard it again, apparently, so did Jetty.

Terry’s body almost immediately went cold, and the foliage around them began to violently turn and shake. The whispers were getting louder and darkness seemed to be getting closer as they did. Jetty slowly turned his head to Terry, fear ran through his eyes with dark pits in his pupils. Sweat ran down his forehead like he was standing in a storm.

“Terry, I know where we are...” The way he said it sent a chill down his spine again. Now he was nervous.

“Where?” Terry’s voice rattled.

“We’re in Shadow’s territory...” Just then, the whisper became a heavy voice which froze Terry in place.

“Damn right you are.”

Everything went black.

Chapter 9: Meet the Family

"Welcome to..." Terry faded out, his head was spinning. Darkness pulsed around his vision. "...tonight, we have two..." His head wouldn't stop throbbing; something wasn't right here, where was Jetty? So many questions were flying through his head. “And now...” Something was lifting him, his head tugged towards the ground. He was upside down, his vision was still black. “...your prizes!” The voices were clear now. He could see, but just barely. His hands were tied behind his back with his legs tied at his ankles and knees. He was gagged with a cloth, soaked in something distasteful. A small crowd of people in dark, red robes were gathered below him. In front of the small group were two more cloaked figures, one wearing a purple robe, and another that wore blue, with armor around his arms; and a black and red knight.

I have to get out of here. Terry looked to his right to find Jetty, awake, but stuck in a petrified terror in his eyes. He was also bound and gagged with rope and cloth. The blue cloaked figure turned back to the crowd of robed people.

“These two trespassed into my territory, unaccounted for in the darkness of night itself!” He shouted. Terry began to grind his teeth together, trying to cut away at the cloth. Slowly, but surely it began to tear. Meanwhile he worked to untie his hands, the knots were loose enough for him to do without too much struggle. “My rules for them are simple, if they survive, they’ll be allowed to go free. However, if you kill them, well, we all know what happens to their souls!” he yelled into the group.

The rope was untied, and the gag was torn. Using every muscle in his body, Terry climbed up and grabbed the rope. Surprisingly he found his sword still latched to his belt. He ripped it from the scabbard and cut the knots around his knees, but only loosened the knots around his ankles to give him something to stand on.

Shadow looked up at the wanna be hero with interest. He swung the rope back and forth of which he stood on reaching Jet, and cutting the ropes from his hands and mouth. Sky approached Shadow with concern.

“Should I signal the minions?” He asked, while he examined the escape attempt. Shadow did not answer, he stood there watching with curiosity. “Shadow?”

“No. Not yet at least. Let’s see what these two are capable of.” He looked back at robed figures that stood below him. “Break the spell off the Dwellers and send them back into the cave. I think I’m going to want to have some fun with these two.” Shadow smirked at the idea.

“We gotta get out of here Terry. Shadow’s going to skin us alive.” Jetty said, his voice shaking furiously. Terry took a look down and saw the purple cloak signal away with a bright light. The red robed crowd vanished off into the darkness with a sprint. Terry looked around, he caught eye of a window that sat a decent distance above them. He looked at Jetty whose daggers were shining on his bandolier.

“You know how to knife climb right?” Terry asked Jetty. He didn’t respond right away as it seemed he had to think about it with quick flicks in his eyes. Eventually he nodded. “Climb up the wall to that window with the rope, I’ll climb it once you get up there.”

“Alright.” Jetty whispered. Jetty tied the rope around his ankle, and climbed the rope up to the support beam and gear is sat on. He pulled his blades from his outfit and stabbed them into the oak wall. Slowly he began to climb.

Meanwhile, Terry was keeping an eye on the three that watched the show. Why aren’t they doing something about us? It’s clear at least one of them is a mage. Couldn’t they just use a fire spell to burn us down? Terry couldn’t help but think about the situation at hand. Could they actually get out of here alive? He peered back up at Jetty, who had smashed through the window and and was tugging back the rope.

“Shoot at him Garry.” Shadow commanded

“Right away.” Garry accepted. The Red Knight pulled the bow from his back and drew the string back with an arrow loaded onto the grip. He released his hold on the string and let the arrow fly.

Terry jumped onto the rope and climbed. An arrow smashed right beside his head, he looked down to see the knight shooting at him. He climbed faster as arrows penetrated the wood. Terry took a glance down and saw an arrow coming for his head. He quickly moved his foot from the rope to the arrow to knock it down. He sprinted up the side of the wall best he could and flew through the window nearly hitting Jetty. The room was full of boxes and crates, cobwebs hung from the ceiling and chandeliers lit the room.

“We gotta get out of here. We have to get out!” Jetty yelled, still petrified.

“Can we catch our breath first? What the hell did this guy even do anyway?” Terry asked, coughing over his words. Jetty wouldn’t stop acting like a dog in a thunderstorm. “Alright, alright. Let’s see if we can find a way out.”

“Should we go after them?” Sky asked.

“I don’t know depends what Shadow wants to do.” Garry stated. Shadow stood there for a minute, and walked himself inside.

“We’ll get them, don’t worry. The Sins will be the first thing they’ll probably run into. And if they don’t kill them, then we’ll have a little chat.” Shadow said. Sky and Garry followed after Shadow. Garry cut through the silence of the walk.

“You weren’t actually going to kill them, were you?” Shadow laughed at the question. Then he settled his breath and finally spoke.

“I wasn’t going to originally. I just wanted to scare the shit out of them. But now, they broke into my house, smashed my window, and are causing who knows what sorta damage. I think I’ll just see what ends up happening if the Sins don’t kill them first.

“What the hell is this thing!” Jetty yelled, running for his life with Terry right beside him. Behind them was a large muscular man with no shirt, but ragged pants on and a metal muzzle around his mouth and throat. Terry and Jetty had taken swings at it but it never seemed phased by the stabs and slashes.

“I can’t wait to devour you!” It roared throughout the hallway. He charged after them.

“There’s a door at the end of the hall, we’ll have to break through there!” Terry shouted over the large THUMP the monster behind them made with every step. Jetty swung his foot through the air and into the door, smashing it open. Terry followed inside, and slammed the door shut, and took the rope they had taken and tied it around the door handles. “Think that will keep him out?” There was a large slam on the door. It didn’t break, but the rope was barely holding. Yelling commenced when the thing couldn’t get in, but he kept trying. Slamming on the door with large pounds.

 

Chapter 9 (cont'd)

“Hmm...that’s a nice sword you got there. Silver, I see.” Terry and Jetty turned their heads to see a slightly less bulkier but skinny man sitting on what looked like a throne. He had a black vest on, and a duster with yellow streaks down the sleeves that connected to nodes. His grey pants held what looks to be gold chains of what could be watches. He had yellow eyes that pierced into the light, and black spiked hair set back. To his sides were two girls, in their twenties maybe. They wore skimpy clothing that was pink. Terry and Jetty were frozen in place, what could they do? Outside was the monster, in here was another possible threat.

The man stood up from his throne with a cynical smile, “That blade you have there. I want it. Pure Silver is always something I desire. Just like gold, jewels, fortunes, and everything else of the sorts.” He stuck out his hand. “Now hand it over, and I might let you live.” Terry placed his hand over the handle of the sword. He didn’t say anything, not like he wanted to make conversation with this creepy anyways. The monster outside was still banging on the door.

“Greed! Let me in!” The man smirked and reached into his pocket. He pulled from it four gold coins that sat in the space between his knuckles. He commanded again.

“Sword, or death. My little friend.” Terry drew his sword and was ready for an oncoming attack. “I’ll take that as a no.” He tossed three of the coins in the air and slapped them with his hand. With the remaining coin an electrical spark generated from it, and then what looked like blue lightning. The electricity connected to the other coins through the air, and finally burned into the rope. Smoldering it loose and the door finally being opened by the creature that stood outside. “Gluttony,” He raised his hand, making flash with the magic electricity he generated from his hands. There was the sound of a large metal object smashing into the wooden floor. Terry turned around to see the monster’s muzzle had been removed. Magnetic Pulse? “Devour them.”

The creature lunged forward, mouth wide open. It’s teeth were sharpened to a fine point, good for chewing through flesh and bone. Terry dodged to the side while Jetty fell flat to the floor on his stomach when Gluttony charged. The sound of cracking bones filled the room soon after, then yelling from Greed and screaming from one of the girls.

“Not the whores you idiot!” Terry looked back at the commotion. Gluttony had completely missed both of them and managed to completely rip the head off one of the girls that was pleasuring Greed earlier with his teeth. Jetty waved to Terry to start running. He lunged from his position and bolted out into the hallway. “Get them!” Gluttony removed himself from the corpse of the girl, and made chase. Greed followed from behind.


The three of them stood there looking at the ceiling as the chandeliers slightly swung back and fourth. “Looks like Gluttony found them.” Sky said.

“I heard electricity. So that’d mean Greed is on the hunt too.” Garry guessed at. He looked at Shadow, “Why are you being so calm about this? Normally by now you’d be freaking out.” Shadow stood staring at the ceiling still. He didn’t nudge at all, he just seemed to be thinking.

“Because this is all fun and games to me. Why should I be worried about what some idiots are doing in here when my minions get to play. Besides, from what I can see, they’re about to meet Sloth.”


A teen, probably no taller than Jetty stood down the hall from them. He looked tired; his black hair drooped over his right eye, leaving his bright blue eye shining through the orange tint of the walls. He wore a hoodie that had sleeves rolled up, and ripped dark blue pants with a chain as his belt. He started walking towards Terry and Jetty. They readied their weapons.

“Man, this sucks. Dad really needs to learn to keep the victims out of the damn house. Look you two, I honestly don’t want to fight tonight. So if you could gladly hand yourselves over to me, or go get eaten by Gluttony; you’d be saving us a lot of time.” Terry and Jetty didn’t move, and kept proper stances for the wrong movements. “Well that sucks. Looks like I’ll need to do work after all tonight.” He removed his hands from his pockets and ran at Jetty and Terry. Completely Unarmed? Terry swung at the kid, he dropped to the floor and slid underneath Terry. The kid smashed his fish into the back of Terry’s knee and he collapsed. Terry’s knee hit the ground, he looked back and he roundhouse kicked him across the face. Sending the rest of him to the ground.

The kid took a swing at Jetty with a punch. Jetty swung his daggers and managed to slice through the arm. It tore through the jacket, bone, and flesh. Completely severing it from his torso. Blood spurted from the socket all over the floor and wall. The kid backed up from him. Jetty ran over to Terry and picked him up by the arm and ran. The kid stood there, staring at them as they ran.


“Damn. What a pain.” Sloth looked at the wound that had been created by the kid in the trenchcoat. There was the sound of shoes from behind him, followed by the sound of a significant, honest voice.

“You appear to have lost another limb brother. Don’t you think you should stop getting involved with fights?” Pride said as he picked up Sloth’s arm and handed it to him.

“I don’t need to fight. I want to sleep.” Sloth reattached his arm into the socket. Flesh grew back together and bone snapped back into place. “Where’s Dad at anyway? Shouldn’t he be here to kill them?”

“Master Shadow, Sky, and Garry are coming. Though they seem to not be as caring of what happens. Perhaps they’re waiting for us to kill them?” Pride asked with a smile at sloth.

“Whatever, go do what you want. I’m going back to bed.”


What the hell kind of place was this exactly? People didn’t scream when you cut through them, monsters with unexplainable abilities? Where were they? Jetty and Terry didn’t plan on stopping, and they were almost out of hallway. The windows of the outside showed the large forest and courtyard beyond the iron bar fence. They both froze in place. The chill from earlier had come back, warmer. Something was coming, but they couldn’t see it.

Jetty slammed against the oak wall, and was forced upwards onto the ceiling. A thick black mist surrounded Jetty’s ankles. Terry ran to help, but soon found himself tied to the ceiling by the strange smoke. He pulled his sword from his belt and began spinning himself around best he could.

“Come on you bastard, where are you? Fight me fair and I’ll cut you to pieces!”


A little girl’s laugh filled the hallway. From the darkness of an open doorway, a girl in black leather armor and a red ripped cloak walked into the vibrant light of the chandeliers. Her black hair drooped down over a shoulder guard of a black skull. Terry and Jetty stopped struggling and stared in disbelief with eyes wide.

“Selena?” Jetty asked with nerves in his voice. “What are you doing here?” Selena gave them an awkward look finally spoke up.

“How about we start with why you two are here.” She stated in a sinister voice. Terry could tell Jetty’s heart was pounding from the sweat forming on his forehead. He wasn’t doing much better though, the blood flow going to his head was starting to hurt. His vision was fading in and out, but managed to keep consciousness.

“The ground gave way above, and we fell through.” Jetty coughed out as if he was worried she was going to kick him in the head for it.

“And you clearly broke into my home.”

“Wait, you live here?” Terry yelled surprised, still trying to avoid passing out. Selena nodded, and proceeded to look at Jetty when he tried cutting the black mist with a dagger of his.

“Why, won’t this damn thing cut?” Jetty struggled with the dagger and dropped it on the ground. “Come on Selena, get us out of here. Shadow’s going to kil-Wait, you live here?” She looked like she was about to ready slap him. Jetty’s eyes widened with fear in that moment. “You’re Shadow’s daughter.”


“Ding ding ding. Don’t we have a winner!” Black mist formed on the floor, from it, out came Shadow. His fabricated leather and silk armor of blues and blacks formed from mist, creating his body out piece by piece until he was standing right in front of him. Jetty tried to break free of the black that held on him, but could not. He screamed for help. Terry’s own heart seemed to have stopped for a second.

“Hi, Daddy.” Selena’s tone completely changed.

“Selena dear, who are these two? And give me one reason I shouldn’t feed them too Gluttony, maybe give them one on one time with Envy, or how about straight to the damn electric chair with Greed!?” He yelled angrily as he grabbed Terry by the neck. Terry no longer felt the dizziness, but instead a cold hard grip wrapped around his neck. Shadow’s eyes were dark beneath the hood.

“Would you chill out Dad?” Shadow turned his head towards her.

“They ripped the damn manor apart!” He turned his head back too Terry. “It’s one thing when the Sins destroy my beautiful home, but it’s another when some low-life jackasses get the grand idea to go running around in the place causing havoc for me to clean up!”

“Dad, they’re my friends.” He turned back to her again. With a wave of her hand, the black mist retracted into shadows on the walls and back into Selena’s own shadow. Jetty fell to the ground and proceeded to take off running like a child running from monsters.

“I’m too young to be killed like this.” Shadow’s hand, still wrapped around Terry’s neck, let go. He hit the oak floor with a thud. Shadow made a single motion with his hand, darkness wrapped out from under his feet and chased after Jetty. The shadows climbed atop Jetty’s ankles and tripped him to the ground. He screamed. Shadow made a fist and Jetty came dragging back. Shadow stepped forward and grabbed Jetty by the back of the collar. He took a look at him as sweat poured down his face.



“You’re Erik’s son, aren’t you?” Shadow asked. Jetty’s mood almost instantly changed from scared, to shocked, to disgruntled.

“No…” He said under a moan looking away from Shadow.

“Yes, you are. I recognize you, as a matter of fact, you look almost like him.” Jetty looked away even more pissed off from before. Shadow dropped him on his feet, and Greed and Gluttony came running out from behind the corner. A shorter one followed with two blunt sticks in his hands.

“Oh, hey, look you caught them Dad.” Greed said with disappointment across his face. Gluttony stood there, drooling like an idiot with the sharp razor teeth of his.

“Can I eat them?” He asked. Shadow responded with a movement of his hand and fingers, reattaching the mask to Gluttony’s face. Gluttony made a sobbing sound. Shadow looked at the shorter one.


“Envy, would you be so kind as to take Gluttony back to his dungeon?” Envy looked at him with an annoyed look and spat, “Pfft. Fine, come on Gluttony, let’s go feed you some real meat.” Envy grabbed Gluttony by the wrist and dragged him along back to wherever demons sleep, as well as flipping off Shadow on the way out.

“Ignorant brat.” He mumbled.

“So am I still needed here or do I need to go clean up the whore mess that Gluttony left in my suite?” Greed asked with clear sarcasm and annoyance in his words. “Ah, whatever. Night, ya fuckers!” Shadow and Selena both gave discontented looks as Greed wandered off around the corner. Shadow turned and looked back at Terry and Jetty with analytical eyes and sighed with a roll of his eyes.

“Pride!”

“Yes sir?” Terry turned around startled by Pride’s sudden appearance. “Show these two to their rooms. Tomorrow they’re competing.” Pride chuckled at the statement.

“Very well. Right this way sirs.” They followed after Pride, as the darkness of the walls closed in around them.

 

Chapter 10: Into My Past

“Everything feels, floaty. Like I’m seeing this all over again, almost like a repeating tune.” His vision blurred, but could make out the figure of a young girl. “That girl? The one with the dark hair, is that my? No, it can’t be. It really can’t be. It’s my sister. She looks so young, so safe.” Everything was fading in and out, as the void of which he hovered became cold around him. “She’s playing in the family room. It’s one of the toys that she got for her birthday.” a tallish thin figure came over to her side. Everything went black.

“Who are you Terry? And what have you come here for?”

A man was speaking, heavily voiced too.

“Everyday I can see them drawing closer. The world’s end is coming, and soon, I may not even be able to stop him. I don’t even think that monster can stop him.”

“What about your son?”

“I don’t want to get Terry involved. He should not have to become involved in what I started so long ago.” The man sighed, “The days are drawing near Mel. Soon we-”

“Terry! Dear, what are you doing up so late?” A woman exclaimed cutting off the man who rushed over into Terry’s vision.

Everything faded out again.

“Now I’m curious.”

Clanging of metal on metal smashed together in Terry’s ear. The smell of fresh air was filling his head with memories and sights as the darkness turned into a beautiful sunset that slowly turned to black sky. Terry could see himself, practicing with his silver sword, swinging at the pig carcass that sat on a stake. Gushing thick blood from every clean cut he made through the meaty fat flesh. The figure that stood before him in the earlier was now next to him, talking silently under the darknesses light.

“Terry, you know more than anything else how much I care for you and your sister’s safety. Seeing as someone will have to take over for the family one day when me and your mother move on. Hopefully you’ll be able to uphold the Silverstone traditions that we’ve brung onto you and the world.” The man moved his hand to Terry’s shoulder with a proud gesture.

“You’re going somewhere, aren’t you father?”

Darkness.

“You’re starting to peak my interest Terry Silverstone.”

“In light of recent events, we’ll be handing down the name of the family to Walter’s Son, Terry. At the age of eighteen, some may question this as being an appropriate age for a young man to take on such heavy duties that his father upheld.” The vision was fuzzy, but he could make out his own silhouette as well as plenty of older men and women standing around him. He could vividly see his mother’s red funeral dress that she wore when his grandfather passed away.

“Let’s go even deeper into that mind of yours.”

He saw his father, at least what it seemed to be. He didn’t remember this at all. His father moved his hand over his eyes and everything froze. The image in his mind shattered like glass in his eyes.

“What the-” the voice asked.

“You’re not allowed in here; Selena.” Another voice said. More demonic than can be imagined. A slight view came into Terry’s mind, a man in a chair, shackled with chains to it. Shadows casted over his face, making it unseeable.

“Wrath!?”

“You’re not allowed in here Lust. Be gone from this one’s mind.”

That was it. Everything was gone. The voices faded, and weren’t heard from again. He dreamed for the rest of the night of his family.

Chapter 11: Through Evil Eyes

Terry awoke in darkness, except for the light that shined through the door cracks. Life around him felt dead. He was literally surrounded by monsters in these walls and deep down was worried on what they’d do to him. Suddenly it was put back into his head.


“Tomorrow they’ll be competing.” Shadow’s voice rang in his memory like a broken bell. What did he mean by competing? What the hell is he about to do to them? Terry got up out of bed. Jetty had been sleeping in the room down the hall. He was reaching around looking for his blade and belt and couldn’t find it anywhere. He checked his jacket to see if it was wrapped around around inside of it. Nothing. There was a knock at the door. Startled Terry to where he hit his head on a table when he bolted up. The door opened, Pride stepped in with Selena by his side. Comparably short when next to Pride.

“Good Morning Master Terry.” He said with a warming smile on his face. At least not everyone in here is a monster. Terry looked at Selena.

“You broke into the room last night, didn’t you?” Her expression didn’t change. “Where’s my sword and belt?”

“Safe, just not here. You’ll get it back when the event starts.” She left the room with a pissed attitude.

“Breakfast is being served downstairs sir. You’ll want it to regain your strength from last night.” Terry nodded, threw on his clothes and left the room.


Terry caught up with Selena, he didn’t even get to ask where his sword was about before she threw him to the wall with her shadow powers. “What the hell are you hiding in your head?”

“So that was you entering my dream last night!” Terry yelled, quite angrily in fact.

“Wrath wouldn’t let me into that one memory. So what was it!” Her hand turned into a blade. Dark tendrils of what looked like black flesh covered over it from the transition to it and her arm. Terry’s heart began racing when she pressed the edge to his neck

“Look, I don’t even know what that memory was. I don’t remember it.” Her grip on his neck began tightening. I’m getting really tired of being choked. “Besides, what are you so curious about? Not like there’s anything in there you have to know!” The look in her eyes only angered her even more. He slid across the wall and threw him down the hall like he was a toy ball. When he looked back up after feeling the body hit the floor, her arm had returned to normal.

“I’m curious because of how you act. You carry a silver sword on you in a region where silver is rarer than emerald, gold, and even lapis as well as diamonds combined. Let’s also mention the fact you came from the East. A place that is still ravaged by war after five hundred years due to the instability of government.” He knew what she was talking about with that one. “Trading for us out there was also set to ruin a while back when we lost connection Thonerinian people a few months ago. The Overseers sent Explorers out to find out what happened but they were slaughtered by the time they reached the Aquasarium Territory in the crossfire of two of the larger clans.” Now Terry honestly felt bad about the whole thing. “So yes, I’m curious. I would think with someone who came from the ‘Land of Blood and Bodies’ would know a thing or two about what happened out there.” Terry finally stood up, his heart was still beating but his breathing had slowed down.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you wanted to know that badly.”

Selena lowered her head in an almost shameful pose. “No, I’m sorry. My Dad doesn’t let me travel far outside the Territory without him. He’s worried about me getting tied up in that war.” There was silence for a minute or two.

“Maybe sometime I could tell you about my travels on the way here?” Selena’s face lightened up a bit.

“Come on, let’s go get something to eat.” She said.


The dining room was huge. The table was probably one of the largest he’d ever seen. Royal like chairs sat up and down it, flags of black and red hung from the rafters above. Large window panes let the darkness of the forest outside in. The smell of breakfast food danced in Terry’s head. Jetty was already grabbing a plate of just about everything. Waffles, apples, eggs, bacon, hash browns and other things among the flavors of food. Terry’s stomach had been gnawing at him but he himself wasn’t up for much, so he grabbed a simple plate of eggs and waffles. Selena grabbed some fruit, but that was about it.

Greed and Pride were eating down at the far end of the table, sitting next to Jetty and the mage and knight from yesterday. Gluttony was on the opposite end, ripping apart what looked like the dead corpse of a zombie and eating the flesh from its’ bones. Sloth and Envy were sitting across from each other a little bit away from him, talking about what seemed like was to be their typical conversation of what Terry could make out.

They went over to where Jetty was sitting.

“Morning you two.” The mage said.

“Morning.” Selena responded.

“Morning guys.” Jetty said as he scarfed down an apple slice.

“I’m surprised you’re not still freaking out because of us monsters.” Selena sneered at Jetty. He looked up from his plate of food and just kind of smiled.

“Seriously? Who needs to be scared when this place has such amazing food?”

“You could be thanking Pride for that, an amazing cook for sure.” Sky said. Pride looked over with a smile.

“Why thank you Master Sky, as my title says, I take pride in all of my work.” He responded with.

“Tell me Pride, how has the past three-hundred years treated you?” Terry nearly choked on his fork from what Sky just said. The same expression came across on Jetty’s face.

“Excuse me?” Sky and Garry looked over at Jetty. “Three hundred years old?” They nodded. Terry looked up and down the table.

“So...how old are all of you then?” Terry asked. Garry lifted his shoulders,

“Old enough.” Sky chuckled at the comment. “Well, Garry and I are around five hundred years old.” Terry and Jetty looked at them questionably. “Before you ask how, it’s Shadow who’s the one that allows us this ability. You see, we’re artificial Darkness Walkers.”

“Darkness Walkers?” Jetty asked.

“They’re the oldest species in the universe.” Selena paused on that statement to let it sink in for a second. “Normally the species is War Mongers, bent on laying waste to worlds and sending the universe into total darkness.” She taught to them, “We’re immortal to time, but not to one another.”

“The natural blooded Darkness Walkers such as Selena and Shadow are capable of turning other humans into Darkness Walkers.” Sky put in, “I’m a prime example, same as Garry.” he then pointed to Selena. “She however, is a pure Darkness Walker with the body of a real human. A Hybrid so to speak.” Terry looked over at Selena. She didn’t seem any different from him or Jetty. She seemed so normal compared to the chilling sense that her father and everyone else gave off when just looking at them. It raised a question to him.

“So.” Everyone looked at Terry. “What--does a pure Darkness Walker look like?” Sky looked down at his plate and shifted in his chair a little.

“Well...You’ve seen a gargoyle right? You know, those statues you can see in the older architectures? Imagine those, only more skeletal, and more likely to kill you.” That didn’t help his thoughts on the situation ahead of him.

“And our weapons?” Jetty asked. Pride got up from the table and vanished into purple smoke. Jetty’s eyes widened from the surprise but didn’t freak out as it was probably expected at this point. “Did he just teleport? Like an Ender?”

“Hehe! Yep. Ol’ Pride over there is infused with the abilities of Enders.” Greed said as he chugged down a glass of wine and threw his feet up onto the table.

“Technically, we’re all Enders.” Garry said. “Endermen are soulless Darkness Walkers.”

“Soulless Darkness Walkers?” Terry asked. Selena was about to speak when Pride suddenly popped in and dropped Jetty’s weapons and belt on the table. He quickly popped back out and back in a second later with Terry’s gear.

A loud ‘dinging’ came from the roof with slow pauses in between each beat. Sky, Garry, Selena, as well as the Sins got up from the table. Leaving their food where it was at. Jetty looked around.

“Looks like you’ll have to get an answer to that question later kid.” Greed said to Terry.

“What’s going on?” Jetty asked.


“It’s time for the event.” Announced a loud booming voice. Terry looked up at the balcony that overlooked the dining room. There, stood Shadow, with his sick and twisted smile showing over his face. His black hair hung over his ears and was pushed to the side near his eyes. Everyone’s faces were lit up with a twisted smile as Shadow’s was. It made Terry angry to see him standing there with such ignorance over him like he was above him.

Jetty’s expressions from the night before were more determined looking than scared.

“My children, take the mortals to the cages. It’s time blood became spilled upon the fertile soil that we stand on.” Shadow turned his back from the dining room, revealing a dual scabbard for two swords that rested on his back. He peeked over his shoulder back at Terry with darkened eyes. “And we’ll see if the silver one can hold value of his sword.”

 

Placeholder For Later.

 

One another thing to be noted. The characters in the story are all based on your ingame skins. So whatever I find your skins to be in game will somehow be converted into human-ish styled people.

 

Decided to stay up late and write the 2nd Chapter. So here you guys go, enjoy. Now introducing two new characters!

 

Chapter 3 is now up! Chapter 4 established date set.

 

What? Gotta make your character in the story look like your character skin.

 

Chapter 4 is now up! Time set for Chapter 5 has been set.