Chapter 1

Every Day is an Adventure

Luke

The bridge was broken again, can you believe it? How in the world the suspension bridge that connected the mining district to the rest of the peninsula kept breaking was beyond me. All in knew in that moment, as I glared across the rushing river separating me from the forest that I needed to be in, was that I was pissed. I hadn't been the one to fix the bridge in a while now, since I had gotten too heavy to hang suspended over the river a few years ago. Oh trust me, it was probably better off that way anyway, I did better work my trusty axe in hand. So I walked briskly back to the house, muttering childish curses as I went.

"Pops" I called as I kicked the door shut behind me, "bridge is out again." I huffed and slumped down into a chair in the kitchen. My dad, the round, gruff old man that he was, came grumbling around the corner then, his thick eyebrows pulled low over his eyes. Sometimes I felt like I had no idea when the guy was irritated or just tired. His mustache was so often drooping over the corners of his mouth and some days he would just grunt his way through our conversations.

"Great…" He muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "Bo!" He bellowed, and a groan came the back room of the house before the little blonde apprentice came out of his room. He stumbled a little bit and rubbed his eyes. I felt pretty bad for the little guy then. If I could have waited a little past the crack of dawn before trying to collect lumber, then I wouldn't be the reason he had to get out of bed early to work. The kid was basically my brother at this point, since he'd moved into the house last year to train under my pops. "Bridge is out again." My dad said gruffly before he just turned around to start digging through the fridge for something to feed us.

After a typical carpentry breakfast of fried up potatoes, Bo slowly jogged his way out of the house with a toolbox to fix up the bridge and my dad sat himself down at the register counter to sketch up some new furniture designs. We all have our ways, I guess. Where Bo was practically a zombie in the mornings my dad was the biggest grump around. But me? Well the sun was up and so was I. So then it wasn't much of a surprise when I wasn't exactly too content to be all cooped up in the house when I ought to have been doing what no one else could do better – choppin' wood! I fretted about the workspace for a little but when I'd spent an hour trying to focus on sanding a tabletop I gave up and ran outside, grabbing my axe on the way and shouting a "be back later, Pops!" I didn't bother to wait for the mumbled "okay" that was no doubt accompanied by him drowsily rubbing his eyes.

I dashed back and forth on the path in front of the homes of my friends and neighbors. I had to do something to get rid of all this energy or I was going to explode! The sun was shining and it was the beginning of spring – the weather was perfect. I inhaled deeply and looked out over the ocean, wishing there was something more to do than just sit here all day. I swung my axe through the air a couple of times and then it caught my eye.

The mine cart, of course! I mean, it was broken, but what was that to stop me on a day like this? I walked over to the cart, glancing over my shoulder to make sure pops wasn't there to catch me and scold me. The last thing I needed was to have my dad on my case when I was more than old enough to be taking care of myself. The entire area was deserted, which wasn't exactly uncommon these days, so I turned back to my mischief. The cart itself was in pretty rough condition, its wheels were pretty rusty and there were a couple breaks in the wooden frame. The tracks though, those were a whole 'nother story. The boards had been kept up really well by my dad back in the day and they'd stood the test of time. You've gotta trust me on this kind of thing, I'm a carpenter after all! It had never occurred to me to take this way down to town before, but then again I'd never had such a perfect spring morning ruined by being trapped up by the mines. So I hooked my axe through the loop on my belt and stepped out onto the track, balancing myself by placing my hand out on the cliff side as I made my way down towards Harmonica Town.


I hadn't expected it to be such slow going when I started out down the tracks but I let that go when I stepped out onto the church grounds and knew that I was home free. I'd get to go to the forest today after all. I whooped and pumped my fist into the air before jogging down into town and heading towards the farming side of the island. My stomach grumbled before I made it out of town, reminding me to run into the inn for a couple seconds to buy a sandwich to eat later in the day. Colleen gave me a funny look when I told her that the bridge was out but I ignored her and kept on my merry way. Fully satisfied that I was now set for a day of chopping down trees, I took off back down the path. I didn't falter for even a second at the big gates to the woods before pulling out the big key that pops had entrusted me with on my 16th birthday and letting myself in. The gates were just to keep people from getting lost in the woods and I had never gotten lost.

Ok so maybe I ended up staying a little later than I'd intended originally when I got underneath all those trees and couldn't even tell what time it was. But no big deal, it wasn't the first time and pops hadn't been worried when I stayed out super late since that fiasco last year. Ok and maybe I ended up going a little farther into the woods than I normally did out of excitement. But no big deal, no one was better at navigating this place than I was and I'd never gotten lost before! There was no way this was going to be the first time, after all. Right?


Author's Note: GUESS WHO'S FANFICTION ACCOUNT JUST TURNED 6 YEARS OLD! That's right boys and girls, this account has been around for 6 years, whoa. So, in honor of the supreme age of my account, which isn't as obvious as it should be because I had the presence of mind to delete the truly horrible stories that existed in the before time, I'm started up a new fic. Things will really get rolling in the next few chapters, hopefully you like it! Chapter 2 should be posted later today, since I already wrote it. Expect a new chapter at least once a month. I won't make any promises to be posting more often than that, but if I don't post more often and you wish I was - you had better pester me.