Chapter 1
I was sitting on an old stool, making small conversations with the bartender. The tavern was two stories tall and lit by the gentle glows of candles. A thin layer of chatter covered the atmosphere.
A boy ran into the tavern, a thick leather book tightly clutched under his arm. Disturbing the somewhat peacefulness of the room. Knocking over a chair and slamming the book down on one of the Middle tables with the most people, his speech came out in short puffs, "Look! Look at... What I... Found!"
"Calm down, what did you find this time?" One of the boys with blue hair spoke, he patted a seat next to him, motioning for the boy to sit down.
"I think it's a diary, I haven't read it yet. Found it in the forest." He gulped down a glass of pink liquid and slumped down on the chair.
"Remember that time you found a treasure chest and it was actually a mimic?" A boy with green headphones spoke,
"THAT was NOT fun." This time it was a man with shades, he spoke with exaggerated motions,
"Yeah, I've had a phobia of opening chests ever since." A brunette waved a hand around as he joined.
"That was a one off, this time I swear it's something good." He flipped open to the first page and began reading, "This diary belongs to... To umm, I think it says Brin?"
"Give it here," the boy with blue hair grabbed the book, "The letters are really failed but I think it says Brine." I clutched my Cloak closer to myself and moved to a table that was nearer to them, as I did this a few more people also join me in this action. Nothing interesting ever happens here so I guess this is the closest entertainment they'll get.
The book was passed around a bit more until it was finally settled in the hands of a kid with a silver band around his head.
((NOTE: You, as the reader, will be able to 'see' what's happening as the diary is read, the people in the tavern will only know what is in the inverted commas e.g. 'I woke up today' I might also skip some entries if it's already been narrated))
"Day 5...
...
...
...
'I woke up today, we're going to search a cave system we found yesterday. I also thought it was a good idea if I started keeping a diary.'
"Brine! Hurry up, the she'll leave us." My brother shouted, people always thought we were twins instead of brothers with a two year gap, we did look almost identical and had a weird habit of picking the same clothes everyday. I jotted down a few more lines,
'I'm starting this diary on day five since today is a Friday and my brother will get annoyed if I didn't'
"What are you doing?" My brother came in the dirt shack I was currently writing in,
"Keeping a diary. Like you said,"
"Woah, you took me seriously?" He wacked me on the head in his friendly way and we left for the cave.
'The cave lead to an abandoned mineshaft, we'll explore that tomorrow.'
...
...
..."
The kid stopped reading, "This is kinda boring, are you sure you want to read all of it?"
"Skip a few pages then, I'm sure it belongs to a great adventurer with tons of stories!" The boy who brought in the diary jumped up while he said this.
"Alright then. Day 14
...
...
...
'Not much happened today, there was a spider under my brother's bed...'
"Still writing?" Abbie came im the room. We spent the majority of yesterday mining and building a large house out of cobblestone. None of us were architects so the building just ended up looking like one massive brick.
"Not like there's anything else to do." I shrugged and returned to my writing. Before my pen could touch the paper, however, my brother jumped in through the window.
"I may or may not have angered a hoard of creepers." He gave a sarcastic smile and started barricading the walls.
"Steve! This is the third time you may or may not have angered a hoard of deadly monsters!"
'I don't think I wrote about Abbie yet. She's the oldest and is like a big sister to me and Steve.'
"Don't just write about it! Help us!" Abbie rarely raised her voice at me and when she does, most likely it's because of Steve. I jumped out my chair and started plastering cobblestone in every open gap.
SsssssssssBOOM!
"That's the first wave, just two more." Steve reassured us.
"JUST!?" Abbie looked as if she was going to swallow us whole,
SsssssssssBOOM!
"Gah!" A piece of wood shot into my left arm, blood gushing out. Still I kept pilling more blocks into the newly made holes.
SssssssBoom!
The third wave was significantly smaller, my vision started blurring. All the force that I had placed on my injured arm i ncreased the amount of blood that I lost. Eventually my vision blacked, all that was left was a continuous shouting, "BRINE! Stay with me."
'... Day 16, my arm is completely healed, Abbie is quite handy when it comes to stitches. I had to stay in bed for the past two days while Steve rebuilt the outside.'
"Lift, down." Abbie issued simple orders, after a while she replaced the bandage with a tight band, "Just in case you tear any muscles." She answered my unspoken question.
Outside, Steve had just finished rebuilding. 'We fished at a small pond and roasted fish to eat that night'
...
...
..."
"He's right, this is kinda boring." A boy with scruffy hair gave a loud yawn, "I'm leaving."
"Same here."
"Me too."
Looking around me, quite a few customers left too. Now it was just the two boys, me and another woman who sat in the middle tables.
"Should I keep reading?"
"Yeah, I wanna know."
The boy with the silver band took a long intake of air and started reading again.
"Day 27...
...
...
'It's nearly midnight but we're so close'
I brushed off some vines that made its way onto my face, Abbie shouted, "There it is!"
I looked to where her finger was pointing at. For a second, I forgot to breath. This must have been the first time I'd seen civilization in, what? Six years? And sure did it feel good to not be just the three of us.
'We stayed in a hotel, I feeltquite embarrassed for not knowing how to use a shower.'
Steve cupped his hand, then sprayed me with water. "Stop it! You're going to get my diary wet," I shook the book, wiping it with my towel.
"Why are you still writing that thing?"
"Why are YOU in the bath with me?" I countered,
Steve held up two hands, "Abbie said we shouldn't waste water, besides I'm your big brother!"
I grumbled a small "You still didn't have to splash me..." and placed my diary on my towel.
'We had dinner in a proper resurant, but before that, Abbie made us wear these really uncomfortable suits'
Earning another glare from Abbie, I finally stopped fiddling with my bow tie and started reading the menu. "What are you having?" Steve, from across the table asked,
"I don't know, maybe just a cooked chicken." I took another glance at the menu, there wasn't anything besides meat, meat and more meat.
"I'd like to order now!" Abbie called over a waiter, her brown hair was neatly tied up in a bun. To make sure I didn't look exactly like Steve again, she parted my hair sideways and Steve's hair was combed back. Halfway throught the dinner, whatever gel Abbie used must have worn off because Steve's hair started to flip forwards and I suspect mine was doing the same.
'What happened next was quite unexpected. We didn't realise that they didn't take emeralds as payment. We ended up running all the way back to the hotel, grabbing our stuff and leaving for the forest.
In a way, that was a great night'
...
...
..."
I looked up at the boys to see why they had stopped reading. Turns out that we were the only three left in the tavern.
"I'm saying this to you too, we closed an hour ago, you should head back before anything starts spawning." The bartender was at the door, turning a sign which said 'open' on one side to 'closed'.
"Oops, sorry we didn't realise how late it was." The boy took the book off the silver band kid and they started to head out. I also downed my drink and started to leave.
"Hey mister!" I turned around, "You enjoyed that story, didn't you?"
"C'mon Steven, we're not meant to talk to strangers."
"Just a second." He turned back to me, "I'm Steven and that's Roth. If you like, you can come and listen to the story tomorrow at the library."
"Steven!" Roth seemed very reluctant to meet strangers,
"All right, all right. See you there then." They ran off down the muddy path, before I could set off down in the opposite direction, I was stopped again.
"They're orphans." It was the bartender, "Ever since the village north from here was burnt down, we've had waves and waves of orphans wander this region."
"Aren't there any orphanages?" I asked,
"Yeah, but there simply isn't any room for nearly two thousand people."
"I see." With that, I was finally on my way.