All Monty could remember was being woken up by a strange man who called himself Connor. Just Connor. Monty always thought of him as some sort of guide, because he was always giving Monty advice, and strange advice too, like
"Don't whack a Demon Altar with a hammer!", and "You can make a sword with that oak wood!". Monty hadn't been here too long, but he had already gotten used to this strange lifestyle. He had made a hut with the assistance of Connor, and now worked as a blacksmith. Who for, you ask? The villagers who live in the small village he and Connor also made.
Abigail Farthorn, who worked as a nurse, was a beautiful, young blonde woman who wore the typical white nurse clothing. Always.
Tony Grates, who sold weapons. Not all of which were legal. He wore a brown coat above regular casual clothing, and had curly black hair.
Lastly, Harold Mannington, the mayor who also sold general goods - everything from miner's hats to potions with magical healing abilities. He was quite a fancy old man; white hair, artistic feather in his brown hat.
None of these people would tell Monty anything about the world outside of this isolated island they now lived on. They just claimed they didn't remember, then looked at each other as though they were hiding something. Monty wanted to find out, but it was clear he wasn't supposed to.
It was a regular day; Monty woke up in his bed under the square of sunlight his window made. He got up, and put on his usual, everyday clothes he made himself. Monty looked into the mirror that stood next to his door. Spiky brown hair gelled, check. Grey vest buttoned up, check. Sword in hilt, check. He exited his cabin, and saw the usual scene of Abigail sitting at the central fountain that the houses surrounded, facing away from Tony, who was clearly hitting on her, as usual. Monty went over to help Abigail fend of the greedy Tony, but intercepted by Connor.
"Hey, Monty!" he waved, "I found something you'll wanna see."
"What? A new Demon Altar?" a look of excitement crossed his face. Demon Altars were always an interesting discovery; they were quite rare, and intriguing. What was their purpose?
"Nope, a cave entrance. Might lead to one, though." Monty's face remained excited. A new cave was always just as interesting. He once found a magical mirror, which, if he looked deep into it, teleported him to the fountain. Well, into the water of the fountain, unfortunately. He followed Connor to the said cave, and upon arrival, he stared down, into the cave. He could see a faint light in the distance. The cave was in the side of a hill, and was clearly an old mineshaft. The entrance had a wooden border, and there was a broken, rusted rail. He ran off down the cave, not even saying goodbye to Connor. The light grew, and grew, until … a torch. Monty realised someone must've already explored here recently. He continued, coming across a few bats which he had to fend off with his trusty iron sword, which for some reason gave off a faint blue light. Connor said it was because it was 'Godly', but Monty had no idea what this meant. He kept moving forward, until he found what he hoped he would find. A Demon Altar; but not the regular scene. There was a golden hammer with a blood-stained handle. When Monty looked at what he saw next, he flinched. A man. Clearly not alive. He had a long, white beard and wore a red hat. His eyes were open, but they weren't a regular colour at all. Red. Monty's eyes widened, and he suddenly felt the need to get away, to escape. He sprinted back the way he came, until he was outside again, by which point he fell to the ground and panted furiously. Connor had evidently gone back to the village, because he wasn't to be seen in the immediate area. Monty slowly made his way back to the village, following the same path that led them to the cave. Why was there a dead man next to that Demon Altar? Perhaps Connor would know; after all, he seemed to know far more than anyone else when it came to the history of this strange island.
"Connor!" Monty said, just as he arrived at Connor's house and knocked on the door, "You wouldn't believe what I saw," he said as Connor opened the door, "There was a Demon Altar, but what was really crazy, was that right next to it," he started panting again, "was a man. He was dead. I have no idea why, but he had red eyes."
Connor's eyes widened, before he said, "Not again. It's Skeletron. He's back, and I'll be willing to bet you, he is angry."
"Skeletron?" Monty asked, but Connor suddenly appeared to come out of some sort of trance, and realise that he was talking to Monty.
"Oh, it's nothing." He said, as usual.
"No, it's not! You were freaked out! Who," suddenly, Monty's expression became intense and angry, "is Skeletron?"
"I told you, it's nothing!" he screamed, before slamming the door. Monty was extremely confused now. It was clear that from now on, things would be different around here.
It was late. About 11:30, if Monty had to guess. He had just gotten into bed not long ago after working late. Harold requested a new sword, as Demon Eye attacks were becoming more and more frequent now-a-days, not to mention the zombie swarms. There were some strange sounds coming from outside; the regular groan of the zombies, but also an unusual humming noise. Things got creepier, however, when Monty had a strange feeling. He felt an evil presence watching him. He couldn't explain it … it was like there was an impending danger that he was completely oblivious to. This ramped up when the amount of Demon Eyes bumping against his ceiling increased. Bump, bump, BANG. Monty could tell that this wasn't a regularly-sized Demon Eye. This one was huge. He leapt out of his bed, and ran to grab his sword, when the ceiling suddenly caved in, and something horrible entered. A huge eye, at least ten times bigger than a regular demon eye. A blue pupil sat in the centre, red lines creeping towards it from the back. It lunged towards Monty, and he leapt to the side, iron sword now in hand. He jumped on to his bed, and again, grabbing onto the now exposed top of the wall. He jumped backwards, towards the larger Demon Eye. He drove his sword through the centre, but the Eye just shook him off, and lunged towards him again. The door swung open, and in ran Connor, an iron bow in hand, with a handful of greyish-purple arrows. He started firing at the Eye, as he screamed, "Monty! It's time I told you," Monty was listening, but he continued to fend of the smaller Demon Eyes that were ramming towards him, "This … monster … was sent by Cthulhu. The ancient deity. Well, this is one of his Eyes."
One of Connor's arrows hit Cthulhu's Eye, and it seemed to affect it more than the other arrows, because now the Eye flew back and started to rapidly spin. The pupil disappeared into the Eye, and then it started separating down the middle, until there was a clear mouth, with ferocious, sharp teeth. It turned to face away from Monty, and started flying away, roaring.
"You okay?" asked Connor.
"Yeah," suddenly realising what he had to do. He leapt towards Connor and held his blade to his throat, "You will tell me everything about what the hell is going on."
"Fine!" Connor screamed, trying to push Monty away, "That Eye was sent by Cthulhu, as I have already explained. I don't know why he wants us dead, he just does." Connor was clearly lying, but Monty knew he wouldn't speak up any time soon.
It'd been a few days since the attack, and most of Monty's time was spent on repair work. He hadn't spoken to Connor since, as there was still some leftover hostility Monty felt towards him for concealing the truth about the attack. He was sure Connor would eventually speak, so he decided to just wait until the time came,
Monty was at Tony's house. Tony had invited Monty over, saying he wanted to know exactly what happened on the night of the attack. Tony's house was rather small — he didn't require much space, as he had more guns than furniture. His walls were almost covered in the things, from muskets to machine guns modelled to look like sharks. He was sitting opposite Monty in the small living room, staring right at him.
"Tell me exactly what happened. This is … er … important," he was very adamant, but Monty wanted something back for this.
"I'll tell you, but only if you tell me what the hell's going on," Monty said in response.
"I … fine. But nobody can know I told you, okay? The He— I mean, you aren't supposed to know," Monty knew what he was going to say, and it confused him - Monty, the Hero? It did just seem right, though …
"I won't tell a soul."
"Ok. I'll tell you a little bit now, but not too much, ok?" Monty nodded, "You speak up first, actually. I have to hear this first."
"Alright, then. So, it was late last night, when I heard a thumping sound. Then, a massive eye came flying into my room through the roof. I tried to fight it off, but it was really strong. Luckily, Connor saved me, and something weird happened. The eye spun around a few times and then, it transformed into a mouth, by which point it began fleeing."
Tony seemed to take a second to take it in, before replying with, "So, Cthulhu sent that thing to kill you, you know that already, yes?" Monty nodded, "Well, he'll be doing that a lot. See, this island is the Island of Cthulhu. Not just some random island. We're here to kill him. We were sent in by the US government on a ship, to settle on the island, thus angering the deity, and bringing him forth so we can kill him. That was his first attempt, and I'd be expecting that thing to attack again, if I were you." Monty gulped as Tony finished. It was a lot to take in, but it was nice to finally have a clear goal in mind. He was here to kill Cthulhu. Now he just needed to figure out why Connor didn't want him to know.
Afterwards, Tony invited Monty to have dinner with Abigail and himself. They said there was something they needed to tell him. They were sitting around the table at Tony's place. Tony had taken down all of the weapons hanging from the walls for this; clearly he wanted to impress Abigail. Tony had prepared the food this time. there wasn't much to eat on the island; they would eat their rations provided by the government for their trip, along with the bread they made themselves.
"So," began Monty, "news, huh?"
"Yeah, and good news, too," said Tony.
"Well?" inquired Monty.
Tony and Abigail shifted closer at this, "We," Tony said, and after a short pause in which he looked at Abigail, "are finally back together!"
Tony and Abigail came to the island together, as a couple. They had been dating for a year before that, and the only thing that stood between them was Tony's gun obsession. Abigail was against violence completely; that was why she was a nurse. He promised to stop sanctioning gun use for as long as they were together, but when he signed up as "Ammunition Expert" for the expedition without telling her, she was infuriated. She, of course, had also signed up, but as the Nurse. After just a few weeks, they broke up because of this difference.
"Wow, that's …" Monty had a shocked look on his face; he thought they'd never be back together. "That's … great!" he wasn't completely speaking the truth, because, if he had to be honest, he too had feelings for the nurse. There was a moment of silence before Abigail said, "How's Connor? I have not spoken to him for quite some time. He's been awfully quiet since … well, you know." Monty suddenly realised just how British Abigail's accent was.
"Oh, he's fine. He has been locked in his house a lot lately. I have reason to believe he's working on something. Probably some plan to defeat that eye or something." Monty didn't realise how very wrong he was. Tony gave a mysterious look that made Monty suspicious that he knew what was happening …
Connor took the last bite out of his muffin, and stepped back inside. It was a nice day, but that didn't matter; he had work to do. On his desk laid countless sheets of paper, all with strange diagrams and maps on them. One, a map of the island. It was cut into quarters of similar sizes, and each represented a different area. The desert, the plains, the Corruption and the jungle. Only the desert and the plains had been explored by the group as of yet, but they had glimpsed the others. Another sheet had a picture of Connor, himself on it, but there was a strange silkie quality about the image. Connor sat at his desk, pulled out a new A3 sheet, and continued with his work.
"Hey, Connor!" Tony yelled from a distance. Connor was leaving his house for another short sun break; he couldn't stay in all day long. He sighed, but still waved at Tony.
"I know what you're doing" he whispered once he caught up with Connor, "and you have to stop. You made an agreement when you joined this crew, and you have to stick to it, got that?" At this, Connor grabbed Tony by the collar and whispered in a much harsher tone, "You don't understand what it's like having your fate decided for you before you even had a chance to live!"Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something moving around the corner of his house.
Monty had no clue what they were talking about.
In the distance, Monty heard the town bell ringing. This was rung when Harold was holding a town meeting. This happened about once a week, and was especially common in these times, with the mission beginning. Monty got changed and went to the town hall. There was a large, round table, only half of which was actually used. Monty always wondered why; were more people expected to arrive?
Harold stood up in front of the team, and began speaking.
"There are several issues to be addressed in this day's meeting. For starters, I would like to discuss the relationship between our Tony Grates and Abigail Farthorn. I would not like this new development to interfere with the … " he glanced at Monty, (of course, only Tony knew that Monty was now in the know about the mission) "Ahem. Can you two assure me that all will remain the same?" Tony and Abigail said "Yes, Mayor" in harmony.
"Moving on, then. Connor." Connor raised his head, and knew what he was about to hear. "We have all discussed this in a private meeting held a few days ago, and we have come to the conclusion that you will be put on suspension for several weeks. The ship is on it's way now. If, in those weeks, we are able to find a new eligible volunteer for your role." Connor's eyes widened, and he immediately stood.
"What!?" he screamed.
"You are to depart immediately." Connor gave Harold a furious look before storming off towards his house; presumably to pack. Monty was equally surprised by this. He, of course, wasn't invited to the private gathering. He also didn't know yet what it was that Connor was assigned to the team to do, but it obviously involved some risk.
"Our final subject of matter. Monty." Monty was surprised to hear his name; it rarely came up in meetings. "We think, as you have fully regained your proper mental state, you are ready to learn about our missio—"
"Sorry, 'proper mental state'?" inquired Monty.
"Ah. A good place to start." He settled into his chair, and began his story.
"There were five roles on this teams, which are as follows: The Guide, The Hero, The Mayor, The Nurse, and The Ammunitions Expert. You, Monty Modidger, signed up as Hero of the team. The fighter. You had a wife, but you left to join our team, so you could help create a world in which your wife could live in safety. We were all on the ship heading to Cthulhu's Island, when we were attacked — by Cthulhu himself. It was dreadful. He went straight for you, knowing you were the real threat. You tried to defend, but … well, he got you. You almost died, but fortunately Abigail here is very competent at her job, and you were saved. However, there were head injuries; mainly, memory loss, but also a bit of … well, strange behaviour. That's why all you remember is being woken up my Connor and having him help you with the basic survival skills. All of which you actually already knew, by the way." He paused for a moment, "Our mission here on this island is to kill the aforementioned Cthulhu. A deadly deity who threatens the peace and safety of our planet. Our goal is to kill all three of his guardians, by which point he will show himself in his true form, and we will have to face guardians are the Eye of Cthulhu, Skeletron," two familiar names, thought Monty, "and the Wall of Flesh." Harold said this with such fear, it shot a bit into Monty as well.