Chapter Two! It's finally done! Yes, it's shorter, but that's also because I decided that I wanted to cut it off here. I might have honestly packed too much into that first chapter, I dunno. I'm guessing the chapters will be around this length, but I also might start making them just however long I feel is right. I won't be going under this amount of words in a chapter though, so don't worry about that. As you can see, everything is still the same, there's just a lot more detail, conversation, and I'm also skipping over a lot less of the trivial things. That was a big mistake.
Anyway, I've taken up enough time here, Enjoy!
Chapter 2: Zoeya
He disappeared off into the foliage, and I felt the uneasy smile I'd been faking crack. My heart sunk to the bottom of my chest, as I let out a deep sigh. No need to stay composed, now that I'm alone... I sat and leaned up against the crafting block, turning my eyes to the sky. This was really all a bit too much to take in at once.
...Okay, a lot too much, to be honest. I watched the clouds pass as I sat there, thinking. My panic had subsided for now, mostly due to Leo acting as calm as he was. But really, unless things changed quickly, I'm not sure how long it will stay that way. We have no idea of our location, aside from what a magical book had told us, and even then, I've never heard of a place called Decoria...
Then again, I don't really pay too much attention in Social Studies, so what do I know? Perhaps I could check the GPS? Biting my lip, I pulled out my phone and checked my reception. It said something completely different than either of the things I was expecting to see.
I had 3 or 4 bars, but the 4G was replaced by... Connections. Next to that, It had a 1. I'm no techie, but I've never heard of a phone doing something like that. When I went into my contacts, it only displayed Leonidas. No phone number or email, just his name. Leonidas Craft. All my other contacts were gone. I furrowed my eyebrows, popping over to the navigation app. It showed me a map, but the area around my little circle that it did show, was black. What was this, a fucking video game? Before I clicked the power button, I checked how much it had left; and noticed that the battery bar seemed to be perpetually stuck on the 'charging' icon. Whether it was, I had no idea, but to be honest, I'm not sure I care at this point.
Rubbing my eyes, I was pulled out of my thoughts by the book on my lap. It started vibrating, and I think it glowed a little bit. I shifted my position to a more comfortable one, grunting a little, before opening it up. The words that had been there before were replaced by a single sentence.
'You doing alright?' I almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. I was lost in an unknown location with weird shit going on all around me, and that's ignoring the fact that we didn't die during the plane crash in the first place. And now a magic book was asking me if I was alright.
"No, I am not really alright. I'm not sure how someone could be 'alright' in this situation." After a second or two, it she responded.
'Look, I know you can't possibly believe me when I say this, but I understand how you're feeling.' I couldn't resist chuckling a little at that.
"Oh, is that so?"
'Yes. Look, I'm not going to lie to you. This isn't really the most ideal situation to land into. But it's really not as bad as it seems. Just follow my instructions, and you two should be alright.' I scoffed.
"Should?"
'Well, if I tell you you'll be perfectly fine, and then something happens, who's the liar?' I sighed, rubbing the back of my head.
"Whatever..."
'Anyway; are you just going to sit there? Or are you going to make some use of the sunlight you have left?' I glanced over at the sun, noting it had traveled quite a bit from the middle of the sky where it had previously been. I bit my lip.
"What's so bad about the night anyway?" After a few moments, I looked down to only see a '…' on the page. "Paige?" Finally, she started again.
'Seriously, you just don't want to know. Point is, you do not want to be outside when it gets dark. Can you please trust me on that?' Even though all it was was text, she made herself pretty clear that she was looking out for my best interests here, so I dropped the subject.
"...Alright."
'Thank you. Now look, I need you to go get like 4 pieces of wood. I'll tell you the next thing you need to do after that.' I cringed. 'Yeah, it sucks, but wood is like, one of the most basic materials you'll get here, and you'll need it for a ton of stuff. After you get these, I'll walk you through making an axe.' I took a deep breath, and forced my body into a standing position.
"Fine." I stretched a bit. "But after we're all safe and all that, you have a lot more explaining to do."
After struggling to get the materials from the closest trees I could find, I plopped a block down next to the Crafting Table and took a seat.
"Okay..." I took the 4 wood blocks out of my pocket and placed them onto the table, a little to the side of the grid. I put Paige on the other side. "So what now?"
A small grid that kind of looked like a Tic-Tac-Toe board appeared on the page, and a little 'W' appeared in the middle of it. She spoke below the grid.
'Okay, so, take the wooden blocks, and place them one by one into the center of the table. You took them out of a stack and it's easier to do mass crafting in stacks.' As I placed the first one into the center of the grid, It centered itself in the box and hovered slightly above the surface. To the left, in the lone box separate from the grid, a 3D hologram of a block of wooden planks showed up. There was a 4 carved in the top. I'd have been wowed if not for everything else that's happened. When I put the second one, I found that it merged with the first, and a little 2 carved itself into the top of the wooden block.
"Huh." I did the same with the others, and the 4 on the planks eventually changed to a 16. Paige vibrated.
'Alright, now just grab the hologram of the planks to make them. The crafting table pretty much works like the one in your head does, only it's bigger and makes a ton more stuff. After you do that, split up the stack of planks and divide one of the halves into two others. Then, place them like this-' She showed two planks above each other in the grid, '-to make sticks.' I followed her instructions step by step, and eventually wound up with the desired result; some sticks and wooden planks.
She changed the grid again to show the recipe for an axe, which was, to my disappointment, wooden. After making it, I stood up and gripped it with both hands. The handle was nice and smooth, and it kinda felt nice to have made something. Paige vibrated again, and I glanced over.
'While that's only wooden, you can gather other materials to make tools out of and just substitute the wood in the recipe. You'll need a pickaxe for that though. Which is what you'll make next.'
I spent a good portion of the afternoon collecting wood and learning more and more things about crafting. Paige supplied me with tips and recipes, of which I tried my best to memorize. After I made the pickaxe, she had me make a shovel and dig up the ground. Let me just say this; digging in the sand here is a ton easier than it was back where we came from. The sand would break into little block shaped holes, dropping the material on the ground, and none of the sand on the side tried to flow in, so I didn't have to keep re-digging it up.
Eventually, I hit a harder material, which Paige said was sandstone. I took the pick, and mined some of it up. After coming out of the hole, I asked Paige if I could make sandstone tools. She said she'd never honestly seen anyone try before. I thought for a moment, my curiosity perked. After a bit of tinkering, I found that the answer to that question was no. I was able to make some rods with it though, which made for a better handle than the sticks. After going back down into the hole, I dug a bit deeper and hit stone. According to Paige, this was the next step up in tool material, so I grabbed like, 10 blocks of it.
Satisfied with my Sandstone-Stone Toolset, I made some for Leo. Pretty sure he'll want some. Paige showed me a few more recipes, before I decided I'd done enough. I sat down on my makeshift chair, which was really just stairs, and closed my eyes. I noticed that I seemed to be a lot more calm now. I guess I'd gotten so into the crafting and such that the other stuff had faded away. I eventually drifted off to the sound of the waves crashing on the shoreline.
"Hey! Wake up!" The words jolted through my suddenly active brain. Startled, my eyes flew open as I fell straight off the chair and into the sand.
"oh my god what where wha" My dazed status slowly faded, as my vision came back into focus. I clenched my eyes closed, and struggled to my feet.
"Zoe." I opened one eye, rubbing the other, to see Leo standing there. I glanced at the sky and saw that the sun was starting to set. "What happened?" I sighed.
"I just fell asleep, you doof. Nothing happened." He rolled his eyes.
"Annnnyway. I made my way through the Jungle and found a good place for us to set up camp or something. Didn't find any other people or anything though." His gaze drifted over the tools and stuff I'd crafted still sitting all over the place. "I see you made some things..." I nodded.
"Mmm... Paige gave me a few recipes, so I tried them out." I picked up the tools lying around. "These are the ones for you, I have mine in my pocket." He took them, examining each one, before putting them away. "So, do you know the way back to the place you found?" He nodded.
"Mhm. The GPS on my phone seems to be working, to an extent. It's been like, recording the area around me as I walk, that's how I found my way back here." Huh. So his is doing it as well? I bit my lip, before deciding to ask him about it later.
"Alright, we should get going then, before it gets dark." We snatched up the random things that were still lying around and stored them in our pockets, before heading off into the Jungle. He lead, and I followed closish behind him. For a while, we just chatted about trivial, normal things. Anything to distract from the actual situation we were in. Eventually though, silence found its way into the air. Said silence did nothing but slowly let the dread I felt earlier slowly creep back into my gut. In an attempt to dodge it, I gave a weak effort to spark conversation. "So..." He turned back to look at me, raising his eyebrow.
"Hm?" I rubbed my shoulder.
"Um... did you find anything interesting on your way over here? You know, the first time." He turned back around, thinking for a minute.
"Not really. Just trees." I frowned.
"Just trees?" He shrugged.
"I dunno. What else did you expect me to find in a forest?" I looked down, falling quiet. Didn't really know what to answer. When I looked back up, I noticed that the trees were starting to clear up. "Ah, we're here now. It's just a bit past the other side." I crossed my arms, as we continued walking.
By the time we got to the spot he'd mentioned, it was nearly night. The sun was only still slightly peaking over the horizon, and I'd say we had 15 minutes at most. Both of us pretty much understood what we had to do to build, so we got right to it. By the time darkness fell, we'd constructed what was effectively a wooden box big enough for the two of us to fit in.
"Well... It's not much, but I guess it'll have to do." I sighed, rubbing the back of my head.
"It's better than nothing, isn't it? At least we don't have to sleep... out... side." About that moment was when I had quite a shitty revelation. We had no beds. Or pillows. Or really any of the things you usually use when going to sleep. I glanced at Leo to see he'd realized the same thing.
"We're going to have to sleep on the ground." I hung my head.
"Yup." He groaned. As I was looking down, I caught Paige glowing out of the corner of my eye. I opened her up to be greeted with two words; that covered half the page.
'GO INSIDE.' I'm pretty sure if she could talk, I'd be deaf.
"Alright, Alright..." I gestured to Leo to go in. "C'mon, let's just get inside." He took one last look at the sky, where the moon was almost fully visible, before heading inside. I followed behind, closing the door. It was pretty much pitch black, so I clicked on my phone for some extra light. Closing my eyes, I leaned up against the wall and slid to the ground. Leo took a seat against the opposite wall. The two of us lock eyes for a few moments, before I awkwardly look over to the side.
"So what now? Do we just... go to sleep?" He sighs, closing his eyes.
"I guess. Not like there's much else we can do." I looked down.
"Well... good night then...?" He managed a weak smile.
"Night, Zoe." I clicked off my phone, and closed my eyes. Slipping off my sweatshirt, I folded it up to use as a pillow. I placed it on the ground, slowly lowering my head onto it. A cold breeze came through the window of the door, and I shivered.
As I slowly drifted off, I could swear I heard a growling noise on the other side of the wall. My drowsy mind dismissed it as my imagination.
Because that's all it could be.
Right?
As you can see, this is as long, if not longer than the second chapter of the original, while that encompassed everything that happened here, plus a large amount of other things. This is a good indicator of what things to come will be like.
Thanks for reading! I'll hopefully have the next chapter up soon. If I do it the way I'm planning, this will be something that wasn't even in the original.
~LeonidasCraft~
