Of utter ignorance of the things I chose to ignore; among them being this fire scalded plane, of which moats of burning magna and seas of lava exist. Where abominations such as these... things. One half of their face resembled the skull of disease stricken human, while they other side resembled that of a bor. These creatures are not what brought me to this land, though. Not one bit.

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"So... Derrik. Long journeys such as this require sustainable supplies."

"Yeah..?"

"And that's why I'd like you to go down in the south western Entertainment area, go into Mikael's general store, and give him this."

Promerys handed be an aged note, written in some unknown alphabet and language foreign to me. It looked like some R'leyhian type language from the short stories of Lovecraft.

"What's this say?"

"It's a Legal Pass. Whenever you need to purchase something, hand them this note, and they'll be obligated to give you your items for free. Since you are now a government official, you have diplomatic immunity."

"That's... that's good to know."

All of this was maddening, I was still on the brink of some utter mental shut down. I held myself together, by sewing the strands of myself in place, which was such a excruciating task. I decided to just head out from that point, and walk down this temple, which was in the exact center of Ashton. The city was well lit, thankfully. It resembled the lights of New York, and had the homeward of a urban complex in the Midwestern United Kingdom. The architecture was oddly amazing, such as a combination of Neoclassical and Early Modern, although the Temple that resided in the center, the Temple of Ashton, was that of a Cyclopean and Roman style architecture, of which it possibly was borrowed from. Possibly Mosque and or Ancient Islamic.

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'Mikael's Store.' Such an un-clever, horrid, and boring name. I gripped the steel handle and twisted it into several directions until it had opened. Walking into the shop was, unsettling, at most. An extremely quiet, irritable environment with four aisles of selections. Everything, including the shelves, made out of oakwood. Noting to the left, a woman, held behind metal bars, tended to the register. She was mostly a nice sight, as I hadn't laid eyes upon another woman in a half year. Well, an attractive one, at least. The females of the Broken Shards were uneasy to look at, and mostly just infuriating to deal with.

"Hey, anything I could help you with?"

"Well, yeah. Is Mikael around?"

"Nope, just took off for home. I'm running the shop today. Big deal for me, really. Old man never trusts anyone but himself."

"Right. Well, I was told to come here, and give him this."

I took the pass which Promerys had gave to me, and slided it to her through the slot on the counter. She seemed skeptical at first at the contents, and gave me a perplexed look of confusion as she tore through the seel.

She began reading quietly to herself, pronouncing such complex words, those of which I didn't believe it was possible for human vocal cords to produce.

"Ah, so you're the one everyone's been talking about! Derrik, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. People are... talking about me?"

"Christ, word got around fast that a new portal opened up and, suddenly outcame some new guy coming to this fucking shithole of a city."

"Promerys told me. Ashton's been having some economic, military, and crime problems, from what he said."

"Yeah, well that's a way to put it. With people from Zion Valley and Sion Rom'nuus coming over, and trying to find a better life, there have been some... 'problems,' you could say. What's really the problem is that Promerys and Xenophon are too damn nice, and they feel like everyone should be aloud into Terreria."

"Well everyone deserves a second chance, right?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought too. Until thousands upon thousands of people and Vokkollin started to pour in. Now, we've had to open up literally dozens of refugee plaza's, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens. And when people have got nothing to lose, they... well, get desperate."

"The hell is a.. what, Vokkollin?"

"Shit, forgot. New here." She stopped in her words, and struck a look of constrain.

"Well, see, they're... well, hard to describe. They're tall as hell. Look a lot like humans. They're usually thin, but not all of them are. I really can't put it into words."

"Well, at least you tried."

We shared a laugh, of maybe a new found friendship and understanding of our mutual qualities.

"So Derrik, what's life been like out there?"

"What do you mean?"

"Look, I've been out of the loop for six years, since the Separation happened. Since all of the portals shut off. What the hell has been happening out there?"

A tough question, at most. But easily answered.

"Six years, huh? Back when Bush was still in office?"

"You pay attention to American Politics, then? I've known a couple Brits who've done that."

"Nope, lived in America since I was fourteen."

"Really? Interesting. Well who's in office, now?"

"Well his name is Barack Obama."

"That's an... odd name."

"Yeah, little bit."

"Anything else?"

"Well not anything you'd really even care about."

"Don't care, still interested."

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So we sat there, for what felt like hours talking about new technologies and our life before we came here. She told me she used to be an amateur boxer before she came to Ashton. And I told her of my time on the USS Abraham Lincoln, as a navyman. And the more I spoke to her, the stronger feeling of attraction I felt toward her. She was stunningly beautiful, of perfect symmetrical facial features, her flowing dark auburn hair, and her enticing blue eyes. After realizing in the middle of our conversation, that I came here for the supplies, I cut our chat short. Veronica, as she said her name was, said that the 'shit things' that Mikael sells is in the aisles. And that he kept the useful thing in the backroom, such as firearms from the Remnants and Outcasts, and other weaponry and things such as Steel Cut machete's, combat boots, a left over surplus supply of MRE's and junkfood, and even clothing, such as Levi jeans and other apparel. I went along with her in the stockroom, and picked out the things I wanted out of the boxes that they were wasting away in; slim fit jeans, tactical steel toe, military grade boots, a gator military machete, and unique alloy water container, which bared an inscription of 'Never Forget' scarred into the front.

After ringing up my items, I put on the things I purchased, to which I had a leather strap for my machete which I slung over my shoulders. I put my food items and other objects such as the handheld alloy canister into my grandfathers medical messenger bag, and began to head out the door. After my hand made contact with the exit, Veronica spoke up, making me stop in my place.

"Hey, you're planning on trying to solve the problems that Ashton has, right?"

"Yeah, basically."

She squealed out of joy after my sentence. She quickly ran out of the metal door that was used to exit out of the bar counter, grabbing a back pack consisting mainly of leather. She lugged the straps between her shoulders, and sprinted in front of me in a brief stop.

"Then I'm coming with you. Ashton isn't gonna help itself." She said.

"I'm fine with you coming along, I mean the journey is long and it's going to be harsh. So might as well have some company. But don't you work for Mikael?"

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about him. I was going to quit anyways."

"Well, other than that, why do you wanna come along?"

"See, ever since I came here when I was fifteen, I've been working here since. I wanna do something important with my life, not waste it working in some dead end job with no excitement."

"Well that's reason enough, I suppose. Come on, then. Where should we start?"

"Oh, that's simple. The Library of Ashton, Miskatonic University, or any Raugner Den."

"Let's head to the library, then."

"Good! Maybe you'll learn something about Terreria, or something, there. Maybe."

So, with her coming along, I knew the path I've begun to walk will be more pleasent.

*authors Note: I've just rewritten the second chapter because it was fucking horrible. Now I'm going to re do the next eight. Also, sorry this was so short. Trying to get these out of the way.