This is a tale from the world of Runescape that had caused everything to be rewritten... Contents [show] Day 0: "Daddy, please don't leave!" The child rushed from the crowd to hug Garban, his father. "I don't want you to go!" the child sobbed. "Of course my child, I understand. But it is not my choice. The captain has decided I'm needed on this quest." Garban kneeled at the child, and held his hand. "But...But..." the child sniffled, attempting to speak, but was simply to choked up to do so. "But nothing, dear child. It is my quest, and I must go." Garban patted the child on the back. "But what if you don't return?" The child began to tear up even more, and began to cry. "Oh, that's nothing child, I promise you I will return." Garban hugged the sobbing child. The child sniffed. "Promise?" "Oh my dear boy, If I am not to return alive from this quest, then may the demons of hell infest Gielinor! I am that confident I will come back alive and well!" The man raised his fist in triumphant honor, to signify his promise. "... Okay... But... before you go, please... take this, I don't want you to forget us." The boy stopped sobbing, and reached into his pack. He pulled out a golden box with a silver latch, and gave it to Garban. It was a music box. It had a small wooden man standing with a smaller wooden child. A soothing melody began to play. "This is wonderful. I will make sure to bring it back." A bell tolled in the distance. "I must leave now, my son, take care!" The man hugged the child, and then hustled to the ship. Garban was asked by the captain to assist on this mission. They were to send a cargo of rats overseas, and then deliver them to the enemy. The rats were plagued with disease, so they were confined to the lower levels of the ship, while the crew were to stay away from them. However, something would happen that would change everything. Day 1: After only the first day on seas, the crew has already become homesick. They would spend their days in their rooms instead of doing their work. There was a room around the wheel, actually, it served as the captain's quarters. They were heading west, to deliver the cargo and return without getting caught. A simple goal, except it would take a long while; 10 days, a relatively short time, yet it is still a long time to be away from family. The crew was quite uncomfortable sleeping with the sound of squeaking and scurrying underneath the floorboards, but then again, it was better than the constant yelling coming from the captain. None of them dared check on the rats, they simply tossed the scraps and the rats' daily share of food into their section of the ship. That would lead to their demise. Day 3: 2 days have passed. The crew has become less active, but they still do their work. They haven't seen the captain since yesterday, he's been in his quarters. They were quite relieved, but they made sure not to party, simply because there was a risk of waking the captain up. Still, they were free, aside from tending to necessary duties, and they would drink and dance themselves to sleep. They all had this strange nagging feeling that something was not right, but they could deal with it when they were sober. So they partied, played games, danced, sang, and then ended up falling asleep before they could get to bed. Day 5: For some odd reason, the ship has not hit port yet. The crew was vastly too concerned with the stench of the ship to even pay attention to this dire fact, and they spent nearly all of the day washing the deck. The sea was a darker color than normal, but that was all. Meanwhile, Garban was the only one worried, but he dreaded disturbing the captain if he was still alive, so he decided to sleep it off. He opened the music box to comfort him, and he eventually faded to sleep. He dreamt of being with his family again, and he feared that he may never return to them. But he decided that he'd drink that thought away, and headed to bed. Day 6: The crew finally decided to check in the captain's quarters to see what went wrong. They were shocked at what they saw. It appears as though one of the rats had escaped and bit the captain on the neck. The captain died and was rotting in his bed, but worse news was upon the crew. The ship's wheel was simply on its own, and the ship was traveling in an unknown direction. One of the crew members checked his compass to see which direction they were going, but the dial sank into it. They could not steer the ship, for reasons they had not known, but it seems as though the wheel and the rudder has disconnected, most likely due to more rats escaping. Luckily, they hadn't fed the rats, so they had died of starvation, which would explain the foul stench permeating their nose. Day 7: The crew had fainted from exhaustion after working all night tending to the ship, simply praying they were going in the right direction. When they finally awoke, they awoke to a cloudy sky and dark waters. It was in broad daylight, with no sun, and it appears as though a fog was rising. Garban got himself up, and awoke the other crew members. Orange leaves began to fall from the sky, but when the crew looked up, there were no trees. They were sailing in what appeared to be a straight direction, though the dials in the compass were already pointing themselves down; not south, but down. The leaves kept falling, floating on the dark water. The crew could not steer the ship, so they were standing looking. The ocean was utterly still as if time had stopped for the leaves to fall. The leaves all disappeared into the water, and the crew looked to the sky. 7 leaves began to fall in a circle, all of different colors ranging from red to green. Finally, a strange, black leaf fell into the center. A soft, gentle, yet dark voice let out a laugh. The leaves set aflame and sank into the water, and the sky and water began to turn dark. The clouds above became a dark gray, with thunder pounding at their ears, and the sea became a pitch black. Massive ash-filled winds began blowing into the ship. The clouds started to become a strange, dark orange color, with streaks of yellow, and the water started to become a different color. The ship began to tilt, and the crew members eventually fell out. Garban ran to his cabin, and grabbed the music box, clutching it like a child, before the dark waters, which now had a crimson tinge, closed in. Day ?: Garban awoke, though he could only tell because he could feel his blinking. The area around him was a pitch black, and he couldn't see anything, not even himself. He stood there, trying to grasp the world around him, though he couldn't see. He then yelled, but heard nothing. After about 15 seconds, a white path appeared, ending with a spotlight on a strange object. He walked the path towards the object. It was a music box. It had a small wooden man standing by a smaller wooden child. A soothing melody began to play. Garban kneeled at the music box, looking at it and beginning to tear up. It played its tune as the figures spun. Its soothing melody combined with the situation brought Garban to tears. In a graveyard, in Gielinor, the ground slowly began to dry and turn red... The music within the music box began to slow, and slow, until eventually, the music within the golden music box stopped. A dark hand slowly closed the music box. The ground in the graveyard slowly opened... "You've made a promise. And you've broken it."