The rest of the path down south was rather dangerous. In order to make the long trek to Da- er, Dr. Andonuts's lab and survive, I would have to make a pit-stop by the drugstore a few miles down the road. A few more miles past the drugstore and I'd be at the camp in front of the lake. Hopefully the lake would be frozen over so that I could pass, because I knew that the boats were put away during the winter.
However, when I say a few miles, I mean more than just a few.
The walk to the drugstore itself wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for a snow storm that had kicked up halfway there. Soon it morphed into an even greater storm, the winds blowing brisk, sharp pellets into my face. Even with my face buried in my coat and gloves on my hands, in my pockets, it was still almost unbearable. Some wolves appeared from the trees searching for food, and seeing me trudging along began chasing after me. If I hadn't obtained the pop gun, then surely I would've been their next meal. The pop gun was strong enough to knock out one of their eyes, and I had taken a martial arts class, I guess, so I was able to fight them off with a couple of strong kicks. However, I still escaped with bite marks in my ankle, which made it a pain to walk, and one in my right calf. Luckily, the drugstore was just a few paces away, but even then, every step I took brought me a stinging pain.
I spent the next 10 minutes or so cleaning and bandaging my leg up, buying a couple of body warmers and some medicine in case I got a cold or another bite. I also bought a frying pan for extra protection, but it just seemed a bit weird to use. Though, I didn't want to return it, so I decided to keep it with me. I would've liked to buy the T-rex bat, but it was too expensive. There was also a payphone there, which reminded me that I needed to call Tony. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a quarter and dialed Tony's cell.
Booooooop...
Booooooop...
"Hello? Who's this?" came Tony's voice from the other end.
"Hey Tony, it's me, Jeff," I replied.
"Oh, hey! you made it to the drugstore?"
"Yeah. Just calling you before I head off. My da- er, Dr. Andonuts probably has a phone, so I'll call you again there before I head off."
"Yeah. Why are you going to your dad's lab again?"
"D-don't call him that!"
"Oh, right, I'm sorry. But why-"
"Well, I have a device that will allow me to travel west. I won't say what it is, but it'll let me get the heck out of here."
"Hm... okay. I can't help but be curious, but Whatever you say, man. Well, call me frequently throughtout your journey, alright?"
"Yeah, I will."
"You go, rebel! Fix the wrong in the world or... something!"
"Okay, I will," I laughed. "Right, later."
"Later, Jeff." With that, I hung up the line and headed out of the drugstore. No time was to be wasted, as good as it was to be able to hear Tony's voice again. It was time to get down to business.
Continuing down the path towards the camp, some bloodthirsty crows swooped down and tried stealing my stuff. If they weren't attemping to steal anything I had, they tried pecking at my eyes, but I batted at them with the frying pan, knocking them out most of the time. I used this in place of the popgun, only reserving the popgun for dire situations, as it had limited ammo. Some more wolves tried attacking, but with the pan, I was able to escape with minor injuries. The snow storm was basically a blizzard at this point, and my face was dug deep into my coat more than ever.
In about an hour, I reached the camp, and the snowstorm had subsided to a light snowfall. In the darkness, some campfires and laterns lit up the area, inviting me in warmly. Even though I wasn't there to sit down and chat, there was one person in particular that I was hoping to see, and that was...
"Hello? Who's there?" came the voice I was hoping to hear.
"Marty? Is that you?" I spoke.
"Well! If it isn't Jeff! How's it going, little man!"
Didn't write this part, sorry.
I took careful steps as I crossed the lake, wary of possible and frequent spots of thin ice of where I could fall in. Keep in mind that the ice was hard to see, due to it being nighttime, so I was taking a big risk. With every step of the way, I stepped in front of me and checked for thin ice. Luckily, I was able to make it to the other side safely without slipping or falling in. On the other side however, I had another problem to deal with.
Goats.
I'd already dealt with a handful of annoyingly tough enemies before, so I entered the cave with utmost caution. The cave wasn't very dangerous, only appearing very big and intimidating. A few slugs tried attacking me, and some leaping onto me in an attempt to suck my blood, but simply by rolling around on the floor, I crushed them all and grossly peeled them off me.
"Eugh... how revolting," I grimaced, but I pressed on. Farther along, I saw a light on top of a high ledge that I could reach by climbing a rope that was conveniently left there just in case some teenage boy happened to wake up from a psychic calling and venture four miles down south back to his home which is a literal laboratory to use a device to travel to the origin of the calling. You know, just in case.
Several minutes of rope climbing later, (I must inform you, I'm not exactly in excellent shape. I mean, I'm not chubby, but I'm not exactly fit or strong for climbing, thus getting up the ledge proved to be quite a task) I reached the top of the ledge, taking a minute to catch my breath and check the bottoms of my shoes to see if they were worn down at all. They were not, fortunately. The light I saw from the bottom was a strange glowing star that was blocking a path. Curious, I went to inspect the path, but I received a slight jolt and was sent back. To make things even more weird, a voice came from the glowing star, which spoke:
"You may not face the Guardian of this Your Sanctuary... only the girl chosen by the prophecy may battle this Guardian and enter this Your Sanctuary location, if managed to defeat this menace and bring peace to the Your Sanctuary," the glowing light spoke.
"... I... don't know how to respond... I'm just gonna leave, okay?" I replied stupidly to the glowing light, which didn't respond. Awkwardly, I left the cave without another word.
Outside was the Stonehenge formation that I had gone to see so many times as a little kid. Back then, it was a peaceful shrine that led underground to a dome shaped statue, which was the shrine itself. The statue was metallic and had an E on it, maybe standing for "Energy" or something. My father-er, I mean, Dr. Andonuts always warned me not to go down there alone, but I couldn't help myself sometimes. Sometimes I snuck down and touched the statue, feeling the cold metal on my hands, but then Dr. Andonuts would catch me and discipline me once we returned to the lab. The discipline wasn't so bad to the point where he would use me as a test subject; he wasn't that cruel, but he did beat me. For some childish reason, I'd always forgive him, but as I got older, I stopped talking to him directly, stopped forgiving him, and turned to hate him for all the years of pain and suffering he brought me.
Reluctantly, I pushed open the door to the lab. My dad heard the door and turned around to face me, surprised and then mad.
"Jeffrey! What are you doing back here at this time of night? Did you walk four miles back home?" he scolded. I didn't wanna hear it. Nor did I bother telling him my reasons for coming back, otherwise he'd think I was ridiculous. Hell, even I began to question the credibility of this predicament. It made absolutely no sense, but despite the reasons for me to go being small and unreasonable, something was pushing me, some voice in the back of my head telling me to go. At this point, I didn't care what this "prophecy" was, I just wanted out of this place that I'd been stuck in all my life.
"Yes."
"What, are you mad? What asinine reason have you for leaving your boarding school, not just after curfew, but entirely? What are you going to do now? You're going to be in big trouble, young man! No, you are in big trouble, Jeffrey H. Andonuts! You're grounded for life!"
"Okay." I went up to my room, which was basically a prison cell. But now I was escaping from behind these bars, breaking out of jail and into the world for the first time. I had a contraption hidden in my closet, called the Sky Runner. I originally conceptualized it as a package delivering device, kind of like Amazon, but more energy efficient. But then I began researching U.F.O.s and some sightings near a town in Eagleland.
I got into the round spacecraft looking device behind a curtain and began to turn on the controls. As I fiddled with a complex computer system, a hatch opened up on the ceiling, making a loud noise all throughout the lab. The computer had fully started up the Sky Runner, but just then Andonuts barged into my room and began to run towards me. But before he could grab me, I closed the door to the Sky Runner, and it began to rise into the air and take off. I rose out of the hole in the roof, high above the laboratory and off into the midnight sky.
Through the moonlit clouds, I could see a city down below, a desert, an ocean with the moon's light reflecting off of it as I continued westward towards the location of the call. This was it, my destiny. I don't know how to describe it, but the feeling of longing was so overwhelming that I almost shed a tear.
Suddenly, the Sky Runner began to lose control and lose altitude. As I desperately tried to maneuver the crashing aircraft, I looked down below at what seemed to be a graveyard.
"It seems this aircraft will be my literal grave," I joked, even as I was about to die. Hey, if you're about to die, you should be able to joke about it. Granted, you like dark humor...
Night's P.O.V.
For what seemed like millenniums of waiting in the dark room, doing whatever I could to keep myself from getting bored, Paula and I began talking. She couldn't see me in the dark, but I could see her well.
"Paula," I whispered.
"Yes? I can't see you," she replied.
"I'm to your right." She reached for my hand blindly, until I had to put my hand on hers, causing her to jump.
"Oh, you scared me."
"Sorry."
"..." For a moment, there was an uncomfortable silence as we just sat there. Then I remembered that I was going to talk to her.
"I've had something I've been thinking about..."
"You don't know what you're doing with your life, right?" said Paula, reading my mind. I'd almost forgotten she could do that.
"Yeah... for the past 12 years of my life, I've only been attending school, and living life normally. Just another girl with a dream, right? Except, my dad started pressuring me to start thinking about my future when I was 12, a little early, don't ya think?
"Up until I was 8, my father and I shared an inseperable bond... I loved him more than anything in the world. Then when we moved to Onett, he started acting strange... he would work in the basement a lot and hardly come out. When we moved there, I was excited about having a basement, but Dad said I couldn't go into the basement. Then one day when I was playing around the house with Tracy, we snuck into the basement, and I heard Dad talking on the phone with someone. I don't know who it was, but he caught us and yelled at us for interrupting him, telling us to leave him alone when working.
"Then when he got a job at this big company in Fourside, he started growing more distant from me. I hardly get to see him anymore. But when I do, if I'm playing or something, all he has to say to me is, 'Night! You need to focus on bettering yourself for your future! No playing!' That's the most he ever yelled at me, but he was apparently fine with me for saving the world, since I'm apparently part of a prophecy or whatever. None of that makes any sense. None of that is cohesive! How does he go from, 'oh, you need to focus on life' to, 'oh, there's a prophecy you need to fulfill? Oh, go right ahead!'. I just..." I put my head in my folded arms and began crying softly. "I don't even know what to feel... I don't know if I should be annoyed or if I love him or hate him, I just don't know... I don't know anything! I don't know how we're gonna get out of here, I don't know how we're gonna defeat Giygas, I don't know what we're gonna do after all this is over! I don't KNOW!" At this point, I couldn't hide the fact that I was crying. But then Paula put her arms around me and rubbed my back. I don't think even she knew what I was thinking or feeling. It's not like Dad was abusive or anything, he just wasn't there. And when he was, it was always him telling me that I couldn't do anything else but work towards my future.
"What future do I even have...?" I sputtered out between tears. "Should I even... should I even exist? Why me? Why do I have to be a part of this stupid prophecy?"
"Shh... don't talk like that. It's not good to think like that, Night," whispered Paula.
I wiped a stream of tears from my face. "Paula, are we gonna get out of here? Am I gonna have a future ahead of me? What's gonna become of me?"
"Wait, wait. I'm not an oracle, but we'll get out of here, I can assure you. As for your thoughts... well, it's good to share your thoughts with me. It's not good to hold these thoughts in. That only leads to self-destruction. You'll be alright, Night." The soothingness of her voice made me calm down a bit.
"The thing is, after we defeat Giygas, we would go back to living our lives normally, right? Well the thing is, I..." I thought about it for a second, but Paula knew what I was going to say.
"You don't know if you can go back to living a normal life after all this, right?"
"Yeah, that's it. It's just... I feel like after experiencing all this, I won't be able to return to the life I led before. Now, even if it's only been a week or two, I love this feeling... this sense of adventure, if you would. It's like you play a game and get to the end, and you wish there was more, like you have a greater destiny to fulfill. You know what that's like?"
"Well, I've never played a video game, but I know what that feeling is like."
"Wait, you've never played video games? How come?"
"Well... you could say my childhood was sort of like that, except for the fact that I've lived in Twoson all my life, and I worked with kids at the daycare that my parents run. That's basically it. It wasn't stressul or anything, just... I just longed for something greater... but with my parents being as protective as they were, I never knew what it was I wanted. Only until you saved me from that crazy man in Happy Happy Village did I know what I really wanted most. Now that I think about it... I'm kind of glad we got captured again. I realize what I wanted more than anything was adventure. And I'm so glad I get to adventure with you, Night. And look! Just in time, our friend is here to make our adventure even greater!"
I looked around, but didn't hear or see anything. "What-" And then I was cut off by a large explosion in the ceiling as something large fell through, landing in the center of the room. Light from above lit up the inside of the room, even if it wasn't that bright outside, but our eyes (yes, even mine- actually, especially mine, dummy) became sensitive to light after being in the dark for so long.
"Oh no! Was that our friend? After a landing like that, wouldn't he be dead?" I gasped.
"Oh, don't worry. Just wait, Night." The pile of rubble surrounded a strange looking, banged up spaceship sort of thing. From the smoke that poured out of the spaceship, a door flung open and out stepped a blonde haired, bowl cut kid with glasses and freckles, wearing a ripped winter coat and a pair of torn pants underneath. I don't like bowl cuts...
"I'm alive... but crap... my clothes are all ruined... though somehow my glasses are still intact..." muttered the boy to himself. Then turning to notice us, he looked as if he'd just seen a monster. Realizing I possibly still had tears on my face and not wanting him to know, I stepped forward, annoyed.
"Huh...? Do I have someting on my face? Am I ugly? Huh?" I began to raise my voice, but saw that he was scared shitless. This rather amused me, but I was never known to be a bully, so I decided to just go easy on him. Sorta.
"Night!" Paula dragged me back by my shirt, then bent down to greet the shy boy.
"Hi, I'm Paula. Nice to meet you." She stuck out her hand and the boy jumped, crawling backwards a bit, but then bumping into the wreckage behind him.
"Guess he doesn't like you either. Hey, you got a problem with her? If you gotta problem with me, that's one thing, but if you think she's ugly, then you might wanna think about- ow!" Paula conked me on the head with her frying pan and dragged me back once again.
"Hey, it's okay. I won't hurt you. I don't know abut Night, but I won't," she said calmly.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
Paula ignored me. "I called you here. Thanks for coming to help us." The boy, still paralyzed with fear of both me and Paula, looked as if he'd seen the devil, and thus, didn't respond. "Um, hello...?"
"Ah...! Oh, I'm... uh, sorry..."
"Doesn't have much experience with girls now, does he?"
"Doesn't seem like it. He's almost afraid of them, from what I can read."
"Hey, kid. What's your name, huh?" He was still shy with fear, so he didn't respond. "Hey, I'm talkin' to ya! Gimme an answer- ow!" Again, Paula hit me over the head with her pan.
"Don't force answers out of him! Can't you see that he's shy? You said it yourself! He doesn't have much experience with girls! Hey, it's okay. You can come with us on our journey." The boy looked at me reluctantly.
"Huuuuh...? Got a problem with me? If you gotta problem, then- ow!" Once again, Paula's frying pan met my head, putting me out of action for the time being. Ow.
The boy hesitated for a second longer, but then opened his mouth and spoke.
"...my name is Jeff," he said in a weird voice.
This story ended here, I'm sorry about this. I don't plan on continuing this, but If you want an explanation, visit the final chapter of Beyond Legend. If you were following this story, I apologize for cutting it off. I'm not done with writing, I'm just on a long hiatus. I'll be back some day. Possibly to try writing a lemon or something. I'm not done with Fanfiction. More is on the way.
This is B33fy, signin' off.
Arrivederci.