CHAPTER TWO: THE ORDER HALL
We concluded the tour with the library and bookstore then we headed back to the same restaurant we had breakfast at. I still didn't get away with paying for my food because Lukas covered the entire bill this time. What I did manage to do was buy an ice-cream cake that we're going to share with The Order.
"So Hollie, how old are you?" Lukas asks as we make our way to the Order Hall.
"Seventeen." I answer honestly and Jesse turns to me with wide eyes.
"And you've been on this adventure alone for ten months?" Jesse asks. Though I think the question is rhetorical.
"Ten months?" Lukas asks and he looks to me for confirmation. I nod in answer, studying Lukas face. "That's pretty brave! We were about your age when we started on our adventures but the only one who ever went on adventures alone was Petra, and she was doing that before we all became friends. She was even going to the nether on her own." Lukas explains.
"Wow! That's incredible. I've been to the nether but I was accompanied by my parents who were familiar with the part of the nether we went to." I reply, impressed by Petra.
"Your parents are familiar with a section of the nether?" Lukas is surprised and intrigued. I nod enthusiastically.
"Yes my parents are Marylynn and Ryor Kensa, the famous adventurers."
"No wonder you decided to take this adventure alone! Adventuring runs in your blood and must I say your dad's books are amazing and so, so helpful!" Lukas compliments and I smile.
"Thanks! I'll be sure to tell him!" I reply happily. Thoughts and memories of home take over my thoughts and bring my mood down but I push them down and force a happy mask back onto my face.
"I'm surprised they let you go alone, not because of your age, but because they seem like they'd love to go on an adventure with their daughter." Jesse's voice has a hint of suspicion, he could be starting to suspect I've been lying to him and Lukas this entire time. Thankfully I have an honest answer for this.
"Oh, technically my adventure started a year ago, the first month my parents went with me but my mom was kinda super pregnant with twins so she and dad had to return home. Actually, the twins have probably been born now and are about 9 months old." I answer and both boys look at me in surprise. "Yeah, I didn't return home to meet my siblings because I was in the end for two months and by the time I left the end I had agreed to help someone reunite with their family. After that I kind of just wanted to continue on my adventure." I know I probably sound selfish right now, but I will paint myself in whatever light to keep the truth to myself.
"What about letters?" Jesse asks me. Now I know he suspects that I'm lying.
"Jesse, we never sent letters back to anyone when we were on adventures, leave her alone. Besides, we're at the Order Hall." Lukas interjects as he goes up to the door and opens it for me. "Lovely Ladies first." He states and I smile and head inside.
The boys are behind me as I continue down the corridor to the main room. Entering the main room five pairs of eyes turn to us.
"Hollie, welcome to The Order Hall, the girl to your left is Olivia Castor, beside her is Axel Lewis, and at the end of the table is Petra Nickson. Next to her is Radar Belvue and beside him is Ivor Wenders." Jesse heads over to the table and sits between Radar and Ivor. "Everyone, this is Hollie Kensa."
I wave happily and get a few curious glances. "You don't happen to be related to Ryor Kensa do you?" Ivor asks me and I grin.
"That's my dad." I confirm proudly.
"Wonderful! Is your mother Marylynn Stright?"
"Yeah! My parents got married a few months before I was born, they also have twins now!" I explain happily. "Did you know my parents, Ivor?"
"Indeed I did! I knew there was something between them! I'm glad they settled down! Where is your family living now?" Ivor asks while gesturing to a chair for me to sit down.
"Cove City, mom is actually the mayor of Cove City." I answer, taking the chair happily. Lukas sits down beside me.
"That's wonderful but what are you doing here so far from home?" Ivor's concern is greatly appreciated and warms my heart. Though, my parents never spoke of him to me, but just add that to the list of things they kept from me.
"Following in my parents footsteps, going on my own adventure!" I don't try to hide the pride in my voice. Despite the reason I'm so far from home, I'm proud of myself for making it this far.
"She's been on the road for ten months alone." Jesse states but he sounds angry, almost. Ivor's eyes widen and he turns to me.
"I'm surprised your parents haven't come looking for you or at least sent someone to find you." Ivor states and I see Jesse's expression change from anger to disbelief.
"I'm pretty sure it's because they know that I'm capable of looking after myself, they're probably confident in their parenting skills and how they raised their daughter." I respond firmly, staring right at Jesse who now looks guilty.
I mean, he's not wrong, I have been lying but I'm not wrong either. My parents taught me how to fight, they taught me survival skills, they taught me how to read people. They did all of this because they expected me to one day leave home to go on my own adventure. Though with what I found out I suspect they had another reason as well.
"I'm sure they taught you everything they know, now I see you brought cake! Let's cut it and then get to know our new friend!" Ivor exclaims joyously.
"Yeah, let's dig in!" Petra agrees. "I'll go get a knife!" She hurries off to, I'm assuming, a kitchen.
"So how long will you be in Beacon Town, Hollie?" Olivia asks, sitting forward and leaning on the table.
"Oh, not long. I'm leaving tonight after I'm done here." I answer sheepishly.
"Would you like some company for the remainder of your adventure?" Petra asks as she comes back into the room.
"Actually Jesse offered this morning and I told him I wanted to meet the rest of you first but I've been thinking about it for the past couple of hours and I really would like to continue this adventure on my own." I answer calmly but I can't bring myself to meet anyone's eyes.
"That's fair, I've been going on solo adventures a lot lately and they're quite fun." Petra replies as she starts cutting the cake. "Maybe on your way back we can accompany you on your way home?" Petra suggests.
"Maybe!" I force an enthusiastic tone. In reality I'm not sure if I will be returning home after completing this adventure. "I'm sure my parents and friends back home would love to meet you all! After all, my city holds an adventure con each year to honor my parents and all of you!" I inform them, genuinely excited when I think about adventure con.
"That sounds awesome!" Axel states in awe.
"It is! Each year there's a contest to see who has the most exciting adventure, actually it should be going on right about now!" Adventure con is my favorite time of year. "Adventure Con has become like a festival back home, the entire city starts decorating and preparing for it two months before it because a month before it the city seems pretty empty because of people going on their own adventures!" I explain, happy memories rushing forward. "One rule for the contest is that former winners aren't allowed to enter for two years after winning, unless they're part of a partnership or group that hasn't won before."
"That's a fair rule. I bet next year after you've returned home you're going to have the most exciting adventure!" Axel tells me and I laugh awkwardly.
"I don't think so, I haven't really done anything exciting during this adventure." I argue softly.
"Are you kidding me?! You've travelled all the way from Cove City, which is a month away from here, but you've been on this adventure for ten months. How have you not done anything exciting?!" Olivia asks in disbelief.
"Tell us what you've done so far, Hollie." Jesse encourages but I'm sure he has ulterior motives.
"Well before I left home I discovered an illegal animal encampment and saved the animals, returning them to the jungle biome they came from. After that I found a dragon egg and I returned it to the end and made friends with the egg's parents. After that I returned home and gathered my things and got Saorie and Fuzz-Buzz ready to set out on our adventure." I stop and turn to my animal friends. "Oh yeah, this is Saorie and Fuzz-Buzz." I introduce them to the group.
Fuzz buzzes happily in greeting and Saorie squeaks in greeting then he jumps down from my head and crawls over to Lukas and nudges his hand. Lukas smiles and seems to happily give Saorie head pats.
"You're both so cute!" Radar coos and Fuzz-Buzz holds himself proudly. I grin and roll my eyes. Saorie just squeaks then returns his attention to Lukas. He really likes Lukas...he hasn't taken to a stranger quite like he's taken to Lukas. Hell, he hasn't even taken to mom and dad in such a way.
"What was the first thing you did after you left home?" Ivor asks as he passes out pieces of the cake.
"I found an abandoned mansion that had thousands of potions and books. I found some journals that belonged to the previous owner. Apparently it was a generational home and there were a total of five generations living in the house. The family name was Litwell, I still haven't found out what happened to the family because there were supposedly children as young as 3 years living in the home. The family seems to have just disappeared. I'm still investigating it because it's intriguing." I answer then start eating my cake.
"I may have a lead for you, I have some books written by a Chloe Litwell. The content of the books are strange and I can't make heads or tails of it." Ivor tells me as he sits back down with his own piece of cake.
"That would be incredible, Ivor! Thank-you!" The idea of getting further along in that particular investigation is exciting! "Back to my story, after the mansion I travelled to the end and spent two months in the end. I met a boy who had gotten lost in the end and also ran into my dragon friends, the egg had hatched and let me say baby ender dragons are freaking adorable."
"Aren't Ender dragons aggressive towards humans?" Radar asks.
"Not all of them, most Ender dragons want to keep to themselves but they will start a friendship with a human if that human is worthy of it. Ender dragons have the ability to look into the soul of other beings and determine their true intentions. The Ender dragons that are aggressive towards humans are usually dragons that didn't hatch naturally or were abused by humans as hatchlings or abandoned by their parents or they're power hungry or a mixture of all of that." I answer then a story comes to mind that Praxia, the mother dragon, told me. "Actually, legend has it that humans and Ender dragons used to live together in peace and they had a partnership. There was a group called the Dragon Kinship, they were humans who rode on Ender Dragons and had a super deep bond with them but there was a human who wanted to control dragons and humans alike, he called himself The Over Lord and he and his followers threw the world into chaos. The Dragon Kinship was able to defeat him but after that they disappeared. No one knows what happened to them but some people and dragons theorize that the Endermen are descendants of those humans but have been corrupted by the atmosphere of the end."
"That's a really interesting story, it would be so cool to find out the truth one day." Olivia seems to be in awe of that idea.
"I agree! Now, backing up to my story, my dragon friends helped the boy and I get out of the end and I helped the boy reunite with his family, who had been kidnapped by pillagers. We took out the pillagers and got them arrested, then the family let me stay with them for a couple nights and I continued on my way. The last thing I did before running into Jesse was help a sea captain explore an ocean monument and get a trident from a drowned." I finish my story but I left out a bunch of things that happened, like the fact I've almost been killed several times by people from my parents' past. I left out the parts about discovering lies my parents have told me over the years or things they just flat out refused to tell me. I left out the part that I'm still being followed by those people.
"Those are incredible events! Axel is right, you're totally going to win the next adventure contest when you return home." Olivia tells me happily.
"Thanks Olivia, to be honest though I don't know when I'll return home. I don't even know when my adventure will end." I'm being completely honest here. The words I don't say though is that I doubt my adventure will end with me still breathing.
"Do you have any treasures from your adventures?" Petra asks and I shake my head, because my mouth is full of cake. Once I swallow I explain why.
"I don't have room in my inventory to carry a bunch of treasures and most of the treasures I get I helped another person get. It wouldn't feel right to me to take any treasures. I did buy a violin and a few books from the shops here and I also have my journal that I recount my adventure in."
"The memories held in a journal are just as good a treasure as any." Lukas says softly. I turn to him and he's smiling. The butterflies are once again going wild in my tummy. His smile is so warm and makes me feel so safe. I can't indulge this though, it's not safe to do that.
"Yeah, I agree." I smile back at him and a moment later I get a head pat. I'm shocked for a moment then I smile in content. I like that, I never received head pats before but I like how they made me feel.
I spent five hours with The Order, getting to know all of them a little bit more. Part of me regrets it because I feel even more guilty for lying to them and keeping the truth from them… Especially Lukas and Jesse.
I left the Order Hall on my own after saying goodbye to everyone and I came back here to the inn. I'm packing up some provisions aunty got me while Fuzz-Buzz is buzzing in my ear and Saorie is sulking on the pillow.
Fuzz-Buzz is trying to convince me to go back to the Order Hall and tell everyone the truth and accept their help. Saorie is sulking because he didn't want to say goodbye to Lukas. Technically Saorie is still a baby, he hatched only three months before we set out on this adventure. Fuzz-Buzz is six years old and has been with me since the day he was born.
"Fuzz!" I snap and he freezes. I sigh, pushing my fingers through my hair. "I'm sorry for snapping, that was uncalled for, but we've been over this." I pause, and idea coming to mind. "I can't bring anyone else along on this adventure, I can't get them involved in this mess. If you want, you and Saorie can stay here with Aunty Lynna or go stay with the order." I shove a pillow into my bag, since my inventory is full now. "If you do stay, under no circumstances will you tell the Order or aunty what's actually going on." I turn to Fuzz-Buzz and meet his eyes. "That goes for both of you."
"Buzz!" Fuzz argues. That was a hard no. "Bzz, buzz, bzzz."
"Alright you're staying with me." I turn to Saorie. "And you Say?" I ask him and he climbs up onto my arm then up onto my head. "Alright then, I'm all packed up, let's go."
I head out of the room and down stairs. I put the key on the counter and I take a few letters out of my pocket. One is addressed to my parents and the other ones are addressed to my siblings for when they're older. There is one for the Order, thanking them for meeting with me and explaining why I lied and that I'm sorry we won't be meeting again. Like I said, I don't expect to end this adventure still breathing.
Aunty will be out for an hour and I should be long gone by then and hopefully no one will come after me. I hesitate, debating on not leaving the letter for the order but I shake myself out of the doubt and leave the inn.
I make my way through town as quickly as possible. You felt like you finally belonged somewhere and you're throwing it away? For what? To go die for your parents' sins? I push the voice down and bury it deep down. Those sins aren't just theirs anymore, besides I made my own mess that I need to clean up.
I stop for a moment and turn to look at the now closed restaurant. Stay, Hollie, you'll be safe here. The voice in my head reasons again and tears spring into my eyes. You've met the people you look up to, there's a boy who makes you feel things you haven't ever felt before. You owe it to yourself to see where those feelings go.
"I can't." I whisper to myself, my voice choked with the tears that slide down my cheeks.
Turning away from the restaurant I start heading back to the gate. A hand goes over my mouth and around my waist. I panic and Fuzz-Buzz does too. Saorie jumps off my head and tries to bite whoever is dragging me back. Saorie bites his hand and he lets go. I scream as loud as I can then draw my sword and turn around. As I turn to face my attacker I get hit with a splash potion.
My movement is sluggish. Damn it, a potion of slowness. I hear voices shouting but then pain in my abdomen. The potion wears off and I look down in time to see a sword being pulled out of my abdomen. The blood pours out of the wound and I want to throw up. I don't get a chance because my attacker hits me on the back of the head and before I pass out I feel myself getting dragged out of the street.