Yah-dah yah-dah yah-dah, ButterHunter here, new chapter, blah blah blah, let's read already! ;D Oh, and hey, lines now!


Chapter 37: The Start of a New Dawn

Cameron POV…

And suddenly, it was time.

"Cameron…?" a voice said in my ear, a hand gently shaking my shoulder.

I slowly stirred, then managed to pry my eyes open. Diana was right there, Snowy next to her. Both of them looked in way better shape than me, though a little tired still.

"H… huh…?" I muttered sleepily. "Wh… what time is it…?"

"It's thirty minutes till dawn." Diana responded, glancing side to side nervously. "I have just enough time to get you both up to the surface before the sun arrives. Most of the other monsters should have retreated into caves at this point, to get away from the… the sun."

Slowly, I rubbed my eyes and sat up, stretching. "Al… alright, I'm ready. Let's do this before I fall asleep."

Snowy helped pull me up, which kinda helped me wake up, though only slightly. "So, how are we doing this?" I asked.

Diana shifted. "Umm… well… I, um, briefly talked this over with Snowy, and… as you two are still technically been held here, I… well, I can't just SHOW you how to get the the exit of the building. That'd cause a lot of headaches for everyone. So… in order to keep things safe, you… you both have to put these on."

Diana pulled out some cloth from seemingly nowhere. I was confused, until I suddenly noticed that the each pair of cloth was wrapped in a large loop. "Are you saying… we seriously have to wear blindfolds?"

"It's just until we get outside." Diana reassured, holding her hands out. "Once we exit, and I'm reasonably sure it's safe, I'll let you take them off. Just… please?"

I sighed, but I already knew that arguing was pointless at this juncture. I took the blindfold and put it on, with a little help from Diana. I assume Snowy did the same, if the light squeak that came from her when Diana tightened it a little too much was any indication.

"Okay… so, just… Cameron, take my hand, Snowy take his, and we'll be on our way." Diana explained, taking ahold of my hand. I flinched a little bit, but didn't react any further than that. I gently reached over to where I remember Snowy being and found her shoulder, taking her hand a moment later.

The trip to the surface was uneventful, save for me somehow almost running into two walls and an open door along the way. I tried to see if I could remember the path, but it became too complicated. Left, forward for a minute, right, right, left, up some stairs, left, right, … hell, I didn't even know if we were passing any other crossroads that may or may not have been there.

Finally, we heard a large metal door opening, a gate or something opening, another door, and…

I heard it first. The sounds of the outside world. Wind. Leaves. Rustling grass.

For a moment, I realized how much I missed this.

Then, I felt Diana tugging on my hand, so I had to keep moving. Several steps later, and…

"Okay, you can take them off now." Diana said, sounding even more nervous.

I took off the blindfold and was greeted with…

"W-wow…" Snowy murmured, her eyes widening.

"It's… beautiful." I added, speechless.

We were on a small hill, which had the most beautiful scenery you could imagine. Right in front of us, a large river ran into a huge lake, with trees and flowers blooming everywhere. But past that, a ginormous mountain range loomed in the distance, shaped so that there was a large hole in the middle of it, leading to who knows where.

"It's… amazing." I said breathlessly. "It's… like nobody has touched this place in hundreds of years. This is all… nature."

"Yeah." Diana agreed, looking out at the scenery herself. "We built our facility right under here, because even we like to see the beautiful things in life. We built it for that reason, and that even if we wanted to tear apart this land, then our place would be exposed for everyone to see."

"Every member of our facility as some point comes here to see the area." she added. "And… well, now you get to see it too."

"I…" Snowy started to speak. "I don't know what to say. I wish this kind of view was at home."

We were all quiet for some time. Then, I remember why we came out here. "O-oh yeah, uh… is that river the only water source close by here?"

Diana seemed to snap out of it as well. She remembered why we came out here. "Oh, um… yeah, just… be fast, okay?"

"Of course." I agreed, running for the river.

Thankfully, no monsters came out of the shadows to fight me. I guess Diana was right about them all leaving early in prep for the sun.

I reached the water's edge and quickly gathered as much as possible into the bucket I had on me.

"W… water…"

"Huh?" I called out, looking around. "Wait… Vivianna?"

"Water… life." Vivianna spoke softly in my mind.

I instantly splashed some water in my face from the river. Slowly, her voice became much clearer, and it helped wake me up in the process.

"Cameron… you're outside! You did it!" she praised.

"To an extent." I mumbled. I quickly told her everything about Diana and facing her fears. Vivianna didn't seem to like that.

"You… you have to head back as soon as this is over? But… you're outside! If you just…"

"Look, Vivianna, I want to grab Snowy and run away as fast as I can too, but… I can't. Diana and Silk… they need me." I told her.

"Wh-what?! Don't tell me you're becoming friendly with your own kidnappers?!" Vivianna shouted at me.

"Look, things are happening faster than I know how to deal with." I explained. "All I know for sure is that they need a job done, and the sooner I can get that job done for them, the sooner Snowy and I can leave one hundred percent peacefully. Besides, even if I did just start bolting, I have no idea where home even is. We could spend years trying to find out where it is."

Vivianna was quiet for a long time. Then, in a much calmer tone, she asked, "But… do you have a plan for that job?"

"At the moment? No." I answered honestly. "I'm kinda just riding the current at the moment. But the instant I know I can go without consequence, you better believe I will."

Slowly, I noticed the sky looked a shade lighter than before. Sunrise was approaching. "I'd better get going…" I murmured, hefting the bucket.

"*sigh*... for your sake I hope this goes well…" I heard Vivianna murmur.

"I'm sure everything will be fine Vivi." Aira quietly spoke up.

"..." Vivianna was quiet.

I soon found Snowy and Diana waiting. Well, I say that, but it seemed more like Diana was waiting ouf of anxiety and fear. Hardly can blame her, really.

"I… I'll be fine… I'll be fine… I'll be fine…" I heard her chanting to herself softly as I approached.

"You'll be fine, Diana. Master's back with the water." Snowy reassured, gesturing to me.

"First sign of fire, and I'll put you out." I added, setting the bucket on the ground next to me.

Diana sighed, and tried to psych herself up again. But the longer we sat there, the less confident she seemed to become. By the time the sun was about to rise, Diana was an inch away from wanting to give up and hide.

"I-it's fine… I-I'll be f-fine…" she stammered, seeing the moon start to slip beyond the horizon.

"Hmm… Diana, close your eyes for a second." I suddenly instructed.

"H-huh?"

"Just… just close your eyes." I repeated.

Slowly, curiosity of where I was going with this ebbing through her fear, she gently shut her eyes. "Now… deep breaths. Follow after me… in… out… in… out…"

Slowly, she followed with my deep breathing. The sun just barely peeked out over the horizon.

"Just relax…" I gently told her, getting down to her level, water at the ready. "Breath in… breath out. Breath in… breath out."

Slowly, her shoulders started to lose tension. The sun rose further.

"Wh… where are you going with-" Diana started to say, opening her eyes slowly.

"No no no… keep the eyes closed." I gently whispered. Slowly, she closed them. "Just keep listening to my voice… deep breath in… deep breath out."

The sun fully came past the horizon. This was the moment of truth. Skeletons and zombies would start burning at this moment.

I slowly repeated, "One more time… breath in… breath out… breath in…" as I keep a tight grip on the water.

A second passed. Then two. The seconds turned into a minute. Diana remained perfectly fine.

"Umm… C-Cameron?" Diana asked, starting to get nervous.

"Diana. Say hello to the morning sun." I introduced, a grin starting to form on my lips.

"H-huh?" she asked, opening her eyes. She looked over, and saw the sun steadily rising through the sky.

And realized she wasn't burning.

"I… I'm… I'm…" Diana slowly repeated, the shock at actually being okay hitting her hard. "I'm… okay… I'm not burning…"

She gently stood on her once shaky legs, me and Snowy following suit. Diana stared at the bright sun, to the point where I almost had to remind her that the sun could still burn her eyes.

"I… I don't have to worry…" she told herself, apparently disbelieving her own eyes. "I… I can stand the day…"

A light chuckle escaped her. "I… I'm free."

"Yes you are, Diana." I agreed. "Yes you are."

She looked over at me and Snowy. To say that her face held overwhelming joy would be the understatement of the year.

Faster than either of us could track, suddenly Diana's arms were wrapped around us. "Thank you… thank you… thank you."

She was visibly shaking. Clearly she was so scared by the thought of something bad happening. Now that she's certain she's okay… well, there's a lot more that she can look forward too.

I paused for only a moment, before fully hugging Diana. Snowy followed suit mere moments later. I gently chuckled as Diana snuggled deeper into the hug.

We stayed out there for… at least an hour more. By then the sun had risen fully, and it was the start of a brand new day.

But… all good things must come to an end.

Slowly, dread at the feeling of returning into the cold facility below made me feel… deeply sad.

As bad as I felt, Diana must have felt a hundred times worse. I could see it in her eyes. She wanted to stay out here in the warm glow of the sun forever.

Alas, even she knew we couldn't stay out here forever. So, me and Snowy reluctantly put our blindfolds on and made our way back into the facility.

It didn't take long after the fact that a familiar voice shouted out at us.

"Diana! What the hell?! Where and what were you doing?!" Silk yelled loudly.

"Umm… is it safe to take these off?" Snowy asked hesitantly, possibly pointing to her blindfold.

"Oh, yeah, go ahead…" Diana mumbled.

As we took the things off, I was greeted to a extremely pissed off Silk standing in front of us, her arms crossed and a foot tapping loudly on the smooth-stone floor.

"Well, um… you see, Silk…" Diana slowly started, her eyes closed. She seemed to be debating with herself about something.

Then she nodded gently to herself, opened her eyes confidently, and calmly stated, "I went outside and watched the sunrise."

It took a second for Silk to process what Diana just said. When it fully processed, Silk was… dumbfounded. She kept opening her mouth to say something, but all that came out was incomprehensible gibberish.

Finally, she shook her head and asked with a slightly shaky voice, "Y-you… you… s-stood… OUTSIDE?! With the sun out?!"

"Yep!" Snowy replied happily. "Me and Master were there for emotional support." I snickered at that.

Silk was at a complete loss for words. She kept looking like she wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

Diana had a light smile on her face. It seemed she rarely ever stumped Silk this hard, and she was secretly relishing the moment.

Finally, Silk paused, took a quick breath, and started talking again. "W-well… if you're there… then you're obviously okay… and immune to it…"

Diana just looked at her friend, that smile curling the edges of her lips. Snowy and I had similar looks.

Eventually, Silk managed to pull herself together. She regained her serious tone and informed us, "W-well, while you were all doing that, the spider group came back today. And they seem to have solid evidence this time."

That one sentence got the entire attention of everyone. "To the meeting room?" Diana asked.

"Where else?" Silk fired back, though jokingly.

It took a good five minutes to make it back, but to be fair we were all walking. Probably would've made it there sooner if we ran, but no one seemed like it.

Anyway, once we reached the meeting room, Silk instantly got down to business. "Here's the proof. We finally have SOLID proof that this is our crown.

Snowy, Diana, and I all looked at the small photo I took from Silk. The picture was perfect: no blurry edges, no imperfect focus. It showed a large stone brick wall, with a few windows along it. But the photo seemed focused on one particular window: the one in the very center. And in that window, I could very clearly make out what was an unmistakable crown of bones.

"I don't believe it…" I murmured… "It is there, huh?"

"I told you! I knew it was there!" Diana happily stated, even MORE giddy.

"Huh. So it is really there… and you both weren't joking." Snowy stated.

"Exactly. So now it's time to explain our master plan." Silk told us. Diana parted from me and Snowy and stood next to her friend.

"So now that we know the crown IS real, what's next?" I asked.

"The plan is simple." Diana replied. "One team of spiders will climb up the side of the wall, with some skeletons also on their backs as jockeys. Naturally, there are guards on top of the tower, but they regularly rotate around every hour on the hour, so it's safe to say we have at least five or so minutes while they get their stuff together. Even with that, that still isn't a lot of time. So, we came up with the next best thing."

Silk reached behind her and grabbed a bag that I didn't even know she had with her. Maybe she only just put it on?

In any case, the first thing she pulled out was a full set of iron armor, minus the helmet, which was leather, and an iron sword. "This is the armor we observed those guards carry, and their weapon. If we can sneak you in, Cameron, say the night before, and get you on duty at that area, we'd have a full hour to do our job." she told me.

"That's it?" I asked, curious. "I just have to get into there, sneak into working there for an hour, and nothing else?"

"Of course… there's the getaway." Diana mumbled gently. "Once we have the crown, we need to have a way to get you out. If you are posing as a guard, we can't just give them your name… nor can you just waltz out the door once we give the signal. You'll be expected to stay for the full hour, but…"

I suddenly remembered my spirit friends. Maybe, if there was water, or I concentrate hard enough…

"I'll deal with that when we come to it. Don't worry." I replied confidently. "So what's Snowy's role in this?"

"Easy. She's our last resort." Silk replied, a smile starting to form. "Say we have the crown, things are working okay… and then guards burst into the room. We're cornered, and one false movement might be the end of us. That's where she comes in. In addition to supporting us and doing what we say, she'll be our distraction if things go to shit. I mean, look at her. You can't NOT look into those eyes once they start watering."

Snowy seemed almost… proud at her ability to make others listen. Slowly, she turned to me, and I realized she had her Puppy Dog eyes. "Masterrrrr…" she slowly mumbled, holding my arm lovingly. "Can you pleeeeaaase hug me? I'm soooo cold…"

Needless to say, three seconds later and my arms were tightly wrapped around Snowy, holding her closely to me. Snowy was giggling softly behind my back. I cursed my weakness to her cuteness.

"Yeeep, that'll do it." Diana pointed out. "Hopefully it's strong enough to work on other people as well."

"Master… you're so warm…" Snowy cooed in my ear. "I love it… so much…"

I think she wanted to kiss me in that moment, but she couldn't with Diana and Silk RIGHT THERE. So she seemed a bit more content with whispering sweet-nothings into my ear.

"Alright you two. Break it up." Silk instructed. She might understand us and our relationship, but even she had a limit.

Slowly, Snowy pulled away, while still holding my left arm tightly. "So… I just have to act normal?" she asked sweetly.

"Just like that." Silk encouraged. "But only if things go bad, and odds are they won't. Probably. Hopefully."

"Big vote of confidence there…" I muttered softly. I'm pretty sure everyone heard it, though. "Then wait, what are you two doing in this? We still have a deal that you'll do this job with us instead of just us alone."

"Easy. We're the ones doing the heavy lifting." Diana replied. "We'll be with the spider climbing team, as will Snowy, and we'll get into the room with that crown."

"Then, while we're there, we'll break in though this window." Silk continued, pointing at the window with the crown in the picture. "Once there, we reach the case holding the crown and replace it with a convincing fake a team has assembled here. We open the cage the real crown is in, hopefully without breaking either, and swap crowns before anything can happen. Then we get out fast, and then we all get on with our lives."

"Why do I get the terrible feeling in my gut that something is gonna go wrong…" I commented softly.

"See, it's talk like that that doesn't really help…" Silk responded.

"Well, how the hell am I supposed to just fit in with all those other people? I mean, I can't just apply for guard duty there and expect everything to magically fall into place." I added.

Diana thought about that for a moment. Then… she snapped her fingers. "Or maybe… it can."

Everyone, Silk included, looked confused. "What do you mean?" Snowy asked.

"I've done nighttime recon missions a few times at that city." Diana remembered. "And unless my memory is failing, I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be many people that work guard duty. Maybe they use a sort of volunteer system, and if you can get in there, then that'll make our job a hell of a lot easier."

"That's if that's true, though." Silk countered, a bit skeptical herself.

I quickly realized that we keep going on about what MIGHT happen that's bad. Who knows, maybe this whole thing really will work out like they said.

"Regardless," I interrupted gently. "At least you seem to have a decent plan here. That I can work with."

Diana and Silk nodded at me. "Exactly."

"So… when does this plan happen?" I asked, realizing I no one had said when we would be going on the raid.

"I think we need a little bit more time." Diana replied, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "At worst, another three days, at best, day after tomorrow."

"Believe me, once this is over, we get the order to release you. Then we take you home, we head back, and we all live happily ever after." Silk told us.

'I somewhat don't believe that. What does she think this is, a story or something?' I found myself thinking.

(*insert trumpet irony sound effect*)

Regardless, I sighed and slumped my shoulders. "Well… that's a relief." I replied.

"Yeah… we'll finally get to see Mistress and Andr again…!" Snowy whispered to me.

Unfortunately, they heard that.

"Mistress and Andr?" Diana repeated, tilting her head. "Who's that?"

"Uhhh…" I stalled.

Silk was raising an eyebrow. "That can't mean anything good. What are you hiding?"

"Umm… well, ah… you see…" Snowy started, mumbling softly.

I sighed. "She means Susie and Andr. And they live with us back at our house. Susie's a slime and Andr's an enderman. Er, endergirl, I guess."

Snowy looked surprised at me. Her eyes asked me, 'Why are you-'

'Later.' I shot back.

Silk and Diana looked a little surprised themselves. "Woah woah woah, wait a minute…" Silk started. "I knew there were other people living with you, but… they're… a slime? And an enderman?"

"That… that means…" Diana slowly pieced together, her eyes widening.

"Yeah yeah, I more or less support human-monster peace. Is it really THAT big of a deal? Like come on." I complained. "SURELY you must have realized that there was SOME reason I didn't instantly try to hurt you the moment I could've?"

"We… we sort of just chalked it up to… well, the fact that you're stuck here, and… and that you didn't know anything about this building…" Diana replied softly.

"And that I was perfectly calm around Snowy…?" I pushed harder.

"...that, umm… we sort of agreed that wolves aren't as hostile around humans, so…" Silk added, her voice slowly getting weaker.

"AND the fact that I was flat-out kissing Snowy two nights ago, which should've been a least SOME sort of dead give-away?" I added on, blushing slightly. Snowy blushed harder, but she didn't say anything.

They had nothing for that one. They both seemed to be a tiny shade redder in the cheeks.

"So is it really that big of a surprise?" I asked honestly. "Or, for that matter, a big deal?"

Diana slowly seemed like she wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words. Silk just seemed at a loss of what to say in general.

"I honestly don't see what the big fuss is." I continued when no one said anything.

Eventually, Diana finally put the words in her head together. "I… I guess it's… not that big of a deal, but… we were just… surprised."

"Yeah… honestly, we've… never known many people like that." Silk tagged on. "Hell, I'm sure there are plenty of people in THIS place that feel uncomfortable around us."

"Yeah… and… the only encounters we've had with humans before this…" Diana continued, her voice becoming barely a whisper. "...didn't… turn out so good. Like, 'swords and bows pointing at your face' not good."

I sighed. "Well… enough of that. Let's focus back on the task at hand: getting that crown back."

Diana and Silk seemed to agree, though a little bit reluctantly. "R-right." Silk responded. "Well… I guess we just wait a little while then. Not much else we can really do. Everyone knows their roles, we have a plan… can't really do much else."

"I agree. Nothing we can do but wait a few more days." Diana agreed.

I suddenly let out a small yawn. "Sorry. Still a little tired." I apologized.

"I'll take you back to the bedroom so you can sleep." Diana offered. "We did get up a little early, didn't we?"

"I feel fine." Snowy replied.

"Well… wolves naturally are nighttime creatures." I offered. "At least from my understanding anyway."

Snowy seemed to agree with that. "Well… I guess I'll just stay here and read."

I yawned again. "Here. Plenty in here…" I mumbled, handing her my bag. I kept my tool belt on, however, just in case.

"Alright, come on." Diana coaxed, gently nudging me towards the exit. I followed without complain.

Nearly five minutes passed while we walked over to the bedroom. Once we got there, I slowly started to sit down on the cot I had been sleeping in before.

"Cameron… you should take my bed." Diana insisted, grabbing my shoulder.

"No… no I'm fine." I declined. "This is actually pretty comfy."

"But my bed will be comfier. Come on, please?" Diana insisted.

'That's the second time she's tried to give me her bed.' I remembered. 'Is she just trying to be nice, or…?'

I had to admit though, when I glanced back over to Diana's bed, it… looked very soft… and warm… and…

"Well… maybe just a little…" I mumbled, slowly climbing up from the cot to her bed.

Diana looked very happy. "I just want you to be comfy while you nap. Either me or Silk will come get you later, so if we aren't there when you wake up, just give us a minute, okay?"

I nodded, slowly curling up under the sheets. Her bed was really, really warm… the pillow was very relaxing…

I slowly felt Diana run her hand up the lump that was the side of my body, resting on my cheek. "Sweet dreams… Cameron." I heard her whisper, slowly starting to hum a little tone.

I slowly passed out, a small smile still visible on my face.

A few moments later…

I felt the normal feeling of returning to the dream world.

I opened my eyes, and…

"Cameron? Are you here?" a voice asked.

I slowly propped myself up from the ground and looked behind me. There, right behind me, was… Vivianna! She… she was back!

"V-Vivianna!" I called out, running over and almost tackling her into a hug. Thankfully, she caught me and held me close to her, running her slender fingers through my hair.

"Those pulls have started to stop." Vivianna told me once I pulled away. "I've mustered enough strength to fully manifest myself in this dream state."

"What about Aira?" I asked. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine. She's right there." Vivianna reassured me, pointing.

"Cameron!" Aira's voice called out to me. I turned from Vivianna to she her charging at me, arms open wide.

I caught her and hugged her tightly to me. "Aira… you're okay too…"

"Well, of course we are!" Aira happily exclaimed. "We're a lot tougher than you think!"

I pulled away from Aira and stared at the two spirits happily. "I've missed you guys so much…" I admitted. "I mean, I knew you were still in my head somewhere, but… I just couldn't help but be worried."

Vivianna and Aira couldn't hold themselves back. They quickly pulled me to them and sandwiched me between them, with Aira in front of me. I didn't have a moment to relax before she grabbed ahold of the back of my head and pulled it forward.

Our lips connected. I instantly accepted it. This… I missed this. Aira's soft, sweet lips. She smelled like flowers floating in the wind. Her small, petite body clung to mine like dandelion petals.

The moment she pulled away, blushing hard all the while, I felt myself getting turned around. Now I was facing Vivianna. The moment I collected my bearings, Vivianna clamped her arms tighter around me and deeply kissed me.

Her lips were just as soft, and warm. She tasted like fresh water. 'I missed this so much…' I mumbled in my head.

'We did too.' they responded, also in my mind.

For at least an hour, that's how we stayed. Just getting back together again, enjoying our company together.

Finally, I actually thought about doing something. But what to do? There's so many options…

Finally, an idea struck me. "Hey you two. How about we relax for a while? We've been seperated so long, let's just… relax."

They blinked, and when their eyes opened again, I had already changed the scenery. The area was now the edge of a bright, colorful forest, which bordered on a large lake, where we sat. I had more or less set up an entire picnic for us, just so that we could all relax together, and appreciate some together time.

Vivivanna and Aira smiled at me. "I'd like that." Vivianna agreed.

"I do too." Aira added.

The rest of the night was just us, eating food, playing water games, watching a sunset above the trees, building a campfire… it was the best. I never thought that food I made in my mind could taste so good.

Afterwards, towards the end of the night, I was leaning back against Vivianna, her back to a tree, letting her play with my hair while Aira rested her head against my stomach, looking like she just might fall asleep like that.

"Girls… this night was… so much fun." I told them, sinking further into Vivianna's embrace. "I really, really enjoyed tonight. I almost don't want to wake up again."

"We had fun too, Cameron." Vivianna whispered into my ear gently. "I really wish I didn't have to tell you something."

"You… have to tell me something?" I asked, slightly concerned.

"While we may have our forms back into the same plane of your mind…" Vivianna started, tugging at her loose dress collar. "We still don't have perfect control over water and air. You still can control them, it'll just take a lot of concentration."

"And please, don't start wanting to fly soon." Aira mumbled, seemingly down too. "I'm able to handle a lot, but my powers still feel… restricted."

I slowly got thinking. 'Why is this happening? This hasn't happened before, so there's really no connection I can make. The best I can figure is that someone in the S&S Corps is doing something to limit the powers, but then… who would know that I have these two in my head?'

I drew up a big fat blank at that question. The only person that I could think of was Snowy, but that… that was just plain ridiculous.

"Well… at least we can still be together like this." Vivianna offered, slowly relaxing her shoulders and resuming her soft hug on me.

"Yeah. I really like being like this. Just the three of us, in this peaceful place…" Aira commented offhandedly.

I half-expected something to change right as she said that. Thankfully, nothing did change. "Yeah… I really missed you both."

I couldn't help it anymore. I gently lifted Aira's head off my stomach and twisted around. Vivianna understood what I wanted, and held her arms out to accept me.

"Hey! I was resting there!" Aira indignantly yelled at me, right as my lips met Vivianna's.

'Sorry. I just really wanted to kiss her.' I told her in my mind. 'You're next, by the way.'

Aira's expression softened at that. "Mmm… I guess I can forgive you… but only this once." she offered.

'Fair enough.' I agreed, and resumed my kiss on Vivianna, savoring the bliss that followed suit.

I'd be surprised if we didn't stop kissing until five minutes passed. Vivianna held me so close to her, so tenderly, that I was almost afraid that she'd never let go.

Aira seemed impatient once I pulled away from Vivianna. "Can I have my turn now? I'm so boooooored."

I chuckled. "Patience is a virtue, and you should know that."

"Still, I want a kiss and I want it now!" Aira complained, pouting.

I chuckled again. "Alright, alright. Come here."

I pulled her to me and held her in place while kissing her. She reacted instantly by dropping her pouty act and instead pulling our bodies as close together as they could possibly be.

Another five minutes passed of me kissing Aira. I was in bliss and beyond. I pulled away from her and just… smiled at the two. I missed them so much…

Slowly, though, I knew I'd have to return back to the real world. I started feeling the sensation in my gut, telling me that it was time to get up.

So, I bid them goodbye for now. They seemed sad as well, but understood. Slowly, I felt my perception of the dream world fading, as I slowly returned to the real world.

The next day…

I slowly opened my eyes, staring at the ceiling. The covers were drawn over me, keeping me warm.

I slowly pushed them off of me and sat up. No one was in the room with me.

'Huh… guess I just wait until Silk or Diana shows up.' I thought.

Now that I had a chance to really look, the room Diana and Silk lived in wasn't that bad. Like I've said, it had two beds, a pair of nightstands, and two large wardrobes for their clothes. I'd imagine that Silk would have more in hers than Diana. At the foot of each bed, there was a small chest that seemed to have things in them. Various pictures and the like hung on the walls, more so on Diana's side. The floor lamp sat at the end of the room, between both beds. It was on, casting a warm light through the room.

I waited. A minute passed. Then two. Then five. I was quickly becoming impatient.

My eyes eventually rested on the chest at the foot of Diana's bed. I suddenly had a desire to snoop around and find whatever was in it.

'But that's wrong.' I told myself. 'I'm not a snooper.'

'Just do it. You don't have anything better to do.' another voice in my mind argued. 'And plus, they wouldn't just leave them there with no protection if they didn't trust you. They wouldn't keep embarrassing things in there if you came in here.'

I bickered back and forth with myself, but eventually my curiosity got the better of me. Quietly, I moved to the end of Diana's bed and carefully opened her chest, as to not let it squeak.

Inside were a bunch of arrows, a few spare bows, a quiver, and an assortment of other knick knacks I would assume Diana had collected over time.

One thing in particular stood out to me. At the very bottom of the chest, there was a small little box. When I opened it, it was revealed to be filled with a stack of iron, half a stack of gold, and ten polished diamonds. My eyes widened at her small treasure trove, but I didn't dare take any. If Diana was anything like me, she kept tabs on that stuff just to make sure no one took anything off of her.

I carefully put everything back in the chest exactly as I found it and closed the lid, sighing. 'Well… that's Diana's stuff. Not anything super bad in there, just that resource box.'

My eyes gently drifted over to Silk's chest. I wanted to search that one SO bad… but Silk would go off the deep end if she knew. Diana at least I knew I could maybe reason a little more with. Silk… she's unpredictable.

Curiosity still got the better of me in the end. I quietly looked out the door, looking down the hallway both ways. No one in sight.

I closed the door and, just to be sure, I propped a nearby chair under the handle to help keep it closed.

I went over to Silk's chest. I noticed that it seemed to be slightly better in condition. I pulled open the lid without remembering to do it slow, but it didn't even squeak. 'Either she doesn't use this thing a lot, or she takes really good care of it.' I thought.

There wasn't nearly as much stuff in her chest as Diana's had. Some assorted books, a few spare pieces of string, a small jar of sugar… I was nearly done looking when I took another look at the book stack inside.

The one on the top caught my eye. It had a pinkish-purple ribbon marking one page, and there was a pen right on top of that. There was no title on it, unlike the other books in the stack.. I slowly started to think: 'Is… that her diary?'

I was a little surprised. Silk didn't seem like the diary type. 'Maybe she wrote it a long time ago?' I asked myself. I slowly grabbed it and the pen, and took it out of the chest.

Glancing back out the door once more, and seeing no one coming either way, I reclosed the door and sat down on Diana's bed.

I flipped open the book. The first page was blank save for Silk's name, printed neatly on the center.

Growing more curious, I flipped the page.

The top of the page read, 'January 20th.'

Slowly, I started to read.

'It's been almost a year now since I ran away. I don't regret it in the slightest. Those people over there hated me. I did all of us a service by running away.'

'I don't want to admit it, but I miss home. I had a friend there… someone I really miss. She'll always have a place in my heart, but it's too late to turn back now.'

'For now, I'll rest here. The cave I'm in is dark, damp, and cold. It'll work until the snow storm passes. Then, I'm off.'

The next page jumped ahead a month. 'February 22nd.'

'I… I'm not sure where to start.'

'I… I found people.'

'A faction of people. They call themselves 'The S&S Corps.''

'It's a group of skeletons and spiders that work together. They want to have ALL spiders and skeletons work together.'

'And… the best part?'

'There's one skeleton here. Diana, I think her name is.'

'She's… she so nice to me. She… she understands what I've been through. She knows firsthand what I've had to deal with.'

'I… I think I cried through most of today. I'm not sure. I'm… I'm just so happy…'

I kept flipping through the pages. Each one seemed to focus on a specific point in time, and almost exclusively a powerful emotion Silk had felt.

It seemed to me after a moment that those were entries from last year. I eventually got to another page that was labeled, 'January 4th.'

'It's been almost a year since I became a part of the S&S. I… I feel so at home here. I can hardly believe it's been so long.'

'Recently, we've gotten word of a crown that once belonged to a very influential skeleton king in spider/skeleton coexistence. Diana and I have begun to start digging for any more information regarding that.'

'I'm honestly a little doubtful, but Diana seems very enthusiastic. She's heard many stories about those times, and the growth and prosperity they produced. I don't really share that point of view, but I'll play along for now.'

'The only lead we have at the moment is that the crown was lost years ago, when someone, we aren't sure who, killed the skeleton king and took the crown. They were never seen afterwards, at least not by our records. The only thing we have to go on is that the culprit was wearing human clothes, but that could literally mean anything.'

'We have a lot of work ahead of us.'

I was about to read further, when suddenly, someone cleared their throat front the doorway.

My blood froze. I slowly turned to see… Silk. Standing in the doorway. In a start, I realized when I checked out into the hallway the second time, I forgot to replace the chair in the door.

Her face was neutral. She was looking from the open chest at the foot of her bed, to the book in my hands. My face was rapidly paling. If I didn't start talking, I was in serious trouble.

"S-S-Silk, um, this i-isn't what you think…!" I started gently, closing her diary. "I, uh, was just curious about this, and…! And…!"

Silk's face forced me to shut up. It wasn't angry. It wasn't surprised.

It was just neutral. Frankly, that was more terrifying than her being mad.

Slowly, she came over to me and grabbed the diary. I didn't even try to resist. She took the book, closed her chest and placed it on top, still not saying anything.

Then she speaks up.

"How far?"

I was slightly confused, and honestly a little scared. "H-huh?"

"How far did you make it in?" she asked again.

I slowly started thinking up many lies to tell, each one worse than the last. I knew lying to wouldn't get me anywhere.

"A-about… January of this year… I think it was." I answered, shaking badly.

Silk seemed to relax. "*sigh* Good… you didn't read the next entry."

I sat there, waiting for her to start yelling at me. Surely she was going to any second now, right?

Slowly, she walked around and stood right in front of me. There was a million things running through my head, most of them not good.

She raises her hand, as though to slap me. I close my eyes and brace myself…

And then she clamps down on my shoulders.

It took me a moment, but I eventually opened my eyes. Silk's expression… it was much softer. And… her eyes seemed… forgiving.

"I… I should be really, REALLY angry at you." Silk told me, with a surprising amount of softness in her voice. "And… in some ways, I am. But… I… I feel… I feel oddly glad. In honesty… I was going to tell you those things once you woke up. But… now, you already know."

Silk… was she about to cry? Her eyes looked rather shiny.

"It… it was a hard life for me at first." Silk explained, sitting down next to me, her head bowed. "I… I never truly 'fit in' with anyone. All those people didn't really like me because of what I looked like. I only had one person, and… she didn't like living there either. So she ran away. I think that's what made me run too."

Silk seemed to be tearing up. "It… it was hard. I… I left everything behind. I was glad for it, and I don't regret the choice, but… those days after the fact were some of the toughest of my life."

"And… and then I found this place." Silk continued, looking up at me, almost… starry-eyed. "These people, these… these friends, they welcomed me. Sure, I looked different, but… they knew what I was at heart. They accepted me for it. And to this day, they still do, even if it's a little… shaky, to put it gently."

Silk… she was really going on about this. She… she had her whole life changed thanks to this group. I… I could hardly imagine what that must've felt like.

Then I remembered. I did. I met Susie nearly a year ago. Look at me then versus me now. Before, I was on the run, constantly worried about a random Creeper finding me. Now… I had a home. A family. A part of me was back.

In that moment, I slowly started remembering all the good times I've shared with my friends. All the happy times. All the stressful times. All the goofy times. All of them.

And I don't regret any of them. Sure, it may have came out of a bad beginning…

But there's always going to be a happy ending somewhere down the road, right?

So… I started tearing up. I… I couldn't help it. Her story had sparked a light inside of me. It reminded me of everything.

Silk tried to keep it together, but couldn't. Slowly, I saw tears start to slowly trailing down her cheeks. She slowly started mumbling to herself, things about… I don't even know what.

Of course, in that moment, I couldn't just sit there and let the poor girl cry her eyes out. So, I carefully wrapped my arms around her.

Silk squirmed for a moment, but eventually she accepted it. I could hear her heart beating softly against my chest. She slowly lost all control, and started to gently sob into my shoulder.

I held her tenderly in my arms. I had tears forming, but none fell. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. But… at least I was comforting Silk. That was something I knew was good.

Eventually, she stopped crying, simply sniffling every now and then. But… she didn't try to pull away. She only sat there, letting me hug her.

As much as I hated to do it, I had to be the one to pull away. Slowly, I did so, and Silk… she tried to hide it, but she looked very upset. I gently placed my hand on her shoulder and asked, "Feel any better?" I asked.

Silk nodded. "Good." I praised. "You look much better without the tears in your eyes."

I… I couldn't help but notice something. Silk's cheeks… did they become a very fine shade redder? Was it just my imagination? I couldn't tell.

"*sniff* Guh… thank you… Cameron…" Silk slowly thanked, her eyes still a puffy red. "I… I didn't want to cry… but… it just came out."

In response, I gently rubbed her shoulder, saying, "I know. But it's good that you cried. It isn't healthy to keep all that in."

Silk seemed to like my touch. Her eyes were closed, and she pulled something out of her pocket. It was a simple wad of string, nothing too special.

I slowly stopped rubbing her shoulder. She slowly looked down at her hands and started messing around with the string, letting it wrap around her fingers. I watched her very curiously as she slowly started weaving the string around.

In a moment, the string had slowly formed into what might eventually become a bracelet. "Wow, that's pretty neat." I commented.

Silk looked back up at me, as if she had forgotten that I was there. "Oh… right. Yeah, I, umm… I sometimes make things out of this. Small things, really. Like this."

She held up the incomplete bracelet. "I just… it's just a hobby of mine."

"I think it's pretty neat." I praised.

Silk blushed. "Th-thank you…" she mumbled, looking away. Then, she must've remembered that she was here to get me. "O-oh! Right! I-I have to take you back… Snowy's becoming very anxious without you."

I quickly stood up and popped my back. "Well, let's get going then."

Slowly, we filed out the bedroom. If I had been paying closer attention to Silk, I would've noticed that she had taken her diary with her.

I also would've noticed that she seemed to be paying a little bit of a close eye on me. Staring closely at me.

But I never noticed any of that. All I was thinking about was…

'I finally got through with Silk.'

This was the start of something big. I could already tell.

Almost like…

Like a new dawn.

All that remained was to see where it takes me.


And there we go!

So, quick heads up, I… I might have a SLIGHT problem.

I'm not gonna get too far into it, but let's just say… something changed, and now I've gotta readapt.

Don't worry, it's not something big or anything, it's just… something that really annoys me.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! It took me a little bit to get it to work like I wanted, but I hope that you all enjoyed it.

As always, if you guys want to play MC with me, PM me with your In-game username, what server, and when. And don't forget about my personal survival server!

Until next time guys, stay awesome. Bye! =D