The early morning rays filtered through the windows of a certain village home smacking Shroud in the face. Shroud grumbled a bit at the light shining in his eyes, but he rose from his bed anyway, knowing full well that the earlier he left today the quicker he would arrive in Rhagall.
Days before, the Librarian had given Shroud a map containing quite a few towns and depicting the landscape. Today was the day to leave since the Priest FINALLY gave him the okay to walk long distances. She even told a bit more about the map...
"This map that the Librarian gave you is fairly old, but it is also very unique as it is the one of very first prototypes for current maps and it shows 24,000 X 24,000 of land. reaching Rhagall alone will take four days of walking if you rest at night." The Priest explained to Shroud simply. "Which i recommend so your leg doesn't decide to act up on you again." Shroud shook his head in amusement at that since that was all that she seemed to worry about; people's health and nothing else.
Shroud stopped thinking about that and started taking a quick inventory check at what he had. The Villagers were quite generous and had given him more food for the journey ahead; this included 6 loafs of bread, 4 apples, and 3 pork-chops. The Blacksmith even gave him some spare iron ingots to fix Old Faithful with in case it neared breaking point and even show how to repair said sword. And of course, the old map whose surface depicted the land in faded colors and various shades of brown and black along with the spruce wood he obtain days earlier.
As Shroud finished up his quick check he felt jlott's confusion before looking up curiously.
"Umm... Where is the Blacksmith and his kids?" jlott told Shroud and he found that the player was right as the house held no other person besides Shroud. Dreading the worst, Shroud cautiously walked over to the door and opened it quietly only to see the three missing villagers right outside the door.
Shroud barely had timed to react as Smith and Pri tackled him with hugs and cheering.
"I'm NOT okay with this!" Shroud growled loudly in his mind as he tried to gently nudge the two villager kids off his waist. Luckily for him, the two let go after a few seconds and then the two spilled out words that came to their mind.
"Bye Mister Shroud! I hope you find your friend soon!" Pri loudly squeaked to Shroud with eyes slightly water-y looking. Shroud noticed at this point that Pri now had a small hood on which was the same dull pink as the rest of her outfit.
"And once your done adventuring, come back to visit us and tell about your adventures!" Smith excitedly said with a childish grin to his face. Shroud couldn't help but like these enthusiastic villagers and flashed them a smile.
"I'll try my best and Smith... I hope to hear some of yours too." No sooner then he said these words when he received more hugs from the two villagers. Shroud flinched and cast a look at their father. The Blacksmith made a face that looked like he was holding back a laugh.
"Come on you two, Shroud has to get moving now." The Blacksmith said before two collective sad 'awwwws' were heard from Smith and Pri before letting go of Shroud and waving good-bye to him.
Shroud waved back and began walking away towards the direction of Rhagall. For a while, the two young villagers voices could be heard as they kept saying various good-byes until Shroud was too far away to hear them.
His first day traveling was uneventful with nothing but the plains stretched out before his eyes. All he saw was various animals such as chickens wandering about before the darkness of night began to fall rapidly.
He found a hill and dug into it quickly with his clawed hands before hitting stone and realizing he didn't have a pickaxe on him having given back the stone one to Aodh. However, jlott kindly taught him how to make a pickaxe from the spruce wood he had as well as a crafting table.
Soon he dug out a more spacious temporary home. Despite being dark in the room, Shroud relaxed and fell asleep on the dirt and stone floor. The next day, he ate before picking up his crafting table and leaving behind his make-shift home. The second day of his travels however proved to be more interesting.
Shroud was walking in between two small hills when the sun was highest in the sky. He munched on some of the bread of his when he heard loud screaming. Instantly alert, Shroud pulled out Old Faithful just before he saw a person sprint past him. Shroud eyes followed the minecraftian and noticed he looked terrified and badly injured. Shroud was about to shout to the person when an arrow whizzed by and hit the back of the person running.
Stunned, Shroud saw the man fell to his knees and become life-less. Still, he quickly hid himself under the hill and waited for whatever killed the man. He didn't wait long as three other minecraftians briskly walked down the hill and to the dead man.
The people Shroud saw looked a bit strange to him as they wore the same uniform; Diamond armor, stone swords that gleamed unnaturally, and the skulls of wither skeletons covering their faces. The three laughed and looted the poor, dead man and said words that Shroud couldn't hear. Once their were done, they left in, thankfully, the opposite direction to where Shroud hid.
Peeking out and scanning his surroundings thoroughly, Shroud stepped out of his hiding spot and walked over to the dead man who still laid face-down on the grass.
Shroud, however, shook the man to see if he really was dead only to confirmed his dreaded suspicions. The man was dead no doubt about it. Shroud then noticed a worn book that poked out of the man's pocket and picked it up. Curious, Shroud stuffed the book in his own pocket before making a small grave for the man and gently placing the cold body into said grave.
He didn't know how to mark the grave or even who this person was and so place two cobblestone in place of the dirt on top of the grave before heading off in the direction of Rhagall again. All throughout the rest of the day, Shroud remained alert hoping to not run into the same group of minecraftians who cold-heartedly killed the nameless man.
That night he made another make-shift home before pulling out the book he got from the dead man. As he opened it, however, Shroud realized he could not read the writing on the pages as he had forgotten how to whilst in the Nether. Frustrated, Shroud attempted to try reading the words anyway, praying that something would click in the back of his mind.
He huffed after a few moments as the words remained meaningless to him. Reading was a lot harder for him to pick up again unlike speaking. Luckily for Shroud, jlott had begun reading the words out loud. Fearing jlott had heard his thoughts he asked the player why he/she was reading out loud.
"oh sorry, it's a habit of mine. I always read out loud to others when I'm with someone else reading the same thing. I'll stop if you'd like." jlott answered Shroud who promptly told the player to continue as he didn't want them to know of his inability to read.
jlott happily continued reading the words as Shroud flipped the pages for him/her. Apparently the man's name was Bret and he lived in a town called Haven which had recently been attacked by something. Most people had died in the attack and the now-dead man had been fleeing for his life hoping to get help from anyone.
Shroud fell asleep once more as jlott read the last word wondering what would've been different had Bret lived.
Soon the third day arrived and Shroud continued on his way towards Rhagall. He remained wary of his surroundings in case those men reappeared. They didn't and so Shroud was left to think to himself. He wondered who those murderers were, where they came from, and what made their simple stone swords gleamed so strangely? Shroud also wondered about other things like where Aodh could've ended up at, why wasn't the Follower bothering him, and was jlott a man or woman as the player's voice hit really high pitches and very deep ones as well making it hard to determine which one they were because of it.
Of course he got his answer when he just asked and got the simple answer of 'girl'. Shroud just shrugged afterwards since it was just a small nuisance he wanted to figure out before he fell to a deep slumber again during the coming night.
Soon the fourth day came and the walls of Rhagall could be seen in the distance. Shroud picked up his pace as he became excited to see the town and what news they may have of Aodh. Once he neared the town, Shroud noticed a house just outside of town and thought back to what the Librarian had told him of the possessed man.
A bit wary of the house, Shroud's curiosity got the better of him as he decided to approach the house. He took in all the details of the house; It was made of wooden planks mostly with a stone brick roof. The roof was triangled in shape and there was windows on the west side of the house. behind the house was a small farm with wheat, carrots, and melons. Next to the farm happened to be a patch of strange purple-ish grass surrounded by water with giant mushrooms.
Shroud noticed all this, but didn't see any body around and decided it was best to leave, but...
"Well... I never thought I'd see someone even coming within miles of my house..." Shroud froze at the sound of the unknown person talking before looking over his shoulder and locking his crimson red eyes to a pair of glowing purple ones.
"Now tell me... who are you to oh-so bravely come here?"