Arwen pressed close against his mama completely terrified as they listened to the the banging at the front door of the house. His mama held him tighter and whispered soft words of comfort even though he knew she was scared too.
The two were standing on top of a double chest in his mama's room, a small hole was in the roof big enough for him to get out if the zombies and skeleton archers got through the birch door.
Arwen didn't understand why this was happening. His papa died, the odd man showed up and now monsters were all over the place! They seemed to come from the castle that odd man had made in the short time of just a night. Why… why was this happening?
They both tensed hearing the door break, they were doomed now if they got spotted. There was sadly a high chance of that.
"Hey!" A voice yelled drawing the attention of the monsters. "Come get me!" The monsters moved to the voice, the mother and child didn't relax though. There could be more monsters around still.
"Serena?"
"Sam?" Arwen's mother called softly.
"It's me. A few of the smiths are distracting those things that were after you two, we've managed to build a small shelter that the monsters can't break through easy." The mayor explained quickly. They were in big danger in this birch wood house, heck all the houses were made of the birch wood, oak wood and dark wood making all of them unsafe.
"Okay, Arwen follow mommy don't let go of my hand." She ordered sternly.
Arwen nodded quickly following his mama and the mayor Sam out of the small room and outside into the dark that was lit up by torches. The two followed the mayor to the cobblestone shelter, it was three thick making it hard for those creepers to blow a good sized hole and get it.
The young boy's heart sank when he saw some people missing and few children crying. People were getting killed.
"Okay everyone, we have plenty of light inside and a fence around the shelter that will keep the creepers from blowing up too near the building. We have food, water and blankets in here. All the smiths and miners are on the roof shooting at anything that gets too close, we just have to hold out until morning."
"But then what?" Someone cried. "We can't do this forever! We'll all die!"
"Do you have a better idea?" Sam asked calmly. "No? Well until any of you get a plan of how to keep away the monsters we do this."
Arwen and his mama sat on the floor in near one of the windows. His mama hugged him close while Arwen pressed his face into her chest and covered his ears not wanting to hear the sounds of all the monsters that had come to attack them. This had all started two years ago when his papa had suddenly introduced weapons to everyone.
Two Years Ago
Adrian went through a few simple combos with the wooden sword. Sam had been confused as to why he wanted people to learn to fight, all Adrian had been able to say was that he had a very bad feeling and that they needed to be ready for anything.
"Adrian, are there any strong attacks that anyone could use?" Someone asked.
Everyone was gathered in the market place to watch Adrian.
"Strong attacks are just that, strong attacks." He explained facing the crowd. "You have to put a lot of force behind an attack so yes… depending on overall strength a person has the attack will do more damage or harm. Short answer being yes anyone can but not everyone can use a heavy weapon. That requires of course lots of muscle. If you want to use a heavy weapon you'll have to work hard at it just like the smithing job."
"Why… do we need to learn how to use weapons? And why did you never bring up all those books you had until now?" Someone else asked.
"My books weren't useful… frankly I'm hoping they still aren't but… have any of you ever gotten a very bad feeling?" Adrian asked as he set his sword down.
A few people shuffled but not one replied. That was answer enough.
"I have a bad feeling and think we're all going to need to fight in some way. I just want to be ready for if and when something happens."
No could really argue with that.
Hi I'm a large time skip or scene change.
"Hey Arwen… do you remember how the shops got here?" Hujura asked his light haired friend.
"...Do you ever listen in class?" Arwen asked Hujura as he watched the lava under the water in the fountain.
"I do I just… okay I don't, remind me please?"
Arwen sighed then began to explain. "One day when the mayor was heading to his office he noticed a new path connected to the gravel one. He followed the path to a wooden pillar, a sign was on it reading, Market made by Mr. J. We don't have anyone who goes by Mr. J and no one had built the buildings, many of them are out of our builders skill level. The shops were full of everything we'd need to get started, seeds, livestock, tools you name it. It was only enough to get started mind you, everyone had to work hard to make sure that we'd all always have supplies for the market."
"Right… what about that new building then? Your dad brings up smithing then we have a blacksmith." Hujura scratched his head confused.
Arwen shrugged. "I don't know who this Mr. J is anymore than anyone else does. He helps us, I say we just be grateful."
"Hmm… you think he made this too?" The dark haired boy asked a he tapped the stone keeping the fountain water from going everywhere.
"Hujura my papa and a few others made this remember? I will say I think Mr. J got the lava, papa doesn't know how to bring that stuff home."
Arwen's father and the three people who became miners had been rather busy collecting all the coal from the cave, they had found a lot of iron and bit of gold too. There was still a lot to explore too, Arwen wished he could go along but it was far too dangerous.
Hi I'm a large time skip or scene change.
Adrian paused on the gravel path seeing a connection on the path Mr. J tended to make. He had been around again then? What was up there? Adrian followed the path and found a small building there, it was made out of cobblestone and polished andesite. A sign next to the door said, "This will be useful someday. Mr. J." That wasn't ominus at all.
Opening the iron door by pushing a stone button he found that the inside was as small as the outside. There was some odd cobblestone walk way leading up to a hole in the ceiling which was odd, he always placed stairs.
Looking inside the chests he found supplies to repair the building and… what on earth? There were things called powered rails, and redstone torches. He knew what the mine carts were he had read about them. There were even mine carts that had chests in them.
Adrian wasn't sure what to make of this, what he did know was that he was going to tell Sam about this… his bad feeling also got worse. Did this Mr. J know something they all didn't? If so he wished the man would tell them.
Hi I'm a large time skip or scene change.
Arwen couldn't explain it when asked why he spent so much time around the new building Mr. J had made. He felt drawn to it and didn't know why, he tried to trigger a vision but wasn't having any luck. He just knew the building was important. The towns folk hadn't been sure what to think when the mayor discussed it. Not surprising considering they didn't have mine carts or rails. How would one even build that kind of thing?
Arwen peeked through the one of the windows of the iron door. Why build it out of stone? They had very few stone buildings, just two in the town center. Mr. J had built all other stone buildings.
"What will this be for?" Arwen asked aloud looking up at the button above the door. He wasn't tall enough to reach that. He sighed and started his way back home, his papa was going to be away at the cave for a few days. He and his mama were going to spend a lot of time with him before he left.
Hi I'm a large time skip or scene change.
The dark haired man collected five coal he had just mined and dug into the wall further. A sharp loud curse left him as his bad feeling spiked up making him move to the side just in time to avoid an arrow.
"Adrian what happened?" Onix cried from further back. He was around 16, just old enough to work.
"...Get the others tell them to bring swords and axes. Something is down here and it isn't friendly." Adrian responded grimly.
They were some kind of skeleton archers, they were coming out of some odd cage box. It took killing five and lighting the whole room with torches to finally stop them from coming. They found a good deal of money in the chests along with seeds, some kind of armor, bread, bones, melon seeds, pumpkin seeds and... dead flesh.
"What on earth were those things?!" Saya cried holding her pick axe close to her chest.
"I don't know… some kind of monster. Avoid this spot until I get back I need to tell Sam about this." Adrian said as he started to get his things together.
"Okay, we'll be careful." Someone promised.
Hi I'm a large time skip or scene change.
Adrian didn't find another… monster spawner as he took to calling. He did find a few more abandoned mines though, none of them had potions.
He spent more time with his wife and son. He taught Arwen how to swim while in the bath house, many parents taught their kids there, it was safe and easy to keep an eye on them. Not that they had a pool or anything and it wasn't a good idea to swim in the fountain, the glass that kept the lava from the water might be broken.
Adrian taught Arwen some of his sword skills along with archery and gave him some tips for mining and forging as he was interested. He wouldn't be allowed to work until the age 16 though.
He also made sure to teach him a bit of free running, Arwen took to it like a fish to water.
Hi I'm a short time skip or scene change.
"Hey papa are you going to go out today?" Arwen asked as he munched a golden apple sitting on bench next to his papa who also had a golden apple.
"A little, I won't be going too far. Did you want to come? You'll have to wear your leather armor or we'll never hear the end of it from your mama." Adrian took Arwen with him sometimes when he went out. It was never on the long trips that could take weeks and even longer. Serena would never allow that and a child had no place working so young or being so far from home.
"Okay, can we learn how to catch animals? Track them too? And…"
Adrian shook his head fondly as his son listed off all the things he wanted to learn. He already knew they weren't going far so he didn't ask about trees or the cave or anything that would take a long trip.
Hi I'm a short time skip or scene change.
Arwen had a blast learning how to catch animals with and without a lead, tracking proved a bit hard but it wasn't easy to learn that quickly. They even found some herbs that they could sell to the doctor in the market.
"These are just simple things but it helps the town a lot son." Adrian said as he handed Arwen a water canteen. "When you're older and if you're still interested I'll take you further out, you could even see the cave. See it mind, you won't be working in it until you're 16."
Arwen nodded. "I understand papa. Should we head home soon?" He asked looking up at the sun. "Mama did say she was making rabbit stew tonight."
"Hmm yes we better hurry."
Arwen laughed as his papa picked up pace back to town. His papa loved his mama's rabbit stew.
He wondered if they could all go to the fountain to have a picnic tomorrow, that'd be fun. Maybe Hujura and his family could come along too, maybe Sam and Catt as well.
He hummed happily just thinking about it. It had been a while since they all spent time together maybe the whole town should get together and have fun! He'd ask his parents about it who would talk to the mayor. He hoped it happened, it would be great.
Mr. J is my brother, he helped me build the market... a lot ^-^ He didn't build that other building Adrian found I just said he did. *Shrug* Mr. J will be around later and uh... he isn't human ^-^