Noor, Sunny and Steve wake up and continue on their little trip to the village.
N: I still can't believe you guys haven't visited this village.
Su: There is a mountain in the way, there was never a need to climb it or see the other side of it. We just don't have to explore a lot for a living.
St: One of the items in my to-do list is to come and explore the other side of the mountain. I mine emeralds and was planning on coming here to see what ores I can find.
Su: You mine the emeralds?
St: Yeah.
Su: You know you can just work and you get them, right?
St: Do the emeralds just materialise from nothing?
Su: I don't know.
St: Also, isn't mining work? I work and get emeralds. I also get some more stone to build my stuff.
N: He's got a point.
Su: Noor, what do you work with? Your name's Noor, right?
N: I don't work, I just travel around and… Travel. I make my own food to survive and don't really need any money.
St: Interesting.
Su: Makes sense, that's why you wanted a… Mapographer
N: Cartographer. Yeah, those guys usually sell maps to unexplored structures and I want to be the first to explore them.
St: So, your goal is to kind of explore the whole world or something like that.
N: Yes, I already explored a bit of everything, I've been to a lot of different biomes and now I want to explore abandoned places.
Su: And after that…
N: I don't know… Die. Settle down and have a family or whatever. Maybe raise my kids better than my parents raised me.
Su: Ah, nice. Plans.
Steve, Sunny and Noor now see the village from atop the mountain and go down. They struggle trying to not fall straight down.
N: Finally. Dude, I swear if they don't have a cartographer…
They walk up to the village, Sunny greets the villagers as they progress further into it. He walks up to a villager.
Su: Hey, how's it going?
N: That guy is insane.
Sunny continues to talk to the villager.
St: No, I think he is actually able to talk to villagers.
N: For how long have you known each other?
St: A couple of days. I haven't counted.
N: Okay. Do you think they h–
Su: They don't have any cartographers.
N: WHAT!?
Su: Yeah, sorry man.
N: Brother, you gotta be making what these guys say up!
Su: Nope. We can explore more though.
St: Well, they don't have a cartographer, but they do have… Humans?
Steve points ahead, a confused girl with pink hair stands in the distance. She's accompanied by a cat, it's dirty with paint.
Su: Three.
N: …There's one…
St: Let's go talk to them!
N: Oh my god, You know what? I don't even care. I'm already wasting my time.
They walk over to the girl.
St: Hey! How are you? My name is Steve! There's–
Steve turns back to Sunny and whispers.
St: I just remembered I don't have anything to say.
Su: What do you mean?
St: Say something to her. I messed up by starting the conversation. I don't have a subject.
N: What's up? My name is Noor. These are Steve and Sunny. Do you have a name?
The girl stays quiet.
N: Nice. You don't have to say anything. By the way, are you the only human here or are there others?
She looks around. Zuri appears nearby.
St: Oh, there are more people!
Su: Four
St: Oh, hi!
Z: More people! Hey!
N: Please, tell me you guys have a cartographer!
Z: Oh, no, I'm afraid we don't.
N: Right. Dude, I just need a map! I just want to explore stuff!
Z: We have– You know what? Why don't you four follow me? I'm sure I have a couple of them in the library. I was heading there anyway.
Su: Oh, we're not with her. I thought you knew her?
N: Where is the library?
Noor begins to walk toward Zuri.
Z: We– First– I have more important things to care about. Let's go.
Zuri and Noor go to the library, while Steve and Sunny hesitate for a bit. They follow them.
Steve turns to the pink-haired girl.
St: So… Are you coming?
The girl steps forward hesitantly.
St: By the way, is that cat yours?
The girl nods.
St: What's its name?
She shrugs.
St: Cool.
Steve follows everyone else to the library, the girl goes after him.
Z: Okay, I still have some stuff to sort out in here, get yourselves comfortable.
Zuri goes over to check on Makena and wake her up. The others stay and look around a bit. Sunny is mesmerised by how much potential the place has in storing information and letting other people learn about everything they need to learn. Steve is baffled by the architecture of the library, it's big, practical, looks beautiful, and the materials used are of the best quality for big builds. Noor doesn't pay a lot of attention to his surroundings, he just goes around looking for maps of places that he had never been to before.
In the bedroom, Zuri hands Makena's clothes back to her.
Ma: Wait, they're completely fixed!
Zu: Yeah, I got too excited about a project yesterday and couldn't sleep. The shepherd gave it the final touches.
Ma: Thank you so much. I owe you this one.
Z: Why don't you go and… Change into something your own size? I'll be outside, we got visitors.
Zuri goes back to the main part of the library. Noor looks disappointed.
Z: So… Have you guys found what you were looking for?
Su: I don't know.
N: No. Do you know any village that has a cartographer? Do you really not know where to find one?
Z: I'm sorry, I don't know.
St: Well… I'm sorry Noor. What will you do now?
N: Keep doing my job and go explore more. I can reach the next village in a week, let's just hope that I can finally find the guy I'm looking for.
Z: I'm sorry, you said you were an explorer?
N: Yeah, I–
Z: What is it that you want to do so much with a map?
N: I want to get a map to an unexplored place from a cartographer and be the first to reach those places.
Z: Hmmmm… I think we can do something here…
N: Go on.
Z: I read a book last night and I'm working on a little project that involves a lot of resources and hard work.
N: Not exactly interested. What would I earn from this?
Z: The project seemed almost impossible, because I wanted to do it by myself. Now it's going to be a lot more efficient with more people.
St: You're just trying to get us to work for you then?
Z: Work with m– I'll go straight to it: I'm planning on studying a new species. Its habitat hasn't been reached by humans in millenia.
N: Okay…
Z: It's going to be dangerous and it will require a lot of knowledge that we don't have.
N: I… Don't know.
Z: We will also have to bring this species to extinction on our way back, since it's invasive and can reproduce asexually.
Su: I'm…
Z: I mean, you can stay. I won't talk a lot because I don't want to spoil everything.
N: How many biomes will we discover?
Z: I don't know… At least two.
N: Any abandoned structures involved?
Z: One… Two… Three… I hope the second and the first are abandoned.
N: What materials and what skills will be needed on the trip?
Z: I'm not gonna lie, I just read the book. I just know that… Gold and… Maybe some armor. Can anyone here fight?
Noor, Steve and the girl with pink hair raise their hands.
Z: Nice. I… So– Does anyone even want to be part of the thing? I didn't even ask.
Everyone raises their hand. Noor does so hesitantly.
Ma: I do.
Z: Oh, You're here. So… Do you really? It's going to be dangerous– You probably heard everything.
Ma: Yeah, I know, I will be part of the thing. I think I kind of owe you this.
Z: Okay. Guys this is Makena. We met yesterday and I don't know why I trusted her so much, but here we are. Makena, these are: Steve, Sunny, Noor, and…
St: She still hasn't said her name.
Me: Merl!
St: Huh?
Me: My name is Merl. My cat is PB.
Su: Nice! Pearl, Pb, welcome to the… Team? I guess?
St: Merl.
Su: Merl. With an M, got it!
Z: Let's kill this dragon then!
N: What!?
Z: It's, like, a figure of speech or whatever it's called. Y'know, like, we gotta… You know.
N: Oh, okay, right, yeah.
Z: First we need to get the resources.
