Bob's story is an encapsulating tale about a young man whom seemed to have nothing in his life. Living the sad life of a homeless lad, recently divorced and forced to live off the food from his nearby food bank. One day however; life as he knew it changed. He was dropped into an area completely unknown to him, and meets a beautiful girl named Alice. Together, they trek out into the vast world they are trapped within to find civilization.
Recently, XDaWNeDX, owner and proprietor of Bob's Story, has finished writing the first edition of Bob's Story. Please play your part in the poll, and comment below leaving your opinion. Please enjoy this tale of a man having his life turned around by a purple portal in a box.
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Of course, you can also advertise this thread using the fine artwork supplied by many of the finest artists on this forum!
Whoops_Typo's signature can be seen here. It looks really nice, and he's the FIRST person to make one for us, so go +1 his post. You can see it right HERE!
TheBlownMind made this one, and it's absolutely stunning. It really looks like a lot of work was put into this. You can head on over to his thread and request something to be made for yourself. Be sure to +1 him!
EmeraldEntity made the following two signatures. The only difference is they have different colours slightly, and v2.0 has the names of the two main characters on it. But they both look absolutely amazing, and I am very thankful for the work put into them. Go and see his post over HERE If you liked his, and used his, +1 his post. Remember, he posted a few times there, +1 a couple posts. There are, after all, two images.
Emerald Entity's v 1.0
A big thank you to all artists who put any time into creating a sig. You were all very creative with your sigs that you designed, and they all look simply amazing. Thank you very much. I tell you exactly where you can find these artists' posts. They took time out of their lives to make this. If you end up using one, go +1 their posts.
Want to design your own sig for all to view?
I don't have many requirements for you. If you truly want to design a sig, that's your decision, and I'm sure you can figure it out yourself. I want to see how YOU guys percieve this story, this world. How does it appear in YOUR minds? I could tell you exactly what I want, but why wouldn't I just go make it myself then? Be creative, and make something that YOU would be proud to have in your sig.
THIS STORY HAS A YOUTUBE PLAYLIST. I will be recording each chapter, and bits of information about each character. Be sure to check out the playlist here if you'd rather listen to the story being told to you!
http://bit.ly/StoryTime64
But, I digress.
Prologue - The Beginning.
Guess you found my journal, whoever you are. I started writing this journal a good while ago. If you're reading this, I suppose I lost it somewhere and you've found it. So I'll start at the beginning of what's happened. Maybe you can make some sense out of everything that's gone on.
I was living my life as I did every day, sleeping in a beaten up cardboard box outside the food bank. My wife recently divorced me and I was fired from my dayjob, so I couldn't afford the mortage on my home. Apparently banks don't like that.
I was looking around in my box for some spare change, when I noticed a purple portal beginning to form in the bottom of it. I jumped back from it, and stuck my head into it. Right when I stuck my head in, I was pulled through by some invisible force and started falling.
I looked for a safe way to land and noticed a lush green forest. I tried to jump for it, then remembered I was falling and couldn't jump. Thankfully, a pig sipping water from the deep ocean was right below me and I landed on it. There wasn't any corpse left over, just a few strips of bacon..
I looked around quickly and couldn't see much. There were no cars, no people, no buildings or roads. I was all alone in this world. Well, not alone per-se. I could see some farm animals in front of me, plus the pig I landed on.
Off to my left there was a large cave filled with monsters. Spiders, but not just the terrifying little spiders. Horrifying giant spiders. There were some skeletons of people, and what looked like some people with a limp and some blood on them. When I looked a bit closer, I saw they were zombies, or at least seemed to be. I decided to stay away from that cave for now.
Behind me was much nicer, there was a large ocean, seemingly untouched for years. Crystal clear water, and nothing in sight for miles. It was.. Peaceful, somehow.
I decided I'd need some shelter at night. It didn't look like any of those monsters liked being in the light, but I wasn't sure how they'd react when night fell. So I set out through the forest.
The forest was much like the ocean, seemingly untouched and peaceful. Until I heard some rusltling about in the bushes next to me. I pulled a few leaves out of the way and saw some creature. A green creature that walked on four stubby legs with no arms. It had an upset look on it's face and kept staring at me. I went ahead and moved in for a closer look, just to see what it was about. As I started getting closer, it suddenly ran at me. The last thing I heard was a loud hissing sound before it blew up.
I lay there for a while, hardly able to breathe and thought about what I'd done with my life. I had no job, no wife, and I lived in a damn cardboard box! I realized then, that I really had done absolutely nothing in my life. If I died right there, nobody would've missed me. Nobody would've remembered me.
I tried to stand up, but kept falling down on my knees. Finally I started to feel faint. All I could see now were just some black blotches and something moving in the distance. I hoped that somebody, anybody would come along and save me. I wasn't ready to die just yet.
Chapter 1 - Alice
After that encounter with the boomer, as I thought was a suitable name for them, seeing as they make a very large BOOM. I decided to go ahead and set up a makeshift shelter. It was really nothing special, just a small shelter with room enough for a bed made out of dirt. I went ahead and slept to the peaceful sounds of screaming zombies, and the cracking of the skeleton bones. See the sarcasm there? It really was a terrifying night. I kept wondering if the monsters would be able to breach the security of my small dirt house. It was a cold night, too. I had no wool, because I didn't go and steal some from the sheep I saw earlier. I did fall asleep eventually, thankfully. When I awoke, I felt fully recovered. I could still hear the sounds of zombies and skeletons outside, so I waited around until I couldn't hear them anymore. Having no glass, I couldn't make any windows in this small home.
When the sounds finally subsided, I removed some of the dirt at the side where I wasn't hearing any sounds before, and peeked my head out. I saw nothing out there, so I quickly made a dash for the cover of the trees and turned around. It was a useless attempt, there was nothing outside anywhere, except the forest I took cover in. I walked back to my home, grabbed my stuff and went to see the other side of my home. I saw some dead zombie corpses. Which was odd, because wouldn't they already be dead? And skeletons'... Skeletons? Which again, is odd. I grabbed some of the arrows from the skeleton, and the skeletons' bow. With this newfound weapon, I felt much more secure.
However; upon trying to shoot a target, I realized I may have better aim if I relied purely on luck and just wore a blindfold whenever I got into a fight. But this was extremely impractical. I didn't have any wool, and couldn't make a blindfold. So I setup a practice target, just a simple pig attached to a tree. Kidding, I carved an X into a tree. I wouldn't harm a pig like that, unless I fell on them. After many hours of practice, I started getting a lot better. Eventually, I was able to hit the tree every single time. I still couldn't hit the X though, unless I had a random twitch just before I shot. But again, I can't rely on that. Who's to say I'll get a twitch every time I make a shot?
Another few hours of practice, and I could hit near the X every time. This was good enough for me, I needed to hit a big body about the size of a human being, an X is much smaller. With my newfound archery skills, I went back home and grabbed the rest of my stuff. I left a few precious items in there. A coin, given to me by my father on his deathbed, for one.
Just as I was about to leave, it started getting dark and I saw some boomers start appearing in the forest. I also saw some skeletons, and zombies. But I felt I could handle them with my arrows. So instead of trekking out to find civilization, I decided to sleep the night away. So I patched up the hole in my dirt home, and passed out on the dirt bed. Those sounds of zombies and skeletons and spiders were starting to be less annoying. I guess I was getting used to them, having been in this world for 2 whole days already.
I woke up a little later the next day. I wanted to get up at the break of dawn, to get the most out of the day, but sadly, I hadn't. It was about 11AM when I woke up, I guessed by the sun's positioning.
Doing the same method of getting out of my home, I ran to the ocean next to me this time. Thankfully I did, there was a spider waiting silently above my home. As it charged at me, I cowardly ran into the ocean and dove down to grab a rock. When I re-surfaced, I threw the rock violently at the spider, knocking it out of consciousness. If I learned one thing from this encounter, it's not to leave my home without a weapon.
I quickly ran back to my home, grabbed my Bow and arrows, and of course the coin, then set out on a long journey to find somebody in this empty world. Leaving my home, I decided to walk straight out the door, and then keep walking straight until I see somebody. I figured I may as well not turn around, thought it made it all that much more dramatic. Even though there was nobody around to see it. And you know, I'm very glad I decided to keep walking straight.
After walking for a few hours, I began to hear a lot of commotion and a girl screaming off in the distance. I unslung my bow and began running in the direction of the girl. When they sounded close, I climbed ontop of the pine trees and started moving slowly and quietly, hoping not to expose my presence. When I climbed the trees and started looking around, I saw where it was coming from very soon. There was a horde of zombies chasing a girl through the forest. I debated whether to save her, or leave her be and let the zombies be distracted.
Eventually, I decided to save her. Moving through the canopies as though they were flat land, I caught up to the girl fairly quickly. Staying in the trees, I started to pick the zombies off one by one. It was definitely good practice for my aim, I must've missed at least 20 arrows on those 6 zombies. Thankfully, I never hit the girl.
After I surveyed the area, making sure no zombies were left, I jumped down and ran to the girl. She was just sitting there, hugging her knees and rocking. I walked over and put my arm around her. "It's going to be alright, they're all gone now." I told her, in an attempt to comfort her. Sadly, I got no response. "My name is Bob, you can stay with me if you'd like. I'll protect you."
"I'm Alice." She said, as she painfully stood up.
"Your leg, are you okay?" I thought I noticed a limp as she ran, but I couldn't be sure of it until now.
"Yes. A zombie slashed at my leg when I was running, I'll be fine."
"I don't think so. I'm going to build a small home for us to stay tonight."
I then set out to make a small home, as I told her. I walked around, looking for a few large rocks and eventually found a gravel hill. Taking two of the largest stones I could find, I pounded them together until they looked sharp enough to cut down some wood. With my new axe-head, I went back to where I left Alice and broke off one of the larger sticks I could see. I took some of the twine I found on the trek over here, and bound the rock to the sticks. It wasn't completely sturdy, but I could worry about that later. For now, I had to chop down some more trees.
When I got a suitable amount of wood piled up, I started creating a small home and asked Alice if she could go and shear a few sheep that I saw off in the distance. She complied, and left to get some wool for us. While she was gone, I kept working on the home, making sure it looked adequate and had enough room for two beds spaced apart by a few meters.
By the time Alice finally returned, I had finished all but the roof, and it was starting to get dark.
"Here's some bacon, could you make us a fire and cook it up please?" I said, wishing I hadn't. Now I had no bacon, and certainly couldn't land on another pig to get perfect bacon.
She started making a fire and cooking the bacon, while I finished the roof and set up the beds. When the house was completely done, Alice had all the bacon cooked up and we had a nice dinner of bacon and some eggs that she found while she was grabbing the wool.
While we were eating dinner, I noticed how beautiful Alice really was. She seemed fairly atrractive while she was being chased by zombies, but I was slightly distracted at that point.
She had long, flowing red hair, and deep blue eyes that touched your soul. She was about 5"6, about 7 inches shorter than I. A scar, on the left side of her chin showed she's been in some fights before, but it wasn't so large that it took away from her beauty. She looked to be about 17, which was good. I was 20. If she were any younger, and something were to happen... Well, that would just be.. For lack of a better word, wrong.
Just before we went to sleep, Alice moved the bed I made her to right next to mine.
"Umm.."
"I just feel more comfortable here."
"Alright."
It was a much more comfortable sleep tonight, although the unprocessed wool we were using as a blankets was quite smelly, it kept us much warmer than not having anything over top of us.
In the morning, I woke up to Alice in my bed shivering from the cold. I got up quietly and put my wool blanket over top of her. I tore out the last page in this journal, which at this point, I actually wasn't writing in.
Alice, I've left to see if there is any civilization around here. I'll be back today, don't leave the house please. I don't know if your leg has healed enough to run from a zombie again.
I was walking for a few hours before I saw the first signs of civilization. I saw a small gravel road leading to a small village. The largest building seemed to be a church, although it wasn't BIG. The roof was made of entirely glass. There was a tall cross on the front of it, and it had a nice stone walkway leading up to it. In front of the church was a small grassy area with a tree and some flowers, it made the whole church look really nice.
But that's not what made me realize people were living here. I saw a man walk out of the church in a priest's clothing, and then head to a home at the far end of the village. Odd, you'd think the priest would live near the church, or near the entrance to the village.. Oh well. Not wanting to be caught up in a conversation, I ran back to the small home I left Alice at.
Walking in, I was greeted with a giant hug. "Thank you so much Bob. I was too fatigued yesterday to think, I apologise for being so rude."
"Oh, that's alright. You really weren't that rude." I said, modestly. In all reality, she was. I saved her from 6 zombies, and built her a house and she didn't even say thank you.
"Well thank you anyways. Here, I cooked up some lunch."
It was a little late for lunch, being about 2PM, but it was still delicious. I guess she went out and got some food while I was gone. The lunch was delicious, still just the regular bacon and eggs. But after eating only a few slices of bacon, and an egg over the past 3 days, it tasted better than steak.
"So, did you find anything interesting on your adventure today Bob?" she asks, before biting off another piece of crispy bacon.
"Yes, I found a small village about 3 hours to the north."
"3 hours..."
"We can wait until your leg has fully healed before making the trek out there."
"HEY! My leg is fine!" She said as she tried to stand up, only to fall back into her chair, wincing in pain.
"I see. Well, maybe we should just run over there. I'm sure it'll only be an hour long run then." I replied, with a sarcastic smile.
"Alright, we'll wait."
Over the next few days, I started noticing improvements in Alice. She was starting to go for regular morning walks, taking a stone sword I made for her, of course. I realized that we may soon leave for that small village, so I started to pack up my things a little bit. I put away everything except the beds, and the fire pit. Those things would be just far too difficult to move.
"Another couple days..." I muttered.
"What?" Alice asked.
"Oh, I was just talking to myself."
"Oh.. Well, what did you mean by Another couple days?"
"Well, I didn't mean to say it out loud. You seem like you're getting better, and I just thought we might be able to leave soon. I guess I spoke my mind. My bad."
"Oh.. Well my leg does feel better, but it still hurts a little bit to walk on it. And uh, Bob, I've been wondering. What's in that book that you have over there? Is that a journal or something?"
"Oh this?" I said, grabbing the book. "This is just an empty book, but maybe I should use it as a journal. Document our adventures."
And that's when I started writing. As I write these words, I'm still sitting next to Alice, and she's in awe over what happened to me. And the fact that I said things could happen... I didn't mean it that way Alice! But hey, . KIDDING!
Chapter 2 - Sojephs Legend
Shortly after I decided to write in this journal, Alice and I went to sleep, Alice moving even closer to me in her sleep this time. Again, I woke up earlier than her and gave her my smelly woolen blanket. However; this time, I didn't leave the home. I sat down and opened up a small cupboard to grab some bacon and some eggs. This time, I was going to make HER breakfast, enough with the sexism.
Now, I'm not the greatest cook. That's why I used to lived outside the food bank, free food. But I can cook some bacon and eggs. So I set up the fire, and grabbed the iron pan which was really just a thin iron slate with the edges bent upwards. I placed the pan above the fire, on a holding rack that Alice must have made, and let it get hot. When I felt it was hot enough, I threw in some bacon and cooked it up. Removing the bacon, and the bacon grease, I cracked in a few eggs and let them sizzle for a while, absorbing the delicious bacony taste.
Finally, I had the whole breakfast cooked up. Bacon and eggs, only thing missing was toast, and unfortunately, I had no wheat to make bread. "We really should start a farm for some wheat..." I mumbled under my breath.
"Pardon?" Alice says sleepily, standing behind me.
Startled, I jump out of my chair, nearly knocking the breakfast on the floor.
"I thought you were still sleeping. Good morning, I made some breakfast."
"Oh, well thank you."
Sitting down on the dirt mounds we called chairs, we had our first real conversation.
"So, Bob, how long have you been in this world?"
"I've been here about 8 days now, and to be honest, I'm starting to like it. It's really a nice change from reality, and everything seems to be natural, and pristine. How long have you been here, Alice?"
"Well, that day that you rescued me was the first day I came into this world. So 4 days, I think."
"Wow, well then, I'm glad I decided to rescue you." I said, with a smile.
"So am I." She said, laughing. "And umm, I think I'm gonna be able to make the walk today."
"Are you sure, Alice, I don't want you hurting your leg any more."
"Yes, I'm sure."
So that afternoon, we left for the village. It was a lot longer than just a few hours, with Alice still limping, but we eventually made it to the village with no problems. Except, this time, something was different. There were more people walking around, talking, trading. Maybe I just came too early the other day. But if that's the case, what was the priest doing out then.. Oh well, I could find out later.
The first place we decided to go, was the town square. Well, the entrance, but right after that. The town square was small, and a circle. Different shops set up around the circle for food, wheat, armor, weaponry, and a shop for stuff to setup a shop. However; it's not the odd shops that caught my attention. I saw a man that looked like the priest I saw the other day, enter the same house at the far side of town. Something about it just drew me towards him. I felt like I was needed there.
"Hey Alice, see if you can find a mayor, or somebody. Maybe find somewhere that we can live for a while. A tavern, or an abandoned home or the likes. I'm gonna go and check the other side of town."
"Uhh, ok.. You sure I can't come with you?"
"Yeah.. I think I saw something over there." I said, pointing in the direction of the home I was going to go investigate."And we still need somewhere to stay, you wouldn't be able to make it back before nightfall."
"Well, alright."
"Good, we'll meet here in exactly 1 hour." I said, as I turned and left.
"But be careful Bob, I don't know what I would do without you..." She says quietly, thinking I didn't hear her.
Being a nice person, I just kept walking, letting her think I didn't hear her. The village was fairly small, so the 'far' end of town was just about 5 minutes of walking. Arriving at the home of the assumed priest, I knocked on his door.
"Rrr. One moment." I hear somebody grumble inside, before the door opens. "Hello." He says
"Hi." I was lost. I didn't know what I was investigating, or what to do. I stuttered for a moment, before I got an idea.
"I saw you come out of the church the other day, you looked like a priest. I thought you may know if there was anywhere that me and my.. Girlfriend, can stay." I lied about her being my girlfriend, but who would believe a guy lives with a girl that he isn't related to, and isn't in a relationship with?
"Oh yes, of course. A man named Yarlusik has just moved over to Nekot, leaving his home abandoned. He has a very large home, but it's quite messy. And there may be some, unwanted visitors in there. I can show you where it is, if you'd like."
"Oh please, that would be great." I said. I still didn't know what he was doing out at that time, but it couldn't have been anything bad, he seems like a nice man.
"Would you like to come in, I am making some soup, and you look like you could use some food."
"Oh, sure. By the way, I haven't properly introduced myself. My name is Bob."
"Well hello Bob, my name is Talh." We shook hands, and walked over to his kitchen.
Talh poured us both a bowl of soup, and tore off some bread for us to eat. I think the conversation that I had with Talh may have been the most interesting one that I had since entering this world. I'll just jump right into it.
"So Talh, what's the history of this town?" I asked while noisily eating a piece of bread drenched in the delectable soup.
"Ahh, we have quite an interesting history here in Sojeph. In fact, it's more of a legend. If you'll notice, there are many monsters around here, yes?"
"Yes, I have noticed that. It worries me."
"You need not worry, Bob. The monsters won't be attacking us here in Sojeph. They tried, many years ago, but they were forced out when the hero of legends jumped in wielding the legendary sword that expelled all evil. Many say it's a sword made out of pure diamonds, enchanted by the very gods themselves. Others say it's a sword crafted from the finest ores across the world. What is it, truly, we shall never know."
"A legendary sword? Where is this sword?" I asked, truly intrigued by the story.
"None know, it's said to still be held by the hero himself. Anyways, the hero jumped in and cut down all of the monsters with a few strikes of his sword. The few that were left turned and ran, tail between their legs. Since that day, 2 decades ago, we haven't had a single monster enter this village. Legend has it, the hero still guards this town to this very day,"
"Wow, did anybody actually see this hero, or know his name?"
"Many have seen him, but never his face, nor his name. He was dressed in full chainmail armor, the finest armor a knight can wear. A full faced helmet, made of hardened steel. He didn't look like much, but he was strong, and fast. Very fast. Oh, but these are just tales of an old man. I'm sure I must be boring you by now. I'll walk you to Yarlusik's home now. You said you had a girlfriend, right?"
"OH! SHOOT! I was supposed to be meeting her at the town square 10 minutes ago! I've got to get going Talh, I'm sorry. Can I come back with her later, and then you could show us to the house?"
"Oh, that won't be necessary. I can come with you to the town square. I've been meaning to get down there to replenish my poor food supply anyway. I wasn't expecting such a hungry visitor." Talh responds, showing hints of sarcasm towards the end.
Chapter 3 - The Note
"ALICE!" I yelled sharply as Talh and I approached the town square. "Alice, where are you!" "Bob, I'm over here by the weapons shop!" Making our way through the busy square, Talh and I finally managed to get to Alice. "I just thought we should pick up a couple swords while we were here, just in case." "Oh, good idea Alice. One problem. We have no money." "Oh zat won't be a probrem, sir." The merchant says almost inaudibly. "Zere is ay tahlent show on tonight. Ze vinner gets 5000 Nezny." "Nezny?" I ask, not sure what this was exactly. "Is Nezny the currency here?" Alice asks, seeming a little too interested in my opinion. "Yes, Alice. Nesnee is the currency we use here." Talh responds, clearing up any questions either of us had. "So.. If we were to enter this talent show, and win.. We'd win 5000 Nesnee?" "I believe those are the rules, yes." Talh responds. "Yes, zey are da rules Aleese. You enter da Tahlent show and vin 5000 Nezny." The merchant quickly says, almost interupting Talh. I get the feeling Talh and this merchant aren't the greatest of friends. "Alice.." I say quietly. "What talent do either of us have that could win us the grand prize?" "Well, I don't know.." "Hey Talh, would you be able to show us the way to that home you spoke of? I think I'd like to get some rest before signing up for some talent show." "Yes, of course. Just follow me please."
Talh took us up a long windy path, that eventually left the gravel road that ran between all the homes in the village. It wasn't the greatest of walks, there were a few holes in the ground that led to large caves, or maybe just one really, really big cave.. Off in the distance, I could see the boomers being shot by some skeletons. Apparently nobody likes those green creeps. Not even dead people.
After what seemed like a lifetime, but was probably about 10 minutes, we arrived at the house.
"Here Bob, you should take this sword for the time being. It's not safe to be out here without some form of protection." "Oh, thanks Talh, guess we won't need to enter the Talent competition after all!" "No, I'll need the sword back, Bob." "Oh.."
I grabbed the sword from Talh, and it must've weighed at least 15 pounds. Made out of what seemed to be pure, refined iron. I gave the sword a few practice swings, and felt pretty comfortable with it. I lent my new sword up against the home, and realized that I must have left my bow at our last home, as well as all of the arrows. "Crap.." "What?" Talh and Alice say almost at the same time. "Oh.. It's nothing, just ignore it."
I reach for the doorknob on the front door, when I heard something inside. Quickly, I grabbed for my sword and readied it in front of me, not knowing how to properly weild a sword. Realizing I can't open the door like this, I point it down and to my right, while grabbing the doorknob to open the door. In one smooth motion, I turn the doorknob, push the door open and take a few steps back, bewildered by the sight I just saw.
The image inside was horrid, and utterly disgusting. There were at least 7 zombies in the home, they looked absolutely horrifying. And dead, very dead. Thankfully, some kind person was robbing our house and killed the zombies.
This mysterious home-robber seemed familiar. As though I recognized him from somewhere, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He was dressed in full chainmail armor, with a steel helmet. I could vaguely see a hilt of a sword peeking out from his right shoulder. Apparently this mystery warrior is left handed.
And then it hit me. This was the warrior of legends, and it literally hit me. Not one to talk, he quickly ran out the door, nudging me on the way out. He was lightning fast, I couldn't even see through the holes in the helmet as he ran by.
"Was that..?" I asked Talh, still slightly confused as to what just happened.
"If you mean the hero of legends, then yes, I believe it was." Talh responds awestruck at what he's just witnessed.
"Uhh.."
"Oh yeah. Alice, I'll explain everything later. But for now, let's clear these zombie corpses out of our house."
"WE'RE GOING TO LIVE HERE?!?!?!?!" Alice exclaims, with a touch of anger in her voice.
"Uhh.. Well we have nowhere else to live.."
"YOU'RE SAYING YOU CAN BUILD A HOUSE IN ABOUT 20 MINUTES, BUT WE CAN'T FIND ANYWHERE TO LIVE??"
"Oh.. Yeah. I forgot how easy it is in this world. Sorry." I didn't really forget, I just REALLY didn't want to build another house. And who gets to say they cleaned zombie corpses out of their home?
"I could get some people to build you a home a bit closer to the village while you guys get your talent segment ready for the big show. It's already 6PM and the show starts at 8."
"Thanks, Talh. I forgot about the talent show. I guess I could enter as the most skilled forgetter." I replied.
"You wouldn't win. You have to be a talented forgetter to win a talent show." Alice says, laughing.
Later that night, the talent show began. And there were some truly spectacular talents people had. One guy even juggled boomers! It was perhaps the most amazing, and fear-filled day I ever had.
I signed up to show off my refined archery skills, and Alice signed up for something she wouldn't tell me.
Finally, it came to be my turn. I set up five targets. One at 10 meters, and another every 10 meters from there. I hit the target on every one. I even suprised myself, I really thought I'd miss the 50 meter target.
After my turn, it was Alice's turn. I finally got to see what she signed up for.
"Next up, is Alice." The announcer.. Announces.
"ALICE WHO?" Somebody screams from the audience.
"Just Alice, Sir." The announcer politely responds.
"Alice will be showing us her talent to suprise ANYBODY she wants to. I'm not so sure she can suprise everybody that's looking at her, but she says she can. We'll just have to find out."
"Thanks." Alice says, as she grabs the microphone.
"Hi.. Uhh. Umm. Uhhhh. So.. I'm going to. Uhh. Suprise you all. You'll uh. Be suprised." Alice says as she turns around, and bends over, presumably to put the microphone down.
What she did after that suprised the hell out of me, and the rest of the audience, as all that was heard after that was "GASP!" from the audience. She wasn't turning around and bending over to put the mic down. She quickly grabbed her pants and mooned the audience! I guess she can surprise everybody.
After the talent show, we were called to the main room. Both of us.
"Alice, I'm sorry. Your display was too rude to pass as a win. You were disqualified. As for you, Bob. Your talent with the bow was simply amazing. You fired all the arrows so quickly and accurately, it was truly amazing. You win the 5000 Nesnee."
"Really? Wow. That's awesome! I didn't think I'd win, that juggler was pretty awesome, I really thought he would've won."
"Well, I guess we could do a re-count."
"Nono, that'll be fine. Thanks for the money!"
After accepting my prize money, Alice and I went over to the town square to buy a couple swords for protection, only to find all the stores were closed. The only one open was a store selling solar panels. Ironic, really.
Disappointed, Alice and I walked over to the place Talh said the house would be built. And boy was it ever built. It was MASSIVE. At least 10 meters wide by 15 meters long, and one floor. This thing was absolutely gigantic.
"Gosh, it's so small.." Alice said.
"WHAT? This is huge!"
"Uhh, compared to your box, maybe."
"Oh.. Well, it's nice." I said, happy to take any house they could build.
As we walked in, I took off my rugged brown jacket and hung it up on a post next to the door.
"What's that?" Questioned Alice.
"What?"
"The piece of paper that fell out of your jacket."
"What piece of paper?"
"This one." Alice says as she grabs a folded piece of paper that must've been in my pocket.
"Oh, I'm not really sure.. Let's read it and find out."
"BOB. This is a, I have a favour to ask of you. Please meet me at the town square tomorrow at 3PM."
Chapter 4 - Decisions
"Who's a, Bob?" Alice asks.
"I.. don't know. Guess we'll find out tomorrow at 3." I respond. I really don't know who this a is, but I've got a pretty good idea.
"Well, it's getting pretty late. I think we should head to sleep." I tell Alice, as it was nearing midnight. I look over to the bedroom area and notice there's only one bed.
"Oh uhh, you can take the bed if you want." I tell Alice. I guess Talh thought we really were in a relationship, and only thought one bed was necessary. Oops.
"Oh.. I couldn't make you sleep on the floor Bob."
"Well, I'm not going to make you sleep on the floor. I was raised with more respect than that."
"Well I was thinking we should share the bed, Bob."
"Oh, ok, sure. Why not."
The next morning, I woke up around 10:00AM. I got out of bed, went for a short walk and grabbed a few large sticks. I brought the sticks home, and began chipping away at them. What was I making? Not sure, I was just making something. Slowly, I'd stroke the knife up the stick and slice a thin layer off the wood. Making sure not to cut directly into the wood. I ended up with 3 pointy sticks. Not too creative, but it was a good pastime.
"What time is it..." Alice says sleepily, having just woken up.
"Uhh, about 11."
"WHAT?! It's already 11! We've gotta get down to the town square soon."
"That's in 4 hours.."
"EXACTLY! No time at all."
"Uhh, 4 hours. Four. F-O-U-R HOURS."
"I KNOW! Gosh, where's the shower around here.."
"I.. don't think there is one."
"No shower? My hair is going to look like a mess when we go meet this a then.."
"Your hair looks fine. I hear there is a river about 40 minutes from here. You can go wash up down there if you want."
"Y'know. I think this hairstyle actually looks pretty nice."
"Hahaha. Now you like it."
We both laugh a bit, sit around and talk for a little while, and just try to pass the time until it was time to go meet a.
Finally, 3PM rolled around and we walked down to the town square.
"So what does this a look like?" Alice asks. To be honest, I really had no idea. I mean, I had SOME idea, but it wasn't anything to go off of.
"I uhh, don't really know.."
"Oh. Well that's good then."
"Whys that?"
"'Cause now we can sit and wait for him to come to us." Alice says, with the biggest grin on her face.
"Alright, let's just sit down on this bench here. I'm sure a knows what I at least look like. He wrote me a note after all."
We sat down on the bench and just started talking for a little while. What else can you do while you're waiting.
"So Alice, what did you do before coming to this world? You know everything about my past, through the journal. But we've never talked about you." I ask alice.
"Oh.. Not much. I went to school, I'm in my last year of high school right now."
"Oh, high school. It's a horrible place. Where'd you live before?"
"I lived in Victoria."
"British Columbia?" I ask. I lived in Victoria, B.C. So if she lived there too, well nothing. But it'd be interesting.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well that's where I lived!" I excitedly proclaim.
"Really? What school were you in Bob?"
"I went to Benet high."
"Oh, I'm in Orange Star high. If we had taken the same school, that would've been pretty weird."
"Yeah, I'm suprised I never saw you around, Alice. Did you have a job?"
"No, I was always too busy with schoolwork and the internet."
"Yeah, those can get in the way of a lot."
"Bob."
"What did you say, Alice?"
"Nothing, did you say something?"
"No.."
I turn around and see a young woman behind me.
"Bob." She says.
"I'm a, thanks for coming to meet me."
Gosh, I thought I was going to be murdered for a moment. I'm glad it was just a. Or should I still be scared.. Either way, she was a very pretty lady. Looked to be about 19 years old.
She had long, beautiful black hair that flows around her face. Her eyes were a pretty hazely colour. She looked to be about 5"7 or so.
"Ouch!" I said, as Alice hits me, noticing I was paying too much attention to a.
"So a, why did you want to meet me here? Or.. Who are you?" I ask.
"Bob, we can't talk about this here. Could we head over to somewhere a little quieter?" a asks, pointing in the general direction of a small hill behind her with nobody around.
"Uhh..Sure, I suppose. Could you at least tell us who you are?"
"No. We will discuss this over there." She says, once again pointing at the hill.
"K, so we're at the hill. Can you talk to us now?" I ask a.
"We haven't moved yet, Bob."
"Damn.. Well can we hurry it up?"
As we walked over to the hill, Alice walked to my left, between a and I, and grabbed my hand.
"Hmm?" I ask her.
"Oh.." She says, as she takes her hand back.
"I didn't say it was a bad thing." I say, as I grab her hand again. I really have had some affection for her from the beginning, so this was kinda nice.
"What was that about?" a asks.
"Oh, nothing." Alice and I respond.
Once we got to the hill, we all sat down while leaning against the tree behind us. It was a beautiful white birch tree, and seemed a little out of place. Yes, let's walk to the single white tree and sit down for privacy, a. Where else would possibly be better?
"So can we-" I begin to ask, before I'm interupted by a.
"Yes, Bob, we can finally talk now. I suppose you are first of all wondering who I am."
"No, of course not. I'm wondering if you have any food." I say sarcastically, with a dash of rude.
"Okay." a says, with a wiped look on her face. I think I could hear a little anger in her voice, but she's been dragging this on too long. I deserved to be sarcastic.
"I am the so called 'hero of legends' that they speak of in this area."
"WHAT?! BUT! BUT! HE'S.. YOU'RE.. WHAT? I don't believe you." I respond in shock, I would've fell out of my chair, but I was already on the ground. So I just kinda fell over.
"Well, how would you like me to prove it?" She asks politely.
"Uhh, well.. I.. uh..Aren't you supposed to have chainmail armour, and a special sword of some sorts?" I ask, truly not knowing how to tell if one were to be the hero.
"Uhh, I still don't know who this hero of legends is Bob, I think you forgot to tell me about her.."
"Well, how about a explain the story. Since she is the person in the story."
a went on to tell the story that Talh told me. Not leaving out a single detail. I still preferred Talh's version of the story, it was shorter and I got to eat during it.
"And you are this saviour that they speak of?" Alice asks.
"I suppose I would be, but I see myself as just a regular person helping out her village."
"Apparently modest, too.' I add in.
"So, assuming you are this legendary hero thing person stuff story. Why did you need me here?"
"My time in this world is nearing it's end."
"Uhh, but you look to be about 19 years old, you couldn't possibly be dying soon." And she did look 19, I was hit earlier for noticing.
"Oh no, I'm not dying. I've just gotta leave. I've been chasing a man known as Marv Ravh for a long time now, and he's disappeared."
"What do you mean by 'disappeared'?"
"You mean he died?" Says Alice.
"No, I mean he's disappeared. I have a feeling he's using some inter-dimensional travel through another dimension. A hellish dimension filled with demons that will haunt your dreams for years."
"Well, maybe he'll just be scared out of there then?" I say, and I felt pretty good about that one. If the demons are that bad, I'd be scared out of there.
"Sometimes, those demons are better than facing me."
"Ooh. Is that our que to take a few steps back?" I respond with a smidgen of sarcasm. Just a smidgen.
"Heh, but seriously, what do you need me for then? If you're better than those demons, you should be able to go get them just fine."
"Yes, I easily could on my own. But I need somebody to watch over this dimension. I can't just leave these people here on there own, they need a saviour. A watchful eye to keep them protected.
"And you want Bob to be that person?" Alice questions. I was really hoping not. I'm not cut out for that stuff, I just moved out of my carboard box for crying out loud, I couldn't be a world's saviour. And how did this a girl even know me anyways..
"I know you can do it, the cardboard box is your past, Bob. I know you because I know everything about everyone that enters this world. I have been living here for many years."
"Uhh, I didn't say anything about cardboard boxes.." Sure, I thought it. But I didn't say it. Did she.. read my mind?
"No, but you thought it, Bob."
"WOAH! Can you teach me that?!" I really hope she can someday..
"Were you actually thinking that, Bob?" Says Alice, sometimes I forget about her. She seems really shy sometimes. Maybe that's why she's been leaning into me, with her arm wrapped around mine for the time we've sat here. Aside from when I fell over. She let go then.
"Yeah, kinda weird.."
"Perhaps. But are you willing to undergo rigorous training under me, Bob?"
"Uhh.. Can you give me a day to sleep on it?" I'm still unsure with what I want to do. I don't know if I want to continue living a peaceful life here with Alice, or if I want to be some hero for people. It's a big decision.
"Yes, definitely. Would you like to meet here tomorrow at noon, Bob?"
"Uhh, yeah sure I guess." I barely heard half of what she said, but something about poon, no it must have been noon. Noon tomorrow.. I guess here again..
"Well, I'll leave you guys to discuss your decision. I'll see you tomorrow, Bob." And then she disappeared. She was nowhere to be seen when I turned to say goodbye.
The walk home was kind of boring today. Normally I have been able to see the people walking about, the birds flying around. I could hear the bees buzzing as they flew from flower to flower. I could see kids playing off in the distance with their soccer ball with edges. Today I saw none of that, all I could think about were the past 7 hours spent with Alice and a. So much has happened.
I got a girlfriend.. I think. I met the hero of the WORLD. I was asked to BE the hero of the world. Today was a really long day for me, and I just wanted to sleep. And when we finally got home, that's exactly what I did.
"I'm heading to sleep, Alice. It's getting late and I've had a long day." I said, moments after entering our home.
"Goodnight, Bob." Alice says, and gives me a hug. "Just do what you think is right." She says, then leans back a little and kisses me. KISSES ME. It wasn't the greatest kiss, just a peck, really. But I haven't kissed anybody since.. Oh hell, I don't even know. Since my last marriage that went horribly wrong. I'm 20 years old, and can say I've been divorced. There's something sad about that situation. At least I'm happy with Alice, and she seems happy with me.
The next morning, I woke up fully reinvigorated and ready to go. Until I realized I had to make the biggest decision of my life. I had to choose between being the worlds hero, or just another sap in a village. It was a tough decision, but I finally had a solid decision, and I was confident it was the right one. All I had to do now was get ready, and walk over to the hill by noon.
I was pretty nervous. Well, really nervous. It was 9:00AM, according to the town clock. I had just woken up, and thought going for a walk would calm me down. But all I could think about was my future. Normally, when people my age have a decision to make, it's 'do I go get drunk, or do my college work..'
No, I wasn't stuck with anything easy, I had to choose between being the hero of a foreign world I've only been in for about a month - I've lost track of the days by now. Or to just leave them to die. I want to leave them to die, I want to go home, and return to my cardboard box. I want to see my ex-wife. I want to see my mother again, and the kind lady at the food bank. Even if none of them like me, I want to return to my own home, with the city lights, and the cars, and the noise. Even the robberies would be nice, a lot better than these boomers we have here.
Unfortunately, I can't. I'm stuck in this world, I can't think of anyway out. Every night I try to think of a way to get out of here. Sure, I may love Alice, but this isn't where I belong. I always wanted to grow up and be as great as my father. I never really knew him, or heard much about him. All I know is that he died valiantly in battle. I never heard which war he died in, or which side he fought on. He died before I was born, so I hear. But I've always had a feeling in my heart that he was still living on, somewhere. I never wanted to let it go. And I never have.
All my life I grew up just longing to be able to compare with him. My entire life has been trying my hardest to be as great, if not greater than him. And I've failed at every attempt. But I'm not going to give up, not until the day I die. And that's why I've chosen to take up a's offer.
If I couldn't be somebody like my dad in the real world, maybe I can do to these people what my father did to my world. I'll try my best to keep all the monsters at bay, or die trying. I'll live up to my father's title of hero, and let the legacy live on.
Chapter 5 - Training
"So have you made up your decision yet?" Alice asks as we're walking to meet a. For the first time, I realize just how much I really like Alice. As she asks me, she looks up and our eyes meet. I can always get lost in her blue eyes.
"Yes."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to take a up on her offer. I'm alive today because I decided to make something out of my life, and this is my chance."
"I see."
Walking down the path from our home to the town, and the hill just beyond it, I told Alice about my dad, and why I chose to take up a's offer.
As we neared the hill we were meant to meet a at, I could begin to see her silhouette at the top.
I began to slow down my pace. I'm not sure why, I guess I was just overwhelmed that in the next hour or so my entire life would be changed. Everything that I know would be changed. I'd still be me, a sarcastic 20 year old male in love with a 17 year old teenage high-schooler. But I'd be training to protect an entire Earth. That's a lot to put on a single man.
I began to get second thoughts about doing the training. I began to doubt my own skills. Could I really protect the entire square earth? Could I really be strong enough? I guess Alice noticed, as she said something to me.
"Your dad would be proud, Bob." She says as she squeezes my hand a little.
I thought she was right, and kept on walking to a. No matter what happened, I was going to undergo her training. And I was going to protect the world, I mean how hard can it be, right?
"So have you made up your mind, Bob?" a asks as we get up to the top of the hill.
"Yes."
"I assume you will come with me and train then?"
"Yes."
"Please meet me here at 7AM tomorrow, and we will go to my home where I can train you with a little more privacy. And Alice, I'm sorry, but you can't come. I must train Bob to his absolute peak, and there can be no distractions."
"But.. I.." Alice tried to say, choking on her tears. I saw a single tear fall down her face, and she wiped it away quickly. I could tell she was trying to be strong.
"Alice comes."
"I'm sorry, Bob."
"You don't get a choice in this. If Alice can't come, then I won't go with you."
"Bob, I'm sorry but Alice can't come. We only have a month before I have to leave, and you need to be fully prepared by then. Alice would only be a distraction. You can be back together in a month."
"Alice.. I'm sorry." I said, giving Alice a hug as she leaned into my chest and cried.
"I'll be back in a month, I promise."
"I. I.. I love you, Bob." Alice tells me, to my suprise.
"I love you too, Alice. But we're going to have to part for a short while."
"Okay." She says, giving me one final hug.
"You know, I'm pretty sure I said this, but we'll be meeting here at 7AM TOMORROW morning. So you guys still get another night together." a says. I guess she was listening in on our conversation.
"Oh.. Yeah. So, do you want to redo this whole thing tomorrow morning, Alice, or should we just, yeah, we'll just hug and kiss tomorrow." I said kind of awkwardly. I completely forgot I had until tomorrow, and then we had this whole emotional scene.
The next morning, I got up earlier than I have for many years. It was around 5AM when I woke up, and Alice was still sleeping. I decided to go for a short walk before I got ready to meet a for my training. I walked to the door, grabbed my jacket and walked outside.
This world is so beautiful in the morning. The trees glistening with the morning dew, the birds just waking up and tweeting carelessly. I could see animals of all kinds in the distance. Foxes, squirrels, ducks, to name a few.
I went around the house to the back and decided I'd walk through the forest a little ways, see if there was any lake, or river out there. Eventually, I found a small trail through the forest. I kept following this trail, and did eventually come up on a small lake. Looking up at the time, I realized it was about 5:20 by now. I figured I had enough time to sit and relax. I took off my shoes and socks, and then my pants, shirt and jacket and hopped into the lake. I felt as though I were thrown into a freezer, but it felt nice. I had been so tense, and stressed these past days. The cold just snapped me out of all that I guess.
As I floated through the lake, I thought just about what a and I were going to be doing. How would she be training me, and would I be able to be her sucessor? Why was it that she needed me specifically to help her, and how did she know about me. I guess these were all questions I would find the answers to in the next hour or so.
After about 20 minutes of floating around in the lake, I got out and realized just how cold the lake really was. I stood behind a tree, took off my boxers and wrung them out, then put them back on. I wasn't going to be seen walking into town holding underwear.The walk back wasn't as peaceful as the walk over. People were out and about, the birds dissipated into the forest, and did I mention I was wearing cold, wet underwear?
By the time I finally got back home and had a little relaxation, it was about 6:15ish. "Guess it's time for me to leave, Alice." I said to Alice as we sat by our dinner table discussing what's just happened in our lives. "I guess so." She responds. "Heh, I'm gonna miss this little hut of ours, I'm glad I'm only gone for a month though." "Yeah.." "Is something wrong?" I ask her. She seemed to be upset about something, her focus lost in her thoughts. "Oh no, it's just not going to be the same around here without you. I met you on my 4th day here, and we haven't been apart since. It's been nearly a month and a half now." "Yeah, it is going to be different, but I'll be back. I promise." "You'd better come back."
After a hug and kiss, I set out to meet a on the same hill we've met before. As I approached, I could see the familiar shape appearing on the horizon over the hill - the silhouette of a.
"I'm here, a. Where's your home so we can get to training?" I ask, anxious to get on with this training. As much as I will miss Alice and the familiar village, this whole thing is getting me really excited. "The training begins here." "What?" "It's simple. Just keep up with me." She says, and then begins running off. "Hey! Wait up! Where are we running to?" "My house." "How far away is it..?" "About two days run, assuming we don't sleep." "DON'T SLEEP?" "Well, if we sleep, we die. So, no sleeping." "What do you mean.." "The path is infested with horrendous creatures brought back from the dead." "So do I get a sword to defend myself.." "No. That's the training." And then she sets out running again
What have I gotten myself into I wonder to myself. And then set out after her.
At about mid-day, we came to a large Jungle. I could see a stopped there and waited for me. "This is where it gets dangerous. You either live, or die. Try and live." "What do you mean, it's daytime, those creatures only come out at night I thought." "The jungle is infested with them, in daytime or night."
Christ.. And she won't even give me a weapon to defend myself.
She runs off into the Jungle, and I stay closely behind her. But I had no hopes of staying right behind her. She was far too fast for me. I could see her annihilating all the monsters in her path. Well, not really, she just seemed to run past them and they died. Maybe she punched them faster than I could see, or maybe they just died to her presence. I'm not sure, but concentrating on that was a mistake I won't make again.
As I was trying to focus on a, I didn't notice the two Zombies closing in on me from behind. I heard there petrifying screams from behind me at the very last moment. As I jumped of fear and turned around, one of the zombies threw one of their rotting claws at me, and I barely dodged it. I looked around quickly for a weapon to use, anything - a stick, a stone, but to no avail. There was nothing here but my fists, and two zombies. I looked at the zombie behind the first, and it must've been a good 10 meters behind.
I took a step back quickly, and dodge the zombies second attack, then stepped forward and gave the zombie the hardest punch I could, right in the stomach. It was sent back at least a meter, but was persistent. It kept coming at me, and by now the second zombie was almost right on top of us. I spun my leg around underneath the first zombie, when the second jumped right on top of me. I shoved it off me, and my leg was attacked by one of them. I tried standing up, but could barely do it. I knew there was no chance for me.
Both the zombies lept forward at me, and I thought that was it. I tried to dodge, but I couldn't. They landed right on me, and I fell to the ground, hard. Suddenly, both the bodies on me went limp, and just disappeared in a puff of smoke. I slowly opened my eyes to see what happened, and saw a standing above me grinning.
"What are you grinning about?" I ask her painfully, realizing one of the zombies must have broken my jaw when they jumped on me. "You passed the first test."
Chapter 6 - The first step
"What happened yesterday" I asked a.
"Hmm?"
"What happened yesterday. All I remember is running through a Jungle, and then I awoke here. Where is here, anyway?" I said, noticing I was inside a small home, probably underground as the walls were made of stone. I looked around some more and saw very little in the way of decorations. A painting of a sunset, and a vase on a small table off in the corner were all the decorations she had.
"You were attacked by a couple Zombies."
"Oh yeah, and you said that was my training. What the hell's that supposed to mean?" I croak at her, as I go to stand up and look for a glass of water. Forgetting the zombie hit me in the leg yesterday.
"Ouch!"
"Careful, your leg isn't fully healed yet. I've wrapped it up, but it'll take a short while to heal still."
"Ugh, so what did you mean by my training? How was that training?"
"Calm down, you're asking the same question over and over. Yes, that was your training. The very start. I had to judge where you were, to figure out how we should start the real training."
"So.. where am I? Am I some super hero already?"
"No. You're extremely weak, and it will take more time than I first assumed. But your wounds heal very nicely, your jaw doesn't seem to be hurting anymore."
"Oh.. yeah, it doesn't.."
We sat down and talked a little more about what was in store for me, but it was always the same answer whenever I asked - I'd be protecting the world here. A couple hours later, I decided I'd start up the 'real' training she spoke of.
"Hey, a. My leg's doing a bit better now. When are we going to start this real training that you talk about?"
"We can do it now. Follow me."
I followed her along this long tunnel, dimly lit by torches hanging on the walls. The tunnel was probably about 500-600 meters or so, and it all looked the same. Stone, dirt, stone, dirt, stone, dirt. All the way through. I was going to ask her how this tunnel never collapsed, but figured I'd get some snappy answer and continued to ponder on it myself.
At the end of the tunnel, we arrive at this large open room. Quite a nice change from the interesting scenery I had before. At the front of the room, there was a large solid glass wall.
"Come here." a told me as she walked over to this glass wall.
"Uhh, ok."
I followed her over to the wall, and felt my heart drop. Inside that room there must have been over 100 zombies, skeletons, boomers and giant spiders. Not total, but each! My stomach started to churn, and I nearly fainted. This was a sight not for the faint of heart, nor the strong of heart apparently.
"Your training is to fight them."
"WHAAATTT??!?!?!?!?!" I screamed at her. She must be crazy, telling me to fight hundreds of monsters.
"Not at once. We'll start with a single zombie at first, and raise it up when you start getting more comfortable with fighting. Then we'll work on your other skills."
"Uhh, you sure I'm not just going to die the minute one of them can see me?"
"Well, no. Choose not to die, and you'll live."
"Wait.. How the hell did you even get these monsters in here?"
"No comment. Come with me."
I followed her off to the side, through a small secret door that I didn't even notice at first. It seemed to just appear in the wall.
This was a smaller room, but it had the same style. A pure stone wall, with a few specks of dirt here and there. At the end of the room, was an iron door. a walked over to this door, hit a couple buttons and opened it.
Shortly after she opened it, a single zombie walked out of the door, and started running straight at me.
"A!!! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO HERE?!?!?!?!?!" I scream at a as I run around the room, frantically trying to live.
"Kill it."
"HOW?!?!?!?!"
"Punch it."
This must have been the most terrifying moment of my life. All the other times I encountered a zombie, I never felt this much pressure on the fight. Having been running for too long, I turned around, prepared to fight the zombie. I looked straight at it, took in all it could give. It's horrible smell, the horrifying face. I was going to fight this zombie with my fists, and I was going to win.
The zombie was nearly 4 meters away from me when I finally screamed and ran away again. Passing by a, I heard her mumble something under her breath and shake her head.
I think it was something along the lines of "Maybe I should have chosen the wolf after all..."
I continued running, looking for some way out of this mess. I've never been able to fight a zombie and win. Every time, a was there to help me. Looking around, I saw a small piece of metal on the floor. Maybe about 30 centimeters long. I ran for it and grabbed it.
Feeling a little more confident with some kind of a weapon, I charge at the zombie. I brought up my arm, and I started to swing at the zombie. But just before I hit, a was standing in between the zombie and me, holding my piece of metal, shoving the zombie back with nothing but her thoughts.
"I said punch it." She said furiously as she snapped the metal right out of my hands and walked away.
Punch it, she says. How the hell am I supposed to punch it. I can barely outrun it. I thought to myself, while continuing to frantically run around the confined room. And then the answer came to me. If I can outrun it, I'm faster than it.
So I turn around to face this putrid beast once more, my only weapons my hands. I let it continue it's rampage towards me, and watch it's movements. Right before it's about to strike at me with it's torn left arm, I dodge to the left, and give it a hard jab in the side of it's head.
The zombie reels backwards from the hit, and smashes into the wall of the room.
Alright! I did it! I can beat this thing.
I let the zombie come towards me again, and watch it's movements again. It starts to swing it's left arm up at me, so I dodge to the left again, when the zombie slashes at me with it's right arm. The force of the hit pushed me back nearly 2 meters, and took a good part of my arm with it. The zombie just stands there, gnawing on the flesh it stole from me. I run straight at it, and at the last moment, jump to the side and give it a mean uppercut.
At this moment, a steps in and finishes off the zombie for me. In one moment, she's standing at the sidelines, and the next moment, the zombies dead, again, while a's standing next to me.
"I thought I had to kill this to complete my training." I ask her, confused, and relieved I can do something about my arm. "You had to punch it. That's all I asked of you today." She responded. "Punch it? But what's that gonna do. I already know how to punch." I say while giving her a light job on the shoulder. "You needed to face your fear, and stand up to it. Now we can proceed to the next step. We're going to leave now." "But all my stuff is back at the cave we were in. All I have here are my clothes." "We'll pass by the cave. You can write your final journal entry, and we'll set off tomorrow morning."
The end
So this is going to be my final journal entry for a while. I guess I'll explain what's happened since we got back to the cave, and what I know of the plans a has.
Once we got back to the cave, a gave me this potion and told me to drink it. When I asked her what it was, she said it was a potion of healing. The instant I drank it, my injured arm healed up immediately. Apparently it's created by using solid gold and various other ingredients. To think she would spend that much money on me is scary, mainly because it means I'll need to use that arm tomorrow. For what, I'm not sure. I'm just hoping it's nothing too dangerous, though I did sign up to become the hero of a world, so Ill have to face dager eventually.
After the odd potion, I questioned a about what the plans are, and why I can't bring anything. She wouldn't say much, though it involved extesive training, beyond anything I've experienced before. We'll be going caving, mining, digging, running and swimming through tough terain. And she mentioned something about maybe visiting hell, to train my endurance, and durability. Though it may be too risky.
Aside from that, I don't really know what else is going to happen with me. I'm kinda scared, honestly. Venturing out into a new world, with nobody I know. Yet, to be the hero of all. It's a scary and exciting concept.
Maybe I'll be able to make another journal someday, and you can finish hearing my story. But for now, I'm leaving this here, and going to continue with my training. Wish me the best of luck!
ChangeLog:
11/24/2012 - Update 32: Ooooh, second major renovation this book has had. But, it's for the better. I'll be redoing one chapter per day for the next 6 days. So yes, Bob's Story will at least be 100% complete in 6 more days.
Today I redid the prologue. I'm pretty satisfied with how it's turned out, personally. Sorry I keep taking these extended breaks. I lose motivation and I don't do it. But I do genuinely love Bob's Story. I'm quite proud of it, tbh.
As a side note, I will be recording myself reading this story and uploading the audio to Youtube. As said in the beginning of the story. (Not yet, I'm gonna add it there when the first one is uploaded. I'm not going to send a bunch of people to my channel with promises of an audio book without having it up first.)
Please enjoy the story, and look forward to upcoming stories in this series!!
9/09/2012 - Update 31: Fairly quick update, though not as quick as in the beginning. I got Chapter 2 edited, few more updates until the story's done. I said september in the last one, but because of things that have arised, I'll be moving that up to likely end of october.
Extra update: I fixed the 3023 in the previous changelog. The date was set to 8/30/3023. That was about a thousand years off.
8/30/2012 - Update 30: First updates this soon after one another for a LONG time. Sorry 'bout that guys. But now, the stories simple to finish. Probably another 4 update beore the editing phase is complete. Then probably 5 updates for the next, 5 for the next, and then we're done! So it'll likely be finished before the end of september. Isn't that GREAT NEWS?!
At any rate, I fixed up a few things in the thread layout, and I edited the prologue and chapter 1. There shouldn't be any grammatical or perspective inconsistencies there anymore. Granted, there's still a LOT of work to be done in the prologue and chapter 1. I'll probably completely rewrite them both in the next phase, they're that bad. I'll be seeing you guys tomorrow, when I edit chapter 2!
Again, I'm really happy with how this stories turned out. Since I haven't got the adventure map out, I have a few other suprises in store for you guys. Keep checking back to find out what they are!
8/29/2012 - Update 29: First draft completed. I'll admit, tears have formed in my tear ducts. Tears of happiness, and sadness. Im sad that I've got to finish writing the story. And I'm happy that it's finally completed. I guess it's onto phase two - Editing.
To all you fans out there: No, the story isn't actually finished. There are still many more updates coming to it before it's finished. I also intend on writing an Alice's story, so you can all learn more about who Alice is, where she's from and see the story from her perspective. I promise an emotional rollercoaster with that one. She's a bit unstable.
And plus, Bob promised us that he'll get another journal. I'll work my hardest to find that... Right after phase 4 is completed here. I also find my writing has improved drastically, so the sequel will be significantly superior. Speaking from an objective and unbiased point, based on grammar, descriptiveness and other factors.
6/18/2012 - Update 28: Been a long time for an update eh? Oh well. Chapter 6 has a bit written in it, style's probably changed a bit but that's alright. I've tried to keep it rather similar. I'll write the rest of chapter 6 tomorrow probably.
4/25/2012 - Update 27: Chapter 5 has been completed. Completely completed. Somewhat unhappy about how it turned out, and I know, with absolute certainty that this will be a chapter I will highly revise.
4/23/2012 - Update 26: Chapter 5 has begun. I've lost inspiration for a little while. Gonna watch a couple episodes of Inuyasha and see what happens. Either way, Chapter 5 will be completed tomorrow.
4/22/2012 - Update 25: Chapter 4 has finally been entirely completed. I added a little bit onto it. The addition was originally going to start out Chapter 5, but I realised it would fit perfectly onto the end of Chapter 4, and adding it to Chapter 4 makes writing after the addition far easier. So here you go, the end of Chapter 4, for real!
4/18/2012 - Update 24: Chapter 4 has been finally completed. I have made my decision, and it has been written. If you must know what the choices I had to choose between were, I might tell you. Maybe.
I'm satisfied with the way Chapter 4 has turned out, and I'm really glad I made the choice I did. Now Bob is stuck with a similar dilemma, what will he choose? Stay tuned to find out.
P.S I am going to release the first edition of the adventure map when chapter 5 is released. If nobody can make the mods for me, I'll have to do it myself I guess.. They aren't too difficult, I'm just not familiar with the Minecraft methods.
4/18/2012 - Mini-Update 23.2: More of chapter 4! But that's not why I made this mini update. I just had to tell you guys that I friggin love smooth jazz. It's so calming, and relaxing. Ironically enough, that makes it really distracting.
4/16/2012 - Mini-Update 23.1: I need help! Please read below if you are a sufficient Java programmer.
This is the part where I change how the story plays out. The very next couple paragraphs dictate EXACTLY what will happen with this story. This is an extremely large part in the story, and I need a while to think about it. I should come to a conclusion tonight, so be on ears for an update tonight.
For now though, enjoy what little of Chapter 4 you have.
On to chapter 4 I guess. Really excited for where the story is going now. Who is this a. What does he want with Bob? Is his name pronounced -A or SHEET-A? Find out when I write chapter 4!
I'm seriously giddy for what's coming up. The next 2 chapters are going to be perhaps the most AWESOME chapters EVER written. In this story, at least. Lots of action, lots of.. Well I'll leave spoilers out for now. But EEK. So excited to write the next two chapters. But for now, I've gotta start working on my adventure map. I want to get it caught up to here. By chapter 3, there's already a LOT of redstone that I need to deal with..
4/15/2012 - Update 21: Chapter 3! Uploaded part of chapter 3. It's still incomplete, but I'm getting rather tired, and I don't want to write while I'm tired. Not a good idea.
4/15/2012 - Update 20: Thread revamp. Revamped the thread slightly. It looks a little tidier, and I re-wrote a little bit of the thread. I think it looks much nicer, and cleaner. What about you guys?
But hey, I'm back right? That's what really matters. Now if only I could find some coffee to keep me going so I can write chapter 3. I know exactly how I'm going to end it. No clue how to start it yet. It'll be a good chapter, not sure if I want a lot of humour and fun, or if it should be serious. Guess we can find out tonight. Anyhoo, finally reached Update 20, as many of you were no doubt longing for. And chapter 3 is merely hours away, as I'm sure MANY of you were dying for. So here we go.
Got my smooth jazz, water, cuz I don't have coffee. Computer chair, glowing blue keyboard, robe cuz pajamas are for losers. And it's midnight, my prime writing time! Hope you guys like the new thread.
1/5/2012 - Update 19: Chapter 2. It's been completed. Oh, and we're about to reach 1000 views. I really gotta hurry up with event #2..
1/5/2012 - Update 18: Massive thread revamp. It looks much cleaner, and everything has been compacted into spoilers, except the main story. Hope it looks better and you guys like it.
1/4/2012 - Update 17: REMOVED THE OLD VERSION! I figure the revised edition is, in fact, caught up. It's slightly behind where it was, but we have met Talh, and have been given Yarlusik's home. Yarlusik. Sounds like somebody we know. Kinda seems like that may be his last name, doesn't it? Time to do something about the 123 flying rabbits that have infested my home.
Oh, and I realized that the changelog itself was getting too long to not be put in a spoiler. So here you go, it now looks slightly better... I need a better colour for it though, seeing as it's a log. Gonna pick out a nice gray.
1/4/2012 - Update 16: Got some more of chapter 2 done. The next part is going to be, erm, a difficult part to write. So I'm stopping here until I can figure out how to do it nicely.
1/4/2012 - Update 15: It's 4AM, so I really didn't get much done. I added a disclaimer, changed some stuff, fixed some spelling errors and wrote part of chapter 2.
However; it's 4AM, like I said, and I am WAY too tired to get much creative thinking done right now, so to prevent horrible writing, I am going to wait until morning to get any more work done on chapter 2. Goodnight to you all.
1/3/2012 - Update 14: I missed the last '2' in '2012' in the last log update. I fixed that. Oh, and I finished chapter 1. But I fixed the 2, that's the important part.
1/3/2012 - Update 13: Almost finished the redo of chapter 13. Hows it lookin' so far guys?
1/3/2012 - Update 12: I'm re-writing it all. I'm keeping the storyline, and all that, but I'm going to try out a slightly different writing style. Rather than third person, the story will be written in first person, by bob. Grammar will be slightly different, words will be made up, and some things will change. But remember, BOB is writing it, not I. Words will be spelled properly, proper grammar used, but some things may be slightly different than you are used to.
I have also updated the top of this thread, and cleaned up the thread slightly. I hope it looks better now.
1/3/2012 - Update 11: WOOTNESS. JUST BROKE 500 VIEWS! Thanks guys! You all make me keep writing.
1/3/2012 - Update 10: MORE OF CHAPTER 2 DONE. I will review what I wrote just now tomorrow morning, when I am not so tired and determine whether it is enough for chapter 2. As of yet, chapter 2 may be longer.
1/1/2012 - Update 8: Sorry guys, there was another slight delay yesterday. It was new years, and I'm sure most of you were drunk anyways though. I decided to go to a party with a few of my friends. I was invited last minute.
I decided that what was here was enough for Chapter 1. And I am starting on Chapter 2. However, Chapter 2 is going to be a bit of work. I'm going to have Bob build his first home, and I need to think of ways to describe block-by-block placement without sounding cheesy.
12/31/2011 - Update 7: Sorry guys, there was a slight delay yesterday. After I got off work, I saw one of my best and closest friends, of which I haven't seen for about 3 weeks. I missed her, and it was more important to sit and chat with her than it was to get on here and finish chapter 1. I will definitely finish it tonight though. My apologies to those who were expecting chapter 1 finished.
12/30/2011 - Update 6: ADDED A POLL! Should I continue writing? How good is it so far?
12/29/2011 - Update 5: Wrote another part of Chapter 1.
12/29/2011 - Update 4: New title to the thread. You can now check if it's been updated by looking at the thread title!
12/29/2011 - Update 3: Fixed a few spelling errors that were bugging me. Wrote part of Chapter 1.
12/28/2011 - Update 2: Organized the thread a little better. Added some colours, changed the size of the text.
12/28/2011 - Update 1: Finished the rough draft of the prologue. Created rough draft of the thread.
So, you came into the fan art section, specifically to read people's stories that they enjoy writing, just so you can tell us to play some minecraft? No, I think you actually ENJOY reading stories, but can't seem to fathom the fact that stories aren't written in a matter of a couple hours.
I sincerely doubt you came into this thread just to tell me to play minecraft.
Just broke 100 views. :biggrin.gif: Feels like an accomplishment. It's actually getting quite a few views pretty fast. Are you guys linking people to my thread, or are you all just the same people who keep checking back? Either way, people must like this.
POST ON IT! Show your appreciation, +1 the post. Tell me what needs to change, what do you guys wanna see? What problems should Bob encounter? I can't find inspiration out of nothing!
UPDATE 5. Finished more of Chapter 1! Read it and tell me what you think of it so far! :biggrin.gif: Post on this thread, keep it alive if you like it!
I am also in the process of writing a WIP Novel inspired by Minecraft. Unfortunately for both you and I, they're not the most revered things in the Minecraft universe. Oh well.
This is coming along quite nicely, might I say.
Whether they are the most sought after bit of Minecraft or not, I'm mighty proud of being able to get about 70-100 views on it daily. So far, my story seems to be the *statistically* most popular on the forums. Although, my story could just be going viral cuz people despise it so much. Nevertheless, writing is a hobby of mine, and as such the views matter not to me. So long as I get some feedback from people, such as you, Zide and patroninja, I'll enjoy doing it.
Hahaha, cool Zide.
I'm at work right now, but I'm off in 6 hours. Gonna get home, kill some zombies in my XP farm then come and finish chapter 1! On to chapter 2 tomorrow. :biggrin.gif:
UPDATE 7 - Sorry guys. Small delay last night, but now I HAVE seen her in less than 3 weeks, so I can get back to writing. :smile.gif: Just waking up now and then I head off to work. I'll be sure to finish chapter 1 tonight.
My apologies to those more avid readers that were expecting Chapter 1.
And it's MY story, I'm not following any structure to my story, it's my story. If I wanted his name to be Steve to resemble Steve from Minecraft, I'd have named him steve, and followed in the footsteps of hundreds of other people. How many have had a main character of Bob?
Make the almighty player once again set the difficulty to hard. Let Bob assail the mighty creepers with his valiant diamond sword.
In case you haven't read it, this isn't strictly based off of Minecraft. There are no players, there is no difficulty and a diamond sword is surely not to exist within this. Thank you though.
ALSO GUYS. I am currently working on finishing chapter 1. I'm somehow popular in real life, despite being a slightl overweight nerd that sits in his room working on animations, programs and other assorted things. And as such, I was invited to go to some party last night. SO YEAH. I was partying all night last night.
Chapter 1 will be finished within the next hour or so.
UPDATE 8: Chapter 1 finished. I realized what I had was good enough for Chapter 1. I was half asleep every other time I read it and thought there was something else I could add. If I did, it would be too long after editing, and just be a run-on.. chapter? :wink.gif:
Sorry for the delay guys, have a happy new years! What's your new years resolution? :smile.gif:
You should definitely keep writing these...I see no need for the poll. I hope the Nether will somehow be included?
Oh I know. I just like seeing the statistics.
And perhaps it will. Maybe... A second book?? :smile.gif: I'm already really excited for the main climax in this book. So much so that I have to take extra time when writing now to avoid introducing it too soon. That would be devastating. Technically, I could throw in the climax now, have it all sorted out and it would work out just fine. But I have to find some way to create many mini-conflicts to create the story encapsulating and interesting, all the while extending the length of the story itself.
This be an actual spoiler.
Perhaps a quest for a legendary sword? Who is this George? Did he really leave the town? Is he.. Religious by any chance? :wink.gif:
Well, don't introduce the climax yet... Maybe a big event that would make you think it's the climax...but then it's actually not and there's another one. I dunno :tongue.gif:
Edit: how do I add spoilets? I'm kind of a noob on these forums :tongue.gif:
Well, don't introduce the climax yet... Maybe a big event that would make you think it's the climax...but then it's actually not and there's another one. I dunno :tongue.gif:
Edit: how do I add spoilets? I'm kind of a noob on these forums :tongue.gif:
As I said, I need to add a bunch of mini-conflicts to extend the storyline. :wink.gif:
[spoiler] tags
Recently, XDaWNeDX, owner and proprietor of Bob's Story, has finished writing the first edition of Bob's Story. Please play your part in the poll, and comment below leaving your opinion. Please enjoy this tale of a man having his life turned around by a purple portal in a box.
Want to support this story? Open this spoiler to find donation links, signatures, and other things that you can do to help out!
Donate: Link Removed
Of course, you can also advertise this thread using the fine artwork supplied by many of the finest artists on this forum!
Whoops_Typo's signature can be seen here. It looks really nice, and he's the FIRST person to make one for us, so go +1 his post. You can see it right HERE!
Garrickc is another kind person that decided to help out. This one is made by him, you can see his post over HERE!
TheBlownMind made this one, and it's absolutely stunning. It really looks like a lot of work was put into this. You can head on over to his thread and request something to be made for yourself. Be sure to +1 him!
EmeraldEntity made the following two signatures. The only difference is they have different colours slightly, and v2.0 has the names of the two main characters on it. But they both look absolutely amazing, and I am very thankful for the work put into them. Go and see his post over HERE If you liked his, and used his, +1 his post. Remember, he posted a few times there, +1 a couple posts. There are, after all, two images.
Emerald Entity's v 1.0
Emerald Entity's v 2.0
A big thank you to all artists who put any time into creating a sig. You were all very creative with your sigs that you designed, and they all look simply amazing. Thank you very much. I tell you exactly where you can find these artists' posts. They took time out of their lives to make this. If you end up using one, go +1 their posts.
Want to design your own sig for all to view?
I don't have many requirements for you. If you truly want to design a sig, that's your decision, and I'm sure you can figure it out yourself. I want to see how YOU guys percieve this story, this world. How does it appear in YOUR minds? I could tell you exactly what I want, but why wouldn't I just go make it myself then? Be creative, and make something that YOU would be proud to have in your sig.
THIS STORY HAS A YOUTUBE PLAYLIST. I will be recording each chapter, and bits of information about each character. Be sure to check out the playlist here if you'd rather listen to the story being told to you!
http://bit.ly/StoryTime64
But, I digress.
Guess you found my journal, whoever you are. I started writing this journal a good while ago. If you're reading this, I suppose I lost it somewhere and you've found it. So I'll start at the beginning of what's happened. Maybe you can make some sense out of everything that's gone on.
I was living my life as I did every day, sleeping in a beaten up cardboard box outside the food bank. My wife recently divorced me and I was fired from my dayjob, so I couldn't afford the mortage on my home. Apparently banks don't like that.
I was looking around in my box for some spare change, when I noticed a purple portal beginning to form in the bottom of it. I jumped back from it, and stuck my head into it. Right when I stuck my head in, I was pulled through by some invisible force and started falling.
I looked for a safe way to land and noticed a lush green forest. I tried to jump for it, then remembered I was falling and couldn't jump. Thankfully, a pig sipping water from the deep ocean was right below me and I landed on it. There wasn't any corpse left over, just a few strips of bacon..
I looked around quickly and couldn't see much. There were no cars, no people, no buildings or roads. I was all alone in this world. Well, not alone per-se. I could see some farm animals in front of me, plus the pig I landed on.
Off to my left there was a large cave filled with monsters. Spiders, but not just the terrifying little spiders. Horrifying giant spiders. There were some skeletons of people, and what looked like some people with a limp and some blood on them. When I looked a bit closer, I saw they were zombies, or at least seemed to be. I decided to stay away from that cave for now.
Behind me was much nicer, there was a large ocean, seemingly untouched for years. Crystal clear water, and nothing in sight for miles. It was.. Peaceful, somehow.
I decided I'd need some shelter at night. It didn't look like any of those monsters liked being in the light, but I wasn't sure how they'd react when night fell. So I set out through the forest.
The forest was much like the ocean, seemingly untouched and peaceful. Until I heard some rusltling about in the bushes next to me. I pulled a few leaves out of the way and saw some creature. A green creature that walked on four stubby legs with no arms. It had an upset look on it's face and kept staring at me. I went ahead and moved in for a closer look, just to see what it was about. As I started getting closer, it suddenly ran at me. The last thing I heard was a loud hissing sound before it blew up.
I lay there for a while, hardly able to breathe and thought about what I'd done with my life. I had no job, no wife, and I lived in a damn cardboard box! I realized then, that I really had done absolutely nothing in my life. If I died right there, nobody would've missed me. Nobody would've remembered me.
I tried to stand up, but kept falling down on my knees. Finally I started to feel faint. All I could see now were just some black blotches and something moving in the distance. I hoped that somebody, anybody would come along and save me. I wasn't ready to die just yet.
After that encounter with the boomer, as I thought was a suitable name for them, seeing as they make a very large BOOM. I decided to go ahead and set up a makeshift shelter. It was really nothing special, just a small shelter with room enough for a bed made out of dirt. I went ahead and slept to the peaceful sounds of screaming zombies, and the cracking of the skeleton bones. See the sarcasm there? It really was a terrifying night. I kept wondering if the monsters would be able to breach the security of my small dirt house. It was a cold night, too. I had no wool, because I didn't go and steal some from the sheep I saw earlier. I did fall asleep eventually, thankfully. When I awoke, I felt fully recovered. I could still hear the sounds of zombies and skeletons outside, so I waited around until I couldn't hear them anymore. Having no glass, I couldn't make any windows in this small home.
When the sounds finally subsided, I removed some of the dirt at the side where I wasn't hearing any sounds before, and peeked my head out. I saw nothing out there, so I quickly made a dash for the cover of the trees and turned around. It was a useless attempt, there was nothing outside anywhere, except the forest I took cover in. I walked back to my home, grabbed my stuff and went to see the other side of my home. I saw some dead zombie corpses. Which was odd, because wouldn't they already be dead? And skeletons'... Skeletons? Which again, is odd. I grabbed some of the arrows from the skeleton, and the skeletons' bow. With this newfound weapon, I felt much more secure.
However; upon trying to shoot a target, I realized I may have better aim if I relied purely on luck and just wore a blindfold whenever I got into a fight. But this was extremely impractical. I didn't have any wool, and couldn't make a blindfold. So I setup a practice target, just a simple pig attached to a tree. Kidding, I carved an X into a tree. I wouldn't harm a pig like that, unless I fell on them. After many hours of practice, I started getting a lot better. Eventually, I was able to hit the tree every single time. I still couldn't hit the X though, unless I had a random twitch just before I shot. But again, I can't rely on that. Who's to say I'll get a twitch every time I make a shot?
Another few hours of practice, and I could hit near the X every time. This was good enough for me, I needed to hit a big body about the size of a human being, an X is much smaller. With my newfound archery skills, I went back home and grabbed the rest of my stuff. I left a few precious items in there. A coin, given to me by my father on his deathbed, for one.
Just as I was about to leave, it started getting dark and I saw some boomers start appearing in the forest. I also saw some skeletons, and zombies. But I felt I could handle them with my arrows. So instead of trekking out to find civilization, I decided to sleep the night away. So I patched up the hole in my dirt home, and passed out on the dirt bed. Those sounds of zombies and skeletons and spiders were starting to be less annoying. I guess I was getting used to them, having been in this world for 2 whole days already.
I woke up a little later the next day. I wanted to get up at the break of dawn, to get the most out of the day, but sadly, I hadn't. It was about 11AM when I woke up, I guessed by the sun's positioning.
Doing the same method of getting out of my home, I ran to the ocean next to me this time. Thankfully I did, there was a spider waiting silently above my home. As it charged at me, I cowardly ran into the ocean and dove down to grab a rock. When I re-surfaced, I threw the rock violently at the spider, knocking it out of consciousness. If I learned one thing from this encounter, it's not to leave my home without a weapon.
I quickly ran back to my home, grabbed my Bow and arrows, and of course the coin, then set out on a long journey to find somebody in this empty world. Leaving my home, I decided to walk straight out the door, and then keep walking straight until I see somebody. I figured I may as well not turn around, thought it made it all that much more dramatic. Even though there was nobody around to see it. And you know, I'm very glad I decided to keep walking straight.
After walking for a few hours, I began to hear a lot of commotion and a girl screaming off in the distance. I unslung my bow and began running in the direction of the girl. When they sounded close, I climbed ontop of the pine trees and started moving slowly and quietly, hoping not to expose my presence. When I climbed the trees and started looking around, I saw where it was coming from very soon. There was a horde of zombies chasing a girl through the forest. I debated whether to save her, or leave her be and let the zombies be distracted.
Eventually, I decided to save her. Moving through the canopies as though they were flat land, I caught up to the girl fairly quickly. Staying in the trees, I started to pick the zombies off one by one. It was definitely good practice for my aim, I must've missed at least 20 arrows on those 6 zombies. Thankfully, I never hit the girl.
After I surveyed the area, making sure no zombies were left, I jumped down and ran to the girl. She was just sitting there, hugging her knees and rocking. I walked over and put my arm around her. "It's going to be alright, they're all gone now." I told her, in an attempt to comfort her. Sadly, I got no response. "My name is Bob, you can stay with me if you'd like. I'll protect you."
"I'm Alice." She said, as she painfully stood up.
"Your leg, are you okay?" I thought I noticed a limp as she ran, but I couldn't be sure of it until now.
"Yes. A zombie slashed at my leg when I was running, I'll be fine."
"I don't think so. I'm going to build a small home for us to stay tonight."
I then set out to make a small home, as I told her. I walked around, looking for a few large rocks and eventually found a gravel hill. Taking two of the largest stones I could find, I pounded them together until they looked sharp enough to cut down some wood. With my new axe-head, I went back to where I left Alice and broke off one of the larger sticks I could see. I took some of the twine I found on the trek over here, and bound the rock to the sticks. It wasn't completely sturdy, but I could worry about that later. For now, I had to chop down some more trees.
When I got a suitable amount of wood piled up, I started creating a small home and asked Alice if she could go and shear a few sheep that I saw off in the distance. She complied, and left to get some wool for us. While she was gone, I kept working on the home, making sure it looked adequate and had enough room for two beds spaced apart by a few meters.
By the time Alice finally returned, I had finished all but the roof, and it was starting to get dark.
"Here's some bacon, could you make us a fire and cook it up please?" I said, wishing I hadn't. Now I had no bacon, and certainly couldn't land on another pig to get perfect bacon.
She started making a fire and cooking the bacon, while I finished the roof and set up the beds. When the house was completely done, Alice had all the bacon cooked up and we had a nice dinner of bacon and some eggs that she found while she was grabbing the wool.
While we were eating dinner, I noticed how beautiful Alice really was. She seemed fairly atrractive while she was being chased by zombies, but I was slightly distracted at that point.
She had long, flowing red hair, and deep blue eyes that touched your soul. She was about 5"6, about 7 inches shorter than I. A scar, on the left side of her chin showed she's been in some fights before, but it wasn't so large that it took away from her beauty. She looked to be about 17, which was good. I was 20. If she were any younger, and something were to happen... Well, that would just be.. For lack of a better word, wrong.
Just before we went to sleep, Alice moved the bed I made her to right next to mine.
"Umm.."
"I just feel more comfortable here."
"Alright."
It was a much more comfortable sleep tonight, although the unprocessed wool we were using as a blankets was quite smelly, it kept us much warmer than not having anything over top of us.
In the morning, I woke up to Alice in my bed shivering from the cold. I got up quietly and put my wool blanket over top of her. I tore out the last page in this journal, which at this point, I actually wasn't writing in.
Alice, I've left to see if there is any civilization around here. I'll be back today, don't leave the house please. I don't know if your leg has healed enough to run from a zombie again.
I was walking for a few hours before I saw the first signs of civilization. I saw a small gravel road leading to a small village. The largest building seemed to be a church, although it wasn't BIG. The roof was made of entirely glass. There was a tall cross on the front of it, and it had a nice stone walkway leading up to it. In front of the church was a small grassy area with a tree and some flowers, it made the whole church look really nice.
But that's not what made me realize people were living here. I saw a man walk out of the church in a priest's clothing, and then head to a home at the far end of the village. Odd, you'd think the priest would live near the church, or near the entrance to the village.. Oh well. Not wanting to be caught up in a conversation, I ran back to the small home I left Alice at.
Walking in, I was greeted with a giant hug. "Thank you so much Bob. I was too fatigued yesterday to think, I apologise for being so rude."
"Oh, that's alright. You really weren't that rude." I said, modestly. In all reality, she was. I saved her from 6 zombies, and built her a house and she didn't even say thank you.
"Well thank you anyways. Here, I cooked up some lunch."
It was a little late for lunch, being about 2PM, but it was still delicious. I guess she went out and got some food while I was gone. The lunch was delicious, still just the regular bacon and eggs. But after eating only a few slices of bacon, and an egg over the past 3 days, it tasted better than steak.
"So, did you find anything interesting on your adventure today Bob?" she asks, before biting off another piece of crispy bacon.
"Yes, I found a small village about 3 hours to the north."
"3 hours..."
"We can wait until your leg has fully healed before making the trek out there."
"HEY! My leg is fine!" She said as she tried to stand up, only to fall back into her chair, wincing in pain.
"I see. Well, maybe we should just run over there. I'm sure it'll only be an hour long run then." I replied, with a sarcastic smile.
"Alright, we'll wait."
Over the next few days, I started noticing improvements in Alice. She was starting to go for regular morning walks, taking a stone sword I made for her, of course. I realized that we may soon leave for that small village, so I started to pack up my things a little bit. I put away everything except the beds, and the fire pit. Those things would be just far too difficult to move.
"Another couple days..." I muttered.
"What?" Alice asked.
"Oh, I was just talking to myself."
"Oh.. Well, what did you mean by Another couple days?"
"Well, I didn't mean to say it out loud. You seem like you're getting better, and I just thought we might be able to leave soon. I guess I spoke my mind. My bad."
"Oh.. Well my leg does feel better, but it still hurts a little bit to walk on it. And uh, Bob, I've been wondering. What's in that book that you have over there? Is that a journal or something?"
"Oh this?" I said, grabbing the book. "This is just an empty book, but maybe I should use it as a journal. Document our adventures."
And that's when I started writing. As I write these words, I'm still sitting next to Alice, and she's in awe over what happened to me. And the fact that I said things could happen... I didn't mean it that way Alice! But hey,
Shortly after I decided to write in this journal, Alice and I went to sleep, Alice moving even closer to me in her sleep this time. Again, I woke up earlier than her and gave her my smelly woolen blanket. However; this time, I didn't leave the home. I sat down and opened up a small cupboard to grab some bacon and some eggs. This time, I was going to make HER breakfast, enough with the sexism.
Now, I'm not the greatest cook. That's why I used to lived outside the food bank, free food. But I can cook some bacon and eggs. So I set up the fire, and grabbed the iron pan which was really just a thin iron slate with the edges bent upwards. I placed the pan above the fire, on a holding rack that Alice must have made, and let it get hot. When I felt it was hot enough, I threw in some bacon and cooked it up. Removing the bacon, and the bacon grease, I cracked in a few eggs and let them sizzle for a while, absorbing the delicious bacony taste.
Finally, I had the whole breakfast cooked up. Bacon and eggs, only thing missing was toast, and unfortunately, I had no wheat to make bread. "We really should start a farm for some wheat..." I mumbled under my breath.
"Pardon?" Alice says sleepily, standing behind me.
Startled, I jump out of my chair, nearly knocking the breakfast on the floor.
"I thought you were still sleeping. Good morning, I made some breakfast."
"Oh, well thank you."
Sitting down on the dirt mounds we called chairs, we had our first real conversation.
"So, Bob, how long have you been in this world?"
"I've been here about 8 days now, and to be honest, I'm starting to like it. It's really a nice change from reality, and everything seems to be natural, and pristine. How long have you been here, Alice?"
"Well, that day that you rescued me was the first day I came into this world. So 4 days, I think."
"Wow, well then, I'm glad I decided to rescue you." I said, with a smile.
"So am I." She said, laughing. "And umm, I think I'm gonna be able to make the walk today."
"Are you sure, Alice, I don't want you hurting your leg any more."
"Yes, I'm sure."
So that afternoon, we left for the village. It was a lot longer than just a few hours, with Alice still limping, but we eventually made it to the village with no problems. Except, this time, something was different. There were more people walking around, talking, trading. Maybe I just came too early the other day. But if that's the case, what was the priest doing out then.. Oh well, I could find out later.
The first place we decided to go, was the town square. Well, the entrance, but right after that. The town square was small, and a circle. Different shops set up around the circle for food, wheat, armor, weaponry, and a shop for stuff to setup a shop. However; it's not the odd shops that caught my attention. I saw a man that looked like the priest I saw the other day, enter the same house at the far side of town. Something about it just drew me towards him. I felt like I was needed there.
"Hey Alice, see if you can find a mayor, or somebody. Maybe find somewhere that we can live for a while. A tavern, or an abandoned home or the likes. I'm gonna go and check the other side of town."
"Uhh, ok.. You sure I can't come with you?"
"Yeah.. I think I saw something over there." I said, pointing in the direction of the home I was going to go investigate."And we still need somewhere to stay, you wouldn't be able to make it back before nightfall."
"Well, alright."
"Good, we'll meet here in exactly 1 hour." I said, as I turned and left.
"But be careful Bob, I don't know what I would do without you..." She says quietly, thinking I didn't hear her.
Being a nice person, I just kept walking, letting her think I didn't hear her. The village was fairly small, so the 'far' end of town was just about 5 minutes of walking. Arriving at the home of the assumed priest, I knocked on his door.
"Rrr. One moment." I hear somebody grumble inside, before the door opens. "Hello." He says
"Hi." I was lost. I didn't know what I was investigating, or what to do. I stuttered for a moment, before I got an idea.
"I saw you come out of the church the other day, you looked like a priest. I thought you may know if there was anywhere that me and my.. Girlfriend, can stay." I lied about her being my girlfriend, but who would believe a guy lives with a girl that he isn't related to, and isn't in a relationship with?
"Oh yes, of course. A man named Yarlusik has just moved over to Nekot, leaving his home abandoned. He has a very large home, but it's quite messy. And there may be some, unwanted visitors in there. I can show you where it is, if you'd like."
"Oh please, that would be great." I said. I still didn't know what he was doing out at that time, but it couldn't have been anything bad, he seems like a nice man.
"Would you like to come in, I am making some soup, and you look like you could use some food."
"Oh, sure. By the way, I haven't properly introduced myself. My name is Bob."
"Well hello Bob, my name is Talh." We shook hands, and walked over to his kitchen.
Talh poured us both a bowl of soup, and tore off some bread for us to eat. I think the conversation that I had with Talh may have been the most interesting one that I had since entering this world. I'll just jump right into it.
"So Talh, what's the history of this town?" I asked while noisily eating a piece of bread drenched in the delectable soup.
"Ahh, we have quite an interesting history here in Sojeph. In fact, it's more of a legend. If you'll notice, there are many monsters around here, yes?"
"Yes, I have noticed that. It worries me."
"You need not worry, Bob. The monsters won't be attacking us here in Sojeph. They tried, many years ago, but they were forced out when the hero of legends jumped in wielding the legendary sword that expelled all evil. Many say it's a sword made out of pure diamonds, enchanted by the very gods themselves. Others say it's a sword crafted from the finest ores across the world. What is it, truly, we shall never know."
"A legendary sword? Where is this sword?" I asked, truly intrigued by the story.
"None know, it's said to still be held by the hero himself. Anyways, the hero jumped in and cut down all of the monsters with a few strikes of his sword. The few that were left turned and ran, tail between their legs. Since that day, 2 decades ago, we haven't had a single monster enter this village. Legend has it, the hero still guards this town to this very day,"
"Wow, did anybody actually see this hero, or know his name?"
"Many have seen him, but never his face, nor his name. He was dressed in full chainmail armor, the finest armor a knight can wear. A full faced helmet, made of hardened steel. He didn't look like much, but he was strong, and fast. Very fast. Oh, but these are just tales of an old man. I'm sure I must be boring you by now. I'll walk you to Yarlusik's home now. You said you had a girlfriend, right?"
"OH! SHOOT! I was supposed to be meeting her at the town square 10 minutes ago! I've got to get going Talh, I'm sorry. Can I come back with her later, and then you could show us to the house?"
"Oh, that won't be necessary. I can come with you to the town square. I've been meaning to get down there to replenish my poor food supply anyway. I wasn't expecting such a hungry visitor." Talh responds, showing hints of sarcasm towards the end.
"ALICE!" I yelled sharply as Talh and I approached the town square.
"Alice, where are you!"
"Bob, I'm over here by the weapons shop!"
Making our way through the busy square, Talh and I finally managed to get to Alice.
"I just thought we should pick up a couple swords while we were here, just in case."
"Oh, good idea Alice. One problem. We have no money."
"Oh zat won't be a probrem, sir." The merchant says almost inaudibly.
"Zere is ay tahlent show on tonight. Ze vinner gets 5000 Nezny."
"Nezny?" I ask, not sure what this was exactly.
"Is Nezny the currency here?" Alice asks, seeming a little too interested in my opinion.
"Yes, Alice. Nesnee is the currency we use here." Talh responds, clearing up any questions either of us had.
"So.. If we were to enter this talent show, and win.. We'd win 5000 Nesnee?"
"I believe those are the rules, yes." Talh responds.
"Yes, zey are da rules Aleese. You enter da Tahlent show and vin 5000 Nezny." The merchant quickly says, almost interupting Talh. I get the feeling Talh and this merchant aren't the greatest of friends.
"Alice.." I say quietly. "What talent do either of us have that could win us the grand prize?"
"Well, I don't know.."
"Hey Talh, would you be able to show us the way to that home you spoke of? I think I'd like to get some rest before signing up for some talent show."
"Yes, of course. Just follow me please."
Talh took us up a long windy path, that eventually left the gravel road that ran between all the homes in the village. It wasn't the greatest of walks, there were a few holes in the ground that led to large caves, or maybe just one really, really big cave.. Off in the distance, I could see the boomers being shot by some skeletons. Apparently nobody likes those green creeps. Not even dead people.
After what seemed like a lifetime, but was probably about 10 minutes, we arrived at the house.
"Here Bob, you should take this sword for the time being. It's not safe to be out here without some form of protection."
"Oh, thanks Talh, guess we won't need to enter the Talent competition after all!"
"No, I'll need the sword back, Bob."
"Oh.."
I grabbed the sword from Talh, and it must've weighed at least 15 pounds. Made out of what seemed to be pure, refined iron. I gave the sword a few practice swings, and felt pretty comfortable with it. I lent my new sword up against the home, and realized that I must have left my bow at our last home, as well as all of the arrows.
"Crap.."
"What?" Talh and Alice say almost at the same time.
"Oh.. It's nothing, just ignore it."
I reach for the doorknob on the front door, when I heard something inside. Quickly, I grabbed for my sword and readied it in front of me, not knowing how to properly weild a sword. Realizing I can't open the door like this, I point it down and to my right, while grabbing the doorknob to open the door. In one smooth motion, I turn the doorknob, push the door open and take a few steps back, bewildered by the sight I just saw.
The image inside was horrid, and utterly disgusting. There were at least 7 zombies in the home, they looked absolutely horrifying. And dead, very dead. Thankfully, some kind person was robbing our house and killed the zombies.
This mysterious home-robber seemed familiar. As though I recognized him from somewhere, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He was dressed in full chainmail armor, with a steel helmet. I could vaguely see a hilt of a sword peeking out from his right shoulder. Apparently this mystery warrior is left handed.
And then it hit me. This was the warrior of legends, and it literally hit me. Not one to talk, he quickly ran out the door, nudging me on the way out. He was lightning fast, I couldn't even see through the holes in the helmet as he ran by.
"Was that..?" I asked Talh, still slightly confused as to what just happened.
"If you mean the hero of legends, then yes, I believe it was." Talh responds awestruck at what he's just witnessed.
"Uhh.."
"Oh yeah. Alice, I'll explain everything later. But for now, let's clear these zombie corpses out of our house."
"WE'RE GOING TO LIVE HERE?!?!?!?!" Alice exclaims, with a touch of anger in her voice.
"Uhh.. Well we have nowhere else to live.."
"YOU'RE SAYING YOU CAN BUILD A HOUSE IN ABOUT 20 MINUTES, BUT WE CAN'T FIND ANYWHERE TO LIVE??"
"Oh.. Yeah. I forgot how easy it is in this world. Sorry." I didn't really forget, I just REALLY didn't want to build another house. And who gets to say they cleaned zombie corpses out of their home?
"I could get some people to build you a home a bit closer to the village while you guys get your talent segment ready for the big show. It's already 6PM and the show starts at 8."
"Thanks, Talh. I forgot about the talent show. I guess I could enter as the most skilled forgetter." I replied.
"You wouldn't win. You have to be a talented forgetter to win a talent show." Alice says, laughing.
Later that night, the talent show began. And there were some truly spectacular talents people had. One guy even juggled boomers! It was perhaps the most amazing, and fear-filled day I ever had.
I signed up to show off my refined archery skills, and Alice signed up for something she wouldn't tell me.
Finally, it came to be my turn. I set up five targets. One at 10 meters, and another every 10 meters from there. I hit the target on every one. I even suprised myself, I really thought I'd miss the 50 meter target.
After my turn, it was Alice's turn. I finally got to see what she signed up for.
"Next up, is Alice." The announcer.. Announces.
"ALICE WHO?" Somebody screams from the audience.
"Just Alice, Sir." The announcer politely responds.
"Alice will be showing us her talent to suprise ANYBODY she wants to. I'm not so sure she can suprise everybody that's looking at her, but she says she can. We'll just have to find out."
"Thanks." Alice says, as she grabs the microphone.
"Hi.. Uhh. Umm. Uhhhh. So.. I'm going to. Uhh. Suprise you all. You'll uh. Be suprised." Alice says as she turns around, and bends over, presumably to put the microphone down.
What she did after that suprised the hell out of me, and the rest of the audience, as all that was heard after that was "GASP!" from the audience. She wasn't turning around and bending over to put the mic down. She quickly grabbed her pants and mooned the audience! I guess she can surprise everybody.
After the talent show, we were called to the main room. Both of us.
"Alice, I'm sorry. Your display was too rude to pass as a win. You were disqualified. As for you, Bob. Your talent with the bow was simply amazing. You fired all the arrows so quickly and accurately, it was truly amazing. You win the 5000 Nesnee."
"Really? Wow. That's awesome! I didn't think I'd win, that juggler was pretty awesome, I really thought he would've won."
"Well, I guess we could do a re-count."
"Nono, that'll be fine. Thanks for the money!"
After accepting my prize money, Alice and I went over to the town square to buy a couple swords for protection, only to find all the stores were closed. The only one open was a store selling solar panels. Ironic, really.
Disappointed, Alice and I walked over to the place Talh said the house would be built. And boy was it ever built. It was MASSIVE. At least 10 meters wide by 15 meters long, and one floor. This thing was absolutely gigantic.
"Gosh, it's so small.." Alice said.
"WHAT? This is huge!"
"Uhh, compared to your box, maybe."
"Oh.. Well, it's nice." I said, happy to take any house they could build.
As we walked in, I took off my rugged brown jacket and hung it up on a post next to the door.
"What's that?" Questioned Alice.
"What?"
"The piece of paper that fell out of your jacket."
"What piece of paper?"
"This one." Alice says as she grabs a folded piece of paper that must've been in my pocket.
"Oh, I'm not really sure.. Let's read it and find out."
"BOB. This is a, I have a favour to ask of you. Please meet me at the town square tomorrow at 3PM."
"Who's a, Bob?" Alice asks.
"I.. don't know. Guess we'll find out tomorrow at 3." I respond. I really don't know who this a is, but I've got a pretty good idea.
"Well, it's getting pretty late. I think we should head to sleep." I tell Alice, as it was nearing midnight. I look over to the bedroom area and notice there's only one bed.
"Oh uhh, you can take the bed if you want." I tell Alice. I guess Talh thought we really were in a relationship, and only thought one bed was necessary. Oops.
"Oh.. I couldn't make you sleep on the floor Bob."
"Well, I'm not going to make you sleep on the floor. I was raised with more respect than that."
"Well I was thinking we should share the bed, Bob."
"Oh, ok, sure. Why not."
The next morning, I woke up around 10:00AM. I got out of bed, went for a short walk and grabbed a few large sticks. I brought the sticks home, and began chipping away at them. What was I making? Not sure, I was just making something. Slowly, I'd stroke the knife up the stick and slice a thin layer off the wood. Making sure not to cut directly into the wood. I ended up with 3 pointy sticks. Not too creative, but it was a good pastime.
"What time is it..." Alice says sleepily, having just woken up.
"Uhh, about 11."
"WHAT?! It's already 11! We've gotta get down to the town square soon."
"That's in 4 hours.."
"EXACTLY! No time at all."
"Uhh, 4 hours. Four. F-O-U-R HOURS."
"I KNOW! Gosh, where's the shower around here.."
"I.. don't think there is one."
"No shower? My hair is going to look like a mess when we go meet this a then.."
"Your hair looks fine. I hear there is a river about 40 minutes from here. You can go wash up down there if you want."
"Y'know. I think this hairstyle actually looks pretty nice."
"Hahaha. Now you like it."
We both laugh a bit, sit around and talk for a little while, and just try to pass the time until it was time to go meet a.
Finally, 3PM rolled around and we walked down to the town square.
"So what does this a look like?" Alice asks. To be honest, I really had no idea. I mean, I had SOME idea, but it wasn't anything to go off of.
"I uhh, don't really know.."
"Oh. Well that's good then."
"Whys that?"
"'Cause now we can sit and wait for him to come to us." Alice says, with the biggest grin on her face.
"Alright, let's just sit down on this bench here. I'm sure a knows what I at least look like. He wrote me a note after all."
We sat down on the bench and just started talking for a little while. What else can you do while you're waiting.
"So Alice, what did you do before coming to this world? You know everything about my past, through the journal. But we've never talked about you." I ask alice.
"Oh.. Not much. I went to school, I'm in my last year of high school right now."
"Oh, high school. It's a horrible place. Where'd you live before?"
"I lived in Victoria."
"British Columbia?" I ask. I lived in Victoria, B.C. So if she lived there too, well nothing. But it'd be interesting.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well that's where I lived!" I excitedly proclaim.
"Really? What school were you in Bob?"
"I went to Benet high."
"Oh, I'm in Orange Star high. If we had taken the same school, that would've been pretty weird."
"Yeah, I'm suprised I never saw you around, Alice. Did you have a job?"
"No, I was always too busy with schoolwork and the internet."
"Yeah, those can get in the way of a lot."
"Bob."
"What did you say, Alice?"
"Nothing, did you say something?"
"No.."
I turn around and see a young woman behind me.
"Bob." She says.
"I'm a, thanks for coming to meet me."
Gosh, I thought I was going to be murdered for a moment. I'm glad it was just a. Or should I still be scared.. Either way, she was a very pretty lady. Looked to be about 19 years old.
She had long, beautiful black hair that flows around her face. Her eyes were a pretty hazely colour. She looked to be about 5"7 or so.
"Ouch!" I said, as Alice hits me, noticing I was paying too much attention to a.
"So a, why did you want to meet me here? Or.. Who are you?" I ask.
"Bob, we can't talk about this here. Could we head over to somewhere a little quieter?" a asks, pointing in the general direction of a small hill behind her with nobody around.
"Uhh..Sure, I suppose. Could you at least tell us who you are?"
"No. We will discuss this over there." She says, once again pointing at the hill.
"K, so we're at the hill. Can you talk to us now?" I ask a.
"We haven't moved yet, Bob."
"Damn.. Well can we hurry it up?"
As we walked over to the hill, Alice walked to my left, between a and I, and grabbed my hand.
"Hmm?" I ask her.
"Oh.." She says, as she takes her hand back.
"I didn't say it was a bad thing." I say, as I grab her hand again. I really have had some affection for her from the beginning, so this was kinda nice.
"What was that about?" a asks.
"Oh, nothing." Alice and I respond.
Once we got to the hill, we all sat down while leaning against the tree behind us. It was a beautiful white birch tree, and seemed a little out of place. Yes, let's walk to the single white tree and sit down for privacy, a. Where else would possibly be better?
"So can we-" I begin to ask, before I'm interupted by a.
"Yes, Bob, we can finally talk now. I suppose you are first of all wondering who I am."
"No, of course not. I'm wondering if you have any food." I say sarcastically, with a dash of rude.
"Okay." a says, with a wiped look on her face. I think I could hear a little anger in her voice, but she's been dragging this on too long. I deserved to be sarcastic.
"I am the so called 'hero of legends' that they speak of in this area."
"WHAT?! BUT! BUT! HE'S.. YOU'RE.. WHAT? I don't believe you." I respond in shock, I would've fell out of my chair, but I was already on the ground. So I just kinda fell over.
"Well, how would you like me to prove it?" She asks politely.
"Uhh, well.. I.. uh..Aren't you supposed to have chainmail armour, and a special sword of some sorts?" I ask, truly not knowing how to tell if one were to be the hero.
"Uhh, I still don't know who this hero of legends is Bob, I think you forgot to tell me about her.."
"Well, how about a explain the story. Since she is the person in the story."
a went on to tell the story that Talh told me. Not leaving out a single detail. I still preferred Talh's version of the story, it was shorter and I got to eat during it.
"And you are this saviour that they speak of?" Alice asks.
"I suppose I would be, but I see myself as just a regular person helping out her village."
"Apparently modest, too.' I add in.
"So, assuming you are this legendary hero thing person stuff story. Why did you need me here?"
"My time in this world is nearing it's end."
"Uhh, but you look to be about 19 years old, you couldn't possibly be dying soon." And she did look 19, I was hit earlier for noticing.
"Oh no, I'm not dying. I've just gotta leave. I've been chasing a man known as Marv Ravh for a long time now, and he's disappeared."
"What do you mean by 'disappeared'?"
"You mean he died?" Says Alice.
"No, I mean he's disappeared. I have a feeling he's using some inter-dimensional travel through another dimension. A hellish dimension filled with demons that will haunt your dreams for years."
"Well, maybe he'll just be scared out of there then?" I say, and I felt pretty good about that one. If the demons are that bad, I'd be scared out of there.
"Sometimes, those demons are better than facing me."
"Ooh. Is that our que to take a few steps back?" I respond with a smidgen of sarcasm. Just a smidgen.
"Heh, but seriously, what do you need me for then? If you're better than those demons, you should be able to go get them just fine."
"Yes, I easily could on my own. But I need somebody to watch over this dimension. I can't just leave these people here on there own, they need a saviour. A watchful eye to keep them protected.
"And you want Bob to be that person?" Alice questions. I was really hoping not. I'm not cut out for that stuff, I just moved out of my carboard box for crying out loud, I couldn't be a world's saviour. And how did this a girl even know me anyways..
"I know you can do it, the cardboard box is your past, Bob. I know you because I know everything about everyone that enters this world. I have been living here for many years."
"Uhh, I didn't say anything about cardboard boxes.." Sure, I thought it. But I didn't say it. Did she.. read my mind?
"No, but you thought it, Bob."
"WOAH! Can you teach me that?!" I really hope she can someday..
"Were you actually thinking that, Bob?" Says Alice, sometimes I forget about her. She seems really shy sometimes. Maybe that's why she's been leaning into me, with her arm wrapped around mine for the time we've sat here. Aside from when I fell over. She let go then.
"Yeah, kinda weird.."
"Perhaps. But are you willing to undergo rigorous training under me, Bob?"
"Uhh.. Can you give me a day to sleep on it?" I'm still unsure with what I want to do. I don't know if I want to continue living a peaceful life here with Alice, or if I want to be some hero for people. It's a big decision.
"Yes, definitely. Would you like to meet here tomorrow at noon, Bob?"
"Uhh, yeah sure I guess." I barely heard half of what she said, but something about poon, no it must have been noon. Noon tomorrow.. I guess here again..
"Well, I'll leave you guys to discuss your decision. I'll see you tomorrow, Bob." And then she disappeared. She was nowhere to be seen when I turned to say goodbye.
The walk home was kind of boring today. Normally I have been able to see the people walking about, the birds flying around. I could hear the bees buzzing as they flew from flower to flower. I could see kids playing off in the distance with their soccer ball with edges. Today I saw none of that, all I could think about were the past 7 hours spent with Alice and a. So much has happened.
I got a girlfriend.. I think. I met the hero of the WORLD. I was asked to BE the hero of the world. Today was a really long day for me, and I just wanted to sleep. And when we finally got home, that's exactly what I did.
"I'm heading to sleep, Alice. It's getting late and I've had a long day." I said, moments after entering our home.
"Goodnight, Bob." Alice says, and gives me a hug. "Just do what you think is right." She says, then leans back a little and kisses me. KISSES ME. It wasn't the greatest kiss, just a peck, really. But I haven't kissed anybody since.. Oh hell, I don't even know. Since my last marriage that went horribly wrong. I'm 20 years old, and can say I've been divorced. There's something sad about that situation. At least I'm happy with Alice, and she seems happy with me.
The next morning, I woke up fully reinvigorated and ready to go. Until I realized I had to make the biggest decision of my life. I had to choose between being the worlds hero, or just another sap in a village. It was a tough decision, but I finally had a solid decision, and I was confident it was the right one. All I had to do now was get ready, and walk over to the hill by noon.
I was pretty nervous. Well, really nervous. It was 9:00AM, according to the town clock. I had just woken up, and thought going for a walk would calm me down. But all I could think about was my future. Normally, when people my age have a decision to make, it's 'do I go get drunk, or do my college work..'
No, I wasn't stuck with anything easy, I had to choose between being the hero of a foreign world I've only been in for about a month - I've lost track of the days by now. Or to just leave them to die. I want to leave them to die, I want to go home, and return to my cardboard box. I want to see my ex-wife. I want to see my mother again, and the kind lady at the food bank. Even if none of them like me, I want to return to my own home, with the city lights, and the cars, and the noise. Even the robberies would be nice, a lot better than these boomers we have here.
Unfortunately, I can't. I'm stuck in this world, I can't think of anyway out. Every night I try to think of a way to get out of here. Sure, I may love Alice, but this isn't where I belong. I always wanted to grow up and be as great as my father. I never really knew him, or heard much about him. All I know is that he died valiantly in battle. I never heard which war he died in, or which side he fought on. He died before I was born, so I hear. But I've always had a feeling in my heart that he was still living on, somewhere. I never wanted to let it go. And I never have.
All my life I grew up just longing to be able to compare with him. My entire life has been trying my hardest to be as great, if not greater than him. And I've failed at every attempt. But I'm not going to give up, not until the day I die. And that's why I've chosen to take up a's offer.
If I couldn't be somebody like my dad in the real world, maybe I can do to these people what my father did to my world. I'll try my best to keep all the monsters at bay, or die trying. I'll live up to my father's title of hero, and let the legacy live on.
"So have you made up your decision yet?" Alice asks as we're walking to meet a. For the first time, I realize just how much I really like Alice. As she asks me, she looks up and our eyes meet. I can always get lost in her blue eyes.
"Yes."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to take a up on her offer. I'm alive today because I decided to make something out of my life, and this is my chance."
"I see."
Walking down the path from our home to the town, and the hill just beyond it, I told Alice about my dad, and why I chose to take up a's offer.
As we neared the hill we were meant to meet a at, I could begin to see her silhouette at the top.
I began to slow down my pace. I'm not sure why, I guess I was just overwhelmed that in the next hour or so my entire life would be changed. Everything that I know would be changed. I'd still be me, a sarcastic 20 year old male in love with a 17 year old teenage high-schooler. But I'd be training to protect an entire Earth. That's a lot to put on a single man.
I began to get second thoughts about doing the training. I began to doubt my own skills. Could I really protect the entire square earth? Could I really be strong enough? I guess Alice noticed, as she said something to me.
"Your dad would be proud, Bob." She says as she squeezes my hand a little.
I thought she was right, and kept on walking to a. No matter what happened, I was going to undergo her training. And I was going to protect the world, I mean how hard can it be, right?
"So have you made up your mind, Bob?" a asks as we get up to the top of the hill.
"Yes."
"I assume you will come with me and train then?"
"Yes."
"Please meet me here at 7AM tomorrow, and we will go to my home where I can train you with a little more privacy. And Alice, I'm sorry, but you can't come. I must train Bob to his absolute peak, and there can be no distractions."
"But.. I.." Alice tried to say, choking on her tears. I saw a single tear fall down her face, and she wiped it away quickly. I could tell she was trying to be strong.
"Alice comes."
"I'm sorry, Bob."
"You don't get a choice in this. If Alice can't come, then I won't go with you."
"Bob, I'm sorry but Alice can't come. We only have a month before I have to leave, and you need to be fully prepared by then. Alice would only be a distraction. You can be back together in a month."
"Alice.. I'm sorry." I said, giving Alice a hug as she leaned into my chest and cried.
"I'll be back in a month, I promise."
"I. I.. I love you, Bob." Alice tells me, to my suprise.
"I love you too, Alice. But we're going to have to part for a short while."
"Okay." She says, giving me one final hug.
"You know, I'm pretty sure I said this, but we'll be meeting here at 7AM TOMORROW morning. So you guys still get another night together." a says. I guess she was listening in on our conversation.
"Oh.. Yeah. So, do you want to redo this whole thing tomorrow morning, Alice, or should we just, yeah, we'll just hug and kiss tomorrow." I said kind of awkwardly. I completely forgot I had until tomorrow, and then we had this whole emotional scene.
The next morning, I got up earlier than I have for many years. It was around 5AM when I woke up, and Alice was still sleeping. I decided to go for a short walk before I got ready to meet a for my training. I walked to the door, grabbed my jacket and walked outside.
This world is so beautiful in the morning. The trees glistening with the morning dew, the birds just waking up and tweeting carelessly. I could see animals of all kinds in the distance. Foxes, squirrels, ducks, to name a few.
I went around the house to the back and decided I'd walk through the forest a little ways, see if there was any lake, or river out there. Eventually, I found a small trail through the forest. I kept following this trail, and did eventually come up on a small lake. Looking up at the time, I realized it was about 5:20 by now. I figured I had enough time to sit and relax. I took off my shoes and socks, and then my pants, shirt and jacket and hopped into the lake. I felt as though I were thrown into a freezer, but it felt nice. I had been so tense, and stressed these past days. The cold just snapped me out of all that I guess.
As I floated through the lake, I thought just about what a and I were going to be doing. How would she be training me, and would I be able to be her sucessor? Why was it that she needed me specifically to help her, and how did she know about me. I guess these were all questions I would find the answers to in the next hour or so.
After about 20 minutes of floating around in the lake, I got out and realized just how cold the lake really was. I stood behind a tree, took off my boxers and wrung them out, then put them back on. I wasn't going to be seen walking into town holding underwear.The walk back wasn't as peaceful as the walk over. People were out and about, the birds dissipated into the forest, and did I mention I was wearing cold, wet underwear?
By the time I finally got back home and had a little relaxation, it was about 6:15ish.
"Guess it's time for me to leave, Alice." I said to Alice as we sat by our dinner table discussing what's just happened in our lives.
"I guess so." She responds.
"Heh, I'm gonna miss this little hut of ours, I'm glad I'm only gone for a month though."
"Yeah.."
"Is something wrong?" I ask her. She seemed to be upset about something, her focus lost in her thoughts.
"Oh no, it's just not going to be the same around here without you. I met you on my 4th day here, and we haven't been apart since. It's been nearly a month and a half now."
"Yeah, it is going to be different, but I'll be back. I promise."
"You'd better come back."
After a hug and kiss, I set out to meet a on the same hill we've met before. As I approached, I could see the familiar shape appearing on the horizon over the hill - the silhouette of a.
"I'm here, a. Where's your home so we can get to training?" I ask, anxious to get on with this training. As much as I will miss Alice and the familiar village, this whole thing is getting me really excited.
"The training begins here."
"What?"
"It's simple. Just keep up with me." She says, and then begins running off.
"Hey! Wait up! Where are we running to?"
"My house."
"How far away is it..?"
"About two days run, assuming we don't sleep."
"DON'T SLEEP?"
"Well, if we sleep, we die. So, no sleeping."
"What do you mean.."
"The path is infested with horrendous creatures brought back from the dead."
"So do I get a sword to defend myself.."
"No. That's the training." And then she sets out running again
What have I gotten myself into I wonder to myself. And then set out after her.
At about mid-day, we came to a large Jungle. I could see a stopped there and waited for me.
"This is where it gets dangerous. You either live, or die. Try and live."
"What do you mean, it's daytime, those creatures only come out at night I thought."
"The jungle is infested with them, in daytime or night."
Christ.. And she won't even give me a weapon to defend myself.
She runs off into the Jungle, and I stay closely behind her. But I had no hopes of staying right behind her. She was far too fast for me. I could see her annihilating all the monsters in her path. Well, not really, she just seemed to run past them and they died. Maybe she punched them faster than I could see, or maybe they just died to her presence. I'm not sure, but concentrating on that was a mistake I won't make again.
As I was trying to focus on a, I didn't notice the two Zombies closing in on me from behind. I heard there petrifying screams from behind me at the very last moment. As I jumped of fear and turned around, one of the zombies threw one of their rotting claws at me, and I barely dodged it. I looked around quickly for a weapon to use, anything - a stick, a stone, but to no avail. There was nothing here but my fists, and two zombies. I looked at the zombie behind the first, and it must've been a good 10 meters behind.
I took a step back quickly, and dodge the zombies second attack, then stepped forward and gave the zombie the hardest punch I could, right in the stomach. It was sent back at least a meter, but was persistent. It kept coming at me, and by now the second zombie was almost right on top of us. I spun my leg around underneath the first zombie, when the second jumped right on top of me. I shoved it off me, and my leg was attacked by one of them. I tried standing up, but could barely do it. I knew there was no chance for me.
Both the zombies lept forward at me, and I thought that was it. I tried to dodge, but I couldn't. They landed right on me, and I fell to the ground, hard. Suddenly, both the bodies on me went limp, and just disappeared in a puff of smoke. I slowly opened my eyes to see what happened, and saw a standing above me grinning.
"What are you grinning about?" I ask her painfully, realizing one of the zombies must have broken my jaw when they jumped on me.
"You passed the first test."
"What happened yesterday" I asked a.
"Hmm?"
"What happened yesterday. All I remember is running through a Jungle, and then I awoke here. Where is here, anyway?" I said, noticing I was inside a small home, probably underground as the walls were made of stone. I looked around some more and saw very little in the way of decorations. A painting of a sunset, and a vase on a small table off in the corner were all the decorations she had.
"You were attacked by a couple Zombies."
"Oh yeah, and you said that was my training. What the hell's that supposed to mean?" I croak at her, as I go to stand up and look for a glass of water. Forgetting the zombie hit me in the leg yesterday.
"Ouch!"
"Careful, your leg isn't fully healed yet. I've wrapped it up, but it'll take a short while to heal still."
"Ugh, so what did you mean by my training? How was that training?"
"Calm down, you're asking the same question over and over. Yes, that was your training. The very start. I had to judge where you were, to figure out how we should start the real training."
"So.. where am I? Am I some super hero already?"
"No. You're extremely weak, and it will take more time than I first assumed. But your wounds heal very nicely, your jaw doesn't seem to be hurting anymore."
"Oh.. yeah, it doesn't.."
We sat down and talked a little more about what was in store for me, but it was always the same answer whenever I asked - I'd be protecting the world here. A couple hours later, I decided I'd start up the 'real' training she spoke of.
"Hey, a. My leg's doing a bit better now. When are we going to start this real training that you talk about?"
"We can do it now. Follow me."
I followed her along this long tunnel, dimly lit by torches hanging on the walls. The tunnel was probably about 500-600 meters or so, and it all looked the same. Stone, dirt, stone, dirt, stone, dirt. All the way through. I was going to ask her how this tunnel never collapsed, but figured I'd get some snappy answer and continued to ponder on it myself.
At the end of the tunnel, we arrive at this large open room. Quite a nice change from the interesting scenery I had before. At the front of the room, there was a large solid glass wall.
"Come here." a told me as she walked over to this glass wall.
"Uhh, ok."
I followed her over to the wall, and felt my heart drop. Inside that room there must have been over 100 zombies, skeletons, boomers and giant spiders. Not total, but each! My stomach started to churn, and I nearly fainted. This was a sight not for the faint of heart, nor the strong of heart apparently.
"Your training is to fight them."
"WHAAATTT??!?!?!?!?!" I screamed at her. She must be crazy, telling me to fight hundreds of monsters.
"Not at once. We'll start with a single zombie at first, and raise it up when you start getting more comfortable with fighting. Then we'll work on your other skills."
"Uhh, you sure I'm not just going to die the minute one of them can see me?"
"Well, no. Choose not to die, and you'll live."
"Wait.. How the hell did you even get these monsters in here?"
"No comment. Come with me."
I followed her off to the side, through a small secret door that I didn't even notice at first. It seemed to just appear in the wall.
This was a smaller room, but it had the same style. A pure stone wall, with a few specks of dirt here and there. At the end of the room, was an iron door. a walked over to this door, hit a couple buttons and opened it.
Shortly after she opened it, a single zombie walked out of the door, and started running straight at me.
"A!!! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO HERE?!?!?!?!?!" I scream at a as I run around the room, frantically trying to live.
"Kill it."
"HOW?!?!?!?!"
"Punch it."
This must have been the most terrifying moment of my life. All the other times I encountered a zombie, I never felt this much pressure on the fight. Having been running for too long, I turned around, prepared to fight the zombie. I looked straight at it, took in all it could give. It's horrible smell, the horrifying face. I was going to fight this zombie with my fists, and I was going to win.
The zombie was nearly 4 meters away from me when I finally screamed and ran away again. Passing by a, I heard her mumble something under her breath and shake her head.
I think it was something along the lines of "Maybe I should have chosen the wolf after all..."
I continued running, looking for some way out of this mess. I've never been able to fight a zombie and win. Every time, a was there to help me. Looking around, I saw a small piece of metal on the floor. Maybe about 30 centimeters long. I ran for it and grabbed it.
Feeling a little more confident with some kind of a weapon, I charge at the zombie. I brought up my arm, and I started to swing at the zombie. But just before I hit, a was standing in between the zombie and me, holding my piece of metal, shoving the zombie back with nothing but her thoughts.
"I said punch it." She said furiously as she snapped the metal right out of my hands and walked away.
Punch it, she says. How the hell am I supposed to punch it. I can barely outrun it. I thought to myself, while continuing to frantically run around the confined room. And then the answer came to me. If I can outrun it, I'm faster than it.
So I turn around to face this putrid beast once more, my only weapons my hands. I let it continue it's rampage towards me, and watch it's movements. Right before it's about to strike at me with it's torn left arm, I dodge to the left, and give it a hard jab in the side of it's head.
The zombie reels backwards from the hit, and smashes into the wall of the room.
Alright! I did it! I can beat this thing.
I let the zombie come towards me again, and watch it's movements again. It starts to swing it's left arm up at me, so I dodge to the left again, when the zombie slashes at me with it's right arm. The force of the hit pushed me back nearly 2 meters, and took a good part of my arm with it. The zombie just stands there, gnawing on the flesh it stole from me. I run straight at it, and at the last moment, jump to the side and give it a mean uppercut.
At this moment, a steps in and finishes off the zombie for me. In one moment, she's standing at the sidelines, and the next moment, the zombies dead, again, while a's standing next to me.
"I thought I had to kill this to complete my training." I ask her, confused, and relieved I can do something about my arm.
"You had to punch it. That's all I asked of you today." She responded.
"Punch it? But what's that gonna do. I already know how to punch." I say while giving her a light job on the shoulder.
"You needed to face your fear, and stand up to it. Now we can proceed to the next step. We're going to leave now."
"But all my stuff is back at the cave we were in. All I have here are my clothes."
"We'll pass by the cave. You can write your final journal entry, and we'll set off tomorrow morning."
So this is going to be my final journal entry for a while. I guess I'll explain what's happened since we got back to the cave, and what I know of the plans a has.
Once we got back to the cave, a gave me this potion and told me to drink it. When I asked her what it was, she said it was a potion of healing. The instant I drank it, my injured arm healed up immediately. Apparently it's created by using solid gold and various other ingredients. To think she would spend that much money on me is scary, mainly because it means I'll need to use that arm tomorrow. For what, I'm not sure. I'm just hoping it's nothing too dangerous, though I did sign up to become the hero of a world, so Ill have to face dager eventually.
After the odd potion, I questioned a about what the plans are, and why I can't bring anything. She wouldn't say much, though it involved extesive training, beyond anything I've experienced before. We'll be going caving, mining, digging, running and swimming through tough terain. And she mentioned something about maybe visiting hell, to train my endurance, and durability. Though it may be too risky.
Aside from that, I don't really know what else is going to happen with me. I'm kinda scared, honestly. Venturing out into a new world, with nobody I know. Yet, to be the hero of all. It's a scary and exciting concept.
Maybe I'll be able to make another journal someday, and you can finish hearing my story. But for now, I'm leaving this here, and going to continue with my training. Wish me the best of luck!
ChangeLog:
11/24/2012 - Update 32: Ooooh, second major renovation this book has had. But, it's for the better. I'll be redoing one chapter per day for the next 6 days. So yes, Bob's Story will at least be 100% complete in 6 more days.
Today I redid the prologue. I'm pretty satisfied with how it's turned out, personally. Sorry I keep taking these extended breaks. I lose motivation and I don't do it. But I do genuinely love Bob's Story. I'm quite proud of it, tbh.
As a side note, I will be recording myself reading this story and uploading the audio to Youtube. As said in the beginning of the story. (Not yet, I'm gonna add it there when the first one is uploaded. I'm not going to send a bunch of people to my channel with promises of an audio book without having it up first.)
Please enjoy the story, and look forward to upcoming stories in this series!!
9/09/2012 - Update 31: Fairly quick update, though not as quick as in the beginning. I got Chapter 2 edited, few more updates until the story's done. I said september in the last one, but because of things that have arised, I'll be moving that up to likely end of october.
Extra update: I fixed the 3023 in the previous changelog. The date was set to 8/30/3023. That was about a thousand years off.
8/30/2012 - Update 30: First updates this soon after one another for a LONG time. Sorry 'bout that guys. But now, the stories simple to finish. Probably another 4 update beore the editing phase is complete. Then probably 5 updates for the next, 5 for the next, and then we're done! So it'll likely be finished before the end of september. Isn't that GREAT NEWS?!
At any rate, I fixed up a few things in the thread layout, and I edited the prologue and chapter 1. There shouldn't be any grammatical or perspective inconsistencies there anymore. Granted, there's still a LOT of work to be done in the prologue and chapter 1. I'll probably completely rewrite them both in the next phase, they're that bad. I'll be seeing you guys tomorrow, when I edit chapter 2!
Again, I'm really happy with how this stories turned out. Since I haven't got the adventure map out, I have a few other suprises in store for you guys. Keep checking back to find out what they are!
8/29/2012 - Update 29: First draft completed. I'll admit, tears have formed in my tear ducts. Tears of happiness, and sadness. Im sad that I've got to finish writing the story. And I'm happy that it's finally completed. I guess it's onto phase two - Editing.
To all you fans out there: No, the story isn't actually finished. There are still many more updates coming to it before it's finished. I also intend on writing an Alice's story, so you can all learn more about who Alice is, where she's from and see the story from her perspective. I promise an emotional rollercoaster with that one. She's a bit unstable.
And plus, Bob promised us that he'll get another journal. I'll work my hardest to find that... Right after phase 4 is completed here. I also find my writing has improved drastically, so the sequel will be significantly superior. Speaking from an objective and unbiased point, based on grammar, descriptiveness and other factors.
6/18/2012 - Update 28: Been a long time for an update eh? Oh well. Chapter 6 has a bit written in it, style's probably changed a bit but that's alright. I've tried to keep it rather similar. I'll write the rest of chapter 6 tomorrow probably.
4/25/2012 - Update 27: Chapter 5 has been completed. Completely completed. Somewhat unhappy about how it turned out, and I know, with absolute certainty that this will be a chapter I will highly revise.
4/23/2012 - Update 26: Chapter 5 has begun. I've lost inspiration for a little while. Gonna watch a couple episodes of Inuyasha and see what happens. Either way, Chapter 5 will be completed tomorrow.
4/22/2012 - Update 25: Chapter 4 has finally been entirely completed. I added a little bit onto it. The addition was originally going to start out Chapter 5, but I realised it would fit perfectly onto the end of Chapter 4, and adding it to Chapter 4 makes writing after the addition far easier. So here you go, the end of Chapter 4, for real!
4/18/2012 - Update 24: Chapter 4 has been finally completed. I have made my decision, and it has been written. If you must know what the choices I had to choose between were, I might tell you. Maybe.
I'm satisfied with the way Chapter 4 has turned out, and I'm really glad I made the choice I did. Now Bob is stuck with a similar dilemma, what will he choose? Stay tuned to find out.
P.S I am going to release the first edition of the adventure map when chapter 5 is released. If nobody can make the mods for me, I'll have to do it myself I guess.. They aren't too difficult, I'm just not familiar with the Minecraft methods.
4/18/2012 - Mini-Update 23.2: More of chapter 4! But that's not why I made this mini update. I just had to tell you guys that I friggin love smooth jazz. It's so calming, and relaxing. Ironically enough, that makes it really distracting.
4/16/2012 - Mini-Update 23.1: I need help! Please read below if you are a sufficient Java programmer.
4/16/2012 - Update 23: Chapter 4! Mission..Incomplete.
This is the part where I change how the story plays out. The very next couple paragraphs dictate EXACTLY what will happen with this story. This is an extremely large part in the story, and I need a while to think about it. I should come to a conclusion tonight, so be on ears for an update tonight.
For now though, enjoy what little of Chapter 4 you have.
4/16/2012 - Update 22: Chapter 3! Mission complete.
On to chapter 4 I guess. Really excited for where the story is going now. Who is this a. What does he want with Bob? Is his name pronounced -A or SHEET-A? Find out when I write chapter 4!
I'm seriously giddy for what's coming up. The next 2 chapters are going to be perhaps the most AWESOME chapters EVER written. In this story, at least. Lots of action, lots of.. Well I'll leave spoilers out for now. But EEK. So excited to write the next two chapters. But for now, I've gotta start working on my adventure map. I want to get it caught up to here. By chapter 3, there's already a LOT of redstone that I need to deal with..
4/15/2012 - Update 21: Chapter 3! Uploaded part of chapter 3. It's still incomplete, but I'm getting rather tired, and I don't want to write while I'm tired. Not a good idea.
4/15/2012 - Update 20: Thread revamp. Revamped the thread slightly. It looks a little tidier, and I re-wrote a little bit of the thread. I think it looks much nicer, and cleaner. What about you guys?
Oh hey, anybody else notice the change log hop? 1/5/2012 - 4/15/2012. Yeah, sorry. <3
But hey, I'm back right? That's what really matters. Now if only I could find some coffee to keep me going so I can write chapter 3. I know exactly how I'm going to end it. No clue how to start it yet.
Got my smooth jazz, water, cuz I don't have coffee. Computer chair, glowing blue keyboard, robe cuz pajamas are for losers. And it's midnight, my prime writing time! Hope you guys like the new thread.
1/5/2012 - Update 19: Chapter 2. It's been completed. Oh, and we're about to reach 1000 views. I really gotta hurry up with event #2..
1/5/2012 - Update 18: Massive thread revamp. It looks much cleaner, and everything has been compacted into spoilers, except the main story. Hope it looks better and you guys like it.
1/4/2012 - Update 17: REMOVED THE OLD VERSION! I figure the revised edition is, in fact, caught up. It's slightly behind where it was, but we have met Talh, and have been given Yarlusik's home. Yarlusik. Sounds like somebody we know. Kinda seems like that may be his last name, doesn't it?
Oh, and I realized that the changelog itself was getting too long to not be put in a spoiler. So here you go, it now looks slightly better... I need a better colour for it though, seeing as it's a log. Gonna pick out a nice gray.
1/4/2012 - Update 16: Got some more of chapter 2 done. The next part is going to be, erm, a difficult part to write. So I'm stopping here until I can figure out how to do it nicely.
1/4/2012 - Update 15: It's 4AM, so I really didn't get much done. I added a disclaimer, changed some stuff, fixed some spelling errors and wrote part of chapter 2.
However; it's 4AM, like I said, and I am WAY too tired to get much creative thinking done right now, so to prevent horrible writing, I am going to wait until morning to get any more work done on chapter 2. Goodnight to you all.
1/3/2012 - Update 14: I missed the last '2' in '2012' in the last log update. I fixed that. Oh, and I finished chapter 1. But I fixed the 2, that's the important part.
1/3/2012 - Update 13: Almost finished the redo of chapter 13. Hows it lookin' so far guys?
1/3/2012 - Update 12: I'm re-writing it all. I'm keeping the storyline, and all that, but I'm going to try out a slightly different writing style. Rather than third person, the story will be written in first person, by bob. Grammar will be slightly different, words will be made up, and some things will change. But remember, BOB is writing it, not I. Words will be spelled properly, proper grammar used, but some things may be slightly different than you are used to.
I have also updated the top of this thread, and cleaned up the thread slightly. I hope it looks better now.
1/3/2012 - Update 11: WOOTNESS. JUST BROKE 500 VIEWS! Thanks guys! You all make me keep writing.
1/3/2012 - Update 10: MORE OF CHAPTER 2 DONE. I will review what I wrote just now tomorrow morning, when I am not so tired and determine whether it is enough for chapter 2. As of yet, chapter 2 may be longer.
1/2/2012 - Update 9: GETTING CHAPTER 2 DONE TONIGHT!
1/1/2012 - Update 8: Sorry guys, there was another slight delay yesterday. It was new years, and I'm sure most of you were drunk anyways though.
I decided that what was here was enough for Chapter 1. And I am starting on Chapter 2. However, Chapter 2 is going to be a bit of work. I'm going to have Bob build his first home, and I need to think of ways to describe block-by-block placement without sounding cheesy.
12/31/2011 - Update 7: Sorry guys, there was a slight delay yesterday. After I got off work, I saw one of my best and closest friends, of which I haven't seen for about 3 weeks. I missed her, and it was more important to sit and chat with her than it was to get on here and finish chapter 1. I will definitely finish it tonight though. My apologies to those who were expecting chapter 1 finished.
12/30/2011 - Update 6: ADDED A POLL! Should I continue writing? How good is it so far?
12/29/2011 - Update 5: Wrote another part of Chapter 1.
12/29/2011 - Update 4: New title to the thread. You can now check if it's been updated by looking at the thread title!
12/29/2011 - Update 3: Fixed a few spelling errors that were bugging me. Wrote part of Chapter 1.
12/28/2011 - Update 2: Organized the thread a little better. Added some colours, changed the size of the text.
12/28/2011 - Update 1: Finished the rough draft of the prologue. Created rough draft of the thread.
EDIT: First for when this becomes great :tongue.gif:
(I love everything in the Fan Arts Forums :smile.gif: )
Thanks. :smile.gif: I appreciate you posting. It makes me think there really is a reason to keep writing this.
So, you came into the fan art section, specifically to read people's stories that they enjoy writing, just so you can tell us to play some minecraft? No, I think you actually ENJOY reading stories, but can't seem to fathom the fact that stories aren't written in a matter of a couple hours.
I sincerely doubt you came into this thread just to tell me to play minecraft.
Also, just about to break 100 views! :biggrin.gif:
Haha, not if I make a new thread to make you last. :wink.gif:
/sarcasticcommentendhere
POST ON IT! Show your appreciation, +1 the post. Tell me what needs to change, what do you guys wanna see? What problems should Bob encounter? I can't find inspiration out of nothing!
True survival server, and fun!
Whether they are the most sought after bit of Minecraft or not, I'm mighty proud of being able to get about 70-100 views on it daily. So far, my story seems to be the *statistically* most popular on the forums. Although, my story could just be going viral cuz people despise it so much. Nevertheless, writing is a hobby of mine, and as such the views matter not to me. So long as I get some feedback from people, such as you, Zide and patroninja, I'll enjoy doing it.
Thanks :smile.gif: I'm gonna hope to get Chapter 1 finished by the end of today, but no promises.
EDIT: 2nd most popular. There is one other story that has more views than mine, and was released 12 hours after mine. Meh.
I'm at work right now, but I'm off in 6 hours. Gonna get home, kill some zombies in my XP farm then come and finish chapter 1! On to chapter 2 tomorrow. :biggrin.gif:
My apologies to those more avid readers that were expecting Chapter 1.
His*
And it's MY story, I'm not following any structure to my story, it's my story. If I wanted his name to be Steve to resemble Steve from Minecraft, I'd have named him steve, and followed in the footsteps of hundreds of other people. How many have had a main character of Bob?
In case you haven't read it, this isn't strictly based off of Minecraft. There are no players, there is no difficulty and a diamond sword is surely not to exist within this. Thank you though.
ALSO GUYS. I am currently working on finishing chapter 1. I'm somehow popular in real life, despite being a slightl overweight nerd that sits in his room working on animations, programs and other assorted things. And as such, I was invited to go to some party last night. SO YEAH. I was partying all night last night.
Chapter 1 will be finished within the next hour or so.
Sorry for the delay guys, have a happy new years! What's your new years resolution? :smile.gif:
True survival server, and fun!
Oh I know. I just like seeing the statistics.
And perhaps it will. Maybe... A second book?? :smile.gif: I'm already really excited for the main climax in this book. So much so that I have to take extra time when writing now to avoid introducing it too soon. That would be devastating. Technically, I could throw in the climax now, have it all sorted out and it would work out just fine. But I have to find some way to create many mini-conflicts to create the story encapsulating and interesting, all the while extending the length of the story itself.
This be an actual spoiler.
Perhaps a quest for a legendary sword? Who is this George? Did he really leave the town? Is he.. Religious by any chance? :wink.gif:
Edit: how do I add spoilets? I'm kind of a noob on these forums :tongue.gif:
True survival server, and fun!
As I said, I need to add a bunch of mini-conflicts to extend the storyline. :wink.gif:
[spoiler] tags