6
Prologue
In a far away land in a far away place, there were mountains. A king entered with his people and found the perfect place to set up a kingdom. The mountains made it so that only one edge of the kingdom would be vulnerable to an attack. The king built his castle right into the heart of the mountain. One day while the king was looking out from mountain his castle was embedded in, he spotted something strange. Deep within his valley and up a small hill, he saw something he had seen before, long ago. He immediately ordered the building of walls, splitting the valley in half. He knew it would not be enough. He set up a secret defense, knowing after he was gone it would be used to save his kingdom from the monsters that would come. He put the scroll in a hidden place, knowing it would be found in their time of need.
200 Years Later…
“Come on, Bruce!” a voice said, startling Bruce, who was lying there looking at the clouds next to his axe. Bruce stood up and leaned on his axe, “Ok, ok.” he sighed, “Just go on to the quarry and I’ll meet you in our spot, Timmy.”
Timmy ran off to the quarry. When he got there, the digging had already begun. He ran across the stone path and down the stairs. Long ago, they discovered that underneath the dirt of their kingdom was a solid layer of gravel. The miners dug out a circular area in the dirt to remove the gravel, and built a staircase in the center leading to the bottom. Soon they would have to find a new section for their gravel mine, because they had dug out almost all of the gravel and the layer below was rock, too hard to mine out. They had used this quarry since the kingdom was made.
Timmy jumped down the steps, pushing past some people with shovels on their shoulders until he got to the bottom of the staircase. There were a few people still digging up gravel.
“Hi, Dad!” yelled the overly cheery Timmy, waving excitedly to one of the sweaty workers who was hunched over, digging. Timmy’s dad panted, “Hey, buddy. We’re pretty much finished with this pit, but you could still get some extra gravel.”
Timmy was already digging. He had dug up one shovel full when he hit the lower stone layer. That layer couldn’t be broken with the strongest pickaxe wielded by the strongest man. Some people call it bedrock. After digging up cobble and filling up his dad’s pile, he was finished. He watched as the men above lifted the ropes. The pile was consumed by the cloth that was underneath it and lifted to the surface. The men he was watching were the knights. That’s what he and Bruce wanted to be, not laborers. Although people always said, “Laborers are just as important as knights,” he didn’t care. Knights were cooler.
Timmy was walking towards the staircase when he noticed something. Where the staircase should have ended, there was more gravel instead of bedrock.
“Dad, I’ll be up in a second,” Timmy said, looking at the grave his dad was already heading up.
Timmy looked around at the quarry to make sure no one saw him. There was only one person, but he was watching the knight’s heave the stone upwards, so Timmy quickly dug up the gravel. Under it was a step of a staircase, leading down farther. He dug up the next piece and the next piece. He eventually got to the end. There had been a cavern underneath the quarry the whole time. It wasn’t very big, but still surprising since it was cut out of lower layer bedrock. Timmy lit a torch in the secret cavern and found a chest. The room was barely taller than Timmy. He ducked to enter. The room appeared to be a perfect cube. On the wall, there were carvings. The shapes were strange, and he couldn’t even tell what they were supposed to be. Timmy tried to open the chest, but it was stuck. He thought it looked ancient. He used all his strength and it opened. Inside he found something that looked really old. It was a bunch of diamonds that had been forged in the shape of a rectangle. Timmy looked at both sides and stuffed it in his pocket. It was too dusty to tell what was on it. Looking back in the chest, he saw a cloth lining the bottom. He lifted up the old cloth and underneath was something Timmy thought was beautiful. It was half shovel, half sword. The handle was carved with the word Gravedigger.
Timmy threw the cloth on the ground and ran up the stairs. He was in such a hurry he left his old shovel leaning against the wall. Halfway up the stairs, he turned around. Timmy dug up some gravel and tried to hide the entrance to the cavern. He held the blade of the Gravedigger to the ground, hoping that no one would notice the strange blade. He went up the stairs and into the castle. Timmy pushed his way past people and guards until he got to the grand staircase. This led to the king’s throne room. It was always guarded, but Timmy wasn’t going up. He ran past the staircase and underneath it. Under the staircase was a sawmill’s saw and an ore refurbisher. These things were said to be broken, but he and Bruce used them all the time. He took some ore out of his pocket and started hammering it with his pickaxe, which he left to the side of the refurbisher. Suddenly, Bruce appeared from a trap door under the carpet!
“Did you hear?” he shouted, “The king declared war!”
While Timmy was in the quarry, Bruce was in the forest, chopping down trees. Well, not exactly chopping down trees. To save trees, they only skinned the bark off of the trees, but the bark regrew quickly. Suddenly, a knight came into the forest.
“Attention!” the knight shouted, “The king has a royal decree!”
Silence fell amount the workers.
He continued to announce, “The king has declared this kingdom to be in preparation for war! Everyone is to go to their prewar stations now!”
People started moving briskly among the trees. Bruce approached the knight, who was watching the commotion.
“Uh, sir?” Bruce asked, “Where are our prewar stations?”
The knight looked at Bruce as if he was dirt, “If you don’t know, then you don’t have one. Run along, child.”
Bruce started off, but stopped himself and nervously asked the knight something else, “H-how can I be a knight?”
“Off with you, child,” responded the knight.
Bruce felt offended, but what could he do? He decided that he wanted to assist in the war effort, so he started gathering more bark. Since the knight’s announcement, everyone was either gone or working twice as hard. Bruce looked for a tree that wasn’t already in use or skinned down. Bruce saw the biggest trunked tree. It was the oldest tree and the largest and the tallest in the kingdom. It was already skinned, but the top wasn’t. Bruce wrapped himself around the tree and started shimmying up.
“Boy,” the knight said, disapprovingly, but Bruce didn’t care.
Bruce was already halfway up. He struck his axe above him into the tree and hoisted himself up. When he got to a branch, he sat on it and started carving the bark off the tree. People were staring at him, shaking their heads, but kept on with their work. Bruce had almost worked his way around the whole tree when he saw something. Carved into the tree was an arrow, pointing up. Bruce climbed up higher. Another arrow was there pointing up. Bruce went to the top. The top of the tree was flat, but carved into it was an ‘X’. Bruce jabbed his axe in the center of the ‘X’. He saw darkness through the hole he had made. He started skinning away at the top of the tree, until he got down to the wooden layer beneath its bark. He used his axe to cut a hole in the top of the tree and saw that it was hollow. Bruce looked around. People had given up on watching him. He sat on the tree’s top, letting his legs dangle in the tube, then Burce let his axe drop down it. He didn’t hear it. Bruce shrugged his shoulders and dropped himself into the hollow tree.
Bruce went straight down until the tube curved like a slide. The slide eventually came out in a cave. The cave was exactly like the one Timmy had found, except there were no carvings on the wall, and on the side was a doorway. Like Timmy’s cave, there was a chest in the center. Inside the chest was a sword with the name Nightblade on the handle. Bruce grabbed the sword. It felt heavy for a sword. Or at least, heavier than Bruce thought a sword would weigh. Bruce was excited to find a sword. He played around with it by pretending to fight invisible enemies, until he decided he should go find Timmy. He ran through the doorway, which lead him to a long tunnel. After running down the tunnel for a few minutes, it ended. Bruce looked up to find a trapdoor. He opened it and pushed aside the carpet that laid on top of the hidden door.
He stood up and saw Timmy, who had been refurbishing ore.
“Did you hear?” Bruce shouted, “The king declared war!”
“Where did you come from?” asked a confused Timmy.
“Well, there was a knight and a tree slide and a cave and a trapdoor,” Bruce explained.
“Where’d you get that?” Timmy pointed at Nightblade that Bruce had dragging on the ground.
“Where’d you get that?” Bruce responded, pointing at Timmy’s Gravedigger that he had behind the refurbisher.
“I asked you first!” said Timmy.
“In the cave below that trap door.” Bruce started. Then he explained what had happened to him. He told him about the knight who gave the decree and even the judgemental looks of people when he had climbed the tree.
Then Timmy explained what had happened to him.
When Timmy finished his story, he asked, “Did you find anything like this?” and showed Bruce the diamond rectangle he had found.
“No, but didn’t you say you found it under a cloth? There was a cloth under Nightblade! I’ll be right back!” Bruce said, jumping down the trapdoor.
Timmy watched as Bruce jumped down the trapdoor. He looked at his diamond rectangle. He hadn’t seen anything like it before. Suddenly he heard voices from people coming down the stairs.
“Monsters… from the sky… by nightfall?” the voice had said.
“Yes. We need to prepare ourselves,” the second voice said, more clearly.
Timmy knew the second voice. It was the king.
“My ancestors knew this moment would come from the first day they settled in this valley. They knew we wouldn’t stand a chance. I need to search for the Diamond Square that was written about in the scroll. Half is in the deepest cave and half is in the tallest tree. Where would that be?” said the king.
“Well, your majesty, the deepest cave would be in the quarry. I heard they just emptied it out.”
Timmy jaw dropped. Oh no! he thought.
“And the tallest tree would be-”
“The Great Oak! In the forest!” the king interrupted, “Let’s go, quickly!”
Timmy heard foot steps go down the stairs.
“Oh no.” Timmy said.
“We need to get these things to him! But he was looking for a diamond square.” said Bruce.
“Ahh!” screamed Timmy, “How long have you been there!?”
“I heard the whole conversation. I mean, it took me like two seconds to get this thing and hide the trapdoor under the carpet.”
“Well, we gotta go see the king!” Timmy said. He took the diamond rectangle from Bruce. One of the long sides on both rectangles wasn’t as smooth as the other. They looked as if they fit together. Timmy put the two rectangles together to form a square. They fit perfectly.
“There’s a lot of yuck on that,” said Bruce, looking over Timmy’s shoulder at the newly fixed diamond square. “We should wash it before we take it to the king.” Bruce said, snatching it from Timmy and running down the hall.
Timmy just sighed and ran after him. They ran down the palace stairs until they got to the river. When Timmy got there, Bruce was already washing the second piece, the first on the ground next to him, drying in the sun.
Timmy grabbed the washed piece and started drying it with his shirt. “Look, Bruce!” he said, excitedly shoving the piece in Bruce's face. Bruce hadn’t realized that Timmy was there. Timmy startled him and Bruce gave a little shout as he tumbled forwards. Timmy grabbed his hand as Bruce went plunging into the water.
“Bruce!” shouted Timmy. People started gathering around as Timmy pulled Bruce out of the water. Bruce laid there, gasping for breath. Very few people knew how to swim, and it seemed pointless to learn since the only water in the forest is the river. Timmy stuffed the diamond rectangle in his other hand into his pocket, making sure no one was looking. Everyone in the crowd was watching Bruce and were mumbling and whispering among themselves. Bruce laid there for a few seconds and open his fist. Timmy saw Bruce's empty hand and knew he had dropped the diamond rectangle into the river.
“We need to get it back,” Bruce gasped, out of breath, “Only a little while until nightfall.” Bruce was right. Timmy looked at the sun and it was already sinking behind the mountains.
“You have to find Crasher. He can help you.” Bruce said. As the crowd started to disperse, the medics came and carried Bruce into the castle. Timmy knew exactly who Crasher was. Crasher had entered the kingdom not too long ago. He came from the area behind the mountains. When Crasher went into the gate, guards brought him to the dungeon, where he spent some time in questioning.
Once Crasher was deemed safe, he moved into the village, where he lived by himself. Timmy had never seen Crasher, but knew that Crasher wasn’t this real name. People said he came from the sea, but lost his memory. He was on a boat and knocked unconscious after going through a bad storm. He swam through the sea until he passed out on a beach here. That’s what people said, at least. They call him Crasher, which is short for 'Big Wave Crasher', since he swam through a storm to get here. Timmy thought that was a stupid name because it was too literal. Crasher is the only one in the kingdom who can swim. He taught others who wanted to learn, which was not many people.
Timmy ran across the bridge to a hidden house in the corner of the wall and the mountains. Nervously, he knocked on the door. After waiting a few seconds, someone answered. “Uh, is Crasher there?” Timmy asked the kid about his age who answered the door.
“Yeah, that’s me. What’d ya want?” said Crasher. Crasher looked about two years younger than Timmy but was about two years older. He was shorter than Timmy, but not by much.
“Oh, I-I, uh, I thought y-you were older,” stuttered Timmy, “I’m Timmy and I need your help.” Timmy wasn’t sure if Crasher could even help him, but he had to get the diamond rectangle.
Crasher thought for a second and said, “Yeah, sure.” He stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
“Really?” said Timmy, very surprised, “Just like that, you’ll help someone you don’t know do something you don’t know?”
“I’ve got nothing going on,” said Crasher, “So where we going?” Timmy walked to the river with Crasher and explained to him what happened at the lake, minus the part about him startling Bruce into it in the first place. Timmy didn’t explain anything about the hidden caves or what the king said or why they need the diamond rectangle and why they have it in the first place.
“So you dropped it here?” Crasher asked Timmy when they got to the river.
“About here,” Timmy replied, and as soon as he said that Crasher dove into the river. There was no one around to gasp. Everyone was returning to their homes and putting supplies in the castle. Timmy nervously waited for his helper to return from the water. The river was quite deep because of the rain. Suddenly, a hand rose up from the river holding the diamond rectangle, followed by Crasher’s head. He pulled himself out of the lake and handed it to Timmy. “Well, thanks!” Timmy excitedly said, and when he was about to run off, Crasher grabbed him.
“What’s that for?” he asked. Timmy got nervous. “T-thanks for your help!” he stuttered, and when he got loose from Crasher’s grip, he ran off to the castle. Timmy put the two pieces together, and since they were both washed, saw the symbol on them. He didn’t know what the symbol were.
“Bruce!” he yelled, bursting through the doors of the hospital room in the castle. He was shushed by the nurse, and whispered, “Bruce!” Bruce was sound asleep so Timmy shook him awake. “Look at this!” Timmy whisper-yelled, shoving the two pieces of the diamond square in his face.
Bruce grabbed them, “I’ve seen this before!” Timmy was so excited that they almost finished this mystery. “Where? Where?!” Timmy said, a little too loud because he was hushed by the nurse again. “It’s under the staircase!” Bruce said, but as he said that, two royal guards came in, followed by the king.
The king looked around and waved off the nurse who asked the king if he needed anything. He looked at Bruce, who was holding the diamond rectangle. Without saying anything, the king walked up to Bruce’s bed, grabbed the diamond rectangle, and left with his two guards.
“Your majesty!” shouted Timmy, making the king turn around. “Look, I don’t know where you children got this, but you have no idea what is coming,” the king said. “We know about the monsters in the sky!” yelled Bruce. The king just stopped moving. “We know about the shrines! We know you don’t know where to put the Blue Key! You need our help!” Bruce shouted. The king said, “I need no such thing,” and walked away.
When the doors closed, Timmy said, “Please explain.” “Well,” Bruce started, “I didn’t just lay here! I asked if I could read, and the nurse said she would get a book for me. I wanted to look in the library myself though. So she agreed to push me in a wheelchair.” Timmy was confused so he interrupted, “Are you hurt that bad?” “No, I’m not really hurt at all,” Bruce continued, “But I pretended so I can read instead of skinning trees. I grabbed the book Royal Myths and looked for the picture of the diamond square, which is actually called the Blue Key.”
So Bruce explained the whole story to Timmy, “The founder of the land gave a scroll to his son, which was passed down for generations. Legend says the scroll is used for the greatest emergency, not a war amongst men, but a war amongst monsters. The Blue Key was split in half and hidden in the highest and lowest points of the valley. The only way to know where to put the key is to have the key itself, because the lock is only shown on the key.” Bruce showed Timmy in the book where there was a picture of the Blue Key. The key showed a crown in the center, but above it, something that Bruce guessed represented a staircase, among other decoration. It was hard to even tell that it was a staircase.
“So we need to get that key back!” Timmy said. “Wait,” Bruce replied, “There’s more.” He continued reading, “The key unlocks shrines that fend off monsters. The founder had the technology from his homeland. Shrines arise and destroy monsters, but there's a warning: The destroyer of monster’s destroyers are monsters.” The boys looked at eachother for a moment.
“What the heck does that mean?” Timmy asked, “'The destroyer of monster’s destroyer are monsters,'” Timmy repeated.
“Beats me!” Bruce blurted out, breaking the silence in the hospital room. “Anyway, Timmy, what about our weapons? We left them under the staircase!” “Oh, don’t worry, When you rain off I hid them under the carpet. But bigger problem, we need to get you out of here so we can steal the Blue Key from the king!”
“Why don’t we just tell the king where to put it?” Bruce asked. “Duh! Because the king will be so thankful that he’ll make us knights!”
Timmy said.
“Speaking of night, we’d better hurry!” Bruce said, pointing at the window. They hadn’t notice that the room was getting darker as the sun was sinking in the sky.
“I have an idea,” Timmy suggested, and shouted, “Run!” Both of them dashed out of the room. The nurse just stood there and rolled her eyes. When they got to the staircase, there were no guards. They were all stationed with bows at the wall. When they ran up the stairs and came across the double hallway, they saw that both halls were sealed with stone bricks, but there was a tunnel through one. Both halls lead to the same place anyway: The throne room.
As Bruce and Timmy turned the corner they bumped into Crasher, who was wearing armor. The two boys fell. “It was you!” Timmy then realized, pointing at Crasher for no reason, “You told the king that I had the Blue Key!” “Yeah, I did tell him,” Crasher said, “I know that old tale about the shrines and I knew what that was as soon as I saw it in the water. I had to go to the king and tell the truth. He did make me a knight, after all.”
“We have got to get it back!” Timmy begged. “Sorry, but I can’t let you by. I’m guarding the throne room until the shrines are up, which should be soon.” Crasher said. “It’s night time! Why aren’t they up yet? The monsters are coming!” Timmy pleaded. Suddenly, there were quick footsteps coming from the staircase, running quicker than anyone could ran. A monster turned the corner.
“Archers at the ready!” barked the commander of the knights. A few monsters had fallen from their island in the sky on the other side of the valley and were on the way to the dividing wall. “Hold!” the commander shouted, “Hold!” The monsters ran closer and closer, until one got so close the knights saw it in the torchlight. “Fire!” Arrows whizzed by until the monster was covered. It dissolved into ground and the many arrows were left there. “Don’t waste arrows! Just shoot them once!” the commander yelled.
More monsters were on there way. “As long as we can shoot them, we can hold them off until daybreak!” someone said. This went on for a while. The monsters kept coming and dissolved after getting hit with an arrow. Suddenly, the monsters started to climb the mountain. They made their way to the top and jumped onto the walls. The knights yelled as the braves started to fight with the monsters. Soon, they were overrun.
The commander called a retreat and they pushed back to half of the wall. “Guard the archers, men!” shouted the commander, as he hit a monster on the head with his shield. The monsters moved into the village, but most knights were trapped on the wall. Some of the monsters even went into the castle. Suddenly, a bright beam was shot into the sky from the Paladin's house. Shortly after, another was shot up from the top of the castle. The final beam came from behind the mountains. Electricity shot from them and started attacking monsters that got too close. “We’re saved!” someone shouted.
5 Minutes earlier...
“W-w-what do we do?” Timmy whimpered. “Just… stay down!” Crasher commanded, “I had training for this!” “You had training for this exact moment?” Bruce asked. “No. B-but it doesn’t even see us! Let’s just slowly back up,” Crasher said, Bruce and Timmy still on the floor. The three started crawling backwards. Suddenly the monster slowly turned its head towards them. Slowly, Crasher pulled back his bow. “Do you know how to fire that thing?” Timmy asked as Crasher’s shaking hand held the bow, trying to steady it. The monster stepped closer and closer to them in the tunnel. Without warning, the arrow shot over Bruce and Timmy, hitting the monsters right on the forehead. “Apparently,” Crasher answered.
“Come on, let’s go!” Bruce said, pushing past Crasher and running towards the throne room. “Aren’t you coming?” Timmy asked Crasher. “I’ll guard,” he responded, turning around and drawing his sword. He turned his head though, and added, “But please hurry.” Timmy smiled and ran off after Bruce.
Bruce was talking to the two guards who stood under the arched doorway. “But you gotta let me in!” Bruce pleaded, “Come on!” Timmy caught up to Bruce. Catching his breath, Timmy asked, “We have permission from Crasher!” The guards snickered, “That guy? He’s not even a real knight! He’s only been on duty for an hour anyways.” Bruce rolled his eyes, “So you guys are guarding the entrance to a doorless room, right?” “Yeah, genius,” the knight said. Bruce looked at Timmy, with a familiar plan in their heads, “What if someone were to- RUN!” The two boys ran between the guards and into the throne room. “Stop!” the guards yelled as they chased after them.
The throne room was empty. The throne sat in the center and overlooked the entrance hall to the castle. Out the window was battle; knights fighting with monsters. On the walls of the throne room there were extra armor and weapons. The king was in the backroom, holding the Blue Key and pacing. Bruce and Timmy ran to him. He didn’t notice the two boys running at him. Bruce grabbed the Blue Key from the king who stumble in surprise. The two guards grabbed Bruce, who threw the key to Timmy. “Run again!” Bruce shouted.
One guard let go of Bruce and chased Timmy. He ran out of the room and stopped, horrified as he looked down the hall. The guard grabbed Timmy. “Gotcha!” he said, satisfied. He slowly looked down the hallway. It was infested with monsters. They just stood there. The guard let go of Timmy and drew his bow. He and gave Timmy his shield. They looked at each other. Timmy saw the look in the guard's eyes and could tell the guard knew what had to happen, that Timmy needs to get the key to the keyhole. The guard nodded and Timmy ran down the hall. He pushed down monsters with his shield and ran past them.
The monsters gained notice of the guard shooting at them. They started climbing the stairs to the throne room. “For the king!” shouted the guard, throwing his bow to the ground and drawing his sword. As Timmy turned the corner he heard a the guard shout in pain. Key under his arm and shield in front of him, Timmy ran through the hall. The monsters filled the skinny hallway. Timmy pushed his shield against them, but they piled up against it. He kept pushing, but starting going backwards. The monsters pushed too hard. Suddenly, they gave out and Timmy pushed through the tunnel. Crasher was there with his sword. He one by one killed the monsters that prevented Timmy from advancing. The monsters had overrun the floor. Archers were shooting from the balcony; knights guarded the stairs.
The two of them looked over the balcony. “Here,” Crasher stuck his hand out for the key, but Timmy pulled away. “I need to do this,” Timmy said, and he jumped over onto the floor. Pulling the shield under him, Timmy landed right on a monster, squishing it. He ran under the stairs where the ‘broken’ saw and refurbisher were. He waited a second, guarding himself with the shield the fallen knight had given him. He found the square indentation under the stairs that Bruce and he had seen since they were little. He dropped the shield, and with both hands press the object that he had once known as the diamond rectangle into the wall. Monsters crept up behind him. Timmy grabbed the shield, but it was no use. He was backed against the wall. He took a step back and felt his foot hit something. It was the Gravedigger. He picked it up and killed the monsters. More monsters came. Timmy was out numbered. He backed up against the wall and accidentally pressed his back against the Blue Key. The castle started to shake. All the monsters froze. Bolts of electricity attacked the monsters, leaving just a pile of ash.
Bruce was trapped in the king’s back room. The king stood with his sword to Bruce’s throat. The room served no purpose nowadays, except a quiet place for the king to relax.
Bruce was trying to figure out a way to escape. Suddenly, the guard let out a yell. A monster came into the room carrying a makeshift blade of wood. The guard and monster starting battling with their swords in front of the king’s throne. Bruce and the king just watched as the guard finished off the monster. It fell to the ground and dissolved into a powder that disappeared into the ground. Then more monsters came.
Three monsters. Four monsters. Too many monsters. Bruce was thrown back by the king while he began to fight them off. Suddenly, there was a light coming from the window overlooking the kingdom. A beam of light shot up. The king’s throne was ripped apart as a beam of light came from under the throne. The beam broke through the top of the ceiling and shot into the sky. Then, bolts of lightening from the beams shot the monsters, killing them. It came from all the beams to all the monsters. The three in the throne room looked out the window as the monsters were turned into dust.
“Your friend got the Blue Key into the right place, I see,” said the king to Bruce. “You are very lucky.” “Oh, it’s not luck.” Bruce replied. After more silence and staring out of the window, Timmy ran into the room. “I did it!” he yelled. “You?” asked Bruce, “You?” “Fine. We did it.” Timmy smiled. Their happiness was interrupted by the king. “We still have a battle to fight. The shrines can’t hold back the monsters forever.” “The shrines are those beams of light, right?” asked Bruce. “Correct,” the king continued, slightly annoyed, “The shrines only protect the area behind them, so they can’t protect themselves. The monsters can break them and advance.” “Sounds like you might need some extra help,” Timmy hinted. The king sighed, “I knight thee sir-” “Timmy!” “Sir Timmy and sir-” “Bruce!” “Sir Bruce. Arise, o’ knights.” the king said, half-heartedly. “Arise?” Bruce asked, “But we were already stand-” Timmy nudged Bruce. “And sir Bruce, take this. To lead the men in battle.” the king handed Bruce an old wooden horn with markings on it. “Thank you!” Bruce said, astonished at the old relic. “Anything for me?” Timmy asked. “Go now, and fight.” the king replied. “You didn’t answer my question!” Timmy said.
After the king got them situated with their armor, shields, bows, arrows, and swords, they set off down the hall. “Wait a sec!” Timmy exclaimed. He started running down the hall. “What!?” Bruce yelled, running after him. They ran down and under the stairs. Timmy pushed aside the carpet to find Nightblade hiding. “Nice!” said Bruce, looking at Nightblade. “Now, let’s go!” Timmy said. The two boys left the swords the king gave them under the stairs and ran to the wall.
At the wall, the monsters had been moved back. The archers took over and were shooting them from the top. “Bruce, wait,” said Crasher from behind the boys. Bruce stopped running and turned around. Crasher was holding something in his hands. “Here, take this. This is the only thing I had with me after the boat crash.” Bruce took the object from his hands. “Lead the army to victory!” Bruce looked at the stone Crasher had given him. It had faded writings on it that he couldn’t make out. Bruce grinned and put it in his pocket. He blew on the mouthpiece of his horn and yelled, “Charge!” He ran right past the wall and slashed the monsters with Nightblade. "Archers! Regroup!” someone shouted. Timmy had just made it to the wall. He decided to used his bow and arrow instead of Bruce's 'direct approach'. "Excuse me?" said a small, frightened voice as Timmy began to fire arrows, "Do you have any arrows?" Timmy looked down at his fellow short knight. "Are you old enough to be a knight?" Timmy asked him. "N-n-no," said his trembling voice. Timmy smiled. "Neither am I." "So, arrows, sir?" "Oh sure! You know, I'll get some from Bruce! It doesn't look like he is using his anyways," Timmy said, nodding to the ground where Bruce was slashing monsters.
Timmy ran up behind Bruce and they began fighting side by side. “How’s it going?” Timmy asked, slicing a monster while saying it. “Good, good. Ya know?” Bruce replied. Monsters started running forwards and Bruce and Timmy began fighting, back to back. “Can I get your arrows?” asked Timmy, holding the shield in front of him while a monster charged forwards. Bruce tossed them back and Timmy caught them and put them in his arrow holder that was on his belt. Suddenly, the monsters began to overcome them.
“Retreat!” Bruce yelled, blocking the attacking monsters with his shield. Nightblade swung randomly as Bruce tried to hit monsters while holding his shield. As they ran back towards the walls, the monsters guarded the entrance. Timmy and Bruce jolted to a halt. “We’re trapped!” said Timmy. “I can see that!” Bruce annoyingly responded. They tried, but couldn’t fend off the monsters. Suddenly, a monster standing in the entrance arch in the wall fell over. And another. And another, and another. Crasher was revealed from behind his fallen victims of his vicious bow skills. “Need a hand?” He smiled. “Crasher!” Timmy yelled, running towards him. “Guards!” He yelled, “We need more men protecting the entrance, now!” But it was too late.
The monsters poured past the wall with no one out there distracting them. Bruce smiled, as he reached for the sheathed Nightblade. “You totally love this, don’t you Bruce?” Timmy accused, Gravedigger in hand. “Maybe a little more than I should,” Bruce grinned back. As the boys fought, Crasher watched the entrance and tried to thin the herd of monsters coming through with his bow. Bruce and Timmy could only handle so many. The monsters were getting smarter, though. Instead of fighting, they ran straight past them and were pushing the archers off the wall. Some were even ignoring the fighters and archers and went right for the shrine.
It was a massacre. The monsters were overwhelming. Bruce, Timmy, and Crasher retreated over the bridge. All they could do was watch in horror as their friends got destroyed by the monsters. Crasher tried to shoot a few down, but all it was doing was wasting arrows. When dawn came, the monsters were hurt by the sun. Eventually, there were none left. The king came out of his throne room and stood with the three of them. “All of them are gone?” he asked. “Some retreated.” “Some hid.” “But most-” They all knew what happened. “We should check the shrine,” the king suggested, with sadness in his voice.
They slowly made their way through the corpses of their friends. Crasher stopped. “I knew him,” he looked down at a body. “He was the person who first found me in the woods.” His voice trembled as he lifted up the helmet of the fallen knight. “What was his name?” asked Timmy. “I-I don’t remember,” Crasher said. “We can mourn everyone when we are alive, now let’s go.” The king’s words were harsh, but at the same time, he was telling the truth.
The four of them made it to the shrine room that was once the Paladin’s home. It looked badly damage. All the stone bricks were cracked and broken. “We can’t afford another hit,” the king said, “We need more knights.” “Well what are we supposed to do? There’s no one left who’s in condition to fight!” Crasher said, almost angry. “I’ll think of something. Stay here with me, Crasher,” The king glanced at a shelf while saying this, “You two step outside.” Timmy and Bruce had no choice but to leave the broken house. Timmy walked with his head down, half because he was sad and half because he didn’t want to step on anyone. As they left, they heard Crasher yelling, enraged but muffled, followed by the sound of something breaking. “Who is that?” Bruce said, shielding his eyes from the sun and looking at the bridge. Timmy looked up. There was indeed someone standing there. Everyone should’ve been inside. Bruce started jogging over and stopped at the bridge. “What is it?” Timmy called out. Bruce said nothing. “Bruce?” Timmy started running over and when he caught up to him, he, too, stopped and stared in fright.
A monster stood on the bridge. Where it came from was unclear, but it stood there, very still. It faced the castle and hadn’t noticed the two of them yet. Timmy walked a little closer. “Get back, Timmy.” He ignored Bruce.
“Timmy, just get back!” Bruce screamed.
“Just wait,” Timmy said.
“Timmy, stand back and let me shoot it with my bow. I can’t with you in the way, but that doesn’t mean I won’t!”
“Why are you here?” Timmy asked the monster. The monster turned around.
“Timmy!” Bruce yelled.
“Why are you killing us? Why!?” Timmy pleaded.
The monster spoke. “Arrows.”
“W-what?”
“Arrows. I’m here for my arrows.” A tear ran down Timmy’s cheek.
“What is it, Timmy?” Bruce asked.
“Arrows,” the monster said again.”
Timmy still faced the monster, “Remember when I asked for your arrows?”
“Yeah.”
“Well,” Timmy was crying, “They were for someone else. They were younger than we were. And now, they are dead. Everyone is dead.”
“People are still alive!”
“But we won’t survive another attack!” Timmy yelled, swinging around. He stared at Bruce with anger.
“I smiled,” Bruce said, “When you asked me if I was having fun, I smiled. Remember? You asked if I was enjoying this. I said yes and smiled. I was having fun. Everyone’s dead now, and I smiled! We don’t stand a chance now, but I smiled. We are standing around the lifeless bodies of people who fought, and I smiled,” Bruce said, showing his anger instead of sadness. “I smiled!” he shouted. Timmy walked up to Bruce and hugged him, both of them sniffling.
“Arrows,” the monster repeated.
“What should we do?” asked Bruce.
“I know.”
Timmy and Bruce grabbed the monster respectfully by the arms and lifted it over the bridge’s railing. The water had been drained before the night because some of the knights had dammed the river. It was just a chasm with a sad, lifeless river running at the bottom. Bruce and Timmy held the monster over.
“I am so sorry,” Timmy said, “Here.” He pulled out the arrows he was going to give him from his holder and handed them to the monster. It took them and looked at his hand.
“Arrows,” it said.
“Yes,” Timmy smiled away the tears, “Arrows.”
The monster kept it’s emotionless expression, but said, “Hope.”
“Ready?” asked Bruce.
“Of course not,” Timmy responding. The king and Crasher were walking up behind them.
The monster looked Crasher in the eyes and said, “Find… hope.” The boys let go of the monster and it dropped into the empty ravine.
“They aren’t really monsters,” the king said, “Each and every one of them were people like us at one point. Legends say different things, like a potion gone wrong or a new disease from the ocean, but no one really knows where the first came from. They started spreading. These came from the same place Crasher did. He was likely the only one who survived. We won’t.”
“What do we do then?” asked Bruce.
“I was given this,” said Crasher, holding out the scroll in his one hand, with a sword in the other, “It is supposed to be a map to a new world, a perfect world. A world that has the cure to this disease.”
“Crasher was shipped out here to find it, but crashed, hence his name,” the king interrupted, “So we have to send you three there.”
“But why?” Timmy asked, “the time we come back, you will all be dead. What’s the point?”
“The point,” the king smiled, sadly, “is that some of us will live on. Some of our race will be able to survive. They will build new things, mine the earth, craft objects no one has ever imagined. You need to go experience that. Maybe we’ll meet on the other side.”
The band of three heroes journey up the mountain and looked over the kingdom. “Why aren’t you coming?” Timmy asked the king. “I think a proper king would stay and not abandon his people. They need me. Soon, too. You should have enough supplies to help you survive for long enough. Good luck, my friends.” After saying their goodbyes, they walked into the forest on top of the mountain. No one spoke. Crasher looked down at his map, Bruce dragged Nightblade behind him in the dirt, and Timmy stared off in front of them. Bruce finally spoke. “I supposed we’re the last people in the kingdom.” “In this kingdom, at least,” Crasher said, focused on the map. “But, Crasher, since the king knew everything about you, he must’ve known your real name!” Timmy said. Crasher didn’t speak. “Can you at least tell us what this perfect place is called?” asked Bruce. It was silent for a while. “Steve,” Crasher said. “What?” asked Timmy. “My name is Steve and we are going to The End.”
The band of heroes journeyed on foot to this legendary ‘perfect’ land. They encountered a single kingdom that still had people. Bruce stayed behind. He never said why. He simply wouldn’t continue. The town was doomed for destruction, and Bruce knew this. Even as the band of now two people left, Bruce didn’t speak. He had a sadness in his eyes. Timmy never made it to The End. In the night, monsters got him. Steve mourned him, but moved on. Eventually, Steve found The End. He found himself talking to him a lot, by towards the end of his journey. He dug underground to find it, at first with the Gravedigger, but as the stone became too hard, Steve fashioned a pickaxe. The portal was in a temple underground. It looked like a temple to Steve, at least. He might’ve called it a stronghold.
“So this is it,” Steve said, “The ‘Promise Land’! The place to save us. To give us happiness. Whoever ‘us’ is.” He stood before the frame of the portal as the put the last piece in to activate it. As he placed the final piece, the portal magically activated. Instead of bright happiness, the portal was dark and gloomy. It hissed evil noises. Steve’s face stayed the same. He had seen death of friends, destruction of kingdoms, and monsters that he’d never imagined.
Steve looked into the portal. “This isn’t a happy place after all, is it? It’s a place full of death and destruction. I’ll probably die. I probably won’t even last a second, let alone a day.” Steve’s face was old, now. He sat at the edge of the portal, his feet dangling over. He had a lonely life. Everyone he knew was gone, and for all he knew, everyone was gone. He saw abandoned temples and villages. He even saw a sunken city as he boated across an ocean. He was running from monsters for his entire life. At times, he had doubted that this portal would save him. He lost faith. There was nothing else in his life. He was doing it for Timmy. And Bruce. And the king. And everyone who died in this awful war that was going on for no reason at all.
Steve stood up and took a deep breath. He spoke to the portal, “I stand before you. It’s just me and me. I need to keep myself company. I look into you and see darkness and hear evil. I realized I am looking into the soul of the monsters, of every monster, all monsters of every kind, and I see everyone they took. I see Timmy, and Bruce, and the king, and that knight who just wanted arrows. Friends, families, enemies, and even strangers. This is for everyone at my kingdom, at every kingdom.
Every place, from states to small villages. I did this for all of you. I talked, because I knew you were there. I knew that someone was there. To listen. And now I know one thing, that I was never sure of before. I thought I had been wasting my time, but I realize that I have been. No fun. No work, even. This life was for something no one else has ever had to do. Maybe if other people had experienced it, they would understand. I don’t expect you to. You didn’t just killed everyone. You killed me. And now I can stare at you and finally do what I’ve been meant to do.
Something you’ve done a long time ago! Something that will destroy you: Killing me. The last person. And I ask you, what next? Are there other lands to conquer? Other worlds to destroy? Was it worth killing everyone and everything? Because now I know what to do. I watch as Timmy and Bruce dropped the monster into the river, and now I know that there is good left. Good lives! And I can sure say that it doesn’t live in you! I’m going to end this journey once and for all. I’ll keep all the memories in my head, and I will remember. I will end everything. Humanity ends will me: Steve. I know that everything has been good. I know everything will work out. You probably wonder how I know this. I don’t. I just hope. So do what you did a long time ago and kill me.”
Steve took a step forwards and fell into the portal. He felt himself being ripped apart, falling through everything that existed. He is still falling. Don’t worry though, he will land safely eventually. The portal will be kind. He will be in a happy place. It will still have it’s monsters, but everyone’s life has monsters. No place is perfect. He will be in a new world. A lonely world. One day, Steve will find the portal again. It will be exactly as he left it. When he falls in, maybe he will be in another place. A happy place. Or maybe he will start over again. Of course, he won’t remember this. The memories are there are in the portal. He will find himself mysteriously naming his sword Nightblade and his shovel Gravedigger. He might even wonder where his bow skills came from. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll go through the portal and end up shipwrecked on the shore, with amnesia. He might be taken into the nearest kingdom and help defend it from monsters. His life will start over forever. Maybe one day the portal will be kind. The portal will lead him to the land he was promised. The portal will bring him to The End.
In a far away land in a far away place, there were mountains. A king entered with his people and found the perfect place to set up a kingdom. The mountains made it so that only one edge of the kingdom would be vulnerable to an attack. The king built his castle right into the heart of the mountain. One day while the king was looking out from mountain his castle was embedded in, he spotted something strange. Deep within his valley and up a small hill, he saw something he had seen before, long ago. He immediately ordered the building of walls, splitting the valley in half. He knew it would not be enough. He set up a secret defense, knowing after he was gone it would be used to save his kingdom from the monsters that would come. He put the scroll in a hidden place, knowing it would be found in their time of need.
200 Years Later…
“Come on, Bruce!” a voice said, startling Bruce, who was lying there looking at the clouds next to his axe. Bruce stood up and leaned on his axe, “Ok, ok.” he sighed, “Just go on to the quarry and I’ll meet you in our spot, Timmy.”
Timmy ran off to the quarry. When he got there, the digging had already begun. He ran across the stone path and down the stairs. Long ago, they discovered that underneath the dirt of their kingdom was a solid layer of gravel. The miners dug out a circular area in the dirt to remove the gravel, and built a staircase in the center leading to the bottom. Soon they would have to find a new section for their gravel mine, because they had dug out almost all of the gravel and the layer below was rock, too hard to mine out. They had used this quarry since the kingdom was made.
Timmy jumped down the steps, pushing past some people with shovels on their shoulders until he got to the bottom of the staircase. There were a few people still digging up gravel.
“Hi, Dad!” yelled the overly cheery Timmy, waving excitedly to one of the sweaty workers who was hunched over, digging. Timmy’s dad panted, “Hey, buddy. We’re pretty much finished with this pit, but you could still get some extra gravel.”
Timmy was already digging. He had dug up one shovel full when he hit the lower stone layer. That layer couldn’t be broken with the strongest pickaxe wielded by the strongest man. Some people call it bedrock. After digging up cobble and filling up his dad’s pile, he was finished. He watched as the men above lifted the ropes. The pile was consumed by the cloth that was underneath it and lifted to the surface. The men he was watching were the knights. That’s what he and Bruce wanted to be, not laborers. Although people always said, “Laborers are just as important as knights,” he didn’t care. Knights were cooler.
Timmy was walking towards the staircase when he noticed something. Where the staircase should have ended, there was more gravel instead of bedrock.
“Dad, I’ll be up in a second,” Timmy said, looking at the grave his dad was already heading up.
Timmy looked around at the quarry to make sure no one saw him. There was only one person, but he was watching the knight’s heave the stone upwards, so Timmy quickly dug up the gravel. Under it was a step of a staircase, leading down farther. He dug up the next piece and the next piece. He eventually got to the end. There had been a cavern underneath the quarry the whole time. It wasn’t very big, but still surprising since it was cut out of lower layer bedrock. Timmy lit a torch in the secret cavern and found a chest. The room was barely taller than Timmy. He ducked to enter. The room appeared to be a perfect cube. On the wall, there were carvings. The shapes were strange, and he couldn’t even tell what they were supposed to be. Timmy tried to open the chest, but it was stuck. He thought it looked ancient. He used all his strength and it opened. Inside he found something that looked really old. It was a bunch of diamonds that had been forged in the shape of a rectangle. Timmy looked at both sides and stuffed it in his pocket. It was too dusty to tell what was on it. Looking back in the chest, he saw a cloth lining the bottom. He lifted up the old cloth and underneath was something Timmy thought was beautiful. It was half shovel, half sword. The handle was carved with the word Gravedigger.
Timmy threw the cloth on the ground and ran up the stairs. He was in such a hurry he left his old shovel leaning against the wall. Halfway up the stairs, he turned around. Timmy dug up some gravel and tried to hide the entrance to the cavern. He held the blade of the Gravedigger to the ground, hoping that no one would notice the strange blade. He went up the stairs and into the castle. Timmy pushed his way past people and guards until he got to the grand staircase. This led to the king’s throne room. It was always guarded, but Timmy wasn’t going up. He ran past the staircase and underneath it. Under the staircase was a sawmill’s saw and an ore refurbisher. These things were said to be broken, but he and Bruce used them all the time. He took some ore out of his pocket and started hammering it with his pickaxe, which he left to the side of the refurbisher. Suddenly, Bruce appeared from a trap door under the carpet!
“Did you hear?” he shouted, “The king declared war!”
While Timmy was in the quarry, Bruce was in the forest, chopping down trees. Well, not exactly chopping down trees. To save trees, they only skinned the bark off of the trees, but the bark regrew quickly. Suddenly, a knight came into the forest.
“Attention!” the knight shouted, “The king has a royal decree!”
Silence fell amount the workers.
He continued to announce, “The king has declared this kingdom to be in preparation for war! Everyone is to go to their prewar stations now!”
People started moving briskly among the trees. Bruce approached the knight, who was watching the commotion.
“Uh, sir?” Bruce asked, “Where are our prewar stations?”
The knight looked at Bruce as if he was dirt, “If you don’t know, then you don’t have one. Run along, child.”
Bruce started off, but stopped himself and nervously asked the knight something else, “H-how can I be a knight?”
“Off with you, child,” responded the knight.
Bruce felt offended, but what could he do? He decided that he wanted to assist in the war effort, so he started gathering more bark. Since the knight’s announcement, everyone was either gone or working twice as hard. Bruce looked for a tree that wasn’t already in use or skinned down. Bruce saw the biggest trunked tree. It was the oldest tree and the largest and the tallest in the kingdom. It was already skinned, but the top wasn’t. Bruce wrapped himself around the tree and started shimmying up.
“Boy,” the knight said, disapprovingly, but Bruce didn’t care.
Bruce was already halfway up. He struck his axe above him into the tree and hoisted himself up. When he got to a branch, he sat on it and started carving the bark off the tree. People were staring at him, shaking their heads, but kept on with their work. Bruce had almost worked his way around the whole tree when he saw something. Carved into the tree was an arrow, pointing up. Bruce climbed up higher. Another arrow was there pointing up. Bruce went to the top. The top of the tree was flat, but carved into it was an ‘X’. Bruce jabbed his axe in the center of the ‘X’. He saw darkness through the hole he had made. He started skinning away at the top of the tree, until he got down to the wooden layer beneath its bark. He used his axe to cut a hole in the top of the tree and saw that it was hollow. Bruce looked around. People had given up on watching him. He sat on the tree’s top, letting his legs dangle in the tube, then Burce let his axe drop down it. He didn’t hear it. Bruce shrugged his shoulders and dropped himself into the hollow tree.
Bruce went straight down until the tube curved like a slide. The slide eventually came out in a cave. The cave was exactly like the one Timmy had found, except there were no carvings on the wall, and on the side was a doorway. Like Timmy’s cave, there was a chest in the center. Inside the chest was a sword with the name Nightblade on the handle. Bruce grabbed the sword. It felt heavy for a sword. Or at least, heavier than Bruce thought a sword would weigh. Bruce was excited to find a sword. He played around with it by pretending to fight invisible enemies, until he decided he should go find Timmy. He ran through the doorway, which lead him to a long tunnel. After running down the tunnel for a few minutes, it ended. Bruce looked up to find a trapdoor. He opened it and pushed aside the carpet that laid on top of the hidden door.
He stood up and saw Timmy, who had been refurbishing ore.
“Did you hear?” Bruce shouted, “The king declared war!”
“Where did you come from?” asked a confused Timmy.
“Well, there was a knight and a tree slide and a cave and a trapdoor,” Bruce explained.
“Where’d you get that?” Timmy pointed at Nightblade that Bruce had dragging on the ground.
“Where’d you get that?” Bruce responded, pointing at Timmy’s Gravedigger that he had behind the refurbisher.
“I asked you first!” said Timmy.
“In the cave below that trap door.” Bruce started. Then he explained what had happened to him. He told him about the knight who gave the decree and even the judgemental looks of people when he had climbed the tree.
Then Timmy explained what had happened to him.
When Timmy finished his story, he asked, “Did you find anything like this?” and showed Bruce the diamond rectangle he had found.
“No, but didn’t you say you found it under a cloth? There was a cloth under Nightblade! I’ll be right back!” Bruce said, jumping down the trapdoor.
Timmy watched as Bruce jumped down the trapdoor. He looked at his diamond rectangle. He hadn’t seen anything like it before. Suddenly he heard voices from people coming down the stairs.
“Monsters… from the sky… by nightfall?” the voice had said.
“Yes. We need to prepare ourselves,” the second voice said, more clearly.
Timmy knew the second voice. It was the king.
“My ancestors knew this moment would come from the first day they settled in this valley. They knew we wouldn’t stand a chance. I need to search for the Diamond Square that was written about in the scroll. Half is in the deepest cave and half is in the tallest tree. Where would that be?” said the king.
“Well, your majesty, the deepest cave would be in the quarry. I heard they just emptied it out.”
Timmy jaw dropped. Oh no! he thought.
“And the tallest tree would be-”
“The Great Oak! In the forest!” the king interrupted, “Let’s go, quickly!”
Timmy heard foot steps go down the stairs.
“Oh no.” Timmy said.
“We need to get these things to him! But he was looking for a diamond square.” said Bruce.
“Ahh!” screamed Timmy, “How long have you been there!?”
“I heard the whole conversation. I mean, it took me like two seconds to get this thing and hide the trapdoor under the carpet.”
“Well, we gotta go see the king!” Timmy said. He took the diamond rectangle from Bruce. One of the long sides on both rectangles wasn’t as smooth as the other. They looked as if they fit together. Timmy put the two rectangles together to form a square. They fit perfectly.
“There’s a lot of yuck on that,” said Bruce, looking over Timmy’s shoulder at the newly fixed diamond square. “We should wash it before we take it to the king.” Bruce said, snatching it from Timmy and running down the hall.
Timmy just sighed and ran after him. They ran down the palace stairs until they got to the river. When Timmy got there, Bruce was already washing the second piece, the first on the ground next to him, drying in the sun.
Timmy grabbed the washed piece and started drying it with his shirt. “Look, Bruce!” he said, excitedly shoving the piece in Bruce's face. Bruce hadn’t realized that Timmy was there. Timmy startled him and Bruce gave a little shout as he tumbled forwards. Timmy grabbed his hand as Bruce went plunging into the water.
“Bruce!” shouted Timmy. People started gathering around as Timmy pulled Bruce out of the water. Bruce laid there, gasping for breath. Very few people knew how to swim, and it seemed pointless to learn since the only water in the forest is the river. Timmy stuffed the diamond rectangle in his other hand into his pocket, making sure no one was looking. Everyone in the crowd was watching Bruce and were mumbling and whispering among themselves. Bruce laid there for a few seconds and open his fist. Timmy saw Bruce's empty hand and knew he had dropped the diamond rectangle into the river.
“We need to get it back,” Bruce gasped, out of breath, “Only a little while until nightfall.” Bruce was right. Timmy looked at the sun and it was already sinking behind the mountains.
“You have to find Crasher. He can help you.” Bruce said. As the crowd started to disperse, the medics came and carried Bruce into the castle. Timmy knew exactly who Crasher was. Crasher had entered the kingdom not too long ago. He came from the area behind the mountains. When Crasher went into the gate, guards brought him to the dungeon, where he spent some time in questioning.
Once Crasher was deemed safe, he moved into the village, where he lived by himself. Timmy had never seen Crasher, but knew that Crasher wasn’t this real name. People said he came from the sea, but lost his memory. He was on a boat and knocked unconscious after going through a bad storm. He swam through the sea until he passed out on a beach here. That’s what people said, at least. They call him Crasher, which is short for 'Big Wave Crasher', since he swam through a storm to get here. Timmy thought that was a stupid name because it was too literal. Crasher is the only one in the kingdom who can swim. He taught others who wanted to learn, which was not many people.
Timmy ran across the bridge to a hidden house in the corner of the wall and the mountains. Nervously, he knocked on the door. After waiting a few seconds, someone answered. “Uh, is Crasher there?” Timmy asked the kid about his age who answered the door.
“Yeah, that’s me. What’d ya want?” said Crasher. Crasher looked about two years younger than Timmy but was about two years older. He was shorter than Timmy, but not by much.
“Oh, I-I, uh, I thought y-you were older,” stuttered Timmy, “I’m Timmy and I need your help.” Timmy wasn’t sure if Crasher could even help him, but he had to get the diamond rectangle.
Crasher thought for a second and said, “Yeah, sure.” He stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
“Really?” said Timmy, very surprised, “Just like that, you’ll help someone you don’t know do something you don’t know?”
“I’ve got nothing going on,” said Crasher, “So where we going?” Timmy walked to the river with Crasher and explained to him what happened at the lake, minus the part about him startling Bruce into it in the first place. Timmy didn’t explain anything about the hidden caves or what the king said or why they need the diamond rectangle and why they have it in the first place.
“So you dropped it here?” Crasher asked Timmy when they got to the river.
“About here,” Timmy replied, and as soon as he said that Crasher dove into the river. There was no one around to gasp. Everyone was returning to their homes and putting supplies in the castle. Timmy nervously waited for his helper to return from the water. The river was quite deep because of the rain. Suddenly, a hand rose up from the river holding the diamond rectangle, followed by Crasher’s head. He pulled himself out of the lake and handed it to Timmy. “Well, thanks!” Timmy excitedly said, and when he was about to run off, Crasher grabbed him.
“What’s that for?” he asked. Timmy got nervous. “T-thanks for your help!” he stuttered, and when he got loose from Crasher’s grip, he ran off to the castle. Timmy put the two pieces together, and since they were both washed, saw the symbol on them. He didn’t know what the symbol were.
“Bruce!” he yelled, bursting through the doors of the hospital room in the castle. He was shushed by the nurse, and whispered, “Bruce!” Bruce was sound asleep so Timmy shook him awake. “Look at this!” Timmy whisper-yelled, shoving the two pieces of the diamond square in his face.
Bruce grabbed them, “I’ve seen this before!” Timmy was so excited that they almost finished this mystery. “Where? Where?!” Timmy said, a little too loud because he was hushed by the nurse again. “It’s under the staircase!” Bruce said, but as he said that, two royal guards came in, followed by the king.
The king looked around and waved off the nurse who asked the king if he needed anything. He looked at Bruce, who was holding the diamond rectangle. Without saying anything, the king walked up to Bruce’s bed, grabbed the diamond rectangle, and left with his two guards.
“Your majesty!” shouted Timmy, making the king turn around. “Look, I don’t know where you children got this, but you have no idea what is coming,” the king said. “We know about the monsters in the sky!” yelled Bruce. The king just stopped moving. “We know about the shrines! We know you don’t know where to put the Blue Key! You need our help!” Bruce shouted. The king said, “I need no such thing,” and walked away.
When the doors closed, Timmy said, “Please explain.” “Well,” Bruce started, “I didn’t just lay here! I asked if I could read, and the nurse said she would get a book for me. I wanted to look in the library myself though. So she agreed to push me in a wheelchair.” Timmy was confused so he interrupted, “Are you hurt that bad?” “No, I’m not really hurt at all,” Bruce continued, “But I pretended so I can read instead of skinning trees. I grabbed the book Royal Myths and looked for the picture of the diamond square, which is actually called the Blue Key.”
So Bruce explained the whole story to Timmy, “The founder of the land gave a scroll to his son, which was passed down for generations. Legend says the scroll is used for the greatest emergency, not a war amongst men, but a war amongst monsters. The Blue Key was split in half and hidden in the highest and lowest points of the valley. The only way to know where to put the key is to have the key itself, because the lock is only shown on the key.” Bruce showed Timmy in the book where there was a picture of the Blue Key. The key showed a crown in the center, but above it, something that Bruce guessed represented a staircase, among other decoration. It was hard to even tell that it was a staircase.
“So we need to get that key back!” Timmy said. “Wait,” Bruce replied, “There’s more.” He continued reading, “The key unlocks shrines that fend off monsters. The founder had the technology from his homeland. Shrines arise and destroy monsters, but there's a warning: The destroyer of monster’s destroyers are monsters.” The boys looked at eachother for a moment.
“What the heck does that mean?” Timmy asked, “'The destroyer of monster’s destroyer are monsters,'” Timmy repeated.
“Beats me!” Bruce blurted out, breaking the silence in the hospital room. “Anyway, Timmy, what about our weapons? We left them under the staircase!” “Oh, don’t worry, When you rain off I hid them under the carpet. But bigger problem, we need to get you out of here so we can steal the Blue Key from the king!”
“Why don’t we just tell the king where to put it?” Bruce asked. “Duh! Because the king will be so thankful that he’ll make us knights!”
Timmy said.
“Speaking of night, we’d better hurry!” Bruce said, pointing at the window. They hadn’t notice that the room was getting darker as the sun was sinking in the sky.
“I have an idea,” Timmy suggested, and shouted, “Run!” Both of them dashed out of the room. The nurse just stood there and rolled her eyes. When they got to the staircase, there were no guards. They were all stationed with bows at the wall. When they ran up the stairs and came across the double hallway, they saw that both halls were sealed with stone bricks, but there was a tunnel through one. Both halls lead to the same place anyway: The throne room.
As Bruce and Timmy turned the corner they bumped into Crasher, who was wearing armor. The two boys fell. “It was you!” Timmy then realized, pointing at Crasher for no reason, “You told the king that I had the Blue Key!” “Yeah, I did tell him,” Crasher said, “I know that old tale about the shrines and I knew what that was as soon as I saw it in the water. I had to go to the king and tell the truth. He did make me a knight, after all.”
“We have got to get it back!” Timmy begged. “Sorry, but I can’t let you by. I’m guarding the throne room until the shrines are up, which should be soon.” Crasher said. “It’s night time! Why aren’t they up yet? The monsters are coming!” Timmy pleaded. Suddenly, there were quick footsteps coming from the staircase, running quicker than anyone could ran. A monster turned the corner.
“Archers at the ready!” barked the commander of the knights. A few monsters had fallen from their island in the sky on the other side of the valley and were on the way to the dividing wall. “Hold!” the commander shouted, “Hold!” The monsters ran closer and closer, until one got so close the knights saw it in the torchlight. “Fire!” Arrows whizzed by until the monster was covered. It dissolved into ground and the many arrows were left there. “Don’t waste arrows! Just shoot them once!” the commander yelled.
More monsters were on there way. “As long as we can shoot them, we can hold them off until daybreak!” someone said. This went on for a while. The monsters kept coming and dissolved after getting hit with an arrow. Suddenly, the monsters started to climb the mountain. They made their way to the top and jumped onto the walls. The knights yelled as the braves started to fight with the monsters. Soon, they were overrun.
The commander called a retreat and they pushed back to half of the wall. “Guard the archers, men!” shouted the commander, as he hit a monster on the head with his shield. The monsters moved into the village, but most knights were trapped on the wall. Some of the monsters even went into the castle. Suddenly, a bright beam was shot into the sky from the Paladin's house. Shortly after, another was shot up from the top of the castle. The final beam came from behind the mountains. Electricity shot from them and started attacking monsters that got too close. “We’re saved!” someone shouted.
5 Minutes earlier...
“W-w-what do we do?” Timmy whimpered. “Just… stay down!” Crasher commanded, “I had training for this!” “You had training for this exact moment?” Bruce asked. “No. B-but it doesn’t even see us! Let’s just slowly back up,” Crasher said, Bruce and Timmy still on the floor. The three started crawling backwards. Suddenly the monster slowly turned its head towards them. Slowly, Crasher pulled back his bow. “Do you know how to fire that thing?” Timmy asked as Crasher’s shaking hand held the bow, trying to steady it. The monster stepped closer and closer to them in the tunnel. Without warning, the arrow shot over Bruce and Timmy, hitting the monsters right on the forehead. “Apparently,” Crasher answered.
“Come on, let’s go!” Bruce said, pushing past Crasher and running towards the throne room. “Aren’t you coming?” Timmy asked Crasher. “I’ll guard,” he responded, turning around and drawing his sword. He turned his head though, and added, “But please hurry.” Timmy smiled and ran off after Bruce.
Bruce was talking to the two guards who stood under the arched doorway. “But you gotta let me in!” Bruce pleaded, “Come on!” Timmy caught up to Bruce. Catching his breath, Timmy asked, “We have permission from Crasher!” The guards snickered, “That guy? He’s not even a real knight! He’s only been on duty for an hour anyways.” Bruce rolled his eyes, “So you guys are guarding the entrance to a doorless room, right?” “Yeah, genius,” the knight said. Bruce looked at Timmy, with a familiar plan in their heads, “What if someone were to- RUN!” The two boys ran between the guards and into the throne room. “Stop!” the guards yelled as they chased after them.
The throne room was empty. The throne sat in the center and overlooked the entrance hall to the castle. Out the window was battle; knights fighting with monsters. On the walls of the throne room there were extra armor and weapons. The king was in the backroom, holding the Blue Key and pacing. Bruce and Timmy ran to him. He didn’t notice the two boys running at him. Bruce grabbed the Blue Key from the king who stumble in surprise. The two guards grabbed Bruce, who threw the key to Timmy. “Run again!” Bruce shouted.
One guard let go of Bruce and chased Timmy. He ran out of the room and stopped, horrified as he looked down the hall. The guard grabbed Timmy. “Gotcha!” he said, satisfied. He slowly looked down the hallway. It was infested with monsters. They just stood there. The guard let go of Timmy and drew his bow. He and gave Timmy his shield. They looked at each other. Timmy saw the look in the guard's eyes and could tell the guard knew what had to happen, that Timmy needs to get the key to the keyhole. The guard nodded and Timmy ran down the hall. He pushed down monsters with his shield and ran past them.
The monsters gained notice of the guard shooting at them. They started climbing the stairs to the throne room. “For the king!” shouted the guard, throwing his bow to the ground and drawing his sword. As Timmy turned the corner he heard a the guard shout in pain. Key under his arm and shield in front of him, Timmy ran through the hall. The monsters filled the skinny hallway. Timmy pushed his shield against them, but they piled up against it. He kept pushing, but starting going backwards. The monsters pushed too hard. Suddenly, they gave out and Timmy pushed through the tunnel. Crasher was there with his sword. He one by one killed the monsters that prevented Timmy from advancing. The monsters had overrun the floor. Archers were shooting from the balcony; knights guarded the stairs.
The two of them looked over the balcony. “Here,” Crasher stuck his hand out for the key, but Timmy pulled away. “I need to do this,” Timmy said, and he jumped over onto the floor. Pulling the shield under him, Timmy landed right on a monster, squishing it. He ran under the stairs where the ‘broken’ saw and refurbisher were. He waited a second, guarding himself with the shield the fallen knight had given him. He found the square indentation under the stairs that Bruce and he had seen since they were little. He dropped the shield, and with both hands press the object that he had once known as the diamond rectangle into the wall. Monsters crept up behind him. Timmy grabbed the shield, but it was no use. He was backed against the wall. He took a step back and felt his foot hit something. It was the Gravedigger. He picked it up and killed the monsters. More monsters came. Timmy was out numbered. He backed up against the wall and accidentally pressed his back against the Blue Key. The castle started to shake. All the monsters froze. Bolts of electricity attacked the monsters, leaving just a pile of ash.
Bruce was trapped in the king’s back room. The king stood with his sword to Bruce’s throat. The room served no purpose nowadays, except a quiet place for the king to relax.
Bruce was trying to figure out a way to escape. Suddenly, the guard let out a yell. A monster came into the room carrying a makeshift blade of wood. The guard and monster starting battling with their swords in front of the king’s throne. Bruce and the king just watched as the guard finished off the monster. It fell to the ground and dissolved into a powder that disappeared into the ground. Then more monsters came.
Three monsters. Four monsters. Too many monsters. Bruce was thrown back by the king while he began to fight them off. Suddenly, there was a light coming from the window overlooking the kingdom. A beam of light shot up. The king’s throne was ripped apart as a beam of light came from under the throne. The beam broke through the top of the ceiling and shot into the sky. Then, bolts of lightening from the beams shot the monsters, killing them. It came from all the beams to all the monsters. The three in the throne room looked out the window as the monsters were turned into dust.
“Your friend got the Blue Key into the right place, I see,” said the king to Bruce. “You are very lucky.” “Oh, it’s not luck.” Bruce replied. After more silence and staring out of the window, Timmy ran into the room. “I did it!” he yelled. “You?” asked Bruce, “You?” “Fine. We did it.” Timmy smiled. Their happiness was interrupted by the king. “We still have a battle to fight. The shrines can’t hold back the monsters forever.” “The shrines are those beams of light, right?” asked Bruce. “Correct,” the king continued, slightly annoyed, “The shrines only protect the area behind them, so they can’t protect themselves. The monsters can break them and advance.” “Sounds like you might need some extra help,” Timmy hinted. The king sighed, “I knight thee sir-” “Timmy!” “Sir Timmy and sir-” “Bruce!” “Sir Bruce. Arise, o’ knights.” the king said, half-heartedly. “Arise?” Bruce asked, “But we were already stand-” Timmy nudged Bruce. “And sir Bruce, take this. To lead the men in battle.” the king handed Bruce an old wooden horn with markings on it. “Thank you!” Bruce said, astonished at the old relic. “Anything for me?” Timmy asked. “Go now, and fight.” the king replied. “You didn’t answer my question!” Timmy said.
After the king got them situated with their armor, shields, bows, arrows, and swords, they set off down the hall. “Wait a sec!” Timmy exclaimed. He started running down the hall. “What!?” Bruce yelled, running after him. They ran down and under the stairs. Timmy pushed aside the carpet to find Nightblade hiding. “Nice!” said Bruce, looking at Nightblade. “Now, let’s go!” Timmy said. The two boys left the swords the king gave them under the stairs and ran to the wall.
At the wall, the monsters had been moved back. The archers took over and were shooting them from the top. “Bruce, wait,” said Crasher from behind the boys. Bruce stopped running and turned around. Crasher was holding something in his hands. “Here, take this. This is the only thing I had with me after the boat crash.” Bruce took the object from his hands. “Lead the army to victory!” Bruce looked at the stone Crasher had given him. It had faded writings on it that he couldn’t make out. Bruce grinned and put it in his pocket. He blew on the mouthpiece of his horn and yelled, “Charge!” He ran right past the wall and slashed the monsters with Nightblade. "Archers! Regroup!” someone shouted. Timmy had just made it to the wall. He decided to used his bow and arrow instead of Bruce's 'direct approach'. "Excuse me?" said a small, frightened voice as Timmy began to fire arrows, "Do you have any arrows?" Timmy looked down at his fellow short knight. "Are you old enough to be a knight?" Timmy asked him. "N-n-no," said his trembling voice. Timmy smiled. "Neither am I." "So, arrows, sir?" "Oh sure! You know, I'll get some from Bruce! It doesn't look like he is using his anyways," Timmy said, nodding to the ground where Bruce was slashing monsters.
Timmy ran up behind Bruce and they began fighting side by side. “How’s it going?” Timmy asked, slicing a monster while saying it. “Good, good. Ya know?” Bruce replied. Monsters started running forwards and Bruce and Timmy began fighting, back to back. “Can I get your arrows?” asked Timmy, holding the shield in front of him while a monster charged forwards. Bruce tossed them back and Timmy caught them and put them in his arrow holder that was on his belt. Suddenly, the monsters began to overcome them.
“Retreat!” Bruce yelled, blocking the attacking monsters with his shield. Nightblade swung randomly as Bruce tried to hit monsters while holding his shield. As they ran back towards the walls, the monsters guarded the entrance. Timmy and Bruce jolted to a halt. “We’re trapped!” said Timmy. “I can see that!” Bruce annoyingly responded. They tried, but couldn’t fend off the monsters. Suddenly, a monster standing in the entrance arch in the wall fell over. And another. And another, and another. Crasher was revealed from behind his fallen victims of his vicious bow skills. “Need a hand?” He smiled. “Crasher!” Timmy yelled, running towards him. “Guards!” He yelled, “We need more men protecting the entrance, now!” But it was too late.
The monsters poured past the wall with no one out there distracting them. Bruce smiled, as he reached for the sheathed Nightblade. “You totally love this, don’t you Bruce?” Timmy accused, Gravedigger in hand. “Maybe a little more than I should,” Bruce grinned back. As the boys fought, Crasher watched the entrance and tried to thin the herd of monsters coming through with his bow. Bruce and Timmy could only handle so many. The monsters were getting smarter, though. Instead of fighting, they ran straight past them and were pushing the archers off the wall. Some were even ignoring the fighters and archers and went right for the shrine.
It was a massacre. The monsters were overwhelming. Bruce, Timmy, and Crasher retreated over the bridge. All they could do was watch in horror as their friends got destroyed by the monsters. Crasher tried to shoot a few down, but all it was doing was wasting arrows. When dawn came, the monsters were hurt by the sun. Eventually, there were none left. The king came out of his throne room and stood with the three of them. “All of them are gone?” he asked. “Some retreated.” “Some hid.” “But most-” They all knew what happened. “We should check the shrine,” the king suggested, with sadness in his voice.
They slowly made their way through the corpses of their friends. Crasher stopped. “I knew him,” he looked down at a body. “He was the person who first found me in the woods.” His voice trembled as he lifted up the helmet of the fallen knight. “What was his name?” asked Timmy. “I-I don’t remember,” Crasher said. “We can mourn everyone when we are alive, now let’s go.” The king’s words were harsh, but at the same time, he was telling the truth.
The four of them made it to the shrine room that was once the Paladin’s home. It looked badly damage. All the stone bricks were cracked and broken. “We can’t afford another hit,” the king said, “We need more knights.” “Well what are we supposed to do? There’s no one left who’s in condition to fight!” Crasher said, almost angry. “I’ll think of something. Stay here with me, Crasher,” The king glanced at a shelf while saying this, “You two step outside.” Timmy and Bruce had no choice but to leave the broken house. Timmy walked with his head down, half because he was sad and half because he didn’t want to step on anyone. As they left, they heard Crasher yelling, enraged but muffled, followed by the sound of something breaking. “Who is that?” Bruce said, shielding his eyes from the sun and looking at the bridge. Timmy looked up. There was indeed someone standing there. Everyone should’ve been inside. Bruce started jogging over and stopped at the bridge. “What is it?” Timmy called out. Bruce said nothing. “Bruce?” Timmy started running over and when he caught up to him, he, too, stopped and stared in fright.
A monster stood on the bridge. Where it came from was unclear, but it stood there, very still. It faced the castle and hadn’t noticed the two of them yet. Timmy walked a little closer. “Get back, Timmy.” He ignored Bruce.
“Timmy, just get back!” Bruce screamed.
“Just wait,” Timmy said.
“Timmy, stand back and let me shoot it with my bow. I can’t with you in the way, but that doesn’t mean I won’t!”
“Why are you here?” Timmy asked the monster. The monster turned around.
“Timmy!” Bruce yelled.
“Why are you killing us? Why!?” Timmy pleaded.
The monster spoke. “Arrows.”
“W-what?”
“Arrows. I’m here for my arrows.” A tear ran down Timmy’s cheek.
“What is it, Timmy?” Bruce asked.
“Arrows,” the monster said again.”
Timmy still faced the monster, “Remember when I asked for your arrows?”
“Yeah.”
“Well,” Timmy was crying, “They were for someone else. They were younger than we were. And now, they are dead. Everyone is dead.”
“People are still alive!”
“But we won’t survive another attack!” Timmy yelled, swinging around. He stared at Bruce with anger.
“I smiled,” Bruce said, “When you asked me if I was having fun, I smiled. Remember? You asked if I was enjoying this. I said yes and smiled. I was having fun. Everyone’s dead now, and I smiled! We don’t stand a chance now, but I smiled. We are standing around the lifeless bodies of people who fought, and I smiled,” Bruce said, showing his anger instead of sadness. “I smiled!” he shouted. Timmy walked up to Bruce and hugged him, both of them sniffling.
“Arrows,” the monster repeated.
“What should we do?” asked Bruce.
“I know.”
Timmy and Bruce grabbed the monster respectfully by the arms and lifted it over the bridge’s railing. The water had been drained before the night because some of the knights had dammed the river. It was just a chasm with a sad, lifeless river running at the bottom. Bruce and Timmy held the monster over.
“I am so sorry,” Timmy said, “Here.” He pulled out the arrows he was going to give him from his holder and handed them to the monster. It took them and looked at his hand.
“Arrows,” it said.
“Yes,” Timmy smiled away the tears, “Arrows.”
The monster kept it’s emotionless expression, but said, “Hope.”
“Ready?” asked Bruce.
“Of course not,” Timmy responding. The king and Crasher were walking up behind them.
The monster looked Crasher in the eyes and said, “Find… hope.” The boys let go of the monster and it dropped into the empty ravine.
“They aren’t really monsters,” the king said, “Each and every one of them were people like us at one point. Legends say different things, like a potion gone wrong or a new disease from the ocean, but no one really knows where the first came from. They started spreading. These came from the same place Crasher did. He was likely the only one who survived. We won’t.”
“What do we do then?” asked Bruce.
“I was given this,” said Crasher, holding out the scroll in his one hand, with a sword in the other, “It is supposed to be a map to a new world, a perfect world. A world that has the cure to this disease.”
“Crasher was shipped out here to find it, but crashed, hence his name,” the king interrupted, “So we have to send you three there.”
“But why?” Timmy asked, “the time we come back, you will all be dead. What’s the point?”
“The point,” the king smiled, sadly, “is that some of us will live on. Some of our race will be able to survive. They will build new things, mine the earth, craft objects no one has ever imagined. You need to go experience that. Maybe we’ll meet on the other side.”
The band of three heroes journey up the mountain and looked over the kingdom. “Why aren’t you coming?” Timmy asked the king. “I think a proper king would stay and not abandon his people. They need me. Soon, too. You should have enough supplies to help you survive for long enough. Good luck, my friends.” After saying their goodbyes, they walked into the forest on top of the mountain. No one spoke. Crasher looked down at his map, Bruce dragged Nightblade behind him in the dirt, and Timmy stared off in front of them. Bruce finally spoke. “I supposed we’re the last people in the kingdom.” “In this kingdom, at least,” Crasher said, focused on the map. “But, Crasher, since the king knew everything about you, he must’ve known your real name!” Timmy said. Crasher didn’t speak. “Can you at least tell us what this perfect place is called?” asked Bruce. It was silent for a while. “Steve,” Crasher said. “What?” asked Timmy. “My name is Steve and we are going to The End.”
The band of heroes journeyed on foot to this legendary ‘perfect’ land. They encountered a single kingdom that still had people. Bruce stayed behind. He never said why. He simply wouldn’t continue. The town was doomed for destruction, and Bruce knew this. Even as the band of now two people left, Bruce didn’t speak. He had a sadness in his eyes. Timmy never made it to The End. In the night, monsters got him. Steve mourned him, but moved on. Eventually, Steve found The End. He found himself talking to him a lot, by towards the end of his journey. He dug underground to find it, at first with the Gravedigger, but as the stone became too hard, Steve fashioned a pickaxe. The portal was in a temple underground. It looked like a temple to Steve, at least. He might’ve called it a stronghold.
“So this is it,” Steve said, “The ‘Promise Land’! The place to save us. To give us happiness. Whoever ‘us’ is.” He stood before the frame of the portal as the put the last piece in to activate it. As he placed the final piece, the portal magically activated. Instead of bright happiness, the portal was dark and gloomy. It hissed evil noises. Steve’s face stayed the same. He had seen death of friends, destruction of kingdoms, and monsters that he’d never imagined.
Steve looked into the portal. “This isn’t a happy place after all, is it? It’s a place full of death and destruction. I’ll probably die. I probably won’t even last a second, let alone a day.” Steve’s face was old, now. He sat at the edge of the portal, his feet dangling over. He had a lonely life. Everyone he knew was gone, and for all he knew, everyone was gone. He saw abandoned temples and villages. He even saw a sunken city as he boated across an ocean. He was running from monsters for his entire life. At times, he had doubted that this portal would save him. He lost faith. There was nothing else in his life. He was doing it for Timmy. And Bruce. And the king. And everyone who died in this awful war that was going on for no reason at all.
Steve stood up and took a deep breath. He spoke to the portal, “I stand before you. It’s just me and me. I need to keep myself company. I look into you and see darkness and hear evil. I realized I am looking into the soul of the monsters, of every monster, all monsters of every kind, and I see everyone they took. I see Timmy, and Bruce, and the king, and that knight who just wanted arrows. Friends, families, enemies, and even strangers. This is for everyone at my kingdom, at every kingdom.
Every place, from states to small villages. I did this for all of you. I talked, because I knew you were there. I knew that someone was there. To listen. And now I know one thing, that I was never sure of before. I thought I had been wasting my time, but I realize that I have been. No fun. No work, even. This life was for something no one else has ever had to do. Maybe if other people had experienced it, they would understand. I don’t expect you to. You didn’t just killed everyone. You killed me. And now I can stare at you and finally do what I’ve been meant to do.
Something you’ve done a long time ago! Something that will destroy you: Killing me. The last person. And I ask you, what next? Are there other lands to conquer? Other worlds to destroy? Was it worth killing everyone and everything? Because now I know what to do. I watch as Timmy and Bruce dropped the monster into the river, and now I know that there is good left. Good lives! And I can sure say that it doesn’t live in you! I’m going to end this journey once and for all. I’ll keep all the memories in my head, and I will remember. I will end everything. Humanity ends will me: Steve. I know that everything has been good. I know everything will work out. You probably wonder how I know this. I don’t. I just hope. So do what you did a long time ago and kill me.”
Steve took a step forwards and fell into the portal. He felt himself being ripped apart, falling through everything that existed. He is still falling. Don’t worry though, he will land safely eventually. The portal will be kind. He will be in a happy place. It will still have it’s monsters, but everyone’s life has monsters. No place is perfect. He will be in a new world. A lonely world. One day, Steve will find the portal again. It will be exactly as he left it. When he falls in, maybe he will be in another place. A happy place. Or maybe he will start over again. Of course, he won’t remember this. The memories are there are in the portal. He will find himself mysteriously naming his sword Nightblade and his shovel Gravedigger. He might even wonder where his bow skills came from. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll go through the portal and end up shipwrecked on the shore, with amnesia. He might be taken into the nearest kingdom and help defend it from monsters. His life will start over forever. Maybe one day the portal will be kind. The portal will lead him to the land he was promised. The portal will bring him to The End.
| Credit | My Lovely Editors, Marika and Angie! |
| Tags |
tools/tracking
2895149
6
the-hidden-valley-2895149
CrystalRuby
Medimaniac
GanderBeam
ScotsMiser
MistFaller
Escapazition
dreamCritting
LongerBlade
person_02
Ender Sparkle
Vermoorder
![SUPERMAN: "Faith Eternal" [PART 1] [Not One, But Two TV Spot] | (Minecraft TV) Minecraft Blog](https://static.planetminecraft.com/files/image/minecraft/blog/2024/961/17770062-supestvspotthumbfinalsuperboy_s.jpg)
Red And Blue
Create an account or sign in to comment.
Best Regards,
-Mr_B