Lore/Story A Journey Beyond: The Story, Ch1

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't been posting recently, not that most of you would care, but I have been very busy lately *cough* get to -1500 before 1500 *cough* Anyways, I recently wrote a small snippet of a story of what I originally thought AJB was going to be like, before I found the actual series of events in the quest and discovered the NPCs involved were rude battle-hardend ill-tempered killing machines (except Aledar, he was chill). So, combining these 2 things, I wrote a story about what I thought ALB was going to be like, merged with the actual storyline. If I feel like it I will write Chapter 2.

Spoiler: A Journey Beyond: The Story

A Journey Beyond:
Chapter 1:

You concentrate and the Detlas Teleportation scroll disappears in a flash of light, everything turning dark around you. A rush of color flies at you from everywhere, noise leaking into your ears. Detlas, the Heart of Wynn. So many memories here… just over there, by the East Gate, that strange man asked me to kill his employer. For my troubles, I got a shirt and a cracked, glowing orb stashed in my bank. Good times, good times…

Moving on, I remembered a few months ago, I walked into this trading hub for the first time and decided to rest for a day or two in their bar and hotel called the Rusty Recruit. It was a dim, dank little building in the corner of the city. I was swigging some Nemract whisky and munching on a plate of Detlas-Style Blackened Trout, when suddenly the door flew open and everyone turned. The bar immediately died down, all eyes on the warrior walking through the inn. A dented helmet, charred chestplate, cracked leggings, and worn boots, this was clearly a battle hardened warrior. They flopped down onto the seat next to me, my simple leather armor shamed by this soldier’s advanced gear.

They reached up and fiddled with their chin strap for a second or two, then removed their helmet. They were a woman, dark complexion with interesting pale eyes and black hair with a white streak in the front. She turned towards me and I suddenly found my Nemract whisky very interesting to examine. She turned away. “Thanos brew,” she said. Her voice was thick and deep, but smooth. It was also tinged with an Almuj accent, so ‘th’ was ‘t’ for her and vowels were round. “Y-y-yes ma’am,” stuttered the bartender. She didn’t seem to notice what her presence did to the bar’s atmosphere, or how everyone seemed to fear her. “I, uhh, go there,” I muttered and quickly walked out of the bar.

She’s been there ever since. A few days later I walked back in and saw her reclining in a chair at the end of the bar. She was asleep, but a bit of parchment hung on the wall behind her. It read “Recruiting for mission.” I paused for a second and cleared my throat. She snapped awake. “Hmm?” She seemed nice enough. “I, uh, saw your flyer… ma’am,” I said. “Can I help?” She stared up at me before bursting into laughter. My face burned. “Oh, you funny kid. Get outta here, come back when you out of preschool.” She wheezed and leaned forward from her own joke. I turned and marched out of the bar, her laughing ringing in my ears.

Well now, I’m “outta preschool.” With my battered armour set created custom just for me with an Infused Hive Dagger humming in my hand, I strutted into the bar. There she was, snoozing in that same chair with that same tattered and faded poster behind her. “Hey.” Her eyes flew open. She blinked a few times, then squinted at me. “You that little boy from a month or two ago who wanted in on my secret mission, right? Yahya’s Spoons, you really have graduated preschool.” She chuckled to herself and stood. She stuck her hand out and I shook it. It was weathered like papyrus sheets that the Desert Nomads make, but I could tell it was from years of weapons crossing paths with her.

“I’m Elphaba, how you doin’?” she asked. “Good, I’m Thing500.” I responded. “Ay, you one of them fighters from Fruma, eh? I can tell by your name, heh. Me, I’m from Almuj, born, raised, and hired in good ole Wynn.” she released my hand and looked me up and down. “You lookin’ like just what we needed. Come on honey, you in on the mission!” I grinned and followed her back into the building. She led me into a room with a table in the middle and 2 other people around it. One was short with brown hair and an olive complexion. He had his armor on, and when he turned towards me, he seemed pretty nice. His eyes were light green and he had a friendly smile on his face. “Lucio, nice to meet you!” His voice was middle-high pitched and a little sharp. He had a Corkus accent, so his ‘o’s were long and deep with ‘r’s being nonexistent. He stuck his hand out. “Thing500, nice to meet you too.” His grin was like a child getting the gift of their dreams on Craftmas. The last one was a man in a black robe. His hood was up and his face covered in shadow. Only his dark-reddish beard was visible, a beard that looked awfully familiar…

He reached up and pulled his hood down, revealing wild red hair and cold black eyes. His eyes widened. The left one twitched, and I felt something like extreme regret flow through the room, but in the space of a second, it was over. “Aledar!” I cried. “Thing500?!” He sounded amazed. I moved around the table and pulled him into an embrace. He patted my back and pulled away, looking me up and down. “It seems we both came a long way! And wow, is that an Infused Dagger?” I looked up and saw the others had their eyes wide open with guilt and confusion. I couldn’t figure out what was happening, but I could tell something had gone wrong. I pretended like I didn’t notice and slapped Aledar’s shoulder. “Huh, I thought I’d never see you again!” I turned back to the others, their expressions normal again, almost too normal.

“So what's this mission you guys are on, what are we doing?” I asked. Elphaba leaned back onto the wall and started speaking. “We is going on the most dangerous mission ever, an exploration of tha Silent Expanse. It’s an area discovered after someone mined into the South-Eastern Mountains, an entire new place of the Wynn Province. However, this area wasn’t lush and green, it was dead and black. Something dark, something… new has taken over that area. Maybe even more powerful and complex than the corruption. Anyway, what we needa do is go in there, get to the end, and report what up.” She lost her previous deposition, revealing a serious killer. “So, shall we begin?” piped up Lucio. “Yes, I supposed we may begin, let's go. Thing500, follow.” concluded Aledar.

We walked out of the meeting room and exited the bar. Walking in silence for a while, we were sort of nervous for what was to come. Eventually, Aledar decided to break the quiet. “Y’know Thing500, it's a twist of fate we came together for this,” he said. His voice was deep and sad, like he did something he regretted and now he’s trying to tell me what he’s done without me getting mad. “Aledar…” whispered Elphaba. “Yes… I hear them,” he said back. He halted. In front of us, a small group of simple zombies blocked our way. “I’ll take care of these.” Aledar closed his eyes and muttered something. The zombies started charging forward, but before they even closed half the distance, A wall of light burst to life before them, flinging them up and back, high into the sky. I saw a series of small puffs of dust appear on the side of the mountains. We continued walking, and after a short stroll, we reached the Abandoned Mines. On the side of the mountain, an ancient stone archway inlaid with emeralds led to a dark room blocked with a massive pile of stones.

To be continued...

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you're pretty good at writing! can't wait for chapter 2 :)

 

thank you so much! I will now definitely work on it

 

Wow, that was really fast! I've already got chapter 2 finished, so I will be posting that soon

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Note: POSTED