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[SP-F1] The Forest


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It was dark, I guessed it was almost midnight, the moon’s shimmering glow bounced of of everything, despite this, it was surprisingly dark, luckily I had a torch with me. My name, is Ryder Esterman, also known as Aspect. At the time, I wore a leather chest piece with a gray shirt underneath which looked damaged and dusty, the fabric looked old and worn, which isn’t something that a typical nineteen year old would be wearing, it was coupled with a pair of blue pants with leather straps to hold a small hunting knife at my thigh, along with some shin protection. I had black hair and blue eyes. A familiar clapping sound broke my concentration. It was Athel, he was mute. We were unlikely friends. I knew Athel before being trapped here, he shows little emotion besides the occasional smile and is quiet most of the time. I considered getting him a bell. Mostly because he is as quiet as a leaf being carried in the wind. Athel wore a light brown colored scarf that matched his eyes, his hair was the color brown, which didn’t quite match his black jacket, which had a small chainmail vest underneath, a white shirt was barely visible under the vest, a pair gray pants which also had leather shin guards and a pair of black fingerless gloves, we both wore the same kind of shoes. He was around twenty-one years old and had a soft face that made him look naturally trustworthy. His in game username was Silence, if you don’t know why then you should have read more closely, we don’t like to call each other by our usernames because we were friends, we don’t tell strangers our real names ethier, just in case.

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 Athel was clapping to get my attention. “What is it Athel?” I asked, closely watching his hands. Athel made symbols with his hands, sign language. It signed: “It's dark, look for shelter?” I nodded and said: “Agreed”. Oh yeah, did I mention that I understood sign language? Sorry about that, it almost slipped my mind. We continued walking for some time when Athel pointed something out. The torch, our only source of light, was dying fast. “Oh no…” I said, anxiety filling my very being. I tried to save it but it only made it die faster, it was the very definition of the reverse birthday cake. It was now completely dark. There was an eerie silence in the dark. All I could hear was Athel’s unsettlingly slow calm breathing and my own racing heartbeat. I couldn’t tell where there was, after all, it was so dark you couldn’t see your own hands. After about sixteen seconds, a noise shook me to my senses. It was Athel, he was clapping again. He stopped and a noise which sounded like a rock that was thrown came from behind me. Turning around, I saw it. In the distance, a silhouette lit my the moonlight appeared. It looked like a stone watchtower. “Finally… Some good luck.” I murmured, his whisper echoing through the quiet forest. We began walking towards the distance structure trying not to tumble over twigs and rocks, I still ended up tripping a few times. Not being able to feel pain just made the falling very uncomfortable, and weird. Very weird.
 

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We made our way to the stone structure. It was three stories tall and covered in green lichen and yellow moss, the tower it looked abandoned. There was fire pit outside along with torn fabric which we assumed were from some tents, the fire was cold, It looked like it hadn’t seen flame in over a week. Athel managed to start the fire. He looked up at me, now being able to see, and signed: “We camp here?” I nodded in response. He continued to manage the fire outside the building. I went into the seemingly abandoned structure, with my renewed torch, which had given up on me and Athel earlier. The place overwhelmed me with a cold creepy feeling. There were multiple wall sconces that held burnt out torches, almost as if the place was abandoned before they decided to save some wood. The interior walls of the tower were covered in lichen and moss, there was a stone column in the middle of the stone room for support, the halls tattered with torn banners and cobwebs, the tables and shelves reeked of wood rot. I almost gagged in response.

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 It was, to, realistic. The building, other then that, was completely empty. “Wow, it's almost like home sweet home.” I muttered to myself. I was an orphan, I had no parents that I knew, the caretakers were always awful to me and most everyone else. If it wasn’t for this, I would have left the orphanage a year ago. Instead I’m here. Amazing how fate works, right? I could now tell that there was a basement as well.  I decided to get Athel to help. I went outside to see he was nowhere in sight. “Athel!” I yelled, forgetting he was mute, obviously he would be sure to yell back. Remembering this, I figured he was collecting firewood. He would be back shortly, at least that's what I assumed. I thought to myself and figured, more exploring would hurt anyone. So I went upstairs, the second floor looked like and armory, all around me there were mounted wall shields, sword displays, and even armor stands displayed in a fashion that made me think the helmets were watching me. All of which was rusted and gathering dust. “How long has this been here?” I wondered, not knowing I spoke out loud. Suddenly there was a crash from upstairs. I drew my hunting knife in alert. “Who’s there?”
 

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 I demanded, looking up the stairs. There was no response. “I’m coming up. Don’t try anything, or I might stab you!” I shouted, that should make things safer. I mean really. there was once again no response. “Alright, I’m taking that as a Yes.” I half-murmured to myself. I wearily climbed the staircase. My eyes darting like a hawk searching for food. Upon reaching the floor, there was crow perched where the helm of a knight should have been, which cawed at me and began flying around the room in an irritating fashion. “Stupid bird!” I said as I shooed it, which then flew out a gaping hole in the massive stone slabs of the roof and in part of the wall, the stairs to the roof were completely destroyed. There was empty bookshelves, a broken table, and a tattered banner which hung from the ceiling. I approached the hole and looked over the forest. From this height you could see anything. In the distance, I saw, lights! There was something glowing in the distance, a town, a village, a trading post, who knows! The light in the distance pulse like fire, which I didn't know how to respond to.
 

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Looked directly below the tower I saw a figure throwing more firewood into the pit. Which erupted in an inferno in response. “There you are…” I whispered to myself. I placed myself down the stairs to make sure I wouldn’t fall all the way down. Arriving outside, I waved to Athel, he waved in response, while making a stack of wood, his wave looked a bit odd because of this. He then signed to me: “Find anything?” “The inside is clear. We could camp inside if we wanted to.” He nodded and signed back: “Outside is unsafe. Monsters. I saw one finding wood.” My eyes widened. “Monsters?” I said, worry in my voice. “Inside clear, it is safe there. So…” He signed, then picked up a torch and walked to the door, he stopped and gestured me to follow. Once inside he relit a few torches on all the floors except the basement, the door, as it turns out, was locked and barred from the other side. He turned to me and signed: “Upstairs is safest. Only one entrance, allows us to keep lookout.” I nodded. “Wouldn’t it also mean one exit?” He paused and thought about this. Then signed: “We would see he threat coming.” “Ok” I replied. “You watch first though, alright?” Athel nodded. “Ok then, nighty night.” I said as a rolled out a brown sleeping bag from my pack. I went into it, I hadn’t slept in so long that is feels unnatural. But comfortable nonetheless. It felt like I was resting a massive kitten. My eyes began drooping. Before I knew it, I was out cold. Athel pulled up a chair to the hole in the wall. He looked out as if fishing for something on a dock in a lake. He was wide wake, it was part of his alert expression. He looked out with an expression that read: “Peace at last.”. He began walking around the room studying the building in detail, making sure he hadn’t missed anything. Floor by Floor, wall by wall, brick by brick, he studied it. Until eventually he was back outside, he pulled a chair from inside the building outside and sat down looking into the woods, his spear leaning against his chair. The campfire crackled. He was making sure no monsters would get past him.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

In the morning, I woke up. I sat up, Athel was nowhere to be found. I looked out the gaping hole in the wall. He was out cold next to the fire. I facepalmed and walked down the stone stairs, and right outside tapping him on the shoulder. He woke up immediately in a panic, then he saw me and relaxed. He the used his hand, forming an A looking symbol with his right hand. Rotating it on his chest using a couple of clockwise motions. This meant, sorry. “It’s alright, I mean, I’m still alive aren’t I?” I said sarcastically. Athel scowled in response. “Come on, let's get our sleeping bags.” I continued. We both went back inside the deteriorated building. Athel went upstairs to collect our things. But I was distracted by some strange sounds. The basement door, which was locked before, was wide open. Well, not really, when I say wide open I mean the door was open with a lot of slash marks on the inside of the door, which typically translates to “Someone didn’t like that door.”. I looked down, it was dark, I could still see. But I doubt the few beams of light that shown through the cracks in the walls near the ceiling would help much. I cautiously crouched, the leather soles of my boots were squeaking like I was walking on stairs made entirely of rubber ducks. 

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The basement looked as if it would collapse on top of me at any minute. There were a pair of shackles on the floor that were shattered. Whatever was in here, is now long gone. “These stupid scripted in-game events.” I muttered to myself. Immediately, I was startled by my friend, Athel, stumbling down the stairs landing on his back on the cold granite cellar floor with a loud and sudden “THUD!”. “Ow” He signed. Which kinda looked funny because he refused to put effort into it, making him look like he was balling his fists near his chest as they slowly moved away from each other, but it was his dissatisfied facial expression that tied it all together. What it actually looked like was “Hurt” but I could tell what he meant. I chuckled a bit, then helped him back up, like a friend would do. We went back to the ground floor to see my knapsack, which I gracefully picked up, and put on my back.
 

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 “Come on, let’s get going, we wouldn’t want to spend another night in this place. Would we?” I turned around to see Athel staring down the stairs, squinting his eyes as if trying to process something that didn’t make sense. He pointed down the stairs then flattened his hands out at his waist and zig zagged in unisen them all the way up to his chest. The sign for: “Movement.” “What?” I asked, confused, thinking I read it wrong. He made a series of signs that read: “I saw movement.” Athel continued. He looked at me with concern. Then signed: “S-o-m-e-o-n-e is downstairs” He backed up a bit and pointed down the stairs, his eyes locked on me, which was his version of “See for yourself”. I walked up to him and looked down, I saw a silhouette duck behind a tipped table. Near the back of the room. I immediately freaked out. Mostly with a calm and collected. “Alright, that's enough for today. Lets go.” Athel began to follow looking at the doorway, then turning back around towards me. We walked past the desecrated campsite and into the forest, after getting a solid twenty-five meters away from the building. I turned around for one last glimpse, I mean, it was strange for some random watchtower to be located in the middle of a forest with no good reason.

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The tower looked like it would crumble to a mound of pebbles the second any wind were to touch it. The only splashes of color on the structure were the moss and lichen growing on the outside, from here the hole in the top floor was completely visible. But that's when I saw her. She was the silhouette from the basement. From here I could see she had long wavy blonde hair. A combination of chainmail and leather armor with fur underneath, probably designed for comfort, and a skirt, that was all I could see from a distance. Female body armor makes no sense, it seems like the more skin they show off in video games, the more protection they have. Thank god this game didn’t work like that. Athel didn’t know what I was staring at, but after a few seconds the figure disappeared. “Ok…” I said slowly. “Let’s get going…”
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

We continued to walk towards the direction of civilization. Athel kept asking questions like, what did you see, who was it, why aren’t you answering me, all in sign language. I tried to ignore him, which was fairly easy considering the fact that he couldn’t speak. Though his frequent rapid gesturing that I could see out of the corner of my eye made it difficult to concentrate. Who is she? Was she trapped in the basement the whole time, right below me? That would explain the slashes against the iron door. But how did she get there? The door was obviously locked on the outside why didn’t she just open it from the inside? Why didn’t she escape when we were asleep, was she afraid of Athel, or me? I tend to overthink things. So many questions filled my mind, my brain unable to decide which on to clear up first, luckily for me, I had just gotten the best stimulant that you could ask for, a hand across my face. While I was in the realm of riddles and questions, Athel had gotten so annoyed with me ignoring him that he slapped me, which his way of screaming “NOTICE ME” into my ears.
 

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“Ow!” I said in response, not because I was hurt, but because I was surprised, to be honest, I have no idea why I said ‘Ow’. “Why?!” I demanded, knowing exactly why he slapped me, I kinda deserved it. He scowled and crossed his arms in response, the silent version of the silent treatment. “Really Athel. Your acting like a child, you know that right?” His scowled look changed to a dull look that looked like it meant “I’m the child, am I?”. I decided to end this short feud to prevent him from being even less communicative for an even longer period of time. “I-I, I saw someone when I looked back.” I said, my voice sounding as rickedy as a poorly made wooden bridge over a cliff. Athel uncrossed his arms and stopped walking, he looked both annoyed and intrigued. He used his hand and pointed his finger to the top of his lip and moved it around the clockwise until it was left of his lip. The sign for: “Who.” “I don’t know, I’m pretty sure she was the same person as we saw in the basement.” Athel’s eyes widened a bit with surprise. “She?” He signed. I nodded in acknowledgement. “Strange.” He continued. 
 

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