You Versus The Universe

5.

     "I was asleep."

     "Well! I thought you were in some sort of coma or something, s- so you could still hear me!.. Did you hear ANYTHING I said before?" She looks at you, half angry but also hoping your answer was yes. You just slowly nod, no. It is awkward the next few minutes until she gets up and leaves uncomfortably. You look around, taking in a good scope of the room. The only window in the room is covered up by curtains, wait, how are curtains in this world too?!.. Never mind that, now that you look back, you yourself had helped find all kinds of new crafting recipes a while back, so old apprentices of yours must have continued your work and started selling their creations or something.

     After deciding that the calm place around you that has managed to keep you safe this long, you call it safe and let yourself go back to sleep. You should be back to normal by tomorrow if they had given you any healing potions.

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     Two days later you are just fine, nothing left but a small scar on your back from the injury. Well, there is also this girl, same as before, who seems to stalk you every now and then, but she doesn't seem like a threat.

     After passing out, you had been taken into town and recovered in a large home owned by several older families living together in it. The town is pretty nice. The town is so peaceful it is hard to believe such a place exists. Along the main streets merchants wait for customers and children play with their neighbors. The occasional pets chase eachother around joyfully, without a care in the world.

     You just stand leaning by the front door of the large house you have been staying at, watching the streets while munching on some cookies a couple nice neighbor-girls gave you. You enjoy simply watching as the citizens walk around doing their own thing, entertained by each of their individual traits.

     It pains you deep inside, knowing what is on it's way to this town. Several times you have warned the hosts' that something extremely dangerous is coming, but they all seem too gleeful to even consider anything bad could happen.

     "Oh, young man, our town is so far away from the war, we will never see the explosions or smell the smoke, ever." They keep telling you. Well, if they don't want to believe you, at least you warned them. Now, you need to focus on something that will help you reach your goal.

     You go inside and begin packing your things. Since your older black shirt was stained so badly, one of the older men gave you one of his loose dark red shirts, which should be helpful if you were to ever bleed again and not want others to know about it.

     After you have everything, you say thanks to the older folks there and leave for the horse stall. Thankfully, they had taken good care of your stallion. You walk into the stalls and find your horse, who seems pretty spoiled by the looks of it. Too many carrots in his stall for him to eat. At least he hasn't been in there long enough to get fat.

     "Alright prince-horse." You chuckle at the sight of all his goods. "Heh, I guess that isn't too bad of a name, now isn't it? Prince?" The horse doesn't respond, but you decide to name him that anyway. "Alright, Prince. I heard of a nearby coal mine where someone is asking for young -- capable recruits to go with him on a mission further north-west, now doesn't that sound like a great way to get to where we are going?" You ask the large mammal as you saddle him up. You have never talked to Prince about your plans before, so it isn't like he would know to agree or not. Also, he is a normal horse. Not Mr. Ed. Nevertheless, Prince winnies a little in agreement and you smile. You guide the stallion out of the stalls and hop on top. Then you trot through town on your horse, following the signs to the coal mine.

     When you reach the entrance of the mine, you see several miners entering and exiting. Beside them, in the shade, you spot a small group of young men, all with horses of their own standing over to the side. You park your horse near the others and walk up to the small gathering. One of them is small with a massive backpack, another is a person you didn't even realize was a lady until she was in focus, with a muscular build and tall, proud, stance. On top of that, her dark brown wirey hair is also pretty short, not even down to her neck. There were a couple other guys you saw that didn't stand out too much. If anything, you were the one who stood out, probably one of the tallest in the group, now worked hands and used muscles. The second tallest was probably the lady. Now that you think about it, you are probably going to end up the muscle of the crew.

     The one who is in charge, talking to everyone, looks pretty average. He has a pretty basic build and plain dirty blond hair. He notices you walking towards him and the others and smiles slightly, stopping to step forwards and shake your hand.

     "Thanks for joining us...?" He hints the question for your name.

     "Cody. Cody Cobblestone" You fill him in simply. You guess he isn't that short, only about half a foot shorter than you.

     "Well, nice to meet you, Cody.. I am Andrew, the one who recruited you all here." He introduced.

     "I can tell." You chuckle, making it known that you are not stupid.

     "So, yeah. I just filled everyone in on what we are doing. Carter, mind filling Cody here in on what is going on?" Andrew asks. He then turns to set up some things on his horse while everyone else does the same. Carter walks up to you -- he being the small one with the large backpack -- and explains everything as we saddle up.

     In short, there was a young king who was recently kidnapped and taken just northwest of this town. Andrew had been assigned to get a team together to rescue him. Simple enough. That should be perfect for your plan. Amazing how well things turn out. Only, this town.. no one believed you..

     "What's wrong, Cody?.." Carter asks as you and the rest of the group ride over the hill away from the town, following Andrew. You have been nothing but silent, worried for the citizens of the town. You look up at Carter quickly, you two riding side by side.

     "Hhhh," you sigh in defeat. "No one in town believed me when I told them this place will be attacked soon. I am worried things will turn out just as badly as Bricksburg.." You say.

     "Heh, attacked? Nothing wrong can happen here! And even if it were ever attacked, my dad is the best warrior in existance!" The young man boasts. Now that you see him better, he only looks maybe sixteen or seventeen. "He will protect everyone." The boy says. You just smile weakly, knowing how things would really end, but not having the heart to tell him...