Mythical Artifacts

Chapter 2: Community Commotion

I glanced out through the windows in view, and then at where the entrance to my house was; I didn't want to be seen. I aimed to look casual as I walked over to the staircase. I wasn't going to go up, but instead, I pressed a specific part of the wall, which slowly made another set of stairs appear, leading downward. As I descended, the secret opening slowly closed behind me.

It was something I had been working on in my spare time: a basement. Most people didn't have basements in their houses, but I was not like most people. I made it for no particular reason, but I felt like it could come in handy as a cool reideout or just an extra place to store things in. Originally, I didn't want the entrance to be near the stairs — it seemed too obvious — but the staircase was the most convenient place.

I surveyed the room as I entered. It was in a plain rectangle shape, similar in style to the rest of my home. It wasn't the biggest, especially not in height, but it was also rather large when you take into account my house as a whole. It was empty, but I didn't have anything to fill it with, even though I wanted to fill it. It simply felt unfinished without anything.

There was a door, on the same side of the room as the stairs. It was smaller than the main room, but larger than a walk-in closet would be. I had made the smaller room as a separate storage room — in case I wanted to use the larger room for something else, like a man cave or something — but it was just as empty as the main room.

Nobody knew about it. I had made it specifically so that nobody would know it's there unless they happened to come upon the panel in the wall. I wanted to know that, if needed, I had a place to store valuable things . . . or myself. People would often come to say hello or to invite me to play with them, but not of the people I actually wanted to play with, so I would try to act like I wasn't there, which usually kept them away.

When I heard the knock this time, however, I was in the basement, so I had no idea who it was — usually, I would inconspicuously see who it was from outside my door, but I didn't have such a luxury now. I hurried upstairs, closing the basement entrance behind me; I made sure it was closed entirely before I opened the door.

I wasn't surprised to see Melongan, as he was the one who most often came to my door. I smiled, greeting him. He walked inside and turned to look at me. "Flawed, have you heard?"

"Heard of what?"

"It's literally everywhere," he said. After I stared at him blankly, he clarified: "The Sword."

"What sword?"

"How haven't you heard?" he asked incredulously. "The rumors have been everywhere. Everyone's talking about this sword that lets you jump high and run fast. People say it's really powerful."

"Fake," I told him curtly.

"But wouldn't it be amazing if we could get our hands on it?" he asked. "There's been nothing about where it is, but we know that there's only one of them."

"It's a rumor, Melon," I told him. "Someone probably made that up. I don't know why it'd spread but there's no reason to believe in a rumor without any evidence."

"If it wasn't real, wouldn't staff say something?"

"They probably already have."

"But—"

"Melon, c'mon. How would a rumor like that be real? If nobody saw it, then—"

"Somebody did. They described it as golden, embedded with emeralds. Large, with a gold-lined silver blade."

"Just 'cause they describe it . . . I don't think that that's any reason to believe it exists."

He sighed. "Okay, so maybe it doesn't exist," he said, "but you can't know for sure. What if it does?"