Traveling Star, Wandering Chaos

Passing The Time

"Take this!" Phuong lunged at me with her practice sword, swinging it forward. I blocked it, pushing her back, then following up with a punch to the gut. She fell back, landing on her butt. I stepped a few steps back, stopping by a scoreboard drawn in the ground. It'd been around two weeks since we started training. Eugene'd been away for some reason, something about securing guards for an event. Althea had also been busy with things, so me and Phuong had been passing the time by either beating the s*** out of each other, playing games, or sleeping all day. But honestly, I'd been really bored. I used my practice sword to draw a tally mark on the scoreboard. Phuong came up behind me, wrapping her arms around my neck while looking over my shoulder. "1, 2, 3, 4... 23 rounds."

"That many?"

"Yup, I counted," Phuong said, letting go of me and crouching down to recount. I crouch next to her leaning on her shoulder. She turns to me and asks, "You wanna do something else, I'm bored."

"Sure, what do you wanna do?" I ask.

"Hmm," Phuong rested her head on mine with her thinking face, "Let's go explore!"

"Huh, why?"

"We've done nothing but train for the past few days, plus we have nothing better to do," she reasoned. She does have a point. I helped her up, leaving our practice swords on the ground, and went inside.
   
We walked around the castle and looked at various rooms. For some reason, we weren't allowed in the ballroom or the kitchen, and there was a suspicious number of guards around the place. It was weird, but I didn't really care. We wandered around for a little longer until we came across a room in the basement of the castle. Don't ask me how we got into the basement because I, honestly, forgot. Phuong pushed the door opening up to a spacious room with a big table cluttered with plants, herbs, and an assortment of empty bottles and paper. A large shelf covered the wall, filled with books and potions- at least that' was what I thought they were. Anyway, the room was a mess, papers everywhere, stacks of books piled up, stains on the walls and floor, and a small pile of broken glass shoved in the corner. The room was dimly lit and looked very creepy. In light of that, we waltzed right in.
   
We went in, narrowly avoiding shards of glass and potion spills. We checked out the place and leafed through books that looked like they hadn't been touched in years. Overall, everything was very dusty. I took a look at the plants on the table while Phuong looked through the books lying around. The plants were dried out and the leaves effortlessly turned to dust by the slightest touch. How long have these plants gone without water, and is that my place to know? Probably not. "Minh, I found something," Phuong called. I went over and took a look. It was a leather-bound book, the pages yellow and wrinkled. Phuong opened the book, causing a puff of dust to fly up. Of course, the dust got in my eyes, leading to some riving in agony as one usually would. I managed to get the dust out and noticed that Phuong was already looking through the book she found.
   
We both read through it, but some of the words were hard to read due to ink smudges. From how it was written, the book was most likely a journal of sorts, each page having a different date on the top right corner and a drawing of different plants every so often. After, god knows how long, we reached the end page, and um... let's just say that this page was kind of concerning.

31st day of spring

    I don't know how much time I have before they find me, but I must warn you.

    The Golem has been completed, but due to the lack of power, it cannot function properly. During the meeting, his Majesty suggested that we find or create a power source. I was just about to suggest a possible solution when Duke Maris suggested that we summon heroes to use them to power the machine. I tried to argue against it but, to my dismay, the King agreed.
   
I tried everything to sway His Majesty from the decision, but as you can see, my efforts were in vain. The summoning will be completed soon. I don't know whether our kingdom will last until then. The king will most likely put me to execution, but before my demise, I want to set things right.

    I never wanted to shed more blood; the Golem was supposed to bring peace, not cause more deaths. I only pray to whoever is reading this, I beg you, warn the heroes if they ever do come. Take them far away from this kingdom and never look back. I've left a gate in a hidden area in the garden. Take them there, and they'll be safe.

    I can hear them drawing closer; it won't be long until they find me. I only pray that Mother Gaia will watch over them, please hurr-

And it cuts off... holy shit, we're screwed!

Side Story Dated - 14yrs

The Last Goodbye

I hurriedly finished my breakfast and placed my empty dish in the sink. Then I grabbed my bag and made my way to the front door. Before I left, I waved goodbye to an urn sitting on the living room shelf, "Bye Dad, have a great day, we'll be back soon, love you!" I said before leaving out the door and meeting Minh and Mẹ in the car.