Midnight (Book 1)

The Bakery Twins

Midnight - Antila
Year 937 - Heat Season

Kaat Ziera

Right now we're staying in Antila. Antila is located in the east of the Mortals' territory and is a little village. Corale and I try to help other cities all over the territory as best as we can. She was an apprentice to a medic once and is now quite skilled with medicine, illnesses and alike. Her help is extremely coveted. I usually help with the hunting or manufacturing. When we travel, I sometimes make our own equipment. Sometimes, I've been hired as an assassin but it's not something I'm proud of. Only in the need of the money do I accept those offers. I do not kill on impulse, I always demand the reason why they are to be assassinated and then make my own judgement. In those cases, I do care for those whom I'm supposed to kill. I believe in a world where most things can be solved in a better way.

We have stayed here for three days and will soon leave for Cetus. The usual route to Cetus is to take the road around the Lacerta Mountains but we'll try to cross them. Corale have heard some rare herbs grow there and she wants to see if they are of any use. The shortest way there is through The Orux. There's more to the Dark Forests than just Wendigos. No one knows what or who or when they came but in the Mortals' tongue they're called Shadows. Rumour has it they're even faster than the Undead mutants. They sneak upon you without being notices and whisper in your ear. They tell you what they'll do to you, how they will devour you. It is said their voices are colder than death itself and paralyze you. This is just a legend though, for no one has lived and been sane enough to proper describe them. But that's not all either. The Dark Forests aren't called dark solemly because of its everlasting darkness, there are multiple creatures roaming around in there. The most common things can shift before your eyes and attack you in less than 2 seconds. But, if accustomed to Midnight's circumstances, two seconds is plenty of time. Bow is my preferred fighting style. It grants you the safety of distance, gives you a shot at fleeing. If the battle turns to your disadvantage, there's no shame in flee. But my other skills aren't that low either. In my apprenticeship group, I ranked in the top 3 out of 60 in everything, I even got first place in bow.

Cetus is a larger city and known for its iron mines. They extract the finest of iron. The reason we're heading towards Cetus is the recently discovered material. It's supposed to be some sort of translucent material with a vague hue of blue. They discovered it in the mines about a week ago. Apparently, it's easy to craft with and has good resistence. I would like to forge a pair of new fighting knives with that material. Even if I prefer bow, I can't avoid close combat entirely. My current daggers and knives are very cheap and old. They aren't well balanced and they lost their sharpness a long time ago. The cetians appreciates our help a lot since their city is near the Dark Hounds' territory and they get ransacked a great deal. Dark Hounds hunt us for sport. Many have fled but the remaining cetians are persistent. They love their city, and I don't blame them. It's lovely and The Waterfalls flow there. The Waterfalls are three great waterfalls that begin at the root of a willow and then flows backwards up the Lacerta Mountains.

Today wasn't much of interest. We bought some equipment for the harsh weather that'll follows us when we enter the mountains. A merchant had exclusive prices on supplies. We could finally replace our old rancid waterbottles and our reeking bags. The smell has began to transfer to the food and water making them taste acrid. Corale's been complaining about it for months but we haven't had aras enough to afford it. It really was a blessing they had a discount on it here. We also have to save our aras for the new material, it'll probably be expensive. When we were walking back to our room at the inn we met a pair of twins called Lynx and Lyra. They live here in Antila. Lynx is one year older than me and Lyra is one year younger than me. Even though they are not biological twins no one would ever think that. They're identical at first sight. Lynx is slightly shorter than me and Lyra is about Corale's height. Lynx has a faint scar on her collarbone, but aside from that they're like clones. Both have brown wavy hair, freckles, big brown eyes and small mouths. When we saw them, Lyra was sitting by the street gripping her ankle. When Corale realized she'd sprain it she wanted to help. She carries her medic pack everywhere and while Corale tended to Lyra, I talked with Lynx. I told her about how we travel throughout the whole territory aiding cities and villages. And Lynx told us their story. Her mother died giving birth to her and her father took his wife's death hard. He couldn't bear her absence and tried to reach the shore for Midday, just as my parents. But he did it without the hope they had had. He knew it was a death mission and still went on it, leaving Lynx behind at the age of seven. To Lynx he never was her father but someone who took care of her whenever he remembered she existed. Lyra's parents died of a disease when she was five years old. They left the house and all their aras to Lyra but it wasn't much, and so Lyra pleaded for food. One day she knocked on Lynx's house begging for food and Lynx gave her some. From that day they'd been friends. Shortly after, Lynx's father sold their house and ventured out of the territory. Lynx then offered Lyra to live together. Now, they're working at a local bakery and making enough aras to stay alive. They can even buy some treats every now and then, they don't complain over life. Both Lynx and Lyra, who had listened, told us they were intersted in our cause. We decided to meet tomorrow at the bakery at lunch time.

More updates tomorrow

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Author's note

I know that this diary is more detailed than they usually are but it's necessary in order to build up the scenes, the story and the feeling. I want to write the story in this form since it's a different perspective and I have a little twist to it later. But writing as a diary is hard sometimes because I feel like the chapters are too short, that's why I'm trying to add more details that usually wouldn't be found in an ordinary diary.

If any of you have suggestions on how I should write this, please let me know. And if you find any misspellings or something like that, please inform me. I, personally, hate misspellings or any mistakes in the structure and therefore I don't want it in my own stories. However, I don't always have the time to read it through several times to ensure myself I haven't missed anything.

Also, I'm working on a map of Midnight and Midday but I need more time to see how my own story unfolds (that sounded weird but yeah) before the map is done. Maybe I'll show you the unfinished map before.

At last, I just want to thank you for reading my work :D I would like to hear your thoughts about the chapters too!