Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Day 1

My name is Gina.

... I don’t know what else to say. What do people write in something like this? Today was kind of boring. I just walked around. I guess I found this book, which was something. I almost passed by it, but... I don’t know. I felt like I needed to take it and do something with it. I don’t know why I think using it as a... Diary? Is that the word? Whatever. I just feel like I should start keeping track of things. Every day is just walking, running, eating. Sometimes I swim, or make eggs. I always leave them there. I should talk about something else. Should I? It’s my diary. This is confusing.

I might as well write down something I want to do tomorrow. I want to try to talk to a human. I don’t think I have ever tried before. I’ve always only ever avoided them or gotten chased by them. I remember being told not to talk to them, but I’m… Bored, I guess. Bored of hiding in caves. Bored of sleeping in trees and staying away from roads and people and just watching the monsters walk around and making string. I want to DO something. I want something to CHANGE. All I ever do is try not to die, but there’s nothing for me to live to do. I just walk, and run, and eat. I need this can’t stay this way. Is this what diaries are for?

Day 2

Ok. I just woke up. I did sleep in a tree again, and I am still bored of that. But that will change soon! I’m going to find a village and... I don’t know. What AM I going to do? I can’t just walk in. I don’t want to draw too much attention to myself, but I have to find out if they would even talk to me from a safe distance. It’s hard to write while climbing down a hill. Hang on.

Who did I just ask to hang on? Why did I do that. This is a book. Anyways, I think I know what I will do. If I just sort of hang out outside of a village, they would have to notice me eventually. Hopefully they’ll send someone out to talk instead of grabbing a bunch of weapons and chasing me off. A  , <- Sorry about that. A spider startled me. Why did I apologize to a book! ANYWAYS, I still have to find it first. I’ve seen villages before, but I’ve been going around them for a long time. I can’t remember the last time I went too close to a village and got chased. It’s always so scary. The bows are the worst. My bag fell apart again.

It’s so dirty and beat up. This sucks. I have what I think is called a sword, this book, some pig meat, and some sticks and stuff for fire. I’ve seen humans with the good bags. I found one once and it was great but I lost it and so now my bag is just some cloth. I really hope these humans are nice so I can ask for a bag that will stay in one piece and hold what i need to hold. I’m about to cross a river and I want to say hold on but it still feels kind of weird to talk to a book. In the book there’s no gap between when I say it and when I keep writing.

I don’t like walking past the bone monsters. I feel like they always give me this weird look. The dead monsters are dumb and the other spiders don’t care but something about the way the bone ones look at me looks confused. This writing thing is getting low.

Day 3

Not writing much today. Need to find a new writing thing.

Where to find writing thing?

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Day 4 5 8

I must be VERY lucky, because I found a dead human and they had a bunch of writing things! They had a better bag too and I took it. I was getting worried that I wouldn’t find any more writing things for a long time, and I didn’t want to stop writing in this. I kind of like it. 

Cooked some chicken. Sometimes when I kill something to eat I get this weird feeling and I want

I feel like I passed a village not very long ago but I can’t find it. Maybe it was longer ago than I think. I think I see a dog. I like the dogs! They’re confused kind of like the bone monsters, but nicer.

I stayed for a bit and gave them the rest of the pig meat I had. It was starting to look bad. The dogs don’t care. They followed me a bit after I left. I know I said it already but I like the dogs.

It’s getting dark and I don’t want to sleep in a tree again but I just realized I don’t like sleeping in caves either. Rocks and trees are both shaped weird and cold and rough. It’s hard to be comfortable in my legs AND my body.

Day 9

I hate the way the dead monsters make noises. Why do they do that? They’re dead. Are they trying to say something? It scares me, even though they don’t try to kill me. I wonder if any other monsters don’t like other monsters. It seems like all monsters are just fine with other monsters, which is weird.

This is taking a long time. I thought I passed a village a few days before finding this book, but I guess it was longer ago, or maybe I just can’t find it. It’s easier to keep track of days now that I have this. That reminds me, I was looking at what I already wrote and it’s getting blurry. I hope it stays readable, but I guess it doesn’t really matter that much.

Ok that was really scary just now and I know where the village is now but I’m tired so I’ll write about it tomorrow.

Chapter Text

The hunter grunted as he crouched down to kill and collect the rabbit in his snare. He was getting tired of small game, and made a mental note to go out of his way for a taste of something bigger, like deer or hog. The problem was that this area was mostly populated by small game, and he’d have to travel farther from his camp to find it. But it’d be worth it to change things up a little. Distracted by his thoughts of good eating, he accidentally scored a small cut on his own finger, hissing in surprise. He sighed.

The meager pile of meat in a bag in his pack, he began the walk back to his camp. It was getting dark, and he quickened his pace, not feeling like lighting a torch tonight. By the time it was too dark to see, he’d already lit his firepit and set a stick over it to roast the rabbit on.

As he adjusted his seating on the stump and yearned for coffee, he heard something shift in the leaf-strewn grass to his right.

It sounded bigger than a rabbit.

He grabbed a handaxe leaning against his seat and stood. Some sort of undead would make more telling sounds, so it was likely either some beast or a person.

"Who's there?" He called into the dark. His question was met only with another shift in the grass, but he was listening closely enough to pinpoint it behind a particular tree a few meters away. The odds of the thing being an animal were low by this point, so he relaxed his stance somewhat and faced the tree. "If I don't have to hurt you, I won't." After a moment. He was surprised to see what seemed to be a young woman peeking out from behind the tree, about in her late teens or maybe early adulthood. From what he could see of her shirt, it was somewhat ragged. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, equally unsure how to progress past this point.

“Are you looking for shelter?” He asked slowly, still cautious but trying to be gentle. She looked around nervously before responding. “U-Uh, no, I, um, I’m just… No, thank you.”

“It’d be no bother to me, if you need a place to sleep you can take my tent.”

“No, no, I just need to…” She paused, something apparently occurring to her. “Actually, do you know where the nearest village is?”

The hunter raised an eyebrow. She was likely either home to that village and got lost, or was traveling to it from another. She wasn’t too far off, but the distance still wasn’t completely safe.

“I can take you to it in the morning. It’s not too far from here.”

She returned to her previous nervous state. “Oh, no, I’m fine, I just need to know where to go.”

The hunter sighed. He wasn’t sure what exactly about this she was so spooked by, but clearly his powers of persuasion could be better. He turned and walked to his cloak, which he hung on a branch by his tent, and drew a compass out from a pocket. He pointed in a general direction as he put it back. “Southeast, not too far. If you head that way-” He pointed slightly to the left, “-There should be a path that you can follow. Are you sure you don’t want a guide? It’s not safe out here at night.”

She shook her head. “Well I have a sword, I'll be fine, thank you. A lot. I’ll go now. Thank you.” She awkwardly moved back into the darkness, only actually turning around once she had taken a few steps in that direction. As she did, the hunter could see the tip of a spear slung over her back. Is that what she meant by a sword? His already low evaluations of her self-sufficiency dropped even further.

He’d have to follow her.

“...Damn it.”

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Day 10

I’m going to make sure I start going in the right direction before starting to write.

Ok, so last night I was walking and looking for a place to sleep. I mean of course I was walking, that’s what I always do. Anyways, I was walking and I almost walked into a human and his little cloth house. I don’t remember what they’re called. But I think he heard me because he got up and asked who was there. I was really scared but… I wanted to talk to him. I’ve never talked to a human before! I was nervous and didn’t really say anything but I remembered to ask him where I could find a village. Walking down a hill now.

And he told me! He said where I could find a village! I’m so glad I decided to talk to him. Now I know where to go. But I’m still not sure what I’ll I’m going to do when I get there. I want them to know I don’t want to be a problem, but I don’t think they’ll think that without talking to me. But if they don’t talk to me, they won’t know I’m nice :( . So how do I get them to talk to me? I’m going to think about this for the rest of today.

I can hear a pig somewhere. I’m hungry.

Day 11

I got that pig yesterday and I feel good. Apples and small stuff are nice, but big meat is just really great. I have lots of leftover meat, so I don’t need to stop to find food for a while.

I found the path that the human talked about. I haven’t been walking on it in case there are other humans on it, but I’ve been kind of going next to it, in the grass and trees and stuff. ‘\ I just tripped that hurt ow. I can’t remember the last time I tripped. I’m sitting down right now because my legs hurt. Usually when I hit my leg on something I just keep going on my other legs but I guess I got distracted or something because I actually fell down this time. That hurt but I’m ok. I’m going to keep going now.

A lot of times I feel like I have to keep telling this book what’s happening because it doesn’t have eyes. Writing in a diary is weird. I wonder how many humans do it. It feels weird talking about all humans as “humans”. but I guess i’m not one, so It feels almost weirder to just say “man” or “woman” though. I guess “people” works. I’m tired. I haven’t seen any monsters in the last few days. I guess they clear out the path every now and then or something. I’m going to start a fire and cook some of the pig tonight.

Day 12

I want to find something else to do or think about. So far I’ve only really talked about finding this village, which I think I’m getting close because I see more signs now and there was even a little rock wall thing along the path for a bit, but anyways I feel so simple when I only keep talking about this village or talking to hum people.

Well since I haven’t come up with something else to worry about, I might as well talk about how I decided to try to contact the village. I think i’m going to make a little leaf and wood house sort of far from it but still that can still be seen from inside the village so they know I’m there but I’m not too close for them. And then if they want to come talk to me they can walk over, but if they want to get rid of me I can see them coming and run. I really hope they don’t do that, but I can’t help but feel like they will.

I’ve I should be positive though. If I want to talk to h people and have friends then I should be friendly. Only I don’t know what friends are like, but I think I’m nice, so hopefully it all goes well.

I see some lights! I’m gonna find a place to sleep and then see if it’s the village in the morning.