Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a normal walk on a normal day for Avery, but apparently fate decided differently.
Instead, he stumbled across a mine he could’ve sworn hadn’t been there before.
He slowed to a stop and frowned. “…Since when?”
He knew better than to wander into an unknown cave with nothing to protect himself, but curiosity got the better of him.
He glanced around before carefully making his way down. The deeper he went, the colder the air became. Honestly, it was a nice change after the sun had been roasting the back of his head all afternoon.
Once he reached the bottom, he scanned the cave for anything interesting.
Nothing. Well… almost nothing.
A single chest sat in the middle of the cave.
His eyes lit up with excitement, slowly stepping towards the chest. “Please be full of gold…” he thought to himself, opening the chest.
His excitement vanished almost instantly as he saw what was inside.
“Seriously? A lousy book?” he sighed, deciding whether to just leave it or see if anything’s written inside.
He picked up the book, the cover coated with dust. “Please be a treasure map, or something…” he muttered before opening it.
Nothing could’ve prepared him for what was inside.
“Whatever you do at the crossroads, don’t turn left?” he raised his eyebrow, then flipped the page.
To his surprise, it just read the same thing over and over again.
“Don’t turn left at the crossroads, no wait- don’t ‘durn’ left.” he chuckled quietly at the bad grammar.
“Is that it?” he asked himself as he kept flipping the pages, just to find that most of them were empty anyway.
He scoffed and shook his head, glancing into the chest to see if he had missed anything. He hadn’t.
He glanced over his shoulder, with the feeling of someone watching him. The longer Avery stayed in the mine, the heavier the silence became. That was his hint to leave.
He swallowed the lump in his throat, tucked the strange book under his arm, and decided he’d had enough.
The climb back up felt much longer than he remembered. By the time he reached the surface, he bent over to catch his breath.
Who puts that many stairs in a mine?
Warm sunlight filtered through the leaves overhead. He brushed some dirt off his clothes with a sigh, how yucky. He already knew it would be impossible to wash it off.
His thoughts quickly drifted to dinner.
He’d have fish, probably. Again. Fish yesterday, fish today, fish tomorrow… fish for the rest of his life, at this rate.
Living by the beach certainly had its advantages, but having seafood every single day wasn’t one of them. Every now and then he’d catch crabs or shrimp if he felt like climbing over the sharp rocks, but that wasn’t much of a change either.
The only time he ever ate proper meat was after a trip to the village, which was far too far away for his liking.
Chicken… steak… Now that sounded good.
He followed the familiar forest path home, nearly tripping over yet another pebble. “Damn, not again!”
Avery had a personal grudge against rocks. Then again, maybe it wasn’t entirely the pebble’s fault. He spent more time looking at things he wanted to collect than where he was actually walking.
A tiny flower. A smooth little rock. A strangely shaped stick that looked kind of neat to him.
When he finally made it out of the forest, he knew he wasn’t too far away from home. He continued walking through the tall grass and occasional flowers. The evening air felt fresher than ever, not too hot and not too cold, just perfect. The sky was a darker shade of blue now, not enough to see the first stars though.
Avery was thinking about all sorts of stuff instead of doing actually useful things, but that honestly didn’t bother him. He had no neighbours, considering he lived on the edge of the world. He did wonder what it’d be like to have someone to talk to every now and then, though the universe cursed him with loneliness.
Then again, he wasn’t all that bothered by the constant silence and lack of people around him, as he could keep himself company.
After walking for almost thirty minutes, his small, wooden house came into sight. The sun was setting and the sky was turning into shades of orange and a deep blue, while the first stars appeared in the night sky faintly, the moon beginning to wake up with them.
Avery walked through the front door of his house, immediately placing the book on kitchen table and taking his uncomfortable shoes off. “Stupid pebble.” he mumbled to himself as he shook out the small rocks out of his shoes, which were annoying him on the entire way home.
Shortly after, he yawned and headed into his bedroom to slip into something more comfortable. He grabbed his favourite black and green pyjamas, the same ones he wore to bed every night. The shirt didn’t have long sleeves and the bottoms were a pair of shorts, which was perfect for the summer.
When he finally put on his pyjamas, he went back to the kitchen and grabbed the book from the mine. He wanted to check all of the pages one last time, just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.
He checked every word, every page, but it seemed that the book didn’t speak of anything except those crossroads. “Stupid book.” He thought to himself. He was beginning to think this book really was a joke, after all who would write ‘at the crossroads don’t durn left’ twice in a row? Not even Avery was that stupid.
His curiosity was gnawing at him, telling him, urging him, begging him to go back and look for those crossroads, prove to himself it was just a prank, but it was far too late for that now. He didn’t feel like walking all that way in the dark, not now at least.
He set the book aside, placing it on the small bookshelf in the living room this time. He sighed and yawned while his eyes were beginning to close by themselves.
Avery made sure to lock the front door and leave the window open slightly open like he always did, for some fresh air.
As tired as he was, he knew better than to go to bed with an empty stomach. Avery headed for the pantry and opened it, grabbing pretty much anything he could find. He grabbed the fish he had stored away in the morning, some fresh carrots from his farm and two small cucumbers.
Avery had always loved cooking. Ever since he was a kid, he’d cook for himself, his family, his friends, pretty much anyone who was hungry.
He chopped up a few carrots and set them on the stove, making sure they stayed soft instead of turning into little rocks. The fish had already been cleaned and prepared earlier that day, so all he had to do was cook it until it was golden and slightly crispy, just the way he liked it.
He sliced a cucumber into even rounds and arranged everything neatly on his plate.
The smell of dinner quickly filled the house.
His stomach growled while he was cooking. “I know, I know,” Avery sighed, lifting the fish off the pan.
He poured himself a glass of water before carrying everything over to the large kitchen table.
Sometimes he wondered why he even owned such a big table. It wasn’t like he ever had anyone to share it with. But who knows, maybe that would change someday.
He finished eating in no time. He’d barely taken his last bite before he was already washing his plate. Avery hated leaving dirty dishes behind, especially when there was only one to clean.
By the time everything was put away, he glanced out the window and realized it had gotten completely dark.
He yawned, his eyes closing automatically. That could only mean it was time to get some rest.
It didn’t take him long to brush his teeth, take a quick shower and make sure to tidy up the bathroom just a bit before heading to bed.
At that point, the world was silent except for the occasional chirp of a cricket and hooting of an owl in the distance.
Avery flopped onto his bed. It was wider than anyone living alone really needed, big enough that two people could probably squeeze onto it if they didn’t mind sleeping shoulder to shoulder. He allowed himself to close his eyes and pull the soft blanket over himself.
His thoughts were running wild with ideas for tomorrow. He definitely wanted to go back to the forest, as it was practically calling his name and he couldn’t get it off his mind. But even his thoughts had eventually slowed down and his mind became silent.
His breathing slowed down, the sky was completely dark at that point with the moon being the only source of light. Within minutes, his thoughts began to fade, and the weight of the day pulled him under before he even had the chance to settle in properly.
—————————————————-
Avery opened his eyes and the first thing he noticed was an ethereal voice calling his name softly, barely above a whisper. He couldn’t quite place his finger on what was happening, but he felt like something was off. It all felt so.. surreal. He looked down at his fingers, counting them over and over again, only to get a different number each time.
His body moved on its own, walking in the darkness until he spotted a huge, golden gate. The whispers and calls became louder with each step he took, until he stood directly in front of the golden gate. He wasn’t sure whether he should admire the structure or be afraid of it. Then the whispers had just stopped all of a sudden. No one called his name, no one even whispered it. The silence felt heavy, and he could hear his heartbeat louder than ever.
He took a step closer and just as he was about to see what was hiding behind the golden gate, he woke up in a cold sweat.
He sat up abruptly with his head in his hands, gasping for air. His heart was racing , his hands trembling while his mind had tons of unanswered questions.
“What the heck was that?!” He asked himself in a shaken and surprised tone before finally taking a deep breath, reminding himself that it was just a nightmare, yet the image of the golden gates was still burned into his eyelids. He thought about the golden gate for a moment longer, then brushed it off as another nightmare.
“If I had that much gold, all of my problems would be solved.” he thought to himself, imagining an amount of gold he would probably never get to see in his entire life.
Avery pulled the blanket off himself and placed his feet on the ground. He got up and stretched his arms and legs, cracking his fingers and his back. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and peered outside. It was still early in the morning, almost too early to wake up.
As much as he wanted to go back to bed and sleep in a bit longer, the thought of having the same nightmare as before terrified him. That was enough to motivate him to get up from bed and start this new day.
He left his room and made his way to the kitchen, still half asleep. Avery grabbed a glass of water and chugged the whole thing down within seconds. He looked outside again, seeing nothing but a clear, pink and blue sky with birds flying in flocks. He yawned, rubbing the sleep of his eyes and refusing the urge to crawl back into bed.
He glanced down at his green pyjamas, reminding himself that he should change clothes before leaving.
He returned to his room and grabbed the first thing he saw in his closet, not giving it much thought.
Before leaving, he made sure to grab the book. His gaze wandered around the house one last time. It was a little messy, but he didn’t mind. No one ever came by, after all.
His eyes landed on the glass vase sitting by the window. The flowers inside were beginning to wither, a clear sign it was time to pick fresh ones on the way back. He’d definitely look for poppies, daisies, dandelions… maybe even lilies of the valley if he got lucky.
Satisfied, he closed the door behind him and stepped onto the familiar path that wound past his house and toward the mine.
Birds chirped overhead while bees drifted lazily between the wildflowers lining the trail. The tall grass swayed gently around him, and before long, the mine came into view through the trees.
Then he stopped.
Something was different.
A thin stream of smoke curled up through the forest in the distance.
Confusion flashed across his face as his eyes narrowed. He was certain it hadn’t been there yesterday. Or maybe he just didn’t see it, which was very likely.
Nonetheless, this either meant that something was burning,
or..
Someone lived there.
Avery really hoped for the second option, as he did not feel like getting burned to ashes on this particular summer morning. He set a steady pace and started walking towards the smoke, forgetting about the mine and his exploration mission completely.
Before long, a wooden house came into view. The only problem was that it looked completely abandoned. Vines and moss settled at the walls, huge cobwebs at the windows, not to mention that the wood looked run-down completely. The house screamed eerie and creepy, but that didn’t stop Avery from taking a step closer.
“There’s no way someone lives here, right?” Avery asked himself, slowly and cautiously approaching the house, as if it might eat him if he makes one wrong move.
He tried to look through the windows but saw nothing because of the dust and cobwebs. He approached the door, then loudly knocked three times.
He was waiting for a moment too long. He sighed in disappointment, his hopes of having a ‘neighbor’ crushed. But as he was about to give up and head back, the door creaked and slowly opened.
What stood in front of him was a knight, covered in shiny, golden armour from head to toe. The armour was polished to the point where Avery could see his own reflection in it, as if it was a golden mirror.
His face wasn’t visible because of his golden helmet, which also had a long, decorative red feather plume. He had a long, majestic, red cape on his back as well, which was slightly dirty at the bottom, most likely from getting dragged through dirt and dust.
They stood there for a minute, neither of them daring to utter a word.
Avery was beginning to wonder if it was a wise idea to seek out the person who lived in the middle of nowhere, in an eerie looking house, who turned out to have armour on. He was getting weird vibes, and definitely not the good kind of weird.
He looked the knight up and down, wondering if he was that tall or if it was just the huge helmet on his head.
He snickered at the thought of the knight having a tiny head underneath the golden helmet, or hiding an embarrassing scar. Avery shoved those thoughts aside and looked the knight in the eyes, or at least where he imagined they would be behind the helmet.
The silence stretched awkwardly before Avery finally broke the silence, extended the book towards the knight and asked, “ Did you write this book?”