by Mark Mulle
***
I found David a minute later. We ran into each other as I rounded the corner. I yelped in surprise.
“Geez, you okay? What took you so long?”
“Where were you?” I cried out at him, making sure he wasn’t hurt.
“Sorry, I wandered away a little. I found a shop owner and was asking about this section of the city. Everything is closed here. Did you notice that?”
“That isn’t important!” I said and then I told him about being grabbed and being told to leave.
David’s eyes went wide and he leaned forward, “Did you see anything else?”
“No. They just told me to leave. Which we need to be doing right now. We’ll stay at an inn and leave in the morning.”
“Whoa, whoa, what are you talking about?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked David, “You don’t mean you’re going to stay.”
“Of course I do. Are you kidding me? I can’t leave. The fact you were warned means we are on the right track. I can’t go now.”
I tried not to lose my temper, “David, these people are already aware of what we are doing and all we did was walk into this section of town. We can’t honestly stay. They aren’t going to take that well.”
“I’m staying,” David replied stubbornly, “You can go if you want.”
I stood there, unsure of what to do. On one hand, I wanted to go back to my village. I really did. I mean, we had been warned already by some mysterious figure. If that wasn’t the biggest sign to go then I don’t know what was.
But…on the other hand, this was real proof that David wasn’t chasing a dream. The fact that we had been warned meant that there was some truth to this legend we were chasing. And even though I had told myself I wanted a quiet life…
“No, I’ll stay.”
David blinked in surprise, “You’re going to stay?”
“I have to keep you out of trouble, don’t I?” I said to him.
He stared at me for a second and then grinned, “Yeah, of course. Come on. You’re right. Let’s get some real food to eat and find an inn to stay at. We can figure out our next plan of action from there. The fact that we were warned means we should really think this through.”
As we left the section of the city, I asked, “What did the store owner say when you asked him about that area?”
We were weaving our way through a crowd in a busy district of the city. The sun was starting to set. Above us, the castle shined in the setting sun. Even though it was pretty, I still couldn’t stop thinking that we were probably being watched.
“He said the area is supposed to be cursed so hardly anyone opens up shop there or lives there.”
“Cursed?”
“Yeah. The guy said he didn’t believe in the curse though so he’s had his shop there for like twenty years. He sells rare gems so people brave this apparent curse to buy from him.”
“Has he seen anything weird? Like people warning him or anything?”
“No. No, he said nothing odd has happened. But it happened to us, right? I was probably talking to him at the same time you were warned…”
I frowned, “What if that guy is part of this group? He could have alerted the rest of the group to us when you went to speak to him.”
“That makes sense,” David admitted, “He could be part of the secret society.”
We found an inn that served food. David stuffed his face but it was a little harder for me to eat. I was still distracted by that voice in the alley and what it all could mean. By the time we got to our room, David fell asleep almost instantly.
But I stayed up writing in here. Today felt really long. Somehow, so much has happened. Was that man at the shop really part of that secret society? If he was, then that entire section of town was left empty to ward people off from discovering the Moon City. The curse was just a way to scare people.
Even though I told David I was staying because I wanted to make sure he was okay…some part of me is really excited about what this could really be.
Day 6
We set out in the early morning after breakfast. We were going to head back into the cursed section of town. We were curious to see if the man that David had spoken to yesterday was still there.
Like yesterday, the streets were empty. I was a bit jumpy. But no one came out at us and we got to the shop in good time.
“This is it but…” David stopped and together, we stared at the door.
The shop was closed. The windows had the curtains pulled over and there was a big lock on the door. David went over and knocked but there was no answer.
“Alright, so this is a bit suspicious.” I said as I tried to look into one of the windows.
“Well, this pretty much confirms it, doesn’t it? That he was a part of it somehow.”
“Yeah, I would say so. Now what?”
“We’ll just start combing this area for the symbols. The fact this group, or whatever it is, makes sure no one comes in this section of town, has to mean there is an entrance to the Moon City from here.”
We left the shop and started going down the side streets, trying to find the symbol that David had seen in the book. It was strange being in such a quiet part of the Sun City. I kept straining to see if I could hear anything else, like someone coming behind us, but there was only silence.
“Hey, look at this.” David said at one point.
He was crouched by an abandoned home and was pointing to something on the ground. I went over to him and was about to speak when a city guard rounded the corner.
“You two! What are you up to?”
We stood up and looked over at the guard who stared at me, “Is that a creeper?”
“Whoa, hey,” David stuck his hand out, “A friendly one. Pretty sure the king told everyone about their village.”
The guard narrowed his eyes at me as if I had done something wrong and asked, “What are you two doing in this area? You know it is cursed, right?”
“Cursed?” I lied, pretending that I had no idea, “We were here for the gem store. But it’s closed. Is this place really cursed?”
The guard looked at me and then David before replying, “The gem store is closed?”
“That’s right,” David replied, “Is it normally closed?”
“No. Not that I know of anyway,” He said quickly, “Now, if you two have no other business in this section, you should leave.”
“Why?” I asked, still pretending I was clueless, “I mean, I know it is supposed to be cursed but there isn’t any way that is really true.”
The guard looked as if he didn’t know what to tell us. More than likely, he had probably been told not to let anyone roam around this section of the city but was never told why he couldn’t. The result was he didn’t know what to do with us.
“Our inn is on the other side,” David said, “We will just cut through this way.”
“Well, alright. But don’t hang around.”
We waved good-bye and went the way we came. The guard watched us until we turned the corner and were out of sight.
“That was weird,” I said, “The king definitely doesn’t want people roaming around in here.”
“There was one of the symbols back there, in the stone. Maybe if we walk in a circle we can get back to it and follow it.”
“Maybe. Let’s go this way.” I said and turned around.
The person came out of nowhere. I was being pushed backwards and crashed into David. Together, we hit the ground. As we tried to get to our feet, two wither skeletons came out of a nearby abandoned building.
“Uh, this is not good.” I replied as they ran over to us.
The dark figure that had knocked us down was turning around and running off.
“I can take care of the skeletons! You chase after that figure!” David yelled at me and pushed me forward.
He was right. Out of the two of us, I could run faster even if I am a creeper. Even so, I didn’t like leaving him behind with the wither s
keletons. I glanced at him and he told me to run.
I took off after the dark figure. It had clearly brought the wither skeletons towards us. But I wasn’t going to let it go.
The figure could run quickly. Not only that but it knew the area very well. All I could do was hope to catch up with it before I lost it completely in this section. At one point, the figure jumped up and began to scale up one of the buildings.
I watched it climb and cursed. I was terrible at climbing and would be too slow. I looked down and saw a small rock. I picked it up and notched it into my bow and then let it fly.
The small rock hit the figure’s leg. It was strong enough that the figure missed the next step and went falling down.
I ran over to try to catch the falling figure. I stuck out my arms and the figure slammed into me. We hit the ground and for a few seconds, I felt dizzy. But this didn’t stop the person from pushing off of me and taking off at another run.
I got to my feet and chased after the mysterious person. I had thought for sure falling off a building would have stopped the figure! Whoever this was did not want to be caught.
We were reaching the outskirts of the abandoned section of the city. Was the figure really going to lead me into the city? The guards would be on me in a matter of seconds. If the mysterious individual is really a part of some secret organization, the king wouldn’t stop that figure. I would be the one stopped.
The figure turned the corner and was clearly heading towards the marketplace. I had to stop the mysterious individual. Using the last of my speed, I went as fast as I could. As soon as the figure entered the marketplace, I knew that I would lose it.
I reached out and grabbed the fabric of the hoodie the figure was wearing and yanked on it. The mysterious individual was pulled backwards and fell into me. We hit the ground together but this time I wasn’t going to let the figure go. I held onto the mysterious individual until it stopped struggling.
“It’s over,” I said, trying to catch my breath, “Don’t bother trying to run again.”
The figure had gone completely still. The back of the figure was against mine so I couldn’t see its face. I could hear the figure gasping for air though. Somehow, even if the figure did run, I knew this mysterious person wouldn’t be as fast as I was.
The figure shoved me off of it and stood up, leaning against the wall, trying to catch its breath. I got to my feet and went over to the figure. It held out its hand.
“Don’t – don’t come near me.” The person gasped.
I reached over and pulled down the hood that was covering the face. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. A weird creature, maybe. Some sort of alien looking thing. I wasn’t expecting a completely normal looking girl to be staring at me. She had large brown eyes and her hair was also brown, shoved up in a messy ponytail. She was glaring at me.
“I don’t know why you came after me,” She said, “When your friend is facing off against wither skeletons.”
“My friend is a good fighter. I’m better at running.”
“You’re a creeper,” The girl said, “What in the world are you doing?”
“You’re a human,” I snapped, “What in the world are you doing?”
She stared at me for a moment before yanking her hood back over her head, “I told you to get your friend and leave.”
“That was you in the alleyway the other day?” I asked.
She ignored me, “I’m doing this for your safety.”
“Our safety? You just sent wither skeletons after my friend.”
“Are you really that foolish? Do you not understand? What you’re trying to do – I know that you are trying to find the Moon City. I’m trying to protect you. Give up this foolish idea and go home. Go back to your village filled with the rest of the friendly creepers and live your life. Let this go.”
“First off, I am not the one who is interested in this legend. My friend is. I’m just here to try to make sure he is okay.”
“Well, you’re doing a terrible job of that. Neither one of you are okay as long as you go against the king.”
“What? Wait, didn’t he send you?”
She scowled, “No. He didn’t send me. The king – he isn’t what you think he is. Trust me, you need to –”
“Mike!”
It was David. He was nearby, calling my name. I looked over my shoulder but as soon as I did, I regretted it. The girl took off down the street. She was too fast for me to catch up to. I watched as she climbed up a side building with ease and was gone from sight.
David came around the corner and jogged up to me, “Hey! Did you hear me calling you? I took care of those skeletons. Did you catch that figure?”
“Yeah but it didn’t clear anything up.”
“Where is he?”
“It was a girl and she ran off when you called my name.”
“A girl? She must be part of the secret society for the king.”
I shook my head, “I don’t think so.”
I quickly told him what had happened. When I finished, David frowned as if he was trying to figure it all out.
I kept speaking, “It almost sounded as if she’s part of another group trying to keep people out of the Moon City. She made it sound as if…”
“Yeah, as if the king was the bad guy here. But that’s impossible, right? I’ve never heard anything bad had been said about the king.”
“Me either. She could be lying. I don’t know. What now?”
“A lot of trouble for a city we haven’t even discovered yet. Come on. Let’s go back to where we were and go from there.”
We followed back to where we had originally gotten attacked by the wither skeletons. The street was empty. We began to backtrack to go back to where David had seen the symbol earlier in the day.
But we never made it back there. When we cut across one of the streets, an entire group of the king’s guards stood there waiting for us. They even had skeletons with them.
“Halt!” One of the guards yelled.
“You’re both under arrest. You were told to leave this area and have refused. We need to bring you to the dungeon.” The guard we had seen earlier said to us.
“What?” I blurted out, “To the dungeon? Doesn’t that seem a little excessive?”
“You have been warned and ignored the warning. You can come quietly or we can make things difficult for you.”
David shook his head at me, “Don’t try to fight them. We can’t take on that many guards.”
“So, we’re just going to get tossed into a dungeon?”
The guards came over to us. We stayed still as they yanked us towards the castle, towards the dungeons.
I knew this was all wrong. We technically hadn’t broken any laws. Was what that girl had been saying correct? Was the king not as good as we had thought he was?
We were brought to the castle but not through the main entrance. Instead, we were pulled in through the side and taken down three levels to the dungeon far below the castle. This was where the worst criminals were housed. Not people who walked into a section of town that they were asked to leave before.
This was all wrong. I had been denying it before but David had to be right – there had to be something big enough to hide that two people walking around the city would be shoved into the dungeon.
We were tossed into a cell and the door was locked behind us. There was a torch offering light to see by. We had a barred window on the door but all it showed were other cells.
They had taken our weapons but my journal had been tucked close to me and they hadn’t found it. That was comforting, at least.
When we were alone, I said to David, “Uh, okay, can you explain why we didn’t fight those guys? Now we are stuck in this dungeon.”
“We didn’t fight because they would have just gotten rid of us for good. At least down here, we have a chance at escaping.” David said as he ran his hands over the walls, as if there was going to be some sort of secret entrance.
I w
as trying not to panic. There was something scary about being under the castle in this prison. No one would know we were down here. There would be no one coming to rescue us.
“Man, we should have listened to that girl.” I complained.
“Too late now.”
I sat down on the ground and pulled out my journal. By the torchlight, I was able to catch up in here. It took a lot to write this all down but like before, I want to have a record of things.
I’m just trying not to think about being stuck down here for ages.
Day 7
“I don’t think this is food.” David said, pointing to the slop at the plate that we had been given for dinner.
The guard only grunted and walked off. I looked down at my own plate and wrinkled my nose. It looked disgusting. I didn’t even want to think about what it was.
“David, I think we are in over our heads.”
He chuckled, “What gave that away?”
“I will admit that I think there has to be some truth now to the Moon City. I mean, we’ve been warned by some mysterious girl and then the king just throws us into the dungeons with virtually no reason.”
“Right. So we know that section of the town isn’t cursed. It has to be the entrance to the city. And there are two groups involved. The secret society with the king and whatever group that girl is a part of.”
“While it is great that we have this information, what exactly are we going to do with it? We are stuck down here.”
“I don’t know. Get some sleep, I guess. Maybe something will come to us if we get some rest.”
It was a poor plan but it wasn’t as if we had any other ideas. I curled up on the thin bed in the corner as David got into the other one. But it felt almost impossible to fall asleep. Even though we had faced down scary things before, I was still worried we would be stuck down here forever.
Even with my panic, I must have fallen asleep because I woke up later to a soft noise outside our door. Alarmed, I sat up. David was snoring. How could he be so fast asleep that he was snoring? He amazed me sometimes.
Then I heard the noise again. It was like a soft scraping noise. With my heart pounding, I slipped out of the bed and went over to the door. I tried to look through the barred window and see who it was.
“Whose there?” I whispered in the darkness.
“Be quiet.” Came a voice that sounded oddly familiar.
I looked down and could just make out a hooded figure messing around with the lock on our cell. My eyes widened as I realized who it was.
“Hey, it’s you.”
“Do you not understand what being quiet means?” She snapped.
It was the girl that I had chased in the alley. She was still wearing her hood but I could see her eyes glance up at me as she fiddled with the lock. I decided to listen to her. If she wanted to break us out, I wasn’t going to complain.
There was a tiny clicking noise as the lock turned and then the door opened. She pointed to David and gestured for me to wake him up. I went over to him and shook him awake.
“Wh-what?” He mumbled.
“We have to go. Now. Be quiet and come on.”
David’s eyes grew wide when he saw the girl in the doorway. I could tell he wanted to ask questions but knew better because we had to be quiet. He got his feet and we followed the girl.
The hallway was dark. I was worried someone would see us but it was as if there were no guards at all. I thought we were going to go up the stairs but the girl yanked us towards the opposite direction – further into the dungeon.
“Uh-” David spoke up but the girl raised her hand, silencing him.
We followed her down the hallway. I was worried other people in the cells would hear us but there was nothing. I wondered if maybe I was dreaming. But I pinched myself and felt a stab of pain and knew we were all really doing this.
When we got to the end of the hallway, there was nowhere else to go. I looked at the girl, waiting for her to realize that there had been some sort of mistake. But she crouched down and pressed her hand against the floor.
There was a dull light from her hands and then the floor vanished to show a tunnel underneath. I heard David gasp behind me. Had she just done magic? I had never seen something like that before.
She jumped down into the tunnel and motioned for us to follow. David pushed past me, suddenly eager to get closer to the girl and her magic. He hopped down into the tunnel. I looked behind me. Sure, we were leaving – but with who, exactly?
I jumped down into the tunnel. The girl raised her hand upwards and the stones reappeared, blocking us from the dungeon. Everything was pitch dark. For a few seconds, all I could hear were the three of us breathing.
Then the girl snapped her fingers and a small flame illuminated the tunnel. It was coming from her fingertips.
“Okay, what is this?” I asked her, “Magic?”
“You’re part of the Moon City, aren’t you? I mean, you live there.” David said excitedly.
“What?” I asked him, “She lives in the Moon City?”
“I read it in the book. I read how people lived in the Moon City and one day they all vanished. It was as if they just got sucked up into thin air. But they had magical powers. They were born in The End and moved into the Moon City. You’re descended from them, aren’t you?” David sounded so excited as if he had just been given a diamond sword.
“Yes,” The girl said after a long pause, “I am from the Moon City.”
“What’s your name? I’m David. This is Mike. Why did you save us? Where are we going?”
“My name is Star,” The girl answered, “And I saved you because you’re both too foolish to listen to me. I told you to leave. The king doesn’t care who you are. He wants the Moon City for himself. He doesn’t want anyone trying to find it. As for where we are going, I’m escorting you outside of the city. Go home.”
She pushed past us but David scuttled after her, “What? We can’t go home. Mike, tell her we can’t go home.”
“I wouldn’t mind going home, actually.”
David ignored me, “We want to see the Moon City. You know how to follow the symbols and get in there, don’t you?”
“I know how to get to my home, if that is what you are asking me.” Star replied in a frosty tone.
“I’ve been reading about the Moon City for so long! I knew the king was probably part of some secret group –”
Star spun around, “The king – every king since the war – has wanted to keep the Moon City for himself. My people have to hide because if the king finds us, he will get rid of us. All of our treasure, our money, our knowledge the kings over the years have stolen for themselves. This current king included. They don’t want anyone to know about the Moon City because they are greedy. The king will not allow you to just waltz into our city. Neither will I. I saved you because you are both silly individuals looking for adventure. But you have to go home now.”
She stared at the two of us, waiting for one of us to speak. I didn’t know what to say. Everything she had said was true. We were probably over our heads. The Moon City was clearly protected by the king. If there really were people who still lived in the Moon City, there was no way they would want us creeping around.
But I knew David wasn’t going to just let this go. This was something he wanted to discover. I braced myself for the fight that was going to rage between him and Star.
“Why not expose the king? Come out of hiding and show everyone the Moon City?” He asked her.
Star set off walking again and we followed her. She was quiet and I wondered if she was just going to ignore what David had asked.
But then she said, “We can’t do that.”
“Well, why not?” He pressed.
But Star shook her head, “We just can’t. You don’t need to know why.”
“If the king is doing this, people need to know. They need to know he isn’t some great guy. Whatever you guys have in the city, we can figure it out.”
David glanced at me but didn’t say anything. No matter what Star said, I somehow knew that it wasn’t going to be the end of the discussion. David wanted into that city.
We walked in the tunnel for what felt like thirty minutes. When we got to the end of the tunnel, Star pushed open a grate and crawled out. We followed after her and ended up in a small empty house. It was covered in dust and there were a few candles lighting the room up.
“What is this?”
“An abandoned house. But we use it to get to the tunnels below the city.”
“Is this the entrance to the Moon City?” David asked her.
“I wouldn’t be stupid enough to bring you to the entrance of the city.” She said to us.
She handed up two bags. They had some food shoved in them for our trip back home.
“Thanks.” I said to her.
Star nodded and went, “You have to leave tonight. The king will know we set you free. It isn’t safe to stay.”
“What about you?” I asked her.
“I’ll go back home for a little bit, let the others know you are gone.”
“And then what? You guys just keep hiding?” David asked her, “Is that all you guys do? You are descendants from this great city and all you do is hide from the king?”
“David, don’t,” I said to him, “My people hid too.”
“Yeah but when the Nether portals started opening up in your village, your people went out and found help. Your people need help too.”
Star narrowed her eyes at him, “My people don’t need help. We have lived this way for thousands of years, constantly in battle with the king. We are protecting things you couldn’t ever understand.”
David opened his mouth to fight with her some more but he didn’t get a chance to. Just then, the front door of the abandoned house we were hiding in was kicked down. In came a group of skeletons, all holding swords and shields.
“Looks like we’ve been discovered.” David said as he looked around for a weapon of his own.
“Drat. Listen, I’ll hold them off but you two need to go!” Star shouted over her shoulder as she took a step forward.
“What? You can’t fend them off!”
The first skeleton lunged and Star snapped her fingers. The flame that she had in the palm of her hand seemingly exploded into a fireball. It crashed into the skeleton and sent it flying back. It crumbled into ash.
“Okay, maybe she can.” David said and then we were running out the back exit.
Behind us, we could hear the fireballs exploding against the skeletons. We pushed out of the back door and spilled out into the city streets. But skeletons were here waiting for us as well. Alarmed, I ducked just as one tried to swing it’s sword at me. I reached up and grab its bony hand and yanked the sword out of its hand.
Then I brought the sword down on the skeleton. Next to me, David had managed to disarm another skeleton and take its sword as well. We began to cut through the skeletons that had been sent to take us back to the dungeon.
There were a ton of them. It was a crazy amount that had been sent this way, as if the king was determined to toss us back into the dungeon no matter what. As we got pinned against the wall of a house, Star appeared. She had lighting glowing out of her fingertips. Her skin had turned a strange shade of blue. I had never, ever seen something like that before.
She raised her hands and the lightning hit all the skeletons. They turned to ash almost right away. All we could do was stare in amazement.
“Uh, wow. Okay. So. Back to the magic thing,” David said, “Want to expand on that a bit?”
But Star had gone very pale. She took a step forward and looked as if she was going to fall over. I reached out and grabbed her before she could fall.
“Too much powers used tonight. I’m weak.” She managed to say.
“Not good. This is not good.” I mumbled, making sure I had a firm grip on her.
“Star, listen to me. More are going to come. But we aren’t leaving the city. So where can we go?” David asked her.
“Maybe we should go.” I said to him.
“What, why?”
“Are you serious, David? Star said this is how her people live. This isn’t up for us to intrude on. If they’re hiding something from the king, then we can’t just expect for them to let them into their city. We already have guards coming after us. We were thrown into a dungeon. Star used too much magic. You have to ask yourself if you are being selfish because you want to see the city or if you really care about Star’s people.”
I could see David wrestling with what to do. We could hear more skeletons coming down towards us.
Finally, he said, “You’re right. But we can’t just leave Star here. She’s passed out because of us. Come on.”
I picked Star up, who was limp in our arms. Holding her, we took off at a run away from the skeleton noises. We weren’t sure where we could go but we knew we had to lose the guards somehow.
“This was such a terrible idea.” I said to David.
“Exciting though, right?” He said as we rounded a corner.
We cut across the market place which was empty since it was the middle of the night. Star’s skin was still pale. I hoped that she would be okay. I didn’t know anything about magic use but she had still used a lot of it to protect us. We had to make sure she was okay too.
“I really regret coming along.” I said in between gasping for air as we ran.
“Ah, come on. Lucas the creeper king was way worse than this.”
“That’s like saying being trapped with a bunch of ghasts is better than being trapped with a bunch of zombie pig men. Neither one is fun.” I exclaimed.
David only grinned at me. What else could he say? Maybe he just loved this sort of adventure.
We passed by a fountain and a couple of bakeries. We had no idea where we needed to go. The skeletons didn’t seem to be easing up on us. As we turned another corner, we came to a complete stop.
In front of us was none other than the king.
He looked at us and then to Star and a cold smile crossed his face, “Found you.”