Chapter 5

The sun slowly rises in the distance, burning up the monsters in its morning heat. Bryson's screams still linger in my mind after I kicked his ass all night last night. He had the nerve to come over to Renato's place and go through his chests, how dare he! Everyone got a good hit on him last night, and now I'm seen as less suspicious of the crime of robbing people, now I can just blame him for it and since he denied it at first, nobody will believe him if he denies it again.

The taste of three-day-old chicken lingers on my tongue, for this morning's breakfast I only had a choice between the chicken or more potatoes, and I'd rather not have potatoes for like four days in a row. Blood and rotten flesh flows through the breeze, nearly forcing me to throw up my meals from the last two days. I watch, sickened, as a baby zombie burns up into flames, melting into a slush as the ground absorbs it.

The handle to my sword is burning as I grip it in my hands, waiting for the beasts of the night to finish burning up. It's a shame that those green, explosive monsters down die along with the others in the sun. I shall call them sizzlers because their insides sizzle until they finally explode.

The sun reaches just below the center of the sky, and other than the monsters with helmets on, most of them have died off to the day. They will rise once more when the sun descends upon the horizon, and the moon rules the sky. My mouth is dry and hands start to shake as I open the door, the thought of a sizzler possibly being around the corner and killing me any second is dreadful.

I take a deep breath and burst through the door, not even bothering to check my surroundings as I sprint down the steps. A huge bee the size of my head floats by and lands on a large sunflower that reaches up to my shoulders. Sunflowers surround the land, along with a few others, though the area is definitely sunflower dominate. They take over the vast green and stone hills, facing the sun like worshipers praying to their god.

There's a large spider exiting a nearby cave, but they show me no harm, they are only dangerous during the night. Today I will be checking out the other side of the village, since I've mainly been going to the large, watery mountain, and Little Japan for the past few days. I think it will be good for me to go the other way this time. Who knows, maybe I'll find the perfect place to build my house.

"Alberto, I swear to god, I will burn down your bamboo forest," Rodrigo groans and shouts.

"Why you gotta hate on the bamboo?" Alberto asks with a chill-out facade.

"Oh my god it's spreading," Angel says with astonishment in his voice. "It's like a plague."

A few of us start to laugh, "The bamboo plague," I name through a chuckle. "Wait, Alberto."

"What's up?" He asks, this time with no hint of annoyance or hate in his voice.

"You don't even have any pandas, why the fuck do you have so much bamboo?" I ask, bringing up the fact that he lacks the creatures that actually eat the plants that are slowly infesting the land.

"Exactly!" Rodrigo laughs, showing no ill will in his tone.

"You build it and they will come," I laugh and the others promptly join in.

"You can use it for building things," Alberto excuses, his voice going into a slight squeak and back to deep for a moment. Though the only thing that comes to mind that bamboo can be used for building is a type of cube thing meant to help hold stuff up during construction.

Their voices fade into the back of my mind once more when the sight of a cobblestone wall comes into view. It's only a few feet high, but it appears to take over a large area of grass, hills, and mountains. Berry bushes covered in thorns line the outside of the wall, providing protection from any sort of outsiders. The corpse of a sheep lies stuck to one of the bushes, it's wool and meat covered in blood. I take a butchering knife out of my pocket and slice off whatever I can use, letting the wild animals in the area take the rest.

Doors made of iron stand between a large mountain and a medium hill, attached to the walls and being the only way in and out. I step on two little, stone squares that cause the doors to fly open and allow me through. I step through another layer of the walls, taking in the sight of a large, stone, spiral staircase that leads up to the top of a mountain. A stable and paddock full of horses, cows, and sheep stands on the right of the large wall. A variety of flowers spread across the ups and downs of the grass, adding more colour to this already beautiful castle. A large, fenced-off farm is in the far back, another mountain standing just behind it. The farm seems to have every crop imaginable, and they are all fully grown as well. They look healthy and organic.

"Hey, guys," I mumble as I begin to move forward, past the double wall.

"What's up?" Almost all of them ask in a separated speech.

"What's with the large cobblestone wall lined with berry bushes?" I ask, glancing around as I slowly make my way up the huge, spiral staircase.

"Huge cobblestone wall?" Rodrigo mumbles, contemplating as to what I mean.

"Oh that's Bryan's," Renato and Angel answer.

"Oh yeah, Bryan and his stupid castle," Rodrigo's voice goes higher as he recalls what I'm talking about.

I reach the first half of the staircase, taking in the view of the land surrounding me. I can see the village from here, as well as the water engulfed mountain, and even Little Japan. "Hey, Alberto."

"What's up?" Both him and Anthony ask.

"Alberto," I repeat with an unamused tone.

"Yeah, what's up?" Anthony asks, and Alberto's voice chuckles in the background.

"Whatever," I giggle and choose to let it go. "Why did you call your place 'Little Japan?'"

"It's Lil' Japan," He corrects me instantly.

"Because I'm stupid," Anthony quickly answers, still pretending to be Alberto.

"That's true," Rodrigo chimes in.

"Little Japan," I mumble, picking a fight with him over a mere name.

"Lil'," Alberto corrects me once again. "Lil' Japan."

"Whatever, why did you name it that?" I ask, still unwilling to say the name properly.

"Because, bamboo," He speaks as though that's his only reason. "Because I felt like it."

"Amazing reason," I laugh loudly and finally face away from the amazing view. Turning around, I head up the second half of the staircase, my heart racing as I get further and further away from the ground. The temptation to look down grows out of proportion, and I do so. My legs wobble and shake as my throat sinks into my stomach, and I grip the banister of the staircase with all of my strength.

"Yo," Rodrigo appears behind me, wearing a black, full suit of armour made from demonic materials found and created in hell.

"Oh hey," I stand up, doing my best to hide my freak-out.

He rushes past me and enters the castle. It has the same doors as the wall, except instead of the stone square, it has stone buttons on either side of the double doors. As I follow Rodrigo inside, I'm underwhelmed by the emptiness of the castle. The floor, walls, ceiling, and stairs are all made out of cobblestone. A double bed surrounded by cobblestone is in the far back, and multiple chests line the left walls. A devilish chill goes down my spine, the same that radiates off of any portal that leads to hell. He must have one in here as well. It's coming from downstairs, I'll check it out later.

The first thing I do is head towards the chests and begin rummaging through them. Most of them are pretty empty, but there's some that hold helpful supplies such as food, crops, and more things that I can use toward potion making. Rodrigo stops beside me and goes through the chests as well, taking a few things that he's deemed useful. We close the chest and look at each other for a moment, he gives me an expression that tells me to keep my mouth shut. I make a lip zipping motion and smile widely. He nods and we continue looking through and stealing whatever we feel like.

Once Rodrigo seems to have taken whatever he found helpful, he spins on his heels and sprints out of the door, barreling down the large staircase. I, however, continue to check out the place. Maybe I can convince Bryan to let me live with him, he certainly does have the room for it after all. I head towards his bed, they're two twin beds that have been placed together, they're coordinated with black first and red second. With all of the strength I can muster, I switch the beds around to make it red first and black second, just to fuck with him. Maybe he'll think that West Nation messed with his stuff, that'll certainly help with furthering our chances of going to war and killing them all. Though I doubt he would be against it to begin with.

I continue forward, going past his chest with an eye embedded into it. I already know what kind of eye you need for it, you can't use any kind of eye after all. You need to use the eyes of the monsters that come from a whole 'nother realm. Angel is one of them, though I'm quite curious as to why he no longer lives in their realm. They all look the same, and they worship their father all day and night, a dragon. Although that raises another question, those monsters can't touch or even go near water, but Angel can. In fact, I frequently see him coming from the mountain that's engulfed by water, and I've seen water splashed on him too. Maybe that's why he left that realm, he's different and was possibly heckled because of it. Poor guy. I should bake him a cake some day, I bet he'd like that. After all, he's part of East Nation. He's welcome here. Far more welcome than he would be with those barbarians at West Nation.

I go up a flight of stairs and find myself in a room with a few more chests and a little pet wolf. His fur is beautiful, barely any blood on his coat, and the spots of red are most likely from hunting. He sits obediently, watching as I walk around the room and check out the chests. He whimpers as I take some chicken out of a chest, his head tilts from side-to-side as I turn around, holding the cooked chicken in my hands.

"Are you hungry, boy?" I ask, my voice going up as I walk over to the adorable wolf. He barks and a laugh escapes my throat, "Here you go, boy." I toss the chicken and he catches it perfectly between his jaws. God damn it Bryan, so irresponsible, can't you tell that your dog is hungry?

I pet the dog and head back down to the main floor after stealing whatever I felt like, including a diamond axe that I found on one of his armour stands, I replaced it with a baked potato instead. The air in the room changes, it's damp and dangerous. I stand at the top of the stairs, gazing down to the basement where purple mists descend to the ground. The voices of the guys flow in and out of focus, like a wave reaching up and down the beach. A pork-like scent reaches up to me, making my stomach rumble and my cravings focus on pork chops. I lick my lips, tasting the chicken I had earlier. The cobblestone walls scrape my fingers as I drag my hand along the wall on my way down to the basement.

My throat closes up once I lay eyes upon it. The portal. It's been built just under the staircase, and the swirls within the purple liquid are far more defined than I've ever seen before. There's also a cell or testing area taking up an entire wall of the basement. Iron bars line the top and bottom of the space, and other than a few beds, I see nothing that can clue as to what this thing is for.

The doors of the castle open and shut once again. My heart races as footsteps become closer and louder with every bit of movement. The voice coming from behind me is deep, energetic, and fast, grabbing my attention and making me flinch as he asks, "What are you doing in here?"