Written by Landon:
(Letters down below!)
~~~ Please excuse the useless need to record things down. ~~~
Introducing the dream team:
Atheo Heron (God Valeour)
Christopher Dark (Goddess Valrez)
Landon Terre
And the friends of sorts:
Alexandre Kyle (Goddess Eriko)
Raeburn Tyler (God Hydro the great) Dead and Gone?
Anfasa (God Anfasa)
Deaths shall no longer be remembered
Pets:
Sooba (Significant otter): 4th January 2017 ~ 30th April 2017 (3months 27days)
Took Sooba to a local orphanage to try to cheer up the children. It worked so well that the kids begged him to stay. He gave me a wistful glance and a sad smile before going inside. Farewell, Sooba, I hope you give those kids as many fond memories as you have given me.
Sandy (Biowolf): 4 May 2017
Temple: 31 May 2017
03:52 pm My face must be glowing like this golden temple I just now finished for you, Mighty One. I have to say, it does look great!
Vinny (Grounded Hog): 1 year 1 month old as of 1 November 2019
~~~ ☆☆☆☆☆ ~~~
P.S. I do not bold my words. Do NOT trust the bolded words!
♤♡◇♧
These are edited on 1 November 2019, but I’ll keep the original dates there.
Here I record my letters to my friends:
18 April 2017
My dear friend Christopher Dark,
If you do happen to see this, I apologise for hurting you to such an extent in the arena. I am feeling rather regretful right now.
Though I do not think you can blame it on me completely. You see, my Goddess can be very meddlesome and, you were in fact trying to peel the skin off my face. I think I broke my jaw from that fight… that really hurt, by the way.
But as I mentioned before, I am also at fault. I kicked your legs to trip you, then used the chance to cripple your arms. Though that was only for the sake of winning. No hard feelings, alright? I really do not want to get zapped again.
You will forgive me, right? We both cannot remain dead anyways. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Then, perhaps we can battle again one day.
Regards,
Landon
====
My dear friend Alexander Kyle,
If you were to see this message, I would be delighted but even if you do not, I won’t mind at all. I have not seen you around lately and I fear the worst for you.
I am starting to think there is something such as eternal death afterall? It would seem that your level has reached a standstill and I would definitely be comforted if you could give me a reply.
Regards,
Landon
====
My dear friend Atheo Heron,
How have you been? I know I just saw you today but I think that a “How have you been” would be an appopriate response in a letter?
As expected, I have not much to tell you but I will say this: Beware of the Dreaded Gazebo. It has been stalking you around lately. How did I know, you ask? An excellent question! Unfortunately, I have no good answers to give you, so, let us forget about that! Have a wonderful day!
Regards,
Landon
====
My dear friend Christopher Dark,
Have you ever pondered on our existence? Because I do. Why do we exist? I feel purposeless, all we do is kill monsters. Oh, but do not get me wrong. I love killing monsters. The way their blood splatters, and their bodies fall apart to reveal a random item. That is the most exciting!
But enough of that. Let us talk about something better! It would be most delightful if you can meet me at the tavern in Godville this Friday. Then, we can whine about our problems over some beer. Goodbye for now!
Your friend,
Landon
====
My dear friend Alexander Kyle,
I hope you are very much alright. I have not recieved a reply from you yet and that causes me great worry.
Although… nobody actually replied to me yet! I suppose they are all busy. But! That little detail is not important. I write to myself all the time! I still haven’t seen you today, or any other days, in fact. I’m starting to question if I’ve ever met you at all! Isn’t that wack? Hopefully everything is fine for you. I’ll see you sometime.
Your worried friend,
Landon
====
My dear friend Atheo Heron,
It would seem you have slayed the Dreaded Gazebo that has been stalking you. Now I see that 10 more are after you. What a problem they are! Those are some good moves though!
Oh? Why did I not help you when you were brutally killed? Well, to answer that, I would say… that I had complete faith in your ability of survival. But seems like I was wrong. I must say I am disappointed. It must be your neutral stance on things that is making you weak.
But do not worry, I will always be watching you in the corner. If you messing up makes me laugh enough I might even help you!
Your friend,
Landon
====
Dear Christopher Dark,
You did not come to the tavern that time I invited you. Were you that busy, or did you forget? Nonetheless, I do not mind. Perhaps next time we can plan it when we actually meet.
Instead of talking about this, why not we talk about you? How was your day today? :) I will be very happy if you replied. See you soon!
Your friend,
Landon
====
Dear Alexander Kyle,
You might be dead for all I know but even the dead can write, right? Am I being a bad friend for worrying so much? I suppose I can be too blunt sometimes… but I think everyone has their own flaws. I am still here waiting for a reply.
Your friend,
Landon
====
Dear Atheo Heron,
I’ve been stal I coincidentally saw you that time kneeling down beside your fallen pet, Gleep. You looked really depressed. I would have gone up to you and given you all the gold I had but I all had was 2 gold coins. Going up to you then would have been very embarrasing. It was a shame, really. I really wanted to be of help. I hope you can forgive me.
Your friend,
Landon
====
Landon sat down at his little tent he set up to retire for the day. As he held up the letter he just wrote, he wondered why his friends never reply. Maybe it was something he did? He couldn’t figure it out, all he could do was continue waiting.
====
Dear Christopher Dark,
I do not get replies but I will continue sending letters anyway. Recently Sooba… had an unfortunate accident.
I was disheartened when he had to leave, but he was not suited for battle anymore. So I thought sending him off to a local orphanage would be the best. Goodbye Sooba, be well!
I apologise for talking so much about myself, but I can only talk to myself. Do expect more letters from me.
Regards,
Landon
====
Dear Alexander Kyle,
I sincerely hope you are alright. Even if you are not, I will continue to send you letters. It is the thought that counts, right?
Maybe you find delight in ignoring me but I won’t judge. I do think that is a wonderfully fun idea.
Recently, I had to let Sooba go. I had been quite depressed for a couple of days. I think I feel better though! Thank you for allowing me to send you letters, not that I will stop, unless you do explicitly tell me to.
Regards,
Landon
====
Dear Atheo Heron,
I apologise for the recent lack of stalking presence. I assure you I am fine. I have just been busy in my own mind.
I think I have a problem. I am not sad but I think my brain is. It keeps tossing me these sad thoughts and I am annoyed. Surely it will go away soon, after I get over the fact that I have recently lost Sooba. I hope you are well.
Regards,
Landon
====
It had been a mistake, all this time, the letters had not been sent at all! For once he wasn’t drunk out of his boots.
Landon was not sure whether he should feel relieved or annoyed that he had been so silly. However, he stopped thinking and instead chucked all the letters in the nearest post office.
I’m sure nobody will be confused.
====
Dear Christopher Dark,
I am very happy to say that I now have a new pet called Sandy!
It was a very emotional meeting, I chased her around all day until she collapsed from fatigue and I caught her!
Recently I heard you have completed your temple for your… dare I say false-
Regardless, congratulations to you!
Your friend,
Landon
====
Dear Alexander Kyle,
Have you died recently? I do feel that recently I have been dying a lot. However, I constantly find documents that tell me otherwise. I am not sure what to believe anymore. My death count is a joke!
P.S. I thought I saw you today at the tavern but it turned out I was mistaken. Where could you be? Do you want me to guess?
I do hope next time I can actually see you.
Your friend,
Landon
====
Dear Atheo Heron,
Recently I agreed to be some test subject for some scientists. In hindsight I should have been more cautious but I did recieve some compensation for their mistake.
They accidentally altered my mind and now I can only remember “Quantum leap”. What was the other skill again?
Ah but truth is, I like this new skill. Not that I know what my previous one was but as long as it sounds cool. That is the most important part.
That is all for now. I shall write more next time.
Your friend,
Landon
====
Chris’ letter here
The bolded words down in the letter are words from Valrez
Dear Landon,
It is I, Jeffery. Perhaps you may wonder why it is I who is writing back to you instead of your dear friend, Chris-
Who would have beaten you in the arena duels if he wasn’t sick on both occasions-
-who is currently busy questing with DarcyLewis to reply. He is deeply regretful for the loss of your pet and wishes you a better future with your new pet, Sandy the biowolf.
Yours truly,
Jef-
STEVEN
====
9 May 17
Dear Christopher Dark,
I am delighted to have recieved a reply! Even though you did not personally reply to my letters I appreciate your well wishes. I do need to thank you- Jeffery, was it? For passing along his message. I am grateful.
As for Chris, good luck on your questing, dear friend. I hope you are met with much success.
Your friend,
Landon
====
Dear Alexander Kyle,
I have gotten myself a new pet ,and I can’t believe I thought I would never get over Sooba. Anyways, I have my temple almost completed, at 994 bricks. Just 6 more and the temple will be completed! Maybe then the Great one will tone down on the smiting.
Your friend,
Landon
====
30 June 2017
For convenience sake, Atheo’s letter shall be here
Dearest Landon,
Hello! Wow. I totally did not realise you had sent any letters until I crossed paths with Chris the other day. It took me a while to complete my quest, head back to Bumchester and the dig your letters out of my overdlowing pile of mail.
I’m behind on my rent, but thats okay! My wonderful God will let me stay at his temple! Right? Right!?
If this letter is singed, you know why. At least his aim is terrible and almost always hits the monsters instead, amirite?
Anyways, I digress. I admit you’re really good at stalking coincidentally finding me and watching from a distance!
I’m really upset about Gleep, but it seems that My Lord doesn’t wish for Tigger to be revived! Whenever I collect enough gold, he electrocutes me until I get a brick instead.
If you know of a way to horde gold without your deity knowing, please tell me.
I hope you’re doing okay and get mail wherever you get mail.
All the best,
Atheo
====
Dear Atheo Heron,
How delighted I am to recieve letters from you! I had thought that my letters were never recieved until I recieved a reply from Christopher’s… friend?
Anyhow, it is always a pleasant surprise. I would say sorry for the ‘spam’, but I am really not. However, I hope you are able to gather enough gold to pay for your rent. Have I been so busy that I have not noticed that you have finished constructing your temple? Truly outrageous! I have not congratulated you! So I shall say it now, Congratulations for completing the temple!
I am disappointed, it does not do anything other than serve as my bank. And I do wonder why nobody has ever tried stealing from my temple, it is completely made out of gold and is filled with it too. -_Not that I will let them steal, for if they tried to steal, there will be blood to be shed, and temples to be cleaned. But oh dear, my Lady would not be pleased!
Hearing your problems with rent, perhaps killing monsters and robbing them in the name of justice isn’t the best of an occupation afterall. But fear not, for I have overcome poverty. With savings. I believe you can do that too.
I completely understand. I have been struck so many times, but I should be thankful that more than half of those painful bolts hit the monsters instead!
I admit, I do think of myself as a rather ‘lucky person’. I have never tried stalking you, definitely. Gleep shall forever live in your heart. Or perhaps back in the wild where I think he would prefer.
Oh, I would be terribly upset-
Landon decided he got lazy and sent this incomplete letter instead.
====
28 August 2017
Hey, Alexander, are you still there?
Sorry I haven’t been writing recently.
…
Hey, are you okay?
I haven’t seen you in months.
… I hope it’s not what I think it is.
Your friend,
Landon
====
Dear Christopher Dark,
Have you seen Alexander recently? I haven’t seen him in months and it is rather worrying. We used to meet each other quite regularly so for him to just disappear like that… please tell me if you see him.
Best regards,
Landon
====
Dear Atheo Heron,
I’ve asked this of Christopher but I must ask you too, have you seen Alexander recently? I haven’t seen him in the past few months and I’m getting very worried. You don’t think his- ah I think it’s too soon to form a conclusion. Please do tell me when you see him though!
Best regards,
Landon
☆☆☆☆☆
3 September 2017
When nobody replied, Landon decided to take things into his own hands. He hoped his Goddess wouldn’t mind him halting progress with his quests.
There it was, the Herolympus library. It was empty inside, which was expected, since heroes avoided the library like the plague. He wasn’t sure if pets were allowed inside but he decided not to say anything as he let Sandy in with him.
Books lined the shelves and he fought his innate desire to bolt. He took shaky steps towards the shelves and ignored the strange looks the librarian was giving him.
As Landon reached the shelf he was looking for he turned Sandy for comfort, but she wasn’t there anymore. She must have phased out of the existence plane again.
How… convenient.
4 September 2017
He’d heard of the stories of the missing heroes. Those were popular stories, commonly told on camping trips, along with the ghost stories. Stories of heroes who go missing one day and don’t come back the same. Those are the Feral Heroes.
Landon grabbed a book by it’s corners and flung it across the floor like he had touched lava. The librarian gave him a disapproving glare and he went to pick it up.
It read “Godville Monsters” He wiped the dust off. He opened the book and begin flipping through the pages. “The letter B…, C, D, E, ah, F! F-a, F-e. F-e-r-a-l h-e-r-o-e-s. Feral heroes, there it is.”
He read, carefully absorbing every single detail in the book.
The wiki has been edited since then and now shows differently from what has been written.
He read the first paragraph, “Feral heroes are monsters that were once heroes, but their gods abandoned them, leaving them to a life of misery and solitude. After being abandoned by their gods or goddesses, all heroes are left to wander the wilderness on their own. Most continue their journey without consequence, but occasionally, a few heroes will go mad from loneliness. These heroes eventually become Feral Heroes.”
He read the lines again, “Most continue their journey without consequence, but occasionally, a few heroes will go mad from loneliness. These heroes eventually become Feral Heroes.”
There was hope. But, the problem was that he had not seen Alexander at all for the past few months. The chances of him being alone and lonely was higher. Unless he’d just ditched him and joined a new group of friends. Then Landon was just going to find him and kick his ass.
Landon scratched his head and groaned. Tearing out a page from his diary, he penned down parts of the article he deemed important. Then he returned the book and finally left the cursed place.
☆☆☆☆☆
The article had told him that the habitat of Feral heroes was at the Wastelands of Insomnia. And gods has he heard stories of that place. No matter how evil a hero is, none are immune to the tales of the ghosts that reside there. Afterall, people are afraid of the unknown.
He decided he was definitely not going to go exploring in those cursed lands alone so he decided to gather up his friends to go with him.
☆☆☆☆☆
5 September 2017
And so, with a few of his friends, Christopher, Atheo, Landon and Anfasa all made their way to milestone 41. From there they can see the outskirts of the entire Godville, where even the Gods cannot reach. And right there, were the Wastelands of Insomnia.
“So Landon, we’re all here. We haven’t met as a group in a long time.” Atheo greeted.
Landon grinned. “Thank you for coming.”
“Are you sure Alexander is here..? This place gives me the creeps…” Chris shakily hid behind Atheo. Woody the dust bunny was balacing perfectly on his head, occasionally patting his paws down while atop Chris’ head, as if hurrying Chris inside the wastelands.
“This is the Feral heroes habitat, according to the book. We have no other leads.” Landon said.
Gleep, Atheo’s bipolar bear, also hid behind Atheo. Looking at the pitiful sight behind him, he rolled his eyes and marched forward, deeper into the dark. This left the two alone and shivering, hugging each other.
Anfasa called to him. “Wait, don’t just go off on your own, splitting up now is the last thing we want to do!” But Atheo was already gone. He sighed. “I can see this is already going wonderfully…”
“Come on, we can’t let him go off on his own! We need to catch up!” Landon followed Atheo’s tracks and the rest followed behind.
The environment was a pitiful sight, nothing lived here, it was only dead trees upon dead trees. The wastelands looked incredibly boring.
“I thought that there would be endless screaming here like in the rumours but so far it’s been very silent.”
But of course, when in the dead silence you hear a sound-
“Ahhhh-” Landon backtracked wildly, effectively shielding himself with a confused Anfasa. “I- uh- um- ghost?” He sputtered.
“That was probably just Atheo snapping a twig. Calm down.”
“Why not you walk in front then? If you are so sure.”
“… Fiiine, I’ll lead the way. Ghosts don’t exist, so I’m not afraid.” Anfasa walked ahead this time.
So Gleep, Chris and Landon, the scared trio huddled together as if it was group therapy, trying to convince each other that ghosts didn’t exist and failing.
Woody only bounced happily at his master’s distress.
They took careful steps inside the wastelands, and with every step they took, everything looked even more dead. There were no leaves to block the sun, yet it was dark.
“Atheo really shouldn’t have gone off on his own. Now we need to find not one, but two!” Chris grumbled. “I would rather not stay here more than needed.”
“I know this was my idea, but I’m also starting to doubt anything’s here.” Landon admitted, then quickly added. “Other than ghosts, of course.”
“…”
The rest of the walk went silently.
Chris broke the silence. “Are you sure he’s become some feral hero? Those people are just a jealous bunch, that also happen to be crazy.”
Landon shrugged. “He could be.”
☆☆☆☆☆
11 September 2017
“Landon, have you thought of how we are going to get out of here?” Anfasa stopped to ask.
“Yes, I came prepared. I have Sandy, she can use her nose-”
Chris cut him off. “You didn’t bring Sandy.”
“What? No, she’s right here!”
“Where!”
Landon glanced around him, finding Woody and Gleep, but not Sandy.
“Oh. I think she wandered off the existence plane again.”
Chris shook Landon by his shoulders and screamed. “You’ve doomed us all! Not even our gods can see into this place. We are all going to die and it’s. All. Your. Fault!”
“I did bring her! She just went off on her own!”
“Stop! We’re being too loud! It won’t be good if we attract attention.” Anfasa whispered harshly, clamping his hands over the mouths of the arguing pair.
“I thought you said that ghosts didn’t exist?”
“Yes, but there might be other things here that we don’t want noticing us.” He growled.
He looked ahead and saw a human shadow in the distance. He turned back to the group. “Is that Atheo over there?”
“No? That’s just a tree.”
He looked again but the shadow was gone. “But there was something! I saw a figure!”
And there was a scream.
“S-something touched me!” It was Landon again, already his second time. “IT TOUCHED-mnnfff” his mouth was covered by something. He started to panic even more, and then a voice spoke up.
“Ha, it’s just me. Your reaction is priceless! I would pay to see that again.”
“What the hell Atheo! I could have died from a heart attack!”
“Then you should thank me, I’m helping you get your next martyr achievement!”
“You-”
“Wait do you guys hear something?” Chris cut in, stopping the two from escalating the situation.
“Hear what?”
“Shh! Stop and listen.”
Anfasa perked up. “That’s the sound of talking!”
“Or, it could be a ghost.” Chris reminded helpfully.
“Or Alexander.”
“Then we’ve got to proceed. Follow the voices!” Landon pushed Anfasa ahead to keep him in front.
☆☆☆☆☆
Anfasa was the first to notice something ahead. “There’s a fire in the distance! We must have subconsciously been heading towards the light.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go there and crash the party. I’m tired and cold.” Atheo was slouching all over his bipolar bear, and haven’t been walking since they reunited.
Landon was still salty. “You have no right to be tired, but yes, I agree let’s go there.”
“The voices are clearer now!”
“… … -e should… … often… gods… don’t care… … hahah…”
“Someone’s talking about gods!” Chris whispered.
6 October 2017
By then they were close, and they saw shadow figures casted by the fire.
And the conversation became clearer. They silenced their steps and hid behind the trees nearby while they tried to see what the figures were.
One figure looked like he was holding a bottle of beer in his hands, “Ay, we have’ta enjoy ourselves more while our Gods are gone. Maybe they’ll come back one day, maybe they won’t. Who knows? Mine hasn’t come back for a long time.”
A shaky voice that sounded strangely like Alexander’s answered, “B-but, why- why do they just leave like that..? I-it’s like waking up one day and realising that you’ve lost a limb! That type of feeling!”
7 October 2017
“Sometimes you have’ta accept the facts, mine is probably gone for good, but yours… it might still be possible.” Said the figure with the bottle.
Atheo scratched at his face, and questioned softly, “Are those heroes or feral heroes? They don’t look very crazy to me.”
Chris turned to whisper to Landon, “Hey, is that Alexander over there?” He pointed to the elongated shadow with it’s back slumped down and hands hugging it’s legs.
“No! Of course not! That’s a shadow, he must be the one casting the shadow! That must be him! Guys, we found him!” But Landon must have said that last line a bit too loudly because the figures immediately tensed up.
“Who goes there?”
“I-is it a group of monsters?”
“Well either way, we have company.”
The figures stood up and walked closer, both with weapons in hand.
“Uh, my bad?”
☆☆☆☆☆
The figures swung their weapons at the group of friends, and they only barely dodged the attacks.
The attackers’ faces were obscured with the darkness as they moved away from the campfire. The figure with the bottle threw it at Atheo, smashing it right on his forehead.
“Ouch!”
Annoyed, he began blasting everything around with his Vortex Cannon, creating whirlwinds of dizziness everywhere. To say the least, his friends are not pleased.
In retaliation, Chris let his Automatic Slingshot run wild, and purposefully aimed rocks at everyone’s faces.
It was wild. Nobody was fighting for anyone but themselves now.
The pets joined in and began to bite and claw at each other, playing, and it only made the situation even messier.
The entire place was in chaos until Anfasa couldn’t take it anymore and shouted.
“Everybody stop! Look, we mean no harm, we were just here looking for our friend!”
They all turned to look at Anfasa.
“Why should we let monsters look for their friends?” One of the figures said.
Landon was the one to speak up, “We’re not monsters! We’re heroes, and we are looking for someone named Alexander. Does anyone of you know him?”
Chris crossed his arms, and glared at the figures, “Yeah! Aren’t you guys the monsters?”
“Guys, cut it out, let us all go to the campfire so we can see each other properly. Then we can talk it out.” Anfasa said as he pointed back at the burning bright campfire.
So the everyone made their way back to the campfire and stood around it. The light from the flames illuminated their figures and their identities were revealed.
The pets went back to their playful fighting, mostly with Woody riding on an annoyed Bipolar bear trying to get him off. Sandy was still gone.
One of the figures was revealed to be wearing a bartender’s uniform and the other, revealed to be Alexander, who was wearing a Cloak of Daggers.
“Ay! It’s the two idiots! How are ya doin’, lads? I thought it was odd, ya’ll sounded familiar. Should have known all the idiots know each other.” The bartender said, a grin shaping on his face.
“Oh, it’s you! Why are you here?” Chris questioned.
Before anyone else could say anything else, Alexander stepped forward, “Wait, Chris? Atheo? Landon? And a… who? You people were looking for me?”
8 October 2017
“Oh right, yes we were searching for you. I completely lost track after we began fighting… heh.” Landon grinned, looking a little embarrassed. “Your spiky clothes doesn’t do any one any favours, it makes you look like a monster. I could only tell it was you because of your voice.”
“Well excuse me, I’m not the one wearing a Shining Armor of Darkness! It makes you look like you a floating head! In this darkness! The fashion police should be on your heels!” Alexander snapped, unhappy with Landon’s remark on his fashion choice.
“Hey! Chris is wearing the same thing too!” Landon quickly pointed at Chris, who just looked confused.
“What?” He groaned. “Why do I have to get dragged into this?”
Anfasa was the one to break the arguments, again. “So, the most important thing. Why are you people here in this place?”
1 November 2019
“We’re kinda… just hanging out.” Alex sipped on his beer.
Atheo snatched up a beer bottle from the pile. “No kidding, having a campfire and all, some kinda field trip you having?”
“N-no. I just like it here. It’s quiet.”
“Have you been here the entire time you were missing? I can’t believe you’ve been ignoring my letters!”
“What letters?”
“Exactly!”
He seemed to ponder for a moment, “To answer your question, no I haven’t been here the entire time. Or at least I hope I haven’t been.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
Will be continued