They headed north to the ruins to scavenge because Arlo needed a new sword, but Arlo also had a different reason to go there. He went there because he was curious about why he had such a strong feeling towards those ruins of that City, could it have been his home? no the feeling was strong but different, he couldn't describe it.
they went through the path to the ruins and saw withered remains of what was once crops. It took them two whole days to reach the ruins but, Arlo's sense of time had become different over the centuries so it didn't bother him. Once they reached the gate, Arlo just lightly pushed it and it came crashing down making a loud boom, the wind from the impact almost blew Arlo's bones away. Through the gate was the ruins of a large city, the worn down buildings were still there and the humans that used to live there had long decomposed. Seeing a place that used to be home to tens of thousands of humans now being empty definitely made them feel weird (Liminal space feeling).
But seeing the empty streets would give anyone an uneasy feeling. they search about a bit for a blacksmith shop, but the debris inside every house made it impossible to recognize anything. They became frustrated because they hadn't found anything after a long search so Krause came up with a different plan.
"Arlo, maybe we should head to the castle and look for an armoury there?"
Arlo liked the idea and agreed with him. Once they arrived in front of the castle arlo got that feeling again, the feeling of having been there. Arlo looked up to see the full castle and it suddenly became sunny and the castle suddenly became whole again. not only that, but he could hear the chatter from a kingdom full of people and smell the clear, fresh air. "Another memory?" He looked down and noticed he was shorter than last time.
"Hey Arlo!!! you came to my birthday party. haha I'm so happy"
Arlo didn't recognize him instantly, but after a while he realized that the kid who spoke to him was Jerold from the previous memory. "huh, so this is a memory from my childhood" he thought to himself while being escorted to the party location by Jerold and his butler.
They arrived at a beautiful garden filled with all kinds of plants and butterflies. There was a long table with a lot of chairs beside it and a huge Birthday cake as well as a bunch of baked snacks on the table, but there was only one person sitting down, just a single girl, a girl with silver hair and eyes as blue as the ocean. After Arlo looked at the girl, he felt sadness all of the sudden, extreme sadness, he almost cried on spot but held back his tears.
"you don't have many friends do you brother?" said the girl with a bored expression
"What?!?! I have a lot of friends. they were just busy at the moment" said Jerold madly
"ahh what am I getting mad for? Come on let's play Arlo, we'll eat the cake later"
As Jerold grabbed Arlo's wrist, the memory began to fade and Arlo was looking at was the ruins in front of the castle.
"You ok Arlo? you've been staring up for a while now" said Krause with a tone of worry.
"no problem here, let's head to the armoury and leave immediately after we're done" said Arlo with his head looking down with grief.
They went in the castle and Arlo remembered some of the layout from his previous memory, so he went straight to the armoury.
"Hey where do you think you're going? let's take a look through the left corridor first, we need to check every corner!" said Krause with a irritated tone.
"Wait, I think I know where the armoury is. Just give me a bit of time"
They reached the armoury after some time and the armoury was also as rundown as the rest of the castle, the weapons and armour had all rusted and it looked like there was nothing to scavenge there either. they searched through the whole armoury and eventually stumbled across a locked chest. the lock was rusted so it was easy to open the chest. After they had opened the chest they saw a sword inside, a sword that hadn't corroded and looked perfectly new. The sword was shining brightly in the moonlight.
"That sword!! That sword is made out of moon metal!! (A material presumably from the moon, but probably just space debris) I can spot moon metal from a mile away! it's got to be moon metal! Shouted Krause with a tone filled with genuine joy.
After they retrieved the sword, they left the ruins and went back on track.
"Arlo we're getting close to the shore, that was faster than expected since skeletons don't need to eat or rest. I'd estimate it'll just take 2 more weeks to reach our destination"
Arlo was too busy looking at his shiny new sword to listen to Krause. In fact he was looking at it for the rest of the journey.
Arlo was so proud of his new sword and was so happy that he found it, he was giving the sword so much attention by patting it and trying to kiss it (skeletons have no lips lmao). It was like the sword was his first child and Krause was his step child. Krause was getting very jealous.
"Hey Arlo why don't you try cutting a bolder, no the mountain next to us with that sword you're so proud of?" said Krause with a snarky tone.
Krause still hadn't witnessed Arlo's swordsmanship so he thought that Arlo wouldn't be able to do it.
"Good idea Krause :) i need to test out this new toy"
Arlo prepared a different stance this time. It was a basic stance with his arms over his head and striking the sword downwards. He was making a motion of slashing down a few times to measure the distance. He became ready after a bit of warm up and Shouted "MOONLIGHT SLASH"
"...."
Krause was speechless. the sword hadn't sliced the mountain in half but it still did much more damage than expected.
"Haha did you see that Krause! this sword is amazing!!!" Said Arlo feeling like a badass
"What do you mean? the mountain is still standing strong you weakling. Start drinking milk for calcium"
They made their way back on track once again and Arlo was complementing and fondling his sword? the whole way. They finally reached the shore after a week.
They could see the coastline and the seemingly endless sea beyond it. There were a bunch of broken and sunken ships near the docks and a shack for building ships next to it.
They went straight to the shack.