Hello, my name is Prestin, and I live in the newly constructed city of Riverhold. The Voyagers say it's more like a small town, but it's the first on this continent, so I assume by the time anyone gets to reading this, it'll be a flourishing city with no others coming close to it in size and prosperity. I, like most of the people in Riverhold, have black hair, brown eyes, and skin the color of dark honey. The Voyagers call this continent Piyarus. I've asked them why on multiple occasions, but they won't give me a consistent answer. The younger Voyagers said, "It's named after the late captain of the Ark that brought us here," which sounds believable, but I've heard from the older Voyagers, "It's named after our guardian deity who saved us from where we used to live."
I've mentioned the Voyagers a lot so far, and just in case history has forgotten about them, the Voyagers are the few hundred people that survived the end of their prior world. I was told that 8 billion people died during the apocalypse, but I don't know what a billion is, and it seemed like a lot, so I went along with it. Apparently, just before everyone lost hope, Pyaira appeared and guided the survivors to this new world in Arky-something. No one could quite remember what they called it, and it had weird pronunciation, so everyone just called it the Ark. Most of the younger Voyagers don't remember too much, and most older Voyagers that do remember don't like talking about it. Those that I've heard tales from seem strained when they try to remember anything and all their answers are vague and depressing, so I've decided to stop bothering them with questions.
As for why I've decided to write this, I had a near-death experience with a harpy a few days back while foraging for berries near Holden River. I don't fully remember what happened, but it was injured by something coming out of the woods and fled. During that time my life flashed before my eyes, and I remembered something from when I was very young: I was the first child born in Piyarus. That seems obvious, something you wouldn't forget, but now that there are dozens of children and, as no one mentions it, it became easy to forget. By the time I could walk, I was no longer special. There were a half dozen or so other kids born and so people stopped flocking around me.
As a kid I didn't know what was going on, all I knew was that there were always people around me. Retrospectively, when they stopped, I was relieved, I had some breathing room and the freedom to crawl and walk around outside. That might be why I usually spend my days wandering through the woods. Up until I was a young adult, I didn't stray beyond where I could see the village, but after that I started to explore further along the river I mentioned earlier. Despite exploring for over half my life, I haven't gone that far, and that day was the first time I encountered anything too dangerous. I usually carry a walking stick to clear away plants and to fend off small spidders from the trees and striders in the lake I found, which the Voyagers named Arkun lake, without my permission I might add. But I couldn't complain about it because I really wasn't supposed to go that far at the time, and I didn't want to disappoint my mother, so I kept my mouth shut.
I just mentioned my mother, Sarah, and I still live with her and my Grandpa Itsuki. I've never met my father, but I've heard from by Grandpa that his name was Sakuren and that he was kind and always helping others even in the "end times" as he calls it. He always gets teared up when he talks about him, so I guess my father is Grandpa's son. He's never mentioned how my father died, but since just his name makes him tear up, I don't want to make Grandpa think about it. It wasn't too long ago I decided I don't need to know how my father died. After all, I learned how he lived, and I decided that is more important.
My grandpa is the oldest person in Riverhold, and while he doesn't leave the house too often, he is an amazing cook. Every time I've come back from exploring as a kid, there have been the smell of his cooking and a line of people hoping to get a taste. My mother usually tends to a garden to help Grandpa try new recipes. When he finds something good, he asks my mother to go and buy a lot of the ingredients from the village farmer Robert. We always get a discount on the produce because he enjoys my grandpa's cooking and sometimes gives us some new crops to see how my grandpa would use them. Our neighbors have started calling our house a "diner," which I heard from the Voyagers is like a place people can go to buy already made meals.
Recently our family has been doing well. I worked with the carpenter a while back to build a large seating area next to the house to serve more customers, and I think soon it will be a big business. I've started helping in the diner a lot too, so I've racked up a decent amount of Sils that I'm planning to use to order some adventuring gear from the blacksmith on the other end of town. Metals are scarce, so I may have to settle for a wooden sword and stone arrowheads, but it doesn't matter too much because I'll still be able to defend myself on my explorations. Who knows what I could find out there. The forests seem to stretch almost endlessly to the south, and there are mountains within view of the town across Holden River. The Voyagers have said that in the old world there were no dragons, spidders, or striders, so I wonder what other unknown creatures will be lurking around the corner. I get so excited just thinking about my future explorations.
After hyping myself up, I went to go buy a sword from the blacksmith. I've seen the guard squad with some, so hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on one, but I can't get my hopes up too high, the guard squad is pretty small, and only half of them have swords, the others use bows or clubs. As I approached the small shop I heard voices, so I stayed back a bit so I could listen.
"…are you sure you can't spare anything?" a voice that sounded like the guard captain said from within the shop. I was close to the shop's door, just to the side so I couldn't be seen.
"I would if I could, but I simply don't have the resources. I barely have enough to make a fork." The voice that responded must've been Paul, the blacksmith. I guess I really should've gotten my hopes up if the captain can't even get swords.
"Alright, I'm…*sigh*…I'm sorry. I'm just getting nervous about the wyrms. I think they're becoming more active. Since we've arrived they were only sighted once or twice, here and there, but now that there have been three sightings in the past dozen or so days, not to mention the boy that was attacked by one…"
"I know, but that boy was a ways off from town, and he's fine, I saw him working at the diner two days ago and he seemed like usual, just some bandages on his arms. But I'll tell ya what, next time we get some metals, I'll save them for your forces so each of ya will have a blade."
"Thanks bro, you're easing my conscience at least." I then heard footsteps coming closer to the door, so I ducked around the side of the building, "Take care of yourself Paul!"
"Right back at you John."
After that I heard the creaking of the wooden steps as the captain walked back to the center of town. I waited until I couldn't see him, which only took a minute or so, and then headed up to the door. "So, I guess a blade for me is out of the question, Mr. Smith?"
"Prestin! I was just talking about you with the captain and…" he gave me a look, "you were eavesdropping then?"
"Guilty, but I was glad to hear the captain was worried about me."
"Of course, he worries about everyone, that's why he volunteered to be the guard captain." Paul smiled for a moment before continuing, "but yeah, yer right. I don't have the metals for blades, but if you'd be willing, I'm plannin' a large trip to get some more within about 30 days."
"Sure, I'd love to join." I replied. I hope that if I help him out, I'd get a discount or something on the blade, "I don't need a full sword either, just a large knife or something."
"I see, so yer finally decidin' to head out for real then? You've been wanderin' around the woods for so long I knew it was a matter of time for ya."
I chuckled, as I didn't know exactly how to meaningfully respond, but said, "Yeah, I'm gonna go on my own expedition."
We made some more small talk for a bit, before I headed back home to help with the evening customers at grandpa's diner. During my work taking orders and bringing out food, I saw the guard captain, so I went over and took his order. As I came back with his food, I noticed he had relaxed a bit more.