Today was not Charlie's day,in all fairness the past 17 days hadn't been his day either, but today it especially wasn't. He'd woken up in some dumb cave, with some dumb back ache and a dumb feeling of dread. He and Parker had found The Aurorical three days ago and gotten their prophecies for their quest, well, the actual prophecies didn't help much with the quest, just talked alot about dying, the helpful bit was when aurora had told them to find the Great Just Joel, and he would help them train on their way to defeat Isaac. So far they hadn't found shit. Just a dumb cave, with dumb rocks, that seemed too conveniently placed when a dumb storm rolled around. Now they had to keep moving, except the only thing he couldn't find in that dumb cave was Parker.

This brings us to now, Charlie was trekking through the forest to find this kid getting scratched by thorns, tripping over roots and running into spider webs, hoping to gods Parker would turn up. Like I said, not his day. And what was worse he constantly felt like he was being watched, well he always felt that but this seemed more threatening, well... more immediate.

He picked up a rock for protection and looked around. Nothing. He turned back around and started walking, clutching the rock tighter.

Ffwwoooo! An arrow shot past his head nearly missing it and hitting a tree. Without thinking Charlie whirled around and chucked the rock, it likely would've hit the kid behind him had he not sidestepped it.

"You're not Joel." the kid said, staring at Charlie.

"You're not Parker," Charlie responded, then after a pause he realized, "why were you trying to kill me?"

"I thought you were Joel."

"Why were you trying to kill Joel?"

"I wasn't."

"THEN WHY WERE YOU SHOOTING AT WHAT YOU THOUGHT WAS JOEL'S HEAD!"

"Training," the kid replied calmly, "besides normally he just farfs away if I'm about to hit him."

"Come again?"

"And if i do hit him it's not like he'll die-"

"Sorry did you say farts away?"

"Farf, with an F, it's like teleporting, or something."

"I-, Wah-, Who Are You?"

"Aiden. You?"

"Charlie...you wouldn't've happened to see a random buff kid running around would you?"

"Nope. but I'm sure Joel can find him." The kid, Aiden, started to walk off in some random direction, and Charlie didn't see a better option, so he followed him. Besides he knows a Joel, maybe, (hopefully), it's the Joel he's looking for.

Unfortunately it was. About twenty feet from another cave, (there were so many around here), a guy just appeared in front of them looking pissed.

"You were supposed to catch me," The guy was looking at Aiden, "you didn't even come close to my general area! If you want to eventually beat-" he paused and looked at Charlie, "who's that?"

"Charlie, I thought he was you so I started hunting him." Aiden replied.

"I do not look like him!"

"You're right, he's too tall." aiden smirked

"You little-"

"Are You Joel?" Charlie jumped in, he didn't know what that argument was about, or where it would go. Aiden had a combat bow still in his hands, and this guy could appear and probably vanish out of nowhere, the idea of a fight didn't sound good. Also he did want to know.

"Why? Are you a cop?"

"N-No, I'm supposed to find a guy named Joel who will mentor me or something."

"Who sent you?" This guy, likely Joel, asked a lot of concerning questions, and Charlie started to wonder if he wanted this guy to "mentor" him if he was Joel.

"Um well, So I got this dream message from something, said she was a god, telling me I needed to go on a quest to stop this guy named Isaac, and to do so I had to find the Orical, and Aurora told me to find you so-"

"Selby sent you," Probably Joel's face lit up a little, "Well then come in,do you want some orange juice? I am Joel by the way"

"You're just inviting him in? no questions asked?" Charlie would argue that Aiden was wrong, Definitely Jole had asked many questions, but he wasn't gonna bring that up. "I show up and you interrogate me for three days before letting me sleep in the cave and then he shows up and you just let him in because he has a dream referral?"

Joel gave Aiden a look that said "drop it", or "we'll talk later", or "if you keep talking i'm gonna kill you", all of which seemed like likely scenarios to Charlie. Aiden put his hands up in surrender, giving an over exaggerated "Fine" look, and walked further in the cave leaving Charlie and Joel alone.

"So why are you here?"

"Um- well, mainly because I can't find my friend, Parker, but also because of the whole mentoring thing."

"Oh!" Joel suddenly vanished, then appeared three seconds later holding onto Parker, who was mid scream. "This him?"

"What the FUCK w-"

"UM, Yeah, What-"

"Nice," Joel let go of Parker and walked over to a kitchen table situated in the cave and sat down as though he hadn't just noped out of existence and then back again bringing a whole nother person with him.

"UM EXCUSE ME! WHAT THE FUHCK WAS THAT!" Parker demanded.

"Farfing, I think," Charlie said, still kind of shaken.

"Bingo!" Joel said, picking up a mug and sipping it. After a minute he spoke, "Let me tell you a story. Both of you. You Too Aiden, I know you're listening in," he gestured for them to sit around the square table that for some reason had four chairs even though they were in the middle of nowhere and only two people existed/lived in a 200 mile vicinity.

Parker and Charlie gave each other a look before walking over and sitting down. Aiden walked around a corner with a mug, and sat down at the only remaining chair.

"This is the story of how I became a mentor, and also likely sold my soul," Eyebrows raised but no one spoke as Joel continued his story.

When he ended his story there was silence.

"Did that actually happen?" Parker spoke first.

"Yes, and after Selby tells a story, And Josie Writes it down, it can only be told that way."