Tbh this chapter is boring.

Just letting you know.

K bye.

Wait lol

Prolly mitsakes

K now bye

•    •    •

~ Cole ~

The first few hours of the ride were in silence.

I couldn't blame Lily for not wanting to talk, though. After what we saw, what we heard, I understood her desire to not want to communicate.

The whole situation was insane. Lily was in the care of undercover GATU agents. She found Harold and lived with him. I found them. The GATU people found us, and talked about bringing us in, and that we were a part of this group of four. Harold died, the tree burned. But so many questions rose from the ashes (ha. Too soon). How did GATU find us? How did they know about us? About me? Why did they need us? What would they have done with us if they took us?

As much as I wanted those questions answered, I had to continue on my own quest. I still had to get home. Lily was a bump in the road at the moment. I didn't know what I planned to do with her. But I was going to deal with one thing at a time.

"He said something."

I looked over at her; she hadn't talked in the last few hours. We were on our second break when she finally spoke with a whisper.

"The times. The times he listed." She said. "What were they?"

I exhaled. I decided to humor her. She was probably delirious. "Um, I'm not sure. Two something and seven something."

"2.8 and 7.6." She murmured. Then, she jerked her head up to look at me with wide eyes. "Those mean something."

"I'm pretty sure he was just rambling things off." I felt guilty for telling her that, but it was the truth.

She shook her head. "No. Harold has a reason for anything he says. He wouldn't ramble off random numbers. They have to mean something."

"I don't—"

"Please." She pleaded.

I stared at her. She was so innocent. So full of hope. I couldn't be the one to bring her down.

"Did he ever mention those specific numbers before?" I asked.

"No."

"Well they're decimals, so that rules out book pages."

"Plus he burned all those books." She looked down.

"Also rules out coordinates."

"What if we multiplied them by a number? Maybe ten or something?"

"28 and 76."

"We already crossed off books since they burned. How about coordinates?"

"That's near the middle of the world. Which is part of the Jebian Sea."

"So unless he was recommending a good fishing spot, I don't think that's our place." Lily sighed and rested her chin on her left knee.

I gazed at the horizon in thought. "Minutes. He listed them as minutes. What if we turned that into seconds?"

"Multiply by sixty." She closed her eyes and started mouthing off math. I was never good at the subject, so I didn't bother trying to help.

"168 and... 456."

"How did you?" I shook my head, giving up. "Never mind. I think there's something there..." I pulled out my map. Luckily, it stretched that far. I rolled it onto the ground, and traced the X and Y lines. "Assuming that 168 is X and 456 is Y... Wenechenca City."

"A city?" Lily scooted closer to me to look at the map.

"It is said to be the very first successful civilization in Minecraft. Built out of dirt and wood thousands of years ago by spawns on the beach of the Jebian Sea— now it's the biggest city in the world."

"So Harold knew we were listening, and left us a message saying we should go to Wenechenca City!" She exclaimed. "This is great news!"

I frowned, my eyes on the map. The city was past my house. It was easy. I would get back home, and Lily would continue on her own.

"Perfect." I rolled up the paper. "We just keep heading the way we are now."

"That's coincidental." She stood up. "Well, let's get going."

• • •

Lily was very impatient.

She didn't want any breaks— she didn't want any sleep. She was eager to get to Wenechenca City. We were going to arrive at my place tomorrow— then I'd leave Lily on her own. She didn't actually know that yet. I planned to tell her once we got to my house.

We were walking through a taiga at the time. I held Shoelace's reins as he walked by my side. I managed to compromise with Lily: let the horse take it easy for a little bit, but still keep moving.

I was hoping that we would walk in silence like before, but she was happy and hopeful now.

"Why do you think Harold is leading us there?"

"I don't know."

"Is there anything special in that city?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe conspiracies or even cults."

"I'm not sure."

"I wouldn't be surprised. It's a big city."

"I agree."

"What if—"

"Look." I closed my eyes. "No offense, but I'd really prefer to walk quietly."

"Oh." She looked down, disappointed.

"I'm sorry." I said after a little bit.

"I should be the one apologizing. I just..."

"You're excited. I get it."

"How could you not be? This is all so crazy! I mean—" She winced. "Sorry."

"It's fine." She had the spirit of a little kid. It made me slightly annoyed, but I kept reminding myself that I couldn't blame her for feeling the way she did.

After a few hours, when the sun was going to set soon, I finally saw larger trees in the distance. Different trees.

"Next biome." I jutted my head toward them.

Lily was staring at the ground, but she lifted her head at the sound of my voice. "Jungle trees."

"Yep." I pressed my lips together. "My home biome."

•    •    •

~ Sky ~

"Wow." Rae took another tip of tea. She set her cup on the table. "That's crazy."

"Yeah." I nodded. "Our story is pretty weird."

"And neither of you know why you just woke up randomly?"

"No. We also don't know why I have my memories but Sky doesn't have his." Amber pitched in.

Rae frowned. "That's completely ridiculous. I can't believe you don't remember anything."

"Actually, there was this one time, in a dream." I paused, trying to remember. "I heard someone call my name. She might have been from my past."

"Maybe it was Rae." Amber said.

I shook my head. "No. The voice was older."

"Maybe your mom." My apparent girlfriend suggested.

My mom. My dad. I had parents. And they were looking for me.

"So I am remembering things from my past." I leaned forward on the chair. "Can you maybe try to refresh my memory?"

Rae looked around at her room. She inhaled deeply. "Our town isn't very big. Your father is a farmer, and your mother is a technician."

Amber snorted, which made Rae look at her, but she continued. "Your little brother is—"

"I have a little brother?" I couldn't believe it.

She smiled. "Yes. Kyle. Twelve years old. You always call him a brat, and say he pulls pranks on you. I would tease you about being bullied by a preteen. He's nice to me, though."

I had a little brother too. This was too crazy.

"Everyone in the town knows each other, and you were everyone's friend. Basically the sweetheart jock. You have two best friends, Neal and Alex. Both troublemakers, but you get them out of trouble most of the time."

As she explained my life story, I felt like she was just reading it out of a fiction story. She acted like I should know what she was talking about, but all these people seemed like strangers. It really hurt to think that my family and friends were strangers to me.

"Was there anyone that didn't like Sky?" Amber asked.

"Not that I know of. Like I said, he was friends with everyone." Rae turned to me. "Are you recalling anything?"

"No."

She looked at my facial expression. She could tell I was struggling to cope with everything. "Maybe we should take a break from that. So you never told me— what are you doing here in Marstamian?"

Amber and I glanced at each other. I decided to let her be the one to decide whether we tell Rae or not.

"You can tell me." She said as if she were a mind reader. "I'm trustworthy."

Amber was silent for a few seconds. Then, she spoke. "We're looking for someone. I can't exactly explain why, but he's done something. And we need to find him."

"Is it dangerous?" She asked.

"Possibly. Which is why we probably shouldn't include anyone else. For their own safety."

Rae laughed. "Please. How are you looking for him?"

"Checking the train station daily." I said before Amber could stop me.

"That's your plan?" Rae looked like she was trying not to smile. "Sky, I take it you don't know what my dad does?" After I shook my head, she continued, "He owns the train stations in the city."

Amber raised her eyebrows. "Well that's awfully coincidental. Like some super being is trying to push us along to the main plot of the book."

"Indeed." Rae nodded. She took another sip, and held her cup. "Which means that I can help you with your quest."

"I don't think that's wise." Amber and I said at the same time.

"No offense, but your original plan isn't going to work out well. I can make sure your guy doesn't get on a train without being detected."

"You could get in trouble." I said.

She waved the possibility away. "I've done worse. Plus, my dad is barely ever around to notice me doing anything."

"Speaking of your dad, is he allowed to know we're here?"

"Not sure." She pursed her lips. "But maybe we should keep it on the down low. Just in case."

"I agree." Amber gave a swift nod.

All of a sudden, the sound of a door opening was heard. Then footsteps.

"Rae? Are you here?" A male voice called out.

Rae's face paled. "Yes, Dad! Just unpacking." She whispered, "Get in my closet."

Kids, if a person you hardly know tells you to get into their closet, you shouldn't do it. However, we couldn't get caught, so we had to follow her orders.

Amber and I leapt up and ran to the walk-in closet. I opened the door for her. From what I glanced at in the dark, it was about five by seven with a lot of chests against the walls. I hurried Amber in, and shut the door behind me just as Rae's bedroom door opened.

"Hi Dad!" She exclaimed. I peeked through the little openings in the door, and saw her hug a middle aged man in a suit. He had short gray hair, and also had Rae's green eyes. He hugged her back, but only briefly.

"This place is bigger than my bedroom." Amber muttered from behind me. I shushed her.

"I thought I told you to wait at the station." He frowned. "You had me worried."

"I'm sorry. I got bored and came here myself."

"Well, at least you didn't get lost or hurt." He kissed her forehead. "I'm glad you're here, but I have to go work on some documents." After seeing her crestfallen expression, he added, "But we can go out to dinner later, okay?"

"Alright." She nodded. The smile she wore was genuine.

Her father walked to the door. He was about to go out, but he stopped in the doorway. "And Rae? I know I haven't spent a lot of time with you when you were with me before. But this time will be different. I promise we will do a lot of things together. Meals, fun activities, anything." He tried for a smile.

Her smile faded, but she quickly grinned. "That would be awesome."

He tilted his head, and left the room.

"So her dad is going to be spending a lot of time with her. Taking her away from us." Amber sighed. "Why did he decide to be so caring now."

I wouldn't have put it that way, but she was right. This was going to be difficult.

•    •    •

Told you it was gonna be boring. Just kinda leading up to greater things.

Lily and Cole are heading to Cole's house. What's gonna hap— k u no wat I'm not even gonna ask that because you dirty minded people are going to be like ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
And now I don't feel like saying anything else.

¸,ؤº°'°º¤Ø,¸¸,ؤº°                  ⓡⓞⓒⓚ   ⓞⓝ,   ⓜⓨ             ⓛⓘⓣⓣⓛⓔ   ⓡⓔⓑⓔⓛⓢ             
°º¤Ø,¸¸,ؤº°'°º¤Ø,¸

Ps. ^ u like dat