Chapter 40: Origins of the Spiders pt. 1
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POV: Silvia
I lived in a dirt-poor village called Orelittle, life was hard there, many people decided to leave, but including myself didn't have the ability to just simply move away. This was always a burden to me, especially because I had some close loved ones who passed away in this town, whether they were killed during a mining incident, by hostile monsters, or they were victims of 'The collector', Orelittle had too much risk for so little reward.
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Morning came, I woke up and got out of bed in my shared 1 room house, I just lived with my family thankfully, but it wasn't easy for us. There was me, my parents, and my little sister. I had an older brother in the past, but he passed away due to a "mining incident", but if you ask me, I feel like that was pretty sudden, but as someone who has no choice but to go mining to help provide for the family, I know the mines were a dangerous place, and I for sure know that he's gone for good, but as someone who was as good of a miner as he was, I feel like someone or something is the blame for this, but I can't keep dwelling on my loss, I just gotta keep surviving here until we can finally leave this place! One thing my brother gave me before he passed away was a blank journal that I could write/draw in, for he knew about my dream to be a famous designer, sure it may not seem like much, but the fact that he believed I can reach my goals is all the encouragement I needed, I had this thing with me at all times, for it is something that keeps me going every day.
Though in my situation, a new designer wasn't the main focus in a town like this one, everyone focused on making ends meet, so no one could have extra spending money, they could only buy the primary necessities to survive in this village. We were too poor to move away from this town, so we had no choice but to stay here and try to make whatever money we could. I always noticed everyone's outfits were either plain, dirty, or constantly in some kind of work uniform... maybe I can fix that, I may not have the resources to sew new outfits, but maybe I can figure out a way to improve what they currently have!
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During breakfast, my parents always saw me drawing my designs in my journal, I practically had my nose in the book as I wrote away while shoving some stale bread in my mouth.
"Still writing in that book huh? " My father asked me, I broke from my trance and shot my look toward him. I wasn't sure if he was interested in what I was doing, or just trying to shut it down.
"O-oh it's nothing" I responded "I was just brainstorming some new ideas to improve the town's clothing conditions."
"Oh, I see..." He responded, "But is this really a main necessity at this moment?"
My shoulders dropped toward his response, I can tell that this plan of mine wasn't the best focus at the moment, he'd probably tell me I was being ridiculous for what I was trying to accomplish.
He pulled out a watch from his pockets, it was time to hit the mines, he told me to grab get ready and meet him outside. Unfortunately, I need to go mining in order to help get funds for my family, my sister was too young to go there so she stays home, and my mom was permanently injured. Many years ago she got attacked by a monster trying to save one of her friends in the village, she was successful but wasn't able to walk away completely fine, the monster encounter completely shattered her left leg, and to this day they haven't healed on their own. Due to this my mom stays home and watched my little sister while my father and I go down to the mines in the hope to find ores to make money.
I always hated mining, I was never really the best at it, I never found diamonds or anything rare besides just coal and iron, and I wouldn't even think about getting a job as a miner if I had the choice!!!
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As we left our home and made our way toward the mines, we saw a crowd of people gathered around near the entrance of our village, this wasn't the first time this happened, I know what this usually meant, and it was NOT a good thing. My dad put his arm in front of me, "Stay behind me!" he said, I nodded in response as we got a closer look.
We saw the town's mayor chatting with a figure, but this figure wasn't unknown, it was the only other entity who always visits this place every other week, it was no one else but The Collector!!! We might not know The Collector's true name, but that is what he was known as around here, The Collector was a mysterious and secluded figure, he wore A white hooded robe, but we weren't able to see his head so well, almost as if he had dark skin, the only thing we could see was his bright red eyes, any other trait of The Collector was unknown. The Collector was one of the main reasons why Orelittle is as poor as it was, and every time he visits, it just gets worse for us.
Lately, we've been getting fewer resources to give to The Collector, we know what he's capable of so we try not to get on his bad side, though judging by his look, I can tell he was disappointed with this month's gatherings, can you really blame us though? The mines are a dangerous place, the fewer resources we have, the harder it will be for us, and the harder it is, the higher the chances are that we are going to die in the caves, and the fewer people there are, the fewer resources we can find in the cave, it's a vicious circle!!!
We continued to listen to the conversation ahead, I knew The Collector wasn't pleased with the current situation
"What is this?!?!" The Collector said in his menacing and deep tone "This isn't nearly enough ores as I was promised!!!"
"I-I know..." The Mayor replied "T-things in the mines have been pretty dry, we just need a better place to... GAH!!!" The mayor was interrupted by getting punched to the ground, The Collector put his foot on the Mayor's back and pinned him to the ground, we had no choice but to stand there and just watch.
"I didn't ask for any excuses!" The collector shouted at him, "I want results!!! Unless I need to sink this village to the ground too!!!" he said as he repeatedly stomped on the mayor's back to the point where the ground started to dent.
The mayor then proceeded to make one last offer, "D-double..."
The Collector stopped, "What was that?" he asked
"W-we'll get you double the resources next week..."
The Collector stood him back up and asked "And how do I know you can keep this word of yours?"
"We'll find new cave systems! We can gather the ores we need!" The mayor responded
The Collector thought for a moment and finally said "Hmm, alright I'm feeling generous today, I will be back this time next week!" He said, but then his tone got extra serious again and he said, "But if you don't make your quota by then, things will get dicey around here, I don't like liars..."
The collector then proceeded to make his way out of the village, he stopped in his tracks and turned to us, shouting one last message towards us.
"And don't even THINK about leaving this place! I have eyes everywhere! I know how many people live in this village, and if I notice anyone missing, I will find you!!!" He said," I will get my resources one way or another!!!" The collector then walked into the forest and disappeared in a shadowy aura.
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Everyone was in a state of panic
"Are you crazy?!?!?"
"What are we going to do!?!?"
"We couldn't get enough resources to begin with!!!"
"We're so screwed..."
"I gotta get out of here!!!!"
"No, you can't he'll find you!!!"
"Why did I ever come here!?!?!"
I turned to my dad who was also in a state of shock, but I can't blame anyone at the moment. Every week I wonder why is this entity doing this to us!?!? Why he needs all these ores, is he doing this to every nearby village? And if he has all this power, couldn't he just simply get the resources himself just as fast!?!?
My train of thought stopped when the mayor announced something to us.
"Listen, everyone, I know that there are fewer resources in the caves and that we might not have much to run on, but staying here where that monster knows we're at is not a smart call, we need to leave!!!"
Everyone was a bit confused, abandoning ship just like that? I know the villagers don't have that strong of a connection with this place, but where would we even go?
"But didn't The Collector say we won't be able to leave without him knowing?" someone in the crowd asked
"We don't have any other choice! I know it's impossible to know every single thing that goes on in this world, but if we travel in secret, we could get away and settle into a new village that has the strength to fight The Collector!"
"And how are we going to do that?"
"We're going to tunnel our way out, we will stay underground for a while, and once we're in the clear we will go back to the surface and warn the nearest village about The Collector!!!"
We were completely unsure about this idea, but after some thinking, we decided it would be better to flee than to actually come up with double the resources in under a week, especially since we hardly got that much in 1 month.
I personally think it's going to be a lose-lose situation here, I thought maybe my family could travel a separate way, but if The Collector has eyes all around the forest, maybe he really COULD catch us separated from the group, we had no other choice but to follow the rest of the village in the caves.
Later that night, my family packed everything we needed for the migration, we caught everyone up with the situation, but bringing the rest of the family into the caves was going to be hard, we were scared, and we were unsure about what fate lay before us, all we can do is hope that this is the right course of action.
Less than 2 days since The Collector has visited the village, and we already set a course underground. I felt completely panic-stricken, I was going to have to live in the caves for a little while, I'm not sure how long, but I know it was going to be a hard trip. At least I wasn't alone though, I still had my family, my friends, and the village with me. We would tunnel our way north all day, and mine out some sleeping quarters at night (That part was surprisingly pretty easy.)
We would find new cave systems, fight monsters, and even find rare ores that we could use to upgrade our tools, things were actually going pretty smooth so far, I don't like living in the caves sure, but if it means my family has an increased chance of survival so be it. No one hasn't seen a single sign of The Collector lately, maybe we really CAN make it to the next village! I lay in bed that night with a lot on my mind, maybe now I can actually live out my dream if we get out of here successfully, as long as I keep my eyes on the prize I will keep working hard and continue to mine and dig to the best of my ability!
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