The Withering-Dreamnotfound {Sequel Out Now!}

The Beginning?

Dream's eyes slowly open as the sound of clanking metal echos outside of his small home. He sits up in his bed and rubs his face. Outside his window, he can see his dad hammering away at a new sword he's been working on for ages. He groans and stands up, slipping into a thin, cotton shirt. Dream slings his backpack onto his shoulder as he leaves his room and enters the kitchen where the smell of freshly baked bread fills his nostrils. He tilts his head into his parent's room to find that his mom must be out, working hard at gathering materials for the village.
Once he finishes his breakfast, we walks outside. Almost every adult was working hard at their designated job while children ran around in the meadow just down the path from the homes. In the distance, he could see loggers cutting down trees and replanting them as they went. Among them was his younger sister who was learning how to efficiently collect wood. She was a few years younger than Dream, but was dedicated to helping the village in any way she could.
"Good morning, Clay," Dream's dad says from his grindstone. "Took you long enough to wake up."
"Dad, come on. It's Dream," he says, almost whining.
His dad rolls his eyes and scoffs. "You may be 'Dream' to your friends, but in my household, you're Clay." He sets his prized sword down and faces Dream. "How about you come over here and let me teach you how to be a weaponsmith?"
Dream shakes his head. "Not today. Sorry."
"You know, son, in a few weeks, you're going to have to pick a job here. Wouldn't you at least want to start learning how to make weapons so that when you choose it, you know what to do?" His dad asks hopefully.
While he showed no emotion on his face, Dream was internally rolling his eyes. Every August in the village, anyone who turned 20 has to pick a job which they will work in until the day they die. Nothing held Dream's attention long enough for him to imagine doing it for the rest of his life. But in three weeks, he'd have to choose. Dream shakes his head says says, "Maybe another time? I told Sapnap that we'd hang out today."
Dream's dad rubs his head. "Why did you guys come up with these stupid nicknames? Just call him Nick."
Dream ignores his dad and, as he walks away from his home, yells back, "I'll tell Sapnap you said hi!" He quietly wheezes to himself as he wanders off towards the first that the loggers were working hard in. He looks across the tree line and finds his friend leaning against a tree, writing something in a book in his hands.
As he gets closer, Dream yells out, "Hey Sapnap!"
Sapnap looks up from his book, full of excitement. "Dream! I have to show you something!"
"What is it?" Dream asks.
Sapnap points into the trees. "If we go that way for two hours, we can see another village!"
This excited Dream just as much as it excited Sapnap. Villages kept to themselves, not daring to intermingle with other villages for whatever reason. Dream's village was on top of a plateau, surrounded by a thick, dark oak forest that was hard to navigate. Since they were kids, Sapnap always fantasized about exploring beyond the forest, but never dared to venture out of eyesight of the village. That all changed a week ago when Sapnap began training as a cartographer. He still had another year before he had to choose a job, but he knew that he wanted to be a scout for the village that made maps.
Sapnap led the way through the forest, Dream sticking close behind him. Dream noticed how Sap appeared to be so confident with every step he took, as if he forgot the dangers that the forest presented. Not only were there monsters lurking around in there, but the village elders warned that there were corrupt villagers somewhere in the world. Dream didn't know where and he knew he didn't want to find out today.
After almost two hours of walking, Dream could see where the trees thinned out. He pushed past Sapnap and run to the edge of the woods. There was a steep drop right on the other side of the trees and, right below them, was another village.
"As soon as I map out a way down, we need to go down and meet some people," Sapnap says.
"Oh yeah? Why's that?" Dream asks.
"Well, the only friend I've got is this annoying, cocky, dumb blonde that has no idea what he's doing with his life," he teases. "I need better influences in my life."
Dream punches Sapnap in the arm, then sits down in the grass. He notices that this village seemed to have the same kinds of jobs his village had. He quickly spotted people like the farmers and the butchers. Nothing new or out of the ordinary. But among them, he saw two guys talking to each other. One was gently cutting wool off of a sheep that was connected by a lead to a single fence post. The other one seemed to be talking his ear off, going on and on about something passionately. Dream and Sapnap were too far away to hear their conversation. In fact, he couldn't see much of their faces either because they were so high up.
"Hey Dream, I'll tell you what," Sapnap says, breaking the silence. "You head back home and I'll find a way down there. Maybe tomorrow we can go check it out properly!"
Dream nervously looks over his shoulder towards the woods. "There's no way I can make it back on my own, Sap."
Sapnap thinks for a moment, then says, "If I take you to the meadow, can you get home from there?"
Dream nods his head, feeling better about the walk home. The two walk back towards their village, cracking jokes the whole way there. As they get closer to the meadow, Sapnap begins asking Dream some questions that he doesn't have answers to.
"So, what are you going to do at the choosing ceremony?"
Dream shrugs. "I honestly don't know. I don't really specialize in any field of work. My dad wants me to be a weaponsmith, but I'd rather swings swords than use them."
"Why don't you become a cartographer?" Sap asks. "We could go scouting together! It'd be fun!"
Dream laughs. "Yeah, it'd be fun until I get myself lost, then eaten by a monster. I have no sense of direction."
Sapnap nods. "Yeah, maybe that's not your thing." He thinks for a moment. "I got it! Become a miner!"
"And live the rest of my life in the dark underground? No thanks."
Sapnap pulls out his book that has a drawn out map in it to make sure they are heading in the right direction still. "It's too bad there's no warriors or anything. You'd kick ass with that."
Dream imagines this. Him? Being a warrior? That's not even a thing. The village was peaceful. There were enough torches out that monsters won't leave the forest. Plus, if they ever did, the three iron golems would take them out quickly. "As cool as that sounds, it's not happening."
Sapnap looks up from his book and points to a spot ahead of them where the trees thin out. "Go that way, then head east and you'll be home."
"East? Sapnap, dumb it down for your blonde friend please," Dream says, holding back a wheeze.
"What? You ARE a dumb blonde!" Sapnap laughs. "Go straight and take a right. You'll be there in no time."
"Ok. Good luck finding a way down! Oh, and please, don't engage with them until I'm there. We don't need you being this village's first impression on them," Dream teases.
"Ah yes, cause the village nitwit will make a much better impression than I would," Sapnap teases back. "See ya!" He yells as he goes running deeper into the woods.
Dream follows Sapnap's exact directions and, after some time of walking, can see the village in front of him. As he walks, something on the ground catches his eye. Off to his left is a small, black flower. Curious, he bends down to look at it. It's a black rose. Despite the color, the rose looked healthy. Dream leans in to pick it, but just before his fingers touch the rose, an intense pain gets sent through his arm. He falls into his back and groans in pain. He looks at his fingers and finds his thumb and pointer finger are both grey, but quickly going back to the color of his pale skin. As soon as the grey disappears, so does his pain. It's as if he was never hurt in the first place. He looks around and takes note of where the rose is so that he can show Sapnap when he got back from his expedition.
Once Dream steps into the village, he notices that something is off. Everyone was gathered around the well in the middle of the large town, all talking on top of each other. He then notices his sister is in the middle of the crowd. He pushes past everyone to meet her and sees that she is holding a piece of dark oak, only is was black and grey. It looked almost rotten. Beside her was the town Cleric, Thomas, this town's leader and Sapnap's dad.
"Please, settle down everyone. This is nothing to be afraid of. It's just one rotten log. No big deal. We still have plenty of trees around us as well as a surplus of saplings to plant if anything goes wrong with our luscious forest. Everyone, get back to work!" As soon as he finishes his speech, everyone does what their told. In an instant, no one is concerned about the log and instead return back to their boring jobs.
Thomas takes the rotten log from my sister and smiles at her. "Everything is ok, Lisa, I promise." He walks away, not even acknowledging Dream's existence.
"So, Lisa, what was that about?" Dream asks her.
Despite reassurance from Thomas, she looked concerned. "I was cutting logs and this one rotted in my hands."
Dream remembers the rose he saw in the meadow. "Did it hurt you when you touched it?"
Lisa gives him a weird look. "Um....no? It literally just rotted. And it was the only piece that rotted. The rest of the tree was fine." She begins walking back to their home. "I'm sure Thomas is right. It's probably nothing." She didn't seemed too convinced of this, though.
Dream didn't seem convinced either. He kept thinking back to his moment with the rose, but he decided to keep that to himself until he could talk to Sapnap about it.

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Word count: 1840
First chapter! Whoooo! If I had any typos, comment them and I'll have them fixed ASAP!

Published: June 16th