Oh horray!

Well, it took forever. But I finally chose on one of the reading prompts left for me. Except... I sort of wrote a little for all of them. I'm only going to show you one now... because I only finished one completely. 

But... Here is the one I chose: What if they're on their way to the campsite and they wander through a town (not on the map) that is TOTALLY empty. Basically, anything not connected to the ground is gone––food, vehicles, furniture, animals, PEOPLE. The next morning (after they've left the creepy village), they notice things missing, and this pattern continues, so that each morning when they wake up, something is missing. Until, after x amount of days, they wake up and… a person is gone! So then they only have one day to stop whatever is happening because another person might disappear the next morning!! Victoria Johnson was the one who gave it to me. Thanks Tori!

 So first, before I start, I just want to give you a picture* to help with the imaginings of the area... This was the closest thing I could find to what I imagined.

This kind of captures the eerie feel I wanted...

...Okay. So you don't have to read it. But if you do I'll love you forever. Enjoy!

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“Tell me again why we are walking to the campsite?” Skandar asked Exaivier, “There were four perfectly capable horses. Or, here’s an idea, we could just teleport.”

Exaivier shook his head, “Skandar, not even I have been to the place we are going, and it would be dangerous to bring a horse through these trails.”

I looked around at the vast canopy of leaves above me, rays of sunlight poked through sparingly. It was the middle of the day and the forest around us was still relatively dim. The trail we were walking along had protruding tree roots and half buried rocks with every other step.

“What is that?” Skyler asked, pointing in the distance.

“Skyler,” Skandar said to his sister, “you should know by now, that the only one who is capable of knowing what you see is Chandler. Mine and Exaivier’s eyesight is not as… capable as yours and his.”

Skyler looked at me, “Can you see it?”

I looked in the direction she was pointing, squinting slightly. At first I thought I didn’t see anything, but after tuning out my hearing for a moment I was able to make out a small building about a mile away from where we were standing.

“What is it?” Skandar asked as I blinked slowly and let my hearing return to normal.

“It looks like a house,” I said slowly.

Exaivier raised an eyebrow, “We aren’t near anything on the map…”

“Maybe there is a secret civilization living right under our noses,” Skandar said with a wide grin.

“Its more likely that it is someone’s private cabin,” I replied, thoughtful.

“Well there is only one way to find out,” Skyler raised her eyebrows and skipped ahead of us.

Exaivier rolled his eyes, Skandar eyed him; “You’re probably wondering why she is the Enchantress, aren’t you?”

Exaivier shook his head, “Of course not. If Skyler were as boring as I am then Altedaron would surely be doomed.”

By the time we caught up with Skyler, she was already in front of the building she’d spotted. It was much bigger than a schoolhouse, and by the looks of its condition it hadn’t been visited in some time. The roof sagged a bit, and half of the windows were cracked or shattered. Green moss grew along the outer walls helping the small building blend in with the trees.

“Do you recognize this?” Skyler asked Exaivier, he obviously being the oldest of our group, was the most likely to have seen it before.

Exaivier shook his head, his brown and gray eyes narrowed, “I haven’t ever been in this part of the forest, but it has the same structure of a house that stood in my hometown a few hundred years ago…”

“You think its that old?” I asked, “just by looking at it?”

“It’s only a guess,” he said simply.

Skandar stepped forward cautiously, peering into one of the windows, “The entire place is empty…”

“Maybe whoever lived here took everything with them.” Skyler offered with a teasing smile.

“There are more houses,” Exaivier said, his eyes scanning the area.

“More?” Skandar asked, turning.

Exaivier was right, along with the small house, twenty or so more buildings stood scattered around the area. A few houses had trees growing out of them, and two of them had completely collapsed from decay.

“This was a village,” Skyler said with amazement, “Who would live so far away from everything else?”

“Thieves,” Skandar replied, “or perhaps omas… depending on how old the village is.”

I spun around as a twig snapped behind me; Exaivier raised an eyebrow in curiosity as I began to move around the house.  I wrapped my fingers around the hilt of my sword as I rounded the corner, holding my breath.

I didn’t know what to expect, but was relieved when I only found more trees. I turned to rejoin the group but jumped slightly as I ran straight into Skyler.

“Skyler…” I exhaled, “please…”

She laughed softly, “What are you looking for?”

I shrugged, “I thought I heard something.”

Her blue and green eyes seemed to sparkle with mischief as she laughed again, “You get spooked easily?”

I shook my head and moved around her, “In situations like this?” I turned the corner and she followed, “Absolutely.”

Skyler continued to smile at me, amused that I was easily spooked by being in a ghost town. I didn’t understand why she found it so amusing, there was nothing amusing about a ghost town, even if it was small.

“Why don’t we just stay here for the night?” Skandar suggested with wide playful eyes, I groaned inwardly.

Exaivier shrugged and looked to Skyler and me for agreement to Skandar’s idea. I said nothing but Skyler nodded, “We could all use a good ghost story.”

“I’m sleeping with my sword under my pillow,” I muttered.

Skandar laughed and clapped me on the back, “It will be fun Chandler.”

“I don’t know about that,” Exaivier said slowly, “but I won’t deny it will be interesting camping in the middle of an abandoned village.”

“Chandler is afraid that an army of undead soldiers are going to attack us while we are sleeping,” Skyler told Skandar and Exaivier with a small shrug.

I stared at Skyler incredulously, “I didn’t say that, I only said that staying here is little ominous…”

Skandar pulled off his backpack and then laid out his bedroll on one of the less uneven parts of the ground, “If I die before tomorrow morning, then you can say ‘I told you so.’”

I nodded, “Comforting.”

“Maybe we should just have Exaivier send a thick blanket of magic into the air,” Skyler said, putting her bedroll down a few feet away from Skandar’s, “It will make all of us giddy.”

“That is not a good idea,” Exaivier countered Skyler almost instantly.

I dropped my pack to the ground and laid out my bedroll. As soon as I was seated on the thin cushion of blankets Skandar announced, “I’ll be back. I’m going to see if I can find any dry wood for a fire.”

“I’ll help,” Exaivier said, rising to his feet and joining Skandar.

Skyler and I watched the two of them walk away; as soon as they were out of earshot Skyler said, “It isn’t that bad, Chandler.”

I nodded, “I know… I just don’t like the feeling I get here. Its too quiet.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Skyler asked.

“I can’t hear… anything.” I said after a moment, “Birds… insects… even wind.”

Skyler looked around, she seemed to catch on. “I suppose it is a little strange.”

“Well as long as I’m not the one who dies,” I said, “We can stay here as long as we want.”

The next morning started slowly, considering none of us knew what we wanted to do. Exaivier had planned for us to camp a few miles away at an actual campsite. It surprised me that no one had heard of the eerie town, considering how close it was.

“Exaivier,” Skandar said, digging through his belongings, “Did you do anything with my sword?”

“Skandar, I have my own. Why would I take yours?” Exaivier replied.

“Not to mention his is hard to use,” Skyler uttered to me.

“I heard that Skyler,” Skandar said with a flat stare.

I laughed softly; Skyler was right, of course. Skandar’s sword had a blade on both sides of the hilt. It was one of the first weapons he learned how to use, so he could swing it as naturally as a normal sword, but it wasn’t something that any of the rest of us tried to use often.

“Where did you leave it?” Exaivier asked.

“It was strapped to my back when we set up camp last night,” Skandar replied, “I didn’t take it off until I went to sleep.”

“Where did you put it when you took it off, Skandar?” Skyler said.

“Right next to me,” he exclaimed. After a moment of staring at the three of us he began to chuckle, “Come on, give it back. I know one of you took it.”

I shook my head, “I didn’t take it.”

Exaivier rolled his eyes and continued to mess with the fire, “Skandar, you don’t know me well enough if you believe I actually hid your weapon.”

“Sky,” Skandar said in a playfully warning tone, “Where did you put my sword?”

“I didn’t put it anywhere,” Skyler replied with a small laugh, which practically undermined her claim.

“If I run into a bear,” Skandar said, “and I don’t have a weapon to defend myself. My blood is on your hands, Skyler.”

Skyler widened her eyes and laughed loudly, “You are more dramatic than my lab partner from my sophomore year!”

“Who?” Skandar asked, “Michaela? Give me a break, Sky.”

I chuckled, “I only knew her for a few weeks… but she seemed to cause drama just by walking into a room.”

“I’m not that dramatic,” Skandar said, “Besides, you two obviously put my sword somewhere… We will just have to go find it.”

I rolled my eyes; Skandar wasn’t going to give it up. 

He continued to search for a good portion of the morning. He managed to look through every building and around each of their corners by the time noon had come and gone.

“What did you do?” he asked Skyler as he finally sat down in front of the fire, defeated. “Did you burry it?”

Skyler stared at her brother, “Skandar, I didn’t take it.”

Exaivier glanced at the three of us, “Well someone did. You want my best guess? Skandar is trying to fool us all into believing a ghost took his sword.”

I grinned, “That is what makes the most sense if you ask me.”

Skandar frowned, “That is taking it a bit too far.”

Skyler shrugged “I would not put it past you, Skandar.”

Skandar shook his head; “This is what I get for being the one of the four who likes to laugh the most?”

“I’ve known you since you were sixteen years old,” Exaivier said, “You have tried to pull pranks on me and whoever else is around during any time of the day.”

Skandar looked around, his expression a bit serious, “Not this time.”

It was safe to say, that none of us believed him.  Skandar had probably strung his sword up into a tree above his bedroll to retrieve after convincing us all of what happened.

àààà

Skandar was right. It had taken three more days for him to prove it. But by then Exaivier’s cloak, Skyler’s dagger, and my sword as well as Skandar’s were all missing. Each morning we would wake up, and something else would be gone. Now that more than just Skandar’s sword had disappeared all of us knew we couldn’t leave until we retrieved our things. My sword and Skandar’s especially.

After another day of searching all of us decided that if another one of our belongs went missing then it would be worth it to get the sleep that we’d been lacking for the past forty-eight hours.

Despite our worries, I fell asleep within five minutes. The night was soundless, quiet, and went by too quickly. After what felt like barely an hour I felt something kicking me lightly in the side.

“Chandler,” it was Skyler’s voice, her foot was continuously tapping my rib cage. “ Chandler, get up.”

I opened my eyes and suddenly shot up, “What happened? What was taken?”

“Nothing that belongs to me is missing,” Exaivier said behind Skyler.

Skyler nodded, “Nothing of mine is gone either; we need you to check your things, make sure everything is there.”

“Nothing is missing,” I announced as soon as I was done thoroughly searching my bag. “Did Skandar check his things yet?”

“He’s out getting firewood,” Skyler said, “I haven’t seen him yet.”

“You haven’t?” Exaivier asked her, “I thought you said you knew where he went.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Skandar woke up before both of you?”

“He was gone when I woke up,” Skyler replied, “You and Exaivier were still asleep though. I assumed he’d gone out to get wood to fuel the fire enough to make breakfast.”

“He has been gone for too long to be collecting firewood,” Exaivier said, “He should have been back by now.”

Skyler and I stared at him, I could tell by Skyler’s expression she feared the same thing I was thinking.

“Let’s not worry just yet,” Exaivier said, “but it wouldn’t hurt to go look for him.”

I let out a small sigh, “I am never going camping again.”

 So there you have it! This is typically how my four main characters get along. Though Skandar was abit more serious. Probably because someone stole his sword... (No one messes with Skandar's sword. No one.) Let me know what you think in the comments! I'd love your thoughts.

*I do not own this picture. But I thank whoever is the one who posted it on the internet. If you don't want me to use it, all you need to do is contact me.