I don't Care What They Told You

'When you you're young, you soon learn you know nothing. When you're older and see the stars only to find they are fragments of something infinitely greater, you rediscover you still don't know much more then you were as a child..'


It was a quote Tristan knew all too well and one he had coined himself when as a little boy he remembered wanting to explore the stars only to then discover that it was far greater then he imagined. Not only entire worlds, but different dimensions within a Mulvierse.

And greater still, this was not the only Multiverse.

All the information gave him a stronger burning passion to learn, to explore, to see everything he could possibly see. That followed him to his teenager years where he focused on traveling planets but his wander lust hadn't stopped there and he took a liking to going to other dimensions to see what else was there.

It after all seemed like a crime not to explore as much as possible before he left the mortal coil.

During one of his adventures, he had picked up a lone child by the name of 'Sierra' who was extremely quite and withdrawn. It was hard to get much of anything out of her and if it wasn't for the fact she was a Nosferartu and therefore could 'speak' mentally she'd probably be more quite.

There had been no signs of parents on the space station he found her, however since everyone else was dead he could..infer things. Making a guess, the place was likely raided by who or what was the question and there was no evidence of who or what was behind the attack but he was happy she survived.

Then of course he became attached and that had been the end of sending her to a orphanage. Realistically though, taking care of a child was a lot of work and he wouldn't be able to travel as much. At the least, going to more risky and dangerous places was completely out of the question.

It should have been simple from there, but it never truly was.

* *

Tristan woke up with dull throbbing.

Shaking slightly blurry vision aside, the Arkon pushed himself wearily to his feet before everything came crashing at once and his eyes widened. There had been just a normal Dimension Jump. It didn't make any sense to end up where they were unless there had been some type of interference he hadn't been able to see.

Panic began to rise as he stood looked around frantically. "Sierra!"

A slight shuffling was heard from his left side as a slightly pale, little girl probably around the age of five at the most in a black dress. She went to give him a hug--or rather is leg since she was so short but otherwise she seemed fine.

Giving a sigh of relief and feeling some of the tension leave, Tristan gently ruffled her hair. "You scared for a moment. Don't go any further then my side all right? I have no clue where we are."

The little girl merely nodded but went to his side.

Now to find out where they were..

A quick glance found the place they were in rather troubling. The skies were gray and more importantly everything seemed, we'll, dead. The tree's around had no life to them and neither did the grass. The few buildings in site were boarded up and lifeless.

It was eerie. Like a snap shot taken and then frozen time time.

The demon in him was restless. The place felt wrong for lack of a better and he was almost expecting monsters to pop out of the wood works. It did seem the feeling was shared by his young charge, as she had gripped his hand that much more tightly.

This journey he felt, definitely was going to be one of those.

He had to admit it. It had been getting kind of lonely out here, endlessly notching arrows, shooting dingoes, crafting more arrows when he ran out, and going right back to the grind. There wasn't really much point to it either. The place was empty aside from the wildlife. And the zombies, of course, but they were content to idle ineffectually in the graveyard. But there was no real danger here. They'd won, defeated the giant demon monster weapon... thing... and freed Morrighan. As grateful as she had been.

...he'd met demons more gracious. No, really, he had.

But he was getting off track again - not that anyone could really blame him all things considered.

There was nothing to fight, so why was he polishing his skills? He'd said he would stay behind and 'keep watch' but, really, what was there to watch for? Every day the endeavor seemed even more pointless, though - he hastened to remind himself frequently - the moment he became complacent, something was bound to happen. His luck simply wasn't good enough for him to be correct. They hadn't killed Cichol, after all, or even Morgant - only messed with their plans.

So it was that Aldaron stood vigilant in the desolate waste that some crackpot had tried to pass off as 'paradise,' waiting for... anything to happen, really, and mindlessly hunting the seemingly never ending horde of starving dogs. Which begged the question of how they got here. And how they were endless while simultaneously starving. But he filed such thoughts away in the same area as the wonder of who had been tending the crops before he arrived. Further musings were cut off, however, when the air rang out with a thunderclap so sudden and violent that the archer nearly spun about and loosed an arrow into the sky on instinct. But there was nothing there.

Now, that was odd. It couldn't have been the weather - he'd been here for years and it had yet to change in any way, after all. It probably wasn't a good sign, either, considering why he was here in the first place.

Keeping the arrow notched in his bow, Aldaron stalked down the hill out of the old healer's house that he'd appropriated as shelter, intent on finding the source of the sound.

It had only been a few moments before Tristian heard something making him pause in his walk with Sierra, he wasn't entirely sure what it was and nothing of this place suggested it would be friendly. There wasn't any place to really hide or more accurately Sierra as he was more then capable of defending himself. Was it a animal, something else? It was possible someone was here but he doubted it.

He decided to play it cautiously for now, his senses let him see a further distance so he could hopefully figure out what it was and decide from there what to do. So for now they both remained still while searching for the source of the noise.

As he arrived at the remains of the square, Aldaron quirked a brow when he saw something he wasn't expecting. A man had just rounded the corner, walking up the road past the old inn and into the square. Well, crater really. It was just a giant pit with random fragments of cobblestone strewn about and an old dead tree overlooking it.

Feeling somewhat facetious, but keeping his bow ready, he called out to them, "Hail, travelers! What news bring you from around the bend?"

Sierra clung to the Arkon more when the stranger approached and Tristian regarded the stranger calmly but he was a bit surprise to find anyone here at all. It had looked like this place had been entirely abandoned. The bow wasn't too much of a cause of concern, assuming it was a normal one but hopefully things wouldn't turn violent either way.

It did leave a problem of how best to explain. Telling the truth would likely make him dubbed as insane but that was the problem. He had not even a faint clue of where he was, the politics, races or anything of note to make even a basic decision of how best to act. With that in mind it left him more then a bit of a bind so he'd just have to play things by ear.

One thing for sure, until he had some clue of things revealing either of their races would be more then a bad idea. Tristian doubted that would go over well.

"I'm sorry. I'm not familiar with that term. Me and my daughter are lost, we aren't sure where we are or how we got here. I'm Tristian Gilander and this is Sierra, my daughter. You are?" The little girl in question hadn't really moved besides more watching him.

Aldaron blinked in surprise when the man stated he wasn't familiar with... something he said, but the rest of his introduction was easy to respond to, "Well, I am the archer Aldaron, most recent caretaker of this cozy little plot of nothing in the middle of nowhere. However you got here... Well, you're best off leaving. I could guide you out, but you'd be on your own for most of the trip. I can't just leave, you see."

Tristian had no desire what so ever to be here any longer then needed, this wasn't a place he'd want to visit anytime soon. There was a couple of other questions that came to mind but they could wait and he didn't want delay too much.

Of course, it could be a trap of some sort but given the options he would have to take his chances.

"I would appreciate that a lot, the sooner we leave the better. But on that note, just what is this place called? Nothing seems alive-" He corrected himself. "-Except for us three."

It was understandable. Aldaron himself wanted to leave - it wasn't exactly a pleasant place. Then again, he was mostly just bored. The question made him snort in amusement, "Would you believe me if I told you this was paradise?"

Tristian blinked before chuckling. "I would find that hard to believe but it doesn't surprise me. Some people in the past Would probably consider this a paradise. I can't say I care much for the dead look." Beauty was truly the eye of the beholder but he couldn't imagine staying here for an extended period, never mind calling this place home. Was there anything to even eat?

When it seemed the stranger wasn't a threat of any kind, Sierra relaxed a bit more but still watched the other man curiously from the corner of her eye.

The archer shrugged, "I don't believe it either. Anyway, you guys want to get out of here right?"

Tristian nodded, now or never. "Yes, the sooner the better, so lead the way. If you don't mind me asking though, what brings you here?"

Walking up the way he came at a steady pace, the archer simply rolled his shoulders, "Keeping watch, tending the crops, shooting dingoes. Well, that's what I'm doing. Why I came... that's a long story." They passed several packs of thin, starving dogs - but they didn't attack, instead circling warily. Likely due to their escort.

They came to an ominous cave in the side of the cliff with an unsurprisingly dead tree hanging over it, "Here we are. Albey Dungeon, not to be confused with its lookalike that lacks the 'E' - stands for 'Evil' by the way." He turned to face his impromptu charges, "Of course, before I let you into Erinn... I have to confirm. You're not some sort of manic, insane, megalomaniac maniac with an ego the size of the moon out to take over the world or something, are you? If you are, I'll have to turn you into a porcupine - no offense."

The question made some sense but in all honesty if he Was then he wouldn't have told them in the first place unless he wasn't too bright.

"I'm afraid not. I'm just a traveler with a knack of getting into odd places and Sierra is probably as dangerous as a box of puppies. And what exactly is in this dungeon?" The place..sounded rather ominous and he had every desire to play things safe considering it wasn't just himself. His days of being a bit more on the reckless side were over

"Hahaha, it was just a formality. If you were evil you would not have lived passed stepping around the corner. Of course, you could simply be lying but... I like to think I'm a good judge of character." The man spoke easily, "as for this place? Oh, it's nothing much. Just the desiccated remains of an ancient seal trapping an equally ancient evil of terrible power. You know how it goes. It's dead now, of course. Nothing to worry about coming out of there. Anyway," He stabbed his arrow into the ground and flicked a hand to one side, causing a black slip of paper with runic writings on it to fall into his hand, as if by trick, "This is your ticket out. Step inside, drop it onto the altar, and you're good to go! Well, you'll have to fight your way back through Barri Dungeon but it should still be empty. Oh, and make sure you're both on the altar or you'll get separated. And that would be terrible. Tis good fortune that I have two such passes in my possession, but I'd rather not strand myself if I don't have to, you know?"

Tristian accepted the offered item looking it over. From a scholarly stand point he may have been more interested in studying it later but right now wasn't the time or the place. "And before we go inside and to this world Erinn you said, what is the place like?" A full summary would be too long but he would like at least some idea of what to expect before they ran into things blind.

Aldaron fingered his chin with his free hand, as his arrow was still embedded in the earth, "Well, simply put, Erinn is paradise. Once you get passed the invading fomorians - and we should have taken care of those, by my understanding - it's a nice place. Green fields, even seasons, friendly people... Without a doubt, whatever the case, it's better than here. Trust me."

We'll, it was something even if he still had no clue what it would look like but at least he had a idea of what the people living there would be like. That was important if not more so then some of the other details considering.

He took Sierra's hand gently before looking back at their escort. "Maybe we'll meet again one day. In the mean time it was nice meeting you. Come on Sierra."

Even if there was apparently nothing there he wanted to be out and done with as quickly as possible. As it turned out, however, there was really no need to really travel as they bumped into where they needed to go almost the moment they stepped in just about.

It was a odd, but beautiful statue that reminded him of a angel of some kind with a sword in their hands. Interest of the story behind it could wait and it wasn't like anyone was around to ask unless he felt like heading back.

Making sure Sierra didn't run off, he dropped the runic paper on the altar before getting on as instructed.

There would come a flash of pure white light, followed by a brief sense of weightlessness, before the two of them would find themselves standing in front of another statue exactly like the other, inside of what appeared to be the entry to a mine-shaft. A couple of workers passed by, pickaxes in hand, a long with a group of what could only be called 'adventurers' clad in miscellaneous gear. Perhaps peculiarly, no one reacted to their arrival.

It was rather odd that no one reacted when Tristian and his adopted daughter stepped through. Really, the only conclusion he could make was this was a very common occurence as is anyway. There were other things on his mind but it could wait for now.

"Excuse me," Tristian began to one of the nearest nearby. "But we are a bit new here, do you know a inn or anything inside this town?"

That was a start anyway.

This drew a strange glance, peculiarly enough, but the addressed man's response was prompt regardless, "Nothing like that here. Travelers don't stop here; they come and go."

That wasn't exactly too comforting but it was something. "I see.." The Arkon figured more information wouldn't hurt. "That's unfourtnate but it can't be helped. Do you know where I could find a map if there's any to be found here?" Sierra in the background just watched the stranger curiously but she was more focused on the things around her then the present conversation; it didn't have much interest to her.

The man shrugged, "You could try Gilmore," he offered, "his shop is beside the blacksmith and you can usually see him outside. High prices though. Man's a miser."

"Thank you, I appreciate it."

Good thing I don't need to buy anything then.

Tristian followed the directions, they weren't that hard since the entire town was so small that could probably walk out in a few steps. Hopefully they were there at the time, but after this they would have to get their bearings and find out where exactly to go from here. Considering Sierra, he was going have to be even more careful with where he go and how he went about things.