I was born in Sector B, WS-7829 on May 30th, 50XX. Ever since I was born, my parents wanted me to become a scientist, they made me take science classes for school instead of stuff like math or ELA. A little after I graduated middle school, my little brother was born who was also forced into being a scientist. By the time I became a real scientist, my brother had just graduated from middle school. It was around this time where I found out about a special gem located on a planet far far away, I knew I needed an excuse to go, so me and my best friend/lab partner, Tim, planned out an experiment but purposefully did it wrong so it would explode, I would use this to be able to go to the planet and find the gem but it backfired horribly, I was lucky enough to come out alive and go but unluckily for Tim, he was killed. As I went out to find the newspaper spread, two scientists, Ben and Tim, killed in an experiment. Ben's body has not been located yet. My family was mourning the losses so they put out my little brother to take my place. I was heading towards the planet in which the gem is located, Ruloes.

Chapter 1: Start, meet River, go back to ship

As I see the planet I’ve been searching for—Ruleos—come into the horizon, I get excited. After years of searching, I may finally get to find the gem that I came on this search for. I speed into their atmosphere, slowing down as I near it. The relief I feel as I take the slow landing down on the planet is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

Stepping out of the ship I’ve been in for the past half-decade, I take a deep breath of the air. I smell a faint scent I recognize, like when it used to rain on my old planet, WS-7829. It reminds me that I left everyone, them thinking I died. The whole experiment exploded—as planned—and I was lucky to have survived at all—also as I had intelligently planned. Tim was unfortunate enough that he died in the crash—which was never meant to happen, and now I feel the guilt seeping into me with every step I take—but everyone thinks I did too. I took that moment as the time to leave, because I would have felt bad leaving any other time. But with how much science was forced on me as a kid, I had to take the opportunity to discover something new, like the scientists that I always heard about. The only thing I feel bad about is having left my brother, Lil Ben. He’s going to have to take on a lot more responsibilities now that it’s only him and our mother. I try to block that from my mind as I keep walking.

I wander around for a while, venturing into the near woods that I landed by. I keep going deeper into the forest, marking some trees with paint that I’ll be able to use to find my way back. I hear a whimpering coming from off to my left, and follow the sound. My footsteps are loud on the crunchy leaves, and when I find the source of the sound, they’ve already turned around to see me.

“Hello,” I say to what looks like a large fairy. She has long brown hair, and a red dress. The thing is, she only has one red wing, and one side of her face is covered in what seems to be burn marks. She’s rubbing her eye, and it looks as if she’s been crying. “Are you alright?”

“Just fine,” she responds, rather gruffly. “Do you need something or are you just going to stand there?”

I choose to ignore her question. “What’s your name?”

“River,” she snaps. “I’m a river fairy. My parents were very creative. Now answer my question. What do you want?”

“It’ll take a while to explain.”

“I have time.”

I sigh. “Well, then, fine. What can I do for you to help me out with what I need?”

“Do you have a new life for me? Because that would be great.” I know she means this sarcastically, but this sparks an idea.

“Actually, I could. I’m not from here, so I would take you home with me and you could start a new life there.”

“Seriously?” She seems surprised. “Well, in that case, I’ll do whatever. Just maybe explain to me what you want.”

“I will, just follow me back to my ship,” I responded. “It has most of what we’ll need, and it’ll be easier to explain once we’re there.”

“Ok, sure,” she concedes. “Just don’t lead me anywhere crazy, alright?”

I nod, and we start following back the paint marks on the trees to my ship.

Chapter 2: Start at ship, gather supplies

Once back on the ship for supplies, I try to show my new friend my ship and explain to her why I came.

“I’m here to find a gem,” I say. I try to continue, but she interrupts me.

“What gem exactly?” She asks inquisitively.

“A special gem, it got marked on my radar back home, WS-7829”

“Well, why are you here if you don’t even know what it does?” She questions. “It could be anything.”

“True, but still, that makes it better to find, if it’s anything like what my radar picked up, it could be super useful back home,” I try to explain.

“Why would it be useful? Is your planet bad?”

“Why do you ask so many questions? And no, my planet is full of scientists.” I’m getting pretty irritated at this point, but she’s the one helping me, so I’m able to deal.

“That sounds bad enough.”

“Hey, it’s not that bad. Sure, your parents force you into science the moment you are born,” I try to clarify this for her. “But that’s fine. Most people enjoy it.”

I grab some materials of things that I can use to search: a gem detector, a bag to hold it for when we find it, and some gloves, that way, I won’t need to touch it if it’s harmful.

“What’s that for?” River asks.

“What?” I say. “This?” I hold up the detector in question.

“Yeah, that.” She looks confused. Do they really not have any sort of detector here? No metal, gems, normal ground rocks, or anything?

“It’s used to find gems with certain properties,” I explain. “We call it a detector. It’ll help us a lot.”

“Oh. Huh,” she seems disinterested. “Well you certainly have creative names on your planet. A detector is used to detect things. Very, very original.”

“Whatever,” I say. “It doesn’t matter what it’s called anyway. All that matters is that it’ll help me get what I need.”

“Us.”

“What?” I don’t understand what she means.

“It’ll help us get what we need,” she explains. “Not everything’s about you. We’re working together now. Stop pretending like you’re better than I am just because I don’t know as much. You don’t know how hard it is to survive out here sometimes, and you’re gonna need my help.”

Her good eye narrows, making me feel smaller. I straighten up, trying to regain my position as the one in charge. I responded calmly, “Well, I will need a lot of your help. But, I’m still the one to do this and the one who’s going to be running all the plans.”

“Fine,” she says bluntly. “I don’t even care.” Then she mumbles something that sounds a lot like whatever you say goes and I turn around to leave the ship and start our search.

Chapter 3: leaving the ship

“Alright, we got all the supplies needed for the search,” I say. “You ready?” I ask River.

“Yeah, sure, why not?” She responds. We were about to leave the ship when we noticed something out of the corner of our eyes. “Hey, what’s that?” River said as she was pointing to a dark figure in the distance.

“I don’t know, you’re the one who lives here, I’m just here for the research,” I responded. We decide to sneak up on the figure to see who or what it is. As we approached the bush, the figure started moving and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared.

“Oh, that thing’s quick,” River says.

“Yeah, it must be like an....ummm…a…” I stutter trying to remember the name of a type of species back on my home planet.

“A what? Stop stuttering,” River snaps.

“I forgot the name. Has it really been that long?” I wonder aloud.

“Has it really been that long since what exactly?” River asks.

“Since I left my home,” I responded in an annoyed tone. “But–well—anyways……we should get going, we have no idea how long this is gonna take”.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go, but before that, I need to check up on something,” River says. “Oh what is it?” I ask but she just ignores me and starts going into the desert. As we are walking through the desert, River all of a sudden disappears. “River? River? Where did you go?” I ask out loud, hoping she can hear me. “I’m right here, you idiot," she responded while appearing from the sky.

“ Oh, where were you?” I ask

“Looking through my old stuff, trying to figure out what that creature was,” she responded.

“Do any of your resources just so happen to tell us anything about the gem?” I ask. “That’s what we should be looking for, not something about an animal that probably doesn’t even exist. That thing could have been an illusion. We are, after all, in a desert with little to no water.” I say, since I drank almost all the water on my way here.

“Shut up, and let me be. I wanna try to find that creature again, you can go on your lovely dovey adventure for the stupid gem that probably doesn’t exist either,” She responded in an angry tone.

“Fine. Maybe I will, at least I have real evidence that the gem is real, unlike you, you just saw what could have been an illusion,” I responded in a similar tone.

River didn’t respond after that. I think I may have made you mad.

I had enough distractions and went on my so-called “lovey dovey fake adventure” to find the gem that has to exist.

I went for days, days turned into months, months turned into years.

I started to doubt that this gem exists, and I also started to feel guilty about what I said to River. Maybe I hurt her more than I thought.

I wonder what she’s doing? She’s probably still searching for that so-called animal. Either that or she’s found it and has it as a pet.

Chapter 4: Search for the gem

I continue on my way to where the gem should be located. I travel vast mountains and valleys until finally, I got to the location

“Finally, here I am” I thought to myself

I was still a bit worried about River but I assumed she would be fine

She’s the one who lives here and all so I just continue, not putting any thought into it

I go into the cave where the gem is located and there it is.

I step closer slowly, looking at my surroundings.

As I go to grab the gem, a voice suddenly echos

“Who goes there and what is your purpose?”

The voice thundered throughout the cave

“Hi!”I yell back

“I’m Ben, scientist from my home planet WS-7829, I have come to find a gem in order to save the technology of my world”

“You say that you have come for the good, not for the bad”

He responded

“Yes, for the good of my people” I yelled back, questioning why he asked if I come for good even though I just said the answer

“I shall decide if you are worthy, wait here……”

“Ben” I say back

“Wait here Ben as I decide the matter at hand”

He continued

“Ok?”I say back, questioning why you have to be “worthy” as he puts it.

As I wait for this creature to decide if I’m worthy, I decided that I had enough of waiting

I grabbed the gem and ran as fast as I could into the dense woods.

I could hear the monster yell angrily

I ignored the monster’s threats and continued running until eventually I found myself in the middle of a swamp. I looked around , trying to find shelter or a hiding spot, I needed at least something to hide.

I eventually found a small hut, I looked around, trying to see if anyone was there but no one was spotted. I found a small entrance and I entered through it and found myself in the middle of a kitchen.

I took small steps to the living room where I heard some noise. I quickly hid behind the counter and peeked to see what it was a……….

Chapter 5: The Swamp’s hut

The monster was covered with moss and looked like stone. It was walking around what seems like a……TV?

I continue hiding behind the counter, looking for a moment to escape.

The monster continues to do his thing but he suddenly looked in my direction

I get scared and worried that he saw me but in reality, he just saw something in the distance.

He starts walking in my direction but he didn’t notice me.

He went to a safe, typed in a code, opened it, and pulled out a hunting rifle.

He then left the house, in the direction of whatever he saw.

I let out a sigh of relief as I get up and find an escape.

I run as fast as I can in the other direction, which just so happens to be the direction of my ship.

I continue running until I found a little hut. I was curious to see what it was so I went closer, I heard rummaging.

I opened the leaf curtains and saw a fa

miliar face.

It’s River!!

“Hey River, nice to see you again” I said

“Ben? Is that you?”She asked sleepily