"What?" Dwayne didn't know what to say. What does 'noob' even mean, Dwayne thought, it clearly is some derogatory remark by the deep tone of voice and evil laugh this man displayed. The man laughed loudly again and said: "Why don't you just quit, while you're ahead, noob." Dwayne said nothing and just stared now. Quit? Dwayne thought, some silly-hatted man will -not- make me quit my adventure this easily. Dwayne was furious, but silent. Dwayne took out his iron longsword and kiteshield. The silly-hatted man laughed yet again and didn't take much note of the wielded weapon, "Fight me in the Wilderness." "I think I'll just slice you up as you stand here." Dwayne said and thought of taking a swing at the man.
Before Dwayne could even lift his sword, he felt a strange and unsettling force in his right arm, he couldn't even move his arm to make a swipe at the silly-hatted man. The man kept laughing, "What are you? An arr-pee-err? How deliciously hilarious." Dwayne was confused. What is this strange force stopping me, Dwayne thought. "Look, peeps! an arr-pee-err!" The silly-hatted man exclaimed. A few other people starting laughing and he could hear someone else say "Really? How sad."
Dwayne sheathed his sword again and pointed at the silly-hatted man and said: "Look, pal, I don't know what your deal is, I have done you nothing wrong - but I will fight you in this 'Wilderness' of yours." The silly-hatted man laughed even louder now, "You can't be serious, noob." The silly-hatted man went to the bank and turned around to Dwayne again, now not wearing the silly blue hat or the cape and just said: "Meet you in the Wilderness!"
Dwayne still felt furious and now anxious ... he had remembered the strong looking man in the black armour with the purple trim and this man with the blue shirt and trousers; both of them wore a cape that gave off white sparkly particles, Dwayne remembered and pondered further, if this man has a similar cape to the black armoured man, then they must be equally strong. Dwayne became nervous, afraid even.
Dwayne followed the man around the Grand Exchange and went West past the Cooking Guild and past some guards and North. Dwayne noticed some mushrooms standing in 2 circular shapes and a man with a paddle standing next to the river. Going North they came towards a ruined wall. The man jumped across wall and starting running a bit North of this strange ruined wall. The man shouted: "Come fight me, noob!" Standing a bit north of the ruined wall, unarmed and with no armour.
Dwayne did not hesitate, he climbed across the wall in his iron armour and took out his iron longsword, and took 2 steps from the wall when he suddenly was struck with a feeling of bloodlust rising to his head and a trembling sensation of both fear and exhilaration flowing in his body. This must be the Wilderness, Dwayne realized.
Dwayne tried to take a swipe at the man, but felt again the same strange force that stopped him from taking a swipe. "Oh, right, my bad, I'm way higher level than you noob, ha ha ha." The man said with a stupid grin on his face. "We'll have to go far deeper than just outside the Wildy wall to be able to fight, if we even... " The man was interrupted and a strange purple ball of circling energy struck him! Dwayne raised his shield, but less than a second later he heard a whirl and a white column of freezing ice encased the man in blue. The man shouted: "NO!" and broke free, only to be struck again, now with roots springing out from the ground entangling his legs. Dwayne recoiled and took a few steps back, the man had a look of dread as he shouted: "NO, PLEASE!"
From a distance Dwayne saw the source of the attacks, 2 heavily armoured figures, both wearing adorned blue and white robes, one with a wand and an orb, the other with a strange blueish hooked staff. The man with the staff ran up to the, now unfortunate, victim while the other man with the wand and orb cast volleys of fire from his hands at the blue-shirted victim. It took only 4 hits and the victim fell to the ground and his body quickly turned to a small pile of bones. the attacking, wand-&-orb-wielding man ran to the bones and picked up some items Dwayne could not identify.
"Thanks for the lure, dude!" The blueish hooked staff-wielding man shouted. Dwayne was still in shock at what had just transpired. "L-Lure?" Dwayne stammered. "Yeah, man, I overheard this asshole dissing ya at the Gee-E and thought me and my friend here to learn him a lesson in manners, haha." Both of them smiled. "But you killed him ... ?" Dwayne was puzzled and thought to himself, how can a dead man learn anything? Both of them now ran to the wall.
To Dwayne's astonishment the man with the blue shirt and trousers appeared, back from the dead coming from the West. But he was killed! Dwayne thought as his jaw dropped. "Give back my stuff, assholes!" the man shouted. Dwayne didn't take notice of what the would-be-killers said as he was too astonished at the fact the offensive man had returned back from the dead. "Fuck you!" the man said with powerful vitriol. "... How? But. How?" Dwayne said. "That'll teach ya!" The man with the wand and orb said. They both suddenly disappeared in a white and blue columns swirling around them both.
Dwayne was still standing left next to the ruined wall, the Wilderness Wall. "This is your fault!" The returned-back-from-the-dead man said, and he then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Dwayne was alone now, puzzled at what had transpired.
Dwayne climbed back across the wall and sat down and took the Home Teleport ritual book out and turned the page to 'L' to teleport to Lumbridge. Right from the corner of his left eye before the white flash overtook him, he saw the tree sitting at the Wilderness wall move and what appeared to be a face with glowing black eyes looking at him. Dwayne closed the book before the ritual was complete and stood up again, the whiteness receded. "Woah!" Dwayne exclaimed.
The moving tree spoke in a raspy voice: "I saw what happened, young one." "You can speak?" Dwayne was surprised, and Dwayne thought to himself, Gielinor is a strange place. "Quite." The tree said. "I am Quercus, I track the disturbances in the Wilderness. That is my purpose. That is what I do." "What disturbances would that be?" Dwayne asked halfhearted. The tree did not answer right away, but seemed to look Dwayne over, "you're different from the rest, the rest of these ... adventurers." Dwayne was puzzled and now starting to get annoyed of all the weirdness that had bestowed upon him, "What do you mean exactly? How, 'different'?" The tree did a raspy sigh before answering: "Do you know where you are, young one?" "I'm in Gielinor, of course, standing next to a talking tree!" Dwayne said back at the would-be tree. "I'm an ent. Not a tree." Quercus, the ent, said.
Quercus did a small gesture with his tree limbed hand and produced a small circular shaped black box with a visible 'N' and a metal pin inside. "Take this compass, young one, so you can find which direction you're facing." Dwayne saw the compass in his tree limb and carefully reached out and took it. Quercus continued: "Now, Let me tell you something of value: There is more to Gielinor and this ... place than you currently realize. Something you will discover if you ... adventure more and learn about this ... place." Dwayne thought that Quercus was being awfully cryptic and didn't make much sense.
"Besides from being a strange talking tree, an ent, your talk doesn't make sense to me." Dwayne shook his head. A bird landed on Quercus' hand and he guided the bird to a bird's nest on his shoulder. The ent is not out to harm me, Dwayne thought. "All will be revealed to you, in time." Quercus seemed to nod and looked back into the distance. "Go now! If you wish to learn more about your ... destiny, speak with Gypsy Aris in Varrock. She's in the tent at the large fountain in the center of the city." Dwayne collected himself and head off, "I will." Dwayne said.
Dwayne walked South, looking at the compass he could better tell which direction he was going, now he knew which direction he was going and got a better feel for his bearing. Dwayne greeted the guards at the Southwest entrance next to the Grand Exchange and headed East, past the Cooking Guild and towards the Bank, he saw Solomon Madini give him a roll of the eyes before entering the Bank. I better deposit these 20 sardines, no, let me keep carrying 10, Dwayne thought.
Dwayne exited through the South entrance of the Bank and headed East past the anvils and noticed a tent Southwest of the central fountain. Dwayne went inside.
Inside the tent Dwayne saw an old woman sitting behind a table with a small luminescent ball on the table with some cards. This must be Gypsy Aris, Dwayne thought.
"Are you Aris?" Dwayne asked the old woman. "I've been expecting you Dwayne, son of Darryl 'the Slayer'." The old woman said. Dwayne wore a full iron helm covering his face, his face turned red behind the helm. "What!" Dwayne exclaimed, "how do you know my name ... and my fathers name, as well?!" "Shhh", The old woman held up her left index finger to her mouth, "sit down and be less noisy."
"I am Aris Maye, Gypsy by name, Seer & Fortuneteller by craft." Aris Maye had revealed more than what had Dwayne had expected already. "A tree... an ent, Quercus, told me to come here ..." Dwayne said a tad reluctantly. Dwayne thought that following the directions of a talking tree must be a surefire sign of madness. Am I mad, is this a delusion? Dwayne thought. Dwayne started to wonder if any of this was real, that he might be stuck in a dream - or nightmare.
"I can tell you have questions and that you feel your sense of what is real is slipping away, Dwayne." Aris said with a soothing voice, "reality is a matter of perception. What you can see, feel, touch, and so on is what you perceive, you can only accept that as -your- reality." Aris nodded and her words, although cryptic, made sense to Dwayne. "So all this is real, then? Me seeing and hearing talking trees, men that come back from the dead, men producing fire from their hands." Dwayne sighed and looked straight at Aris' eyes, "and you, Aris, somehow knowing my name and my fathers name, without me telling you them?" "There's more to Gielinor than you can - presently - percieve, Dwayne." Aris' tone became more serious: "I understand your apprehension, everything will be revealed to you in time."
Aris peered into the luminescent ball on her table and placed both her hands on the ball, it seemed to grow brighter. Aris was silent. After a short time, while Aris was peering into the ball of light, her eyes seemed to glisten and turn white and turn back again. Besides the slight luminescence from the ball of light, Dwayne couldn't see anything from it, but Aris was still silent and peering into the ball. A few moments passed and Aris let go of the ball of light and its luminescence returned to its former state.
"What did you see?" Dwayne was curious at this glowing glass-like ball. "Uhhh, that's just it, I didn't see anything ..." Aris seemed puzzled, maybe shyly ashamed as well. "This is a first." Aris retorted. "First? First for what?" Dwayne asked with a raised, hidden, left eyebrow. "I can't see anything. It's like ... no, that can't be it." Aris seems to hide something, Dwayne thought to himself. Aris sighed: "You must be one kind of special man to not have a destiny laid out for you. Your future is not for me to know, but for -you- to unfold." She was being cryptic again. "I can't help you, except give you some lighthearted advice: Remember where you are and what is happening around you is as real as it gets, yet take nothing for granted." Aris seemed to hint at him to leave. Dwayne turned around and looked out of the tent.
"Where shall I go? What should I do?" Dwayne asked. Aris pointed now to outside the tent: "To make your own destiny. Go now." "What does that even mean?" Dwayne started to get a tad upset. "It means what it means, that you're free to shape your own future; what do you want to do? Then go do it!" Aris was impatient and Dwayne a tad annoyed. "Fine! I'll go kill dragons or something then!" And with a jeer Dwayne marched out of the tent.
As Dwayne came outside the tent, he stood there a moment and looked around. Aris' speech about making his own destiny started to sink in as he saw the central fountain with buildings surrounded by it and a man ran past the fountain, wearing what appeared to be steel armour. A man selling a newspaper. A man in fur, probably a fur trader, Dwayne thought. Dwayne collected himself and cast the Home Teleport ritual to Lumbridge.
After the whiteness had cleared from his vision, he saw the familiar face of Phileas. "Friend!" phileas said with a smile. "Am I glad to see you." Dwayne approached Phileas. "I see you got some iron armour, friend." Phileas said, "off for an adventure, are you, friend?" "ha ha, how'd you know it was me in this suit of armour?" Dwayne said cheerily. "My friend, I recognized you as soon as I saw you appear on the lodestone ..." Phileas said a tad slowly. "No matter, maybe you can tell me what I could do now?" Dwayne hoped for better and more clear advice from Phileas than the cryptic words from Aris Maye. "Well, friend, you could help out Father Aereck, with a problem he's facing. He's in the church." Phileas pointed at the large building with a spire just South of them. "What problem is that?" Dwayne asked. Phileas said insistently: "Why don't you just ask Father Aereck." "oh, OK." Dwayne responded curiously.
Dwayne walked into the church and a bald old man in blue and black robes with a Saradominist symbol on his chest stood there. This must be Father Aereck, Dwayne thought. "Excuse me, are you Father Aereck?" Dwayne asked the old bald man. "Saradomin's Blessing upon you child, you are a God-send." The old bald man sprung to life, "I am Aereck, and I need your help with a grave matter." Father Aereck seemed to smear a half-smug smile off his own face. "These are grave times, child." Now Dwayne was sure, this priest was clearly making puns as he saw him with a half-smile. "OK, what do you want help with, Father?"