With our food crisis finally over, our thoughts went to other things. Namely, our origins, and the strange place in which we were born. “I think we need to start exploring outward further. Perhaps there are more like us, perhaps there are things that could give us a hint towards our origins.” I told the group one morning.

Murmurs spread within the group, some were still not so sure. With the trauma that was winter, even if the food situation was better, many things could still go wrong. Surprisingly though, Thorne out of all people was the one to step up and say “I agree. If we stay here our whole lives there isn't going to be progress to be had”

“Oh? Mr practical, actually going for something new and possibly risky? I thought I'd never see the day!” Gina speaks up, teasing Thorne. Thorne blushes, muttering something incoherent.

“Well, we will have to prepare some supplies and plan out our route, how long and how far our expedition is going to go” Marcus tells the group.

“I’ve already thought about it. I was thinking we would follow the river. If there are others out there, they would also need a source of water. We haven’t found any other bodies of water, so this might be our best bet. Plus, if we follow the river we won't have to worry as much about food and water, as the river can provide for us.” I tell everyone.

“Sounds very well thought out. I say we go for it. But before we go through with it completely, does anyone want to say anything? It is risky and we would be putting a good number of our resources into this expedition.” Elena replies to me.

Pipo speaks up. “I don’t want us to split up so much… By doing this a handful of people are going to have to leave the village periodically. We’re low on manpower. We need to figure out a way of increasing it first somehow… And remember the green thing? The one that attacked me, the one that attacked the village too. What if there are more of those?”

“Increase manpower? How are we supposed to do that? It’s not like we can simply create a person. If anything, our need for manpower is a great reason to go exploring. If there are more of us out there, we can create alliances, or even merge and become one community.” Marcus says.

“I know there are risks. But Gina, with her cold frame has proved that by trying new things and taking calculated risks, miracles can happen. I learned that, and I've taken it to heart ever since” Thorne says.

“I… ok. I trust you Thorne. You’ve always had the best interest of the group at heart. I’ll do my best to support you guys” Pipo replies

We started out slow and steady, doing a day's worth of walking downstream and back up to base. As we got more comfortable, we spent more time exploring. This time 2-3 days. We mapped interesting places near the river, caves we could take shelter in if necessary, cool boulders we found. That's something me and my fellow explorers have started to say about things we find interesting and positive. The word “cool”. I digress.

One day as we were on another exploration trip, we encountered some goblins. We had taken to calling the green creatures goblins. Thankfully, these goblins did not see us, and were simply drinking some water by the river.

“What should we do?” I ask. “I think we should follow them. Perhaps they have a base like ours. If we know this, we know what areas we should avoid” Said Thorne.

“Isn’t it dangerous though?” Elena replies. Thorne says back “We have weapons to defend ourselves with now, and this is a calculated risk. Trust me”

“Ok, let's do it” Elena responds.

We follow the goblins, they wander about a bit in the forest until the come to a cave. The goblins quickly go inside. “So this is where they live. Interesting” I say to myself.

“What now?” Elena says to Thorne.

“We go back home. We found their base, now we know where to avoid going” Thorne replies.

And so we go back to the village with the key knowledge of where the goblins are. I suggested we hold a group meeting to discuss, and so we did.

“Alright, so this meeting is all about the goblin cave and what we are to do with this information. I for one think we should set up a small team to periodically check up on the cave, stealthily to gather information about their numbers, routines and behaviors. This of course comes with some risk, especially to the small team who will be doing it. But I feel it is necessary. These creatures are hostile. One of them attacked Pipo on sight. Another one attacked our village. If we hadn’t killed the one that attacked the village, it could have went back and brought others with it.” I told the group.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Murmurs and whispers began spreading around, and there was discussion back and forth weighing the risks and benefits. But eventually we all agreed that my idea of having a small team monitor the goblins was the right one.

The only problem was, who was going to volunteer for such a dangerous job? It’s not something we can force someone to do, we have never resorted to that. Everything here has always been done by volunteers.

Despite my doubts, 3 people actually did volunteer. And surprisingly, one of them was Pipo.

“Are you sure you want to do this Pipo? Just a few weeks ago you were saying how you were against exploration and splitting up. Now you want to join the reconnaissance team? It’ll be dangerous.” Thorne told Pipo.

“I know. But I realized, you were right Thorne. We can't hide in our village forever. One day the enemy might come to us. Actually, one of them already did one time. I want to help as much as I can. I’m not the biggest, or the strongest. I know that. But this mission is all about gathering information and remaining hidden right? That I'm good at, that I'm best at. I can remain hidden, and I can run away fast if I’m caught.” Pipo responds to Thorne.

“Looks like you’re determined. Good luck with the recon team” Thorne says to Pipo.

Weeks turned into months and we found… absolutely nothing of note. No other settlements, no leftover tools left by others, no signs of any kind of person except goblins. Were they even people?

All that we found was wilderness, wilderness, and more wilderness. We even began exploring different areas, not just along the river. Nothing. We walked for days, sometimes weeks. Nothing. Were we alone? Are we the first to be here in this land?

My mind was unraveling. None of us have had any dreams either, not a hint towards our origins.

I decided, perhaps I could force a dream. If I slept more, longer, more often, maybe I could force a dream into fruition. And I’ll try and actively extract information within that dream. I need it. I need to know where we came from. It was driving me insane not knowing. What if there was something important that I had been missing? And I didn’t even know it?

I resolved to sleep as much as I could. But I felt like this had to be done. Something had to be done.

I brought this up to the group. And I was faced with well… less than positive reactions. One member of our group said “Pff. You just want to sleep all day”. Many were nodding in agreement. I was embarrassed. Thorne spoke up “David is just trying to find out why we’re all here, just like the rest of us. Maybe he’s going a bit far here, but you have to understand him”

Gina speaks up too “I personally think it might be a good idea. More sleep must mean a bigger chance of having a dream right? And everytime we’ve had a dream, what has happened? Huge improvements to our quality life happened. More knowledge of our world happened. I say we let him sleep as much as a person can sleep. Given its not dangerous… well I’m sure you cant get too much sleep, right?” Gina chuckled nervously. We didn’t actually know if there was such a thing as “too much sleep”. It may very well be dangerous. Oh well, just another risk to take into account.

Somehow, Gina’s words helped sway public opinion. I was officially allowed to sleep. Well, I was always allowed to technically. We never really set up any hard rules. Everyone just did what they needed to do. But this was a special case, since it would appear I would not be working at all. Which I suppose certainly wouldn't seem fair.

I started my journey to the depths of sleep and dreams, starting slowly and getting used to it by first sleeping an extra hour, then another, then a few more.

I spent a few weeks sleeping to no avail. But then, one night, a dream finally came to me.