The Longing-ist Playthrough: Day 39 – 08/02/22 – 292 Days, 17 Hours, 15 Minutes and 37 Seconds to go…

Following my little ‘oopsie-daisy’ with the time yesterday, I certainly hoped that Day 39 would give me the chance to wait beneath the well in the daytime, in case the old man came to draw water. Little did I know that a last minute case of nerves flipped the script entirely…

I found Monty sleeping just beneath the surface again but I’d managed to time it right this time, and I could see bright sunshine beaming down on the grass above. I couldn’t deny that I was excited; I knew I could be within minutes of having Monty meet another living being for the first time since the King fell to into his slumber over a hundred days ago.

The Face’s advice about only confronting the ‘old and the blind’ had me thinking of one of my favourite novels, Frankenstein. I envisaged Monty sitting on the lip of the well chattering to the old blind man who was oblivious to the shade’s subterranean origins, in the same way that The Creature had managed to hide his grisly visage from the blind father in the cottage. And so, day dreaming of Monty finding a friend at last, I began to wait, hoping that the old man would wander overhead soon.

I didn’t have to wait for long.

After just a couple of minutes, footsteps sounded overhead and the stocky frame of the old man shuffled into view. Keen not to miss the bucket again, I screamed at Monty to head down beneath the well, hoping beyond all hope that he’s get a move on and make it in time.

Those few seconds felt like an eternity but we made it – Monty popped out in the well shaft just as the bucket was beginning to descend. Get ready pal – let’s not mess it up this time! The bucket plopped into the water and began fill and then it appeared…

“Jump”

On-screen Prompt

I saw it there in the corner of the screen and instead of excitedly hammering the button, I froze.

As much as I wanted a friend for Monty, my mind suddenly cast back to the warning of the [Face in the Wall] – “The kingdom will crumble if you step outside…”

I hadn’t spent much time thinking on that warning at the time, discounting it as fear mongering or an idle threat, but realising that he hadn’t been wrong yet, I was suddenly apprehensive. What if the kingdom DOES collapse? That was literally the only thing the King asked of me.

“Don’t leave the kingdom,” he had said.

Monty stood there in the water and watched silently as as the bucket first righted itself and then slowly lifted out of the water; staring as it lifted out into the daylight and then out of sight completely.

I can’t do it. We have to awaken the King.

I couldn’t believe myself. We had worked so hard to get this far and with one thought everything was turned on its head. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite us, mate… I was a little torn but ultimately happy with the decision – I was going to wait it out beneath the mountain and do my duty alongside Monty. Heart set on it at last, I asked Monty to begin the long trek back down to the [treasure room]; since we’d found another mattock I thought we could give that crystal glass another go.

While Monty and I did a lot during the rest of my play session, we didn’t especially achieve a lot.

Embarrassingly, the crystal glass broke a second mattock, so we were still without gold coins. Next we visited the Face and confirmed that we couldn’t have any more questions answered, and we also re-read that dread premonition that kept us from venturing to the surface earlier on. Next we took a stroll around the [crystal pool], as I was convinced that one of the most stand-out places in the kingdom had to have more purpose – especially after taking so long to reach in the first place. We poked around down there for a little while but didn’t find anything new or out of the ordinary, and so we decided to head home. How about you finally sleep in your own bed, eh, buddy? You’ve earned it.

Arriving at home, I had a quick rummage through Monty’s diary in the hopes of finding a clue to what to do next, but he wasn’t any help whatsoever. Time up for the night, I tucked Monty in and stuck around until he finally shut his eyes and fell to sleep.

“This is the most comfy place beneath the earth for sure”

Monty