In a town very far away there once lived a pair of siblings. One of the siblings was a brave boy who enjoyed exploring the town he lived in and when he could convince his friends to accompany him he explored the neighboring countryside as well. The other sibling was a talented girl whose cooking was delicious and won over anyone lucky enough to get a chance to eat it.
This pair of siblings lived an early childhood full of joy, surrounded by happiness and love that came from their parents, their friends, and that they gave to each other. Sadly this early childhood would soon take a tragic turn once their parents died of a terrible sickness.
Once the parents of the siblings passed away due to the sickness ravaging their bodies their children had to mature very quickly. They no longer got to live a normal or happy childhood, instead they had to learn to survive at any cost, including taking things that didn't belong to them. These acts that were purely meant to help them survive caused them to lose face with the families of their friends and eventually their necessary but unpleasant actions caused the parents of their friends to tell their children that they could no longer be friends. Instead of showing kindness and compassion to children who had lost their parents these adults only looked at the actions of the siblings and not what caused them, which would lead to much sadness in the near future for everyone.
Though as a very young boy the brother was willing to explore the countryside when he was with his friends, he was very scared to explore it alone once his mother and father were no longer there to help him and his sister, and once his friends had been told to stay away from him. That being said, few things motivate someone as quickly as hunger does and the gnawing hunger he felt inside him and that he knew his sister felt eventually urged him to go into the countryside alone.
The specific place the boy went to outside of the town he and his sister still lived in was a mountain that wasn't very far away from the town. It's here that the boy and the girl truly begin their adventure.
After exploring the side of the mountain for many days and going back & forth between the mountainside and the village to feed his sister the boy eventually discovers a fork in the mountain. This odd place is one of the few that he's come across wherein there's signs that tell him where he can go. If he goes in one direction a sign tells him that he'll eventually find something curiously named "The Hidden Orchard". If he goes in the other direction the sign he reads tells him that he'll eventually reach another town, and in doing so a fresh start.
Which path does he take?
Does he go to [[The Hidden Orchard]]?
Or in going to the other town does he accidentally pay his first visit to the [[The Old Man In Another Town]]?Upon seeing the sign, the young boy is filled with curiosity about this weirdly named and supposedly hidden orchard. He decides to go towards it. His journey to the orchard is long and filled with boredom as the path towards the orchard past the sign is much like the journey towards the orchard before he passed the sign. There's plenty of rocks to get in the way but the path is fairly safe even if it takes longer than he'd like to get there.
Upon reaching the edge of the orchard the boy is stunned by the beauty in front of him. He is standing at the edge of a wide clearing where dozens of trees grow and prosper. His breath is taken by the sight of it and he can only stare wordlessly at the sight of dozens of trees bearing a multitude of fruit. He stops and takes in this sight before beginning to silently cry tears of joy. This orchard could solve one of the biggest problems facing him and his sister: hunger. So he runs from the edge of the clearing to the tree closest to him and grabs a single fruit. He takes a bite of it and even more tears begin to stream down his face. The fruit tastes delicious and just a single fruit fills his stomach.
He is at the orchard for a while, gathering a variety of fruits to take to his sister. Once he prepares himself to leave, he stops at the edge of the orchard and turns back to look at it. For a second he realizes that this is too good to be true. He wonders what this orchard is doing here and who put up the sign in the mountains. But then he realizes that he simply doesn't have the means to answer those questions right now and that these questions will simply have to be answered at a later date.
The boy begins the journey back home, hoping that his suspicions are unfounded but knowing that they likely aren't.
This right here is the option that in the full release will allow readers to continue the myth, and the other option is a original ending that is good in nature. Not all endings in the full release will be good in nature but that one is and the myth itself has at most a neutral ending not a very good or bad one for the characters involved. This is it for this particular demo. I mostly wanted to have some fun here and if people enjoyed this mini choose your own adventure then I'll expand upon it and make the entire myth readable! If I wrote out the full myth there'd be several original instances for endings as well as there being an ending which is how the myth ends in the actual story. Please let me know what you think and also be sure to go meet [[The Old Man In Another Town]]! The boy bravely decides to try and start over in a new town where he and his sister could take advantage of the fact that no one there knows who they are. He walks past the sign that says it'll lead him to another town. He walks and he walks until he comes across an old looking home. He looks at it, silent, for a brief moment before he hears the inside of the home shake. He takes this shaking as a sign that there's someone in the home, and that they are coming out. He's nervous but he wants to introduce himself to this new person.
A kindly looking old man slowly shuffles out of the home. He looks around for a few moments, unsure of what he was expecting to see since he heard someone walking down the path leading to his home. He smiles once he sees the boy, and the boy cautiously waves at him but there's clear hope in the boy which the old man picks up on.
The two converse for a few minutes with the boy deciding to tell the old man of their plight and the old man's reaction and kind words motivate the boy to excitedly run back where his sister is. Along the way he grabs dinner for the two of them and after hours of walking eventually arrives at where he and his sister live. He excitedly tells her that tomorrow she'll be coming with him on a long walk to a new place and this excites her so she cooks his favorite meal. After this the boy and his sister go to bed hoping for the first time in a long that maybe something good is heading their way.
The next day the two of them walk and walk before eventually they arrive in front of the old-looking home. The old man who lives in it is there awaiting them and he happily greets them. The boy and the old man are quite friendly and understanding of each other but the old man is more careful around the girl, since this was their first meeting. After conversing for a few hours the old man tells the two of them of the grandson who lives very far away.
He thinks for a moment before deciding that what he's thinking about doing is a good decision. He nods, to no one in particular since the children themselves are not privy to his private thoughts. "I want you to come live here with me." He says, and waits a moment for them to react. When he sees that he's shocked them into speechlessness he chuckles to himself and adds to what he previously said, saying "Yesterday I went and made my grandson's bed. It's just one but you two strike me as the sorts who share anyway. I'm hoping you'll stay with me and that you won't have to be hungry anymore. I am no replacement for your parents, but you'll be at the age where you're going off on your own soon anyway, so don't consider me a surrogate parent. Consider me a friend."
And with that, after months of being orphans and suffering at the hands of hunger, the orphans gained a new family member, a home, and would never face down a demon.
Congratulations! You've reached a good end. This isn't the cannonical ending though. That is not accessible in this demo, but if you enjoyed this and you want me to expand on this, let me know! If you want to see the other ending that's readable in this demo you don't have to go back.
Just come with me to [[The Hidden Orchard]] Hello! My name is Luciano Gonzalez and I write urban fantasy, conventional fantasy, and "Isekai" style stories on Royal Road Legends. I am also deeply passionate about mythology from Central and South America. This is a demo of an idea that I had about a Choose Your Own Adventure Story inspired by a myth from the Tawahka people of Central America (Honduras and Nicaragua specifically).
The myth revolves around a pair of siblings who at the very start of the story become orphans. This read will allow for readers to make choices about what it is that the characters do. In this demo there are only two choices, one that in the full release would allow for characters to continue the story and another that would allow for players to experience an original ending early on. The full release would have a lot more choices than this but this is mostly to drum up interest. This is also early enough in the story that nothing supernatural happens in this demo, but believe me there's a fair amount of supernatural events that occur in the actual myth and that would occur in a full release of this CYOA.
Now if you're interested in continuing on, I hope you enjoy [[A Tale Of Two Orphans ]]!