Disclaimer
I do not own of the characters here in this story. They belong to Telltale.
Jesse pulls the bowstring back. She holds her breath as she lines her target within her sight. She gives one last gulp.
Please hit Please hit Please hit, Jesse repeats over and over again in her psyche. Entrusting all her hopes into the arrow between her fingers. She releases. A long breath escapes her as the arrow takes to the air.
It flies swiftly before landing. Jesse's breath hitches on impact, thumping as it lands.
It misses by a couple inches from the target.
Damn it, Jesse gives out a weak sigh, her arms loosen making her bow droop down. After all that practice, why couldn't she still land a perfect shot? Was….was it something she was doing wrong?
A cold wind blew past her, coldly caressing her skin as it rustled the leaves. The forest was a painting of red, orange, and yellow, in various different shades.
The air was crisp and cool. Leaves continuously fall from the towering trees that made up the forest they call home. The Autumn sun sat above the tree line, dyeing the landscape in orange. Autumn brought with it a beauty Jesse thought was mesmerizing. It almost threw her back to the days of her childhood, but she discarded the thought.
Questions ran through her head as she made her way to the target, with every footstep bringing a crunch. Was it her footing? Were her hands shaking? They didn't feel like it. With the great harvest's end and winter peering around the corner, finding food needed to be a priority in the coming months.
Her bow was her life, and yet it served as a grim reminder to something else. Jesse's grip tightens as her gaze becomes more hardened. Her minds become muddled with thoughts yet all of them branched from a single word "uncle".
Jesse shook her head. There was no need to remember such memories. She had to focus on her archery, they were going to depend a lot on it come winter. She grips the arrow and with a forceful tug, it comes off and she puts it back in its quiver.
"Hey, Jesse!" Jesse turns her head up slowly, following the direction of the voice. Her gaze comes up to their tree house. A medium sized structure that sat atop a birch tree, now more prominent in the collection of orange-yellow leaves.
"Hey! Right here!" Jesse redirects her gaze before landing on the silhouette of a woman waving at her.
It was Olivia Rines, Jesse's close friend and their certified tinkerer. It was common to see her building and taking apart gadget, she even works late into the night (much to the despair of Jesse's eyes) though she couldn't figure out why she was on the roof.
"Hey, Olivia!" Jesse waves back, a smile appearing on her face.
"Hey! Can I ask you a favor?! Can you please get my wrench? It should be on my desk!" Olivia yells on the roof. Well, Jesse was planning to go up to the house anyway, and she wouldn't mind helping Olivia either way.
"Sure!" Jesse yells back.
"Thanks!" Olivia gives Jesse a smile before going out of sight. Jesse quietly sighs as she holsters her bow onto her strap at her back. She tightens it a bit before making her way to the ladder and climbing up the wooden ladder.
Opening the floor door that leads into their abode, she quietly makes her way in. The light outside shined through the open window, painting the room in an orange tinge. Clusters of books were scattered around the room, which to Jesse only signified one thing.
Yep, Olivia's at it again, Jesse muses. The cleanups, Oh the cleanups. If only Olivia had developed the knack to clean up after herself, it would've saved Jesse time and it didn't have to force her to clean Redstone dust that got into the most uncomfortable of places.
A sharp squeak registers in Jesse's ears. Oink! Oink! Oink! Make that a cluster of sharp squeaks. Jesse hears the tumult of tiny bumps on hard word coming ever so closer toward her.
Oh no, Jesse imagined herself in the next few moments, down on the ground, wet. It sent chills down her spine, but seeing as there was no escape, she closes her eyes and assigns herself to her fate.
A barrage of pink paraded her vision as a force made itself known on her chest, pushing her back. Her feet leave the ground for just a second. Then impact. Her tailbone hits the wooden floor sending a pang of pain throughout her body.
If that wasn't enough, a slippery organ of slobber continuously ran through her face, coating it drool, yet Jesse couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Haha, Rueben! Stop!" Jesse calls out through her laughter. With one last lick, Rueben plops down from her chest and sits beside her, looking at her with his plumped face.
Ugghhhh Yuck, Jesse's mind reels in disgust. Well, it's off to the river later. She glances. Her best friend still looking at her with that goofy face of his. Jesse pats him on the head, giving a small smile as she picks herself up.
Okay, now that that's over with, just gotta give that wrench to Olivia, then we're golden! She concludes in her internal monologue. However, she suddenly realizes again on what she had to deal with every day.
The living room was a clutter of thrown out clothes and books. A stain of what Jesse saw as spilled milk (hopefully) was still prominent on the living room floor. She turns vision her vision again, this time to the kitchen….until her nose was smacked by the odor. A parade of smell what seemed to be the accumulation of Axel's wet socks danced in her nose as she saw the number of dirtied plates and the flies that surrounded said plates.
Gods! Wasn't it Axel's turn to do the dishes!? Wait..it's Axel. Of course, he'd forget! She internally screams out as she reels back, pinching her nose in the process to rid herself of the godforsaken smell.
Living with three of her best friends have been…..less than comfy at the very best, especially when two of those best friends have an almost zero sense of hygiene and one is a pig. What with Olivia forgets to take a bath every so often as she gets too into her work and Axel is just….Axel. At the very least, Jesse can give Olivia credits for trying to be sanitary.
Okay, I'll deal with that later, just gotta get that wrench, She walks down to an opening, Rueben in tow, to the left of the living room to see three adjacent doors that lined a hall leading to a ladder that led upwards to the roof.
Jesse casually strolls to the middle door. Olivia's room. Half expecting a cloud of Redstone dust to hit her square in the face the moment she opens that door, she shields her mouth and nose with her hand.
Here goes, She turns the doorknob and opens the door….to see exactly what she'd expect. Her workbench was all but covered with Redstone Dust and bits of scrap metal. At least her bed is clean, though I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, Jesse sighs internally. Her walls didn't fair any better as well. Most of it was covered with what Jesse assumes to be Olivia's plans for future projects.
I should really talk to her about cleaning up her room a bit later, Jesse walks over to Olivia's work desk beside her bed. Among the tools, dust, and parts that were cluttered on the wooden surface, she quickly grabbed the wrench and made her way out.
Climbing up the ladder was a bit of a hassle, especially with the fact she had to grasp a wrench and a carry a pig with one arm and to climb a ladder with the other. Nevertheless, the tension on her shoulders broke free as she opened the trapdoor to the roof, thanking the Gods that she didn't have to lug two heavy things around anymore.
"Oh, Jesse!" She hears her name as she turns to her head to the source. The dark-skinned woman looked at her with a smile as she was kneeling, her hands on a…..ughh…Honestly, she didn't know.
"Hey, Olivia" She gives a smile back to her friend as she walks over to her friend. "Here's the wrench you needed," Jesse says as she hands out the wrench from her pocket.
"Thanks", Olivia grabs the wrench from Jesse's hand immediately slinks back into her tinkering.
"I sorta' forgot it when I made my way to the roof a while ago, thanks again," she says in between the tinkling and the cranking of the wrench on her new doo-hickey.
"No biggie," Jesse says as she takes a seat on the wooden edge of their roof. "Hey, Olivia can I tell you something?" Jesse says as she takes a seat on the wooden edge of the roof, overlooking the vast forest.
"What?" Olivia stops as she turns her head over her shoulder to look at her.
"Well…..your room," Jesse addresses…but she didn't expect to see Olivia with a curved brow. "Well-uh not saying you're a slob or anything (Well you kinda are) well umm-" Jesse babbles as she tries hard to explain. "Well, it's kind of a mess".
"Uugh well, its just that, I kinda forgot to clean up last night after testing a new prototype," Olivia says as she scratches the back of her head. "Sorry"
"Olivia…." Jesse breaths out as she looks at her. She knows that Olivia's work means a lot to her, ever since they met, but she's gotta at least clean up a bit. "I'm not asking you to do anything big, it's just that I'm asking you to just clean up a little"
Olivia stares blankly at her for a short moment. "I know" she acknowledges as she turns back to her work. "I'll try alright"
Jesse offers a smile as she plops her back down on the wooden surface, feeling the cool air tickle her skin as it moves past her. "Good, at least that makes spring cleaning a lot less crappy" She chuckles.
Olivia gives a chuckle back as she rotates her wrench. It's afternoon winds continue to lightly blow past them as Jesse gives a deep breath. Why couldn't afternoons like this last forever? It would be way better than dealing with a crap ton of problems day-in and day-out. She sees Rueben trying to catch a leaf that fluttered in the wind with his tiny feet. The sight forces another chuckle out of her.
"aaanndd weeere done!" Olivia exclaims as she rises from her stance and puts her hands on her hip.
"What exactly did you finish?" Jesse queries as she gets up. Not many of her projects included outdoor settings so Jesse was definitely curious as she looks onto her friend.
Olivia offers a light smile. "This is an improved Daylight Sensor" She moves out of the way so as to let Jesse see her newest gadget. It looked like your average Daylight Sensor with a chrome finish and a whole lot more wires than one usually has.
"I connected to all our light switches so that when spawn comes, we wouldn't have to turn every switch manually" Olivia explains.
"Cool! Guess we can rest a bit easier now. Thanks, Olivia" Jesse gives her a warm smile as she picks herself up from the wooden floor. "Though what made you want to build it?"
"I kinda got worried when I saw one of the mobs ugghh "creeper" was it? got too close to the tree from a night before," Olivia says as she looks outward to the trees below, with a glint of worry in her eyes. So that explains it.
Mobs don't like sunlight, a fact that was taught them before they knew how to speak properly. So come every spawn, most people would hide in their houses and sleep through the night. Well. Most people. People had been relying on torches and Redstone powered lighting ever since to keep the mobs at bay until better light sources were found at least.
Jesse nods in approval. The mobs were dangerous. Many a village has been ransacked by them, with little to no survivors. They were lucky enough that they had good enough lighting to drive back most of the monsters away.
"That reminds me of something, Is Axel here yet?" Olivia asks as she twists her head a little.
"No, not yet. Why?" She saw Axel leave for the town in the morning. He said he was just going to some materials for the builder's competition but knowing Axel…..Jesse's not too sure.
"I hope he didn't get something stupid again we don't want a repeat of.." Jesse clutches her shoulders as she begins to shiver lightly at the thought. "..The cake incident". Jesse never thought she would even come to hate sugar. Sugar was life but sugar had betrayed her.
"Don't remind me. I couldn't sleep properly for a week." She gulps as she shivers slightly as well.
Jesse shakes herself out of it. The past is the past. The frosting won't hurt her now.
"Okay, I think we'd better get ready for the builder's competition," She says before she calls to Reuben. Olivia grabs up her tools as she heads over to the trapdoor entrance. Not wanting an awkward silence, she clears her throat, before a question escapes her mouth.
"Hey, Jesse would you rather fight a hundred chicken-sized zombies or ten zombie-sized chickens?"
In my opinion, I never did like the direction of how Story Mode. Yeah, it was a fun ride but it felt more of a fantasy-esque adventure set using Minecraft elements than an actual original story about the world of Minecraft.
So what I want is to incorporate more fantasy tropes and see how it does. You may see changes here like last names, that's because I wanted the characters to have a coherent backstory, characterization, and development as the story goes on and adding a last name just seems to cement them more into the story (at least for me anyway). I also wanted to test a thought I had while outlining the plot, What if they had magic based powers?... and I thought why couldn't they? I'm basically writing the story in my own light so why the hell not? and that's how the original thought became this.
and with thought came the birth of this story. I hope you guys enjoyed. I'll try updating this bi-weekly (or earlier if I have enough free-time but with exams coming I'm not so sure). I'd really like some constructive criticism as I go down this path, so I hope you guys will help. So with that, I'll see you guys later!