Zetta cursed when she fell out if a tree. She landed on her back with a thud, and laid still as she waited for the pounding in her head to go away.
She'd found herself on this accursed island just a few days ago, with no memory of how she got there or where she was. All she knew was she was trapped on an island, alone, surrounded by monsters that were especially dangerous at night and she'd had to build a treehouse to get away from them.
Grumbling, she attempted to stand, only to come face-to-face with a creeper. The damned thing stared at her with its cute black eyes, and tilted its head innocently before blowing up in her face. An Enderman laughed at her from his hiding place in the shadow of a tree.
"Shut up, you jerk!" she yelled at him, which only made him double over in laughter.
With a huff, she dragged herself to her feet, glaring in the general direction of the Enderman as she gathered the axe she'd dropped and the loose dirt from the explosion. She couldn't look directly at him, she'd found it provoked them yet sitting here yelling profanities at him didn't. Enderman were strange creatures indeed.
His laughing eventually quieted, and when Zetta looked over, he seemed to have gotten bored and wandered off. It was strange he hadn't stuck around to torment her, they found it funny to try and make her look at them. Apparently it was amusing to see her stubbornly staring at the ground instead of looking at them.
Shrugging, she headed back to her treehouse. It wasn't far, she'd been gathering wood just a few trees away from the large oak it was situated on, and she had managed to climb up and navigate her way through neighboring trees until finally reaching her door just as the sun was going down. She'd had to make the path to her treehouse practically impossible to navigate to keep monsters off her doorstep.
She dropped her axe on her crafting table by the door as she walked in, and then wiggled out of her armor, inspecting the hole the creeper had left in it after she did so. 'I need more leather to fix this.' she thought. Digging around in the multitude of chests strung about her house yielded no results however, she was out of leather.
She looked out the window on the eastern side of her treehouse. She had been attempting to survive on this island in the middle of nowhere, and there were no cows on said island. There was another island to the northeast that did have cows, however it was what she called Ender Island. The first time she'd gone, she had met an Enderman that had tried to trick her into looking at it, and ever since, they'd started showing up on her island. Not to mention the place was riddled with the things, and was practically nothing but caves. She hated going there, not only was it a full day trip, she had to swim there and there was no shelter to escape the wrath of the night mobs. The island was void of trees.
She needed leather though, and Ender Island was her only option.
Zetta triple checked her gear as the sun rose. She had two of every tool, new ones made from stone, and her armor even though it did little good. Figuring it'd be a quick trip, she decided not to bring any wood or dirt to save room, she shouldn't have to build an emergency shelter if she doesn't stick around too long.
She set off, glancing around warily as she closed her treehouse door behind her. She could see a couple of creepers and a few spiders moving around on the ground below, and traveled across the treetops for as long as she could to avoid them. When she did get to a point she couldn't reach the next tree, she climbed down, eying every dark shadow around her and moving swiftly and carefully. Though it was day, creepers and spiders weren't bothered by sunlight, and there could be zombies and skeletons hiding away from the sun in the shade of the trees.
She arrived at the northeastern shore without incident however, and glared at the half swamp, half ocean area she had to swim through to get to Ender Island. The water wasn't deep for most of the way, about waist height, but it still took a long time to get through and she would waste a lot of the morning just swimming, or attempting to walk through the salty swamp sludge. She ignored her discomfort however, and stepped into the cold water, moving slowly past the tiny swamp islands.
When Zetta reached the end of the swamp area, she was met with a more oceanic place, where the water was deeper, clearer, and she could see squid swimming about, along with her destination island on the other side. She dove right in, ignoring the squid and focusing more on keeping her head above water. She wasn't the best swimmer, and had never really been too fond of being in it.
When she finally stood on dry land again, the sun was nearly right overhead and she was exhausted. But now she was faced with the hill she'd found cows on before, and was happy to trudge along up the steep, rocky slope if it meant she could get some leather, and possibly lunch too.
However, at the top of the hill where she could see down all sides of it and some of the rest of the island as well, she couldn't see any cows. She stood right at the top of the entrance to one of the island's many caves, and glared down at the stone of its floor, thinking 'Either cows are complete idiots and mass suicided by drowning, or the monsters in here killed them.'
Zetta was half tempted to have a temper tantrum right there, but she'd probably wake up the cave spiders and that was a dreadful idea. Instead, she looked over at the other hill on the island, it wasn't exactly a hill but wasn't big enough to be a mountain, either. It was practically completely hollow, she could see straight into the dark cavern inside it, and was pretty sure there was a skeleton standing guard just inside where she could just barely see the edge of an old bow peaking out from the shadows.
She moved down the deserted hill, past the spider cave and skirted around the cave she'd seen tons of Enderman come from, toward the other side of the island with the other hill. Even though there weren't cows here, maybe they moved to the other side and she'd get lucky.
When she'd finally climbed to the top again and looked around though, the island was definitely deserted. All of the cows were gone, and it was nothing but a monster home now. It made her skittish to know there were monsters right below her, and she decided to book it before it had a chance to get dark. But luck was not in her favor today, and she was filled with a cold dread when she saw the sun get covered by clouds and a thin drizzle of rain start to patter on the ground. Not only did monsters come out at night, they came out anytime the sun wasn't going to shine directly on them, and that meant during storms.
And here she was, in the mob heartland.
She spun around when she heard a skeleton climb toward her, his bones clattering together loudly, signaling his approach. She swung at him with her stone sword, knocking him back far enough she might have a chance at getting away. When she attempted to climb down though, her foot caught wrong in the muddy hillside and she slipped, tumbling to the bottom.
Zetta stifled a noise of pain, panic rising when she noticed the gash in her leg. She probably couldn't walk now, not with that, and she didn't have anything to build a quick shelter around her with. She watched a swarm of zombies head her way, a creeper among them, and knew her time was up. This was the end, and she was going to die here in the rain.
She became angry, angry at the weather for dooming her to death, angry at the monsters for always attacking her when she hadn't done anything to them, and angry at herself for being stupid enough to come out here in the first place. "God damned RAIN!" she screamed, glaring at the dark clouds above her. She'd managed to build and survive this long, and it was rain that was going to kill her. She looked up at the creeper that was now beside her, and the zombies still slowly moving toward her, and sighed, resigning herself to her fate. She closed her eyes as she heard the familiar "Sssssssssssssssss..." that was the warning sign to a creeper detonating, waiting for the blast that would be her end.
Instead, however, she heard the sound an Enderman makes when it teleports, and then the creeper exploded somewhere behind her. She looked up, straight into the eyes of an Enderman standing in the rain beside her.
Zetta's eyes widened when she realized, one, he had just saved her from a creeper, two, she looked him in the eyes and he still hadn't attacked her, and three, he was standing in the rain. Water is like acid to the things.
She could already see faint burns on his skin from the water, and knew that had to hurt. She wondered why he was still out here with her, letting himself get hurt by the rain when she was his enemy.
Her question was mostly answered when he reached down and picked her up, teleporting them both away to her island under the cover of a tree, and then to the door of her treehouse. She opened the door from her place in the Enderman's long arms, and he strode inside, pushing the door shut behind him and setting her on her bed before stepping back to a respectable distance away from her.
Zetta blinked. 'What the hell just happened?' she watched the Enderman as he stared at her, before tilting his head questioningly at her injured leg.
She flinched. She'd forgotten all about it, and being reminded of it made her aware of the burning pain the gash was causing. The Enderman narrowed his eyes at her, before moving across the room and rummaging through her item chest, coming back a moment later with a bucket of water, some wool, and a length of cloth. She stared in disbelief as he wet the wool, getting his hands wet in the process and burning them, before holding the wet wool near her leg and looking at her, as if asking permission to touch her.
She nodded dumbly, and then flinched as he cleaned the mud from the gash carefully, still not seeming to notice or care about his burning fingers from the water.
He dropped the makeshift sponge into the bucket a moment later as if it were on fire, the first normal thing yet, before tightly wrapping the cloth around her leg and tying it off. He then disappeared for a moment, presumably to empty the bucket because he appeared again a moment later and set it back in the chest he'd found it in.
Zetta was still dumbstruck, a stupid look on her face while her mind tried to figure out what just happened. The Enderman chuckled at her, and she blinked when she recognized the sound. "You're the guy from yesterday."
He nodded mutely, a faint smirk just barely visible on his dark face.
"... Why'd you help me?" She asked, genuinely curious. He just shrugged, before holding his hands in the air and making odd motions. It took Zetta a moment to realize he was spelling out letters in the air. 'Enderman can write?' she thought.
"IDK." He spelled out.
"..." Zetta stared at him. "You're writing in abbreviations?"
"Easier." He spelled, giving her a grumpy look for making him spell out a full word.
"Well at least you can communicate for the most part. I guess." He huffed at her for that. "Hey, what's your name?"
"Elek." He spelled. "You?"
"Zetta."
He nodded and she stood, testing her leg. "Not bad. I can't believe you touched water just to help me, though."
"Not a problem." He took the time to spell out. "Happy to help."
"Well, I guess I won't be going outside for awhile." Zetta grumbled, looking around her supplies chest and taking out wood, sand and stone. When Elek looked at her questioningly, she rolled her eyes at him and said "I can't leave, but I can build." before putting the sand in the furnace and climbing a ladder in the corner. Elek followed her up to the second floor, and then to the roof, where it had stopped raining and she started work on another part of her house.
She worked all through the night to keep herself busy, building a watchtower on her roof so she could see the furthest edges of her island. By the time she finished it for the most part, it was midday the next day and Elek had long since fallen asleep. Zetta had never seen a sleeping mob before, and she had to admit, it was pretty cute. Normally whenever she saw them, Enderman and any other monsters were trying to kill her, not sleeping peacefully on her roof, slumped into a dark pile. The shadow of the newly built tower protected him from the sunlight, as well.
She smiled, sneaking past him downstairs to make ladders, a trap door, and to gather the glass she'd made for windows. He was still asleep when she came back up, and it took her another few hours to add everything else to her tower.
The sun was starting to go down when she finally placed the last piece, the trap door. Zetta leaned against the stone wall she'd made around the edge of the tower roof, watching the light drain from the world.
"Damn, I forgot the torches." She grumbled as the tower roof was plunged into darkness. She turned to go downstairs again to get them, but was met with glowing purple eyes on a dark shadow instead, and she squeaked in surprise. The shadow turned for a moment, placing torches on the corners of the wall, before turning back to her and she was met with Elek's smiling face. "Hai." He spelled out.
"You're a jerk, you know that?" Zetta grumbled.
"I brought your torches." He spelled out in a huff.
"Okay, thanks for that, but you still scared me."
"Chkn." Elek spelled, before blowing a puff of air in her face.
"Abbreviation-obsessed jerk."
They both smiled. This was going to be one interesting friendship.