A Hero's Hope
The Struggle For Survival
"Build a man a fire, and he will be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life." –TunaBomber
Do you sense it?
Yes, I do…
The Reader has clicked onto the link, and now the story of this world shall shortly begin…
Or perhaps it has started again, depending on if this is the first time the Reader has opened this document…
Yes, this being outside of our knowledge is one of the many unfortunate limitations of being the product of an inspiration…
Nonetheless, I'm sure they must be confused as to who we are…
Or perhaps they are not… Perhaps they already have begun to suspect who we are… Many of the readers have read the poem, you know…
Yes… but allow me to explain ourselves just in case…
Go ahead…
We are what makes up the universe… We are what makes up humans…
We are what dwells in your mind. In a way, we are what you are. But we are not you, you are us…
We are what you think we may be, and at the same time we are what you suspect we are not…
We are not the same as those who speak of the End Poem, rather, we are imitations of them…
Yes, and we exist alongside the potentially real universe that contains a world called Minecraftia… A world with quite a history, both positive and negative…
Yes… It is a troubled land indeed…
And you may want to pay attention, Reader, for there is a story beyond the story of the document you currently possess…
If you do pay attention, you might be able to learn something knew…
This story may change something within you…
You might view Minecraft or even life itself in a different light…
Of course, these are just mere predictions… This story may change the way you see the game, or it may not…
That is up to the Reader…
Reader, you may think we are droning on, and we must apologize… That is always looked down upon-especially when this is but the first installment of the series… But please have a little more patience, we are nearly complete…
Reader, there will be some parts that you might not enjoy. That is to be expected in a fanfiction novel…
Yes, many humans view various concepts of the game differently… Such as Steve and Alex being either siblings, or romantic partners…
In this tale, Alex was the sister of our hero…
How much more shall we speak? I sense the Reader may be growing impatient, but then again, they may be fascinated by us speaking as the storymaker's voice or for another reason. They may be getting annoyed at our flawed beliefs, however, there is no way of knowing for sure…
There is so much more we wish to tell you, but alas, we must wrap this up before the story begins, and then we'll allow the Narrator to take it from there… Do you wish to share it?
Yes… Reader, there is one more thing the storymaker would have us tell you before the story officially begins… The storymaker, he wishes for you to enjoy the story that he has prepared for you. He spent four years on this tale alone, and he gave up a lot in his life to piece it all together. He gave up too much, in fact, the foolish man. But if you, the Reader, do not enjoy this tale, then he insists that you do not read anymore of his tales if you do not wish to…
Of course, you probably would not have anyways. But keep in mind that the storymaker has put everything he could into this novel, and he has tried as hard as he could to go through the story in the eyes of a reader so that he could perfect it. And that can be very difficult to pull off when you are the all-knowing creator of the story…
Okay, I think the Reader has heard enough about the storymaker for now…
One final thing, we will make quite a few appearances throughout the story. Our purpose is to either reveal hidden events, or inform the Reader or hero, or just offer the storymaker an excuse to change the perspectives of the characters throughout the series…
Though, that will likely not be within this particular story…
And yes, he is not ashamed to have us tell you this…
Just remember to pay attention to the story and its series if you wish, so that you may unlock the lore of Minecraftia…
And do not forget to leave a review. The storymaker has had a rough time on other internet sites getting his work reviewed. Without criticism, a work cannot be improved upon...
Now, we shall speak no more. It is time for the Narrator to have their chance to explain the setting…
Have fun, and turn to the next page to begin the tale… of Steve, the New Hero…
Narration
It was an average morning in the land of Minecraftia. The sun had just risen. The chickens were letting out their usual morning calls to signify the arrival of dawn. Clouds floated lazily across the sky. And in a house in a particular plains biome, Steve was just waking up.
Steve let out a yawn as he sluggishly crawled out of bed. He then began to stretch his arms and legs, then his neck. The bones in his body crackled as he stretched them out. He had a nice sleep last night, along with a pleasant dream. What that dream had been about, however, he had forgotten. Something to do with sheep and iron ore…
Steve's stomach rumbled and he realized he was starving. He had not eaten anything last night; he had been too tired after the long day of mining for resources. Steve headed over to his food chest and went through it, looking for something that might make a good breakfast. Steve wasn't in the mood for any bread or vegetables, so he pulled out an already-cooked steak, along with a slice of watermelon. Then, he sat back down on his bed and began to eat his meal, starting with the steak first.
Steve's belly filled drastically once he had finished off the meat, then he bit into the watermelon slice, tasting its sweetness in his mouth. Within a few bites, the melon slice was consumed, being made into fuel for his body to function.
Steve felt stuffed and wondered if he should rest for a few hours so he didn't get a stomach ache. But he ultimately decided to instead do something for today that wouldn't require a lot of effort.
After a couple minutes, Steve got back up and headed over by his farming supply chest. He opened it up and started looking the chest, taking out a couple seeds and potatoes to bring with him to his farm. Steve went outside and his pet pig ran up to him from his shelter, oinking happily at the sight of him. Steve smiled as the large pig came to him.
"Good morning, Joey." he greeted, and the pig nuzzled his leg affectionately. Steve gently moved his leg away from the pig and proceeded to head towards the farm.
"Let's see if any carrots are ready to be harvested…" Steve said to Joey, who squealed in eagerness.
Steve and his pig got over to the farm. It was pretty big for a farm-he believed it was an eight-by-seven, but Steve was glad he invested the time in making it. The farm provided him and Joey with just enough food to survive on a daily basis. A lot of the crops were ready to be collected and replanted, but he immediately noticed a lot of the carrots he had planted a few days ago were missing. Steve knew that Joey couldn't have uprooted them because the pig's feet weren't good at digging through soil. But there was one animal that was. Rabbits. Steve instantly recalled that rabbits lived around his house and he groaned. He knew that he should've put up that fence!
Four out of five of the carrots he had planted were gone, causing him to groan once more. Rabbits were a huge nuisance to him and Joey. He would've gotten rid of them one way or another, but whenever he tried to kill one, it would bound away too quickly for him to catch up. And if Steve had chased them off, they would come back the next day. At least Steve finally found out what he was going to spend the day working on.
Thankfully, the last carrot had grown enough to be harvested. Steve grabbed the plant and pulled it up, plucking the carrot out of the ground and two others along with it. He placed two of the carrots back into the ground at different soil blocks then squatted down and held the third one in front of Joey.
"You want it?" Steve teased, grinning. The pig oinked impatiently, putting his front feet on Steve's legs in order to get closer to the carrot. Steve let the pig steal it out of his hand and the pig munched on it. Joey snorted with contentment as he downed the vegetable, then gave Steve a face of joy. He gave the pig a warm smile and patted Joey on the top of the head.
Steve turned to look at the nearby oak forest. He knew he would have to cut down a lot of trees to make enough fences to surround his large farm. He also didn't want to leave his newly planted carrots unattended for the rabbits to steal.
"Joey, I'm going to need you to keep watch over the crops." Steve instructed, "If any rabbits approach, just squeal really loud and I'll come right back to chase it off." Joey nodded in understanding and trudged over the vulnerable vegetables.
Steve headed over to the forest, pulling out his stone axe. Upon arriving at the first tree, he swung the axe against its bark. Cracks formed and he continued to swing. Within a couple seconds, he had destroyed the tree's first bark block, then grabbed it with his second hand and put it away into his inventory, and then went to work on the rest of the tree. He had cut the tree into pieces in less than a minute.
Eyeing a second tree, Steve went over to it and began chopping it down to pieces, then moved on to a third. He destroyed the third one as well, taking the raw wood blocks with him, and felt something land on the top of his head. Upon reaching up, he grabbed the object and took a look at what had fallen onto him. It was an apple.
Steve could feel his stomach getting empty just by looking at its red surface shining in the sun-even though he had just had breakfast earlier. Chopping down trees did require quite a bit of effort. And the apple was as fresh as one could get. So, Steve put the apple into his left hand so he could eat it while he worked. Steve was planning to stop at twelve trees.
As Steve was striking a ninth tree, he heard the sound of panicked squealing. Instantly, he knew what that meant and put his axe away, replacing it with a stone sword. He turned back and sprinted to the farm as fast as he could. He could see Joey chasing a white rabbit around the place, squealing with outrage. The rabbit had a carrot in its mouth. Steve ran faster, frantic to keep the rabbit from getting away with their food. The pest didn't notice Steve until it hopped right in front of him. He tried to hit it with his sword, but the bunny leapt to his side and bounded past.
Steve took off after the animal, sprinting at the fastest pace he could manage. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Joey running as fast as the pig could manage to the left of the bunny.
An idea formed in Steve's head and he pulled out something at random to throw. Steve got out an egg and threw it at the rabbit. The egg landed to the right of it, startling the creature into jumping to the left-directly into Joey. In that moment, the pig snapped at the carrot in its mouth and the two wrestled over it for a moment before the full-grown pig managed to pull the food out of its mouth.
Steve came in and grabbed the animal by the ears and lifted it into the air. The bunny tried desperately to break free, but he had a tight grip on it. Steve raised his sword, ready to kill the animal, when Joey's squeal grabbed his attention. He noticed Joey was repeatedly pointing one of his feet ahead. He wanted Steve to look, so Steve tried to see what the pig was pointing at. And then, he saw.
Shivering in a patch of grass were two snow-white little bunnies, staring straight at him with their redstone-red eyes. Fear was visible in the tiny animals' eyes. And that was when he realized that he was holding their mother. A third bunny joined the two-this one a creamy yellow, making it three babies. Steve wanted to kill the rabbit he was holding on to while he could. He hated how much of a burden they were to his life, and plus the rabbit could've made a pretty tasty stew. But knowing that he'd be indirectly killing the three baby rabbits as well, he just couldn't make himself do it.
Steve lowered the mother rabbit to the ground and she tried to bolt away, but with cat-like reflexes, he grabbed the rabbit by the foot. Steve pulled out a lead and attached it to her, removing the rabbit's ability to escape. He pulled out more leads and went over to the younger bunnies, getting ready to tie them to himself as well. They did not flee, which made things a whole lot easier for Steve.
"Joey, go back to the farm and replant that carrot, then watch over it." he ordered, "I'm going to relocate these bunnies." The pig snorted and went back in the direction of the farm. Steve gazed at the bunny family. Each of them eyed him fearfully as they huddled together.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." he assured in a calm tone, but his message didn't register with them. Steve realized they were wild animals-they didn't understand his language. It wasn't like Joey's case where he had learned to understand Steve's language over the course of years.
Steve headed off in the direction of where the birch forest was. The forest was pretty far away-it'd probably take half of the day to get there, and the other half to get back. But if he hurried, then he might've been able to get back home before the mobs came out tonight.
Steve stopped himself and realized he might as well kill two chickens with one cobblestone. He needed to map out the area around the forest, so Steve made a quick trip to his house and grabbed his unfinished map, along with an ink sac and a feather. He didn't grab any dyes-he would color in the map at a later time.
Once he was ready and set, Steve made his way towards the birch forest, tugging the animals along with him.
After much traveling, Steve finally arrived outside the forest. He unleashed the four rabbits. They were much more docile than earlier this morning, having learned their own way that Steve had no intentions of harming them. Upon being released, the animals steadily hopped around passively for a minute before the mom headed into the woods, the youngsters following close behind. Steve watched as the mother looked back at him a final time, then disappeared within the foliage. Hopefully, he had moved them a far enough distance so that they wouldn't return to his house. He looked up for the sun, and found it starting to head towards the horizon. Time was beginning to be a concern.
Steve took out his feather with one hand, an ink sac with the other. He put the feather with the sac and then crafted them into a feather with ink. Then, he brought out his map and began to walk back the way home, drawing the layout of the land as he went. He would have to color in the landscape at a later time.
By the time Steve made it back to his farm, the moon was appearing on the far end of the horizon. He could faintly hear the moans of the undead limping around him along with the hissing of spiders, but he couldn't see any mobs yet, which somehow made him even more nervous.
Joey was still standing guard over the carrots, which impressed him. Even though he had tried hard to teach the pig to obey him, in the end it was always Joey's decision. And Joey never liked to be out in the dark by himself. When the pig spotted Steve, he squealed with joy.
"Shhh!" Steve hushed quietly, "Joey, how about you go to sleep." Steve said to the pig, keeping his voice quiet to avoid attracting the attention of any mobs nearby. The pig grunted, slightly hurt, and went into to his small house Steve had built for him, pushing open the door, then kicking it shut to go to sleep for the night. Steve would've normally been happy with Joey, but this late at night was when mobs would appear. Steve placed down a crafting table and got to work, putting raw wooden blocks down to make planks, then making a ton of the planks into sticks.
All of a sudden, Steve heard a growl from in the woods behind him. A zombie emerged from the trees and slowly stumbled towards him, moaning with an animalistic groan. Steve started to panic, but reminded himself to stay calm and work. Zombies stumbled very slowly, so he still had some time to craft. He steadily arranged the sticks and planks in the correct order.
As the lurker of the night approached, Steve crafted the ingredients into fences. Then, he placed them in his off-hand. Steve drew his stone sword and swung the weapon to his right, the force of his movements turning his body around, and he knocked the zombie back before it could attack. The zombie flashed red and grunted with pain, but steadied itself and continued to limp closer to him.
Steve swung his sword again, this time hitting the undead being at its head, and the mob was knocked to the ground. He then finished it off with a stab of his sword down at it, causing the mob to disappear with a final grunt into smoke.
Steve knew it was only a matter of time before the next mob or mobs found him, so he quickly went to work and placed down fences around his farm. His farm was so large, and fences required a ton of wood to make, so Steve was not expecting to have enough.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of a bow firing, followed by a projectile whistling through the arrow. And then, his arm was filled with pain as he felt an arrow penetrate through it. Steve had a difficult time keeping himself from crying out. He looked over to the edge of the forest and spotted the skeleton that was responsible for the arrow, and quickly placed the last fences he had, which turned out to be just enough to block off the entirety of the farm. Steve ran back towards his house, narrowly avoiding being hit by a second projectile. He had begun to hear the moaning of even more zombies when he had bolted inside and slammed the door shut.
Within seconds, there were zombies at his door. He could see them through the notches in the door as they pounded their fists against it, moaning their haunting defeated voices persistently.
Steve went away from the door and over to the crafting table by his bed. He sat down on the bed and set his injured arm onto the table, then braced himself. As fast as he could, he pulled the arrow out, wincing a little in the process, and then set the arrow down.
Steve laid back on his bed and sighed. His arm still hurt, but it wasn't nearly as bad as when that arrow was in. Feeling exhausted, he decided to skip dinner again and go straight to sleep to rest off the troubles of the day. He didn't even need to cover himself under the blanket. Within moments, he fell right to sleep.