Discoveries.
By TitaniumBlossom
(Author's Note: Damn Minecraft Beta update. All of the servers are either down or are horribly buggy. Going to write this story in the meantime.)
She really needed a fishing pole. An entire settlement, built in 13 days, after countless days before wandering the world, and what she needed most was a fishing pole. During the nights, she had always boxed herself in with dirt, until she finally could create a house. Now that that was done, she needed a faster way of getting reliable food at night. Her farm would suffice in bursts, as a zone of her crops would mature, and she would harvest it, and then plan again.
The problem was inconsistency. The wheat would grow at an unequal pace. One day she would be feasting, the next few, going hungry.
She had crafted armor. A helmet, chest-piece, armored gauntlets or leggings, and boots. Each piece was heavy on her body, but seemed to reinforce her with a sort of confidence of strength. Now, making her way through the caverns she had found under her house, she came to the untamed zone.
She had never placed any torches on the other side of the heavy metal door, but she had a chest on her side of the door, where she kept her best tool of all: a diamond sword.
She had dug deep into the earth, dodging lava and deep pits, riding waterfalls and hewing stairs out of the sides of the shaft. And then, at the bottom of it all, diamond.
And now, the sword, a sharp, deadly, impenetrable killing machine. No longer would she have to listen to the hisses of spiders, the ruckus of skeletons and zombies. With 3 stacks of torches and 5 pieces of cooked bacon, she was in for the long haul.
With a sigh, she flipped the switch and the door creaked open, revealing a dark valley, stretching out for miles, a river cleaving it apart. She stepped forward, letting the door close behind her and pulling out her sword, throwing a few torches down at the entrance so that she could find it again. She continued, down the mountain, leaving a breadcrumb trail of torches.
Her insides suddenly clenched in fear at the sound of a groan. A zombie. Behind her.
She spun, sword extended, hitting the zombie right in its chest. It didn't stop. She attacked again, backing up to keep the bastard out of range, bringing the sword cleanly through its head. It tumbled over, leaving behind a feather.
Once again, she continued on her hike down the mountain to the river. There was the sound of a spider, and she rushed to it, seeing three of the buggers.
They saw her too, and rushed her all at once. It was her first time trying to kill one of the 8 legged beasts, because she had never ventured far enough at nighttime.
To start off, she attacked the first one with a swing that was poorly angled and sheared off the top of its body, skittering a bit off of the exoskeleton but damaging it heavily nonetheless. Another one rushed her, while the other one tried to recover, but she had the proverbial big guns, and stabbed the new assailant through its thorax, before slicing its head off, in a quick movement.
In the distance, she heard a skeleton clunk a bit, and a zombie answer with a groan.
She dodged the bite from another spider, rolling away, almost going down a hill but recovering.
She stood up and charged at the spider who had just attacked her. With a lunge, she got its head impaled, then pulled her sword out and forced her deadly blade into its chitinous thorax, ending it.
The wounded one seemed to have recovered, so she ran up to it and mangled it, putting it out of its misery.
She picked up the rest of the string, just in time for two skeletons.
Their ghastly faces leered at her as they tried to flank her, lining up parallel to one another, with her in the middle. They fired, and she ducked, and the arrows flew across and hit the opposing skeletons.
The two got into a fight, launching arrows at each other until one was dead and the other one was staggering about.
She shattered the skeleton with a strike, and its bones fell apart. She was getting tired, and she had enough string, but in the distance, she could see 5 zombies, right in her path back to home, so she decided she would head into the forest near the river.
The forest was uncharted land, and it stretched far into the distance. Long before, from a hidey hole in her mountain, she thought she had seen movement down there, but she was lonely, and her mind was tired, and she passed it off as a trick of a delusional mind, hoping for something.
And now, in the dark, as she placed torches, she felt an exhilaration as she went ever deeper, past trees old and new, into a land full of mystery and mist.
Of course, that was until a creeper blew up behind her, and she was flung headfirst into a tree. Her armor had been damaged heavily, but her sword was still intact. Her head swam and her vision grew dim... until she heard five zombies, who must have followed her from the entrance of her house.
Her eyes shot open, and she brought her sword up again, standing up and charging them.
The combat became routine. She could no longer move fast. Instead, she swung heavily at them, taking hits and giving them too, until the zombies were a bloody hacked up mess. Standing over their corpses, she ate two of her bacon... and then saw 10 skeletons, rushing through the crowded trunks of the forest.
She ran, following her torches, but she was too deep in the forest. The sun was rising, she could see through the leaves, but the trees were too shady. The skeletons were trying to advance through a small gap, so she took out her flint and steel, and started striking sparks at the leaves above her.
The trees caught on fire immeadiately. She stumbled away from the tree, still shaken from the creeper, and leaned against the side of a steep hill, as the fire spread relieved... Until the second creeper exploded behind her.
She was tossed forward violently, losing all of her armor, leaving her in torn an weathered blue shirt and worn jeans, still holding the diamond sword. She ate the rest of her bacon, but it turned out not to have been cooked fully, giving her only some of her health back. The rising sun was coming, but the fire wasn't moving nearly fast enough, and it was still quite a long while until the sun came up, and the skeletons were still coming at her.
Hurriedly, she rushed to a tree on fire and ducked behind it, peering around, until she heard the whoosh of an arrow behind her, and a figure rushed past her, bow in hand shooting at the skeletons. He was clad in the same jeans and weathered blue shirt, but had leather boots and a helmet, and was holding a bow.
She kept looking at him as he stopped and stood his ground, shooting at skeletons and taking many out, until one came from the trees on the side and shot him in the abdomen, and then, when he staggered, in his chest. Another arrow came whizzing out, but all the fire came from two sides, and at a slow pae.
Only two skeletons. She reasoned. I can take them out. She snuck around the trees behind the skeleton that had surprised the archer, who was now laying on the ground, in considerable pain, judging from the blood and moans.
She surprised the flanker with two hits, and it shattered with a nice sound. The other skeleton had noticed her, and had started firing arrows across the clearing, but she did not falter. Instead, she stood up and charged the skeleton, with a "RAAAWR" and a stab to its body, followed by a kick into a hollow, where it shattered.
The fire raged on around her, and she could still hear the moans from the shot archer.
She rushed over to him, and picked him up, taking a closer look at him. He had pulled out the arrows, which had not pierced him deeply, but allowed him to bleed more.
He was surprisingly light, and was built like a feather, thin and wispy, with sinewy muscles the only mark of strength on him. His clothes were lightly camouflaged by leaves and daubs of green mud, as if he lived in the trees, and survived by hiding. He had nothing in his pack except his bow, 5 stacks of arrows, a lot of dirt and wood. This person, whoever he was, was about her age, but she didn't know what her actual age was, so she was going by appearance.
She opened her door and entered the caverns below her house. The sun rose behind her, a few minutes too late, and she continued through the naturally formed, torchlit pathways, passing her main shaft, which was locked behind a door because of how dangerous it was. Her storage room was next, but the many chests within had not been filled.
She opened another door, letting a pressure plate close it, and came to her enemy proof entry method- a waterfall. She jumped into it, and just swam up it, to her own special nook, where she lived and made things.
She lit up a furnace to fight the winter morning chill that was freezing her sodden form, and dropped the ever light archer on her bed, a cloth filled sack with a feather stuffed pillow.
She made some mushroom soup with her stash, and brought it over to the shivering archer.
She pushed a soup filled spoon to his mouth.
"Eat it." She commanded. "Its good for you."
The injured male frowned. "Hot. Too hot.", He gasped.
She forced the spoon in his mouth.
"Its freaking room temperature, you baby.", She admonished. "And anyway, Mushroom soup can't be hot, cause I didn't make it with a furnace."
She spooned some more soup and fed it to him.
"So... What's your name?", She asked.
"I don't have one. And you?", He asked
"You know, its the strangest thing. But I don't, either. I'll call you Archer, because you love bows so much, and you can-" She stopped, because after finishing the soup, Archer had fallen asleep.
She pulled the blanket up and tucked it around him. Food healed, but to really get rid of your wounds, you had to rest.
She was almost dead on her feet, but she didn't want to sleep on the hard stone floor, and the bed was taken, so she would have to either put her instincts behind her and sleep on the bed, or craft her own.
In the end, she slept on the bed, anyway, because she was so damn tired.
She slept through the day, and woke in the night still tired, but hungry, so she tried to stir herself. To her surprise, Archer had snuggled up right behind her, like a kitten, curled up and purring. (Except he was snoring.)
She lightly lifted his lithe arm off of herself and got up to the workbench, where she finally used that string to make a fishing rod.
Casting the line into the spring that was the source for the waterfall, she waited.
Soon, she had 5 smallish fish, which she chunked into the furnace to cook. The night was kind of cold, but the furnace made up for it, and she looked out of a wall that was actually made of glass, at the vast oceans that spread beyond, and the small islands that dotted it.
Her home was built into the side of the mountain, at its peak, and she had the view of a lifetime. All that space made her think.
Why? Why did I just happen to meet a boy with all that space out there... And the movement, down in the forest... Was that him, this whole time.
She turned to look at him. Tall, tanned, scarred. She usually stayed in the mines all day, because she had a torchlit forest on the roof of her shelter that she could use for wood, and it was a lot safer inside. She was probably pale, not that she had looked in a mirror, and she didn't get into many fights, so she was pretty much featureless.
Her hair was black, she knew, from when she had cut it to keep it out of her way, and his was brown, and shorn short.
She had lain his bow on the bedside table, but he had already grasped it and was holding it like a teddy bear, in replacement for herself.
The dangers of living out there... The constant danger of monsters. He lived a frightened life, scared of all the hazards. I have it easier. What if he leaves? If life in the mine becomes too boring... That would suck. How can I get him to stay?
She looked at him again. Attractive, yes. But was she attractive?
And anyway, what am I thinking? Seducing a random stranger? What if I get pregnant? In the middle of this wilderness... Even if he could provide for me, what guarantees he would? I don't even know him.
Might as well just let him leave if he wants to.
When the fish were done cooking, it was daytime. She took two of them and left the other 3 on the bedside table. She hefted her pickaxe and slipped it onto her back, as well as some dirt, keeping the torches she hadn't used with her.
I spend most of my time mining... She thought. But look what I found just after going just a bit on the surface.