Welcome, one and all, to the very first story from Amanda the Huntress. A warning, if I may, this first chapter is just a pilot that I originally published just to make sure I was able to write within the world of Minecraft. This is my very first fanfiction, so bear with me. Happy reading!

A MINECRAFT TALE

PART ONE (PROLOGUE): IN THE BEGINNING

I have been asked by my friends to write down everything that has happened since the Shadowfall, and since Rose gave me her puppy eyes, well, I couldn't resist. Today is the first day of spring, the day I started writing this. I'm in my manor in my city, FireForge, with the afternoon sun streaming through the window. Everyone is gathered downstairs, swapping stories and doing our other usual things. I'm here in my study for peace and quiet.

For the past hour, I've been staring at these blank pages and wondering where to start. I asked Dragon earlier what to say, and I got this flurry of interruptions from everyone. Some wanted me to write this in a strictly military manner and account the events as they happened exactly as they happened, but Dragon just touched my arm and quietly told me to write this as I remembered.

Specifically he told me to start at the very beginning. So, I suppose that's what I'll do.

This is how it all began, from the very beginning. The very first thing I remember.

My story began when I awoke in a vast land of hills and trees, sky and water. Everyone's tale starts out this way. When I opened my eyes, I had no name, and no memory of where I was or how I got there. All I had was this...curiosity. I wanted to explore. See what things did. Survive- no, live. I wanted to live to the fullest.

It was full morning when I first opened my eyes. There was a very vague breeze sifting through the trees overhead, making the leaves and grass whisper and brushing lightly on my skin. I blinked a few times, confused and disoriented. I tried to gather my thoughts. Who was I? Where was I? What was this. I sat up and looked around. I was in a forest of trees, each with pale bark dappled with black. They were birch trees, that I knew. But how did I know that?

I shook my head to clear it, and tried to stand. At first I was too dizzy. Then I tried again with a little more success. I was standing on a slope, with trees as far as I could see to my left and right. Downhill, I could hear water. Uphill, the slope grew steeper and the trees denser. I started off downhill.

I came to the banks of a slowly-flowing river. Beyond the lazy waters, I could see a plain that stretched on for miles, inhabited by only a few wild sheep and birds. I took a deep breath of the clean, river-scented air. The world around me was so quiet, so peaceful.

Suddenly, on an impulse, I walked up to a tree and struck it with my fist. Cracks appeared on the trunk. I hit it again, and again, until a section of it broke free. To my surprise, the rest of the tree remained where it was, unmoved, while the punched-out section bounced away and shrank into a cube small enough to hold in my hand. Intrigued, I walked up and picked up the miniature piece of birch wood.

As soon as I had picked it up, I knew exactly what to do with it. Focusing for a second, I called up my inventory and placed the wood inside. I'm still not sure to this day how the inventory is supposed to function. I don't know how we are able to carry loads of things without using hands or backpacks, but that's just how it is in the world I live in.

I took the rest of the tree in a similar fashion and decided to set off downriver. There was a flat strip of sand running along the shore of the water, which made walking easier. I discovered many things that first day, such as how I could only handle four objects at a time with one hand. But, I also discovered that if I split one of my pieces of wood into four planks, I could rearrange the planks into a workbench. The workbench could hold up to nine objects, which was just what I needed.

On another impulse, I started experimenting with the rest of my wood. I set down the workbench and discovered that if I split two planks, I would get two pairs of sticks. By mid afternoon, I had managed to make a tool: A pickaxe. I put away my workbench, thinking to simply keep moving, when I spotted a small cave in a hillside. There was mostly only normal rock and slag and dirt, but I spotted a patch of rock with darkly stained mottling, which I knew had to be something more. I took a gamble and took a swing at it with my new tool, and sure enough, it was a large vein of flammable stone. Coal.

Over the rest of the afternoon, I gathered more wood and tried out digging new things with my hands and then with my pickaxe. Sand and dirt and wood were easy, but rock and any other ores required the pick. I was about to try making another tool when I realized something: It had just gotten significantly darker.

I looked out over the horizon and sure enough, the stars were coming out. I heard an ominous growling behind me and was gripped by an overwhelming sense of dread. I turned around.

There was a man in tattered clothes with green skin and rotting flesh behind me, growling and snarling and coming my way. My eyes went wide, and I remember rather clearly my first battle in the Minecraft universe: I was scared, and very, very clumsy. The zombie took a step towards me, and I took a step or three backwards... right into the water. I lost my footing and splashed down hard into the river. As I came up coughing, the zombie attacked.

Terrified for my life, I swung hard at the creature with my pickaxe again and again, ripping up its body until finally, the undead corpse vanished in a cloud of smoke, replaced by a few strips of rotten flesh that quickly washed away in the current. Panting, sweating, and shivering from the cold water and night air, I looked around. To my dismay, there were dozens of other creatures already wandering around in my surroundings. Many zombies, skeletons, giant spiders, and bright green quadruped things that resembled mobile cacti walking around. Luckily, I hadn't been noticed yet. I took a deep breath, and dove under the surface, swimming away.

I swam and surfaced for a long while, and it was nearly moonhigh when I found what I was looking for: A place to shelter for the night. There were high cliffs looming over the river at this point, and there was a small indentation in the rocks just big enough for myself, my workbench, and a little elbow room. I crawled out of the water, exhausted, and rested on the rocks until my limbs regained sensation. I would be sore, but I could still build.

I put up planks all around the indentation, closing it off, and put up a door that I made on the spot. Then I moved my workbench inside and put together some torches, lighting one and placing it over the door. Then I sat down on the floor with my back to the wall, and before I knew it, I had dozed off. I woke up early the next morning very sore indeed.

The next few days were a combination of fleeing for my life and making many ingenious discoveries. I learned how to make weapons, and better shelters, a better bed for myself, and how to kill any monsters that came near me before they could do me harm. I learned how to kill and cook cows and use their leather, and craft a fishing line to catch food from the ever-present river. Then my wandering came to an end.

It was late in the afternoon one day and I was looking for a good shelter, when I stumbled upon what looked like a scattering of wooden stairs over the top of the next hill. Curious, as always, I went over the hilltop and, to my amazement, discovered civilization. There were houses- dozens of them!- extending over the plains, with gardens between them growing wheat and carrots. There was a gravel road running through the entire town, and a stone church tower in the center of it all. And people! I had been running around alone and, as I realized right then, very lonely. But now before me there were other people! Living, breathing, walking, and talking, and wearing clothing of every color. I sat down on the grass and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

My life changed again over the next week. As I discovered, there were two breeds of people in the world, which I found out was called the Overworld: the Villagers, who controlled commerce and held together these little settlements, and the Steves, like myself, who were the miners, builders, and fighters. I am a Steve with a white shirt, as in, I am female, but usually Steves are blue-shirted males. And Steves are very, very rare, usually being lone nomads of vast streatches of the Overworld.

But it just so happened that a great many of us Steves were fated to meet. Only two days after my arrival in the village, another Steve came to the village. We met, we talked, and for some reason, our conversation settled on the topic of names.

"What is your name?" the other Steve (quite childishly) asked me. Confused, I answered,

"I... You know what, I don't know. You know, the Villagers said that we Steves should have names, but I guess I don't have one." The other Steve paused and pondered for a moment.

"My name is Dragon." he said. I raised my eyebrows.

"So you have a name, but not me?" I felt that this was a rather unnecessary conversation indeed.

"Yes," he answered, "I do. I just made one up for me, only a moment ago. You should think of one for yourself, so the other villagers have something to call us." Suddenly, I felt very silly for not thinking of that. I quickly thought of a name for myself.

"My name is Huntress." I said. Dragon grinned and held out his hand.

To this day I still cringe at the memory of this conversation.

"Pleased to meet you, Huntress. Know of any good places to eat in town?" We shook hands, and when we discovered that the only public buildings in town were the church and library, we decided to start building our own. Don't get any ideas- we never got that close. To this day, we see each other as good friends, and veterans of the Overworld. Nether of us have time for romance. No one does in our world. We're too busy building and mining.

Another Steve arrived three days later, while Dragon and I were busy building our own things. This Steve got the same conversation with Dragon that I had on names, and the new Steve named himself Sky. There were several others: Dawn, Lee, Wolf, and finally, Rose. Six of us, together to build anything we wanted.

Under our combined efforts, we built many things. I built my city of FireForge, with several outlying towns and settlements, including Ember, where we often met to eat and play games. Dragon, with my help, built Diamond City, the most magnificent city in the Overworld. It took us weeks to get together all the rare minerals, but in the end, all six of us stayed the night in the wondrous central castle. All our finest works were complete.

This is the beginning of our tale.