"C'mon, Xephos! Hurry!" A voice yelled to Xephos, who was fumbling with a control panel. The door squeaked and churned but finally opened. Xephos rushed into the pod, and yelled, "Captain! You have to come! This is the only escape pod left!" The Captain shook his head. "I'm sorry Xephos. A captain must always go down with his ship." Xephos couldn't believe it. The man he had looked up to, idolized, and befriended for the past four years was giving up his only chance for survival?
Xephos couldn't handle the loss of his friend. He dashed forward, planning to pull him into the pod regardless of whatever he said. But before he could grab his arm, the door shut in front of him. The Captain gave Xephos a final, teary eyed salute. The tall man pounded on the glass door's frame, shouting the Captain's name. The pod took off, and Xephos nearly fell on his back. He watched as the Captain got smaller and smaller until the starship shook violently, and a gigantic explosion erupted, sending the escape pod off course. Xephos took one last glance at the burning ship before being knocked out cold by flying debris.
Xephos woke up, drenched in sweat. He frantically looked at his surroundings, remembering his location. He was in a small, wooden shack, and his best friend and companion, a short but bold dwarf, slept on the opposite side of the building. The worried space man breathed a sigh of relief.
He took this calm, peaceful moment to glance at the wooden door beside the dwarf. Rays of sunlight pierced through the door's open windows. A smile took over Xephos's face, remembering the previous troubles of last night.
"Mornin', pal." The voice of the dwarf startled Xephos, who was yawning and stretching his dwarf body. Honeydew seemed to be in such a deep sleep mere seconds ago, Xephos had to wonder how he had suddenly awoken. "Looks like it's finally day. We better get started on finding a new base of operations." Honeydew grabbed his flimsy wooden sword and a couple of wood planks off the crafting table, and opened the door, stepping outside into the winter wonderland they resided in.
"I guess I'll search for some materials, while you dismantle this piece of crap hut." Xephos told Honeydew, who sneered in offense. "Hey! It may look ugly, but it served its purpose!" Xephos rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm going to get started." He walked towards a cave opening, hoping to find some coal or a spot to build a house. A proper one, this time. Honeydew began taking apart the shack, leaving a small pole in the middle in remembrance of their first night.
Xephos found a nice little clearing in the mountain, with an open ceiling of the sky above, and rocky walls surrounding it save for two openings. While surveying the area, he spotted a vein of coal above him. Realizing its importance, he built a makeshift staircase using dirt to access the coal. He swiftly crafted a wooden pickaxe and began hacking away at the coal veins in the rock.
Satisfied with his work, Honeydew followed the path of human-sized footprints left on the snow, so he could track down Xephos. He found him collecting dusty lumps of coal across the ground, inside the recently discovered clearing. "Welcome to the Yogcave!" The spaceman announced, and Honeydew smirked, "The Yogcave, huh? I like it! Needs a little lighting up, though." He grabbed some of the coal pieces Xephos had just collected, and together with some sticks, he lit up a few torches, which were placed around dark areas of the Yogcave. The duo began collecting dirt and mud from the floor of the clearing to block the large openings on each side-along with the ceiling-to prevent an invasion of mobs into their cave.
Unbeknownst to them, a dark figure lurked in the shadow of a distant tree, watching them from above the opening of the cave. The figure stared at their actions for a couple of minutes before dashing off silently into the forest.
"Oh crap, it's getting dark again!" Honeydew realized as he watched the sun drift towards the horizon. Xephos placed the last block of dirt required to seal off one of the openings before Honeydew plonked down a wooden door he retrieved from the shack. "Well we better hurry the fuck up and build the ceiling, or it's going to rain creepers on us!" Xephos shuddered as he spoke, knowing fully well what a creeper would do to the two of them. They scrambled to grab the last remaining pieces of dirt, and finally finished the roof after a brief panic. Relieved, they wiped a bead of sweat off their foreheads.
"Y'know, we could build a balcony or s'mthing near that waterfall in the back. It looked quite picturesque." Xephos told his friend, crafting himself a new pickaxe using some of the stone he had gathered. "First we focus on practicality, aesthetics come afterward." Honeydew replied, before adding, "You know, I'm a bit of an architect myself." Xephos pictured Honeydew constructing a skyscraper, with it then coming crashing down later. He replied, "Are you?" Honeydew nodded in return. As the moon finally began shining in the sky, a wolf could be heard howling in the distance. Honeydew planted a few stairs near the front door, along with a wooden chair for him to sit on, and sit he did. "Ahhh.. that's more like it," he sighed happily.
Like the night before, the two slept on a mixture of grass and wool. Despite the lack of a real bed, they fell asleep content knowing they were in a secure, roomy environment.