Chapter 2 The Diamond Sword

POV Bone: "Do I really?" Bone whined to his mother. Now that the men of the village were missing, and the women now extremely busy with the extra work they had just acquired with no warning, the children were requested to help transport some supplies to the previously attacked building. Bone, being asked to help along, was trusted with a map and co-ordinates to the village, the vital personnel of the trip.

Yurei nudged her son out of the door, responding with a kind smile and a calm command. "Now don't you come back here until the job is finished!" The door slammed shut in front of him after.

"Bone-san!" Said a too familiar girl's voice. Ji-gu, standing next to Rex (Bone's cousin), waved towards him from the front gate. Silk stood by a lever which opens the gate, which she pulled hesitantly.

When the three set foot on the dirt ground outside of the obsidian walls, Silk called out to her little girl. "Be safe you hear me?" Little Kumo-chan patted her new hat as a response.

Rex muttered angrily, "Why the Nether do I have to go?" Bone was tempted into playing a prank on the two but he too wanted to get home before dark.

"You're big and strong! You can help us carry all this stuff to... what's the village called again?" Ji-gu replied. Bone checked the paper containing the co-ordinates for the village.

"Spruce Village, and..." He calculated the distance. "2 kiloblocks away from here... thirty minutes..."

Rex ruffled up his hair, which is under a beanie, angrily. "Fu-" He remembered that there was a 9 year old with them. He decided not to finish his sentence and replaced it with, "I don't get paid enough to get out of bed." Ji-gu giggled at the remark.

POV Ji-gu:

The fifteen minutes of walking was only stricken with the little girl being at awe of the world around her, seeing the grass change color as they switch biomes, seeing the variety of trees they had passed by, even some passive mobs they had never seen but in books. A flash of grey caught her eye, it hid behind a tree. The curious girl couldn't help herself but to chase it. Around the corner of the tree was a small wolf pup that wagged it's tail like it was a tamed wolf that returned the curious eyes of Ji-gu. It barked once and Ji-gu was caught in a trance of cuteness. She began to pet it while the rest of the party easily found her when she split from the group. Blame her clothing that looks almost like her mother's, except it's white.

"Let's go," commanded Rex as he continued to walk along the path of the woods. Ji-gu stuck her tongue at Rex and resumed petting the pup. Bone decided to set up a small prank by putting a firework on the other side of the tree and lighting it. The result made the pup run for the hills, and the sounds of howls all around.

Bone ran towards their destination with a speedy start, yelling, "I bet their bites are worse than their barks!" Grown wolves emerged from deep inside the woods, snaring and growling at the poor girl. She'd only scream and run to Bone.

It took only 5 minutes of running to get to the village, the village that looked like no one attacked it in the first place. It's tall buildings were still intact and there was a funeral service going on in the parkway.

"I think you messed up the co-ordinates smart one!" Rex yelled at his younger cousin.

Bone examined the map once more and found that this is the right place, saying, "If the x and y values are switched, then we would of ended up in this lake." He pointed at the large lake on the map to Rex but he was more interested with the only picture on the board of the funeral service. He recognized the face, the husband of his father's friend, Alice.

"We should check this out."

Ji-gu was the only oblivious one here, she never knew what a funeral is or looked like, she thought it was just people attending an outdoor sermon. She followed the two cousins when they began to walk towards the empty section.

NO POV:

"And we have here today, the widowed wife of John Coal." The priest made way on the podium for a woman dressed in black.

"My name is Alice Coal..."

Rex mouthed, "Oh shit" which Bone saw from the corner of his eye.

"What's up?"

Rex turned to Bone and whispered into his ear. "That would be 'Auntie Alice' our old mans were talking about. She apparently could beat the living senses out of both of them at the same time if she'd tried."

Ji-gu whispered in Rex's ear asking the most dumbest question in Minecraftia, "Is it's someone's birthday?"

Rex used his hand to move the girl's face away from him. "You have much to learn idiot."

The Funeral speech is brief, mostly due to the poor woman leaving early to cry. The party decided to follow her to her bakery, which seems to have been expanded since when both Rex and Bone last been here.

"Auntie!" Rex yelled to the woman. She looked up from her handkerchief to see the young man, which she hugged seconds after eye contact. She was hysterically crying on his shoulder. "Calm down, you still have Nico." Alice released the hug and nodded.

"Thanks, I shouldn't forget about him." She took a few seconds to regain her positive composure which did not easily show because of her eyes which were red from crying. "So why are you guys here?"

"Our daddies are missing so we are taking care of their jobs!" Alice petted Ji-gu, who giggled childishly.

"Why aren't you a responsible five year old?"

"I'm 9!" She corrected while still giggling.

Alice stopped petting the spider girl from shock and waved them into the bakery, saying "Let me treat you guys to something, you must be hungry!" Rex and Ji-gu decided to go in and to take a break while Bone took all of the supplies and went to the town hall. The previously all wooden bakery is now a stone brick and... brick building which kept its café feel and design. Alice's son, Nico, sat on a chair on the furthest part of the bakery. "Nico, say hi!" The mute child waved to the three visitors. "Do you want anything to eat?" Nico nodded lightly. Ji-gu and Rex took their seats next to Nico, who stared aimlessly out the glass panes. The three sat in silence, with sounds of something cooking in the back room, which bothered the little girl to a point where she held her hand out to Nico.

"Hi! I'm Ji-gu Kumo Lee!" Nico grabbed her hand, shook it, and resumed looking out the window. "Uh... You're supposed to say your name when someone greets you..."

Rex fixed his beanie and answered her unspoken question, "Nico is mute, he cannot talk." She replied with a dumb, "Oh..."

Nico, in universal Minecraftian Sign language, or UMSL, "Please leave me alone."

"Whatever..." Rex picked up Ji-gu by the back of her shirt and moved to a different seat in the bakery. Alice emerged from the side door besides the front counter with a tray of 3 sandwiches in a paper foil and a small baggy. She was about to say something but knew what happened at the sight of Nico's mourning. She placed a sandwich in front of Nico, which he took without looking, and gave the tray to the Woodland Children.

"The bag's for Bone, it's his father's favorite sandwich too." Rex waved her off and took a bite out of his sandwich. "Also, I have something for you Rex." This placed a bit of interest of Rex to Alice's voice, but she left to the backroom when he expected her to talk more. Ji-gu took a bite out of the steak and potato sandwich and squealed from satisfaction.

"Do you always do that when you eat?" Rex asked obnoxiously. Since she had to go back to the back room, he know it is something big, not puny like a small toy. He toyed with the rosary around his neck as he ate.

Alice opened the side door again, carrying a long object covered with a cloth of some sort. "This would be the thing that I wanted to give your father, but since the little girl-"

"Ji-gu!"

"... Ji-gu over there said that your father is missing, I think you may find this useful to you." She hands the object to Rex. He took it and moved a small portion of the cloth to see a glint of a light blue.

"Why are you giving me this?" Rex asked, usually he'd keep something as valuable as this but the item, Alice's diamond sword, was her only means of self defense.

"Cause I want to."

"You can't fight without this!"

"Who says I want to fight?" Rex opened his mouth but sulked back to his seat and continued eating. "I give up, no more fighting for me!" She made the most fake laugh that annoyed Rex to a point where he shoved the item back to her.

"And who said I want to either? Look, I'm only taking the stinking supplies here, and go back home. So I'm NOT taking your freaking sword, NOT going to fight, and NOT giving a fu-" And again, Rex remembered that Ji-gu sat next to him. "... I'm not going to give a Nether about this."

Nico's eyes widen as he just remembered something.

Alice hugged the sword and gave the look of being depressed again. "Okay, then I'm going to have to give you three some emeralds, it's late and you said you don't want to fight. I have enough for all three of you to rent a room in the inn..."

Bone entered the bakery, stretching his right arm. "Damn, that was some heavy liftin'. What's up people? What are we gonna do? It's too late to go home now!"

Alice repeated her previous statement. "I'm going to lend you guys some emeralds for a 2 person room in the Inn."

"What about the third guy?" Rex added.

"Girl." Alice corrected. "Silk was an awesome sower so I'm thinking..." Everyone, except for Nico of course, looked at Ji-gu who was finishing up her sandwich. "She might be able to make a hammock just like her mother." Ji-gu crumpled up the paper foil into a ball and wrapped it with some string that came out from the palm of her hand. Then she held her hand out vertically and played paddleball.

And she noticed everyone is staring at her. "Is there something on my face?"