Hello! :D Ch. 4 is finally here, after almost a week of waiting! At least I don't, like, post one chapter every three months like some people.
AARRGHH! Every time I save, all the RTRs are deleted and I have to type them back up like five times! GRR! You people have no idea how long it takes for me to post. You should be grateful. X3
A small note: Wow, I got two more reviews RIGHT before I uploaded! Just in time, you two! :D
Replies to Reviews!
jetray790: Thanks again, most faithful fan. You are awesome.
xoxLEXIxox: You are in 2nd place for faithfulness and awesomeness. Keep reading! :)
rocket killer: Yes! You just made me less lazy! Congrats!
Herobrine: Nice idea, although I already know how this story will end. Don't worry, it will be a happy ending. Actually, more like bittersweet, from what I'm thinking now. But I'm not telling you what'll happen! You can't make me! Not even your scary username will convince me! :3
Now that those are over with, enjoy Ch. 4!
Chapter Four: No Longer IndepENDent
Strange whitish rock surrounded me.
I was on top of a giant pillar made of dark purple crystalline blocks, and the sky was black and fizzled like static. Tiny stars dotted the sky, giving the place a hopeless feel, like you could never return back home, like you would be forever trapped in your own despair. There was nothing living around me, except for two long black figures in the distance.
Were those... Endermen?
I looked at them, but they didn't turn around. Bright purple particles billowed around them like mist.
Wait, purple? Was that purple flash I saw the other day an Enderman?
The two Endermen turned and began to talk to each other. When they spoke, I could hear them in my mind, their voice echoey and distant sounding.
"Is this the young woman you speak of?" One of them said. They seemed to have noticed my presence.
"Yes," the other one replied. "Adeline."
They know my name? Stalkers.
"How is she still alive? The attack from the diseased should have killed her. Now that the distortion disease is spreading to mobs all over the world, they are very dangerous and aggressive."
"One of our kind saved her. He is a traitor and a fool."
So... Endermen have genders. Would that make a female Enderman an Enderwoman?
"Shall we kill him?" The first Enderman said excitedly, like he couldn't wait to commit murder. Wait, they didn't want that Enderman to save me? They wanted me to die? Or did they just want to see how I could fight them on my own?
...No." The second replied. "He can protect her while we wait. I am not saying she should have died. On the contrary, I am glad she is alive. We need her for the-"
"Hush!" the first Enderman cried. "She is here! She cannot know! But... may I see her?"
"Okay," the other one replied, after a moment of hesitation. "You are of a higher level than most Endermen. You can control yourself. Unless..."
But the Enderman didn't wait. He spun around, and looked me directly in the eye.
His purple eyes widened, and as his body began to shake uncontrollably, his jaw seemed to unhinge, becoming unnaturally wide.
"N-No!" The Enderman not shaking cried, grabbing the shaking one's arm to hold him back. "Curse it to the Aether and back! You should have waited, you impatient scrub! I was going to check for the distortion disease! You are infected! You're unsta- AAARRGHHH!"
The Enderman going out of control ripped himself out of his friend's grip, and charged toward me at an extremely fast speed. I tried to run, but my feet were glued to the top of the pillar, forcing me to watch him speed forward to kill me. I could see every speck of violet mist trailing behind him, and as the inside of his mouth began to wrap around my head...
"OOOUUUUCH! NOTCH-DANGIT! GAH!"
I woke up to the sound of that boy I met last night's yells of pain. He had his elbows on the crafting table, was clutching his eye with both hands, and teaching me some pretty nasty-sounding Minecraftian swear words.
It seemed that I had fallen asleep on the floor, so I stood up, my ankle still burning from when I jumped off of the pillar I made yesterday, and looked at him. "What happened?" I said sleepily. The sun had already risen, and I could see objects littered on the ground from when the monsters burned up. Bones, arrows, and pieces of shredded oozing meat with a greenish tinge.
There were shards of glass all over the crafting table, along with some strange brown lumps. I wasn't going to ask what those were.
Still clutching his eye, the boy replied, "Nothing. Just cut myself."
After a very awkward silence, I rotated the foot that wasn't sprained and mumbled, "Er... I never did get your name."
The boy thought for a moment. "...Shadow. I'm Shadow."
Shadow... what a cute- ahem. I said nothing. "I'm Adeline. Adeline Jones," I said. "You don't have a last name?"
"No," he said simply. "I'm just Shadow. It doesn't really matter if you have a last name, does it?"
"I guess not," I sighed, trying to smooth down my frizzy brown hair. I wish I had some sort of hair tie or ribbon or something. And what would I cut it with? There weren't any recipes for scissors in my book. There were things called "shears" used to cut wool off of sheep, but they didn't seem capable of neatly trimming human hair.
His hand still over his eye, Shadow asked, "Why don't you go hunting? We need more food."
I was rather hungry, but my ankle burned. It was difficult to stand on it. "I don't know, I think I sprained my-"
"Excuses excuses," he replied, and without making eye contact, he took a pork chop out from his belt and tossed it at me. I caught it and took a large bite. It was room temperature, but it still tasted really good. Once I finished it, I instantly felt full and a warm feeling began to spread through my ankle, and then it felt as if I had plunged it in ice water. I twisted my foot. It didn't hurt any more!
"Thanks," I said, grinning. I grabbed my backpack and took out my beat up wooden sword. He still didn't look at me, but he hinted, "You might want to make a new sword. That hunk of log won't hurt a thing after a few more uses. Try making one out of cobblestone."
I nodded, and walked over to my crafting table; the one Shadow was working on was his. I took some stone and sticks out of my backpack, placed one stick on the bottom square of the grid, and two blocks of stone on top of it. A tiny grey sword appeared inside the box next to it. I pinched the handle between my thumb and index finger and picked it up.
Suddenly, it grew to the size of a normal sword in my hand, and it was a lot heavier than my last one, because it was made of stone, not wood. The handle looked like it was made out of a shiny wood, like the stick had been polished. The blade didn't shine like the nice iron sword in my crafting book, but it sure looked sharp.
I swung it over my shoulder and waved at him. He didn't look up, but I thought I saw what little I could see of his face redden. I wonder why he wouldn't make eye contact. Did he think I was squeamish and didn't want to see that cut that he had? I didn't see any blood...
I walked out of the house and picked up all the items littered around from the dead monsters. Then, I looked around for any edible animals. After about 10 seconds, I heard a loud cluck so I turned and spotted a lone white hen pecking around. It seemed that there were wild farm animals in Minecraft, instead of birds and bugs and stuff on Earth.
In fact, I didn't hear any birds chirping. Did birds not exist here except for chickens? And when I dug that hole to hide from the monsters, there weren't any worms or bugs in the soil. The only bug that I saw was a spider.
The chicken was uninterested in me, and it kept pecking around without a care in the world. I snuck around behind it, then lunged forward, stabbing it in the neck.
Even though that was my second time attacking something, it was a pretty good shot. Beginner's luck, I suppose. When I killed it, I realized I hadn't attacked a monster yet. Would they be harder to kill?
The chicken squawked once and fell over, disappearing in a puff of scentless white smoke and leaving behind a whole, miniature floating chicken ready for cooking.
I almost drooled at the sight of the chicken, but when I heard a moo on my other side, the taste of a well-cooked steak flew into my brain. I had to have it.
The chicken flying into my backpack, I walked up to the cow (which was smaller than Earth cows, its head was about up to my chin) when its back was facing me, and stabbed it in the small of the back, which was effective on pigs and chickens.
It didn't work. The cow stumbled, but it was still alive. "MOOOOOOOO!" It bellowed, turning around and snorting. It began to charge towards me, and I panicked. It didn't have any horns, it was a female cow, but I bet it could stomp my face in if it wanted to. Holding my breath, I held out my sword, and the cow impaled itself right through the chest.
"MOOOOOOOOoooo..." It moaned, and its cry of pain faded into nothing as blood dripped from its mouth and it disappeared in a puff of smoke. I was used to it now, I didn't even blink as the smoke blew over me and drifted away with the wind.
After picking up the red, tasty-looking beef left behind, I walked back to the house. It seemed that Shadow had made a few improvements; the house was a bit bigger, and there were windows placed strategically around it to make it look nice and tidy. Red and yellow flowers grew under the glass panes, and I wondered how it took such a short time to grow them. Maybe you just place them, and it's that simple.
Anyway, I walked in and was greeted by Shadow, who actually looked at me, unlike before I left. His eyes were a warm, chocolatey brown, almost exactly like the brown lumps he was working with before I went to hunt. I almost melted when he smiled at me, but enough with the cheesiness.
I pulled out my meat, and Shadow looked them over. "Pretty good," he exclaimed. "Let's get them cooking, shall we?"
He took the meat and placed it in a second furnace that was not there when I left. Upon placing some lumps of coal underneath the rack the meat sat on, scarlet flames began to light up and immediately I felt pleasant warmth coming from it. I thought it was funny that something that was used for heating your house back on Earth was used for cooking your food here. Sighing happily, I inhaled the smell of cooking meat, my stomach moaning with hunger. I tried to distract myself so I wouldn't be too miserable, so I watched Shadow work on something with his crafting table. He seemed to be making something out of shiny silver bricks. Watching him work distracted me well, and once the sun set, the moans of the monsters almost made me forget about the food altogether...
Until we both jumped at the sound of a frantic scratching at our door.
~(|)~
"...Adeline?"
Beep...beep...beep...
Claire stood over a comatose brown-haired girl, tears sliding out of her wide, unfocused eyes and down her pale, thin face. "Can you hear me?"
Beep...beep...beep...
"I'm going to save you," Claire said. This was the fifth time she had visited today. Suddenly, she burst into raspy sobs. "I-I'm going to save you, even i-if I'll g-go into a coma t-too!"
Beep...beep...beep...
"Can you hear me...? No, I guess you can't... Never mind then. I'll see you later..."
Beep...beep...beep...
Sorry for the sad ending to this chapter. I thought there wasn't enough emotion, so I TRIED to put in some. I don't think I did very good, though... but I swear there will be more emotion. Lots and lots of-
...no. Not that kind. Go away, you sickos.
Just kidding. All you sickos can stay. See ya in Ch. 5! :)
~FMF
