Sorry for the wait folks, I've been having a bad lot lately, but this isn't my sop story. A longer chapter that I got the idea from two words. Strange ways of getting inspiration, eh?
'Thanks, Al, it seems you saved me there.' I said, extending a hand. He appeared to be a good guy,but, if what I had read was correct, then all pigmen where until attacked. It was only the good ones that forgave you. He took my hand, shook it, then walked up to the tree behind me, and collected it with his axe. 'Two stacks, that will do for today. Oh, almost forgot.' There was a pop sound that marked that a block had been placed, or taken, and a small oak sapling stood in the place of the tree. 'Follow me.' Al said, swinging his axe into a holster on his back, and starting to walk through the forest. Shrugging, I followed him, as did the others. It wasn't long before we came into a clearing, filled with saplings. I realised this must have been where Al had been cutting wood. After a while, we saw some wood houses in the distance, one larger than the others. 'That's mine. I have extra wood, so I use it.' Al pointed out. On the way in we where greeted by the moo of some cows in a pen, being cared for a person with a strange nose. One of the veterans from the squad walked up, seeing my confused look. 'That's a villager, new guy. They prefer space, so they usually run the small farming communities. We have to get our food from somewhere.' Then the man walked backwards, and talked to another person in the squad. On the way in, we saw a board of black wool with a sign that said- welcome to black-wood, the famous with the best forest left alive! Printed on the front. I guessed this was the town board, because on the back was a few messages about the news. I didn't see anything interesting, but as I turned, one caught my eye. It said- A wild stallion, as well as its eleven mares, have been sighted around the city lately. For any who feel up to it, you may attempt to catch them, but beware. This stallion is stronger than most, and will charge anything it sees, and does massive damage. You have been warned. I smiled, stopping the others, showing it to them, and being congratulated on my sharp eye. The commander said, 'This will help us a lot. Good job, bombs, you can have your pick of the horses. If there are about twelve, and ten of us, that means we could have...eight of us on mustangs, for battle, that leaves... ok, we could have two men on two separate two-horse carts. That means four chests. More than enough room. We'll catch them tomorrow though, it's getting dark.' Al gestured to follow him some more, and brought us towards his house. 'There is enough beds for all of us. There's mine, at the top, my geust, with two single beds, in the room next to it, and another ten small rooms in the basement. Bombs, as that appears to be your name, you and the commander can take a bed each in the guest room, the rest of you can take the basement rooms.' We all nodded our thanks, and walked into the house, going to go find the rooms. In about half an hour, everyone met up in the lounge room, as Al called it, and looked out a glass wall, that showed the west half of the village, then an ocean, with all the squid, and amazingly, the fish, that you could only see if caught in the game version. It was a beautiful scene, to be honest. There was, right in the distance, at the end of your vision, a hilly grassland, dotted with trees. It looked uninhabited, a little piece of untouched paradise. I smiled at it, then my stomach growled. As if in response, the skeleton's next to me's stomach growled. Al smiled, and whistled. Another Pigman, or, to be exact, a Pigwoman, came down the stairs, bearing a tray of bread, and another with bottle's of water. She wore white leather, with no hat. 'Hello, friends of Al. I'm Al's maid. He gets paid quite a bit for the wood, so he took me in under his wing, when he found me starving. I do this to earn a living. Bread?' She said, holding out the tray. Everyone took one, and some water, when she offered it. The she squinted, before hissing angrily. 'One of you! Your lot killed my family, human!' Al stood up, and wrapped a hand around her shoulder. 'It's ok, he's not like him. He's good. He was fighting the diamond helm.' The girl wiped a tear from her eye, before curtsying at me, saying, 'I'm sorry, I have had bad experiences with humans. Please forgive me.' I, of course, forgave her. My real life family had been taken from me, so I knew how she felt. Although, I thought, I didn't know which was real now. It seemed real here, and seemed real there, it was...confusing. I walked to the forge, which Al happily showed me, saying that as long as I paid him back for the materials using the money from what I sold, I could use anything. I opened a chest labelled Iron and started smithing some blades on the anvil. By the time of went of to bed, I had five different blades, hanging from hooks on the wall. I smiled at my work. One was for me, when my diamond one broke. Two where for the groups protector, one was for Al, and one was for the other pigman. Something seemed off about that pigwoman, she didn't look right. She looked...softer. I meant that in a skin way, not battle skills. Pigmen had tougher skins, to naturally survive the nether. It was usually calloused on the hands from the swords. But hers...wasn't. It was strange, but I didn't speak up about it. I didn't want to upset home, after all this. I soon fell asleep in the warm bed. I woke when a glint of sun came through the window. I smelt some beef, and followed my nose to a kitchen, where I saw the female pigman, in an apron cooking food. What I had realised, was that no-one else was here. 'good morning. Where's everyone else?' She smiled at me, a returned to coking for a minute. Then, she replied, 'Al went wood cutting, and most of the others went either with him or to train. It's just you and me. I thought i'd make us some breakfast, as an apology for yesterday.' She smiled, taking a few of the steak off the furnace top, and putting them aside. She had a cauldron off to the side, bubbling away. It smelled like soup, but looked like it wouldn't be ready for a while. She noticed me looking at it, and informed me, 'that's my famous ten hour soup. Ten hours to cook, another ten to have the flavour leave your mouth. Apparently only I can make it. Don't know why. It's dinner, as well as what's soon to be bread. At the moment, it's just wheat. Now, if you would like, we can eat.' I nodded happily, and we tucked into the fulfilling steak, and then had a piece of melon each, which was nice. After a while, the commander, followed some time later by the rest of the squad, walked in. 'Yo, bombs, it's time we get going. We going to try for those horses today. Al was nice enough to let us use his lab to make supplies, such as some healing potions, some lasso's, and he even gave us six-teen cakes to instantly tame you and I's horses. He said he had one rule, and that was that you got the stallion. Don't know why though.' I nodded, and went and grabbed a few bit's and bob's I had made, and my mustang bridle. I had a few of them now, and I grabbed the second I had made, and put on some armour. The normal chain-mail plate and legs, the leather helmet, but this time some gold boots. I had bad feet, and the soft gold stopped them from being a pain. I followed him, and all the others, out the door. Three of the men had bows and the arrows I made, and the protector had a sword with him, and I grabbed mine as we went. It took an hour of walking, but we final spotted one of the mares. We stopped, and one of the archers went up a tree, and used a home-made glass tool to see further, and told us that there was a small valley behind the mare with the rest of the horses. We all sat on the ground, resting our legs before we tried to catch any horses. I heard a strange hissing noise, and frowned. It was familiar... then I realised. I dived to the side as the ground exploded, and multiple creepers poured out of the ground. One had a blue sheen around it. 'Lightning creeper, Watch yourselves!' One of the men yelled, and three arrows hissed through the air, killing one of the creepers. The protector of our group, a skeleton who had the same armour as I, but with a black leather hat, drew his sword, and nodded towards me. I drew my diamond sword, and it sang it's arrival. I smiled, and we both charged together. One slice, one stab, one down. Repeat. Repeat. Jog back to main line, give archers a clear shot. We had thought of that in case of trouble. The lightning creeper advanced on me, hissing angrily, and started to expand. I had read of these, there blast radius was almost doubled. I swore loudly, and thrust my sword into it. Then it all went white, black, white again, then whatever boom looked like.
