Alright I'm back, sorry for the wait, I wonder how long it's been... oh. Well time flies pretty fast. Here's a new chapter and title, that makes up for it, right? Right...

So... this isn't going to be a very action packed chapter, but I've been getting this feeling that there's been too much action and not enough time for the characters to interact without constant danger


"I'm telling you I saw something,"

"A man that looks like Herobrine but without the glowing eyes part?" says Ara.

"I wouldn't disbelieve that so quickly, there are strange things deep in the earth. And a disappearing miner is not the strangest," says Lily.

They reach Home Base, and Lily lets the group inside but tells them that she and Rift are going out to mine.

As they get settled in they break out the bags and start hauling out stuff. They each

-()-

Jett stretches out on the bed, for a second expecting the wooden ceiling of her home or the starry sky to greet her. Instead all above her is smooth stone, stone all around her.

Truthfully she would be exact when she got out of these caves, the walls of stone have started to feel more and more like a cage and the close spaces have started to get to her. She suspects that the others are thinking the same.

She looks to her companions and sees Whitewolf drooling through his mask, weird that he never takes that off. Pith's bed is empty though

She stands up, scratches her head and walks to the door, when she notices Pith leaning against the door snoring quietly.

Lily snickers and gently leads Pith aside to let herself out.

She walks to the next room where Lily had pointed out the kitchen. The large rectangular cave had been repurposed to be a kitchen, with grooves cut into the walls to make room for the furnaces and above several holes had been cut into the ceiling that led to the surface, letting out the smoke.

She walks to one of the crates in the corner and pulls out uncooked potatoes and throws them into the furnace. She notices the store is out of coal, and signs. She goes back to her room and returns with a stack of coal from Pith's bag.

She finds Lily standing at the furnace putting coal into the furnace from a pocket hidden in her toga.

"Oh glad to see your up, how'd you sleep?"

"Great actually!" she says, a little peppier with someone to talk to. "Better than I thought I would, I don't know how you manage to stay down here though."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily says in mock anger.

Jett laughs a little and just shakes her head.

"Not that it's a bad place, it's just strange to be without the sun, the moon and the sky. Besides doesn't it get lonely here?"

"I have Rift, and every once and a while we find villagers to cure or people, besides its fun down here,"

"Yea… where is Rift?"

"He should be outside, he likes staring at the ravine for hours,"

"Right," Raven leans against the wall waiting for the furnace to finish.

"You don't like him?"

"You do? I'm sorry for sounding crazy but… you know what, no I'm not crazy, I'm not the one who made friends with a monster,"

"He's a gentle soul, he couldn't hurt a fly. Besides he smells less than your friends,"

Jett sighs.

"Yea they do smell,"

Lily laughs, and after a moment Jett joins in.

-()-

Whitewolf stretches out and whips the saliva from his mask. He sits up and the first thing he sees is Pith standing infront of his bed with his eyes closed. Whitewolf yelps, but realizes his companion is sleep walking.

"Hey, hey bro wake up. You're really creepy when your asleep," Whitewolf says snapping his fingers infront of Pith. "I said wake up!"

Pith snaps awake, and jumps right into the low ceiling.

Pith rubs his head staring dumbly at thin air wondering what happened.

"Hmm wha tim's it?" he slurs.

"Time to eat, I think Jett has some goodies in her sack,"

"I don't think we should take things from our companions without her permission, just leave it,"

"Fine, I'll go see if there's something else to eat,"

Whitewolf leaves the room, and Pith eyes Jett's bag for a minute before scurrying over to it. He slides it open, and his face breaks into a wide smile.

"I don't think she'll notice a few of these missing,"

-()-

Pith steps through the doors of the library with a skip to his step as he chews on his third cookie.

"Morning," Ara says from behind the bookshelves.

"Good morning," says Pith happily chewing on his cookie.

"Sleep well?"

"I slept terribly, but the cookies help with that,"

"Oh can I have one?"

"Sure,"

Pith walks around the wall of bookshelves and finds Ara sitting at a stool reading a book. He hands the librarian a cookie, who takes it in three bites.

"So what are you reading?"

"Take a look,"

The book is newly made and marked 'Research notes of Ara the tinkerer'.

"Tinkerers?" Pith asks.

"Of course, did you think we call ourselves villagers?"

"I… did actually,"

The book is written in a maddening bad handwriting, to the point its hard to read. He makes enough out to read the heading on the first page.

"The Champions of Night and Day,"

"What's this?"

"Oh just a theory that I've been working on, it's fascinating really if you want to-,"

At that moment Whitewolf comes in carrying a bucket of milk, whistling.

"Hey I got the bucket," he says and plots it down between the three of them.

"Where did you get that?" Ara asks his train of thought derailed.

"Our friend gave it to us," he says.

Ara glances at Pith with a questioning glance. Pith can only shrug and dips his cookie in the bucket.

"So Ara Lily told me you were a zombie. How's that like?" Whitewolf asks.

"I… I don't remember much about it, well I remember being always being hungry," he's not the best liar.

Whitewolf notices but doesn't ask as the dips his second cookie in.

"I think I've lost my appetite any way," Ara says and drops his cookie in the bucket. "So you want to hear my theory?"

Ara almost beams as Pith mumbles out a yes through the cookie in his mouth.

"Right well you must have seen some of the pictures around here right? Well you know the stories about the Great Builders right?"

"Yea when the creepers did not creep, and the spiders did not bite. There were the champions of day and night. The Great Builders guarded the day, who fashioned mountains and lands tall,"

"But Herobrine hated the world they created, and his giants rose up from the deep. When the sun rose the builders were gone, and the sun burned the monsters and drove them into the Nether. There they turned into the Withers," Pith finishes.

"That's right but here I found all sorts of pictures, stories and books that almost make it seem that the Withers where revered at least before they became Withers. I've found all sorts of references to the Builders being called the 'Champions of the Day' so I guess they where their opposites,"

"Uh, I never heard that story," says Whitewolf.

"Sounds… wrong somehow," is all Pith says.

"Well I really am glad you guys brought something this tasty down here. Where'd you get the-,"

"Where the hell did my cookies go!?" comes a shout from outside. "Pith! Whitewolf! If I find you eating my food I swear I'll pin you to the walls."

Pith glances at Whitewolf, and shoves his cookies into his gloved hands before scurrying off. Jett comes in with a flushed face and sees Whitewolf holding a half dozen soggy cookies.

"Want one?" Whitewolf asks sincerely.

-()-

"I'm not forgiving you, no I don't care if you apologize,"

"It was just a cookie,"

"They were my cookies!"

"Fine fine I'll make you more when we find the coco, alright,"

"Though it really is nice down here," Jett says, swinging her legs over the edge of the ravine. "But I can't wait till I get back to the surface. I'd do anything to see a forest right now,"

Next to her sits Whitewolf with his legs also hanging over the edge. Pith sits back some distance refusing to get any closer.

"Me too, I can't wait to see the sky again,"

"What are you going to do with your share?" asks Whitewolf.

"Me? I'm going to show it to the king, there's no way he won't knight me on the spot for a quest like this,"

"And you guys call my people greedy, admit it you're just here for the glory and gold," Jett says snickering. "I bet you'll make your mom and dad proud."

Pith is quiet for a second, rubbing the blue triangle on the back of his hand.

"Yea, I bet they're proud," he says after a second.

"Something wrong?" asks Jett.

"No, it's nothing,"

"Well I know that once that treasure's in my hand everyone'll know about me. They'll be making statues of me back home," says Jett.

"What about you Whitewolf?" Pith asks.

"Hm? I'm going for the road trip, I couldn't care less what's at the end,"

"I was afraid you'd say that," Pith sighs.

They stay there watching the lava flow for a while, and Jett notices Rift walking toward the unlit ravine carrying a block of obsidian. Jett stands up and stretches her limbs.

"I'm going for a walk, I'll be right back,"

She walks to the unlit ravine of abandoned mineshafts, and finds the enderman stacking obsidian over the entrance.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"Ensuring the passage is safe, no intruders can come through here,"

"Isn't obsidian a bit much though?" she asks.

Rift looks up and to one side as if he had seen something, and continues building his wall faster.

"Did you see something?"

Rift turns to look at her. She could almost swear for a moment that there was fear there.

"There was nothing to see," he says.

"Let me have a look before you seal it up," she says and walks around him.

He stiffens as she walks past, but says nothing.

She steps out onto the edge of the ravine and looks around, everything is just as quiet as they had left it.

"See? Nothing to be afraid of," she says and starts walking back.

As she turns to return to the inhabited ravine, the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Her skin crawls as if a cold breeze had brushed against her, and a tingling sense at the back of her head makes her feel like something is watching her. Out of the corner of her sight, she could swear she spots dim but distinct lights emerging from the depths.

She turns and draws her bow but the light is gone.

"Did you see that?"

Rift pulls Jett behind the wall and finishes building it.

She doesn't look back as Rift seals the passage.


I'm gonna be going back and redoing the earlier chapters because if I don't I'll have to dig out my eyes with a spoon so you might want to check back in a little while. Oh and free tip don't actually wake sleep walkers if their standing in front of your bed, it doesn't end well.