Chapter Eleven

The Players Fourth Dream

I had been mining stone from the side of a mountain for tools when I came upon a new material. It was gray like stone, but it had little black flecks scattered through it. I was instantly intrigued and of course tried to mine it. When I did, a lump of the black stuff popped out and floated in front of me.

I picked it up and turned it in my hand, black powder rubbing off on my palm as I did.

"Hmm," I mulled over this information, trying to remember what this substance was, or if I even knew. Then it came to me.

"Ohhh, you're coal," I laughed. "Maybe you can be useful somewhere in this world." And with that, I began to mine more coal.

I soon came to another new material that seemed like a reddish version of stone. I mined it to find out what it was later and decided I had enough stone and coal to last a while, enough that I could leave.

I thought about mining deeper. I had torches, so if it got too dark down there I could just place them in my path. But something kept me from going into the earth beneath me. I couldn't explain it. I guess I just wasn't ready yet.

I took out my last two apples and ate them on my way. I had to find a suitable space for some kind of shelter. I had decided that since I had so much cobblestone, I would just build my home out of that.

I didn't know much about survival, but I figured if I built my house in a forest it would at least be hidden.

I walked for a long time and it was starting to get dark when I finally found a clearing in a foresty type place that had hills everywhere. The valley I decided to make into my building site had one lonely oak tree.

I immediately began placing cobblestone blocks in a simple square beside the tree. It was getting darker by the minute. I was getting nervous. It wasn't the light level I was worried about, I had torches for that, it was the threat of monsters.

Miraculously, I finished a rough draft of my home without so much as hearing a monster. But I wasn't about to let my guard down.

I rushed in and around the home placing torches. I set the door in place and stood inside with my heart pounding. I couldn't help thinking about my encounter with that creepy green thing that exploded in my face not so long ago.

I had no windows.

I had no way to watch over my new territory.

I had no bed.

Could I even make a bed? I hoped I could, because I desperately needed sleep. I was beginning to feel fatigue and I think I was starting to see things that weren't there.

I needed a way to pass the time, so I decided to begin decorating my new household. I started with the torches, placing them in even-numbered intervals instead of the sporadic placements I had done with my first run through.

Then I chose a spot for my crafting table and furnace, against the wall where my door was. I also made another small chest and put both of my chests beside each other on the other wall. It was a pleasant surprise when I found they combined to make a much larger chest.

I could fit so many things in this, I thought as I cleaned out my pack into the chest. I took inventory of my possessions. I had twelve carrots, five wheat stalks, ten beetroot, four potatoes, seeds for all of the food, one mushroom stew, two bowls, wooden and stone tools, one block of cobblestone leftover from building my house, eight blocks of that other reddish stone (that I decided had no use but cosmetic things), three signposts, one boat, and three fence posts.

After that I didn't have much to do.

I was bored to death.

I had been going since I arrived in this world. What did I do when I had nothing to do? Suddenly a thought struck me. I had asked every question about myself and this place except for one: What was my name?

I really hoped I had one, because I couldn't pull one from those ever-illusive foggy memories. I suppose I could make one up. Is that lying? I wondered. I guess it didn't matter since I had no one to tell my made-up name to, except maybe the animals. What do I call myself?

Apparently I wasn't that good at naming me.

"Maybe I could call myself a normal name, like Bob, or. . . um, James," I told the pig. He had wandered up while I was planting crops.

It was morning, and I was eager to get food growing so I wouldn't have to rely on trees and random villages. I had spent the rest of the night thinking, but none of the names I came up with sounded right.

The pig grunted.

"Yeah, you're right. Those aren't for me, either," I told it, refering to the latest name choices I had thought of. "I could try a more unique name, like August or. . . Kai."

The pig oinked questionably.

"I don't know where those came from, either, but at least I'm trying, Okay?" I said.

I stuck some wheat seeds into the newly tilled soil.

"I'm not so good at this name stuff," I confessed to him. "But I guess you already knew that."

The pig just looked at me. I sighed.

I kept planting and telling him my name ideas, but I think he was only staying for the carrots. I finished planting and began to wonder how I was going to make the lines of water by my crops like I had seen at the village.

There was a small pool of water beside my house, so I went to it. I dipped my hands into the water and brought them back out. I thought it might do something to give me water, but nothing happened. I guess I would have to wait until I found the right method.

Just like everything else in this world, I thought.

Next, I needed more wood, so I grabbed the last oak sapling out of my chest and planted it behind my house.

"Okay," I said. "What's next?"

I heard the pig oink. I turned to look at him. He was wandering around the mouth of a small cave. I sprinted to him.

I know it was a weird thought, but it almost felt like he was helping me. The pig looked at me like he expected something.

"I'm not ready for that," I told him. "I don't want to go down there yet."

He oinked and walked behind me, nudging into me and pushing me toward the cave.

"Stop!" I pushed him away. I threw a carrot across the yard so he would go eat it and leave me alone.

He didn't move.

He just kept staring at me.

I felt a drop of something on my head. Then my arm. Then water was pouring from the sky and thunder was rumbling in the distance. I ran back to my house, not bothering to pick up the carrot I had thrown. I went inside and shut the door behind me, rain drops trailing off of my body like tiny rivers.

"Oink."

I spun around. The pig was in the middle of my house.

"How did you get in here?!" I hadn't seen him follow me, or come in through the door, or. . .

There was something about the pig's eyes that made me stop. I hadn't noticed it before, I guess because I had been preoccupied. But they looked different than the other pigs I had seen. Almost. . . Golden.

BOOM!

I jumped. It's just thunder, I told myself.

I got some potatoes out of my pack and ate them. The pig stood facing one wall, his back towards me. There was a strange feeling in the room, almost like the pig knew something I didn't. I know it was weird: Why or how could a pig know more than a person? But that's what it felt like.

The steady patter of rain on the roof made me sleepy and I lost track of time. Having no windows made telling time that much harder.

Suddenly, a tall, black figure appeared in my house, accompanied by floating purple dust and a noise that sounded like a mini-void had opened and closed right there in the middle of my home.

"Ah!" I jumped back, startled.

The figure glanced at me, then turned to the pig and grabbed him. Then they disappeared.

"What?"

I ran outside after hearing the mini-void sound again and found that the pair had materialized on the top of a tall hill.

"Hey! Give my pig back!" I shouted, even though he wasn't really mine. But I felt like I had made a friend, and I didn't want to lose that.

The black figure made a sound like a gurgling chuckle, and dropped the pig from the top of the hill. The pig fell all the way to the ground, flashing red as he hit the dirt, and disappeared in a pop of glowing green orbs.

"Nooooo!" I screamed. The black figure was no longer on the hilltop.

I wasn't sure if I could cry in this world, but the raindrops rolling down my face would have disguised them whether I could or not. I ran to the spot where the pig had disappeared. The green orbs floated into me.

Why? I thought, standing there, the rain chilling me to the bone.

Keep going, Something told me. I wasn't sure if it was my subconscious or some long-forgotten memory or something else. But whatever it was, I obeyed.

I walked back to my house in the rain, going inside to dry off and continue living. I would press through. I would answer my questions. But first, I was going to do what that pig had wanted me to do. I was going to mine.