My eyes remained fixed on the distant, shimmering buildings for several minutes. I blinked multiple times, expecting the structures to just vanish. I even looked away and back again. However, they stayed. Since they didn't fade away, I assumed they were real.

It would be a long walk across the sand, but we had to go there. Someone had to have built those, and I wanted to find out who.

Come on, Sigrid!

Sigrid lapped once more at the water before following me down the north side of the hill.

The same sun that felt so warm and kind back home beat down on us with a harshness that I never imagined possible. Sweat dripped from me with each step and Sigrid panted away beside me. I felt bad for my pup. Her fur must be making the trek super uncomfortable. My clothes, namely the boots and pants, were awfully warm. Step by step, the buildings came into focus, and there were more of them. It was a whole village, and I could see specks moving to and fro among the sand-colored buildings.

I looked at Sigrid with a growing smile. We're not alone!

She barked in response and we quickened our pace toward the village built around, and on, a sandy hill. There were just over a dozen sandstone buildings that made up the village. Most were small squares with flat roofs, a few were rectangles with angled roofs, and one was even 'L' shaped. Only one building stood out from the others' sandy color scheme, and that was a gray cobblestone building on top of the hill. The inhabitants of the town were strange looking people with tall, bald heads, unibrows, bright green eyes, and giant noses that hung over their flat mouths. Each wore robes that ended just above their ankles. A few of the people wore white robes, one wore a purple one, and all the others wore brown. The sleeves hid their arms and they all had their arms crossed in front of them with one sleeve tucked into the other. It almost made it look like they had no hands at all, and that their arms just formed a loop.

I walked up to one in a brown robe and introduced myself. Hello, I'm Alex, and this is Sigrid!

"Hmmm," He responded, then wandered off. I thought that was a bit odd but figured maybe he was just rude. I tried talking to another one and got a similar response. None of them seemed to have any interest in talking to me. They just wandered around their town, humming and sighing occasionally with the sounds echoing out of their giant noses. I couldn't help but feel disappointed by this. I'd been alone for weeks and I finally find other people, and they wouldn't even talk to me. I frowned and looked to Sigrid. She barked excitedly, and it felt like she was telling me not to give up just yet.

Listening to my dog, I walked up to a third person, this one wearing a white robe, and forced him to look at me.

"Huh," he said. But it sounded like so much more. There was something within the nasally sound that I understood. If I gave him twenty-four pieces of paper, he'd give me a 'green shiny.' I was curious as to what a green shiny was, but I didn't have any paper to offer. However, that wasn't the only thing he was interested in. If I gave him a book and eight green shinies, he'd give me an enchanted level one efficiency book. I had no idea what that was. I didn't even know what an enchanted book would do. Why did a book need to be efficient? Would it make me more efficient?

No, thank you.

I backed away from the person, who didn't seem to mind that I hadn't traded with him. I wanted to, but I didn't have what he wanted.

I looked around the village at all of the people, and a thought crossed my mind. Does everyone want to trade?

I spent the next few minutes moving from person to person, seeing if they wanted to trade as well. They did. Each villager wanted to buy and sell something, but they all varied on what those things were. The only thing that they shared in common was that the trades all involved green shinies. Most wanted things that I didn't have enough of to trade, like coal and string. A few wanted things I didn't know about, like carrots and potatoes. However, I noticed they had two plots of farmland growing the crops.

I investigated them, and one plot had short green plants with orange roots just barely visible at their base. The other group had taller plants with beige bases. Most of the plants in these plots looked fully grown. To test that theory, I broke one of the carrot plots, and three orange roots landed on the ground. I expected some of the villagers to get upset by this action, but they didn't seem to care. No one even looked my way.

I looked to Sigrid wondering what I should do. I wanted to harvest these crops and get some seeds so I could plant some back home, but these didn't belong to me. On the other hand, no one seemed to mind.

What do I do, Girl?

Sigrid remained quiet for a moment, seemingly thinking my conundrum over before she barked happily. Maybe it was wishful thinking on my part, but I felt that she said I should take the crops.

I held off on harvesting for the moment and instead checked out the buildings. Sandstone seemed to be the primary material of the homes. Some of it looked as rough as the stuff in the cliffs towering over the village. Other blocks had been polished smooth, giving the stone a more organized look. Some homes had walls made of a hard, orange stone that I had yet to find. I couldn't tell what it was without picking it up, but I figured the villagers wouldn't like me tearing apart their homes. What really caught my attention about the structures was that they had glass for windows. I only wondered about how to make glass for a second before it came to me.

Of course! I have to cook sand! Why didn't I think of that sooner? Probably because I don't like building.

I put the idea to the side, knowing that if I ever needed to make some windows back home, I'd know just how to do that. I continued to stroll around checking out the place, wondering what was inside some of the structures. After witnessing several different villagers enter and exit several different buildings without much rhyme or reason and without repercussion, my curiosity got the better of me. I stepped inside one building and just like with everything else I did here, no one cared. This was one of the largest buildings, a rectangle with an angular roof. On the inside were several bookshelves hanging from the ceiling and a table and two chairs beneath them.

Maybe I can learn something useful. Do I even know how to read?

I never got an answer to that question because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't actually remove any of the colorful books from the shelves.

Well, that's disappointing.

I headed back out and explored every other house in town. Most weren't as exciting as the first one. They were all empty. One had a smooth stone counter and pen out back. The building that was the most exciting was at the top of the hill. Getting up there proved to be a bit of a challenge. There was evidence of a gravel path, but not a good one. The road just went straight up the side of the cliff, making it impossible to traverse. I was starting to get the feeling that the people of this village weren't the smartest around. Even if they had managed to build better homes than I had. At least I had a bed.

Sigrid and I scrambled up the hill to the cobblestone building and I was surprised to find a small pool of lava contained within the stones next to a pair of furnaces. I shielded my eyes from the heat of the molten rock.

How can anyone work near this stuff?

Sigrid panted next to me as we walked past the dangerous heat source and into the shade of the stone building. The rock wall offered some relief from the lava, but I could still hear it bubbling just outside. Like the other buildings, this one's interior was pretty barren. There were a table and a pair of chairs in one corner. The most exciting thing was tucked away into the shadows at the back of the dimly lit building. A chest.

I scanned my surroundings. No one was around, the climb up the hill appeared to be too much for the villagers. Even if they were here, I doubted they'd mind if I looked inside. All they seemed to care about was trading for green shinies. I lifted the lid off the chest and was shocked to find three pristine iron tools. A pick and two shovels!

My hand twitched as I contemplated taking them. They were so valuable! Going down into the earth to get iron was dangerous. I didn't want to do it again. However, I also didn't want to steal these from the villager who made them. It felt wrong, but letting them go to waste in this chest felt wrong as well. They were pristine! I could tell by their condition that they had never once been used. Who would make such splendid tools and never use them?

Probably the same people who grow crops but don't harvest them.

In that moment, I decided to take the tools, and harvest the fields. If anyone complained, I'd happily return the items, but I doubted that would happen. These people weren't much for conversations. All they did was wander around and hum disapprovingly through their giant noses. At least with the crops, I could trade them to the villagers for whatever a green shiny was. Then it wouldn't be like I was taking them, it would be like they were paying me to work for them, and I could keep whatever was leftover as a bonus. So with new tools in my pack, Sigrid and I climbed down the hill and I set to work harvesting the fields. I worked my way through the carrots, picking all of them up, but I didn't find a single seed.

How am I supposed to plant more of these?

I looked to the passing villagers for help, but, unsurprisingly, they didn't offer anything useful. With a sigh, I left a few carrots where they were and moved on to the potatoes, where I got similar results. As I neared the final few plants, I hesitated. If I broke them and didn't get any seeds, would this be the end of all of the crops?

Maybe I'm missing something again. I looked to Sigrid for help, and she at least had the decency to acknowledge my silent question with a head tilt and a tail wag.

Let's see. These crops aren't like pumpkins and wheat. They're roots. Maybe I just…. I lowered a potato to the tilled ground and it took root in the soil, creating a new plant.

There!

With that knowledge in hand, I harvested the rest of the fields and took the bounty of carrots to the villager that wanted them. It took a while to find the right one, but when I did, he took them and gave me a green shiny, which turned out to be an emerald. It was a beautiful gemstone that sparkled in the sunlight. However, as I held it in my hands, the only thing I could think to make out of it was a block of emeralds. It'd probably look stunning, but I wasn't really looking for building materials at the moment.

Oh well, I guess I can use it for trading some other time.

The villager now also wanted pumpkins for another green shiny. I had those, just not with me. I would have to bring some by another day. It was getting late. The sun was already creeping toward the horizon, meaning that Sigrid and I would have to race across the desert to be home before nightfall.