Chapter One: The Accident
Silence filled the room. Darkness reigned, aside from the few torches scattered about, only sufficient light to stop mobs from spawning in.
All was quiet.
Then it wasn't.
A Player spawned in. The Player's name? Brine.
Strange name, I know. Trust me, it's meant to be.
Oh yeah, didn't you know? This is me. I'm Brine. Well, I used to be. Let me fill you in a little more about that later. But first, back to the main story.
I looked around me. Wow, this was a really dark cave. I looked down at my hands. Blocky. Square. How the heck was I supposed to even pick stuff up? I had no fingers!
Turns out, that problem was more easily solved than I thought. Stuff just… flew into my hand.
At first, it was only wooden. I found quickly that wooden tools broke stone, and I could use stone to make new tools, which could break iron, which I could then use…
You get the idea.
My first three diamonds. That feels like centuries ago. Wow. Haven't thought about that in… so very long.
It wasn't until the Halloween update that I finally realized I wasn't alone on my world. There were signs. Signs that NPCs just weren't smart enough to do on their own.
Signs of other Players.
From there, I had been around long enough to know how to see the signs. And how to track them. My goodness, though, I traveled quite a long way.
And here's where the story begins…
Brine shivered a little as the rain poured down. The roofed canopy of the forest was pretty good about keeping the rain out, but an occasional drop fell on his shoulders, every now and then. He kept pushing on.
'First a tree chopped half-way, then a suspiciously carved mine, and now this.' He thought, recalling the structure that had begun to raise his suspicions. A tiny hut, crudely furnished. He'd seen the Endermen carrying blocks before, but none of them seemed… driven enough to use the blocks for something. Let alone building.
Besides, it also had had a door. Who had taught NPCs to craft? Had that been a new update? Brine didn't think so.
He swung his axe, chopping another log. Camp would have to be made soon, and he needed to cook the raw beef he had gotten from the cows earlier. He placed down his furnace, and built a small wall around where he would set up camp. While he waited for his meat to cook, he looked up at the stars.
'I wonder what would happen, if I did happen to meet with other Players?' Brine thought. 'Would they attack me? Should I attack first?'
Brine had never met anyone who had seemed, to put it bluntly, intelligent enough to compare. The Villagers, bless their hearts, were just a little out of it. He had tried to learn their language, but failed, as no interpreter could help him along with it.
This would be a new experience for him.
Suddenly, Brine's senses perked up. Years of hunting and combat kicked in, and he thought he heard the slight sound of footsteps on the grass, somewhere nearby. He unsheathed his iron sword, and glanced around. No mobs in sight.
He checked on the other side of the tree.
Nothing there either.
When he turned around, however…
He met face to face with a zombie, and two skeletons.
He flew backwards under the zombie's fists, as twin arrows arced through the air. However, not having eyes, the skeleton's aim was sketchy at best. They relied mainly on hearing for their aim to be any good. The zombie rushed forward, but Brine was prepared.
He leapt onto his feet and kicked the zombie back, before twirling and chopping the zombie's head off in one motion. Following through, he picked up the twitching corpse and threw it at a skeleton, which fell over under the weight. The other skeleton drew back its bowstring, just as Brine's sword met its skull. The skeleton fell over, dead.
But Brine had forgotten the other skeleton. As he turned to return back to his camp, the skeleton stood silently, fitted an arrow to its bow, and drew back the string…
But it never got the chance to fire the arrow.
Brine spun around just in time to see a blur of green and orange land in front of him, slam into the skeleton, and snap its bow in half. The figure spun over the skeleton and chopped its head off with an iron sword in one hand. It stood, regarding Brine. Brine peered into the shadows to try to get a better glimpse of the figure, but he couldn't quite see. The light from his furnace didn't extend that far.
But then the figure spoke.
"Who are you?" she said. It was obvious in an instant that this figure was female. What "female" was, Brine didn't know, having never encountered any "female" creatures in his life, but he knew that that was what she was.
"Who are you?" Brine countered, happily surprised that this entity could talk his language.
"I asked you first." The figure said.
"And I," said another figure, stepping in behind Brine, "will ask you second."
Brine whirled around to get a good look at the figure behind him. He gasped.
It looked… like him. Same teal shirt, same hair color, same purple eyes…
Even the pants. What were those odds?
"What do you think, Alex? NPC?" The second figure said. The first figure, evidently someone named 'Alex', shook her head.
"I don't think so, he talked to me." she said, coming into the light. She sheathed her sword, and Brine gasped.
Wow. He was pretty sure he liked "female".
"You're…" Brine began, unconsciously staring. However, he caught himself, and stood up straight. "You're Alex?"
The second figure grunted. "Huh. It talks. What's your name, stranger?"
Brine turned to the second figure. "Brine."
The second figure extended his hand. "Steve. Nice to meet you."
Brine looked down at Steve's hand. "What are you doing that for? Am I supposed to give you something?"
Steve glanced at his hand, before turning his gaze back to Brine. "Not unless you want to. It's a greeting Alex and I thought up. We call it a handshake."
Brine held his hand out, and Steve grabbed it and shook it. Then he let go.
"Huh." Brine said, not very impressed.
There was an awkward silence for a few moments. Brine didn't really know what to say or do. He… hadn't encountered any other Players before. A smell suddenly wafted through the tiny clearing, and Brine saw both Alex and Steve's looks just begin to melt.
"Mmmmmmm…" Steve said. "Beef."
Alex tried to look like she didn't care, but Brine could see that they were both hungry.
"Well, you're welcome to join me for dinner." Brine said, walking past them to the furnace. He put down a torch and some planks, to serve as a table. "I have enough to share."
Alex and Steve sat down at the makeshift table as Brine went to pull out the steaks.
'Wow. I… was surprisingly right. There are others here.' Brine thought.
The full implications hit him.
'I'm not alone anymore!' He suddenly realized, nearly dropping the steaks. A smile lit up his face, as he carried the food back to everyone else. He sat down, and doled out a few of the steaks to Alex and Steve. Brine was pretty sure he saw Steve slip an extra steak into his pockets, but he wouldn't question it.
They must've been kinda hungry, because the food was gone pretty quickly. Brine began gathering the planks back up as Alex and Steve stood. They seemed to be having some of the same difficulties with socializing as Brine had been having.
"So, um…" Steve said, rubbing the back of his head. "Bye."
Steve turned to leave, but Alex grabbed his collar.
"Steve, we can't just leave! We've finally found another Player!" she said, turning him back around once again. "Why don't we invite him to our house?"
Brine was not too far out of the range of hearing to hear this. He pondered that. He had a base back near his mountains. It was kinda well stocked, too. Would he just leave that all behind? Because he had found more Players?
He felt someone tap him on his shoulder. He turned.
Alex stood behind him. "Would you like to come with us to our house? You can stay as long as you like."
Something about those enchanting green eyes staring into his was just melting Brine's willpower.
"Sure." He said, almost automatically. Alex grinned.
"Great! I'm so excited to see you!" she said, giving him a big hug as if they were old buddies. Over her shoulder, Brine saw Steve assessing him carefully. It looked like he wasn't sure what to make of Brine.
But Brine could live with that… for now.
Alex pulled out of the hug, and grabbed Brine's hand.
"C'mon, you're going to love it!" she said, smiling.
It was quite a few hours later, when she and Steve finally led him to a somewhat small, wooden house. It had a nice-sized garden, growing all sorts of different plants. The house was lighted quite cozily. Near the door, two iron blocks were standing one on top of the other, with a carved pumpkin on top. Brine turned to the others for explanation.
"Steve is working really hard on some invention. He won't tell me what it is. He says that it will guard our house, whatever he means by that. I don't see how blocks are going to start moving around on their own, but I won't question it." Alex said.
Brine turned to Steve for explanation, but Steve only replied with a glance.
"What? I'm not telling Alex until it's finished." He said. He stepped up onto the porch and unlocked the gate. "After you."
Brine stood outside the gate as Alex and Steve began to head inside. Halfway up the front stairs, Alex turned.
"Coming?" She asked. Brine shook his head.
"I don't want to intrude. I'll set up a little place a little bit this way." He said. He turned, and began walking away. "See you both tomorrow?"
Alex nodded, though she looked hesitant to let him leave. Steve grabbed her hand and walked inside the house. Brine sighed.
Wow… Alex.
He definitely wanted to get to know her and Steve better, but now was not the time. It was late, and if they didn't go to sleep soon, who knew when the mobs would give them enough rest to relax?
Brine began walking off into the forests. He had some work to do.
