Last night was a bit of an ordeal, first Hilda was not able to find a Spider Eye despite searching that cave for a long while, then both her and her companion Twig get attacked by Creepers. The only thing that Hilda had to show for the night she had was a single batch of Gun Powder. Her friend Frida did not say she needed Gun Powder but hopefully she would understand if Hilda explained herself. Then again just seeing the Gun Powder would usually lead people to suspect that they got it from a defeated Creeper and knowing how dangerous Creepers were, then maybe there will be some understanding.
Hilda sincerely hoped that, that was the case as she makes her way over to Frida's house. Hilda double checked her inventory to make sure that she had the Gun Powder with her, after the night she had she was going to at least show Frida that she did manage to get something. Going to see Frida when she is practicing making potions and not giving her, anything would have been a wasted effort. Twig, who was walking right beside her saw some discomfort in her eyes and brushed himself against her, trying to ease her.
Hilda looked down and saw Twig brushing up against her and pet him. "Thanks Twig, and don't worry. I'm sure if we explain ourselves then everything will be alright." Hilda said mostly to herself than to Twig.
After walking for a little while Hilda made it to Frida's home. Walking up to it she knocked on the door and waited for an answer, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. She knows that Frida is always understanding and if there was a mistake, she always finds a way to work around it so Hilda should not have anything to worry about, but that will not stop her from being nervous.
As the door opens Hilda saw Frida's mother on the other side. Frida's mother smiled at who she saw and said, "Hello Hilda, nice to see you."
"Good morning ma'am, nice to see you as well." Hilda said in a polite manner.
"Hilda, you know you don't need to be so formal; you can just call me Alexis." Frida's mother, Alexis, said, though she always did admire Hilda's manners.
"Sorry, force of habit. Is Frida home? I was going to see her today." Hilda asked.
"She should be in her room right now getting some items for heading out." Alexis responded.
"Great, we were also going to see David."
"Oh, you were?" Alexis asked. "Um if it's too much trouble can I ask you get something from David's family?"
"Sure, no trouble at all." Hilda responded making Alexis happy to hear it.
"Thanks Hilda, I would ask Frida, but she's currently occupied with other things right now. You know with her Potions and Enchantments and things like that."
"Think nothing of it." Hilda rubbed the back of her neck as a thought came to her. "Forgive me for sounding rude, but I'm kind of surprised you are alright with Frida practicing Potion Brewing and Enchanting."
Alexis smiled and shood her head. "It's perfectly alright. It's one of the things in life that she loves." She said to Hilda but then had a small smirk as a thought came to her. "The only thing she loves more than that is you Hilda, but I won't say that because it's not my secret to tell." She saw that Hilda was looking at her with a wondering expression making her wipe her smirk off and said, "As long as she's nothing like that griefer Trevor, then whatever she likes is fine by me. I just hope she does not use what she learns to cause harm."
"Don't worry, I won't let her go down that path." Hilda said making Alexis smile and thankful that Frida loves someone like her. "So, what did you need from David's family?"
"Oh, that's right, thanks for reminding me. I was hoping that they would have some Beetroot for trade, I plan on making some Beetroot Soup for dinner tonight and I'm afraid I'm running low on the necessary ingredients." Alexis searched through her inventory and pulled out some Emeralds. "I have some left-over Emeralds to trade with, if you could get some Beetroot for me than that would be much appreciated."
Hilda grabbed the Emeralds Alexis had and placed them in her inventory. "Sure, thing ma'am I-"
"Alexis!" Alexis whispered to Hilda, reminding her to not be so formal and use her first name.
Hilda chuckled a little. "Alexis, we'll be sure and bring some Beetroot. Both me and Twig will, right boy." Twig brushed himself against Hilda again in approval.
Alexis was about to say something else when she, Hilda, and Twig heard something movement in the house indicating that Frida was ready to head out. "Mum, I'm heading out now."
"Alright Frida," Alexis said to her daughter. "Hilda and her friend Twig are here."
Frida looked and saw Hilda and Twig standing by the door, Hilda waving at her. "Oh good, I was hoping to see you soon. Ready to go see David?" Hilda nodded her head. Frida turned to her mother and said, "I'll be back before nightfall."
"All of you stay safe now." Alexis said as Frida walked out the door.
"We will." Frida said as they made their way to David's.
A few moments after they left Frida's home Hilda thought to bring up the events of last night. "So, Frida, I left last night to go search for a Spider Eye."
"That's great, did you get one?"
Hilda looked away for a little bit making Frida think that she did not get one. "Sorry Frida, but there were some complications. Me and Twig ran into some Creepers and-"
"YOU WERE ATTACKED BY CREEPERS?!" Frida shouted but then covered her mouth after realizing how loud she was being. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt?" Frida got a little closer to Hilda to inspect her for anything to indicate that she was attacked.
Hilda raised her hands in the air to try and ease her friend. "Don't worry Twig and I came out alright." Saying that however, got her to thinking about what else happened last night. "Although Twig did put himself in great danger." Twig heard that and lowered his head at the thought.
"What happened?" Frida asked hoping nothing seriously bad happened.
Hilda took a deep breathe and responded. "I only had three arrows on me, and I could not afford to make a mistake, but by the time I got to my last arrow my hands started shaking. Twig saw that and attacked the Creeper. It nearly exploded and I only had little bit of time to hit it but knowing that Twig was in danger I fired my last arrow and defeated it." Hilda looked down at Twig and started petting him. "I just wish you wouldn't have had to do that."
Frida sighed in relief and said, "Well I guess the important thing is that nothing bad happened and both of you came out alright. However, if I knew that Creepers would have attacked you then I wouldn't have asked you to go out there."
Hilda stopped petting Twig and looked at Frida. "Well, it wasn't a total loss, I know you didn't ask for it, but I did get something from them." Hilda pulled out the Gun Powder from her inventory and showed it to Frida.
Frida grabbed and examined it. "This is good, with this Gun Powder I can make Splash Potions. The next time you run into any Creepers you'll be prepared." Frida put the Gun Powder in her inventory. "Thanks."
Hilda smiled and said, "What are friends for?" Hilda went back to walking to David's home.
Frida looked down at the ground as she said that. "Yeah, friends." Frida started rubbing her arm as a blush came to her face. She looked and saw Hilda kept moving. "Next time Frida, next time."
Hilda, Twig, and Frida made it to David's home which was also a farm right in the city. It is one of the things that Hilda admired about Trolberg, that even if they are in a city, they can still have the comforts of farming and other things from other biomes in the city. The animals and the crops are many of the things that Hilda admired, but from one quick glance she saw that there was something else. Something that she did not think that David's family would use. She saw something that looked like a contraption with Cobblestone, Pistons, and she could swear she sees Redstone Blocks.
"Since when did David's family use Red Stone?" Hilda asked.
"Never." Frida responded. "They always preferred to farm the regular way."
"AAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Both Hilda and Frida recognized that laughter anywhere which led to them to figure out why this contraption was here and who made it.
"Annie." Hilda and Frida said in unison.
Hilda, Twig, and Frida ran toward the contraption where the source of laughter was coming and true to their assumption there she was, Annie Van Gale, the proclaimed greatest Redstone Engineer in Trolberg, next to her grandmother Victoria. Upon closer inspection they saw that the contraption before them was indeed made up of Cobblestone, Pistons, and Redstone Blocks, but there was also Dirt, Hoppers, Redstone Dust, and Redstone Repeaters. They saw Annie place a Torch on top of the contraption, she had herself covered from head to toe in Leather Armor and Frida could swear she saw the Leather Armor was enchanted with Fire Protection. That was not unnatural for her since almost everyone in Trolberg knows that she has a huge fear of the sun, but that did not stop her from engineering.
"Annie?" Hilda called out to her.
Annie looked down and saw the group of people and wolf before her. Waving at them she said, "Frida, Silva, glad you could be here. You're just in time."
Hilda groaned at what she said. One thing she did not like about Annie was that she could remember everyone's name except for hers. "It's Hilda!" Hilda said to Annie, but it looked like she did not pay attention to that. "What are you doing here?"
Jumping down from the contraption she landed right in front of them. "You're about to witness one of my grandest achievements."
"Ah, Hilda, Frida, great to see you." Hilda and Frida looked at the source of the noise and David's father come out of the house to greet them. He knelt to pet Twig to which he accepted.
"Good morning sir." Frida greeted
"Now come on you two I told you, you can call me Oliver."
"Right, of course." Frida said. "Do you know what this is about?"
David's father, Oliver, stopped petting Twig and looked at what Frida was motioning towards. "Yeah, I do. Annie came over here earlier asking for a Pumpkin for one of her contraptions and then she thought to herself to help me harvest both my Pumpkins and my Melons with this thing. But I told her that there was no need for that." Oliver said that last sentence mostly to Annie than the other two.
"That's what many of the other residents say about my contraptions, but I'll soon show them that with these, everything will become much simpler and easier." Annie said with confidence. "Behold." She motioned for everyone to look at what she built. "You see the Dirt blocks, once a Pumpkin or a Melon grows there, it'll complete the Redstone circuit which will activate the Pistons. The Pistons will break the produce which will then be collected by the Hoppers. With the Hoppers in this backward S position, they will travel through and finally enter the chest. The magic of Redstone Engineering comes through once again."
Hilda looked at the contraption, top to bottom, and she had to admit that it did seem impressive. Something that can automatically harvest Pumpkins and Melons is something worth acknowledging. She did, however, notice the Torch that was standing on top of it and thought to ask, "Excuse me, but what is that torch for?"
Annie looked at the torch and said, "That Torch is used to speed up the process, but it's only effective at night."
Frida thought to ask a follow up question to that answer. "If it speeds up the process at night then why did you put it up now?"
For a couple of seconds Annie remained silent, for the reason she put the Torch up right now was that she got so caught up in building the harvester that she decided to add the Torch a little earlier than she should have and did not even notice until now. "Well Frida, since the Torch won't burn it down, I figured why not add it a little early on. Especially since I will not be here at nighttime, because this isn't my house and that would just be weird." Annie walked over to the chest attached to the harvester since she was also keeping some of her stuff in there. She pulled out a Bucket and said, "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go collect some water for the final component."
"Can't you get some water from here?" Hilda asked.
Annie raised her arm toward Oliver so he can answer that question for her. "I'm afraid she can't since we need all the water, we have for the crops we're growing right now."
"That's why." Annie said. "I won't be gone long." With that she took her leave.
Just then Hilda's and Frida's friend, David, and his mother, walked out of the house to greet them. "Hilda, Frida, good morning." David said walking up to them.
"Hey David." Hilda said waving to him.
David's mother looked around and asked, "Where did Annie go?"
Frida spoke up, saying, "She left to go get some water for that." She pointed at the harvester.
David's mother looked at the harvest and sighed. "I know her heart is in the right place, but sometimes she makes me worry."
Oliver spoke up. "Well Sarah, it's not like we can convince her to stop engineering."
"I know, that's one of the things I like about her, though she can get a little ahead of herself, her inventions are rather useful." David's mother, Sarah, said. She looked back at Hilda and Frida and said, "Glad you two are here because the Cocoa Beans have finally grown, which means I can now make this." She moved to the nearest crafting table and place Cocoa Beans in the center and Wheat on each side to create Cookies.
"Cookies!" Hilda said with excitement. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." She handed two cookies to both Hilda and Frida. "Two for Hilda, two for Frida, and two for David." She handed two Cookies to David. "And two more for Annie when she gets back. Sorry Hilda, I would offer some to Twig but I know that wolves only eat meat."
"It's alright." Hilda scratched the back of Twig's neck making him happy. "I already fed him before I left this morning." Hilda then thought of something else that she needed to say. "But there is something I need from you, to get to Frida's mum."
"She needed something?" Frida asked since she just now heard about this.
"Yeah, she asked me to pick up something." Hilda responded to Frida.
"Well sure, what does she need?" Sarah asked Hilda.
"She needs some Beetroot." Hilda pulled out the Emeralds that Frida's mother, Alexis, gave to her. "She gave me these Emeralds for trade."
"Alright then, I'll get some right now." Sarah said accepting the Emeralds Hilda got from Alexis.
"By the way ma'am?" Frida asked. Sarah was about to correct her when Frida caught herself. "Sorry, Sarah, would it be alright if I bought a Carrot from you?" Frida asked while searching her inventory for Emeralds.
Sarah stopped her and said, "No need for that, with all the Emeralds here for the Beetroot I'll throw in a Carrot for free."
"Are you sure?" Frida asked.
"Of course, that's what friends do for each other." Sarah said putting the Emeralds in her inventory.
"Hey David," Hilda said making David look toward her. "You ready to go to the mine with us?"
"Got my Pickaxe ready." David said pulling out Stone Pickaxe. Hilda had asked if he ever thought of upgrading to an Iron Pickaxe but David always preferred Stone items more than anything.
"You three are going into the mine?" Oliver asked.
"Yep, today we're finally going to get some Gold Ore." Hilda said with confidence. "Aren't we Twig?" Twig yelped in a way of something that they were going to.
Sarah looked a little uneasy at what she was saying and said, "I'm afraid your friend Twig can't go with you."
Hilda was surprised at that. "Why not?"
Oliver stepped up and said, "It's a new rule by the Safety Patrol. 'All mobs, be they tamable or hostile, are not aloud in the mine.' Sorry."
Hilda scoffed at that. "Yet another reason to hate the Safety Patrol." Though she mostly meant that about Erik Ahlberg, the rest of the Safety Patrol seemed alright, they are just following orders.
"Don't worry Hilda, Twig can stay here while you're gone, we'll look after him." Sarah said hoping that will reassure her.
Thankfully, it did reassure her as she smiled and said, "Thanks." She looked down at Twig and said, "Sorry boy, you'll have to stay here for a while." Twig was not happy with that and looked down in sadness. "I'm not happy about it either, but don't worry, next time we'll go outside the city in another mine. Just please be on your best behavior until I get back, alright?" Twig then looked up and licked her face making her laugh and know that he understands. Twig walked up to Sarah and stayed next to her.
"Promise me you three will stay safe." Sarah said.
"We will, we promise." Frida said.
"And if there is any sign of hostile mobs promise you'll head out of the mine and not look for trouble." Oliver said.
"You don't need to tell me twice." David said.
"We promise." Hilda said as she waved at them while walking to the mine with her friends by her side.