Slamacow returned with an armful of quartz blocks, and he put down a crafting table near his light blue bed. He rubbed his hands together and looked at us.

"Let's get cracking," he said. He made a chest and sorted through it for a second, then he walked to a flat spot and started putting down cobblestone in a rectangle. But every so often, he'd put andesite too. It was interesting.

While he built, I went over to the village. Careful to keep my distance from the iron golem, I wandered around, observing the other villagers.

Slamacow was wrong. They did have an AI. They walked around, talking to each other, and working at what I assumed were the job blocks Eddy mentioned. They all had different jobs too—mostly there were farmers, but there were also clerics, librarians, and one mason.

The smoking remnant of Eddy's house was being quickly put out and rebuilt. There was already an unemployed villager waiting to move in.

"Speaking of rebuilding," I said to myself, "I wonder how Slamacow is coming along?"

I returned to the plot Slamacow had claimed and was met by an entire house, already standing.

The cobblestone and andesite that he had put before was the foundation, and on top of that was oak planks. Then he had put a stripe of quartz blocks, with holes broken through every so often for windows. The windows were made of fences, but it looked like there was glass behind them, on the inside. Another layer of oak planks topped off the windows. Then, the wood-quartz-wood pattern repeated again, before ending in a flat roof. In each corner of the building was a pillar of logs. A single stair led up to a closed door.

Eddy and Dave came up next to me.

"Is he in there?" I asked, pointing.

Dave nodded, grinning.

Eddy looked at him. "Yes, he is. He said he didn't want anyone to go in there until he was done with the interior."

"I hope it doesn't look too bad," I mumbled.

"Well, you can tell he's making an effort, at least," Eddy replied. "The outside isn't half bad."

Dave suddenly spoke, "Urn hirr hrr? Ir irr har hr!"

Eddy burst out laughing. "Very good, Dave!"

I stared at them both with bewilderment. "What?"

"Eddy's teaching me how to talk like a villager!" Dave said.

"Really?" I said.

Eddy nodded. "His accent is a little growly still, but he remembers every word I tell him."

"That's impressive."

Dave smiled at the ground. "Thanks!" He turned to Eddy, "Teach me more!"

"Uh, okay," Eddy said. "What do you want to learn?"

"How do I say zombie? I want to be able to introduce myself."

Eddy drew in his breath sharply.

"What's wrong?" Dave asked.

"Uh, I just…" he paused for a moment. "Okay, Dave, you have to understand something."

"Go on," Dave said.

"What you have to understand is…is that." Eddy sighed. "...Villagers really don't like zombies."

"Well, I knew that!" Dave said.

"Okay then," Eddy said. "They call zombies…'He-ner'."

Dave took a step back. "Oh. I see."

Completely confused, I asked Eddy, "What does it mean?"

"'Ner' is the word villagers use for a lazy or dishonest person. It's a bad insult. And 'he' means bad. It's basically the worst thing you could call anyone."

I'd heard people called worse things since I've spawned, but since then I've learned that the villager language is a fairly simple one, and that this was, in fact, the worst thing you could call anyone.

A meditative look came over Dave's face. "I don't want to be called that," Dave said.

"Nobody does," Eddy agreed.

"So then let's think of a different word for me."

"Okay," Eddy said. "Well, the reason villagers dislike zombies so much is because they always attack villages."
"But I don't do that," Dave said.

"Right, so maybe we could call you…'hrrm-hn'?"

Dave squinted. "Uh, that's…villager...friend. Right?"

"Exactly!" Eddy said. "I think that name suits you nicely."

"Yeah," Dave nodded. "I like that." He tried it out, "Hurr! Ir Hrrm-hn!"

To which Eddy replied, "Urn herr hrm, Hrrm-hn! Ir Er-hrrm."

Dave grinned. "This is so cool!"

I shook my head. Unless I learn villager language, this is going to get annoying.

Slamacow emerged from the house, an expression on his face that I decided was pride, but shyness as well. I had long since stopped trying to read his thoughts.

"Hey guys," he said. "I, uh. Finished the house. You wanna come see it?"

"Of course!" Dave sprinted to the door. Eddy and I followed, and Slamacow took up the rear.

The house was a single room, about 7 blocks on each side I would guess, and it was mostly light blue. Slamacow had made a banner that was blue and white stripes, which matched his shirt. He had put down his light blue bed in one corner, and the walls were stacked high with chests, a crafting table, and all three kinds of furnace. There was also a ladder that led to a second floor that didn't appear to have been furnished yet.

The most striking feature of the room, however, was the floor itself. It was a chaotic pattern of angular light blue and white, spiraling randomly across the room.

Eddy and Dave stared at it.

"Glazed terracotta?" Eddy finally said.

"Yeah?" Slamacow squinted his eyes. "What's wrong with it?"

"Uh, nothing…exactly," Eddy trailed off.

Slamacow looked like he was about to say something, but Dave cut in. "It's just…a bit loud, don't you think? Like, I feel like the floor is distracting from the rest of the build."

Slamacow inhaled sharply, then stopped. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he mumbled.

He went over to one of the chests and grabbed some light blue wool, presumably from when he had made the banners, and crafted some carpets. He placed them down and covered the terracotta.

Dave nodded. "I like that better."

Slamacow looked down at his feet in silence.

Eddy went over to the ladder and said, "Where is this going to go?"

"Oh, that's where you'll live," Slamacow said.

"Really?" the villager asked.

Slamacow nodded. "I didn't put anything in it because I figured you'd want to. You can live up there."

"What about me and Dave?" I asked.

"I was planning to dig out a basement, since you guys like living in caves better anyway, right?"

Dave nodded. "That'll be nice. And then we can decorate it however we want!"

I smiled. "Sounds good to me."

"Well, then," Slamacow said. "I'll get on that." He went into a vacant corner and dug down through the floor.

"I'm gonna work on my part of the house," Eddy said, grabbing the first rung of the ladder.

"Can I help?" Dave asked.

"Yeah, sure," Eddy said.

I followed them—since I had nothing better to do until the cave was dug.

Eddy put down a crafting table and then a chest, from which he pulled a book. He put the book on the table and opened it, perusing the pages. Dave leaned into the chest and began pulling out other things. Mostly redstone-related it seemed.

"How am I going to decorate my part of the house?" I thought. I hadn't really had a place of my own before. The Saloon didn't count, since I was basically just house-sitting for Cal. Dave had had his dungeon. "He'll probably make the new cave look just like his old one." I smiled. But what would I do?

"I'll want a place to store my violin, of course," I thought, "Maybe even some kind of display for it. That would be nice." I nodded to myself. But I didn't really have any other things I needed to keep in a house.

"Bart?" Dave said, pulling me from my thoughts.

"What?" I stared into his eyes. Slamacow was here, ready to show us the cave he'd made.

"The cave's ready!" Dave said. "You wanna go see it?"

I nodded and followed them back down the ladder.

The corner of the house had been opened up into what looked like a natural cave entrance, so Dave and I could simply walk in, without steps or ladders.

Inside was a large room, hollowed out of the stone, with a couple of smaller tunnels that branched off of opposite ends.

Slamacow came up behind me. "I kind of had the idea that you'd split the cave in half, and Dave could have one tunnel and you get the other one."

"That works," I said. Dave had already set down an armful of things on the floor, effectively claiming that half for himself.

I glanced at his pile. He had some potatoes, seeds, a couple of flowers, his GameBlock, and his old Spleef helmet.

"That helmet looks pretty worn out," I said.

He rubbed the leather. "Yeah, it is," he said. "But it's not broken yet!"

I set my violin against the wall of the cave. "Hmmm," I said. "How can I display this?"

"You could build a shelf," Dave said, "There's some wood in Slamacow's chests. In the…third one from the ground and…the second column."

I didn't question his knowledge. I had no doubt he had already snooped extensively in all the chests. And I did in fact find a few oak planks there.

"Hey, Eddy," I called up the ladder. "Can you help me for a second?"

"What do you need?" he asked, coming down.

"Crafting," I said. "Designing too, but mostly crafting. I need a shelf for my violin."

"Sounds like you need some slabs and stairs," he said.

"Sure." I handed the wood to him and he quickly converted it into the proper form. I took it back down and stacked the blocks against the wall. I put the violin on the shelf—which I guess was more like a table—and stepped back to observe my handiwork.

Dave came up and put something on the ground beside the shelf. A flowerpot, with an allium in it.

"Oh, uh. Thanks, Dave," I said.

"You're welcome. I've got one too." He gestured across the room to where another flowerpot sat, holding an orange tulip.

"I picked that one because it's your favorite," he continued.

"My favorite?" I said, "I don't really have a favorite flower."

"Well, I noticed that whenever we would pass a patch of them, you'd always look at them a lot, so that's why..."

I nodded. "They were the favorite flower of someone very special to me." I explained.

"Oh!" Dave said, "Well, now whenever you look at it, you'll remember that person!"

"Thanks," I said again. He smiled and went back to his side of the cave.

I moved the flowerpot on top of the table, beside the violin.

Then a dull thudding sound came from the entrance of the cave. Slamacow stood there, knocking against the wall. He looked at the ground sheepishly when I sent an inquisitive look his way.

"Um," he said, "Are you all done in here?"

I looked at my shelf. "I am," I said. "Dave?"

He jumped up and dusted his hands off. The pile of belongings had all been shoved in a single chest, and the tulip flowerpot sat right beside it.

"Yep!"

"Great!" Slamacow said, "Cause I have something really fun for us to do!"