Warning: This story is going to veer far off into the course of harem hijinks (if my writing skills are good enough to pull it off), so if you don't like that kind of thing, you're welcome to ignore my self indulgent trash. I do hope to explore other aspects of Terraria, but… you know, don't want to surprise anyone with that.

Chapter 1: Somebody Watching Me

Cyrus felt a chill go down the back of his neck, and couldn't shake off the strangest impression that he was being watched by… someone, something, monstrous. He was far from his home base, on the Guide's urging, in a great flat stretch of grass he had cleared out during the day. Campfires crackled in the twilight, their warm orange glow intermingling with the soft yellows of stars in bottles or the comforting pink of heart lanterns swaying in the wind. He had felled many trees to clear out this little arena, and he began to think back to when he first arrived in that primeval forest…

Cyrus couldn't remember much more than his name. He felt a pounding in his head, a wind in his hair, and a set of wooden handles hooked to his belt. His eyes fluttered open, and he stumbled to his feet in the middle of the vibrant forest, and soon noticed a man standing nearby.

The main seemed quite plain, Cyrus thought. Thick brown hair, brown eyes, simple shirt and jeans, but a surprisingly comforting expression. "Hey, hello!" he shouted, beckoning Cyrus over.

"Who are you?" Cyrus asked, but in spite of the fact that he woke up in the middle of nowhere with only this stranger for company, some deep feeling in his gut told him he was to be trusted.

"I'm Garret," the man gave a broad grin, "and we might need to hurry up. It's already noon!"

What followed was a rapid half-day of frenzied construction, and despite the ease with which his tool shaped the world around him, Cyrus had the strangest impression that no building should have been finished that fast, especially one like this.

The house was partially submerged in the earth, the result of his unnatural earth moving abilities, simply constructed of planks with a door on one end (although Garret absolutely insisted on no windows if they weren't made of glass, and while Cyrus couldn't comprehend why he decided to trust the man). Cyrus tried to sleep, but the hard wooden floor and the disturbing noises from outside made it the first of many restless nights.

Over time, the house had expanded from a low lying wooden shed to several much grander houses, almost manor like, and with time they were filled with all the tools Cyrus needed to survive in this world as well as many new guests, like a charismatic merchant named Harold, a stout little man named Gimli (whose house was a significant distance away from the rest, for everyone's benefit), and a nurse named Abigail. They all contributed something, whether a seemingly endless supply of useful sundries, enough explosives to, in Gimli's own words, "blow ya' to hell!" (Garret seemed to cringe when Gimli said that), and all the pertinent medical knowledge the rag tag group could need. The warm atmosphere of the community was disturbed by a horrible sinking feeling earlier this evening, and Garret warned him something terrible was coming… something monstrous.

Cyrus usually felt confident exploring the world, with his golden armor and bow, but he felt a knot of dread deep in his stomach. The gently swaying trees which so lifted his spirits during the day now only served to block his vision and gave him the terrifying feeling of being hemmed in with something terrible, like a fish in barrel, just waiting for the gun to fire.

With shivering hands, he pulled a series of potions from his belt, and began to drink them one after the other, until he saw it, dropping the potion of swiftness he was swallowing. It was an eye, but one that beggared belief, almost making his knees buckle with scale. Nothing should be that big, nothing should have an eye twice the size of a man grown, but there it was, hovering before him, pale and unblinking, bright red veins contrasting against the rich blue of the iris, the inky black of the pupil seeming to pull him in with a sort of terrible gravity. For a few moments they stood perfectly still, as if engaged in some sort of staring contest, before the Eye began to drift towards him, and Cyrus began to run.

He pulled out his bow, drew, and fired, and the arrow sunk into the eye, although it seemed to not really care as it rose above him, and to Cyrus' horror, multiple Demon Eyes slid out from the inky blackness of the pupil and began to fly towards him. He dove to the side, pelting the eye with arrows as it seemed to rear back before charging him, with an unearthly roar.

Cyrus felt the rush of air as the eye swept behind him, mere inches away from clipping him, and he knew with a dark certainty that if the eye struck him with a full on blow, he wouldn't leave the field alive.

After a few minutes, he grew almost comfortable with the strange rhythm of the Eye's attacks, rushing to dodge its charges and getting off as many shots as he could while fending off the swarms of eyes the thing summoned. A smile crossed his face as the Eye began to spin backwards after a well placed shot, and Cyrus hoped that it would retreat before he heard a horrifying ripping sound, and the iris flew off the beast's face, revealing rows of yellowed fangs, each nearly half his height. Its roar was even louder this time, and when he dove to get out of the beast's way, its side glanced his leg and sent him spiraling.

He stumbled to his feet, staggering as the dizziness wore off, just in time to dodge the Eye, if it could even be called as such anymore, and sent an arrow into the thing's gullet. It tore long furrows into the ground, tearing up grass and sending logs and embers from the campfires flying wildly into the air, letting out continuous shrieks as Cyrus danced across the field, leaping and weaving as the Eye tore through the grass.

Cyrus was under the impression that his arrows were more effective on the beast in this enraged state, but more and more of his dwindling arrow supply were flying wide as the Eye became a streak tearing across his field of vision.

He was stumbling now, exhaustion pulling him downwards as the Eye seemed to fly higher and higher in the dark sky, and as he reached for another arrow he realized that he only had this one left in his quiver, and if he didn't finish this now he would be faced with the unenviable job of fighting the living equivalent of a wrecking ball with a sword. The golden surface of his bow gleamed in the moonlight as he pulled the string with all his strength, until he felt that even a bow as strong as this was moments away from snapping, snapping until he released and the arrow soared into the sky, striking true in the pale white of the Eye, and it let one last bellow out before disintegrating in the air, into plumes of a vile purple smoke.

Then he realized that something, no, someone, must have been inside the eye, or at least they fell from the exact spot the eye was slain, their clothes billowing around them in the cold night air. Cyrus broke into a sprint, and just barely caught the person, now revealed to be a woman, before she hit the ground.

Cyrus couldn't help but gawk, just a little. The girl was beautiful, with short hair as black as the night sky, her face serene in sleep, her chest gently rising and falling under her long white dress which was covered in red, vein like patterns at the bottom of the dress. The strangest thing about her was the broad shield strapped to her back, rimmed in red with a white body, a something like a mouth carved into it's surface. The shield was far too big for the girl, and Cyrus couldn't help but wonder how such a woman and her shield ended up in the company (or inside?) that dreadful eye. Figuring that Garret might know more about the situation, Cyrus shrugged, adjusted his grip, and walked home.

Garret was wringing his hands, waiting outside the new house Cyrus had finished, worried that his friend might not have made it, might have not triumphed against the first of the many evils the world would throw at him. When he saw a faint silhouette in the distance, on the simple cleared path to the battlefield Cyrus had prepared, he sagged with relief, practically melting into his chair as Cyrus approached, and Garret suddenly realized that Cyrus wasn't carrying a heaping helping of loot from the monster, but instead he had a thin young woman in a princess carry.

Cyrus seemed just as confused as Garret was, his brow furrowed as he glanced down at this woman who simply should not have been. Garret had a rough idea of how this whole thing was supposed to go, a seemingly endless cavalcade of challenges, but in no way did he expect this random girl to just… fall from the sky.

"Uhhh…. Garret? You have any sage advice for me?"

Garret felt some deep aching pain in his soul and replied "We'll figure it out in the morning. Please, let's just figure it out in the morning."

Abigail took custody of the new mystery girl just about as soon as she saw her next morning, but before things could even begin to calm down there was a knocking on the door, and Cyrus opened it… only to nearly choke on air when he saw a very beautiful, very scantily clad woman standing at the door.

She gave a beatific smile and extended a hand to Cyrus, saying "Hello! I'm Nissa the dryad, and I've heard you defeated a beast of incredible power, and I humbly request your aid to help defend mother nature."

Being too busy with the mother of all coughing fits, Cyrus couldn't answer, and Garret walked up to the door. "Of course, come in! You're welcome to join our little settlement. Plus, I've got a few questions for you about… something that has come up…"

The dryad pushed her long, grass-green braid behind her shoulder and walked inside, into the house that was the town's unofficial center, mostly because Cyrus and Garret lived there.

Garrett grimaced and gestured towards the unconscious girl "Do you have any idea who this might be?" he asked with the same sort of desperation that one might find in a man reaching for a life preserver.

Nissa frowned. "No, I can't say that I do" she stroked her chin and leaned closer, looking at the girl, and at that exact moment her eyes snapped open.

"Who… who are you?" she murmured, licking her cracked lips. "Well whoever you are, could you get me a glass of water? I've got the worst case of dry-eye. Well…. I guess I'm not an eye anymore?" she laughed a little as Abigail rushed outside.

"Wait. You were that… Eye thing?" Cyrus had never seen someone with such beautiful eyes, like the sapphires he would sometimes find when digging deep, with all the luster of the gemstones as well.

The girl smirked "Why yes, I was. But now I'm not. My name is Cthylla, and I'd be very grateful if I could stay here for a while."

And so the foundation is laid for my harem trash. I'd like to hear any criticism about just about everything. I haven't done much creative writing before so I'd appreciate just about any advice. I'm not sure if the pace was too fast or too slow, and that was my very first fight scene! Next time: I'm thinking of either Crimson or Corruption (I plan on writing the world in such a way that both exist, just not sure which first, heh) and possibly followed by King Slime? I don't know. As for the name of our first girl here, it's the name of Cthulhu's daughter in a non-Lovecraft Cthulhu book, but the name is just due to the relation to Cthulhu/being spawned from Cthulhu and not a real father daughter relationship.