Hello all!
Thanks so much for taking the time to check out this story. It's my first Minecraft fic even though I've been playing since 1.10. Now that life's not getting in the way, I'm getting back into the game and I'm super excited by all these new features and mobs.
This is a story idea I've had for a while, but when I tried to write it before, it never really clicked. Now I think I finally figured out how I want to write it so hopefully it'll be something good.
Any feedback you can offer would be awesome, especially if there's anything about the mechanics of the game/world that I might have missed.
I should have the next chapter up pretty quickly so keep an eye out! Thanks!
-OT21
AWAKENING
Three days.
I'd already been in this strange, hypnotizing land for three days. Memories were coming to me in flashes. I don't know how I knew them but they'd pop up in my head like flashcards at just the right moment. Like when I first opened my eyes.
Instead of remembering my own name, the first thing that came to mind was how to punch a tree, which I guess came in handy because I was surrounded by them. Dark-wooded, cubical giants that loomed over my head, letting only speckles of sunlight sneak past their leaves.
If you punched a tree, you got wood. Wood helped you make tools. Tools helped you get coal. And that's one thing you definitely need, especially when the night comes.
When the sun began to dip towards the horizon, pulling a lavish veil of purples and blue and peach-colored clouds across the sky, a quiet yet overwhelming sense of dread washed over me.
Every fiber in my body screamed: Gotta hide! Need shelter! Need light! They're coming!
So I ran. I climbed. I chipped and chipped away through the dirt and stone. And I crafted. All of this until I was tucked away inside a tiny, cold hidey-hole in the side of a huge mountain. But at least I was safe.
That was when I heard them.
The groans, the scratching, the chitters, and the hissing. All through the night. If they came close enough, I could feel their movements vibrating through the ground. I waited and prayed for morning until I finally fell asleep against the rickety crafting table I had made.
When I woke up again, there was a book next to me. Green and leather-bound with the words "Recipe" on the cover, it looked brand new and untouched, but I knew someone had to have left it here. When I ran outside to try and find them, I was hit with blinding sunlight. The creatures were gone and relief washed over me. But I quickly realized that it only meant I was still completely alone. When I opened the book, the first few pages were filled with diagrams and lists of all kinds of strange objects, recipes, and weapons but the rest of it was blank.
It had everything I needed to know to survive but nothing about me or who I was before all of this.
Except my name.
It was etched on the inside of the front cover in simple letters.
KIT.
This made me smile to myself as I traced the letters with my fingers.
It felt like the right fit. So that was one question down and about a million more to go.
Either way, the name and the book were mine now so I took them both and ventured into the strange and hypnotizing land.
My legs were starting to burn under my weight, but I didn't dare move or breathe as I crouched low in the tall grass. I pulled on my bowstring just a little more, pinching the nock of the arrow just a little tighter. My mottled-green hood was pulled over my head just enough that I could still see the chubby sheep grazing at the bottom of the hill. It still hadn't seen or heard me.
Good. It meant that my disguise was working even though I probably looked like I'd just spent the night puking all over my tunic.
The only downside to my disguise was that my slightly-less-cold hidey-hole smelled like burnt cactus but at least I could blend in better with the surrounding forests no matter where I wandered. It made it easier to hunt and, more importantly, stay hidden from any monsters still hanging around, especially the creepers.
Oh man, don't even get me started on creepers.
I could usually avoid them for days but it was always when I least expected it that one of them always found me. And you don't even know they're there until you hear the hissing. After that, you've only got a few seconds to get away before boom.
And trust me, you don't want to find out the hard way because by then, you're dead. It was two days ago when I first ran into one and my hands still trembled when I thought about it.
The explosion isn't as loud as you would think, but like someone breathing into a long tube. It's the ringing in your ears that's hard to deal with. It's suddenly finding yourself flying through the air, debris whizzing by and cutting at your face like tiny knives. It's trying to remember when you did hear the hissing right there in your ear and realizing it was too late to do anything about it.
I shook the thought away as soon as I heard the crunching sound as the lamb chewed on the grass. And that was my moment. I released the arrow and whistled through the air in one instant shot. There was a dull schlock! And then the sheep collapsed on its side.
I jumped up and shook my legs back awake, slung my bow over my shoulders, and ran over to collect what was left of my prey. Like I expected, it had disappeared in a poof. No blood, no body, just two soft, snowy blocks of wool and a chunk of raw meat sitting in the grass where the lamb used to be. A perfect hunt which meant I was one step closer to finally sleeping in a real bed and I was going to have a real dinner tonight instead of mushroom stew again.
I scooped the wool and meat into my bag and headed back home.
There were still so many things I was trying to get used to in this world. And since the day-to-day survival was becoming easier to manage, it gave me more time to think about everything else only to realize that all I had were questions.
Why was everything made of blocks?
Why did the monsters only come out at night or in the shadows?
Where was everybody?
I climbed over a hill, trekked past a few grazing cows that didn't even twitch as I went by, and waded through the maze of giant dark oak trees before I saw the familiar glow of the torch hanging over my door. My hidey-hole was no more than a small rectangular room with stone floors and a low ceiling. But at least I had a proper door now.
And the cactus smell was almost gone.
A smoldering furnace, crafting table, and wooden chest sat in the far corners while the other side of the room was bare in the light of the torch hanging from the wall. I stuck the raw mutton inside the furnace and in no time, a bright fire wormed its way through the coals. It sizzled behind me as I grabbed the wool from my bag, and opened my chest to grab all the other items from the pile of random resources I had collected over the past few days. Once I put my bow and tunic away, I was left only in my blue pants and light blue shirt.
I flipped through a few pages of my recipe book until I found the one for a bed. Following the instructions carefully, I laid three blocks of wool in the second row of squares etched on the surface of my crafting table. And then I laid three blocks of wood along the bottom row. The next thing I knew, a soft light began to emit from the square and once it faded, a perfectly crafted wooden bed with white sheets and a pillow sat on top of the table. When I picked it up, I was surprised by how light it was that I easily carried it over to the other end of the room and set it against the wall. Then I let myself collapse on top, and it felt like sinking into a cloud.
Crafting.
I knew what it was but I didn't know how I knew that. It just seemed like the right word. Creating tools and weapons from scraps of items or whatever was mentioned in my recipe book. Wherever this book had come from, it was the only reason I had lasted this long. And every time I found a new item, the blank pages of the book would fill themselves with new recipes and instructions for me to learn. It was just another one of the many mysteries of this place.
I wanted to sleep but it was still daylight outside and one thing I had learned was to use as much of it as I could to get whatever I needed because once night fell, monsters would swarm area until dawn. So I rolled off the bed and grabbed my bag, and my wooden axe and sword from the chest. I had only made them a few days ago but they were already starting to crack from use. I maybe had a couple more swings out of them which I could probably use if a chicken or cow happened to wander by.
Even though the sun was still high and bright, the air was starting to cool down.
I headed for the small clearing on the other side of the rolling hills where I had first woken up. It was dense with trees some of which I had already scavenged from but hardly looked like it with their thick, wide trunks. I set my bag down and started chopping away with my axe, falling into a rhythm with every strike that rang in the air.
It was a lot faster and easier than punching at the trees but it was still hard work that made my body heat up and sweat start to break out on my forehead. After a few swings, the blade splintered and broke off. I tossed the rest of the axe to the side and knelt down to collect the blocks of dark oak logs I had chopped free.
Then I heard it.
Hisssssss.
Everything seemed to slow down after that. I knew it was there before I even turned around but as I did I saw its body writhe and swell as if it were sucking in the air all around while its scaly greenish skin began to ripple. The hissing grew louder and any moment it was going to explode.
Until it disappeared with a pop, leaving only a faint wisp of white smoke and a dark gray lump that landed in the grass along with a stray arrow.
I picked up the lump and turned it over in my hands. It was rougher than coal and was more like clumps of sand stuck together. I barely had time to wonder about this when I felt a tiny prick against my back as an icy voice said:
"Drop it or I'll shoot."
So that's it for the Prologue/Chapter 1! I promise things will start getting more interesting soon. Thanks for reading and all your support!