Minecraft: The Fallen

Chapter 1: New World

The first thing I felt when I awoke in this world was a gentle breeze.

As I slowly started to open my eyes, I realized that I was laying beneath a small tree; its shade shielding me from the rays of the rising sun.

Eventually coming to my senses, I got up from my previous position, clutching my head. I felt a slight headache, but it wasn't too distracting and it soon subsided. I took a look around to get acquainted with my surroundings.

The landscape that surrounded me consisted of a wide meadow filled with red, blue and yellow flowers in the west, and a vast ocean in the east, that streched all the way to the horizon. Beyond the meadow, loomed a tall mountain range with snow at its peak and a medium sized forest at its foot.

After quietly taking in the immediate area, I felt an odd sense of familiarity swell within me.

The fact that all the elements and structures that were present, from the occasional cloud to the distant trees, were shaped by individual blocks, made me feel almost right at home - though I couldn't pinpoint why at the time. That's not say I felt relaxed though; I was still in an unknown land. But still, for some reason, I found solace in the shape of the materials this world was made from.

Deciding that I had spent enough time sitting by idly, I started roaming around the landscape. After taking my first few steps in this world, I passively noticed two bars that depicted hearts and porkchops as well as completely blank third one. They were...odd, but it didn't seem like I needed to pay much attention to them. The first two were full, after all. The hearts on the first bar had a somewhat sinister look to them though...

I started heading towards the meadow to admire the view from a closer distance.

I approached a small red flower, though when I tried to touch it, it shattered into pieces, leaving behind only a smaller copy of itself. Once again, I went to pick it up. It completely vanished.

I looked left and right, completely and utterly confused as to where the flower had gone. It wasn't behind me, nor was it in the pockets of my dark blue jeans. I closed my eyes trying to make sense of what happened, and there it was. Placed in one of the many squares on the grid before me. I hovered my hand over it, and its name was revealed; poppy.

Something that grabbed my attention was, a reflection of myself that mimicked my every move. I had short brown hair, blue eyes, slightly tan skin and I wore a light blue t-shirt, dark gray shoes and my aforementioned dark blue jeans. Above my reflection, my name was displayed, and it was Steve.

…

What a random name.

Anyway, after focusing my attention on the poppy, I re-opened my eyes and found it resting in my right palm. A message subtly appeared in the upper right corner of my vision that displayed the text: *Achievement get! Taking Inventory*.

So, that weird grid that included my name, reflection and, presumably, my items, was called the inventory. 'Good to know.'

I placed the poppy back down on the grass, and it regained its original size. With that in mind, I decided to get a little bit experimental. I tried touching various blocks, to see if the same thing would happen to those as with the flower. Although it took swings, rather than a simple touch like it did with the flower, the result was still the same: The blocks shattered, shrank and ended up in my inventory.

After closing my eyes and tightening my focus, I openend up the inventory and took a more thorough look at it. In all, I had six oak wood logs, three dirt blocks and a single sand block. I took note of an odd symbol that depicted a book. I placed my hand over it and a whole new compartment of my inventory opened up! Turns out, that book was called a recipe book, and it showed all the various tools I could make with some of the items I had in hand.

I converted some oak logs into oak planks and then some of those into sticks.

One item in particular piqued my interest. It cost four oak planks and was named the Crafting Table. Little did I know, that that block would become one of the most importants in my journey. Swiftly placing it down, my mind was blown by the sheer amount of potentially craftable items that was displayed in the recipe book. Everything from beds, boats, doors, to tools like shovels and pickaxes, even to weapons like swords and bows. It was overwhelming.

I mined the Crafting Table and started heading towards the forest at the foot of the mountains. Since wood was the most common material used for crafting items, it made sense to get lots of it.

I glanced at the sun and concluded it was around mid-day. The food bar at the bottom of my vision had dropped by two units and started to feel slightly hungry. Mildly concerning, but hopefully I'd find something edible soon.

While I was making my way through the valley, I encountered the first living creature since I had woken up; a sheep! It had thick white wool and was peacefully munching some grass. And as it would turn out, there were plenty of sheep in the near-by area. I closed the distance between me and the first sheep I saw. Once it stopped eating, it turned around to look at me, dead-center in the eyes. I felt a little weirded out, but it soon gave up our staring contest and went along its way.

A slightly morbid thought crossed my mind when my stomach grumbled in irratation, as the food bar dropped by yet another unit; I would have to kill animals if I wanted to keep my stomach full, at least for a while. I felt somewhat bad, but I had to do this. After I awkwardly and clumsily punched the ever-living hell out of that sheep, it died and disintegrated into a white puff of smoke. What remained of it was some raw mutton, a block of white wool, as well as some green orbs, the purpose of which, I didn't understand at the time.

I was soon reminded of the crafting recipe for a bed, and realised I was two wool blocks short. I didn't like the idea of sleeping under a tree again, especially since it would turn night relatively soon, and it would probably get cold. Shifting my gaze to the near-by pack, I did what I had to do, and started heading towards the forest once again.

When I reached the forest and started punching a birch tree, I realized it would take a while to get a sufficient amount of it. Recalling the wooden axe I had seen in the "tools" department of the crafting grid, I assumed that crafting one would speed up the chopping process.

Indeed, with my wooden axe in hand, I succeeded in collecting 32 birch logs.

I learned from my crafting skill that turning log blocks into planks would turn out to be pretty useful for contruction, since I'd get the quadruple amount of building materials. With two stacks of birch planks, i.e. 128 blocks, I managed to build a serviceable shelter, right before the sun set. It looked more like a cube rather than an actual shelter, but it would do its job for a while.

Inside, I set up the Crafting Table and made a red bed, using red dye from that poppy I collected in the morning. Before I went to bed, the events of the day flashed by in my head. I didn't know what this world had in store for me, nor did I know where I was before I ended up in it. But despite that, I felt rather optimistic about this whole thing. I managed to build a shelter relatively easily – even though it took me all day, but still! It felt like there was no limit to what I could do! Nothing was stopping me from building a better shelter, or experimenting with other tools and materials. A rush of excitement whirled up inside me, as I thought of all the potential builds I could build and adventures I could have.

I started getting exhausted though and went to bed, completely oblivious to all the monsters that were spawning outside my abode.