For the purposes of not boring everyone to death any longer, and to pick up the pace of the story a little bit, I'm not going to make Zoe have long, drawn-out words. You'll just have to imagine them spoken really slow, and moany-like. XD
Hope you enjoy the rest of the story!
(P.S. Yes, I know I said 'moany-like'. Don't judge me. XD)
Chapter 2: Adaptation
Deci yawned, and stretched as she felt someone shaking her awake. She opened her eyes, expecting to see her mother.
When she came face to face with the strange green lady from last night, she remembered everything that had happened, and all the fun they had had. She giggled and clapped her hands, and Zoe grinned. Behind Zoe, the other mobs were beginning their evening routine chores as the sun dipped low in the horizon.
"What do you guys think we should do with her tonight?" Zoe asked. Bones turned, looking back at the zombie and the Player sitting on the bed, playing craft-a-cake.
"Uh, I don't know. Maybe we should just leave her here for the time being? Let her get used to her surroundings?"
"But… that's just boring. Maybe one of us could take her on a walk outside? I'd be happy to do it." Zoe said, not taking her eyes off their game.
"Probably, we should first prepare for her to actually stay here. Y'know, gather materials or something?" Ender suggested, rifling through one of his chests. "I can gather some things from the outside world, and I can take Bones with me to help me find a spare Player's bed. Maybe from the village last night."
Deci scooted off the Enderman's bed and began running about the cave, giggling as Zoe chased after her, albeit a little slowly. They were having fun, anyway. But soon, Deci clutched at her stomach, and stopped running. It finally occurred to the other mobs how tired she still looked.
"Oh. Food. What do Players even eat?" Zoe asked, looking around at the other mobs.
"Don't look at me," Bones said, turning back to sorting his chests, "I am on a strict liquid diet."
"What do you even drink?" Crea asked, rifling through her own chests, Notch only knows how.
"Milk." Bones answered.
"I think I once heard of a Player drinking milk. I heard that, anyway, from Wicket. She says she saw the Player with milk outside her hut in the swamp." Zoe said, stopping.
"But can we really trust the witch? You know she isn't the most honest mob out there." Bones replied.
"It's worth a shot Bones. We might as well all pitch in. Everyone empty your pockets of edible items." Ender suggested.
The four mobs all emptied their pockets on the bed. Ender put down some of the strange green pearls he seemed to be able to eat, Bones placed a bucket of milk down carefully, Crea placed blaze powder, and Zoe placed down some raw meat, some spider eyes, and a carrot or potato she had seen growing in the village.
Zoe turned to Deci, who was walking around in a circle, clutching her stomach.
"Deci…" she called in the Player's language. "Come here."
Zoe lifted Deci onto the bed, before all the items. Deci looked at the items carefully.
She looked into Bones' milk bucket, and took a sip. Then she sifted through the small pile of edibles. She pondered over the strange glowing orange powder, but did not try to eat it. She lifted a green pearl to the light, and admired it, clutching it tightly in her hand. With her other hand, she grabbed at the carrot and the potato.
"Papato!" she said, happily munching on the potato. "Cawwots!"
"Okay. She likes the carrots and the potatoes." Zoe said, triumphantly. "We've gotta find more of those things."
"And she just likes admiring your pearls, Ender." Bones rattled.
"As well she should." Ender simply said, watching the Player happily chew on her carrots.
The other mobs gathered the rest of their items again, leaving Deci with a carrot or two, and a potato, which were quickly consumed. After her breakfast, Deci was once again back to full throttle, and was rushing about the cave.
However endearing this was for the first hour, it began to grow stale as she simply just kept running in circles.
Finally, Zoe spoke up. "How on Minecraft is she not bored of just running around in a circle all night!?"
"She's rotated nearly two-hundred times already." Bones clacked, agreeing.
"Honestly, it's not like we have much for a kid to do in this cave." Crea noted, looking around her. "And by the way, Ender, I can't get her new room ready until you guys all leave."
Ender nodded, knowing that Deci would be in the most danger if Crea exploded right now. The other mobs were used to it, but the Player's child wasn't.
"Let's all go out then. Ender, you get the bed, Bones you help Ender, and I'll take Deci on a walk or something." Zoe said.
So it was agreed.
"Deci…" Zoe moaned.
Deci stopped, and looked at Zoe attentively.
"…let's go outside…" Zoe said, motioning for Deci to follow her. Deci did so happily, and walked out with Zoe to where the bright moon met them with a cool breeze. Ender grabbed onto Bones and vanished into thin air, eliciting clapping from Deci.
With that, Zoe began striding off in a direction, Deci following after her like an obedient pup. While they walked, Deci fingered the green pearl that she still held tightly in her hand. The moonlight occasionally caught the pearl just right, giving it an all-together other-worldly look. Just beneath the surface of the smooth green pearl, Deci thought she could see the strange glyphs and shapes that appeared around Ender whenever he telepor—
Deci gasped. Suddenly, she was falling through thin air. The marble flew out of her grip as she began thrashing about wildly mid-air. She had not been watching where she was walking, and had walked straight off the side of the cliff that Zoe had been leading her across. She was faintly aware of Zoe's screams as Deci plummeted downward.
Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped.
She was back on solid ground, once more on top of the cliff. The ruined shards of her shiny marble were crushed beneath her, remnants of purple glyphs leaking out of the blackened shards.
Zoe just stared at her for a few seconds.
"Did… you just teleport?" Zoe said, speaking faster than normal. A huge grin erupted on her face. "Maybe you're already half-mob yourself!"
Deci, however, began crying. Zoe knelt down, and hugged Deci.
"Oh, I know sweetie… that must have been awful scary."
"M-my p-p-peeeaaawwll!" Deci wailed, kneeling down herself and trying to gather the small shards.
"Here, Ender can give you another one when we get back, okay? It's okay, don't cry. We'll make it better." Zoe said, picking up Deci. She didn't want the Player-child getting hurt on the sharp edges of the pearl's shards. She glanced at the cliff. She had just seen the Player teleport. She knew it. She would ask Ender about it as soon as she could.
"Hey Deci, I wanna teach you something." Zoe moaned, walking in a certain direction with the child in her arms still. Deci was content to be carried, still sniffling a little from the loss of her shiny pearl.
The zombie and the Player eventually came across a light in the distance. Steadily it grew brighter, and as they broke through the canopy, Deci discovered that Zoe had led her to a small village. At first, Deci thought it might have been her village, and she didn't want to leave her new family. But when Zoe showed her the strange-looking Villagers, Deci calmed down again. She wouldn't be leaving these people tonight.
"I'm going to show you how to stay away from dangerous mobs. Players, Iron golems, Snow golems… Those kinds of things. Now be quiet and do what I do, okay?"
Deci nodded, putting a hand over her mouth to ensure she was quiet.
Zoe turned and peeked out of the forest. She looked left, she looked right.
"If the coast is clear," Zoe began, "Then we can go out into the Village. C'mon, do it with me."
Deci leaned up, and looked left. She saw a bunch of houses, and a stray cat running around. She looked right. A bunch of awkward Villagers, and a giant hulk of a shadow with red eyes behind them, seemingly watching what move Deci would make next.
"Awh cleaw!" Deci giggled, running out into the open. She didn't really understand why the coast wouldn't be clear, but to her this was a simple game.
"No, that's an iron golem! Deci, quick come back!" Zoe whispered, waving her back over. Deci began to turn and come back, but Zoe gasped when she heard heavy thumping coming near. Zoe hid in the bushes behind the trees, and Deci turned to look at the giant metal man approaching her.
The man stood at least five times as tall as Deci stood. He studied her for a few moments.
"Hewwo!" Deci said, smiling. "Who awwe you?"
The giant did not answer, but slowly reached up and plucked a red poppy off the vines growing on its shoulder. The hulking figure lowered its hand, offering the poppy to Deci.
"Thank you mistew!" Deci giggled, running off into the bushes again. The iron golem watched her for a few more minutes, before thumping away again.
Zoe burst out from the bushes, grabbing Deci.
"Oh thank goodness you're okay! You gotta watch out for those, Deci, they're—What's this?"
Deci held up the poppy to Zoe.
"For you." Deci said, pointing to the faded red flower in Zoe's hair.
Zoe put a hand over where her heart had once been, and smiled. "For me? Wow, thank you, Deci!"
She carefully put the new flower in her hair, discarding the old one.
"This is really special." She said, thanking Deci again. Deci giggled and hid behind her hands.
"You'we welcome." Deci said, from behind her hands.
"Now c'mon. We came to this village to teach you some cool stuff." Zoe said, still smiling. "We just gotta avoid the gol—"
"Zzzoommbbiiiee…" came a deep grumble, as though the ground below them was speaking with a new voice.
Zoe slowly turned. The golem had not gone far, that was for sure. Somehow it had still caught wind of the zombie coming into the Village.
"Deci, c'mere, now." Zoe said, not taking her eyes off the golem. The golem stepped forward, and Deci rushed into Zoe's arms. Zoe unsheathed a tattered iron sword, before turning and rushing off.
The golem began shaking the ground as it began crashing towards them, gaining fast. Zoe frantically scanned her surroundings. There were no alleyways to duck behind. Every other village Zoe had ever seen had had alleyways. Just not this one. This was bad.
Zoe dashed up to a house and began banging and pounding on the door.
"C'mon, c'mon…" Zoe said, breaking into a cold sweat as the golem was almost there. The door wasn't breaking as fast as Zoe would have liked.
Deci reached down from her perch in Zoe's arms and fingered the latch on the door. She pushed harder, and Zoe watched with amazement as the door swung open.
"Good job Deci!" Zoe praised, ducking inside the house and slamming the door shut. "I can't believe I have never once thought about what that little lever did!"
To test, Zoe flicked at the little lever on the door. The door began to swing open, but Zoe remembered that there was still a golem outside. She slammed the door shut once more, just before the door shook on its hinges. The golem knew the zombie was inside, but it was simply too big to get in.
"Whew! I think we're safe for now." Zoe said, slumping down against the door, breathing hard. "That was an adventure, kiddo."
Deci giggled and crawled out of Zoe's arms, running about the small house they now found themselves in. Zoe stayed on the bottom floor for a moment, while Deci rushed upstairs. There were bookshelves down here. Zoe scanned the books.
"'Brewing – the Villager guide to potionology', 'Forging – the Villager guide to blacksmithing', 'Leather – the Villager guide to Leatherworking'… are these all just villager guides?" Zoe thought as she read the titles.
But then she came across two books that caught her eye. 'Myths and Lore of Minecraft', and a book with a strange-looking block that she had seen before. Where had she seen this block before?
She grabbed both books absently, and went upstairs. Deci was sitting on a bed, rifling through a nearby chest. Zoe sat down on the bed next to her.
"Hey kiddo, whatcha lookin at?" Zoe asked.
"Pwetty wocks!" Deci said, pulling out a dazzling emerald. "An' iwon!"
Zoe stared between the emeralds and iron that Deci had given her, and at the child herself as she happily munched on an apple she had found in the chest. How did she already know about stuff like iron? And yet she didn't know stuff about mobs, or Ender's pearls, or…
Well, that last one, not even many of the mobs knew. The Endermen weren't exactly the most lively, talkative bunch.
Suddenly, Zoe gasped. "I recognize that thing!"
The block from the book was sitting there in the corner of the room, gathering dust. Deci followed her gaze, before her gaze lit up as well.
"Cwaft!" Deci giggled, running over to the table. She peeked up, only barely able to see the top of the block. "Up, up!"
Zoe lifted Deci onto the table. Deci giggled and seemed happy just to be on top of the block.
"Buiwd!" Deci said, looking around her. She pulled out a log of wood she seemed to have also found, and placed it on the table.
Zoe gasped as the log suddenly exploded, flying into four equal pieces. The pieces landed squarely on the edges of the table, and Deci clapped her hands, before picking up the four wooden planks.
"Again!" she said, putting two of the planks down, one on top of the other.
Again, the two planks exploded, separating into two equal chunks each, before thinning out. Now Deci picked up the four sticks from the table, before clapping her hands again.
"Wheee!" she said.
Zoe was still shocked. What was this magic that Deci was doing? She looked down at one of the books in her hand.
'Crafting for Nitwits'.
Crafting. She had heard of that before. Where had she—?
Players. Players could inherently craft. That's right, she saw these strange tables at almost every Player house she had ever been to.
Wow, that could come in handy!
Zoe looked back down at what Deci was doing, as she looked focused. She placed a stick down, before seeming to realize that she didn't have what she was looking for. She frowned, as though trying to remember something.
She tentatively placed another stick down, and a plank on top. The pieces flew around each other, and suddenly an image shovel formed from the mix floating above the table. Zoe was astonished, but Deci frowned.
"No!" she said, and reached out. She took one of the sticks back, and the image faded. Zoe was blown away by what she was seeing. Deci not only could craft, but she seemed rather adept at it, too!
"Deci, look at you! Oh, you're a natural!" Zoe said, laughing ecstatically. She scooped Deci up, before turning back to the table. "We need to bring this with us! We need to… to…"
"Cwaft!" Deci giggled, pulling out another log. She placed it down, and again the log exploded into four chunks. This time, however, Deci just put the chunks back on the table again, and they began swirling together, back into one chunk. But when Zoe looked again, she smiled.
Deci was holding a small crafting table, just like the one on the ground.
"Look at you go, my little builder!" Zoe said, laughing ecstatically again.
Deci giggled at the praise.
Zoe carefully cracked open the door. She still heard heavy thumping nearby, as the golem kept trying to find another way into the house. But the door was clear, and the road to the woods stood unchallenged.
"Deci, c'mere, quick." Zoe whispered, looking around carefully. Zoe scooped Deci up in her arms again, and made a dash for the woods.
No sooner had they exited the doorframe than the golem spotted them. He swung his massive metal arms at them, intending to smash the zombie to pieces before she could harm any of his villagers. But moments before the fists connected, an Enderman teleported in from nowhere, and teleported back out, taking the zombie and the girl with him. The golem immediately relaxed. They weren't in the village, so he had nothing to worry about.
Ender stood over Zoe and Deci, who were both laughing. One from adrenaline, and one because she thought Ender's teleporting had been fun.
"And just what, may I ask, did you think you were doing when you brought the child to the village?" Ender asked, raising a metaphorical eyebrow.
"Well, originally I was going to teach her how to steer clear of mobs like the golem, but she didn't understand and we got spotted." Zoe said, calming her nerves. "Anyway, thank you for appearing when you did."
"E'der!" Deci said, giggling as she stood up. "Cwafting Table!"
She held out the item to Ender, who looked back at it with minor confusion.
"Zoe, what did she say?"
"She wants you to look at the crafting table she made. Isn't it amazing?" Zoe translated roughly. "Deci knows how to craft some things!"
Ender looked at the child again, before gently grabbing the table from her hand.
"I know just where to put this." He said, walking over to a newly formed crater in the wall of their cave. Crea was resting on her bed, already tuckered out. Exploding really took a lot out of her. Ender went to the corner of the hole, and plopped the table onto the ground. "There."
The bed that they had found was cyan, from who knows what village. There were a few torches scattered throughout the cave, but inside Deci's room someone had put a few extra torches.
"Wow, you guys searched for materials for a while, didn't you?" Zoe asked, lying down. Deci crawled up onto her own bed and just sat there, simply admiring the colors.
"Tell me about it. Ender wanted to find a teal bed, but I told him that the villagers don't make them that color, and then we had a run-in with an iron golem, and one thing led to another…" Bones said, exhausted on his own bed.
Ender walked over to Deci, and sat down on her bed with her. Deci looked up at him and laughed shyly, while Ender just studied her silently. Then he drew another green pearl from wherever he kept them on his person, handing it to Deci.
"You lost the other one?" Ender asked, turning to Zoe.
"Ah, about that. Ender, have you ever seen a Player teleport?" Zoe asked.
"No, Players can't teleport. The 'End' doesn't infuse her powers into them." Ender said, watching Deci's wonder with inquisitive eyes.
"Deci did. She was falling, and then she… wasn't." Zoe said, looking up at Ender.
"What?" Ender said, turning to look at Zoe.
"Yeah. Deci wasn't watching where she was going, fell off a cliff, but then she teleported, and she was fine, but she must've stepped on the pearl you gave her, because it shattered."
Ender looked at Zoe for a few moments, before turning back to watch Deci.
"The pearl shattered?" Ender asked, checking what Zoe had said.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, that's normal. Players use the raw pearl to teleport often, but that's only a one-time use. Endermen eat the pearls to connect to the flow of the End, which is all around us." Ender said, standing up and walking over to his corner.
"Ah yes, your mysterious 'End force' and goddess." Bones clacked, sitting up.
"She's not necessarily a goddess, but she is a Dragon, so you'd best hold her in respect." Ender said. "Who knows, maybe someday she'll break her curse of banishment that keeps her from her home in the Overworld."
"And the first thing she does, when she comes, will be to hunt down the unbelievers." Bones said sarcastically, slumping down on his bed again.
Ender didn't dignify Bones' reply with a response.
"Well, one thing's for sure." Zoe said, after a few moments' pause. "Considering tonight's events."
"What's that?" Bones asked.
"If she's going to have any hope of surviving with us, she's going to need to learn the ways of the mobs." Zoe said, looking over at Deci's tired form, laying down on her bed.