Foreword:

I should probably mention… I'm also a professional full-time perfectionist. The job pays well, but the hours are ridiculous. This job involves going through over a thousand brainstorm recordings to make sure I have literally every detail I've ever come up with for these early chapters in these early chapters, and hence the long wait. Despite all my best efforts, I'm still not completely happy with this chapter, but I've been fretting over it for way too long now, and I just want to get it out there.

Hey, I warned you. However, I think I'm going to be doing a lot of apologizing in the future of this story. In the interest of keeping you all updated, I'm happy to let you guys know that chapter 4 is pretty much completely finished because I've done more work on it than this chapter over the past few months. :) However, there's one detail about it that until I figure out, I will be unable to post it, so the next one could be up in a couple weeks, oooor a few more months. Thank you for being patient with me.

Remember what I said about directing people here? You don't? Of course not, that was like six months ago. Well, it was a bad joke, so whatever. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am STILL just as dedicated to finishing this story! I've just been a little busy lately… okay, VERY busy, but, you know, whatever.

However unhappy I am with it, I present to you…

Chapter 3 – Woolgathering

««««« … »»»»»

Why?

He's such a dork.

With his farm-boy getup complete with suspenders, it was amazing he didn't wear a cowboy hat and walk around with a straw of wheat sticking out of his mouth. If he were any dorkier he'd probably carry a hoe with him everywhere he went. Goofy haircut, goofy clothes, goofy voice and a goofy smile. Not going anywhere without his goofy friends or his pig—which he claimed to consider his friend as well. Always optimistic, even when nothing was going his way. He scared at the slightest sign of danger, and yet he was so willing to dive into trouble. He had no shame, yet he was always ready to defend his pride.

Everything from his track record at the EnderCon Building Competition to his weirdo poster fetish just screamed 'loser'…

So why the heck did she like him?

Petra knew herself well enough to know that she didn't just like people for no reason. Up until recently, she didn't even like anyone in the typical sense, let alone… 'like' anyone. Just thinking about it made her head hurt, so she tried not to, instead attempting to focus on her work.

She finished gathering her tools, intent on heading into town to get a few more things. If she was going to the Nether, she would need more than just a pick and the iron block from her deal with Lukas.

Always blocks with that guy.

Apparently a builder could 'never know when he might need a stack of cobble.' Or ten stacks. Well, at least blocks weren't as lame as pigs. Why couldn't Lukas have been the one she 'liked'? He was cool; smart; nice enough. Kind of a wimp, though… At least he wasn't the walking definition of uncool.

Petra blinked and shook her head.

Why the heck am I even thinking about this?!

Brooding over the merits and drawbacks of two boys. That was a new low for her.

Looking down, she noticed for the first time a chiseled stick in her hand. Whittling. It was a nervous habit; one that had become a lot more prominent over the past couple of months. You'd think after doing it so much she'd be a little better at it, but her wood chunks always just ended up sticks.

She sighed and threw the stick away with the others dotting out her path, her thoughts once again returning to the mystery of her own psyche.

Where had this even started?

« … »

She'd been to many towns before, and this one looked no different from the usual, though she had to admit the security of this one was comforting after the place she had just come from.

It was a small village that had no more than twenty people and hadn't seen a traveler in over a decade. She could barely even communicate with the inhabitants for how thick their village accents were.

Now, Petra was a good fighter, but there was only so much one girl could do about a sudden horde of zombies. She had fought as hard as she could to save their defenseless little village, but after painstakingly eradicating the creatures, all that remained were the villagers themselves, already rotting as they too limped over to attack her. Even if she hadn't been outnumbered, she wouldn't have had the heart to kill them… so she fled.

To comfort herself, she questioned why they hadn't been overrun sooner… But they had survived that long, hadn't they? Did that mean she had led the monsters there? She wasn't one to guilt-trip, but she couldn't help wondering if there was something more she could have done.

She had to shake her focus and remind herself that brooding over it wasn't going to help. What was done was done. All she could do now was try to learn from the experience. But… learn what? That she hated zombies? That villagers really needed to start building walls around their settlements…? That she wasn't as strong as she thought she was?

Somewhere nearby she heard a commotion, and looked to see a few nervous people walking briskly away from the scene. Curious, Petra walked around the corner, and just a few houses down, a massive building was up in flames.

She ran over to the crowd of people gathered out front. Some of them looked curious and some frightened, while still others looked almost excited; people like Petra. There were already water carriers perched atop the buildings to the left and right of it, so it wasn't a danger to anyone as long as everybody got out, and it wasn't every day you got to see a building burn.

"You have to let me through!" shouted a panicked voice from the front of the crowd. "My friend is in there!"

Well, that changed everything.

She wasn't sure if it was instinct or something else, but she pushed herself to the front of the crowd. There stood a boy who looked about her age with brown hair and tanned skin, and he was frantic. Two older men tried to hold him back as he pushed and shoved, trying to get pastthem.

"Sir, we already evacuated everyone!" one of the men assured the boy. "Your friend must be out here somewhere."
"No, you don't understand—"

She couldn't blame the guys on either side of the argument. Running inside of a burning building was crazy, but leaving someone to die in that building was even crazier.

Nerves steeled, Petra took the boy's distraction for an opening and slipped right past them.

"Wait!" one of them shouted, "It's too dang—"

"Hey!"

A few seconds later, the boy from outside caught up with her, wearing a mischievous smile like he'd just gotten away with something naughty. She almost asked him if he was crazy, and instead found herself smiling at him.

"Where were they last?" she asked as he ran alongside her.
"Second floor," he said. "He wandered off while I wasn't looking."

The boy made a swift right turn and shot up a flight of stairs. "This way!"
She hesitated for just a moment before following him. She was surprised at the display of courage from this stranger and wondered if maybe her assistance wasn't even necessary. When she reached the top of the stairs, however, she found her comrade bent over with his hands on his knees, gasping for breath.
Doesn't he know how to breathe when he runs?
After assessing the area she smacked him on the back to keep him moving.
"There are two ways," she said, but before she could finish, he cut in with, "You take the right, I'll check left."
Without another word, he ran off. Amazed, she hesitated only a split second before she took off down the right hallway.

The air around her was hot, making it a little hard to breathe, but the Nether was hotter. She could take the heat, but that didn't mean she could go sightseeing. If she didn't hurry, the thin air would be the least of her worries.

She turned into the closest room. There was nothing, so she kept moving. In the third room she checked, she thought she heard something. It sounded like a frightened whimpering, and it was coming from behind a desk ahead. She cautiously approached, and when she peeked around it, she almost gasped at the sight.
It was a pig.
Petra growled in frustration.

We don't have time for this!

The floor could crumble and vanish at any second, and the missing friend was nowhere to be seen. She just hoped he hadn't already been killed.
She heard a somewhat familiar HISSS and looked up just in time to see a hole in the ceiling, burned through by a glowing orange liquid now pouring out from it, and Petra dodged to the left before it spilled out onto the wooden floor.

Lava? No building made almost entirely of wood had lava just lying around so carelessly. That had to mean—

Griefers! THAT'Show this building went up in flames!

She should've known. The savages. Stealing what they could and destroying what they couldn't, griefers were selfish jerks who couldn't make anything for themselves, so they just ruined everything for everyone else—and they didn't even have the decency to make the mess easier to clean up afterward.

It didn't matter right now. Their time was up, and they HAD to get out of there.
She ran for the door, then heard a terrified squeal and the little pig darted out in front of her. Her eyes shot open and the next second, she tumbled to the floor. As soon as she could catch her bearings, she looked up and the first thing she saw was the pig's snout, which it promptly shoved into her face.
"Gah!" she exclaimed, reflexively pulling back. "Stupid pig! Get out of here!"
She got up and ran past it, but that didn't stop the pig from following right on her heels. Dumb creatures had no concept of personal space. She kept running down the hall, right past the stairway down to the first floor. She had to find that boy and get them out of there ASAP.
Just as she turned the corner at the other end of the hall, the boy skidded to a stop a block in front of her. She averted her eyes when she saw the distraught and panicked look on his face. He was alone.
"I'm sorry," she said, "I couldn't—"
"Reuben!"
She blinked. "What?"
The boy knelt down with an awestruck smile, and the little pig ran out from behind her, charging into his waiting arms and oinking in relief. Speechless, Petra just stood there staring. It was all she could do to keep her mouth from hanging open.
A tremor shook the floor and jolted her out of her stupor. "Come on!" she shouted urgently. "We've gotta get out of here!"
The two of them—and 'Reuben'— made their way down the stairs and outside where a crowd awaited them with nervous looks, too afraid to go in after them—or just smart enough to know that everyone really had gotten out, and this boy was just being ridiculous.
As soon as they got through the crowds, the boy exhaled in relief.

"Oh, I can't thank you enough," he said, and his pig oinked what she wished her frazzled mind could interpret as a show of appreciation.

But no. Agitated and frustrated, Petra spun around and blasted in his face, "Are you KIDDING me?!"

The boy blinked a few times, clearly taken off guard. "Um… What?"

"You ran into a burning building to save a pig?! A PIG!"

He looked down at the animal in his arms with a bemused expression, then set it down on the ground.

She wasn't done. "You freaked out and made a huge fuss, all over ONE PIG. You didn't even tell me it was a pig!"

"Oh yeah," he said stupidly, rubbing the back of his head. "I probably should've mentioned that."

"No freaking kidding! Of all the brainless, thickheaded—What kind of idiot are you? You seriously think that scrawny little—porkchop is worth dying for?!"

With that, he did last thing she would have expected. He smiled.

"Heck yeah!"

She did a double-take, any further words of disapproval catching in her throat. He didn't look mad or sound mad, nor did he show any regard to the insults she had piled on him. Just said, 'heck yeah' as if it were the most plain thing in the world. As if there were no difference between that pig, and a human being.

Looking down at the sad and presently traumatized face on Reuben the pig, she frowned as something astounding occurred to her. For anyone to risk their own life for someone else took great courage, but to do so for an animal took more than that. It took devotion. She thought it very strange that he would act as though he, himself, was of no more value than that pig, but maybe to him… he wasn't.

She looked away and, shocked at the shameful feeling her heart managed to conjure, simply muttered, "Oh… okay."

He thanked her again, but with her mind inexplicably sent into a state of bewilderment, she couldn't find it in herself to respond.

As she wandered the forest around the city walls in search of a new place to take refuge, her focus wandered between all of her most recent memories. She arrived in this town feeling more defenseless than usual, and after running through a burning building she felt… not just more alive, but like… she wasn't alone. She had saved the life of a dear friend that wasn't hers, but for some reason, that bothered her more than it assured her. She had always been more comfortable on the move, and found hiding in caves preferable to 'real' shelter, but this time…

Maybe it was just in her head, but this time, the empty cave she found didn't seem… good enough.

« … »

That's just who she was. Everyone's acquaintance, nobody's friend. However, that day, something in her had changed. A voice she hadn't heard in a long time spoke up and echoed for more than a distant acquaintanceship with someone. In her frazzled frame of mind, she couldn't help but consider it. In that village, she'd had no support, no one to watch her back when everything spun out of control. No one would have even known—or cared—if she had died, and this, like few things, scared her. Once this sunk in, it seemed everything else fell into place. She needed someone. Someone who she could rely on and turn to when things looked tough. Someone who could stand up for her even as she stood up for them. Someone who would die for her, someone… worth dying for.

Then she met Lukas. He was interesting. Probably the only reason she even held one conversation with him was because she was in a weakened state. He was so kind and generous, to the point where it bordered on gross. But, with her newfound resolve, she forced herself to at least try to socialize with him. She had to admit, she didn't regret it in the least. The idea of just having 'someone to talk to' had always sounded so cheesy to her, but after all this, she completely understood. However, it couldn't be Jesse, so Lukas' friendship had turned out to be exactly what she needed to get through this breakthrough of hers, whether he knew it or not. Yup, he was exactly what she needed, all right… right up until her first EnderCon.

What a cruel irony that her two new best friends turned out to be sworn enemies.

Petra had only watched from a distance as Jesse and his friends grew closer together, while her precious few friends grew farther apart, and it was starting to bother her. She wondered why that was. She usually didn't give a care if the people she knew liked each other or not, but like most of her recent discoveries, she was confident that she'd never understand this about herself. The Creator certainly had a sense of humor, trying to get her to play peacemaker between the two rival teams. The funny thing was, she was about to play right into His hand. If she couldn't keep the moon from rising, why bother trying to fight herself? Still, she couldn't help but grumble about how if it weren't for Lukas' stupid friends, this wouldn't be a problem. Then again, if it weren't for her stupid feelings, this wouldn't be her problem.

Ugh… feelings.

She made her way into town and the streets were bustling as everyone hustled to get everything ready for EnderCon. Large black and purple wool arches stood overhead set up every twenty blocks or so, and posters for various events hung on the walls of every building in sight. It was even more crowded than last year when they had a 'live' and 'completely safe' Enderman display. How they had managed that was beyond her.

Why had Ivor chosen today as his deadline for her? The Nether wasn't exactly the most pleasant place to spend a Saturday, and it was hard enough to go through the Nether, and back, when she didn't have to go through town, and back, when everyone and their dog was on the road. And with a celebrity making an appearance this year, the last minute rush for building materials was practically a competition itself.

Petra paused.

Oh, that's right.

She had almost forgotten that the Building Competition was held several hours before EnderCon, 'to provide them time to be able to set up the winning build'—don't ask how she knew that regulation word for word. That meant it would be happening right now. She wondered if there would be time to drop by and wish them luck. Probably not, though. Not if she was going to have time to get that skull, and that had to take priority.

After grabbing the remainder of the resources she needed, she checked her mental list once more, then turned to head back to the cave where her Nether portal was—outside of town.

She sighed. She'd left this town many times, but she wondered if she would ever leave for good. Her lifestyle was so different from the others, and she was already getting a little stir-crazy. Did she have a future here, with her new friends? Or was she just doomed to live a confusing and emotional life from now on? Would she be better off just leaving this all behind?

No. As long as her feelings stayed in this town, leaving wasn't even an option, but she wouldn't be satisfied with her life here, nor would she feel peace about leaving, as long as her friends were enemies. She had to do something, but wondered if it was even possible to unite them with the teams being so diametrically opposed, and their leaders each being so devoted to their own teams. Even if it wasn't, she had to try. To fight. If there was one thing she was good at, it was fighting, so that's what she would do, even if by fighting she'd—

"Die!"

Petra stopped dead in her tracks. She looked around, and who should she see but Jesse himself running toward her, along with his clumsy patchwork friend, nerdy friend, and token pig 'friend' who was decked out in some kind of weird costume.

They slowed to a stop in front of her, and while Axel looked like he might pass out right there, Jesse rested his hands on his knees and looked her in the eyes.

He still doesn't know how to breathe when he runs.

"We need dye!" Jesse rasped, then took a deep breath.

"Dye?" Petra repeated.

Jesse continued, "Well, we actually need green wool, but we have the wool already."

"No we don't," said Olivia.

Jesse looked surprised. "What? But I thought it was on the list!"

"That was yesterday, and you didn't make a list."

Petra couldn't help but give a condescending chuckle. This was so like him. "You at least remembered the lever this time, right?"

Jesse frowned. "Oh my gosh, Petra, that was one time!"

"As I recall," Petra began, "that one time your build scored lower than a combination egg and apple harvester that consisted of a caged chicken over a hopper with a dirt block on top." She hadn't actually been there, but as told to her later by Lukas, it was also the only time he'd ever seen Jesse throw a temper tantrum. The thought of it made her chuckle. The Ocelots, of course, had still won.

Jesse looked offended and crossed his arms. "Hey, at least ours had more than two blocks."

"Dude, we don't have time for this!" Axel cut in.

"Right! Right," Jesse exclaimed, instantly snapping back to action. "Change of plan. Petra, we need green wool, stat. Is there any chance you have a stack lying around?"

"No," she replied. "I do have the green dye, though."

"Shoot! What are we going to do without the—Oh, wait!" He smiled, then proudly announced, "I have shears!"

Jesse stuck both hands in his pockets and started fishing around in his inventory.

Petra raised an eyebrow. "You just carry shears around?"

Jesse smiled and looked up at her while apparently struggling to reach something. "Hey, never know when you might need to shear some sheep."

He pulled out a few miscellaneous items and returned each to his Pocket as they failed to suit his need.

"No, that's—a hoe…"

Aaaand, there it was. Congratulations, Jesse. You are officially the dorkiest hick in town. Petra rolled her eyes.

"A carrot…"

The pig perked up happily and Jesse shoved the carrot back into his Pocket only to pull out the next worst thing.

"Ooh, a potato!" he said with a grin.

Olivia frowned impatiently at him. "Jesse!"

"Right, right."

Petra smiled. It wasn't uncommon at all for people—especially scatterbrained people such as Jesse—to stuff something in their Pocket only to forget about it and find it weeks later, but something about Jesse getting so thrilled about a potato was just… cute. Still, what was really amusing was the fact that he had things stored in his Pocket that any farmer would have lying around his house, such as vegetables, allegedly some shears, and a hoe, like he might just up and decide while walking through town that he really wanted to plant a garden right then and there on a stranger's lot.

Thinking about this while she watched him pull out some seeds—still looking for his shears—she let out a small laugh, disguised with an annoyed hand to her forehead, and said, "You are such a farm boy."

"Ah-ha!" He pulled a pair of shears from his Pocket and whipped them into the air as a cooler person might a sword. "All right, guys, we're going to gather as much wool as we can in the next ten minutes."

"Are you sure this is—" Olivia started, but was briskly interrupted by Axel.

"Let's get to gatherin' then."

"Great," said Petra with a smile. "Meet me back here with your wool, and I'll get the dye."

"Awesome," they each said in some form or another, then booked it back the way they'd come from like their lives depended on it. Petra then sped off and took their cue to pick up her own pace. She was already running on borrowed time.

« … »

When she had first received this dye as a token of gratitude for a very small charitable act, she was almost tempted to throw the stuff out—When would she ever need to dye anything green, especially in such a massive amount?—but now she was glad she hadn't.

She stuffed the dye in her Pocket and started to make her way through the forest back to their meeting spot. She was surprised, however, when she heard a rustling nearby. She looked around and sure enough, there were Jesse and his friends scrambling about in a flock of sheep trying to get them to cooperate.

"You think that's enough?"

"It has to be! We need to get going."

The four of them started to shuffle out and Petra ran to meet them.

"Petra?" one of them pointed her out, and the others looked toward her.

"Fancy meeting you here," she said.

"Perfect timing," said Jesse.

Petra walked toward them, acting as if she were in no hurry of her own. She pulled out the dye and placed it in his hand and he quickly passed it to Olivia behind him.

"Awesome. Okay, what do we owe you?"

For some reason Petra was surprised by this question, but she was more surprised that she hadn't considered that herself yet. She stared at him for a minute while in thought, and this seemed to make him nervous. Being in a hurry did that sometimes. "Mmm… You know what? Don't worry about it."

Jesse blinked, looking baffled. "What?"

His friends gave each other a bewildered look, and the pig oinked—one might say sounding surprised.

"Just keep it, Farmer Boy."

"You're—you're not going to charge us?" he wondered, wearing the same stupefied look.

I didn't pay for it. Why should they?

She tried to convince herself that was the only reason, but she knew it wasn't. Putting on her best look of nonchalance, she said, "Don't you have a competition to get to?"

The intrigued look on Jesse's face melted into panic again.

"Oh, right!" he exclaimed, and hustled his friends back toward town before turning around to face her once more. "Thank you so much, Petra. You're a lifesaver!"

With that, Farmer Boy rushed to catch up with his friends, and Petra smiled.

She was starting to walk away when it hit her what she was forgetting. She turned back again and shouted after them, "Good luck, guys!"

They waved back, and just as she was about to turn around again, she saw Axel stop in his tracks, saying, "Wait, guys. We need a face. What creeper is creepy without a face?"

"Oh shoot, you're right," said Jesse. "We need ink."

Jesse glanced left and right as though there would be some just lying around, and as Petra started to wonder if maybe she had some, Jesse dashed off and took a plunge into the nearest lake.

The answer to the question 'Why?' really was simple, but it was moments like these—moments that reminded again and again of just how far Jesse would go for his friends—that made her smile and think to herself, Oh. That's why.

« … »

Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace.

—Psalm 37:37

Author's Notes:

Boy howdy! That was a doozie!

Not sure why, but for some reason, I feel the need to say again, that THIS IS NOT A SHIP FIC. By now I somewhat doubt any of the Luktra shippers are still with me, but for those of you among the Luktra shippers who are still with me, I give you my thanks for being open-minded. As much as I wish everyone were like this, I will confess that I myself have a hard time sometimes reading fics for pairings that I don't ship, so I'm not really one to talk, but to those of you who will let others have their way and not be belligerent, you have my respect.

- Petra — I'm sure my version of Petra's character doesn't fit a lot of my readers' headcanons, but as I've said before, I'm trying to figure out their characters to the best of my ability, and her character in episode 1 was pretty badly developed and inconsistent. For example, she acts like a mercenary the first time they meet her, saying things like, "For the right price, I'll help anyone," but then she acts all noble when the Wither Storm attacks. Or later, she says that she 'doesn't want to stoop to his level,' and then later does exactly that with the gold sword. Suffice it to say, I had to eventually settle on something, but my apologies if her character doesn't match your headcanon. All that being said, it just sort of happened that in my version, she is a lot more introspective and reminiscent than you would expect. It's obvious in this chapter mainly focusing on flashbacks and history and whatnot, but I've also noticed this a lot in later scenes as well.

- Reuben? Reuben? 0.0— You—as in the die-hard Reuben fans (Hi, mom! :D)—may have noticed that Reuben doesn't seem to do a lot in this chapter. Part of the reason is that it can be hard to think of ways to work him in, but in this instance I ignored him on purpose unless he did something noteworthy. I figure since Petra doesn't really think of Reuben as a person, (to be fair, he's not) she's not going to notice every time he does anything, unlike Jesse who would note every little oink and squeak.

-Kind of a wimp and so nice he's gross—I once again feel like I should note that Petra thinking that Lukas is a bit of a wimp among other things isn't an attack on the Luktra shippers. This is just how she thinks, especially in her current state. However, if you must, you can imagine it's because she's… 'in denial.' :J

- The Creator — No, I don't mean Notch. I mean God. God with a capital 'G'. I don't know about you, but I've always found it weird that a lot of players think of Notch as the Minecraft 'god', but those same people generally portray Notch as being evil, or just a jerk for no reason. That's not how I imagine the Creator of this world is.

Choice Notes:

-My Jesse — I was almost reluctant to even bother slaving away for another hour trying to figure out the best way to describe Jesse's hair color since everyone's going to picture him however they imagine him anyway, but this is a novelization. You might think this is silly, but I actually find it REALLY hard to imagine Jesse with any other skin than the one I've always played with. For some reason, white Jesse just looks really weird to me now. _

Glossary:

-Villagers— There are no villagers in MCSM but they are mentioned, and all you need to know about them is that they live in little villages and go about their lives trading until they get overrun by zombies. This is borderline inevitable unless they get help from the player because they're so stupid that they can't tell sometimes if they're indoors. Of course this is just because of their AI and I don't think they would be this stupid in MCSM. My interpretation is that they're like natives that share the same language but have thick accents that make them hard to understand, so most people generally stay away from them just because they're so different.

- Lava — Lava is one of the most common Griefer tools and it falls much slower than the speed of gravity.

- Griefers — Griefers are there to do just this: cause grief. In this world, griefing is practically a sport. Most griefers at least can take what they dish out, but sometimes they're just idiots with too much TNT.

- Carrots — Pigs love carrots. :3

- Ink — You get ink from squids which in this world you can find in almost any body of water.

-Stacks— This is barely worth mentioning, as it's more Minecraft terminology than an actual game dynamic, but in the interest of being thorough, a 'stack' is how Minecrafters refer to the maximum amount of something you can have without it taking more than one space in your inventory. For most items, this amount is 64, but sometimes it's 16.