Journals of the Lost

Chapter 2 - Return to a New World

As Greg entered the cave, he noticed the moans of zombies emitting from the cave walls. This, added to the chilly atmosphere, gave a spooky effect.

When you enter a cave of course, you usually bring a pickaxe to mine with. When you enter an unexplored cave, that itself is another case.

Greg brought not only a pickaxe, but a stack of melons for food, a bucket of water in case of lava or a high ledge, a stack of torches to light up the cave, a sword to handle hostile mobs with, a bow with several stacks of arrows to eliminate the suicidal creepers, and his trusty pumpkin on his head in the event of an Endermen crossing paths with him. He knew they were not hostile creatures if you did not directly look at them, and he did not want to encounter one if possible, as he did not have any armor with him, and was not an expert swordsman.

Walking in the darkness, lighting up the path as he went, he noticed how very little mobs he had met. There was also an amusing chicken passing by, the cave must have another entrance if a chicken could get in. Idly, he wondered why it was in the cave in the first place, most chickens search for light as it had warmth, giving a sense of security and hope.

As he mined a redstone ore, a hiss sounded behind him. There were too many creepers lately. When he notched an arrow to strike it though, it vanished.

Greg stared at the ground where the creeper once was.

Switching to a more versatile iron sword, he retraced his steps back to the mouth of the cave. The chicken he met was there, clucking profusely before hopping away.

Deciding exploring would have to wait later, he instead went into the library. It was the only place where silence was normal, and thus the library was the best place to relax in.

What he did not expect was Sigma Stone enchanting a diamond sword in it.

Greg wiped his eyes to make sure he was not hallucinating, indeed, Sigma was in front of him, enchanting a diamond sword.

"Ah, Gregory!" Sigma exclaimed. "The Master seems to be well enough to farm, at the very least, and has started a small village at the chain of islands we lived on. He invited you to stay along with us on the mountains. Peter, Alphonse, User and Payso seems to have accepted."

Greg knew of Payso, he was one of the law enforcers of the nation, outranked only by the Ace, Zeus, Jaryl and Andrew. They were the rulers of the nation, though Ace had more power than the other three. Ironic considering Zeus meant king of the gods. User though, he didn't know of. Sigma saw his confusion and realized something.

"Ah! User is the Chief Miner, I forgot that he rarely ever gives out his name. Somehow I doubt that's his name though. From the rumours I heard his name was Ryan, though he insisted that him name was User. Oh well."

Managing to string together a few words, Greg finally said something. "What about Falador III?"

"Falador III? As you can see, most citizens build houses and never return. It has become a ghost town. Only select people who were active in the community, such as yourself and the other four, have been selected to go to the new Falador IV."

Now Greg was even more confused. "Falador IV? But that town is in snowy plains! Master Wei lives in a chain of tropical islands, right?"

"True. The tropical islands have been built into a small village. Master Wei insisted on calling it Falador IV, though. For what reasons I'm not sure why. Possibly he was feeling nostalgic."

"Why only select a handful of people though?"

Sigma raised his eyebrow, as if that was the stupidest question he ever heard. "Natural selection, of course. Master Wei only took in the best people he knew from Falador III."

"Well, I guess I should pack up then," Greg said. He proceeded to go home and take only the most valuable items he possessed. The rest he left, just in case someone found this abandoned town in the future, wishing to explore it. Falador III had many different kinds of houses, all squashed to fit inside it's designated plots.

With Sigma leading the way, they both traversed through the forests and seas when they finally reached the islands. The journey was quite peaceful on sea, only several creepers met them in the forest. Again, there was a strange abundance of creepers. Sigma also noticed this, and had said the Master would know what it meant.

Arriving at the freshly built headquarters, Gregory felt more at home than ever. The room had wooden floors, lots of furnaces burning away, presumably cooking pork and steak from the enticing smells that wafted in the air, and to top it all off, it was connected to a corridor made from the soft pieces of giant mushrooms, leading to the comfy bedroom where there was a fire raging at the hearth. There was another corridor that connected to an empty room, but the floor had been completely filled with mycellium, a special type of dirt which allows fungi to grow in almost any environment, providing it was planted on top of the mycellium.

"You can build anywhere you like here," Harold said, "as long as it's not on the same mountains the headquarters is in. We will probably expand up and down the mountain."

Bringing a large amount of wood, Greg set out to build his new home in this warm village. However, the mystery of the abundant amount of creepers was still not solved.

Deciding it could wait for later, he continued ploughing the dirt where his house would be, quite small compared to Alphonse's humble abode, or Master Wei's large farms. He chose to build quite a distance between the farm and his house, the sounds of cows mooing was too loud for his liking, and it spooked him out.

As he built the basic foundations of his house, he realized an implication of Falador.

Master Wei has been going further and further away from civilization. It was not until he pondered it that he realized what was happening. There were mysterious forces at work - driving away the citizens of Falador to quite a distance from any other town. Cliffon, one of the other towns, had received no such problems. The same for the other towns.

Greg put two and two together. This must be related to the abnormal amounts of creepers lately. Placing the final touches to his new home, he was hit by a quite startling realization.

The citizens of Falador was hopelessly lost. Master Wei had been trying his best to keep everything together, but one way or another they were always forced to move out - to the point where they were alone.

On a chain of islands.

Filled with hostile creatures.

In the darkness of the forest.

With barely enough to protect the village.

'Natural Selection.'

Sweet Mother of Notch. Was Falador cursed?

A/N:

Thank you FlyingMidgetProductions for reviewing! I wasn't really expecting a review so quick, but here's another chapter! I realize it's nowhere near as long as the first one, but that's all my mind could think of.

I'm typing Chapter 3 as soon as I can, but I do have another fanfiction to worry about, so I guess I'll split between the two. Er, three, now.