*Hands out imaginary lollipops to all the reviewers* I'm alive still...TO THE REVIEWS!

Jayisdabomb: My way of writing fluff is just amazing isn't it?

Angle999FTW: We don't know Julianna is the master of ship names and she's having trouble...we'll work on it.

: I WILL!

Allison908: You made a bet remember?

TheCupcakeCutie: Thank you...and i will.

Guest: That's a bit awkward...kind of ironic as well when you think about it

TO THE STORY!

Chapter 4: Mining

(Julianna pov)

New day, new lesson…that seems to be the way thing work in my new schedule. I'm ok with it but I just wish that it didn't start so early.

"What are we going to do today?' I asked Ty. He was my teacher today but he seemed WAY calmer than Allison…at least for the time being.

Mitch lagged behind us. I don't understand why he's following us or watching me learn these things but I enjoy his company. I blushed as the memory from yesterday rose to the surface of my mind. I pushed it back since I sensed Ty said something but as usual I wasn't paying attention.

"I'm sorry what? I spaced out."

"I said that I'm going to show you that ores then I'm taking you mining." Ty had me sit down on one of the logs while facing a wall of stone with different colors in their respected spot." I'm also going to shoe you how a furnace works."

"Cool." I shrugged.

"This one here…" Ty leaned on the block he was gesturing to "…is coal. It's best that you get this ore whenever you see it because we use it for a lot of things in huge quantities."

I nodded and pretended that I was writing all of it down. I heard Mitch chuckled from behind me. "this ore is iron. It makes secondary armor and tool but when all you have iron…use it."

"Good to know." I starched. 'This is sooo boring.'

"This is diamond ore. They're rare and extremely powerful and eventually cause a lot of fights."

"Nice to know that if I find a any, I'll need to hide it." I said sarcastically.

"This is red stone…we power most of our crazy machines with it, and this is the, emerald ore. It's even harder to find than diamonds but we're still in the process of testing whether or not it's stranger than diamond."

The emerald had an appealing green color and I couldn't help but stare at it. If was as if I was hypnotized but the spell was easily broken. Why? TY WOULDN'T SHUT UP!

"This is the useless lapis ore, don't bother getting it…we legitimately can't really do anything with it."

"Ok…and?"

"Well…I had budder ore here…SKY!" Ty yelled.

"What?" A distant voice yelled.

"Where's the budder that was here?"

I turned around to look at Mitch. "What the heck is butter?"

"They pronounce it budder but in reality it's gold. You can do a lot with it but the tools and armor are really weak." Mitch sat down next to me. "Now that you've technically seen and heard about all of the ores, do you actually want to go mining?"

I nodded. "Anything to get anyway from this." I turned around to look at Ty who was still argueing with Sky and demanding that he give him back the budder. I giggled a bit. "Sorry Ty."

Mitch and stood up and started to walk away. "Ty's not actually this boring…trust me. We had to force him to do this last night…it was pretty funny, you had to be there. He's a good guy…most of the imte."

"Most of the time?" I raised an eyebrow.

"He likes to use TNT."

"Ah." I nodded.

"You have your pickaxe right?" I nodded. "Good because you're now going to make a better one and a furnace."

"Yay." I say sarcastically and for emphasis, I added some jazz hands.

Mitch chuckled. "Don't get too excited…you might hurt yourself."

"Haha, very funny." I smiled. "So…where are we going again?'

Mitch only smirked. "That's for me to know and for you to find out."

I groaned. "That's not fair!"

"It's totally fair." Mitch's smirk grew.

"According to who's rules?!" I snap (literally) and get all up in his face.

Mitch ruffled my hair. "My rules."

My sass/anger decreased dramatically as I sigh. "I should of seen that coming." I say as I follow him through the forest and pass several trees.

"Yes...yes you should of…I'm surprised didn't." Mitch held back a branch until I passed him by only a few feet. I didn't know why he did that until he let go of it and it snapped back.

"Shall we continue?" Mitch once again walked in front of me. I nodded.

Suddenly the ground collapsed beneath me and I fell. Luckily I was able to grab a tree root before anything was complete out of my reach. I only had the one hand holding though,a nd I wasn't strong enough to pull myself up to the point where I could use both of my hands. "MITCH!'

"Holy shit! Julianna hang on!" Mitch ran over to where I was.

"Does it look like I have much of a choice?!" I called out.

"Bad choice of words." Mitch said as he pulled me out of the hole by my one hand until he was able to grab my other hand.

My back rested against his chest since he spun me around and pulled me close. The hole I fell/created was about4 by 4 but there was enough space for us to jump into it. There was obviously a cave beneath the hole.

"Are you ok?" Mitch spun me around again and moved my bangs out of my face for me.

"Considering the past events, I'm perfectly fine…a bit shocked and traumatized but fine." I felt light headed and started to sway back and forth.

"I think you need to sit down." Mitch led me away from the scene and had me sit on a rock. He turned around and started to investigate the hole that I fell in. "there's a cave at the bottom…we should check it out."

"I almost feel through a hole and you say that we should investigate it by going in?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Yup, pretty much."

"Ok, let's do this." I stood up and walked over to where he was. I stood right next to him and looked over his shoulder. "That's a pretty far jump."

Mitch jumped at the sound of my voice. "Geeze, you're a fast walker, but you're right. This is where we're going to mine. I'll jump first, do you have your crafting table?"

"Call me a weirdo but yes I do." I shrugged.

"Perfect! We're going to need it!" Mitch cheered as he jumped through the hole. "Come on, it's not that far down!" Mitch called out to me after I heard him land.

I was hesitant since I couldn't see that far down into the hole but I took a deep breath and I jumped in. "Shit!" Mitch caught me in his arms bridal style. I smirked. "nice catch, I didn't think you would catch me at all."

Mitch scratched the back of his head. "I wasn't exactly planning on it but as you can see I was putting torches and right as you jumped I just so happened to be under the hole. Can you help me find my torches? I dropped them so I would be able to catch you."

I looked around the dimly lighted area in search of Mitch's torches. I found about 5 unlighted torches in the corner of the cave we were in. "I found some!"

"How many?" Mitch replied.

Five!" I picked them up and walked to the center of the area that was lighted by the light that came from the world above.

"Ok, give them to me!" Mitch suddenly appeared behind me.

"Did you just teleport?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe… do you have the torches?" He asked me.

"Here you go!" I handed them to him while he put them in his pocket. "can you put the crafting table right there?" Mitch pointed to one of the lighted areas. I nodded and did as he asked.

"Do you think they're purposively leaving us alone?"

"Maybe." Mitch took out his iron pickaxe and started mining.

I studied his movement and copied him on a separate side of the cave. By the time I only had 10 pieces or so of cobble stone, I think Mitch finally remembered why we were here. "Julianna!"

"Yeah?!" I called back, suddenly my pickaxe broke and I cursed.

"You ok?!"

'I don't think he knows where I am.' "I'm fine, my pickaxe just broke though."

"I have some sticks, come here and I'll give them to you so you can make a new one!"

I came out of the small areas that I made and made my way over to the crafting table. I put some of my cobble stone where they would go, Mitch came from behind me and gave me the sticks. "How many cobble do you have?"

I put the sticks in and a new cobble stone pickaxe hovered over the crafting table when I was done. "About 6 or so."

"Perfect, now put the cobble stone all along the edge."

"But that would only leave one spot open in the middle." I started placing the cobble where it should of gone. I ran out about ¾ of the way.

"That's what we want to do." Mitch placed some of his cobble stone in the areas that I was missing some. A small gray block hovered over the crafting table. "Well…take the furnace."

I grabbed the furnace from its spot and placed it next to the crafting table. "I found some iron and some coal. Look…you light and place the coal here and whatever you need to smelt or cook, you put it in here and then it's a waiting game."

Mitch placed the iron that he found into the furnace (the light that came from the furnace was calming and hypnotizing). "It'll be done soon…but until then we should continue mining."

I agreed with Mitch and made my way back into the weird crevasse/hole that I made.

I kept mining until I hit this weird block that had black specs in it. "Must be coal."

When I hit in, black dust arose from the ore and into my lungs causing me to cough. "Yup… *cough cough* that's coal."

I hit the ore multiple times while I tried not to avoid the need to breath. I eventually got the coal that resided in the block. I got about 20 that resided in the block I got about 20 coal in that vein…I felt really light headed after all of the mining. "Hey Julie! Are you still alive?" Mitch called out.

I coughed a bit and tried to reply without sounding like I was dying. "I'm fine! Tired…but fine!" I laughed a bit. 'Mining isn't as boring as I thought it would be. At least it gives you time to think.'

"JULIANNA! WE GOT TO LEAVE NOW!" Mitch yelled from somewhere in the cave.

Scared and confused I got out of my mining spot only to find Mitch being attacked by a skeleton and what appeared to be a mutant spider. "Get your crap and try to find a faster way out of here instead of the way we came in!"

I hastily nodded and got the furnace and the crafting table. With the tow items now in my inventory, I searched the area for an alternative exit. Within a few seconds I made the conclusion that there was no other exit. Cursing I yelled, "Mitch! There's no other way out! We either go out the way we came or we go deeper into the cave!"

Mitch slayed the spider and knocked the skeleton back about 10 blocks before he came running toward me. "No time to explain what I'm going to do." He blocked one of the skeleton's arrows. "But you need to trust me, ok?"

I didn';t even have time to respond before I was picked up, placed onto Mitch's shoulders and thrown up into the sir. I was able to grab the tree root that prevented me from falling into the hole with both of my hands and pull myself out.

Suddenly I heard Mitch scream in agony but I couldn't tell what caused it because there wasn't enough light. A hand grabbed the tree root startling me enough to fall backwards. Another (identical) hand held onto the dirt block closest by the tree.

"Mitch!" I cried. I crawled over to the hole and grabbed his hand that was holding onto the dirt. It was a struggle but I (with his own help) got Mitch onto the stable ground falling backwards again in the process. He was heavily breathing but with some adrenaline still in him, he pushed himself up and crawled over to me. "Are you alright? Does anything hurt?"

Mitch brushed my bangs out of my face and looked me over in case I had any injuries. "Mitch I'm fine…I'm fine." I pushed him back a bit with my hands on his shoulder. Pain flashed through his face and I removed my hands. "But apparently you're not."

"No I'm fine but a bit sore." Mitch flashed me a painful smile but that's when I noticed it. A broken stick was sticking out of Mitch's shoulder at an angle that didn't allow me to see it before. He was shot with an arrow. "Lair, you're hurt."

I made a move to get a better look at it but Mitch backed away. "I'll live, there's no need to question it any further."

"Mitch, at least let me get the arrow out. If you keep it in there and continue moving then you'll ruin the muscle and tissue around the area and then we might have to cut your arm off." I crossed my arms.

Mitch sat down on the ground. "Just make it quick, ok?"

I kneeled next to him. "I'll try my best but you're going to need to take your jacket and shirt off. If I were you I wouldn't want to rip them as much as they already are and I need a clear view of your wound."

"Fine." Mitch dad as he was told.

I gulped and carefully grabbed hold of the arrow. "This is going to hurt."

"Just do it." Mitch looked away from his shoulder and I could feel him tense up.

"Don't tense up, it'll only make it hurt more." I traced Mitch's bicep with my finger visible giving him goose bumps. He physically relaxed giving me time to pull out the arrow. I pulled it out slowly at first until part of the flint was visible, and then I pulled it out.

Mitch grunted and put a hand on his wounded shoulder, painting it in blood. "Are you ok?" I leaned over his couched figure.

"Better, thanks to you." Mitch flashed me a grin and he sat up, never taking his hand off of his shoulder.

With his open hand he pulled out a golden apple from his pocket. "Budder apple." He gestured to me. "They'll fix you right up."

Mitch started to eat it and within seconds his shoulder started to heal. When he finished the apple, all that left on his shoulder was a scar. He wiped both of his hands on his jeans, I scooted closer to him, and took a better look at his scar, subconsciously tracing it with my finger.

When Mitch moved he brought me back into the real world and I retracted my hand. "I didn't say stop." Mitch mumbled.

"What?" I raised an eyebrow holding my hand to my chest.

"Ummm …I should thank you…for taking the arrow out." Mitch turned to look me in the eye. I blushed and moved my bangs out of my face. "It wasn't- I mean- I – well you-" I sighed. "you're welcome."

Mitch smiled. "There has to be some way I can repay you."

I looked at the suddenly interesting ground in front of me. "You don't have to, I-"

Mitch lifted my head up with his finger. He raised an eyebrow and gave me another amused smile. Mitch pulled me closer to him and did something I never in a million years expected him to do.

He kissed me.

It was sweet and too short for my liking. When he pulled away, I sat there in shock and looked up to see Mitch smirking, with his hand held out. "Come on, we should get back to the camp before night time."

I nodded like an idiot and took his hand. He pulled me up and we walked back to the camp in silence. 'When I'm ready…will I stay for him and my new friends…or will I go my own way…being independent like my personality says I am? Curse you universe! Why did you do this to me?!'