The sound of Rainbowcreeper's yawning awoke me. Almost immediately, I sat up in the bed. Rainbowcreepers finished stretching and went into the kitchen as I started thinking about the day. We all had one day to train and do whatever we needed to do for the trip to the Nether. We had plenty of supplies already, yet I still felt nervous.
As I was about to get out of bed, I heard Sarah wake up too. She yawned and turned to face me.
"Good morning." She said with a small smile, despite being tired.
"Good morning." I replied. I got out of bed. I hadn't thought about Sarah in a while. I still liked her, but I hadn't recently thought about her as much. I couldn't put my finger on exactly why I liked her, but she was beautiful inside and out, in a way.
Sarah got out of bed, and I followed her into the kitchen. Little Notch was on his knees, looking at whatever he was cooking in the furnace. I looked around and didn't see Daryl, Tommy, or Bridgette anywhere.
"Where's Daryl?" I asked Little Notch.
"Downstairs." He said. "He asked me to cook breakfast this morning, so we're having fish." Little Notch brought his face to the furnace and smelled it. He sighed with delight.
"Well, that's better than mushroom stew." Rainbowcreepers said. He sat down in one of the chairs at the table. I sat down across from him, and Sarah sat next to Rainbowcreepers.
"What are you all going to do today?" Sarah asked.
"I'll be practicing my archery." Rainbowcreepers said, leaning back in his chair with his feet on the table. "I found something I can use for target practice in an abandoned building across the street."
"And I'm going to stock up on food." Little Notch said, still cooking the fish.
"What about you, Steve?" Sarah asked me. The problem was that I didn't know what I was going to do. I guess training was a good thing to do, considering I wasn't very strong.
"Training." I said. "I'll be training."
"I'm probably just going to get some food. I saw a good farm at the village where we saw Tommy and Bridgette."
I looked over and saw Little Notch take the finished fish out and bring it over to the table. He set it down on a dark oak wooden slab.
"Eat up." He said as if he didn't even try on the fish. As we were about to start eating, I heard footsteps walking across the hallway. I could overhear a conversation going on between Daryl and Tommy. I think Bridgette was there, too.
"I want you to respect our guests!" Daryl slightly raised his voice.
"But they seem so inexperienced! I don't deserve to work with people like them." Tommy replied.
"We have to do this for them." Bridgette said. "They don't have any other help!"
"Please, I really need you guys to do this for me!" Daryl yelled. His voice had a desperate tone. "Don't you remember what happened last time we went into the Nether?" The conversation stopped for a second, giving me time to ponder while everyone else at the table showed no reaction. What happened to Daryl that he wasn't telling us about?
"This is ridiculous!" Bridgette spoke up. "Tommy, only a little kid would argue about something like this!"
"You know how immature Tommy is." Daryl said. He turned to Tommy. "You're being very unreasonable about this. You don't even know who they are."
"I know that they are inexperienced. Don't you remember what that blue creeper guy said? They've only been here six months!" Tommy referred to Rainbowcreepers in an insulting tone. I looked to the "blue creeper guy" sitting across from me. He was still completely oblivious to the conversation.
"Could everyone please be quiet! This is stupid!" Bridgette said.
"Yeah, I can see that." Daryl agreed. "You really need to shape up, or just shut up! I've never met someone so immature and ridiculous!"
"Wow." Tommy said. "I can't believe you even said that. Now I know why I ran away from you. And I'll never regret that." I looked up in shock and sorrow for Daryl, as he stopped talking for a few seconds. Even Sarah and Little Notch were looking outside the door, although the three were not visible. I was surprised Rainbowcreepers was still completely oblivious. Daryl, Tommy, and Bridgette walked in without a word.
"Hey, guys!" Rainbowcreepers sat up. "We're having fish!" He waved at them with a smile. I could tell he didn't overhear the conversation like I did. Daryl and Tommy sat down, not making eye contact with each other, their arms crossed. The only difference being that Tommy looked angry, while Daryl had a severe look of disappointment on his face. Bridgette sat there, looking concerned and clueless on what to do. She grabbed a piece of fish and took a bite.
Everything was silent for the rest of the meal, the only sounds being the munching of cooked fish. Even the animals outside were so quiet, it made me doubt they were even there. Everyone ate their fish a bit slow; even Rainbowcreepers didn't show his dramatic and enthusiastic attitude while he ate.
The chair beside me moved, and I looked right to see Daryl getting up and heading for the door outside the apartment, not giving any of us another look.
"Where are you going?" Little Notch finally broke the silence that had lasted almost 10 minutes.
Daryl stopped walking and paused for a moment. "I'm going to sleep." He said quietly, his back still turned to us.
"Uh, the bedrooms are that way." Rainbowcreepers said, pointing to his right. He took a last bite of fish.
"I'm not sleeping in here this time." Daryl walked out. Rainbowcreepers and I looked at each other in surprise.
"What happened?" Rainbowcreepers asked Tommy, who was now looking down with his elbows on the table.
"It's none of your business." Tommy mumbled, shaking his head. He didn't even bother to look at Rainbowcreepers.
"But-" Sarah started to talk.
"I said it's none of your business!" Tommy yelled and got up to walk out the door.
"Rude." Rainbowcreepers remarked, glaring at the door Tommy had already walked out of.
"I'm just going to stock up on food." Little Notch quietly grabbed the iron sword off the wall and walked out.
"I'll come with you." Sarah said, trying to get herself out of a quiet, awkward situation. She grabbed the bow off the wall and practically ran out of the apartment.
"Wanna go and practice archery with me?" Rainbowcreeper's face lit up. I was surprised how quickly he snapped out of his concern. "Come on, let's go!" He said. I decided to go with him as I had nothing better to do. Practicing archery did count as "training", after all.
I followed behind Rainbowcreepers as he grabbed the door handle to a small, brick building. He swung it open, and we instantly coughed at a dusty fog that had probably been building up for years. Although my eyes were irritated and I could only somewhat see Rainbowcreepers, I wasn't surprised. The whole city looked as if it had been abandoned for even longer.
"Okay." Rainbowcreepers coughed. "This is the archery place I was telling you about. I would grab the bow on the wall, but I can't see through all this stupid dust." I wiped my eyes, and moved the dust out of my way to see.
Three archery boards were still sitting in the back of the room. I looked down to see the floor for the first time. My feet rubbed against blue carpet.
"Here's the bow." Rainbowcreepers grabbed a bow on the wall. I jumped when I looked closer to see it wasn't a bow at all.
"Rainbowcreepers…" I pointed to the wall, my hand trembling with fear. I had never known that one could be so huge.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going as fast as I can." Rainbowcreepers snapped at me. He turned his head back around and yelped at the sight. I quickly turned his arm away from a huge spider web. My efforts to keep calm backfired when a giant spider in the wall practically stabbed me.
"Steve!" Rainbowcreepers yelled. I stumbled back in pain and held my arm, wincing in pain.
"What… is that?" I said, hoarsely and slowly opening my eyes. I started to tear up again, this time, not being from the dust in the room.
Rainbowcreepers tried to rip the spider web off the wall but only tore it halfway when the giant spider jumped off the wall and tackled him. I was hyperventilating trying to think so fast.
Trying to keep my eyes focused on Rainbowcreepers, I grabbed the only sword in my inventory, Diamond, and stabbed the spider, only somewhat hurting it. It let out a loud hiss. I swung the sword at its eye, and it fell back. It was so loud, I plugged my ears.
As I was trying to pick up my sword again, Rainbowcreepers shot an arrow at it from the bow he must have grabbed off the wall when I wasn't looking.
"Take this, you slimy beast!" Rainbowcreepers shot an arrow at the spider. Rainbowcreepers and I stared in shock after we saw it disappear. I was too stunned to say a word.
"Did it just… disappear?" Rainbowcreepers said. "It just went… 'Poof!'" He spread his arms. "And then it's gone. Wiped out from existence." I could hardly keep eye contact with him.
"How could a spider be that big?" I asked, staring at where it once was so hard, my eyes felt like they were to pop out of my head any second. "Is that normal?" I turned to Rainbowcreepers.
"Now that you mention it, no." He said, scratching his head. "I've never seen a spider so big." We were both silent for a few seconds. I took in some of the time to breathe normally again.
"I'm just going to go back to Daryl's apartment." Rainbowcreepers said softly. He walked out.
"But what about archery practicing?" I said. He paused for a second before turning to face me.
"We don't need it right now." He sighed. "This building is a death trap anyway."
"Won't we get hurt in the Nether if we don't train?" I questioned him. I still felt entirely nervous about going to the Nether for the first time.
"It doesn't matter!" He yelled. "I don't want to go in that building anyway. I don't want to be in any of these buildings. All I really want to get out of this godforsaken place!" He rubbed his forehead and sighed again. I raised my eyebrows. I had never seen him so frustrated.
"I'm sorry." He said, walking away. I looked at Diamond one last time, holding it tight in my hand before slowly following behind Rainbowcreepers.