Ch.4 Mob Grinder

I made two chests before starting to place the excess stone and dirt in. Later on I'd make other chests somewhere to put more in. I mined for days on end making the six by six mats that the mobs would spawn on and the channels that would carry the mobs to the shoot that would carry them up and drown them. I worked until I collapsed on one of the mats and slept until I woke up the next day or the day after, I can't remember. I can't even remember how many times I had to craft pick axes and shovels or went to the surface to place dirt and cobble in the chest.

I barely remember eating a pork chop but I do remember I did in fact eat. A huge thunderstorm hit over my head on the surface. I could hear the thunder that shook the sky. Rain poured down outside and I was happy that I wasn't stuck in it like once before back home. It was a day when we went to the market to get stuff.

I was around ten years old when I accompanied my mom to the market. We hadn't watched the weather channel to see if it was going to rain or not but looking up at the clear blue sky you wouldn't think the sky would pour down rain. We went from stall to stall buying what mom needed for sewing and cooking. We got butter and other things that our town didn't have nor could make. We were almost done when the clouds changed in color and thunder boomed over head. My mom hurried off somewhere while I was being pushed about by the hurrying people.

I lost sight of mom and spun in circles trying to find her through the moving crowd. I called for her over and over but she couldn't hear me over all the people shouting that they were closing up due to rain. I began to panic and hurried off as thunder and lightening boomed over me making me jump out of my skin every time. All the shops and stalls were closed, all the doors were locked. Rain poured down on me soaking my clothes through in seconds.

"Mom! Mom! Where are you, mom? Mom!"

I took shelter from the rain underneath an awning that was over a doorway. I shook myself of water and began to drip dry. The rain was filling up the road and entering the sewers that were along the edge of the cobblestone street. The dirt blocks turned to mud and the gravel turned very loose. I stood there shaking from the cold and scared, flinching from the lightening and jumping from the thunder.

I began crying. I had lost my mom and was stuck in a bad thunderstorm. The water was beginning to puddle up near the steps of the doorway making me back up to the door. Was the town going to flood? The mayor had given permission for the waterways to install the pistons to block the water in the levy if the rain water ever became bad.

"Mom! Mom!"

Nothing but falling rain and rushing water in the drains could be heard. The streets were silent, I was the only one out there. I leaned on the door shivering thinking of mom and how she would react without me next to her as she was going home. She'd be panicking and wondering what happened to me. She always did worry about her kids more than any normal mother would.

There was a sound or sounds coming from some direction. It was hard to tell in the rain but it was distant. The sound was coming closer and sounded like an animal running through the rain trying to get some where. Maybe a cow had gotten out of its fence? The hooves would pause just a fraction in its gallop as if it was looking before going on.

I saw then, through the dense rain and fog, a rider and its horse galloping through the rain. The horse would be turned in circles so the rider could look around before turning it in a direction he wanted to go and spurring it on.

"Sell? Sell, where are you?" the rider yelled out.

It was my older brother Des! "Des! Here! Here I am! Des!"

Des turned the mare around and galloped towards me. He held out his hand while leaning out of the saddle and grabbed my out stretched hand, swinging me in the saddle in front of him. He urged the mare to run faster. Des leaned over me to shield me from the pouring rain which did little since he too was soaked.

"How did you know to come for me?" I asked him as I gripped the horses wet mane.

"Dad sent me and Toc to get you two before it began to rain," he replied. "We left an hour ago. Toc got mom but told him that you had gotten separated from her in the crowd. She sent me to come find you."

"Thank you, brother!" I smiled staring at the mare's mane. I was lucky to have such a good family that would come for me.

When we arrived back home my brother rode the horse into the stable and closed the barn door. We dried ourselves off with the towels that dad had left out hanging on a stall ring where the horse's bridle and tack would hang. While Des dried off the horse I went to the house and was hugged by mom and given a warm bath. She was in tears of worry and joy that night when Des brought me home. Of course the next day me and Des suffered from a really bad cold that lasted through out two weeks or so.

I blinked back tears that wanted to rise up. I couldn't cry right now, I was much too busy to stop and deal with them. I leaned against the wall that I hadn't torn down off what was remaining of my house and looked at my work. The mob drowner was fully operational. Now to rebuild my house. I turned around to the wall behind me and tore it down.

Looking at the hallway that went down to the mob trap viewing room I knocked a double doorway in the left side and built a seven by six room out of wood. I began to move the work bench, the furnace and a double chest into the room on the right. Descending down the ladder to the first step I began knocking a doorway and making a small six by seven room to hold the rest of my double chests that I had. This would be my storage room that I would enlarge sooner or later if I needed more space. I was almost done.

I now needed an exit and entrance to the hallway that went to the looting area of the mob trap. I knocked out a single doorway and built a small cobblestone porch with stairs leading down to the outside. I built two pillars and placed torches on them to mark the entrance. Sitting under a tree and looking at the house it still needed work but it would do. I would make it fancy and better looking later.

For now I had what I wanted, a mob drowner. I went to the viewing room below and went through the door. Very quickly I went around the room and took up all the torches and shot back to the surface. Within minutes I had mobs coming up the shoot and drowning, their items falling onto a pressure pad over a chest. I then made a storage room under the drowner with five chests.

I yawned collapsing on the bed in my new room. "I think I've done too much. Maybe a slight nap will do me some good."

I passed out asleep and dreamt of home like I had a few days ago. Howls rose up under the rising moon. A wolf pack that was just outside the town walls were on the hunt. I walked to the gate at the front of my family's farm. The gravel driveway leading the way to the house and barn.

On either side of me was fenced in pastures that held cows and the like. I found myself in the living room with a blink of my eye. Striding to the back where my parents were my mother had a smile on her face. My dad laying down drifting asleep.

"I can't believe Toc and Des. How did they know I wanted a flower shop?"

I smiled letting my hand grasp the wood of the doorway. They had done what I had told them. I turned and found myself in the barn staring at my brothers as they worked on pistons. They frowned at each other getting frustrated with the design of a SMERF.

"I can't stand this!" Toc leapt to his feet in anger and annoyance with the pistons. "This damn contraption is hell!"

I giggled and made them look up. "Sell!"

"Something so small and easy is getting you two worked up?" I smiled at them. "Does your little sister know how to build something that you two don't?"

They leaned back on the wooden floor raising a brow at me. I giggled and crouched down in front of them. "Ok. Look here…"

I laid out a graph on the floor with straw. My brothers leaned in to get a better look and blinked in surprise. I heard them go, "Oh."

I stood and sat down on an downward facing bucket. "Now build it out in that far field. I'll survey your work."

My brothers looked at one another and nodded. "As long as we get to talk to you all night."

We gathered all of the things that we would need and took it to the far field that dad hadn't touched, only to cut the grass that grew. I climbed a tree that was not too far from the fence line and looked down upon my brothers' construction. I giggled at them and swinging my legs as I sat on the branch. The SMERF began to take shape as I guided them in the construction. I rested my head against the trunk of the tree staring up through the clouds at the moon.

My brothers griped at one another and soon it all stopped. I looked over at them to see the SMERF up and running. They stood back and looked at their work. I slid down the tree trunk and walked over to them taking each of their hands. "Good job you two. Mom will be so surprised when you two give her loads and loads of flowers and seeds."

They looked down at me in silence before turning away and staring at the contraption. "Sister…"

I felt them tighten their grip on my hands. Something was wrong. What was wrong with them? What was wrong at home?