Author's Notes: TOLD YOU I WASN'T DEAD! HA! I'M STILL ALIVE! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Seriously, though, here's the promised update that's 1300 words long. I know, not a lot, but still. It's an update! As always, please enjoy, and please review. I would estimate the next update to be next Saturday, but I think y'all know to expect before that. :D ENJOY!

AESEARIA

It's already been two days since the mysterious Earthling (well, isn't that name ironic) has shown up. As it appeared, he actually taught them useful things. For one thing, Aesearia now knew that the green creatures with the tendency to blow up were not Zerg, and were actually called "creepers". On the other hand, they discovered that Aesearia and Ethan had no talent for crafting and couldn't open their "inventory" either, even though it appeared they could wield the tools and such. As a result, all crafting would have to be done by Daniel.

Daniel also taught them about cave systems that seemed to run beneath the surface of the planet (Aesearia was still having troubles accepting the world as a video game). To make things more realistic, they even planned a trip down one of these systems that day ("Besides, I'm running out of iron. If we can find any diamonds, all the better.").

Ethan was predictably loading himself and Daniel with food. As Aesearia had already executed photosynthesis earlier in the day, she would be set in that aspect. Although Daniel had insisted that Ethan and Aesearia bring swords, he was politely denied. As a result, he had enough spare iron to make armor for himself. Aesearia thought he said something about "crafting a chestplate".

They were about to set out the door when Daniel stopped them both.

"Wait, let me give you something," he said, rummaging through a chest he made (somehow, Ethan and Aesearia simply couldn't seem to access it). "You'll need pickaxes and torches. Here," he said, pressing an iron pickaxe to Ethan and a torch to Aesearia. "I would give you each one of each, but it seems you can only handle one item at a time. You two will have to stick together."

"Wait, what?" Aesearia cried, outraged. "'We'll have to stick together'? I thought we were all staying close! Have you any idea how dangerous it is to wander around alone in a foreign landscape? We're all sticking together!"

"But it's easier to find ores if we split up as much as possible! That's basic Minecraft knowledge!"

"And it's easier to get yourself killed," Aesearia replied coldly. "We're moving out together."

Daniel opened his mouth again, as if to continue to protest, but seemed to thought better of it and closed his mouth.

And thus they were off.

They, unfortunately, had quite a bit of trouble looking for caves. They spent nearly the entire day looking around in vain, frustration mounting until Daniel threatened to "dig straight down". At that point, though, Arf barked loudly from some distance away and Ethan yelled: "Found it! Big, dark cave!"

The timing couldn't have been better.

The cave entrance was small, allowing only one person to fit through at a time. Fortunately, the inside seemed to be bigger and, after Aesearia took out her torch for light, lead to another bigger cave system.

"Well," Daniel said, clapping his hands together, his voice eerily echoing off the ancient walls of the cave, "it appears as if we have ourselves a nice little (little?!) cave system! Now, since Aesearia insists that we stick together, why don't we move as a whole? This way!"

And he stormed off.

Reluctantly, Ethan and Aesearia followed him, Arf lingering behind even longer than Ethan, whining, though he (it?) eventually followed anyway.

They walked through a wide opening into what appeared to be a large tunnel sloping downwards. Aesearia would have estimated it to be around thirty meters tall, had she known better. This world (not a video game!) had surprised her in worse ways.

"Iron!" Daniel yelled someplace ahead, excitedly pointing at something. It was too dark for Aesearia to see. Daniel seemed to have produced a torch from somewhere, his "inventory" no doubt, and placed it on the wall (Aesearia could never get the torch to stick to anything), allowing her to see the peach-colored metal ore.

Apparently, it was nothing different from normal stone, except for the grains of peach peppered across its surface. That was probably the iron.

Daniel quickly took out a pickaxe (again from his inventory, no doubt) and began to mine the ore. Eventually, he exhausted the particular vein and backed out of the hole he created.

"That was eight iron!" he yelled excitedly. "Spendid!"

Aesearia performed what was the Protoss equivalent of an eye-roll.

"Where to now?" Aesearia asked impatiently, moving forward. "There must be something worthwhile down - "

"Shh!" Ethan interrupted, putting a finger to his mouth. "You hear that?" he whispered.

Immediate silence filled the cave. Aesearia strained herself, listening for whatever Ethan seemed to be hearing. She was about to announce Ethan lunatic when she heard it at last.

A loud moan echoing creepily through the tunnel.

"Over there!" Aesearia said, pointing to the hole that Daniel dug out. Daniel immediately began to mine again. A tense, anxious silence filled the air, interrupted only by the occasional melancholic moan.

"OH MY HOLY MOTHER OF NOTCH!"

Alarmed, Aesearia readied her psi blades and made her way to Daniel. (Un)Fortunately (she couldn't quite decide which), Daniel was unharmed and only somewhat shaken. Aesearia looked through the hole he made a saw –

A cobblestone wall covered with moss.

"I don't see what the proble – IN THE NAME OF ADUN!"

A cube face, green and rotten with two empty holes for eyes, appeared from nowhere and blocked her line of sight. Instinctively, Aesearia threw the creature back with her psionic abilities. The zombie (Aesearia was pretty sure it was that) hit the wall and turned bright red for a second.

"That means the zombie just took damage," Daniel explained.

"What the hell are you lookin' – oh. A zombie. Move aside, I'll shoot him dow - "

"Useless," Daniel sighed, pushing Ethan back. "They'll keep spawning. There's a spawner at the center of the room. You see that?" he asked, pointing at a small spark of fire in the center of the room.

Aesearia would have missed it, had Daniel not pointed it out. It was a minuscule fire, sparkling in the center of the room. Squinting her eyes, she saw that it came from what looked like a cage.

"Well," Daniel said, readying his pickaxe once more, "when I mine the last piece of stone, we all charge in and take them all out. Ethan, try not to kill us, please." Ethan grunted nonchalantly.

Daniel began to mine. Aesearia never thought eternity could be so short; that seemed like the amount of time it took to mine the stone. Zombies immediately began to pour out of the hole.

"Back off!" Daniel yelled to Aesearia and Ethan. "We need to get to an open area!"

"Needless!" Aesearia yelled back. These zombies were slow compared to zerglings, and thus were much easier kills. She Charged with her blades ablaze into the swarm of zombies, slicing her way through the crowd. If any zombie actually managed to attack her, it was blocked by her plasma shields. Puffs of smoke went up all around her, engulfing her in a cloud of death.

"OPEN FIRE!" Ethan yelled from somewhere. Aesearia heard rounds of bullets emptying out into the crowd of zombie; no use. There was too much. They would overwhelm her. She sunk her blades into what seemed like the millionth zombie, bringing her hand around her in a graceful arc to take care of the zombie moaning behind her. She felt one grab her shoulder. Had her plasma shields expired already? She stabbed the zombie in the chest and kicked it backwards, but at least a dozen more took its place.

"There's too much!" she heard Daniel yell. It came from somewhere far, far away. Where was she? She blindly sunk her blade into something. Was this Death?

No. In one last defiant attempt to stay alive, Aesearia unleashed what little psionic energy she had left in a wave of (hopefully) devastating psionic storm. She faintly saw the zombies fly away from her, turning bright red, and heard a muffled sound from someplace afar.

"Where's Aesearia?"

Her miniature psionic storm had done its job. More zombies would doubtlessly come, but she couldn't… hold…

Unconsciousness once more overtook her.