Chapter 5: The Giver
Morning was nice that day.
Jewel woke up to an empty bed beside her. No doubt Pickaxe had gone out to do more gathering. She laughed a bit. His house looked nice, but it was a bit...minimal. Surely he noticed that! But how long had he been here for, anyway? He seemed like he knew the terrain at a moderate level. There was no way he could've just popped up in the middle of the landscape. Her brother had told her those types of miners had disappeared a long time ago.
The thought of her brother, Stan, made her feel sad… and stupid…
She KNEW that it would've been best to just take her items with her from the Nether base, but NO, that was too easy. Parker had made it perfectly clear that all she needed from her stuff was some foodstuffs, a set of iron armor, and her diamond pickaxe. Looking back, she would've been better off taking all of her stuff from the Nether base, or annoying Parker enough for him to send her back to the village. But the village needed the resources from the Nether, which was why the diamond pickaxe was as good a weapon as it was a harvesting tool.
Too bad she broke her beloved pickaxe after closing the portal.
She clutched her aching head. She was thinking too much. So what if she had left her most valuable items back at the Nether base? ...okay, it was pretty bad, but she was still alive! Thank goodness Stan managed to bring extra obsidian. He was smart that way. If only she at least brought the flint & steel… Pickaxe walked in; he looked a bit worn out. Jewel snapped out of her thoughts. "So how was it?" she asked curiously. Pickaxe looked up and gave a weak smile, shrugging. Jewel gave him a perplexed look. She jokingly added, "Well, I just don't expect to see a handsome face like yours look so tired…" Pickaxe nodded, then it was his turn to be perplexed. He didn't think he was handsome…
...wait, he didn't even know what he looked like!
Jewel saw his minor panic. It was kinda cute, that such a capable person didn't know what he looked like. It was weird, but cute nonetheless. "Come with me," she said, grabbing Pickaxe's hand and dragging him out of the house. They ended up by the ravine, where Jewel silently noticed some sugar cane and sand blocks had gone missing. Putting that aside, she told Pickaxe to look at his reflection in the water. At first, when he looked in the water, he just saw it's sweeping current. But as he focused on it a bit more, something came into view. His reflection got clearer and clearer, until finally, it emerged in all its entirety.
...oh, wow...just...wow…
His hair was dark black, with messy spikes edging out toward his left side. His eyes were an intense shade of red, and his face was slightly rounded, with a semi-pointed chin. He was wearing a crimson t-shirt, dirt brown pants, and dark purple sneakers. He stared at his reflection for who knows how long, before Jewel shook him out of it. "Don't tell me you're becoming a narcissist," she teased. Pickaxe turned a smidge red, before rapidly shaking his head no, much to Jewel's humor. Then the sky started to go dark. The two quickly began making their way back to the house.
Pickaxe was working on something very important for Jewel, and his house.
Jewel had gone out to do gathering this time, so Pickaxe could finally alter his house a bit. First he needed to do a bit of indoor renovation. He cut down the two beds, which he would use later. He moved his chest, crafting table, and furnace to the left side of his door. Now to get to the hard stuff. He was thinking about adding a new section of his house to the right side. He removed the dirt outline in that in that area, and created a rough 8x8 cobblestone baseline to the side.
Now came the harder parts.
He created a wooden wall three blocks high on top of the cobblestone base line. He went back inside his house to craft some stairs, effectively creating a staircase at the side of the room. Once he was at the top of said staircase, he built another floor on top of it, leaving him ready to construct another room. He made sure to torch the bottom floor before moving on. He created another wooden wall four blocks high, then added a roof. He made sure he had another gravel staircase to get back inside, and torched the roof before going down. After torching the top floor, he came back to the bottom to remove the wall separating the new area and his house. He broke the glass and took back the wood blocks, and started making the area a bit more accessible.
The result was a double doorway with a window on either side.
He took down the sign that said "Room" from "Bed Room," and rewrote so that it now said "Bed Rooms." By this time, the sand he had collected the previous day had finished smelting. Now he could add more windows, which he did all around the new area. He went back to gather more wood planks so he could make more signs and turn the next door dirt floor into a wooden floor. He spent the next several minutes doing so, labeling his room "Pickaxe" and Jewel's room "Jewel." Before he could add the finishing touches, he made sure to outline the new house area with dirt; it was a suspiciously pleasing design idea. He then proceeded to add crafting tables, furnaces, large chests, and beds to the two rooms.
Of course, he left that one "special gift" in Jewel's chest.
Jewel came back sometime after Pickaxe finished. Getting to his cave was easy enough, and it was so abundant with materials! Too bad she couldn't find any diamonds… this time. She suddenly realized that the house looked a bit… different. She looked at the sign in front of the new doors: "Bed Rooms." So Pickaxe did some remodeling...hmm… Pickaxe walked out of the doors, saying "I'm gonna go exploring a bit before it gets too dark. Your room's at the top." She was about to question him, but he was already gone. She shrugged, as she entered through the doors, and walked up the staircase.
She had her own room…
It wasn't that stunning at the moment. There was a bed, a furnace, a crafting table, a large chest. Not anything too outstanding. She sat on her bed, fatigue starting to settle in. She heard the sound of Pickaxe entering through the front door. He was a weird kid, but there was just something about him. Even though she only got there on a whim, and nearly tried to take his life, he still allowed her to stay. It was starting to get dark, she needed to go to sleep soon. She walked to the large chest to empty out her inventory for the following day. But then she realized there was something in there. She reached her hand into the chest, and managed to take out a rather shiny yellow fruit. A golden apple.
"Oh, Pickaxe…" Jewel said to herself.