Disclaimer: I'm not creative enough to own Minecraft

Chapter 4: caves

I woke up and could still hear Zombie noises, so I decided to look at my inventory, especially since Aqua was still fast asleep.

I had a wooden pickaxe, a few blocks of wood, some wooden planks, a stone pickaxe, some coal, some sticks, some string, a chest, a few torches, the furnace from yesterday, and a stone axe. I made a mental note to check my inventory every day. I decided to let Aqua handle trading, since she could get any food we would need. After a few minutes, Aqua woke up, and I opened the shelter to sunlight. I remembered Zombies and skeletons would burn in sunlight, and Spiders were neutral, but I still had to be careful with creepers.

"Good morning Alex" Aqua said with a yawn.

"Morning" I replied. "Did you see any caves?"

"Yea, there's one nearby" she replied.

I nodded "we just have to be careful with monsters" I said, holding my torches.

I only had a few, but hopefully Aqua would be able to craft more. I told Aqua about mining and the ores we would need right now. We got to the cave quickly, and Aqua watched as I cleared it out enough for her to come in safely.

"Ok, so using the stone pickaxe, you'll get iron, and I can get coal using the wooden one, right?" Aqua asked.

I nodded "we might be able to get some villagers to help us" I said "but that'll be later"

"Ok, I'll get as much coal as I can!" Aqua said, running off.

I smiled and walked further, putting torches to light up the path. I could hear whispering every once in a while, but I ignored it, thinking it was nothing. I twirled the pickaxe in my hand, surprisingly meeting no resistance as I kept going.

I got about 10 iron ore blocks, and then I went back up. The torches burned eternally, which was good considering I didn't have anything to light them. I gave the ore to Aqua, who had crafted some torches and gave them to me.

"I might come back with some gold" I said.

Her eyes sparkled "gold? That easily?" she asked.

I rolled my eyes "possibly, I could also come back with Emeralds"

Her eyes widened "emerald…wow…" she said "good luck!"

"Thanks" I replied. I left her to do whatever she was doing, then I went back down.

I couldn't find anything down there, but I did hear more whispering. It wasn't faint anymore though, I could hear it, not clearly, but audibly.

"Why is he here?" "Can he hear us?" "Does he know he's being watched?" "Does he know we can help?"

The words were confusing, but as I moved further down, I could hear them more clearly, as if it was coming from below me, from the void itself. The voices couldn't be distinguished themselves, but I heard them distinctly now.

"We should help him" a voice said.

"But how would he react?" a voice asked.

"He needs help, he doesn't know enough" one voice answered.

"But others have learned without us" a voice replied.

"He's different…he doesn't realize the danger" a voice said.

"How can we help though?" a voice asked.

"It's easy, it's necessary…" a voice replied.

"I think he hears us" a voice said.

"Then he should know that we're friendly" a voice replied.

The whispering became inaudible again, and slowly faded. The lack of resistance made sense now…something was trying to help me…but what was it? Was it the void? Was it some entity I couldn't see?

I went back up to Aqua, who was twirling her pickaxe "yay! You're back!" she said "did you get gold?"

I shook my head "no, I couldn't find any" I said, half lost in thought.

"Oh well!" she said "a Villager told me about smelting, so let's get some ingots!" she ran up to the surface, and I followed.

I gave her the iron, and she got to smelting. I couldn't stop thinking about the voices. I felt like they were more advanced than I could imagine, but I couldn't be sure. I remembered something about the game itself: the end poem. I can't remember the words, but I remember it was supposedly two unknown entities talking to each other. Could these voices be related? Could the voices of the cave, as I'm calling them, know what I'm thinking? What I'm doing? They obviously don't know why I'm here…or do they?

"Alex!" Aqua exclaimed "I'm done!"

"Ok" I said, pushing my thoughts aside "let's go to bed though, it's almost night"

We had made a bigger shelter, and I closed it when we got inside. The crafting table and beds were inside, but I'd have to move the furnace later.

"Good night Alex" Aqua said

"Good night" I said. I fell asleep quickly.

My dreams that night were bizarre. I was floating in nothing, and I could hear voices around me.

"He's smart" a voice said.

"But he's not experienced" another said.

"He's dreaming now" another voice said quietly.

"Yes, he thinks he's awake" another said.

"He's listening to us" a voice said, curious.

"Yes, he is" another said "he doesn't know who we are though"

"He doesn't realize what happened" a voice said "he hasn't thought about how to get home"

There was a pause in the voices. I thought for a moment, and I realized they were talking about my machine.

"He figured it out" a voice said, actually sounding excited.

"Yes, does he know how to get back?" another said.

Another pause. I realized they were waiting for me to think. I thought for a moment, and realized I needed to find my machine.

"He thinks he knows" a voice said.

"He doesn't" another said. My machine hovered above me "he doesn't know it can't be found"

"He thinks we are merely voices" another said, as the machine disappeared".

"He will learn" another said "but he should be released now."

My vision faded to black, and I slept like normal…

Wow, another 2-in-1 day! Half way through the chapter, I started thinking about how to make the story more interesting. The result: voices that speak to him. In case it wasn't clear enough, the story will differ from normal game-play now. More specifically, it will be different than "Vanilla Minecraft." For those of you who don't know what that means, it means I'll be adding mod's into the story. This is where it gets REALLY interesting. I have a couple mod's I know of that I'll use, but I don't know all of them, so if you suggest a mod for me to put in, make sure you're ready to explain that mod to me. Remember: I love criticism, reviews encourage me, and I'm open to input. Bye for now!