Chapter 3 - Embodiment of Presence
All rights to Terraria go to Re-Logic.
I own only my OC's
Jacob was sweating. Hard. His whole body was soaked with fluid. He put down the wooden board he was carrying.
"How many people did you have to help you build this house?"
Andrew looked up from the blueprints he was studying.
"Me, Walter, and..."
He trailed off, a glazed look over his eyes.
"And... who?"
Andrew ignored him, still staring off into the distance.
Jacob shrugged and went back to lugging his board across the scorched ground. How on earth (pardon the pun) had a dryad of all things managed to destroy something with fire? Weren't they supposed to be tree spirits?
Turning his gaze to Walter, he found the merchant lying on the ground, breathing heavily.
"You alright? You look half dead."
Walter slowly turned his red face towards him. "Never... been one... for heavy lifting," he panted.
Jacob chuckled and continued walking. After a few more hours of grunting and throwing wood around, the groundwork for the new house had been completed. He turned to Andrew, whose cap was on the ground beside him.
"This seems just a tad bigger than the old house," Jacob panted.
Andrew chuckled. "Well, I've been wanting to add more rooms for a while. Now I have an excuse."
Walter, who had gotten up and started dragging lumber around, stopped abruptly and dropped his log. He turned slowly to glare at Andrew.
"You mean... this is... a bigger house?"
Andrew's chuckle turned into a loud guffaw, and Jacob started to laugh as well. Walter carried a look of absolute betrayal on his face as he collapsed onto the ground.
Later that night...
Sitting on a blackened picnic blanket Andrew had managed to salvage from the wreckage, the three men ate a hearty meal of blueberries and roasted bunnies.
"How did you manage to catch even one rabbit, much less three? Jacob, you must be a dryad yourself – no one just stumbles across a burrow and captures one."
Jacob shrugged. "Not sure, Walter – I'm just good at hunting, I guess."
Andrew leaned back and slipped his cap over his eyes. "Right then, time for bed. Come along, children."
Walter yawned. "Will you read me a bedtime story if I ask nicely?"
This set off a round of laughter around the blanket. A few minutes later, all three were completely unconscious.
Even later that night...
Jacob woke up to a feeling of being watched. He sat up and looked around, seeing no-one. Starting to get freaked out, he gathered up his courage and shouted.
"Who's there?"
"Jacob? What? What's going on?"
Jacob jumped, before realizing it was Andrew who had spoken. It looked like he had just woken up, with his cap tilted over one eye.
"Nothing. Just... felt like we were being watched."
At this, Andrew's eyes widened. "Oh crap. Quick, wake up Walter. We'll need everyone's help for this."
He looked at the moon. Or at least, where the moon should have been. Instead, there was a large, round shadow with tendrils coming out of the back. It almost looked like... an eye?
Embodiment of Presence...
Jacob's heart sank as he remembered his father's words. If he was correct, they were in for a hell of a fight.
"What do you... oh crap." This was Walter. He stood up and drew a shuriken out of the pack beside him.
Andrew picked up the bow he'd been carrying with him since Jacob had been here. "Right. Jacob, can you fight?"
Jacob nodded. "My dad taught me how – I'm pretty good with a sword."
The shadow, growing closer by the second, slowly coalesced into a giant eyeball.
The Eye of Cthulhu had awoken.
With a deafening roar, it charged at Walter, who dodged out of the way and threw one of his shuriken. Jacob, filled with the desire to protect his friends, lunged towards the Eye with his sword drawn. With a roar of his own, he plunged the copper shortsword into its soft, slimy flesh. It screeched and turned towards him.
Suddenly, and arrow sprouted from its iris. Then another. And another. Andrew was letting an arrow loose nearly every second now, driven by the same force Jacob was.
As the Eye turned its attention to the annoying pest that was shooting at it, Walter unleashed a barrage of shuriken at its blind (pardon the pun again) side. Simultaneously, Jacob slashed and hacked relentlessly, aiming for any part of the Eye that was exposed to him. Slowly but surely, their combined waves of attacks drove the Eye back into the air.
Then it started to spin. Smaller eyeballs, about the size of Jacob's head, split off from the iris and pupil. They started to rush the trio, intent on ripping them to shreds. Walter's shuriken worked well against a crowd, as they sliced through one eyeball and embedded themselves in the next.
While Walter dealt with its minions, Jacob and Andrew rushed the Eye. Or what was left of it. Instead of an iris and pupil, there was a huge, gaping mouth. It turned towards them and gave an even louder roar than before.
Andrew fired an arrow at it. It swerved and charged at him, roaring again. Andrew just barely managed to dodge, but the Eye changed course with insane speed and charged again, slamming into Andrew and throwing him through the air.
"Andrew! You bastard!"
Jacob yelled and rushed the creature again, slashing at it with no sense of self-preservation. Even the Eye seemed surprised at the sheer rage coming off of Jacob. He'd lost his family, his home, and he wasn't about to lose his friend too!
The creature backed off, and screeched at Jacob. It rushed him, faster than the eye (I'm sorry) could follow. But this time it didn't pause between charges even for a second. It kept dashing at him from all directions at once, never letting off.
Jacob's strength was beginning to wane. He had never seen such intense speed before! He started to lose confidence, but then he caught a glimpse of Andrew, defenseless and sitting by a tree. His rage came back. His expression turned from fear to one of grim determination.
Time slowed down. In his mind's eye (kill me now) he saw it coming from directly in front of him, hoping to devour him whole. Jacob looked at it and yelled at the top of his lungs, charging to meet it. At the last second, he jumped, holding the sword above his head, and brought it down in a massive cleave.
The Eye was sliced in two.
A choking sound came from its mouth. It started to shake, coughing blood. It then exploded, showering everything in the area with blood and viscera.
Jacob fell to the ground, landing on his rear. He wiped the sweat off of his brow and looked at the scene around him. Walter was stumbling around wearily, covered in eyeball fluid.
Andrew was still lying against the tree, crumpled and comatose. Jacob lurched his way over to him, before tripping over a large bag.
He stopped and stared at it for a moment, before shrugging and picking it up.
Three weeks later...
Andrew limped into the new kitchen, chuckling with pleasure. He was proud of the new house, with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a huge living room.
"Andrew! You're up!"
Jacob ran over to him with a huge grin on his face, before tackling him in a hug.
Andrew wheezed. "Ribs... ow..."
Jacob backed off quickly with that grin still present.
"It's been three weeks! Even Walter can't sleep that long!"
There was a muffled yell from the other room. "I heard that!"
"Then you know it's true!"
"Screw you, I'm going back to sleep!"
Jacob grinned again. "Well, we got the house done."
Andrew managed a small smile that looked more like a grimace. "I see that. By the way, who the hell nailed that plank in over there? It looks like a kid's work."
Another shout from the other room. "Screw you guys!"
Jacob and Andrew both burst into hysterical laughter, Andrew clutching his chest.
As they calmed down, they heard a knock at the door. Jacob ran over and opened it. His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
Standing in the doorway was the green lady wrapped in vines.
The dryad.
Oh shizzle! What's gonna happen next?
Jacob: Shut up, you know I'm done for ;-;
Me: Keep that up and I just might do that... :)
Jacob: *whimpers*