Hi, I'm back with Chappie 21! I've been busy with school and chores and all that lame stuff, so that's why it took me so long to update. I have to divide this into two parts (again ?) but consider it as one whole chapter. And thanks for everyone reviewing on my story, I really enjoy reading what you have to say! Ninja Pony- Thanks! And whatever you want who to say what (that's the beauty of it) Guest and Zaneezzane- Thank you! It was meant to be a bit of a filler. ENJOY THY CHAPTER
Soon Samuel and Hailey helped Zane move to the guest bedroom, which was a door down from Samuel's room on the other side.
"If you need anything," Samuel said to Zane, helping him settle onto the bed. "Just call either me or Hailey. One of us is always down here, if not both."
"Thank you." He said. "Thank you for everything."
Samuel nodded before walking out.
Zane looked around. The guest bedroom was relatively plain. The bed was centered in the room with the headboard touching the back wall, off to the left was a nightstand in dark brown finished wood. A lamp and alarm clock sat on top of it. The wall parallel to the bed's left side was a closet, and a small painting hung above it. It was a herd of wild horses on top of a mesa in the sunset. The wall parallel to that one had a window. There were blinds over it, shut and covered with curtains.
Curious, Zane got up and carefully walked to the window, wondering what view it had to offer. He pulled the curtains out of the way and peered out from between two pieces of the blind, not wanting to be seen.
There was the pine forest, mixed with a few deciduous trees which had lost most of their red and gold leaves, skirting the edge of what seemed to be part of a clearing. He saw the rest of the cabin house, along with a few others, connected by a road. After a few houses, there were more trees, but Zane knew they were in a secluded part of the town if you could call it that; he saw some rooftops and smoke from chimneys over the treetops. A few people were out, one walking a dog, two kids playing catch with a football in their front yard, and another mowing their lawn.
Incredible. Zane thought. He knew that these people were advanced when he saw Hailey But he never expected them to be so...civilized.
Then one of Zane's legs almost buckled, and he shut the curtains and limped back to his bed. A warning flashed in his vision that his energy levels were low, so he lay on the bed and went to sleep to regain his strength.
. . .
Zane woke up about an hour later, feeling refreshed. It was a good feeling. He could finally wake up and sleep on his own accord and wouldn't have to worry about slipping out of consciousness or a ghost about to catch him.
Zane started to get off the bed when he felt something move in between his neck and shoulder. He looked down and froze.
There was a ball of feathers.
A breathing ball of feathers.
In his sleep, Zane thought he felt something touch him, but he didn't wake up from it.
Zane tried moving slowly so he didn't disturb it, whatever it was, but instead the thing shifted and flicked its wing.
It's a bird. Zane thought. He could see its wings and tail. They seemed to be a dark cream color, with hints of white and gray. What was it doing here? Was it a pet, or did it get into the house somehow? It felt warm and soft against his shoulder.
Zane heard some clamor in the living room, which made the bird squirm and flick its wing again, and brushed the tip of Zane's nose.
Zane tried holding it back, but instead-
"ACHOO!"
COO! The bird used Zane's face as a launching pad as it was startled awake.
Once Zane recovered from sneezing, he watched the bird flutter around the room before winging back and perching on the footboard of the bed. It started preening its feathers before resettling its wings and puffed up. Zane did a quick scan on it and saw that it was a female African collared dove. It cocked its head at him. He looked back. He had to admit, the dove was kinda cute.
"Beibeis? Did you knock something over again?"
At the mention of its name, Beibeis (pronounced BEE-BEES) fluttered down from the footboard and hopped into the hall. Zane got up and followed the dove.
Beibeis strutted down the hallway, saw she was being followed, and flew the rest of the way, landing in front of the TV.
"Hey bird, can you move? I can't see."
Zane walked into the living room seeing Hailey sitting on the couch with a bowl of grapes in front of her and playing a video game he had never seen before.
"Beibeis! Move! Please!" Hailey leaned over to see past her pet. "I can't see!"
Beibeis hopped down from the TV and landed next to Hailey. Without taking her eyes off her game, Hailey picked a grape from her bowl and Beibeis knocked it out of her hand and started pecking at it.
Zane looked at the game she was playing. He couldn't see much because Hailey was always moving around, but the landscaping seemed…cubic, like it was made out of blocks. Textured blocks.
After a bit more of watching, curiosity got the best of him.
"What are you playing?" He asked.
Hailey turned around. "Oh, hey Zane, you're awake!" She said. "I'm playing Minecraft." She pointed to a second controller laying in a basket by the fireplace.
"Do you want to play? Maybe it can help you get your mind off everything..."
Zane smiled, genuinely happy at the invitation. He had missed playing video games with his brothers. Maybe this would make him feel more like he was still at home.
Zane walked over and sat down next to Hailey on the couch. She handed him a second controller as she loaded them into a new world.
"You will have to teach me the basics of this game, as I am not familiar with it." He said.
"Right," Hailey said. "Don't worry, I'm an expert at Minecraft. I'll teach you everything you need to know."
The world finished loading. Zane saw they were in the middle of the woods. The trees, plants, and what seemed like animals were all cubic and textured very well.
Zane joined the game, and the screen split in two. One side for Hailey, one side for Zane.
"Wow. This is neat." Zane said. Hailey nodded
"I love playing Minecraft, and so will you," Hailey said. "So, to move, you need to move the left joystick."
Zane tilted it forward, and he, in the game, walked forward.
"Okay. Now walk backward."
Zane tilted the joystick backward, and he walked backward.
"Good!" Hailey said. She taught him the rest of the controls before moving on the most important thing in Minecraft.
"Wood." She said, walking over to a cubic tree.
"What?"
"Wood is the first thing you need to get in Minecraft."
"Okay." Zane said. He walked up to the tree. "What do I do?"
"Punch it."
"What?"
"Punch it! Like this!"
Hailey went over and started "punching" the tree trunk with one fist. It cracked and it became a very tiny floating block.
"You can have that," Hailey said as she started cutting down another one.
Zane walked forward and the wooden block showed in his inventory with a pop! Zane helped Hailey cut down more trees, and in turn she showed him how to use a crafting table, told him what you needed to mine what, raising animals and crops, and of course fighting mobs, all the while gathering everything they needed for their first night.
"Did I mention villages?" Hailey asked as she started building the outline for a temporary shelter in a plain next to a cave system. The sun was starting to go down.
"No." Zane said. He watched as Hailey started building up the walls.
"Well, villages are sorta rare, but they're found in either the plains or the desert. Other people like raiding them for their resources, but I like protecting them."
"They are inhabited, correct?" Zane asked since Hailey never mentioned about any villagers. She rolled her eyes.
"Well, yea, that's why they're called villages and not ghost towns."
The cubic moon was rising now, and mobs-spiders, skeletons, and zombies we're ones Zane recognized.
But at the edge of a lake was a bright green thing, walking around all by itself.
"Hmmm," Zane mumbled as he went over to check it out. He walked to it, and at a closer looked the thing was mainly bright green with other shades of green, grey, and a little bit of white. When he got really close, the thing whirled around and started running at him. Its eyes and mouth were solid blacks. It was...sad, chilling….but Zane didn't run away.
"What is this peculiar object?" Zane asked. It started flashing white and going SssssssSSSSssss.
Hailey glanced up at his side of the screen.
"Zane! Run away!" She cried.
The thing blew up before Zane's screen went red and said "You died!"
Hailey groaned. "I am not coming back to find your ass..."
"Please?" Zane begged. "I don't know my way around this unfamiliar place!"
Hailey groaned and pulled out her wooden sword from her inventory before heading out the door.
"Fine." She said. "But just this once!"
...
Hailey and Zane were playing for about two hours, finding a village and building a house next to it before fencing it off when Samuel finally came inside from taking care of Gunsmoke.
"You mind if I watch TV for a little bit?" He asked as he came into the living room.
"Of course not." Hailey turned off the Xbox and Samuel switched it to the local news. There was a report on something called "Super Bowl 50".
"What's Super Bowl 50?" Zane asked, looking at the schedule for two football games.
"Okay, you know how we've been watching football, right?"
Zane nodded.
"And you know for a competition, there's the normal games, semi-finals, and the big round, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, there are only two playoff games left, so it's like the semi-finals, and each victor moves on to the final game, which is the Super Bowl. There's always one NFC team and one from the other conference."
Zane took this all in. "Interesting. And the team that wins?"
"They get treated to bringing home a Lombardi trophy."
Zane looked back at the TV with interest.
"To be honest," Hailey started. "I think that the Panthers and the Patriots are going this year."
"Aaaaah, I don't know about that," Samuel said from the couch behind them. "I'm thinking more about the Cardinals and the Broncos. And I think the Cardinals are gonna win."
"IF the Broncos can beat the Patriots. I heard that that game is going to be like Superman versus Batman."
Samuel shrugged. "You never know."
"You know Zane," Hailey said. "I think this might be your first Super Bowl."
. . .
Together they watched the two games to find out it would be the Broncos and the Panthers heading to the Super Bowl.
"Now we have to wait two miserable football-less weeks," Hailey said gloomily.
"Why?" Zane asked.
"Because there's a two week period where teams practice and there's no football and it's miserable!"
"Oh."