Chapter 2: Sweet Dreams
The wind was howling.
I was sitting at the edge of a grassy cliff, staring off into the first layer of clouds below. Even though I was initially spaced out, I wasn't thinking of anything in particular. I snapped out of my trance and took a look around.
The cliff I was sitting on, was located on a floating island. The landscape was slightly hilly and was decorated with short oak trees, sparkling lakes and rivers and finally, flowers in the primary colors. As for the island itself, it was hovering between two layers of clouds. At that moment, the sky was overcast, providing a somewhat gloomy atmosphere to, what would've been, a serene environment.
When I turned my head forward again, I noticed in the corner of my vision, a girl standing to my left. I was taken aback, because she hadn't made a sound the entire time, but her calm smile was able to give me a feeling of comfort.
I took note of her appearance. She had fair skin, blue eyes and dark auburn hair that ended in two pigtails. Her attire was a bit unusual, but it still suited her somehow. She was wearing a green raincoat and a matching cap that was patented as some type of animal I wasn't familiar with at the time – though I would later learn it was a frog- that also had blue eyes protruding at the top. She was also sporting pink shorts and knee-highs, as well as green rainboots that matched her raincoat. I had to admit...she was pretty cute.
Her gaze was briefly directed to my right. Following her line of sight, I spotted another figure standing there. Like the girl before them, this fellow's outfit was...something else. They were wearing a long, flowing cloak. Its color was black, with gold hems. That was about all I could make out, however, since a raised hood, in conjunction to the moody lighting, completely obscured their facial features.
As I was observing the cloaked individual, I heard the girl sit down next to me. When I saw the look on her face, she was still smiling, but through a pained expression... I didn't understand what caused such a shift in mood. Even the robed person looked down at the ground.
Without a sound, they both faded away. The atmosphere instantly got heavier, as the sky began to darken, and the wind stopped blowing. Soon, the island was shrouded in a thick, black fog. I started to gradually get anxious, as I felt like I was being watched. A few moments passed in silence, with the only source of sound being my sharp breathing.
At that point, I began to hear otherworldly grumbles and whispers. They started out low and subtle but grew increasingly louder. My heart was pounding. At the farthest point I could see, just far enough so that I couldn't tell whether my mind was playing tricks on me or not, multiple pairs of purple, sinister eyes lit up. I felt cornered and woefully outnumbered.
At – what would've been – the highest point of the island, I managed to distinguish a large creature, only slightly brighter than the fog itself. It looked like a coal-black dragon with a row of silver spikes that lined up on its back, tail, and tips of its wings. It rose into a position that signaled it was ready to pounce at me, as it opened its large purple eyes. All the while, the grumbles were deafening.
The dragon creature slowly parted its jaws and convulsed. Its mouth began to glow purple and before I knew it, it sprayed a ray of energy at me. Time slowed into a crawl. As the attack was approaching me, I couldn't move an inch.
It then became evident! I couldn't do a thing about my imminent doom, so I decided it'd be best if I closed my eyes and braced for impact.
'Who knows? Maybe it won't be that bad...'
The attack hadn't even touched me yet and I could already feel its stinging heat. The moment it made contact, I felt an overwhelming amount of pain surge through my body, almost as if I got struck by a lightning bolt.
As I felt my senses giving in...I woke up.
I was lying in my bed in the wooden 'house' I had built, covered in sweat. What a dream... Far more intense than anything else I had dreamed up to that point. It was... It was...
'What was it, again?'
I couldn't really remember what I'd seen, but I still felt a little put off. Regardless, today marked the official beginning of my adventure!
As I enthusiastically opened the door of my shelter, I was met with... a drizzle. Not exactly what I needed to get my adventure going – a nice, sunny day would've been more fitting, but whatever. At least the smell of wet ground was rejuvenating, in a way.
I started to wander around the outskirts of the forest, with the mindset that maybe there were some landmarks I had missed the day before. On a small hill, around a few chunks away, I spotted the silhouette of what looked like...a person? I approached slowly, so as to not startle them – if it was actually someone in the first place.
As the distance between us started to close, I was actually able to make out a few details. For starters, they were actually human looking! They even seemed to have a similar outfit to what I was wearing! To grab their attention, I gave a shout.
"Hello thE-"
My voice cracked. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised seeing as how it was the first time I uttered a word in this world, but it was still a bit embarrassing. Time for take two.
"Hello there!"
Much better. It was at that moment, I realized...this thing wasn't human. At the sound of my call, it began to shamble towards my direction, its arms outstretched. Once I took a good look at it, I noticed its skin was sickly green and its eyes looked like they'd been gouged out. It also made some of the nastiest gargling sounds I've ever heard.
'Is that a...walking corpse?'
I readied my wooden axe and swung at the mob before me once it got too close. It was successfully pushed back, but the axe broke at the impact. I probably shouldn't have been too surprised; I did use it quite a bit the day before, after all.
"Stay back!" I yelled out, trying to sound confident. I took a running start and dished out the toughest punch I could muster. The zombie hardly seemed affected and retaliated with a flail. I yelled out in pain and noticed the hearts at the bottom of my vision drop by two and a half units.
'This isn't gonna work...'
I started getting desperate. I could tell I had more health than my opponent, but I really couldn't risk going close and personal without a weapon. I had to flee. I began running back to my base, until I started hearing grunts of pain coming from the undead mob.
I looked behind me, bewildered, as the zombie was burning up. Right as the distance between us was reduced to just four blocks, the zombie succumbed to its injuries and was reduced to a puff of white smoke. It took me a moment to understand what caused the zombie to die like that, since I only managed to get two hits off. And then I realized; the drizzle had dissipated, causing the protruding sun's rays to burn the zombie to a crisp.
In other words, I survived thanks to sheer luck! I could've retreated back to my base, but I don't know how successful that would've been...
Now that the heat of the battle was gone, I was left with a sinking feeling at the pit of my stomach. I...was expecting to see someone else like me in this world, but what I got instead was a monster. Perhaps...I was feeling a little lonely...
Not wanting to sulk in those thoughts, I took a glance at the loot the zombie left behind. In total there were two pieces of rotten flesh and three of those green orbs. When the orbs slowly gravitated toward me and got absorbed, I heard a small jingle. I checked to see what had happened for such a sound to be made and noticed that the bottom bar now had a number above it. I hit level 1! That was incredible! I was pretty happy, even though I didn't really feel different at all. Well, maybe I'd find out what levels did in the future.
The fight with that monster though, taught me that I seriously needed to get stronger. If there had been more enemies at once, or if the fight had taken place in a shadowy battlefield, I wouldn't have made it. I didn't even know what other creatures existed in this world, be it passive or hostile. If I wanted to survive, I had to exert myself.
Taking a glance at a distant, gaping tunnel beyond the hill, gave me an idea: I could use a stronger material to improve my equipment.
'Perhaps crafting tools out of stone instead of wood is a step in the right direction.'
With that in mind I began heading to the aforementioned tunnel.
'I should probably craft a furnace too. I'm getting kinda hungry...'
...
A/N: This was a chapter I was looking forward to writing. For the dream sequence, I took inspiration from a scrapped mechanic of Minecraft beta. I would go in more detail, but that'd be a potential spoiler.
Also, for the uninformed, a 'chunk' in Minecraft usually refers to a sort-of unit of measurement. (It's more complex than that, but let's not go into detail...) A chunk is 16 blocks long. One block's edges are 1 meter long, (which for American readers would be 3' 3''). I hope that helps.
Anyways, let me know your thoughts. Thanks for reading :)