Chapter 21: Passing the Time

Alone.

Trapped in this fog

where even the prettiest of flowers seemed bleak.

My thoughts echoed! Echoed. Echoed...

How long had it been? How long had I been isolated for? A day? A couple days? An entire moon cycle?

The answer to that, my friend, is none of the above. My friend... My...friend?

Who are you? Who am I talking to? Anyway...

By 'none of the above', I mean that, even after I had been exiled, I wasn't alone, contrary to what I had assumed at first. It may sound crazy, but I could bet my life that I was seeing things wisp through the thick, light gray fog.

You may not believe me, but how confident can you be that I'm wrong? Can you prove I was truly alone? For that matter, can you prove that you are alone, wherever you are now? Know this, my friend; it's something that I've learned during my time in this land:

Just because you can't see anybody, that doesn't mean that somebody can't see you...

...

Is there anyone behind you?

...

Ha ha...

Ha ha ha!

...

Anyhow... I didn't do a whole lot the first couple days of my imposed solitude. I mostly just...slept... It was my hunger that eventually drove me to get off my bed and do something. Anything. To what end?

I'm not sure... I just wanted to survive...

At first, I hunted animals, which sustained me for a while. Unfortunately, I wasn't very cautious with how I managed the remaining livestock, which allowed them to flee. The valley grew desolate.

Using farming methods I had seen in the old village, I managed to partially circumvent the food issue, by starting a small wheat farm near a local pond. Not much to it in terms of variety, but hey, bread kept the hunger bar full, so whatever...

While this did take care of the food aspect of things, this was also the point in which the loneliness set in, which, in turn, led to the amplification of my paranoia.

I briefly mentioned that I was 'seeing things', earlier. Well, some of them could've been figments of my cruel imagination, but others felt so real... I wondered if that damned gold artifact had anything to do with the hallucinations...

Getting back on track, the first instance of a 'vision', if you will, I saw after I returned from a mining expedition. Since I had lost most of my tools and weapons in the raid, I was in need of a restock. Stone tools were the most I could gather, but beggars can't be choosers...

As I was saying, once I had returned to the surface, I decided to wash my face in a nearby pond. When I had finished, and was about to leave, I saw a fleeting image in my reflection. It was only for a split second, and the surface still had ripples, but I swear, I swear, I saw it!

My eyes were white. Totally blank. No irises, or pupils, or blood vessels. Nothing.

And yet, as soon as it had appeared, it was gone. It had infuriated me. I had no one to confirm what I had seen. I felt like my own mind was teasing me.

Then, there was that other instance, in which I had spotted a lone horse atop a small hill. It was completely still, and due to the fog, it made for a rather eerie sight. As I began to get closer, out of some unseen cloud that was drifting by in the sky, a bolt of lightning struck the horse. When I saw what remained of it, I couldn't believe what my eyes were showing me.

You're definitely going to think I'm crazy now, but alas... Three other horses appeared out of thin air. None of them were alive, or dead. They were all undead, skeleton horses...that were being ridden by skeleton horsemen...who had enchanted bows...and helmets...

Don't laugh at me.

I was chased. I ran back to my house and stayed inside for the rest of the day. The sounds of galloping echoed in my ears. Echoed! Echoed. Echoed... The group of horsemen was gone the very next day, with no traces to suggest they ever existed...

Are there any good things to take from my situation, you might ask?

Well, I let my beard grow. I now had a goatee, to be exact. It was just the right length, and I thought it looked pretty good.

...

I hated this. I hated everything about this. I wanted nothing more than my partner to just slam my door open, telling me this was all just a nightmare. Sometimes, I'd see flashes of her beautiful blue eyes, tainted by distress, as they were on the last day I saw her. A reminder that she wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. I could only hope she wasn't...

...

So, yeah... That's what I'd been up to.

And just when I thought that today wouldn't be any different from any other day, I heard a knock on my door. It startled me a lot, but I tried not to make a sound. In the unlikely scenario that it was a zombie trying to barge in, I equipped my stone sword.

"Hello~ Is anybody home?" a voice called. The only explanation I could give, was that it belonged to a female villager, or illager, considering that it didn't ring any bells. Regardless of who it belonged to, who could possibly be looking for me? I hesitantly opened the door.

"Oh, hi! My name is Matilda! Nice to meet you – officially, anyway..."

Finding the individual's purple robe, and black pointed hat awfully familiar, I pointed my sword at her.

"Woah, easy there, big guy! I come in peace," she raised her arms in surrender.

I squinted at her, but didn't say anything.

"In fact," she continued, "I've come to assist you with this predicament you've found yourself in. Would I be correct in assuming that you've been exiled by the survivors of that oh-so lovely and welcoming village?"

"..."

"Well, in that case, welcome to the club! We're welcoming you with open arms! Would you like a cookie?"

"..."

"...So, what do you say? If you join us, maybe you'll find that we're not all that bad, after all!"

I waited for a moment to make sure she was done with her spiel, and then did what any sensible person would do, if they were in my situation.

"Get. LOST!" I slammed the door harshly and dropped on my bed.

What a bunch of nonsense. There was the possibility that I was crazy, but not crazy enough to fall for something like that. Even if she was being genuine, I'd still rather be alone than get lumped together with people like them.

''This predicament you've found yourself in.' You led me to this point!'

Our interaction kept replaying on my mind. For the longest time, I felt like I had handled it rather reasonably. That was, until I remembered what the last thing the librarian had told me, was.

'Kill the illager leader...'

They had said that doing so would allow me to be reaccepted among them... Would going along with the witch's invitation have been the most efficient way of achieving that?

'Did I just let a huge opportunity go to waste?

...

Damn it... That was stupid of me...'

I walked outside once again. I took a mental note of the atmosphere. It was morning, and the sky was surprisingly clear. It had been a while since the last time I had an interest in the time of day, or the weather.

Whatever the case may have been, there wasn't a soul around. I really had missed my shot... No matter... I'd find a way to get in Cornelia, with or without getting involved with the illagers. That was an internal promise I made with myself.

...

I had spent the rest of the day mostly idly gathering resources. Wood, stone, sand, and the likes. I didn't have any real reason for doing so; it just felt like a pleasant activity. For similar reasons, I had also made a habit out of harvesting the saplings that fell off of trees, and planting them on dirt, or grass.

The saplings would grow into fully fledged trees, given a few days. That way, I could ensure that the natural environment wouldn't get tarnished. Perhaps animals would flock back, that way...

In any case, once my resource gathering was over, I decided to work on my house a little more. That was another activity I did that I neglected to mention, but as the days went by, my house was starting to look a little more like an actual house.

I had built an inverted V-shaped roof out of cobblestone staircases, so the structure wouldn't be just a simple cube. Also, I had dug out the dirt that made up the floor, and replaced it with stone bricks, which I proceeded to cover with white carpet. All in all, I was feeling a bit proud of how much my build had evolved.

It was around afternoon, and I was working on the crafting table, aiming to construct some glass panes to replace the glass blocks on the windows, when another series of knocks disturbed the silence. Was it the witch, again? In spite of the plan I had conjured, I was still feeling hesitant to accept the invitation. When I finally opened the door, I came face-to-face with...

The leader of the illagers.

I was stunned. In hindsight, that would've left me vulnerable to an incoming attack, but that's a paranoid thought. There was a brief, yet noticeable pause, before they spoke up in a determined tone.

"...Greetings. I apologize for intruding. You may refer to me as 'Eva', for the time being. May I come in?"

"No. Just, say whatever crazy talk you need to say, and then let me be."

I had a good idea what they wanted to propose, and even though I had the intention of accepting, I couldn't sound overly eager; it would come off as suspicious. They drew a sigh.

"Please, give us a chance. Spend a few days with us in our mansion, and you'll see that we're not the evil tribe the Cornelians depicted us as."

"..."

"I'm not asking you to join our forces. All I'm asking you, is that you hear us out. After that, you're free to do whatever you want."

I had no plans of declining, and yet the pleading undertone in this feminine voice caught me by surprise. I attempted to garner any details, facial features, or hand gestures that could allow me to recognize this person, but the impermeable shadows their hood casted did wonders for concealing their identity. Even so, somehow, I had a feeling that I had seen them before, besides the raid. Maybe it was their outfit...

I directed my gaze to the stone brick floor, before replying at last.

"...Okay. I'll take the bait."

Judging by their hood's movement, I imagined that their head perked up.

"...I'm grateful. I'll let you get ready, but before we get going, I'd like to give you these. We'll have to walk through some pretty cold terrain later down the line, so I recommend you wear them. Think of this as a welcome gift. Or, perhaps, as an apology..."

I examined the items given to me. A light blue tunic, brown pants, and blue leather boots with a brown stripe near the rim, that reached up to my shin. I considered thanking the person in front of me, before discarding that thought for obvious reasons. Instead, I just nodded along.

"I'll be waiting for you outside. The fleet is waiting for us."

"Fleet?"

"That's right. To get to the mansion, we'll have to go by boat at first. It shouldn't take too long," they said, before finally exiting.

I swiftly changed clothes and stored my old ones in my inventory. I was surprised to find that this new set fit me perfectly. It was almost like it was tailored specifically for me. On a slightly off-topic note, this getup had an armor value of 3,5 according to the armor bar. It was odd to think that such simple clothes offered protection from attacks, but I didn't complain.

Afterwards, I packed a few basic supplies, like food, wood, stone, and other materials. Truth be told, I still had all the items I had obtained from the Nether, so I was fairly stocked up. The last thing I did, was take a sheet of paper, and a piece of coal, with the intent of writing a letter.

The letter was meant for...a certain someone. You can probably guess who. I wanted to leave it behind, just in case she'd find this house while I was gone. In it, I wrote where I'd roughly be, for what purpose, as well as...how I felt. I never did get the chance to tell her...

'Using coal to write really is difficult. Too many stains...'

...

When I left my house, I directed my focus west, to the ocean. There was a short row of small boats, that held two individual illagers each. The evoker and the witch were waiting for me to catch up with them.

"Alright! Good to see you didn't bail on us!" the witch responded. I gave a meek nod in response. As we were nearing the edge of the vast body of water, many question marks invaded my thoughts.

This was the right thing to do, wasn't it? The best way for me to regain what I'd lost... This was it, right? As much as I wanted to convince myself, a tiny voice of doubt echoed! Echoed. Echoed... inside my head.

A/N: Fun fact: Steve's new outfit is based on Dock's interpretation of the character. That's...basically it. Remember that reviews are welcome, so feel free to leave one if you're feeling up to it.

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END OF VOLUME 2