//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14: Infiltration 
// Story: My Little Minecraft: At the End 
// by Journeyman 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 14: Infiltration

I never cease to amaze myself with my resourcefulness. The ground had been cleared of debris and selectively replaced with cobblestone. My path to my new sanctuary had been sealed with stone carefully crafted to match the natural cave walls. I had discovered a small deposit of sand near an underground river and had melted it down into glass panes. Coal ore, a much higher rarity in this world, was scarce but still plentiful enough to light up the cave. 

        It was all I could do to keep my mind busy. I worked best, thought best, while I was moving. I built a mansion, five stories tall and nearly as broad as the entire cavern. I lit the building up with torches, chandeliers, and fireplaces. Wooden doors, iron fences, hidden chests, water containers, diamond blocks, I poured my resources into my new home to make it feel... home-y. My newly grown beard approves.

But the diamonds. Oh, there were so many diamonds there. My Overworld problem was an abundance of ore and a shortage of gemstones. Here, my problem was inverted. Coal was in dreadfully short supply, but I had acquired so many diamonds, I didn’t know what to do with them all. That was something I never thought I would have a problem with.

The Overworld is rich in ores, but the truly valuable or versatile ores, diamond, redstone, and obsidian from cooled lava, are in the deepest levels. Down there, monsters roam and the Void Fog hides all but a few meters in front of my face. Diamonds are scarce and I usually only have a few dozen at the very most. I can craft diamonds into the strongest armor and the most durable of tools. Diamond is among the most useful and versatile resource I know.

So it is an interesting sensation when I discovered I had acquired more diamonds than I knew what to do with. I made a full set of armor and tools, along with spare swords due to having lost my iron blade. Diamond pickaxes hollowed out my cavern while diamond shovels cleared the rubble and refuse. I ran out of items to use diamonds on, so I started crafting them into cubes to save space in my chests. I used my spare wood to craft chests to store the excess gemstones that I could not identify, but I was quickly running out of space for diamonds as well.

I walked through my modest home, by my standards anyway. The creatures above had small, compact homes. How do they even walk around in such cramped quarters? My home had broad hallways and high ceilings, all lit with torches and the exterior walls with vast pane glass windows. Granted, those creatures were much smaller than myself, but I would imagine they would spare a little time for a more spacious residence.

Now that I think about it, none of the creatures I had seen so far displayed any type of power similar to my own to build. I had wondered how Testificates, those wordless, nameless villagers, built their houses in the Overworld, but I never pressed the issue. How did those creatures build homes without powers? Or fingers, for that manner?

That was just another question in my very long line of questions. I needed to start writing them down. Note to self: needed more wood to write on.

Despite the splendor of my home, it was still missing much. It lacked my usual decorative flair, mostly because I had no wool to use and no plants to create a garden. I loved gardens, such peaceful, relaxing places. That was not, however, the only resource I was lacking.

I had but two loaves of bread left. I was dreadfully short on food.

The Overworld had very rare, but occasional, mushrooms growing in the underground. I explored the caves a little, and even briefly ventured to the surface, but I was not willing to go much farther until I had a stable base of operations. I had spent my time building, because my best thinking comes from building. Through this, I knew several, key facts.

1. I needed to return for food.
2. These creatures had a remarkable level of intelligence, far greater than the creatures of the Overworld.
3. I had absolutely no idea how a Nether Portal transported me here.
4. I was being hunted by the quadrupedal creatures.
5. I was as of yet uncertain if another Nether Portal could return me home.

I returned to the surface to gain a point of reference, during the day, no less. The town was absolutely swarming with those creatures. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands. The easy way out would be to gather lava and create a Nether Portal, but that could take some time. Food was a higher priority, but I couldn’t enter a swarmed town and take what I need.

However, I remembered during my first few minutes in town at night; the place was nearly deserted. Was the inverse true here? Did creatures rest at night, and come out during the day? I sleep only to wait until the dawn, because that is the time when creatures cease spawning in the dark. I don’t need to sleep. but perhaps these creatures do. Regardless of that fact, I required resources.

My choice was unpleasant, but an absolute necessity. I needed to enter the town.

I wouldn't need much, just a single seed. Perhaps I could locate some pigs or cows and start a breeding farm.

No. It would take much too long to lure them into a safe, contained place. I must be swift and quiet. I needed a seed.





I had done little to the extensive tunnel network surrounding my new home. Several crevasses and tunnels lead away, but I sealed them all up... especially the one I came from. I wanted only one way in and out. Sealed off by more smooth stone, it was a flawless barricade that none but Endermen and a creeper's explosion could penetrate. With a few swings of my axe, I can break open a path that leads me to the start of the tunnel complex. I must sacrifice smooth stone, but it is a small price to pay for my guaranteed safety.

The cave complex directly outside my home opens up to a pathway running parallel to an underground river. I so very much wish to enjoy the wonderful, soothing melody of running water that this new world provided. If a blanket could be made of sound, I would describe the running of water. I loved that sound.

I walked down the tunnel that lead me to the surface, torch in hand. I traced my path twice the first time I left, doing my best to hammer the path into my horrible memory. However, about halfway through my trek, I discovered an odd sign. I crossed an intersecting tunnel, one long-abandoned, but I saw something I did not see before. Some stones had scratches, four horizontal cuts in them at intermittent intervals. I could not ascertain whether they lead to the left or the right, but that did not concern me as long as they did not lead to my home.

        What happened next was both unexplainable and unique enough enough to leave me completely unprepared. I felt a pressure near the back of my skull and images burst into my mind.

I was in a cave on a mountain overlooking a vast plain. I could not see it behind walls of pitch-black clouds, but I knew it was there. I could feel the tang of lighting in the air, the roar of the wind, and the moisture in the air. Something... hissed behind me, but I did not turn to see it. 

I stumbled as the vision abruptly ended as quickly as it began. I had no idea what happened. What could I possibly think? What was behind me on the mountain? It didn’t sound like a creeper; that was a relief.

Thoughts darted across my mind. Was this something unique to this world? What just happened?

That familiar instinct reared its head: fight or flight? What was I to do? I was leaning towards staying home now. I was safe underground behind walls of stone. But was I to do if I succumbed to fear and stayed home? I needed food, and I had yet to find mushrooms growing in the damp and the dark. There was a civilization up there. There must be some form of sustenance.

However, that was not a justifiable reason to shake the vision from my consciousness. I saw something, something that I could not possibly have seen. Something I had never seen. I do not deny that the sudden onslaught startled and unnerved me, but what could I do? I would not survive holded up underground for much longer. As much as I dreaded it, I needed to leave. Hopefully, if the fates are kind to my pitiful soul, I might be able to discover answers. How did I get here? What did I just see? What creatures call the land their own?

I must leave.





Dig dig dig dig dig...

I am good at digging. I don't know what that says about me. Good? Bad? It gets me around. I'm pretty certain that is a benefit.

Diggity dig dig dig. A pick for stone, a shovel for dirt.

It was only a quick trip up to the surface, but I did not wish to tread across the forest or out in the open. One I cleared the underground, I started digging east toward town. I wanted to dig my way to town, not approach it directly. The beasts of this land were cunning and deadly; this less time I spent in coverless terrain, the higher my chances of survival. I judged my options as fairly as I could, given the lack of any concrete and finite data I had concerning these creatures and their habits. I did not wish to confront them; my best estimates to that option would be hostility if my previous encounters proved to be a fair judge of their behavior.

But when I thought about it, that was not entirely correct. I still recalled meeting the sovereign almost 150 days previous. Wait, different times. How long had it been on this world? Was it day or night right now? That was a foolish lack of knowledge on my part. A quick dig to the surface would fix that.

I swung my pick upwards, absorbing the materials I dug as I progressed. It was not difficult to create steps; absorb three meters of vertical headroom for each step and leave a one meter incline for said step. Simple, yet efficient. At least my abilities had not been altered since my entrance in this odd, awful place.

I pondered the sovereign's actions as I ascended to the surface. The soldier was quick, efficient, and brutal; if I had been any less prepared, I would have been slaughtered. The sovereign... she showed me mercy. Why? Whatever arcane power threw me off my feet should have been enough to slay me in a single moment. Did she believe I no longer posed any threat? Was I to be harvested for materials as I do to the creatures that infest the Overworld? Kill or be killed, what purpose was there to attack, and then suddenly change her mind?

That mystery has evaded me since our encounter. I have contemplated that event in my trek through the underground and my construction work on my new house. The why eludes me, but not the how. These things, these quadruped beasts, they equal my level of intelligence. Only the Endermen displayed any reaction to me, though only through my own machinations that harm them or acknowledging their presence through a wayward glance.

These things do not react with the passive docility of farm animals or tamed pets. They do not have the innate hostility towards my presence like the monsters of my homeland; their motives are far more complex than simple eradication of my existence. And I do not even know where to start to describe the differences between the tall Endermen and these unique beasts.

I heard the surface before I knew I was upon it. It was like a million marching feet, all stomping at intervals imposed by a chaotic, self-imposed rhythm. I had experienced the wonders of wind and waterfalls. I then experienced this bliss of rain.

Torch in one hand and shovel in the other, I absorbed the cobblestone above me and became immediately engulfed in a torrential flood of water. It was cold and made me shiver as I became drenched in a second, but the feeling of it all, the rapturous burst of impulses it generated were equally cerebral as my past experiences. Rivulets of water rushed down my chest and back, the scents of moisture and earth saturated the air, and I felt a metallic tang in the back of my throat that kept building and building until –

I saw a flash of lightning in the distance. Thunderstorm... how marvelous.

I took a moment to hoist myself out of the hole and immediately retreated back into it, sealing the cobblestone above my head. I was in the middle of and right below a cobblestone street and a lone creature was on a direct course to me. The light of my torch would have surely given me away. Please oh please, you think it was a trick, just a trick of the light. To my great fortune, I heard the creature walk across the stone without faltering in the slightest. It did not see me. So far, so good. I did not wish to draw unwanted attention.

An alley intersected the street to both my left and right, so I could safely rise from the surface and make plans from there. All I needed was a makeshift stairway, and, after absorbing my torch to prevent unneeded light, I was soon above ground for the first time in days. Or however long I had been gone from the surface.

And that stupid moon was still there. Why did it not cross the sky in seven minutes like it should? 

I sealed the entrance to my tunnel with dirt and hugged the wall of one of the buildings. The rain was furious in its sheer volume, another event that I may need to grow used to sooner rather than later. The rain, as glorious and fantastic as I thought it to be, it, like almost everything I have seen so far, operated by different rules. Water collected in indents and containers wherever I looked. Equal mass distribution. Very fascinating.

I was about to move out, but I immediately returned to hugging the wall. I had by chance seen in the sky a trio of shapes flying overhead. I could not ascertain what they were, but I was fairly certain they were the same type of creature as the soldier in the forest.

I waited until they passed and peeked out into the street. All clear. I rushed to the adjacent alleyway, making a note to watch the skies as equally as the ground. No monsters  spawned in the dark, that I noticed, but the town was rife with all sorts of new dangers. The beating I received at the hands – hoofs. I must get my terminology correct – of the soldier.

I never expected the night to become my ally. I am terrified of the dark, mostly. I cannot suppress a tiny, nervous fear every time I enter the shadows. It is where the monsters and beasts lay claim. I had seen neither hide nor hair of the monsters of the Overworld.

...but what was that beast in my vision? It was unlike anything I had ever heard before, but I still felt that same emotion upon approaching Overworld monsters. Fearful reverence. I was in the domain of something greater.

I shoved that thought into the back of my mind. The world was already strange enough, and I did not need bothersome questions distracting me from my objective. I could worry about those matters later.

That did not mean my fears were assuaged. I did not like the dark. In fact, I was compelled to light it up with my newly acquired torches, but I knew how dangerous that could be. Something as simple and out of place as a torch in a land that I had not even seen use torches would cause unwanted attention. I did not need trails leading the enemy to me. So, out of necessity rather than desire, I stuck to the shadows between buildings.

That did not make progress easy, or swift for that matter. I saw patrols fly above, on average, every ten minutes. They flew low to avoid the lightning, but that cleverness was to my disadvantage. I had only so little time to hide when I heard the steady flapping of wings. Around buildings, I moved. In the shadows, I hid. I did not get far from my escape path. Two hundred fifty four steps in a half hour. My search progress was slow, but getting caught would be disastrous.

Luckily, I did not have to play that painstaking game for long. I dreaded the realization that the center of town was too lit up for my comfort, meaning so many lights cast fewer shadows. However, I had the fortune to come across a building with a small farm enclosed in a backyard. Wheat. My target had been found.

I absorbed the stalks and got the hell out of there, trying my best to make my way back to my exit. DId I even mention I have horrible memory? I do. Cobblestone center street. That’s where I came out of. Find the largest cobblestone street once – if – I forget where to go next. Oh, I’d hate to get caught based on my own, shallow forgetfulness. That’d be embarrassing if I didn’t get killed.

However, my luck at avoiding attention had run out. Searching the garden had garnered too much time and the next patrol was on my heels. Upon hearing the spine-tingling sound of flapping feathers, I hugged the wooden structure adjacent to the garden in the hopes I could, hopefully, not be seen.

Thump!

Oh no. They landed. I could hear them babbling in their native tongue.

They were around the corner to my left, so I picked the obvious path: right. I half inched, half sprinted around the corner, trying my best to escape as quietly as possible. Oh, I did not want to get caught. Dealing with three creepers is difficult enough, but these creatures were smart.

I had turned the corner, but I could hear the creature’s steps in the muddy water turn as well. Only twenty feet or so. So close, so close. Too close for shadows to work. I needed to hide, and I needed to stay hidden.

The lights were still on in the house to my back, but the one in front of me was not. Sanctuary. Sweet, sanctuary.

I conjured a diamond axe and swung at the wooden house, dislodging a cube of wood immediately, than another to clear enough room to walk through I took a step –
        
Wait, no ground beneath my feet.

Ah, crap.

I plummeted about five feet. My leg stung, but I put the pain in a holding place in my head and jumped, getting close enough to seal the breach. I still felt in my mind the materials I absorbed through chipping a hole in the wall. All I needed to do was reach out to them in my mind and call them out.

I hugged the wall, waiting to see if I had managed to successfully thwart my pursuers. However, I could not hear a thing. Not a peep, not a footfall. What material was this wall made of if it could block sound?

I turned to the wall and ran a hand over the surface. They were solid wood, walls covered in thick, fluffy material. Strange. Why?

Only then, due to not being able to hear pursuit, did I observe my surroundings. The room had only one exit and was dark and filled to the brim with strange devices I had ever seen. I saw hollow cylinders on vertical, metal stands with two wooden sticks set on each cylinder. A large, wooden monstrosity with eighty eight wooden tabs colored either white or black. There was a small, golden device with bits of string connecting its top and bottom halves. Inset in a closet, several metal tubes with several holes in them sat collecting dust.

Out of curiosity, I tapped two of the black tabs on the wooden device. A pair of notes, loud and clear, echoed in the room. I blinked back surprise. Sound? 

Music?

I taped two more keys, this time on the far left. The next set of notes was deeper, but still resonated all the same. I couldn’t help but smile stupidly. I really didn’t understand how a creature without fingers could play such instruments, but it was marvelous all the same. I needed redstone, some wood, and a whole lot of time in order to perform one song, and even then, that song cannot be changed without a vast amount of work. I needed almost a kilometer of redone just for a few songs. It conducts a currents, and that current plays a note from a noteblock. 

But this device, compact as it was, could play whatever I wanted it to. For the next minute or so, I experimented with the notes. High notes, low notes, sharps, flats.. It didn’t take long to figure out which was which after a few taps of the keys.

        ...So I kneeled by the instrument and began to play.

It was such a melodious and wonderful sound to behold. It was not a redstone circuit of noteblocks, not some random, insane creation of mine, but something I produced on my own. No powers, just... my soul in acoustic form, brought out by a wonderful instrument and the heart of a builder. Every bar struck, every chord produced, came together in a harmony that was oh so heavenly to my ears. For the first time since I came to this new world, and even the weeks preceding my departure, I felt a genuine smile of contentment cross my lips.

It was one of the choppy songs I orchestrated and built with redstone under my many homes, but I was happy. I couldn’t stop myself. Was it the situation itself? For a few, brief moments, I did away with running, the pain, the confusion, and I just relaxed and enjoyed the moment. It was a cerebral experience, and equally fleeting.

I heard a noise, the same garbled speech from the creatures, coming from right behind me. I turned around, conjuring up my diamond sword and swung with all my strength.

And I stopped. To this day, I cannot fathom what made me stop my attack. Doing so would have cemented my status as a fiend and outlaw in these creature’s eyes, a status I might very well deserve. Thinking back, striking would have been the rational choice; save for my brief suspicions about the sovereign, all other creatures hailing from this curvaceous land have attempted to slay me. I did not have a reason to hold back.

Was it my suspicions? My gut instinct about these creature’s nature? Did I halt my swing in a likely vain hope that my kindness would bear fruit? 

I shouldn’t have, if I was thinking clearly. I walked the same path when the Endermen first entered the Overworld so long ago. I was betrayed, my kindness was met with hostility and violence. I discovered I was no longer alone in my wide, wide world. Then I discovered I could not communicate with them under fear of death. Never before had my heart and hope been crushed with extreme prejudice. My fear of these new lands stemmed from those first, fateful encounters.

Was it its eyes, so full of curiosity and desire? If anything, the creature should have hated me more than any other; it was the same light-green one I attacked with a Potion of Weakness. It just stood there, eyes full of wonder and a smile across its lips. I looked into its eyes, and it looked into mine. It – she; she had the same child-bearing hips as the sovereign – did not see me as a threat. ‘Twas a gamble on both our parts, if anything. She did not attack despite me towering over her, and I did not because of that.

My blade was at her throat, but she did not seem to mind one bit; quite the oblivious one, that creature. Or narrow-minded; I could not be certain at that particular point in time. The creature lifted a leg, some kind of band was around its leg, oddly enough, and waved.

I was stunned into... I didn’t have a word for it at the time. Stupidity? Vapidity? Whatever. I couldn’t help myself; with my sword still at her throat, I waved back with my other hand.

The creature’s smile widened in delight and she giggled childishly. My blade severed a few hairs while she laughed and I lowered my sword. 

She did not appear to be a threat. Hope, it must have been some inane, insane hope that drove me to let down my guard. It had to have been a mad hope indeed. I was starved for emotional stimulation. How long had I walked the Overworld? How many days? How many years? I don’t know. My desire for companionship, however brief, overrode my basic survival instincts. I may have discovered an equal at last. In front of me was a lifeform not after my blood.

Sweet, wonderful release, I was at last not afraid.

The creature pointed a limb at itself and said very slowly in its strange language, “Lie... rah...”

I did not understand, so the creature repeated itself, “Lie... rah.” 

I backed away from the creature, just to give myself a little breathing room in case I needed it. The quadruped did not seem to mind. in fact, she started pointing at different artifacts in her abode and spoke, starting with the instrument I just operated, “Pea... ah... no...” Then to the protrusion on her head, “You... knee... corn...”

Then she pointed at me. I cocked my head in confusion. What was she doing? “Lierah,” she said again while pointing to herself, then she pointed back to me.

Names... 

Names... this creature had names for everything, even itself. Sure, I had names for items in my own land. Redstone, Creepers, Endermen, but I did not have a name for myself. Why would I need one? I am the only being I can talk to in the Overworld. A name to call my own would serve me no purpose in a world that is home to myself and myself alone, considering I understand the Endermen even less than these strange creatures.

Did I even remember how to speak? How long has it been?

I shook my head. I don’t know if the creature misunderstood my intent as an unwillingness to share, but her smile fell and her eyes drooped.

My thoughts were cut short. The two of us had heard a noise in the doorway behind this ‘Lierah.’ I heard the same garbled language, as did she. Her eyes widened in panic, as did mine.

We were both so enraptured by each other, we did not hear another walking down the same set of steps Lierah descended to find me. This creature, one with blue and pink hair, walked into the doorway with a hoof rubbing at her eyes. I heard something that sounded like Lierah’s name, but the newcomer stopped short when it saw me. Our eyes met and it froze. I recognized the processes running through it’s mind; I had the same experiences every time I faced a monster I had not faced before: first curiosity at something new, then surprise, then a little bit of anger, worry, then fear, confidence, and, lastly, the warm feeling of bravery. 

It stayed on fear.

The creature screamed at the top of its lungs and pointed at me. The warmness at first contact and a brief reprieve from my running vanished like smoke. Replacing my sword with my axe, I swung it at the opposite wall and remove a cube of wall, revealing the moist dirt behind it. I heard Lierah call out and I turned for a moment, just a moment. The newcomer had it’s legs around Lierah and was fighting tooth and nail to drag her up the steps, babbling incoherently all the while. Lierah was conflicted, torn between the same desire of communication I had, and the likely need of conferencing with her associate.

I did not stay and watch the outcome of her dilemma; I returned to my digging and sealed the wall behind me.

I dug upwards and returned to the surface. It was a shallow basement, by my standards anyway, and I had no problem beating the newcomer to the surface. I sprinted back to my tunnel and heard, from the direction of Lierah’s house behind me, the newcomer screeching in the street. I recalled my first experience with these creatures, the same one after I had attacked Lierah; if they made loud enough noises, others would come.

Oh, crap. I did not wish to face the soldier or the sovereign again. Not again. Not ever again. I barely survived the first time.

My memory, horrible as it was, was good enough to remember the path back to my underground tunnel. Turn at the cake house, run across the town square, past town hall, and back down the alley.

The sound of wind blasted my ears as I entered the street. The wind had picked up and howled ever so fiercely. Rain pelted my shirt and I nearly lost my footing as I hydroplaned across a small puddle. 

It happened again. For an instant, I felt a small pressure in the back of my head, and then a vision forced itself on me for a second time. I stumbled backwards, back into the alley, and my mind flooded with images that were not my own.

I was following something. No, I was chasing something, but I could not feel my limbs moving in the slightest. I couldn’t see; darkness was all around me, yet I was still moving. How was that possible? 

Darkness. Movement. Fear. Not mine, something else’s. I could taste it. I could smell it. Fear. Raw, untempered fear. 

The Darkness...

No... not darkness. Fog. Tiny, almost imperceptible, wisps off black fog. The Void Fog. Again? What was it doing here?

For a brief moment, the fog parted and I saw my quarry for the first time: the cream-colored creature with pink hair. 

My next conscious memory was me on my hands and knees, gasping for breath back on the cobblestone street. What had I just witnesses? Why was I chasing the creature?

I had no time to ponder that. I heard them and the sound they make, the distinct sound of their wings. I got up and sprinted to my hidden pit, but was immediately thrown off my feet as something large and very heavy crashed into me.

I rolled across the cobblestone, limbs flailing wildly until I came to a stop. I hopped to my feet, sword in hand on the way up and I examined my foe.

It was one of the biggest creatures I had seen in my life. It looked like one of the quadrupeds, but it was by far the largest I’ve seen, bulk-wise. Spiders are fairly big, and this creature looked like it could kill one merely by stepping on it. The sovereign is fairly large herself, but the tightly-corded muscles and compact size easily set this one apart from all others so far.

The creature, wearing a black, waterproof cloak and a white, bristled helmet, glared daggers at me. I couldn’t help but take a step back out of reflex. What did I ever do to you? I haven’t even tried to see if I could eat your kind yet.

The quadruped lifted a limb and slowly removed its helmet. It was a big one; that would make it hard to see in the dark and rain. Indeed a clever strategy on its part.

The creature tossed its helmet to the side and loudly whistled into the night. I blinked in surprise, but not do to its sudden, inexplicable desire to make noise; it had the same stylized pink hair of the one I saw in my vision. 

To even the odds ever so slightly, I pounded my chest with my sword-clenched fist. Rivulets of energy wrapped around my chest in a second and hardened into a diamond chest piece. I did not believe I would have the time to fully equip myself, but it would have to do.

It was a good thing I held back. The instant I made the gesture, the creature charged, charged faster than something with its bulk had the right to. I shifted right to deflect the impending collision and swung.

I might as well had not even tried. At the last moment, the creature splayed open a set of wings I did not even see and her speed drastically increased. Oh, I knew what was going to happen and I knew it was going to hurt.

The creature tackled me with enough force to knock the wind out of me and almost drop my sword. I blinked back the stars... but we still hadn’t landed or rolled to a stop. What?

Crash!

The creature had used its wingpower to propel us through the air and crash into the nearest building. My vision dipped into black and my sword dropped with a resounding clang. I could feel wood splinter and creak behind me. Oh, I was in so much pain at that moment and very likely had several broken bones.

The creature glared at me with a look that froze me to me very marrow. Its eyes were laced with a cold, tight fury, one barely constrained behind the battle fever enveloping us both.

I knew I would be too slow to do what I needed, but I had to at least try. I brought out my pickaxe and prepared to swing. The futility proved true, for despite the creature’s size, its speed was remarkable. I initiated an attack and my guard was down, something which I guessed it knew I would do. It ducked and turned, avoiding my attack and setting itself up for a counter. Rearing up on its forelegs, it kicked me.

If I wasn’t wearing my armor, I might have been killed instantly. The force resounded through my diamond armor, the strongest material I can craft; that was quite an impressive feat. The wall I was braced against shattered under the blow and I was propelled through the wall and into a large living room. Wood rained down on me as I flew through the air and eventually rolled to a stop. Splinters dug into my skin and I coughed to try to get my lungs working properly.

I felt like I just hugged a creeper.

Without missing a beat, it flew through the me-sized hole in the wall. The creature still possessed the same, icy glare as when we started. I had imagined that the other soldier was bad, the one with thick, leathery wings. This beast with its burly body and feathered wings was in a whole new league; powerful, methodical and efficient. 

I was too injured to resist the creature and had lost my pick on my trip through the wall. With one, great heave, the creature hoisted me onto its shoulders, spun to gain momentum, and threw me again. This time through a window.

At least it had variety.

I was looking upwards at a house in the sky. The cream-colored creature was flying up to it for all it was worth. I was not moving and was being enveloped by thick layers of Void Fog. Void Fog never moves. It just sits there, forever dormant in the light of my torches.

...But from my vision, there was no source of light other than lightning. I have never witnessed what the Fog did without lighting.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sight of billowing Void Fog. It wasn’t just restless, it was tumultuous. Whatever Void Fog that was in my direct line of sight congealed into a single ribbon and lashed out at me.

What happened next terrified me more than anything I had ever experienced. More than entering this new world, more than fighting the soldier, more than seeing the monster in the dark. I’ve faced groups of creepers and Endermen, and even that did not provoke the stomach-churning horror I experienced next. I haven’t spoken for hundreds of years, and I heard my own voice, as clear as the last time I spoke, say two, simple words.

“Get out.”

There was no time to ponder the vision. The shards of glass cut through my skin as I flew through the air. I seemed to be doing that a lot, and it only hurts more each time. Dazed, confused, and in a world of hurt, I could only look around in a blur as the creature calmly walked out the shattered remains of the window. A glass door-window? Why didn’t I think of that?

I was half delirious with pain, but I knew when I was about to face death. Those cold eyes, the eyes of my reaper, kicked in those basic instincts of self preservation. My pain dulled, adrenaline pulsed through my veins. I stood, shakily, and conjured a cobblestone block to shield me from the creature’s wrath.  

It didn’t help much either. The creature turned, tore a fence post out of the ground, and threw it at my with frightening speed. I could not conjure more cobblestone in time, so I replaced the globule of cobblestone energy in my hand with a diamond sword. I deflected the mistle with ease, but the creature was not through with me yet.

In the time it took for me to conjure my sword, the creature had darted towards me, displaying even more of its impressive speed. It hopped up onto the cobblestone cube to attain the high ground, but I had regained my composure enough to swing my blade.

The creature, upon seeing the impending strike, jumped to my right. It winced as the blade slashed against its armor with a resounding screech. The sound made me flinch in the cold downpour, the sound of metal against sword screeching was something I never worried about, but the sound in this world sent shivers down my spine. 

The fight was bordering on two minutes at that points. I was hungry, exhausted, and starting to shudder from my wet clothes plastering to my skin. The fight against the juggernaut was, at best, a war of attrition, and one I would lose. 

I tightened my grip on my sword, only then seeing a tiny rivulet of crimson staining the tip. I had wounded the creature, but only just. Whether my attack had found an unarmored spot or I simply cut through its armor, I did not know. Throughout the entire battle, I had been forced back on the defensive. Creepers are deadly foes, but are manageable in single or small numbers. These beasts weren’t just clever, they were trained for battle. I was a survivalist, not a warrior. I would die if the fight continued.

I switched my sword for a pick axe and used my shovel’s magic to remove a cube of cobblestone from the road. After dropping into the hole, I prepared my shovel and dig my way to freedom.

That was the plan until I saw the behemoth flying towards me out of the corner of my eye. I had conjured my bow and fired a wild shot in that time, but everything went black.

The darkness was fleeting, but the new pain in my skull was not. I had been dragged out of the hole and my eyes were pointed to the heavens, lazily watching the rain come pouring down in never-ending torrents. The behemoth was glaring at me. No, it was glaring down at me; only then did I feel the hard, cold stone at my back. It put a hoof to its mouth and whistled, once again, a loud, shrill note that only traveled so far in the cacophonous malestrom. I could see, as it lifted a leg, that a wooden shaft protruded under its wing. It didn’t even care, if it noticed at all.

Splash!

Another creature, one bearing a remarkable resemblance to the first soldier I encountered, landed next to a puddle. I heard another splash, than another. Very soon, I was surrounded by soldiers in addition to the juggernaut. They surrounded me, all staying a respectful twenty feet or so away.

Weakened, battered and bruised, I dragged myself to my knees and stayed there. I scanned my enemies, twelve in all, plus the one that single-handedly delivered my defeat. Thirteen creatures, and I wouldn’t survive a fight with a single one. 

Complacency was at fault. I knew I needed to learn, and learn fast, what these creatures were capable of. My duel with the soldier could have been called a draw, at best. The juggernaut alone could have killed me if it hadn’t stopped in its tracks. 

I clenched my hand reflexively and did not feel the familiar feel of springy wood beneath my fingertips. The juggernaut has wisely disposed of my weapon.

Outmanned and outclassed, I was.

What to do?





Minecraft/MLP:FIM crossover.
Chapter Commentary: LINK
For chapter updates and my ramblings, visit my page on Fimfiction HERE.
Barricade is a character by KnightMysterio that I have been graciously allowed to use. Click the link to check out his stuff.
Edited by: DMDeck16, Wolfmaster1337, Maverick Frond