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// Cave Spiders 
// Story: Welcome to Cubeland 
// by Zaleros 
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	The next several minutes were full of me trying not to be swarmed to death by these spiders; apparently they didn’t know I was supposed to be on their side. Either that or they didn’t know what sides were. Probably that one.
It really sucked trying to fight them while the area was covered in webs; I slowed down while they weren’t even flinching at its stickiness, which was reasonable since they were spiders. That didn’t stop me from hating every moment of that fact. My only fight so far was against Players, rational beings that thought and felt things I could relate to usually...maybe. This time I was fighting spiders that seemed rather rabid and primal. The worst part was they were poisonous, and I know that because one freaking bit me and I felt like I was going to die. I felt my life slipping away.
I finally managed to get away from the spiders, after killing at least fifteen of them, and I put a wall up to keep me safe from anything that would try to attack me. There was some light in the tunnels of the mineshaft but only a few torches here or there. I fought my urge to sleep, knowing that the poison would only be more likely to claim my life if I wasn’t conscious to fight it off. 
My training from the academy didn’t exactly cover poison attacks, which is reasonable since not many races out there actually used poison anyway, but I had learned from some doctors in the village I always sold my fish at that you could suck the poison out of a wound if it hadn’t spread too far. I guess there was a time limit or something because it wasn’t working. I swore out loud and came to the conclusion that I’d just have to wait it out and hope it didn’t kill me.
The next hour was like a hell I never wanted to experience. Take getting smacked by a force field of love and multiply that by getting yelled at by your least favorite teacher while you have a migraine and you get the idea of what I felt. The poison was there and I couldn’t stop the pain, the fear it instilled in me. After learning about what happened to monsters in this world, I was afraid that would happen to me too. Minute after minute passed by, feeling longer each time another passed, the pain felt like it would never end and would instead keep me on the threshold of death’s door. Eventually the pain subsided and I only felt weak and hungry. The hunger I could solve with food, but the weakness would only go away once I rested so I ate some fish and went to sleep.
In my sleep I dreamed once more, but this time it wasn’t about the past. It was another of those random dreams you would expect from experiences that freak you out. I got chased by some spiders and they took me to their nest and I got eaten by the leader.
I woke up in a bit of a fit. I knocked my head against the wall and almost broke it down but I could still hear them on the other side so I left it alone. I felt like getting up would suck but sticking around there would just turn out to be fruitless in my efforts to get out of this place so I stood and found that, even with my near fatal injury, I was ok now. Did food not only keep you from starving here or something? It was starting to seem like food was a replacement for even medical treatment. Maybe sucking my blood out really did do something...well I’d never figure that out unless I got poisoned again and there was no way in hell I’d do that again willingly so I’ll probably just let that bit of knowledge stay in the dark.
Anyway I started up and got to moving around and found that the mineshaft was pretty big. The thing kept going on and on, full of resources that I’m surprised were left alone after all the effort I assumed was put in to make the shaft. Plenty more iron ore for me though, hopefully enough to make a decent armory when I got back to my house. I even found a few gold ore spots.
Wandering around in the cave for this long was starting to make me feel pretty lonely; I missed having the trio around. I got to thinking to myself and then it hit me; if I dug down to get in here then why not just dig up? It can’t end up bad can it? And so I walked to a wall and just started digging a path upward, avoiding the occasional piece of gravel, one of the few pieces that actually acknowledged the existence of gravity.
I didn’t think I really fell down that far, but even so I couldn’t see my way up. Luckily I learned that sand was a good indication that you were near the surface from the Skeleton. Now I just had to hope it wasn’t under some water or I’d probably drown.
Finally I broke the surface and found myself on the other side of the village with that jerk golem, I knew it was because I could see my giant tree off in the distance. I saw the golem patrolling the village and told myself that I’d get my revenge soon...hopefully. It was definitely on my list of ‘things that must die soon’ but it wasn’t my number one after having fought the Players. They were a real threat and they had to be dealt with now.
I made sure to skirt around the village, keeping away from the golem so it wouldn’t attack me again. Thinking about that thing gave me phantom pains in my side. It was day right now so all the monsters were hiding or...well I don’t like to think about the other option. It was bad enough they would never be who they always were; I didn’t want to remember how they lost their memories. It just wasn’t fair.
Once I reached my house I went inside to make sure everything was safe. Chests were good, furnace was good, paintings a-ok, bed was comfy as it going to get at this point. Everything seemed in order so I put away my new materials and walked over to the trio.
I arrived at the mouth of the cave and heard a new voice talking with the trio. I could swear there were only those three who could talk so why would a new voice be here? I didn’t get close enough to make out exactly what was said, in fear of my discovery. I tried to sneak my way closer but that went out of the window when I sneezed and they stopped talking and Creeper came out and looked around to find out what the noise was. I stayed hidden and sat low off to the side until he went back inside.
Once I was sure I was safe to move closer I did. That’s when I heard the words for sure this time.
“Can you get the blocks he’ll need?” the Skeleton said.
“Hey Skel, no worries dude I got this. I can get you sand, gravel, iron, and even dirt. What kind of thing could you need me to get that would cause you to call me out in the middle of the day anyway?” the new voice said, a high almost squeaky voice.
“We need the master blocks, the black blocks otherwise known as obsidian. Can you do it?” Creeper spoke to the squeaky voice.
“Psh, never heard of a block like that but I will do what I can or I’m not a part of Ender Services.”
“Aren’t you the only one of your kind that really knows how to communicate with us?”
“Well, yeah, but I’m also the one who gives out the orders to the others since they haven’t regained their own awareness yet after the incident that threw us out here in the first place.” This new voice wasn’t from around here either? First it was me, then the Players, and now this squeaky thing? Were any of the beings around here from this place? I really needed to get a look at this thing.
I poked my head inside and saw a big black thing, taller than the others by a head and it had ridiculously long limbs, of course they were like stretched cubes though. Probably meant it wasn’t from where I was from though.
I took a step toward it, entranced by its appearance, and my hoof hit the stone harder than I thought. It heard the noise and turned its head toward me and spoke, “I’ve been spotted! Evacuate!” and with that it ran past me, or something like that. It left a trail of purple sparks...wait a second. Those were the same as the ones from the night of the attack at my house. I looked around for it but it was gone, a few wisps of purple leading far away from the area.
“Guys, what was that and why did it talk?” I asked them, still looking for the black squeaky thing.
“Welcome back Craft, we were worried when you didn’t return the first night” the Creeper said to me.
“Look, I’m glad to see you guys too but seriously, what was that? I thought you three were the only ones who could talk.”
“We would’ve told you about them but they don’t like to be known by things they might consider a threat” Skeleton said, “They’ve only been around for maybe the last few dozen days but that’s the only one that seems to be able to communicate like we do.”
I listened to him as he explained but my attention was split between listening to them and looking for wherever that...thing might’ve gone.
“I overheard you guys talking to it about finding a certain block, what was that about?”
The trio did their usual and looked at one another as though they could communicate by looking between them, something I honestly considered possible at this point, and then Creeper turned to me.
“We know you aren’t from here and yet we’ve only imposed our problems upon you. We thought maybe we would try to help you.”
“Thanks for that and all but, since you guys found me, all you’ve done is help me to survive in this world. The least I could do is make use of my combat training for something good for once” I said with a tone of sadness, one not lost on them.
“Craft, we did indeed teach you the skills to survive but it was only so that you would be ready to fight our battles for us.”
“It doesn’t matter, as long as I’m here I’ll fight to protect you guys” I knew they were trying to divert attention away from the topic of the block, but I let it pass for now and left the cave. From what I heard, it was likely the block they were looking for was that black one in the chest. I’d have to check that out later but for now I want a nice nap. That cave took a lot out of me and I needed the relief of some good, restful sleep.