Fantasy ORIGINS - A Minecraft Story

[Chandelerion]

Franklin's attention had moved to the strange material of the landscape. He collected some of the red blocks and strange dirt, and nodded his agreement when Prim suggested that they head back. Even he knew that exploring more of this obviously hostile landscape was a bad idea without a solid base of operations. He turned to follow the path back when he heard Prim shout. He turned to see another pig creature, this time not half rotted away, swing at prim and Huxley. The scuffle didn't last long but watching from the sidelines felt to Franklin like an eternity passed before it was done. Upon death the monster dropped its sword, which franklin Noticed was made of gold.

Gold of all things, that was interesting.

Not much else happened on their trek back along the path he and Jack had made. The made it back to the portal and after stepping through made their way back home. Franklin didn't spare time, when the others went towards the map room to discuss the trip, he went to his underground workshop. Prim knew where the piston door was, but not how to open it without breaking in. So Franklin was confident once he made it down, surrounded by his machines, he could finally catch a moment to himself and process what had just happened. He made sure to lock the mechanism behind him anyway, just to be safe.

Above, Prim noticed irritably that Franklin had vanished. She also knew where he'd gone, she sighed her frustration as the Jack and Huxley began to go over what the happened.

 

[MoonMidnight]

Prim turned, half expecting Franklin to still be behind her, but when he was no where to be found she panicked. The familiar sound of redstone working reached her ears and her worries died as her irritation rose. He left her alone to deal with the other two. She tried to shrug it off, knowing that this was his usual behavior every time she came home from an excursion. She undressed her armor and put her scarf back on her shoulders. The cave was cool and silent, a welcoming gift after a few hours in the lava world.

"Alright. Let's see what we got," she said. They laid out the items on the table and each took a turn examining the different, unfamiliar blocks and items. Prim kept track of everything they learned and named in a notebook. It brought back memories of her old adventure days and other bitter nostalgia ones that she managed to push away for the time being.

"Maybe we should create a base near the portal. It would give us cover if we were ever in trouble. Resources, too, rather than walking back all the way." She braced herself for anything Huxley might say next.

 

[Chaos The Destroyer]

Once theyd made it back to out of the lava world and back to their base Jack lelet out a relieved sigh, his usual pale skin was now a slight pink color either from dehydration or burns. It didnt hurt all too bad it kept him alert at the very least.

Examining each of the strange an wonderous blocks in turn he made notes of their unique textures and colors, theywould all be useful in the long runfor one thing or another. "I think that would be best, we need to enclose the portal on both sides either way, if we can go through and come back who's to say nothing else cant?"

 

[MoonMidnight]

Prim nodded. She tossed one of the blocks back on the table. Her shoulders were heavy and she felt exhausted despite the sun high in the sky. How much time had passed when they were in the portal? Clearly a whole night but had more passed? It left her a little upset that she might have her days since waking miscounted but she was excited that something new had finally been discovered.

She looked over her shoulder back at the door to Franklin's secret room. As frustrated as she was with him for both the situation in the lava world and for leaving her alone with the pair, she still wanted to talk to him. Something in their relationship had shifted. It seemed all her relationships had changed. From her respect for Huxley, to her understanding of Jack, to Franklin. Things had changed just from that one trip. She felt conflicted, almost out of control of things. She had never been in a situation that involved so many people.

She rubbed the back of her neck as she turned back to the table of new items. Her eyes shifted to Huxley, concerned and curious why she had been so quiet; especially after her decision to make a new portal near the base. Had something else changed with her too? It was giving her a headache. She needed sleep.

 

[Kassandra]

There wasn't any chance of Huxley sleeping now that they were "home." She ached like the rest of them, but her mind was racind far too quickly to allow her any rest. This world was so simple before they found the portal, but after splitting itself open and revealing another layer, she was left wondering how many other existed. And if they were even at the highest point. The truth was, Huxley hadn't wanted to leave. The portal had taken her to a place that advertised its perils forthright, but the only difference between it and the place she was now was that whatever dangers were watching stayed hidden. It was comforting, in a strange way.

"I agree. About the portal, that is. But I also don't think we should have a repeat of our last excursion. Franklin needs training, whether he wants it or not. We also shouldn't go back there with all our people. Two at a time, at most. It'll keep us mobile." She gave a look to both Rose and Jack. "The portal rock is our next priority, if we want one of our own. And when we do put it together... I wanna go alone. Give me a few days to understand the other world, so I can be our guide the next time one of you steps through."

 

[Chandelerion]

Franklin sighed in relief when the door sealed behind him. It was childish, but he'd been incredibly uncomfortable on the way back. Not physically, he'd spent days digging mines beneath their base. He wasn't unaccustomed to psychical discomfort. But he had shown off just how useless he was when it came to being above ground and exploring. Combat was not his specialty, and he got tunnel vision when something interested him. Both of these facts had embarrassed him in that other world, and he hadn't been able to talk the entire way back.

But down here? this was where he was comfortable. Several large creations of lay in the large underground space in various states of disrepair. And a large golem stood in a fenced area, its head turning to watch franklin as he walked in. Franklin Walked over to his workstation and set down a couple of the strange red blocks he'd brought back with him.

Time to do what he did best, trial and error.

He spent a very long time experimenting: Lighting them on fire, testing blast resistance, even throwing some of the things into a furnace to see if they could be smelted or used as fuel. At the end of his long list of tests he found himself feeling drained. Yawning he left the chamber, fires still burning. And when he opened the door a very angry looking prim stood on the other side, moonlight from outside outlining her form in a way that was, strangely, somewhat reminiscent of magic, and that did nothing to help Franklin's mood either.

 

[MoonMidnight]

“Alone? Don’t be-“ Prim stopped herself short. She needed to be nicer and her exhaustion was weighing her down. She needed to get a grip of herself. “You can’t go alone. None of us can. One person always needs to keep watch. And if you get into a corner, having another person to help could save your life. It’s what me and...and Franklin did once before.”

Her chest tightened at the memories again. She had explored on her own before but after a few months it hadn’t been just her.

She and Huxley continued their civil debate. In all honesty it certainly was civil compared to their past arguments. Eventually they came to a draw. Huxley offered they sleep on it and Prim took it. She was too tired to keep arguing.

Night had already fallen and the base had darkened a little more. Prim watched as the new pair started up the stairs to the rooms. Jack had been mostly silent but it was clear on his face that he was analyzing and deep in thought. He was another thinker; just like Franklin. And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, Huxley was another instinct fighter like Prim herself.

Prim sat on the crafting table and took out her bow and arrow. After such an eventful day, she was finally getting the time to think and try to analyze herself. Well, it was more like decompressing really.

She fiddled with her arrow, contemplating life as a whole and other ethical thinking that led her down a dark path. She started thinking about bittersweet memories and it quickly overwhelmed her. She was left crying against her legs, wishing for things to go back to normal.

After some time, the exhaustion was too much. She needed sleep and she needed to sleep for awhile. So she started up the stairs, ready for bed. But then she stopped upon seeing Franklin’s secret door. He had never let her see what was behind the wall. She never pushed.

She felt guilty for yelling at him. It was probably why he had barricaded himself in his hidden room. She heard the tapping of stone, faint as a feather, and took a step back. When the door opened she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him.

“You left me with them,” she growled. “Really? You’re going to just disappear like that after discovering more about our world and possibly the people before us?”

She didn’t give him a chance to answer. She roughly grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards her. She raised her arm, hand tight in a fist. He flinched, shrinking away from her and putting his hands up in an effort to blunt the punch.

She wrapped the arm around his shoulders. It was a half hug with one hand still grabbing his shirt. She squeezed him a little then pushed him away, folding her arms neatly over her stomach.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you. In that other world. And just now.” She certainly didn't want to apologize but after the events of today, she felt she needed to apologize to keep the balance between everyone in the group. If anything, he should be apologizing to her for multiple reasons. But she wouldn't mention that to him.

 

[Chandelerion]

Apologies were not Prim's strong suit. And it was painfully obvious to Franklin that she was mainly trying to console his bruised ego. She never apologized for yelling, and it only made sense that with the strange circumstances they found themselves in she would suddenly care about how he reacted to her actions. But he didn't care about that, and most of his initial thoughts halted because she'd hugged him. He resisted the impulse to pull away, partially because he didn't want her to try more apologies, and partially because it was such an alien experience the analytical side of his brain wanted to investigate. After a moment he pulled away from her, shaking his head. Too many things were happening at once.

Only a few days ago everything was normal, everything worked. She adventured, he investigated. It was a system that worked, and allowed him to ignore what he didn't want to face. But now with these new people he had to confront the cold fact he'd been ignoring, something he'd been holding back ever since they went off to look for the portal, and even before that when they'd found that underground library.

"You move to fast Prim, have you even stopped to THINK since you found these people?" He stepped back, taking a moment to cool his head enough to articulate his thoughts. "The minute you find them, you're attacked by Illagers. The last time I remember that many Illagers doing anything together was when we found-" He started pacing in a circle, irritation he didn't know he'd been feeling suddenly bursting out of him.

"And the first thing you do is bring them here, to our HOME. But that's not why I'm upset, I understand coming home, and I'm glad you did. But you don't seem to find the situation surrounding your meeting even a little suspicious? Then there's the situation with this MAGIC portal we found yesterday! The first thing you did was tell me to wait for you to come out and the second thing you did was go through it!"

He glared at her, "You're right, I shouldn't have gone through, I shouldn't have been so mesmerized by the terrain that I wandered and nearly got killed. But did you ever stop to think if that could've happened to you? I did, It seems I'm the only one around here who ever does! Why do you think I came in after you? I may be terrible in a fight but I'm not an idiot, I wasn't just going to stand by and let another friend wander off to their deaths because I didn't say anything when they started messing with things we don't understand AT ALL."

Franklin stopped, realizing he hadn't taken a breath. He saw the shocked look on prim's face as she regarded him after his outburst. Behind his anger he could feel his grief rising, tears threatened to push past his eyes. he pushed past her and stormed towards the stairs that led up to the roof.

He needed air

 

[MoonMidnight]

Prim wanted to yell, to shout, to scream. He had the audacity to go off at her like that after she just tried to apologize? She wasn’t the one who needed to apologize yet she had done it anyway. He had more to apologize for.

She curled her fingers into fists. The portal had been a gateway to her old self. She had felt the excitement. It had been dulled by her desire to keep the others safe but it had still been there. She could see herself running through the green forests during her first few nights in the world.

Why was he yelling at her of all people? She was the one who had survived for months alone. She was the one who had found the structures. She was the one who found him and kept him alive. She was the one who found-

She swung her arm through the air. She needed to get out. She needed to be herself. So she went to her room, grabbed her old bow with its purple glow, and started out of the cave. She passed Franklin on the way, neither of them barely giving each other a glance in their direction, and jumped down the stairs. She rubbed her tired eyes as she stomped across the sandy field.

She escaped the monsters that started to appear and finally got herself going in a sprint. She ran from the cave. From Franklin. From the newcomers. She ran from the bitter memories that were nested in that little cave.

Her adrenaline was pumping as she evaded every monster and started her climb into the forest. She belonged among the trees, among the dirt, among the animals. Her chest burned and she could taste blood as she pushed herself to her limit. She felt alive again.

Everything was going fine until she badly judged a jump over a ravine. She panicked and pulled out her water bucket seconds before she hit the stone. Her shoulder rammed into the ground and she sucked in the water when she cried out.

She got to her knees, coughing and throwing up the water. An arrow landed by her hand and she stumbled to her feet. She picked up the water and her bow she had dropped and ran into one of the small caves. She blocked off the entrance with cobblestone and placed a torch in her small cave.

She continued to cough and sat down against the wall. She took a minute to catch her breath, wiping away the tears on her face. Despite the danger she had just faced, she’d do it again. She never felt alive until she was so close to death.

Where had everything gone wrong? Why had it gone wrong? Why had everything happened the way it had?

She angrily pushed the thoughts away and laid down on her side. She was cold and placed another torch near her head. It provided little warmth but she didn’t care. She was revisiting good memories like this of when she first woke up.

The rest of the night passed overhead. She was so utterly exhausted that sleep came naturally. When she woke up, her arm was numb and her back and neck were sore. She rubbed her eyes and picked up the cobblestone. Monster remains were laid out in the sun and she idly picked them up.

The walk home was long and slow. She had only a couple skirmishes with straggling skeletons or zombies hiding under the trees. Her purple bow was way more efficient than her other one. It took only two hits to make a zombie or a skeleton fall. The bow was both a blessing and a curse.

She rubbed her sore shoulder as she finally came to where the forest met sand. She yawned and realized she had a bruise on her cheek, too. She didn’t remember ever having hit her cheek on anything.

Despite her unresolved emotional issues, she felt fresh. She felt physically new as she came back to the cave with a couple scratches. It was weird but she loved it.

 

[Kassandra]

Huxley steamed as Rose walked away from their argument, her side of which seemed to begin and end at 'the power of friendship.' It frustrated her to no end to be treated as if she couldn't handle herself, especially when they were all treading unfamiliar waters. Unlike the rest of them, she had ambitions to do more than simply make sense of their world. Huxley felt the pull to make her dream a reality, to dig in her feet and establish a place for people who suddenly appeared in this place, for she was certain they wouldn't be the last.

Soon after overhearing Rose and Franklin have a disagreement of their own, Prim darted out after collecting whatever she had in her room. It was nighttime, what did she have to gain from venturing out now? The hypocrisy of going out alone wasn't lost on Huxley, and she would definitely point it out the next time they spoke. Tomorrow morning, that is, after she went out and had an adventure of her own. "I'm going to bed," she lied, and started going around the base and digging through what communal chests there was for supplies, mainly torches.

Once the night air overcame her, Huxley donned the rest of her armor again and picked a direction at random. From there, she hurriedly marched, leaving a torch behind every several paces, making sure each was within visible range from each other. By the third placed, however, it became apparent that someone was watching her. Brandishing the golden axe she found off one of the pig people, she looked around until she very briefly met eyes with a pair of purple irises. Enough was enough. She was almost certain this was the same lanky monster following her, even in and out of the other world. Looking at its legs, she mentally chartered a course toward the clearing it stood in ominously. "Raah!" she cried, charging it and swinging wildly. But she never hit anything. And the moment she passed over the spot she was certain it was standing on, it felt like something had tripped her.

Huxley fell face-first into the clearing, and when she looked up again, found herself on the edge of a village, left in similar shape to the one they say attacked by the grey marauders. Craters, houses in ruin, it both broke Huxley's heart and called her to action. After using the last of her torches to light up the streets and outline the village's perimeter, she put a crafting table down in the middle of town and got to work undoing the damage left behind. By sunrise, the houses and ground had been filled in again, and Huxley was fixing the dirt paths she remembered from her time in the other village. But that wasn't all she'd managed to get done. Also in the middle of down was a series of furnaces going. She'd figured out the replenishable value of charcoal, and began using it to refine several stacks of cobblestone she'd collected from a nearby cave. It wasn't the wall of purple stone from her dreams, but while leafing through the green book, she realized stone bricks could work as a suitable substitute.

Satisfied and sitting on top of one of the working furnaces while the sun rose, armor put back away save for her boots, she wondered if anyone would come looking for her. And if she really wanted them to.

 

[Chandelerion]

Franklin spent a large part of that night staring into the stars. He saw the same things he'd always seen, points of light staring back down at him. His angry tears hadn't lasted long, but he wasn't ready to face Prim. Because he knew her, she wouldn't react to what he'd said well. But he was right, rushing into new situations without gathering any info at all had only ever caused them grief and loss. Yet still she had just, run off through the portal without even thinking it might be the end of her. He'd be damned if he let her illusion of immortality kill her. Magic was dangerous, and had only ever taken things from him, and as much as he resented Prim and how she treated him, she was all he had left.

He didn't like the feeling that he was being replaced by these newcomers, he also didn't like the way Prim just trusted them almost immediately. It felt like they were on track to either be betrayed or else something worse. But he also understood that they needed more people, whatever lay beyond that portal was important. So Franklin decided that he would trust the newcomers as far as exploring went, but he wasn't about to spill all the things he'd learned to people he didn't know. With that resolution in mind, he turned to head back down off the roof when he noticed something moving away from the base.

And it didn't surprise him at all that the person sneaking away was Huxley.

 

[MoonMidnight]

Prim took a deep breath and started up the staircase to the base. Fortunately, Franklin wasn’t still at the entrance. So she walked in and went down to the treasure room.

She dropped her bow on the table and looked up at the map. She felt nostalgia and bitterness at the sight.

She went up to the storage room for more food and to repair her sword. She ran a hand through her hair as she went back down to the room. With a fresh mind, she was ready to take a look at their new blocks and information. They would need to build a base inside the portal for safety if they wanted to explore more.

She turned back around and jumped at the sight of Franklin. He was just standing there at the top of the stairs, looking at her.

“Jeeze, you scared me.”

 

[Chandelerion]

"where have you been?" he asked, he wasn't angry at her which surprised him. He was used to Prim doing whatever she decided to do, he was more annoyed that he wasn't able to tell her about Huxley than he was about her leaving. But no one had cared what he thought about situations for a long time so he suppressed his irritation.

He'd checked on Jack earlier, he was still there asleep in the room. But Huxley still had yet to return.

"Huxley left last night, and I don't know where she went."

 

[MoonMidnight]

“She what?” Her dread was replaced with extreme irritation. “Did she say anything? Did you do anything? Where did she go?”

She grabbed her purple bow off the crafting table and started up the stairs. She nearly brushed her shoulder against Franklin’s but stepped away in time. It would only make things worse.

“Did she say where she was going? What direction did she go in?” she asked over her shoulder.

She was equally angry with both Franklin and Huxley. Franklin never intervened in certain situations and Huxley seemed to think she was immortal. Prim’s respect for her was slowly decreasing but she couldn’t blame Huxley. She hadn’t explored like Franklin or Prim herself had when they first woke.

Still. she thought to herself. None of us were stupid enough to go by ourselves. I just hope she didn’t go near the village.

 

[Chandelerion]

"She just left, I only saw the direction she was heading because I happened to be up on the roof. Don't know where she went, but knowing her she probably just wanted to explore on her own. "

Franklin sighed, "She probably woound up at the village. It's the only thing I can remember being in that direction. What are you planning to do about it? I know I seem very unaffected but I'm not very happy about the whole dissapearing without a trace or a word act."

He sent a pointed look at Prim with that last comment. Making sure she knew it wasn't only meant for Huxley.

 

[MoonMidnight]

Prim snapped a glare at Franklin. Clearly he was still upset with her. If that’s how he wanted to play, so be it.

“Well,” she started with gritted teeth. “In case you somehow managed to forget, *I’m* the one who survived out here all on my own. I’m the one who survived for months without anyone. I’m the one who can handle herself out there. So disappear I can. It’s not like I’m never gonna come back. I always do. Even if she’s not here.”

She turned away from him and put her bow on her back. Her anger was obvious but she was trying to keep it from exploding again.

“I’m going to find her. There’s nothing there except broken buildings. If she doesn’t want to come back that’s fine, I don’t care what happens to her. But if she does, she needs to understand a few things.”

She walked down the stairs then stopped to look up at Franklin. He had his hands in his pockets and was watching her with his usual blank expression.

Then she started for the old village; the village that had started everything that went wrong in her life.

 

[Kassandra]

Unaware of the village's true history, Huxley got busy forming her freshly-cooked stone into textured bricks. It wasn't anywhere near as much as she needed, if she wanted to replicate the walls in her dreams, but a few stacks was a decent start. Over the next few hours, she managed to put up a wall eight blocks high, four blocks thick. She couldn't imagine even the beast the gray marauders used to lay waste to the village being able to get through, but there could always be more precautions taken.

Imagining a way to build a moat that sucked a swimmer down into its depths, Huxley began walking through the streets with some recovered torches to compensate for all the new shade, lighting up every other alley so nothing could hide in the darkness.

 

[MoonMidnight]

Prim’s anger slowed the closer she walked to the village. Anxiety replaced it as she climbed the sandy slopes. It had been a long time since she last visited the abandoned village.

She came over the hill and looked down at the village at the base of it. It was empty, like usual, but it wasn’t destroyed anymore. All the craters and holes were sealed. The towers stood without damage and even the crops in the gardens had been replaced. Torches were scattered all over the place.

Huxley came around one of the buildings, still placing torches. She jumped at the sight of Prim, not having realized she had even arrived, and stood up straight.

Prim had no idea what kind of an expression she was wearing. Her heart clenched at the thought of history having been literally replaced. They would never need the village but it served as an important point in her history, in her past. She hadn’t realized until then just how sacred the village was to her.

And now it was gone forever.

Mouth hanging open, she turned to look at Huxley. Her anger couldn’t even reach near the surface. Her shock and utter misbelief were swarming in her head.

 

[Kassandra]

Huxley stopped in her tracks, holding on to the torches she'd been fixing to walls and as makeshift streetlamps along the way. Rose had caught her working on her little project, and from the look on her visage, she didn't seem very happy to see what progress Huxley had made. "After you ran off last night, I decided I'd go have a little nighttime adventure of my own. Then... I found this place. All in ruins. I think it might be a worthwhile project for me to revive this place and make it safe for a new group of villagers. They'd get to live within the walls I'm planning, and we could trade with them."

She explained her vision with a cheery attitude, quickly forgetting the awkward look Rose was giving her. "I have more torches to place. If you wanted to help, there's a cave nearby I'm treating like a mine. Gonna need a lot of stone bricks to make sure the marauders never in here."

 

[MoonMidnight]

“You...I didn’t...we...” Prim was struggling to form any coherent sentence. Everything was gone. All the memories just glossed over as if they were nothing. Part of her tried to reason that Huxley didn’t know but her patience had been tested for far too long.

How was she even supposed to react? Get mad?She also said something about mining or something. Was she trying to make her own base?

Prim latched onto the idea. “What are you doing out here? Are you going to stay with the rest of us or are you gonna do your own thing? If that’s how you want to do things then do whatever. But you’ll need to do it further away.” Her sentences were short and choppy like she was short circuiting part of the way through.

Her fingers curled around an arrow for the sake of distracting herself or by a means of rooting herself to the world. Her mind was going off other places and the emotions inside her were clashing. She was struggling to focus.