Cleo was excited to join hermitcraft once again for season 5. Dreams of the lands she’ll discover, the structure’s she’ll build, and the adventures she’ll have filled her mind as she set out. She had joined slightly behind schedule, meaning she missed seeing her friends and meeting the new hermits. She wondered what newbies were like as she left the spawn island by boat.
After collecting some sunflowers that were on an island she passed by, Cleo reached the mainland. She soon found a desert temple and claimed it as her own. After carefully looting the place so as not to make the whole structure explode, she returned to the desert outside. She basked in the warmth of the setting sun, simply happy to be where she was.
Completely lost in her thoughts of what to do next, she didn’t notice the hissing sound coming from behind her until it was too late. The explosion knocked her off her feet and sent her face first into the sandy terrain. Having not gained any armor yet, she was already almost dead from the one attack. Zombies soon spawned near her as she tried to get up, but found she lacked the energy. Muttering under her breath in frustration, she bitterly accepted defeat as the zombies closed in on her.
Cleo slowly creaked open her eyes. She was laying on her back, but instead of the starry night sky she was expecting to see, all that was in front of her was darkness. When she moved her arms, she realised that she was inside of...something, and that she had very little room to move.
Thankfully, most blocks are not difficult to break in minecraft, seeing as you can tear down a tree with your bare hands. By hitting the dark block was in front of her head, it soon broke, giving her room to sit up. Above her was dirt, which lead her to wonder why she spawned in what she assumed was a small cave. She had originally thought that someone was pranking her by covering the spawn point, but digging out a few more blocks revealed that she was definitely underground.
Creating a makeshift stairway in the dirt, she soon reached the surface. What she saw greatly confused her. Instead of the spawn island, she appeared to be on the edge of a community area. It wasn’t very big, only a few building filled the space, and some of them still looked incomplete.
She took a couple steps forward, but soon stopped. Something felt wrong with, well, everything. It wasn’t painful, per say, just… strange. She looked downward at her body, and almost immediately recoiled in reaction to what she saw. Her skin was no longer light peach in color; It was now a pale green. Her favorite top was ripped in multiple places, and a bit of her ribcage was showing on the right side of her stomach. She stared in shock at her hands for many moments, completely bewildered by her sudden transformation.
The sun rose behind her as she forced herself to focus. Okay, so she was a zombie now. How did that happen? She was killed by zombies, but many others have died the same way and respawned like normal. Nothing about her fate seemed that special… other than that it was her first death of the season. Maybe that was it, perhaps there was an error with the server that caused this.
It was her best theory for now, so she tried taking a few more steps forward. She was still able to move just fine, the issue was that her entire body felt odd. It felt as if she was inside of an almost perfect replica of herself. So far though, it wasn’t all that bad. She wasn’t in any pain, all her memories were intact, and the rising sun wasn’t setting her on fire. There were other non-humans on the server after all, so maybe all she needed was some time to get used to her new form. Maybe. Time will tell, she supposed.
Slowly but surely, she made her way into the middle of the community area. On closer inspection, the area seemed to actually be a shopping district. There weren't a lot of shops yet, so she probably hasn’t been gone for much longer than a week. She decided that she should probably hurry and find the nearest person before she worries the others with her disappearance any more.
The sound of a sword being drawn caused her to whirl around. She found herself facing none other than Joe, her old friend, who had invited her to hermitcraft in the first place. For the first instant she was looking at him, he had a small frown on his face, and looked like he was about to charge at her. However, once he had a moment to look at her, his eyes widened in shock.
“Oh! H-hey Joe…” Cleo stuttered, suddenly made painfully aware of her new appearance again. She glanced away to the side, the continued. “I don’t really understand it either, but-”
Cleo was abruptly cut off by the sound of a sword clattering to the ground and the force from Joe running up and wrapping her into a hug. “Cleo! It’s you! It’s- It’s really you!”
She gladly returned the hug, but was a bit confused by Joe’s tone and choice of words. “I know I’m a zombie now, but you make it seem like... like…” Cleo couldn’t help but trail off when she heard the soft sobs coming from her friend.
“You… We- we thought that you… We found your body, Cleo! You weren’t respawning- We didn’t know… You’ve been gone for a whole season, I... we all missed you so much, Cleo...”
Cleo stared at Joe as she processed what he said, and a realization soon dawned on her. That small cave she thought she respawned in was actually a coffin. She hugged Joe tighter as reality set in. “Oh god, I’ve been gone a whole season!? You all must’ve been so worried, I’m so sorry…”
It took a few minutes, but the two of them eventually calmed down. Joe moved back slightly and looked up at Cleo. “How… how did you even come back?”
Cleo scratched the back of her head. “I have no clue about the whole zombie thing, but I came to right over...there.” She pointed to where she had dug her way out of her own coffin. “Should we check it out?” With a small nod from Joe, the pair made their way over, Joe helping Cleo to walk faster.
When they reached the hole, Joe went down into it for a moment, then quickly came back up. “That’s definitely the coffin we put you in. How did it end up here, though?” They stood in silence for a few moments, until Joe spoke up again. “Y’know, at the end of season 5, some friends we hadn’t seen in a while showed up at the portal to this season even though we didn’t notify them. Maybe something similar happened to you which automatically brought you here.”
Cleo shrugged. “None of my ideas are any better, so let’s go with that.”
Joe chuckled as a small smile appeared on his face. He turned and started to head back to the shopping district. “We should probably notify the others that you’re back now.”
Joe sent out a message that asked the hermits to come to the shopping district. Cleo was a bit nervous about the other’s reactions to her new form, but these fears were shoved away when they started to show up. While shocked at first, all the hermits she had met before were ecstatic when they saw her. Many hugs were given and tears were shed as they reunited with their once lost friend.
Among the people that showed up, there were three that Cleo didn’t recognise. The first two were Zedaph and Stress, who were the hermits that she never got the chance to meet when they joined in season 5. They talked to her about what happened after she died. Apparently, the hermits had tried many ways to revive her, including various mixtures of potions, beacon effects, and even loading a backup of the server, but nothing ever worked. While Cleo was sad that she caused them all to worry so much, it also warmed her now still heart that they tried so hard to get her back. She wondered to herself if one of those methods actually worked, just very slowly.
The other person she didn’t know was Grian. The single hermit new to season 6 was one of the last to talk to her. He greeted her quietly, but not shyly. After giving him a brief explanation of the situation, he gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. He said that he knew the feeling of being the center of attention when the hermits found him alone on the new server. Wishing her luck, he headed out, and Cleo went back to talk with the others.
Now that the shock factor had passed, the chatter became more casual. Various hermits explained what happened in season 5. It was a bit disheartening to know that she missed so much, but she laughed along with the others as they talked about the pranks and mishaps, telling herself that It’s most certainly better than being dead.
Cleo also had a few conversations with the other non-human herits. She expressed a few of her worries to them about not being human anymore, and they cheered her up to the best of their ability. Doc specifically had given her a friendly pat on the back and said that they were now “Green skin buds.”
Before they knew it, it was starting to get late. Waving goodbye, the hermits slowly left to continue with their own agendas, eventually leaving only Cleo and Joe.
Cleo turned to face Joe. “So, what now?”
“Well, I’d like to check you over - make sure none of your limbs are at risk of falling off and whatnot, but that can wait till tomorrow. For now, lets head back to my place, seeing as you don’t have your own yet.”
They headed towards Joe’s Ministry of Truth, Joe explaining his plans to build statues in it, and Cleo expressing her desire to build a pirate ship base as they went. They soon reached the framework of the future building and headed into its basement.
Joe searched through his chests and soon after pulled out a cooked pork chop. However, when he offered it to Cleo, she refused.
“I dunno, it just doesn’t… look appetising, I guess. That sounds weird when I say it out loud.”
“Hmm…” Joe went through his chest a second time, and took out and uncooked pork chop this time. Suddenly realising how hungry she was, she quickly snatched it up and ate the whole thing.
Realising how fast she had eaten it afterwards, she gave Joe a sheepish grin. “Uh… side effect of being a zombie, I guess.” She chuckled nervously.
“It’s quite alright, Cleo,” he said reassuringly as he turned back to his supplies. Finding some wool and planks, Joe crafted a bed for Cleo and placed it down on the other side of the small room. Cleo hopped onto hers, and Joe started to move over to his side of the room, but stopped and turned towards her. “You sure you’re alright? I imagine that all of this is a lot to take in.”
“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” It was mostly true. She still had her worries, but they weren’t nagging at her too much. Pausing for a moment, she grinned when she thought up a funny line. She put one hand on her hip and pointed the other into the air. “I’m no longer regular Cleo, I’m… ZombieCleo!”
Joe quietly laughed at her quip, and Cleo couldn’t help but smile proudly. He walked up to the light switch, and looked over towards her for the last time that day.
(copied from under the cut)
