Far From Home: Chapter 2
Somewhere in the midst of conversation, they had dozed off, lulled by the rain and the comfort of temporary safety. He had talked of his home, of his master, of his rival, of the portal that brought him here. It was overwhelming to know that there was other worlds out there not made up of blocks! Who would have thought! Talking of home seemed to have relaxed him a bit, as the two had slipped into sleep. A gentle breeze brushed the hair in Baker's face, tickling her enough to shift from slumber and a sleepy haze. She was about to move until she noticed Greeny had also fallen asleep, leaning against her shoulder. She couldn't stop the satisfied smile that beamed. The poor guy was out of his mind with worry, she wasn't sure if he was even going to sleep at all here. That he had relaxed enough to get some rest was a victory in itself. Nevermind that she was being used as a figurative pillow. /Well, I am soft and warm. Heh./ She giggled, a jab at her own squishy physique. The rain had stopped, but it was still quite dark, only the very edge of skyline shown any sign of the sun coming up, a very dim purple. A little longer to sleep seemed appropriate. No need to wake him up just yet. ---- "I hope it's not too much of a problem. But you guys are settled and established, it would be nice to set up close to base. I would gather my own supplies, and not be in the way, I promise." Yule and Lilith exchanged glances, more foreign tongue that Baker could only describe as...swirly? Yeah, swirly seemed right. "I don't know. Where exactly would you build?" "Where the cobblestone wall ends and opens out into the ocean. There's a small patch of land I could set up a small home." The group trekked to the land in question. It wasn't a very big plot of land, and it was separated by the main fort by a stream that connected to the ocean. Yule scratched his head. "Hmm. I suppose it wouldn't be too much of a problem. Only issue I see is you running out of room on this little island." "Oh I would probably expand underground. That's how I did it back home." /Wait really? Yeah I did! Remember that-that's important!/ Little scraps of memory seemed to be coming back over time. Perhaps it was all a waiting game. If that were the case, than setting up a place to live seemed the next best step. Yule eyed the land once more, and back to Lilith, and back to Baker. "Sure. No problem here. And for the record, you could ask for help, we can provide a few materials to get you going." Baker smiled and bowed her head. "Thank you so much. I promise I'll be a good neighbor." The two nodded and walked back to their home, leaving Baker to measure up the patch of land. For the most part it was flat and even, a good start to building a foundation. Greeny had for the most part been silent through the whole exchange, but seeing as Yule and Lilith had left, made his way back to Baker, scoping out the land. "Oh hey! Guess what? I'm going to build a home here!" He too looked about the land, mentally picking apart the place for potential issue, then a small nod. "Seems sufficient enough. What will you build your home with?" Baker stopped and looked at him. Wait, yeah that was a good question, what could she make her new home out of? This place already seemed to have more possibilities than she was familiar with. What was available to her now? "I don't know. I wonder if there's a glossary to this place." She puzzled over it. "Hmm. Oh! Let's check the libraries in the enchanting temple. It might have something." Baker and Greeny made short work scouring the library; already she could tell that there was plenty to learn about in this new home. Books with things like 'Thaumology', 'Bees and You, Expanding Your Knowledge of Forestry' and 'BuildCraft: Optimizing your Resources' all stood out like glowing tomes waiting to be read. She grabbed all of these and set them aside. "I think I may have found what you were looking for." Greeny announced from the other side of the library. "It seems to be full of recipes." "Let me see." Baker thumbed through the tome quickly. This did seem like the right book for the job, all of these recipes were quite new to her, but even so they were exciting. All the possibilities. No need to settle on simple wood and stone here. If she was going to be stuck here, she could make good of the materials available to her. On the cover the title 'Beast Glossary: For When There's Not Enough Items.' was sewn into the fabric of the book with gold stitching. Beast, wasn't beast a term to represent a wild animal or something? Perhaps Beast was the name of the area they were in, Baker mused. /I mean, there has to be stranger names for towns. This place is called Beast, good to know./ "Okay well we have what we need, let's see what's available to us to build." A confused look on Greeny's face. "We?"
Baker nodded. "Well yeah, I figured you'd be needing a place to stay too. Can't have you sleeping under a tree anymore. We have no idea how long we'll be stuck here. Might as well build a nice place for us." We, us; it had barely been a day and he had already been included in her planwork. How was she so willing to trust him so quickly? She barely even knew him. But, an actual bed and an actual roof over his head. And she was the first to extend a branch to him. To not accept a gift like this, was foolish. He bowed. "Thank you, Miss Baker. Is there anything I can do to help?" She smiled. "Heh. I have to admit I'm a little overwhelmed. There's way too many possibilities to build with. But, I think this one looks nice, and would build a nice home. It's called Sandy Brick. It's made out of clay and sand and smelted together in a furnace." "Right, I shall look for the material required." Baker nodded. "Good, I'll set up a small shack for us while we gather what we need for a proper home. It won't be much but it will keep us warm and dry." --- Days had passed, a quiet had blanketed the area as the two worked in shared silence, the only noise was them, shoveling and stacking and crafting. Though occasionally Baker would ask a question or two, ask for a supply, and the green one would do his best to fulfill it. He was certainly hard working. Lilith and Yule had vanished somewhere in the middle of the week, explaining briefly of a state of hibernation that was this place. 'A Player may sleep in a bed but sometimes it's not enough, and when it's time to recover to that extent, there's the Void Sleep.' She had never experienced such a thing, but to question the methods of this land made about as much sense as to question the early chapters of the Book of Notch to her. Creepers were meant to be pigs? Seemed a bit of a stretch. Either way, the two were gone, which left her and Greeny to build by themselves. When the sun was up they worked and when the day shifted to night, Greeny disappeared until it was time to sleep. A few nights of his vanishing act were enough to spur curiosity and attempt to follow him. Turned out he wasn't very far, but nestled high in a tree, writing in silence. Baker concluded this was just, his way of coping. The world here was still a very new thing to him, and whatever he did to keep himself occupied and not stressed was a solution that she could see. Some nights there was no sleep for him. She woke once to the sound of crying and mutterings from his dreams. It was constant, a constant nightmare that would not leave him. A bigger picture was starting to take shape in her mind of this lost, pointy eared apprentice. She never addressed the matter in the morning. It was not her place to pry. They shared what little food they had in the morning and set to work. Already a frame was built, a big frame that would house the first floor. Greeny came home one day with a black stone as well as the materials for the sandy brick. It was a smooth black stone that the glossary indicated as Basalt. In this land, lava over time hardened into something other than Obsidian, this was the basalt he had taken. "Miss Baker, when I found the black stone, I noticed a shift in the air. I could feel a ley line." "Ley line? What's that?" "It's magic. This place was so barren I was not sure it even existed here but it does. The form is not familiar to me but I believe I can study it." His tone was excited and positive, a complete turnaround from before. Though she couldn't blame him, if his tales of home had any merit to it, than being attached to magic was an integral part of his being. "I wonder why this place is so barren while the farther you go it's not? This area must be older than the surrounding land." Greeny was puzzled. "How does that work exactly?" "I couldn't tell ya', I have no idea really. I just know the more undiscovered always seems farther traveled. Like the world is an intricate puzzle. But, even so. I would have thought this was rather new land itself." Baker wiped her forehead and sat down. The frame of the home was almost complete, next was the roof. "I'm beat. Do we have any food left?" Greeny frowned. "No, oh no. We've run out of reserves." "That's okay, I can live a few days without food. I did before. It's not a pleasant experience." She sighed. "I'm going to work on a garden immediately. We need the food." He fled from the shack and set to work on a patch of untouched land. /Even so, it's going to take a while to get that thing churning out food for us/ She pressed herself up into a ball against the side of the unfinished home with her legs curled up against her. Hunger was not letting up as her gut made itself well known from noises of grumbling and the pang of starvation that ran up her back. There was one thing. She had pocketed it while attempting to clean up the shadow spawn mess that showed up every morning. A scrap of zombie flesh. It was nasty and warm and everything about it screamed this was going to be a bad idea. And it was. Immediately after the first bite she fled from the house to expel bile and dry heave in the ocean. This was a terrible idea, and it made her stomach feel worse than it already was. "Baker?! What did you do?!" Hawk rushed to her side as she cleaned herself up. "Something really stupid." She combed her hair back into place and chucked the rotten flesh out into the ocean. "The fish can pick off this nasty thing. Ugh." "You tried to eat the-" He shuddered and shook away the nasty feeling. "Yeah, don't try it. I guess I was more desperate than I thought." She wiped her face and leaned against a tree. "Hey, did you happen to pick up any bones when we cleaned up this morning?" Greeny shuffled about in his pockets. "One. I was going to throw it away." "No don't. Let me have it." Handing over the bone, Baker took the skeletal remains and smashed it under foot, shattering it into dust, and scooping up the rewards. "There, this will do. Did you start tilling any wheat?" "Yes. I have a small patch of it growing. It will take a while." "Not with this stuff. This is how our world works." Baker dragged him back to the garden and sprinkled the ground up bone on the wheat. Greeny stepped back quite surprised at how fast the wheat had matured in such a short time. Baker grinned. "It does that?" "Uh huh. Perfect wheat! Looks like we'll have enough for a little bread." --- With a little poking and a few turns in the furnace, out popped a golden loaf of bread. It filled the small shack with an enticing aroma. "Good. We're getting somewhere now." She turned to the sound of a familiar grombling noise, except it was elsewhere. It was Greeny, desperately trying to avoid eye contact for the obvious expression of embarrassment on his face. She wasn't the only one starving. She placed the bread in his hands. "Eat, you're thin enough as it is." His embarrassment swept away to worry, facing back to Baker. "I couldn't take it. You're hungry. You need it." A stalemate. This was not going to end well for anyone. They'd argue with each other till the sun went down. They were both hungry, they both needed it. She ripped the bread in half and handed him a part of it. It would not do much than temporarily cease the hunger pangs. But at least she wouldn't feel as guilty.
"I won't eat mine unless you eat yours." She smirked. His worry had given way to an expression that Baker could only describe as, 'potential meltdown crying face'. Also a face she knew well enough. He cringed, nodded and started nibbling on his bit of bread. Another small victory, she smiled, devouring her bread with much haste. It was warm, and it tasted amazing. It tasted like home. --- Baker awoke in the middle of the night, the hunger pangs did nothing to help her sleep. Greeny's shuffling and crying through his nightmares did not make matters any better. She was sure she would help him with that eventually. But living in this shack was driving her crazy. All that was needed was to put the basalt brick blocks and construct a roof and they could move what little they had into the new home. At least then there would be enough room to breathe and start organizing. Nothing was more infuriating than trying to find something in a cluttered chest full of things like dirt, cobble, wooden shovels and coal. But she was weak, she knew that. The hunger had stripped her of whatever energy she clung to. It was a waiting game. The wheat would only grow so fast and only so many skeletons let go of their bones in the morning sun. She couldn't take any of Yule's livestock, and going out to find any wild animals in this condition was suicide. The place was lit well enough to continue working through the night. If she could keep working, she could at least attempt to ignore the gnawing hunger in her gut. "Baker, what are you doing?" She turned to see that Greeny was up. "Shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you, dude. I just, couldn't sleep. So I went back to working." A disapproving frown was his response, but she shook her head. "No I'm okay. I just, I want to get this done so we can start actually living in it." He sighed. "I suppose I'll till the garden a little bit while we're up." Baker gave him a half-hearted smile, feeling guilty for waking him. The poor bastard was already up to his eyeballs in worry that she didn't want to add to it. /Wait, is he worried about me?/ The guilt tugged worse than the hunger pangs. He might actually care about her a little bit? Was he willing to be friendly? It had to have been obvious by now. Worrying about the bread, worrying about vomiting up her guts. He did care. A little bit. She grabbed at her gut, the pangs were excruciating now, and the weakness at it's worst. "Are you okay?" He looked at her pained expression as she shook off the feeling once more. "I'm fine. I'm fine. What do you think of these basalt bricks for a roof? I think it would work nicely." She attempted to steer the conversation away from her pain. "That does not matter if you die." Well at least she tried. "I'll be all right." She brushed it off. She was more concerned about the roof. The roof had to be done. She was up and working and that's all that mattered. Except for the edge where the house ended, that probably should have mattered too. Her feet gave way to the air, and she yelped out before connecting to the land and blacking out. /The_Baker hit the ground too hard/ --- /Respawn?/ --- She gasped for air, like the wind was knocked out of her and shot up out of bed. Wait, she fell off the house, why was she in bed? /Did I just die?/ "Baker! Baker! Oh gods no! Not again!" Panicked yelling was coming from outside the shack. Things had crumbled into a catastrophe in a very short time. "Hey! I'm okay! She rushed outside to see if he was alright. He turned suddenly to see that she was indeed behind him. Greeny had already broken out in tears. /Oh gods, what happened.../ "Y-you're okay. I-I watched you I-" He was shaking. Obviously he was sure that she was gone for good. /I'm not supposed to respawn. I'm not the chosen one. I'm not Steve./ "How are you okay? I watched you disappear I was so sure you died." "I think I did." Every fiber in her was sure she was supposed to have hit the ground and not come back. Something was different about this land. "I don't think...I don't think I can die here." "Are you sure you're okay?" She nodded slowly. The hunger still lingered with all the intensity it did, but she did not feel as week, though, there was something else missing. Like all of her stuff, and those weird tingly green orbs that the world graced you if you did something right. "You dropped a bunch of stuff when you hit the ground. I-I picked it up for you-" He dropped said stuff in his hands and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. "Oh gods don't ever do that again."
"...I won't." She nodded and held him as he continued to shake in her arms. "We need to find food right now. I don't care if they'll be mad at me, I'm taking some of Yule's melons. Will they be mad? Oh gods I don't want that to happen again." Baker was upset, they could have taken some melons and saved themselves a lot of trouble. She didn't want to be taking from their neighbors already, it wasn't right. But...to do something like that again. She could always make it up to them. "They shouldn't be mad. They said we could use some supplies. If anything we can reimburse them if they don't grow back in time." Hawk pulled away and dashed for Yule's garden, taking whatever melons he could hold and coming back to drop his spoils in front of them. "Eat, I won't until I know you're okay." Seems the victory was in his favor now. She did not object, gobbling down slice after slice of the stuff. It was barely enough to fill them, being comprised mostly of water, but it was sweet and satisfying to a starving tongue. All the while she attempted to organize her thoughts in her head. They ate with all the ferocity of starving wolves till there was nothing left but rinds. "Much better, how about you?" "I don't...particularly like sweets, but melon is not too sweet." He smiled. "I feel better." Baker was still attempting to put the pieces together of what just happened. She died, she knew that, an out of body experience amidst a dark void. Maybe that was the Void Sleep Yule was talking about. In that brief moment she felt somewhat relaxed, and recharged. Waking up kinda sucked but waking up was still better than not waking up. If she were to be any good to either of them, she needed a noticeable amount of time to recuperate. Perhaps both of them should try this. "Hey, remember what Yule was talking about before they left? That Void Sleep?" He nodded. "I recall. What for?" "I think, that would be a good idea for now. I think we should try it, and relax." "I don't know. What if we don't come back?" "I think we will. I mean, they didn't seem worried about it. So maybe it's not so terrible. I just, I need some time to recover." She poked at the remaining rinds of melons. "But I won't leave you here alone so I won't do it unless you're willing to try as well." Greeny stacked up the rinds in a pile, mulling over her words. "Do you think it's a good idea?" "I think so. I'll be a functioning person again." She laughed. "Then do it. But you have to promise me you'll come back." Greeny was stern in his response. The last thing she wanted was to leave him here by himself. Would he even go to sleep if she did? She'd probably never know. "I promise. I'll be back." Greeny smiled and nodded. "Then have a good rest." "You too." Baker made herself comfortable in the grass, wrapping her cape around her in a makeshift blanket, and dozed off. She wasn't sure how the Void Sleep would work, or if it would even take her. But she needed to rest. She had been walking for forever, she just found someone she needed to take care of, she couldn't do anything like what she did falling off the house again. And sure enough, the void picked her from the world and into it's embrace. /The_Baker has logged out/
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Song Recommendation: 'Below My Feet' by Mumford and Sons
