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Far From Home: Chapter 9

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Far From Home: Chapter 8

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Far From Home: Chapter 7

"No good. The Hoe of Growth doesn't seem to have any effect on it." "Mm. Thought as much." Baker held the silverwood sapling in her hand; they had been bested by the stubborn little sprout. "Thanks anyway, Yule. We tried our best." He nodded and made his way back to the mainland, leaving Baker to her business. The two of them had been making sense of the Thauminomicon, learning what they can through studies, but there was only so much they could do with just research alone. Putting it to practice was a whole other game, and with the land so barren of Vis, it was unlikely they would make any headway unless they took these practices a great distance in either direction of the base. Which left Baker the sapling that wouldn't grow. The days were quiet overall, Jack was the next to appear, but Baker wasn't in a mood to have visitors; she worried about Hawk, about the strain he was under. Was it just the Twilight Forest, or was it the realm itself that seemed to fatigue him? /It must be hard to cram something so complicated into these simple bodies./ Baker mused to herself. His world sounded fascinating and intricate, even more so for as complicated as this realm seemed to be. What would she be like in a realm like his? He talked about how everything wasn't made of blocks. Would she still be blocky? Would she take a shape similar to what Hawk is familiar with? /I would still have a head as big as a pumpkin./ That much she believed at least. She had a finished house with no one to live in it with; it seemed like just as she called it complete, Hawk disappeared. Jack didn't stick around for very long at the base, which left Baker to find any odd jobs to do in the meantime. She redecorated the bathroom, taking brick and stone from the Twilight's Labyrinths, and that was an affair she decided was best never to attempt again. She and Iksha had attempted to brave the lower structure of the maze, only to find the place full of nasty surprises. Bugs that clamped down on and toss the victim around like a ragdoll, bugs that smothered enemies in slime, or in flame, and worst of all, the minotaurs. Needless to say, the two of them hightailed out of it fast. There was still plenty of brick to take from the opening at the surface, and Baker didn't have to bother the nasties down below. It made a pretty bathroom, but she questioned the worth of struggle to go through all of the hassle to decorate one room of her house, as the stone seemed almost impervious to pick. Baker left more tired than she ever intended to be. --- Baker was sitting in the basement, listening to the hum of the machines idly as they processed the honeycombs she had been taking care of while Hawk was away. It was something of a pattern now. Wake up, tend to the crops, tend to the bees, make herself something to eat, find something to do. Jack had been busy in the mines most of the time or running around doing...something Baker wasn't sure of, but had gone quiet for a period now. But as if on cue, hurried footsteps were stomping down the stairs toward her. "Baker! Baker look at this!" Jack rounded the corner of the door with arms full of eggs and the biggest smile on his face. "What's up Jack?" He tossed an egg to the ground and out popped a baby chick, he was still rather excited about all of it. "Uh...yeah they do that sometimes." Baker smiled, remembering that Jack wasn't from this world, so all things considered probably everything was a new experience to him. "No no, that's not the best part. This is!" He put the remaining eggs down on the table, and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small shimmering pouch. With a few pinches of a colorful dust, the baby chick disappeared in a puff of smoke and instead, there was a baby...something. Something black and white that waddled and made strange noises.

Baker's eyes grew wide and her mouth twitched into a grin. Whatever it was, it was adorable. Big flappy wing things, big round eyes, it waddled all over the place. "It's a penguin! We have them at home, but I found this special powder in the twilight that turns chickens into them!" "It's adorable! What do they eat? How do they live? Do they need anything special?" Baker picked up this penguin and nuzzled it's smooth feathers in her arms. "They live in cold climates and eat fish. We can make a cold place for them to live!" "Yes! Right away-I don't want it to get sick! Um-uh-" Baker looked around, desperately trying to make sense of the situation. "We'll dig out a room on the other side of the stairwell and fill it with ice and snow! There's a snowy biome on the other side of the sea. It's a bit of a ride, c'mon Jack, I'll need your help." Baker gave Jack the penguin to hold as she dug through chests to find the materials she'd need. "If you need some shovels, I have two diamonds we can spare." He motioned to one of the chests perched next to Hawk's bed, and Baker found two pristine diamonds. It was a shame to waste them on shovels, but it would save them a lot of trouble only having to bring two that would last versus 10 made out of stone that would break so easily. --- The base disappeared on the horizon as Jack and Baker sailed in the direction of the frozen biome. She had taken the time to travel around the base in search of an area rich in Vis for the silverwood as that was one of her 'things to do to keep busy' for a day. Unfortunately the distance was much too far to travel on a daily basis. The boats touched ground on the frozen sandy beach; miles in each direction, everything was covered in snow. Jack put the baby penguin down and watched him run around in the cold white powder playfully. "He seems to like it." Jack beamed, watching the penguin like a mother watching it's child. "We'll have to dig up a lot, I don't want to come back for supplies if I don't have to." Baker handed him a shovel. "Before we lose the light of day." Jack smiled and promptly stamped the sharp end of the spade into the ground. The snow was easy to dig up, it came up in big clumps that Baker was able to pack into compact blocks with ease. Jack spent more time chasing the penguin, but Baker did not have the heart to discourage his fun time. She would get enough snow no problem before the sun set. Then she felt a smack to her back that ended with a slushy sound. When she turned, she saw Jack with snowballs in hand. Oh, it was on now, she smirked. Snowball after snowball they launched at each other, the penguin running in between the frozen artillery. Once Baker got a good throw in that hit Jack upside the forehead, knocking him to the ground, but when she ran over to check on him, she was bombarded with return fire. The two lay in the snow, staring up as the clouds gathered and the sun set; it was getting late, and they had enough of the frozen stuff to make the penguin a wonderful little home inside the base. --- "What about ice? I think they like slipping around on it too." Jack mused as he dug out a spot to the left of the stairwell. Baker was already on it, shoving blocks of snow into the compressor. "Got it covered, Jack." She picked up the shiny block of frozen water out of the machine with a grin. "This should keep the water cool enough for our penguin friend." When all was said and done, the place looked like the inside of a snowball, and was properly frigid to boot. In the center was a pond bordered in ice, and kept to a chilly temperature of 'decently cold'. The penguin seemed happy enough at least. Baker brushed off her hands and sat on the floor with a sigh. In the time it took her to mope around in the last few days, she and Jack had another addition to the house. "You're not cold?" Jack asked, pulling the cover on his shoulders close together. "Nah, I'm well insulated," She laughed and poked her doughy physique, "I like this temperature, it feels nice. If I had the choice, I might have lived in a snowy biome." Jack, though still kinda cold, sat down next to her with a smile. "Well I'm glad I cheered you up a lil' bit. You seemed kinda sad." "Wait really? Was it that bad?" Baker turned to him; it was so off the cuff-was she really as down as he thought she was? He just nodded with an apologetic smile. "Well shit, I thought I was doing a good job hiding that." Jack shook his head at the rather forced smile that looked back at him. It was evident that she was terrible at it. "I'm glad someone's been able to be friendly with him. I haven't seen that since Maisie." That name, she remembered that being a very somber subject, Hawk only talked about her briefly, and for every reason she understood why. How would she feel if one of her closest friends was taken from under her nose without so much as a fight to be put up against it? And then...gone. Baker curled her knees up to her chest. "It's not that I was avoiding you or anything, Jack. You just, kinda seemed to be busy with whatever and I kinda figured you didn't really need me tagging along being a giant mope." "Aww it's okay. I know you miss him. He's needed someone to be friendly with for a long time, and you managed to chip a hole big enough in his shell to get a smile out of him. That's pretty impressive." Jack laughed, getting up from the floor with an appropriate shiver. "I just thought you'd like something like this. They are kinda cute little buggers." Baker smiled. "They are. Thank you, Jack." He nodded and made his way out of the basement; Baker could faintly hear the front door close, as she turned to watch the penguin play around in the snow. --- It was late when she woke up, the little penguin was cuddled up in a corner and Baker was herself curled up into a ball next to him. By now she was definitely cold, but exhausted enough to fall asleep in the frigid little room. A consistent shiver she couldn't shake had set in; well that would teach her to fall asleep in the penguin's room again. Desperately rubbing her arms for warmth, she made her way back upstairs, the sounds of someone rummaging in the cabinets louder as she got closer to the ground floor. Jack must have come back for something but seeing Baker asleep, didn't want to disturb. 'I'd bring it back!' Baker mused the thought, not like she would have been mad about it. She rounded the top of the stairs, still trying to warm herself up, and was about to greet Jack once more but the words got caught in her throat; the familiar red cape was grey. That wasn't Jack. And of course, he turned around at that moment to meet her eye to eye. Great, just great. Not again. Baker broke the gaze that seemed to lock the two in awkward silence and cleared her throat. "G'mornin, Master." She greeted. "Evening." He motioned to the windows, it was clearly very late into the night, the moon was high and the stars bright. "Ah. Right. I had a bit of a nap." She shrugged. The smalltalk was struggling, what in the hells would she even be able to say to him? Part of her wanted to reprimand him for rummaging around in her kitchen, but she knew exactly where that conversation was going to go. It was not worth starting the argument. "Oh-Hawk left something for you. It's in the top shelf on the left." Baker motioned to the cabinets, Master turned and opened the cupboard to see a small brown satchel, which he opened and had a quick whiff of the contents. "Hmm. Coffee powder. Heh, smart boy." He smirked. "There's a brewing stand stashed up there if you wanted some." /I mean, I'm sure you would have used it anyway even if I hadn't-/ /NO. No we're not doing this. Stop it./ She bit her lip and attempted to force the smile once more. "Hmm. Thank you." She was unsure what else to say or do other than to stand by the stairwell and watch him concoct a couple of cups of coffee with the brewer. He handed her the other mug and sat down at the kitchen table without a second thought, and Baker stared at the drink in her hand. She took one sip and made the most undignified noise she could manage. How did people drink this?! Master chuckled. "Not a coffee person." He sipped the drink and sighed contently, much happier with it than she was. "Handy thing, his bee project." He set the mug down and watched Baker question what to do with the potent drink, though she didn't seem willing to sit down next to him, the awkward tension still hung heavy in the room. "You're scared of me?" Baker grimaced. "Hmph. That I'd be afraid of you-don't flatter yourself-" She shook her head and bit her lip in protest. "Ngh. No-no. I'm not doing this. I'm not." Master was mildly surprised at the tone she responded with, still defiant, still defensive. She was clearly not letting her guard down just yet. Baker sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter, staring into her coffee. There was no point in being hostile, at least without better reasoning.

"Did a decent job putting this place together," he remarked. Baker turned around from her experimenting to the compliment muttered between his sips of coffee. It was odd, he must have been grasping at straws for conversation as well for something so off the cuff. "...Thank you, sir." She smiled. Polite but still appreciative. It wasn't hard to miss the detail put into this place. Everything down to the molding and placement of furniture was a labor of passion and patience. "You were cold?" He asked, immediately changing the topic in the hopes the awkwardness didn't come back already. "Oh! Jack brought me back a penguin! Here I'll show you." Baker ushered him down the stairs, figuring she might as well show him the new additions to the place while she sipped at her much sweeter drink. When she stepped back into Hawk's room, it was there she noticed something off. For a second it was hard to pinpoint what it was exactly, until she spotted that something had changed about his bed. "What the..." It wasn't noticeable enough to drag her thoughts away from warming up before, but it was certainly staring her in the face now. The walls around his bed were donned with blocks of precious gems, and a long written piece. Master picked up the disruption almost immediately, and furrowed his brow. "Mmph. This is...new." He was definitely not pleased. "This wasn't here this morning, it must have happened when I was taking my nap. I...I don't know what to make of it." 'For I lay my spoils down at your feet, and offer my sword...' 'See I do pay attention to what you read' - Jack Baker and Master looked at each other with uncertainty, there was something about the whole thing that felt out of place. Like some kind of shrine or offering, or monument. For what little she knew of Jack, this felt really out of place, even for him. Did he pick it up too? This aura, the whole construct left some odd signature to it, invisible to the eye but made the hair on her arms stick up in attention. "What should we do? I think, I think this would just be bad news." Baker questioned, unsure of what to do. Master nodded. "Aye...Let's take it down." "Right." For a brief moment, agreement between the two. Whatever Jack was attempting to do, it was very clear that it would only widen the gap between him and Hawk. Baker was still uncertain though; Jack set this up for some reason he wanted to relay to Hawk, but having Master agree with her feelings was validating. At least she wouldn't be the only one in the wrong. The signs were pulled from the walls and the precious gem blocks put into a chest by the bed. "Mind me asking what's the deal with them?" Baker muttered between the task at hand. She hoped that his view of things were a bit clearer than her own. "Complicated. Figured you knew enough." Baker shook her head. "I got bits and pieces, but they're two very different view points. Hard to be impartial." She paused at the stack of signs in her hands, "Though I'm starting to see there's definitely pieces I'm missing to all of this." Master tossed the pick into the box with the gem blocks and dusted his hands. With Hawk's room put back together, the chill in the air was gone, and Baker rubbed her arms, brushing away the cool feeling, satisfied. "Manage well enough. Both have good things to say 'bout you. Even my brother." He smirked. Master was certainly trying to be hospitable, or at least not angry, though whatever bridge that was there between them was still smoldering from the original fire. "Whatever this was," he shook his head, "don't worry about it. Was for the best for both of them." Maybe this was more of the Master that she wasn't aware of. There was no malice in his intentions of removing the shrine, but more in line with protecting their best intentions. Maybe confronting Master wasn't so much an obstacle than it was a wall, a wall that Baker put up from the beginning. The mentality of putting up walls around her was familiar, off in a distant memory, protecting herself, hiding, fleeing. There was only so much to hiding, she supposed. The two of them made their way back upstairs, where Master rinsed the mugs in the sink and cracked his shoulder back into place. "Going to take a walk, clear my head. Work on the place near Aoi's." Baker nodded, unsure of how to say good-bye, but he was already turning for the door.

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[ Surprise Package ]

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Far From Home: Chapter 3

"I'm not that terrible of a person, Steve. I wasn't going to rip you off, you're my bro!" She grinned; part of her had expected a resistance to building on this land without an actual prior consent but, if she knew her friend well enough, a little greasing of the pan would certainly help in the negotiating. And by greasing she meant butter, and by pan she meant cake pan, which she would then use to bake the cake to give to him. All planned out.

Though when she opened her eyes again, he had already loaded up all of the baked goodies and jar of spoils and skipped happily out the door with stars in his eyes. Well, that was easy enough.

"He didn't have a chance in the world." A scruffy bearded assistant rested on the counter top, and she could only laugh.

"I know, right? Ah, I feel kinda bad though, I don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage of him."

"You're not, you negotiated that very well."

It was a very far flung dream, and one she only really settled on when the stress of life around her made her think about what she really wanted. Days and nights in dirt hovels, no bed to sleep, nothing to do until the sunrise to trek back home.

/What do you want out of your life?/

Coming home from the battle, a part of her felt, missing; her mind wasn't completely there. She chalked it up to the stress and anxiety of everything that happened. But the dust had all been settled, and her feet firmly planted back into a new home, and still this, emptiness persisted.

A part of her disappeared that day, she mused. Somewhere in the void.

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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/

#far from home #askmisszion #askstoryteller #AskSummonerApprentice #farfromhome

Panic Attack - (Continued from Gut Reactions)

[I'm going to throw a warning right here. The following panels are meant to illustrate an anxiety attack. Read at your own risk.]