Chapter Text
The roars of the dragon pierced the air and trembled the ground and void. It soared through the sky as exploding towers set it off. Endermen littered across the muted yellow land, some getting in the way of the dragon’s onslaught and the players that ran across.
A girl followed her two brothers across, tired but the energy of adrenaline and the fear of death fuelling her.
She heard yelling as arrows after arrows shot across the air and into the dragon. Puny swipes of their swords slashed across the dragon as it tried to swoop down at them.
There was a yell of command and the girl looked to the side to see her brothers readying their arrows. They were almost out of food and resources in general. Weapons on the verge of breaking.
The dragon was on it’s last health but so were they.
It was their last stand.
None dared of them dared to die for they feared what would happen.
The dragon’s roar drew their attention once more as it begun to swoop down to them. Jaws begin to open to fire its dangerous breath.
One last look to their siblings before they pulled their arrows. The dragon came closer and closer, TnT ready to go off to ensure their damage.
Arrows flew and then there was a bright light. They heard crumbling and cheering then yelling as the light grew brighter and brighter. Not long after all they could see was light then there was nothing but darkness.
Words flew down that went for what seemed like forever and as they drew a close. The girl felt her eyes grow heavy with fatigue as she closed her eyes and there,
She was surrounded by the darkness and void.
Everything was warm and weightless, the girl slowly coming to consciousness every so often before slipping back into the void.
Time passed by and knowledge was whispered to her. How, she couldn’t remember. She didn’t bother to.
Then she remembered hot flashing pain. The roar of the end dragon. Yelling for her name. Desperation. She fell and fell into the cold end of the world, then she felt herself drop onto the ground.
The girl opened her eyes and white light flooded her vision. She yelled in pain, immediately closing her eyes with hands flying to cover them. Spots danced in her eyes and she curled herself onto the grass, ensuring her protection from the light.
‘Wait…grass?’ the girl thought. She flinched at her own thoughts, her own voice in her own head. Sensations begun to hit her all at once with realization. The girl opened her eyes, seeing her shadow on top of the plains of grass. Her hands felt the soft, prickliness of the weed. Smells of soil and chlorophyll filled her nose, tingling her.
She got to her knees and looked at the world she was inhabiting. There in front of her, were not darkness and void, but the familiar, long lost sight of the blue skies.
Wind brushed against her face, as if to caress her in comfort.
The girl realized, where she was and no longer was.
There was so many sensations going on and even as she closed her eyes, she could sense the world around her.
She was here.
Faintly, she knew she should be moving but at the same time, she wondered if this was a dream. As the sun moved, something old and forgotten popped from her.
‘Gather wood’
She stood up, her legs shaking while they shuffled onto the ground. There was no urgency in her as she wanted to savour everything.
This could very much still be a dream after all.
She gathered the wood, feeling the bark and flesh of the plant crumble before converting the mere few blocks into a crafting table. She made a wooden axe, before continuing to cut down the tree with more efficiency.
She relished as she swung and swung, feeling the wooden axe chip at the wood.
More wood was gathered, and she saw something red drop from the crumbling leaves. She looked and saw apples among the sticks that had fallen.
Somewhere in the static of her mind, she was surprised at the fact that there would be sticks and apples from the trees. She gathered them up and put them in her inventory before realizing a detail.
Oak Wood.
‘It’s not just…wood? There’s other types of wood?’ she thought as she looked at the oak saplings.
A childish glee and excitement to search for other saplings started to kindle as she took her crafting table before making her way forwards. As she walked among the land, an old instinct took over.
She picked at the stone to obtain cobblestone and achieved [Stone Age] as she crafted better tools and weapon. Her efficiency grew as she gathered coal and immediately made torches for the inevitable nightfall and the dangers it would bring.
She was in the zone before she found herself in a small self-made cave she dug into the side of a mountain. She had set up a little nook for herself as she placed the door in place as she saw the sun setting.
The furnaces behind her crackled as she had two going: one for smelting some iron ore she had mined, and the other for meat.
At some point, in her zone, she had found some animals. She killed any animal she could for food and sorted through the bounties. She had quickly made a bed with the wool of the sheep and cooked the mutton in the furnace. She still had chicken meat, pork, and beef to cook next.
One of the furnaces stopped kindling and she moved to check on it. The mutton was cooked and she took it before replenishing the coal and cooked the next meat.
As the furnace added further light to the small cave with the torches she placed here and there, she felt…secure. Though the darkness should be familiar to her, the darkness she knew and the darkness she was in now were two different things.
The darkness she knew was warm and weightless with no threat of monsters. The darkness she was in now was pretty and cold, with monsters in every corner.
She learned that the hard way, a start reminder of the reality around her. As she gathered as many resources as she could, getting a lay of the land, she noticed the mobsters. They were familiar as she charged.
As she brought her sword down to attack them over and over again, she had gotten scrapes. She relished the adrenaline pumping through her body and the little nicks she got, but also hated the pain it came with it.
Trudging back to her temporary base, there was a voice in the back of her head yelling at her. It was not her voice among the static but something different…both unfamiliar and familiar.
‘Out in the world mate, you’re going to need armour. These guys might not be hostile to you but I’m worried for you when you need to fight hostile mobs-‘
The voice was both concerned yet hopeful, as if he was planning for her. She didn’t remember who the voice and memory belonged to, but…she felt happy to remember something from that person.
As she sat on her bed, she sorted her materials and prepared to make a leather armour with the help of the material book that seemed to stick with her. As she finished the last piece of armour, she went to put it on before finally noticing the piece of clothing article on her. It was very different from her main clothes, as it almost looked like a cloak. It was slightly singed and damaged but seemed more or less usable. It was light and radiated some sort of energy, but where she got it, she didn’t remember.
But it was important in many ways.
The night went on and she slept in the armour she had made fulfilling the advice of the voice. She drifted off into the darkness and she tried to relish the familiarity of it, wrapped in the cloak underneath the blankets.
In a blink of an eye, she was quickly woken up to the light filtering through the small window of the door.
There was disappointment and excitement at the same time before she pulled herself out of bed.
Muscle memory kicked in as she survived, gathering resources.
Survive…survive…
Survive for what?
This thought stopped her in her step. She just stood there as she breathed.
The motivation that was fuelling her now was the experience. She was enjoying the sensation and the renewed exploration. But now, as she grind, she realized what was her goal?
She didn’t know who she was entirely. Her memories were slowly resurfacing but none that would solve her mysteries. She didn’t know why her memories were so far away. Something told her she had done this before, the few memories attesting to it, but it was all so new yet familiar as if she had gone back to a place, she hadn’t been for 10 years; all the new amongst the old.
She was surviving yes, but what was she living for?
Did she want to go to back to the void and darkness? Did she want to live to see the world?
She knew she needed her memories back.
Who was the voice that popped in her head every so often, an accent that was familiar. Stories told by that same voice. Stories of a world much like this but so personal.
‘I promise you mate, I’m going to fly you out of here and I’m going to show you how much the world has changed and everything it has to offer.’
She looked up at the sky and she closed her eyes, feeling the sun warm her skin and the wind going through her hair. She imagined wings flying and then she looked below her. By her feet was a small pond of water and her face was reflected back at her.
Her face was there but it was unfamiliar. She knew then and there that that appearance reflected back at her wasn’t her original one. Her ran her blackened hand through her messy hair, sending particles in the air.
Pink (glowing) eyes looked back at her as she blinked, a name on her tongue. She turned back to her cave as she prepared to pack up.
As night came and went, she stood outside of the little cave that was her home for a short time. Her inventory was sorted with her meager belongings (they were just material) but precious all the same.
She then turned away from her home to head in a direction and leaving the cave behind.
There a sign marked her existence, with the words: “Thea’s Cave”.