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The Sun rose upon a brand new day. To the West the Ember Forest still burned, the flames consuming the forest on their way to the South. I took a moment to really wake up and to gather up my bed, looking to the North as I did so. Just across the river,
under a tree I could see a skeleton hiding from the Sun, and the fiery death its rays promised to almost any undead mob caught out in them. Just a little ways away from the skeleton stood a creeper standing unafraid in full daylight. “Apparently they
don’t burn in the Sun,” I said to myself, making a mental note of that fact for future reference. “At least they can’t get me at a distance,” I mused. There was no clear path out of the trees directly to the North and given my history with skeletons I was
eager to avoid another confrontation with one anyway. I moved carefully through the treetops to the East, making my way slowly lower and lower until I was near enough to the ground to safely jump out of the trees. I climbed down the hill to the river bank
and gazed across to the opposite bank. I was now a bit East of the creeper and it seemed that the skeleton had disappeared. It had either wandered off or become a victim of the Sun. It seemed safe enough to cross and so I slipped into the water and began
to swim, careful not to draw the creeper’s attention. As I climbed up the opposite bank I slipped my ax out of my pack and prepared to ambush the foul creature, eager to remove it from the world so that it couldn’t harm anyone. I climbed up out of the
water, tightly gripped my ax, and said, “Let’s do this,” then rushed straight at the creeper with the speed and silence of a ninja. I landed the first hit without the creeper ever even noticing what hit him. The ax made a crunching sound as it hit, like a
rake landing in a pile of extra dry leaves, and the creeper staggered away from me several paces. It recovered quickly and started running right at me. I rushed it again, swinging as soon as I was in range. It was another hit! This one threw the creeper
back just a step or two, and I used the momentum of my rush to throw in a quick extra swing. The creeper began to hiss and expand. My last swing landed just as it was about to blow, dropping it harmlessly to the ground at the very last moment. As it
disappeared it left a small pile of gunpowder on the ground, which I quickly scooped into my pack before turning my attention back to my Northward trek. Soon the trees on the bank of the river gave way to wide open grasslands and gentle rolling hills. A
few small herds of pigs roamed the grasslands searching for something to eat in the tall grass. “This is a nice change of pace!” I said. The plains offered the comfort of direct sunlight and really clear visibility to see any dangers ahead, and this plain
offered one further advantage, it contained a small village with easily a dozen villagers milling about, talking to one another, and moving from house to house as they went on with their day. “This could be my chance to get some emeralds to use later for
things I might need,” I thought to myself upon spotting the village. On the outskirts of the village were several small farms where they were growing wheat, beatroot, carrots, and potatoes. I got the impression they wouldn’t mind if I helped myself to
some of their abundant produce, so I jumped into the first garden and started gathering up the wheat so I could trade it to one of the farmers in the town. Once I had quite a collection of wheat I made my way through the streets looking for a farmer, but
no matter where I looked I couldn’t find any. It didn’t seem like the brightest village population. Most of the villagers wore green shirts and weren’t at all interested in trading anything with me. Finally, I found a villager in a brown shirt wearing a
white apron that wanted to trade, but he was looking for raw meats primarily. “I can work with that,” I said and I quickly dismissed myself from the conversation and headed back out to the farms. This time I grabbed up all the carrots I could find and
then made my way outside the village to the herd of pigs I had seen roaming about earlier. As I approached, I pulled out the carrots and the herd all rushed up, eager for a free meal. I fed each pig until there were no carrots left and then, once the
pigs were done eating I gave them some privacy so they could make some piglets. When I returned I used my ax to gather up some porkchops, and then headed back into the village to find the white aproned villager I had been talking to earlier. I soon found
him and struck up a new conversation. He saw the porkchops I had gathered up and seemed eager to make a deal. I handed them over for an emerald and thanked him for trading with me, as I also bid him farewell, intent to start back up on my way toward
future adventure. On the way to the North end of the village I came across a small library. Looking inside I found several shelves of blank books, waiting to be filled, and an idea occurred to me. I could write down my adventures like journals and leave
them scattered throughout the world in the villages that I came upon. I gathered the books together and stashed them in my pack to write down my story thus far in the evenings once I’d set up camp. Having the books stored in my pack, I made my way out of
the library and nearly bumped heads with another villager on the way out the door. This one wore a black apron. “Sorry,” I said quickly and I moved to keep going on my way, but then thought better of it and I asked the villager, “Do I have anything you'd
want to trade for?” I showed him what I had and he took an interest in the coal I had stashed away in my pack. As I had plenty of wood for cooking and for making torches, I went ahead and traded the coal for another emerald. “Good doing business with
you,” I said and then we parted ways. It was then that I noticed that the Sun was well on its way to its hiding place down beyond the horizon. “Better find a place to hole up for the night,” I said to myself and began looking around for some shelter.
Luckily, just at the northern edge of the village sat an abandoned house. It was far from fancy boasting few amenities besides windows, four walls, and a roof. The floor was dirt and there wasn’t even a door, but I was accustomed to roughing it, and I had
an idea to solve the missing door problem. I set up my bed and my work bench there in the house and used six bits of my wood to make a few doors, then I put one in place in the door frame, making it as sturdy as I could. As a final touch I added a couple
torches for the security that their light and modest warmth offered, and called my work complete. I closed the door as it was now fully night and crawled into bed to sleep through the night, but as I lay there, every time I got close to falling asleep the
hiss of a spider out in the dark woke me right back up. After the fourth time I had had enough. “That’s it!” I shouted. I was tired and my reflexes were slower than usual so I grabbed some of my wood and some iron and made myself a shield so hopefully the
spider would have a harder time trying to kill me. With the shield assembled and affixed to my left arm, I grabbed up my ax in my right hand and headed out the door. As I stepped out the door I found myself almost immediately beset by the spider that
wouldn’t let me sleep. As quickly as I could I held up my shield just managing to block the spider's first lunge. Clearly the spider was surprised to have been blocked and I used the opportunity to swing around the shield with my ax and give the spider
something to think about. The ax landed a solid blow on the spider’s center mass causing the spider to cry out and fall back off the shield. I pressed the advantage and rushed forward, swinging again. The spider darted out of the way and lunged again from
the left side. As the spider lunged I swung the shield around with enough force to knock the spider back a bit. The spider made a sickening thud against the face of the shield as it hit, startling me and prompting me to swing again on pure instinct. The
swing caught the spider hard on the back, making it cry out in pain, but it made a sudden and unexpected lunge, catching me off guard and getting in a solid bite on my leg. The spider injected its venom, making the already painful wound ignite into a full
blown inferno of pain. Instinctively I swung my ax down toward my leg landing the blow solidly in the head of the spider. The spider's bite loosened and I pulled my leg away as the spider disappeared in a puff of white smoke, leaving behind just one piece
of string. “I really need to make some armor,” I said to myself as I grabbed the string and limped back over to the house. As soon as I was inside I closed the door, crawled into bed, and finally slipped into an uninterrupted sleep.
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