Minecraft: a Novel

Chapter 1

  I suppose it began when I found the DBR. The morning was a nice June one, and we'd just gotten out of School for summer.

  Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling so hot. The night before, I had a sleepover (you know, regular 13 year old activities) with my friends Gary and River.

  Needless to say, the next morning, I didn't wake up at their house. We had been playing Truth or Dare adn I had been dared to stay outside for 30 seconds. It wouldn't have been hard if it hadn't been in the dead of night.

  Instead of going through with it, I'd freaked out and ran home in the dark.

  The next morning when I woke up, my body ached with fatigue. It made me like I'd been splashed by a potion of poison.

  The first thing that left my lips was: "I'm safe."

  The door to my room opened and my younger sister walked in. "Get up, you lazy cow! We've been calling you for an hour!" She exclaimed. Then she narrowed her eyes, as if wondering why I was there at all. "And why didn't you stay at River's house overnight?"

  "I decided to come home," I snapped, hoping she'd go away. I felt bad for a second until I felt pain flood me again. With a wince, I saw a couple of hearts dissapear as I closed my eyes and rolled over.

  The last thing I heard was my sister sighing before I drifted off to sleep.

  When I next woke up my room was filled with sunlight. It had to be at least noon.

  Commiting to actually stay awake, I rolled over and out of bed. My body hit the floor with a thud and I groaned.

  My limbs were still a bit sore but at least I felt rested.

  I pulled myself up and looked around my messy room before taking a seat at my desk.

  It was covered with small tools and inventions. I didn't have that many talents, but I was good a building things. I had an affinity for messing wth redstone and other small contraptions.

  In my textbooks at School, I'd seen pictures of inventions from the Golden Age of Minecraft when making anything with redstone took up a ton of space. Personally, the biggest redstone deviece I'd seen was only about four blocks wide.

  Currently, I'd been working on this little watch. It could possibly have been the hardest one I'd done besides the fully automatic bow.

  After continuing on my watch for about an hour or so, I went into the living room and grabbed an apple from the coffee table.

  Without looking at it, I swiftly gulped it down in two seconds flat.

  It was so sweet and fresh, I swore it was the best I'd ever had. That's when I realized it had been a golden apple.

  I'd never tasted pure gold before, so the change made me feel good again. It definitely gave me the energy I needed. Only out of the back of my mind did I wonder what it was doing in our house.

  Once I got over my newfound happiness, I noticed that no one else was in the house. Confused, I racked my brain for an idea of where they could be. It wasn't market day...

  Not wanting to shed too much sweat over it, I decided to head into the woods for a walk.

  Maybe it was the fact that I didn't want to show my face in front of my friends after last night, or that I just had so much energy, but I had to get out.

  The woods were a deal smaller than they used to be becuase of the Great Fire a couple of years ago, but they still domintated the land outside of my town.

  As soon as I left my house and entered the woods, I noticed a familiar, wild feeling I normally felt when I came out here.

  I took the traditional path and wound my way up the hillside by my house.

  This is when I should've noticed something was wrong:

  While walking through the woods, something caught my eye. 

  I turned and saw a stick beside the path. At least, it looked like a stick. But it was floating about an inch above the ground. Not to mention it was glowing a blazing orange.

  As curious as I was, I knew I had to pick it up, so I did. The instant it entered my grasp my hand began to feel light and tingly.

  My only thought was, What the heck is this?