Minecraft: Before The Player's Journey

Chapter XV - Exploring

Chief Lau smiled as he waved farewell to his children, and in the cart, Frieren, Brennen, and Stein were in the back while Kris operated the horse.
 
"I can't wait to see what the outside world looks like, sis'!" Brennen told her sister, and he's so excited about having an adventure with them.
 
But Frieren has a concerned look: "The main problem of going out of this village is that we're going to pass the ring of Mesa.".
 
"You're right, Frieren." Kris then looked down and saw the border between the mesa and the village's territory.
He then slows down his breath and proceeds to go in. "Okay, to get out of a place is to follow the sun that is in front of us."
 
As the cart moves forward following the sun, Kris checks the compass, seeing that it is not working.
 
"Oh, my, the compass isn't pointing north." Kris suddenly becomes worried.
 
Frieren then replied, "Just go straight forward and follow the sun, Kris. If the sun is at noon or afternoon, we should follow the direction where the sun rose."
 
Kris is suddenly relieved by Frieren's plan. As we moved forward, minutes felt like hours. Stein and Brennen suddenly got hungry.
 
"Big sis', I'm hungry today," Brennen asks his sister.
 
"Oh, you're hungry, eh?" Frieren picks up a piece of bread in the box of rations and slices it. "There you go, Brennen." She then gave it to her brother.
 
"Thank you, sis'." Brennen begins to eat the bread.
 
Stein, on the other hand, looked at Brennen, seeing him eating, which made him more hungry. He then opens the box of rations and takes a slice of bread. He then proceeds to eat it.
 
"Seriously? You two get hungry very easily." Frieren's face got annoyed.
 
Stein replied while his mouth was full, "Well, yeah! I get hungry easily, and so does your brother.".
 
Frieren then said, "Well, at least Brennen once, and then he's full, but you? Yesterday, you ate an entire tray of cooked fish that we shared and drank five glasses of wine." She then looked at the trail behind her in the distance and pouted her face.
 
Stein replied, "Aw, come on! A few glasses wouldn't make me an alcoholic guy. Besides, alcohol is used for the body, not to clear the mind.".
 
"Alright..." Frieren is still annoyed by Stein.
 
Brennen then burps and says to his sister, "I'm done, sis'.".
 
Frieren looked at her brother and said, "Good job that you finished your meal, Brennen." She then patted her brother's head.
 
"Hehe, I like head pats." Brennen blushes while his sister pats his head.
 
As Frieren's head pats Brennen, Kris looks at the sun, seeing that it's noon, and suddenly gets thirsty. He then takes a bottle of water to ease his thirst. After that, he looked in the distance, seeing a one-block obsidian wall.
 
"Frieren, what are those obsidian walls in the distance?." Kris asked Frieren.
 
Frieren then looks at where Kris pointed and replies, "That's an obsidian wall that marks the x and z axes. The center point where they meet is at coordinate zero in the x-axis and zero in the z-axis.".
 
Kris then said, "So, it reminds us where we are?".
 
"Yes, Kris, we are in the quadrant four says in this map." Frieren then gave the map to Kris.
 
Kris then looked at the map and said, "Hmm, there's the village of Zauberhaft and the ring of Mesa that covers it, which we are now in. There's Redstonia at the north, Urwald in the southwest, Hüter in the south, and Grozav in the southeast.".
 
"So, where are we heading? Since we're going north, we're going to Redstonia, right?" Frieren asked Kris.
 
Kris smiled and nodded. "Certainly, after we pass over this deserted place, we then head to the swamp.".
 
As the cart moved forward, they saw the edge of the mesa. Seeing that they almost pass through. They looked at the surroundings, saw gold miners mining resources from the plateau, and saw running minecarts full of gold, iron, and coal. Luckily, the minecarts didn't block their way, and they finally got through the harsh environment of the Ring of Mesa.
 
Kris then tells everyone, "Guys, it looks like we are now in the swamplands.".
 
"Hmm, since we're now in the swamp, we have got to be careful not to fall off the cart. The mud can stick to the wheels if you're not careful driving, Kris," Frieren gave Kris advice.
 
Kris replied, "Thank you for the advice." He then takes a gulp and breathes calmly before he proceeds to move the cart.
 
"Um, sis', is this the swamp that father told us in a fairy tale about a Creeper?" Brennen suddenly gets scared and hugs Frieren.
 
"Creepers are real, Brennen. They're made by the Dark Witch herself, who's the disgrace of all mages, wizards, and witches. We don't know if the book said it accurately, but if it does, we could wipe them easily." Frieren then comforts Brennen by hugging him and patting his head.
 
Brennen suddenly became more calm and less terrified of his sister's words, "Thank you, sis'. I feel safe when you're here.".
 
As the cart moved forward, Kris saw that the sun was about to set. "Guys, we should build a quick shelter before monsters attack us.".
 
Everyone nodded, and they got out of the cart and began to build a tent, preparing for supper. Kris and Stein are building the tents; Brennen is collecting firewood; and Frieren gets some ingredients to cook and forage giant mushrooms. After they did their tasks, Stein, Kris, and Brennen watched Frieren cook mushroom stew. Frieren then sits between Kris and Brennen and waits for the stew to simmer.
 
"I just need a few more minutes to simmer," Frieren told everyone to wait for the dinner to simmer.
 
A few minutes later, Frieren opens the lid and pours the stew into each bowl. She then gives it to everyone.
 
"There you go, guys. Dinner is served." Frieren then smiles.
 
"Thank you, sis'!" Brennen smiled and was thankful to his sister.
 
"Thanks for the food, Frieren." Kris blushed after Frieren gave the bowl of stew to him.
 
"This looks delicious! Thank you, Frieren." Stein thanked her.
 
Then, Frieren gets a bowl and serves herself, and they all begin to eat their dinner. Everybody loved Frieren's cooking so much that they ate more than three bowls. After they have finished their dinner, Brennen suddenly yawns, and his eyes are tired. He then leans his head on his sister's shoulder.
 
He then asked Frieren, "Sis', I feel sleepy." He then yawned.
 
Frieren replied, "I guess it is time for bedtime, Brennen."
 
Frieren lifts his brother Brennen and takes him inside the tent while Stein and Kris are outside, sitting on the log and looking at the campfire.
 
"So, what do you think about her, Kris?" Stein asked Kris.
 
Kris got confused and said, "Who?".
 
Stein said, "It's about Frieren, Kris. What do you think of her?".
 
"Frieren? Oh, I uh..." Kris suddenly blushes and then takes a deep breath. "Um, I think of her as a great member of our team." He then smiles awkwardly.
 
Stein smirked and replied, "Ooh, you're blushing, aren't you, Kris? I think you have a crush on her!"
 
He then starts to tease Kris until Frieren, who heard the entire conversation, starts to yell at them, "I can hear what you two are saying!"
 
Stein's eyes suddenly widen and he apologizes to Frieren: "Oh, I'm sorry, Frieren...".
 
Kris and Stein change the subject of what they're talking about until someone watches them. A green creature blended in the tall swampy grass with red menacing eyes and sharp teeth looks at them and begins to rush towards them. Suddenly, it hisses behind them and starts to ignite. Kris heard the hissing sound behind him, quickly unsheathed his sword, and hit the creature behind him.
 
"What in the world!?" Stein was shocked and made him pale as white.
 
Kris says in his fighting stance, "It looks like that thing is still alive."
 
Kris lodges his sword towards the creature, killing it instantly, and drops gunpowder.
 
"Could that be the rumored creature that you killed, Kris?" Stein is still terrified.
 
Kris replied, "Yeah, I think this so-called Creeper is real, Stein."
 
As soon as he said it, a hoard of creepers began to ambush them.
 
"Crap! It looks like they're coming, Kris!" Stein is terrified to see a hoard of creepers coming at them.
 
Kris smites the creepers by using his sword and kicking it so it won't explode at them. Stein, on the other hand, uses fireballs at the creepers but instead ignites them, and they explode.
 
"AH! There's too much! We're all going to die!" Stein cried until Frieren threw a splash potion of harm.
 
"This splash potion could kill them instantly!" She then throws the potions at the creepers, and all of them die, and one of them drops gunpowder.
 
Kris suddenly sneezed, "Man! All this gunpowder makes me want to sneeze a lot!" He then sneezed again.
 
Frieren then examines the gunpowder that was dropped by the creepers and says, "Hmm, there's got to be a source from where it comes from."
 
She then pillars up by using dirt blocks and searches for the source until she sees a lit-up hut with a smoking chimney in the distance. After she saw it, she then broke the pillar beneath her.
 
"I think I have found where it came from," she told Kris and Stein.
 
Kris replied, "Should we go there now, Frieren?"
 
"No, not yet," said Frieren.
 
"Then, who is making all these exploding monsters!?" Stein is still paranoid about what happened earlier.
 
Frieren replied, "I think it was made by that Dark Witch."
 
"Did you say that the Dark Witch is real? Sis'?" Brennen came out of the tent half-awake, having been woken up by the fight earlier.
 
He then said, "I saw you guys fight creepers while I was inside the tent, but I was too scared to fight them." He suddenly gets paranoid.
 
Frieren approaches him and puts her hand on his shoulder.
 
She then replied, "Don't worry, Brennen. I got you, Kris, and Stein. Always remember that we're a team. You got it, little bro'?"
 
"I got it, sis'." Brennen nods.
 
Frieren smiled and said, "Okay."
 
She then turns around to Kris and Stein and says, "We go to that hut and investigate it tomorrow morning."
 
Kris looked at Stein and nodded, but Stein had a question: "Um, how do we sleep if you know? that mobs can spawn here and kill us?"
 
Frieren smirked and pulled out an item: "We just barricade them with these fences."
 
Kris and Frieren place the fence around the tent while Stein and Brennen are already asleep inside. Both of them went inside and went to sleep.
The next day, they went out of the tent and saw two creepers. Kris easily killed them by just hitting them with his iron sword while behind the fence. They all begin to walk to the location of the hut. While they walk towards the hut, meanwhile, the people who live there are the Dark Witch and her husband Evoke.
 
"I have captured a lot of frogs today, my love." Evoke gave the large jar full of live frogs to his wife.
 
"Thank you, dear." His wife smiled and dropped all the frogs in the boiling cauldron and mixed them.
 
Evoke then said, "Honey, our army of creepers has gone low again."
 
His wife replied, "Behead a lot of pigs today, my love, while I'm brewing a potion and cooking breakfast."
 
While the Dark Witch brewed and cooked, Evoke beheaded a ton of wild pigs and saw three people coming towards his wife's hut in the distance. He then rushes towards them, blocking the way.
 
"What do you three want?" He then pulls out his grimoire.
 
His wife then went out and said, "Evoke? What's going on?"
 
She then recognized the faces: "Sonne "Brennen" Lau and Mond "Frieren" Lau... It's been years since my two best monsters... ARE!! INSIDE!! LAU'S!! CHILDREN!!"
 
She then dashes towards Frieren and Brennen.
 

To be continued.