A Virtual World Turned Real (An Unofficial Minecraft Adventure)

Chapter eight: The Farm

I walked back to camp, humming the tune from a song I listened to back in the real world, and once I got to the tree line, I stopped and looked at everything ahead of me. The houses stood tall and proud above it all, the cave adding a dull contrast to all the vibrancy of the world around it, and the lush green countryside tied it all together in a gentle yet beautiful way. I placed my hands on my hips and smiled in pride and amazement. I love Minecraft. I thought.

I pulled out the hoe that I made and thought about where to put our little 'community garden'. I decided on next to the house I lived in. I walked over to where I wanted to start tilling dirt, which was two or three blocks 'east' of the house. I crouched down, hoe still in hand and began to drag the blade of the hoe across the grass block, and once the blade fully crossed the block it changed from a grass block to a farmland block. One down, 20 some left to go.

Maybe a minute or two passed once I started on the fifth block. I crouched down and started to drag the hoe through the grass, but about half-way through I felt a sudden and unexpected pain explode in the back of my head, causing me to drop the hoe and clutch the back of my head with one hand. "Ow! What the?!" I exclaimed, and that's when I noticed a oak plank laying on the ground next to me. That was enough evidence to tell that the attack came from above, but the response I received definitely confirmed it.

"Oh my God!" Kelly gasped. "Jace are you OK?" I looked up and saw Kelly leaning over the edge of a partial wall, fear and sympathy written all over her face. I figured that Kelly must've dropped the plank over the edge accidentally. I smiled playfully  and said "Kelly, if you're gonna try to kill me, I think you need to try harder."
She sighed in relief, probably because of the fact I was OK but probably also that I wasn't mad at her, but she asked again, "Are you OK?"
"I'm fine, don't worry." I replied then picked up the oak plank in my left hand and said,"Here, catch!" then tossed the block back up to Kelly.  Kelly reached out and caught the block in midair. "Thanks, and I'm so sorry about that Jace." She said.

"It's alright Kelly, don't sweat it." I replied, stressing that it was ok. I continued, "Let's just get back to work. And hey," She looked at me, "Try not to think about it too much. I'll be fine Kelly."

She sighed again and said, "OK, I'll try." And then she disappeared behind the wall edge to go back to building. I chose to do the same, just for digging instead of building.

I picked up the hoe and went back to plowing the field.

                               . . .

I finally got to the last block of grass I was tilling, and once it was tilled up, I stood up and stretched my back, which was stiff from being crouched down for so long. I exhaled, stowed the hoe in my inventory and made a quick glance at the sun, which had lowered considerably since the last time I checked. In fact, it was starting to get late and it would be dark soon. Time to check in for the night.

"Alright everyone pack it up! It'll be dark soon so let's get indoors." I called down to those in the cave. Once everyone was up and out, I gave out the beds I made to everyone, and we all gathered outside for supper. We ate some of the food gathered earlier, talked about the day we had (explained from - what felt like - a million different perspectives) and once everyone was fed we all departed for our respective homes.

Or at least everyone else did, because as I walked toward my house, I realized I forgot to plant any seeds in my farmland. "Aw hell," I breathed, then turned to London who was walking next to me and said, "I'll be right back. I need to plant the seeds for our farm."

"You better make it quick, sun's nearly down." She replied and made a small nod at the sun, which was nearly gone behind the horizon.

"Just worry about yourself. I won't take too long." I said then broke off from the others and jogged over to the farm.