Don't Mine At Night

Save File 3 - The New World

     "My head..." Peri groaned as she forced her eyes open. Above her was blue skies and... clouds. But these were no ordinary soft and fluffy clouds. The edges looked like cubes. It suddenly occurred to her that there was something heavy across her midsection. Looking down she was the lifeless form of Onyx, laying over her, looking pretty limp. "Onyx..?" Worry crept into her tone as she tried to sit up.

The gem lay still for a long moment before stretching and groaning. "What happened?" Where she'd fallen wasn't comfortable. The last thing she remembered was a bright light then nothing. Forcing herself up she realized she was across the lower half of Peri's body. The revelation caused her to jump, yelp, and stagger backwards.

"Onyx, are you ok?! I thought you were dead!" Peri held out a hand for Onyx.

"I- we aren't- no one's dead! I think. But... where are we?"

For the first time they took in the world. Everything was cube shaped. The trees were square, the grass barely looked like grass and looked more liked stacked green squares, the terrain was colorful enough while still retaining its cube like appearance.

"Nyx...?"

The sound of a chicken pulled them both from their stupor. They both stared at the world's most blockiest chicken.

"That's no ordinary chicken!" Peri yelped. In a desperate attempt to move back in surprise, she fell, landing into Onyx's arms.

Onyx tried to maintain some scrap of confidence and not completely panic. If they were going to be here, strange as the world seemed, at least one of them had to keep a level head. She stroked Peri's hair. "It's ok."

"No it's not! The world is all cubey! And we're still- well we're not- we still look like us. But the world doesn't look like the world!"

"Calm down, we'll be ok. We just need to keep our wits."

Before Onyx could try comforting Peri any further a giant spider leapt up over the edge and started for them. They'd seen their fair share of "giant" spiders before, ones perhaps as large as a quarter or maybe even a half dollar, but this spider was probably half their size. Peri yelped and Onyx stood her ground but the spider didn't stop.

"Leave us alone!" Onyx punched the spider sending it back.

"That's working!" Peri gasped as she somewhat hid behind Onyx. A few more hits the spider was gone. In its place a red object appeared as well as something looking like thread. Out of curiosity, against Onyx's better judgement, she walked over to the items. They both drew near her then disappeared. "Weird."

Onyx breathed a heavy sigh. "I hope we don't encounter any more spiders."

"Right... spiders." Peri turned back to Onyx and sat on a protruding cube of dirt on the ground. After a long moment of silence she suddenly blurted out, "What just happened!?"

"Don't panic," Onyx tried to sound calm but it was a bit apparent that she wasn't as calm as she wanted to be.

"This isn't Snowflake's home! This isn't her basement! I don't even think this is Earth Onyx! We just got attacked by a monster spider and I think I might be emotionally scarred now!"

A text box appeared with all kinds of writing. Most of it didn't seem to make any sense. Then some new text appeared. Snowball819: Guys something weird happened!!!

Peri and Onyx looked at one another then back to the floating box. "Do you see that too?"

Onyx nodded and tried reaching for the box but it always seemed just out of reach. Like the illusion of a rainbow.

"Snowflake..? Are you there? Can you hear us?" Peri stood up and looked at the box. Besides the sudden shift in landscape there wasn't anything else to look at.

Snowball819: I can. Listen to me, I think the box thing accidentally teleported you guys into a computer program.

"We're digital?" Onyx asked as she joined Peri. She kept her arm around the smaller gem in comfort.

Snowball819: In short, yes.

"We fought a giant spider!" Peri excitedly chipped. She looked at Onyx with a sheepish look. "Well... Onyx fought a giant spider."

Snowball819: Guys please listen! The program you're trapped in, it has some darker elements, there's some things that may try to attack you.

"Hence the spider," Onyx scoffed.

Snowball819: Until I can figure out a way to get you out of the program and back into real life just try to stay safe. Don't fight anything you don't have to. Avoid lava. And watch out for a tall black creature with purple glowing flecks. Those are BAD NEWS! Oh, and whatever you do, don't mine at night.

"I think we can manage that. Peri and I will stay right here and wait for further word from you."