Don't Mine At Night

Save File 4 - For The Love Of Fish

     Before Onyx had even finished the statement Peri was off. If they were stuck here why not explore the place? There was plenty to look at, the sights were indeed impressive, and everything had a simple charm to it. She started picking flowers but every time she pulled one up it disappeared in her hands.

"Peri, please don't wander off. I don't know where we are or what could harm us but I don't want to lose you. Ok?" Onyx wrapped her arms around herself and followed Peri around. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she didn't like being here.

"It'll be fine. You worry too much."

With a sigh, Onyx continued to follow her. They walked a short ways before coming to the edge of the hill they were on. The landscape dropped off rather steeply into a river below. Ever so carefully Peri began climbing down from cube to cube.

As she balanced herself on the edge of a cube and gazed out at the water she saw something moving. Swimming a few feet from the shoreline was a couple of large, very cubular, fish. "Look Nyx! Fish!"

"Don't touch them!" Onyx called from the edge of the hill. She'd stayed up there and watched Peri with caution.

Ignoring Onyx's warnings, Peri climbed down a few more cubes. She paused long enough to take in the beautiful setting, cubey as it was. That's when a particular noise caught her attention. It was sort of garbled. "Onyx?" Peri looked up the hillside.

"What?"

"Are you making that noise?"

The splashing of water caught Peri's attention at nearly the same time Onyx saw the owner of the strange noise. "Peri!" Was about the only thing she could get out before some sort of being came up out of the water and went straight for Peri.

The green gem froze in panic. A million things ran through her mind and her limbs felt as heavy as bricks. She couldn't move. The creature unfortunately had no problem moving. It came at her, waving its arms, and making more horrendous noises.

Seeing that her friend was in trouble Onyx immediately made her way down the hillside. Every move she made was made with quick precision. In a matter of seconds she reached Peri and the creature. "Move!" She snapped, shoving Peri back towards the hillside. The gem did as she was told, moving with a loud "oof" as she hit the cubes of dirt.

The fight between the zombie like creature was perhaps the most interesting one Onyx had ever been in. She was used to fighting other gems. Battles of skill and powers. This thing was clunky and not at all a skilled fighter. The need to protect Peri prompted her to fight harder.

Once she was back on the hilltop, Peri sat down and fell onto her back. That was an experience. She stared up at the white clouds, cubey, but clouds nonetheless, and almost forgot about the strange noises below coming from the monster. A few minutes passed before Onyx trudged up the hillside, a little worse for wear, and dropped heavily to her knees beside Peri.

"We are not doing that again. Got it?"

"But I saw fish."

Even the gem's bright blue eyes didn't quell the frustration that rose up in her chest. "Peri, you could've gotten killed!"

Peri sat up and faced Onyx. Her whole demeanor was bubbly and innocent. "But I didn't. Hmm?"

With a sigh, Onyx rubbed her arm, trying to mask the fact it hurt a little. "Why can't you just stay close? For once! Just once."

"And do what? Wait around? Who knows how long Snowflake will be? It could be hours. Days! Weeks? Look, we could be here a while. Why not see the world?"

"Because the world could easily kill us! We haven't been here that long and we already got attacked by a giant spider and you almost died because of whatever that thing was!" The frustration in her tone was starting to melt into worry.

Standing, Peri held out her hand to Onyx. "Let's go see the world."

Onyx refused to take her hand. "Let's stay here."

The green gem hesitated for a moment then started to walk away. "I'm going exploring. You can join me or you can stay."

Frustrated at Peri, worried about their safety, and a bit peeved at Snowflake for carelessly sending them into this strange world, Onyx stayed where she was at and watched her friend walk away. For the time being, she didn't care if Peri wandered off, it wasn't her problem anymore.