Don't Mine At Night

Save File 5 - Things Could Be Worse

     A conversation with Snowflake gave Peri a bit more information about the world before Snowflake had to leave to go get some parts to fix the cube which, apparently, had broken in the process of sending them into the program.

Peri followed some animals around for a while before making her way to some trees. She laughed to herself at the shape. Never before in her entire life had she seen trees so square. Following Snowflake's advice, she began punching the tree trunks, with a surprising amount of success. Her worries about hurting herself melted quickly as she realized she couldn't be hurt from the actions.

For a good while that's all she did. Punching trees, collecting the wood, and on occasion branches and saplings too. Life in this world felt peaceful. The weather was perfect, the little wooded area she'd found was perfect, and the flowers growing around her were breathtakingly colorful. Staying in this place wouldn't be bad at all.

A little ways away was someone having less than a grand time. Onyx was frustrated for a long while. Peri's ignorance could've gotten her killed. For that matter, Snowflake's ignorance landed them in a world they didn't belong. Who knew if they would survive this excursion? Her blood began to boil. If she was going out, she was going out in a blaze of glory. A fighter. A true hero. A notable figure of the rebellion. Not because of some place she didn't belong because of the careless actions of one gem.

Though as time went on, her heart softened a bit. She began to think about Peri and then she remembered how excited Peri was the first time she went to Earth. The joy in her eyes was like nothing she'd ever seen in the gem before. The more she thought about the gem, and her curiosity, the more she realized Peri couldn't be forced to stay. That's when she got up and went to find her friend.

"Per?"

"Onyx look!" Peri ran up to Onyx and dumped a bunch of stuff in front of the gem.

"What's all-"

"I've been mining! Well, gathering resources, but Snowflake said it's called mining. It's a lot of fun!"

"You talked to Snowflake?"

"Of course! She said she couldn't talk for long and that she had to leave for a while to go get some parts to repair the cube thing that sent us here. While she was here she told me a bit about the world. She also said it could take her a day or two in the real world to get the cube fixed which was like, a few days here, I think? Oh! And she recommended that we go find a safe place to set up for the night."

Onyx blinked, taking everything in, and watching Peri's excitement. The words tumbled around in her head for a bit before she could finally get anything out. "It's going to be a while?"

"Yeah... kind of sounds like that. But we've got each other so it's not that bad. C'mon, let's go find a place to stay for the night." Peri grabbed Onyx's hand and started walking.

"Do you know where we're going?"

"Snow said there's a village somewhere here but it's hard to find so we're probably best to go it on our own."

"Wonderful," Onyx muttered under her breath.

With Peri's assortment of items in hand, or, "inventory" as she said Snowflake put it, they were off. They wandered aimlessly for a while. The landscape shifted between mountains and plains. Every time Peri would start to wander off, Onyx would have to dash after her, and bring her back to the task at hand of finding a suitable place to rest for the night.

Before either one really could help it, the color of the world seemed to shift. Both of them lifted their gazes and saw the "sun" setting. "Let's go there." Peri pointed to a cut out in the mountain a short ways away.

"Are you sure it's safe?"

"It's better than nothing." Peri led the way and by the time they reached the cave the world was growing dangerously dark. There wasn't time to waste so she got right to her task.

Onyx couldn't see what all happened next. She held onto Peri's arm to keep the gem from wandering off. Suddenly Peri made a torch appear and before them were two cubey beds. "How cozy."

"It's wool and wood." Peri proudly announced before setting out a few more things. "One of us should gather materials in the morning while the other starts exploring the caves."

"Exploring the what?"

"Caves."

"Doesn't that sound dangerous?" Onyx watched Peri flit back and forth between boxes, creating, swapping, stashing, and doing whatever else it was she was actually doing. Somewhere along the lines she lost a bit of interest.

"Nope. It sounds like an adventure."

Onyx fell back on the bed and heaved a sigh. It was comfortable but not that comfortable. "Life with you is an adventure."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Peri continued her work for several long moments before noises nearby startled them both. "Nyx..? Did you-"

"Hear that?" Onyx finished, sitting upright and looking around. The few torches Peri had placed didn't really illuminate much of an area. An arrow struck the stone wall just behind Onyx. "Duck!" She yelled, jumping off the bed, shoving Peri down and grabbing a wooden sword had been dropped. Here was the fight she was looking for. A chance to prove to Peri the world was dangerous.

The inability to create fire or summon her weapon royally ticked her off. She was reliant on a wooden sword of all things to now keep them safe. With a deep breath she came around the corner. There, in all it's ugly glory, walking towards them was a skeleton with a bow. It wasted no time trying to shoot at her.

Never straying from a fight, Onyx ran for it. The skeleton put up more of a fight than the spider and drowned zombie did. It's shots mostly missed but one struck her shoulder. Horrified, she looked down at the pixelated arrow that was now embedded in her skin. It didn't bleed and only hurt enough to cause her to yell something obscene at the monster.

With fury, she swung at the skeleton. The first strike sent it back a few feet. She fumbled through several moves before finally the skeleton died. Sword fighting wasn't her skillset and it sorely showed. Trudging back she walked right past an extremely flustered looking Peri.

"Nyx, you're arm-"

As she sat on the edge of the bed, she yanked the arrow out and tossed it aside.

"I don't have any bandages!" Peri yelped before running back to one of the boxes she'd built and frantically rummaging through it.

"Peri I'm not bleeding out. I'll be fine. It only hurts a little."

"Are you sure?"

Onyx looked down at the wound. It could've been far worse. It should've been far worse. She shrugged her shoulders. "Positive."

"Snowflake said if we got to sleep then the monsters can't hurt us." She timidly crawled into bed.

Finally a faint smile crossed Onyx's face. "Then let's get some shut eye for now."

"Goodnight Onyx." Peri yawned and snuggled into the bed.

"Goodnight Per..."