Don't Mine At Night

Save File 9 - They're Called Creepers For A Reason

     The monster turned and gave Onyx one strange, sickening glance. For a split second everything was still. The world felt oddly at peace. Then the monster turned back to Peri. What proceeded happened in an instant.

With a loud boom, a bright flash, the creature blew up, taking Peri with it. Little cubes of dirt, tree material, and a few odds and ends Peri had collected floated and spun inches above the ground.

Onyx fell to her knees and stared at the floating items for a long moment. She was sick to her stomach. If Peri died in the game did she die in real life? Where did she go? How did this happen? How could it happen? How could she not have noticed the monster?

Finally her emotions boiled to the surface. With the deepest, most painful cry, she yelled with all her might. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

A few chickens scattered. A lone pig hurried away. Monsters in the dark began to scatter like ants. A spider that had approached turned and ran.

"Hi Nyx."

Onyx spun around and fell over in the hole in the ground. "Peri?!"

The gem nodded as if it was the dumbest question she'd ever been asked.

"Y-you died!! I saw it!! Th-that monster! It b-blew up! I-it blew y-you up!!"

"And I respawned. Pretty cool right? Those are called creepers. Snowflake told me that. C'mon, let's go find another creeper or a zombie. I kind of want to try that again."

Before the gem could get very far Onyx scrambled out of the hole and grabbed Peri's arm. She pulled her back with a good deal of force. "No! You are staying right here with me. No more running off! Got it?!"

"Ow!" Peri yelped. She tried her best to pull away from Onyx's grasp but the gem was fairly strong and getting away wasn't so easy. "Let go!"

"Only if you swear on your gem not to run off," She growled.

Peri rolled her eyes. "Fine. I won't run off. Why are you so worked up?"

Onyx's eye twitched. "Why am I so worked up? Why am I so worked up!? Peri Dot I just watched a monster blow you up!"

"It's a creeper! And will you stop shouting!?" Peri raised her voice to match her friend's tone.

Before Onyx could respond an arrow went whizzing past them and stuck into the ground between them. They looked up and saw a skeleton approaching with it's bow drawn.

"Onyx?"

"MOVE!" Onyx shoved Peri forwards and started they started running.

"Just remember if we die we'll just respawn at the camp!"

"That doesn't help!" Onyx growled as she slowed her pace enough to get behind Peri to keep her back safe.

"Sure we'll lose our stuff but we'll be back at-"

"Not! Helping!"

Peri led them back to camp without much further harm. Onyx collapsed on the bed. "I'm never leaving this freaking bed ever again."

"Bad news Nyx."

"No. No bad news. I don't want any of your bad news." She pulled the blanket up over her head.

"Ok," Peri sighed. She sat by the furnace smelting more ore and making weapons while Onyx slept. She kept a wary eye on the monsters that lurked beyond their cave. After accumulating a nice stockpile of weapons she crawled into bed and slept.

When they awoke in the morning they were greeted by blue skies, sunshine, and the sounds of nature. Somehow the chaos of the previous night seemed nothing more than a distant memory. It felt like everything was going to be alright.

"Onyx!"

Pushing herself out of bed, she stumbled over to Peri. The gem pointed out into the little grassy field. "What the-"

Zombies, or so it seemed that's what they were, were scrambling towards the few lone trees. This might seem like normal behavior. That is, if they weren't on fire.

"Have you ever seen-"

"Nope."

For a few minutes they watched the zombies burning. There really wasn't anything better to do.