i_was_there: A Minecraft Story

chapter_six: Night

"The next challenge is for you to plant all of these saplings before noon."

Today, when I knocked on their door, Steve was the only one home. Currently, we're beside their farms, and there's a wide chest in front of us. He put his left foot on its lid and gave me a bored look. "These are all the saplings you managed to collect yesterday."

I nodded. He put down his foot and I opened the chest. The saplings are there alright, and there sure is a hell lot of them. "Why noon?" I asked.

"Planting is easier than farming them, yes? After this, I'm planning to assign another challenge to you." Another challenge? Two challenges in one day? I was about to protest but he was already walking away. I stared at his back in disbelief. "You better be starting!" He called out.

I groaned, grabbing the saplings. There's only oak and birch saplings here, so that should make everything better. I think I remember how many spaces in between each tree needs in Minecraft, too, so I'm clearly going to ace this one.

Since that whole clearing up thing yesterday somehow traumatized me, and the fact that Steve didn't give any conditions regarding how or where I can plant the trees, I'm going to do it my own way.

The organized way.

I lined up the birch trees first and made sure I planted them to the side, far from the center of the whole field (since I figured that they'd want to build something somewhere and I don't want get in the way of that). Then, I planted the oak trees beside them.

Steve was right, this is way easier. Although, I knew that there was a lot of them, I didn't expect it to stretch this far. I gathered too many saplings, and I'm quite far away from Steve and Alex's house now. Lucky for me I can still see my mountain (yes, it's now mine), so it's easy to know where I'm going and where I came from.

The sun is almost at its maximum, I should be speeding things up now.

Once the sun was at its highest, Steve was already here with me. Like yesterday, I proudly showed him what I've done. I finished everything with a few minutes to spare. "Pretty good, yeah?"

"Decent." He said, combing back his hair with his fingers. "Now for the next challenge," I groaned. Already? He ignored me and continued. "I'll have you wait 'till it's nightfall."

"Why?"

He pondered for a bit. "Actually, I suggest you get your sleep now."

"Does this challenge include me staying up the whole night?"

"Yes," Ever so slightly, a mocking expression filled his face. I clenched my fist and gave him a polite smile. I want nothing more than to wipe that look off of his face. "I had about three more ideas for challenges in my head, but I'll accept you as one of us after this one."

My face lit up. "Really?"

He scrunched up his face and stepped back, as if protecting himself from my happiness. "What I mean is that I'll accept you living with us in the house. The thing I said back there in that cell still stands."

"Understandable." I said, nodding. "You don't look like the type of person to trust anyone so easily."

"Oh, do I?" He mused. "You better do your best, then."
———

I slept for more than six hours, which was probably more than enough already. I expected Steve to be the one to tell me that the challenge has started, but to my surprise, it was Alex who came. She looked lost and unsure, maybe because Steve forced her to go tell me.

"He says to tell you that it's time," she purred absentmindedly. I held her by the shoulders to steady her stance. "Can you take me to our front door, please? I want to go to sleep."