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Ideas, plans, and expectations

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Need some help figuring out who is Me and who is Shorty? Head over to our “Meet the Family” Page to find out!

Alright, I officially don’t understand people anymore. It’s nuts. People expect you to care about others, which I certainly do. But you have to balance that with self-care, and people are realizing and accepting this. But then you self-care, and people think you’re selfish or lazy because you’re not concerned about others, or you’re not doing chores, or you’re not spending time with family. Like, where does it end?

Well now, where is this one coming from? You’ve seemed pretty “I’ve got this balance down” level of handling things lately.

From my brother, where else? He has no balance on it, and he’s part of the problem with my own balance. He swings between all he cares about is other people, up to and including forgoing making sure I have money to pay our bills to just give away hundreds of dollars worth of goods. Don’t get me wrong, helping people is great! But he needs to remember that he has to make sure that we’ve got what we need, or we lose utilities, our vehicles, our house… Then, he’ll get so fed up about helping people, he’ll just be a jackass to and about everyone else. He throws fits at the tiniest inconvenience when he’s in this mode, and it makes him sound like an entitled snowflake. And you know I hate that term, Shorty.

Did you consider that most people can’t decide how much is too much, both in terms of self-care and in terms of helping people? Some people give until they’re the ones who need the help, and that’s definitely too much. But then others only self-care, all day, every day. Nothing gets done, and they don’t do anything to look out for their fellow man.

It’s just nuts. Like, I can’t get time to learn a new language, or work harder on my streaming, or even to write, whether for the blog or just stories, because then I’m lazy. And if I ask for help with anything so that I can get things done and still have some time for self-care, I’m lazy and I get a lot of push-back. Like, dude, I’m a depressed and anxious young lady already that’s trying to clean up after others, and myself, and I also try to make time to help others in any way I can. How am I the bad guy here?

You’re only the bad guy if you’re not being true to you, you’re being actively hurtful to others, or you just don’t give a shit if you’re accidentally hurtful to others. Do you think you fit into one of those categories?

Honestly… I just don’t know anymore. Is that really the only categorizations for bad guys? I’ll have to think about that one some more…

Think all you need. You know I’ll be here for you as you need.

Stories, Taking Back the Kingdom

Taking back the kingdom – Chapter 2

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It was two days of walking before I arrived at the nearest town. While I still had plenty of food and water, thanks to Pa, I hadn’t quite brought enough supplies to keep clean with. My clothes were starting to look pretty filthy, and I figured it was time to stop by a shop to pick up a couple additional things.

It didn’t take long to find the town’s shop. A brightly painted sign pointed the way, though not a lot of customers seemed to be coming and going at the moment. Heading inside to look around, I noticed that the shop was neat and tidy, with inventory displayed on well-crafted wooden tables and shelves. 

What was odd, however, was the abundance of goods for what looked to be a well-off shop. Most shops that were popular enough to have such nice displays and beautiful signs had trouble keeping the shelves stocked throughout the day, due to the abundance of customers.

And where were the customers? At this time of day, nearing noon, a shop like this should have been packed. I shouldn’t have been able to hear myself think for the noise of haggling. Yet, there wasn’t a soul here save myself and the shopkeep, who watched me hopefully.

I shook off the shock of the situation and went about grabbing supplies, heading to the counter with it. “Good day, sir.”

“Good day to you,” The shopkeep smiled. “It’s good to have a customer again.” He went through my items as I frowned.

“This looks like a popular shop, what would make custom fall so much you would say that?”

“The damned taxes, for one. People have less money to spend. Then, one of his fancy new ‘inspectors’ came to have a look at the shop, and we got hit with a large fine for a law no one’s ever even bothered with! We aren’t allowed to mark prices up for tourists. You know how the monarchy is, they didn’t really actually care as long as you paid the proper taxes on it. But then here comes this new fella, and he starts enforcing that old, foolish law! Says prices are meant to be equal to all, no matter where they’re from. But that’s the only way small shops can stay in business- My shop will survive, we’re the only one in town. But small shops in big towns? How will they fair, not being able to mark up prices to tourists? Where’ll they get that income?”

“He’s messing with the natural flow of everything, isn’t he? Higher taxes, messing with the practices of every shop in the land- And not everyone will be fined, I bet. He’s likely going to ‘make examples’ of certain shops, just to get a handle on it. Just wants to control people, I think,” I grumbled. “Well, don’t you worry. I’m on my way to try to help get the rightful queen back on the throne, and get rid of this imposter.”

“Good on ya, son. I just had a couple people pass through last week, talkin’ bout the same. That was the day before the fine hit.” The man sighed, accepting my payment and going back to his work. “Have a safe trip.” I gave a nod and a wave, collecting my goods and heading out.

—————–

“Sire, our latest reports,” A young woman said, coming into the study Marcus used and handing him a sheaf of papers. “While your changes are taking hold… There are dissenters…” She watched as Marcus scanned through the papers.

“Ah, I see… A small force gathering, eh?” He asked, sighing. “That’s what has you concerned, Olivia. Well… I guess we’ll just have to take emergency measures. Prepare the Guard, but do not have them march yet. Have this group watched for now, and report on them every two days for the time being. From there, we will decide what to do. Understood?”

“Yes, sire, of course.” With a small frown, Olivia bowed and went off to do as she had been ordered. Marcus sighed and turned to look out a window.

“Time to see which way this whole thing will fall…”

Journey in a Strange World, Stories

Journey in a strange world – Day 3

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Alexander woke me up early this morning for breakfast and to talk over how we intend to set all of this up. Breakfast was some bread and porkchops. It works, I guess. At least we’ve got food, and there’s a well in town for water. Alexander also has a couple cows penned up to get milk from. So we’re set up for food. I guess carrots, potatoes, and wheat are already growing in the various farms in the village, and they grow fast. That works for us. It means we should never run out of food. We’ll always at least have bread.

Our talk this morning consisted of Alexander going over what kind of practice I’d have to do before he’d even come close to considering me ready to face the dragon. After that… Wonderful discussion, we started discussing getting to the dragon to begin with.

“So how do we get to this dimension in the first place? I mean, if we can’t get there, we can’t fight the dragon.”

“Well, that’ll be the hard part. According to the book, we’ll need a number of what are called enderpearls. You can get them from endermen- Which I’ve only seen one of. But we’ll need at least nine, probably more. We’ll also need to go to another dimension called the nether to find some creatures called blazes. We’ll need to kill them for another component we’ll need.”

“Let me guess- Blazes are also super dangerous.” I am really starting to think I’ll be stuck here forever.

“Yes, as are most of the other inhabitants of the nether. Luckily, we can make defenses for ourselves. Armor, weapons, potions- We just need to get a strategy and we’ll be golden.” Alexander seems a little more optimistic about this than he was yesterday. “Now- Getting to the nether is going to be another task that will take some time and preperation. For that, we are going to need, as near as my math can tell, we need 14 blocks of obsidian to construct the portal to get there. To get obsidian, we’ll need a pickaxe made of diamonds. Diamonds… Are a pain to find. I’ve personally never found any.”

“None? In three years?” That sounds kinda… Super hard to find.

“To be fair, I haven’t been actively looking for them, and I try not to go out on mining expeditions for too long at a time. On top of that, I only go down there if I need something. I usually don’t.” Well, I guess that makes sense, then. Why would he want to go down there in the dark and risk getting himself hurt, or worse, if he doesn’t need anything down there. “But I have a general idea of how to find them, at least. We’ll probably be down for long periods at a time, so… Let’s start planning things out. Figure out what we’ll need for a trip, what to bring extra of, things like that.” Alexander said, getting up. I agreed and we started planning.

It’s been a few hours now, and I think we’ve about got this figured out. We’ve decided that we should pack extra food, extra iron to make more pickaxes should ours break on us- Apparently, they can break. I wouldn’t have thought that was a thing, but apparently it’s a thing. We also want to bring an extra furnace in case we run out of iron- This way we can refine some more to use should we need it. Other things on the list:

Several bunches of torches, to help light our way, as they apparently only give off light when on a wall; plenty of wood so we’ll be able to use it for pickaxes, which have handles made of wood; buckets of water, to take care of any lava we see and keep us from accidentally falling in; two beds so if we get exhausted we can set up a small base camp and rest up; a crafting table each, so we can actually make the pickaxes.

Alexander helped me practice the sword after we had finished that. It isn’t nearly as hard as I had thought- You don’t need any fancy fencing to use these things, thankfully. The main thing he wanted me to practice was blocking, as that’s the best way to keep from being hit by arrows from skeletons. Thankfully, the swords are kinda wide, so that should help. They really aren’t heavy like you would expect, either- These are pretty light, and thin, but super solid and super sharp. I’m not complaining, of course. That just means that I can learn how to use this thing quickly and easily.

Currently, we think we’ll be heading out tomorrow to start searching for diamonds. We don’t really have a way to tell the time underground, so we’re just going to assume we’ll be down there for a couple days. That’s why we’ve planned to take extra food and beds. Alexander mentioned finding a good, deep spot to set up an actual, defensible base camp and set up a furnace, a crafting table, and the beds there, along with plenty of light. Apparently, most of these mosters only appear in the dark, though they can travel in the light. There is an exception to that- Zombies and Skeletons die in direct sunlight, but not man-made light.

Alexander did warn me we’ll have a chance of encountering several dangers underground that we haven’t here. He mentioned lava, creatures he called slimes, and what are called cave spiders. Cave spiders are still giant spiders… They are just poisonous whereas the spiders we’ve been seeing aboveground here aren’t. So poisonous giant spiders that we may or may not see coming… Yeah, I’m not excited for this.

It could mostly just be nerves, but I really don’t want to go underground for potentially days on end. It could be the fact that I am a huge arachnophobe, or that I really don’t like the thought that we could get trapped down there forever. But I think a large part of it is a dream I had last night. It was a short dream, but enough to creep me out. I haven’t mentioned it to Alex yet.

I dreamt that I had woken in the middle of the night and decided to look outside. Everything looked pretty calm, like any normal night, except for a strange figure not too far from the window. He looked like a blocky human- Everything about him was a square or a rectangle. He had on a green shirt and blue pants, and he had brown hair. Nothing too freaky- Until he turned around. His eyes were pure white, no pupils or anything. He looked right at me, watched me for a few minutes, then turned and walked away.

I really hope it was just a dream, and I didn’t really wake up and see that guy. It would make me a nervous wreck to know that something like that is running around here, and knows where we are. It might be the case that he’s not our enemy- He could just be a native of this world and have found us and come to see if we meant any harm. It could be that he’s just travelling, saw me, and decided my presence was none of his business. But the scary idea is that he could be a demon of some kind, and could be watching us waiting for a chance to strike. He could kill us here, and no one at home would ever know what happened to us.

I should stop writing about it- Alexander keeps looking over at me while I’m writing, and he looks a bit concerned. I might look scared- I’ll just tell him it’s the spider thing. I don’t want to tell him about the dream. I’m sure it was just a dream- After all, he’s been here three years. If there were any natives here, I’m sure he’d have run into at least one of them, right?

For now, I’ll end my day’s writing here, unless something else comes up before bed. If we’re going to set out tomorrow, we need to make sure everything is packed up today. This is going to be a long, tiring adventure. I just hope we’re both ready for it.

Alexander did ask what was bugging me while I was writing. He thankfully didn’t ask for any explanation beyond my fear of spiders- Rather, he accepted that and promised me he would do his best to handle any spiders we come across so I wouldn’t have to. That does make me feel considerably better. Maybe this trip won’t be so bad after all.

Stories, Taking Back the Kingdom

Taking back the kingdom – Chapter 1

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I can’t remember when I first realized what I planned to do. It wasn’t when I first learned of the death of our king, nor when I learned his killer had imprisoned the queen. Maybe it was when I learned that the scum had claimed the throne and started raising taxes. Might have even been when he started peace talks with our long time enemy to the north.

All I know for sure, it didn’t take long to decide that this usurper was evil. Like any evil-doer, he had to be brought to justice. And I was going to do my best to make sure that happened.

My mission, of course, was not going to be an easy one. I was just a country boy. But that didn’t matter to me. All that mattered was getting there, and getting the job done. I could figure out the rest as I went along.

My journey began two months after the new king, Marcus, took the throne. My parents had just been forced to sell part of our land due to the increase in taxes. Father was heartbroken- The farm had been in his family for five generations. We had worked hard to keep it as successful as it had been. Mother was equally upset- Along with the land, we’d had to sell some animals, including her favorite horse. She had raised it from an orphaned foal.

I could hardly stand it. If these new taxes were hurting farmers so badly, what were they doing to those without enough to make ends meet as it was? The poorest of the poor folks, the single parents, the homeless- All of them had to be on their last legs after two months of this nonsense.

“Ma, Pa, I can’t sit idly by and watch this… This monster destroy our kingdom. I’ve got to do something,” I told them at breakfast one morning.

“Eli, dear, what can you do? You’re just a country boy- You don’t have the training to fight a power-mad king!” My mother protested. “Best to just stay here and let the nobles handle it.”

“Nonsense, love. The boy’s passionate- The nobles will need strong arms and hands. They can only do so much with money, and that’s only if they have much left with this Marcus fella taxing everyone blind. Elliot, you do what you need to, boy. You’re 18 now, you an make your own decisions. I’ll help much as I can with provisions, but… You’ll be on your own heading to the capital. Can’t rightly leave you Ma and the farm here alone.” Pa always was the sensible one. Ma thought too much with her heart, not her head. Pa could get emotional, but he was careful to think before he acted or spoke. That’s how he kept the farm running so well for all these years.

I nodded my appreciation to Pa, and smiled to Ma. “I’ll be fine, Ma. I can handle myself, and I’m sure whoever I join up with along the way will teach me anything I need to know. Don’t worry about me.”

“Oh, my baby boy, all grown and taking on his own journeys as a man!” Ma was nearly in tears. I couldn’t tell if she was sad I was an adult now, or happy. It might have been a bit of both, thinking about it.

It only took a couple days to get myself around and for Pa to get me some provisions packed. Once that was done and my goodbyes were said, I set off for the capital. The roads were clear, weather was nice, and the only blight on my trip that I could see was the man sitting on the throne.

If only I knew how much more vile the man could be than I already suspected. In the coming days, conversations with folks along the route to the capital would reveal new injustices. This was only the beginning.

—————–

“Marcus, perhaps you should slow down on these reforms? A number of people already think poorly of you. You will only get yourself killed should you continue at this pace,” an older man lectured to a young one. The young man wore nice but worn clothing, his light brown hair well maintained and his bright green eyes clear and steady as they gazed out a window.

“I cannot. If I do not get these changes made quickly, people will never begin to see what I am doing. Everything must be in place quickly, or all of this risks failure… Whether I am killed or overthrown, or left to rule.” The voice coming from the young man was light, calm, and steady. Even given a possible threat to his life, it was clear he was a man on a mission. The older man sighed and walked over, placing a hand on Marcus’ shoulder lightly.

“My boy, you are young and strong. You will throw your life away for this plan of yours. Is that what you want?”

“I want to succeed, Lord Edward. If I die in the process, then so be it,” Marcus replied simply. “This is simply the next step- And I will face any challenges as I take it with courage, strength, and skill.”

“If you insist, your majesty… Though I still think this will end in ruin, you already know you have my full support,” The older man sighed. “You always were stubborn once you’d set your mind, even as a toddler.”

“Now to see if that stubbornness is a gift or a curse,” Marcus replied, favoring the older man with a small smile.

Monologued Dialogue

The Return

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Need some help figuring out who is Me and who is Shorty? Head over to our “Meet the Family” Page to find out!

Well, things are starting to settle down a bit… So here we are, back to it. I’m not sure how it’s going to go, or if we’re going to even entertain anyone, but… Well, we’re here.

Don’t doubt yourself, kid. You’re a great writer, and people like your work. Just update regularly, and I’m sure it’ll all be fine.

If you say so… I should start streaming again, too. Or start making videos again. Maybe I’ll start the idea I had of writing on video, to show my writing process. Ooooh, maybe do a story influenced by my viewers and commenters… Within reason, of course…

That could be a fun idea. See? Everything will be great. Maybe you could stream your story ideas, and have the chat direct the story a bit. Things will be great.

I guess so. Well, here’s to the next fun adventure!

Updates

Update

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Hey! Just a quick update today given the hiatus over the past week or two.

I’d meant to get another Journey update in before the holidays, but I’ve had a couple bouts of illness as well, so it’ll likely be another couple days before I get the next section of that up.

The Monologued Dialogue just kinda gets updates as Shorty pesters me about things, so that’s not really going to have a regular update time. Nameless is a harder, work-in-progress piece, so it, too, will not have a regular update time.

Once I’m back on track after a family visit next weekend, I intend to update Journey once a week until our heroes find their way home!

Thanks for bearing with me, this blog is still new for me and a back-seat to life at the moment, especially as I try to keep bills and house payments kept up-to-date and all. So far, this puppy doesn’t make money, so it’s just to show off some of my work!

I hope your holidays were great, and your families are well!

— Kendra Short

Monologued Dialogue

Fears

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Need some help figuring out who is Me and who is Shorty? Head over to our “Meet the Family” Page to find out!

So… Seriously, what are you afraid of? I don’t mean like bug or crap like that. I mean emotional fear… Hell, you know what I mean. Fear in regards to being who you want to be, and doing what you want to do.

Kinda… I mean… I don’t know. Failure? Upsetting people I care about? Looking like the biggest waste of space in the universe?

And why are you worried about all that? You’ve failed before. You’ve upset people before, and they’re still here. And you can’t manage that last one- rapists and child predators exist. People way worse than you could ever come close to being. Add to that all the people between there and someone trying they’re best.

But if I fail at what I want to do, who I feel I really am… That feels worse than any failure I’ve ever had. It’s one thing to fail a class, or a test, or to complete a task… I feel like it’d be another entirely to fail at being me.

As long as you’re true to yourself, you can never fail at being you.

But what about people I care for? What if they hate the real me, or what I become chasing after that goal?

Then they weren’t who you thought they were, and didn’t care about you and your happiness as much as you do about them. Kid, you’re being a bigger failure to yourself by suppressing your wants and goals than if you tried and failed. As long as you don’t want to be a killer, or criminal, or what have you… then you’ll only be a better you by doing it.

I’m just… So scared to try. It’s easier to do nothing and look lazy but still have the people I care about… And not face a reality that might hurt.

It’s easier… but it feels wrong, doesn’t it?

Yeah…

Hurts a lot, doesn’t it?

Yeah…

You’re constantly tearing yourself apart over this, and it hurts to watch you suffer silently. Stop it. Start writing out what you want to do, who you want to be… and work for it. And now that I’m making you write it down here, people can see it, and comment encouragement or check in on you. So you have no excuse not to.

… Sharing a mind with you is not always a joy.

Only because I’m like a mother you can’t escape. And you love me. After all, I was your first personification of the real you, with nothing but my own demon to hold me back. Well, and enemy ninja. And angry old people. And how many times did I get stabbed?

Eh hehehe… ^^’

Journey in a Strange World, Stories

Journey – Day 2

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I woke up this morning and broke a ceiling block to see if it was actually morning. It is, and I don’t hear any enemies around, so I’ll break camp and go. I hope whoever or whatever opened my chest last night didn’t take everything… I’ll check, and take inventory after I have.

Well, I broke down my entire building before checking the chest. Not only is everything in there, but there’s also a sword and a pickaxe! Whoever got in here last night left these for me, I guess- It looks like there’s also a map in here. I’ll follow it to the best of my abilities and hopefully get to safety sometime today. Quick inventory check before I take off:

40 cubes of oak wood, 2 cubes of wooden planks, 1 combining table, 1 chest, 4 cubes of dirt, 8 cubes of sand, 4 sticks, 1 book, 1 pencil, 1 sword that looks to be made of iron or steel, 1 pickaxe that looks to be made of iron or steel, 1 map

Not bad, I guess. I wish whoever it was had left some food. I’m starting to get hungry. At least I still see some animals in the distance. With this sword, I should be able to get some meat. The hard part will be getting a fire going to cook it, but I’ll handle that when I get to it. For now, I better start walking.

I’ve been walking for a while and following this map. I see what look like buildings in the distance, including one that appears to be a tall tower. I couldn’t bring myself to kill one of those cows or pigs without a way to cook the meat- It’d likely go bad before I figured out a fire, anyway. I’m taking a short break to relax a minute before I get to the town ahead. I’m hoping I can

______

The cut off in my last entry was due to my book being ripped out of my hands. Rather rude, but I have to say I appreciate it. I’m in the town now, sitting at the top of the tower I saw.

So, what happened was this guy came up and grabbed my book. He called me an idiot and told me to move, grabbing my arm and pulling me from the tree I was sitting under, pulling a sword as he did. Naturally, I was terrified, but he didn’t attack me. Instead he swung just to the side of the tree. I turned in time to see this strange green creature get hit and back off a little. It wasn’t even bleeding. I couldn’t understand it. As it got closer, it started making the hissing noise I had heard last night. The guy hit it again and again before it fell over and poofed, turning into what looked like a pile of gray sand.

“Do you have a death wish, lady?” The guy asked me, moving to pick up the pile of sand. I was amazed to see it retaining its shape in his hand. “That creeper almost blew you sky high. And wandering around without any armor- I shouldn’t have wasted my time leaving you some tools.”

“Wait, wait, hold on.” I said quickly. “Creeper? What the hell is a creeper? You left those tools? Where the hell are we?” He frowned.

“Oh, I get it. I really am the only one that’s been here this whole time. Well, come on then. Let’s go get you set up at the village.” And just like that he turned and walked off on me. With my book. And not even checking to see if I was following. What a jerk.

I ran off after him. I was so not waiting around for another… creeper to show up. He mentioned it blowing me up, so maybe that was the explosion I heard the night before. Maybe he ran into one on the way to drop those tools off. And those tools- I don’t know why he would’ve helped if he didn’t think I needed it. Especially with how nice this village looks. He didn’t say if he built it or not, wouldn’t answer any questions about it. The place looks deserted besides him, but he did say he was the only person here. Once he gets back from mining, as he said, he promised to sit and discuss what’s going on here.

I hope he doesn’t think I’m going to do anything he says just cause he saved me. I’d hate to have to hit the guy. He is pretty cute. I guess while I have time I should describe him. He’s about my age, I’d guess around 18 to 23. He has light blonde hair that’s cut pretty short and light green eyes. He was wearing what he called iron armor, when I asked about it. He looks pretty rugged, but he told me on the way here that he’d been here a long while by himself. He also looked like he’d been working out…

I hear him coming back. I intend to ask him plenty of questions, and I’ll write down as much as I can afterwards. Or if he doesn’t mind, I’ll write it while we talk. I want to remember as much as I can.

His name is Alexander. He said he’s cool with me writing as we talk. He figures if it helps me remember the important parts, then that’s good.

I asked first about the village. Why it was deserted. He said there had been this worlds people here for a time, but slowly they were turned into zombies and he was forced to kill them.

“Wait, zombies? As in braaaaaaaains?” I can’t help it- It’s so popular at home, it’s like this is some kind of video game or something.

“Those are some of the most common monsters you’ll find here- Zombies, skeletons, spiders, and creepers.” Alex seems so calm talking about these things. Giant freaking spiders, zombies that want to eat your brains, skeletons, and a green thing called a creeper that explodes. I don’t see how he’s not bothered by all this. “I know it sounds pretty scary, but once you know how to deal with each, you’re cool. You may have noticed the door on this place is made of iron. Zombies can break wooden doors, but they can’t break iron. Skeletons can’t shoot through the glass of the windows, and the spiders can’t fit down this entrance to get inside. Creepers will only blow up if they’re close to you- They won’t if you’re watching them through glass. I’ve fortified the buildings of this village to keep these monsters from killing me. It’s made life pretty easy.”

“So how did you come up with the name ‘creeper’ for the explody guys?”

“I didn’t.” Alright, I didn’t expect that one. He just got up and walked away, so… I guess question time is over. Well, I learned a lot! Geez- He’s not very help- Oh, no, actually he’s back already. “Here we go- I found this when I first got here. It describes several parts of the world and how they work, such as creepers, endermen, and even crafting.” He brought a book with him, one that looks very similar to mine, just thicker.

“Endermen? What are endermen?”

“They’re these tall creatures, I’d say about three blocks in height. They’re solid black with purple eyes. Never look at one- It will attack you if it spots you looking at it. And don’t think running inside will help. These guys can teleport.”

“So we’re dead if we look at one of them.”

“To be fair, I have only spotted one. And thankfully, I think he was too far away to be able to see me, or at least to tell I was looking at him. I think they’re rare. At least… Here. There is, according to that book, another dimension to this place where endermen live. Oh, and a dragon. There’s apparently a dragon there, too.” Okay, I don’t know what to say to that one. A dragon. Thank God it’s in a different dimension. “You cool? You got super pale, lady.”

I told him I’m fine. And gave him my name. I’ll get sick of being called “lady” otherwise. I can’t really think of anything else to ask… Oh!

“Do you know how I can get home?” Alexander isn’t answering. He knows something- I can tell by how tense he got.

“You won’t be getting home anytime soon, Jennifer. Sorry.” Wait. Whoa. What? I won’t be home anytime soon? I’m arguing that one out.

“The only way to get back to our world is through the End- The dimension the endermen and the dragon are in. We have to kill the dragon to open the portal home. If I’m not ready to do it, you won’t be able to.”

________

The rest of this is written a while later, because we had a lengthy… discussion about this. I’ll write it the best I remember it here.

“But I have to get home! My mom needs me, I help with my younger siblings and I help make money and… and… I have school and…”

“Jennifer, calm down.” He took to calling me by name super fast. “It’s not bad here- And for all we know, time moves differently here compared with home. I’ve been here three years now, though, and I’m not ready to face that dragon. We will die if we try to fight that thing. We have to be ready.”

“Then we’ll be ready! Soon! I can’t stay here, Alexander! You can’t tell me you don’t want to go home.” He just watched me for a minute.

“I have it better here than I ever had it at home. If I wanted to, I could stay in this village forever and never go hungry, never have to work a day in my life. The only thing stopping me from that is I want to stay in shape.” I felt pretty bad at that. It tells me either he didn’t have any family, or his family didn’t really give a crap about him.

“What do we have to do to be ready? After we kill it, you can come back here, but… My family needs me. I have to get home.” Alexander stayed quiet for a number of minutes, or at least what felt like it, before he nodded slightly.

“You need to learn to use that sword I gave you. If you can’t even kill a zombie, you won’t kill the dragon. While you practice on that, I’ll focus on getting us armor and some potions. Yes, there are potions in this world, and health potions will be your best friend. We’ll only get one shot at this, so we’ll have to make it count.” I nodded. I was ready to do anything I had to to get out of this. This was going to be scary and hard, and there was a real risk we’d both die. “Now. You need to get some sleep- I’ll make me an extra bed later. You can have mine for now, and I’ll take the floor.”

“Alright… Thanks, Alex. Good night.” With that, I headed back down to the first floor of the tower, where he’d set up a bed, and laid down. I’ll try to sleep now that I’ve written all of this up.

Journey in a Strange World, Stories

Journey In a strange world – Day 1

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Day 1:

I have awoken in a strange place, with nothing on me but my clothing, a backpack, a blank book, and a pencil. Everything here looks… Odd. The trees are not round, but rectangular. The leaves form blocks as well. Even the dirt and rocks appear to be of a more blocky nature than at home.

I found a small pillar of dirt with another piece beside it. The single piece comes to my waist. Using it as a guide for the height of a “block” of dirt, as I will call it for now, it appears the pillar is four blocks tall. I am, in this new measurement, two blocks tall. I can easily jump a block high, but not much more than that. I think I will explore a bit, and try to find some shelter. While it appears to be early morning, I don’t want to waste my day playing with blocks of dirt.

———

I have determined I need tools and resources. I cannot find any pre-built shelter, and to make matters worse, I saw a giant spider come walking out of a nearby cave. Not a place I want to spend my night. I will try to get some wood off of one of the surrounding trees, though without an axe or knife, I imagine that will be difficult.

———

Well, I feel rather foolish. I spent about an hour, or at least what feels like it, trying to move a block of wood from the tree or anything like that. Then when I got fed up, I hit the tree. Amazingly, it started to crack. Continuing to hit the tree, the block of wood I was hitting shrank into a very small cube of wood. Though the block was from the middle of the trunk, the tree did not fall over, and the blocks above simply hung in the air. Picking the small cube up, I puzzled over it a minute before setting the cube of wood nearby. It expanded again, forming the original block of wood. 

Since hitting the tree didn’t hurt my hand or give me splinters, I will have to get more wood to make a small shack out of. It will have to suffice until I can figure out how to cut these wooden blocks down into more usable supplies. I imagine if I had a pickaxe I could mine up some of these stones. I certainly can’t break them as I can the wood- It took far longer, and the stone simply vanished instead of shrinking. I can, it seems, pick up dirt and sand the way I do wood, without a tool. There is a small river nearby, and the shore is made of sand blocks. I may be able to do something with them later, so I have put them in my backpack. I suppose I should keep track of my inventory at the moment.

20 blocks of what looks to be oak wood, 4 blocks of dirt, 8 blocks of sand, 1 book, 1 pencil, 1 backpack

That’s not really much. I should see if I can figure out a way to use these for anything more than building a shelter, and probably grab some more wood. While I’m at it, I should figure out how to start a fire. I don’t know how cold it will get here overnight, but I’ll want to be warm.

———

I have been unable to figure out how to create a fire, but on the plus side, I have found some apples around where the trees I… Hit down? I didn’t really cut them down I suppose. Either way, there were apples around where the trees had been. I’m thankful for finding those, as I was starting to get hungry. I’ve also spotted what look to be pigs and cows nearby. I’m hoping I can find something to use as a weapon, should I get desperate enough to have to hunt. 

I should really be trying to figure out a weapon, though. I’m not sure what those giant spiders will do if they spot me. I also don’t know what other predators or enemies lurk out here- There could be wolves or bears or… Really, several things. I look to be in a forest, but with how strange this place is, anything could come at me. That makes it all the more important that I get a shelter built as soon as I can.

———

I took a break from collecting wood and setting up my shelter to take a look at what I’ve got. I’ve decided I will from now on call the blocks in the environment that are full size just that, blocks. The shrunken versions I will call cubes. As I was holding a cube of wood and trying to figure out how I could cut it down into more usable pieces, a small little image appeared next to my hand that had what looked like four cubes of crates or boxes, or maybe stacked wooden planks. When I took the four cubes, the cube of wood disappeared. This seems like a way to turn one object into another. I will experiment with everything I have, except for this book, and see what else I can do.

———

Just as I was about to give up finding something else I could do, I set two of the wooden plank cubes by each other and a floating image of sticks appears. That’s a step forward! I created more planks to see if there’s some other formation that will get me something else. There was one more: If I put four of them in a square of two cubes by two cubes, I saw a strange floating block. I took it and, out of curiosity, placed it in the world. It’s an odd table with nine squares on it in a three squares by three squares square pattern. Putting two cubes on the table, in a vertical line, gets me the floating stick image above the table. I assume this table is to assist in creating objects. I wonder what else I can create using this table. I will spend only a small time testing it, however. I still need to finish my shelter before dark.

———

More progress! I managed to make what appears to be a chest. This took eight cubes of wooden planks placed in the outer squares of the table, leaving the center square empty. I’m beginning to wonder if I can combine two different items. This, however, will have to wait until tomorrow. I will finish my shelter and hide out for the night. Tomorrow, I will pack up my inventory of items and head out to try to find any other humans in this place. Hopefully, I can find someone to tell me how to get home.

———

It’s almost dark, but I finished my small shelter. It’s three blocks tall, four blocks wide, and three blocks deep. I couldn’t figure out how to build a door, so once I’m inside, I’ll just have to block myself in. I’m sitting outside to write at the moment as I have no flashlight to be able to write inside the building. I kinda wish I had a bed or a sleeping bag as well, but I’ll just have to sleep on the floor for now. I see the sun going down and spiders emerging from the nearby cave. I will retreat inside and try to sleep. Quick end of the day inventory:

1 book, 1 pencil, 1 backpack, 1 chest, 1 combining table, 2 cubes of wooden planks, 4 sticks, 5 cubes of oak wood, 4 cubes of dirt, 8 cubes of sand

Hopefully tomorrow I can begin heading home.

———

I didn’t sleep very long before I awoke to a very… Disturbing sound. There was a low moaning and growling just outside. It sounded like something out of a zombie movie. I also hear an odd rattling, and an odd hissing. I’m glad I didn’t wait to take my chances with the night, but I fear what awaits me at dawn. I’m sure, just judging by the sheer amount of sounds, that there are a large number of creatures outside my little hut. I am sure they will be waiting when the sun comes up.

I’m being a little crazy to write this- I broke a piece out of the ceiling to get some light in here. It doesn’t look like any of the spiders that have climbed the building can get through the hole, so that’s good. I tried hitting one with my backpack- It actually knocked the sucker off the roof. I was a bit surprised, but I guess that’s better than nothi—

A freaking arrow just hit the block above my head. I moved out from under the hole, but holy crap! A freaking arrow! Out of nowhere! I think someone or something out there wants me dead, and that is… Scary. I’ll have to be super careful when I leave in the morning. And I’ll have to leave- I can’t risk starving either. I have to get home.

There was just an explosion in the distance. This place is nuts. And the worst part: No one is going to believe any of this when I get home. They’ll all think I lost my mind. No one’s going to be able to explain to me what’s going on. No one’s going to understand what I’m going through here, what I will have been through. And by the end of this, I probably will be out of my mind. I’m not a survivalist, I’m just an average girl. I play on my computer, I watch TV, I go to work, I hang out with friends, but I do not do the outdoors and survival thing. And on top of that, I just heard my chest outside open- Yes, I made the mistake of leaving it, and all my stuff but the backpack and book, out there. I’m not a survivalist. I guess tomorrow I’ll have to collect resources as I walk. I’ll figure it out. I’m plugging up the hole and going to try to sleep. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a good day for me.

Nameless, Stories

Nameless – Chapter 1: The Riot

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In a world where a name means everything, what would you do without one? You have a name, and you are known, you are visible, you exist. With a name, you are free.

If you were born without a name in this world, what would you do for one? Would you stop crimes, or commit them? Would you sell your soul for a chance to exist? Or would you let yourself be nothing, knowing no one would ever remember you or what you did with your life? What if not having a name meant you were forever a slave, at the command of the named ones and unable to make your own choices? What would you do then?

How would your answer change if you knew that an evil being could take your name? A new dark power that had risen and could take your identity, make you their slave, and no one could change things back. Would you risk it, for the chance to be real? Would you risk more to destroy this new evil?

Would you do it not for a name, but to protect those who will never even know you?

——-

Our story of one who stared Fate in the eyes for the good of people they had, and would, never meet begins on a sunny Sunday around noon. I was only 19 at the time, and among the nameless. A farmer had taken me in and raised me as a slave, though an educated one, out of the kindness of his heart. His son ran the farm now, and he did a great job at it. The farm was prosperous, the slaves all well kept and in control. Being the only slave who had been raised on the farm, I was the only one of us with a real education. The rest of the slaves had been bought, brought in to work the fields and care for the animals as the farm grew over the years.

My chores were more home oriented- I did dishes, cooked lunch and dinner, did laundry, and cleaned each room of the house on a schedule. Monday was the kitchen, the front room, and the entrance hall. Tuesday, the focus was the rest of the first floor. Wednesday centered around cleaning the front half of the second floor, Thursday the back half. Friday and Saturday covered the third floor, and Sunday was my day off cleaning. Instead, Sunday consisted of preparing a large meal for dinner, greeting guests as they came over, and watching the children of guests that visited.

It was a quieter Sunday than usual, with no guests planned for the day and no large meal to cook. Instead, I was tasked with repairing various outer portions of the house, such as weathered paint on the porch or the broken railing on the front steps. I was working hard to repair the front gate when I heard a commotion down the road, toward town.

“Come in the house,” My owner, Reynold, called to me. I frowned and looked over.

“But I’m not finished with the gate yet-“

“That doesn’t matter, come inside,” He repeated. “The gate can be repaired another time, I just received a message from one of the town mages that there is a riot brewing in town. I would much rather you were safely in the building, in case they come this way.” I got up from my crouch by the gate at this news, grabbing the tools I had been using and trotting back to the house. Reynold let me in and closed the door behind me. “I ordered the others to get in the barn and barricade the doors. Should anyone break in, they have been given my permission to attack or to defend themselves. Their children are all upstairs. I want you to go up there as well and try to keep them calm.”

“Yes sir,” I agreed, setting my tools to the side and heading upstairs.

“No matter what you see or hear,” He called as I reached the stairs, “Remain upstairs and protect the children. Do not, for any reason, come down until I come for you. Do you understand me?”

“But sir, what if you are hurt or killed defending the house?” I asked, concerned. He had been kind to me as we’d grown up, and had continued to be so to me when he took ownership of all of us. Of course I cared if he got hurt.

“You’ll know if I am. Keep defending the children, and if I am killed, lead them and the remaining slaves to the capital. You remember my scholar friend in the palace?” He asked.

“Yes sir, Master Jerra,” I answered.

“Go to him. There is a note in the room the children are in, in the top right drawer of the desk. I wrote it a while ago, in case something should ever come up. Take it with you, it should appease the palace guards. Now go!”

“God keep you safe,” I told him before I ran up the stairs. As I reached the top, I could hear shouting and pounding downstairs. Did Reynold have a weapon on him? Did he even know how to use one? I had never seen him with sword or knife in hand, but his family was quite wealthy. It would make sense to train him to defend himself and anyone with him, should someone attack him or the farm. I knew there were trained guards among the slaves, but they were all in the barn. They could not protect him here.

The children were all huddled in a corner in the room they’d been sent to. It was Reynold’s parent’s room. He had left it as it was when his father had died, which was lucky for me. That meant there was a sword hung on the closet door. I ran over and grabbed it, keeping it with me.

“Don’t you worry,” I told the children gently. “We’ll all be alright. Just stay calm, and stay quiet. I need to be able to hear when the all-clear is called by Master Reynold.” They all nodded gravely, understanding the situation was dangerous. We all stayed quiet, myself by the door and the children remaining still in the corner. I heard the front door break open or down, and the sound of a fight. Everything was saying I should go and aid in the defense, that Reynold would be outnumbered, but orders were orders. I knew he wanted to be sure the children were protected, and I was the last line of defense for that.

~~~~~~~

It felt like hours before the sound of fighting finally died out downstairs. No one had come up the stairs through the fight, so I had to assume Reynold had at least stood long enough for help to arrive. I couldn’t be sure that he was still alive, but I knew he’d lasted long enough for neighbors or friends to step in and give aid, keep those of us upstairs safe. For all I knew, some of the slaves from the barn had broken orders and came to his aid. He had been kind to them, from what I saw, so why wouldn’t they? Surely even the minute scorn for all those with names could not be enough for them to ignore his kindness? It wasn’t enough for me, and I was an ordinary enough slave.

It was several minutes of silence before I really started to worry. What if I was wrong and the rioters were just exploring the house and taking anything of value now? They wouldn’t need to be noisy for that, and a normal conversation did not carry to this room that well. I knew that much from past experience. Could Reynold really still be alive? He had said I would know if he was dead. It didn’t seem possible he could be dead, but what if he was? Was it only a matter of time before rioters came up the stairs and I was all that stood between them and these terrified children?

If it came to that, the children could escape out the window. The first floor’s roof was just outside this window, and there was a trellis they could climb down. The older children could help the younger. Hurrying to the window, I checked outside. Everything looked clear, so they should be able to break for the barn, or the woods if the barn was not safe. The oldest child was 12, so he could lead them to safety and wait there until I caught up. I could hold off the rioters to buy them time, then make my own escape. We could make it to the capital, if we were quick and careful.

A noise on the stairs made me hurry quietly back to my position by the door. Was this Reynold, or was it a rioter come to search the upstairs for money, valuables, and slaves? I would know in a minute. If that door opened, I would be ready to strike if I did not see Reynold’s face, no matter who it was.

“This door you said, son?” An older man’s voice said as the footsteps stopped outside the door. There was a mumbled answer, and then a knock on the door. “I’m going to open the door,” The older man called gently. “Reynold is with me, but he is hurt. Please, do not attack when I open the door. It wouldn’t do any of us any good.” I hesitated, taking a step back and holding the sword at the ready. This could be a trick, so it was best to be ready, but I would be back a little to give them room if it wasn’t.

The door opened. A man stood there, supporting Reynold, but did not enter until the sword had been lowered. I didn’t lower it until Reynold gave me a small nod, then put it on a dresser and moved to help support him. “Now what business did you have getting hurt like this?” My voice was shaky, but I tried to sound stern, to lighten the mood. Reynold chuckled a little.

“I forgot to dodge. My mistake,” He answered quietly. “You remember Jerra,” He added.

Jerra was in his late forties, a plump and cheerful man. He made his living as a scholar and a mage. Thankfully, his magical abilities included healing, so Reynold would be able to heal faster. Jerra and his family lived in the capital, making it odd that he was here to help when Reynold needed it, but I wasn’t going to question such good fortune.

“Of course.” We got Reynold to the bed and laid down. “Shall I go let the others know it’s safe to come out? They must be terribly worried by now.”

“Yes, please,” Reynold nodded. “Take the children with you… And that sword, in case any stragglers are still on the grounds.”

“When you return, please bring hot water and some towels and bandages. We’ll get his wounds patched up,” Jerra smiled kindly to me. The children did not need to be told to get up and follow. We hurried down to the barn, the sword back in my hands. Bodies were strewn around the downstairs, but I got the children to keep moving. Once they were to the barn and the message was given, the other slaves started to come out and reassure their children. I left them and hurried to the kitchen, then the storage room to grab what Jerra had requested. Hurrying to the bedroom again, the tension felt completely shattered. Things were calmer, knowing Reynold was alive and Jerra seemed to think he could help patch up his wounds. The sounds of the riot were a distant memory, the children and their parents were all safe, and things would go back to normal.

“Everyone’s safe?” Reynold asked as I came back in the room. His shirt had been removed to reveal several bleeding gashes. Nodding, I passed over what Jerra had requested.

“Please, Master Jerra, is there anything else I may do to help?” I asked politely.

“Not at the moment, my dear,” Jerra answered kindly. “I’ve got him from here.”

“Do you think you can handle clearing the bodies out of the house?” Reynold asked. “I know you don’t usually handle heavy labor like that… If you don’t think you could do it, or if your stomach isn’t up to all the blood, I will understand.”

“I can handle it, sir,” was out my mouth in an instance. I bowed and hurried out of the room and back downstairs.

Moving the bodies was dirty and time consuming work, but it wasn’t that hard to do. The blood was everywhere, but I did not find it to be upsetting at all. This was mildly surprising, having never dealt with more than shallow cuts that come from doing chores. How I could handle this so easily was a mystery to me. Several of these people were ones I knew, people Reynold invited for Sunday dinners or to holiday parties. Most of them were, however, horrible to the nameless, and got no sympathy from me.

As I dragged the last body from the house and laid it out in the row I had started for the inspection of Reynold or the town guards, someone called out to me. Jerra was leaning out a window on the second floor. “Come upstairs, please. We need to speak with you.”

“Yes sir!” I called back up, and headed back in the house. I didn’t mind showing up dirty and filthy before my master and his kind-hearted friend, as it was routine when Reynold had orders for me in the middle of chores. Both men were still in the same room, Jerra perched on the dresser and speaking quietly.

“She didn’t so much as flinch,” Jerra was saying. “Most girls her age, brought up as carefully and protected as she has been, would not have been able to handle it. But she did it, without hesitation or grimacing, without becoming ill.” He said it with a tone of awe to his voice. Reynold looked surprised.

“Nothing? Just… As if it was nothing? But she’s never dealt with more than small cuts and scrapes…” They fell silent and looked over as I came in. “You’re alright?” Reynold asked. “I thought no one got up here, but I wasn’t sure…”

“No one, sir. And let me just say you are a terrible, terrible person for making me listen to that whole fight and not come to even see how you faired,” I added with a weak smile. “I was afraid you’d be dead by the time it was over.”

“As I said, you’d have known if I had died,” Reynold promised gently. “But I did not, so you won’t understand what I mean.”

“You never told her?” Jerra asked, amused. “About what your mother did when you both were 6?”

“Of course I didn’t. It’s never been necessary before,” Reynold replied simply. He looked to me. “Please, find a seat. You must be exhausted with stress and after clearing out those bodies- Which Jerra informs me did not seem to phase you at all? Handling the dead?” He asked, watching me curiously. I shook my head.

“Why should it? They couldn’t hurt me, after all.”

“Most people hate handling the dead,” Jerra explained. “Especially those unaccustomed to the work. But you did not so much as flinch at the work. The blood did not at all bother you?”

“None. It smelled terrible, but so do some of the cleaning solutions I have to use,” I answered, blinking and confused. “Why should a small clean up job bother me?”

“Why indeed?” Jerra asked quietly, before falling silent, looking thoughtful.

“Well, I should explain a bit. You see, when we were little… Mother noticed how close of friends we were becoming,” Reynold explained. “She always told me something was different about you. Something was… Odd, not quite normal. Not bad, just… Just different. You weren’t scared of things that frightened other children. You weren’t afraid of punishment, even when you were older and father became harsher about them. All you ever worried about or showed any fear for was my safety, and that of the few other friends you’d made.

“So Mother decided you might one day be a good companion, a good friend for me. She thought a good way to seal that was a spell she knew Jerra could perform. It ties us to each other, in such a way that should you come to harm and need help, I will know. Should I die, you will feel it and know that you must try to handle things for me. I have no children, so if I die… The farm could be taken, before anyone I want to have it could get to it. It would be up to you to get word to Jerra, who I’ve decided to leave the farm to if he’s still alive, or to his children if he is gone by then.”

“I’d like to hope I will live for a long time, but not so long as to see you go, Reynold. Nor you, young lady. You’re good people, both of you,” Jerra smiled. “Now, that spell has been renewed every year, as the dying wish of Esme,” He added as an explanation. “Though the next renewal is coming up tomorrow, so I don’t know how strong it’s fairing right now. But that’s why I came today.”

“And it’s a damn good thing you did!” Reynold answered. “If it wasn’t for you, we’d have found out for sure how well it was working. They were about to skewer me.”

“So this spell… Tells you when I get hurt?” I asked, confused. This seemed entirely ludicrous to me. “Why is the spell not the other way around? Isn’t it more important that I, as the slave, can help you when you are hurt? Why is it important you know when I am hurt?”

“Because Mother had a vision that you would be very important one day. She wasn’t sure to whom, nor why, but she was convinced you were the one who needed to be kept safe, not me,” Reynold smiled. “Of course she never wanted anything to happen to me, but you… You were, and are, as I’ve said, different. My mother felt… She felt that you were important, or one day would be. She never did explain better than that.”

“Though I believe I can,” Jerra offered. “I noticed something else when you were doing your clean up task just a few minutes ago. You are a small little thing- Maybe five foot three at best, height wise, and you can’t be more than 110 pounds. Yet you were lifting and carrying bodies that I know are 200 or 300 pounds, and lugging them around like it was nothing. Reynold said you’ve never done heavy lifting, so how do you do it? How did you carry weight over your shoulder that Reynold, a physically fit and healthy young man, would have trouble shouldering?” Jerra’s eyes were on me, and I got the distinct feeling that he was staring through me, into my soul.

That was an odd thought. What would it matter if he did? Was there anything there to see? Of course not. I was normal enough, I just must be stronger than I look. I said as much, and Jerra laughed.

“Just stronger than you look? Girl, that’s more than ‘stronger than you look’ by any account! No… There is something different, something special about you, and Reynold agrees.”

“You do things all the time that you don’t seem to be aware of or don’t seem to realize you’ve done. That cup you broke, two weeks ago? I tried for three days after to shatter its twin just by gripping it too hard, and I couldn’t. That cup was solid, one inch thick ceramic. Yet you crushed it in your hand. A month ago, you kicked a large rock and didn’t manage to hurt yourself, but did send the rock three feet from you. I managed to weigh that rock, and it was 70 pounds of solid rock. How didn’t you shatter your foot? How did you make it go so far?” He smiled, seeing bewilderment on my face, and shook his head. “There’s more. You were never taught to swim, had never seen anyone swim, yet you saved my friends daughter when she wandered off the dock last year. What’s more… You were completely dry. She was soaking wet, couldn’t explain how you’d managed to pull her back up onto the dock that set three feet off the water, and you were dry as stone. That’s not normal, girl.”

“All I did was reach for her. I fell in myself and managed to pull us to the dock and climb up,” I answered, frowning. “I don’t know how I dried off so fast. But you know I climb really well. The rock was odd, but surely not that odd. And the cup was just weakened- You’d dropped it the day before. There was a chip out of it.”

“The cup with the chip out of it is the one still in the cabinet,” Reynold countered. “If you don’t believe me, I can’t force you to. But I know you are special. For that reason, we are going to the capital.”