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.

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.