Archive of Our Own

Steve and Alex have been alone for seventeen hundred years, two months, and eight days. Granted, Steve was the one around for longer, and Alex only showed up after year twelve hundred, but it was just the two of them for a very, very long time.

They've travelled all across the world, visiting villages, fighting off mobs, making the most of their solitude. Steve was the one always trying to find out more about the past, where they came from- while Alex simply wanted to go out and do more things in order to keep her mind away from the emptiness.

Both of them had woken up alone, with no memory of who they were or what their past was. The only think they remembered was their names, and the basic idea of how to craft.

Steve lets out a huff as he wipes his brow, lowering his pickaxe in the mines. "Hey! Alex!" He turns to see her trying to scoop up an axolotl, cursing under her breath as the slippery thing keeps on avoiding her bucket.

"Heeey, I think we've mined all the ores in this lush cave." He says, groaning. "Can we leave now? I've been here for weeks and I want to see actual sunlight again."

"Not until I- ugh- get this slippery little bastard into- my- bucket!" Alex lets out a laugh of victory as she finally manages to wrangle the blue axolotl into her arms. "Gotcha!"

Steve lets out a chuckle, before beginning to mine upwards in that familiar stair pattern. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, yeah- aren't you going to backtrack so we can find our way back to base easier?"

"Oh, come on! I'm not going through more of those caves- I've seen them way too much!" He grumbles. "I'd rather just dig my way up. It'd take too long."

They continue upward as Steve digs out the cramped tunnel, bit by bit. He'd (unfortunately) lost the netherite pickaxe enchanted with efficiency 3 after a very unlucky run-in with a horde of mobs, so he had to make do with his usual diamond pickaxe.

"I really need more emeralds..." He mutters to himself. "That plains village we passed by had a librarian. He had mending on him, Alex. Mending." Steve gives Alex a side-eye.

"We didn't exactly have emeralds on us, Steve. You spent the last of them on enchanting your pickaxe." She scrunches up her face. "Remind me, how did that go?"

"Aleeeex..." He groans, embarrased.

"What did you say to me, again? Oh, right! 'It's no big deal, it's just a few mobs!'" She mocks him playfully. "And you decided to charge head-first, right into a spawner room."

They continued to banter, filling the silence with their words. The tunnel made their words echo throughout the stone walls.

"Steve, you absolute donkey!" Alex shouts, laughing as she punches his shoulder. "You tried to do what in the Nether?"

"I tried to make a village! Granted, it lasted somewhat long- but uhhh-" He lets out a nervous chuckle. "I forgot that iron golems go after all zombies. Including zombified piglins. Soooo..."

"It caused a horde and you had to evacuate everyone out?"

"Mhm."

She rolls her eyes. "No wonder that one village with the Nether portal had such high prices. You pissed them all off!"

Steve looks away, even more embarrassed now.

"How the heck are you the more reckless one when you've been around longer than me?!"

"I was bored, okay! And don't forget the time you tried to-"

They're so engrossed in arguing that Steve doesn't notice that his pickaxe was swinging through the air.

"Huh?" He turns back to the front, where his tunnel stopped.

Well, it didn't exactly stop- it's more like he ran into another cave.

"Wait, is this an abandoned mineshaft?" Alex asks, before running up ahead of Steve. "Oh, neat! We definitely haven't found this one before- new loot!"

"Alex!" He groans, before catching up with her. "Wait for me, dang it!"

They start walking down the abandoned mineshaft. It feels... off, for some reason. Steve frowns, narrowing his eyes.

"This doesn't look like any of the mineshafts we've seen before..." He mutters. "Where are the support beams? And there's no rails, either..."

"Who cares? It's a cool new mineshaft!" Alex gushes. "If it's different, then maybe we've found something new or super-rare!"

"I wonder what kind of loot is at the end of this!"

She rushes off and Steve shouts, following behind her. "Wait, Alex-!"

He grabs her by the hem of her shirt in the nick of time. Alex lets out a yelp, straightening her arms out to try and break her fall.

There's a massive 1x1 pit in the middle of the mineshaft for some reason. Steve carefully drags Alex back.

"That could've been really bad." He says. "Saved you a respawn there."

"Thanks." She peers down the hole. "How deep is this thing...?"

Alex squints down. She can't see the bottom.

Steve, on the other hand, is preoccupied with something else. His eyes widen, and he tugs on Alex's sleeve. "Alex. Look."

"What?"

He points at the block next to the hole. "It's cobblestone."

"Yeah? And?" Alex sticks her tongue out. "We've seen cobblestone before, in dungeons and strongholds."

"Not like this!" Steve peers down the hole. "It's a pillar! I think it goes down the entire length of the hole!"

"... I mean, that is kinda weird, now that you say it..." Alex trails off.

"Alex." Steve grins like a kid on Christmas day. "Do you know what it reminds me of? Us."

"The two-block hole! You know!"

Right- the both of them sometimes made vertical strip-mines, when they wanted to quickly find a cave or a stronghold.

"I mean..." She tilts her head, eying the out-of-place cobblestone. "You could have made this mine and forgotten about it."

"No way!" He says, shaking his head. "I'm sure of it! I haven't been to this place before- its a completely new mine!"

"Suuure..." Alex says, snorting. "Like the randomly placed torches and tunnel is going to convince me."

Steve sighs. "Fine. I'm still marking this place on the map for later."

The both of them go around the hole and continue along the tunnel, curious. It's not everyday that they find some new world generation.

"Don't you think the tunnel's a bit... weird?" Alex looks at the wall, where there's a few blocks mined out. "It looks like someone just randomly mined this place out and placed a torch here. You suuuure you're not trying to prank me?"

"I'm not!" Steve says, his voice getting more confused and stressed. "If you don't believe me, then I'll prove it!"

He rummages in his inventory to find his trusty map. There's markings on it on the places he's visited before, mines he's already cleared out.

"It isn't on my map!"

"You could have just not marked it." She shoots back.

Steve grumbles, but the two of them stop in front of something so egregiously man-made that all thoughts of this being an abandoned mineshaft fell away.

"Steve."

"Mhm."

"Those are oak stairs."

"Yup." He pops the 'p'.

Alex gives him a look that screams 'really?'

"Dude." She says, tired of his so-called bullshit. "You really need to stop trying to trick me."

Steve can only bury his face in his shirt, inhale, and let out a muffled scream of frustration.

Alex ignores him, stepping up towards the stairs and climbing them to see the sun barely peeking out of the horizon.

"Not bad! It's sunrise!" She grins, gesturing for Steve to come over. "Look! We don't have to sleep before traveling!"

"I guess..." Steve looks at the biome they're in, a nice rolling plains biome. He sees more torches placed around the entrance of the cave in a way that was definitely new, and has to bite his tongue as to not freak out about it more.

"There's even a flower field in the distance! And ooo, it's alliums!" Alex wanders closer, kneeling down.

She pauses, however, when she sees something new peeking through the dirt. "Huh...?"

Steve shrugs, thinking that she's just getting distracted again. He's been around for a long time compared to her, and thought she just got bored of seeing stone in the caves.

Alex begins digging. She grunts, pulling out a bundle of alliums and-

"Ough!" She lets out a small noise as she falls back, not expecting the alliums to put up such a fight.

She rubs her eyes, before gaping. "Steve! Look!"

"Alliums? We don't really need suspicious stew..." He says, rubbing the back of his head. "We're not going to the Nether until we head back to base, if you want Fire resistance..."

"No! There's something new!"

Alex rushes up to Steve, showing off the plant in her hands. "Look!"

Steve blinks, actually taken aback for once. The plant in front of him is round, beige, with the long stem of the vegetable being a more swampy green than the allium itself.

"What... is that?" He asks, confused.

"I don't know!" Alex gushes. "But one things' for sure- it's a new plant!"

Technically, it was not a "new" plant. Steve knew that before he'd woken up without his memories, before he wandered the plains, the Overworld had recovered from some unknown cataclysm. Many plants and crops were missing, and there was no other life aside from the few animals and the endless hordes of zombies, skeletons, and creepers.

He'd began to find the ruins of the ancient builders and watched life slowly return to the Overworld. First came the mushrooms, then the apples and wheat. Then came pumpkins, the fish, cocoa beans...

Steve kneeled down with Alex, digging up another patch of clumped-together alliums. He took the plant in his hands.

'Onions. They're onions.' A small part of himself told him. It was the same small voice in him that told him how to craft a crafting table, and told him the names of anything he didn't know but felt familiar.

"They're... onions." He says. "I guess they're meant to be eaten."

"Let me try!" Alex wipes off the dirt, before taking a chomp into the onion. She makes a face, before shrugging. "It's... fine, I guess..."

Steve takes a bite of the onion in his own hand. "It's... new, that's for sure." After all, eating an onion wasn't pleasant- all sharp and crunchy, making his eyes water.

Alex pauses, before turning to Steve. "Steve. What if there's new plants? New food?"

Steve nods frantically. He wants to see what's new, same as her. "Yes! Of course, Alex! This also explains the tunnel as well- maybe it's new!"

They spend the rest of their time wandering around the plains and other biomes, trying to find any new plants. And they did.

Almost immediately, near the banks of a river a chunk away, Steve finds some golden grains on top of green stems- and even more interesting, the plant was growing out of the water!

He breaks the plant on top to grab the crop.

'Rice panicle.' His mine supplies to him. He tries to eat it, but spits it out due to the bad taste. "Eugh... is this really a food?"

He puts it back in his inventory. Alex tilts her head. "Maybe you craft with it."

They continue to find more crops around the area- even crops they've seen before but have only found in villages or in chests. It seems like potatoes, beets, and carrots were growing in the wild now. 

Alex runs around gleefully collecting as many crops as possible. "Look! These are tomatoes! And this is cabbage!"

"Amazing..." Steve mutters, taking some of the crops and pulling out a furnace from his inventory. He tries to cook them, but it doesn't do anything.

"Looks like we can't bake them like potatoes." He huffs, crossing his arms. "But they're still good food sources."

Alex nods, before stuffing everything into her inventory. She winces at how cluttered everything is. "Aw man... we probably have to head back to base. I need to put all of this in a chest."

"No worries- I've got it." Steve grins, pulling out his map again. "Hand over the compass, I'll find the way."

Now, Thatch was a simple Villager. They lived a simple life, farmed their crops, mingled with the other Villagers near the town square, and went to bed right when the sun set. 

Their biggest worry in life was mostly about zombies, even though an iron golem protected the village. Raids from illagers weren't even a problem in the mountains because of how isolated it was.

Not much happened at the village. It was a boring life, which Thatch liked. Boring meant they were safe.

So when they woke up one day to suddenly find their house had gotten two times bigger, of course they freaked out.

"What in the Overworld-?!" They get up from bed, looking at the lantern net to him, the chest nearby the side, and the second bed and white stained windows.

Their first thought was that the heroes, somehow, ended up visiting their village and renovated the entire place overnight without waking him up. From what they've heard from gossip, those two were practically bored deities compared to them.

But even with Steve and Alex's building skills and speed, there was no way they could have done this, right?!

Thatch stumbles down the stairs that weren't there before, and was greeted by a furnace, bookshelves, crafting table,  and a fancy two-seat table made from a trapdoor and wooden stairs.

"..." They're kind of wondering why they've got a house that would make most of their neighbors jealous, looking through the chest.

'All my old stuff is there- potatoes, oak saplings, carrots...'

They look around for a bit, not really processing that okay, they've got a new house now. Thatch isn't complaining, thought! The new clay walls are sturdier than planks, and they look rather colorful, too- a pretty light grey and purple color.

The Villager steps outside and woah are the new houses pretty. The once oak-plank and cobblestone houses are replaced with strong clay and deepslate brick roofs and bases.

Some of them were two-story like theirs, others had chimneys to them, and there were even market stalls with wool roofs.

Thatch turns to their neighbor, Slate. The mason was similarly agape, wondering how in the world this could have happened.

"By the Hosts, did we wake up from a dream?" They ask, baffled. Thatch mutters to himself. "You reckon I fell asleep for days and didn't wake up, and the heroes themselves visited?"

"No!" Slate exclaims. "I asked Arthur, they've been awake last night- and they said that they just- fell unconscious!" The mason Villager paces back and forth. "When they woke up, the place was like this!"

Well. That made even less sense, and was terrifying from a certain point of view. If the heroes did not do it, then what did?

Thatch kind of just stares ahead, while Slate straightens up, their smile growing. "Wait, if all the houses have been rebuilt... let's go see the town square!"

"Hm." Thatch grumbles under their breath about wasting time and wondering where exactly his crops are now, but they follow Slate over to where the rest of the village is gathering.

"What's happening?!"

"Where's my workplace?! It's all mixed around and there's new houses!"

"I think I found the butcher's place... Veal! It's near the middle, to the west!"

The whole village was bustling around, with Villagers all confused and worried. There was even a second iron golem nearby, standing guard over all the panicked Villagers.

Thatch waits there, right by the bell, and catches glimpse of Arthur.

The librarian was an odd one. They sold Bane of Arthropods, Mending, and Protection. They were the one that the heroes mostly talked to, due to their enchantments being highly prized.

Thatch thinks Arthur is just a show-off. 'I swear, ever since that fool reached Mastery, they've been living the easy life!'

Arthur notices them as well. "Ah, farmer! It's good to see you!" They pause, before scratching their chin. "Which one are you again?"

"I'm Thatch." They hiss out their own name, annoyed. "Just because I have five siblings does not mean you should be forgetting my name."

"Right, Thatch... you're wondering where a farm is, correct?"

Thatch nods. Arthur points over to the edge of the village, where there's a house. "Look behind that house. There's a bunch of crops there."

The farmer grumbles, bidding the librarian farewell before leaving. When he reaches the house, he's pleasantly surprised to see that it connects to the garden behind it.

'Now I have a shaded place to take a break! And it's right next to the farm, too!'

They happily open the door to the garden before realizing something else has changed.

"What the heck are these new crops?!"

It took them a while to get used to the new plants growing in between the carrots and potatoes they usually grew. There was lettuce and tomatoes also growing in the garden.

Thatch does their usual routine- check the crops and how they've been growing, harvest the ripened ones, put them in the chest.

The tomatoes and lettuce were trickier, since they'd never seen them before. It took some taste-testing, plucking out tomatoes at different stages of growth, un-burying and burying the lettuce until he could confidently say which ones was ready and which ones were not.

Then noon passed by, and they did their usual walk over to the center of the village. There was even a small fountain near the bell, with a bunch of the other Villagers exchanging food and gossiping.

They sigh, sitting down at the edge of the fountain and just... relaxing. Thatch wonders, yet again, how their life has come to this.

'Let's hope nothing else changes... we already don't know how to deal with this.'

Alex is busy trying to figure out how to craft new foods when it happens.

She absently places in a cabbage, onion, some cooked mutton, and some bread when suddenly, the crafting table comes to life- and poof!

Alex freezes, before grabbing the mutton wrap and holding it up for a better look. "Steve! Steve, look- there are new foods! Guess what I made?!"

The commotion makes Steve and his wolf rush over, along with two of their cats. They bark and meow, just as confused as Steve.

Steve rubs his eyes, looking at the delicious-looking wrap in Alex's hands. "That looks..."

"Tasty, right? I get first dibs!" She hastily bites down on it, before letting out a happy sigh, chewing on the mutton wrap. "Ooooh, this is perfect..."

Steve lets out a chuckle. "I'm at full hunger, so I don't really need one now- but we can try crafting new stuff if that's the case!"

"Sure!"

Alex continues her culinary escapades, feeding the raw meat to the tamed wolf, while Steve just messes around in the crafting table, wondering if there were any new crafting recipes.

The cats meow, and Alex chuckles, tossing them some fish too. "Don't want to get left out, huh?"

Steve hums, placing down some sticks and other blocks from his inventory- planks, sticks, slabs- and yelps when he actually makes something he hasn't before.

"It's... a cabinet?" He places it down, opening the doors. Alex checks it as well, before shrugging. "It's the same as a barrel. Nothing too interesting."

"Yes, but it's different! It's got a different crafting recipe!" Steve gleefully rummages through his chest, pulling out more wood types to experiment with. One of the cats from before ends up curling up in it, meowing.

He ends up crafting a couch. A freaking couch. Steve places it down almost immediately and sits on it, sighing happily. "It's like- a cushion, but more. There's even armrests, Alex!"

"Make another one for me?" She asks. He snorts, before getting up and making another one from his crafting table. The moment he places it down next to his own couch, though, it connects like how fences usually do.

"Holy End." He gapes, and Alex almost immediately sits down as well. "It's a double couch! Steve- Steve, we gotta make more, I wanna see if we can make like, some kind of connected round couch-"

"On it already, Alex."

The two of them spent the next hour making more couches, trying to craft more furniture with the supplies they had. They ended up with stools, chairs, shelves, benches- heck, they even had shutters for their windows now that opened like trapdoors, but horizontally!

The wolf and two cats with them at this base are certainly enjoying the bustle, with them jumping up on the couches and kneading their claws on the wool cushions.

At the end of their little exploration, they had a double-chest full of new furniture of almost every type of wood. It was a bit overkill, yes, but they were gleeful to just learn new crafting recipes.

"Steve, you're writing this down, right?" Alex says, turning to him. The older explorer nodded, scribbling down the recipes with a book and quill.

"Three plank and a stick for a shelf, three wool, two planks and two sticks for a couch..."

"I'll leave you to it, then." She chuckles, before frowning a bit. "Oh, darn it..."

"What is it?"

"We used all of our spruce planks up for this." Alex looks through the chests they had in this base. "And there isn't a single spruce sapling in our chests here."

"Really?! But I was planning on building some more!" Steve groans, rubbing his head. "Dang it, I really got carried away..."

"We have birch planks. Isn't that good?"

Steve shoots her a look. "Birch doesn't look good for a whole house." He complains, looking rather peeved about the idea of using that color of wood in his builds. "Nevermind. I'll head out myself."

Alex rolls her eyes. "Don't get lost, loser."

"I won't!" Steve ruffles his wolf's hair. "You stay here with the cats, okay? Don't want a creeper blowing up this base!" He jokes.

Alex watches as Steve packs up his stuff and leaves, following his map over to another biome. Most likely the taiga biome they'd passed by a couple of chunks ago- although she was sure the snowy plains would have some spruce as well.

'I swear, Steve insists on using spruce for everything... It's like he's addicted to building with it.' Alex is amused at how insistent her friend was.

Steve was the type of man to go off on solo adventures when he needed a specific block. Heck, one time he'd left her for several weeks to try and find a lush cave, only to come back with a few azalea bushes, glow berries, and three axolotls for a nearby lake.

She reckons it's because of their isolation, and the fact that they've done everything there was to offer. They've travelled the Nether, went to the End, slayed the Ender Dragon- and for what?

There was no end to them both. Just a lonely immortality.

Alex reckons it would be worse if Steve hadn't found her, though. With how vast the Overworld is, and how lonely it was to be the only living thing, unable to understand the language of the Villagers, the only other passive people (species?) in the world, there was not much else to do.

An eternity alone would have broken either of them. They'd only wished that there were more builders like them to talk to. Maybe they lived in small, isolated villages, the same way Villagers lived and such.

Whatever the case was, Alex wished she wasn't alone.

She sees the sun set and sighs, going over to the white bed in the corner of their base.

There were two beds next each other- one white, one red. Steve liked to cuddle with one of his wolves or cats. Alex preferred to sleep apart but with someone nearby, enough to keep watch over her.

She wonders about who she and Steve might have been, before whatever happened to the ancient builders. Was he just as obsessed with building as he was nowadays? Was she so vigilant and liked fighting off mobs so much because she used to be a soldier?

There were no answers, at least, none that were easy to find. Even with how long they've been around, all the desert temples and trail ruins and ocean monuments they've found, all they've been able to piece together was that there was a whole society of them, and they were prosperous.

Alex was lulled to sleep by her thoughts, her breath slowing as she drifted off.

She dreamed about winding mineshafts. About the dark, about the zombies and creepers and skeletons pursuing her. She dreamed about running, out of breath, terrified.

It was the same dream as before, about her first night. Right after she'd awakened in the desert and had to survive.

She'd died. A LOT. Before she'd gotten out of the desert by the skin of her teeth, got some wood, and made her first crafting table.

Alex punched zombies away, panicking as she blocked off the tunnels with sand and cobblestone behind her. She pants, dragging herself deeper and deeper into the cave.

She didn't know that the darkness itself spawned the monsters. She didn't know that she was only running deeper into danger, her instincts telling her to run run RUN blindly.

Her dream got hazy, the stone walls and coal ores blending into each other like an oil painting. When she finally stops running, she was in front of a 4x4 tunnel, with two torches placed in the front.

Usually, when she dreamed about tunnels like this, she'd see Steve, but he'd just stand there at the end of the dark tunnel. She'd walk towards him, he'd turn around, and she'd see those eerie, glowing white eyes.

But during those dreams, the torches would be redstone torches along the wall, lighting it up with an ominous red. Not this time.

The tunnel was dark. Completely so.

Alex turns around, trying to get back to where her dream was before- but only saw a cobblestone wall.

...

There was no way out except forward.

Alex's hand is shaking as she breaks one of the torches, keeping it in her hand as she steps into the darkness.

Drip, drip, drip went the damp walls of the tunnel. Alex reckons she couldn't just mine up, that there was water above the tunnel.

The darkness swallowed up the light from her torch, only illuminating a single block in front of her.

"It's dark in here, isn't it?" A voice echoes in front of her. Alex jumps up in fear, before she realizes- it's a voice. A NEW voice, one she can understand.

It's another person.

Alex stumbles, running towards the darkness. The place gets colder, and colder, and colder- not cold like the mountains, but cold like the void of The End.

"It's so dark... so, so dark..."

And then she wakes up.

Alex breathes heavily, her hand clutching her bedsheets as the cats nudge against her, meowing. She gets up from her bed, shaking her head as she tries to figure out what to do today.

"Hm... if Steve's gone, then I guess I'll just go mining by myself." She mumbles. That dream of hers made her think that there might be someone out there- as silly as it may sound.

'What if Steve really wasn't lying when he said that he didn't make that tunnel? What if it wasn't a ruin?' Alex wonders.

She takes an iron pickaxe from one of the chests, bundles up some food, and steps out of the house. Alex gives the cats a gentle scratch.

"Keep the house safe, Cod. You too, Salmon."

They let out complaining meows, but Alex pushes them back. "No, no, you're not going caving with me. It's not safe."

She has to close the iron door behind her and feed them fish to distract the two cats, before dashing out to find a cave nearby.

She travels across the sunflower plains this base was built around. There were already tons of houses built around the main base, with Steve having been restless staying in one place.

Mostly, it was because she insisted on having a more defensible base. Alex liked feeling secure when it was night, in order to keep the hostile mobs far, far away from where she slept.

The cave she finds was already explored by Steve, with torches and scattered around the front and a sign at the front.

"Warning! Skulk at the bottom!"

She gives a shrug and goes inside the cave, choosing to mine by herself. She split off the main path, going to the 4x4 tunnel that Steve had most likely started mining, with the torches lining the wall.

She finds some copper, humming as she mines it out. Alex moves on to get some coal, humming as she picks up the coal from the floor.

The 'thunk-thunk-thunk' of her iron pickaxe resounds through the halls. Alex steps forward, deeper and deeper into the hall as the torches become more sparse. The groans of zombies from some far-off cave system connected to the tunnel makes her skin crawl.

"Where's the iron...?" She mutters, confused. "Steve must've mined all of it... gosh darn it."

Suddenly, a zombie lunges from the darkness. Alex lets out a yell, beating it over the head with her pickaxe to knock it down. She switches over to her diamond axe, flashing in the torchlight as she swings it.

The zombie snarls, but dies in one more hit. Other zombies groan and shuffle forward, the 'thwip!' of a skeleton's bow embedding an arrow into her shoulder.

Alex snarls, and she rushes forward, using the momentum of her charge to send her axe crashing down on the next zombie. She jabs another one, backing up while swapping her torch for her shield quickly.

Right on time, too, because the same skeleton from before fires, letting a loud 'THUNK' hit her shield. The builder decides to deal with it directly, ignoring the two zombies in favor of bashing the skeleton's head in.

It goes down in two- nope, three hits. Damn, that zombie was wearing full iron armor, too- talk about a pain in the ass.

Alex spends more time fighting through the mobs until they're all gone, and she hastily places down more torches so they wouldn't spawn.

The builder lets out a sigh of relief, picking up the drops from the mobs. Some arrows from the skeleton, tons of rotten flesh- nothing too interesting.

However, just as she's about to leave, something catches her eye in the corner of the cave where the mobs came from. She steps forward, raising an eyebrow.

A small, 2x1 tunnel. Just enough to fit her or Steve.

'Steve, you dummy... the mobs must have come through here. What'll happen if you get trapped in a bottleneck, huh?'

She sees a pile of items on the floor. It's a bunch of cobblestone floating around in it's compacted form, along with a few crops, a stack of torches, and some dirt.

Confusion, then exasperation lances through her. "Steve, you idiot..." Alex huffs, picking up the materials and placing them in her inventory. "Don't tell me you went mining instead of getting the spruce wood..."

It wouldn't be the first time the other builder got distracted and went to do something else than what he'd said. That wasn't a surprise.

What was a surprise, however, was the brown backpack floating off from the floor. It was a rather plain looking thing, made of leather and with sturdy straps.

Alex furrows her brows. "Huh. That's new."

She picks the backpack up, before placing it down. Alex reaches out in it, before opening it up like a chest.

"Woah!"

Because if Steve really found this backpack in a mineshaft and used it to store loot, that was really cool. More inventory space!

She rummaged around, looking at what he most likely had on him. What she finds is surprising.

An iron knife, a cutting board, and even a brick stove and a pot. Did he somehow learn how to make these on his journey in the cave?

'Ooooh, so that's how you cook the rice!' Her first thought was. Her next thought was, 'Holy END, we can cook more recipes!'

Alex hurriedly carried the backpack back to base, running through the mines and heading back up to the sunflower field before night fell. She pushed the button to open the iron doors, hurriedly getting inside the base to try out the new things Steve had crafted.

The cats meowed at her feet, pawing and kneading her boots for attention. She patted them and set them on her bed, before making room for her experimentation.

"Okay, okay..." She places down the stove, before moving her hand slightly across the top. Alex could feel the heat radiating off of it.

"Does this work like a campfire...?" She takes some raw beef from a chest, placing it onto the stove.

Immediately, the beef shrinks down to it's condensed size, and Alex notes that it's enough to cook nine pieces of meat at once instead of the usual four that campfires usually provide.

"Hm..." She takes out the pot next, looking at it up and down. Alex places it onto the table, but it doesn't seem to do anything yet.

The rest of the meat pops off when it's finished, and she collects it. Alex, instead, places the pot onto the stove. It immediately opens up an interface similar to the crafting interface, and her eyes widen.

"Of course! It's a workbench!" She says, figuring it out. "The only thing left is to try and cook with it! Let's see..."She throws in all of the vegetables into the pot, before taking some out and experimenting until it just... worked.

Through enough combination, she managed to toss in an onion and a beetroot when a carrot and tomato were inside, and the cooking pot started working on the meal. It cooks slowly, before popping out the food on the other side.

"Bowl, I gotta use a bowl..." Alex stumbles over to the crafting table, using three birch planks to hastily craft a bowl to scoop the soup out.

"Ratatouille stew, huh..." She mutters, before taking a sip.

Instantly, a warm feeling flooded her, the same way saturation would work- but it felt somewhat like absorption effect?

Alex checked herself to see nourishment as an effect. What it did, she didn't know yet- but maybe it had to do with her stamina. Because suddenly, she felt like she could sprint through the entire biome!

"Steve, you dummy..." She sighs, looking at the empty red bed next to hers. "Going out again, even after you got killed? The spruce can't be that important..."

Steve wipes his head, cutting down yet another spruce tree from the taiga biome he'd run across. He breaks the leaves floating above, before planting down a spruce sapling.

"Alright... I should keep the rest of the other saplings safe." He says, clutching them before putting them in his inventory. Steve swaps over to his sword and shield, seeing that the sky was getting dark.

He starts his journey back to the base, where Alex was. All things considered, the journey here only took one day!

... Which means he's going to take another day to come back to base. Oh well.

Steve hums, content with what he has and avoiding the mobs roaming around the area. His wolf barks, before running off to fight a skeleton in the distance.

"Woah! Woah there, Bones!" He shouts, rushing forward. "Down, down!"

The wolf howled as it barreled straight into the small horde of mobs, with Steve cursing up a storm. He's never been so glad as to take his diamond armor with him for his trip.

"Guess we're doing this the hard way!"

Steve hacks and slashes through the undead, and baits the creepers juuuust enough so that they exploded, taking out the zombie and skeletons bunched together.

"Easy, Bones." He calls out to his wolf. "I've got your food."

Bones barks, it's tail wagging. Steve feeds it some of the rotten flesh, watching as the wolf's cuts heal. The miner ruffles the wolf's head, before continuing his journey back to base.

He passes by a desert temple that he's already looted; he doesn't have a brush on him, so he'll have to come back. Steve wanders all the way to the edge of the desert to the ocean separating it from the sunflower fields he's sure is... east, right!

"Into the boat you go..." He uses a lead to help Bones into his wooden boat, and begins to row back.

By the time he sees the beach in the horizon, the sun had risen and noon had passed. He perks up, getting out of his boat and letting his wolf shake off the water in it's fur.

"Bones! Look!" He points to the distance. "We're almost home!"

The wolf barks happily, bounding off towards where Steve pointed. Steve takes out a cooked steak, chows down on it, before sprinting.

"Let's see who's faster!" Steve laughs, before sprint-jumping ahead of his wolf, who lets out a howl. They race all the way to the field, the sunflowers swaying in the breeze around them as they ran.

The collection of houses in the distance that made up his and Alex's base peeked over the distance, with the trees of the nearby flower forest biome.

Steve makes it to the front of the base first. He's breathless and laughing as Bones bounds up behind him, knocking him to the ground and licking his face.

"Haha! We're back, Alex!"

"Ugh, finally, Steve! You've really been holding out on me!" She says from inside the base. "When were you gonna tell me that you found so much new stuff?!"

"Huh?" He asks, confused.

The scent of freshly cooked, warm food hits his nose, and his mouth waters even though he'd just eaten a steak. Even Bones was barking up a storm, clawing at the iron doors and eager to go inside.

"Okay, okay! Sheesh, Bones..." Steve sighs, before getting up as well.

He opens the door to find Alex hurrying around, checking inside their chests. The cats were sleeping on their beds, both full and probably in a food coma.

She pulls out some of the rice crops they'd harvested from before, and she breaks out into a grin when she sees Steve.

"You're back, finally!" She says. "I figured out how to use the cooking pot!" She takes something out of it, taking out a stuffed pumpkin. She places it on the table like a cake, making Steve gape.

There's so much food placed on the wooden table. There's tons of food, from pies to roasted chicken to a plate of sushi.

"Did you finally get that spruce?" She asks. Steve nods, before looking up at her, baffled.

"Did you figure out the crafting recipes for all of these...?"

"The cooking pot? I haven't figured the recipe for that yet, but I managed to find out how to make the stove, the cooking board, and the knife..."

"The knife?!"

"Yeah! It's a new weapon, and it gives a new resource when you harvest straw and wheat..."

She rambles on about all the recipes she's figured out, showing off a book filled with all of her notes. Steve nods along, before she moves on to more stuff.

"These are all so useful for combat- it gives regeneration and some of them let you sprint without causing hunger-"

"And this backpack!" She gushes, taking it off of her back and showing it off to Steve. "I figured out the crafting recipe for this! Six leather, two string, one wool!"

"Oh, that's useful- how many inventory slots does it have?"

"Twenty-four! Same as a shulker box." Alex grins. "How'd you even figure this out? Did you find it in a chest?'

"... Pardon?"

"You know! The backpack!" Alex says, turning around. "I found it in the cave- there was a bunch of mobs surrounding the thing, so I killed them."

"A bunch of stuff was dropped when I went there- did you go mining without me?"

"Mining?! I went straight to the taiga!" He says, baffled. "Alex, I never went to a cave. I never dropped anything."

Alex's expression flickers with confusion and slight fear, before she shakes her head. "No no no- I'm pretty sure you died in there, respawned, and went back out because you were too embarrassed to tell me."

"No?!" Steve clutches his head, baffled. "Alex- look-"

He gestures to himself, still in full-diamond armor, and pulls out his diamond sword. "I've still got all the stuff I set off with! How could I have died or went into that cave?"

Alex freezes. She thinks back to the cave.

None of the stuff dropped there was in Steve's inventory when he'd left. If he'd died in that cave, his diamond armor would have been lying around, along with his diamond sword.

Or, one of the mobs would have picked up his armor and sword- maybe a zombie, or a-

'Skeleton.' She thinks. 'That skeleton in the cave. It was wearing full iron armor.'

"Alex? You okay?" Steve asks, confused. "You're awfully quiet..."

"Something was in that cave." She says slowly, realization dawning on his look. "Someone was there, before me."

Steve lets her talk, his heartbeat quickening at the idea of them not being alone. "Do you think it's someone like you? Like me?!" He's almost excited at the idea of finally finding someone else to talk to."

"I- I don't know." She says, her voice stuttering. "I don't know if that's it. If they were in that cave, they'd have seen your sign, they'd know something was up with all the torches around."

"They would've known that people were there before. They would've known that we were there." She stresses. Alex has to sit down on one of the chairs to steady herself. "And... they're not here."

"Or maybe they haven't found us yet?" Steve asks, hoping for the best. "Maybe they're just... really unlucky! They're maybe bad with directions and haven't found us yet?"

Alex really hopes that's the case. She lets out a sigh, running a hand down her face. "Sure... that makes sense, I guess."

"You got enough resources for a beacon?" She asks, turning to Steve.

Steve makes a face at that. "I've got the glass and obsidian, but not a Nether star." He fiddles with his hand. "We're probably going to have to make a wither and kill it..."

"That's not a big problem!" She smiles, giving him a thumbs up. "We'll head out to a village, get some good enchants, find an isolated place to spawn it in!"

Steve nods. "I'll make some golden apples and stuff. Uh... are any of the foods good for that?"

"I'll cook up some apple cider." She says. "Ooo, you haven't actually seen it yet! It's a cheaper way to get absorption, costs only two apples and a sugar-"

Alex gushes about the idea of getting cheaper, easier effects in battle. Steve could only chuckle at how enthusiastic she was.

"I'd love to try it out." He says. 

The village was doing better nowadays- now that everyone had (somewhat) gotten used to their new homes. It helped a lot that their new lodgings were much more spacious and comfortable than before.

It was going so well, in fact, that a few new baby Villagers had been born. Thatch very much did not want a partner, thank you very much, but their fellow neighbors had been over the moon at the fact that they had extra space for a child to live now.

'I swear, if Slate and Smith don't keep it down, I'm barging into their house and yelling!' They groan. 'It sounds like a zombie horde in their house and I'm trying to sleep!'

Aside from their noisy neighbors, everything was going fine for them. Thatch quite enjoyed the new crops- they had a nice variety to them, and one of the wandering traders came by with more seeds.

'Not sure what the rice crops do, though. Are we supposed to use them in something else? Because they don't work on crafting tables...'

They're quite fond of the mixed salads and the occasional chicken sandwich that they make, when they're finished trading with the village butcher.

Thatch looks up at the sky. The sun is beginning to set, and he's still at his farm, re-planting the carrots and checking on the other crops.

'Time to go home, I guess.' They stretch, before heading back to the other side of the village.

They pass by a few folks either working or heading back to their houses like him. The children are playing next to the fountain, one of them splashing their friend.

Thatch head back to their house, before opening the door and sitting down on the chair in the first floor.

They spend some time leisurely reading a book until the sun goes down, and when he's tired, he goes upstairs to his bed.

You see, Villagers tended to be deep sleepers. They could even sleep through a raid if it happened at night, which was extremely unfortunate if the Pillagers found them.

So Thatch didn't hear their front door open when they were asleep, nor did they hear the sound of their chest opening and the rummaging of his items.

They did, however, wake up the next day, yawning as they go down the stairs. Thatch checks the chest to get some of their food and-

"Where the heck is my rice." They say bluntly. "Why is it gone."

Because while their sandwiches and skewers were untouched along with their potatoes and carrots and most of the other crops they had- the rice that they'd harvested yesterday was completely gone.

Thatch knows that nobody really does this except the heroes. They tend to ransack the chests for anything interesting, but usually make up for it by trading with the others.

'Great, the two must've stopped by last night...' They groan inwardly. 'Probably traded with Arthur for his books or enchants...'

Well, they suppose, not much else to do. Thatch continued on with their life.

The problem was- the other Villagers were getting ransacked, too. And none of the heroes showed up in person.

"Where's my wool?! I just sheared the sheep yesterday- but all of my light grey wool is gone!"

"My bread and apples... are you kidding me..."

"I think I misplaced the mutton? No, I'm sure I left it in my chest at work..."

There was also physical signs that the players had visited. Crops going missing, then being replanted. More sheep and cows in the pens than usual, more torches scattered on the side of the road to prevent mobs from spawning.

'Kind of weird... are the heroes doing this at night? I'd thought they'd want to trade or whatnot, not be all avoidant...'

They didn't know why Steve and Alex would do such things, but who were they to complain? The two were practically gods compared to the Villagers, with their strength and their immortality.

Thatch gets their answer as to what is happening a few days later, when they stayed a bit too late farming.

Maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was the fact that they didn't want to keep finding their crops re-planted with most of the harvest taken away from them, but they stayed until the sun set.

It was dark. Thatch's farm now had several torches, so they were... marginally less panicked than if they'd decided to stay out in the dark normally. Villagers like them instinctually did not like the dark.

But the torchlight let their crops grow even in the dark, and kept their mind calm enough to farm. Thatch stays there for what they think are hours, and they're just about to get up and leave when-

Rustle.

Something makes a noise in the distance. Thatch makes the mistake of looking up, curious.

They see nothing at first. The direction that their farm is facing is right in front of the forest a few blocks away, swathed in darkness with the lack of torches in it.

But then something moves, and Thatch sees it.

It's not a zombie. A zombie wouldn't have that much hair on it, so much that it looks like a mane. It's hard to see what it is, with how much the shadows pool over it's face and hair.

But it's got a shirt of a light enough color to stand out from everything else. And it's not blue like a zombie or Steve's or green like Alex's-

'It's not the heroes.'

The figure in the distance doesn't move. It doesn't charge towards them, doesn't make any noise- just stares at them.

Thatch stares back, frozen in place. 'What is THAT?!'

'Is it like an Enderman?! A Creaking?!' They've seen the rare Enderman before, and they heard of Creakings through word-of-mouth from the librarian's gossip about the heroes. 'Am I supposed to look at it?! Is it mad?!'

It just stands there. Looking at him. With those completely black, completely uncanny eyes.

Then suddenly, with little fanfare, it turns and sprints away. The thing- no, the builder, runs in a way that was reminiscent of Steve or Alex.

"W-wait!" He shouts, but he knows that they wouldn't understand the Villager language. "Come back! I've got trades!"

Nothing. There wasn't much else except the silence of the night and the sound of the livestock from the animal pens.

Thatch doesn't really have the words for what's happening, so they just... go back home. Goes to sleep. They can't really do anything, much less understand why a builder would act this way.

They stay up late the next night. And the next, and the next.

The next night, they didn't see the figure. Nor did they see her on the second night. But on the third night, they heard another rustle and looked up.

The builder was there again. They were watching from the distance, still unrecognizable in the shadow.

Thatch doesn't do anything but stare for a while, trying to drink in the details of what or who they were.

The most striking thing about them was their eyes. Compared to Steve's striking indigo eyes or Alex's emerald-green ones, the stranger's eyes were a pitch black that looked similar to a mob's.

They simply watched. Thatch cleared their throat.

"Hey? Are you going to trade with me or anything?" They say, hesitant. "Gonna take my crops?"

"..." Still nothing but silence from them. What did Thatch expect?

They decided that the best thing to do was to just continue farming. Thatch turned away, digging up their carrots and replanting them.

After getting through five of those carrots, they cautiously looked up.

The figure was gone.

Thatch shakes their head, before packing up and going home. Of course the mysterious figure disappeared the moment they looked away, it was practically expected by now.

The figure began to show up regularly when Thatch stays late at night. They watch them with those eerie eyes, not a single sound coming from them.

Thatch would have thought they were some sort of ghost, if not for the fact that if they strained their eyes, they could see the stranger's chest rise and fall. They're breathing, unlike the zombies or husks or drowned.

One night, however, they didn't disappear before Thatch left. Thatch saw them in the corner of their eye, slowly peeking through each wall of the houses in the corner of the village.

The farmer sees them walk straight up to an iron golem to hide from the other Villagers. Thatch is baffled as to why the iron golems don't seem to alert the rest of their neighbors, until the stranger pulls out an iron ingot and slaps it against the golem lightly.

The ingot disappears and the golem's cracks heal up.

'Don't tell me they're bribing the golems...' The farmer groans internally. 'Thank the Hosts that they don't seem to be malicious. If they'd harmed a Villager, then the golems would be attacking them.'

Thatch goes back to their house, before going upstairs to their bed. They're about to go to sleep when they hear the signature 'thunk, thunk, thunk' of something being built outside.

The Villager rolls out of the bed in panic as they see the builder, crouching right outside their second-story window on a cobblestone pillar. They were crouching, looking into their bedroom curiously.

Okay, this was enough. Thatch musters up the little courage they have, taking off their hat and smacking the window.

"Away!" They hiss, frustrated. "I'm trying to sleep here in peace!"

The mysterious builder topples back a bit, startled by the farmer's audacity. Even Thatch themselves were surprised at what they did.

They watch the stranger glance at them one last time, before taking out an iron pickaxe and mining down. They hear the sound of footsteps walking away from their house.

"Good gods." The villager mutters, grumbling as they go back to bed. "What an annoyance."

Unfortunately, they wake up in the morning feeling lighter than usual. The farmer is confused for a second, wondering what happened.

Their hand hovers over the top of their head, and they immediately let out a shout of frustration.

"Oh are you kidding me?!"

Did they really have to steal their hat?!

"This is the village with that one Librarian, right...?" Alex asks.

Steve nods. "Protection and Mending. We're going to need it to fight the Wither." The two of them step closer to where they knew the village would be, and...

"WOAH!" Steve visibly jumps back, looking from the distance using a spyglass. "What in the world?!"

"What?!"

"Alex, look!" Steve tosses Alex the spyglass, which she catches and looks through.

The other builder gapes as they see what has become of the village- the new, larger houses, the fancy castle protecting the village bell, the fountain... all of it looked built, brand-new and sturdy.

"I didn't know the Villagers could build." Alex says, her voice wavering.

"They can't." Steve says, his voice nervous. "Did- did someone else do this?"

"..."

The both of them quickly headed over, Steve's wolf and one of their cats following behind.

"Bones, Salmon- you stay here." Alex has them stay in one place, letting them rest by the fountain. The Villager kids crowd around them, playing with the cat and petting the wolf.

The more the two of them saw the other Villagers, the more they realized something was wrong. All of them were either on edge, nervous at seeing them, or annoyed.

"Hey, what's up with them?" Steve asked. "I'm not sure why they're so bothered..."

The butcher talking to Steve rolls their eyes. To the both of them, the Villager simply sounded like they were making annoyed 'hrmms'.

"Hrrm! Hrrrm, hrrm, hrrrm..."

Alex stares at them, then shrugs. Steve squints, before resorting to charades with the villager to see what they were saying.

"You're uhh... okay, I don't know what that means... oh! You're missing some stuff?"

The villager pointed to a nearby chest, made the motion of taking something out, then shrugging.

"Someone's been taking them from you!"

A nod from the butcher and a frustrated 'hrrrm'.

"Okay... that's kind of weird." He mutters. "We haven't been here in ages. And we don't really need that much food and resources in a village..."

The butcher looks concerned at that, rushing off. Alex and Steve see them talking to the other villagers, who also have confused and worried looks.

"They're just as confused as us!" Alex says. "The mysterious builder! They must have been here too!"

Steve looks at the body language of the Villagers. They looked nervous. Wary. "I don't think that's a good thing, Alex."

"What?! Why not?!" She turns to him, confused and a little bit hurt. "We've finally got another friend! We won't be alone anymore!"

"Yes, but... do you see how the villagers are acting?" Steve whispers to her, lowering his voice. "They're... afraid."

Alex huffs, crossing her arms. "And? If the new builder's a bad person, we can fight them! There's one of them, and two of us!"

"No, I don't think that's the case." Steve says, rubbing his chin. He turns back to the rest of the Villagers. "If someone did harm the Villagers, then the Iron Golems would be on high alert- but they're not."

He watches as the Iron Golem closest to them picks up a poppy, then gives it to one of the Villager children. "And the baby Villagers don't seem to be upset. Only the adults."

If it wasn't for the ominous implication that nobody has seen the other builder before, they would be relieved at the fact that none of the Villagers got hurt.

"No raids have come nearby, have they?" Steve asks the stone mason. The Villager shakes their head no, before letting out a 'hrrrrm?', showing off the andesite in their hands.

"Eeeh, sorry. I'm not looking to trade." Steve rejects them politely, before turning to Alex.

"I think we should stay in this village, or at least build a base nearby." He says. "The builder's clearly around here somewhere. We might find them without needing to build that beacon!"

"That's a great idea!"

The two of them decided to use the oak logs and cobblestone they were carrying to construct a small house next to the village. It was like any other time they built a base, in the century-or-so they've been around.

They built the base up to be a two-story building, with a nice farm by the side so they could make more of the crops for the 

The funny thing was, they wouldn't have to find the other builder. They were being watched every step of the way.

It's just that Alex and Steve wouldn't know that until later.

Bones and Salmon both had a little house on the outside for the both of them after the builders finished making their base, happily napping in the shade of the small doghouse.

"Going to trade with the Librarian?" She asks, finally placing down their new beds and setting her spawnpoint.

Steve nods, pulling out his diamond armor and sword. "Time to get some enchanting done."

"You got enough iron for an anvil? Or like, enough books for an enchanting table, at least?"

Steve pauses, before checking his backpack. He groans.

"What the Nether... I don't want to spend any of it on a dang anvil." He complains.

"Well why not?"

"All the iron in the caves is gone!" He complains. "I can't find a single iron ore anymore, just a bunch of uneven holes..."

Alex just stares at Steve, then back at the village. "You sure it isn't the mystery builder mining all of it?"

"... Oh my End it is." He groans, running his hand down his face. "They don't even take that much coal- do they use charcoal for their torches?! Are they fueling their furnaces with lava, and that's why?!"

Alex pats him on the back. They end up using the village blacksmith's anvil instead, and it's all fine and dandy.

The first night there was uneventful. So was the second, third, fourth, fifth...

"Alex, are you sure that they're actually... here?" Steve asks, sounding bored. He'd mingled with the Villagers for a while, farmed by hand, then went to plant more spruce trees.

"I don't know, are they?" She snarks back. "It was your idea to stay here."

"Hey! I wanted a break from this whole thing!" He backs up, holding his hands up. "Can't we just leave and try to explore around the place instead of staying in one place all the time?"

"The base is safe and we have the advantage if the builder really is dangerous." Alex argues back. "If anything, we should let them come to us."

"I can't believe you, Alex!" Steve grumbles. If you're going to be this way- I'm heading out myself."

She rolls her eyes, huffing. "Fine then!" She snaps shooing him off. "Don't say I didn't warn you if you end up dying and losing your diamond armor!"

Steve makes a similar noise of annoyance, opening the door. He pauses.

"Hey, Alex?"

"Yeah?! What is it now?!"

"There's a chest in front of our base."

"Wait, what?!"

She immediately jumps up from her sulking, her anger quickly turning into shock.

Because right in front of their door was a singular chest placed in front. It wasn't labelled, there was no sign on it to give them a message- just a single, solitary chest.

"... Do you think it's a trapped chest?" Alex asks, cautious. Steve shrugs.

"I dunno." He whispers, excited. "But it's them! I knew it!"

"Yeah, and they didn't just show themselves to us." Alex says, suspicious. The hand holding her axe tightens. "I don't like it."

"What if they're scared?" Steve steps closer to the chest. "You were really angry and scared when I found you. What if it's the same for them?"

"I was not scared- it was a tactical assessment of you before I got to know you!"

Steve huffs, before smiling. He reaches out to the chest, before opening it.

There's an anvil inside- newly crafted, along with an apple pie. He takes them both out, hearing the chest close.

"Well? What did they give us?" Alex asks, relieved that she didn't hear the hiss of TNT or the 'click' of a redstone circuit being activated.

"An anvil. And a pie!" He says, bringing it up. "Look! It's even an apple pie! I didn't know we could craft anything other than pumpkin pie!"

"... Gimme a slice." Alex says, embarrassed. She coughs into her hand, watching as Steve places the pie down on the table like a cake, before using the knife to cut a slice for her.

"Here you go! And one for me as well!" He beams as he takes a bite of the pie slice, before absolutely melting at the taste.

It's fresh. The stranger didn't have to, but Steve and Alex knew that they must have warmed it up before placing it in the chest- maybe using a stove.

The same stove that they still didn't know the crafting recipe for...

"I guess they aren't too bad." Alex grumbles. "I'm still kind of unsettled by them. Until I get a good look at who the builder is, I'm not letting my guard down."

The heroes were at their village. The heroes were there!

Thatch had to calm their own breathing, because they were surely here to see where the other builder was.

The Villager didn't know if they should be proud, baffled, or nervous that the stranger revealed themselves to them instead of Steve or Alex. Was something wrong with the other two builders? Did the stranger not like their own kind?

The stranger seemed like a very isolated person. Very quiet, very uncanny. Were they an outcast? A pariah from builder society?

It's not like Thatch knew about the ancient builders, nor did they hear about the heroes before his time. Most of it was relegated to old bedtime stories about the Hosts and what the Overworld was like, centuries ago.

But they were curious, and curiosity was a dangerous thing for passive, usually-feeble Villagers like them. Thatch went back to their farm like always, and stayed up late like before.

The stranger did not appear for days after the builders had first arrived. Thatch simply went home those days and didn't bother finishing their harvest.

But tonight, things seemed to be different. With the builders asleep in their base, they saw something in the distance of the treeline yet again.

They watch as the figure watches them farm. Thatch looks down to harvest the tomatoes.

What they don't expect, however, is the sound of rustling grass and footsteps.

The Villager jumps and scrambles back when they see the figure start walking towards his farm. It was nothing like a zombie- no lurching or tripping over their own feet.

No. It was a calm, casual walk, the same kind you'd see from their neighbors when they wandered around during the noon to gossip.

The figure gets closer, then closer, and then even closer to Thatch's farm. The torchlight illuminates their- no, her form, and for once, the villager can see what the builder is wearing clearly.

Dirty brown suspenders, with a light grey shirt. Thatch's stolen hat is on her head, perched atop a mane of thick, bushy hair.

Now that she was right by the fence, standing completely still, Thatch noticed she was... small. Short.

The builder wasn't even their height- only barely up to their shoulder, and noticeably softer and rounder than the two heroes. The only thing unsettling about her was her pitch-black eyes, and even that was made softer by the glow of the torches.

'She looks like a farmer. Like me.'

"... Hello." They said to her. She didn't respond- why would she? Neither Steve and Alex knew the Villager language, so nor would the newcomer.

Thatch stares at her. She stares back.

The villager watches her slowly lean on the fencing of their farm, relaxing. She simply glances at Thatch, before nudging her head slightly towards the direction of their crops.

"You want to watch me farm." They say, as if confirming. The builder says nothing. Thatch takes that as a 'yes' and continues harvesting the rice grains.

She seems more alive and less of an ominous, looming figure as she watches them farm. There's a sense that Thatch just solved a mystery, just pulled back the cloth of mystery to reveal... someone. A person.

The builder was still slightly unsettling, yes- slightly off, slightly wrong- but she was more of a person now. Not a force of nature, not some sort of monster that would kill them in their sleep.

Thatch finishes up their farming and looks back up at her. The builder simply nods, before walking back into the dark forest.

"... What the Nether is my life now." They lament.

The builder continued to visit them at night now, leaning on the fence of their farm. Thatch sometimes arrived and she was already there, as if expecting them.

There was also somehow more crops in their chest sometimes. Thatch doesn't know why she'd just give out her crops for free without trading them for emeralds, but clearly she's taken an interest with them.

Whether it was a benevolent interest or the type of interest that would put them six feet under was yet to be known. All Thatch could be thankful for was that she didn't want to kill him yet.

While the farmer was getting more acclimated to the builder, they also watched Alex and Steve progressively more and more haggard as she messes with them.

"Where the heck are they?!" Alex cries out, tugging on her own hair in frustration. "Every time we're so close to finding them- but they're almost always out of sight! We haven't even seen a single glimpse of them!"

"They're way too good at hiding." Steve grumbles. "I've asked the other Villagers- they haven't seen another builder either. They're just... staying here."

"... They've got to be messing with us." Alex finally concludes. "Are you kidding me?!"

Well, Thatch concludes, they would be just as frustrated as Steve and Alex if they were in the heroes' position. If they were alone with another person in the world, and they were actively avoiding them, it would piss them off too.

Alex and Steve complain about seeing tunnels getting built, ores being mined out before they can get them, and someone breaking into their base.

"Aggh! I can't take it anymore!" Alex shouts. "It's like they're driving us crazy on purpose! I keep waking up to see a single torch moved or the crafting table being one block to the left or something-!"

"At least they don't take our diamonds?" Steve shares politely, trying to make the best out of the situation.

"Yeah, but Steve! They know where our base is! They keep on breaking in without us knowing!"

"You've already tried that tripwire trap, that pressure plate trap... heck, I think you used a skulk sensor too."

"All of them get disarmed! It's a pain in the butt is what!" Alex runs her hands down her face in frustration. "How... how?!"

That was definitely pride that they felt. Thatch feels a bit smug knowing that they knew what the stranger looked like, and the heroes did not.

"Hey, look at those two idiots." Thatch snickers, elbowing Slate. "They're absolutely going insane trying to find the new builder!"

"Thatch, I'm also freaking out." Slate hisses, elbowing their neighbor. "My partner's saying that they heard something walking outside and weird noises from the forest!"

"Yeah, that's probably where the other builder is." Thatch says off-handedly. 

"They haven't really killed a Villager yet- so why should we worry?"

"That doesn't mean they'll always be harmless!" The stonemason paces back and forth, their nerves just as frayed as the rest of the village.

"At least we've got more Iron Golems now." They said. Slate nods, before sighing in relief. "Yeah, if they do anything, the golems are going to protect us. I mean- there's five of them now!"

He gestures over to one of them, keeping close watch over the villagers. "I mean- everybody's been panicking lately. Feeling uneasy. No wonder there's been a lot of Iron Golems summoned."

"I don't know, Slate..." Thatch mutters, confused. "Even if everyone is kinda upset- we don't have enough power for that, right?"

"... Right?"

Slate is completely quiet for a second, before letting out a nervous laugh. "Hahah, no way! We've got way more villagers now- and if the builders made that many Iron Golems, they'd be running out of iron constantly!"

"I dunno, it seems kind of... suspicious-"

Slate grabs their neighbor by the collar and stares right into their eyes. "I am not entertaining the thought. Because if I do, I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night."

"... Yeah, now that I think about it, that's kinda terrifying."

Slate groans, waving Thatch off. "Screw it, I think I'd prefer a raid than this. At least we know we're going to die if a Pillager patrol finds us!"

That night, Thatch is farming again, with the same mysterious builder leaning on their fence. The farmer scrunches up their face.

"Did you make the new Iron Golems?" They asked.

The builder simply tilts her head. She doesn't seem to understand.

"Right. You builders can't understand us." The Villager groans, deciding to do a game of charades instead. They point to an Iron Golem in the distance, then to her.

She just grins. The builder gives a toothy smile, not even deigning to nod or shake her head no.

Thatch shivers a bit, unsettled. "... Don't do that again."

But why would a builder listen to them? Whoever she was, she wouldn't be any better off than Steve or Alex in understanding their language.

Nevertheless, the builder stops grinning, before their mouth straightens out and they watch them farm yet again.

Steve was the first to see their mystery culprit.

He was usually the first to discover something, instead of Alex- because Steve was naturally curious, less cautious, and more willing to explore than his counterpart.

But as he was slowly making his way to one of the mineshafts, mining out the copper and coal that was left behind, he heard the signature 'thump-thump-thump' of a pickaxe on the other side.

Steve freezes, then begins absolutely mowing down the stone with his efficiency-enchanted diamond pickaxe. The sound of whoever it was mining away frantically sped up, and then began to run away.

"Wait! Stop!" He mines away at the last wall of stone, revealing a tunnel dug out into the side of his own.

The perpetrator managed to turn a corner, with only a flash of dark color peeking through before they disappeared. Steve immediately ran as fast as he could, rummaging in his inventory for a speed potion.

He chugs it down, before sprinting down the hall and turning the corner.

The figure was far away now- donning full iron armor, their full brown hair trailing behind them. Even Alex didn't have that much hair!

Steve begins to catch up to them. He pushes himself to the limit, gritting his teeth as he goes as fast as he can. "I just want answers!"

The figure sprints over to a stone pressure plate, activating it. Steve gasps, only having a split second to react before the stone floor pulls out from underneath him.

He lets out a surprised yelp, fully expecting the stranger to have put lava or dripstone in the pit to end him, or to have dug out a big enough hole to simply let gravity do the work for them.

But instead, he lands in a shallow pool of water, breaking his fall. Steve gasps, clutching himself and catching his breath.

"W-wha-" He looks up, wondering if the floor closed up behind him. It didn't. He looks down at the water, then back up.

Steve eventually gets back up by stacking cobblestone, but by the time he makes it back to the tunnel, the figure is gone.

All that's left of them is a singular book and quill they dropped. Steve picks it up, before opening it up.

hello

lets play

a game

 

i hide

you seek

 

every time

you see me

i answer

one question

Well. That was ominous.

Steve immediately scrambles back to base, knocking on the door frantically. "Alex! Alex! Look what I found!"

"What, Steve?" She groans. He hands her the book.

Alex raises an eyebrow, flipping it open. Her annoyance turns into dead silence as she reads it.

"I found the builder." Steve says. "I didn't get a good look- but I'm sure they're a builder. Mobs don't move like that, and they had a head full of dark hair."

Alex lets out a hum. She flips through the rest of the book, before pausing. "Did you read this part of it?"

"Huh?"

She taps on the next page, which Steve neglected to turn through.

you found me!

first time

 

you get

one question

 

put it in book

outside

i answer

tomorrow

"They want us to write down the question for them, then leave the book outside." Alex muses. She picks up the feather, fiddling with it. "Do you have an extra chest, Steve?"

"Huh? Oh, sure! I still have that one from the pie they sent!" He takes the chest out of his inventory, before going outside to place it down.

In the end, Alex and Steve decided on their first question. It was her who had the honor of writing it down, since Steve's handwriting was rather messy.

Who are you? What do you want?

Alex takes the book and quill, placing it into the chest outside. "Now, we wait." She says. "Maybe if we even add a trapped chest..."

"No." Steve says, his voice firm. "I'm not scaring off the only new friend we have!"

"What? Isn't it easier for us to finally see what they look like?" Alex grumbles, crossing her arms.

"They've been able to disable your traps before!" Steve counters. "And besides- when I was chasing them through the mines, they led me straight to a trap."

"If it weren't for the fact that they put water on the bottom instead of dripstone or lava, then I'd have to respawn!"

Alex raises an eyebrow. "They got you with a trap?" She echoes.

"Hey!" He waves his hands, embarrassed. "In my defense- there wasn't even a tripwire or pressure plate! They placed one down while they were running and activated it themselves!"

"A pitfall trap, huh..." Alex mumbles, before shrugging. "I mean, we've built a few before, for pranking each other."

"I wonder how long they've actually been around if they're able to figure out redstone."

Steve sighs, before looking back at the chest outside. "Either way, I don't think it's good to use any traps against them. They might get angry."

"Sure, Steve."

The both of them stayed quiet as the night approached, only peeking out through the window on small occasions.

Alex is sitting on one of the chairs, watching outside as Steve opts to just go to sleep.

"If you see anything, tell me." He yawns, before turning over and pulling his blanket up.

Alex rolls her eyes. She can skip sleeping tonight- she doesn't have to worry about phantoms until the third day or so.

The moon rises, and the sky becomes dark. She likes to stay up during the night, usually when there's a threat outside- if it weren't for the threat of phantoms, Alex would forgo sleeping entirely.

She sees the chest outside, surrounded entirely by torches. But just as she's about to call it off, she sees a figure in the treeline.

Two figures, more exactly. There's a smaller, darker figure next to an Iron Golem.

The smaller figure is staring at the chest, before the Iron Golem follows closer.

It goes up to the window Alex was looking through, blocking the view of whoever was coming toward the chest. She could hear the sound of someone slowly walking up to the chest, opening it, then taking something out.

The Iron Golem stands there, looming over Alex as it glares at her through the window. She lets out a small gulp.

Whoever the other builder was, this was where they spent the iron they mined. The stranger seemed to have an affinity for iron golems, with how many of them were protecting the village now.

'Some of them were definitely made by the builder.' Alex muses. 'Clever.'

'It blends in their actual troops with the local population, making them stand out less and giving them an advantage...'

She shakes her head. The Iron Golem lumbers back into the forest and out of sight, while the figure from before is completely gone.

Alex frowns, annoyed that she wasn't able to get a clear look at them.

"I guess it wouldn't be that easy." She mutters. The builder steps out of the base, carefully checking the contents of the chest.

The book and quill was still there, just positioned different. She opens the book to see what the stranger responded with.

Who are you? What do you want?

 

that is

two questions

i answer one

 

i am

a friend

 

i am

girl :D

"..."

Well at least they knew she was like Alex now. Alex sighs, rubbing her head. "By the Nether... they're too damn creepy."

The whole exchange was tense and quiet. They- well, she doesn't seem to be a normal builder, with how quiet she is compared to both of them.

When Steve wakes up, he's overjoyed to get a response. "Oh wow! Did you see what they looked like?"

"She." Alex corrects him. "And I wasn't able to get a good look because an Iron Golem blocked my view. It seems like some of them are made by her."

"That explains why there's so many golems walking around..." Steve mutters, before pausing. "Wait, hey! That's where all the iron went!" He pouts a little, making Alex's mouth quirk up in a half-smile.

They began to see her more and more. Never up close, but always in the distance at night- watching from behind a tree, turning around the corner of a mineshaft, or simply far, far away, looking at the light of their base.

More Iron Golems appeared in the village. The Villagers seemed to get used to the constant presence of the mysterious person, if not a bit peeved that their belongings sometimes went missing.

They got more answers, as expected. Always incredibly vague, with no more than a few disjointed sentences as a response from the girl.

How long have you been here?

 

not

as long as you

 

very new

Not surprising, as Steve and Alex would have figured them out given enough time. They've had more than a century of life roaming the overworld.

The third time they see her, Alex got to ask the question.

Are you dangerous?

 

not

to you

 

you two

are stronger

 

i rely on

friends

The answer was more reassuring to Alex, who was more worried about the stranger hurting them. Steve frowned.

"Are we scaring them off?" He asks, worried that they might come off as 'too intimidating' to the other builder.

Alex snorts. "Maybe. You're built like a brick, and I'm not exactly the nicest person."

"But who are the friends she's talking about? Aren't we the only ones here?"

Alex gives Steve a small smack on the head. "She's probably talking about her Iron Golems."

"Ooooh. Yeah, that makes sense..."

There were days, maybe even one or two weeks between the sightings. It kept them on their toes, wondering when they'd manage to outwit the newcomer and finally find her.

"Steve, maybe we can give her a peace offering?" Alex asks out loud, finally conceding that the best course of action was to extend their hand out first.

"I know! Since she's the one who has the stove- why don't we ask her for the crafting recipe?" Steve suggests. He pulls out some of the food he's saved up- a nice bowl of steak and potatoes.

"She offered us food before! Why not do it back?"

They decided to test out the idea. They waited until they found her again, and...

"There you are!" Alex shouts, pointing in the distance. The figure looking at them from afar, still swathed in shadow during the night, seems to jump up and down before disappearing again.

"Okay, we've got her... so let's put everything in the chest and hope for the best."

Do you know the crafting recipe for the cooking pot? Also, it's nice to meet you! We made some steak and potatoes for you, as an apology for taking your stove before :(

 

do not worry

crafting recipe cooking pot is

 

brick / wood shovel / brick

iron ingot / bucket / iron ingot

iron ingot / iron ingot / iron ingot

 

you do not need stove

to cook

place above any fire

campfire, nether-rack works too

 

thank you

"Oh! No wonder it was so dang hard- I didn't think i'd need brick for this..." Steve rummages through his chests, hastily putting the ingredients together on the crafting table.

Instantly, another cooking pot was made. He places it on top of a campfire, instantly brightening up when he sees it bubbling.

"It works!"

Alex hums, before turning the page in curiosity. She pauses.

"Huh. Looks like our mysterious friend gave us the crafting recipes for the other stuff, too."

"Huh?! Show me!" Steve rushes over.

She shows him the page.

knife is

• 1 flint, iron, gold, or diamond
• stick

can be upgraded to netherite

 

stove is

• iron ingot / iron ingot / iron ingot
• brick / [empty] / brick
• brick / campfire / brick

 

skillet is

•  [empty] / iron ingot / iron ingot
•  [empty] / iron ingot / iron ingot
• brick / [empty] / [empty]

"Wow, they're generous." He whistles, impressed. "It'd take me ages to figure that out. I don't think there's many hints.

"It would make more sense to use a stick for the handle instead of a brick." Alex comments. "But then again, it wouldn't be as durable.

The rest of the other pages are empty. Whenever they catch her again, whenever the opportunity arises- they're going to have to ask her for some cooking recipes, too.

"I wonder if she knows how to craft more stuff..."

Thatch has no idea why they're the one the universe seems to be interested in so much, because why in the Overworld were they involved in this?

'If the builders know that I know something, I'm SCREWED.' They think. Nobody suspected that the resident farmer knew anything about a possible third god-like builder, so they mostly ignored Thatch.

The same Villager, who mind you, has the third builder hovering over his shoulder as they're farming at night.

They've learned to just ignore her when doing their job. If anything, she was good for scaring away zombies and skeletons. Thatch also appreciated the company, even if they weren't going to say it out loud.

"... and I swear to the hosts, Arthur is such an ass!" They complain. "If I have to hear about them bragging about how much emeralds they make, I'll purposefully trade them rotten tomatoes!"

Thatch also likes gossiping with her. They usually don't talk bad about their neighbors because it would be a pain to deal with the fallout, but with someone they know won't understand their words? It was free real estate.

"I really miss the old librarian- Arthur's predecessor." They lament. "They were far more responsible and mature. They didn't strut around the Village and try to boss the others around with their mastery rank..."

They dig up the cabbages with a bit more force then necessary. "But then, there was a zombie horde, and- well, a lot of the older folks got unlucky. The Iron Golems didn't make it in time and he got turned."

"Ah, well, you can't exactly expect them to live forever." They sigh, before dusting the dirt off their hands and looking at the builder.

"... What am I doing." They groan, rubbing their head. "I'm complaining about death to a builder. It's not like they're going to understand."

Thatch shakes their head. It seemed pathetic to them, venting about their own mortal troubles to a being that might as well be a god compared to the residents of the Overworld.

"Nah. You'd be surprised to find out how much I understand."

It takes a second or two for them to process it. The Villager whips around in shock, their eyes wide as they stare at the builder leaning on their fence.

"What? Did you think I was going to be like the other two?" She snarks, looking amused. "I can understand you well enough."

Her voice is softer and lower than they'd expected, slightly scratchy from disuse.

"Wha- how-"

"My... IllagerAlt? Is that what's the language is called?" She trails off, thinking a bit. "Yeah, my IllagerAlt is kinda rusty, and I can't exactly speak it, but I can understand it. So-so."

"... How in the name of the Hosts are you able to do that at all?" They ask, their bewilderment turning into embarrassment. "N-nevermind that! Have you been listening the whole time?!"

"You mean about the time you complained about tripping in cow dung? Or the time you tossed a chicken into Arthur's house and they thought it was the butcher? Or-"

"Okay! Okay! That's enough!" Thatch is completely mortified now, hiding their face with their sleeve. "You don't have to remind me!"

The builder is grinning, letting out a snicker that sounds like a cat hacking up a hairball. "You're so easy to rile up." She takes the stolen hat on her head and gestures it at them. "What, is this a 'Villager' thing, or is this a 'you' thing?"

Oh, Thatch hates her now. Not in the same way they dislike Arthur, more like 'I can't believe THIS is who I thought was mysterious and terrifying'.

"Are builders always this annoying, or is this a 'you' thing?" They snark back.

The builder doubles over, covering her mouth with her hand to muffle her laughter. Thatch has a feeling that if she wanted to, her laugh could wake the entire village up.

"A-ahah! You've got sass!" Her laughter trails off, before she leans back on the fence. "And for the record, it's a 'me' thing. Don't tell me you think all builders are the same."

Thatch looks at her with an unreadable expression, scrunching up their nose. "... Why won't you just talk with the heroes? Why show up to me at all?"

She flips around absently, waving her hand. "Because it's boring. I want to give them a challenge first before we actually meet." That shit-eating grin is back on her face. "They've been here a hundred years before me, so I bet they'll enjoy a bit of novelty."

"You're driving them crazy." Thatch says, rubbing their forehead. "The one with the orange hair turned the village upside down trying to look for a secret base."

"Ehhh, it's not like they'll find it." She shrugs. "I made sure to hide my base very well. And it's so small it's almost undetectable!"

"..."

"Right." The villager says, still in some sort of haze. They're talking. To a builder.

"Aren't you gonna, I dunno, ask for my name or anything?" She says.

"I didn't think you were going to offer." They mutter, unamused.

"You didn't ask." She shoots back.

"Fine. What is your name?" Thatch asks.

The builder straightens up, adjusting her suspender straps and tipping her hat. "I'm Olivine! But you can just call me Ollie." She snaps her fingers. "Builder, farmer, and retiree."

"Retiree for...?"

"Eh." Ollie shrugs, and doesn't answer. There's a look in her eye that tells them to lay it off.

"... Okaaaay." Thatch knows better than to press their luck. "So why did you come to this village?"

"Closest village to where I spawned." She says, pointing to the forest. "Past the forest, there's a snowy taiga. My first base is around there."

Thatch wouldn't exactly know, since they've never been outside of the village their entire life. They simply nodded along.

"Hey!" She stares at them. "You've been the one asking questions so far- why don't you answer some of mine."

She takes out a- was that a fucking totem of undying.

"Like, how do these things actually work? They kinda break after I use them, which is a pain in the ass." Ollie rambles, unaware that she's sent the villager spiraling into a panic. "I know Evokers carry them- but it's been a pain in the ass trying to hunt down Pillager Patrols..."

"HOW DID YOU GET THAT." They hiss, panicked. "Did you at least make sure you weren't followed?!"

"I drank milk to get rid of the bad omen effect." She says, waving off their concern. "I'm not an idiot, Thatch. Now how the heck does a totem of undying work?"

"Why are you asking me?! I'm a Villager, not an Illager!"

She throws her hands up, sighing dramatically. "Fiiine. I guess that question's out of the table."

"How about this- how long have Villagers been around in the Overworld?"

"I... do I look like a librarian to you?!" They say, baffled. "I don't study history! For all I know, we've been here since the beginning!"'

"Booo. Boooring." Ollie absently toys with one of the leaves of the crops, before flicking her hand away. "Is there anything... fun about you? Anything you have hidden?"

Thatch furrows their brow. "I'm a farmer. I don't know what you expected."

The builder simply snorts and rolls her eyes. "That's exactly why I hang out with you. You're a farmer, like me!"

"I'm a farmer Villager. There's a difference between us and you builders!" They stressed, hissing. "We're not immortal! We can't afford to travel around and do risky stuff!"

"... I mean, there's Wandering Traders-"

"Do not compare me to them." Thatch argues. "They're tolerable to be around, but they fact that they associate with witches..."

"Damn, you gotta be racist too?"

"I- Hosts, no?! I'm being reasonable here!"

Ollie seems to have a knack at pissing off anybody, even a Villager like Thatch. She has a smug look on her face as they yell at her.

"I mean, they've just got different jobs. I don't see why you're so winded up."

"There's a distinction between us Villagers and Wandering Traders- it's not just a 'different job', it's a lifestyle! Villagers don't want to travel around because of all the mobs and the danger- you're not listening are you."

The builder is gnawing on one a barbecue on a stick, still looking smug. "Hmmm. Maybe."

"I cannot believe you." Thatch's eye twitches. "You stalk me every night, act all mysterious and spooky- and then you just- talk to me out of nowhere!"

"Ehhh... I wouldn't call it 'stalking', more like... visiting a friendly neighbor!" She chirps.

"It's stalking." Thatch says bluntly.

"Still!" She snaps her fingers. "I've been giving you my leftover crops! Leaving behind emeralds! Won't you give me a pass, buddy?"

"... Fine." They say. They're afraid to reject her, and what she'll do if she actually gets offended.

"..." Ollie is quiet as she tilts her head, before letting out a sigh. "You uh- are probably really angry at me for that, huh?" She mutters. "If anything, I shouldn't be bothering you anymore."

"You're just now figuring this out?" They say. Thatch is annoyed that the builder was so... fickle. She clearly didn't think things out before doing them.

"It's just- I..." She struggles to find the words. "... Villages remind me of home."

"Home?"

"... I used to live in a city. In the suburbs." She says. "I remember. A lot more than Steve and Alex." She relaxes on the fence, going boneless. The sound of the rustling grass, of mobs far away in the distance makes it seem... melancholic.

"There was a lot of other people there. Far, far more than these villages." She looks out into the distance and glances at all of the zombies and skeletons there.

"There was so many people but- I still felt alone." Ollie admitted. "Most of us kept to ourselves. Did our jobs, took care of our families- then-"

She pauses, her expression changing. "Then..."

Thatch cuts her off. "You don't have to tell me." They say, grumbling. "I get the point. Fine, you can stay here."

"Wait- huh?"

"Do I have to repeat myself?" The Villager says. "You can stay here."

Her face splits into that stupid smile again and Thatch feels like they're a fisher that just invited a cat into their house. Ollie does a little shimmy and pulls out an iron axe, breaking the gate of his garden before placing it back just as fast.

"Can I live in your house? Pleeeease?" She begs, and immediately, Thatch feels another headache coming along.

"Do I even have a say in it?" They snap, and Ollie simply pouts.

"I'll make your house bigger?" She offers. "Make a garden underground so you can farm in the comfort of your own home?"

"Hard pass. I prefer to work outside." Thatch scrunches up their nose. Ollie perks up, realizing that they're considering it.

"I can give you an emerald block?"

"... double that, and make sure your room is hidden."

"Deal!"

She shakes their hand, and Thatch feels as if they'd made a mistake.

The next time Thatch sees Ollie, she pops out of the ground, nestled in a hidden-off corner of their first-floor stairway. The Villager lets out a noise of surprise, stumbling back.

They glare at her while she snickers, putting her finger near her mouth in a 'shush' motion. "Remember, don't tell Steve or Alex. I want them to have a challenge trying to get me."

"How can I even tell them if they can't even understand me?" They complain.

"Just make yourself look convincing." She snorts. "Socially inept as they are sometimes- they do read body language very well."

Thatch just goes farming that day, gossips with their neighbors, and comes back home early. Ollie is waiting there, halfway down a ladder and grinning up at them with her toothy, annoying grin.

"So? Gonna take a look at what I built?"

Thatch can only roll their eyes as they follow her down.

The final time they played her game, and the first time they truly meet her, was when Alex accidentally stepped into the village after defeating a Pillager patrol.

In her defense, she was tired, not thinking straight, and most of her and Steve's braincells were used up trying to think of where the mystery builder might be hiding and what question to ask her next.

So when the sound of the warhorns were blown and the Village bell began to ring frantically, both her and Steve tensed up.

"No no no- damn it!" She curses, taking out her axe. "Steve- you've done this more than me. Swords out!"

He nods, taking out his sword and shield. The two of them charge into battle.

It's a clash of diamond against iron, about cutting down as many Pillagers and Vindicators as possible through each and every wave of the raid.

Th iron golems were putting up a good fight- mowing down most of the Pillagers with ease. Most of them, however, ended up dying trying to protect the Villagers and help them get inside their houses on time.

And then came the Ravager. The first one was already difficult enough, with Steve nearly being killed trying to take a hit for Alex. He had to quickly retreat, to let her solo it with her axe for a while.

More of the Iron Golems fell with the beast, their exteriors cracking down. It took at least two of them being rammed to death for Alex to finally kill it.

The ravager roared and screamed as it went down. They didn't have much time to catch their breath before arrows whizzed their way again, the next wave of the raid coming in.

Pillagers, unlike the undead mobs, spiders, and slimes they were used to, were much smarter. If not for the fact that Steve and Alex were practically gods compared to them, with their immortality and ridiculous strength.

Alex grits her teeth and chugs down a potion of regeneration, before sprinting towards a vindicator. The flash of an iron axe collided with a diamond one, and again.

It cracked, before shattering with a 'THUNK!' she was oh-so familiar with. The vindicator backed up, shouting to their soldiers.

'Do not retreat! Fight them, until our last breaths-!['

They're silenced by an axe to the head. Killing was easier when you couldn't understand them.

Alex pulls her axe out, watching the vindicator's body begin to smoke and dissolve. Like all dead things did in this world, they didn't leave dead bodies, only their drops.

Steve backs up, wiping the dirt from his face.

"One last wave?"

She nods. "One more."

They hear the tell-tale sound of breaking foliage and heavy footsteps, before the ravager lets out a roar.

An arrow whizzes by their heads, the Pillager on the Ravager drawing their crossbow once again.

"Get them!" They yell, before the rest of the Pillagers and Vindicators swarm the two heroes.

Steve is a cyan blur, slicing up any vindicator headed his way or Pillager that dared get too close. "Alex! You have the Vindicator- get 'em!"

Alex grits her teeth, throwing up her shield just as the Vindicator charged at her. The force of it knocks her back, and she skids across the grass and dirt before pulling out her axe.

The Pillager on it's saddle shoots, and Alex grunts in pain as an arrow embeds into her shoulder. She stays firm, using her axe to repeatedly slash at the ravager.

It lets out a roar, before charging again- this time, at Steve.

"STEVE! LOOK OUT!"

Steve whips around, trying to put his shield up on time. Even with his diamond armor, he was still wounded from fighting.

It hits him, and he goes flying. Steve grunts, crashing onto the wall of a house and sliding down painfully. He spits out some blood, his hand gripping his diamond sword.

"Steve! Hang on!" Alex panics, not wanting him to lose his diamond armor and have to rush back to get it. "You can't die now, I'm still here!"

He simply grins and gives her a thumbs up. The Ravager prepares for another charge.

And all of it is derailed when a brown blur bashes into the Pillager, making them grunt in surprise. The Ravager still charges at Steve, but is intercepted by an Iron Golem slamming into it, making it roar in pain.

The sound of iron clanking against iron fills the air as more Iron Golems rush in, pummeling the Ravager. The Pillager is quickly surrounded by them, their eyes wide and terrified.

"W-WAIT!"

'CRACK.'

Alex winces at the death. She didn't even know there could be that many Iron Golems in one place, unless...

'It's her. She's the one who made them.'

The figure that stands up is short, with bushy brown hair. Steve and Alex could have mistaken them for a very overgrown rusty wolf, if she didn't stand up on two legs and turn around to look at them.

She grins toothily, wiping the blood from her cheek and smearing it a bit. "Nice to finally meet you two."

And they understood her.

Steve is gaping, pointing back and forth between the smaller builder and themselves. Alex blinks, looking at her full set of iron armor and her iron sword.

"... You are smaller than I expected." She says, sizing the scruffy-looking girl up.

"How else did you think I hide so easily?" The builder says. She had a farmer's cap, suspenders, and boots. Slightly different compared to Alex and Steve's simple t-shirt and pants, but enough to be familiar.

"And- why the heck would you make us go on a wild hunt for you?!" Steve suddenly bursts out, making the stranger yelp and skitter back. "Hey hey hey-! I'm not exactly normal, even by builder standards!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

One curious Villager peeked their head through the door, and their eyes when they saw three heroes instead of two. Ollie glances back at them, giving them a cheeky smile.

"I mean, it's not my fault you two are just bad at keeping up with me- eep!"

She's unceremoniously hooked by Steve's fishing rod and grabbed, before Alex throws her over her shoulder.

"We're getting some answers from you." She says strictly. The stranger pouts, struggling against the builder's stronger arms.

"Notch damn it, I should've only sent the Iron Golems instead of trying to be dramatic..." She laments.

Ollie wasn't exactly a normal person.

Maybe long, long ago, before she started working for Void Co. and her sponsor, she could have been considered normal. A normal girl with a normal life, with a normal loving family.

But then came her death, then her rebirth, then all the jobs she did.

Reincarnate, relive, repeat.

She was entertainment for beings that she couldn't even begin to comprehend. She was the inciting incident, the turning point for so many stories.

She was a friend, a foe- a hero, a villain- powerful, weak- anything.

She's done it far, far too many times. And a lot of it she's forgotten- her mind wiped clean, starting back from the beginning of when she first started her job as an isekai protagonist for hire.

"I can't fucking TAKE it anymore!" She screams at the countless purple eyes peering down at her, clutching her hair and pulling. "Over and over and over and over-"

"I feel like I'm missing something from my head! Like I can't remember my life!"

"But you remember your parents' names. Where you grew up. What your own name is." 

"You remember everything that makes you, you!"

"You know DAMN well that's not what I'm talking about!" She points up, accusatory. "I'm talking about all my friends! The ones I've made in the other worlds! The lives I've lived!"

"All of it, reset to zero!" Ollie throws her hands up. "I feel like I'm EMPTY! Like I'm missing someone! Anyone!"

She wonders how many people she's left behind. How many people have watched her live and die, and know only one version of her. Never the whole, only the incomplete.

"You already know why we cannot do that. The human brain isn't meant to handle that much information, much less the full experience of those memories."

She sobs, clutching herself pathetically. God, she wants it. She wants to remember.

How many times has she done this before? How many times has she begged on her knees like this?

"Hm." The voice of her sponsor sounds slightly concerned, as if worried she would break. "Ah, I forgot how... sentimental, some humans may be. And with all of the imprinting you've done on so many characters..."

"..."

"I see the problem now. You're not exactly a 'blank slate' for all these jobs anymore."

She bitterly looks up, balling her hands up. "So do I get a fucking break? Am I gonna FINALLY have one damn life?"

"Yes. It's about time I retire you."

There's the sound of typing, rustling paper, and something being shifted. Ollie floats in the darkness of the in-between, already used to something she's unknowingly done a thousand times before.

"Thank fuckin' god." She groans. "Do I go back to my old life or-"

"What makes you think that?"

"..."

"You're no longer normal. All that residual energy you've built up, all of the things you've went through- you're practically immortal."

"You're no longer you. What makes you think your world's rules would allow you to exist on that plane of reality?"

"... I. I see."

"The best I can do is this. I'll give you one last life. One last isekai into... here."

"Minecraft."

Ollie is quiet as she processes this. If there's anything she prides herself in, it's understanding the severity of a situation the moment it's presented to her.

Immortality would be boring. Mind-numbingly so, and she'd be stuck in what was essentially a paradise turned to hell.

Minecraft at least had the luxury of being a sandbox game with endless possibilities. Who knew? Maybe she could find something worthwhile here.

"I decide the terms." She says, her voice serious. "I get to choose which mods to run, what I can and can't do, and the entertainment I bring with me."

"It wouldn't be a proper retirement without it." The higher being chuckles.

The two of them talked it out. All of the things she was capable of- Minecraft players were practically gods already, with some notable exceptions, and she wanted a quiet life. A steady life.

It's not like Ollie would do anything other than farm and mess around. She might as well do it on her terms.

"And uh- that's how I got here!" She grins nervously, gesturing with her hands. "Dealt with some gods. Not a huge fan of them, after all they've put me through, but... at least I get this."

She spreads her hands out.

"..." Steve and Alex are just staring at her, agape. Ollie scrunches her face up in embarrassment.

"It sounds- weird, I know, and it's awkward because I'm both younger than you physically but like, mentally older than you by centuries..." She makes a so-so gesture with her hands. "And I'm technically not even a real builder!"

"But uh- yeah. That's who I am."

Steve doesn't know how to feel. On one hand, they've finally found someone else. On the other, they might be no closer to figuring out what happened to the ancient builders before them.

"I mean- wow. That's... I'm not even sure I can comprehend what that's like." Alex mutters, putting her hand to her forehead and leaning back on the chair.

"I mean, it's not too different..." Ollie mutters, her finger absently tapping on the wood of the table. "I could compare my boss to the Ender Dragon. Except they're far more talkative, a know-it-all, and absolutely insistent on being vague all the time..."

Steve's eyes sparkle. "Wait- another Ender Dragon?! What's it like?!"

"I said they were like an Ender Dragon, not like they were one." The shorter girl snorts. "The closest thing I can compare them to in this world is- you guys don't have sea slugs here, do you? Uh- they're slimy. Aquatic."

Steve and Alex try to imagine what she's describing. While there is... a spark of familiarity of what a slug is, they don't exactly remember it clearly.

"Like... a frog?" Steve offers. "A slime?"

Ollie coughs, before busting out into a laugh. "Oh, they'd be offended if you called them a frog! But no- think of them like- a really long, oblong slime-thing."

"They're much more powerful than the Ender Dragon, too. Heck, they're the reason why I got these mods in place!" Ollie grins happily, lifting up her bushy hair to reveal her backpack.

"Uh- mods?"

"You know, modifications in reality! The backpack, crops, and new village didn't come from nowhere!"

"Wait, YOU'RE the reason why it happened?!"