Chapter 8: Professional Griefers
I stumble backwards and away from the cloud of pixels. It's a small cloud, maybe the same height as Steve, but it's swirling and moving in an unnerving manner. It reminds me of a Blaze, a creature from the Nether.
"This is Rana. Rana, detta är Tesseract97 och Ben-in-his-den. Please take them home," Steve says.
"What is Rana?!" I ask.
Steve looks to the sunset, sadly. "Rana is a little girl. A long forgotten icon, deep in the history of Minecraft. With every Minecraft update, Rana was left behind, until she became nothing more than a glitch. However, I've never forgotten Rana. Although Rana can't speak, she can hear."
"Oh," I say. I turn to Rana. "It's nice to meet you Rana!"
"Han hedras för att träffa dig, Rana," Steve translates. Rana's swirling pixels move about excitedly.
Suddenly, Steve disappears. Rana twirls around, and heads for the forest on the other side of the plain. Tess and I meekly follow.
When we reached Steve's shelter, it's dark, and the sounds of zombies echo through the trees. The shelter is a small wood cabin, lit up with torches, and a small garden outside. Rana swirls right up to the door, and disappears through the wood. Tess and I have to open it.
Steve is inside, standing beside the fire. We stand behind him, waiting for him to speak to us.
"... You should not have spawned here," he says, after a long silence.
"... Excuse me?" I ask.
"This world is not safe for any player." He stares into the fire.
"Um, Steve?" Tess speaks up. "Did you leave those signs in the cave?"
"Signs? I do no such thing. I am not like him."
"Him?" I take a small step towards Steve. "Do you mean Herobrine?"
As quick as lightning, Steve whips around and holds his glowing sword to my face. "What did I tell you, young man?! Even saying that forbidden name will bring you to his attention! You know nothing of his power! The power to destroy worlds, mercilessly!"
I hastily step backwards, but Steve follows me. "That creature of insanity would torture a player like you in a heartbeat! Yet you are the one who is searching for him, are you not?" He demands.
"Um... yes?" I reply, after a moment's hesitation.
Steve appears to be shocked. He puts his sword into his inventory, and turns his back on me.
"... I warned you, boy. The more you seek him, the more danger you will bring upon us all."
I start to answer back, when suddenly the small, cozy room changes before my eyes, and the world goes dark.
"Ben? Are you there?" Tess calls out, immediately.
My eyes open, and I look around me. I'm surrounded by jungle foliage, and I soon recognize where I am. Tess is a few blocks away from me, behind some vines.
"I know where we are, Tess! This is my original spawn point. Our shelter is just through those vines. Quick, before the zombies sniff us out. Let’s talk inside."
We run through the curtains of vines towards the fortress. As we get closer, a strange feeling comes over me. Through the trees, I can vaguely see a lot of lights, flickering.
I break through the final curtain of vines, and I gasp in shock at the sight before me.
The stone fortress is on fire. The stone is burning away as if it was wood. Around us, the fire is spreading towards the jungle, and across the ground.
Tess comes to a halt beside me. She looks around her in shocked disbelief. I can only imagine what she must be feeling right now.
I look up at the flames consuming the building, and my heart leaps as I notice the blocks of red and black, barely hidden behind some ferns on the outside corner. Without another thought, my reflexes jump into action.
I stretch out my pickaxe, and it takes a second to destroy the block beneath Tess' feet. The block disintegrates, and Tess falls into the hole instantly. She looks around at me, just as I hack at the second block beneath her feet. After making space for myself, I jump into the hole beside her, and continue burrowing downwards.
We would be fortunate if we escaped the TNT. I have no idea when the fire will finally reach the TNT, but I know that the safest place to be within the next few seconds is underground, with my feet on bedrock.
"What is happening?!" Tess yells at me. We can hear the explosions start to echo through the ground.
"We're being griefed," I reply. I don't stop digging beneath our feet.
"Oh no..." Tess goes still. "All our inventory... All the items we've collected so far... They'll be gone!"
"Don't worry about that now, Tess!" My pickaxe shatters from being overused, and within a few seconds I've grabbed a new one.
When we reach the bedrock, we can no longer hear the explosions. Tess has gone quiet.
I dig at the stone around us, to give us some space. Tess has become completely unresponsive. She appears to be in shock; either that or she's gone AFK.
The sights above had terrified me as much as they had terrified her; but I wasn't the one who had just lost a castle to a griefer.
After a few moments of silence, I try to reassure her. "Don't worry, Tess. I promise I'll find whoever has done this. And I will pay them back."
Tess doesn't move. I sigh to myself. I reach into my items, and throw Tess some bread I'd made earlier. It automatically clicks into her inventory. After a few seconds, I select my last wooden sign. I place it in front of Tess, and leave my message.
"/herobrine.help"
Another explosion echoes above us. Tess finally turns to look at me, then her gaze is drawn to something over my shoulder.
"... Um, Ben. Look."
I turn around and follow her gaze. My mouth falls open at the sight before me.
All the walls around me are covered in wooden signs. Each sign bears the same message.
"Du är inte ensam."