Chapter 1 to Chapter 8

Chapter 1 : Nether Beginnings ▼

Breathing. I have to remember to breathe. How am I supposed to breathe right now?

I keep running because what else are you suspected to do when you are getting chased by a piglin brute. I look forward just in time to stop myself from falling into the hot lava lake below. I look around hoping to find a way to escape but find none. I ready my stance and my muscles pack it in for the big impact as I begin to close my eyes in fear.

BANG!

What was that?

Gradually I opened my eyes to see a piglin… human… thing? It looks as if it was the thing that hurt my vicious foe. It looks up and I see that it is a hybrid of pigs of the hottest dimension in the world. It starts to walk towards me, with a bloodthirsty pair of eyes as I back up against a wall I had run to in fear of the moment. It stops a foot away from me and looks me up and down as I try not to run away. It grunts and just walks away. That was weird.

I decided to keep looking for the way back home. I ended up not finding the fortress that I was here to look for. This is a really big shame because I heard a rumour from the nearby towns that there was an end portal in the area. That’s what they were in the area for after all. Nearby I found one of my torches and continued on the trail back to my way.

Seeing the Nether Portal, I ran toward the castle-like walls surrounding it to help people be safe when collecting their potion supplies. Not as if anyone else is in this world. Humanity hasn’t developed that far yet. Based on the power difference, I severely doubted they ever would. I just thought it would look nice, that's all.

Stepping into the big walled-off area, the first thing I noticed was that my nether wart was ready to be harvested. The sand it was planted on top of was staring right back at me with the usual shrieking terror as I pulled to nether wart out by the roots, placing the shortest bud back in its place to help my resources stay steady.

Then I looked to my left and saw the map I made for the nether. Compasses don’t work here so I had to guess the direction they would go in, but having it there helps regardless. The only clue of where I was was the large lava pool in the centre of the map, daring me to jump in every time I walk by it. I added the new territory that I was exploring today to the collection, admiring my work seconds later. All in a few years of work.

The Nether was not an easy place to reach. I had to scour for months to even outline the portal. But before I could even do that I had to read every tome that I had just to learn about the area I heard others talk about in brief moments to themselves when they thought no one was looking. For a person, with terrible luck, I sure do seem to find myself in a new area, but still stuck. As always.

I decided it was time to head back home when I heard my gut start to rumble. Time works differently here in the nether, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t get hungry. I gain a bigger appetite when I’m in the nether. It goes away as soon as I go through the portal though.

Behind me, the nether portal emits a soft hue of purple, close to the colour of my eyes. I turn around and walk up the steps to the massive transport between dimensions and take a deep breath. Now or later, I think to myself bracing for the sucking force of the Portal as I stride into it. I feel my body getting torn to shreds, and getting placed back together for aeons and almost feel as if it was broken and that I’d be lost to the emptiness one of these days if I continue this trek to the Nether world.

But alas, the only course out is forward. I take a step out.

Chapter 2 : Quiet Oasis ▼

Alone again. Hysteria was never one for company. She had never had any time to be with any company, anyway. She liked to stay to her own devices and get things done on her own. Everything that tried to talk or get close to her. She was afraid. She was afraid of herself.

She walks out of her Nether Portal. Ah, wind and a breath of fresh air. She looked behind at the cave-like portal behind her to make sure it was safe. She walked into her oasis in the woods. She had been living here alone since she was a child. She used to live with her mother before she… left.

The cottage itself was almost a castle. It’s amazing how you couldn’t see it over the treetops. The cottage had a lot of space, so her having friends over was a possibility from only one glance. If she ever got any friends, that is.

The paths going to the door swirled around a pond, but there were no fish inside. Instead, there were axolotls. The salamanders were in a vast range of colours too. From pink to blue, to brown, she seemed to have every colour there was just playing with each other in front of her house.

She also had a garden in front of it. The rows of plants were filled with wheat, carrots, berries, and many others that looked even supernatural at times. The whole area was surrounded by trees. There was only one way out for anyone who somehow came in, as Hysteria was the only one who knew the area like the back of her hand.

Hysteria walked into her cottage and hung up her coat near the door along with her gold bracelets and bars made in the nearby barrel. Her house was at least two stories tall, it was so big. The living room was a very compact area with bookcases lining the walls. On top of the beautiful, purple carpet spread across the floor, a table, sofa and reclining chair sat waiting for their next use.

She went to the humongous kitchen. The island in the middle was clean and pristine, while the fridge was bare and flat. It is a simplistic kitchen that was not very lived in. That is except for the stoves and oven, as they were a little stained and the oven’s light was still on. She looked in the fridge for something to eat. She decided to settle on berries and milk. While she ate, the scenes in the Nether replayed in her head.

She had woken up that morning prepared to be bored to death from walking for hours. She went into the Nether thinking that she wasn’t going to find anything. She walked back on her path when she found a bastion. She had had an uneventful day, so she decided to go inside. It was all ok until she broke a brick that was helping the brute not see her.

She was far from a secure passage. This is how I’m going to die, she suddenly thought at that moment. The rest was bizarre enough on its own. The day started with an uneventful adventure and ended in her almost untimely death.

Today was interesting, wasn’t it?

Chapter 3 : Nightly Troubles ▼

Later that night, Hysteria kept turning over and over in her sleep. She sat up after finding out this fact at about midnight. She took a good look around her room to remember where she was, as she usually forgets where she is after closing her eyes. The floor is wood that had been waxed and polished by her mom herself. However, she hadn’t dared touch it, evident by the scratch marks all over the floor from her chairs when she dragged them around.

The walls were paved with the memories of her childhood. Her mother and father, who wasn’t present from most of it, had a special place in her room, on her desk next to her spellbooks. She really needed to read those soon.

She then noticed how thirsty she was. Slowly, she got out of bed and down the stairs to the kitchen to grab a glass of warm tea with milk and honey to sooth her nerves and her throat. This attempt, however, did not work for the nerves. At least her throat felt better though. Placing the ingredients back where she got them and her mug in the sink to wash in the morning, she went back up to her room to sleep again.

She tried to calm herself down, but eventually failed to do so no matter what the plan was. Failing miserably, she tried to look out the window of her room at the stars in the sky that shined down from above. All those souls of the most powerful and brave and kind smiled down from their own personal heavens. They were probably surrounded by those that loved them, even if they didn’t notice it.

In the end, she decided to go over what was distracting her from her sleep. After some searching in her mind palace, she found herself thinking about the problems in the world that she would never be able to fix no matter her level of power. A sad discovery really.

She had always dreamed of a world where everything was perfect. Where she wasn’t alone. Where she had family. Friends. Where people didn’t think she was a loner just because she didn’t like to be around people 24/7.

Getting out of her mind, she laid back to sleep feeling more tired than before. “Why can’t I just be a normal girl?” She said to herself as she wrapped the blankets around herself and fell asleep.

There would be a time and place for this kind of thinking. In a land much ahead of herself, she would be able to drift off into the unknown and travel to unmarked frontiers. Lands undiscovered. People she had yet to have met.

She just needed to wait a little longer. Just a while till they're here….

Chapter 4 : Peaceful Mornings ▼

Hysteria has always been sort of quiet. That’s one of the small habits that she learned from being alone all the time. Sometimes she doesn’t even think she remembers Common all that well, but then she thinks back and notices that's the language her thoughts came in.

She also doesn’t know many proper etiquette of her day and age. The books that she had read when her mom was still teaching her must have been centuries of age now. She felt distant when she realised this; let alone the fact that she also has not seen many people in the middle of the woods.

The book she subconsciously is one of her own. Poems she wrote to fill the time and silence around her. Not that she had many people to read them to anyway.

After setting down the book, Hysteria walked to the kitchen to get some breakfast for her. She settled on eggs and a glass of water. After the eventful time she’s had the past weekend, she decided that it would suit her well. Setting her plate on the coffee table in the living room and sitting down in her chair, Hysteria decided to read one of her poems. Probably not one of her morose scriptures, however. They could put you in a bad mood all day long if you read enough of them. She settled for The Rainy Day.

Picking up her fork and shovelling her eggs onto it and into her mouth she started reading.

If the eyes were to ever be the sky,
Then the sky has cried more than me this year.
The water falling isn't sad though.
It is tears of life and rebirth and joy all given to you from
The shelter of your tea and books in a large library
Where no one talks to you and you can slip away into your finest fantasies.
That is the life the world sees when it cries,
Hoping,
Dreaming,
Praying
You'll be there with the great dreamers as their memories and words
Drip off their tongues like honey in the great mixing bowl of life and death.

Now finished with her eggs and water, she decided to do some inventory in her kitchen and storage room. But of course, before she could do anything of that sort she settled on doing the dishes first.
After the dishes were done, she swept room to room gazing and scouring all the inventory her ‘little’ cottage held. From herbs and other plants to ingredients for spells, she was set. From poultry to wood, however, she needed to go out and harvest some so she could get started on her next adventure without all of those troubles later.
Grabbing her over-shoulder endless bag, a flask of water, some berries, and her axe, she set out into the late morning with a plan.

Chapter 5 : Collecting Resources ▼

Out in the world, there is nothing but madness, but in the hearts of men, there is plenty more to fill the last of the void.

Hysteria walked out of her oasis and let out a sigh. She only just got home yesterday, but alas, no rest for the wicked. Her bag secured over her shoulder, she pulled out the map inside and started her journey to the mountains nearby where she got most of her wood. The journey was very long but short enough to be a day’s walk there and back. She may have to set camp on the mountain, however.

Walking down the path she made years ago, she heard the crunching of the leaves beneath her feet. It turned fall recently and oh, how she loved every second of it. That was no surprise though because she was the witch of the woods and the autumn season was the trees getting ready for the winter when they weren’t ready for it in the first place.

The path started going uphill as she got closer, the mountains looming over her with such a powerful stance that if she had not been there millions of times before, she might have fallen backwards in amazement.

The higher she got, the more the rocks on the trail gathered, until she was stepping on the stones only in fear of her foot getting stuck in one of the ledges. She climbed higher and higher when suddenly she was standing on a cliff at the top covered in tall beautiful spruce trees. She set down all her stuff nearby unprotected, as she was never well enough that the animals that were up here wouldn’t want her berries and water when there was a meat rack next to it.

Chopping down the trees took a while, but she would only need a few before leaving. After getting all the wood she set it down in her bag and looked up at the sky. It was almost dusk and she had to get down the mountain and back home. She decided to find a cave on the mountain and set up camp like her plan B had been.

Finding a cave was fairly easy, especially when there was light coming from inside of it.
Going around the mouth of the cave, she saw wooden beams and dots of light swapping gracefully, then suddenly all the light poofed out. She saw some shadows near the end of the cave as she walked inside.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” she asked, her voice trembling in fear.

Mumbles at the end of the hall beckoned her further inside fearing for her life as she took one more step.

Chapter 6 : The MMR (is so annoying ▼

I grabbed a shrinking lantern from my satchel and held it out to clear the path leading to the end of the cave. To say it was overgrown was putting it shortly. The vines of the cave covered every single surface and the cobwebs from the abandoned mineshaft along with the dust made it almost look haunted. Almost.

"Come out, you gremlins!" I screamed to the shadows in the back. "I know you're there!"

"Alright, Alright!”

Out of the shadows emerged a small creature. A mob is what they are called. The creatures of this world can be ferocious, but these guys are harmless. A group of mobs, or as they so annoyingly call themselves, MMR emerge behind it. How did they all fit back there?

"What are you doing here?! Did I not make myself clear last time?" I exclaimed, creeping closer and closer to the annoying, rebellious group of mobs in front of me. They cowarded underneath my gaze huddling all together.

"NO!" The leader of the group was the one to say that. Its voice was dripping with fear. The group had only picked it to be the leader because they were the bravest of the group. Once you know that, they all seem like a bunch of kids only doing this to anger their parents. Bunch of lunatics!

"Then why aren't you at your camping grounds? You know, the ones we arranged for you so you'd leave me and my home alone?!"

“Something made us leave! We didn’t really see it but we had to retreat because of it,” it said, still kind of whimpering.

I looked around to see a bunch of nods of agreement to the statement, then I started thinking, What could have gotten them so worked up to leave?

"Tell me more..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hours later~

"So basically, you know nothing?" I said looking questioningly at the little mob rambling in front of me. All the talking came to a pause as I sighed in discomfort with the silence.

"I'm leaving. The only reason I was even here was that I wanted to restock but I can do that another day. Therefore, bye!" I exclaimed, leaving the cave, making sure to grab my stuff on my way out.

It was daytime when she left. Had I really spent all night entertaining the idea of them knowing anything?

I climbed down the mountain, forgetting to get the spruce wood. That was useless, I thought while walking home. Tomorrow I'll have to go back and finish foraging.

Chapter 7 : A New Friend? ▼

Hysteria woke up with a start. When did I fall asleep? She thought as got dressed into her adventuring clothes which consisted of a white button-up shirt, a brown vest, and tan khakis, all accessorised with an assortment of random junk she had found on her travels sewn together. In one ear, she put a pearl art project someone must have thrown away. It was blue and green with purple speckles and had a cat-like pupil. Her fingers had rings of all different kinds, all sealed to not fall off unless she permits them to herself. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure as my mom would say!

After she was done, she walked downstairs to grab some loaves of bread and sweet berries from the kitchen. She ate in silence as she looked out the window. How she wished the animals liked her aura.

When she was done with her food, she grabbed her velvet coat and boots along with her satchel. After making sure she had enough resources to make the trip there and back, she took one more look around before she ventured out to the abandoned village not too far away. The path wasn’t too long so there was no need for a sleeping bag to weigh her load down either. This isn’t going to take long.

A few hours later, Hysteria was walking around a massive mossy rock blocking the path home when she heard a whimper coming from the shrubs surrounding the area. As she got closer, the whimpering came to a close after a particularly painful yelp.

She moved the bushes aside only to reveal that the whimpering was coming from a wounded wild grey wolf hiding there to keep away from danger. Dangers like-

"That looks painful. Let me help!" she exclaimed. Just as she was about to try and wrap the wound with something in her satchel, it shuffled away to the best of its capabilities. Suddenly, she remembered the home she mostly found dull and lifeless. Where the animals always run away…

Trying again, she asked politely, "May I help?", her voice dripping with hope that it would listen, desperate for attention. She hated it when animals wouldn’t let her help them.

The wounded creature in front of her looked conflicted and deep in thought. For fear of being rejected from helping the poor animal, Hysteria started standing up reluctantly. The wolf kept its eyes trained on her and when she moved away, the dog started to sniff the air that was around her to try and get some evidence of her personality thus far.

She turned away for one second to grasp her fear before it got out of hand. When she looked back at it, it was in wonder, for an animal had never done such a thing around her. It nodded and relaxed all its muscles, waiting for her help.

She then thought lovingly, Well there's always a first for everything! Kneeling, she looked at it with a newfound appreciation. So it is possible… I didn't think I could do it, but here I am with a creature full of life and hope. So much hope it is blinding.

Smiling, she wrapped its paw in the piece of bandage she had in her bag for emergencies. When she finished, she stepped back and let it get up. It stood on wobbly legs that almost dropped the poor animal multiple times. Hysteria ached as she watched it in those first few seconds, hoping it wouldn’t fall and get further injured. After a while of standing there, it gained its composure and looked back at Hysteria with a loyalty deeper than all seven of the great seas.

Woah. Shocked by the look, Hysteria froze. She had never been stared at like that. Like she meant something. At least, not for quite a while yet. “Are you coming with me?” she asked the wounded pup. It nodded with such conviction, it brought another smile to her face, I’ve smiled a lot today. “Well, then come with me!”

Hysteria had never felt as light as she did now, the pup following her and her satchel full of food for weeks to come.

Chapter 8 : Troubling Mornings (it is morning right?) ▼

A plop on the couch. -Ba-dump- Something is there. -Ba-dump- It’s warm.

Hysteria slowly opened her eyes to the blinding light above her. Her eyes squinted as she looked towards her feet, where the shift in weight was. It looks like a pillow, Hysteria thought in confusion. Suddenly she remembered what happened the day before. What time is-

Noticing she was awake, the wolf pup was now on her chest looking straight at her. “This seems like it should be awkward… So it wasn’t a dream?” She asked the creature in front of her. All it did in response was tilt its head and lick her face. After doing so, it jumped off the couch and ran to the kitchen. Based on the windows, it’s evening time, so maybe it’s the next day? Getting off the couch, she realised that she was drenching in sweat. There goes that idea.

She walked with sort of a limp in her step as she was still half asleep. The kitchen’s bright white light bounced off the shiny, recently cleaned counters, the floor just as sparkling. The wolf pup was on the ground staring at her, tail wagging behind it. “You want food?” The puppy barked. That’s a yes then. She went over to her fridge and got out a pound of beef. Looking down at the wolf she said, ”I need food as well.”

After getting all the ingredients together, she pulled out a recipe book that looked like every page was a collage of different kinds. Flipping to the exotic foods opening page, she looked back at the ingredients. A moment of silence followed before she flipped to the page she needed to have while making this dish. Mom’s favourite.

The pan on the stove heating up, she got a cutting board out and started slicing some vegetables and herbs. When the pan was completely heated up, Hysteria put the pound of meat on the pan and started browning it. After it was completely ready, she grabbed a small pot and put some water in it. Putting it on the stove, she poured some white rice into it.

Back to the vegetables, she did them one at a time. Before however, she put some red and clear liquid into a tiny bowl, dropping in some green onion and letting it sit. The aroma in the kitchen soon filled the whole house with this delicious dish. She only cooked it so often, so she tried to savour every moment of it that she could, sometimes even making extras.

Finished with the cooking, she got out two plates. One of the plates got some beef and was put on the floor for the pup along with a bowl of water. The other, however, was delicate. Rice first, covered in ground beef just the way she taught me. On top, vegetables along with the onions that were surely coated in the strange mixture.

Sitting down at the table, she was holding her fork in her hand and just stared at it for a moment and then took a bite. Her eyes closed and mouth full of flavour, she savoured every taste on her tongue before swallowing. She followed it immediately with another bite, eating it slowly before finishing up with a glass of water and putting them in the sink to be washed in the morning.

She left the wolf in the kitchen to finish its food. Walking back into the living room, she decided to grab a book off the shelves. Maybe there’s a new one today that I missed. Dragging her fingers across all the spines on the bookcase, her hand stopped at a book titled ‘Black Curse’. She grabbed it off the shelf and flipped to page one, not surprised to see not one word written on the page. She put it back and reached for her favourite book, ‘Girl On The Line’ by Faith Gardner. Despite being a few years older than her, the book was the most pristine thing on the shelf, other than its tattered cover at least.

Flipping to page one as she walked over to the couch, she was instantly enveloped into this world of sadness and the feeling of being alone despite being surrounded by people. The couch was again shifted under the weight of the wolf pup as it jumped up and snuggled next to her. Maybe another night on the couch isn’t such a bad thing.