TW: None

Title: ~The First Meeting~

The happy sounds of Minecraftia filled the air as the girl walked gingerly across the grass. Kim had settled in a lot to her new home, and after her experience in the Nether, she appreciated the calm and quiet daytime world. Even so, she had never ventured this far beyond Sjin’s farm before and she was nervous at what she might encounter, especially as the sun was already beginning to set. Suddenly, Kim stopped in her tracks. She saw a figure, sitting underneath a tree, surrounded by mushrooms, their head resting on arms that were themselves balanced on bent legs. Kim approached the figure slowly and saw that it was a girl, with long locks of bright red hair, gazing thoughtfully over the landscape. The girl suddenly looked up at the approaching noise and Kim could see that behind her futuristic glasses, she had eyes of deep blue. It was hard not to recognise these striking features.

“Are you…Zoey Proasheck?” asked Kim tentatively. She had heard a lot about this woman, and her various adventures with a mage and mute dinosaur, from Sjin, during her short stay at his farm and she had to admit to herself, she was a little bit star-struck at meeting her.

“Yes” answered Zoey “Who’s asking? No, wait; are you the new girl who’s moved onto Sjin’s farm?”

Kim nodded silently while deciding which of her many questions she wanted to ask first.

“They say you survived a nuke explosion, and that you can talk to mushrooms, is that true?” Kim babbled, trying not to show how nervous she was. “I found a big patch of mushrooms back there by a pond, if you wanna go and talk to them, they might have some interesting stories to-”

Kim fell silent as Zoey stood up, revealing herself to be much taller than the dark haired girl, and placed a metallic finger across her lips.

“No, don’t talk about me like that. They’re all just stories. Stories don’t show me as I really am. Yet this is how people see me, as some crazy mushroom girl, or as a heroic martyr for sacrificing my arm to save our home, when it was tragically destroyed anyway. And still no one knows the real me, not even…”

Here her voice trailed off and she dropped her hand back down to her side and looked at the floor. Kim realised for the first time, with their faces this close together, how beautiful Zoey was in the dying light of evening, and before she knew what she was doing she reached up and gently brushed a stray strand of ginger hair away from Zoey’s face and tucked it behind her ear. Zoey’s eye flashed red as she viciously slapped Kim’s hand away and stumbled back.

“Stop that! Get away from me!” she cried, breathing heavily through her rage. Kim was shocked and close to tears that their first meeting had grown sour so suddenly.

“I…I’m sorry” she stammered “I didn’t mean to-” But her apology was cut short as Zoey collapsed back to the ground and buried her head in her arms, her red hair reflecting the last rays of sunshine. The shuddering of her body revealed that he was sobbing.

“There’s something I’ve not been truly honest about, with anyone. I just can’t keep it a secret anymore, I need to come out and say it.” She whispered through her tears.

“Err, come out?” Kim asked, thinking back to Zoey’s finger on her lips and her face and her hair and how beautiful she had looked. “But I thought-”

“I don’t care what you think right now, I need to say this, it’s important!” Zoey blurted out, looking up at Kim, her face contorted with rage. But as soon as she had said it her face relaxed again and she returned her head to its position in her hands.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout. But for some reason I feel like I can trust you, and I need to tell someone, anyone.” Zoey took a hold of her hair in both fists and sighed. With a quick motion she yanked upwards, taking her ginger mop with her, and flung it to the ground.

For a second, Kim could only stare at the lifeless mass on the ground but slowly her eyes traced its path back up to Zoey’s face. There she saw a shaggy, jaw-length, brunette bob where long, ginger locks had once sat.

“A wig?!” Kim exclaimed. “All this time, you’ve been wearing a wig?! That’s what you had to tell me?!”

“That wig.” Zoey spat, looking distastefully down at it, “That wig symbolises a character that I created but have come to despise, as her accomplishments have out shadowed anything I hoped to achieve. And now, no-one can ever look past her to see the real me.”

As Kim gazed at the girl in front of her, still sat on the floor, she saw a fragility and vulnerability to her that she hadn’t previously recognised. She took a step closer and, seeing no reaction, sat down next to her on the floor.

“Well, this is the real Zoey I’m seeing now, aren’t I? And you know what? I think I like her. Brunette suits you too.”

Zoey lifted her head to look at Kim, her hair framing her face perfectly and magnifying her stunning features. Her eyes were lined with tears but her lips were smiling. No more words needed to be said as the two friends sat together and watched their shadows lengthen over the grass as the sun set, and the land fell dark.