"Hey Ay, hand me some diamonds," I command,

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to craft a diamond pickaxe," I say. Ay scowls and hands over the diamonds. I snatch them up and take three from the five-diamond stack. The other two I stuff way back in my inventory to put in a chest when I'm done. 

"Hey! I got the crafting table!" Kelia bursts in,

"Oh good! I don't have space in my inventory to craft one!" I say. Kelia places the crafting table against the wall in front of me and vanishes back outside to grab the rest of our supplies from the temporary storage chest we had on the sand. We put all of our excess ores in it yesterday after we returned from our rather traumatic mining trip. I quickly spread diamonds together on the worn surface of the table and fasten the wooden handle with practiced ease. In mere seconds the items I spread on the grid have melded into a beautiful pickaxe. 

"Do you want to go mining again?" I ask Ay. Ay shakes her head noncommittally and flumps down onto her stark white bed. I sit down on my own across from her. "Are you okay?"

"I - I'm fine," Ay says,

"You know I know you're lying." I smile. 

"I am not. I'm fine, okay!?" Ay erupts slightly. There's definitely something wrong.

"Ay, you can tell me, I'm your friend," I say,

"I - AM - FINE!" Ay enunciated each word angrily, spitting them back at me. I recoil, hurt.

"Fine," I say softly, stalking outside and slamming the door behind me. At first, I'm angry at her but then I relent slightly because there are some things people don't like to talk about. Like my past. I think some months ago before my flashbacks I would never have ever even mentioned my origins, and if someone had asked I would probably spit in their faces a lot worse than Ay. But now if someone asked I might be able to talk a little. Maybe the flashbacks have helped me a little to move past the setbacks. 

I find myself wandering down the beach and eventually realize I'm standing right next to the boats where we landed. Hmmm, I take out another sign and place it next to the bank where we landed, pulling up the engraving section idoly. I suppose I can mark this place for if Jules or Arjay come, but it's mostly just for my own indulgence and wild hopes. Also, I need to clear my inventory. Should I carve the date? What is the date anyway...? I know I spawned in the third moon cycle (or moon*) on the third sun**, and since then... - I look up at the moon - it's Moon five, sun twenty-one. For some reason, this date rings a bell. 

"Moon five, sun twenty-one... Moon five, sun twenty-one..." I repeat under my breath, pondering the strange wave of nostalgia and the familiar feeling this date brings. Suddenly it hits me, and everything comes together. "Of course!" I cry, "It's Jules' Birthday!". All of the sudden the memory has come back to me, "No, my birthday is Moon five, sun twenty-one." Jules had said on Arjay's Birthday in Prisseters. Now I know why Ay has been in a weird mood today. It's her little sister's birthday, and that must make her think about her a lot. Maybe I should talk to Ay, or at least cheer her up.

The door creaks open as I walk in. Thankfully, Kelia isn't back yet. "Ay... I'm sorry." I say. I feel indignant that I'm the one apologizing because it should be her, but I suck it up (for now) and try to amend things and have compassion. Ay doesn't respond. I don't get the people who can ignore others for days and days or stay angry for months and months. It's unnatural, if someone annoys me I say I'm annoyed and then I'm over it most of the time. It must take willpower to be rude for that long.

"Just leave me alone," Ay says, as expected. 

"We need to do some exploration," I say, "we have to get to Spots soon so we should take advantage of our surroundings."

"We're in a Desert Biome, and we already got some diamonds. There, we're done taking advantage of our surroundings."

"Ay! Please! Work with me here, okay!?"

"Fine," Ay growls and sits up blearily.

"Hurry up." I give a small glare despite my best intentions. Ay gets to her feet grouchily and slings her sword over her shoulders with some effort. We both leave the house and find Kelia hurrying up towards the shelter.

"Oh, hey guys!" Kelia calls.

"Where were you?" I ask with mild interest.

"I went to see the mineshaft. I don't know why - just curiosity I guess. But the lava's really cool." Kelia says. Wait, what!?

"Um... the lava?" I ask drily.

"Yah! You know that you discovered yesterday and told me about."

"Uh-huh, like the lava that we dried up yesterday to mine underneath?" I raise my eyebrows. Kelia's face flashes scared. "You're lying! Why? Where were you really?" I ask angrily, though I'm not really as angry as I sound and more intrigued and suspicious. 

"I - I - well, it's like this-" Kelia stammers, "I'm - I'm sorry." She hangs her head, "I don't think I know how to get to Spots. I thought this was the right place, but my memories have been foggy since I was taken over and I think we landed in the wrong place or I don't know which direction to go and-"

"You don't know where to go!? Could this be the entire wrong continent!?" I ask, now really angry.

"I'm sorry!" Kelia wails, "I've been scoping everything out and nothing's familiar! We should be able to see the sand statue from here, which is a big statue of The Minecraftian made completely out of red and beige sandstone but I can't! From there we're supposed to be able to see a dense jungle biome, and Spots should be on a huge heart-shaped patch of plains near the statue but I have no idea I thought since this was a desert it was the right place but-" Kelia breaks off again, going in circles. I sigh, furious at the setback. I only have so long, and we can't afford mistakes.

"Well, keep looking! Ay and I will double-check where you came from just to be sure. Hurry up!" I say angrily, taking control of the situation as usual. Kelia nods and scampers off in the other direction. I can't believe this, after all this time the journey might have been a waste.

"We can't give up." Ay interrupts my thoughts. I am surprised.

"Yes. We can't give up. It's not just about me anymore, it's about saving this entire world." I say. And it's true. 

"We should go farther into the biome in case we're too far away to see it." Ay agrees with my thoughts. I nod back. We continue in silence until I notice something that I have to squint to make out.

"Ay, look! Do you see orange!?" I gasp,

"Yes! It's probably sandstone, I think that's it!"

"Let's go closer to make sure!" I yell, sprinting up the hill and spotting a nearby sand cliff. "We'll see from the top of that!" I cry, clambering up the mountainside. Ay follows me agily. I have to pillar in a few places but it's not a hard climb. We quickly reach the top and look down at the landscape. Dunes stretch out as far as the eye can see. No jungle or any spots of greenery in any direction, just the ocean and sand, sand, and more sand.

"Oh. It's not the statue." Ay says.

"What?" 

"Look, it's more like a pyramid, see?" Ay says, pointing with her blocky hand. 

"Oh no..." I say, seeing that what Ay says is true. Not that I expected anything different. Then, 

"Oh! S, it's a Desert Temple! Those are super rare! We learned about them in-"

"Prisseters, I know." I interrupt crossly. I have no idea what a desert temple is, but it can't help us. We need to reroute and find another way to Spots. We both jump down and splash water at the bottom to break our falls. As I turn and set back to camp, Ay stares at me, aghast,

"S! Where are you going!? It's a Desert Temple!" Ay yells as though I'm berzerk. 

"Um, so!?"

"So it could be full of emeralds and diamond and it has a ton of TNT at the bottom!" Ay yells.

"Really!? I mean, okay, we can come back tomorrow." I say.

"And risk losing it!? We have to go now, this is super duper rare!" Ay cries, her voice hitting a desperate note. Okay, it's important. But so is Spots... I'm only torn for a moment before I follow Ay in the direction of the temple. It doesn't take long because we jump-sprint, or 'leaper' there, as it's called in Prisseters. We stop and chow down some bread to restore our hunger. Leaper takes some of the most hunger in the game.

"Let's go through that doorway," I say, eying a suspiciously shadowy doorway. We walk forward a few paces and find a winding staircase. And awaiting us at the bottom, are four skeleton horsemen fully armored and carrying three enchanted bows. 

Minecraft Words

* - Moon, Month

** - Sun, Day

I love ending on cliffhangers! This chapter was a little boring to write, and probably read so sorry, but I have a lot of ideas for the chapters swimming around my head. They were gonna' find a bunch of Husks at the bottom or on the way, but maybe another chapter.

This is based on my actual Minecraft survival world, which has two desert temples (so far) and the seed is hhh. I found a skeleton with an enchanted bow when I went down the stairs in it, too. Unfortunately, I did not find diamonds but I did find 9 emeralds!

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Just Be!