My Brother's Dog

My brother, Caleb, and I had our first encounter with Minecraft on the X-Box 360. We couldn't build massive structures, we couldn't wire complicated redstone devices, but we could hit stuff. And that's what we did. We were enthralled with the game, mostly because it was so unlike anything we had played previously: games like Call Of Duty, Halo, and all that good stuff. Our first encounter with a Minecraft "Creepypasta" was a few months after we started, letting us gain some experience before we heard about the being known as "Herobrine". Our cousin, Jesse, was an avid Minecraft fan, and unlike us, could do some pretty amazing stuff. Of course, we believed him, and started playing around with the idea that the mysterious Herobrine would come and visit us. And he did... maybe. On one of our cousin's visits, we opened a world, only to find it destroyed. Buildings were rubble, trees split in half, and redstone tunnels everywhere. That world was a dedicated survival world, so we were spooked. Our older brother calmed us, saying it was a harmless prank by Jesse. While that did calm us down a little, it was never really confirmed, which left me guessing. But this isn't about that. It's about the world after that.

So we were pretty shaken up by that event, so we made a new world. Start over.

"Here we go," Caleb said, as we were spawn in the world. This time, we were on a grass plain, with a huge lake over on the right. Animals milled about, and one such sheep was standing on a tree. What made this place especially appealing was the huge, gaping hole on the far end of the field, probably hoarding all sorts of valuable ore.

This was a familiar situation. We both had jobs to do, when we started a new world, and we both knew how to do them. I looked over to Caleb, and nodded, knowing exactly what was going on inside his head. He nodded in reply, and we both went to work. I destroyed all the animals in the immediate vicinity, collecting a whole lot of food; the wool and leather being a welcome bonus. By the time I was finished, the sun was setting, and Caleb had nearly finished up the shelter. I walked over and started cooking the food in the furnace that was inside.

"You're getting a lot more done than usual, Caleb," I said to him. "What's your secret?" I joked.

"Shut up, and hand me that wool. I can make those beds we need, and it's getting pretty dark."

"Alright, alright. It's in the chest." I backed away from the chest as Caleb finished the roof, showering us in complete darkness.

"Oops." Caleb quickly placed a torch over the chest, and placed a few more for good measure.

We made the beds, and went to sleep. In the morning, the food was cooked, and we ate it to replenish the hunger we had from yesterday. With my leather I gathered yesterday, I made a cuirass. I thought I looked great.

"I feel like checking out that hole over there. I might explore it a while," he announced.

"Alright, not my fault if you lose your stuff. Take this." In the chest, I put half a stack of wood and some food.

Taking the supplies, he said, "It's not like I'll die, Alex. I have enough torches, and I got skillz." He showed off this skill by T-bagging the ground.

"Literally anyone else has more skill than you. Especially me." I replied, sticking out my tongue. "Bye bye, now." He walked out the front door, and headed out to the hole. Instead of watching his screen, I went to gather more leather for my armor set.

About 20 minutes later, another blow-by-blow account of another battle with a skeleton: starring Caleb, and a pair of leather shoes and a helmet later, I was running for my life from a pack of wolves that decided that they hate me. As I jump into the lake, Caleb shook my arm.

"Alex! I found something!" he said, leaking enthusiasm.

"Wait, Caleb. Wolves." I said. I ran into the house and slammed the door behind me. "What did you find?"

"Look." He pointed at the screen, and I saw why he was excited.

He found a stronghold.

That was when I made a sword and slew all the wolves blocking me inside the house. "I'm coming over."

I went over to the hole, and jumped in. Thankfully, Caleb had put a puddle at the bottom, so my fall wasn't fatal. I followed his torches, and after a few zombies, I made it to Caleb.

"What took you?" He said. "I thought you had skills."

Ignoring him, I pushed through to the entrance. This was the first time we found one of these, not counting creative. Playing on that mode has its perks, but this time there's actual danger; danger I relished.

What was strange, was that, when I inspected the front, I saw a sign saying "Faith's Tomb". I shrugged it off, thinking that it was probably what Caleb named the place.

"You wanna do it?" Caleb asked.

"What do you think?" Without waiting for his answer, I pushed past him and entered. We spent the next hour exploring and clearing out the stronghold. Anything remotely useful, we took: iron bars, the books from the library, and everything in between. I was surprised we made it through wihout dying even once, though Caleb almost died twice. My armor soaked up most of the damage to me, so I thanked my past self for making said armor.

When we reached the last room, I stopped.

"Wait, how're you doing on health?" I asked.

"Not too bad. I have 6 hearts still." Caleb said.

"Let me open the door, I have armor."

"But no skill." I let him get away with that. When I opened the door, we quickly dealt with the flood of silverfish that came through. We ran inside and covered the place in torches. After that, we celebrated. We've barely been on this world for 2 hours, but we've already found the end portal.

"Wait." I walked up the steps. Something was wrong...

Then, we may have been newbies compared with most other players, but we knew and understood basic concepts about the game: Build house. Make tools. Find dimonds. Go to nether. Find end portal. Kill Dragon.

The only thing was... The end portal wasn't there. In its place was an ender chest.

"Something's wrong." I stated.

I walked over to the chest. When I opened it, there was nothing.

"Caleb, see if there's anything in the chest," I whispered, slightly unnerved. He went up and opened it. On his screen, I saw what looked like an enchanted bone.

"What's it called?" I said.

When he hovered his cursor over the bone, it said:

"Old Faith's Bone".

(End Part 1)