Treegiraffe2's Arc

Chapter 1 of 10

Treegiraffe2 stood in the empty field where her town would rise, and the sun was already sinking. Tetra2, she called it. A town square. A greenhouse. Automated farms and rows of cute cottages, open to every player who wandered by. She could see all of it in her head. But right now she had no walls, no roof, and maybe ten minutes of light left. She knew what came with the dark. Zombies would claw up from the shadows. Skeletons would loose arrows across the open ground. Her platform boots sank into the grass as she spun in a circle, hunting for anything solid. A cluster of broad oak trees stood at the field's edge, trunks thick as pillars. Not a house. But a start. She ran for the oaks and started punching wood. Her hands ached. Blocks popped free, one by one. Too slow. The sky bled orange to purple. Somewhere behind her, a low groan rolled across the field. She didn't turn to look. "You're doing that all wrong." The voice came from the base of the largest oak. A boy sat there in purple plaid pajama pants, a gold chain resting on his black shirt, his purple hat tipped back. He hadn't moved to help. He watched her punch trees like she was the evening's entertainment. "Then help me," Treegiraffe2 said. "Or move. Night's coming." Skibble stood, unhurried. "Name's Skibble. And you don't need a whole house yet." He nodded at the oak's base, where gray cobblestone bunched between the roots. Jammed into one block, point-down, a diamond sword glowed faint blue in the dying light. "You need a hole with a door." Another groan, closer now. Treegiraffe2 saw it then. A zombie shambled out of the tree line, arms out, torn shirt hanging off green shoulders. Its black eyes fixed on her. She grabbed the sword's handle and pulled. It slid free of the stone with a scrape. Heavier than it looked. The zombie lurched at her, and she swung. The blade bit deep. It swung again. The zombie stumbled back and burst apart. "Dig," Skibble said, already breaking cobblestone with his bare hands. "Into the hill. Now." They dug together. She hollowed a small space beneath the oak roots. He stacked the loose cobblestone into a wall behind them. An arrow hissed past and stuck in a trunk. A skeleton stood in the field, bow raised, bone-white against the last of the light. Treegiraffe2 slotted the final block into place. The wall sealed. Outside, arrows tapped the stone and slid away. Inside the dark little pocket, she caught her breath. "Not exactly a cottage," Skibble said. "It's a start," she said. She still gripped the diamond sword. She had shelter now, and a weapon, and one strange boy she didn't ask for. Tetra2 would have to wait for morning. First she had to survive the night.