Tales of an 8-Bit Kitten

by Cube Kid

  “Maybe. Batwing said his tellstone didn’t always work, though. Tellstones should be able to communicate with anyone, sleeping or not. But they’re hard to craft. The enderman is still working on perfecting them.”

  “Well, if it doesn’t work, you can always speak to Runt in person. He’ll be free in a few days.”

  “Do they always punish him like that?”

  “No, it’s just … he’s a captain, now. A leader. Kind of. So the mayor wants him to set a good example. A lot of the younger kids look up to him now.”

  “Oh.”

  Later that night, we tried using the tellstone.

  I pictured Runt in my mind, but nothing appeared. Then, for some reason, I thought of that villager I’d seen yesterday. The crystal immediately lit up:

  The images disappeared. The purple gleam returned to the crystal’s surface. I pawed the tellstone every which way, but the images wouldn’t return.

  (I’m not positive on this, but I believe he was having a nightmare and woke up, which severed the tellstone’s connection.)

  “That was Pebble,” Breeze said. “So … did we just witness his dreams or something?”

  “I think so.”

  “Didn’t think he was still alive.”

  “He is,” I said. “I saw him yesterday. Before I met you.”

  “Where?”

  “In some ruins. He was with a human. They were searching around for a cave.”

  “So, he really did survive.…” She said something after this, but so quietly, as if speaking to herself. “He must have learned how to use abilities, too.”

  Well, I think that’s what she said.

  Or did I just imagine her saying that?

  Breeze gave me a tour of the village today.

  While we walked through the streets, I noticed these large pieces of paper called “posters.” They were everywhere. Someone must have put them up last night.

  “Seems like at least a few people haven’t forgotten the meeting,” I said.

  “It was hard enough getting everyone to agree to let humans stay here. I’m not so sure we’ll ever be able to form an alliance with monsters.”

  “Well, we’ve got to try. They’re really so nice. You’d like them.”

  We soon forgot about the posters, because a villager in white robes ran up to us.

  Max. He’s a warrior like Breeze, but he once had interest in becoming a librarian.

  “I’ve read nearly every book in the village,” he said, “and found nothing relating to the Prophecy. However …”

  He held up a book (History of Minecraftia, Volume II) and turned to somewhere in the middle. “Look. Someone tore out three pages.”

  Breeze ran her fingers across the jagged edges. “Why would they do that?”

  Max shrugged. “Maybe it said something about the Prophecy? But who would want to hide that? The mayor?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Breeze said. “Wait. Where did you get this book?”

  “The main library. I’ll go there again tomorrow and double-check for any other books that might have been tampered with. Wanna join me?”

  “Sorry. Today’s my only day off this week, and I’m supposed to show Eeebs around.”

  “It’s cool. Emerald’s off tomorrow. I’ll ask her.” He glanced at me. “Really wish you could’ve brought that book you were talking about.”

  “I could always go back for it,” I said.

  “You might have to,” Max said, “if nothing turns up.”

  Max then took off, and Breeze showed me so many different places.

  It almost felt like someone was watching us. But I didn’t see anyone.… One street had something really weird. A villager did something known as a “farming fail.”

  Hours later, as Breeze explained the combat cave to me, that Drill guy ran up to us.

  He screamed so loudly, asking Breeze if she was done accompanying “His Royal Fuzziness” around. Was he talking about me?!

  “You want a little tour of our village, huh?” He pointed down a street. “See all those people building and farming!? That’s called hard work! You’ll be joining them if you wanna stay here! Now march!”

  Drill thinks I need to be trained. Long story short, I’ve been asked to help out. If I want to stay here, I must become a useful member of the village.

  They seem to think I’d make a great scout. That means exploring beyond the wall. But scouts should know all the basics, such as mining, crafting, and farming.… It’s dangerous, being a scout. They say the monsters outside are growing stronger. It’s an important job, too, because scouts are supposed to search for resources like iron.

  It seems that iron is really important to these villagers. They use it to make weapons, armor, tools, and even defenses such as doors and gates. The problem is that iron comes from the ground, and they’ve already mined most of the ground beneath the village. They say they don’t want to go any deeper because it’s too dangerous.

  Food is also a concern. A large number of humans arrived some time ago. The farms here can produce only so much food. Right now, people are consuming more than can be grown. So they need to make more farms. They’ve used up almost all the land within the walls, though, which means they must start farming outside.

  As we followed Drill through the streets, he kept yelling at random villagers, telling them to build faster, work harder:

  “You’re lollygagging like Stump in a kitchen! Like Runt at the ice cream stand! Like Emerald in the Clothing Castle!” In a much calmer voice, he said, “In fact, I bet that’s where I’ll find her. Come on, kitten. Let’s go say hello to your new teacher.”

  I saw Brio and the mayor at one point. They were yelling at workers as well. The word “efficiency” was often brought up.

  Efficient use of space. Proper building techniques. What are they talking about?! I don’t even know what a crop is!

  Later on, Drill took us to this place called the Clothing Castle. Apparently, Emerald really does spend a lot of time there.

  “How did I know I’d find you here?” Drill said.

  Emerald glanced sideways to the left and right without moving her head. “Oh! Are you talking to me? Need some fashion advice, huh?”

  “Hardly. Since Breeze will be scouting tomorrow, and since you’re off tomorrow, you’ll be the first one to teach this kitten. Help him get up to speed. Show him how to farm.”

  “What? But I was supposed to go fishing and—”

  “What’s that? You said you’re ready to do five thousand laps around the combat yard?”

  She flashed a smile. A nervous one. “Did I say fishing?! It’s been a long day! What I meant was I’d be honored to teach Eeebs! Where should I begin?”

  Emerald taught me how to farm today.

  I personally think it went very well, but she seems to think otherwise.

  Hey, it’s not my fault. Her instructions weren’t very clear to me. As if a kitten would know anything about planting seeds!

  “Dude! Don’t be in such a rush! You need to place seeds in farmland!”

  She took me to a grassy area where she demonstrated how to use this farming tool called a “hoe.”

  Standing on my hind legs again, I turned three blocks of grass into farmland and planted some seeds. I felt so proud of myself. She didn’t, though.

  “Farmland should be close together,” she said. “There’s no need to have it all scattered around like that.”

  “Right.”

  “Dude? Where’s the water? You really need to listen!”

  She told me again about how crops need to be watered, or irrigated. Otherwise, they won’t grow nearly as fast.

  I did pretty well, all things considered. She gave me a bucket, and I scooped up some water. I just forgot abo
ut the “digging a hole for the water” part.

  A minor setback, nothing more!

  “I’ve seen a lot of farming fails, but wow. Just wow.”

  “Isn’t diversity a good thing, though?”

  All right, I’ve got this farming stuff figured out. BRB, time to ace the rest and become the ultimate farming champion.

  “Come on! Crops need light to grow! You can’t just build a wall around them!”

  “Okay! Okay! I’m sorry! I just want to talk to Runt, okay? It’s part of my quest! I can’t stop thinking about it!”

  “Yeah? Do you have any idea what they’ll make us do if they catch us sneaking up to him? You’ll see Runt when he’s no longer crafting baked potatoes, okay? Just follow the rules!”

  “Fine!”

  Using a pickaxe, I began tearing down the wall.

  “Good kitten. Now, what you should do is build a fence. Here, I’ll place the crafting table again and …”

  For the first time today, Emerald smiled. “Good job.”

  “How about a hug, huh? Or you can just scratch my chin. I’m not picky.”

  “I’ll pet you once we’re finished. Now listen up. Okay, so, crops need light, right? But what happens when the sun goes down? How can you provide light for your crops during the night? Any ideas?”

  “I think so.”

  Emerald facepalmed. “We’re done for the day. And tomorrow, Stump will be teaching you how to craft, not me.”

  “Okay. By the way, where’s my hug?”

  “As if! Hurmmph!”

  Emerald stormed off. Later, a nice girl named Lola taught me how to shoot this weapon called a “bow.”

  The other villagers say she used to be very unskilled, but she’s recently shown promise. She also crafted a hat out of a creeper she dropped in the wild.

  Nessa “Lola” Diamondcube

  from Noob Extraordinaire to Scout First Class.

  This morning, I met the villager known as Stump. One of Runt’s best friends.

  He wasn’t too happy about having to teach me on his day off. Part of the problem was that I kept eating the crafting ingredients.

  He called me a walking garbage can, because according to him, it’s not even possible to eat some of those ingredients. Our time together can be summarized by a single picture:

  (I’d include pictures of my various crafting fails, but at this point, I’ve become somewhat embarrassed of my complete lack of skill.)

  I guess Stump takes his crafting seriously—especially food items like cakes—so when I basically decorated the floor with ingredients, his anger only grew.

  Luckily, Max interrupted us before long. He just burst through the door, muttering something about books and libraries and the biggest mystery the village has ever seen.

  Seconds later,

  we were out the door.

  Max took us to one of Villagetown’s libraries—the biggest one in the village.

  “I’ve been doing a lot of research here,” he said, leading us past the bookshelves. “I found a book with missing pages in one of the back rooms.… But I didn’t notice the carpet until this morning,” he said.

  Stump glanced around. “What’s wrong with it? Besides that awful orange color, I mean. Seriously, who decorated this place?”

  Max walked farther into the room, then stopped. “Come over here.”

  We followed. As an animal who’d only just learned how to farm, I had no idea what was going on. But then, I didn't feel too bad, because Stump didn’t seem to understand either.

  Max pointed at the floor.

  Carpeting made from a sheep’s wool and dyed bright orange.

  That should have been nothing more than a decoration, something placed over cobblestone.

  “Feels a little soft,” Stump said, stepping on to one section of the carpet. “Spongey, really. Almost like a cake. What, is there nothing underneath?”

  Max mined the carpet up with his bare hands.

  Max thinks it’s been here for a very long time.

  What sat inside were more bookcases, a chest filled with all kinds of papers and scrolls … and a massive tome, lying on a table.

  Although it looked like nothing more than a large book with a dark gray cover, there was something about it—the more I stared, the more I sensed the power it contained.

  Max lifted the tome up in a way that suggested an immense weight. Record of Aetheria was its name. “It just goes on and on. It’s over five hundred pages long.”

  “Five hundred pages?!” Stump moved closer and eyed it suspiciously. “Of what?”

  “The history of the world. The Prophecy, too. And guess who’s name is in here?”

  “Breeze?”

  “No. Kolb.”

  I zoomed over to take a better look at the tome. “He’s one of the Saviors, right?”

  “Apparently. I’m wondering why he never told us?”

  “Maybe he doesn’t know?” Stump said.

  Max shrugged. “It gets weirder. One of the things I’ve read … we’re supposedly controlled by some kind of guiding force called AI.”

  “I’ve heard that before,” I said.

  Max turned to the first page. “There’s also this.”

  “Whoever wrote this clearly didn’t want Herobrine reading it,” Stump said. “That must be why it was stashed here. But who wrote it?”

  Max turned to the next page.

  “We have to ask Kolb about this,” Stump said. “He has to know something.”

  Max nodded. “I’ll go see if I can find him. You two wait here. And Eeebs? Wipe that sugar off your nose. Seriously, man. Are you a kitten or a pig?”

  Ten or so minutes later, Kolb entered the cramped little room.

  “There’d better be a good reason for bringing me down here,” he said. “I really—” He paused when he saw me. “Oh. So it’s about that. How many have you told, kitten?”

  “No one. I couldn’t remember your name.”

  “So you already know?” Max asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Can you please just tell us what’s going on?” Stump asked.

  The human sat down on a bookcase. “I can tell you what I know. Of course, for the safety of your village, you must promise never to tell anyone else. Not even the mayor. Agreed?”

  Two villagers and a kitten nodded their heads in unison.

  Kolb sighed. “You know, I used to laugh at myself for talking with what I once considered to be NPCs. But now … whatever. Here it goes.”

  And so, he told us his story.

  The human named Kolb once lived in a world known as Earth.

  His life was fairly boring back then. He went to school, did homework, studied. He also played games.

  The games he played utilized a technology known as virtual reality. You threw on a helmet-like device, and it seemed like you were in another world.

  His mom was always working, and he’d never known his father, so he often escaped into games to not feel so alone. His favorite place was a virtual reality Minecraft server called Aetheria.

  That world is this world. Or used to be.

  Max didn’t seem to believe him. “You’re telling me … we’re just game characters?”

  “I don’t know,” Kolb said. “We still don’t know for sure. We’ve had countless arguments over this, trying to figure it all out.”

  “Well, what happened?” Stump asked. “You said this game you played was normal, right? Everyone played it. So what changed? Why are all the humans always freaking out?”

  “Umm … it’s like this.…”

  The human then shared more of his story.

  It was the year 2039, and his world was in a similar situation as our own: suffering from a
terrible war. One day, weapons capable of unparalleled destruction were sent through the air, toward his homeland. When this was announced, he was alone.

  In the eyes of many, the world was about to end. So Kolb, wanting to at least see his friends one last time, entered the virtual reality world of Aetheria. To say goodbye.

  There, he met his best friend, Ione, as well as one of the game’s administrators, Entity.

  However …

  With the world’s destruction just minutes away …

  “I blacked out and woke up still in the game,” he said, “unable to log out. We call it the event. Many of us think there’s a scientific explanation for what happened. Yet, just as many believe in the impossible.”

  Max looked up from the massive tome. “You mean magic?”

  “Yeah. I guess so. I’ve never believed in that kind of stuff. Still don’t. Yet … some humans think Entity is a wizard who whisked them away to safety just before the world ended.”

  “So that’s why you guys have those arguments,” Stump said. “Some of you call yourselves Believers, and others are Seekers. I never understood why until now.”

  “If we really are game characters,” Max said, “does that mean we’re not really alive? We’re just like … golems, or something? Following instructions of some kind?”

  The human shrugged. “We’ve spent days discussing that. In the end, each of you seems very real, so … it really is like the game magically came to life.” He sighed. “Look, guys. I’m just telling you what I know, and what I know isn’t much. It took me a long time to come to terms with this. But I’ve finally accepted it. It is what it is.”