#listen I can see an abandoned mineshaft from my bedroom window so

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

I enjoy the genre of weird things happening in a small town but also as someone from a small town sometimes I’m like 🥺🥺 what if scary things happened in my small town

[acraftedmistake]

A Person Who Has Never Played MCSM Writes A Story About MCSM Chp. 11

Heck YE chp 11!!

Hope you enjoy!

Petra stared at the distant Obsidian Town from her bedroom’s window. Well, it wasn’t a ‘window’, rather one of the many big holes in her cave that led to the outside world. And her bedroom wasn’t really a ‘room’, but a small area Petra had hollowed out herself. Many people would never consider a cave to be ‘homey’, much less a place to sleep in, but anyplace with a bed in it was good enough for Petra. You’d be surprised how a few chests, lanterns, and furnaces could make a cold environment comfortable.

Obsidian Town stood quietly in the middle of the plain field, it’s dark border and watchtowers stood out from the green grass and the blue sky which was soon to fade into orange, then in mere hours, to black, when the night would truly start.

She considered sleeping for a couple of hours, shuteye would do her some good. She’s been awake for nearly two days exploring caves for ores and whatever she’d find in abandoned mineshafts. But oddly enough, she wasn’t exhausted. Far from it. Perhaps it was the risk of getting caught and jailed when sneaking into caves that gave her a rush of energy, or maybe it was the satisfaction she’d recieve when finding priceless items that’d push her to search for more. Whichever reason kept her awake didn’t matter, as long as she got something in the end, she was fine with her ruined sleep schedule.

‘Not like I can afford to sleep today anyways.’ Petra told herself. She sat at the ledge of the hole and let her feet dangle as she looked over the green world below her.

‘Need to find some redstone and gold for… Whatever Aiden’s making.’ While she wasn’t certain what him and the others were going to use two of the hardest to find materials for, she could only assume they’d play a role in sending Jess and Olivia back home.

Petra had almost believed her sleep deprivation was finally catching up on her and spawned hallucinations of her past friends when she first saw them. Heck, she’s still processing seeing a live Olivia and a genuinely happy Jess for the first time in years.

She took a long, deep breath. Sitting here wasn’t going to help her find gold or redstone, she needs to get to work. Yes, she told Aiden it would take a week to find the materials, but he sounded serious, and who knows? Maybe she’ll luck out and find them sooner than expected.

She got up and stretched her back.

‘Just gotta pack my pickaxe, actually remember to take some food along, and I should make extra torches--’ Her thoughts were interrupted by two slow, loud, familiar knocks.

They sounded close.

Petra already knew who it was, but cautiously turned her head until she saw the figure sitting on the chest at the end of her room from the corner of her eye.

His eyes were rolled to the back of his head, the whites shined from the rays of the Sun, claiming Petra’s attention.

He suddenly got off the chest and began approaching her, his fists tightening.

Petra zipped her head away, squeezed her eyes shut, and held her breath.

The steps came closer and closer, then abruptly stopped. All she could hear now was his breathing.

Petra forced her stiff body to face Jesse with an empty grin, “How are ya?”

“Had better days.” Jesse answered. He loosened his body and rolled his eyes back into place, he blinked a few times.

She nodded and made her way to the chest Jesse sat on, her pickaxe was in there. She heard Jesse following behind as she knelt onto the cool, stone floor and held the top of the chest open to prevent it from slamming down on her fingers.

Jesse leaned against the cave’s wall, “You have the best reaction.”

Petra pulled out her pickaxe and set it aside, “To your eyes?”

She continued digging through the chest.

“Yeah.” A tiny but sincere smile appeared.

“Well, I know how much it means to you.” Petra forced out a chuckle for him. She remembered the first time he greeted her with white eyes, he was oddly excited about doing so. He rambled about how it was a way to greet important people, and Petra was… Flattered. She thought the greeting was going to be a one time thing, but he’s been doing it ever since. She didn’t like it. She’d always get uncomfortable. Not like she’d ever tell Jesse.

“You don’t get all scared like everyone else. Or angry like Stella and Cassie...” Jesse said, recalling their expressions. Brenner had once told him he should only perform the action when appropriate, and Jesse understood that, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t do it whenever he encountered Aiden and the others just to spite them.

“Or Radar!” Jesse added on.

“He always starts shaking when I do it.” Jesse’s grin grew as he imagined how much more severe Radar’s reaction would’ve been had he given him the greeting earlier today.

“Radar’s always…” Jesse was about to begin, but what little optimism was in his tone dwindled.

“Oh no.” Petra raised her head, she recognized that tone. “What happened this time?”

Jesse slid his back against the wall. A scowl was growing.

“Tried to get Radar to talk.” Jesse hugged his knees and dug his face into his arms. “Didn’t work out.”

Petra’s hand dug aimlessly through the chest as she debated whether or not to let Jesse elaborate. Whatever he had bottled up was moments away from bursting, but she knew what would happen if he started another one of his rantings.

Jesse glanced at Petra then continued, “I thought Brenner wanted to know what Aiden was doing. Radar was the first person I saw, so I was thinking I could be quick and get something out of him.”

Petra could only bob her head. She didn’t want to add anything, afraid her words would fuel the small fire in Jesse. He had talked about Brenner and Radar from time to time; hearing Jesse go off about Radar would remind Petra of Cassie Rose’s complaints. Neither of them were fond of the man. She's spoken to Radar before but only heard stories of Brenner, and after all Petra’s heard, she never wanted to meet him.

She tuned back into Jesse’s rambling, “...And I guess someone heard me and told them.”

Jesse threw his arms into the air, “Then they got all upset and scolded--”

“They were mad cause you helped--?”

Jesse leapt over to the chest and slammed it shut without warning, giving Petra only seconds to pull her hand out. The skin of his fingers were torn and dirty.

“Exactly!” Jesse’s pupils shook as his grip on the chest tightened.

“It’s such a… Such a stupid thing to get mad over. I got in trouble, didn’t get anything, Brenner got upset, and I didn’t mean to--!” Jesse hit the side of his head multiple times then pulled at his hair.

Be sympathetic. Be quick.

“I’m sorry.” Petra put on her best pair of caring eyes.

Jesse glared at her and exhaled, “Don’t.”

He let go of his hair, “Don’t be. It’s okay”

He rolled off the chest and stretched his arms high into the air, “I’ll probably stop by their house tonight and listen in. At least I won’t have a quitter getting me in trouble.”

Jesse began walking to the exit--another large hole which led to the rest of the cave--but stopped.

“Unless…” He turned the upper half of his body around, “Has Aiden or the others visited you recently?”

“Nope.” Petra lied, “They’ve been real caught up on searching for you.”

Jesse raised his brows, “Alright. I’ll see later?”

Petra put on a fake grin, “Same time, same place.”

Another smirk appeared on Jesse’s face before he left. Petra remained in place as she listened to his footsteps grow fainter and fainter. In two days he’ll come back. In two days, he could be angry and vicious, silent and cold, or he could be fine. But she’ll never know until two days.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“It took you that long to get a clipboard?” Maya asked Aiden, who had finally returned downstairs with Jess.

Aiden breathed in and threw his eyebrows up, “I completely forgot about the clipboard.”

“Alright.” Maya sighed as she hoisted herself off the barstool, “I’ll get it.”

Aiden quickly apologized as Maya walked past them.

Aiden rubbed his eyes and debated whether or not to make another cup of coffee before he’d help the others plan on how to find the remaining items. He was still feeling groggy from having to wake up early, but his nose scrunched when thinking about actually drinking it. He hated the taste of coffee, but it was the only thing that kept him awake. He’d much rather inject the drink into him if he could.

“Aiden!” He heard Stella call. He saw her signaling both him and Jess to come into the living room where everyone else had gathered.

The two came over to see the iron and netherrack Petra gave them laying on the coffee table. Stella was standing beside the table, focusing on the items while Gill and Olivia were sitting on the couch.

“We still need to get the gold and redstone.” Stella said, tapping her chin.

“We forgot to ask about the flint too.” Cassie Rose added, sitting on the floor and observing what netherrack they had. The pieces were on the smaller side; they definitely couldn’t afford to waste them.

“Yes,” Stella agreed, “but flint’s easier to find. I’m worried about how soon we’ll find the other two. I don’t know if Olivia and Jesse--Jess could wait an entire week. We don’t want the wrong person seeing them.”

“If I may,” Olivia spoke, straightening her posture, “why don’t we mine the materials ourselves? Wouldn’t it be faster to have the seven of us mining rather than waiting a week for one person?”

“It would.” Stella gave her a worried smile, “But we don’t have a license to do so. Unless one of us has one?”

Her eyes scanned the room, everyone shook their heads or shrugged.

She breathed out and pushed the hair out of her eyes, “If we started mining all willy-nilly, we’d get fined--or arrested! Either way, the risks would be too high and would take much longer than a week.”

Stella saw how wide Olivia’s eyes were and gave her a quick ‘sorry’ before returning to the matter at hand.

Olivia wanted to ask why Stella was apologizing, but she was too taken aback by what she was just told. She quickly peeked behind her, relieved to see Jess--wide opened mouth and all-- equally baffled as she was. She wasn’t hearing things. Thank goodness.

“Do we even know how we’re gonna make th’flint ‘n steel?” Asked Gill.

Stella stopped her talking and paused to think. She opened her mouth again but nothing came out. She put her hands on her hips and stared intensely at the materials, waiting for something to click. Aiden took out the journal from his jacket’s pocket and handed it to his stumped friend, the page to the crafting recipe already opened.

What was supposed to help had managed to make the situation even more confusing. The words were nearly indecipherable. Whoever wrote this apparently never knew you could lift your pen while writing; if the colliding sentences didn’t make it impossible to read, then the ink blotches and odd stains made sure to change that. The owner of the journal wasn’t the best artist either, as a number of cluttered scribbles--which Stella could only assume were meant to represent certain items--needed arrows and labels to be placed beside them for clarification. Not like they did any good.

Cassie joined Stella’s side and scanned the pages, “You sure this is english?”

“Where’d you say you get this from again?” Stella asked, lowering the journal.

“Hadrian’s.” Aiden answered.

“That explains it.” Cassie said.

“Alright, new idea!” Stella raised her index finger into the air, ready to go off but quickly halted when she heard footsteps.

Maya popped out from the staircase and looked at the group, “What are we doing?”

“I believe some of us should find the remaining materials, while the rest of us figure out this mess.” Stella said, showing the selected pages to her friends.

Aiden folded his arms, “Not that I’m against the plan, but we need to know where to look.”

Gill stroked his beard for a moment, then his eyes lit up, “Whattabout th’shrine?”

He whipped his head over to Aiden, who didn’t appear as enthusiastic as him, and his smile weakened.

“None of our shrine experiences have been good experiences…” Aiden mumbled, gripping his right arm.

Aiden was ready to ask for other suggestions, but Gill interrupted, his excitement rising again.

“Oh, no! I was thinkin’ bout the one we went to a couple’a years ago. The one in th’forest when we fought The Awakening the first time?”

Aiden relaxed, “Yeah, we could do that.”

“Should be safe enough.” Maya said, going through the chest in the living room, taking out her and her friends’ weapons for the journey. Just in case.

She pulled out her iron sword and held it firmly as she joined Aiden and Gill’s side, “Those guys ditched that place the second we took down their monster, I don’t think they went back to get any of their weapons. Or items. Or whatever cults keep.”

“There should probably be a ton of redstone left.” Cassie Rose added, walking over to the armchair and throwing herself onto it.

“Alright, Gill, Maya, and I are going to the shrine...” Aiden pointed at the redhead, “Rose, you wanna join us?”

Rose sunk deeper into the chair, “Nah, not this time. I think I’ll stay here and help Stella.” She said through a yawn.

“I’d like to go!” Jess piped up. This would be the perfect opportunity to properly explore another shrine without the constraints he had in the Shrine of Eyes. He was hoping Aiden and the others would be willing to answer the millions of questions his mind was bound to spawn while they’d be there.

Olivia found herself fascinated with the shrines as well, wondering what history of this universe it could contain. She pushed herself off the couch, “Same here--woah.”

A wave of dizziness came over her, she clutched onto the armrest and focused on the floorboards until everything stopped.

Stella cautiously approached her, “Are you alright? Hurt?”

Olivia kept her eyes on the ground, afraid looking elsewhere would cause the world to spin again, “I think I’m hungry?”

“Did you eat enough? What did you have for breakfast?” Stella asked as she hurried into the kitchen to grab the first piece of food she saw.

Did she even have breakfast? Or lunch? She would technically be having dinner at this time. All Olivia remembered was being too preoccupied with her book to eat.

“Words.” Olivia answered.

Stella frantically came back with a banana in her hand and quickly gave it to Olivia.

Olivia wished she could have thanked Stella, but she had torn the peel off and started devouring the fruit, unaware of how hungry she truly was.

“I think--just to be cautious--you’ll stay with Cassie and I. We don’t want you passing out. And you four!” She faced Jess, Aiden, Maya, and Gill again, “Be safe.”

Though she spoke to all four of them, her stern tone was targeted towards Aiden.

“I’ll make sure they don’t get themselves killed.” Maya said, handing Aiden and Gill their swords.

Aiden rolled his eyes and smirked, “We’ll be in and out. Won’t take too long.”

Before leaving, Jess wanted to check to make sure Olivia was--and is going to be--alright. After the right amount of reassurance, he waved goodbye as he followed Aiden’s group out the door, leaving the three girls to themselves.

Stella glanced at the pages of the journal then to Olivia and Cassie.

“I’m going to translate this mess the best I can, stay right here!” She ran upstairs, not giving the two a chance to respond.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“We go to the shrine, be prepared in case someone’s gonna attack us, I brought a pouch for the redstone--” Aiden was recapping aloud to himself.

He suddenly whipped his head to Maya, “It’s in the northwest forest, right?”

“Yup. Northwest.” She confirmed. Aiden spun back around and continued brainstorming how their search was going to play out.

The question seemed kinda pointless to Jess. Though Aiden was hardly paying attention to what direction they’ve been walking, he’s been leading the three to--what Jess was hoping--the right direction of the shrine with zero hesitation.

Jess wasn’t sure how much longer the walk to this shrine would be, they’ve already been walking for nearly 20 minutes. The sun was lowering and the world was growing darker ever so slowly, but Jess was somehow restless. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason; he could be excited for the shrine, or terrified of the active cult and Jesse, or absolutely amazed by this universe, there were too many possibilities and emotions merging together.

‘Well, whether I’m scared or not,’ Jesse glanced at Aiden, Gill, and Maya, ‘I have Olivia and people who can help me.’ Yes, he had a rocky start with this group, but things felt like they were beginning to smooth out. He didn’t know how long him and Olivia would be stuck here, could be a few more days, or it could be a few more months, but it’d do them good to befriend this universe’s Aiden, Gill, Maya, Stella, and Cassie Rose.

‘I wonder if Radar would be okay with seeing me again.’ Jess thought to himself, recalling what had happened in the morning.

Jess must’ve been facing Maya while he was spacing out, as the girl was staring back at him with a raised brow.

“You good?”

“Huh--yeah! I just--you looked off.” Jesse fibbed, feeling his face redden.

“Thanks.” Her brow fell to complete her unimpressed expression

“Oh, no! I didn’t mean it like that! It’s uh, you--your shirt!” Jess was only searching for an excuse, but to his surprise, there was something off about her shirt.

Maya blinked.

“Cause I don’t have the ‘E’ on it?” She traced the letter E on her blank shirt as she said this.

Jess blinked then nodded. Everything she had on yesterday she wore a fresh pair of today, but her shirt was plain red with a light, blue-gray neckline. Her yellow hair clip was also absent.

Maya was about to turn around, but Jess suddenly asked “So why’s mining illegal?”

Aiden, Maya, and Gill had been talking to each other during their walk, and Jess didn’t want to interrupt--as they seemed preoccupied with their plans--but he couldn’t stay silent forever. This was the time to finally have a conversation of his own.

Jesse saw Maya open her mouth, expecting her to answer, but instead Gill replied.

“It’s not illegal, just really really really regulated.”

Maya added on, “Town’s real serious about who’s mining. They don’t like having the wrong people getting materials. You can thank The Awakening for that.”

Jess tilted his head, “What could they have done to make a ‘mining license’ a real thing?”

He couldn’t get over needing a license for something he and his friends could do freely back at home.

“Man, it all happened… I dunno, decades ago? People were jus’ fightin’ over materials ‘n things got real ugly.” Gill stared into the sky.

“You got all these people looking for the same thing,” Jess heard Maya say, “usually in the same place, with the same goal. But it didn’t matter if they had the same goal, everyone wanted to be the first to get it. The second someone found gold or redstone, everyone’d jump and tear them limb from limb.”

“We don’t want anyone gettin’ stuff for The Awakening either.” said Gill.  

Jess didn’t stop to let this information settle in, instead, he immediately asked another question, “I know this happened years ago, but you wouldn’t happen to know what this goal was, do you?”

“The same goal The Awakening’s always had: Summon The Hero.” Maya answered sternly.

“They’re that determined?” Jess asked.

“That stubborn.” She growled.

Aiden spoke up, “Should only be a few minutes away now.”

Jess brought his attention to what stood before them: a forest of thin, birch trees with scrawny branches.

“Would you like t’hear more bout the minin’ or… somethin’.” Gill hid his face from Jess as if embarrassed by what he had said.

“Yeah,” Jess grinned, “I’d like that a lot.”

Gill quickly peeked over at Jess and saw his infectious, curious smile, which caused Gill to beam brightly as well.

He started rambling on about how people created homes in caves, to tales created and shared to scare others away from the best mining spots, to the structures people would make, then Gill would be reminded of another bit of trivia he had learned from Mevia and Hadrian, which would lead to another sidetracked story Gill would talk about. He was talking too fast for Jess to respond, but Jess didn’t mind. He enjoyed the enthusiastic explanations and Gill’s unwavering smile.

Their walking came to a slow as they reached a clearing in the middle of the woods. The clearing had a dry, dirt ground devoid of grass and flowers unlike the rest of the woods, and had six large, dark gray rocks--some as tall as Jess--arranged in a sloppy circle. Aiden commented on not remembering these being here and approached a boulder to his right, which was placed in between two other rocks. He called Gill over for help as he began pushing, Maya stood by in case the two needed an extra hand.

Jesse took the time he had to study his surroundings. This was the second forest he’s been to today, but unlike the one to Petra’s, this one seemed peaceful. Unnervingly so. While Petra’s was tangled and crowded, the trees here were spaced apart--as if repelled by one another--with branches who barely brushed against each other. Because of the gracious space between the trees, the forest was well lit. The sun’s light only emphasized how empty the forest was.

The other forest was loud, cluttered, and chaotic in the way nature should be, but here? There were no sounds. No chirping, no buzzing, not even a light breeze to rustle the leaves, only their footsteps and the grunting of Aiden and Gill.

It felt lifeless.

It felt wrong.

“Jess!” Aiden called out.

Jess saw Gill and Aiden had successfully pushed the rock far enough to reveal a man made, rectangular hole. Aiden motioned him to come over as he began walking into the hole. There was a staircase?

He rushed to the hole and peered into the cobweb filled stairway. How welcoming.

He waited for Gill and Maya to take a couple of steps down so there’d be enough space for him to follow behind. The instant his foot made contact with the first step, he swore the world became colder.

After moments of walking, they came to a stop. Jess peeked over Maya’s shoulder and saw Aiden swinging open an old, wooden door that led to an abyss. Both Aiden and Gill soon stepped through the doorway and disappeared into the darkness, Maya soon following. Jess stopped in his tracks and turned his head, taking one last glance at the surface before facing the entrance again. He brought his eyes up and felt them glue onto a cracked symbol embedded into the wall above. When he finally stepped into the shrine and had been swallowed by the shadows, he could still visualize the symbol as if it was still in front of him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Did you ever have any pets?” Olivia asked Cassie Rose. Olivia was sitting like a normal person would on a couch, while Cassie was crouching on the armchair, knees close to her chest and hands in her hoodie’s pocket.

“Nah.” Cassie answered, “Thought about getting one before, though. Why?”

“Well, back in my universe, you had a cat named Winslow and--”

“What!?” Cassie's sputtered response caused Olivia to jump, “Are you serious?!”

“Uh-huh,” Olivia nodded, caught off guard by her reaction, “you had well over five.”

“Aw man.” Cassie sunk into the armchair, “We always thought Stella was going to be the crazy cat lady. My day’s been ruined.”

“No, Stella had a llama.” Olivia said.

“My day is now better.”

Cassie didn't know what good knowing she was a cat-obsessed murderer and Stella being a llama-owning city-leader in an alternate universe would be, but it was fun to hear about. Maybe they’d be nice conversation starters, or something to say during arguments.

“Okay, good news!” The two heard Stella say as she hurried down the stairs.

“I was able to translate a couple of sentences!” She said, waving a piece of paper in the air with one hand, and holding the journal in the other.

She sat on the same couch as Olivia and lowered the paper, “The bad news is I’m still terribly confused.”

“Could I take a look?” Asked Olivia. Stella gave her the paper, Cassie hopped off her seat and joined Olivia’s side to see what her friend had managed to decipher.

It was no surprise to read they needed to create a flint and steel to get this recipe started, but besides that section, everything else read like a complex riddle they needed to solve to reach the next step. There was gibberish about needing a netherrack base, a redstone powder layered fire striker, and something about a gold coating. Olivia found herself wondering how they’d even begin to make this and if it even worked.

“A netherrack base?” Cassie repeated, as puzzled as the others.

“Is the flint and steel itself gonna be made of netherrack, or do we make the flint and steel and then cover it in netherrack?” She asked Stella.

“I really don’t know.” Stella gave her a defeated shrug, “But I don’t think we have enough netherrack for either. The pieces we have aren’t going to be enough.”

Olivia looked back at the table in front of them where the netherrack laid. She could easily hold them all in one hand with little hassle. If they wanted to file down the netherrack into the shape of a flint and steel’s base, they’d most likely shave off too much and be stuck with a more miniscule amount than what they started with.

“As much as I don’t like the place,” Olivia said, “why don’t we go to the Nether and get more? I’ve been there a number of times, and as long as we’re careful, we--”

“You’ve been to the Nether?!” The two exclaimed in unison. Cassie appeared thrilled while Stella was mortified.  

“Do you like it there? Isn’t it cool?!” Cassie asked, bouncing in place. Her eyes were sparkling.

“It certainly is red.” Olivia said.

“We can’t go there because…” Stella’s shoulders stiffen. She pressed her lips together and began cringing when fully considering the idea.

“I could go on about how dangerous it is there, not to mention illegal…”

As Stella continued her list, Olivia remembered Aiden briefly stating portals and traveling to other worlds was illegal yesterday. Her book also somewhat described the unstable portals people created years ago. However, that was the most she knew, as pages of information--useful information, no doubt--had been torn. Perhaps now would be a good time to ask for more facts.

“... We don’t have enough obsidian, fireproof potions are ridiculously expensive--”

Olivia was about to ask why portals were illegal, but she froze and stared at Stella for a moment.

“I’m sorry… You’re telling me it’s hard to find obsidian… In Obsidian Town?”

“I’m sorry, is there a beacon everywhere you step in Beacon Town?”  Cassie Rose’s eyebrows shot up.

Olivia let her mouth hang before mumbling a quick “No.”

“We use obsidian to make bases for our buildings. It’s the only thing strong enough to keep them in place when a quake strikes.” Stella explained.

Olivia shook her head and asked her original question, “Hold on, why would you make portals illegal?”

Stella tapped her foot as her anxiousness increased, they really needed to work on this recipe, “Do you want the long version or the short version?”

Olivia took note of the blonde’s fidgety behavior, “... Short, please.”

She would have to get the long version later.

Cassie promptly started talking, “Okay, creepy cult people have this dumb theory that The Hero’s been banished to another universe, right?”

“Alright?” She responded. Right off the bat Olivia was confused, but she was afraid saying anything else would be wasting more time.

“Right, so they start making a ton of portals, thinking they’ll find Mr. No-Eyes in the Nether. Welp, turns out, he wasn’t there, so they created different portals to different places. People started going missing, a lotta materials went blip, and then there were so many portals the world started freaking out. A few hundred years later and here we are.”

Cassie’s explanation answered half a question and created 50 more.

“Thank you, Cassie.” Stella gave a nervous, but genuine, smile.

She glanced at what items they had on the table and sighed, “We should’ve asked Petra if she had any flint and steels on her.”

“She only has the one for her nether portal, no way is she gonna give that up.” Cassie said.

“I wouldn’t mind if she gave us a dead one. It’d be nice to have a reference to work off of.”

Did they not know how to make flint and steels?

‘I guess with portals banned, people started making flint and steels less? Or they could’ve been outlawed since they activate the portals…’ Olivia pondered. Either way, she knew how to make a flint and steel, so might as well speak up.

“Actually, I…” Olivia stopped

The two girls waited for her to continue, but then Olivia realized: She knew how to make them, but she didn’t know how to explain it. Just like making redstone contraptions, her mind would go on autopilot and start creating without a second thought, it all came so naturally to her. Maybe if she had the necessary materials in front of her, she could easily show them how to craft the item. But she didn’t. She closed her mouth and stared blankly at the table.

“Uhm, nevermind.” She could feel her cheeks grow red.

“You know who probably has a bunch of dead flint and steels?” Cassie asked, whipping her head to Stella. “Hadrian and Mevia.”