Look me in the Eyes

The Worth is all Your Own

I finished with the shelter sometime during the night. Rolburn had gone to sleep beside the campfire he had built a few hours ago and the moonlit silence was filled with the soft sound of his snores. I sat beside him, gazing out of the little window in our shelter and trying to think up ways to help him get through the zombification. Once the horrible experience was over, I wasn't sure what we would do, but that was a question for another time. For now...I watched as the moon made its slow climb up through the starry heavens.

Rolburn twitched and groaned in his sleep, his hand rubbing at his face again. I shuddered, dreading the time when he would need help with his eye. I didn't even want to think about it, but I would have to soon enough. It came with zombifying, after all.

Over the next few days, Rolburn stayed at the shelter, as I bade him, while I searched for some Player's house to rob. It took me longer than than I'd thought before, on the third day, I found a two-story structure built over a pond. An earthen bridge connected it to the mainland, making it possible for me to cross. But was anyone in there? I hung around the building until nightfall, seeing no one but feeling safer in the dark. Whatever food was here would have to do for my Piglin friend; he'd been subsisting on grass and a few berries so far and was mightily hungry because of it.

Still, no one emerged or went into the building. Perhaps they were asleep, or working on one more of their interminably varied projects. I hissed in the shadows, cursing the uncertainty. If I ventured in there...I had no idea of my chances of making it back out alive. But if I didn't risk it, who even knew where I could find a safer place to raid? I could search for days more and find nothing. Gritting my teeth, I stepped from among the trees and walked along the earthen path up towards the house. I'd have to rely heavily on my teleportation to get me out in time if someone really was in there.

The front door was locked, of course, but Endermen care nothing for Player locks. Not even walls can stop us when we teleport, and so in I went, appearing mere feet inside the building.

No one. Not a soul in sight.

The room was basic enough; chests, smokers, furnaces and a crafting table all lined the walls, while a bed stood near the back door, which seemed to lead out to some kind of garden. I stared for a moment at the unfamiliar items, grateful once again to the stories of my elders, for their descriptive words. I would not have known what these things were otherwise.

A single hole had been dug a few inches away from where I stood, and, as far as I could see, it opened out again into some larger space maybe twenty feet down. I ignored it for now, and went to the garden. Pigs liked potatoes, so far as I knew. If the Player grew any, I could see if Rolburn appreciated them too....

The garden was small, but definitely grew enough for me to supply Rolburn for a few days, as long as I put my loot in one of the Player's chests. I glanced nervously back at the house; I was about to do a lot of stealing...I would have to be really careful to keep out of sight.

Swiftly I searched through the Player's chests, looking for one that was empty enough to use and listening for any sounds of movement. So far, all I could hear was a consistent tapping sound, like water dripping from the ceiling. It worried me, but I could do little more than hurry. I found a small chest with little more than cobblestone lining its interior and quickly emptied it. Taking it back to the garden, I dug up as many potatoes and radishes as I could and stacked them inside. I wasted no time in teleporting away once the chest was full, and breathed more easily as I escaped the Player's house unharmed.

Teleporting was, in fact, the only way for me to get the food to Rolburn. My arms were only strong enough to pick up the chest now heavy with food; I could not walk with it. When I at last arrived back at our shelter, I almost dropped the whole thing, waking Rolburn from where he lay trying to sleep away his hunger.