Minecraft: The Marvelous Adventures of Steve: The Invasion Trilogy

Cave-in

The day was bright and warm. Having a full breakfast, they were both rejuvenated and ready to build. Sam looked at the steep walls of the valley.

"I'm glad I jumped where I was," he said, "or I would've hit the ground for sure."

They stood in front of the house, observing the space around his little hill in the valley.

"Here," Steve said, tossing Sam an iron pickax.

"Thanks, but don't you need one?"

"Nah. I'll just use stone. So, how are we going to do this? You can see it more than I can. How do we build?"

Sam took a few steps back. He formulated the block placements in his mind. It was like he could see the blueprint transparently sitting in front of him.

"It has a castle-like design," he said. "It has ramparts that we can walk on, and it's made of cobblestone so endermen can't destroy it. It'll have double iron doors at the front and back for us to pass through. We might also need an escape route out of here in case we need to retreat, so maybe a tunnel? I really hope it doesn't come to that."

"Me too. From the way you described it, those mobs sound really overpowered."

"Start three blocks in front of the garden and build around," Sam said. "Then we will stack them four blocks high and build the walk platform around the inside. Basically, sit it around all of the walls by three blocks."

"Got it," Steve said.

They started to build around the house. It would be close to a perfect square shape, being off by only a few blocks. Steve looked at Sam placing the blocks much faster than he was. He sort of envied how Sam knew exactly where to put them. He wished he had that kind of power. It would have helped him when he was building his house. He spent many days and nights through rain and thunder while sleeping in a cave. Cave-living wasn't terrible, but he liked having a house more.

It wasn't long before they met up at the back and started building up. They had to be careful to not fall. Just as a precaution, Steve made some ladders and put them on the inside to climb up and down. Falling hurt, as Sam had figured out through experience. It proved that even people who had the ability to do a job carefully could still get hurt. He was on his fourth set of placing when he got too close to the edge and fell.

"Ah! Ow!"

"Everything okay over there?" Steve asked.

He was on the other side of the house, unable to see what happened.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just slipped and fell."

Sam tried to get up and felt a sharp pain in his ankle.

"Ow. Okay, maybe not fine."

Steve came around the corner. He put his cobblestone in his inventory and looked at Sam on the ground.

"I thought building was your thing," Steve said. "Look at you. Already hurt on the job."

Steve was only kidding, but Sam looked embarrassed.

"I wasn't serious," Steve said. "How bad does it hurt?"

"It hurts to stand," Sam said. "I fell on it wrong, I guess."

"Hold on."

He knelt down and looked at Sam's ankle closely.

"Yup. It's swelling. Here."

Steve took his pickax and mined out the doorway.

"Lean on me," he said.