Touching Fire

5.1. Original Monologue

It's gone. It's all gone… Everything I built, through sweat and tears, and even my own blood, and it's all gone. Am I going crazy? Would I even know? Am I right back where I started all those weeks ago? I could have sworn it was here before I left, almost finished in all its glory. But now it's gone. Was it ever there? Was it all a dream? Or is this just all a bad dream instead? I kick a rock, only to realize it's a boulder and wince from the pain. I'm definitely not dreaming. So where is it? Surely it was here, all the pickaxe and shovel markings are proof, along with the torches placed all around to keep the mobs at bay. I run back to my old base to check my chests to find thirteen phantom membranes. I had gotten these fighting off endless amounts of phantoms while working on my build. I pace back and forth, running my hands through my hair. There is no way I imagined building it, but where could it have gone? It was so big and had been buried into the hill, impossible to move. Did somebody really take the time to take it apart piece by piece? Why? Why would they have any reason to do this? Sure, there were no claims on it, but that's just because it was incomplete. I still had to add decorations, carve in the details to prove my dedication to my trade. I look over to the tiny island in the ocean beside me and glimpse something behind it on the water. When I cross the strip of water where it is thin and easy to step over and climb the hill that makes up the island, I see a huge platform floating gently in the ocean, anchors keeping it from drifting away. I squint at it to see better before remembering I have a telescope on me. Pulling it out, I zoom in on the materials of the build. Spruce. I didn’t want to believe it, but what other choice did I have? It makes the most sense. My house made of spruce was now gone, and here was a whole build in the middle of the ocean next to my land made of spruce. What the honk. I’m gonna start stabbing *stuff*. Where is my boat. Screw it, I'm swimming. This honker stole my house, I’m sure of it. I get there, and there are spruce signs everywhere. Most of them say “Please don’t destroy”. I reach to pull my axe out of my holster, but stop myself. No, I am better than this. Instead, I grab an unused sign lying in a pile and some paint beside it and write “Are you the one that stole my house?” and walk away. I am mature. As I walk away I kick a sign into the ocean that says “kitchen”. When I get back to the plot of land my house was stolen from, I leave another sign that says “to the buttface that stole my house: you are stupid.” I look back to the ocean and see the sun is setting. A shiver runs down my spine as I realize the phantoms will be here soon. I gather up my armor and tools and quickly walk towards my chests, grabbing some iron and wood, then walking even quicker towards my mine. Looks like I need more stone. I sigh. It’s going to be a long week. I hear the hissing of a phantom above me and start sprinting, seeking shelter. I get inside the mine just as it dives, and I turn to slice at its head, barely missing. It returns to the night sky, preparing for another dive, and I hurry deeper into the cave. I place scaffolding, planning on hollowing out the area in a chunk error, then climb down to where I keep my pickaxe. I swing it at the stone, and the sound of iron on stone echoes through the cave as I begin my excavation.

A/N: No, I did not break this up into many paragraphs. Suffer. :D