MCSM season 3: The beginning of the hunt

Chapter 11: The withering woods

Jay's POV
The afternoon sun showed no mercy on us as Jesse and I ran through the woods. Every breath I took seemed to burn my lungs. My legs were sore. Tiny beads of sweat trailed down my face. The sound of heavy footsteps behind me - which belonged to Jesse - got lower and lower until there was no sound of those footsteps at all. Why did she stop?

I halted and turned towards Jesse, who was resting her hands on her knees, panting loudly. "I think we are far from the fortress now." She said, still panting. I gazed in the direction from where we came. We have been running for a while now. It wouldn't be surprising if we weren't away from the fortress by now. "Yeah, let's have some rest," I said to which Jesse happily agreed.

Jesse's POV
We both sat on the ground, deep in our own thoughts. My heart was still racing from all that running. I haven't run like that in some time, not since the admin incident. I wonder how Beacon Town must be doing right now. Suddenly an awful thought crossed my mind. What if someone attacked my town while I was stuck here? Beacon Town is vulnerable right now. But I relaxed as I remembered that Petra and Lukas were there. They will take care of anything that might happen.
"We did it!" Jay said out of the blue. "Did what?" My mind was hazy after everything that happened in these past 24 hours, or even more. I couldn't really keep track of time at the fortress. It was always dark as night with no stars and moon in there. "I can't believe we actually escaped," Jay said again.
"I don't see why we wouldn't have escaped," I said, playing with the hem of my overall's large pocket. "Every time someone captures us, we escape after creating chaos at the place."
"Well, that is true-"
"Then we find an ally,"
"Yeah but -"
"and at last, we defeat the bad guys and save the people."
"I know, but this is a completely different situation Jesse," Jay said in a high voice. "We are not familiar with anything here, nor do we have our friends with us. We are lost and alone."

Alone. One of my biggest fears is being alone. When Ruben died, this is what scared me the most. When Petra left - alone, this is what made me feel guilty. She will be out there doing the thing she loves, but she will be all alone.
Silence hung over us for a long time. Neither of us said or did anything. The dying rays of the mighty sun filled the blue sky, which was darkening by every single second. This world does have mobs, right?

"We should build a shelter. It's almost nighttime." Jay said as he got up. "We don't know what kind of mobs might roam here at night." It was as if Jay read my mind. "I agree." Then a question crossed my mind, which I just had to ask. "But what are we building, a dirt hut or a makeshift treehouse?" Jay's lips curled into a Chester cat grin. "What do you think?"

<Time skip>

Jay's POV

Jesse and I stood proudly in front of our little fancy, makeshift tree house: Slanting dark oak wood roof supported by light oak wood walls. "Pretty good work I say so myself." I hear Jesse say as she crossed her arms proudly. "Treehouse was surely the right choice."
"Well, it gives me the feeling of Deja Vu," I said.
"Whiter storm?" She asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"Ya"
"In my world, we had to go with Axel's idea. I didn't think we would have enough time to make a treehouse." Jesse replied with a huff.
"Well, we weren't able to build the roof of that treehouse. While for this one, it not only has a roof but a rather fancy one." I added.
She gave a chuckle at my response and said, "All thanks to Lukas's ramblings about buildings."
Our conversation was cut short by a loud zombie groan. "We better get in," I said to which Jesse agreed. Then, we both started climbing the wooden ladder up the tree house.
I caught a glimpse of all the mobs coming out of caves and shadows before I closed the trapdoor. This world has normal mobs alright, but I can't be so sure about the people.

"This world has normal mobs," Jesse said, looking outside the window. "Do you think this world will have normal people too? The only people we have seen here are the guards and - Null and entity. The guards always wear steel helmets, so we don't know if they are normal people, while for those two, they are literally mythical characters." She explained.
"But don't forget Nina, Jess. She is a human," I said.
"But human from our world. She is stuck here too." Jesse replied as she looked at me with a serious face.
I gave a tiered exhale and said, "Well, we don't even know where we are and where to go next." I closed my eyes, resting my head on my hands as I continued, "We are lost."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about it, Jay," Jesse said, snapping me out of my worried thoughts. She then pulled a map out of her inventory. "I borrowed this along with the sword."
"You are telling me that you had a map with you all this time, and you didn't even tell me?" I asked.
"I forgot."
All I could do was face-palm myself at Jesse's response. "Can I take a look?" I asked. Jesse gave me the map then went back to looking out of the window. Little did I know she was doing anything but actually looking out of the window.

The map was crumpled and very old so I had to very carefully unfold it, trying my best not to tear it in the process. I laid down the map and took a good look at it. Jesse joined me as she traced the lines drawn on the map. The map had notes and marks scribbled all over. "This map must have belonged to someone." Jesse said. "Yes but, I don't see the fortress anywhere on this map," I said to Jesse.
"Are you sure? Let me take a look." Jesse and I switched seats as she examined it herself. Sure enough, there wasn't anything about the fortress on the map.
"This is so strange. Even the person who explored these woods didn't write anything about the fortress." Jesse said with a quizzical face.
I hummed in agreement and leaned closer to the map. "We are at these woods," I said as I pointed at a river on the map. "I saw this river while we were running."
Jesse started reading the notes scribbled for the woods I was pointing at, "The withering woods. Dangers: poisonous river mixed with tons of potions of harming, mob infested area because of excess dark caves made for mining, don't come out in the dark because you will die!"
"That is unsettling," I commented. Loud groans of zombies and hisses of spiders spooked Jesse as she jumped in fear. "That sounds like a big herd of mobs just outside this treehouse," She said with a gulp. We both looked outside the window, and there was a big heard of mobs roaming around our treehouse. Suddenly, a spider crawled onto the window out of nowhere, blocking our view. I am happy that Jesse added glass pane windows to the treehouse. I wouldn't have liked it if the spider crawled into our shelter.
"So...we start moving tomorrow?" Jesse asked with a raised eyebrow.
"As much as I want to get out of this place, I am afraid we have no other option," I said as I went to the crafting table in a corner.
"What are you crafting at this time?" Jesse asked, peaking at the items I was crafting.
"A wooden sword and an extra torch," I replied, brandishing the new sword and the torch I crafted. "Just to be on the safe side."
<Time skip>

We both sat silently on the ground. None of us could find a sheep while building the treehouse. No sheep means no wool, no wool means no bed and no bed means no sleep. Plus, I don't think we could have slept peacefully with all those mobs outside.
"You called me Jess," Jesse said out of the blue.
"Huh?" I didn't realize that I had called Jesse Jess. Well, now when I think about it, I did call her that two times.
Jesse smiled sweetly and said, "I like the nickname." I felt as if my heart would burst because of an overload of sweetness. That smile could only belong to my sister. Oh, how much have I missed her.
"Jay! Are you alright?" Jesse quickly jumped to her feet and came towards me. "Why are you crying?"
I raised a hand to my cheek only to find them wet because of my tears. I didn't realize I was crying. "It's nothing," I replied with a smile of my own.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, don't worry," I assured her while patting her hand which was resting on my shoulder.
Jesse gave me a nod and sat beside me. "So," she started. "I know that we both live in very similar worlds. I would really like it if you would tell me about your adventures, especially the ones you had after you left with Petra."
"I would gladly tell you, but you will have to tell me about your adventures as well," I replied with a smile.
"You have got a deal."