Triple Life [3rd Life SMP]

21. Night

Sure enough, within the next hour, a blizzard was well underway. Grian stood at the open door staring blankly out at the swirling snow and shards of ice, feathers fluffed up against the cold, annoyed. "It's not night. Are these really just gonna happen whenever now?"

"Well hey, look on the bright side," Jimmy said. "It'll probably be done by night, and maybe we can actually do some mob hunting or something."

"We can use string for extra bows," Doc said. "And we need to start collecting gunpowder, for TNT."

"Yeah, being able to mob hunt would be good," Grian admitted. "Unless this ends up going through the night too."

"Let's hope not." Doc was going through chests, muttering to himself. "Ahh, I was hoping we could make an anvil, but we don't have quite enough iron. Well, I suppose I could start my tunnel down to the Ancient City, that might turn up some iron along the way. I got some coordinates before visiting Etho earlier. Either of you want to help me dig?"

They agreed. They decided to start their tunnel from inside the farm room. Doc let them know which level they were going to, and they worked together to staircase down. It was hard work but it kept them warm and passed the time, and after a while Grian found himself enjoying the simple rhythm of mining out the stone. Any time they passed coal or iron, they made sure they collected all of it. They decided to stop once they had reached the right y-level, Doc consulting his communicator and saying they would need to dig a diagonal tunnel for a bit and then could go straight south to the Ancient City. But they could work on that later, they had already made a good start.

They headed back up, and while Doc took the iron over to the furnace to smelt, Grian decided to take a bath. The bathroom wasn't anything fancy, a plain cube of stone, but the pool of water was inviting and he could see it bubbling a little where the magma block was, and the entire pool had a slight haze of steam over it. He slid his shoes and socks off and dipped a foot into the water. It was almost hot enough to be uncomfortable, but after a moment, it felt good. He called, "I'm taking a bath, feel free to join me!" to the others, before shedding his clothes and sinking into the water. After all that time in the cold, and getting covered in sweat and dust while mining, this felt amazing.

A few moments later, Jimmy was also entering the room, already pulling off his clothes. He hopped into the pool and sighed out, flopping back against the side and stretching out. "Mm, this is nice."

"Yeah, I'm gonna be in here all the time." Grian scrubbed dirt from his hands, picking little pieces of gravel out of his claws, and examined them. Then, satisfied, he moved toward the center of the pool, where it was deeper. He knelt there, water lapping around his shoulders, enjoying it. Then he opened his wings and flapped them against the water, rinsing all his feathers off, warming himself even more.

After a few moments of flapping, he remembered his company and quickly turned to look at Jimmy. The other was just looking at him, blinking and wiping water from his face, and Grian gave him an apologetic look. Then Jimmy moved closer and flapped his wings, splashing Grian back.

They laughed, playfully batting water at each other with their wings, and when they tired of that, they simply splashed around, enjoying the feel of warm water flowing between their feathers.

Doc walked in as they were flapping, taking in the scene and chuckling. "I see the hot tub has become a birdbath."

"It can be a creeper bath too," Grian said eagerly. He patted the surface of the water. "Come on in."

"Don't mind if I do." Doc disrobed, though he carefully set his communicator right near the edge before climbing in. He gestured to it and explained, "In case a death notification goes off, we can see what happened."