Harvey (Team Crafted)

Discovery in the Mineshaft

The dark was suffocating. It was hard to see even with a torch, which cast shadows that danced with the flame on the cave walls. The sounds of underground rivers and dripping of water from the ceiling came from all around, and also the occasional sound of a monster of some kind. Harvey had gone mining in the game a hundred times, but never had he known it would be this scary.
   Sundee was in front of him, holding his torch high to light the way with his pickaxe in his other hand. Harvey walked along behind him, holding onto his own torch tightly with both hands timidly. The sound of a zombie came from nearby and he made a frightened sound, running to to Sundee so he was in step beside him.
   Sundee rolled his eyes at the smaller male. "Kid, relax. I got us covered. We're here to protect you, remember? I won't let the monsters get you."
   Harvey sighed frustratedly, looking down. "I feel so weak being like this..."
   Sundee looked at him. "Don't think like that." He said. "Be inspired from it. People are helping you, so don't give up. Keep trying, get home, because that's what they're fighting for. We want to help you, Harvey, and other innocent people like you. It was wrong of us to split because of our mourning." He looked ahead again. "The people didn't deserve for their protection to go away. I've always thought that."
   Harvey stared up at him. "...It seems like nobody really wanted to split up..."
   "We didn't, but we just fell apart." Sundee sighed. "We fought too much to ever really be a team. Husky and Deadlox were the only ones willin to put up with each other for the common good."
   Harvey nodded. "They saved my life cause they did. I owe all of you guys so much..."
   Sundee patted his shoulder. "Just survive and get home safe. That's all we could want from you."
   He stopped walking. "Hear that?"
   Harvey stopped too, blinking in surprise, and he listened. He knew the popping sound that he heard. Lava was nearby. Sundee grinned at him. "There we go. Getting warm. Literally. Won't be long before we can find some diamonds, and at least some Obsidian... Stay close."
   Harvey stayed as close to Sundee as he had been the whole time as the Minecraftian pulled a bucket of water out of his inventory. Harvey watched closely as he approached the edge of the cave floor and looked down. He whistled. "Damn, that's hot... Alright."
   He stepped back and poured out the water. It created a source block, which looked funny when it wasn't in the game, and flowed over the edge. Harvey heard the familiar hissing of lava being turned to obsidian below.
   "Alright... Harvey, maybe we could split up. You think?"
   Harvey's eyes widened as he shook his eyes quickly.
   "Oh come on, here, look. Remember that thing Deadlox and Husky got you? They shield? It'll keep you safe and you can turn on your comm and shout for help if you need it. I'll get there in time. We'll get you home faster if we split up, okay?"
   Harvey sighed and nodded. "O-Okay..."
   "Good! Now, here." Sundee handed Harvey his iron sword. "You can do this, okay? Be brave, kid."
   "Wh-What about your weapon?"
   "Don't worry, I got a bow and an arrow, and a shield. I'm good." Sundee waved to him. "Good luck." He jumped over the edge to the obsidian floor below, probably to look for diamonds down there.
   Harvey took a deep breath, holding his sword tightly in one hand and his torch in the other as he headed down a side tunnel. The sword was heavier than he expected, and started to get difficult to carry pretty quickly, but he switched hands to try and make it easier. He tried not to tremble and control his racing heart, but every time he heard a drip of water or a distant monster's growl or even just the wings of a bat, he would freeze and wait for death.
   He never actually encountered a danger until he entered a big empty cavern and saw a skeleton inside. He froze, eyes widening with terror as the monster noticed him. "S-Sundee, there's a skeleton!" He cried into his comm, taking a fearful step back. The skeleton fired, and the arrow struck him, but it didn't hurt. All it did was made him fall back by the force. The shield had stopped it, taking about ten percent of its power.
   In the earpiece part of his comm, Harvey heard Sundee's voice. "Try to fight it, I'll be right there! Where are you?"
   "I-I'm in a cavern, I went to the right from where we were!" Harvey scrambled to his feet and to the side, narrowly dodging another arrow.
   "Harvey, calm down, it's okay! I'll be right there, just stall for me, okay?"
   Harvey sighed shakily and quickly set down his torch, holding his sword with two hands. "O-Okay..." The skeleton aimed again.
   Harvey ran to the side once more, remembering that it would be harder to get hit if he was a moving target. He got closer, trying not to hyperventilate out of terror. The skeleton aimed at him again and he ducked under an arrow just in time.
   He shouted instinctually, swinging and actually landing a hit on the skeleton. The skeleton fell back and collapsed into a pile of bones on the cave floor. Harvey stumbled, having had not kept a good stance because he had no idea what a good stance was, falling to his hands and knees with his sword clattering to the ground.
   A moment passed with him catching his breath before he heard footsteps and looked up to see Sundee run in. His friend stopped, looking around. He looked at the sword on the ground, then at the pile of bones, and then at Harvey. His eyes widened slightly. "Y... You just...?!"
   Harvey looked at the downed monster and smiled a little in giddy relief. "Y-Yeah...!"
   Sundee smiled. "That - That's amazing! Harvey, not bad!"
   Harvey sat back on his heels, rubbing his face in relief. He could hardly even remember what he did, he just knew he was somehow still alive. Thank god for adrenaline.
   Sundee looked past him, and suddenly, his expression cleared. Harvey heard him get quiet and looked up. He looked confused as he saw Sundee's wide-eyed expression and followed his gaze. Immediately, his eyes widened too. On the cavern wall opposite the entrance were light blue, glistening stones poking out from the rock, shining like tiny beacons.
   Harvey and Sundee looked at each other, at the diamonds, and back to each other before they both began to cheer loudly.
   Sundee mined the obsidian with their newly crafter diamond pickaxe while Harvey stood watch, suddenly very confident in his combative skill. He paced slowly on the rock face above, maybe ten feet away from the edge.
   "Anybody around yet?" Sundee asked from below.
   "No. I bet I scared them all off." Harvey called back.
   He heard Sundee chuckle, but he didn't say anything else. Harvey continued to pace, strutting along with his chest puffed out slightly. He hadn't felt so proud of himself in a long, long time, so he didn't mind letting himself feel good. Then, suddenly, he stepped on a crack in the cave. More cracks appeared under the weight, and suddenly, the ground gave out under him. A yelp cut past his lips and echoed through the cave.
   Sundee looked up quickly as he heard it. "Harvey?" He called. No answer this time. He straightened up and raised his voice. "Harvey?! You okay?!"
   "I-I'm fine!" Harvey finally replied, voice slightly muffled.
   Sundee sighed in relief. "Are you hurt?"
   "N... No, I'm fine... I just fell, is all."
   "Okay, stay there, I'm almost done. I'll help you out when I'm done, can you wait that long?"
   "Y-Yeah!"
   Harvey coughed slightly as the dust from fall settled. His head had a slight ache from when he bumped it on the ground in the fall, but nothing too hard to ignore. He looked up first, and saw the hole he crashed through maybe a little less than ten feet above; not far at all. He stood slowly, lifting his torch which had fallen to the ground beside him and looking around him. The stone was different here. It was more refined, like the stones of a castle, and yet it was... Ancient. Well crafted, but suffering the affects of time. He slowly stepped forward, through an iron gateway in the middle of the stone hallway. There were torches already on the walls that had long since burnt out, and had blackened ash where a flame used to be.
   Was this some castle? If it was, why was it underground? Harvey had so many questions, but nobody was around to answer them. He came to a cross in the hallway; he could go straight, or he could choose between left and right. The left looked like just more dark, creepy hallway, but on the right was what looked like a big library.
   Harvey, of course, was drawn to the latter. Shelves and shelves of books all in rows filled the room, Harvey set down his torch on the ground so he could look. Down one of the rows he slowly walked, looking at the spines of all the books - most were written in the same language that his potions book was written in, which, if he felt like it, he could slowly translate. But he didn't feel like it.
   Then, near the end of the row on a higher shelf, he noticed a book and blinked in surprise. On the spine of the book was no letters: just a rune that he didn't recognize. He slowly reached up and took it off the shelf. He opened it and blew off the dust. As he looked down at it, he was taken be surprise again. It wasn't writing in the Standard Galactic Alphabet like the majority of the books in this library: it was in English.
   There were pictures inside, too. Half-worn, very old drawings. On the page he had opened to showed a hand. At first it just looked normal. Then, on the other page, it was the same hand, but split in half. One half was glowing bright white, the other glowing a dark, jet black. Harvey's brows ruffled in confusion.
   "Harvey?"
   Harvey jumped in surprise, snapping the book shut. "B-Be right there!" He called back to Sundee. He quickly shoved the book into his bag and walked back out of the library, by going around he back. But there was another exit from the library, and as Harvey glanced through, he saw that it was far more interesting than a library. It was a big room, and in it, he could hear lava popping.
   He stared a moment, and forgetting about Sundee, he stepped inside because of his curiosity. The room was stone like everywhere else in the strange castle, but in the center was... Something weird. A square shape, some small monument or something that looked like it was made of weird sandstone. He stepped closer, but on the stairs leading up to it had a spawn box sitting in the middle, which Harvey eyed curiously.
   He walked past it and looked down. He blinked in surprise. The strange sandstone with some pretty green stuff was just a perimeter, surrounding a lower pool of lava. Harvey scrunched up his nose in confusion, but then he felt something - a pinch on his ankle. He blinked, shifting his weight to the other one and looking down. There was a very small creature there, the size of a rat and silver like one too. Harvey stepped down from the edge of the weird altar-looking thing and eyed the creature closer. It charged at his foot again, but it didn't hurt at all when it head butted him.
   Harvey laughed a little and picked it up. "Aw, you're not so tough of a monster, huh?"
   The creature looked mildly insulted that Harvey had said he wasn't tough. Harvey just laughed again. "You know what, you can come with me."
   And he set it on his shoulder.
   "Harvey, c'mon!"
   "I'm coming, I'm coming!" Harvey pulled his map quickly, and on the back, wrote out the coordinates of the interesting castle so he could find it again later. He put it back in his bag as he reached the place where he fell in. Sundee was peering down through the hole. "Where the he..." His voice trailed off and his eyes widened, staring at Harvey's shoulder. "...Harvey... Don't freak out. Move very slowly. There if s silverfish on your shoulder."
   Harvey blinked, then looked down at his shoulder. The creature looked back at him in an agitated but certainly not scary way. Harvey laughed and looked back up at Sundee. "No, this is my friend!"
   "Your - Your what?!"
   "My friend! I think I'll name him Cloudy. I had a dog named Cloudy when I was little."
   "...Harvey, did you hit your head when you fell?"
   "Um... Little bit, why?"
   Sundee sighed and stretched an arm down for Harvey to grab. "C'mon, kid, let's go home." He said.