MJ was startled out of his thoughts by a chipper voice. "Why hello! Your name is MJ, right?"
The young man had wavy blond hair that curled around his ears cutely. He had stunning purple eyes, and freckles that made you smile just looking at them.
"That's my name, don't wear it out! I've always wanted to say that," MJ laughed. He instantly felt at ease with this man. "What's your name, dog?"
"Zedaph, pleasure to meet you formally! So, it seems like you don't know much about our world?"
"You're pickin up what I'm puttin down." MJ stuffed his hands in his pockets. Although he had explored for a couple of hours, the landscape still felt stark and unknown to MJ.
"Would you like me to teach you the basics?" Zedaph's kind smile made MJ melt like butter.
"I would love some help."
"Excellent! Any questions right off the bat?"
"How on earth do you make a bed?"
The pair set off, gathering materials and chattering as if they had always been friends.
"So, for starters, have this book!" Zed handed a large green book to MJ, which he held with reverence. "I don't use it much anymore, so you can have it. It has every crafting recipe you'll ever need!"
"Snazzy! Thank you!" MJ skimmed a couple pages, spotting recipes for helmets, fences and something called red nether brick.
"So! A bed is your greatest defense against mobs. Just place in three wood and three wool like so, and-!" Zed procured his brand new bed proudly. "You can have this one."
"Thanks. Uh, how many things can you make in this book?" MJ sized up the book to about 200 pages, although he was never great with numbers.
"Well now I'm not sure!" Zed laughed. "I just memorized the ones I use. If I don't know how to make something, I ask for help or don't make it!"
"Huh... What are they all for? Why so many?"
Zedaph shrugged. "Most are just for decoration and style. But, if you want the really practical stuff, ask Tango or Impulse! They know a lot about redstone!"
"Oh yeah, I talked to Tango this morning. Is redstone in here?" MJ deflated, flipping quickly through the pages and not recognizing anything.
"You mine the redstone, and then you make it into other stuff, and you put them all together in patterns and they'll do work for you," Zed carefully explained. "I'm not very good at it, but Impulse isn't busy tomorrow if you wanna talk to him about it!"
MJ simply stared through the book's open pages, feeling tears well up in his eyes. He swiped them away quickly and stood up. "Well, thanks for the book, Zed! Catch you on the flip side?"
"You okay? Your eyes are all red." Zed stood and held MJ's face in his hands with a frown. "What's wrong? Wanna talk about it?"
MJ nodded, not trusting his voice. "I-" he choked.
"Here, drink some water. Take your time." Zed rubbed his back gently as MJ drank the water gratefully, returning the bottle to Zedaph empty.
"I guess I'm just feeling overwhelmed, ya dig? There's so much to learn, and so many people! And, what if I never get back to my world? I miss home..."
"I can see why this is so hard on you... What was your home like?"
MJ smiled weakly and sniffled. "Ah, I was working on a new house in a forest. I'm really upset though, because it's not looking how I want at all! It's not even creeper-proof... Plus, I lost both my pigs in an explosion! Now that I mention it, I lost a full inventory of wood, too... Man, I was a mess." MJ laughed slightly.
"What do you miss most about home?"
"I-" MJ paused, a frown growing. "I'm not sure. I only had a small shack. Everything else is gone..." The tears returned. "If I don't miss home, what am I supposed to do?"
"Well, if you don't miss your home, and we can't find you a way home anyway, why not settle down here? Hermitcraft is full of amazing people you haven't met yet, and there's so much to learn- even I still learn things every day!"
MJ choked out a laugh and sniffled. "Really?"
"Totally! And, if you stick around, you can live with me for a while if you'd like." Zedaph offered.
"I'd really appreciate that... Thanks for everything, Z."
Hi I wrote five chapters of this in one day. I wrote for 8 hours straight. Don't send help, this feels amazing I'm writing so fast
Love you, my little stars!
-RaeTheStar