For a moment, Cleo was too surprised to answer.
"Hello?" came the voice again. "Is someone down there? I heard fighting."
Cleo snapped to her senses. "Yes, I'm down here! Do you mind getting some blocks so I can get up?"
"You didn't bring any supplies?" The voice sounded somewhat accusing.
"In my defense, I thought I was only going for a walk. I didn't expect to have a near-death experience in a cave."
"Alright, give me a moment." Cleo heard the sound of dirt being dug. A few minutes later, about two dozen dirt blocks fell through the hole. Cleo caught them and pillared up.
"Thank you." Cleo squinted at the bright sunlight, adjusting her hood. She looked around to see who her savior was.
"Right here," the voice said, holding out a hand and helping Cleo up.
Cleo sized the figure up. The man had brown hair and wore glasses. He had on a blue t-shirt with an "@" symbol printed on it. His hands were stained with the dirt he'd dug. Cleo hadn't seen him before. He looked surprisingly normal next to the rest of the group back at the clearing.
"I'm Cleo." Cleo introduced herself immediately. "Let me guess. You just came through a portal and have no idea where you are?"
The man nodded slowly. "I'm Joe...but how did you know?"
Cleo started leading him back towards the clearing, her walk to the beach forgotten. "It's how most of us got here."
»»————- ★ ————-««
Joe's portal was an average Nether portal, which he went through to go to his Nether hub. Instead of finding himself in the hellish dimension, though, the portal took him from the Overworld to the Overworld.
Cleo was delighted when she learned that Joe was just as interested in the portals as she was. Unfortunately, he didn't have any more insight than the rest of them. Cleo stayed determined, though.
"You need to take a break," Joe said one day, about a week after he'd arrived. Cleo had been working non-stop on her portal theory.
"Just a minute," Cleo muttered, her face shadowed under her hood. Her reddish-orange locks fell across her face. Joe hadn't asked about her hood situation, and she was thankful for that.
"Do you want to go exploring or something along those lines?"
"Not really..."
"We're going exploring, Cleo."
"Nooooooo."
"Come on," Joe pulled her up from her sitting position. "Remember to bring supplies this time," he added, a small smile at the corner of his mouth.
Cleo groaned slightly and grabbed a pack, stuffing random blocks and tools inside.
Joe was waiting for her by the map Wels had made. "Well, Wels has already explored the west. I'm thinking we go north. Maybe it'll be more snow and mountains."
Cleo shrugged, not really caring where they went.
"Should we take some horses? Or are you fine with walking?"
Another shrug.
"Should I light my hair on fire?"
Cleo started to shrug, then caught herself and playfully glared at Joe. "We should get going."
"Thought you'd never say so." Joe led her through the trees, heading north.
»»————- ★ ————-««
Cleo's feet hurt after only 400 blocks.
She wasn't used to this much walking. She traveled by ship most of the time, after all, before the Kraken happened.
"We should have gotten those horses," Joe muttered, though he didn't look labored. He glanced at Cleo to make sure she was okay, which just made her more embarrassed.
Despite her dignity gone, though, she was tired. And she needed a break. "Can we sit for a bit?" she asked, leaning against a large rock.
Joe nodded, heading out a few blocks to gather resources. Cleo caught her breath, cursing her sea legs.
After a bit, Joe came back with a disgruntled cream-colored horse. "Tamed this guy for you. He doesn't seem to take a liking to me, but maybe he'll fare better for you."
Cleo was surprised by the kind gesture. "You didn't need to do that."
"Just get on the horse."
»»————- ★ ————-««
As the duo traveled further and further north, the flat plains slowly morphed into rocky mountains. Cleo's horse was huffing as his hooves clicked against the hard stone.
Joe puffed behind Cleo, trying to keep up. "We should be nearing the top soon. From there, we'll have a view of the landscape around."
Cleo nodded. "You sure you don't want to get on the horse? I can get off for a bit."
"No, no, it's okay. This isn't as precipitous as I thought it would be." Joe immediately contradicted that saying by inhaling sharply.
The two fell into an awkward silence, occasionally punctuated by the horse's whinnies. It stayed like that for a few more minutes, until they reached the top of the mountain.
Cleo walked to the edge of a sharp ridge to really admire the view. She sucked in a breath. "It's beautiful."
If you looked to the north, you would see a snowy wasteland. To the left ended the mountains and started a dark oak forest. To the right was a birch forest. Cleo thought she thought she saw a building in the background, but maybe that was just the light. If you squinted hard enough, you could even see their forest clearing down south.
Joe came up a moment later. "Wow."
They didn't have enough time to admire the scenery when the ground started rumbling. Pebbles skittered on the ground, and Cleo's horse was spooked and almost ran away.
"What are they doing now?" Joe muttered as he noticed some commotion at the clearing. Cleo could have sworn she saw a red light emit from the trees.
"No, no," she said. "We need to get down! Mumbo's messing around with the glitchquakes again."
A rumble shook the mountain they were on, and Cleo's hood almost fell off. Cursing, she grabbed her horse and Joe and started running down.
"Cleo, stop! It's not safe." Joe grabbed her arm, dragging her back up the mountain.
"It's probably better than staying up there!"
"We need to stay out in the open, and if we run down the mountain, there's a high possibility one of us will fall."
A sharp jolt knocked Cleo off her feet, and the tremors slowly pulled her to the ridge nearby. She yelped and tried to find something to hold on, scraping her hands in the process. Too late, Joe lunged out and reached for her arm. Cleo nearly took a deadly plunge hundreds of blocks down, taking hold of the ridge at the last moment.
She felt her wind in her hair and realized that her hood had fallen off. If she tried to put it back on, she would fall for sure.
"Joe!" she called. "Joe! Help!"
A hand reached out, and Cleo grabbed it with difficulty. Joe pulled her up, and they flew back, just as the tremors stopped.
"MUMBO!"
Cleo's voice echoed through the vast landscape.
Joe got up, looking disheveled after the glitchquake. "That was the strongest one so far; how did it reach us from--"
Cleo looked up at him. "From what?"
Joe's eyes widened, looking at her face. "You're...dead."
Not deceased. Not departed. For once, Joe was at a loss for words.
Too late, Cleo realized her hood was still off. Panic rose in her, but she hid it behind defiance.
"Yeah. Your friend is a corpse. Get over it."
She crossed her arms, trying to sell the look. "Look, I know you probably have a million questions right now, but I'd rather not. Let's just get back." She hopped onto her horse, which had miraculously not been lost in the glitchquake.
"Aren't you going to put the hood back on?" Joe called behind her.
Cleo didn't look back.
(WC: 1299)