A Fault in the Code

Chapter 16

Before getting either of the two, I get a full set of protective iron armor plus a diamond sword. This is good luck, and could help me greatly, but I just want to get what I need and get outa this place.

Then I worry. It told me I'm supposed to get a bottle. What if this luck of the sea is too much to get a bottle? It doesn't seem like something typically lucky. I haven't gotten any fish yet, either, and a bottle is even less lucky than a fish. I may just have to craft one if I don't get one within the next few tries.

After many tries, my fishing rod suddenly catches something that seems to weigh a thousand pounds. I struggle to real it in, but with Jeff's help, we pull in what must be the brewing stand.

The bottom is a stone slab, and coming out from it is a golden rod, and at the top are places that look like they could hold potions. I stare at it for a few seconds, admiring how shiny it is, considering it's been in the muddy water, before realizing that I still have stuff to get from the pond.

I tell myself that if I don't get a bottle in 5 more tries, I will smelt some sand and make on myself. And of course, all those 5 tries I get armor and, clownfish, and . I decide to keep the clownfish for food and the diamond boots I get, but the rest I throw back in the water. And not once do I get a glass bottle.

Frustrated, I pick up a few sand blocks and, with a pickaxe I fished out, pick up a few cobblestone blocks. I reach into my backpack and find my crafting table and tinker with the stone until I manage to make a furnace. Then I collect some wood from the surrounding trees, and put it in the furnace along with the sand. And I wait.

It takes what feels like hours for it to be done. There's only three blocks of sand in there. How can it take that long? I check in the furnace, but still only two are finished smelting into glass. The other is still sitting, untouched. And there's no more fuel to burn it. And then I feel like the biggest idiot to walk this earth. All this time I've been waiting, nothing's happened because the fuel ran out.

I grab one more block of wood and throw it in the furnace, with almost all my temper lost, and sit on the warm top. My patience has gone, so my leg bounces up and down and I have the hardest time sitting still as I wait. Finally the heat on the top dies down, telling me that the sand is finished.

With a deep breath, trying to keep myself from exploding, I take the hot sand from the furnace. And with my crafting table, begin to play around with crafting recipes once again until I get myself a bottle.

The brewing stand seems easy. All I have to do is put my ingredients and my bottle in the three little spots and special bottle spot provided, and wait until my potion is finished. I carefully put in the star and the ghast tear, though putting nothing in the third spot makes me a bit uneasy, and again, I wait. I've gotten tired of waiting.

Finally, I look back in the brewing stand and find a brand new bottle in the place of the old one, but it has liquid in it. It is a pearly white, gleaming like the star I put in it, and the glass feels a bit cold, as if the ghast tear were making the potion that way. When I lightly shake it, the liquid seems to have a thick consistancy, like syrup or honey. Do I have to drink this? It looks like soap. And I KNOW that soap tastes disgusting. Don't ask.

But I squeeze my eyes shut, plug my nose and put the bottle to my lips. But before I can tilt it to drink the contents, I hear a small voice, like a whisper in the wind. It is almost impossible to hear, but I know it's there. And it says:

Very special potion, there. Use it well.

I think about this, and then drink. It tastes sweet, like icing. I unplug my nose and enjoy the sweetness, but as I open my eyes, I almost faint. I must be hallucinating. I must be. Every color is inverted, and there are little things floating in front of me. They look like letters and numbers merged into one character, and there are probably 15 or so of them floating in a group before my eyes. They start to move forward, slowly, and as I start to follow, they move faster. I try to reach out and grab them, but they move away too fast for me too touch. This must not be real. It's just a potion effect.