As it turns out, keeping a hood on is harder than it looks.
Cleo's first problem was Stress. She loved the girl, she was playful and likable. But her gusts of cold wind had almost knocked Cleo's hood off on multiple occasions.
The second interference was the rest of the group's curiosity. To their pleads, Cleo let her reddish-orange hair show from behind the hood. Her hoodie was also oversized, so she didn't have to worry about showing her cold undead hands.
The third problem was the glitchquakes--the glitches that occurred when Mumbo built any sort of Redstone contraption, even if it was as simple as a Redstone line from a button to a Redstone light. The first time he'd flicked a lever, all hell broke loose, and it wasn't helping Cleo's hood situation.
When Mumbo had arrived and his portal had sent seizures through the world, Cleo's hood had almost been knocked off. She didn't want to show these people she was dead, especially after they'd shown a liking to her. How would they react? Cleo didn't want to risk it--not just yet.
She had other things to worry about. Mainly, the ever-growing question: why were all of them in the same place, despite the portals they went through all different-looking?
Cleo didn't even remember going through a portal. The last thing she remembered before waking up on this world's beach was drowning in the sea after the Kraken attacked. What had happened while she was unconscious, and, well, fully dead? What about her ship? And her sailors, no matter how annoying they were?
Some people were more concerned about this problem than others. Cleo was one of the people still wondering, mostly because she didn't remember her portal. Others, like Wels and Jevin, couldn't care less. They were too busy doing...other things that Cleo didn't understand.
Stress nudged Cleo, breaking her train of thought. Cleo was about to snap at her, but then she saw the ice princess's smile, and she couldn't stay mad. "Whatcha finking?"
Cleo shrugged, making a face even though Stress couldn't see it because of the hood. "I don't know. Are you concerned about the portal thing?"
"You mean that the portal didn't match yet we're all here? Kinda. Not really, though." Stress looked concerned. "Are you worried about it?"
Cleo flapped her oversized sleeves around, trying to simulate a "so-so" gesture. "Yes? No?"
"Just don't overthink it." Stress twirled her finger around one of Cleo's hair strands. "Have some fun once in a while."
Cleo smiled. Stress was the most playful person she'd known, even though Zed and Tango were a very close second. (At least Stress was tolerable, though.) "I'll try."
Stress nodded, smiling slightly, then left her to go hang out with Wels.
Again, Cleo tried to find any similarities in the portals. She'd even crafted up some paper and drawn the portals to the best of her ability.
Grian had a Watcher portal. Mumbo had caused some sort of glitch that caused a rip in their worlds. Stress and Wels had the mysterious ice portal in their castle. Zed, Tango, and X had their respective dimension's portals. Bdubs didn't remember a portal.
Cub and Scar had their Vex Mansion portal. Before Scar came along, Cub had kept all the details about the woodland mansion vague. Now, when Cleo has asked him, he'd opened up.
Cleo had to clear her thoughts. Getting up from her sitting position and stretching out for a bit, she decided to take a short walk to the beach where she had found herself washed up.
To get to the coastline, she had to pass the small clearing where the portals had appeared. Cleo always got chills as she passed the area, for some reason.
Still trying to distract herself from the stupid portal theories, Cleo wasn't watching where she was going and fell down a hole in the ground. It wasn't shallow, either. It was at least a twelve-block drop, knocking the air out of her.
She landed hard on her right ankle, and it sent a shock through her whole body. The only light came from the hole in the ground, way too high up.
Groaning internally, Cleo realized where she was. Cub had fallen down here once, too--she could see the block tower that he had constructed. Unfortunately, Cleo didn't bring any blocks with her, and she definitely wasn't breaking stone with her bare, cold, undead hands.
As if her situation couldn't get worse, Cleo heard the sound of bones clanking against stone. Monsters. That's great, isn't it? And she wasn't armed. She didn't bring anything, thinking that she was simply walking to and from.
Cleo picked up a medium-sized rock from the ground, gritting her teeth as the skeleton coming out from the darkness of the cave drew its bow. She heard a growl from behind it and realized there was way more than just one monster here.
She chucked the rock at the skeleton's head, knocking its head off. Taking a risk, she ran up to the remains of the skeleton and grabbed its bow and...one arrow. That's just great.
A spider decided to pounce, so Cleo stabbed it with the flimsy arrow, yanking it out quickly and beheading another spider with it.
Skeletons and spiders attacked Cleo, but she noticed that a large horde of zombies wasn't joining the fray.
It's because I'm dead, like them.
Cleo took a stab at the zombies--figuratively, but she was doing plenty physical ones, too. "Well, what are you waiting for? Come help me!"
The zombies just stared at her with their cold undead eyes. Cleo got chills as a thought occurred to her. Am I going to be like that one day? Just reduced to another zombie who'll get killed by a wolf or something stupid?
A weird image of some sort of zombie plinko machine flashed by. No, that's stupid. Who would have the time and effort to make one of those?
"So. Useless zombies." Cleo aimed her bow and shot a skeleton in the head, picking up its extra arrows. Now she was armed with an almost-broken bow and two arrows. This was going great.
The number of monsters was overwhelming. Cleo could barely keep up. A spider was about to bite her, but she killed it just in time. Behind her, an arrow hit her arm. Cleo bit back a shout of pain and kept going.
Just as the monsters were about to overwhelm her, Cleo saw an arrow fly by. But she didn't shoot one. It was tipped with a small flame at the end, and it not only lit up the cave but also set fire to a dozen monsters.
Cleo stomped out the fire, looking around to see who shot the arrow. No skeletons with bad aim in sight...then she saw a shadow block some of the light from above.
"Hey, is someone down there?" An unfamiliar voice called.
(WC: 1161)
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Hermitcraft: Origins
Fanfiction"Each world has its own story. Even if you tried to get a story from me, I wouldn't be able to tell you half of it. There is so much life in each build and block, and each event has told their own tale. But it has to start somewhere." Fate has the o...
