Chapter 1: Shadows Rising

It was a normal kind of day for Steve, he had just been out in the plains mining and was on his way home while the sun was still visible because, as his feather used to say, no sun is a bad sun. By the time he had arrived back at his mountain hut, the skies had darkened and Steve was more than ready to rest for the night when he caught light coming from the plains below. When Steve looked towards the source and saw a terrifying sight: the nearby village had gone up in flames. Without thinking he began to slide down the mountain and head to the village.

When he arrived, the scent of smoke and blood was still lingering in the air, the bodies of dead villagers still littered the ground and at the centre was the cause of the deaths: a portal to a realm known only as 'The Nether' was glowing among the rubble. "Wonderful," Steve muttered, "This can't get any worse." As if to respond to Steve's frustration, a giant of a skeleton stepped through the portal. It roughly 7.5 feet tall, had bones that were charred black, had a menacing purple glow in its eyes and, to make matters worse, was carrying an oversized sword made of stone; this particular foe was a wither skeleton.

Upon spotting Steve, it strode slowly towards him at first, dragging the sword across the ground, and then began to sprint at a frightening pace and smashed the sword downwards, narrowly missing Steve, and then hit him against a wall. It struck again, this time sweeping at his head, and yet again missed when Steve rolled out the way. The blade cleaved through the crumbling stonework like a knife through warm butter and caught Steve's arm as he stood up again. Steve clutched his arm in pain as blood began to splatter against the floor, his arm grew weaker until he could no longer hold his sword and therefore he had to throw it against the floor. The lumbering skeleton prepared to strike Steve down once and for all when the sound of coughing came from nearby, causing both Steve and his opponent to turn.

The creature began to move towards the sound and once again cut through any stone that got in its way. By now the short effect had worn off and Steve was recovering his strength and, knowing that another was in danger, lifted his sword and lunged at the skeleton and, using a fallen wall as a ramp, sprang onto it and drove his iron blade through its skull and tore it off completely. Injured, Steve moved towards the crumbling building that contained whoever was coughing and threw himself through the window, sending glass everywhere.

He was now lying on the floor on his chest, he turned his head to the side and saw somebody else the other side of the house. Part of the roof had collapsed and buried their legs (as well as blocking the door), Steve quickly pushed himself up from the floor and ran towards them. Upon getting closer, Steve could see that this was a girl and was instantly captivated by her. She had reddish hair and pale skin. Steve was only broken from his trance by her voice, weak as a mouse, "Help me," she coughed, her emerald green eyes looking into Steve's diamond blue ones, "M-move the rubble."

Steve did this and found that she had lost a lot of blood, he dragged her to her feet and allowed her to lean on his shoulder, then tying a bit of his own clothing that had been previously torn off around a still bleeding wound on her leg. He then asked, "If I might ask, what is your name?"

"Alex, it's Alex," she weakly replied, "Why?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to stay at my place to recover," Steve stated. Alex smiled weakly but then passed out there, causing Steve to lay her against the stone he previously used as a ramp and properly examine the wound, he soon realised that it would be impossible to climb a mountain with her, but he couldn't just leave her there to die. He covered the wound and, using all his strength, picked her up and began to to carry her up the mountain.

After a good couple of hours, he had made it up the mountain to his house and almost collapsed at the entrance. Leaning Alex against the wall, Steve unlocked the door to his house. He then dragged Alex inside and placed her in a chair. He then began to make a potion (he always kept spare ingredients and was a great alchemist) that could heal Alex's wounds easily. It was ready before she woke up so Steve decided to go and get his spare bed from his basement.

When he got back, Alex was awake and quite evidently confused. Steve had dragged the bed up but dropped it to quickly go and get the potion. He then returned to Alex and told her, "Here, this will help." Alex was too weak to question how, she had lost a lot of blood and was now struggling to move. Sure enough, the potion was working within three minutes and Alex was up and moving. He grinned, "Nice to see you're better Alex," and was about to carry on when she asked,

"D-did anyone else make it?"

"No," Steve replied glumly, "Everyone else was dead when I got there." He frowned when he saw tears forming in Alex's eyes and went to a chest in the corner of the room, only to find it was empty. He quickly unpacked everything in his backpack and threw it all in the chest before looking out into the darkness and mumbling to Alex, "I'm going to have to go and get supplies, there's a sword in the basement if worse comes to worse but I'm locking the door so nothing should get in." Her eyes widened in fear as she asked, "Y-you're leaving me here alone?" He nodded and gave her a nervous smiled before moving out the door and locking it behind him, leaving Alex alone with a single torch keeping the darkness at bay.

Steve had been moving through the plains for half an hour when he heard a familiar groaning and turned to see three zombies limping and stumbling towards him, one of which had a broken iron cuirass and half a sword. He drew his own sword and lunged at the first zombie, quickly slicing it in two before whirling around and splintering the skull of the next and impaling it before recovering his sword and slashing at the last one. The zombie took the blow only to strike forward with what was left of its sword and leave a jagged cut in Steve's forearm. After jumping back to avoid another attack, he sliced off both arms before he kicked it in the jaw with a sickening crunch and finished by tearing through its chest with his blade. He nodded in approval of his work before continuing his trek.

He finally arrived at the cliffs where he pulled out his pickaxe and frantically dug at the stone in front of him, mentally swearing when he stumbled forward and landed in a cave with no apparent way back up. Searching around for the easiest route through the cave, he spun round to see a pair of purple eyes watching him from the never ending darkness. They vanished as Steve suddenly felt something impact his back and send him through the air, dangerously close to a would be fatal drop into molten lava below. A jet black figure that stood at roughly 8 feet dived at him, those same purple eyes full of hate as Steve struck a wall and managed to bring a current of water rushing out, engulfing the creature as it faded to nothing, leaving a small blue pearl in its place as the water rushed of the ledge. He picked it up and quickly pocketed it as he looked down at the ledge and then over the way he'd been attacked from, realising it was the only way he could go.

Listening carefully to the sounds of various monsters around the cave, Steve navigated his way through the darkness until he saw the moonlight high above him, shining down from a hole that led back to the surface. He sighed and grabbed another pickaxe that was sat by the crushed remains of a zombie and used it, along with his own, to dig into the rock and climb up the vertical walls. He realised just how long he'd been gone when he finally climbed out and saw his house illuminated by sunrise, he curse again under his breath for leaving Alex on her own before moving sluggishly towards his house, happy to be by the mountaintop already. He practically collapsed by the door but quickly pulled himself up and unlocked the door, only to stumble onto the floor and see Alex asleep on the spare bed, despite the fact that it was in the middle of the room. He smiled slightly before climbing onto his own bed and drifting happily to sleep.