The Rift ~ Season 1: Discovery

The Rift - Season 1
Prelude | Hub | Season Two
=== Chapter One: Birthday ===
Knock, knock, tap, tap, knock. Sam completed the customary code and the netherrack blocks were pushed aside, revealing the dimly lit hidden tunnel. To one side of it stood her friend Nathan, the one who had opened up the passageway for her.
"So, it's today?" he asked as they walked down the tunnel, being careful to avoid any workers or patrols.
"It is," Sam replied, her voice tinged with both joy and worry. "They told me this morning they want to... talk. Just like they tell everyone."
"Yeah-what do they even tell people? Oh, and, happy birthday."
"Thanks." The walked the rest of the way in silence, stopping at a seemingly random spot and pushing two hidden buttons on the ground. Another two netherracks were pushed aside, opening the entrance to a small room filled with chests and contraptions.
"Sam! Nathan!" A voice exclaimed from inside the room. Carson, their other friend, stepped into the doorway, a fourteen year-old piglin with an affinity to technology. Many of the contraptions in their hideout were made by him. "Wait... Sam, it's your birthday, right? And they want to... talk?" Sam nodded. "Well, you could say I prepared some kind of... surprise. Follow me." Sam looked questioningly at Nathan as she walked, but he just shook his head. He led them down a tunnel, sneaking past two guards before they arrived at Carson's "surprise." It was a stairway, leading up and away from the colony. The stairway to the surface that they had looked so long for.
After staring at it in shock for at least a minute, Sam finally spoke. "You- you found it?" Carson nodded, looking proud of himself.
"It wasn't actually that hard. I'd found a old pickaxe on the ground, so I picked it up, followed some piglins around the tunnels, then mined where I thought they were getting to the stairway. So here, come on." He walked up the stairs, which were built with blackstone and basalt, and the other two soon followed. The trip up to the surface wasn't that far, especially considering the speed which the three young piglins rushed up the stairway, eager to see what the surface of the Nether truly held. At the top of the stairway were four crimson trapdoors, beyond which lied the wonders of a world the three of them had only heard about in stories.
"Since I'm going here anyway later today, do you want to open it?" Sam asked, turning to Nathan. He nodded eagerly, pushing open the trapdoors as the other two rushed to get a good look.
The tunnels opened out into a small crimson forest just like the ones they had heard about in stories: bright red nylium covered the ground, scattered with vines, shrubs, and the larger crimson fungi which some piglins grew down in the colony below. But in all, it was fairly unimpressive, due to one large factor-this was not the large, open Nether like they'd heard all about. The small forest was shrouded, as if in a cave, by a layer of netherrack and basalt surrounding it and cutting it off from the outside. Nathan and Carson seemed to be thinking the same things.
"This isn't..." Carson began, and Sam nodded, knowing exactly what he intended to say. 
"You know what?" She responded. "I'm going here anyway later today, and they'll probably show me the whole real Nether... I can report back. and I'll take you up there whenever I can. Let's head back."
"Wait-" Nathan said as Sam and Carson began walking back down the stairs. "What was that?"
"What?" Sam asked. not turning around.
"This... thing. Like some blue ripple."
"Oh, whatever it is, I'll see it later. I have to go 'talk' now, anyway." And the three quietly headed down the stairway, away from the surface which they had earlier flocked so eagerly to.
=== Chapter Two: Meeting ===
An hour after she had descended down those basalt stairs, Sam walked along one of the large, public tunnels lined with polished stones and shroomlights, escorted by five older piglins to what everyone had continued telling her was a 'meeting.' Well, she would find out soon enough. They stopped at a dead end, one of them reaching towards the ceiling and pressing a hidden button, opening up another secret tunnel. Sam had never been through this one, but she was sure either Nathan or Carson had at least once-it was fairly large, and lined with strange, fraying tapestries. It opened up into a large, open room with tables, more tapestries, and a large stairway which she hoped went up to the surface. At the central table sat three of the elders of the colony, and one beckoned Sam forward.
She took a seat opposite the elders, examining the odd tapestries while the elders examined her with their scrutinizing gazes, waiting for the silence to break. It didn't for quite a long time, and when one elder finally spoke, it was not the words she'd expected.
"You've been to the surface," he said, reaching over to Sam and picking off her shoulder a small piece of brown dust that she'd never even seen.
"What do you mean-" Sam replied, failing to hide any of her worry.
"You're covered in netherite dust," the elder said, "it's everywhere up there. And I know you've been in the tunnels too. You three did a very good job hiding that, at first. But how did you get to the surface..."
wip wip this sucks
Category:Story
Category:Stories
Category:The Rift