A tale of two Heroes

==Prolouge==
"AHHHHHHAAHHHUGHHH!!!!!!" I slammed into the grassy dirt. A simliar thud and yell from beside me told the story of what happened to Steve. I picked myself up from the ground and was confronted with a green wobbling blob! I yelled in utmost surprise and quickly swung my brown pickaxe, sending it flying back. It wobbled again, and leapt at me! A brown axe suddenly slashed it in half, causing it to burst into green goo, leaving behind 3 brownish coins and a blue pigment on the ground. My heart still racing immensly fast, I turned to Steve, who seemed to be as panicky as I was. In his hand was a brown axe. "What the flapping Notch is going on??" He asked me desperately. "Where are we? Why do we have these rusty axes and picks? And this little dagger?" He drew a small sword. "I don't know, but I don't think we're in Minecraft anymore..." I replied, glancing around. Insanely tall trees dotted the hilly land, while blue and green blobs hopped around, seemingly going nowhere. "Hello strangers. I have been expecting you" an unknown voice came from behind me.
==Chapter 1: Terraria? What?==
"YAAHHHHH!!!!!!" I spun around in midair, whipping out my axe, only to see a brown haired boy standing there with his arms at his side. Everything about his face screamed "GEEK!!!". His clothes weren't exactly those you might wear to battle either. Steve was more composed and asked cautiously, "Who are you? Why are you here? And why in the name of trees are we here? Where is this place?" The boy stood unperturbed by our strange behaviour, clearly expecting it.
"Hello. I am Gary, your guide to this land. I have been here for quite a while and if you need, I could help you all survive. As for the last question, you are on the island of Terraria. The reason you are here, however, I do not know." He rattled off in one short breath with a slight British Accent. I and Steve were stunned by the sudden flow of information, and stood there with our mouths open. I asked if there was any way for us to get back to our world, and Gary shook his head. He then pointed at the axe I was holding, "I suggest you put that to use on the trees, if you wish to make a shelter to survive the night."
"Yeah there're creepers and stuff right? Steve asked.
"Creepers?" Gary was mystified by the strange word. I took Steve aside for a private talk.
"Look Steve, I have no idea how we got here, but from what Geekazoid said, there're gonna be monsters at night. So how about we just make a house first, like in Minecraft, then we figure out how to get home" I said to him. He looked at me blankly, but then agreed. He ran off to the nearest tree to do the job. I went to another one without a second glance at him.
Roughly 7 hours of hard work later, I sat down on the ground, flat-out exhausted from all the tree-chopping. I shot a dirty look at Gary, who had been talking to me non-stop about attracting some retards into our "village" while I was chopping down trees. "STEVE!!" I yelled. He had been hidden by a hill for quite some time and I was getting fearful for his safety. I climbed over the stumpy hill, only to find him still standing by the same tree from 7 hours ago, drenched in sweat.
"How the heck do you chop these buggers down?" He punched the wooden trunk with his fists. Gary turned up, and showed him how to use the axe properly, which I now knew was made of Copper from his ramblings. Steve came up to me and swore. "What sort of world can you not punch a blasted tree to crap?!?" I was overcome by laughter and rested on my axe, still chuckling. I reassured him by saying that I had already chopped enough wood for a house. The sun took the cue and decided to conveniently set behind the hill.
==Chapter 2: Zombie Apocalypse and Flying Eyes==
I tossed some wood to Steve and told him to start building, while I set to work myself. I managed to use my Minecraft skills to fabricate a Workbench, and plonked it onto the wooden floor that Steve had already made. From there, I crafted some Wooden Walls, and placed them all over the back of the house. Steve finished up the roof, jumped in and shut the door. I noticed Gary was still outside and yelled for him to come in. Gary shook his head angrily, shouting back "I want a Chair first!"
"Oh for-" I gave an angry sigh. The spoilt brat was pissing me off. Steve didn't notice and set up a torch on the wall, giving the shack a warm glow. I gave in and made a small chair for the wussy to sit on. He strolled in and immediately sat on it, falling asleep instantly. I glared at the asleep Gary, thinking how nice it would be to toss him off a cliff.
"Hey, uh... Ex? You might wanna come see this..." Steve had his face against the small hole he made as a makeshift window. I looked through it and saw a vaguely human-like form walking unsteadily towards us, hands outstretched. I got a bit scared and took out my Wooden Sword, which was considerably better than the pathetic Copper Shortsword. Steve called out to it and it gave a groan. It got closer and I saw that it was dripping blood and clothes were ripped to shreds. "Holy piss it's a Zombie!" I yelled. The Zombie gave a groan in reply and headed straight for the door, thumping on it. Thankfully, it held and didn't seem to be breaking anytime soon.
Within 5 more minutes, the thumping on the door seemed to have quadrupled itself. Either that zombie got high on drugs or there's an apocalypse out there. I confirmed the latter after a quick glance out the "window". There were 6 Zombies whacking the sh*t out the door. It was a miracle that it hadn't broken yet.
"Why're there so many zombies outside?" The idiotic Gary had finally woken up. "Shouldn't you kill them already? You certainly could use the money. If you're lucky, one of those undead might even be carrying a Shackle, which you can use as armor!" He rattled off again. I and Steve looked at each other. "Well, he IS a sort of Guide," Steve muttered. I sighed in exasperation. Steve was always surrendering to girls. Oh well, may as well get it over with. I grabbed my Wooden Sword and with a deep breath, threw open the door.
Gary screamed a shrill scream as I gave the first walking corpse a poke in the eye with the sword. It fell over and another one took its place, only for it to go flying back out the door as Steve slapped it with his sword. I gave the next one a blow to the chest but its friend managed to scratch me on the elbow. Steve repaid it by chopping its nose off.
A moment later, the wooden floor was stained with the blood of 7 zombies and I threw their lifeless bodies out the door to rot. Steve grabbed the coins they dropped while I tended to my elbow wound. I suddenly heard Mr Wussy scream behind me and I turned to see a giant eyeball flying straight at me! It sent me crashing into the wall and as I began to lose consciousness, I managed to get a glimpse of the thing that was flying at Steve. It was simply a giant eyeball, blood trailing behind it with the tissue still clinging onto the eyeball itself. I tried to give Steve a warning shout, but the effort proved too much for me and I blacked out.
==Chapter 3: Healing Mushrooms==
I regained consciousness after Notch-knows how long. The first thing I saw was Gary's worried face looming over me. "He's awake!" Gary gave a shout. Steve's concerned face appeared behind him. I shook off his worried questions and asked of the eyeball. Steve gestured to behind him, where a bloody mess resided on the floor. I looked out the window and was surprised to see it was still night. I had expected it to be at least day by then. "You were out for a whole day, man. We thought you were a goner!" Steve breathed out in relief. "But of course, Nerdface here was going on about how you'd respawn." Steve shot a smirk at the red-faced Gary. I pushed myself up from the bloodstained floor, dusting myself off. "Here, eat this." Steve passed me a spotted mushroom. I recoiled from the disgusting thing. Steve told me that it could apparently heal me. I was skeptical and mistrusting, but hey, better die from poisoning than bleeding your ears out. I took a huge mouthful and instantly loved it. The sweet, fragant mushroom was crunchy instead of soft, and reminded me a lot of porkchops. I suddenly felt myself become lighter, no longer held down by my wounds. My eyebrows arched up. Mushrooms healed you without having to make them into soup? That's new. I could get used to this world of Terraria!
==Chapter 4: The "Robber" - 2 months later==
Excerpt 1 from the diary of Exshooter101:
"The days pass on and on. I'm still not sure what our goal is. Gary has spoken mysteriously about a dungeon at the edge of the known world. Sure enough, I can see a blue building faaaaaar away in the distance. Steve and I wanted to go in and loot it, but Gary told us not to. I don't know why, but I just felt that his words had a meaning to them. I've really started to take to Gary a bit. He's not so bad when he's not thinking he's high and mighty and all, but I have my limits. Let's hope I never reach them."
Excerpt 2 from the diary of Exshooter101
"The nightly raids by eyes and zoms have been fiercer than ever. The nights also seem longer, the days shorter. Even what daylight we have seems dark, as if as there is some evil acting on it. I really can't think what it would be, but if it's some all-powerful enderdragon thingy, I'm outta here."
I slammed the diary shut as Steve strolled into the room. "So, how's the diary-keeping going?" Steve sniggered. I dropped the book into my private chest without looking at him, ignored the question and asked a better one, "So, how's pipsqueak holding up?" Steve raised an eyebrow. "Oh he's just making faces at the zombies at the window. Doesn't seem as scary to him anymore." I heaved a sigh. "Steve, I don't know about you, but I've been feeling strange things lately. It's as if as there's some evil around here now." I paused, waiting for Steve to laugh. Instead, he only let out a grunt, nodding his head. 
2 days later...
"Steve, I'm going mining!" I shouted to him. Steve was working outside, trimming the Blinkroot for alchemy. I assumed he heard me and went to the chest room, for which I had to bypass the kitchen. I was halfway through the kitchen when I stopped dead in my tracks. That was mostly attributed to the feeling of a rusty copper shortsword pressed against my throat from behind. I stood stiffer than stone, not daring to turn around to confront the attacker. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gary trussed up in the corner, unmoving. Suddenly, the mystery figure spoke, "1 wrong move and you're dead, turkey. I want all that's valuable in this house," he whispered into my ear. I slowly strode towards the chest room, with him close behind. When I had reached the door of the chest room, I sped forward and slammed the door before he could react. The tip of his shortsword protruded through the door, and I could hear that he had fallen down, cursing and swearing, from having the heavy wooden door swung into his face. Suddenly, I heard Steve's voice outside, and a short scuffle, then someone being hit over the head with something heavy. I grabbed an Iron Hammer from a chest and opened the door to see the robber standing over Steve, having knocked him out with a chair. A tap on the head with the hammer and the robber went out like a light. I revived Steve with a Mushroom and then untied and revived Gary.
After I and Steve had armed ourselves with Silver Broadswords after Gary locked himself up in the storeroom, Steve brought the robber back to consciousness using the smell of those tasty Glowing Mushrooms. The guy snapped up immediately, and probably wished he hadn't when he saw the look on our faces. Steve grabbed him by the collar, shoved his face into the robber's and snarled, "Wassamatter? Scared now?" He backhanded the robber across the face with his sword-hand. The prick had the nerve to kick him in the knee, after which I slapped him across the face and gave a punch to his chest. Steve flung him across the kitchen to be stopped by a wall. The robber slid to the ground, obviously stunned. I stepped towards him but before I could say something, he rasped out "Wait! Stop! I can... help... you!" He struggled to his feet unsteadily. He introduced himself to be Marcus, and was apparently a "travelling salesman". Steve snorted at this, adding "A travelling salesman who goes around robbing people and knocking them out." Marcus looked a bit ashamed at this, and tried to "explain" that he only wanted to see if we were competent people to share houses with.
Marcus then took out a fat sack filled with all sorts of junk. He fished out a Golden Helmet from inside, only this one had a light on it. "This, gentlemen, is a Mining Helmet. Exclusive only to me, seeing as I am the only one who sells it." He announced proudly. He flicked the light on and off repeatedly. "Imagine what this baby could do for you in caves! Only 8 gold coins!" He proceeded to put the little helmet on this head, causing the light to flicker on. Steve looked very interested, but frowned a little at the price. "Seeing as you just tried to kill us, I think we should unload that off you for free." Steve smiled menacingly. Marcus gulped nervously. "S-sure! Here, have one too." He took another one out and threw it to me. I caught it one-handed, having been used to this by catching the pickaxes Steve used to throw at me in the mines.
==Chapter 5: Death!?!?!?==
Gary showed Marcus to his room on the second floor. After what we had been through, Steve didn't seem keen on letting a rouge stay in the house, and I really couldn't agree less. However, he did have his uses. The Mining Helmet was really nifty, an electric light source that didn't even involve redstone! Amazing! It was really useful in the mines when you were trying to scrape out some silver and slap a bat at the same time. 
"Ex! Can you try and ask Marcus to stop smoking in his room? Every time I go into his room for arrows, I keep thinking the house is on fire!" Steve walked up to me. I didn't blame him for asking me to stop Marcus. Marcus seemed to think I was his master or something after knocking him out, and while he sneered every time he passed Steve, he jerked his head a little at me, like a sort of little bow. 
About the arrows? Marcus really was a travelling salesman. He sold everything from Torches to Anvils. He also has the biggest case of kleptomania I have ever seen. He even wants dirt blocks, even though he doesn't pay for them, from us. Still, he has been been a good person to unload the useless emeralds off on. He pays a pretty good price for them. 
I walked up the stairs to Marcus' room reluctantly. I didn't really like his room either. The smoke inhalation always made me feel like throwing up everytime I went in. I was just thinking about how to tell him this when the hallway in front of me just vanished in a giant explosion. My first thought was "Creeper!" before flying back down the stairs, landing in a heap with several "Crack!"s. Oh damn! How many bones broken now? I wondered to myself. I barely tried to push myself up when I felt a cold, rotting body fall on me. I screamed for help before the zombie's hands wrapped around my mouth, threating to rip my head off. The corpse's putrid breath breezed past my ear and it licked its lips in anticipation of the meal in its hands. I felt the b@st@ard's teeth clamp around the back of my head and started digging into my skull. I struggled, powerless against the creature. Strangely, I felt no pain. I felt as though as I was slowly drifting off to sleep. Go to sleep, the voice in my head told me calmly. Go to sleep, let it all end... My eyes closed slowly and soon, I was no longer there.
I awoke. I was greeted with complete, empty silence. Despite not hearing anything, my eyes weren't blinded. I felt as if I was watching everything happening in front of me behind a window. I was still standing in the same hallway, with a gaping hole right in front of me, undead pouring through it. I saw a zombie feasting on something. A chill swept over me as I realised it was my own corpse! I tried to move my head to look at it but it just wouldn't move. I felt as if I was chained down, helpless to do anything. A sudden thought struck me. Was this... Death? Was I watching my past self being killed? Was I now a spirit? Out of the corner of my eye I saw a grey, round bomb bounce down the hole. I wanted to run. The bomb clearly was not going to be good for my health. It promptly exploded as soon as it hit a zombie. I saw Steve run from the corner of my vision, yelling silent curses and waving a Gold Sword in the air. 
Suddenly, the world warped in front of me. Everything was being sucked to the center of my vision at light speed. I fell to my suddenly-mobile knees, overcome by dizzyness. I started gasping rapidly. I needed AIR! I was going to die.. again! My lungs screamed out 1 word: AIR!!!!! I saw a tree whiz past me, the tree that Steve was punching on the first... What the-
I blinked. I was lying on the grassy dirt, still gasping rapidly. Stars in a black, empty sky filled my vision. The crescent moon glowed brightly, illuminating the rough ground. I sat up, slowing down my breathing. Where was I? This place looked strangely familiar, as if I knew it from Day 1, but I just couldn't place it. I stood up just in time to see the mutilated form of a zombie staggering towards me. I leaped back, taking out my Silver Broadsword, ready to kill what was already dead. It was a waste of effort though, as the zombie exploded into a billion gibs before my eyes. "What the...?" I swore in surprise. I looked up to see a short, stocky figure looking down at me from the roof of my house, a pipe in his mouth. A bright orange beard fell all the way to the waist level of his large yellow shirt. I caught sight of the familiar light-blue shirt, and sure enough, Steve was at the open door of our house.
After the zombies were chased off and the hole was repaired, Steve made the introductions. The fellow who had saved me was apparently a dwarf by the name of Ovbere. A jolly, fun-loving dwarf, I might add. The man spoke in a deep voice, as one would have expected of a dwarf. The guy wanted a place to stay and was hoping we could let him in. Steve was more than happy to welcome him aboard, but I wasn't too enthusiastic about the prospect of having another smoker in the house. After Ovbere had left to his room, I questioned Steve about the hole. Scratching his head, Steve replied, "I patched it up the  best I could under the circumstances. I bet you could do a better job, but well, the zombies were flooding through. I'm not sure how it came about though." 
"What about Ovbere? Where'd he come from?"
"Well, he said he was just journeying past us when he suddenly saw the whole wall explode. He decided to come help us, which was nice of him I suppose" Steve replied. I got the uneasy feeling that Ovbere's appearance was too coincidental. A fellow who dealed in bombs suddenly saw an explosion and decided to come help us? Yeah right. I decided to keep an eye on him, even if Steve felt otherwise. One thing was sure though. I'm not in a hurry to die again. The experience was just downright unpleasant. At least in Minecraft you didn't have to see yourself get ripped apart by zombies.
==Chapter 6: The Red Crystal - 1 week later==
"Watch your butt! A skeleton!" I called out to Steve. Steve jumped and did a 180 turn, bringing his Golden Sword down on the creature's skull. The skull splintered and Steve gave it a swift kick in the chest, causing it to fall apart. The deeper we dug, the more weird creatures showed up. The mines have really gotten crazy these days. Just yesterday we saw some bloke in a wizard hat and robes appear and throw some blue ball at us. We had to dodge 3 of those before he finally disappeared and not returning. On the bright side, we really got some better gear on us. Both of us are now the proud owners of our own Golden Swords. While in Minecraft Gold is really trash, it turns out that in Terraria Gold is awesome!
"Stop daydreaming! You got 2 bats on your six!" Steve yelled at me. I snapped out of my trance and turned around, promptly turning the 2 bats into 4 half-bats. We continued our journey along the edge of the lake, placing torches whenever we had to. I was focused, Gold Sword at the ready. Suddenly, a flash of bright red, standing out in the dark emptiness of the cavern, caught my eye. 
"Steve! Look! I think there's something over there. It's sort of buried in the wall, see?" Steve squinted into the darkness, and indeed confirmed that something lay within that empty space. Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the lake, so we had to take a swim across, which would not be very healthy in this place. Last time, Steve had been wading across a pool only for some bat to fly out of the water, nearly taking his head off. 
Steve and I reached the other bank of the lake and were both relieved to be on dry ground again. I led the way to the red thingy, torch in hand. Suddenly, some big, fat blob dropped from the ceiling and in front of the red thing. 
"WHAT THE-" I yelled and leapt back, dropping the torch. Steve also shouted in surprise, bringing his Sword to battle position. Illuminated by the torch, the blob looked like some black slime. But this blob was 5 times bigger than any black slime we had encountered. The blob jiggled, signalling that it was about to jump. Steve and I used our usual tactics with slimes, ducking under them as they jumped and cutting a bit of them off as they passed overhead. It worked, although it took a much longer time, seeing as the fat creature was so... well... fat. 
"Must be some end-game boss!" Steve cracked and I laughed along with him. Suddenly, I felt something cold touch my neck and I reached behind, grabbing it and throwing it in front of me with a shout. A small blob! What the- Could the blobs split now? Steve reacted similarly and he too hurled a small blob in front of him. I saw Steve's eyes flash with rage in being tricked, and he charged at the blobs, yelling. I cleverly stood back, not wanting to get involved in Steve's rage-mode. Having grown accustomed to watching blobs explode in showers of gel in death, I decided to examine the red thing instead. I picked up the torch and ventured closer. The thing appeared to be shaped like a Heart. What was this thing? Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the Heart was made out of shiny, red crystals and had strange engravings carved all over it. "What is this thing?" I wondered aloud. I ran a finger across its dirty surface, revealing it to be as smooth as an emerald despite all the engravings. 
"Hmm... If that fat slime was guarding it, it has to be something valuable... May as well get it!" I took out a pickaxe, ready to whack the crystal out. I swung the pickaxe down on the dirt wall, and yelled in surprise as the pick rebounded off it. "What the-!?" I shouted in surprise. This was dirt! It was supposed to carve right through it! I knocked on the "dirt" with a fist to reveal that it was in fact as hard as solid rock. Harder apparently, seeing as the pick would have cut into normal stone.
After whacking at the "dirt" for 5 minutes, there was barely a dent in it. Even Steve had finished mopping up the slimes and was picking away (pun intended) at the wall. "This could take forever!" Steve groaned. I suddenly got a brilliant idea. I took out an Iron Hammer and before Steve could say anything, I slammed the hammer down on the crystal. The crystal shattered instantly, red pieces flying all over the place. 
"ARE YOU INSANE??? What did you do that for?" Steve screamed at me. I ignored his cries of anger and stepped into the small void where the crystal had been. And there it was. At the small corner of the hole, was a tiny heart-shaped crystal, similar to the larger one. The light from our torches glinted off its polished surface majestically, and I picked it up with both hands. Steve remained outside the hole with his arms crossed and a powerful glare on his face. "Would you mind explaining to me what the hell is that?" He said crossly. 
"Alright alright calm down. This here is the Heart Crystal. Gary had told me this some time back. He said that it was rare to find a 'giant red heart' in the caves, but inside it, there's this thing here. He said some mumbo-jumbo about it giving more life, but I guess it would be quite valuable for some quick cash." I told Steve. Steve's eyes lit up but his frown remained. "Alright let's bring it up and see what Mr Smartass has to say about it."
"Interesting, interesting." Marcus met me at the door with Gary. Immediately after he saw me holding the red crystal, he started to get very interested in it. "A rare artifact that is. I'll buy that from you for a gold piece and 50 silver!" He blustered as he made his offer. I wasn't sure if he was ripping me off or not, so I turned to Gary. Thankfully, he was more informative. "Crush the crystal in the palm of your right hand and you will be granted extra vitality. Be careful though, since only 1 of you can use it." Gary said in his British accent. I ignored Marcus' outstretched hands and turned to Steve. "Cobble, creeper, sword?" he asked, grinning. I agreed. We faced each other like gunslingers in a duel. Even Ovbere poked his head out of his window to watch. "Cobble, creeper, SWORD!" We both yelled at the same time. I drew out my golden sword and Steve made 2 fingers into the shape of a creeper. "Sword kills creeper! I win." I said triumphantly. I picked up the crystal from the ground and placed it in the very centre of my palm. I breathed deeply and prepared myself for any pain that might come. Before I could think otherwise, my fingers twitched, and they came over the small crystal with a powerful force.
==Chapter 7: The Demon Altar==
The crystal cracked loudly in the silence that followed. I squeezed my eyes shut, not daring to look. Without warning, I fell forward, but my face didn't hit the ground. I was hanging suspended by the hand that held the crystal! I tried to move but I seemed to have lost all control of my body. I opened my eyes and saw Steve's look of horror, saw Gary jabbering away to a frightened Marcus, but I heard absolutely nothing. I thought that for a moment, something had gone wrong and I had died. Right when I had this thought, a force suddenly slammed into my back, pushing me up onto my feet. My vision blurred with crimson, I finally regained my sense of hearing. My ears were assaulted with Steve's incesscent yelling and Gary's yakking about a ritual. I caught my breath, and almost fell over as a dizzy spell fell over me. Steve and Marcus rushed forward to grab me, and I sagged onto them, devoid of energy. "Ex! Say something! Are you alright? What happened to you?" Steve's words washed over me like freezing water, rousing me. I snapped to my feet, no longer the tired self that I was a mere 5 seconds ago. "I'm feeling great! I dunno what happened back there, but it seems to be over now." I did a body check on myself. No visible injuries. What I did next took everyone completely by surprise. 
"Steve. I want you to hit me." I looked Steve in the eyes. "Wha-? Why? I..." Steve looked at me, dumbfounded. "I think his brains got addled by that crystal." Marcus snorted. "Just do it! I can take it." I reassured Steve. Steve looked warily at me. "Ooookaaay... if you say so!" Steve drew back a fist, and whacked me in the face. "Oof!" I grunted and stumbled backwards. Surprisingly, that didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. "You didn't hold back, did you?" I asked Steve. He shook his head warily, rubbing his fist. Strange. I've had sparring sessions with Steve and his full-force punches usually hurt like a truck. Except that now it hurt less, maybe more like a bicycle. There was only one logical conclusion. The crystal worked, just like Gary said!Category:StoriesCategory:Exshooter101