Still untitled Guude and Beef fic, part 2
Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mindcracklovePart 1 is here.
I'm sorry this is so long and depressing. ;_;
Also, pesky titles. I have a hard time thinking of them if I don't go into a project with one already in mind. Any thoughts?
~~~~~~
Guude huddled on a lump of dirt in a hole in the ground as he and Beef waited out another night. Outside the dirt walls of their hollowed out hiding place played the familiar litany of monster noises, which Guude hated to leave be while he was still capable of fighting, though his frustration at living like this had largely softened into grim resignation. It had been several days since he ran into Beef, and their survival strategy shifted a lot since their first night. Most notably, it was no longer worth it to spend their nights caving. They had been stupid to spend so much of their wood on torches before, and caving was too dangerous without them, so they reverted back to waiting out nights. It also conserved their energy. They still had a few fish leftover from Beef's fishing idea, but that was a food source also dependent on their depleted stock of wood, and they were waiting until they had no more options before cannibalizing their boats for a few more scraps. Guude still favored the speed of water travel to make quicker progress.
Despite the tightness of resources and the boredom of nighttime, Guude didn't feel quite as glum about their situation as before. Eventually the sharpness of reality dulled into a soulless science of how to allocate their remaining resources. Like a survival map.
Having Beef around didn't hurt either. His mind barely had time to make the connection from survival maps to OOG Legendary before his eyes fell again on his companion. The smear of mud had dirtied Beef's clothes far more than the iconic bloodstains. His head was tilted back against the wall, eyes closed, dozing but not truly asleep. Guude could have roused him if he wanted, but there was no reason. But Beef really had helped him this far. His steady presence in an uncertain world was stabilizing to Guude, which allowed him to think a bit more clearly, or at least, think about something outside of their immediate survival. It made him realize just how emotionally drained he had been, and still was.
Maybe he should say something after all. But he doubted Beef would be very interested in his weird, sentimental thoughts. Beef had been short on small talk lately and looked vaguely uncomfortable when he typically would have started a conversation. Maybe he was still getting over Pause; Guude didn't think too hard about it. But he did kind of wish Beef would be a little more conversable.
Just then he heard something different than the usual monster sounds he was used to hearing. His stomach sank. Beef noticed it too. His eyes opened and settled into a frown.
Somewhere, monsters were dying. Beef checked the clock he had made from some of the more useless scraps they had from caving.
"It's not daytime yet," he said. Guude hushed him, straining his ears, wishing there was any other explanation for the explosions and ghostly growl he could hear, like a hiss of incorporeal wind.
He began scraping at the dirt wall with his hands. It wasn't that he need to confirm his suspicions, but he just wanted to look, to glare. Maybe spit in its general direction.
"What are you doing, it might see us!" Beef pulled him away.
"I just-- I want to look at the fucker's three ugly heads and say that this is not over. I will not hide in holes forever. The withers have not won."
"Guude. Look at me." Guude slid his gaze from his incomplete window to Beef's steady blue eyes. "We're not going to hide in holes forever. We'll get through this. I worry about you, man. Don't go pulling reckless stunts like that."
Of course Guude knew it would have been stupid. But it was comforting to know Beef was there to ground him. He went back to looking thoughtfully in the direction of the wither sounds.
"It doesn't sound like it's getting closer. Maybe we can just wait till it gets far enough away."
"Hopefully there's no mobs right above us so it won't blast open our extremely vulnerable hiding spot..."
He had a point. It was too much of a risk. "We'll tunnel a bit deeper and wait it out," Guude said.
They had barely begun digging when there was a pop of a teleported enderman into the space between them, startling them both. Guude toppled backwards and thrust an arm across his face to avoid attracting the creature's gaze with his own. He heard Beef groan in anguish, but with no further sounds of panic, figured he managed not to anger it either.
"Don't look at it, don't look at it," Beef muttered. Guude, head tilted toward the floor, lowered his arm and carefully peered around the enderman's spindly black legs. Beef was staring at the ground, attempting to edge into the wall away from the enderman, nudging its foot a little in the process. It croaked in a throaty but neutral way.
Guude gradually relaxed, and eventually Beef's miserable groans subsides. He appeared to have an idea and rummaged through his things, pulling out some water.
"Wait," said Guude, slowly forming an idea of his own. "What do you have in your enderchest?"
"What are you-- oh." Realization dawned on Beef's face. "Oh. I didn't even think of that. You want to get a pearl and-- Oh, but we'd have to go to the nether too."
"Oh, right. Blaze powder." While making an eye of ender for an enderchest would give them access to all the most valuable items they've stored there, getting the items necessary was too much trouble in their position. He swore under his breath. "Forget it, then."
Beef poured the water and the enderman teleported away with a brief cry and a haze of purple. They both sighed in relief.
~~~~~~
Though the wither they heard seemed to have wandered off, they waited well into daytime before they risked emerging into the open, sprinting as much as possible despite their usual rules to save their energy.
Eventually the worst of the fear wore off and the weariness set in. Guude hardly paid attention to where his feet were stepping, staring blearily at the ground in front of him, not bothering to check the sky.
"I must be losing my damn mind," he said at one point. "I thought I heard a cow moo."
Beef stopped. "No, I heard it too. Over there!"
To their surprise, a cow roamed the grassy plains before them. It was at that point Guude noticed how even the land was as well-- no craters. They had outrun the wither after all. He wondered how long they'd been in fresh land and didn't notice.
"This is great news!" Beef said as they approached the first passive mob they've seen in a long time. "Hey, little guy. Aren't you so pretty, standing there, chewing grass..."
"What should we do with it?" said Guude, laughing. "Do we want to kill it now for food or wait till we find another one to breed it? Not that we could do that now even if there was another cow--"
"Sure we can," said Beef, pulling at the tall grass and uncovering some seeds. "We can farm wheat for days now!"
"Okay, but how are we going to make a hoe to farm without-- trees."
Those were definitely leaves he saw in the distance, and where there are leaves, there's a trunk to be chopped down. Beef explored another direction while Guude took care of the tree.
"No way! Guude, there's a village here too!"
"Are you serious?"
The village was the most welcome sight in the world to Guude. At last they've found an untouched, bustling haven, filled with crops and several more animals. With another patch of trees not far off, it was everything they'd been looking for.
Guude hung back, soaking in the sight as Beef hurried forward into the streets to see what the villagers were willing to trade. No doubt he was proclaiming what terrible rip offs they all were, but Guude wasn't listening. It was like arriving home.
The sun was setting, but for the first time, it didn't mean hiding underground.
The next day was busily filled with fortifying their new residence and stocking up on all the food and wood they could carry. The villagers, as usual, didn't seem to mind their presence; they watched the alterations to the village impassively while going about their own dull activities, revealing little more awareness than the animals. Occasionally Guude would be startled by a piercing stare, but without a common language beyond that of commerce, there was little point trying to communicate with them when emeralds were not involved, and Guude had nothing to trade. Beef seemed more open to interaction with the villagers; Guude just didn't see the point.
Instead he worked on village farms, pulling carrots as a pig stared at him with empty eyes. Guude eyed it back. You think you're getting food from me? You are food. Maybe if they found a saddle somewhere a pig would be useful. He considered killing it. The pig simply oinked.
Just then, Beef appeared.
"I was just talking to the priest. The guy's selling ender eyes. We could make an ender chest after all!"
Maybe there was something to be gained from talking to the villagers. Once again Guude was glad to have Beef around.
"How much?"
"Ten emeralds. But I figure a bit of grinding is better than fighting endermen and going to the nether, right?"
The world seemed to open up. "Let's go for it."
Guude glanced back down at the pig nudging his leg and dropped a carrot for it after all.
~~~~~~
The two had some work to do before they could get enough emeralds for the ender eye. Wheat was an obvious choice for trading, and they quickly exhausted trade options with the farmers. The days were over when villagers could be so easily extorted, like the blood emerald factory the B-Team used... Well, better to not go there.
Currently they explored a cave they found previously while tunneling down for easy resources. It was a good change from the farming, and they needed the ores for trading.
"We could burn charcoal, you know," Guude commented offhand while mining a large vein of coal. "They don't care about the difference."
"Yeah, but it doesn't feel right burning wood. I mean, after all that? Besides, caving's more fun. Especially caving with a friend."
"Yeah, it'd be much better to spend all our wood on bowls for mushroom soup, wouldn't it?"
"You had to go there," groaned Beef, though he quickly recovered the levity in his voice. "Watch, we're going to find all kinds of mushrooms now, and I am personally going to pick them up and make sure you eat nothing but soup for days. Won't that be cute? Making you dinner, like we're married or something."
Guude's laughter faded into a low mutter. "Kill myself."
Beef fell quiet, turning abruptly to mine something. Guude looked ahead until he found another vein to occupy himself with as well. It might have been a dark thing to say, but it was just his dark humor bleeding through. He didn't survive this long in this vicious world without having a few distorted things to say about it.
"You really hate mushroom stew that much?"
Guude turned to find Beef looking his way again.
He waved a dismissive hand. "It's nothing."
Something told him Beef wasn't really asking about the mushrooms. But either way, there was nothing to talk about. And judging by Beef's relative silence for some time after that, he appeared to agree.
Maybe it was better that way, Guude decided. Don't leave any room for ideas. He let the whole thing fall from his mind.
The caving, at least, was successful. Not only did they not find endless mushrooms to fulfill Beef's marital promise, they stocked up on plenty of coal, iron, and even a few diamonds, which was essential for the obsidian they would need for their soon-to-be ender chest. Beef took their plethora of coal to look for the blacksmith while Guude took care of the iron. After smelting everything, they had enough to finish both sets of armor, plus a bit extra. Maybe an extra bucket...
"So close!" Beef announced as he returned from trading.
"How many we at?"
"Between trading with the farmer and the blacksmith, we have nine emeralds. Just one more and we can afford the ender eye."
"Well, we just need to find one more guy to sell to. What else can we trade?"
"I think there was a butcher who wanted to buy raw beef..."
"Guess we're breeding cows, then." There were only a couple of cows in the village, but maybe there were others milling about in the area. There was that first one they saw, the one that had signaled their arrival in new areas...
"Hey, Guude? About earlier..."
This again? "Look, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not actually going to kill myself, okay? Be kind of pointless, wouldn't it?" Maybe if he found enough wild cows they wouldn't have to breed them at all...
No, I meant--" He broke off into a sigh. "Forget it."
"Suit yourself. I'm going to look for more cows."
Guude walked away with an uncomfortable feeling in his chest, but not one he wanted to explore. At least his quest for cows would give him some time to himself. He realized what a nice day it was, which felt like a realization he hadn't made in a long time. Light from the midafternoon sun skimmed the grassy hills while a light breeze rustled the nearby patch of trees. Somewhere he heard animals grazing, and listened for the snort of a cow.
Guude wandered, quite leisurely the way they originally came, back to the area they had seen the first cow. They would have their ender chest by tomorrow for sure, and until now he never gave himself permission to relax. Even finding the village had meant more work to secure it from zombies.
He found the lone cow in the same spot as before. Pulling out a bundle of wheat to lure it, he let the peaceful beast come to him. Looking down at the animal he would eventually slay for its beef, he felt oddly sad. There was, of course, the real Beef, without whom he wouldn't have made it this far at all. And he appreciated him for that, but that was it. That was all he cared to feel. But there was something else on that man's mind that he couldn't spit out-- all those times he fell awkwardly silent-- and Guude wasn't convinced he wanted to hear it. It sounded like the sort of thing that would only end badly.
But he'd wasted enough time here. He had to take the cow back to the village sometime. When he was in sight of the village again, he stopped. He could see Beef working in the cow pen. Wanting to forget about all this, Guude let his gaze drift to the sky, just to look at anything else.
The sky turned red.
The wither crested the horizon like a black sun, already spewing blasts of evil energy at nearby animals. It wouldn't be long before the entire village was under fire. Including Beef.
Guude was sprinting by the time his wheat hit the ground. He and Beef needed to get out of there fast. Maybe if they had gotten their gear from the ender chest, but not now. What was the last thing he said to Beef? Suit yourself? Nice word choice; he hadn't remembered to give Beef the armor he made before wandering off.
Running through the gravel streets, he heard a blast hit uncomfortably close. Somewhere, something was on fire. A villager withered away. That hiss of otherworldly breath was in his head like a recurring nightmare, but he wasn't leaving without Beef.
He encountered his friend fleeing the animal pens. Behind him the wither rose a little higher, making short work of destroying all life in its path.
"Back to the cave," Guude said, grabbing Beef's wrist and powering toward their entrance to their staircase down. They just had to make it underground, but that terrible wheeze like wind over the Styx sounded so close...
Beef stumbled as a blast from the wither hit him from behind. He shuddered as the withering effect took grip and began to squeeze away his life.
"Guude. Guude," he gasped.
"Keep moving."
God, they were almost there. Just on the other side of this house, which was at the moment, still intact. Guude still gripped his friend's wrist, urging him forward, and felt him recoil with pain every few moments as the withering sapped his strength.
Soon they plunged into their tunnel of safety, away from the wither's destructive gaze. But could Beef outlast the withering effect? He looked terrible, a slight aura radiating from the spot where the blast hit him. He seemed to lose color with every hit of the dark poison.
Wait. Would milk stop the effect? Damn it, Guude had been standing around with that stupid cow and an empty bucket and didn't-- He had to try. He turned to leave--
"Wait. Guude." Beef caught his arm. "Just in case I--"
"Shut up and stop acting like these are your last words!"
Well, he managed to find an even worse last thing to say to someone than suit yourself. Guude emerged on the surface, hoping the cow was still alive. Good thing the wither had plenty of other targets to distract it.
There was the cow. How long till the wither notices him? He looked over his shoulder. It was already coming. That's enough milk. The last thing he heard was the exhaled wither blast sail by his head and hit the cow behind him before slipping back to safety.
"Try this." He shoved the bucket at Beef, who took it with shaking hands and gulped the liquid. The withering ailment faded. He weakly dropped the bucket, panting.
Guude realized he was shaking too. He breathed quiet relief, slumped heavily against the stone wall. Beef had pulled out some food and was taking small bites. As much as Guude wanted to let him recover, they were still too close to the surface; he could hear the wither prowling.
"Can you walk? Just a little further in. I want to get away from that sound."
Beef allowed himself to be helped up.
"Thank you. For that."
Guude stayed quiet. He didn't feel like he needed to respond. He certainly didn't want to say that he wasn't sure that would even work. Above all he didn't want to say just how glad he was that it did. Of course he would have been sad if Beef didn't survive that. The wither apocalypse had been hard enough on both of them, and Beef had been a grounding force for so much of the journey. But Guude couldn't say that. That would leave too much room for ideas.
They paused again where the staircase opened into their already explored cave. There were still a few branches that were unlit, but for the moment they were safe enough.
Beef spoke again.
"I mean it. You've been a great friend for so long, and--"
"Don't."
"What--"
"Just don't." He wondered how long he could keep dodging this conversation, but it sounded exactly like the sort of thing he wanted to avoid. He knew what happened when he let people get too close. It didn't matter how much they went through together or how close he thought they were; they would eventually leave him behind without even a second glance, so better not get too involved in the first place. Fuck that.
"Jesus, man, I'm just trying to thank you for saving my life."
"And I'm the one who saved your life. I fail to see the problem."
Beef looked, well, cowed, and stopped trying. In any case it had been long enough for the color to return to his face, perhaps a little more flush than usual, so Guude turned to continue deeper into the cave.
"Come on," he said.
"Where are you going?"
"To get some obsidian. We're going to the nether." When Beef didn't respond, Guude looked at him and continued, "I told you I won't confine myself to hiding in holes. There's no use going out there again where the withers are going to find us, but I'm sure as hell not staying in this cave either."
Beef nodded, slowly.
"If we're going to the nether, we might as well kill an enderman first. For the ender chest."
Their plan with the ender chest and the now dead priest was already a distant memory to Guude, but He was right. They could still make one. Beef was still the one holding them together.
I'm sorry this is so long and depressing. ;_;
Also, pesky titles. I have a hard time thinking of them if I don't go into a project with one already in mind. Any thoughts?
~~~~~~
Guude huddled on a lump of dirt in a hole in the ground as he and Beef waited out another night. Outside the dirt walls of their hollowed out hiding place played the familiar litany of monster noises, which Guude hated to leave be while he was still capable of fighting, though his frustration at living like this had largely softened into grim resignation. It had been several days since he ran into Beef, and their survival strategy shifted a lot since their first night. Most notably, it was no longer worth it to spend their nights caving. They had been stupid to spend so much of their wood on torches before, and caving was too dangerous without them, so they reverted back to waiting out nights. It also conserved their energy. They still had a few fish leftover from Beef's fishing idea, but that was a food source also dependent on their depleted stock of wood, and they were waiting until they had no more options before cannibalizing their boats for a few more scraps. Guude still favored the speed of water travel to make quicker progress.
Despite the tightness of resources and the boredom of nighttime, Guude didn't feel quite as glum about their situation as before. Eventually the sharpness of reality dulled into a soulless science of how to allocate their remaining resources. Like a survival map.
Having Beef around didn't hurt either. His mind barely had time to make the connection from survival maps to OOG Legendary before his eyes fell again on his companion. The smear of mud had dirtied Beef's clothes far more than the iconic bloodstains. His head was tilted back against the wall, eyes closed, dozing but not truly asleep. Guude could have roused him if he wanted, but there was no reason. But Beef really had helped him this far. His steady presence in an uncertain world was stabilizing to Guude, which allowed him to think a bit more clearly, or at least, think about something outside of their immediate survival. It made him realize just how emotionally drained he had been, and still was.
Maybe he should say something after all. But he doubted Beef would be very interested in his weird, sentimental thoughts. Beef had been short on small talk lately and looked vaguely uncomfortable when he typically would have started a conversation. Maybe he was still getting over Pause; Guude didn't think too hard about it. But he did kind of wish Beef would be a little more conversable.
Just then he heard something different than the usual monster sounds he was used to hearing. His stomach sank. Beef noticed it too. His eyes opened and settled into a frown.
Somewhere, monsters were dying. Beef checked the clock he had made from some of the more useless scraps they had from caving.
"It's not daytime yet," he said. Guude hushed him, straining his ears, wishing there was any other explanation for the explosions and ghostly growl he could hear, like a hiss of incorporeal wind.
He began scraping at the dirt wall with his hands. It wasn't that he need to confirm his suspicions, but he just wanted to look, to glare. Maybe spit in its general direction.
"What are you doing, it might see us!" Beef pulled him away.
"I just-- I want to look at the fucker's three ugly heads and say that this is not over. I will not hide in holes forever. The withers have not won."
"Guude. Look at me." Guude slid his gaze from his incomplete window to Beef's steady blue eyes. "We're not going to hide in holes forever. We'll get through this. I worry about you, man. Don't go pulling reckless stunts like that."
Of course Guude knew it would have been stupid. But it was comforting to know Beef was there to ground him. He went back to looking thoughtfully in the direction of the wither sounds.
"It doesn't sound like it's getting closer. Maybe we can just wait till it gets far enough away."
"Hopefully there's no mobs right above us so it won't blast open our extremely vulnerable hiding spot..."
He had a point. It was too much of a risk. "We'll tunnel a bit deeper and wait it out," Guude said.
They had barely begun digging when there was a pop of a teleported enderman into the space between them, startling them both. Guude toppled backwards and thrust an arm across his face to avoid attracting the creature's gaze with his own. He heard Beef groan in anguish, but with no further sounds of panic, figured he managed not to anger it either.
"Don't look at it, don't look at it," Beef muttered. Guude, head tilted toward the floor, lowered his arm and carefully peered around the enderman's spindly black legs. Beef was staring at the ground, attempting to edge into the wall away from the enderman, nudging its foot a little in the process. It croaked in a throaty but neutral way.
Guude gradually relaxed, and eventually Beef's miserable groans subsides. He appeared to have an idea and rummaged through his things, pulling out some water.
"Wait," said Guude, slowly forming an idea of his own. "What do you have in your enderchest?"
"What are you-- oh." Realization dawned on Beef's face. "Oh. I didn't even think of that. You want to get a pearl and-- Oh, but we'd have to go to the nether too."
"Oh, right. Blaze powder." While making an eye of ender for an enderchest would give them access to all the most valuable items they've stored there, getting the items necessary was too much trouble in their position. He swore under his breath. "Forget it, then."
Beef poured the water and the enderman teleported away with a brief cry and a haze of purple. They both sighed in relief.
~~~~~~
Though the wither they heard seemed to have wandered off, they waited well into daytime before they risked emerging into the open, sprinting as much as possible despite their usual rules to save their energy.
Eventually the worst of the fear wore off and the weariness set in. Guude hardly paid attention to where his feet were stepping, staring blearily at the ground in front of him, not bothering to check the sky.
"I must be losing my damn mind," he said at one point. "I thought I heard a cow moo."
Beef stopped. "No, I heard it too. Over there!"
To their surprise, a cow roamed the grassy plains before them. It was at that point Guude noticed how even the land was as well-- no craters. They had outrun the wither after all. He wondered how long they'd been in fresh land and didn't notice.
"This is great news!" Beef said as they approached the first passive mob they've seen in a long time. "Hey, little guy. Aren't you so pretty, standing there, chewing grass..."
"What should we do with it?" said Guude, laughing. "Do we want to kill it now for food or wait till we find another one to breed it? Not that we could do that now even if there was another cow--"
"Sure we can," said Beef, pulling at the tall grass and uncovering some seeds. "We can farm wheat for days now!"
"Okay, but how are we going to make a hoe to farm without-- trees."
Those were definitely leaves he saw in the distance, and where there are leaves, there's a trunk to be chopped down. Beef explored another direction while Guude took care of the tree.
"No way! Guude, there's a village here too!"
"Are you serious?"
The village was the most welcome sight in the world to Guude. At last they've found an untouched, bustling haven, filled with crops and several more animals. With another patch of trees not far off, it was everything they'd been looking for.
Guude hung back, soaking in the sight as Beef hurried forward into the streets to see what the villagers were willing to trade. No doubt he was proclaiming what terrible rip offs they all were, but Guude wasn't listening. It was like arriving home.
The sun was setting, but for the first time, it didn't mean hiding underground.
The next day was busily filled with fortifying their new residence and stocking up on all the food and wood they could carry. The villagers, as usual, didn't seem to mind their presence; they watched the alterations to the village impassively while going about their own dull activities, revealing little more awareness than the animals. Occasionally Guude would be startled by a piercing stare, but without a common language beyond that of commerce, there was little point trying to communicate with them when emeralds were not involved, and Guude had nothing to trade. Beef seemed more open to interaction with the villagers; Guude just didn't see the point.
Instead he worked on village farms, pulling carrots as a pig stared at him with empty eyes. Guude eyed it back. You think you're getting food from me? You are food. Maybe if they found a saddle somewhere a pig would be useful. He considered killing it. The pig simply oinked.
Just then, Beef appeared.
"I was just talking to the priest. The guy's selling ender eyes. We could make an ender chest after all!"
Maybe there was something to be gained from talking to the villagers. Once again Guude was glad to have Beef around.
"How much?"
"Ten emeralds. But I figure a bit of grinding is better than fighting endermen and going to the nether, right?"
The world seemed to open up. "Let's go for it."
Guude glanced back down at the pig nudging his leg and dropped a carrot for it after all.
~~~~~~
The two had some work to do before they could get enough emeralds for the ender eye. Wheat was an obvious choice for trading, and they quickly exhausted trade options with the farmers. The days were over when villagers could be so easily extorted, like the blood emerald factory the B-Team used... Well, better to not go there.
Currently they explored a cave they found previously while tunneling down for easy resources. It was a good change from the farming, and they needed the ores for trading.
"We could burn charcoal, you know," Guude commented offhand while mining a large vein of coal. "They don't care about the difference."
"Yeah, but it doesn't feel right burning wood. I mean, after all that? Besides, caving's more fun. Especially caving with a friend."
"Yeah, it'd be much better to spend all our wood on bowls for mushroom soup, wouldn't it?"
"You had to go there," groaned Beef, though he quickly recovered the levity in his voice. "Watch, we're going to find all kinds of mushrooms now, and I am personally going to pick them up and make sure you eat nothing but soup for days. Won't that be cute? Making you dinner, like we're married or something."
Guude's laughter faded into a low mutter. "Kill myself."
Beef fell quiet, turning abruptly to mine something. Guude looked ahead until he found another vein to occupy himself with as well. It might have been a dark thing to say, but it was just his dark humor bleeding through. He didn't survive this long in this vicious world without having a few distorted things to say about it.
"You really hate mushroom stew that much?"
Guude turned to find Beef looking his way again.
He waved a dismissive hand. "It's nothing."
Something told him Beef wasn't really asking about the mushrooms. But either way, there was nothing to talk about. And judging by Beef's relative silence for some time after that, he appeared to agree.
Maybe it was better that way, Guude decided. Don't leave any room for ideas. He let the whole thing fall from his mind.
The caving, at least, was successful. Not only did they not find endless mushrooms to fulfill Beef's marital promise, they stocked up on plenty of coal, iron, and even a few diamonds, which was essential for the obsidian they would need for their soon-to-be ender chest. Beef took their plethora of coal to look for the blacksmith while Guude took care of the iron. After smelting everything, they had enough to finish both sets of armor, plus a bit extra. Maybe an extra bucket...
"So close!" Beef announced as he returned from trading.
"How many we at?"
"Between trading with the farmer and the blacksmith, we have nine emeralds. Just one more and we can afford the ender eye."
"Well, we just need to find one more guy to sell to. What else can we trade?"
"I think there was a butcher who wanted to buy raw beef..."
"Guess we're breeding cows, then." There were only a couple of cows in the village, but maybe there were others milling about in the area. There was that first one they saw, the one that had signaled their arrival in new areas...
"Hey, Guude? About earlier..."
This again? "Look, if it makes you feel any better, I'm not actually going to kill myself, okay? Be kind of pointless, wouldn't it?" Maybe if he found enough wild cows they wouldn't have to breed them at all...
No, I meant--" He broke off into a sigh. "Forget it."
"Suit yourself. I'm going to look for more cows."
Guude walked away with an uncomfortable feeling in his chest, but not one he wanted to explore. At least his quest for cows would give him some time to himself. He realized what a nice day it was, which felt like a realization he hadn't made in a long time. Light from the midafternoon sun skimmed the grassy hills while a light breeze rustled the nearby patch of trees. Somewhere he heard animals grazing, and listened for the snort of a cow.
Guude wandered, quite leisurely the way they originally came, back to the area they had seen the first cow. They would have their ender chest by tomorrow for sure, and until now he never gave himself permission to relax. Even finding the village had meant more work to secure it from zombies.
He found the lone cow in the same spot as before. Pulling out a bundle of wheat to lure it, he let the peaceful beast come to him. Looking down at the animal he would eventually slay for its beef, he felt oddly sad. There was, of course, the real Beef, without whom he wouldn't have made it this far at all. And he appreciated him for that, but that was it. That was all he cared to feel. But there was something else on that man's mind that he couldn't spit out-- all those times he fell awkwardly silent-- and Guude wasn't convinced he wanted to hear it. It sounded like the sort of thing that would only end badly.
But he'd wasted enough time here. He had to take the cow back to the village sometime. When he was in sight of the village again, he stopped. He could see Beef working in the cow pen. Wanting to forget about all this, Guude let his gaze drift to the sky, just to look at anything else.
The sky turned red.
The wither crested the horizon like a black sun, already spewing blasts of evil energy at nearby animals. It wouldn't be long before the entire village was under fire. Including Beef.
Guude was sprinting by the time his wheat hit the ground. He and Beef needed to get out of there fast. Maybe if they had gotten their gear from the ender chest, but not now. What was the last thing he said to Beef? Suit yourself? Nice word choice; he hadn't remembered to give Beef the armor he made before wandering off.
Running through the gravel streets, he heard a blast hit uncomfortably close. Somewhere, something was on fire. A villager withered away. That hiss of otherworldly breath was in his head like a recurring nightmare, but he wasn't leaving without Beef.
He encountered his friend fleeing the animal pens. Behind him the wither rose a little higher, making short work of destroying all life in its path.
"Back to the cave," Guude said, grabbing Beef's wrist and powering toward their entrance to their staircase down. They just had to make it underground, but that terrible wheeze like wind over the Styx sounded so close...
Beef stumbled as a blast from the wither hit him from behind. He shuddered as the withering effect took grip and began to squeeze away his life.
"Guude. Guude," he gasped.
"Keep moving."
God, they were almost there. Just on the other side of this house, which was at the moment, still intact. Guude still gripped his friend's wrist, urging him forward, and felt him recoil with pain every few moments as the withering sapped his strength.
Soon they plunged into their tunnel of safety, away from the wither's destructive gaze. But could Beef outlast the withering effect? He looked terrible, a slight aura radiating from the spot where the blast hit him. He seemed to lose color with every hit of the dark poison.
Wait. Would milk stop the effect? Damn it, Guude had been standing around with that stupid cow and an empty bucket and didn't-- He had to try. He turned to leave--
"Wait. Guude." Beef caught his arm. "Just in case I--"
"Shut up and stop acting like these are your last words!"
Well, he managed to find an even worse last thing to say to someone than suit yourself. Guude emerged on the surface, hoping the cow was still alive. Good thing the wither had plenty of other targets to distract it.
There was the cow. How long till the wither notices him? He looked over his shoulder. It was already coming. That's enough milk. The last thing he heard was the exhaled wither blast sail by his head and hit the cow behind him before slipping back to safety.
"Try this." He shoved the bucket at Beef, who took it with shaking hands and gulped the liquid. The withering ailment faded. He weakly dropped the bucket, panting.
Guude realized he was shaking too. He breathed quiet relief, slumped heavily against the stone wall. Beef had pulled out some food and was taking small bites. As much as Guude wanted to let him recover, they were still too close to the surface; he could hear the wither prowling.
"Can you walk? Just a little further in. I want to get away from that sound."
Beef allowed himself to be helped up.
"Thank you. For that."
Guude stayed quiet. He didn't feel like he needed to respond. He certainly didn't want to say that he wasn't sure that would even work. Above all he didn't want to say just how glad he was that it did. Of course he would have been sad if Beef didn't survive that. The wither apocalypse had been hard enough on both of them, and Beef had been a grounding force for so much of the journey. But Guude couldn't say that. That would leave too much room for ideas.
They paused again where the staircase opened into their already explored cave. There were still a few branches that were unlit, but for the moment they were safe enough.
Beef spoke again.
"I mean it. You've been a great friend for so long, and--"
"Don't."
"What--"
"Just don't." He wondered how long he could keep dodging this conversation, but it sounded exactly like the sort of thing he wanted to avoid. He knew what happened when he let people get too close. It didn't matter how much they went through together or how close he thought they were; they would eventually leave him behind without even a second glance, so better not get too involved in the first place. Fuck that.
"Jesus, man, I'm just trying to thank you for saving my life."
"And I'm the one who saved your life. I fail to see the problem."
Beef looked, well, cowed, and stopped trying. In any case it had been long enough for the color to return to his face, perhaps a little more flush than usual, so Guude turned to continue deeper into the cave.
"Come on," he said.
"Where are you going?"
"To get some obsidian. We're going to the nether." When Beef didn't respond, Guude looked at him and continued, "I told you I won't confine myself to hiding in holes. There's no use going out there again where the withers are going to find us, but I'm sure as hell not staying in this cave either."
Beef nodded, slowly.
"If we're going to the nether, we might as well kill an enderman first. For the ender chest."
Their plan with the ender chest and the now dead priest was already a distant memory to Guude, but He was right. They could still make one. Beef was still the one holding them together.
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Date: Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 10:09 pm (UTC)So yeah, I thought it was /really/ good. I can't wait until the next part. :)
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Date: Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 10:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 10:30 pm (UTC)It's so good! I can't wait for the next bit, sounds like it's just gonna be danger after danger for these two now *sigh*
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Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 06:16 pm (UTC)Now, it's gettin' serious!
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Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 04:09 am (UTC)*love*
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Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 06:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 07:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, December 6th, 2012 04:03 pm (UTC)I was so happy for them when they found the village and you took it all away! You're so mean :|
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Date: Thursday, December 6th, 2012 08:19 pm (UTC)Don't worry, I am planning out the next part right now.
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Date: Tuesday, January 1st, 2013 10:48 pm (UTC)Ooo one of them comes back and it's three's a crowd :L