Day Fifteen

The sun rose slowly. As it climbed, my predicament became ever more apparent.

Looking south-west

Looking east. Zombies still not burning

Looking north-west. So many creepers.

Oh. And some pigs. Help me, pigs!

The sun was fully above the horizon now, yet the skeletons and zombies did not burn. What if Notch had updated the game overnight. What if sunlight no longer harmed them? It seems doubtful now, but perched up on my single cobblestone block my most unrealistic fears seemed plausible.

Burn, dammit!

Realistically, though, I was probably just looking over the rim of the world. Whatever the reason, the zombies and skeletons did eventually burn. All of them.

About time.

.

.

But what about the creepers...

I knew I crafted this for a reason.

I shot an arrow at the closest creeper I could see and actually scored it hit. This seemed to anger it and it crept up to the base of my tower. My line of sight was blocked by my own cubes. I could still see more creepers wandering around in the distance on all sides, but most seemed to be ignoring me. It was time to go down. Reluctantly, I chipped away at my tower cuber by cuber until I could aim at the creeper at the base.

Twang!

Once it was defeated, I chipped away more blocks until I was low enough to jump without hurting myself. I would have liked to keep my entire tower standing, as a kind of monument to my own fallacy or something, but that was not plausible. With one final surveillance of the still-visible creepers in the forest, I jumped to the ground.

Coast seems to be clear...

Aaah! Sneaky creeper!

Take that!

I took out the creeper under the tree with more arrows. Most of the creepers that had been circling seemed to have wandered off or disappeared. The rest were back towards the west and not in my path. Nearer, the morning's spoils were plenty. What I lost in a night of potential mining I now made up for in dropped arrows and feathers. Well, in reality I probably picked up no more than I had spent taking out the creepers, but it was better than nothing.

The only remnant of the horror that was last night.

There was only one thing more to do before I moved on:

All that remains of my tower.

I was too distracted to realise at the time, but this marked the beginning of week three of my journey. Not the most stable start to the week, but oh the adventures I have had so far! Anyhow, it was time to keep moving. But not without many glances over my shoulder for elusive creepers.

From the top of my tower, I had already seen what awaited me:

That looks a lot like an ocean.

...Yep.

I set down my workbench and used the nearby tree to craft a boat. While I was at it, I used my new found feather to craft new arrows, and replaced my iron helmet. It had taken quite a beating the previous night. I threw my old helmet into the ocean and let it sink before continuing. At last, it was time to leave this magical, accursed continent. I launched my boat haphazardly, clearly still shaken from the previous night.

Well done, Brendan.

It took a while to free it. Then, when I did, it was no more cooperative.

Awesome. Good job, boat.

I considered crafting another one, but did not want to waste more time setting up my workbench again. I had already lost most of the morning. In the end, I just swam out to it. 

And on we go.

The ocean was fairly expansive. Certainly not as vast as the fateful body of water I spent the night on, but it was still some time before I spied land again.

.

The body of land was quite fin, so I decided to sail around it for a time in case it turned out to be just a small island. Conscious that I always tend to the south in these situations, I intentionally sailed around the northern shore. It was a strange, unorthodox feeling.

Looking south.

 The water continued for some time ahead, but land was already visible to the north and clearly wrapping around to meet the southern land somewhere ahead of me. There I would have to leave the ocean behind.

Continuing east.

The ocean is thinning into a river...

Final stop.

I left the boat and continued up the shore. As I went, I gathered some sand to craft into more TNT with the creeper-powder I gathered that morning. The moment I crested the hill, I was presented with a rather broad cavern funneling down into a darker tunnel.

.

 I left it alone and continued east across a flat, forested land.

Hills in the distance.

I could see high hills beyond the trees. When I arrived at them, they were less hills and more cliffs.

.

 The northern side of the eastern most cliff seemed climbable without much digging, so that is the path I took. Atop the cliff was a flat plain and a view to yet another bizarre mountain.

.

.

Perhaps my lonesome insanity was just festering in some strange, pretentious way, but there was something, I don't know, 'majestic' about how the single tree stood atop the isolated strand of rock, like one spindly entity. That doesn't make sense, but the point is it looked really cool. More importantly, though, the structure formed a hole, so I had to walk through it.

Conveniently placed stairs.

moving through the hole and up the stairs, I found myself on level ground that followed the sheer southern side of the mountain. Seriously, what is with all the sheer cliffs these past few days?

.

Around the rear side was the most awesomely cliche formation I had seen thus far: a cavern hidden behind a waterfall.

.

How could I resist?

I widened the hole and went inside.

The cavern went on for some way back to the west.

And to the east was another way out.

As I should be heading east anyway, I opened up the passageway and headed towards this second waterfall and exit.

.

Right beneath me was another cavern going deeper down. A lip of stone was sealing it off from the water.

Hmmm...

Teehee.

I had had my fun. It was time to move on and get back on track.

Looking east and south past the second waterfall. Its flow continued for some time.

.

Looking back west at both falls.

Almost immediately, I found myself surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs.

Hmmm....

Hello there... (looking north)

There was sunlight shining through from the other side of the tunnel. Perhaps it would lead to a way past the cliffs? Only one way to find out. Except, perhaps not right now:

Already?!

The darkening sky caught me off-guard. Surely the day was not already over. I felt like I had made hardly any ground. Regardless, I would not be caught out after dark again. I swiftly dug into the northern cliff and made camp. The tunnel, and whatever was beyond, would wait until morning. As I placed my workbench and my furnace, I could already hear the spiders and creepers outside.

Safer than last night, that is for sure.