Day Forty

Skeleton watches the sunrise.

My fear that mobs would swim out to my island in the night was unfounded as the sun began to rise. I watched the skeletons and zombies burn on the eastern shore and the few spiders wander off, disinterested, before I climbed off my tower and swam ashore.

Finally!

Desert ahead.

I followed the grass to the south and crossed the small sand-bridge. A mountain rose up before me, blocking my view, but the sandy side hinted at a larger desert beyond.

Crossing the bridge.

Creeper to the south, minding its own business.

Climbing into the desert.

As I crested the mountain, a desert did indeed wait for me. But there was also this:

Uh. What?

Interesting...

.

Beyond the monument, the desert looked like it would stretch off predominately to the south. Eastwards, I crossed it relatively quickly and hit the ocean again. Once again, I had to follow the land around to the south, where I could see a thick forest.

Looking south-east from near the monument.

Pig having an early morning bath, east of the desert.

Only a few steps into the forest, I spied something unusual through the leaves. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was, something white and gray. As I got closer and it came into sight, I was still unsure as to just what I was looking at:

...what?

I was baffled. I have never seen trees like this before. Was this a one-off glitch? Had there been a recent update that I had missed? Was this some new kind of material? Beside the strange trunks, the leaves of the white trees were brownish and dead, while all nearby trees were lush and green. I didn’t understand so I just pushed on. Soon enough, though, I was finding more of the strange trees within the forest.

More strange, white trees. And tree-growing mushrooms!

Deeper in the woods, I was starting to freak out a little bit.

Another ocean. Perhaps this will be the end of these trees.

Perhaps not.

In hindsight, I should have attempted to chop down one of the strange trees to see if they dropped normal wood. I’m not sure why I never did this. Instead, I crafted myself a boat and set out east across the ocean, leaving the trees behind. It was not long before I stumbled across land—another desert.

So long, strange trees.

New lands.

A single-block shaft in the ground, not far into the new continent. Falling down that would have heard.

From a slight rise on the new continent, I looked out east and south. The desert continued in both directions more-or-less to the horizon, but was broken up by a small lake that splayed into a variety of rivers.

.

As I started to walk down towards the water, I could hear the moan of zombies. Not far away, the water was being sucked down into an out-of-sight cave. Looking more closely at the water, I spied the wall of a dungeon just beneath the surface. I decided to leave it alone.

Underwater dungeon.

Looking south-east to greener lands.

But continuing east through harsher lands.

On it goes.

I walked across the sand dunes for some time. Besides the occasional rise and fall of the land, the terrain was unchanging for minutes before a pillar began to come into view on the horizon. Shortly afterwards, the sand dissipated into brownish, dry grass.

The end of the desert.

To the south was a small bay leading out to a southern ocean. While looking at it I almost stumbled into a small lake lurking beneath an overhang of dirt. Usually, this would be no big deal, but this particular lake could have ended my adventure for good:

0_0*

Lava lake!

.

A lake of lava. On the surface! I was bewildered. If I had fallen into that, I would have surely died. I have never, never, seen a lake of lava on the surface before.

Recovering myself, I walked onwards towards the towering mountains I had spied from the desert.

Heading towards the mountains.

Sand and stone monolith to the south-east.

There was no easy path between the two monuments as they joined together in a steep incline directly to my east. Beanth some trees, I started to climb the southern face of the northern-most mountain.

Well. That isn't something you normally see in a tree.

Mountains to the south.

But thankfully flatter ground to the east.

The ground beyond the mountains was flat and easy to cross. I made good ground as the afternoon sun lowered at my back. 

What a lake should consist of.

Mountains to the south.

Dark caverns.

The desert refuses to be left behind.

Sun is starting to set.

Climbing into the clouds as the sky darkens.

The sun started to kiss the horizon as I climbed the mountain. I wanted to make the crest before setting camp, but it was getting too dark. As the earth continued to rise beyond me, I had to make my tower higher than usual to prevent skeletons launching arrows from the higher ground. I used up most of my stone building my tower. By the time I was ready to rest, the sky was nearly black.

Time to sleep.