Day Fifty-Six

I caught the faintest glimpse of the sun cresting the horizon before a sudden downpour hid it from view. I would not see it for the rest of the day.

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Worse still, the many zombies and skeletons wandering around beneath my pillar refused to catch alight. There was nothing for it but to lower myself down and pick them off with my bow.

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Once on the ground two more zombies came out from beneath a tree, and I cleaved them with my sword. Looking around, there was no sign of Dusk. She hadn't caught up to me during the night. Now she was probably out there, in the middle of the ocean in the middle of a thunderstorm. I briefly considered camping out for a day and waiting for her, but ultimately I decided I had to continue on. She would catch up to me if she caught up to me. Besides, there was more ocean ahead anyway.

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I got in a boat I had crafted overnight and set sail. Ahead of me, the ocean continued to the east, but a desert followed along just to the north. A skeleton was bobbing along in the water, too. I exchanged arrows with him, and ended up crashing into a lillypad.

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-.-

I swam ashore, drenching wet, and pulled myself up into the desert. Of course, it wasn't raining in the desert itself, and the downpour bizarrely stopped just over the water. But the sky was still overcast and would not show me the sun. Still, I was fairly certain I still knew which way was east as I continued on. It wasn't long before I spied the now-familiar shape of wooden roofs in the distance.

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I entered the village through two fields of crops. I was getting a bit sick of eating mushroom stew and decided the locals wouldn't mind if I took some wheat to make some bread. I harvested that wheat that had fully grown and, of course, replanted the seeds in their place. No one seemed to mind. In fact, the village was awfully quiet. One lone village left his house and stood by the eastern path out of town as I walked through, but otherwise the village may have been deserted.

The lone villager.

Standing by to see me off.

Looking back west over the village.

I walked on into the desert. It looked like it might go on for some time. At one point, I looked down and found myself atop a somewhat precarious sand-bridge.

Glad that isn't lava beneath me.

Some extra-high bamboo.

The desert ended with a thick forest, where the rain still came down heavy.

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The hissing of raindrops turning to steam alerted me of this lava long before I saw it.

I continued through the woods, occasionally punching out undergrowth to get through. After a while, I spied what seemed to be a small opening into a cave. I was wrong about the 'small' bit.

0_0

While I was looking down, a spider sneaked up behind me. Fortunately I heard it before it pounced, potentially saving myself from a perilous drop.

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The chasm from another angle.

 A little way down into the hole, another path went back up to the east to come out beneath a massive tree. I walked down and through it. Partially to get some coal; partially just because it was a really cool path.

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Just beyond the tree the forest ended with a large, shallow lake and, beyond that, another desert.

Looking south. Snow-capped trees on the horizon.

East into the desert.

Somehow found myself on a rise looking over steep sand dunes.

I worked my way across the dunes towards the forest. A small cave offered up some coal. As I mined it, the timeless, overcast sky started to darken outside.

Forest ahead (and small cave to the right)

Cave goes nowhere.

Just take the coal and leave.

And worked up the sand into the forest, where the rain still pelted down. The sky was darkening, but I decided I had a bit more time to make some progress. I moved on into trees, and it wasn't long before the heavy raindrops became  soft snowfall.

Through the forest.

Rain becomes snow.

'Soft' might not be accurate. I found myself in one of the thickest blizzards of my adventure.

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Looking east across a valley.

Sun setting to the west.

The snowfall was beautiful. As the sun set, I built my tower, baked some bread with my borrowed wheat, and watched the blizzard over the treetops.

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