Day Thirty-Six

The night passed slowly. I spent what felt like weeks atop my pillar, watching the skeletons and creepers wandering below on the sand. I took a few pot shots to pass the time.

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Dawn at last.

Looking south.

Nearly time.

Flames began to lick at the zombies and I began my decent, cautious of the many creepers I could see off to the south.

Down we go.

Wait a minute. That isn't a cactus...

Correction: They weren't cacti.

With the creepers hiding at the base of my pillar removed, I jumped the remaining distance onto the sand. As soon as I did, I heard the 'ssss' as another creeper exploded behind me. I have no idea where it had been hiding. I managed to jump away before the explosion put a crater where my tower had been.

Ouch.

One block survived the explosion. I decided to keep it suspended there as a monument of some sort.

Another day.

Directly east was ocean so I followed the land south-east and soon left the desert for some grassy hills overshadowed by a giant mountain.

Heading south-east.

Closer to the mountain.

There was no way I was getting atop the mountain, but the eastern path to its north was relatively flat.

Monument on the north of the mountain.

Looking east past the foothills. A forest stretched off to the north.

Mushrooms and coal in the side of the mountain.

Beyond the mountain, the ground east was flat but another ocean (or the same ocean, I guess) began to creep up from the south. At one point, the ground opened before me to reveal a large underground cavern. I have recently been playing my 'normal' Minecraft maps and leaving this cavern unexplored was certainly difficult.

What treasures lie down there?

Sure enough, as it always does, the ocean blocked me off. Time to take to the seas.

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I passed several small islands and a continent to the north.

Continent to the north-east.

Floating sand! (looking north)

Island to the south.

A while after the island a new continent flush with trees blocked my path.

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The forest was thick and shady.

Be sunsmart, cow!

A glimmer of water to the south-east.

Islands in the southern ocean.

The ocean did not cut me off this time and the forest widened out again until my path was abruptly cut off by a small cliff that had remained hidden by the trees.

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I dug out some steps and climbed to the peak. Looking east from the top, tendrils of the ocean had looped back around in thin rivers, but nothing I couldn't easily swim through.

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Formations in the sand.

Across the water and beyond the sand, the ground again leveled out but this time with few trees. The occasionally mountain jutted from the plains.

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A mountain had been blocking my view to the north, but as I turned to now look at the lake, I noticed an entire desert had been hiding just beyond the mountain.

Northern desert.

The sun was getting low and I would need to think about making camp soon. As my new form of shelter requires sand for my cacti defense, I decided to rest here in this desert rather than risk moving forward into new sandless land. Well, not that I have ever been too far from sand these past weeks, but it is best to play it safe.

Sun getting low back west.

Into the desert.

Going up as the sun goes down.

Out come the mobs.

A Brief Hiatus

My apologies for the utter lack of updates this past week. My life became very hectic very abruptly and I now have more writing commitments that I must deliver in the next week or so than I anticipated having. Towards Dawn will return to its regular schedule early next week. I appreciate everyone who has been reading and commenting with motivation and suggestions and I'm sorry for the delay. I'll make up for it somehow when I post again, perhaps by doing something with TNT!

I Knew That Mountain Looked Familiar!

Thanks, Glynn and Michael!

Day Thirty-Five

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The night was eerily quiet. At one point I through I saw a skeleton looming behind a mound to the north, but it was just a sheep.

Where are all the mobs?

 As the sun climbed higher I looked to the horizons, but not a single mob was in sight. Warily, sensing things were not right, I chipped away at my tower and returned to the ground.

Still no mobs.

My defenses did more harm than good :(

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I refused to pick up the pork. I left it where it lay, stowed away some cacti, and climbed up out of the canyon back to the west and walked around on the northern side.

Mushrooms! (looking north)

Looking south at my camp in the canyon.

 Beyond the eastern edge of the canyon, the ground rolled down towards an ocean. A slither of land continued east just to the south of my location.

Looking east and a bit north from atop the eastern edge of the canyon.

Heading east-south-east through a small wood.

Continuing east.

Peppered among the hills were several abrupt, deep shafts. I kept my eyes on my feet as I walked.

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After a brief forest, the ocean came up abruptly from the south as well to cut off my path. I backtracked into the forest and took the northern pass that put me closer to the next continent.

Through the forest

Dead end this way. I backtracked as to come down the hill visible to the right of this photo.

Hills and desert to the south of the new continent.

Large mountains and an interesting monument.

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Like a staircase up the centre of the mountain.

The path up the mountain could not have been easier to traverse. The ground dropped away to the north and south but my eastern path inclined gradually and comfortably.

Waterfall to the north as I climb.

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The view back west from the top.

The top of the mountain was amazingly flat.

Islands in the clouds.

As I descended back beneath cloud-level, a breathtaking valley appeared before me.

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Getting into the valley, however, proved something of a problem.

Not this way.

I had to head some way north to find a way down before returning to my eastern path.

Looking back west at the mountain.

I mined a vein of coal from the side of a cliff wall before heading off to get a closer look at the monument and waterfall I spied from the mountainside. 

Nice.

Looking back west.

I left the valley behind me and continued east through a relatively flat forest before coming across another large mountain. This one would not be so easy to step over, however.

Continuing east out of the valley.

Mountain on the horizon.

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Yeah. Don't think I am climbing over this one.

I walked around to the south where the ground seems tamer. I clambered over the foothills between the mountain's southern cliffs and the ocean to the south.

East around the mountain.

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Looking up.

And looking down. Meep!

The cobblestone gave me a fright. It has been some days since I saw a dungeon. Without a second thought, I dug away the sand and let the water flow in so no mobs could assail me. But when I listened, I could hear nothing. No mobs at all. I hesitantly stepped down into the cobblestone ditch, but I could not even spy a spawner or any chests. Perhaps I was on the outside of the dungeon, not the inside. Or perhaps it was beneath me, buried beneath a cave-in of sand? The afternoon was getting late and I did not want to be stuck in a dungeon at night so I did not spend any time investigating. I moved on, looked up again, and noticed for the first time the amazing overhang above me.

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Looking back at the overhang from further east.

I stepped down onto a narrow bridge of sand that crossed into another desert just as the sky began to darken. I moved away from the water and began placing my cacti.

Looking back west at the mountain.

Into the desert.

Setting my defenses.

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Up we go.

I watched the sun set from atop my tower and waited for the mobs. But just like the previous night, and just like in the dungeon, none spawned. I swear the lack of mobs was freaking me out than the usual presence of mobs! But then I remembered: my younger brothers had been playing Minecraft on my computer the previous day and had turned down the difficulty. I was playing on peaceful! Whoops!


I turned the difficulty back to normal, and instantly the zombies, skeletons, creepers, and spiders began to litter the hills and crawl towards my tower. So much for another peaceful night.

There they all are.