Day Fifty-Two

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 The sun rose over the swamp, still 90 degrees from where I was still convinced it rose the previous day. Though, that mattered little now. The daw was where the dawn was. Quite a few skeletons were hanging around the nearby hills, and I waited until they caught on fire before I descended. Still, I ended up dancing with one on the ground before he finally dropped.

On the way down.

Just a little too soon.

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  I walked onwards into the swamp. Just to the south some animals were crowding around some conifers banked up beside the swamp. I picked up some eggs on my way past them; though, I'm not entirely sure what I would use them for.

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Through the swamp.

Up ahead, the swamp was split by a giant stone plateau. Someone was waiting for me there.

Why hello there.

Back, I say!

I dealt with the creeper before it exploded and headed out onto the stone. A few chasms dropped down into darkness but, for the most part, it was just this weird big flat bit of stone in the middle of a swamp. I gathered some coal to replace my dwindling supply, and moved on.

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Getting coal.

Uncovered a cave beneath the coal vein.

A tunnel leading down in the south-eastern corner of the plateau.

The swamp continued beyond the stone, but it branched around to the north. Straight ahead to the east, the desert that was to the north of the stone wrapped around. As I climbed up onto it, I noticed two peculiar things off to my left: a pig on a tree, and rooftops.

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Village in the distance.

I decided to check out the village before continuing east. As I walked around the desert, I spied several other pigs pondering what to do with the other pig's poor predicament.

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Heading north into the village.

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Looking north from the watchtower: more pigs.

The road ahead: east across the desert.

It was still early in the day, and there was little reason for me to dawdle around the village. I reluctantly said goodbye to civilisation a second time and trekked off into the desert.

Goodbye, village.

I walked out across the desert until I came across a slithering river. The desert continued to the north, but straight ahead was a narrow peninsula and the start of a rather thick forest.

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I swam across the water and walked in under the trees. They were tightly packed and a straight line was not always possible. Occasionally, I actually had to bash a path through the leaves.

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So many trees.

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Nearly fell.

The trees eventually spread out and opened up on a wide lade that crossed my path then twisted off ahead of me. I swam across it onto a wide, treeless plateau.

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The cow and sheep convention.

Mountains ahead.

Weird monument thing off to my right.

I climbed the hill up to the left as it looked the least steep and was greeted by a group of pigs.

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Over the hill, another desert ahead.

It was at this point that I looked up at the sky and could not find the sun. I turned to my right and there it was, slowly setting, once again adjacent to where I thought it should be. I could hardly blame Notch this time. I must have gotten lost under the canopy of the forest and failed to reorientate myself when I came back out into the sunlight. I couldn't help but feel a little bit angry at myself, going off course twice in two days. I turned to my left and carried on towards the actual east. Ahead of me now was not a desert, but a forest of conifers.

Heading east. Again. Maybe.

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Not far into the forest I hit a rather wide lake. The sun was getting low behind me, but I estimated that I had enough time to get across before darkness hit.

Lake ahead.

Guess I'm swimming.

Halfway there.

Running out of time.

I got to the far shore just as the sky began to darken. I walked on a bit away from the water, and set up my pillar.

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After that day, it turns out my nomad decided to start getting hungry again. I chowed down all my mushroom stew, made some more, chowed that down too, then made some more.

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Ah rats.

The rain came down fast and heavy. I had a few blocks left over, so I built some makeshift cover to stay dry, and waited out the night. Looks to be a wet day ahead.

That should do.

Day Fifty-One

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Dawn rose over the forest ahead as I began chipping away at my pillar. Not before I was greeted by a friend, however.

I see you behind that tree.

Been a while since I had to use my bow.

A spider observed the conflict from atop a nearby tree, but he seemed content not to join in and let me put down my sign and carry on in peace.

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I trekked on through the forest, passing more than a typical amount of chickens. But before long, I ran out of both forest and land and was faced with another ocean.

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Blerg. Ocean.

Best just get this over with.

Not long after leaving the shore, it looked as though my boat trip would be short as a desert appeared to the south. However, it didn't wrap around and faded out again as the ocean stretched on.

Desert to the south.

...but ocean to the east.

...

...

The ocean continued for the better part of the morning as old, bad memories of a week at sea flashed through my mind. Clearly, I still hadn't gotten over that particular adventure. But then, eventually, a forest appeared on the horizon, just to the south. This time, the land did indeed wrap around.

Land ahoy?

Land ahoy!

More specifically desert ahoy, apparently.

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I left my boat behind and started across the desert under the early afternoon sun. For a while, I wondered if the desert would end up being as large as the ocean.

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Looking north-ish.

Lo! A tree in the distance!

And so ends the desert.

 As I reached the mountains I crossed a small lake and climbed a small hill onto a grassy plateau. A forest of conifers was just visible on the horizon.

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Into the woods we go.

As often seems to be the case in conifer forests, wolves were everywhere. But as usual, they left me well enough alone, save some curious glances.

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Sun beginning to sink back to the west.

The conifers thinned out and were slowly replaced with more generic trees on a land pocketed with deep shafts and ditches.

Mind the gap.

A whole lot of exposed rock.

As the sky finally darkened, I found myself wondering into a swamp. I picked a few mushrooms (not that I seem to have gotten hungry for two days now, bizarrely) and built my tower.

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But then something weird happened. I looked to the left, and the sun was setting. To the left. Not behind me. 90 degrees from where I believe it should have been.

To the left is where I came out of the forest and into the swap while (I thought) I was heading east. But now the sun is setting in the direction I thought north.

I was greatly disorientated now. Had I gotten lost in the woods? I swear I was following the sun properly. Did it just suddenly change positions at sunset? I had heard rumours of Notch saying they would "fix" the sunrise/sunset positions, but I am completely unsure if that is what happened or if I just got lost. There was no time to ponder it now, though. It was getting dark and I needed to get up on my pillar. Besides, it ultimately matters little. Whether the sun has moved or not, I would continue towards the dawn one way or the other.

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