Chapter Text
Coffee didn't like the caves.
Or the Sculk, for that matter.
After everyone abandoned the jungle, their troubles, their strife, she felt… better. Not free, not trapped. Just better. She could barely remember the move, though she wasn't sure if it was amnesia or memory blocking—or if it was just a dream and the tundras were always her home.
Though everyone seemed more content. Not happier, just content. Despite the harsh weather conditions and the famine and the strays that appeared no matter how many torches they placed. They were content.
Though with contentedness comes the need to expand, to grow, to conquer. To clear the flora and the greenery and make room for civilization. Coffee was never much of a leader, though her efforts to grow alongside the others usually ended in falling from a great height or dying some other careless way.
The area in the tundras was getting more familiar to her now. Most people thrived in or around the community center. Her house was on a nearby island, after she finally decided to build a house instead of living on the side of the mountain. (Right next to a Ruralshine mine. She didn’t know why, but thinking about Ruralshine made something writhe in her chest…) Liam’s house was farther, but following the frozen river led her to his treehouse. The greatest treehouse she’d ever seen, by the way.
Liam…
He was a good friend. A great friend, actually. In the early days of the realm—around day 200 or so, but she couldn’t quite remember—he had saved her and her things from many precarious situations. All considering the caves.
Coffee didn’t like the caves.
The two had gone on a mining trip together, in search of many things but iron specifically. Copper tools and armor were great, but at the time even she had very little. They found a cave near Liam’s house and ventured out for a while. The first death she didn’t even understand what happened. Probably zoned out and returned when she was back at Liam’s base. It took a while to get back.
Then they found the Sculk.
She didn’t like the Sculk at all.
The caves were narrow, she remembered that clearly, with rocky walls of deepslate slowly closing in on the two of them the deeper they went. It was hard to climb down and even harder to climb back up. There weren’t any ores here. They were out of food and were quickly resorting to rotten flesh. But maybe, just maybe, if they went down a bit more… they’d find something.
She watched from behind as Liam laid eyes on the Sculk. And for the first time, something ran through her, though she couldn’t understand what it was. She watched from behind as Liam quickly covered up the area with the cobbled deepslate he had before turning away as quickly as he came. It was hard to see, but there was something in his eyes. Fear? Recognition? She could’ve sworn she had seen that same look in herself…
They both ended up burning to death in lava.
And when she found herself back at Liam’s base? She didn’t know what was worse. The feeling of losing everything they worked for, the tingle of fire dancing across her skin, or the thought that thing had a heartbeat, too. It was disgusting. She didn’t even see it in its entirety and she hated it. She hated it. She feared it. Feared that once she laid eyes on it again…
The Sculk was in the community center.
Somewhere in the ground was a sensor. A wretched thing that chirped and clicked every time she walked to her house. It echoed in her mind. It echoed everywhere. And it made her head spin. More than the vines that everyone knew were gone. Or at least they wanted to think they were gone. They wished they were gone, but it would take more than snow.
Liam had changed and she cursed that sickening, horrible blue.
The caves were terrible. But she had to get materials somewhere, and God forbid she barter with someone from Ruralshine.
The caves were terrible. That wouldn't change. But she had to get materials somewhere.
Coffee was terrified. The caves were as bad as she remembered and every step she took was another possible step to disaster. She screamed every time a zombie or skeleton turned the corner, or when she nearly fell into a ravine she didn’t see—even though she knew that no one was around to hear her cries. No one was there to help her. No one was there as a safety net.
But eventually the fear ebbed away, especially with the armor and she had hastily crafted from the iron she found. She wasn’t about to lose to the stone labyrinths again. (Even if she knew she was lost. Very lost.) There was a certain area, an underground clearing, that had interconnected cave systems branching out and connecting with one another. She did laps around them, lighting and placing torches wherever she went in hopes it would ward off anything that could hurt her.
The first time she felt safe when underground in a long time. It was amazing.
Safety was a fickle thing.
She went down a corridor that kept descending, walls of deepslate shrinking and shrinking and encompassing her trembling form. It ignited something within her, a deep-seated fear that she thought she had shaken off hours (days?) ago. A deep-seated fear that could’ve been déjà vu or even horrible memories being stirred up again.
There was no lava here.
There was no lava here.
Liam wasn’t here.
Coffee was alone.
Nothing would hurt her here.
There was no Sculk here.
Oh, but that terrible blue said otherwise.
She stopped moving. It clicked. It chirped. It breathed. It writhed. It was disgusting. Horrifying. She looked back at where she came. Leaving was the better option. Leaving was the better option. Leaving was—
Something shrieked at her from the darkness, and her vision started to give out.
Leaving was definitely the better option. She stumbled back up, back through the narrow passageways, knowing that it never had a chance of following her. Hopefully. She prayed it couldn’t follow her. (She prayed it couldn’t follow her more than it already had.)
She got out of those caves alive.
But Coffee didn't like the caves.
Or the Sculk, for that matter.