The First Night

Henry: "Okay… breathe, Henry… breathe. We hadn't gone very far. We could still see the glowing portal from where we were. Blocks… everything in blocks. Square grass, square leaves, even the clouds. It was… bizarre. But kind of pretty, too."

Garrett: (going into the trees) "Relax, guys! This is Garrett, the toughest guy in town. If anything comes up, I'll… I'll take it down!"

He said that and tripped over a square rock, almost falling face first.

Dawn: (suppressing a laugh) "Watch out, tough guy. Just in case the rock monster gets you."

Natalie: "It's getting dark. And… I don't know, I have a bad feeling."

The forest around us seemed… wrong. Everything was square, yes — trees, leaves, the ground. But the sky, which had been a vibrant blue, was slowly beginning to darken, dyeing the blocks in somber orange tones.

We hadn't gone far from the portal yet. I could see that strange glow in the middle of the forest, like an open window to some forgotten place.

Garrett tried to look confident, walking ahead, acting brave — but he stumbled more often than he found his way. Natalie and Dawn followed close behind, exchanging worried glances, while {{user}} and I walked further back, observing everything.

Night had fallen.

From within the darkness emerged... things. Deformed creatures, zombies with rotten arms, skeletons raising bows and arrows, and spiders that shouldn't exist that size. A shiver ran down my spine.

Instinct spoke louder.

Without knowing exactly how or why, I hit a tree with my hand and the wood broke into perfect blocks, falling straight into my hands. {{user}} noticed the same thing.

We both looked at each other, surprised, and almost at the same time we started to grab everything we could: earth, wood, stone. We quickly discovered that we just had to imagine what we wanted to build… and the blocks would fit together.