when you get to the crossroads, whatever you do, don’t turn left. when you get to the crossroads, whatever you do, don’t turn left. don’t turn left. don’t turn left.

scribbled over & over again over multiple pages with the hand of a quill, the mantra was repeated over & over in d3rlord’s head. his gauntleted hand whizzed over the pages, tearing the fragile things under the pressure he was applying on them with his quill. the ink blotched over the pages, smudging over as he flipped the pages frantically, only to write the same inscription over & over on another page, & then another. his breathing came out in short, ragged bursts, his chest heaving with laboured inhales & exhales from the sprinting he’d just done. his knees burned, ankles aching, a stitch searing into his side like a white-hot rod. his hand was shaking immensely, yet he forced to keep it still just enough so that the words on the page were coherent. down on his knees, in the lobby of his personal mineshaft, d3rlord couldn’t feel more lost. after all, when you now suddenly knew everything about all & all about everything, there was little mystery to keep you from feeling lost about it all.

mining, mining…

avery’s pickaxe mined away at the rock in front of him, creating a tunnel with every block removed. he grumbled silently to himself about what he had to do once he got enough iron; breed more sheep, create a cow pen, & get some obsidian to travel to the nether. he mumbled his little list silently to himself, yet when his tunnel broke out into a structure dug out into the ground he abruptly went silent.

…he hadn’t dug this out. & it wasn’t a natural structure.

avery stepped out of the mouth of his tunnel, falling to the stone ground with a muffled thud. he switched out his pickaxe for an iron sword, which was already on the verge of breaking but was still drawn out as a precaution. he stepped all around the dug-out area deep underground, noting how the entrance to the place from above was blocked off. he creaked open a chest in the middle of the room, & aside from the usual mining ores stored in there a specific book caught his eye. he took the book & opened it, & ended up scratching his head at the text written inside over & over like a mantra; whatever you do, at the crossroads, don’t turn left. whatever. he peeked round the four doors leading into their own respective tunnels, & he was just about to shut the fourth door when—

hang on.

avery peeked his head back round the doorway, eyes squinting as he trained his vision on a figure moving down the stone corridor, the faint light of a lantern flickering from the figure’s location being the thing that gave away the other player’s position to avery. well, avery, being the nosy guy that he was, switched out his sword for his own lantern. he crept down the stone hallway, not shutting the door behind him as it’d creak & give his presence away to the other player.

the other player, whom was d3rlord, was heading back down the stone tunnel with purpose. he wanted to go back to where he’d found the crossroads, find it & turn right this time, just to see what he’d discover on that side. he wasn’t going to turn left this time. he wasn’t to make such a mistake twice.