Chapter Text

We all heard about this new city, that the strong warrior made for his followers, for those that stand and fight by him. I chose to join him after many years of watching him from afar, which is why I now stand in a busy city, filled with the other followers. I could feel my ash pink ears drop at the shear sound of voices washing over me, as if over 100 people were talking at once. It’s dizzying, hearing a mix of my friends, my lover, and everyone else. My lover fusses over how he missed the first flight into the city, but I try to quell him but I’m dazed from everything. The fur on my tail stands as I back away from the large group. The warrior’s voice calls to us, but I can’t hear him over the sound of my own heart, racing with anxiety. My long, pink hair, same shade as my ears and tail, flutters behind me as I run from the center of town to the outskirts of the city.

There is a huge wall that protects us from the outside world where many have already died after only a few hours of being in this city. Walking along the city streets, I stare in awe of the art that lines it; I know all of it from the place we last called home. The warrior reminds us of the hub on our wrists that open to “pockets” that hold all of our gear, and tells us the death count. I can’t stand it; All of this death, it hurts me. As I wander around, the voices have died down. I come across a park, the Painted Sands Park. It almost seems like it could be real, but it's not, it’s all fake. No real sand, and only fake trees.

While wandering around I get a ping from my friends. They go on about this guild, but I only half hear them, mostly because they have already talked about it and what role I would have, Flower Master. We knew about this world from the Warrior’s speeches he gave us. Pacing in the park, I chose to head back up. Finding a small pub, I sit down and open up the hub, this time only having the guild in the voice. Its much better, having only 20 voices in there. They chatter on about many things, mostly about the plots. While all this occurs, I stare out from the roof of the pub. It’s simple in looks, but has a great view of East Watch. Stormy pings me, to which I just pingback little hellos as more people join from the next shipment.

That warrior charges past my viewpoint in order to go join the fighting past the city walls. I lean over, watching him. His black cargo pants already stuffed with cheats only he can use; the blinding glare from his helm makes it so I can watch him until he goes through the gatehouse. Only a few know of my feelings for him, but I am not the only one that cares about him. Raindrops and also ZQ do as well, and compared to them I am nothing. ZQ is a mod among few others, like Stormy; but Raindrops, she is another story. One that is not my story to tell. It nearly scares me when the voices are suddenly flooding me about his death. I know we can respawn, but death scares me. Gathering myself, I walk out and down to the wall. The guild needs me. Gripping my stone axe at the minifort that protects us, night starts to fall. It’s not the best idea, but they need me too.

It does not take me long to find a friend, a Vappy clan in a green tunic, fighting a zombie. I charge in, only to have more mobs circle me. I faintly hear Vappy trying to help, but it’s pointless, I’m already dead. The other players watch as I’m bounced around, waiting for it to happen. Just as the attack stops, I’m standing in the center of the city, with nothing again. I did pocket the little gold I had, but I can only buy five golden carrots. I go back to the pub and sit there, trying to get over my death. Slowly the guild starts to talk about needing to store exp bottles and gold for the one day plot that the hall would be set up on.

“I’ll do it. I don’t plan on going out anyway. I’ll just stay at the Golden Grub.” My voice is a little more than a whisper since there is a few people in the pub and I don’t want to bother them too much. Almost immediately an axolotl shows up wearing a fishy armor, we both bow slightly and slowly wave at each other.

“SKITTY! I FOUND HER!” His voice echos the latter part at he tell the rest of the guild. He hands me gold nuggets, 20 of them, then 10 bottles of exp, before leaving to gather more. Just as I stash it in my ender chest does everyone else show up, dropping off gear. At some point I stand near the outer doorway, watching the chatter, in my own little world. While playing with my pink hair do i watch as He walks by, Stormy behind him, I wave to her, who i swear I could hear her squee a mile away, she takes my hands into hers.

“Skitty! I recorded with Vechs!” I squee with her before it sinks in that he’s right behind me. Turning and almost giving myself whiplash, i eye him, wearing chain armor, everything but boots.

“So no shoes in the pub?” I tease, not really expecting anything back. I never do, but my heart says otherwise. He closes his enderchest and turns to look at me. I can see his red shirt under the chestmail, his green goggles block those blue eyes we all know he has. He looks down and sees that in fact the boots he was wearing are now broken and gone. A grin spreads across his face and I swear he could hear my heart pounding.

“I guess they broke.” He teases back, quickly i dart past him and open my ender chest checking my ‘loot’. I have a pair of new chain boots.

“Want to trade?” My guild hears this and starts to tell me what I should ask for. “New shoes for a stack of exp bottles?”

“Nuuu” he turns to walk away, so i panic slightly, ignoring the guild for once.

“How about a sunflower?” my voice was a just a whisper to him, he stops in his tracks and glances down slightly. I fidget with my hair while I wait. He lifts my head and holds out a sunflower, nearly making me cry. No one knows truly how much they mean to me and i’m not telling you the true meaning of the flower! I hand him the boots as he hands me the flower, grasping the stem, I blush slightly. Then it dawns on me that I have the only sunflower in the city. He walks away with Stormy behind him, waving later to me.

“I have the only sunflower….and he gave it to me. SUCK IT RAINDROPS!” Tucking the flower behind my hair to find a lookout i can sleep in.

It’s been almost three days since I arrived, well three days in another world, but here it's been two weeks. In that time I have died twice, I still haven’t lost my flower, in fact it's in my enderchest till i can buy a plot. Lately it's been hard to do that with us the MMG saving for the guild plot, at 80 levels. I was heading over with my ten stacks that i had farmed along with those everyone else has given me to hold. The hud has been busying with chatter about this plot, turning down the road, I spot everyone standing in what will be the warehouse for the highest members only, but for now there is no lock, the all watch as one of the others start to splash the exp on to get to the level needed. I wander off slightly, my mind wandering. It plays at my heart and what my feelings really are. Sometimes hard to tell, i just have this bad feeling that Vechs is not enjoying his time right now, all he ever does is those locks, I heard he was up for 17 hours doing nothing but locks. I’m sure he is getting mad at of all of us poking at him all the time. I think i’ll leave him alone, despite what I want to do. Tinker pulls me out of my own world, darkness fading slightly, Tink is caring, together we make a great passive team, the sever mom as those might call us, but this is not why she called me. In my drifting they had gotten to the level, and they wanted to know if i wanted to go with them to the new plot. I walk back trying to keep myself smiling but sometimes i just want to hide away from everyone, i half want the old world back, at least everyone was nice and didn't try and steal from each other. I can't trust anyone outside of the guild.

“Can I use the leftovers for myself?” My voice was just above a whisper, but they heard me, a few clamer about how they wanted them. Axyl looks over at me, trying to read me. He knows how fast the plots are going and the one i wanted was snatched up.

“Yeah, take what you need.” His voice was no where as shaky as mine is, but that's ok, his voice seems to lift me up slightly. Darting away with a few others, I gather the needed bottles and smash them, my levels rise quickly before stopping midway of level 40, a friend, Austin gives me a thumbs up, since his space suit makes it hard to see his face, behind him is a orange cat wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans, Dahson, my lover. I smiles faintly and take down the sign and Austin gets close, staring at the floating button. I know how it works but he does not. I click it, not noticing how close he is, the main hud pings that he just bought the plot. Swearing under my breath, I respond that I bought it, he just got too close. He holds out a book, backing away. My tail was flicking all over, I was pissed.

“Skitty. Sweetie, if you have the deed then it's yours” Dahson tries to block Austin from my temper, but it's hard when there is void under us. I take the book and storm off, heading towards the market, again the guild is chattering about the next thing we need, a lock. I’m already there by the time they all show up, waiting, I need a lock for myself so it's no big deal. Axyl buys his and then aids me as I buy my own. I jot down the names of those I want on my plot.

SkittyKittyLux, Axyl425, Dahson, TinkerTech, StormyLuara, and Vechs

Blushing darkly as the others go to drop off the book, I wait a bit, staring at the names, trying to give a reason for why I wrote his name. Looking around I’m reminded of the song I made for him and how he said he would make me a house. I had asked for a tree based cat house. I liked living in the tree and he knew this, I hoped. Grinning I knew that would be my so-called reason, then my real reason could be safe. Little did i know that his name was in everyone’s locks, so he could check on our chests to make sure we were not stealing from each other. I drop the book in the mailbox and the token that comes with it. It pops away and i close the box and walks away, going to sleeping “nest” in the walls.

I wake the next day to a few people poking my sides, I roll over not wanting to get up, I am warm right where I am. The poking changes to pets, i can’t help the purring that escapes from me.

“Skits it's time to get up, I think there might be something at your plot.” I know that voice, it's soft but sweet, too bad she can’t always sing. Tink pets a few more times before tugging my ears slightly. I mew and roll over to look up at my friend, who chose to wear a dress to battle anyway. It's white with black flowers, but from far away it looks like blood of those she beat to death with poor songwriting skills. I flick my tail at her but get up anyway. She holds out her hand to me, taking it we walk towards my plot, it was due north, on the last row. As we get headed over i started to squee loudly. There stood a large house covered in leaves. Walking into my plot my jaw hits the floor, there was another sunflower and so many other flowers. I climb up, exploring my new home. It's so much like the photo I gave him, I just wish he was on for me to tell him “Thank you.”