Alone Time

Being Scared shitless, Work commences and progress is made. After all the work plus more is done, Charles finally gets a chance to have a break from the stress, or so they think.

"Alright, take this wood and set it in the chest over there. As for the size of the rooms the should be about 20ft by 20ft by 6ft room. The Standard furniture is a chair, a table, and a large bench. Make sure that you leave a piece of wood in there so that way when we come back form or next hunt we can make more torches."

It has been a few days since we first arrived here in the world of Terraria, and so far we have been barely scraping by, and that's an exaggeration. Since we cant make beds everyone has been sleeping on benches, rocks, or the ground in what alcoves we have in the tree on in near by caves. We have to keep barricading the entrances each night to ensure we are not invade by any of the creatures the preside in the night. One time someone almost forgot about it and we were just barely able to toss a bunch of random things like dirt of wood in a pile before they came in. Almost lost someone too in that process. 

As for basic necessities like food and water, we have not been able to sustain everyone. Purifying water from the near by lakes is hard enough, were able to keep up with that to keep people from dehydration or much pain, but food is another story. Since many people don't know how to hunt, less know how the game fully works, and we have a lack of hunting equipment, we are limited to only those who know how to hunt or use a bow and those who know that game very well, and the food they bring back is not enough. There are days when many people go without eating, and I've ben trying to help by not eating for a few days straight, only eating when it becomes absolutely necessary or when Ren makes me.

There's also the stress that's been on everyone. other then allowing the normal breaks between work and sleep, hardly no one is not working. Those who don't actually work is usually due to some of the extreme cases of starvation or dehydration. This has been nothing but a mess.

"HEY! Don't put that there! Chests will go on the lowest levels. Place it over there for the time being while we wait for the rest of the base to be made."

"Charles?"

"AGH! S**t, scared me lifeless."

"Sorry."

"Its fine, what's up?"

"I was coming up here to tell you that you need a break."

"Heh, sorry, cant. not when theres so much t-HEY! Take that wood over to the tree, not that walls! the walls are made of stone!"

"Charles, seriously, take a break, have one of your other friends..." she put her hands on my arms and looked confused at me. "When was the last time you ate?" she looked at my face. "Or Slept for that matter?"

"I told you, I'm fine."

She stepped in front of me, clearly angry.

"No, your not. You've clearly have not eaten or have slept in what looks like days. you need to take care of yourself. You are going to get some sleep, then get up and get something to eat ok?"

"Sorry, but there are things that need to be-"

"SHUT UP ABOUT THIS AND THINK ABOUT YOUSELF!" she stopped me in my tracks. looking back at her I can tell she is truly concerned for me. 

"im going to find Ty, He'll take over for you. You are going to stay here and when I come with him we are going to your room so you can sleep then when you wake up eat and relax for the rest of the day, ok?"

"...ok." It doesn't take her long for her to find him since he's the one in charge of training people in using their preferred weapon.

"Ok, Take over for him for the rest of the day Ty, he needs to go take care of himself, ok?

"Yeah, sure. Go relax a bit Charles, you have been working hard for awhile, you deserve it. Ill make sure things get done.

"Thanks."

"No problem." We walk towards the house and begin our decent into the Ancient Tree. Upon digging down we discovered that it extends down much farther than one of these trees normally grow to, so much so we redesigned the plans for the rooms to where everyone can get their own room and with hallways. We placed my room near the bottom, so it takes us a bit to make our way down the stairs, but once we do, I discover the change to my room.

it not only has a bed, but it also has a dresser, a bench, chair and table, a candle and torch for light, and a very large bed.

"Ren, did you do this?"

"Some what, I'm the one who made it, it was the normal workers who went and gathered the materials for all of this."

"This..we need to give this to-"

"No." I turn to her, clearly showing that she's not budging on what I was aobut to say.

"What do you mean no? others could sue this-"

"YOU could use this. Like I said, you have been neglecting yourself, so now you get to relax like you've really been needing to."

"I...I cant take all of this, not without feeling guilty for it."

"Well, guess you going to have to feel guilty for it then, because for your first order of business in relaxing, you need to change into something more comfortable. Here." She does some cross between a walk and a skip over to the dresser and picks out some clothes and hands them to me.

"Go over there, change into something both cleaner and more comfortable then you can go to sleep, kay?"

"...Ok." I slowly slip to the corner where the curtains are, close them, and change into a soft, a plain black shirt with some dark colored lounge pants. I open the curtains to see Ren has also changed into similar clothing, although the shirt is slightly bigger than she is so it just hangs on her shoulders and around her torso. It doesn't reveal anything, but one wrong shift could cause something to be flashed at me. I blush at the thought than quickly shake the thought from my head, but not before she notices.

"Hm? what you got in that head of yours?"

"N-Nothing."

"Nothing eh? is that why the redness of your checks could rival that of a tomato?" she looks down at herself "Ah, now I see why." She slow and purposely expressively walks behind me and places one hand on my shoulder and her other on my chest. "Only in your Dreams Charles, were not that close yet...although maybe if you lucky you might get treated to something, hmmm?" I feel the heat of my checks go hotter at the mention of this. she laughs and begins to pull me towards the bed

"Your such an easy tease, you know that?"

I try to form words but all that comes out is just sounds, she laughs more.

"Just get into bed with me so we can sleep."

"W-wait, what?"

"Oh calm yourself down, especially your partner in your pants. were just going to cuddle in bed and sleep, nothing more, ya pervert. now, come on in and get some sleep, ok?" I just follow her silently and get in. She gets right up next to me and wraps her arms around one of mine and rest her head as best and as comfortably as she can on my chest. she's practically attached to me at this point. I decided to finally to loosen up and cuddle with her as well, turning towards her and wrapping her up in a hug. she lets go and snuggles up to me, head still near chest so I lay my head on top of hers. I yawn. I never realized how tired I was, but now that I am in bed and really comfortable, I can feel the grasp of sleep coming over me slowly.

"Night Charles, sleep well."

"You too Ren, sweet dreams." It takes only seconds before sleep fully take me over.

Sleep was both fitful and by far the best sleep ive gotten in a long while. At first I had night terrors plaguing me, each one worse in some way than the last, but Ren would grab onto me tightly in our sleep, somehow sensing my restlessness, and they would then quickly end. by the time the last one was over it was nothing put pure, peaceful sleep. when I awoke I saw Ren still curled up next to me, her face peaceful, and innocent. I carefully get up, and upon looking at the clock in the room see that is 12 minutes passed midnight.

"mmm.." Ren stirs, then wakes up herself. her hair is a bit of a mess but it makes her look cuter. Her shirt has been clearly readjusted in our sleep and now I can clearly see her bra. She's small, but for her it works well for her.

"Hey, sleep well?"

"Hmm, better than I normally. I should be asking you that though, you had a hard time sleeping at first, and besides, ive been waking up and falling back asleep seeing how you were still asleep. what was the issue anyways?"

"Just some dreams, don't worry about them." 

"Those were some 'dreams' then." we go silent for a bit. she's clearly expecting an answer but I stay silent. after a quite sigh from her, she talks first.

"What time is it anyways?"

"About 12:15 AM."

"Mmmm, you just want to go back to sleep then until the morning?"

"Actually, I got something to show you, if you care to see it."

"Sure, just give me a minute to change."

"There's no need, where we are going we don't need to worry about prying eyes."

"O...kay?" She slowly gets out of bed and after rubbing the sleep from her eyes I take her hand and guide her through the hall towards the end of it.

"I discovered this tunnel here while I was helping make the mass of rooms so everyone had a place to sleep. I kept it in secret because it leads to two different places, one I wanted to keep for us the other I wanted to keep a secret until we really ready but its also a sight to behold." I pulled out my pickaxe, still copper, and break down the wall to reveal the tunnel, part of what was once a cave system or what was an old root that has now rotted away, whatever the case maybe it goes on for awhile into the darkness.

"The other reason its walled of is to avoid any potential mobs that could come wondering in from the darkness or father from the cave, but we should be fine as long as we stick together and since the wall has been blocked off from everyone else."

After we both step through I put the wall back up and bring out a torch to light our way. Other than some drops of water and our steps the path was quite, and uneventful while we made our trek farther in. Left, Right, Left, Left, Left, Right, Right, Left, we keep winding through the dimly light tunnel, Ren clearly lost as her head spends around her neck like a swivel while I navigate the path from memory. Based on what I can feel, its been about 15, 20 minutes of walking when we finally come up on the first secret.

It was a semi-open cave room, filled with a small waterfall from a stream that comes from far off source, falling into a small lake. around the edges of teh lake is two small pathways, one on each side, that leads behind the waterfall, while the center front of the lake harbors a patch of dirt with dark, vibrant green grass that has been kept trimmed with flowers of various colors, shades, intestines, and petal patterns, to form a sort of small meadow in the middle of the dark, dank cave. the sound bounces off all around the cave walls, surrounding us in the fall of the water as we stare at the water itself and the meadow and its impossible growth without light.

"How did this...?"

"Amazing, isn't it? This all was naturally formed, not one but of human touch formed any part of this, I only kept the grassed trimmed, and of course worked on the up keep of the second part of this." I guided her around the lake carefully towards the back of the water fall to show the front of a house buried into the cave wall.

"A..A house?!"

"Yup, it had seen better days so in the middle of the night I would take a small portion of our supplies, nothing that would hugely hinder us, and been remaking it into its originally glory, whenever that was. Its not fully done but it still looks better than what it was once was." She walked through the front of the door and I followed her in. 

The house was well lighted, not so much to make it bright but just dim enough to give it a home-y mood and still see what one is doing or reading. There were bookcases, a few tables and chairs, chandeliers made of silver, and other rooms that are still under renovation.

"Charles, this...this is amazing! you've been refurbishing this house this whole time at night?"

"yeah, it was I'm so sleep deprived, other than the guard duties on the doors. its not finished, I still need to work on the bathroom, the master bedroom, the study, and the recreation room, but its a start."

"Ha...its a start?" she turns quickly towards me, a bright smile on her face. "This is more than just a start, this is insane progress. This is the house I dreamed of having, obviously designed differently but t looks better than what I imagined. This, this is what..." she looks at me into my eyes. "I've told you about my dream house before haven't I?" I blush slightly

"Surprise. Its no where near done, but I know you would rather have something like this to live in rather than a small room or two, and I admit that its quite-" She tackles me into a hug before I can even continue my train of thought.

"Thank you. Thank you so much. I couldn't have asked for more." she looks up at me from my chest, tears in her eyes. "You know I'm going to hate you for making me all this right? Especially after what I made for you?"

"I know." I whisper to her quietly "But thats my job, isn't it?"

"Just shut up." I chuckle and shake my head, but just as I start she leans up towards my face and pulls me down into a kiss. Her lips are a new level of soft I have not felt before, like just hovering above on a cloud or that of the hair on a bunny. Despite how chilled her hands feel I can feel the comforting warmth coming off of her face,  and her lips are somewhere in between those two, just barely cold that you can feel the chill yet somehow still warm to the touch. Despite our differences in height I feel myself melt down to her level as she grows to mine, and as we slowly meld I feel my heart come together as one with hers. Never have I felt such a feeling in my chest reverberate through out my chest and into my arms and legs and into my head. I stand for as long as I can, and just before I do fall we part. She looks into me eyes and I into hers.

"Your not bad at that...your pretty good actually." she hugs me in puts her head into my chest. "But it was defiantly the best one ive had yet, cause I could feel the love you put into it, along with body and soul...and you have a nice heartbeat." she snuggled up to me more and I held her tighter. we stood there I don't know for how long, but after awhile I finally moved.

"We better get going before it hits morning, or before people begin to notice or absence." She nods her head, and we being our walk back to the base, taking the appropriate turns as needed. it doesn't take long before we make it back to the wall. carefully I break it down and replace before anyone notices. By the time we got back its dawn break and people are starting to wake up, and the smell of breakfast was wafting down towards us. We don't say anything as we both climb up the tree to get some food, which has been upgraded since I've last visited. Instead of just rabbit there is now various fish to be had along with spices and still the ever present rabbit abut also bird and fruit and vegetables.

"Woah, I didn't realize we got so much food now."

"It pays to pay attention to everything. Those fishing rods you've made have been getting out to good use, and we got growers and trappers amongst our hunters now." Ty slid up to us as we get our food. We sat down and ate our potion of food as Ty explained the expansions that have been made on everything that has been worked on while I was gone.

"Lastly, water has started to get better. Someone came up an idea for a better boil system via water flow to a boil system underground that takes the steam and directs it up towards a mass container that will cool over night."

"Thats amazing! so much had happened when I was gone. we might be much closer to have stable life than I originally thought. with a few more of those boil systems from other water sources a couple more fishing rod and trappers, we can sustain our numbers, then building will easily speed up because of that and will help heal people who are sick. Thank you So much Ty!"

"Its no big deal, I'm just shocked as much as you are that so much has happened. makes me wonder how you deal with it so well."

"Heheheheh...yeah, so well." Ren looked at me with a bit of anger as I sarcastically push aside the comment.

"But we do have an issue that has to be addressed." I looked at him with concern as I stuffed my face full of catfish.

"Wat's tah Issue?" I say with a mouth full of food.

"Remember that little girl who made a fuss about teh Pitbull the first day? well, she apparently has 'followers' who believe the same thing as she does, that we can live here with the mobs, make peace, and, get this, make this our new home."

"What?"

"Yeah, but thats not it. She's got a few people who are acting as her advisor and she's the leader of what they know call themselves PETN, a play on PETA as you can tell but its nature instead of animals. they have been advertising teh group via crude flyers and we've tried our best to make sure that they aren't up all over the place, but its already gained a notable following with some of the people here, mostly with the younger people here."

"God...I knew this was going to be an issue."

"That's not the issue, the issue is this: she's planning to give a speech at our "town square" or at least what serves as one, sometime around noon, to gain more support. I think she's trying to overthrow our group as it stands. not only that, she claims that there will be 'An important message delivered here that could mean the difference between us existing, living, or dying." Just as Ty had finished explaining this, a commotion started up, somewhere off in teh direction of, coincidently, the town square.

"Thats probably her." 

"*groans* great, just great. Sigh...better go deal with it, come let go."