Day 1 - MineCraft Mum

    'Mum!' Jelex yelled impatiently sitting on the lounge, Wii U controller in hand.

    'Coming! Be patient.' Mum stepped off the bottom step into the downstairs TV room.

    As her mother sat on the lounge next to her Jelex passed her mother a controller.

    'OK so what are we going to do? How do I hold this thing?'

    Jelex could never tell if Mum was kidding her, or was she seriously this clumsy with technology. Surely being married to dad must have qualified her to use a Wii U in someway.

   'Look Mum, hold it this way. OK, that there under your left thumb, that's how you move and under the right thumb how you look around, I'll explain more as we go.'

    'Ok!' Said mum, sticking her tongue out between her pursed lips, in concentration. This was the first time ever Jelex had persuaded her mum to play Minecraft, and she was anxious to make it as great an experience as possible. To do this she had taken her into the castle game. The castle had everything that was good.  

    Everything; including monsters. That was the downside of the castle, that you could only play it in survivor mode. The upside though, all of Jelex's best creations where here.'Mum, can you see me, I am jumping up and down in front of you. Turn mum, turn.'

    'Oh, ok I see you now'

   'Follow me.' Jelex turned her Avatar and ran towards the castle, she wanted to show mum her latest creation, the mirror. None of her friends had ever made one, nor could she find it online anywhere, it was great, it operated like a real mirror.

    'Wait, Jelex wait.' boy was mum slow, she seemed to bump into everything, if there was a step she'd get stuck trying to jump up, going through doors seemed to take forever. Jelex not wanting to discourage her mum so she simply waited and watched, occasionally helping out a little, leaning in and pressing which ever button needed to be pressed.

    Finally they were approaching the mirror. 'See Mum, isn't it great! I made this, no one else ever has'

    'Crash!' Jelex turned to where her mum was sitting. She was gone, her controller falling to the floor.

    Jelex looked everywhere, 'Mum!' Then she saw it, her mum's avatar was running around in circles jumping up and down on the screen. What was happening. Jelex opened the text box and slowly typed, 'Mum, is that you?'

    'YES!' Not a yell as such, just the all-CAPS typing of YES! 'GET ME OUT OF HERE!'

    Jelex slowly typed 'Calm down mum, let me think!'

    'My arms won't bend, my legs don't bend, what do I do? Jelex!'

    OK, just how did mum disappear inside the game, this was baffling. 'Mum, what where you doing just before you went in there?'

    'I kept bumping into your mirror, then I was here, all stiff armed and legged.'

    Jelex had an idea. She ran her avatar against the mirror, nothing happened. Again she ran her avatar against the mirror, nothing. Maybe, just maybe one more time. 'Voosh'.

    Everything around her was bright grey; the darkened, cool TV room was gone, replaced by the insides of her castle. Standing in front of her all pixelated was her mum, all box headed, dark hair, grey top, brown pants and boots.

   'Hello Mum!'

   'Jelex, what have you done? Are you in here with me now as well? How are we going to get out of here?'

    'It's ok Mum, I've got a plan. Dad will be home soon, he will see what has happened and work out how to get us out of here.'

    'Oh you're so smart Jelex' Mum moved towards Jelex to give her a hug and a kiss, or what could pass for a hug and a kiss in minecraft where you can't bend your arms, let alone actually hug each other.

    After the awkwardness of the attempted hug had passed, mum asked 'So what do we do now while we wait?'

    'Well Mum, that's the tricky part. If I am right and Dad realises what has happened he will log into the game, which means he will appear at his mine.'

    'His mine? Where is his mine?'

    'Oh not so far, sort off, as long as we can get a horse each, and get to the halfway cabin before it gets dark, then we can sleep, and we should make it to his mine by tomorrow.

    'TOMORROW!' Jelex could hear the shout this time.

   'Yes Mum, tomorrow. It's game time though, if we can get to halfway now it will be much quicker, else we will have to sit in a dark hole somewhere'

    'Why would we sit in a dark hole?'

    'Skeletons, zombies, creepers, slime, Ghast's, all that sort of stuff'

    'WHAT! oh no! I am scared.'

    'It's ok mum, you're with me, we'll be fine. Come on let's get going'

    Jelex led the way, first back out into the grand hall, and down to the storage room, they needed to get some stuff if they where going to make this mad dash to dad's mine. As much as Jelex and her dad loved playing together, he tended to just mine for treasure, occasionally coming out of the mine to cut down trees or get other things that Jelex asked for.

    Jelex and her dad would sit next to each other chatting about all sorts of things even though their two avatars could be days away from each other in the game, as they were now.

    Arriving at the chests in the storage room, Jelex opened her chest and took out an apple, a saddle, an axe, her armour and a sword. She also grabbed some cooked pork and two cooked fish. 'Right mum, I need you to open that chest and get, the same stuff I just got'

    Jelex watched as her mum thumped the chest, and thumped it and thumped it. 'Mum, use your right hand, you're left hand is for hitting stuff'

    'Oh!' Reaching with her right hand the chest infront of Jelex's mum opened. Jelex waited patiently, calling out some simple instructions to her mum about how to move things from the chest into her back pack.

    After a few minutes of this, as well as a brief moment helping mum put on her armor and a sword in her hand they were ready to go.

    Jelex led the way out of her castle, and out onto the green forested fields. 'Wow Jelex, this is really pretty.'

    'Yep it is. Come this way mum we have to catch a couple of horses. We have to hurry. It's a long ride, and we can't get caught out in the dark'

    'Why?'

    'Monsters!' Replied Jelex, as calmly as possible, as if this was something normal and nothing for her mum to worry about.

    'MONSTERS! WHAT DO YOU MEAN?'

    'Oh just zombies, and skeletons things like that. Nothing we can't handle.' Quietly Jelex worried, she did not know what it meant if they died in the game and there was no one on the controller to hit the respawn button.

    'C'mon mum, lets get going there is a Horse over there' Jelex ran towards the big chestnut horse, only quickly glancing to see if mum was following. She knew it would be better to keep mum busy, giving her less time to worry about Monsters.

    'Just do what I do mum, we need horses, it means we can get to dads mine a bit faster' Jelex watched her mum for a moment, she stood still, simply looking, then bolted of towards a big bay mare.

    Jelex quickly mounted the Chestnut, it bucked her off.  That was normal. Getting on a second time she did not get bucked off. Jelex put the saddle on the horse and fed it an apple, all done. Now where was her mum.

    Looking around Jelex saw her mother riding a sheep. She rode towards her mum, calling 'Mum! You can't ride that. No one rides sheep. I didn't even know the game let you do that'.

    'Obviously it does, because I am riding one. Only problem is it will not go where I want it to go'

    'Ok mum, lets see if you can ride double with me' Jelex waited as her mum got on to the horse
behind her. This was cool there seemed to be things they could do in the game that they could not do playing the game with the controllers.

    Jelex turned the horse north and started off towards the horizon, towards dad's mine. 'How do you know where to go Jelex?'

    'Oh, I've been there a heap of times. Dad is not real adventurous, he tends to stay in the mine all the time cause he gets lost whenever he comes out. So I have to go to him all the time'

    The two of them rode on for a long while, across green fields, through Oak forests, traversing a sandy dessert, slowly making there way over some mountains, through a long straight tunnel. 'I made this tunnel mum because it was easier than climbing over this mountain.'

    When they came out the other side the sun was starting to set. 'OK mum we are going to have to stop for the night.'

    'Why?'

    'Monsters, mum, monsters. They come out at night'

    'Oh, ok, what do we do?'

    Jelex jumped off the horse, and started hacking at a nearby tree with her sword. Mum figured she'd do the same. As each piece of the tree was hacked away Jelex grabbed the floating block and built a very basic building, three bricks wide, three deep and three high, leaving a door at one end.

    'OK mum in you go' Once her mother was inside Jelex followed, half blocking the door.

    'So what do we do now?' Mum asked looking over Jelex's shoulder at the slowly darkening day she could see through the small opening Jelex had left open.

    'We wait! We will know when it is day time by watching through here, also we can maybe, just maybe see any monsters, so you can see what they look like.'

    'I don't want to see any monsters.'

    'Eeeeeurrrrr!'

    'What's that!' Exclaimed mum, again trying to clutch at Jelex but in truth simply giving her a stiff armed whack.

    'A Zombie!' Jelex quickly put the last piece of wood across the opening, her and her mother were plunged into darkness.

    'Eeeeurrrr!'

    'I can still hear it Jelex, I'm scared.'

    'It's ok mum, he won't be able to get us in here'

    'Eeeeurrrr!'

    The two of them stood in silence for what seemed an eternity, the zombie's groans fading into the distance, after a long while Jelex removed one of the blocks. The Sun was rising the light slowly crawling across the landscape.

    'Eeeeeurrr!' the zombie wasn't gone, it appeared in front of the opening, arms outstretched reaching, grasping for Jelex. 'Eeeeurrr!'

    Jelex responded in a flash, drawing her sword and hacking at the zombie 'Thwack', the zombie reeled away from the hit 'EEEEURRR!' Angrier it returned to the opening.

    'THWACK!' The zombie fell back again, stumbling and falling to the ground dead.

    'OK Mum, lets get going, we've got to get to dads'

    'Jelex! You're so brave, why weren't you scared?'

   ‘Oh that’s nothing mum, Zombie pigmen, and Endermen they are a bit harder.’

   ‘Pigmen? Zombies? Endermen!  I thought your dad said this game was good for you to play.  I think we are going to have to have a good talk when we all get out of here.’

   Jelex realised it would be better if she changed the topic. ‘There’s our house mum, c’mon let’s go.’

 They rode in silence, neither of them speaking for what seemed an eternity.  The green grasslands they had camped on for the night started to fade. They passed a pond.  A lone spruce tree, some weird dirt towers about four blocks high with a single torch, not on top but to one side.

   ‘Jelex, what are these poles with torches on one side, always the same side?’

   ‘Oh, that’s dad.’

   ‘What do you mean that’s dad? If that’s your dad why don’t we stop and talk to him, tell him to get us out of here.’

   ‘No mum, I don’t actually mean that’s dad.  That is what dad does to stop himself from getting lost.  The side the torch is on is telling him which way he needs to go to get back to his mine.  It’s good though, it means it’s not far now.’

   ‘Is that a lot of work? It seems to be a lot of silly work just so he doesn’t get lost?’

  ‘Yup that’s dad, see there?’ Jelex pointed with her stiff arm towards a castle coming into site over the horizon.  Well not really a castle but a square block with a steel door, open shelf windows with no glass, topped with a granite fence.  

   ‘What’s that?’

   ‘That is the entrance to Dad’s mine’

   ‘That’s not a mine!’

   ‘Yes it is, dad built that around the mine to stop random monsters sneaking up on him at night, he’s got a bed in there, crafting table chests and more.  Pretty good actually if I ever need iron ore or coal I can always raid Dad’s chests.’

  Jelex felt her mother jump off the back of the horse before she saw her running madly towards the mine entrance.

   ‘Mum!!’ To late, one moment mum was there and the next she was gone.

   Jelex jumped off the horse and started to walk towards the mine entrance, up to the edge of a two block wide hole that had formed not far from the steel door.

   ‘HELP! Jelex Help!’

   ‘It’s alright mum. It’s just one of dads traps. Are you ok?’

   ‘My legs hurt and my head is throbbing, like part of it is missing.’

   ‘Oh that’s only some hearts you’ve lost, nothing food won’t fix.  Remember you got some cooked pork yesterday, eat that. I’ll come get you.’

   Jelex picked her way carefully towards the mine entrance. There was no telling what dad had done since she had been here last.  He was always improvising low tech traps or lures so he could knee cap monsters.

   As she got closer to the house she built herself some dirt steps to lead up onto the roof of the building, there was no use even trying the steel door as she knew that would be locked from the inside.  Once on the roof she went down the stairs into the room.

   Inside, there was no dad, just his bed, crafting table and several chests.  Opening and shutting each chest until she found a shovel. Then using the steel lever to open the door and go out to dig her mum out of the hole.

   ‘Mum, I am going to dig you out, we’re going to have to be quick though it’s starting to get dark.’

   Very quickly Jelex went four blocks out from the hole her mother was in and dug a channel 1 block deep towards the hole, then went out again, came in one and dug the Terence another block deeper three along, and then once more ending in a chunky stairway up, then she jumped back up to the surface ‘C’mon mum, quick, it’s getting dark’

   ‘Oh aren’t you a smarty, how do you know all of this, how did you know you could dig me out like that?  Where did you get the shovel from?’

   ‘Mummmmm! Seriously? This is simple stuff.  Come on let’s get inside.’

   ‘I won’t fall in any more pits?’

   ‘No mum, just go straight to the door, I’ll be there in a tick.’

   

   Jelex ran around to the dirt steps she had build earlier and dug them away, there was no way she was going to let some random zombie break in and kill them in there sleep.  There was no telling what would happen if Jelex died in her sleep, how would her mum ever survive.

  ‘TSSSSSSSSSSSS!’  Turning she saw the a creeper, a two block talk green and white and black flakey thing with a gaping mouth two dark eyes and no arms, moving towards her hissing.  

   Quickly Jelex hit it with the shovel and then ran away from her fathers mine, encouraging the creeper to follow her. ‘Kaboom.’ Not wasting any time, Jelex ran around the hole that had been left by the creeper and ran back into her fathers mine pulling the lever to shut the metal door.

   ‘What was that?’

   ‘Oh nothing mum, just a bit of thunder.’  They were safe now. It was time to start to calm mum down, and settle in for the wait.  There was no telling how long it would take dad to realise what was going on and work things out.

  ‘So what do we do now Jelex?’

  ‘I think we should go to sleep.’

  ‘Sleep? How could you sleep at a time like this.  Where is your father, you said your father would be here.’

   ‘Look mum, if we go to sleep now, it will make the night go away, and it is safer during daylight.  We are safe from all the monsters here, so if we go to sleep now we will wake up really quickly and then we can work out how we get dads attention’

   ‘Oh, ok, so what do I do?’

   ‘You just go over, look at the bed and then touch it to go to sleep.’

   Jelex watched as her mum walked over and started whacking the bed. Whack! Whack! Whack! ‘Left hand mum, like the chest.’

   With her mother laying down Jelex took a moment to herself, she really did not know if dad would realise what was going on, nor how he would get them out of this.  

   Jelex searched all of the chests again, looking for the purple bed she had seen when she was looking for the shovel.  Once she found it she went back up onto the roof, set it out and clicked on it.

   As she drifted off to sleep, her final though was If dad did not turn-up tomorrow she was going to have to start to train her mum in all things minecraft.

   ‘AAAAAAAAH! JELEX! There’s a monster here; a MONSTER!’

   Jelex jumped out of her bed and ran down into the building where she had left her mother the night before, straight into her father, looking as goofy as ever in his iron armor, gangly blue eyes and a pick in his hand as per usual.

   ‘No Mum, it’s ok, it’s dad’

   ‘Why is he standing there just looking at us.’

   ‘Knowing dad he is probably trying to work out how to type using the controller, he isn’t like us, he can’t just talk like you and I.’

   ‘I  S T   H A T   U J’

   ‘Yes dad, yes.’

   ‘O’

  ‘We are stuck in the game, mum and me’

   ‘K’

  ‘Can’t you type faster dad?’

  ‘N  O’

   ‘Voooosh!!’

   Everything went black, and then light again, only this time it was not the pixelated light of the game, but the natural light of the TV room, and there stood her dad and her mum.

   They all looked at each other momentarily and then fell into a family hug, mum squeezing them both as tight as she could with her now bendy arms.

  Jelex leant back from the cuddle as much as her mother would let her, ‘How’d you get us out dad?’

  ‘Oh I just hit Save and Quit’

The end