The Far Lands

'Nothing can truly be endless, can it?'

That had been Steve's thought when the villagers warned him of attempting to cross the so-called-endless ocean. But they were a distant memory, nearly twenty million blocks behind him and supplies weren't just running low- they were gone. Steve sat in his boat, still feeling at least somewhat contented in knowing that at least he would die the way he had lived: by attempting to further explore and conquer his mysterious world, the thought put the slightest of grins on his tired face.


But death would have to wait- for the very far horizon presented something other than more ocean. Still, Steve was no fool, he wrote off the apparition as the product of a dying man's imagination, but the dull line- that could only possibly be land- did not fade away, it only grew steadily as he approached. The longer he stared the more real it appeared- so, with the invigoration of hope, Steve propelled his boat with all the might he could muster, but days without food or water had taken their toll. Steve collapsed into his boat as the new land loomed tantalizingly on the horizon.


He awoke with a start as the boat jolted around him, after a few minutes of blinking Steve’s eyes focused in on a massive rock cliff stretching far overhead. He coughed through a dry, cracked, throat and sat up- his boat had washed ashore on a small sand bank at the base of the cliff. There was something slightly off about the rocks- their shape unlike anything he had ever seen, but there were more pressing matters at hand. He needed water- and, fortunately, a small trickling waterfall slid down the rock face a short distance down the beach.


Steve approached the water and drank from it greedily, it was so clear, cold, and crisp, far better than anything he'd had before- or maybe that was just a thirsty man’s delusion, regardless he drank and drank, until. oddly, the water shifted- splashing onto his face. Steve looked up, confused, there had been no wind to drive the change. The waterfall seemed to be running away from him- drifting to the right, but with a start Steve collapsed onto the sand and scrambled backwards as he realized it was not the waterfall moving, but the entire cliff.

Back on his feet he stared in amazement as the entire mountain seemed to crawl, like some sort of ancient, loping, creature, and the rocks groaned as if to complain of the movement, the sound was like that of a roaring river amplified a hundredfold- a deep, constant, thunder. And then the cliff was gone- or at least no longer Steve’s main focus- it slid to the side and revealed a sight of immense mystery and wonder that made all of Steve’s other adventures, even in all their grandeur, pale in comparison.

An entire world of fog lay ahead of him, a soft gray mist seemingly stretching on into infinity. In fact, the fog was so thick that it took him a few moments to notice all of the dark, monolithic, figures drifting up above. For an instant Steve feared that he truly had stumbled upon the den of some lost, titanic, beasts that would destroy him in a flash- but that instant passed and it became clear that the figures were rocks, or boulders, or perhaps something even bigger than that.


Large, drifting, silhouettes floating carelessly- like leaves on a small stream- with no real pattern or reason to their movement and certainly no care at all to the fact that rocks aren't meant to fly. Mindlessly, almost hypnotized by the sight, Steve began to move forward. He was snapped back into focus when his feet splashed in water- he was standing where the cliff had been just moments before, but now the cliff- or rather a giant, floating, island- was just another shadow drifting among the haze.


Everything was so pristinely calm, even the sea seemed to have settled to a nearly mirror-flat surface. And then all at once the silence was shattered. The ocean rippled and lapped at the sand bank. The entirety of the ground began to shake under foot. And the silence was once more replaced by the deep roar of moving rock. It only took a moment for Steve to realize he was being lifted out of the ocean, but there was nothing he could do as he watched his wooden boat- the one that had carried him so far- disappear into the now raging ocean. The water frothed and spat to fill the vacuum as the large chunk of land that Steve stood atop rose out of the ground. He was powerless to do anything other than sit and wait.


And wait he did, for what seemed like hours but could have easily been minutes Steve paced the surface of his floating prison. Twenty blocks by twenty blocks, all made of some sort of strange new stone- foreign in comparison to all that Steve had previously seen- aside from the small patch of sand that had once been a beach. On and on the time stretched without any change, Steve had almost given up hope and was ready to fall into sleep on the sandbank when the entire island shuddered around him. He was engulfed in a flash of sound, similar to that of deep, rumbling thunder, as the ground trembled under foot.


Frantic, he raced around the edges of the island to see if he had perhaps crashed down somewhere, but there was no such luck. Instead, he saw that his floating rock had collided with a far bigger form in the fog. Despite his fatigue, hunger, and -once again- thirst, Steve’s adventurous instincts took over and he leapt without a second thought towards the surface down below.


His landing was surprisingly soft, the ground was almost the texture of grass- or maybe closer to that of the mycelium from those strange islands. It was an odd weave of gray fibers, although they held the same texture of the stone itself. These were strange lands, so far from anything Steve had known before, and everything just seemed wrong. Like this place was not a part of his world, but of somewhere else entirely- but that had been what he wanted, wasn't it? To find what was beyond the infinite ocean. He sighed and began to explore the new area, he had known from the start that he might not like what he found.


Or maybe not, for Steve saw a beautiful sight through the mist ahead- an animal. An animal meant food, and his mouth watered at that thought as he approached the silhouette of the creature. His hunger allowed him to ignore the looming size of the thing- at least twice his height while down on four legs, it's back came to a sharp point. Steve hastily crafted a stone weapon and charged the beast- he jabbed his weapon into its side. It turned immediately and stared at him through black empty sockets, the surprise of it gave Steve pause. That pause nearly got him killed as the monster retaliated by opening a strange beak-like mouth and attempted to liberate Steve of his arm.


With a shout Steve jumped to the side and drove his weapon into the creature’s mouth. It froze immediately and, bit by bit, began to dissolve into smoke, as all dead creatures do- at least that's the same- within a few moments the beast was indistinguishable from the surrounding fog. And all that was left was the small pile of remains: meat that Steve devoured greedily, and a strange hide that was too difficult to craft into anything.


With his hunger satisfied Steve stood up and began to survey the rest of the massive boulder, but he didn't make it two steps before a piercing wail cut through the fog like a knife. Steve winced at the wretched noise as it seemed to grow louder and more intense, as if drilling into his very mind. In a vain attempt to drown it out he covered his ears and even shut his eyes- all to no avail. Louder and louder the cry grew, like a whistle in his very ears, a screech that set his teeth on edge, and as the sound grew into a crescendo, right to the point where Steve thought he might collapse or go mad, the entire world went silent.


He opened his eyes and looked around, nearly crying out as he saw the new figure that stood ahead of him. A black robed shape that towered above him, it had no distinguishable features other than the two red dots that made up its eyes that were glaring down at Steve, even the depths of the nether couldn't put forth the hatred that was in that stare.





The creature, or monster, or perhaps apparition, moved forward with gliding steps- Steve would have moved or attacked had he not been paralyzed once more by that piercing wail. However, this time it wavered, ringing, rising and falling in pitch, even pausing for brief, merciful, moments. Steve gasped as he realized the thing must be trying to communicate, he even opened his mouth to attempt to respond but stopped cold as an icy grip took hold of his shoulder.


All at once, like a TNT explosion in his mind, all of Steve’s thoughts and memories seemed to bubble forth. The fields he’d crossed, the creations he had built, the monsters he had slain- all of it flashing by so fast, yet taking on far more clarity than any memory normally would. And as it went on- the strange, forced, slide show of his life- Steve began to realize there was something wrong. Every single memory began to contain the robed creature, sometimes in the background, other times front and center, as if it stood by watching his entire life. Then, just as suddenly as it had began, the torrent of thought ended and Steve collapsed to the ground panting, with a dull ache still reverberating through his shoulder.


“This is not a place for those like YOU.”


The voice sounded so wrong, so up and down, left and right, shaking and moving as it rolled across his ears, it was anything but human. Steve got warily to his feet, “What are you?”


“I am-” it’s voice broke down into a low pitched scream, a painful ache of a whistle, the creature stopped, giving a moment’s pause, then- in its offish voice, “You do not have a Word for what I am.”


“What is this place?”


“These are the Far Lands, a place nearly detached from your world.”


Despite the creature’s overwhelming presence Steve can’t help but grin and laugh slightly to himself, “A new world?”


“This is my world, human,” Even through it’s other worldly, ascending and descending, accent Steve could clearly make out the disdain in the word human. The creature continued, “This is my universe- for longer than your entire plane of reality has existed my world- the far lands- have clung on to the edge of alternate universes, shifting peacefully through the multiverse. Until YOU.”


Steve began to regain his wits, he eyed the ground for the stone weapon he had dropped. In an attempt to keep the creature distracted he asked, “Surely, if you have existed for so long there have been others like me?”


“No,” that answer actually surprised Steve, but not enough to stop him from finding his weapon- it was on the ground a few blocks behind the beast, “Even now your thoughts revolve around violence. We have had other visitors, yes, but they have tried to learn and gain from our way of existence- your first act was to destroy it.”


Steve makes his move- lunging for the sword, the creature doesn’t even move,”and even now you still seek force over knowledge.”


The sword crumbles to dust in Steve’s hands, unphased he turns to attack the creature with his bare hands, but finds himself lifted off the ground, unable to do anything other than uselessly flail his limbs as the beast’s furious red eyes look over him. So Steve shouts, “The world, or any world, for that matter is mine to explore and conquer! I am Steve! I am the greatest adventurer to ever live! I have killed beasts a thousand times more ferocious than you, dragons, nether-spawn, and even other adventurers- you are no match for me!”


Steve tries to spit at the monster, but it falls short. The figure begins to waver in Steve’s vision- as if it were a reflection on a rippling pond. Blinking in and out of his vision, but it still speaks- in a voice far more firm and direct than it had been previously, “You kill and maim, not only the creatures of your world, but the land itself. On and on you butcher, piling up desecrations all in the name of ‘adventure’ claiming to be some sort of apex predator, while in reality you are just as trapped in your own existence as those cattle, pigs, and rocks you destroy. And what’s worse is that you are not the only one- there are millions just like you. This plane of existence, is so truly despicable.”


The creature was fading out of sight, and even the ground- that Steve was still suspended above- began to shift out of focus. Even the fog seemed to be thinning out as the creature finished with one final phrase- and touched Steve on the chest.


Immediately his vision faded to black, and when he awoke he was back on the coast of the endless-ocean, right by the village he had originally set out from so long ago, with the sea lapping at his feet. He forced himself to stand, knowing very well that it was not a dream- as his boat was gone, and he still had a slight ringing in his ears, but still he doubted himself for a moment. Until he felt around in his pack, and laughed as he pulled out the flesh of the dead beast. His laugh died quickly though as he considered what the figure had said, and the inklings of thoughts of a truly peaceful world began to edge into his mind as the final remark of the far away being echoed through his mind, “The Far Lands will be removed from your violent world.”