Welcome back everybody to the Minecraft Short Stories podcast.
In this episode, I will be telling the second part to
Thomas's story, The Traveler. I did the first part in the last
episode, so if you're here trying to listen to the second
part before the 1st part, there's no reason you shouldn't
just go listen to the first part.
So if you've not listened to that one yet, episode 77, go do
that right now before you listen to this one.
This story is a listener story, no, submitted through my
website, minecraftshortstories.com.
If you'd like to submit a story, just go to
minecraftshortstories.com. There's a link inside the
description. Go to the Submit a story page,
fill out the form and then your story may get right on the show
on the Patreon right now, Minecraft
shortstories.com/patreon. I have a poll going unlock
tomorrow for non patrons and it's a poll on what you guys
would like to see for the next story.
So there's four options. I want to know what you guys
want to hear. So if you'd like to participate
that I will put a link inside the description.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the story.
Another thank you to Thomas for subming this excellent story and
let's get right into it. The Traveller the second part by
Thomas. Once again we settled into a new
routine with a stranger every few Suns that would emerge from
its house and trade with various members of the village.
Our emeralds were now something that we prized, for with them we
could trade for the strangers wealth.
What it did within the stone brick walls of its house none of
us could imagine. Once it even traded with
priests, selling priests the pungent flesh of the zombie
creatures for emeralds. The priest surmised that the
stranger must have slain the zombies while about whatever
mysterious tasks it performed below the ground.
However, even priests seem to have finally accepted this
newest and strangest member of our village.
I've made maps of our new village.
The stranger even purchased one for me.
No one in the village had ever taken an interest in my maps, or
should they? I myself had wondered at their
usefulness, but priesthood told me that all of us were born to a
unique purpose, and mine was to make maps and other tools of
travel which no one ever used until now.
The stranger must be a traveller.
Indeed, it had travelled to our village before settling here.
That is when it struck me. This was not a stranger, but a
traveller. That same son.
I told Priest of my revelation. Priest muttered to himself,
thinking over my words. Maybe, right Cartographer, but
it seems this traveller has decided to cease its wanderings
and live among us. Perhaps it is no longer a
traveller. The very next sun, as if to
prove Priest wrong, the traveller left its house and
returned to where it had left its boat on the edge of the
village. He climbed into the boat and
sailed away to the South from whence it came, and went down to
where the wooden Rd. extended into the water and watched as a
traveller sailed away out of sight.
Eventually, lost in the blue haze of distance.
I wondered where it was going, what the maps of those places
would look like. Perhaps it would return and
bring me some. I would trade as many emeralds
as the traveler demanded for such a map.
But it did not return that sun, or the next, or the one after
that. The mood in the village was
strangely subdued. It seemed that more of the
villagers than just myself had grown accustomed to having this
creature among us, even priestly melancholy when he told us that
the traveller had probably left us never to be seen again.
I had taken to climbing to the top of the watch chart, near
where the traveller had departed, and looking out over
the sea, wondering at what strange new places the traveller
had found. I almost wished that I could
travel as well, but that would have been certain death.
And then, just before high sun of the 6th Suns since its
departure, I saw the traveller's boat approaching from the South.
I hurried into the village to tell everyone that the traveller
had returned. You shrewd is the same.
One Priest asked question dashed to my hopes.
I had no way of knowing. Even Priest had not concerned at
first that a traveller was not the same stranger he had seen so
many moons ago. We need not have worried.
No sooner had the traveller landed on the edge of the
village than a made its way into its house.
It came out, harvested and replanted its crops and came out
to trade with us. This began a new routine.
Every moon or so the traveller would depart towards the South
and its boat and would return in five or six Suns.
Where it was going or what it was doing.
None of us had any inkling, although I was probably the only
one who truly wondered. Our village prospered as never
before. Traveller built new houses in
our village, put down beds and our numbers grew, and even built
workhouses for new workers that never been present in our
village. Leathersmiths, fletchers and
shepherds. As their numbers grew, the
number of protectors in the village grew as well, their iron
bodies lumbering throughout the village.
Then the routine changed again. Traveller left the village, as
they had been doing for many months now, but after six Suns,
it did not return. The 7th sun passed, and then a
moon, then a second moon. The Traveller is not coming
back. Cartographer, Priest told me as
I climbed down from the watchtower just before sunset.
It has left us. I fear you are right.
I agreed. It is of no consequence, Priest
assured me. We have 4 protectors now.
Our fields are larger than ever before.
The village is safe. Priest was right.
Even another stranger could not harm us now.
Surely 4 protectors could overcome even one such as that.
But we were not as safe as we believed.
It's been 2 moon since I'd last climbed the watchtower to look
for the traveler. I had gone back to my daily
routine of making maps that no one would ever use, but
something have been different about one of them.
The map was not blank, nor was it a map of the village.
Was a map of some terrain I'd never seen.
And there was a red XA little South and a little east of the
center of the map. I would spend evenings just
staring at it. Where did this lead?
The position indicator on the edge of the map showed that I
was almost due West of wherever this map indicated.
Part of me yearned to find it, but such thoughts were sheer
madness. Away from the village, from the
Protectors. I would die after the first
sunset, if not before. I stepped out into the morning
light, one of the Protectors, Lombard past me.
Lancing briefly in my direction. I turned and headed towards my
shop. My work here seemed pointless
ever since the traveller had left.
At least the farmers provided us with food.
Then I heard the village bell ring all around me.
My fellow villagers fled to the nearest buildings.
The church was closest to me and I fled inside.
Priest was already inside, as were weaponsmith and armorsmith.
It's a raid, armorsmith. Said Pillagers.
My heart clenched at the news. A village had not seen pillagers
for my entire life. According to Elder Farmer, the
village had almost been destroyed by the last one.
Only Elder Farmer and Priesthood survived by hiding in a cave
outside the village. Everyone else here was their
descendants. It will be all right, Reese
said. We have 4 protectors.
I looked out the window to the West as Priesthood said the
protectors were already rushing to repel the Raiders.
The Raiders were fearsome looking, Gray and stern,
carrying crossbows. I gasped when the first
protector fell to their attack. Granted, it had killed several
of them, but there were so many more.
Another protector fell and became clear that they would all
be defeated. Weaponsmith, I said.
Do you have a sword? I do, he replied.
Why give it to me, I commanded. He fumble in his pockets for a
moment. I can't, he said in the smay.
Why couldn't he give me the sword?
Farmer gave us bread. Weaponsmith had been able to
give swords to the Traveller, but but it didn't actually give
them to the Traveller, I realized.
I reached into my pockets and with more effort than I expected
it to take, pull down emerald. I'll trade you one emerald for a
sword. I shouted.
That did it. Weaponsmith was able to give me
the iron sword and take the emerald.
The iron blade in my hand made me feel strangely powerful.
My arms swelled with the strength I never before felt.
I turned to Armorsmith. What do you have?
I asked. I have an iron helmet and an
iron breastplate. He replied. 1 emerald for each.
I said. This time the emeralds were
easier to withdraw. Soon I was wearing the helmets
and breastplate with the sword and hands.
Priest, weapon Smith and armored Smith huddled together in the
back of the church, staring at me as if I were one of the
endermen that was sometimes an appeared in our village without
warning. Cartographer, what are you
doing? Priest demanded.
What has to be done? I replied.
Then I opened the door of the church and stepped out into the
village. I heard a cry from the right and
ran towards it. Elder Farmer was desperately
trying to hold the door to its Hut closed while three pillagers
tried to get in. I charged into them.
It seemed as if I moved as fast as a traveller itself.
I hacked into the pillager closest to me, driving it away
from the door, then hacked to the next closest, driving it
away. The three of them turned to face
me, raising their crossbows. I should have asked Armorsmith
if he had a shield as well. I charged and slew the first
pillager. The other two also dropped
quickly, but not before I'd been wounded.
I ate a loaf of bread to heal myself and glanced around the
village. Two of the Protectors were still
standing, but they were obviously wounded.
Their iron skins were cracked and gouged.
Food healed us. Perhaps iron would heal them.
I grabbed an iron bar from the ground where one of the
protectors had been slain, gave it to the protector.
As I had hoped, the cracks in its iron hide filled in with
metal. The rest of that sun was a blur.
I raced back and forth across the village, killing pillagers
and taking cover to eat as much bread as I could to heal my
wounds before launching myself back into battle.
And the third protector fell. I used the air and it dropped to
heal the one remaining. The sun was halfway past noon
when the last of the pillagers fell to my blade.
The last Protector stepped up to me and handed me a rose before
turning to resume its patrol of the village as if nothing had
happened. As I had killed each pillager,
those same green lights I had seen the Traveler absorbed from
the Witch had flowed into me. I felt stronger, somehow more
determined. I knew that the next time the
village was attacked, I'd be able to defend it.
The rest of the villagers emerged timidly from the shops
and houses they had lost. Many Fletcher and Leather Smith
were missing, as were a few of the junior farmers.
The villagers looked around, and then a great cheer arose from
them and fireworks launched into the air.
I hadn't known we had fireworks. Soon the villagers were all
throwing gifts at me, even Priest.
Did you see that? I exclaimed.
I saved the village. Next time we're attacked, we can
all defend ourselves. Priest said.
I said we can all defend ourselves.
I repeated. We can protect ourselves, we
don't need the traveller. Priest said something, but I
couldn't understand it. It sounded like gibberish.
Then the villagers all turned away and headed into their huts.
The sun was almost set, but I didn't move.
I just stood there, staring after them.
I couldn't understand them. I was no longer one of them.
I I didn't belong here. I didn't belong anywhere.
Then I looked up at the massive stone house on the hill.
Perhaps there's still one place I belonged.
I spent almost a dozen moons at the village where I'd been born.
I'd explored the Traveller's stone house, and the catacombs
beneath it. That was where he had gone, the
stone to build it, and more. There was iron, copper and gold
in the belly of the world. I stood atop the stone tower,
looking down over the village. I had dugout more stone than the
Traveller ever had to put a Stonewall around my friends, who
no longer remembered me. Now the village was truly safe,
even from pillagers. Now it was time for me to go.
I had a full load of supplies, including a stack of blank maps.
I pulled the one map from my pack that had fascinated me for
so long. It was time to go and find out.
What was that? That tantalizing X on the map.
Perhaps there would be answers. I left by the eastern gate with
the map as my compass. Now I was the traveller.
I stopped on a nearby hilltop to look back at the village atop
the eastern wall. A lone protector stood looking
toward me. Did it?
Did it Remember Me? Was it the one that I'd saved
during the Pillager attack? I fought down the desire to turn
back. There's nothing left for me
there. I turned to the rising sun and
continued on my way. Behind me, the Protector turned
and hopped down from the wall to patrol its village.
The End. Thank you guys so much for
listening to this episode and this is new, but if you guys
have any constructive criticism or story ideas or even just
telling me what I've done well on the show or what I need to
improve on. I'm planning on setting up a new
form besides the submit a story form on the Minecraft
shortstories.com website for such feedback.
But for now, if you want to do that, just submit it through the
normal submit a story page. Don't submit a story, but you
know, submit things are just mentioned or you could also
submit things you want to see on the show new series.
But anyways, just wanted to let you guys know that that was an
option. Anyways, along with the website,
make sure to check out all the other links inside the
description. Another thanks to Thomas and
I'll see you guys inside the next episode.