Tim's POV
I awoke from my sleep with the sun shining in my eyes. It was flashing really bright, so I sat up and rubbed my eyes for a moment before stretching. I took a look at my little brother, who was sleeping away in his blue bed on the other side of the room still. Then, I steadily got on my feet as I let my body ready itself to walk. As soon as I was ready, I walked out into the living room, then into the food room, where I had my furnaces and food chest. I went through the food chest and pulled out some wheat and two empty buckets, as well as a cookie for my brother when he woke up. Then, I got to work, crafting six wheat into two bread. Then, I headed outside where we had our own cow and took a moment to milk the cow, filling both buckets at a good pace.

While I was out, I looked out at the great landscape beyond our home. We were in a plains biome with a nearby oak forest and mountain biome. In the far distance, I could barely see figures walking around and scowled. It must've been the pillagers that had surrounded our village. They had not attacked yet, but I had a terrible feeling they were planning something.

Once I had filled up both buckets, I went back inside just in time to see my brother walking into the living room, still rubbing his eyes.

"Good morning Max." I said to him with a slight smile.

"Morning... brother..." he replied tiredly. I went over to him, holding breakfast.

"Here you go, some bread, a bucket of milk, and once you finish you get a cookie you can save for later." I told him as I handed him each of the items.

"Thanks." he said, taking them as he went to sit on the wooden chair blocks. I went to work on my own breakfast, practically devouring the bread in moments before topping it off with the milk. Then I stayed standing, thinking to myself. I would have to work once again at catching fish today, although with the pillagers around I wasn't sure if that was a good idea. But the mayor had said it was safe for fishers still, so maybe I shouldn't be so worried. Surely, he was aware of everything that was going on.

I looked back at Max. As soon as the babysitter arrived, then I would head out. Toffblock village was still one of the only villages that didn't have any sort of school, despite being in Red City's faction. I was still surprised by that considering how Red City claimed to have more village schools than any of the other factions in the world.

"So, kid, you excited to see Ashley again?" I asked. He looked up at me with the cookie lodged in his mouth. I rolled my eyes, I figured he'd eat it right away. He took the cookie out and replied.

"Uh, yeah." he said. "Are you going to craft anything new?" I continued, and his eyes lit up. "Oh, yeah! She's gonna teach me how to craft a compass today." he replied. My eyes widened.

"Really now? That's a pretty complicated recipe, you sure you can handle it?"

"Totally! I can do it!" he exclaimed.

"I dunno, you said that about the tripwire hook the other day, you sure you can?" I said with a slight smile, teasing him. He frowned.

"Yes, I can! I'll show you." he promised. "Okay, I believe you." I assured him.

"Remember, trial and error. If you don't get it right away, don't get frustrated. Just ask for help."

"Okay, I got it." Just then, I heard a loud knock on the door. "Oh, I think that's her." I said as I rushed over to the door and opened it. Standing in front of the door was Ashley, a young blond woman who looked just about my age, though maybe a little bit older. I tried not to blush as she greeted me.

"Good morning Tim, I'm here to take care of Max again." she said. I nodded and invited her in. Max saw her and smiled deeply.

"Hi Ashley!" he exclaimed. She bent down to him.

"Hey there, kid! How have you been? I haven't seen you in a few days." she replied.

"I've been good! I want to learn to craft a compass."

"Before I go-" I said, catching her attention. She stood back up straight and gestured for him to wait. I guided her outside of the house, closing the door so Max couldn't hear us. "I don't want him to know about the pillagers, so if he ever asks anything related to that, please don't tell him." she nodded.

"Got it. I can do that." she assured.

"Okay, good, take care." I told her as I turned to head off, waving goodbye.

I hoped I hadn't seemed too nervous around her. I had a crush on Ashley, and the last thing I wanted was for her to think I was weird. I continued to make my way towards the fishing docks.

As I made my way to the docks, I thought about the schedule for the day. I was still a bit tired, but I still needed to work hard to get my emeralds for the day. In order to get to the fishing docks, I would have to leave the village and arrive right at Lake Bolblock, which was a good seven chunks from the border of town.

Once I arrived right at the lake, I pulled out my fishing rod and tossed the line out onto Lake Bolblock's pristine blue waters. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. Until finally I noticed a trail of watery particles streaming right towards my bobber. My body tensed up, and right as the bobber was pulled under, I yanked the line out of the water, instantly causing a cod to fly out. Then, I caught it in my hand and tossed it into my inventory. I cast the line back out again and waited some more. Then, another stream of water particles surged towards the bobber and pulled it down. I yanked the line out again and caught a salmon, placing it into my inventory. I did the same thing over and over again until by the end of the day, I had caught five salmon, six cod, a string, a fishing rod(ironic, I know), a lily pad, and two rotten flesh. Other than a few fishermen talking about the pillagers, nothing of interest really happened. I mostly kept to myself whenever one of them spoke to me.

I didn't really like to talk to other people in person. I was pretty introverted, which made it pretty difficult to find reasons to talk to people that weren't close friends or family. It also made it pretty tough to make friends, so I didn't have any. Even Ashley was just someone I paid to watch over my younger brother while I was at work, she and I didn't really talk, although I always tried to give her an additional emerald outside of our pay agreement to make her happy. I guess that was why I enjoyed fishing so much. It gave me a ton of time to think to myself.

When the sun was beginning to sink towards the surface, I put away my fishing rod and headed over to the man at the fishing shack. He was Mr. Sandhand, a man in his thirties who would give us fishermen our earnings at the end of each day. I took everything I had caught out and laid it all out for him to examine.

"Ah, Timothy, good evening. What have we here?" he said as he looked across my items. "You can keep all the items that aren't fish. I'm not interested in that." he added, and I pocketed away the string, fishing rod, lily pad, and rotten flesh. "Let's see, we have five salmon and six cod. For those, you will have earned... about six emeralds." he concluded.

"Six emeralds? That's not nearly enough to get us through the day!" I stammered. He shrugged.

"I'm sorry kid, but you know we have a very specific system." I bit my lip. I would need at least eight emeralds to get the food ingredients for dinner, breakfast, and lunch tomorrow.

"Mr. Sandhand, please. There's gotta be something I can do to get two more emeralds." I pleaded with him. He looked at me with a hint of sympathy.

"Look kid, just this once, I'll give you extra. But you'll need to arrive extra early in the morning to work it off." he insisted. I felt a smile form across my face as I nodded.

"Thank you sir!" I told him as he took the fish and handed me the eight emeralds.

"Now, get! I expect to see you as early as the sun rises tomorrow morning." he ordered. I put the emeralds away into my inventory and rushed back into the village.

As the sun was beginning to set, I hurried to the local market and picked out two raw chickens, two raw porkchops, and four bread from their respective chests. Then, I brought them to the clerk, who went over the prices.

"Two raw chickens and two raw porkchops are both three emeralds each. The four bread will be worth two emeralds." I nodded and took out all the emeralds I had gotten. Then, I handed them over to the clerk, and placed the food into my inventory.

"Have a good night." he said and I paused.

"Uh, thanks. You too!" I replied, then rushed out and practically ran for my house. The sun was just about to touch the surface, and I didn't want to delay for even a second.

By the time I was heading to the house, I could see Ashley sitting by the window, looking out once every moment, then she noticed me and left. I opened the door and Max jumped onto me.

"Hi brother!" he shouted happily. "I did it! I crafted a compass!" He was waving a compass around in his hands. My eyes widened with joy.

"Wow, I knew you could do it!" I said, feeling proud of him. Then, I turned to Ashley. "Sorry for the wait. I tried to hurry back."

"Oh, no problem. I understand. We had a good day today. It took us half the day before he got it, and the other half was him jumping around swinging the compass and looking at the needle." she said with a smile on her face.

"I wish I could've been there to see that." I replied. "Give me a moment, I'll come back with your pay." I told her and quickly ran into my room. Then, I broke apart one wooden block in the floor and found the chest that had my personal savings. I took out two emeralds and closed the chest, then sealed it back up with the block of wood. I ran back out to her and handed her the emeralds. "Take care out there, mobs will start coming out soon."

"Thanks, I'll be fine. Have a good night." she responded as she said one last goodbye to Max before leaving, closing the door behind her.

"Tell you what, I'm going to make us some supper. Then, you can tell me all about your day." I said to him.

"Okay!" he said as he swung his compass and watched the flailing needle.

I got to work and entered the food room, setting the two raw porkchops into the furnace with coal. Instantly, the coal began smelting the porkchops, and soon a delicious smell of meat filled the air. I felt my stomach growling pretty quickly. To distract myself from my hunger, I talked with Max.

"So, how was learning to craft a compass?" I asked and as I listened to him talk about the whole thing I moved around, putting the different things I had acquired throughout the day into the chests they belonged to.

"It took forever. It was annoying for a while, but then I finally did it!" he said as he continued swinging it, too distracted by the needle to talk more.

By the time I had put everything away, I returned to the furnace and peeked inside to find two fully cooked porkchops and carefully pulled them out so I wouldn't end up burning my hands.

"Dinner's ready." I announced, holding up the hot porkchops. Max came into the food room and grabbed one of them, then returned to the living room. I stayed in the food room and chomped away at my porkchop, savoring the succulent flavor of the juicy meat. In a moment, I thought about the pillagers beyond our village borders and worried about what would happen if they tried to raid, causing me to shudder. I immediately pushed the thought out of my head. No, Red City will send some knights to fight them off. There's no way they would let one of their villages be destroyed, I thought. But deep down, I was worried about the possibility of them not doing anything, and what would happen to us.

I had been so deep in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed that Max had finished his dinner and was already heading into our room, taking his compass with him as he yawned. I immediately finished off my porkchop and followed him into the room.

"Hey, Max, remember. You need to put that compass away since it'll distract you." I reminded him. He groaned.

"Fine..." he replied as he stuffed the compass away into his toy chest. Then, we both jumped into our own beds. He was out almost immediately, I guess trying to figure out the recipe for the compass had taken a lot out of him, not to mention constantly swinging it around and running all over the place.

I laid my head on the pillows and closed my eyes, pushing all my worries away. It took a good moment, but I eventually fell asleep.

Six Days Left