I had dreamed that I was a sheep wandering around a plain field. I was hungry, so I fed on the grass on the ground, tasting the tasty green plants in my mouth as they turned into energy. Right by me was a baby sheep. It had lost its parents when a group of humans came by at one point and killed them for their meat, so I had decided to take care of it. We ate together, we slept by each other, we wandered together. I knew the day would eventually come when the little sheep would grow old and decide to separate, but I didn't mind. That was life.

As I continued to feed, I noticed the little sheep wandering off towards the forest. The forest was where the tastier grass grew. But it was also where the bad animals lived. The dangerous white wolves. I would constantly tell the little sheep not to go to the forest, but each time he tried to see how close he could get. I noticed he was getting way too close to the woods, and called for him, but he ignored me. So, lifting myself from the ground, I hurried towards him. I was scared of the wolves coming for the little sheep.

Once I arrived, I told him to get away from the forest. He told me that there wasn't anything to worry about, and that the grass tasted delicious. I told him to come back to the plains with the rest of the herd where it was safe, but he didn't want to come. He had gotten a taste of the forest grass and didn't want to go. I warned him about the danger and that it wasn't safe. He ignored me and continued to eat. I told him that there were wolves that wanted to eat him. He continued to eat. I told him I wanted to protect him, and that we needed to leave before it was too late. He kept eating.

Suddenly, I heard a snarl from our side. I looked towards the source of the sound with eyes wide open to see something in the tall grass slowly approaching. It poked its white head through and had glowing red eyes. Wolf! I cried out to the little sheep and he saw the creature stalking us. Immediately, we ran in different directions in a panic as the wolf sprinted forward. I ran straight for the plains because I knew I would be safer there.

Once I had made it, I turned around to see the little sheep crying out in terror as the wolf caught up to him and trapped him. Upon seeing this, I wanted to protect the little sheep, and I ran as fast as I could at the wolf. Before it could start biting him, I yelled at the wolf and hit it with one of my legs. It cried out in pain, but then I saw two more wolves appear from the tall grass. I told the little sheep to run for the plains, that he would be safe there, and he took off, sprinting towards the rest of the herd. The herd watched helplessly as the wolves surrounded me. I cried for help, but none of the sheep were brave enough to try to stop three wolves.

I tried to run at one of them, but it quickly ran back as another ran at me and bit into my woolly hide. Pain filled my body, and I made one last effort to attack one of the wolves, but it jumped out of the way. I felt the sharp pain of vicious teeth sinking into my neck and fell to the ground, defeated, as the beasts began tearing into my body. I didn't want to die, but at least the little sheep was okay. Then, the dream vanished.

I awoke to see the sun slowly rising up from our window. With it came a sense of unease as a shudder went through my body, but I shrugged it off. I got up to go make breakfast for me and Max.

Once in the kitchen, I went through the food chest to pull out two bread and two empty buckets, then headed into the backyard to go milk the cow. As I was filling the buckets, I tried to think about the dream I knew I had last night.

I wasn't good at remembering dreams I had, so I could only recall a tiny bit. I remember seeing some sort of terrifying white creature with red eyes, and for some reason the grass was looking really appetizing. I shrugged off the thought as I finished milking and resupplied the cow with another hay block to munch on as I returned inside.

I went back into our room and woke Max up. It took a moment since he was a heavy sleeper. Then, the two of us went out into the living room.

"Guess what Max." I said to him as I handed him his breakfast. "Today, you're going to get to go fishing with me." That caught his attention.

"That's awesome. I don't think I've ever done that before." he said. "Is Ashley going to come with us?" My smile lessened.

"Um, no bud. Ashley had to go out of town because of something important." I told him.

"Aw man. I hope she comes back." he said.

"You and me both, bud." I replied as I finished off my bread, then took a long swig from the milk bucket. "It's probably gonna be tough for you to get ahold of. Fishing, I mean." I informed him. "It took me a while before I could catch fish. Don't worry, it'll be fine."

"I hope so." was all he said as he finished off his own breakfast. He had a strange look on his face. I couldn't tell what was going on in his mind.

"Alright, you ready to head out?" I asked him.

"Yeah!" he said happily. The two of us headed out the door and made our way to the fishing shack.

As soon as we arrived at the fishing shack, I brought my little brother over to my boss.

"Hey Mr. Sandhand, I wanted to take my brother out fishing today. Could you lend us an extra fishing rod?" I requested. He looked at me.

"Why, sure. Just be sure to catch a good fifteen or more today." he said as he pulled out a fishing rod for me to take. I grabbed onto it and handed it down to Max.

"Thanks." I said to him and then guided Max over to the lake. Then, I pulled out my fishing rod. "Okay, so what you're going to want to do is raise your fishing rod high up like this-" I aimed the rod high up, and the line dangled from it. I waited for my brother to do the same. He slowly raised his fishing rod up.

"Now, you want to fling it towards the water in one smooth but fast motion. Don't jerk it otherwise the line will get tangled." I informed him as I cast my line out onto the lakebed. He swung his with great force and ended up getting the line tangled up in the process.

"Uh, oops." he said. I held out my hands to grab it and left my own fishing rod on the ground, buried slightly in the dirt block in case it got a bite so it wouldn't get yanked into the water.

"Bring it here." I told him and he handed the fishing rod off to me. I got to work untangling the line from around the pole. "It's okay to mess up. This is the first time you've done this. Just try to learn from each time you make a mistake."

"Okay, I understand brother." he said as I fully untangled the line and handed it back to him. I grabbed my own fishing rod and pulled the line back in.

"Don't worry about the line being too short, when you cast, it stretches out until it hits the water." I explained. "Take the fishing rod, raise it up like this-" I waited for him to raise his. Once he did, I cast my line out, but I had done so too roughly, and my line flailed around, not stretching. "Oh, ignore that." I said as I waited for the line to stop moving.

"Now you made a mistake!" he pointed out. I slightly smiled.

"Yep, even experienced fishermen like me make mistakes. Now, do it like this-" I said as I raised it above my head, then swung the line out to the lake in a single motion. He looked back at his line nervously before he swung his fishing rod and cast the line out successfully. It landed six blocks from us. He looked back at me with a smile.

"I did it!" he exclaimed.

"You sure did! Good, now you need to wait until something comes along and bites it. You'll see a stream of water particles moving towards your bobber-that's the white and red thing at the end of your line-and once it bites on your hook and pulls the bobber under, that's when you lift the fishing rod up as fast and powerfully as you can." I told him. I noticed a stream of water particles moving towards my bobber and tapped on my brother's shoulder, drawing his attention to the stream.

"You need to do it... like this!" I said just as the bobber went underwater. I shot my fishing rod up and pulled a cod out of the water. The cod landed on the ground right next to me and I picked it up. "Basically, the moment your bobber goes underwater, lift the line out." I told him. "You think you can do it?" Max nodded and waited, staring at the water, until a stream of water surged towards his bobber. He noticed it and right as the bobber went down, he pulled up on it, pulling a clownfish out of the water. It landed on the ground right in front of him and his face was full of joy.

"I caught one!" he practically yelled. A big smile spread across my face as I pat him on the shoulder.

"You just caught your first fish! I knew you could do it." I said, full of pride. "Let me take the fish, and we'll mount it on the wall when we get home." I said as I put the clownfish away in my inventory. "Now, let's keep fishing and see who can get the most fish by the end of the day." We continued to fish for several long moments.

Halfway into the day, I started to hear some commotion and turned to the source to see a few grey-skinned people with crossbows emerging from the woods on the other side of the lake. One of them was riding what appeared to be a massive hulking grey creature that only vaguely resembled a cow with a vicious jawline and horns. He was holding onto a banner with the illager face on it. My smile went away as I realized with unnerving certainty that they had to be the pillagers. No, no, it can't be now! I thought as fear ran across my body and invaded my mind. The other fishermen quickly noticed and I could see fear across many of their faces, while others were filled with anger. I immediately dropped my fishing rod and clutched Max, trying hard not to let my fear show. Unfortunately, I don't think I was doing a good job. He looked nervous upon seeing my face.

"What's wrong, big brother?" he asked me.

"N-nothing, Max. Just stay right next to me." I told him. We continued to stare at the pillagers as they made their way around the lake. As they got closer, a couple of the fishermen began to run off, but the pillagers spoke up.

"Freeze! We will not kill you unless you disobey!" one of them said, causing the fishermen to stop. I noticed our boss appearing from shack. He had an angry look on his face.

"What the hell are you doing here? This is our lake!" Mr. Sandhand said angrily.

"Not anymore. The illagers claim this land now." the pillager on the beast declared, an huge scowl on his face.

"Like hell you do. You can't just come in and-" Suddenly, arrows penetrated his body and he fell to the ground, a pained look on his face as he instantly bursting into smoke. Many of us gasped in horror at the brutality of the cold-coded murder.

"Begone from this lake at once or face death." the pillager ordered. Immediately, I covered Max's eyes with my hand and guided him away from Lake Bolblock, back towards our home. Many of the fishermen followed close behind me and the ones that didn't were immediately killed.

"What's going to happen to us?" Max whimpered as I undercovered his eyes. I didn't respond. I tried so hard to keep him from finding out, and this was truly the worst possible way he could have found out about the pillagers.

"Just keep walking." I told him.

We were all rounded up in the center of town. There were many more pillagers that had appeared, and we all had to listen or be killed. The pillager on the beast came and shouted.

"Last night!" His voice silenced everyone's worried murmurs. "We discovered the existence of a tunnel being dug. Many of your people were trying to flee underground. As much as I would've liked to made an example of them and had them all beheaded, we had much more fun with them. It was like dropping a block of tnt into a pit of silverfish. Now, they're all dead." I heard dozens of people all gasping in horror. The thought that Ashley was dead horrified me. I looked down at the ground, feeling disgusted.

"You damn mucks really thought you could outsmart us pillagers? We immediately noticed when your population was decreasing. This very act has made my leader very displeased, and so he has changed the date of attack. I would say to pray to your god, but your god wants us to destroy you. And now, you have five days left. Make peace with your deaths, because no faction will protect you." And with that, he and all the other pillagers ran off back to their camps.

Everyone was murmuring to each other and crying. The tension in the air was high as we all were terrified of the prospect of an attack so soon. I immediately took my little brother back to our house, away from all the misery.

"Tim... are we going to die?" Max asked, his face full of fear and sadness. I didn't know how I could respond. Upon noticing my lack of an answer and my troubled face, he began to cry.

"Oh no no, it's going to be okay!" I told him, trying to get him to stop and I went down to his level and put my hands on his shoulders. "They were just trying to sound scary. I'm sure they won't do anything." I lied. He rubbed the tear particles in his eyes.

"But-but... they killed people..." he sobbed.

"No, no. They just... sent them to a better place." I explained. He stopped sobbing for the moment.

"They did?" he asked.

"Oh yeah. Mr. Sandhand and the others are happy now. They get to be with their loved ones in the Aether." I told him. I wasn't a religious person by any means and didn't believe in an afterlife, but it hurt to see my brother crying, especially when there wasn't much I could do about it. I needed him to believe that there was a place beyond Minecraftia where one lives after they die so it wouldn't seem as bad as it was.

"But what if you die?" he asked. "Will you go to the Aether?" I put a smile on my face as my hand rested on his knee.

"Of course. I'd happily wait for you there. But I'll do everything I can to make sure you get to live a nice long life before you would join me." I promised him. His tears stopped forming as he sniffled. "Tell you what. I'll make us some supper and then after we can play for the rest of the day. How's that sound?" He nodded slowly.

"Okay..." he responded.

"Great!" I said and quickly ran into the kitchen to get started on dinner. I pulled out some raw beef and set them in the furnace to began cooking.

My smile had faded as I put my hand to my forehead and felt tears lightly begin to form. My entire world had been shaken up. This wasn't a problem that was going to fix itself. This was real. We were in real mortal danger. And now, going underground wasn't even an option. Thinking on it, I was glad I had decided to wait to make my decision instead of leaving last night. If we had gone last night, we would have been killed. Just like Ashley was...

The tears fell to the ground. This situation was just fucked. Was Red City ever going to come? Was there any hope of escape? Of survival? I looked out of the kitchen and at my younger brother, who was busy playing with some of his toys. I felt anger boil in my chest. Those damn pillagers, would they really be so coldhearted as to kill children?

The furnace flared down and I went back to it, pulling out supper and letting them cool off on the cobblestone counter as I went through the food chest once more. I decided what else could lighten the mood than some delicious honey? I pulled out two bottles of honey and then grabbed the two steaks and brought them out to the living room.

"Hey, guess what kiddo." I said as I put on a smile and held out the honey. "I decided why not have some honey with our supper?" He noticed the honey and immediately smiled.

"I love honey!" he exclaimed as I handed him his dinner. He immediately wanted to start with the honey first, but I insisted that the honey was for after the steak. I chowed down on my steak and savored the flavor while trying to push down all negative thoughts.

Once we both finished the meat, we moved on to the honey. I had gotten the honey way before the pillagers arrived, and it was quite expensive, being a gourmet delicacy, so I was pretty excited to taste it.

As I ingested the honey, my mouth exploded with delicious sweetness and filled me with energy. It also dried my throat a bit, but it tasted much better than I had remembered. I looked over at Max and could see he was loving his bottle of honey. His face was full of joy, there was none of the sadness there had been a moment ago. Then once he was finished, he looked at me with happiness on his face.

"Can we play now!" he asked excitedly. That honey had clearly filled him with energy. I smiled and we played games for the rest of the day.

By the time night came, we both turned in. I tried to get sleep, but knowing what was to come made it really hard. After several long moments, I finally managed to pass out.

Four Days Left