Minecraft: The Haven Trials/1CHP
Chapter 1
Cecelia receives a text from her friend, Therese, at 12:01AM local time, which simply says "We are moving." Cece rushes over to her parents' bedroom to inform them of the sudden news. Baba, her father, and Iya, her mother, slowly get up and assist Cece with heading over towards the estate of the Njingas, Reesa’s parents home, which is six houses away from Cece’s. Both the Alao and Njinga families live on Gemshore Estate, an island neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria. As the Alao family arrive at the Njinga estate, however, they soon realize that nobody is there, with Iya saying that they may have already arrived too late. Later, back at the Alao estate, Cece begins to process the text that she had received from Reesa, while Baba tries to reach Reesa’s father for an explanation. Iya attempts to calm Cece down by preparing her favorite drink, hot chocolate with honey and marshmallows, but Cece feels like too much is going on and decides to let it sit there. As Iya begins to make breakfast, Baba finishes up his phone call with Reesa’s father, saying that the Njinga family is already at the airport, about to board a plane intended for Scottsdale, Arizona, in the U.S.A. Cece wonders as to why Reesa didn’t say anything to her until now, and Baba explains that the move was sudden, leaving almost no time for the family to plan. Iya concurs, knowing that it feels horrible for someone to lose a friend. Cece finishes her breakfast, consisting of wheat bread with mayo and sausage, and soon gets a notification on the family iPad from Reesa, who says that she is sorry for not telling her sooner as it went by pretty fast. Cece then decides to sit down in front of her TV, turn on her gaming console, and starts playing Minecraft. Switching to her POV, Cece spawns in the Realm that she and Reesa play on, called "Silver Oaks Park". Cece explains to the reader that she and Reesa met about three years ago as the former was playing on a public server set up for others on Gemshore Estate. Reesa invited Cece to a private Realm that her father had set up, and the two became friends that night. Cece then explains to the reader about Reesa’s name, which is actually Teresa, but her grandparents decided to call her Thérèse after a French princess from where they grew up in the Republic of the Congo. Cece then shows the reader around the entirety of the Realm before logging off for the night, realizing that Reesa might not be online for a while.
Chapter 2
On a Monday morning, Iya drives Cece over to Gemshore Private Secondary School. Iya mentions to Cece that although she realizes that Reesa is no longer with her, that she should use today as an opportunity to make new friends. As Iya drives back home, Cece, wearing a school uniform, enters the school and follows some green arrows marked for new students to attend an assembly. The assembly isn’t long however, and soon Cece is assigned a classroom, sitting at a desk in the middle of it. As Cece is into Minecraft, of course, she decides to pretend that where people sit are classified as various Minecraft mobs, like "teacher’s pets" as villagers protected by iron golems, or people that sit by the classroom window as neutral mobs. Cece then attempts to initiate discussion with a girl about Minecraft, showing off a sticker of a creeper on her bag, but the girl says that she doesn’t care about Minecraft. Feeling sunk, Cece slides her bag back into her desk, but moments later decides to tear off the creeper sticker and toss it into a nearby trash can.
Chapter 3
At the end of the school day, Cece says to Iya in the car that nothing good happened on the first day of school and wonders if Reesa had called yet. Iya says that she hasn’t, but suggests that she and Cece hold some sort of a virtual sleepover. The two soon arrive home, and after Cece changes her clothes, she decides to leave a message for Reesa on the family tablet, asking her if she is down for a "phone sleepover". Cece then does some chores around the house, soon coming back to the tablet with a response from Reesa: "Sure". Later, by the time that Cece and Reesa had agreed to video chat, the Wi-Fi at Cece’s begins to act up, but is fixed just as soon as Cece complains about it to Baba. Cece and Reesa then chat about how life is going for them before Reesa abruptly leaves, wondering as to how the video chat would work due to the time zone differential. Soon switching to Cece’s POV, she logs back into her Realm and decides to mine out some coal from a nearby mountain. However, she doesn’t end up finding coal and decides to use the /kill command to head back to spawn. Feeling frustrated, Cece punches everything in sight, also using a pickaxe to destroy everything in her path. As she comes across a sign that reads "Silver Oaks Park", thoughts go off in her head about Reesa, saying that the Realm is nothing without her and that she can’t wait any longer for her to come online. Without hesitation, Cece mines away at the sign until it is destroyed.
Chapter 4
Cece wakes up horrified the next morning about her actions, but Iya reminds her about school, saying that she only has time to eat breakfast. Cece ends up puting the family tablet into her backpack when Iya isn’t looking, and opens up Minecraft on the tablet on her way to school. Cece soon notices that the Realm that she is a part of, labeled "Therese’s Gaming Realm", has a grayed-out button instead of a green one, and begins to wonder about what happened to the Realm. Later, during school, Cece has numerous thoughts in her head about the Realm, wondering if either Reesa or Mr. Njinga cancelled the subscription for it. By lunchtime, Cece decides to sit in a corner of the food court, waiting out the line of people at the canteen to get something to eat. Just then, a boy from Cece’s class taps on her shoulder and returns the creeper sticker that she had tossed out. The boy also mentions that the girl that Cece had talked to yesterday was named 'Ofure', saying that she acts like making fun of everyone. The boy then introduces himself to be 'Joachim', and the two chat for a bit. Joachim then offers Cece to use her money to buy something for her, saying that his grandma owns the canteen. She obliges, and soon Joachim returns with a meat pie, a can of soda, and an apple. Cece thanks Joachim for the food and wonders if he’ll eat. Joachim then says that he usually eats early and spends the rest of lunchtime to play. He then wonders as to what is going on with Cece, but she mentions that she just wants to be quiet and think. The two then spend the rest of lunchtime in silence.
Chapter 5
As the school day ends, Cece mentions to Iya about the boy that she had met and what he did for her. Iya then says that friendships aren’t easy with a lot of ups and downs before saying that Reesa had sent Cece a message. By the time they make it home, Cece rushes into the house and checks the family tablet. A message from Reesa mentions that the Realm subscription was cancelled as her father had lost contact with the guy that had set up the Realm. Another message mentions that her brother, Hashim, had made some new friends. One of them likes Minecraft and introduced Reesa to his group of friends who play it. Another message mentions that she had joined a private server with the new friends, and apologizes about the situation regarding the Realm. Cece then dashes back to the car to get her backpack from it, and then rushes back into the house. Picking up the tablet again, another message from Reesa appears, with a server invite to a Realm known as "Haven". Feeling frustrated about the Realm situation, Cece uninstalls Minecraft from the tablet. Over the next few days, Cece decided to not turn on the game console, and only used the tablet for other games. At school, she would eat alone and do her best to hide from Joachim. By the fourth day, Iya mentions that Mr. Njinga had switched to a U.S. phone number as the roaming one from Nigeria is no longer in service. Cece asks if she can still chat with Reesa, but Iya mentions that it is not possible. Later that night, Cece checked on the messages that Reesa had sent her. They had the server address for Haven, while also mentioning that anyone who joins would have to complete three "Tests" before actually becoming a part of the Realm. Reesa then says that the "Tests" aren’t impossible without help from others, saying that she can be texted if the need for help arises. Reesa then says that she trusts Cece and knows that she will succeed, and also apologizes again about the situation regarding their now-cancelled Realm. Cece then re-downloads Minecraft on the tablet and types in the server address provided. A new server then appears under the name of "Anarchia", and Cece joins it soon after.
Chapter 6
Switching to Cece’s POV, she spawns in a world that is already at nightfall. The moon is a triangular shape instead of a square, and the sun and moon are both stuck on the eastern end of the horizon. Cece decides to explore a bit around the world, which is described as "a wasteland" with darkness at every direction, "rising and falling in different elevations of haphazard blocks". She soon comes across a mob spawner and decides to hide, but it isn’t long before an enderman and a spider spawn from it and kill her. Cece respawns back at the spawn point and now decides to use commands to help get her out of the area, eventually teleporting to an abandoned village thousands of blocks away. Just then, another player by the name of "WereDragon_86" zips by her. Cece greets WereDragon and asks them about Haven and the tests needed to get there. WereDragon says for Cece to find the tests before they unceremoniously kill her with several shots from a bow and arrow.
Chapter 7
Cece respawns back at the spawn point and soon teleports back to the village. WereDragon is somewhat surprised that she teleported back here and suggest that she follow them to talk about Anarchia before killing her once again. Seeing as it would be the only way to be able to understand what is going on with the server, Cece has no choice but to comply. The two go past a haunting of enderman, and eventually, the two find their way into a dungeon hidden underneath a lake, which had already been lit with torches. WereDragon mentions that they use the dungeon as an underground bunker of sorts to hide from mobs and other players, and then starts talking about Anarchia. It was once actually name Haven until an admin called the Ocury began installing modifications to change numerous rules, such as the world being in an everlasting night, or the ability to draw on maps. The Ocury made Haven inaccessible to every player unless they passed the Haven Trials, which are a series of tests, and players only have five lives to complete them or they are banned from the server forever (WereDragon is down to two lives remaining). WereDragon then says that the trials aren’t simple to complete and that once a player passes the trials, they are blocked from contacting anybody else in the server. WereDragon then mentions that the other people of the server are known as "Anarchians", citizens of the world that end up killing other players for XP; the ultimate prize for having a huge amount of it will result in the player becoming the next Ocury. WereDragon plans on becoming the Ocury to restore the server to its former glory, and also says that they heard that players get a bunch of XP upon making it through the third trial. WereDragon also says that once a player enters Haven that they can’t go back into Anarchia. WereDragon then has Cece turn her back toward them as they kill her once again.
Chapter 8
The morning after, Cece is at class at Gemshore Private Secondary School, but can barely concentrate as numerous thoughts about Anarchia swirl in her head. The way she saw it, Cece had three options: make friends, gather resources, or hide. The teacher then interrupts her daydreams and asks if she has anything interesting to share with the class. Cece reluctantly says that she doesn’t, so the teacher orders her to stand out in the sun as punishment. She reluctantly does so, continuing to think about the Haven Trials whilst also trying to find her way to them without using a map. Just then, the school bell rings, and Joachim mentions to Cece that punishments are erased once it is break time and decides to order something for her to eat. Later, after school, Cece is back on Anarchia, teleporting back to the village and sneaking around to avoid being spotted by other players. She eventually punches out wood from a birch tree, using it to craft a crafting table and a small shelter, followed by a wooden pickaxe. Cece then finds a few torches, but soon notices another player attacking a stray cat. Cece shouts at the player before hiding behind some trees. As the player moves toward the trees, they are attacked by several skeletons, soon succumbing to them. Cece jolts out from her hiding spot not long after and gathers the resources that the player dropped: food, coal, iron, a bow and arrow, and even a map. Cece then feeds some salmon to the cat, which becomes tame and starts following her back to her shelter. Cece decides to name the cat Cranky and then looks at the map, wondering as to what to do next.