The Last Villager
D1280
#pgx0
The Last Villager
by D1280
#pgx1
Part I: Discovery
#pgx2
To be honest, I'm really not sure how to start this. I could say "Once upon a time," or something like that, but that's not how this story really goes. No, this is the story of a villager that I found trapped in a cave, and the adventure we had getting
#pgx3
him to a new village. This is a true story. No exaggeration, additional plot, or anything that didn't happen. This is, word for word, the Legend of Tedward.
I joined a server called Eudora a few days before and quickly searched for a place to call
#pgx4
home. I found a big, grassy field and decided it would be a nice spot for a farm.
But somehow, I never noticed the village next to my farm until the next day. What appeared as a small, quiet village with a stone church in the distance, then rendered as
#pgx5
a hell-like skeleton of what some villagers probably once called home. Lava fountains poured from destroyed roofs. I wondered who did this, and searched the place. No life was found. The lava was sort of an eyesore, and I decided to clean the place up,
#pgx6
since I lived so close to it. Time passed, and I worked until there was no lava left. But there was no fixing the emptiness of the village.
I never really could understand why people do this kind of thing. Even on other servers, this happens all the
#pgx7
time. I never cared much for villagers myself, but do people have some weird desire to start a holocaust over them? I don't know. Oh, and I became acquainted with the server's community as the days progressed, and befriended several people.
#pgx8
Two of them were Tristan31115 and Decrous.
Anyways, a couple days after I cleaned the lava in the village, I went back there, and discovered a cave underneath the church. I went down through the dark cave, searching
#pgx9
for iron, and found a deep, dark pit. On my decent further into the pit, I noticed something rather odd looking on a ledge. I placed a torch, and this is what I saw:
A villager, trapped in a cave.
This was slightly startling at first, I never would
#pgx10
have expected to see a villager in such a place, but there he was, standing there. I almost forgot that I was beneath a village, and finding trapped Testificates in caves near villages isn't uncommon. But this particular villager was the last of his
#pgx11
kind. I made a stairway for him to climb out, and he was quick to get out of that dreadful place. I built a walled-in area outside of the cave so he wouldn't go far, but at least he had more space than that 1x1 block he had been standing on all this
#pgx12
time. And then it hit me, he's probably been stuck in there for ages. Even before his village was burned and his friends/family killed off. He climbed out of that cave into a world where he was the last villager of his village. After the villager and I
#pgx13
got out of the cave, I told Tristan and Dec about "The Last Villager" and they both seemed happily amused by it, like I was. They told me to keep him captured there so they could see later. I trapped a few sheep in his "cage" to keep him company.
#pgx14
Day turned to night, and I went back home to think about what I should do with the villager. I thought I should set him free. Maybe I could bring a different villager to him, and they would revive the burned village. Then, Tristan came up with an
#pgx15
idea:
Go on an epic journey to find him a new village.
It was settled, I would go on an epic journey to find Tedward a new home. Wait, I didn't explain the "Tedward" thing yet, did I? Shortly after Tristan came up with the plan,
#pgx16
Decrous suggested I name him "Ted," because that's what he names all his villagers. Tristan said "Why don't you call him Tedward?" or something like that. Tedward. Sounds good. A combination of Ted and Squidward. Perfect! Now all we needed
#pgx17
to do is figure out how to get Tedward to a new village we hadn't even found yet (a village probably thousands of blocks away) without any real reason why. Piece of cake, right?
#pgx18
Part II: A New Home
#pgx19
Everything seemed so easy. Find a new village, go back, get supplies, and get Tedward there. Boom- done. But how? How are we supposed to get a testificate that far? Why even bother? These questions were ones I shook off. I didn't care how hard it
#pgx20
would be, it's what would happen along the way that I was interested in. I set off by myself to first find a new village. I headed in a random direction and went with it, hoping I would come across a village eventually. I walked east to the ocean
#pgx21
adjacent to my farm, and I set sail. It was a while before I got to land. Still not sure how I would get a testificate to cross an ocean, I ventured on. I went further into this new continent. There were plenty of fields and deserts; big, flat areas,
#pgx22
perfect for a village to generate. I crossed mountains and more deserts and fields, but still nothing. Spent almost a Minecraft week searching, and still no villages. At this point, I was ready to head back, so I did. I figured there must be a village
#pgx23
in a different direction from my farm. Somewhere there has to be a home for Tedward.
When I got back to the farm, I restocked on supplies, and headed north this time. This time I had more land to cross before hitting the ocean, but it was the same
#pgx24
story. Cross the ocean, hit land, look around aimlessly, and hope to find a village. I had the dumb idea of crossing through a jungle at night, which almost got me killed many times. I made camp (1x3x1 hole), and woke up in the morning to the lush,
#pgx25
green canopy above.
"Tedward would like this" I thought. I kept going without direction, and found a river. Maybe it would take me to a village. Incredibly, my instincts were right. The river went into desert, and day went into night. I spotted lights
#pgx26
in the distance, crashed my boat, and ran toward the light; eager to find something. The desert started to render further, I could see that distinct architecture of Jeb's work: the stone and wood in the buildings. This had to be a village. Still, I
#pgx27
had this weird fear that this village would be on fire, like Tedward's was. Fortunately, no lava this time. A fresh village. Funny thing, I was looking back at the screenshots, and I found one.
I was so ready to get there; I didn't even notice the
#pgx28
army of bloodthirsty spiders and the flock of exploding bush monsters trying to kill me. I could hear the familiar, achingly loud noise of zombies banging on wooden doors. Zombies kill villagers, but of course you knew that.
Almost
#pgx29
instinctively, I jumped into a house, shut the door, and wrote down the coordinates of the village. X=733 Z=-1209. By the end of the trip, I would have these coordinates memorized. This would be it. Tedward's new home.
The next morning,
#pgx30
I walked around the village. Everyone seemed generally happy, considering the onslaught of mobs that surrounded the village. Then I realized I was becoming more attached to testificates. Thinking they had emotion.
#pgx31
Thinking they could also think. But what if they could? What if Tedward could think? What if that's why he survived the attack?
I looked around and quickly noticed they were all the same type of villager.
An oddity, but not a problem. I also spotted
#pgx32
a desert well inside the village next to the church. Is this a rare coincidence or is it standard for desert villages to have desert wells?
Anyways, there wasn't much left for me to do here, so I decided it was time to go home. Getting back is much
#pgx33
easier, of course, because I already knew the coordinates of my house. As I was sailing back, I wondered how I would get Tedward there. I think someone brought up something in the chat involving rails, and it hit me: Rails! You can push a mob in a
#pgx34
minecart! And we'd only have to go… 1,224 meters. Okay, not ideal, but it would have to do. Again, I still didn't care, I was happy to find a new place for this poor testificate we call Tedward. Yeah, I thought it sounded crazy too as I was walking into
#pgx35
my house after all that. But it was too late to question why I was doing this, because we were just about ready for the journey there.
#pgx36
Part III: The Long Journey
#pgx37
The Villager, the village, and the plan. Well, most of the plan. I knew I had to get Tedward to the new village by rail, but I would need over 1,000 rails. I looked through my chests, and found 25 rails, and few supplies to make new ones. I figured I
#pgx38
would just have to recycle the rails I used, pulling them up and placing them in front as I go. But how would we get past the ocean? Tunnel under it? I decided that I would have to build a dirt bridge across the ocean, and place the rails on that. This
#pgx39
seemed like an awful lot of work to do on my own, so I asked Dec if he wanted to help. While he seemed hesitant at first (probably because he lives so far away from me), he agreed, and traveled to my farm. Along the way, he tamed a wolf, and brought it
#pgx40
along on the trip. Tristan logged onto the server and I asked him if he was interested in going too. He also agreed, and used a nether portal to get to my farm (everyone lives far from each other). He burned in the Nether on the way there, though. At
#pgx41
least players re-spawn, mobs don't.
I tilled up all the wheat in my farm, and made bread for the long road ahead. Dec and I waited for Tristan to try and get there again. Tristan arrived the following day, and we made tools, gave
#pgx42
supplies, got food, and checked on Tedward one last time before the trip. Because of the time of day, we waited until the next day to start the adventure. I checked my inventory before we left that next morning.
All right, now for the good part.
#pgx43
Getting Tedward to his new home. This was very exciting, after all our preparation. Everything was set, and then Tristan had to leave for some reason. We figured he would be back later, so Dec and I started without him. This is Tedward's first time out
#pgx44
of his village area; his first time in the minecart.
He almost seemed happy, with his squidward face.
It took a couple Minecraft days to get to the ocean. I didn't want to go the same way I went on my first trip to the village. I wanted to get to
#pgx45
x=733 first, and then turn left to z=-1209, where the village was. We had to tunnel through two hills, and we were about to begin building the dirt bridge across the ocean, when I noticed that almost all the dirt in my inventory was gone somehow. This,
#pgx46
added with the frustration from Dec's wolf trying to help out by pushing Tedward, made me pretty stressed. Dec gave me the dirt he had, which I thought would be plenty to cross the ocean. I told Dec maybe he should leave his wolf at the shore, in
#pgx47
fear of him pushing Tedward into a watery grave. Dec agreed, and we headed out to sea.
We kept doing the same thing as we were before, only this time it was 1,224 times harder. It's hard to describe just how much more difficult it is to not only make
#pgx48
a rail going just above the water, but slowly loosing supplies (rails & dirt we had recycled) as they fell into the ocean below. Not to mention the risk here- We had come so far already; it really would be a shame to see Tedward fall into the sea.
#pgx49
Actually, there were a few close calls. When trying to place a block in front of Tedward's cart, I would accidentally click the minecart, forcing me in and Tedward out. Seeing Tedward out of his minecart made me more scared than when I first
#pgx50
unexpectedly saw him in that cave. Thankfully, I managed to get him back in the cart. This happened several times. You can imagine how stressful this was. Dec had left the project earlier, because with the lack of room and more people, I was
#pgx51
worried Tedward would get pushed into the ocean. He understood, and I told him that once we hit land; he could come back. We ran out of dirt, and Tristan, who got back on, told me he had a lot of dirt and cobble. He actually built ahead, and I kept
#pgx52
recycling the rails.
Many Minecraft weeks passed, and I did the same thing, over and over again. Place rails, place stop block at the end so he won't fly off, push Tedward, clean up rails, place rails, clean up stop block, repeat. This process took
#pgx53
about 2-3 minutes to do, and each time a rail or two would fall into the ocean. I did this endless times. I was down to about 13 rails, and Tristan, who was/is working on a separate rail project for his own town, gave me about 30 rails. This made the
#pgx54
job a lot easier.
Tristan was building the bridge far ahead of us, and he said he saw land. I thought it was the island we saw; which is slightly visible in the top right of the image above. But this was the continent we were headed for the whole time.
#pgx55
Many more Minecraft days passed before we reached the continent, but there it was. In the distance one night, we saw the next step to Tedward's new home.
Another Minecraft day or two passed, and we drew nearer to the x=733 coordinate we
#pgx56
were headed for the whole time. I got this picture of Tedward as we neared the beach:
It was night, so I decided we would stay on the ocean part, to avoid landing on the beach where monsters were. The next morning, I pushed him in his
#pgx57
minecart like I did every day, only this day was special. We were about to land.
I pushed him further, and we were there. I was so glad to see land again. We pushed on, and there we were. Almost there. It was funny once we got there. I had brought a
#pgx58
villager all this way, and not knowing why.
Tristan and Dec weren't there, but they already told me they wouldn't be there. I was fine with that, because the hard part was over. I crossed over some land to the x=733 z=-1209 coordinate we were looking
#pgx59
for the whole time, and the village was there; only a short ways away. I went back to Tedward, and I made a shelter on the beach as it became night.
I let Tedward out of his Minecart, and he walked around the small shelter a bit. I watched him; I
#pgx60
wondered what was going on inside his head. Being stuck in that cave, coming out to find all his friends and family had been killed. Then traveling all this way, across an ocean (how many villagers have done that?) After all he's been through; it had to
#pgx61
be worth it. We were almost there.
#pgx62
Part IV: The Legend
#pgx63
We pushed onward through the flat swamp, appreciating all the room there was, rather than the thin bridge we were on above the ocean. Rather than the 1x1 block he was trapped on in the cave. I thought to myself: After all this time, this testificate
#pgx64
would finally have another chance. I figured out why I was doing this as we travelled beneath the mangroves. It wasn't because I wanted an adventure, or to have something to write about. It wasn't to prove I could complete such a
#pgx65
challenge. No, it was because I felt sorry for that villager. All I wanted to do was see this villager happy. To see him start a new life. Maybe that's what I want for me, too. I guess in some sort of symbolic way, I saw him in me.
We made another
#pgx66
shelter for the night. Morning came, and we kept going. No hills, no oceans. This was not only easy, but almost fun. We travelled further. I think by this time I had something like 38 rails left, which was well over enough. Night fell again, and I built
#pgx67
another shelter. This would be the last night in the swamp, I figured. We should be at the desert by morning, and then soon after, the village.
I wasn't sure if it was morning yet, because it was raining, and I couldn't use the cry of
#pgx68
zombies/skeletons burning to hear the new day. I destroyed a hole in the shelter. Daylight peered through the rainclouds above. Whenever I made one of these shelters, I sprint out to have any creepers or anything not catch me right next to
#pgx69
Tedward. You know, so they wouldn't explode near him. But this particular time, there were no creepers. I looked behind after bolting out of the shelter, and there were two zombies, underneath a swamp tree. They both casually walked into the
#pgx70
shelter.
I wish I could tell you something different. I wish I could lie and say that everything turned out okay. I wish I could fake it so I could say that Tedward escaped the zombies and made it to the village. But that's not the case. This is a true
#pgx71
story, after all.
I managed to kill one of the zombies with my bow & arrow, but it was already too late. The other one entered the shelter. I remember seeing that zombie approach Tedward. In almost less than a second, Tedward fell and turned red,
#pgx72
like all mobs do when they die. Yeah, I remember seeing that.
I killed the zombie, but I didn't stay there long. There was no reason to. Nothing to be said. Nothing to be done. It was over: and Tedward was gone. All I could think of was how we came all
#pgx73
this way for nothing. I ran through the rain over to the village. I walked over to the church and made an empty grave for him, with a tombstone above, only reading his name. As the sun fell, it stopped raining.
I went into one of the houses, and
#pgx74
spent the night there. I saw two villagers talking. I thought about how they will never meet Tedward. How they will never talk with him, too. I thought about what Tedward would have done here. I thought about how we came all this way, for two
#pgx75
zombies to end it all. Just two zombies, and one very bad mistake of mine.
I wasn't angry, I was sad. I know it may seem crazy to be sad over a villager dying. I know it must seem really crazy to the guy who burned Tedward's village. But when you
#pgx76
spend that much time with something you've named, and when you travel that far with something, all for nothing: you get kinda sad when it's gone. The entire trip I imagined writing a happy ending here, including a part about us going back to the village
#pgx77
to see him and maybe his new family. I know the server was expecting this. I told them that was the plan. Until now, Tristan, Decrous, and the rest of the server still thought he was alive. I couldn't tell them what happened.
I go back to the
#pgx78
village near my farm. Where just a few short days ago, I saw lava pouring out of buildings. Where I saw Tedward trapped in that cave. Before we started the actual trip, I would stand there and wonder: Who killed them all, and why? Now I wonder stuff
#pgx79
like: Which one of these houses was Tedward's?
Well, I'm not sure how to end this either. Obviously I can't say "And they all live happily every after!" or anything like that, because this was a true story. I know you were expecting a happy ending. I
#pgx80
was too. You might be thinking that you've read this for nothing, and that's how I used to feal about the whole adventure. But in those two minecraft months that it took to complete the entire project, I had gone from really not caring much for
#pgx81
villagers, to never being able to harm one. In the end, the trip did matter, because in some way, I guess it changed how I look at Minecraft.
So, that was the true story of Tedward. The Legend of Tedward.