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By the time the Sun Rose over the horizon the two explorers had already had their morning cup of tea and were packed and ready to go. Branch chewed on a piece of cooked steak as his wife carefully recited  all of the things she wanted to make sure to bring with them. " let's see, Diamond armor, check. Backup iron armor, check. Pickaxes. ..shovels... check and check. 64 cooked steaks.. one diamond sword for me, one for you. Both of our iron swords? Check." Branch smiled lovingly as he watched his wife carefully, almost obsessively recite all of the items they were bringing. She did this nearly every time they left the house, and when they were going on a large adventure she would triple and quadruple check that they were bringing everything that they might need. She looked up at him and he chuckled. " better safe than sorry!" She announced. He smiled and nodded in agreeance. 

10 minutes later they were on the trail which windingly snaked through the large Valley on the way out of their property. Branch whistled a tune that his grandfather used to sing to him when he was only a block high.Their  newfound treasure map Illustrated that they would have to travel about 3 days journey south before even reaching the edge of the correct biome. As it was an area that had not yet been explored, the portals in the center of the nearest towns would be Of no use to them.

Around high noon of the same day the terrain had flattened out and they were traveling on a large plateau of medium elevation. The landscape was dotted with trees about 15 blocks high, and they could see several man sized spiders resting in the leaves following them with their numerous eyes. The husband and wife were aware that the large arachnids were not dangerous during the daytime. They were also all too aware that when the Sun disappeared, the spiders would change entirely. They would no longer be peaceful creatures simply observing the two as they walked. The spiders would become hungry at night as they did every night and come down from their treetop homes to hunt.

Acorn began remembering when she was a young girl and her and her friend had not made it back home before dark as they had promised the adults they would. She remembered hearing the hissing mob of giant spiders and the pitter patter of all of their appendages trampling close behind them in pursuit. Her friend had fallen behind and just as one of the Giants spiders was about to pounce, acorn's father rushed towards it out of nowhere. Slashing it in half with a stone sword. "What did I tell you girls?! You know that you have to be back home before the Sun Goes Down or these damned monsters are going to eat you alive!" He had yelled in a frustrated voice. She remembered him snatching them up and carrying the both of them in his arms back into their cabin..

Her memories were interrupted when branch and her noticed the figure of a person several hundred yards down the trail. " looks like we got some company.." branch said in a low voice. As they got closer they saw that it was an elderly man clad in a leather tunic and leggings. The old man raised his hand gesturing to them, " hello there travelers! What brings you to this neck of the woods?" . 

" we have business in the next town we are simply passing through." Branch said calmly, not wanting to give away too much information. He was well aware that there were many people in the planet of cubes who were not what they seemed.

" business yeah? What sort of business??" The old man replied. Branch and acorn were growing more suspicious of the encounter every second.Branch replied again, " our business my friend, and that makes it none of your business. Now excuse us we are going to be on our way." 

Just then the old man let out a loud whistle and  in the same moment 3 men with a thieving look in their eyes dressed in iron armor stepped out from within the bushes ahead of them. They had their swords drawn and ran towards branch and acorn. The biggest of the three men spoke as they ran towards the couple. " give us all of your gol---" he was not able to finish his demand because in that split second acorn had drawn her secondary iron sword and hurled it in one Swift motion  towards the thief. It spun through the air with precision and struck like a dart in a dart board, piercing into the throat of the man demanding their belongings. The remaining two thieves had stopped, jaws agape, staring in disbelief at their partner in crime gurgling blood and collapsing to the ground. By the time they realized what had happened and looked back up at the husband and wife, branch had closed the gap between him and the two of them. In one fluid motion he drew his sword following through and slashing the throats of the two surprised thieves. They fell backwards spraying a fountain of red mist into the afternoon Air.

They noticed The elderly man who had been the bait in the attempted robbery, running quickly away from them with a newfound sense of youthfullness. Acorn blurted out, " should we catch him?!" .

" forget it.. let him go." Her husband said.. " hopefully he'll learn from this and change his ways. " branch pulled out a knitted handkerchief and wiped the thieves blood off of his face then cleaned his sword putting it gently back into its sheath. 

Acorn approached the three bodies which were quickly disappearing. She knelt down, picking up their inventory items which were floating in the places where they had fallen and died. 

" we should probably keep moving" she said, adding.." we still have a few more days journey.. I wonder what excitement tomorrow shall bring? " she smiled at branch. 

The husband and wife traveled farther down the path and didn't stop until the Sun was beginning to set. They quickly pulled out there shovels, and without a word shared between them they began digging a 2 by 2 hole into the soft Forest mud. Stopping after about 10 blocks deep. Branch turned around and started closing the hole behind them filling it in with fresh blocks of dirt. Acorn pulled out a couple of torches and stuck them in the mud wall of their hole and home for the night. 

They snuggled up together on the dirt floor, drifting asleep to the sound of zombies moaning and pacing on the surface above. After all these years on the planet of cubes, The noises of these creatures of the night had become but a soothing lullaby to the couple.

Thank you for reading chapter 3!:-) thanks for all the positive comments. Stay tuned for chapter 4. I hope everyone has a good day!

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