#ANYWAY DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THE TREE THAT ENARLY KILLED CLEO

[theminecraftbee]

Once upon a time, there was a cave, and there was a tree.

Oh, that's not how most people like to start to tell the story. The thing about telling stories is that it's often easiest to start from the ending. From tumbling down cliffsides and rings of cactus and dying just barely out of reach of your king, just barely after him. Of things constantly burning, of the first time being the first to die, of bunkers in the desert and a group of five standing around an enchanting table, waving a flag. Of clocks, and betrayals, and things that weren't actually betrayals (even though they seem like they should be), of firing squads--

That is not how the story starts.

It doesn't even start with a creeper, although I would guess if you asked them about it, more than one of them would probably say it did.

No, if I were to tell the story, I would tell it like this:

Once upon a time, there was a cave. Everyone had gathered in it, with crafting tables and beds. They were being attacked by phantoms. They're chatting about how to solve the phantom problem, because they are friends. They step outside to kill the phantoms, because they can, and because it's funnier, and because they don't know how to be afraid yet.

Once upon a time, there is a tree. It grows right under one of them, trapping them in its branches. "Help!" she cries out. "What's happened?" Everyone scrambles to help cut down the tree together. When she escapes, they all agree it was a close call. It would be awfully silly, they think, for someone to die this soon, and besides, aren't they all working together?

They go back inside and they laugh. They are all green. None of them have an idea of what happens when they aren't any longer. They are all happy.

This changes. It also doesn't.

I start this story with the tree because they all, together, agree that the tree is ridiculous and silly, but all help to cut it down anyway. I start this story with the tree because by the end--

Well. My point is that the tree is a far happier story, in my opinion. My point is also, maybe, that starting with what it would become, well, that won't do at all. Starting with the part of the story that's sad, dramatic, ridiculous--that rather misses the point.

The point is that it started with a cave, and a tree, and everything else came collapsing down after it. It's easy to bury the memory of a time it would be safe to all hide in a cave together, laughing, and save one another from a tree.

It does not do to forget.

#a bee fic #3rd life smp #HAPPY THIRD LIFE ANNIVERSARY i had to get at least a LITTLE something out there #ANYWAY DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THE TREE THAT ENARLY KILLED CLEO #oh good times. a time before we had ANY IDEA what was happening next huh. #trafficfic