When I opened my eyes, I could see my brother looking down at me from my bed. He looked happy.

"Good morning Tim!" he said. I groaned and sat up, rubbing my eyes.

"Morning bud, you're up early." I said as I noted the sun was just rising on the horizon.

"We never mounted the fish on the wall like you promised." he pointed out. I took a moment before responding.

"Oh shoot, that's right. Yeah, give me a moment bud, we'll do that right away."

"Okay." he responded as he climbed off my bed. I reached my arms out to stretch them, hearing the bones crackle as they became ready for use. Then, I got out of my bed and stretched my legs until they no longer felt stiff.

"Alright, let's do this." I said and left our room. Max followed close behind as I approached the item chest in the living room. Once I opened it, I pulled out the essential materials needed to make an item frame-eight sticks and one leather. Then, I put them on the crafting table and placed them correctly. Within a quick moment, they shot together and formed an item frame. Heading to the wall in front of the wooden coach, I placed the frame onto the wall, then brought out the clownfish, the same one Max had caught yesterday. Then, I placed the fish within the item frame, making sure it was securely placed before letting go. I backed up so he could see it, then lowered to rub his back.

"There we go. That's the first fish you've ever caught!" I told him, my face beaming with pride.

"I'm going to be an even better fisher than you one day!" he said with a fierce grin plastered on his face. I wondered if he had already forgotten about the pillagers. I hoped so.

Despite the disaster that had happened yesterday, I was really glad I could share this moment with my little brother. I remembered when I was in his shoes, and Dad had been the one teaching me. Things were so different back then.

I realized we still hadn't had breakfast yet.

"Oh, hold on dude, I still gotta make us some breakfast." I told him as I quickly made my way to the kitchen.

I opened up the food chest and pulled out some bread and two empty buckets. Then, I went out back to milk the cow. As I did so, I thought about what to do.

If the pillagers had claimed Lake Bolblock, then how was I supposed to work? I hadn't heard anything from the mayor at all. What was he doing? Even more concerning was our financial situation. I had struggled to make ends meet even before the pillagers surrounded the village. I didn't have much money in my personal savings, only thirteen emeralds. That was maybe enough for two days. It would be tough-really tough-over the coming days. We really had no choice but to skip lunch from here on.

I remember the pillagers' warning to us. They had said they would kill all of us in five days. That was yesterday, so there were only four days left. My mouth went dry at the realization.

"Fuck... Please Red City, we need you." I caught myself saying out loud. The cow just looked over at me and mooed as it chewed on the hay from the hay block. I straightened myself.

If... if the worst case scenerio happened, then I want Max to be as happy as he can be before it happens, I thought to myself before becoming angry. A kid like him deserves to have a good life, not be killed at the hands of such evil creatures!

I hadn't realized I was finished until I heard the cow let out a pained moo. Then I looked down and noticed the buckets were completely filled. I picked them up and gave the cow a pat on the back before heading back inside, making sure I was calm before I went in. Then, I went into the living room and handed Max his breakfast as I started on mine.

"Guess what bud? I was thinking maybe we should spend the entire day messing around and playing. Would you like that?" I asked him before taking a bite out of my bread.

"I would, but... what about those bad people? I want to stay away from them..." he replied. I shrugged his concern off.

"Ah, you don't need to worry about them. They won't bother us as long as we don't bother them. As for some games, I have a few in mind. Let's talk about it after we eat." I told him as we continued on our breakfast.

Once we finished, I guided Max outside and we headed to our backyard. I made sure I had everything I had planned to use for our games.

"Alright bud, so how about we play Potato Toss?" I suggested as I brought out a raw potato I had gotten from one of the farmers' composters a while ago. "Rules are pretty self-explanatory-toss the potato back and forth until one of us drops it. The one who doesn't is the winner." I told him.

"Okay! I'm gonna pound you!" he said with a competitive smile. I smirked back confidently.

"We'll see." I tossed the potato at him. He managed to catch it, then he threw it back really hard. I caught it before it hit my chest.

"Hey bud, remember to play nice. I don't want to get injured." I told him. He nodded in understanding. I tossed the potato back at him and he grabbed it just before it could pass his side. Then, he threw it back and I caught it, but my grip wasn't strong enough and it fell to the ground. I heard Max let out a triumphant chuckle as I picked it back up.

"Good job bro! But you haven't seen me get serious yet." I said, tossing the potato up and down before I threw it over back at him. He tried to grab it, but his reach wasn't far enough and the potato flew past him, landed on the ground two blocks away.

"Darn it." he said as I cheered at my victory. He retrieved the potato and we played a few more rounds of Potato Toss.

In the end, the winner was myself, but I made sure it was close to keep him from getting too frustrated. We decided to try a new game.

"Alright, so this game is what I call..." I came up with a simple-sounding name on the fly, "Spleef! So basically, you and I have shovels, and we gotta try to get each other to fall into a hole." I said as I switched out the potato for two stone shovels and handed one of them to Max. "We run around each other and try to avoid the holes we dug while trying to get the other to fall into them." Spleef was a game I had spent a couple weeks trying to come up with. I never really came up with the name of it until now, but I wanted to give it a name tons of people wouldn't have a problem remembering. Fortunately, our backyard was the perfect flat area to play it. "Remember not to swing your shovel at me. That's against the rules and isn't okay."

"I know not to do that." he protested. I nodded.

"Just making sure you understand. Alright, let's start!" I said as I started moving around, keeping my eyes on him. Max ran straight towards me and shoveled the block I was on, and I quickly jumped away and shoveled the block he was on. He quickly fell through.

"Dang it!" he said as I held my hand for him to take and lifted him out.

"Let's do it again. Don't get too cocky." I told him. Then, I ran straight for him and dug my shovel into the dirt block he was on. He was quick to jump away just as I broke the block and I quickly backed up, keeping my eyes on him.

Max charged forwards and dug at the block I was on, and I quickly moved to another block that he tried to dig up. I jumped away again and tried to shovel his block, but he lunged away. He was determined not to get tricked the same way twice.

We continued strafing around each other and digging until I accidentally misstepped and fell into a dirt pit, eating dirt. I heard him cheer as he won. I quickly spat out the dirt particles that were in my mouth.

"Darn it, I lost." I said and looked up at the sun to see what time it was. The sun was veering close to the horizon. It was starting to set. I looked over at him.

"Alright bud, that was really fun. We gotta play again some time. But now, it's time for supper." I told him. He initially groaned, but followed me as we headed inside.

I made my way to the kitchen and went through the food chest, pulling out some raw porkchops and stuffing them into the furnace to start cooking. Then, I thought about how much fun we had today. Sure, I was mostly doing this for Max's sake, but I was genuinely glad I had a reason to spend time with my little brother instead of fishing. Not having to work anymore was bad, but at least for the moment, we were happy.

Once the porkchops were done cooking, I carefully brought them into the living room and let them cool down before handing one to Max. He devoured it with gusto while I chowed down on mine. After the day we had, we were exhausted.

When we finished our dinner, I told him it was time to go to bed.

"Will we get to play again?" he asked. I nodded with a smile.

"Of course." I assured him before we headed off to bed.

I waited for him to fall asleep before I was able to slip off to sleep.

Three Days Left