Chapter 4: Night of the Crawlers

On the third night, the void started to move.

The white sun slid down to the rim of the sky, and the black below my patch began to crawl.

The first rimecrawler came up over the edge at dusk.

It was a knee-high pale crab with a shell of ice and eight legs that clicked on the dirt.

Protection stopped players from hurting players.

It did not stop the dark from hurting anybody.

The chat was already screaming.

A player: [THERE'S SOMETHING ON MY PATCH]

TinyTurnip: [it's eating my logs it's eating my logs]

A gray line flashed across the top of the feed.

[A player was bitten. Health 40%.]

I had lived through this night once, inside a ring of Brett's warm fire, and I had never looked at the crawlers.

Now I looked.

The crawler on my patch stopped two steps from my feet and tilted its shell.

I raised the starter hoe, which weighed more than my whole arm, and then I put it down again.

I took a log from my inventory and held it in both hands.

Hearthfire, I thought.

It was the first time I had tried to use it on purpose.

[Hearthfire activated. Ember Points: 3.]

The log caught from nothing and burned a clean white-gold, brighter than any fire I had seen in that world.

The crawler hissed and backed away.

Another one climbed over the edge, and a third, and then they were all pouring up out of the void around me in a ring, pale and clicking.

They did not come closer.

They shook their shells and slid back into the dark.

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