By Daddy Ryan
The RV was steeped in a stillness so deep it felt coded into the night. Ariel and Alice were bundled in their bunks, Fluffernutter wedged snug between them, while I slipped to the door for a breath of air. Coolness kissed my skin, carrying the faint scent of damp earth and pine. Crickets had gone silent—a wrong kind of quiet that made my pulse thrum.
One step onto the RV’s step and I froze.
It looked like a deer—if deer came from corrupted game files. Too tall by a foot, perfectly balanced on two legs, limbs slightly too long, and eyes so wide and glassy they caught and magnified the dimmest light. No twitch, no blink. Just a locked-on stare.
My brain didn’t register animal. It registered mob spawn.
HUD Notification:
Unusual Entity
DetectedType: Unknown (Possible Hostile)
Distance: 23 Blocks
I backed through the RV door and hissed, “Girls… wake up. Now.”
Ariel’s head popped over the bunk rail, hair spiked in chaotic directions. “Why are you whispering like we’re sneaking past creepers?”
Alice was already up, flashlight in one hand, Fluffernutter clutched in the other. “Is it a mob?”
“Boss variant,” I said.
That flipped us instantly into survival mode. Ariel grabbed the campfire kit; Alice pulled her treasured emergency kindling—something she’s been itching to use for years. Fire means safety: in history books, in games, and right here, right now.
Outside, Ariel built a perfect cone of kindling like a practiced speed-runner. Alice set two folding chairs as a barricade, Fluffernutter perched on one like a sentry. One strike from the ferro rod, and flames hissed to life, spitting sparks into the dark.
The deer stepped back.
Then the forest shifted.
Slender, stretched silhouettes flickered between trees, moving in ways no living thing should. Branches cracked under deliberate weight. None crossed into the firelight, but their presence pressed close, circling.
“Tools,” I said.
Ariel gripped the heavy-duty flashlight, beam slicing the night. Alice stayed near the fire, scanning with her plush guard in hand. I hefted the hatchet.
Then Alice spotted it—a smooth, carved stone etched with looping runes, faintly pulsing in her palm. The deer’s head snapped toward it. Lift the stone, it advanced; lower it, it froze.
Ariel’s voice was steady but low. “It’s tracking the item. We’ve got aggro.”
I took the stone and moved toward the treeline. Every step I took, it matched. Dropping the stone into a hollow log, I watched it lean over… and vanish.
The next night, it came back—this time with two smaller ones, pacing in slow arcs around the RV. “They’re testing defenses,” Ariel murmured.
We crafted a double-ring light wall: torches inside, lanterns outside. Alice strung tin-can traps along the perimeter. Mid-build, she found another rune stone inside an old lantern. That’s when we realized: the stones respawn, and the deer comes with them.
Reset protocol was the same—carry it out and drop it. Ariel volunteered this time. Halfway there, one of the smaller deer lunged. A blinding beam from the flashlight staggered it long enough for her to sprint to the drop point. The moment the stone hit the log, all three vanished.
By the third night, we had a base worthy of survival mode:
Triple-ring torch fence
Elevated smudge pots for smoke cover
Escape trail marked with glow paint
Fluffernutter watched from his RV post, binoculars propped beside him.
That night, the deer didn’t just stare. It made a sound—low, guttural, patterned like a questgiver’s dialogue in a missing translation file. The rhythm matched the runes carved into the stone.
Ariel sketched the sound pattern, eyes narrowed in concentration. Alice tilted her head. “Sounds like when villagers trade in Minecraft… but creepier.”
I took the night’s rune stone and held it toward the deer. It didn’t step closer. Instead, it dropped something into the torchlight: an antler fragment, carved with the same runes.
Trade accepted.
It turned, disappearing into the trees. The silence that followed was heavy, but not empty.
We haven’t seen it since, but our camp stays ready. Torches lit. Watch post manned. Inventory stocked.
Ariel’s convinced collecting enough fragments will unlock a larger quest. Alice says we’re already in the deer’s world.
Me? I just keep the hatchet by the door.
Because bosses always respawn.
With grit and grace,
Daddy Ryan
