Part 3: STILL haven't left yet

This is getting ridiculous.  The last time I prepared for the journey, rather than try to race the lions and bears to Squares's pen (covered with grass still in this incarnation), I opted to just use the new handy GUI to change the settings so nothing attacks horses.  Done.  Squares safe, peace of mind restored.


I farmed and farmed and farmed the same stupid wheat that I'd already farmed before, and made the same stupid haystacks and sugar lumps that I had already made before.

The only thing keeping it interesting was watching the antics of the animals in the valley below my house as I farmed.  My house overlooks a smallish valley completely surrounded by sheer mountainsides, and in a fit of torch-happy glee, I lit up every inch of the valley.  Traditional Minecraft monsters (zombies, skeletons, and creepers) only spawn in the dark, and since it's never dark in the valley, I'm completely safe from those monsters there.  The Mo'Creatures animals and predators spawn only near light, which means that at night they're popping up left and right in my valley.  It's like my own private nature show: foxes hunting bunnies, lions hunting cows, bears hunting horses, lions battling foxes, bears battling sharks (the bear won, on account of the shark being out of water at the time), and even some creatures like ogres that shouldn't have technically have appeared at this difficulty level (small Mo'Creatures bug).

Lion/fox battle!  They started out charging each other repeatedly in a flurry of roars and screeches.

Lion/fox battle part 2! In which they stood one meter apart and stared at each other for a full minute.  Shortly afterward, the lion killed the fox.  Within seconds, the other fox (must have been the first fox's second) dashed in and killed the lion.

Bird in my house!  I threw seeds to it and it eventually stopped being afraid of me.  Tamed birds don't despawn, so the bird lives in that room in my house now.  That off to the left is a huge tree growing up through the middle of my house.

Epic bear/shark battle!  Sadly, barely visible from here (you can sort of see them under the tree at the edge of the water).  By the time I ran outside for a closer look, the shark was dead, on account of either the bear's efforts or its being on dry land.

Flaming shark!  Flopped too close to that burning tree.  I wonder if I'm the first person in the history of Minecraft to set a shark on fire?

This was odd. Lion with two birds circling overhead.  The lion stayed put for a few minutes on end while the birds circled around and around over its head, making a racket.  Were they teasing the lion?  Had the lion just hit its head?  So many questions!

This was positively freaky. A red man stood against the wall at the far end of my valley, making constant "ouch" noises and slowly revolving in pain.  I took some screenshots and then skedaddled, hairs standing up on the back of my neck.  I think this was a werewolf, which isn't even supposed to spawn on "easy" difficulty.  Another minor Mo'Creatures bug.

This is not a small number of sharks on the lawn.  These are only three of the approximately twelve that I counted dying on the grass all at once.  Took a screenshot from one of my windows in the house showing all twelve, but it's hard to make them out.

There was one problem, however.  See it yet?  I finished all my preparations, carefully chose my inventory, and made the journey to my southern house where Squares was waiting in his pen.  Had been waiting.  Instead I found a lion in the pen.  Turns out the "hunters don't attack horses" setting doesn't work.  Minor Mo'Creatures bug.  The lion didn't take kindly to me trying to ride it, so I instead beat it to death with a bow (too panicked to draw the right weapon upon finding myself in a small pen with a lion).  Then reloaded from my save.

Back to building that farm again, this time with the horse-eating predators turned firmly off (so sadly without predator/prey antics to keep me amused.)  My house bird didn't reappear.  The sharks continued to rain onto my lawn, but now there were no bears to battle them.  Sigh. But finally I was ready.

Then Minecraft crashed, losing all my progress.