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The island was massive... a massive floating landmass. It was all so very strange. And quiet. A bright light filled the air, blasting through the frozen twilight of the land, and a single blue-green pearl floated from the disturbance in the half-light. The pearl landed on the hard stone of the ground, and split in two clean pieces, and a dark shadow emerged from it. The shadow rose up to about three meters in height, and solidified into the First.

The First opened its glowing violet eyes and examined itself. Four long limbs and a small body by comparison. It turned its eyes to its mentality. Great power. So much more power gifted to it than the rest. The power to not only move the blocks, but to create. It could create. It could make things into being from the endless air surrounding the landmass. The landmass. It looked around at its place.

It was such a flat landscape. So very, very flat. Perfect. It decided it would create things to live in, and for others to live in, so that it could overcome the desperate loneliness that had taken so many minds of so many deities to rule this land before it. So it did. It did not know how long it took, for time did not exist in this place, this End of reality.

When the First finished, it stood and looked over its creation, a sense of some vague emotion coming over it. Pride? What was this pride? It felt good. It wanted more of this feeling. This pride. But what could do that again? For the first time, the First stopped working and wondered. What could give this feeling of pride again? Then it remembered. Filling these towering spires with what they were meant for. More. The First raised its long arms and called into being more of the pearls that had created it. The pearls dropped and cracked open, just as the one of the First had, and the shadows emerged and became more.

Once again the First thought. What can I do with them? I need some way to tell them what they do. What I do. It scanned itself once more, and found that there was something there on the lower part of its head. An opening of some sort, and inside, two passages. One to its lungs and by strange cords that it sensed would make noise if air brushed them, and one to its bowels, to satisfy it of a hunger that would never be in the End.

"Others," it said, testing out its voice, which had a sort of gravelly texture to it. "We are the Ones of the End. We are the Endermen." The others nodded with a solemn nature, understanding coming to them in the blink of an eye. And they began to work. They made more structures, they made more pearls, they made more accomplishments, and soon they filled up all of their goals and searched for a way to satisfy more.

The First once again raised its arms and each of the Endermen's bodies started to glow with a purple aura, and understanding came to them like lightning. They no longer needed to move with their legs; they could will themselves to go to a place, and they would go there. The First willed itself to go to a place that pleased it, a place of infinitely spanning land, and it did. The First found itself in a shadowy keep, out of a starry portal that it knew lead back to the End. The First smiled. The first smile of its race. It had found a place that was perfect. More came, and they began to work with this new world, long before any other race. Creating mythical items that only they could use at the time, called Music Discs. They were filled with pride. What they had longed for.

A figure loomed in the darkness of His Nether stronghold. His eyes glowing a bright nothing. The Endermen were supposed to be His servants. He had created them with too much intelligence. They must be snuffed out, along with their creations, to make room for new ones.

He lifted his hand and willed a thing into existence, a thing called a dragon. When He was pleased with it, He sent it to the End and multiplied it, creating the army of dragons, bent to His will to create chaos and nullify the Enderman race. For creating chaos is what He did. For He was Herobrine.

Before long, His chaos had worked most of the way, and the Enderdragons developed the abilities of destruction, to rival their enemy, whose was creation. The Endless battle raged on, and soon slowed almost completely, for the dragons had developed something no being could have expected.

They developed sentience.

Where am I? I opened my eyes and looked around. Such a weird place... The world seemed to be watching, waiting for what I would do next. I could feel it. Or maybe that was just the dizzy feeling from waking up to so much nothingness. What could I possibly learn from staring straight up?

Wait... is that a cloud? It can't be a cloud. It's square. I carefully worked my consciousness through my body, wiggling my fingers and toes... why was there a lack of toes to wiggle? I looked at myself. Square. I nearly jumped up and screamed.

At least I still look the same... I thought while looking over my now perfectly-right-angled body. The greenish skin... same. The gold and silver armor I was wearing... same, besides the uselessness of it now. My eyes? I sat up slowly, trying not to vomit of dizzy sickness. Okay, now I know what it feels like to be in one of those stories about waking up knowing absolutely nothing... I stood up as carefully as I could, wobbling over to the surface of the water to look at my face. Still the same. Still with deep, oceanlike blue eyes. Except, obviously, for the squareness. Then I noticed the sun's reflection in the water and I jerked up, looking around for something to calm the worry in me. The strange thing was, I had no idea WHY there was worry. Some memory inside me. Something telling me that darkness is no longer what it once was to me.

I never feared the dark. I realized. Yet somehow these memories I seemed to have now suggested that there IS something to be feared. So I went looking for what it was I needed to look for. The landscape was the weirdest I had ever seen. It was all made of cubes, about one meter in length. Dirt cubes, sand cubes, stone cubes.

Strange...

I looked up from my daydreams. The sun had gotten lower in the sky, and framed there was a forest. Trees! That's what I needed! Trees!! I began to hit the one nearest to me, shrinking the blocks of wood down into more mobile blocks, and breaking those into blocks of planks, which seemed much more useful. Ok, now that's done... What next? I blinked, and the answer presented itself as clearly as the knowing that I had to find trees. The sun had gotten too low into the sky to build anything, and I was beginning to get desperate, even though I still didn't know why. There was still some nagging voice inside me, telling me to hurry up.

I looked around frantically, and spotted a low hill with a cave in it. There. I ran toward it, racing the darkness behind me, and got there just as the sun fell behind the horizon. I used some of the planks to board up the opening except for a space I could get into, and looked around, taking in what would be my home for a while. The first thing I noticed was the black mineral deposits in some of the stone in the walls. That's interesting... I wonder what it does? I tried punching it like I did with the wood and tree, but all that succeeded in doing was making my hand sore. That's when I realized that it was pitch-black in the cave. Or at least, it was supposed to be. The moon had risen on the opposite side of the cave entrance, so its light wasn't shining in, but the interior still seemed to glow a dim blue. Why... Oh! So this is why I never feared the dark! I can still see fine!

The cold darkness of the cave melted away to my gaze, as if letting me pass, thinking I'm someone important. Maybe I AM someone important... That thought held me captive for a while, and I imagined being a king of some imaginary land. The vision was suddenly shattered by a fierce pain in my shoulder. I cried out in pain and looked at the wound. There was blood beginning to well out of it, and it was probably stopped at least halfway by the arrow sticking out. I looked to where the shot came and saw a creature emerge from a shadow. No way... What sort of strange land is this? I saw before me a walking skeleton, with a bow drawn and aimed at my chest. It's jaw clicked and I saw a skinny white finger twitch. I'm going to die here!

Then, everything went slow-motion. The arrow was released and it flew towards me. I dodged to the left and ran directly at the skeleton, who stepped back and notched another arrow and let it fly. This time I realized what was happening and let my instincts take over, ducking and rolling under the projectile. I leaped at the bony figure and grabbed the bow it was holding and wrenched it upwards right as an arrow flew from it. "You're out of luck, skeleton." The words were a bit cheesy, but they seemed appropriate, no matter how cliche. I yanked the bow away and it dissolved into thin air, and started punching the skeleton in a half-blind fury. After a few hits the skeleton disappeared in a puff of white smoke and left me breathless in front of a single white bone.

"This is all I get?" I muttered under my breath. It seemed like a puny reward, for the pain I went through when the arrow hit me. Strangely, the arrow disappeared along with the wound when I was punching the skeleton, and I felt fine. I explored a little deeper into the cave, which thankfully wasn't that deep at all, just big enough for a good sized house. I went back to the entrance and wondered what to do next, arranging the wooden plank blocks mindlessly as I wondered.

Then, something strange happened. Once I had arranged four of them in a square, they melted into a different block. A workbench. I placed it in a nice spot near the black mineral, and had a look at what it did. Huh... It just gives a bigger area for stacking blocks? I sat and thought about it for a little bit. I need light. I don't want any more monsters in here. I arranged two of the wooden plank blocks on top of each other, and they morphed into four sticks. After that success, I thought about what I would need to get rid of stone, since the black mineral was inside stone.

Think... What am I doing? I'm digging stone. What are you ACTUALLY doing? Hmmm... Mining stone? Yeah! What do you think of when you say "mining"? Uhh... Miners? What do they use? Pickaxes! On that thought, I looked at the sticks and wood planks, and arranged them like a pickaxe, three on top, and a stick in the middle like a handle. Nothing happened. Maybe the pick part of it was in the wrong shape? I arranged the planks to more of a curved shape. Still nothing. I moved them back to their position. I looked over my design and noticed something.

The handle's too short! I added another stick to the bottom and the items on the workbench morphed together into my first tool. I held it up and admired my work. A wooden pickaxe! Definitely a start! I put the pick to the stone around the black mineral and it broke pretty quickly, dropping a lump of black stuff. I picked it up and looked it over.

This... What is this? It seems familiar. I remember using it once to... It's coal! Coal is used to burn stuff, and fire makes light! Yes! I put the coal to the surrounding stone to see if it would light. Nope. Maybe something else? I stuck the coal on a stick to carry it easier... And it set alight! A torch! I smiled gratefully for the light, and began making more torches from the leftover coal and sticks, and placing them around the cave, until it was bright enough to see by clearly. "Perfect!" I congratulated myself. It seemed like such a nice accomplishment. Of course, I completely forgot that I still needed to cover up that opening...

I sat there smiling, happy for myself at making a decent shelter. This is great! I have all I need to survive now! Enough wood, light... Wait... What was that? I looked around and jumped backwards in complete surprise. A half-rotting thing had stumbled through the opening in the entrance and had very nearly grabbed me. I would have been caught if it wasn't for the sound of it groaning in triumph.

"What are you? Some sort of zombie?" It reacted by leaping forwards and giving me a vicious scratch across my chest. "Agh! Don't like that? That's what I'm going to call you, then!" I dodged another one of its swipes and kicked it as hard as I could square in the face. The zombie stumbled backwards, a trail of repulsive green-brown blood running from its nose. I gave it my most evil smile. "That's right. I can hit hard. Come get me!" It growled in it's gurgling, rotting voice and charged at me again, aiming another brutal swing at my head. I ducked and it went staggering to my left, thrown off balance by its own miss, and I wound up and punched as hard as I could in the side of its skull. Once again it was sent staggering by my blow, and this time it narrowed its pitch-black eyes, as if noticing something in its decaying brain.

"You..." It growled. The voice was extremely garbled, but still understandable in a way that sent a cold chill down my spine. "He said there would be one like you. He promised us. He said you were to die. He commanded us to hunt you. You will die. All of them die. All of them fall to us. Then they join our army. You have no hope."

I stared back in dumb shock. "There are more people like me?" The zombie smiled, revealing a half-decayed mouth full of sharp teeth.

"Not anymore!" It made one final leap at me, and I stepped aside and smashed down with my fist on its back. The zombie let out a dying moan, and disappeared in a puff of white smoke, just as the skeleton had. I examined the floor where it had fallen and found a very repulsive looking chunk of rotting flesh. Yuck... I hope I don't ever need this... I picked it up and went to the door, thinking to throw it out, and stopped.

There were things outside. Tons of them. I recognized more of the zombies and skeletons, as well as giant spiders and green things with no arms and four stubby legs. I quickly tossed the rotten meat as far as I could and ran back inside and to the workbench. There had to be something I could use to block the entryway, yet still be able to pass through when I wanted. A door. I need a door. I stacked blocks on the workbench furiously, in rectangles of varying sizes. After a few seconds I came up with wooden planks in a rectangle two blocks wide and three blocks tall, and they merged into a wooden door.

Perfect! I grabbed the door and ran over to the entryway, only to see about four zombies running (or stumbling) straight towards me. I jammed the door into position as the zombies got there, and I backed away in fear as they began to pound on it. There was no way I could take on four of them bare-handed. And it was only a matter of time before they broke down the door. I need some sort of weapon! A sword? Yeah, that would do fine! I went back to work at the workbench, and was alarmed to see only four wooden planks remaining. So I can't screw up... I broke two of the wooden planks into more sticks, and I placed one stick down as the handle, and placed the last two planks over the stick. They merged, and the planks sharpened themselves to a fierce point. I had made myself a wooden sword. I picked it up and stood ready for my enemies, as if I had been doing this for years.

The zombies broke the door and I rushed into them, sending the first in line flying back out the door. The other three leaped, and I tried dodging to the right, like I had before, but one caught me on the shoulder and I staggered backwards. They growled in triumph, and I ground my teeth against the pain, pushing myself upwards and slashing fiercely at the one closest. My sword bit into its neck, and it moaned in agony before vanishing into white smoke like my other two defeated adversaries had.

The final two zombies cornered me from either side, growling in rage, and I ducked as they both threw an arm at me... and hit each other. As they stepped backwards and watched each other angrily, I jumped up and dashed to the one on my left, stabbing my sword straight into its chest. The zombie grunted, looked down at where the sword still bore into it, and laughed. It grabbed hold of the weapon and pulled it out, shoving it back to me.

"Oh yeah, I forgot... You're zombies..." I spun and delivered a vicious cut to the side of its head, and its eyes went blank and it vanished into the same smoke as its allies. I turned around and jumped back just in time to avoid being caught by the last zombie, who glared at me through one eye, as the other one was absent, replaced by the side of a cracked and exposed skull. "You're an ugly one, aren't you?" I said to it. It gurgled up some reply, but it sounded a little too much like "uurrgharrugghh" to understand. I lunged at it and swung my weapon as hard as I could, and its eyes went blank as I waited for it to fall. First the body, followed by its head.

Thankfully none of them had dropped the foul meat that the first one had, and I stood and inspected my sword. I cried out in dismay as I realized that it had a crack running almost completely through the middle. A few more hits and it would be worthless. I needed some stronger material. Iron sounded like a good choice, but there was none of the valuable ore within the cave, and I didn't quite have the heart to go exploring without a sturdy weapon. What, then, would be the next best thing? I looked around at the stone walls of the cave. Maybe... I went to replace my door, which had dropped into its tiny form when the zombies broke in, and I began to mine the surrounding stone.

To my surprise, when the stone broke, it didn't drop into a miniature version of itself like the others did, it dropped into a sort of rough cobblestone. I got two of the cobblestone blocks and put them in the same design of the sword, where wooden planks should be, and the stone sharpened itself to a point, like the wood had, and created a stone sword. It was a little heavier, but I could tell right away that it would last a lot longer than the wood one had. I smiled. I really am going to pull through this, aren't I?

I sat there admiring the sword for a while more, and then went to the door and looked out its windows. The moon was now visible nearing the horizon, and it would only be a couple minutes before the sun came up and I could go out and explore again. I shrugged and, with nothing better to do, used my wooden pickaxe to mine more of the coal until that was all gone, and mined as much stone as I could before the pickaxe broke, which ended up to be about thirty more blocks of cobblestone.

I crafted myself a stone pickaxe to replace the broken wood one and went back to the door. The sun had come up, judging from the brightness of the sky, and what I saw was either one of the coolest or scariest sights of my life. The zombies and skeletons were on fire. All of them that were in the open were groaning and clanking in sheer agony as the flames of the sunlight engulfed them. Soon they were nothing but piles of dust, blown away quickly by the breeze. I watched a little longer as the spiders and green things casually retreated into the shadows of caves and holes, and I opened the door, my new stone sword at the ready. Seeing nothing, I walked into the open.

Suddenly, I heard something drop down behind me. I turned around and one of the green things had come down right there. "Uhh... Hi?" The thing made a loud hissing noise and began to swell up.

Woah, it looks like it's going to- The creature exploded in a ball of fire, and I was sent flying backwards. I kept my eyes closed until the burning pain went away, and I got up groggily. I looked back at where the thing - the creeper, I decided to call it - had exploded. I was left staring at a smoldering crater in the ground, and a very open front half of my "house."

Great. Just great. I'll have to hurry up, if I want to find a place to stay tonight, then... I quickly gathered up the torches I left in the cave, and set out over the rolling hills, with my sword at the ready for any other nice surprises. It had been a few hours of journeying when I heard a growl. I stopped. A zombie? No, not during the day. I heard the growl again and looked at my stomach, which seemed to be making the noise.

I'm hungry. Huh. I looked around, hoping for some sort of tree with fruit on it. None. Just seemingly endless hills, covered in grass and flowers. Nothing. I needed to kill an animal, then. I looked around again and saw the multitude of pigs wandering around. Well, looks like I'm having pork for lunch!

I picked out the nearest one and hoped it wouldn't be too nasty. I've had experience with blood before, and I wasn't afraid to kill something, but I didn't think I could handle stuff spewing everywhere. I leaped at the pig, bringing my sword down in a vicious arc to its back. The animal squealed in pain, and vanished in a puff of white smoke, like the monsters had, and I was left with a piece of porkchop. Not exactly appetizing, as it was. Thinking of an idea, I checked to see if I had any wood from the earlier cave, and I found some, remembering the leftovers from the explosion. I made myself a workbench and set it down, and began crafting once again. I needed something that could withstand fire, as well as hold things in it to burn in fire.

So, I'll make it out of cobblestone... like a big block with a hole in it, will that work? I put cobblestone in a ring around the edge of the magical nine-square space I had used to craft my tools, and they came together into exactly what I was looking for. A furnace! I set the furnace down and put the porkchop into the top, and thought about what I could burn. I could use coal, but that seemed like a waste of resources, considering I only wanted to cook one thing. Maybe burning a couple of sticks would be good enough. I broke some of the leftover planks into sticks and put them into the bottom of the furnace, and they instantly set alight.

A little bit impatient because of my ever-present hunger, I paced around the furnace eagerly, my mouth watering as the smell of the cooking porkchop hit my nose. Finally, the flames died out and I pulled the porkchop out of the furnace. It looked delicious. Apparently I was now a good cook. I took a large bite, savoring the juices as they trickled down my throat. I took bite after bite, until the last of the porkchop disappeared in my hands. Satisfied, I took the workbench and furnace with me, careful to use my pickaxe on the furnace, as it was made of cobblestone. I came over another hill and looked around, hoping to find something I could get to before the dangerous night falls. Seeing nothing, I ran to the next hill in line, trying to keep my patience. Still nothing. The next hill. Nope. I sank to my knees in despair. As good a fighter I was, I had no hope of surviving a night out in the open, and I didn't have enough resources to build a shelter.

"How can there not be anything!?" I shouted out to the blocky heavens, which responded in adamant silence, for they didn't care for yet another weary traveler about to die on their doorstep. They had seen it a thousand times before, if that zombie was anything to listen to. No. I can't give up hope. I have time left, and I'll use it! I got up and kept running through the hills, searching everywhere I went for something. Some sign of trees, or shelter. The day went on, and as the sun dipped low on the horizon, so did my hope of finding anything. I drew my sword with bitter rage at the world, preparing for the night to come, and the endless torrent of monsters...

Quite quickly, the sun sank below the edge of the world, and I wondered in the background of my head if the whole world was square here, or if it simply never ended. The sky went dark above me, and I checked one last time to see if there was anything to save me. The light in the area in the south where the sun went down seemed to linger curiously with some anticipation, as if wanting to watch me die.

Hah, that zombie must have been right. I will die at their hands. But if they think I'll go down without a good fight... I'll show them. I got to the top of the hill, noting the strategic value of it. An arrow flew by my head. They were warning me. Toying with me. I roared out in rage at the world. "Get it over with! Come and bring me down!"

All at once, the ground seemed to rumble and moan in response, and I saw, climbing out of the ground, zombies. All around the hill they were climbing out from the depths of hell itself. The first wave, the foot soldiers of the undead, were coming for me. They began to run, stumble and limp up the hill, and I readied my sword in bitter preparation for the onslaught of claws. The first reached me and I didn't hesitate to kick it as hard as I could back down the hill. It flew backwards and fell apart. The pieces of the zombie tripped more of them, and they piled up in a heap on one side of the hill.

I didn't have much time to look as more swarmed the other side, and I swung my sword in a wide slash, cutting a row of them in half. The severed bodies kept crawling my way, in a horrifying display of persistence to end my life. I gripped my sword tightly and stabbed another through the chest, and, remembering how this had failed last time, wrenched it upward, creating a large gash in its chest and nearly ripping its head off. It stumbled backwards and joined the clouds of white smoke as I ducked another blow, and jumped up in a vicious uppercut to its jawbone. It jumped about a foot in the air and landed on one behind it. Some crawling zombies reached me and I slashed down lower, severing arms, hands, and skulls from bodies, and sending them to their doomish white smoke.

I thought I heard a shout from another hill, but I couldn't see through the smoke clouds I was creating, nor did I have the time to. I spun, kicking another one and following through with a cleaving move of my sword, putting a large gash in it from shoulder to hip, and I staggered forward as one finally hit me in the back. I turned and cut off its arm, which was poised to take another whack at me, and I put my rage into another stab, which sent my sword through the zombie's eye.

Then came the silence. I looked around as the smoke cleared. Was that it? That couldn't be it. Then I understood. The next wave. There were spiders all around, but very few compared to the number of things in the last army. The ground moaned again, and a white, bony hand shot up next to my foot. I kicked it, and more of the skeletal arm popped out, then a skull, grinning up at me with that terrifying look of a murderer. I growled.

"You won't take me. You will never take me. Understand?" Not waiting for the skeleton's answer, I kicked it as hard as I could and watched it sail through the air and land near one of the spiders, then disappear into white smoke. More skeletons began to dig themselves up at the base of the hill and grab bows off of their backs, and some of them even hopped onto spiders and acted as commanders. I knew I wouldn't survive long against the bows with nothing to hide behind, and I looked to see how much stuff I had left. Some cobblestone. An idea formed inside my head, and I set to work right as the first skeleton raised its bow and fired. I barely dodged it, and more skeletons got ready to fire.

I took my cobblestone and made a small barricade around me. Thee blocks wide on each side, and two blocks high in the corners, with one block tall barricades in the middle of each wall. I ducked into the corner as the first next arrows slammed into the area where my head used to be.

They have killer aim... I suppose they don't have anything better to do than practice their killing though, do they? I heard the bones clacking as the skeletons marched up the hill to get a better shot at me. I kept down, hoping that I had built it well enough so that they couldn't use their advantage of long range. The clacking got closer and closer, and I could start to hear the dry voices of the skeletons.

"This one is smart. We've never faced one like this before."

"Yes, and he is strong too. He only suffered one hit from the zombies."

"Do you think he will beat us?"

"What are you, a cowardly slime? We surround him on all sides. If he puts his head up-" Just for the sheer humor in it, I interrupted it by looking up. Almost immediately, skeletons from all around lifted their bows and fired. I quickly ducked down again, laughing to myself, despite how close I came to death. I heard a shout from one of the skeletons on spiderback.

"Have you no brains? He never made a roof!"

An ice-cold wave of fear went down my spine. I hadn't made a roof to the barricade, and now they knew that too. I never considered the fact that they were smart enough to fire into the barricade in arcs over the wall. I heard the skeletons raising their bows into the air. I checked my cobblestone. Four blocks left. I got up as quickly as possible and closed up all but one of the side openings, and made a one-block roof in the corner. I dove under it right as I heard the chorus of bowstrings being released. I watched in horror as arrows slammed down inside my shelter, almost completely covering the floor. I would have been very, very dead if I hadn't made the small roof over my head. The skeletons were silent for a moment.

"Do you think we got him?"

"There is only one way to find out."

They went silent again as one skeleton went slowly up to my barricade. I waited until it poked its head cautiously into the opening, and I leaped forward and grabbed onto its skull. It let out a shriek and I yanked the skull off, then grabbed its bow before it could follow the bones into the white smoke.

Yes! I got a bow, and a nearly endless supply of arrows. Now I just need a roof... As the skeletons buzzed about what to do next, I searched what materials I had. I didn't want to use my more precious materials, so I used some of the dirt I had picked up from the creeper's explosion. That explosion nearly killed me, and now it has saved my life... Hah!

I built a roof and gathered up as much of the arrows I could hold, then notched one and pulled back, once again surprised by the apparent perfect ability to use the bow. I pulled back as much as I could, and carefully approached the opening. I spotted my target, the nearest skeleton leader, one of the ones riding a spider. I took careful aim, taking in the distance, and let go of the bowstring. It was like it all went in slow motion. I saw the arrow flying, and its destined target: the skeleton's head. The arrow slammed into it, punching a hole straight through the side. The skeleton slid limply off the back of the spider, and fell into its own cloud of white smoke.

The others turned in shock to my barricade, where I had already sent another arrow to a second skeleton commander, and notched another one. They raised their bows and fired, and I slid behind the side wall of my barricade as the arrows flew into the shelter. I quickly poked my head out and fired again as they were reloading, then ducked, listening for the sound of a hit. Nothing. I cursed my miss and notched another arrow, going out and firing again, this time hitting a spider in the eye and causing the skeleton riding it to fall off and accidentally fire into the crowd, knocking down two at a time.

Even if they miss, they STILL have killer accuracy... I chuckled to myself as I went back behind the wall. I notched another arrow and looked out, seeing that the skeletons had stopped firing and parted ranks for some reason. I held my arrow and waited to see what was coming through.

Creepers. Two of them. I fired and hit one, sending it back of couple spaces, but it continued on. I notched, drew, and fired like it was the most important thing I would ever do in my life. I took down the first creeper and put an arrow in the second, but it was too late. The creeper reached my barricade. I drew my sword and charged at it, knocking it away from the window just before it exploded, and it left a large crater in the ground.

Then came the spiders. They approached in rows of three by three, and I could already feel the rumbling of their legs in the ground. I began drawing several arrows at once, even though I knew my accuracy would fail as a result. I fired several times into the rows of spiders, causing puffs of white smoke to appear frequently in the lines. They were almost to my barricade, and to what I thought was my death, when I heard a shout off to the side.

"There are endermen coming! kill them! kill them all!" One of the skeletons was screaming at the others and pointing to a very tall, shadowy figure, that I wouldn't have been able to see if it weren't for its glowing purple eyes and the strange purple glow around it. It had very long, but thin arms and legs, and a small body (compared to the length of its limbs, anyway).

The first of the arrows struck it, and it opened a huge, gaping mouth and disappeared. It reappeared frequently in the crowd, smashing various monsters that were in a panicked frenzy to kill the enderman. More endermen stepped out from the shadows and attacked, but only after they themselves were attacked. Their thin arms dealt a surprising amount of damage, shattering the skeletons and tearing apart zombies.

I climbed out and on top of my barricade to get a better view of the fight, seeing as the attention was no longer focused on me. An exposion sounded off, telling me that even creepers were getting in on the fight. There were only about a quarter amount of the endermen as there were of the other monsters, but the endermen seemed to be winning. I watched in fascination as the endermen pounded their way through the hoards of monsters, teleporting away when they were about to be hit.

One of them had green eyes instead of purple, and it seemed to have iron armor on, and an iron sword. It had smoke around it instead of purple particles, and did an even better job of avoiding damage than the others did. It would appear only to strike one deadly blow after another, and then vanish again. I watched it disappear once more, and heard something land behind me. I started to turn around to see what the noise was, but a voice stopped me.

"Don't. We are helping you because we watched you fight, and deemed you worthy of our help, but only once. If you look at any of our race, we will forget our peace with you and try to kill you. Do you understand?" The voice had a deep, gravelly tone to it, and I knew by instinct that the being talking to me was the same one that I was watching moments before. The strange enderman that seemed to be the leader of the others, as any arrows fired at him were caught by other endermen, and the skeletons firing the arrows were killed.

"I understand. Thank you." I said. I could not have been more grateful. These beings had saved my life.

"You are welcome. Be aware, however, that if you are in trouble once more, we will not save you. Farewell, Tyron."

I felt a ripple in the air as the enderman disappeared. I saw him reappear in the battle, and was careful not to look at him directly. Tyron... I blinked. That... That's my name, isn't it? It seems like it. It just... fits there somehow. I continued to watch as the endermen defeated the last of the monsters, and melted back into the shadows as if they had never been.

I looked on in strange thoughtfulness. Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to get so angry at the world. After all, I only survived the night by a stroke of luck and kindness on the part of the endermen.

I remembered I heard a shout during the battle with the zombies, and looked around to see if the owner of the lost voice was still anywhere nearby. There was no living thing in sight, but just over one of the hills, I saw smoke.

Smoke.

Someone was nearby. I leaped up and cried out with joy, and I jumped down from the roof of my barricade. It hurt a little, but I didn't care. I had found something to keep me from going insane. I ran down the now battle-scarred hill, and began up the next... and heard the most horrifying noise of my life thus far.

SSSSssssSSSSssss.... I took as much of a leap as I could, closing my eyes, preparing for the explosion. When it happened, the world went black before I even hit the ground.

What... Where am I? I looked around. Nothing but darkness. Am I dead?

Suddenly the world opened up around me, and it was nothing like I expected it to be. I had appeared in what could very easily be called hell. The world was made of some sort of red rock and dirt, and here and there a bunch of brown or orange sand was found on the edge of the cliffs, along with massive lava falls. I found myself walking towards a road made of bricks, which also seemed to be the same material as the rocky cliffs. As I walked, I passed by some of the weirdest creatures I'd ever seen. Most of them were strange pig-like things, and most of those had large chunks of flesh missing, and held golden swords in their hands.

A gigantic palace came into view, also made of strange materials that had to have come from this place, although some parts were of a woodlike material, and glowed white against the evil feeling of the place. I found myself standing at the doorstep of the palace, and its giant entryway of hellish rock-fence. I looked up to see one of the pigmen up on the wall above the door, and one of them (which, strangely, was wearing goggles) pulled a lever. Behind the walls I could hear a consistent whirring of machinery, and the gate opened, revealing a massive room, made completely out of the rocky brick substance, with the exception of a long strip of carpet, which was made out of greenish leathery stuff, and the great throne at the end of the carpet.

The throne was something to marvel at, really. The main bit of it was made out of a dark purple, almost black substance, while the seat was decorated by diamonds, gold, and bones. The figure on the throne sat on blood-red wool, and held a scepter made of a dark, glowing blue material, topped with a diamond that seemed to have absorbed the dark pulses of the scepter around it. I only got to look around a little while though, before my peripheral vision blurred and I was suddenly standing directly in front of the throne, and the figure looked down at me. I was staring into the face of something I knew should not exist anywhere but this hellish place.

All at once, it seemed that somehow I already knew who this was. As soon as the glowing, blank eyes met mine, all the information about Him flooded my mind and I knew. I was staring into the face of Herobrine. The thing that managed to escape me, though, is how He got where he was. I seemed to only know that this was Herobrine, the most feared being known to the world. I realized then that He was controlling me. Who else? That meant, though, that He was the one who put those thoughts into me. So He only THINKS that He's the most feared. There COULD be something more... He held me in place for a long time and just sat there, either trying to scare me (which, I have to admit, was almost going to work, until I started to think a little more) or He was just thinking about what to do.

Then He laughed. It was a chilling sound, and it seemed to echo straight through me, and I shuddered. Even more chilling, was the sound of His voice, which came afterwards.

"Well, it looks like you have come sooner than I expected, Tyron."

He knows my name...

"I knew you would die, of course, and I know that you haven't quite died yet. But you're close. Very, very close. You will not survive. Even now, the sun is falling through the sky, and so is your chance of survival. Soon, you shall be torn apart by my army of the dark, and I shall watch..." He smiled cruelly, and I realized what He meant, and fear and rage alike burned inside me. "...as you feel their claws and teeth tear you apart from here, and I shall wait until your soul is completely transferred here, and I shall tear you apart and send your dead soul into the void, like I have for all the others. Every. Last. One."

It was at this point where I could contain myself no longer, and with ferocity that surprised even myself, I screamed in anger and leaped at Herobrine, raising my fist to strike. He just raised his scepter and a bolt of His evil energy shot through me, sending me flying backwards. I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, and then all was silent as my vision blurred and darkened.

The last I heard of the mythical, yet very real Herobrine was a curse, and an order in an odd language to any of his minions in the area...

With a gasp, my eyes snapped open and I sat up... only with my forehead to collide with something and send me groaning back into my position. I sat up more slowly, and saw a person with a very large nose recovering from what looked like the same bonk in the head I had received. As he looked at me a statement came into my head, and before I could stop and think about it, it had come out as "You have a big nose."

Instead of retaliating in some way, the large-nosed man simply smiled. "Glad to know you are awake, friend. You had us worried, we thought you had been killed."

"We?" I was confused.

"Yes, we. You are in the village of Fairial."

I blinked a few times. I nearly died twice and now I find the village? The world just loves me, doesn't it?

I stood up, groaning as I did so from the aching sore that seemed to cover my back, and the nose-person spoke again.

"If you feel alright, I can show you around. We only have visitors every once in a while, and none so... strange."

I looked at him curiously. "How am I strange?"

"We find your lack of nose disturbing."

Before I could answer, he did a sort of bow, and went over to a door. For the first time, strangely, I realized that I was in a smallish house. (certainly better than my cave...) The nose-person opened the door and I followed him out, squinting slightly as my eyes got used to the light. Fairial was indeed a village, sporting a well, several houses, a small building that I assumed was a library, judging by the bookshelves visible in the window, a place I assumed was a forge, and a tall cobblestone building, whose purpose I couldn't guess. The various structures were connected by gravel pathways.

The nose-person, who introduced himself as Thomas, led me around the houses, occasionally greeting someone, or checking on a farm beside a smaller house. We got to the forge, and there was a nose-person there wearing heavier leather clothing and goggles, in a heated discussion with yet another nose-person, who kept motioning to a broken iron sword on the stone table between them. "I told you, swords will break eventually, no matter what they're made of!"

The other person, I assumed he was a hunter on account of his leather and iron armor, snorted in disgust. "Hah, sure they will, but not after just one night in the wilderness!"

"It depends on where you are, and how much monsters you fight. Where were you?"

The hunter looked down, as if he knew he was beaten. "Near Starhill..."

Both the smith's and Thomas's eyes widened in horror. "Starhill!? For the love of Notch, man, what the hell were you thinking!?"

The hunter noticed Thomas and I for the first time and pointed in my direction. "Him. I was watching him fight there, and some of the monsters attacked me. Great fighter, you are, to survive a night on Starhill." He looked at Thomas and I a little more closely, and said "Where, by chance, did you two get those?"

We looked at each other, and I noticed a large purple spot forming on Thomas's forehead, and he was looking up at mine, which I assumed had a mark much like his. We looked back and Thomas grinned. "He sat up too quickly."

Thomas motioned to the smith, as the two nose-people started arguing again. "That's Berg, he'll help with any sort of metal or ore thing you have to deal with if you intend to stay here. Let's leave them and move on, who knows how long they'll be at it?" I nodded and we continued to the large cobblestone building I saw earlier. "This is the church. It's a bit tiny, really, but it serves its purpose and lets us pray to Notch when we choose, and is attended by my brother, Theegle."

Theegle? I thought with a raised eyebrow. Odd name, but okay...

At that moment, a nose-person wearing a blue and white robe opened the door and greeted us."Oh hello, Thomas! I see our guest has awoken! Have you introduced me yet?"

Thomas nodded. "Just got to it, Theegle."

"Alright then! See, this is where we pray to Notch! We believe he's the creator of this world."

I took this in with acceptance. After all, there seemed to be an underworld and corresponding demon lord there, so why not a holy god in some sort of heaven-esque place?

"If you would like a quiet place to pray, you could stay here, sir, ok?" Theegle added in.

I nodded. "Alright. Where next, Thomas?"

"Next is the library!" And with that, he headed off quickly. Apparently, the library is important. We got there, and Thomas knocked on the door quite eagerly.

I wonder what's got him so excited...

There was no answer, and he looked a bit downcast for a second. The door opened, and a nose-person came out and greeted Thomas, who looked slightly relieved. "Thomas! How have you been?"

"Good. Though, I now have matching bruises with our newest visitor..." He chuckled. The nose-person (whom I assumed was the librarian) looked at each of us in turn and laughed.

"Well, its good to know he's well after last night. Welcome, I am Veel. Unfortunately, my assistant hasn't returned from his journey yet. Frankly, none of us think he will, but it's worth hoping for. You would like him, I think. Anyway, come inside, I have a bit to show you that you may be interested in." With that, he went back inside. Thomas followed Veel in first, then I went. The building was only one room, but it didn't seem like Veel lived there and it was filled with benches and bookshelves.

I looked around at the different titles, and realized that they were sorted by category: informational (which divided into the categories of "monsters/animals," "materials," "crafting/smelting," and "items"), nonfiction, and fiction. The fiction section interested me the most, as it mainly had interesting titles with "LORE" written on them.

"It may not be the most magnificent library of all time," Veel said quite proudly, "but it certainly has enough for someone who doesn't know their facts. I assume you're the one they say would lose their memory?" Thomas looked at him oddly, and I realized I hadn't told anyone about how I got here. Veel seemed confused for a second, then began to explain. "One of the books explained about an odd newcomer with eyes and skin like yours, and the blue... thing... on your back."

Blue thing? I turned my head as much as I could, trying to get a look at my back, and Thomas seemed surprised as he got a look at my back."Great Notch! What is that? I noticed it before, but now it seems to be glowing!"

At this point, I began to panic. "Glowing!? I don't feel anything! Do either of you have something I could see my back with?"

Veel handed me a contraption consisting of two polished pieces of iron on a stick, allowing me to see my back in the reflection. Thomas didn't lie. There was a large blue thing in my back, almost like a pool of... I looked at my eyes. The same exact blue depth. Calming down, I reached behind me and held my hand over it. I didn't feel anything, but suddenly (in a flash of movement that made both Thomas and Veel jump) my stone sword appeared in my hand. I stared at it in wonder, and Veel stepped forward. "You seem to have an odd version of a backpack! Put your sword over it and concentrate on putting it away." I did as he instructed and without hardly any concentration, the sword disappeared, replaced with a piece of string I had picked up from a spider.

Veel once again proved the first to speak. "Ah, a bookmark! You could use that if you plan to read here at all. Does that sound like a good idea? By the way, we never got your name."

"It's Tyron." I said, once again filling up a bit with an odd sense of purpose. "And that sounds like a very good idea!"

The Fairial library was fairly small, but it had a nice collection of books that were sure to pass the time by. I picked one off a shelf labelled "Blocks" and began to read.

The entire world of Minecraftia is made of blocks. Most of these blocks are exactly one cubic meter in size, though some that can be created by Minecraftia's inhabitants are slightly different. This book will go through all the known blocks at the time of its writing.

Surface.

Blocks on the surface are generally not nearly as useful as blocks that may appear underground or in other dimensions. The first block anyone will ever see if spawning in the open is usually grass. Grass grows on dirt if it is in sunlight, and will decay off of the dirt block if something is placed on top of it. Grass sometimes has Tall Grass or Flowers on top of it, and is a key component in sheep farming, because they regrow their wool after eating grass. Dirt can also appear on the surface, though it is usually replaced with grass very quickly. Dirt and grass have no key uses in crafting and usually look terrible for building.

The next surface block is sand. Sand is found usually at beaches, but more commonly in deserts, where it makes up the entire surface of terrain. Unlike nearly all other blocks, sand is affected by gravity and will fall if the block underneath is removed. Sand, though not much of a block on its own, can be smelted into glass in a furnace.

By far the most useful blocks on the surface are the ones that make up trees; wood logs and leaf blocks. There are currently four documented kinds of wood logs: Oak, Birch, Pine, and Redwood. Oak trees are the most common, found nearly everywhere where trees can be found. Birch trees are usually mixed in lightly with Oak, making them the rarest. Pine trees are normally found in colder climates, and are taller than most Oak and Birch trees. Redwood trees are found in jungles, and are by far the most massive of them all, reaching up above mountains in their highest cases. Oak trees are occasionally found within jungles, either as a normal Oak tree or as one of the many bushes covering the jungle floor.

There is also a very rare biome that most call simply, "a corrupted island". This biome is home to a sort of bacterial fungus that can even infect living things. the ground is made not of grass, but of Mycelium. Mycelium is a very easily-spread fungal tissue that covers dirt on the islands, and emits spores that go off into the wind, spreading it faster. Instead of trees, these biomes are the only place mushrooms can survive on the surface, in the form of tree-sized Giant Mushrooms.

However toxic these islands may be, giant mushrooms are very easily harvested, and drop several mushrooms of their own color. Mixed together in a bowl with the opposite kind of mushroom, this makes mushroom stew, which is very healthy and restorative.

Underground

The underground caves and darkness of Minecraftia hold most of the blocks. It is made almost entirely of stone. When mined, stone becomes cobblestone, which is more useful in crafting. Cobblestone can be crafted into a furnace, stone tools, stairs, and half-blocks. Cobblestone can be smelted into regular stone using a furnace. Regular stone is used for crafting pressure plates, buttons, half-blocks, and stone bricks. Those can be in turn used to make half-blocks and stairs.

Sometimes, in rare areas called dungeons, the floor is covered with a special kind of cobblestone called Mossy Cobblestone. Mossy Cobblestone is, partly because of its rarity, a desired element in many buildings. Another common element is coal, found on all levels of terrain.

Coal is extremely valuable for someone starting out in the wilderness, and takes less time to obtain in high quantity than charcoal, which is from burning wood logs. Coal is used as fuel for furnaces and powered minecarts, as well as torches. Torches are a key component in successful mining, to light up areas you have been so that monsters do not appear in the darkness.

The next down the chain is Iron Ore. It is only found a little ways under the surface and below that, and must be mined with at least a stone pickaxe. Iron Ore is fairly useless on its own, but turns into valuable iron ingots when cooked in a furnace. These iron ingots can then be made into tools, armor, buckets, doors, compasses, minecarts, and minecart rails.

Down the line again is Gold. Despite gold being a valuable commodity, it is actually fairly useless for utility unless the right measures are applied. It needs to be smelted into gold ingots, and from there it can be made into clocks, armor, tools, powered minecart rails, and golden apples. Gold tools and armor are very soft and break easily, but tools are sharper and can be enchanted very easily.

Next is Redstone. Redstone is a very mysterious ore, and when mined it drops into several pieces of redstone dust. Redstone is the form of mechanical power in Minecraftia, and has a multitude of uses ranging from complex puzzles to simple traps. Not much is known about HOW it functions, even with how much it is used.

Even rarer is Lapis Lazuli. This gemstone is much like redstone given that it drops into several fragments upon being mined, but other than that has few uses other than blue paint. If crafted into solid blocks, however, it creates a very beautiful blue block.

The last of the Ores is the rarest of them all: Diamond. Diamonds are immensely rare, and can be crafted into tools, armor, jukeboxes, and enchantment tables. Diamond tools and armor are of the highest caliber available, and those who wield them are generally treated with respect. Diamond pickaxes are the only known tool able to mine Obsidian, an extremely tough and rare block that forms when water runs over a pool of lava. Obsidian can be used as the base of an enchantment table, and the structure of a portal to hell, or the Nether. Obsidian is also blast-resistant.

Nether

The Nether, or simply hell, as people tend to call it, is home to a surprisingly few amount of blocks. The most common of these is Netherrack. Netherrack is a bit odd, considering that it is VERY soft to mine, and has the curious ability to hold fire on to it for infinite periods of time. This makes it an ideal material for fireplaces back in the Overworld.

Another block in the Nether is Soul Sand. This is supposedly where the souls of evil people go when they die in the Overworld. You can easily see their screaming faces embedded into the mucky sand, and it tends to drag you down into it, slowing movement. Soul Sand has a few odd properties when brought back to the Overworld. The souls trapped within the sand can trap victims in certain areas, and their slowing effect is more than doubled when the block is placed on ice. This could be because of the immense heat of the Nether contrasting with the freezing block of ice.

Another, more useful, block in the Nether is called Glowstone. When mined with a pickaxe, it drops into several pieces of Glowstone Dust, which can be recrafted into the full Glowstone block fairly easily. Glowstone is the highest amount of light emission in Minecraftia that is easily controlled, and it has the curious property of being a "cold light," so to speak. It will not melt snow nearby, unlike torches, and when placed on a block of grass it feeds enough light that the grass does not decay. Glowstone's light emission can be controlled with Redstone through crafting, creating a simple light switch.

The last known block in the nether is Nether Brick, only found in the great strongholds of the evil dimension. Nether Brick is useful only as a decorative element, and comes in variations as stairs and fences.This concludes the book of known blocks in Minecraftia.

I closed the book and let my brain digest the information. There was a lot to know, it seemed. But if the only blocks in the Nether were Glowstone, Soul Sand, Nether Bricks, and Netherrack, what were those whitish trees I had seen? Oh well. Time to pick up another book. I put "Blocks" back on the bookshelf and took out another one. "Monsters".

This should be entertaining... I thought.

As peaceful as Minecraftia can be, it is inhabited with several forms of monsters that come out at night or in dark caves. This book is a guide to every known monster at the time of its writing.

Zombies

Zombies are the first kind of monster said to have roamed the night. They have a surprising amount of strength; enough to break down a wooden door! They also are able to find their way through mazes with an extraordinary sense of smell. Despite this, they are rather easy to fight and are quite disorganized in large groups due to their difficulty forming speech. All you have to do when fighting zombies is back up a step every once in a while if you're outnumbered.

Skeletons

Skeletons are another of the undead. Their bones are too weak and fragile for physical attacks, but they are quite smart despite their lack of any brain-like organ. They communicate with each other well and use bows as their weapon of choice. Skeletons have deadly accuracy and seem to be able to pull any number of arrows they need from the holes in their back vertebrae. They can ride spiders an on rare occasions a skeleton of high caliber will be seen wearing armor and holding a sword. It's best to deal with skeletons at a close range, or lure them into a trap where you can hit their legs instead of facing them head on.

Spiders

Spiders can climb up walls and jump to attack, often dropping from the roof of a cave or even the roof of your own house if you haven't built it correctly. They spawn easily, but become passive as the sun comes up. There is a variation found in abandoned mines called the cave spider. Cave spiders are far faster than their larger relatives, and are much smaller. Their venom is poisonous, making their bites much more dangerous. When dealing with spiders and their relatives, its best to use caution.

Slimes

Slimes are very rare, and often considered either an annoyance or just cute rather than a monster. They normally come in three sizes- tiny, small, and large. They move around by hopping, and the tiny slime is so small it can't do damage to you. Just because of this, however, doesn't mean those little ones are harmless. They have a tendency to push you into the nearest lava pool whenever they can. Slimes drop slimeballs, the key component in sticky pistons, and are spotted more easily from below because they drip goop through a single block below them. It's easiest to kill slimes by knocking them back as they jump at you.

Creepers

Creepers. The terror of the night. Creepers are four-legged, green things, with an almost agonized face. Creepers can survive the sunlight, unlike zombies and skeletons, and are known for sneaking up behind you after you wake up in the morning. They make no noise save for their footsteps and the hiss three seconds before they explode. They drop gunpowder, used in TNT. When you fight creepers, either knock them back as far as you can each time you hit them, or be ready to back away quickly with each hit.

There have been rumored to be more monsters, but none are nearly as common as these, and the average person never sees any more.

More knowledge. That seemed to be enough for then; my head was starting to hurt. But another mystery had presented itself. Why weren't endermen listed in that book?

Veel and Thomas began to get a little fidgety as I put the books back. What's gotten into those two? I thought as I did so. I would soon find that out.

"Err... Tyron?" Veel asked.

"Yes?" I looked at him.

"The sun's setting..."

This took me by surprise. They had houses, so why were they concerned? I looked back at them to see the two nose-people watching warily out the window, off in the horizon. "Why does that have you so upset, guys? Sorry if I come off a bit rude, but you couldn't be too scared of monsters if you're inside."

Veel shook his head and handed me a small tablet with words written in somewhat archaic lettering. "You haven't read much lore yet, so maybe you should start with this." he told me. "Things here in Minecraftia change more rapidly than most of us can record, and this is among the most recent changes."

I took the tablet and read it. Legend tells of a great siege to take place. One that shall destroy those lands which the Newcomer holds first. If you are the poor ones that know him first, beware.

"Is this talking about me...?" I asked quietly. I was rather taken aback by how I've been mentioned in important text...

Thomas nodded. "Yes, Tyron. As likeable as you are, we feared your coming for this reason."

"You're starting to creep me out a little. You all knew I would come eventually?"

Veel answered me with a slight smirk. "Yeah. You're kinda cursed and blessed, in a way. We heard that the monsters are getting smarter, and that the old legends of Herobrine were making their rise. We knew then that there would be someone to put a stop to it, but with this news comes the curse. Because Herobrine wants nothing to stand in his way, he will try to kill you. And as a result of that, he'll end up destroying villages you go to as well unless you can pull off a successful defense."

With that, I nearly collapsed. Me? Saving an entire world? WHAT? I don't... I... what? I shook my head and Thomas quickly moved a chair over as I sat down.

"I don't get this." I said slowly. "I'm supposed to go and kill this Herobrine, and restore whatever peace there might be here!?" I was starting to get angry now, even. How could anyone expect me to do this? "I'm just one guy! Sure, I can fight, but if it weren't for the help of some random creature, I would have died last night! By what this stuff is saying, that was child's play compared to what I'm really supposed to do!" Veel looked at Thomas, concern in their eyes.

"Listen, Tyron," Veel said to me, "I know it's going to be hard to believe, but you can. We'll be fine here, just wait. I had wanted you to meet my assistant for a specific reason. He's more like you than you would expect."

I looked at the librarian in disbelief. "How so?"

"For one, he shares the same lack of nose as you do."

"Not everyone has a nose?" My disbelief was sudden and tension-breaking. Both Thomas and Veel got a good laugh out of that.

"No, not everyone has a nose quite like we do. In fact, Seth looked very much different from us. Different from you, too. He had slightly lighter skin, brownish hair, and was quite good with blocks. He was a builder and an adventurer, and so very curious. It was his curiosity that led him to leave this place."

I listened to Veel with interest. The conversation seemed to be serving the double purpose of keeping their minds off of impending doom as well... "Do you think I could find him?" I asked. Veel nodded.

"Yes. In fact, that would be a very good idea. You're going to need all the help you can get, and he would be quite helpful. Not to mention you two would get along easily."

I was about to reply to that, when there was a bang at the door. All three of us turned to look, fearful of what was on the other side. Another loud bashing. And another. Then, a metallic voice was heard on the other side. "Anyone in there? Zombies have been detected on the horizon. Moving to defend village. Warning issued to outlying houses to be careful."

Veel and Thomas relaxed visibly, but I was still rather confused. "What was that?"

"That," Thomas explained, "Is someone we like to call Morty. He's the town defender golem, made of pure iron and somewhat magical. You should see him in action, he's quite amazing at killing monsters." As he said this, I saw Morty ambling by the window. He was a truly gigantic thing, made completely of iron, as Thomas said. He also had what looked like ivy growing down from his shoulder, and somewhat menacing-looking red eyes. And of course, he had a very large nose. With that, I got an idea. If I were to save the world, I might as well start here. If the siege was to be as big as the tablet said, Morty wouldn't be able to catch everything with how slow he walked. I got up and turned to Veel. "I want to help Morty."

Veel seemed surprised. "Are you sure? There's already warriors here that are trained to help..."

"Yeah, but I want to fight. If this 'great invasion' is as big as the tablet says..."

"I understand. You should probably go to Berg for some equipment. He'll make sure to set you up well."

"Alright." I began to head out the door and heard Thomas behind me.

"Good luck, Tyron!" With that, I went out of the library and walked down to the blacksmith area. I saw Berg there sharpening a sword, wearing a full suit of chainmail armor. He called out a greeting as I got there.

"Well, if it isn't the boy who survived Starhill! What can I do for you, lad?" I smiled and walked into his shop, admiring the swords, armor, and shields hanging on the walls. Then I turned to him.

"I want to help defend Fairial."

"Really now? Excellent! What've you got for equipment?"

"Well, not much..." I pulled out the stone sword, the bow, and the few arrows I had left. Berg let out a great "hmm" of thought and walked into his shop. I could hear clanging and bashing coming from inside. He walked out carrying a stack of arrows, an iron sword, and a full suit of leather armor. Berg set them down in front of me and I sat there for a second, awestruck.

"Well?" He asked. "Ain't you gonna try them out?" I nodded, snapping from my trance, and picked up the iron sword first. As I looked closely at it, the thing seemed to be made of a combination of light and dark metal, giving it a wavering tone and a light feel, despite its length and composition. I gave it a few practice swings before nodding in approval and putting it into the voidish backpack. Next was the armor. I put each piece on in order; leggings, tunic, boots, cap. They fit rather snugly, and without warning Berg's fist collided with my shoulder. The hit sent me staggering, but as I looked, I saw Berg holding his hand with a pained expression on his face. "The armor's good!" He declared, and I picked up my bow. I wouldn't have time to examine the quality of the arrows, for at that moment a roar was heard all through the village.

Berg gasped and took at step backward. "What in Notch's name is THAT!?"

I turned to look as well and saw something nobody would have ever believed. A gigantic zombie, as tall as three houses stacked on top of each other. It roared again and was answered by a swarming mass of green flesh thrashing around its feet. An army of zombies. What was perhaps even more frightening than them was the man sitting atop the giant's shoulder. He wore a light blue shirt and blue pants, and his face looked almost normal... until he looked in my direction. Straight into my eyes with a hideous smile upon his face.

His face. That accursed picture from my nightmare with the glowing white eyes. Fury sparked deep in the bottom of my stomach, and before I knew what I was doing I had raised the bow, nocked an arrow, and fired with deadly accuracy at Him. He stood and batted the arrow aside, sending it falling in two pieces into the mass of undead below. He raised his arm and pointed at me, then was gone in a flash of purple flames. The army began to surge forward, growling with feral menace and blood-hunger. Behind me, I heard Berg draw his sword and bellow out louder than I thought was possible.

"Attack! Keep those monsters at bay! Defend our home!!" Then he and all his bulky muscle charged past me, leading a surprising force of armored nose-people, following Morty into the desperate brawl. I tried to work out what to do, then saw the giant bring its massive fist down on the roof of a building, pulling out two screaming nose-people... ...and shoving them into its mouth. It crunched down on them and I could see blood dripping from its mouth as it roared challenge to the warriors below. There was no way in hell they'd bring it down from close by its feet. With a single stomp twelve brave warriors could be dead. I ran as fast as I could over to Theegle's church, slamming the door behind me and rushing through the isles, up the ladder, and onto the roof. I drew my bow again, took careful aim, and let go of the string. I watched the arrow fly through the air and hit the giant somewhere in its chest. The thing simply gave a growl of irritation and roared at me. Aim a bit higher... I followed my thoughts and moved my line of sight well above the giant's head, fired... and hit it just above the eye. It roared with fury and began to march through the bloody mess toward me, crushing zombies and nose-people alike.

I could see Morty now, flinging his arms left, right, up, down, crushing and launching zombies like nothing I could have thought up. Drawing the bow again, I took into account the closing distance between me and the giant, fired, and nailed it straight in the eye. It let out a deafening howl of pain and rage, and held its massive, bloodstained hand over its face, glaring at me with pure hatred now from the other eye. I shifted my aim to the right this time and let go of the drawstring. I didn't even see the arrow hit it this time. Hopefully it hit a zombie below instead.

The giant started to run closer, and the ground began to shake. I forced myself to stay calm and fire again, missing a second time. Fire again. Hit to the shoulder. Fire again, hit to the forehead. Fire again, hit to the chest. Take arrow, draw...

Ack!

The giant had reached the church and wrapped its gigantic, rotting fingers around me, opening its mouth and roaring, blood pouring from its wounded eye. I frantically switched my bow for my sword, grateful for the blue thing in my back, and hacked away at the giant's hand, trying to keep my breath as it squeezed tighter. It brought me closer to its stinking mouth, and I swapped to the bow again, a desperate idea forming in my head. I quickly drew, aimed, and fired. My mark was hit, blinding the giant with an arrow it its other eye. It dropped me and I grabbed onto the edge of the church tower as it fell to its knees just below me.

I let go, drawing my sword and roaring with fury, dropping onto its head and plunging my sword deep into the giant's half-decayed head. It leaned back and bellowed out to the sky with agony, and I held tightly onto the sword as I began to fall, tearing a gigantic gap into its head. The giant roared louder and I fell to the ground, turning just in time to see it stop its roar and fall lifeless to the ground, slowly degrading into white smoke. The zombie invasion saw the fall of its giant and turned around in full retreat, flowing like a green, polluted river.

The nose-people (plus Morty) raised their arms in triumph, calling out their victory to the stars. I smiled and began jogging to the mass of warriors, then stopped as I caught a glow from the edge of my vision. It was the shelter I had created atop Starhill. It's glowing? But how? I never put any torches in... My thoughts trailed off and my eyes went wide with terror as I recalled the night on the cursed hill. The zombies and skeletons digging their way up from the ground. The dim, red light shining from below their bodies as they pulled themselves out of their eternal rest. I ran again towards the nose-people, not of joy this time, but of terror, trying to warn them.

"EVERYONE!! It's not over yet! Look at Starhill!" I cried, frantically pointing my sword towards the glow. They fell silent and looked on, just in time to see the entire hill explode. Zombies, skeletons, creepers, and even some spiders emerged from the red-colored debris and smoke, marching toward the town with enough force to shake the earth from that distance. I heard Berg rapidly shouting orders, and the warrior nose-people formed ordered lines, prepping themselves in a defensive stance, with Morty at the head. I moved into the crowd and got as close as I could to the front line, readying my sword with a sort of grim determination.

These people have given me a home. They've been prepared to give their lives for me to live. I will NOT let them die! The first wave hit, and I noticed that some of the zombies even had some worn-down armor and swords. Morty raced into action with speed faster than I could give him credit for, and the warriors in front stood their ground, quickly dispatching the zombies. I saw another wave coming, this time with even more zombies and skeletons at the back. The zombies struck and they began holding them off like last time... then the skeletons fired.

The first rain of arrows came, cold and brutal, and several nose-people went down with arrows in their skulls. Morty and I seemed to have the same idea, and we both rushed forward through the torrent of zombies, slashing and smashing our way through to the skeletal archers, taking them by surprise and tearing them apart. I growled with fury and spun, slashed, and stabbed the bones around me, until none of them remained standing. We backed up to the new front line, stepping sadly over the many fallen bodies. This time the wave was made up of zombies and spiders. The spiders led the attack, getting to a distance and leaping far towards their targets, though only a few managed to sink their fangs into an unlucky victim.

I ducked under a spider and stabbed my sword into it as it flew over, then kicked it off onto the ground and flung the body under the legs of the zombies, tripping a few and causing a bit of fighting among their ranks. I didn't have much time to laugh, however, and the rest of the zombies converged on the front line. I lunged and stabbed the first one, wrenching the sword up and tearing off its head, then swiped to the side and cut down a second one. I turned and saw several zombies trying to leap onto Morty, giving him a tough time. Turning and cutting off a zombie's legs, I raced forward to help the iron giant. I stabbed the first zombie I could under the arm, and it lost its grip and fell off of Morty. Slashing at its neck, I then dragged another off and swung as hard as I could, cutting it in two. Morty dealt with the rest by simply falling forwards and crushing them all, then got back up and nodded to me. I nodded back, and we stood side-by-side, hacking though zombies and spiders alike with unrelenting ferocity.

I don't know how many I killed before it happened. A scream from the back end of the nose-people warriors. I turned to see the remainder of the first zombie army attacking from the rear. They had circled around and come up behind while we were distracted!

"Morty!" The iron giant looked at me as it flung its arm up, flinging a zombie. "I'm going to help bring them down at the back! Don't get killed on me, alright?"

Morty nodded to me and did the most peculiar thing. It pulled a rose from a fold in the iron plates and handed it to me. Dipping my head to the iron golem, I took the rose and put it into the blue backpack, then raced though the nose-warriors, who were now milling around in confusion as zombies spread through their ranks. I encountered the first of the old zombies and immediately cut its head off, rushing further without hesitation. We began to reorganize, pushing back the zombies once more. I cut through another, kicked one behind me, spun and killed two at once, stabbed, hacked, slashed...

...and I was suddenly alone. I had accidentally isolated myself from the rest of the warriors. Frantic, I swung my sword faster, in wider and more powerful arcs, not knowing which direction was where anymore. The zombies kept coming, and I kept furiously fighting them back, desperate to get back to the main force. I cleared a gap around me and pulled out my bow, drawing and firing faster than I could have imagined myself capable of doing. Then again, I had done something much like it on Starhill.

Thwack! I gasped as an arrow hit me in the shoulder. I spotted the attacker, a skeleton some meters away. Luckily the arrow had not gone deep, thanks to the armor. I rushed forward, quickly splitting its skull. Then an explosion sounded. I turned to see bodies flying into the air, and more explosions went around the village. I watched in horror as those blasted green things, the creepers, ran straight up to the homes of the nose-people and blew them open, starting fires and letting in the hordes of undead.

Screams began to echo around the clamor of battle and splash of gore, and the fight became even more brutal.

SSSSssssSSSSssss...

"No...!" I turned and raised my sword in futile defense.

BOOM

***

Smoke... Why do I smell smoke? Why is it so quiet? Isn't there... a... battle...?

Opening my eyes, I slowly sat up and looked around. Fairial was in ruins. Not one house had been untouched. Not one nose-person looked alive.

"No!" I screamed, tears blurring my vision. I failed... They've been wiped out... Because I came here... No. Maybe there's some survivors. Maybe Thomas or Morty are still alive. I got to my feet and discarded my now-useless, scorched leather armor. The arrow in my shoulder seemed to have vanished, but it still ached badly. Looking around the battlefield, I saw no movement. Just dead, mutilated bodies. I kept going, and almost tripped over a shard of metal plating. I noticed what it was, looked around, and saw the rest of the unfortunate iron giant. Morty had fallen and been cut straight through the middle by who-knows-what. His now-dull red eyes were staring lifelessly at the spot I had been lying. I hung my head and stayed there, mourning his death and kindness for a minute or so, then got up and wiped my eyes.

Where is the library...? I kept searching, finding Berg's torn armor and sword, but nothing else of him, before I managed to find the ruins of the library.

"Thomas!" I called out. "THOMAS!!"

A shuddering gasp from the ruins answered me. Bursting with hope, I ran into the burnt library and found Thomas, laying on the floor with a gash in his side and blood along the floor. Veel's body was torn in half, the gruesome sight of his entrails smeared over the wood.

"Thomas..." I said softly, gently holding him up.

"Tyron... You're alive..." Thomas coughed, in very obvious pain. "That means there is hope... Don't mourn us, Tyron... it was our destiny to die here. It's your duty to go and stop the force that destroyed Fairial..."

"How?" I pleaded desperately. "How can I stop something without any help? I couldn't even help you and you had an army!" Thomas coughed again and looked me in the eyes.

"Seth... he went along the road to the north... find... him..." With that, my first good friend dropped lifeless to the floor.

I turned and looked at Fairial one last time. The sight was beautiful and almost over-dramatic, as the sun set first behind the ruins, then the grave I had dug for Thomas. Tears welled in my eyes again, but I shook them out and turned my back to my first true home.

I can't cry now... There's no time for it. I took a step away, then another... then started running. No matter how hard I tried, tears and sobs escaped, and I felt absolutely horrible. The road of gravel I was following began to thin out, then vanished completely. I didn't care. I only cared about...

A solid wall of realization hit me so hard I stumbled, tripped, and landed on my face. Picking myself up, I sat and stared at the stars. I care about ending the force that killed my friends... I care about stopping evil from destroying the world. That's what I care about. That's what had kept me going. I've got no time to lose, and I've got nothing left to do but run. I've gotta find Seth. I looked around, finally getting a clear view of my surroundings, and daring any monsters to come and get me.There were none.I lied back onto the soft grass and stared at the stars, my eyes eventually closing and sleep numbing my body.

I blinked open my eyes, seeing sunlight all around, lighting up the land in its warm glow. I got up and stretched my arms, looking at the rising sun to the north. More rolling plains, for a long, long ways.

I better pack now instead of later. Looking around, I spotted a few cows in the distance, and my stomach growled something at me in response. Drawing my iron sword, I advanced slowly towards the cows. As soon as I got close to the first one, it looked at me with ignorant curiosity.

"Sorry about this..." I muttered to it, then drew the sword around in an arc, cutting its throat and evoking a moo of terror before it puffed into smoke, leaving a patch of leather and some raw beef in its place.The other cows looked as though nothing had happened, and continued to aimlessly wander along. Maybe I can remake some pieces of armor with this leather... I thought. Not a bad idea, but I'd need more.

Readying my sword again, I continued to slaughter cows and pick up their items, leaving me with twenty-four leather patches and thirty pieces of raw beef. Checking to see how much coal I had (plenty) I got it cooking in my furnace and set down my crafting bench, looking at the nine-square grid thoughtfully.

Hmm... A chestplate first; that has the most protection. Maybe put it in a square, but leave a hole at the top?

Success! The leather merged seamlessly into a tunic. It didn't provide much protection, really, but it was something.

Leggings next... Those should just be like pants, so an arc of seven leather in the top, left, and right of the grid... Success again. I was getting good at this. I put the leggings on and got working on the last two pieces. Boots were easy, just a few pieces of leather put together in the edges of the grid. Helmet was almost like an upside-down bucket, but with a wider top. The last five pieces of leather merged into the cap and I put it on, right as the fire in the furnace ran out of fire. I took my newly cooked steak out, ate a piece, and collected my crafting bench and furnace, heading north once again.

These plains can be quite pretty when they aren't trying to end your life. I thought to myself as I looked around. It was just rolling green hills as far as I could see, with patches of flowers scattered here and there. I could build a home here, and forget about everything...

No. I shook my head. Something made me think that He would find me no matter where I went and what I did. Suddenly my foot hit something soft. I stopped walking and looked, realizing I had gone right into one of the flower patches. I looked around and couldn't help but smile as the wind blew waves through the yellow and red flower petals. After standing there in a trance for a while, I went over and gently picked up one of the roses. It might be a little bit comforting at least, just in case I needed it.

I had a very, very long journey ahead of me.

It's got to only be one more hill. I thought wearily. It had been days since I had made my armor and found that rose. Walking up the hill, standing at the top and looking out... I saw snow. That was the first thing I noticed. The ground ahead was covered with snow. The second thing I noticed were the incredibly tall pine trees rising from the snowy ground, creating a very dark-looking forest.

I gulped. I could see fine in the dark, but where there was dark there was also monsters. Lots of monsters. And Creepers. I took a deep breath and drew my sword, putting the rose into the bluish backpack, and stepped cautiously into the forest.

Just one step in front of the other... one in front of the other... one in front- oof! I backed up a step, rubbing my already-sore forehead, and realized I had run straight into a tree. Alright, maybe I shouldn't put THAT much thought into it. Just walk in a straight line. A lot like that. Forests can't go on forever, right? What was that? I quickly spun around as a shadow moved across my peripheral vision.

Nothing there? Keep walking, then... AAH! There it was again! I was beginning to panic now, my heart racing and my breath coming faster though my lungs.There was something following me. Something dark, creepy, mysterious... I gulped and turned around to get back on track.

Then fell on my rear, letting out a startled cry of terror. For a split second when I turned around, I had stood face-to-face with glowing white eyes. I knew it was Him, but He scared me none the less. At least he disappeared when I saw him... Right? Or is that a bad thing? Get me OUT of this place! I stood up and looked around frantically. Which way was north? The trees blocked the view of the sun! I looked behind and saw that my footsteps had been blown over, and at that moment it began snowing, and I could hardly see at all!

Losing my control completely, I picked a direction and started running, hoping desperately that it would lead me out.

It didn't. Through the snow I heard a screeching howl, and as I looked back I saw the falling snow form into a wraithlike creature and begin to follow me. Adrenaline kicked into gear and I ran as fast as I could, my mind sharpening into clear glass. My reflexes became tripwire and I ducked, swerved, and rolled under and around branches and trees, trying desperately to get away from that thing that seemed to be the essence of fear itself. I dared to look back and saw with horror it was joined with other snow-wraith creatures, rapidly gaining on me. I kept running and up ahead a solid wall of stone and dirt came into view as the terrain rapidly changed to my disadvantage. Narrowing my eyes, thoughts ran through my head faster than lightning and I chose one, jumping onto the side of a tree and propelling myself up onto a branch, then up to the top of the cliff, landing on two feet and one hand, then got up and ran again as the wraiths howled after me.

Yet the forest didn't end. A wraith-wolf leaped at me from my right and I ducked under it, taking a sharp left and running in that direction.

Light.

Up ahead, there was the merest pinpoint of yellow sunlight where the trees and darkness ended. The trees began to reach their branches out to snare me in their ominous dark traps, leaving me prey for the creatures behind. Red eyes appeared on either side of the light, and my numbed mind registered that I was face-to-face with the biggest wraith yet before my body reacted and swung the sword, parting the snow and allowing me passage even as the beast reformed behind me and roared, chilling my back with its breath. My brain was terrified, knowing with each step they got closer to me, filling my life with unending horror, while my body denied the thoughts and ran on towards the light, towards hope.

The pinpoint grew in size ever so slightly. A tree root appeared in my path and my foot caught, tripping me while I already reacted and knew I should tuck, roll, and leap back onto my feet in one graceful stride. The hunters got ever closer, and I heard some distant scream of terror coming from my mouth as they appeared in multitudes and packs on either side of the path I was running down. Primal terror, pure and heavy, drove me forward and numbed my aching muscles, even while imminent doom screamed behind me though the blizzard.

Just a little bit more.Every last instinct screamed to run, and my body obeyed while my mind finally stopped in a grinding, overburdened storm of fear. The red eyes of the wraiths appeared in spots over my vision and my body registered my lungs burning and legs beginning to buckle. Snow whirled around me, sensing its victim about to fall, and began to close in. My mind came out of its shock for a split moment, seeing the entrance to freedom and exit of fear almost, almost reachable, and that was enough to give it just a tiny little shock.

A tiny bolt of hope. A tiny key to unlocking a final reserve of strength.

I ran though the blizzard of snow and fear, then came out into the open, let sunlight blind me, and collapsed into the ground. My mind and body were able to detect each other's presence once again, and I felt the pain of severely overused muscles and lungs. I heard a shout before I slipped into unconsciousness.

I blinked open my eyes.

Cobblestone.

The first thing I noticed. Cobblestone. I slowly sat up, careful not to bash my head against some unfortunate being this time. Looking around, I saw I was laying on a smallish bed, in a cobblestone room. There was a window in one wall, light pouring gently through and leaving a shadow of the window on a blue wool floor.
Laying on the floor was a cat. Mostly white, with black paws and one black ear. I wondered what its name was.
I moved my feet off the side of the bed and the cat opened its eyes and looked at me. Green eyes. Quite vivid. They held my attention for a second or so before the cat stood up and brushed against my feet. It purred and I smiled, running a hand over its head.
"Well, glad to see someone enjoys seeing me awake," I said to it. The cat made a mrrow in response.
I held my hand up to my face, noticing something that hadn't been there before.
Fur. A very, very thin layer of green fur, matching my skin color. Not even noticeable at any more than a few feet away.
Well, that's odd... Never remember myself being any more animal than I already was, I thought to myself. Maybe that's why the cat liked me so much.
I stood up carefully, then sat back down again as a bout of severe dizziness washed over my head.
"Ugh. Easy does it, now..."
I slowly stood up again, keeping my balance until the dizzy feeling subsided. I walked over to the door to the room and looked back at the cat, who seemed content to follow me.
"Let's go see what else is around, shall we?" I asked.
It replied with another mrrow.
I opened the door and stepped out into the hall beyond. It was lit by shining lamps hanging from the ceiling (glowstone?) and had several paintings along the walls.
Whoever made this place certainly had a good mind for building places... and a lot of time on their hands.
I decided to go to the left, walking along the hall with the cat behind me.
Eventually the hall came to an end in a large stairwell. Made of dark pine wood, with more glowstone lamps illuminating the way down. The cat padded ahead of me and jumped onto the railing, sliding down on its own.
Hmm. Adventurous little fellow, huh?
I worked my way down the stairs, wincing a little as my sore legs protested against the movement. My desperate sprint through the forest was like a blur in my memory.
Ugh, that happened so quickly... No wonder I'm sore. How long was I asleep, though?
I got to the bottom of the stairwell and looked around.
I was in a large entry room, with a massive pair of doors behind me that I assumed led outside. There were three passages on the other sides of the room, one leading toward what appeared to be a dining room.
Deciding to go towards where there might be food, I went through the middle archway into a room that had a large table set up with chairs all around it.

There was someone there.

He had slightly lighter skin than the nose-people, and brown hair. He was looking down at a little notebook, drawing something in it. Designs for the castle, maybe?
Hey, wait, that looks like... Seth! I made a little coughing sound in my throat and he looked up at me. Very light, sky-blue eyes.
"Oh, sorry I didn't notice you. So you're finally awake, huh?" He said. He had a very friendly voice, though I could hear a hint of cautious suspicion in his voice. He obviously had no idea what exactly I was.
"Yeah, I am," I replied. "Are you Seth?"
He blinked and looked at me, a bit surprised. "How do you know my name?"
I hesitated. What could I tell him? That his hometown was flattened, because of me? "It's... It's a long story," I said to him.
He stared at me unflinchingly. "Well, I have time."
I let out a little huff and sat down at a chair opposite the table from him. "Well, I suppose I can start at the beginning, then."
Seth was silent, listening in interest, and the cat from earlier jumped onto the table next to him.

I began my story.

"My name is Tyron. About a week ago, I woke up on a beach somewhere near the ocean. Didn't quite know where I was. Honest. I found shelter and worked up some gear, then set out to see if I could find anything; any clues as to what I was doing there on the beach. After a night fighting monsters on a hill you might know as Starhill, I was taken in by Thomas, and a small village called Fairial became my home."

I hesitated, and Seth looked at me with greater intensity.

"Thomas was a great guy... He and I became friends and he led me around the village. I met Veel, who then told me about you. He also told me about a legend of someone mysteriously showing up at Fairial. Someone without their usual nose. The legend, they thought, spoke of me. It also said that..." I tried to find a way to put the horrible omen. "...Upon my arrival, the forces of Herobrine would attack the village, trying to take me. Nobody knew why. They told me that it was my duty to stop Herobrine when he came. Veel let me learn from the books in his library, and I let the legend sink into the back of my head." I sighed softly. "That was a bad idea. Herobrine came. With an army bigger than we could imagine. We stood up and fought to protect Fairial. I tried as hard as I could. Then a Creeper caught me unaware." I could no longer look Seth in the eyes. This was his hometown. I was giving him a funeral report of everyone he cared about when he lived there. "When I woke up, the entire town was in ruins. Only Thomas managed to survive long enough to see me wake up, and he told me to find you."

I looked up and saw Seth's look of slight disbelief. I continued.

"He died in my arms... I'm sorry, I really tried. Veel had been killed before I got to them. I buried Thomas and set off."

Seth leaned back in his seat and let out a low whistle. "Well... Pardon my English, but..." He cursed.
I gulped, waiting for the word to get out of his home.
It didn't come. "Well, I suppose there's nothing to do about it now," he said. "What of your terrified expression coming out of that forest? I've been in there so many times, but have never seen anything the likes of which could terrify someone that badly."
I scowled. I may not have been able to remember exactly what happened, but I remembered the face I saw directly before. "Herobrine," I said. "He summoned these monsters in the snow... It was scary, I tell you that."
Seth shook his head, saying "I don't doubt you. Something made you run so hard you knocked yourself out for two days straight!"
THAT'S how long I was out? Wow. I let that register in my head for a second. "So, what's your cat's name?" I asked politely.
Seth smiled and ran his hand down the cat's neck and back, causing it to purr. "This is Daisy," he said. "Hope she didn't cause much trouble for you when you woke up."
"Far from it. It probably helped that she was there when I woke up."
"Good. So, I guess if you plan on staying here, I might as well show you around," Seth told me.
I considered it. Guess it'd be nice to get my mind off of Herobrine and my "destiny" for once... "Sure," I accepted.

Seth gave a friendly smile. "Good. Now c'mon, there's a lot to see."

Seth began to lead me around his castle. The place was amazing! Stone bricks and cobblesone made up the majority of the structure, and it appeared as though he had built directly into the floors and walls with the decorations and utilities he had wanted.
The place I had woken up in was a hallway lined with guest rooms. "Don't ask me why I made rooms for multiple people," Seth said to me. I didn't ask. The room I had met him in was the main dining room, branched off closely with a kitchen.
The kitchen was well-stocked with all manners of food, making my stomach growl. He handed me a few cookies, which I immediately gained a taste for after devouring them in a matter of seconds.
There was also a ballroom and from there Seth's master bedroom, found by accessing a secret stairway in the wall. (He never actually showed me the way to open it up.)
Seth also had an extremely large room with the roof entirely made of glass. I gasped as I saw every imaginable food growing within that room. Wheat, carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, melons, sugarcane, and massive mushrooms.
After that came the cat room. I was a little confused as to why Daisy would need an entire room to herself until I saw the room.

Cats were everywhere.

At least half of them looked at me curiously on my arrival, and half of those went over and nudged my feet.
Seth chuckled. "They appear to like you, Tyron."
I smiled and reached down to pet some of them, causing purrs.
We stayed there for a while before moving on, and Daisy was apparently happy to stay there. The next room was guarded by an iron door, and Seth pulled a lever behind a nearby painting to open it.
"Welcome," he told me, "to the armory."
The room was medium-sized, but it had storage chests and item frames lining the walls. There were armors of all kinds, mostly all just recolored leather armor to look nice. A few of the sets of diamond armor and weapons were labelled for specific purposes. There was one for hunting, one for mining, and one for exploration.
I spotted an empty chest, collecting cobwebs. Going over to it, I wiped some of them off of the label.
"Bluestone set," I read aloud.
Seth looked away. "An old legend," he said, "once stated that a mythical ore, the opposite of redstone and more powerful than diamond, resided deep underground. I built this entire place in search of that ore, but never managed to find it."
I looked at the name again. Bluestone... Why does it strike such a chord in my memory?

Suddenly, I remembered my dream where I met Herobrine for the first time. I remembered the scepter He had been holdinng.
The figure on the throne sat on blood-red wool, and held a scepter made of a dark, glowing blue material, topped with a diamond that seemed to have absorbed the dark pulses of the scepter around it...
Suddenly, Herobrine's face obscured my vision. I cried out and was thrown across the room as He materialized before me. Seth gasped and drew a sword from a sheath on his back. The sword glowed and I realized he had enchanted it, runes carved into the side of the diamond blade.
Herobrine spoke, in a voice as chilling as I remembered. "Well, Tyron... How do you like what my army made of your friends?"
Seth stood in front of me with his sword leveled at Herobrine. "Leave him alone!" Seth shouted.
Herobrine tilted his head to the side with interest. "Or what?" He asked.
"I'll kill you myself!"
At that, Herobrine laughed. He rushed forward and Seth gasped as Herobrine's hand went around his neck, lifting him into the air. Seth dropped his sword.
"Do you know who I am, boy!?" Herobrine roared. His voice crackled with the power He contained behind His white eyes.
"You're an- agh­!" Seth choked and Herobrine didn't like the small point of resistance, lifting Seth higher into the air while squeezing his neck.

Seth!

A little voice inside me cried out in defiance, breaking out of the fear that had paralyzed me when He appeared. Locking my gaze on Seth's sword, I leaped toward it. As I hit the ground I rolled and picked the blade up, spinning as I got to my feet and bringing the enchanted blade down on Herobrine's arm.
There was a flash and crackle as the sword cut through Him, and the disconnected part of His arm vanished into the air. Herobrine turned to me and hissed, regenerating His arm before warping space around him and disappearing.
Seth fell to his knees, coughing and gasping for breath. I helped him to his feet and offered his sword back. He nodded and took it.
"Who... The hell... Was that?" He coughed out.
"Well, you were pretty close with what you almost called him."
"Ha, ha. Now who is he?"
I hesitated. "...Herobrine. The monster that destroyed Fairial."
"How did he get here?"
"When I was looking at the bluestone label over there, I remembered a dream he pulled me into once. More like a nightmare, but that's beside the point. I had been transported to some weird place, full of red rock and dirt-"
"The Nether."
"Right. He was down there, sitting on a throne in a castle. He held a scepter made of a blue, shadowy material. I think that's Bluestone."
Seth went completely still. A wild look went into his eyes and I looked at him as if he was going insane.
"Seth, no. You have no idea what you're up against down there; if you plan to steal that scepter-"
Seth went over to an item frame and moved it aside, pulling a lever behind it.
A door opened in the back of the room, revealing one last chest. Seth pulled diamond armor out of it, glowing with enchanted power.
I continued to beg for him to rethink what he was going to do. "Seth, the Bluestone itself is not something that you can just have! There was a diamond on that scepter, being turned completely black by the stone under it! You can't risk your life like this!"
Seth chuckled, half looking at me. "...Whoever said I would be going down into the Nether? I know where we have to go, and we've got to do it fast."
I stood there, a little confused.
"Go on, take a set of tools. You're going to need them."
I went over to the combat chest and pulled the weapons and armor out. A diamond sword and diamond armor, enchanted with extra sharpness and protection, respectively. I kept my bow, as there was none inside the chest.
I looked over at Seth when I was fully equipped. "There's one more place I needed to show you," he said darkly. "The mine."

Seth led the way through his castle, until he eventually came to a wall of thick iron blocks. He pulled a lever and they slowly began to retract into the walls, one layer after another.

"Don't you think this is a little bit of overkill for a door?" I asked as I watched the passage uncover itself.
"You saw what attacked us back there," Seth replied. His mood was still serious and shadowy, while his eyes appeared to have turned to a darker blue color.
I suppose I did see what attacked us. I should have known He would find out eventually where I had gone. He most certainly knew I wasn't dead after the attack on Fairial, though I'm glad his army hadn't thought the same.
The final blocks of iron were pulled away, revealing a dark, stone tunnel, with torches placed along the sides to provide light. My natural night vision began to take effect and the castle around me brightened to near-unbearable intensity, while the mine shone as clearly as though the sun were pouring into it.
Seth began to make his way in, gesturing for me to follow. We both kept our weapons ready as Seth flipped another lever, causing the doors to close behind us.
Deeper into the ground we went, and I began to see lumps of coal and iron ores in the walls.
"You didn't mine those?" I asked curiously, trying to brighten the atmosphere a little.
"I never saw the need to, once i got this far down. I already had enough."
"Oh."
Seth began to pick up on the saddened tone of the air around us and started to speak in a slightly more happy tone. "You see, I built my castle into the edge of a mountain biome. Mountains are renowned for being extremely mineral-rich, and also being the home of emeralds, little gems that long-nosed villagers seem to have an obsession with."

I chuckled at that.

There was a small but deep bubbling noise nearby, and I turned to see little bubbles of lava dripping from the ceiling.
"We're down pretty deep now, huh?"
Seth nodded yes.
There was a very, very soft footstep behind me and I spun around, coming face-to-face with a creeper. I cried out and kicked it away, taking several steps back. The thing hissed and started to advance toward me again, and I promptly took two vicious slashes at it, cutting an X shape into its face. The creeper fell over and puffed into smoke, leaving some gunpowder behind.
I huffed a little with anger, and Seth studied me from behind.
"You have a real bone to pick with those guys, don't you?" He mused.
"They have this nasty habit of knocking me out at the worst times," I said, turning back to him. There was a flicker of light behind Seth and I adjusted my vision just in time to see a skeleton drawing back his bow.
"Duck!!" I screamed, and Seth hit the ground, right as the arrow flew though the spot his head had been a moment earlier. I drew my own bow and fired, putting an arrow through the skeleton's eye-hole.
Seth got up and looked at the skeleton as it puffed into smoke, then back at me.
He sighed. "You've got to stop killing those things so quickly," he chuckled lightly under his breath, "you're making me look bad."

I smiled and exchanged my bow for my sword again.

We advanced deeper into the cave, skirting the edges of lava lakes, watching with drawn bows through the edges of ravines, and finally walking right up to yet another lever.
"This," Seth presented with slight overdramaticism, "is what we came all the way down here for."
He pulled the lever and a few blocks of stone slid back to reveal a massive, MASSIVE cave. The thing appeared to be a large sphere, with the door opening into the side. the stone around the edges was highly irregular, almost as if...
"Seth, did you use TNT to make this?"
"It wasn't exactly my goal to make a cave. Look straight ahead. See that thing floating in the middle?"
I looked to where Seth pointed out. Sure enough, there was a decent-sized clump of material floating in the exact center of the cave.
Seth pulled a switch and a platform of wood shot from beneath us, extending out to the bunch of material hovering inside the artificial cavern. The stuff itself appeared to be completely black, but when I got close to it, it glowed an extremely deep blue, very similar to my eyes and the pool of void on my back. I gasped as I recognized the material.
"Bluestone!"
Seth dipped his head behind me. "Mhmm. The rarest and most powerful element in the Overworld. The only issue is that I can't break it."
I turned to him. "What do you mean?"
Seth made a gesture around the cave with his hand. "Let this thing speak for itself. I've tried everything, from enchanted pickaxes to condensed TNT blasts."
I looked around, letting out a low whistle.

Then the stone drew my attention again. I began to walk slowly toward it as the material drew me closer, calling my name in a low, quiet tone.

"...Tyron? Tyron? Tyron!" I heard Seth shout behind me. His voice was numbed down by the light of the Bluestone.
I reached my hand out toward it and a dark shadow spread from the ore, swirling around my hand in a dark, smoky fashion that made me giggle to myself.

"TYRON, NO!" I felt something grab me and pull me back forcefully, snapping me back into reality.
"Ugh..." I shook my head. "Seth?"
Seth was looking at me, his eyes wild. "Tyron, what just happened? You started walking toward it, you just dropped your sword and stopped listening! Then you touched it and the thing on your back started glowing and-"
I raised my hand to stop him, getting to my feet and looking back toward the bluestone, which was now pulsing confusedly.
"The Bluestone is alive..." I whispered.
"What?" Seth looked at me as if I had gone mad. Maybe I have.
"It's not like a regular ore. It has a voice, it has a goal that it wants to work toward."
"So, what is that goal...?" Seth asked, his voice still lined with disbelief.
"That's what I'm going to find out." I picked up my sword and began to walk towards the Bluestone, challenge lighting my eyes. The stone responded to the apparent aggression curiously, as though it did not know how to react. Then it decided to see what the object was that I was holding. As soon as I drew close, the Bluestone malformed itself, making the shape of the sword I was holding as an indent in the material. I reached up to place the sword in, but Seth stopped me.
"Wait!" He held up an ordinary diamond sword. "Use this one. If you lose it, it's not enchanted, so it won't be so much of a loss."
I nodded and placed the enchanted one in my inventory, and pressed the regular sword into the Bluestone shape. The Bluestone pulsed as it recognized the sword.
It's odd voice played in my head, more distinguishable this time. Diamond... Sword... Weapon... Inferior...
I watched as a hole was made in the very bottom of the sword, and Bluestone snaked through the semitransparent blade, glowing vibrantly as it formed a spiral pattern throughout.

Not inferior now.

The Bluestone sword floated out of its socket and back to me, where I accepted it gratefully. The Bluestone inside pulsed with power and the blade levitated away from my hand for a split second as it reformed itself once more. The blade drew my thoughts into it and remade itself into a much more pleasing shape. Sharper, more defined double-edge, a slightly thinner crossguard, and somehow, a new leather-covered handle.
Seth and I looked at each other, saying curiously but silently, how did it do that...?
It went back to me and the larger clump of Bluestone pulsed happily, appearing to be glad that it had helped me.

Shines now. Better weapon. Dark and light too.

...Hello.

A slightly warm feeling crept over me as the Bluestone shyly greeted me, as though it was nervous as to what I thought of the blade it made for me.
Thanks, I thought back to the Bluestone.
Friend? It asked happily.
I had to chuckle a little. The voice seemed so innocent, yet it was an extremely powerful ore that defied all logical ideas.
Friend, I confirmed to it.
The Bluestone responded with a great burst of happiness, and even Seth managed to notice it, even though he wasn't in direct contact with the Bluestone. We both smiled as the happy voice echoed throughout the cave.

Friends, friends, friends, friends, friends...!

Frien- The Bluestone suddenly stopped its happy cheering. An air of cold dread entered the room.

Go! Go go go! I felt the sword twitch in the direction of the door. "What? What's going on?" I asked it. The blue ore refused to answer and instead continued to usher me towards the exit. I finally picked up on its urgency and grabbed Seth's arm, sprinting out of the door.
"Hey, what are you doing? What's the hurry?" Seth protested.
"I don't know, but something's going wrong up there," I answered. Truthfully, I was just as clueless. I sprinted up the tunnels, remembering the way we had come down and making double the time jumping over small patches of lava or stone.
I skidded to a stop in front of the heavy iron doorway leading into Seth's castle. He caught up and looked at it curiously, then glanced over at me. "I don't hear anything going wrong out there."
"Open the door," I commanded. The Bluestone wired into the sword was still urging me to be ready for something horrible. Seth shrugged and went over to the lever that opened the doors.

Right before he touched it, there was a thud at the other side of the iron.

Thud. Thud.

Seth's eyes widened and he looked at the iron as it began to buckle under some heavy weight.
"No way... that's more than three meters of solid iron! What could possibly-"
There was a massive explosion and we both shielded our eyes from the shards of debris flying through the doorway. I looked cautiously past my arm and through the tunnel.

Oh, man.

There was a giant black eye staring through the entrance at me. I instinctively switched to my bow and fired into it, remembering the giant from Fairial. The eye flinched back and there was a loud roar from the other side of the doorway. Another Giant. I looked over at Seth, who was staring at the door with his mouth open.
"How... What... That thing is..." He looked over at me. "...You had to deal with one of those...?"
I nodded, a dark expression coming over my face. "Seth, we have to leave. If there's a Giant here, there's many, many more things inside the castle right now."
"But... My cats!" He blurted out. The Bluestone (now inside the blue inventory pool, but still able to communicate with me) seemed to agree. Kitties! Got to save the kitties!

I took a deep breath. Chances were that the cats were already dead, but I didn't want to say it aloud.

The Giant at the door bellowed into the tunnel again, and we could hear it bashing at the walls, furiously trying to get to the morsels inside. I drew my bow and waited for another roar, then fired straight down its throat. The Giant choked and backed away slightly, giving me time to draw my sword and run out into the gateway room, turning and facing the massive creature.
It had apparently entered the castle via the roof of this room, if the gaping hole in the ceiling was anything to judge by. I held my sword out to my side, while the Bluestone showed anger for the first time. A cold, calculating fury creeped up my arm into my head.
Giant is weakened. A little blind. I nodded as the thing turned to me, roaring despite the arrow lodged in its throat. Blood flew from its mouth and splattered around me, and I motioned for Seth to get out while the Giant was distracted. He ran and I roared back at the attacker.

This is the second time a friend has been put in danger by me, simply because these things chase me wherever I go. This time... I angled the sword straight at the Giant's forehead. ...I won't let Seth die!

The Giant brought its arm up and attempted to smash me under its palm. I dodged to the side and got to my feet in a roll, then quickly ran over and jumped onto its hand before the Giant could lift it away. It growled in frustration and I ran up the thing's arm, letting the Bluestone decide where to target the Giant.
Its neck and head, the ore said to me. I acknowledged and sprinted up to the thing's shoulder, plunging my sword into its neck and bringing it out in a vicious arc. The Giant roared in pain and anger, bringing its hand up to crush me again. I jumped down to its back, using my sword to dig into its flesh and provide a handhold. Its roars continued and I jumped up, pulling my sword out and digging it into the Giant's spine, at the base of its neck. The thing went limp and the Bluestone analyzed its body.

Giant dead, it confirmed.

I jumped off of the thing and didn't look back as the white smoke filled the room. I followed through the door Seth went through, and saw several items lying on the floor, consisting of rotten flesh, bones, and strings.
He must have been angry.
I followed his path of destruction, noting a few craters here and there. He had gone straight to the cat room, skipping right over the armory.
That's strange... why is the armory door open, then?
I found out a little too late what that meant. A zombie clad in enchanted diamond armor holding a sword lunged at me from behind, and the Bluestone forcefully whipped my arm around to deflect the blow with my own sword. I stumbled back from the hit and faced the zombie. It growled at me, and I recognized the half-torn face immediately.

It was the zombie I encountered on my first night in this world! The same one that had told me I would die.
"Look at me now!" I roared at him. "I'm still alive!"
The zombie chuckled a gargling, horrible laugh. "Not for much longer, Tyron." It raised its arm and swung it sword in a diagonal slash at me, and I caught it on my sword. I tilted my blade to catch his on the crossguard, then grabbed his arms and pulled him past me, throwing him off balance and keeping him from striking again. I flipped my sword, holding it backhand, and brought it down on his arms. He growled in agony as his arms fell, leaving me with a sword in each hand.

"No, I have the feeling," I told him, "that I'll be here much, much longer." I whipped zombie's sword around and buried it in his skull, hitting directly under the armor. He grunted and fell backwards, vanishing into the white smoke and leaving the armor and weapons intact.

I heard a few growls from within the armory and decided it wasn't worth killing them all.
Sprinting out the door, I finally caught up with Seth, who was in the room directly next to the cat room. He was ducking behind a chair, taking cover from two skeletons guarding the door to the cat room. He saw me before the skeletons, and I caught the look of relief on his face as I fired my first bow shot, pinning a skeleton to the wall by its head. The other turned toward me and fired a shot, forcing me to dodge to the right, and trapping me up against a wall. The skeleton fired another shot and I held my blade with the flat side facing the skeleton, letting the arrow strike it and fall to the ground. The skeleton made a clacking sound of frustration, which was immediately cut off by Seth beheading the thing from behind. I went over to him.
"Nicely done," I said. He simply nodded and turned to the door of the cat room.
We both looked at each other, hoping for the best.

He opened the door.

The inside looked perfectly normal, as if nothing had changed. Seth and I sighed in relief, and the Bluestone cheered with happiness as the cats jumped out of places they had been hiding, gratefully running over to Seth. I picked out Daisy and knelt down to pet her head.
"So, what do we do?" I asked Seth.
"I..." He thought for a moment. "I don't know."
"Well, we have to keep them safe somehow. We can't just lock them in this room, either."
Seth nodded sadly.

Bluestone can take care of kitties! The sword suggested.

Not a bad idea, actually, I thought. "What about the Bluestone?" I asked Seth.
He looked at me like I had gone quite insane for a moment. "That would involve taking them underground, Tyron. Aside from that, as far as I know, you're the only one that can communicate with the stuff."
I can talk to kitties! The Bluestone shouted out. Every last one of the cats in the room turned to look at the sword in my hand.
Seth blinked a few times. "...Okay, so it's an option. How are we going to get them down there, though?"
"Well," I said, "you know this castle more than I do. What's the safest way to get into that tunnel?"
I could see a light begin to flicker in Seth's eyes. He was thinking and calculating quite hard. He suddenly brightened up. "I have a tunnel under here... That could work!"
I nodded and he began to dig through the floor while I boarded up the entrances to the cat room. The cats themselves seemed entranced by the Bluestone in the sword, and even pawed at it a few times. I made sure none of them accidentally cut themselves on the blade.
"Found it!" I heard Seth's voice from within the hole he had dug in the floor. Follow Seth! The Bluestone commanded. Amazingly, the cats followed the Bluestone's orders and began to calmly file into the hole. I searched around with the Bluestone, just in case there were any that hadn't come along. There were none. I followed the last cats through and plugged up the hole above me.

We found ourselves in a well-lit tunnel, leading in two directions. Seth was already running down one side, and I followed behind the cats, who were all trailing him. The tunnel wound down into the depths of the earth, to the point where I lost track of where we might be under the castle. Seth disappeared from view down a narrow staircase, and when I caught up to him he was digging again, going through a wall and appearing at the edge of the ravine leading to the Bluestone's cave.
Careful, kitties! The Bluestone said. It had apparently noted the lava in the ravine. Seth led the way along the edge, going through the open door into the Bluestone's cave.
"Woah..." I heard his voice from inside. The Bluestone made a noise that almost sounded like a giggle, and I went in after the last of the cats.
The cave had been completely redone. It looked almost identical to the room that Seth had made for the cats, with the exception of the Bluestone cluster in the middle, and glowstone where the sunroof would have been.

And several humanoid figures moving around, made of the same blue ore.

"Well... I guess I don't have to worry so much, huh?" Seth said quietly.
"Nope..." I responded, looking around, rather humbled by how much the Bluestone had done in such a short time.
Go now, Tyron. Bluestone can take care of kitties, it reminded me.
"C'mon," I nudged Seth, "we've still got the issue of getting out of here."
He dipped his head numbly and we left the cave, closing the door behind us.

We ran up the tunnel again and I noted with satisfaction that none of the monsters had figured out there was a tunnel beneath the cat room, even though they seemed to know we were there last. I could hear them shuffling about on the cover I had made.
The next place we went to was apparently Seth's "house." He explained that before he made the castle, he lived in a tiny, one-room hut that he built out of the wood from the forest when he first came here. He went over to a chest full of items. Very valuable ones, if the enchanted glimmer of them was anything to judge by.
He pulled out a small, blue-green cube. "You're not the only one with a nearly unlimited inventory space, Tyron." He smirked and reached into the box, pulling out a diamond sword. "This is my most valuable set of gear. I never thought I'd have to use it." He grimaced. "Apparently I was wrong."
We headed out and continued down the hall, and I noticed the roof suddenly was made out of dirt. We were close to the surface.

Seth broke a few blocks and we climbed out. I saw the dark forest directly in front of me, and turned to Seth. He was looking in the other direction, with a face of pure distraught sadness.

I followed his gaze, and saw his castle.

The thing he had spent a large amount of his life on. It was now being crushed and destroyed brutally by Herobrine's forces. There were two Giants kicking it apart as though it was made of sand, and several Creepers lining up to take their turn putting craters in it.
No wonder they had gotten through to the cat room so quickly after we left.

"Come on," I said softly, "there's no use watching it go. We've got to leave."

Seth nodded, completely numb, and we walked away.

The sun began to sink below the horizon and Seth fell to his knees. I looked back at him sadly.
He's still completely wiped out. I would be too, I guess.
I sat down next to him. "Hey, Seth."
Seth looked up at me with a weary, dull curiosity.
"It's almost nighttime. Should we set up camp here?"
He nodded and I looked up at the sky, slowly filling up with stars. After it got dark enough, the Bluestone started to give off a slight glow. Seth absentmindedly dug about in his storage cube and pulled out a piece of reddish material. Netherrack, right?
He set it down not far in front of us and lit the top of it with a flint and steel. The glow cast long shadows of us through the darkness, flickering about with the fire.

"Where should we go?" I asked after a few minutes.
Seth shrugged, staring into the flames.
I sighed softly to myself. "Even with the both of us, Herobrine can easily counter anything we try. If we had somewhere to plan, and know we'd be safer, I'd be able to come up with something... Do you know of any other places to go than Fairial?"
Seth blinked, thinking for a moment. "I remember seeing a map of someplace nearby. The southern side of it looked like a forest similar to the one we're near. I suppose we could try that."
It was quite a vague pointer to follow, but I supposed we had literally no other option. Unless we intended to wander around for eternity. More like until He catches us.

I laid back and stared up at the sky. "How'd you get to Fairial?" I eventually asked him. "You aren't like any of them, so I doubt you were born there."
"I just... woke up one day," Seth replied. "That's all there is to it. Wandered around for a while, and they took me in for a few years. I eventually got bored and headed out."
"That's almost exactly what happened to me," I told him. "Except I woke up on a beach, a long ways from Fairial."
"Interesting."
"Yeah."

A few more minutes of silence passed by, and I yawned, the stars blurring from my vision for a second. "Well, good night, Seth," I said.
"G'night."
Night night! The Bluestone said, ever-cheerful. I closed my eyes and let my thoughts drift wherever they'd like.

I dreamed of cats fighting giant zombies.

Blinking open my eyes, I winced as the sun blinded me from its place just over the horizon. I yawned and sat up, stretching my arms and looking over at Seth. He had fallen asleep curled in a little ball, holding his knees close to him.
Good morning! The Bluestone greeted me.
Good morning, I thought to it. As usual, there was a little flare of happiness from the blue ore. I chuckled softly and looked around at where we had set up camp. The fire had not changed over the course of several hours.
Odd. Why... oh, Netherrack burns forever, doesn't it?
Yes! The Bluestone confirmed. I wondered if I should give it a name. Looking over at my sword, I thought about some that would make sense for a weapon that could talk.
Uhh... Kir? No, sounds off a little... I'll think about some more later.
However, the Bluestone seemed to have a different plan. I like Kir. Is Kir my name?
Well, I dunno...
Kir, Kir, Kir! It began to cheer happily. The name was now stuck. I could name the actual sword something else later, I supposed.

I heard a yawn from behind me and looked to see Seth rubbing his eyes drowsily. A little bit of life seemed to have returned to him.
"Hey, Seth," I greeted. "How'd you sleep?"
He jumped a little, then looked around as though he had forgotten where he was. The previous day's events returned to him and he visibly dropped a few levels of mood. I winced.
"Hi, Tyron. I slept fine, I guess... I wish Daisy were here."
"She seemed like a clever cat," I said. "Even if the Bluestone wasn't keeping her safe, I'm sure she'd have survived."
Seth cheered up a little and smiled the tiniest bit. "Yeah, I guess."
I stood up and glanced around again. "Got anything to eat? Or should we get hunting?"
Seth shook his head, "no, I've got some porkchops, I think." He dug around in his storage cube again, pulling out two cooked porkchops and handing one to me. I said thanks and we started eating.
When was the last time I actually ate one of these? Have I ever, before? No, I think it was that one day before I got to Starhill... Yeah, that was a porkchop. That tasted almost exactly like this. I took another bite. Delicious.

We eventually finished the porkchops and Seth packed up the Netherrack.
"We were going to go... North, into the forest, right?" I asked him.
"Yeah," Seth confirmed.

So, we walked off into the trees.

It wasn't nearly as dark and ominous as the snowy pines I had encountered before meeting Seth. Thank goodness for that. This forest was made up of oak trees, mostly, with a few white-barked birches scattered around. The sunlight filtered through the leaves, making dappled patterns along the grass. Every here and there, a flower or mushroom spouted from the ground.
"How long do you think we'll be walking?" I asked.
"No clue."
"So, we're just heading nowhere in particular?"
"Yup."
That'd be a chapter title, if it was a book! Kir said happily.
Oh, really? I asked.
Ye- WOLFIE!! Kir's sudden screech hurt my head a little, and I looked in the direction it had pointed out.
Sure enough, a grey-pelted wolf stood next to a shaded tree, watching Seth and I silently. I nudged Seth and pointed, without saying a word.
He looked as well and it appeared as though he and the wolf began a staring contest. The wolf suddenly flicked its ear and stood up, heading off deep into the forest and disappearing between the trees.
I looked at Seth and he shrugged. "After the wolf, I guess. Not like we were really heading anywhere."

Through the trees we went, the spots of sunlight growing fewer and farther between.

"Do you really think this is where it went?" Seth asked.
I shrugged and kept jogging. Kir appeared to know the way, as he (or she? I couldn't tell) periodically shouted out directions.
Oh, that way! I looked over and saw a flash of grey pelt. Over there too! Yet another. There seemed to be more than one wolf, on both sides of us, but staying behind the trees.
"Tyron, I don't think this is a good idea..." Seth said quietly. "They look like they're hunting us."
I spared a glance behind and saw a bit of tail as a wolf dove behind cover, trying to avoid being seen. "You're right," I replied.
Not hunting! Guiding! Kir insisted.
Kir, I'm sorry, but something makes me seriously doubt that a pack of wild animals-
"Woah!" Seth yelled. A wolf had jumped out and landed directly in front of us. It was much bigger than any of the others I had seen.

Or, I think it's bigger. This is really the only one I've gotten a good look at. It looked at me, staring into my eyes, and I thought I could see it attempting to decide if I was a threat. I attempted to drain myself of every hostile emotion, holding the sword down to my side. The wolf snorted and looked over at Seth with the same glare.

Looking over its features, I noticed that the wolf had a slightly torn left ear, and several scars along its muzzle. Had to have been in more than one tough fight, then. Kir, do you think this is the pack leader?
Yes! Kir responded giddily. The Bluestone seemed overjoyed at meeting a wolf. The wolf suddenly got to its paws and growled, staring at a spot on Seth's shirt.

Seth slowly reached down and pulled a cat hair out of the fabric. He held out his arm and dropped it to the side.

The wolf immediately stopped growling, sitting down and looking at us with its ears perked up curiously. It seemed as though it (he, I assumed, if this was the pack leader) had accepted that we weren't threats. I looked around the shadows of the forest and for a split second saw a bipedal figure among the ranks of wolves slowly appearing. The figure had disappeared behind a tree, but I had not seen the glowing eyes of Herobrine. Who was that, then?
I didn't have time to figure out, as the wolf in front of us nudged my hand with his nose and trotted off into the trees.
"I guess he wants us to follow him," I said to Seth. We exchanged a slightly bewildered glance before following the wolf that had so far led us into increasingly darker areas of condensed foliage.
After some amount of walking, the wolf suddenly shot forward, and we were forced to run to keep up with him. Kir cheered happily as he (or, again, she) trailed along within the sword I kept held to my side.
Seth and I started to breathe heavily, tiring from the sprint the wolf had forced us to continue for several minutes.
There was suddenly a bright flare of light, and as my eyes tried to adjust, I failed to see a tree root standing in my way. I yelped and fell flat on my face.

As I stood up, dusting myself off, I saw Seth with his mouth half-open, staring forward in awe. The wolf had led us into a valley, encircled by mountains, with a waterfall dropping off and into a lake below.
The wolf himself was sitting near the lake, looking back at us with his eyes sparkling with pride.
This must be... What, his pack's territory? What else could he be so proud of...? I wondered.
"Tyron, look!" Seth poked at my shoulder and pointed over to the waterfall.
I followed his direction and saw a wolf trotting out from behind the falls. Looking closer, I saw that the stone behind the water was abnormally dark, as if...
There's a cave back there! It'd make the perfect hiding spot! I almost jumped up and shouted with joy. Going over to the wolf, I knelt down and ran my hand over his head, scratching behind his ears. He liked that, and inched a little closer, closing his eyes and growling happily.
"Hey, Tyron!" I heard Seth call. I glanced back at him questioningly. "I'm going to go check out that cave," he said. "You coming?"
I nodded and stood up, the wolf getting to his paws with me. Apparently, he wanted to come as well.

We got about three fourths of the way to the waterfall when a screech split the air. The wolf's fur bristled and he whirled around. Seth and I did the same, looking towards the source of the noise.

On the other side of the lake, there appeared to be a dark cloud hovering above three tall, dark figures.
I remembered my night on Starhill. I remembered what the Enderman had said to me. If you look at any of our race, we will forget our peace with you and try to kill you.
"Endermen," I said quietly. "Seth, don't look directly at any of them."
Seth nodded, watching half out of his peripherals, like I did.

Two Endermen were dragging a third one towards the lake, while it thrashed around violently and screamed. At the distance, I couldn't make out what the oddly-textured voices were saying. They got to the edge of the lake and the two held up the third, who screamed even louder.
They then plunged their "companion" into the water of the lake. The screams of terror became wails of extreme, intense pain, and all four of us winced at the sight of steam rising from the Enderman's body. Even Kir, who could supposedly see exactly what was going on.
Suddenly, a dark figure, human-sized, burst from the treeline and began sprinting towards the two remaining Endermen. The figure did not appear to hold a weapon of any sort, but the Endermen noticed that the newcomer was staring straight at them. They turned and opened their gigantic mouths, letting out aggressive screams. They raised their arms to bat the stranger away.
Ducking the wide swings of the first Enderman, the figure shoved their hand into the Enderman's chest. It stuck there and the Enderman cried out in pain before falling to its knees and evaporating. The final Enderman smashed its fist down... in the space where the figure used to be. They had torn out the first Enderman's heart and thrown it behind the second, teleporting to where it landed, and whirled around to slam their fist into the second one's back. That one let out the same death-scream and disintegrated, and the cloud keeping all three in the shade dissipated into the air.

The dark figure that had just killed two Endermen without any difficulty saw us watching, seemed to nod, and dashed off back into the forest.
Like a boss! Kir cheered.
What? I asked, confused.
...Nothing, Kir replied.

"Should we go follow?" Seth asked after a while.
I chuckled a little under my breath. "After that display," I said, "I doubt we'd have a chance of catching him. Let's go back to exploring that cave," I gestured to the waterfall.
Seth nodded and we went back behind the roaring falls.
To our surprise, there was not a simple cave behind the water.

There was a vast, wide stairway.

The wolf wasted no time in padding his way down the stairs, waving his tail back at us to follow. I began to descend the stairs, following the wolf, and I heard Seth's footsteps on the stone behind me as he came after me.
"What do you think is down there?" He asked quietly, his voice echoing down the passageway.
"No clue," I responded. Though It's gotta be interesting. What could be at the end of a massive, secluded, underground stairway behind a waterfall?

The passageway took us quite deep underground, and the walls occasionally showed patchworks of cobblestone where water or lava flows must have been blocked off.
We finally reached an obsidian arch at the bottom of the stairway. The wolf was sitting there, looking at us expectantly. Glowstone adorned the top of the obsidian, and I gasped as I looked out beyond.

It was a city.

Deep underground, there was a city completely made of stone. The stone buildings blended in with the rock around them so well that it was almost impossible for me to tell where the borders were, if any even existed.
"Seth," I said, as he got down past the archway, "I think someone has got you beat."
His eyes widened as he too saw the stone city. "Woooaaahhh... Look, there's people living down there!" He pointed down another flight of stairs and I followed his direction.

Sure enough, there were nose-people milling about in torchlight provided by lanterns on the cobblestone roads. I noticed that Kir was completely silent as we made our way down to the nose-people, with our new wolf companion following along. Giddily, I broke into a run and pulled ahead of Seth, eager to meet the nose-people that lived here.
As it turned out, they were not so happy to see us. As we got close to the houses there were a few that looked up at us with horror, screamed something unintelligible, and ran to their houses. Others took notice and did the same, and soon the place was so empty it seemed abandoned.
"Hey!" I shouted, waving my arms. "We're not gonna hurt you guys! We're friendly!"
There was a chuckle behind me and I turned to see Seth catching up. "Has it occurred to you," he said, "that these people might not be so friendly, if they were shy enough to build their city underground?"

I thought about this for a moment.

"Yeah, I guess," I admitted. The wolf suddenly looked up at a tower and barked a warning. I turned and stepped to the side, dodging an arrow fired from a building behind me.
Silence lodged itself into space, sharp and intense. There were suddenly several more quiet twangs of arrows being fired, and I ducked under them. Several thuds followed. I uncovered my face to see that there was now a ring of arrows circling me and Seth.
Would now be a good time to say it's a trap? Kir ventured shyly.
Warn me first next time, I thought back to him. The arrows around us suddenly lit up in a yellow flare and my vision went black.

"AWAKEN!!" A voice boomed around me.

I opened my eyes with a start, looking around frantically. Seth and I were chained to a wall, my sword gone and the wolf somewhere else as well. In front of me was a man with very pale skin and black hair, with extremely dark brown eyes. He wore black clothes, contrasting with his hands and face to a point where he looked almost ghostlike. His most notable feature were the gold bracelets he had around his wrists. They appeared to be inset with redstone and emeralds, and were giving off a faint purple glow. His nose was not prominent on his face, and I assumed that he wasn't a nose-person on that fact.
Four guards in iron armor stood behind him, with similar complexions.
I suppose, I thought, that if they spent all their time underground they wouldn't exactly get much tone in their skin.
We were in a small room, with iron bars at the front wall, including a door. It looked a bit like a prison.
I could see Seth beginning to come to his senses as well. The man waited until he seemed fully aware.
"Who are you?" The man in front of us growled. His voice seemed as though it was amplified, booming like thunder around us.
"My name is Tyron," I replied, my voice surprisingly firm. This guy doesn't scare me much though, does he? No, I've seen the absolute worst, and this isn't him.
"I'm Seth," Seth said, his voice slightly less certain.

"Well," the man smiled. It was more vicious than friendly. "I am Fergon. Don't forget that name soon, since you are now working for me."

"But-" Seth protested, and was immediately cut off by a lightning-fast punch to the stomach from Fergon. I winced.
"Any others?" Fergon invited, smiling coldly again at me. I glared back at him, but said nothing. "Good," Fergon continued. "You two have unluckily ventured into the wonderful city of Stonewing. Blades of iron, hearts of stone, we like to say. You met with the outer ring, the rather poor district of those with overgrown noses. As you would have progressed deeper into the city, you would have seen more upper-class people, such as I, until you eventually got to the Pillar Stronghold, the building you are now in. The Pillar is a castle carved into the rock of the earth, rising from the floor of the cave all the way to the roof, and keeping the entire place from collapsing. In a way, it is like the heart of the city. If it falls, the poor wretches that live here fall with it. I am the current king of Stonewing." He raised his arms, as if expecting a chorus.
"We didn't see this pillar when we entered... how could a single structure keep something so massive held up without supports?" Seth ventured, swallowing some of the pain that now came with talking.
Fergon smiled again. This time it showed more pride and arrogance than anything. "I'm glad you asked. You must be a builder. Well then, you'd certainly like to know that we have found a very highly regarded secret of the underground, which helps us in our survival. Judging by the look of your sword, Tyron, I suspect you already know what this secret is. It's all too kind of you, really, to just hand that beautiful work of art over to us, only to have it smashed up for the Bluestone inside."
I gasped, anger beginning to boil inside me. "Don't you dare!" I growled.
What I saw next was a blur, and an incredibly sharp, intense pain in the side of my face. I growled again and looked back at Fergon, who simply shrugged and punched me again. Another flash seared through my skull and I saw flecks of light appear at the edges of my vision.
"Done?" Fergon asked. "I can do this all day."
I pulled against the chains, to no avail.
Fergon punched me a third time and I tried hard not to cry out in pain.
"As I was saying," he finally continued, "you both work for me now. When you do enough, you'll earn your freedom, like all outsiders. Seth, you get to be a builder. Consider yourself lucky."
Fergon approached me and I stared lethally into his eyes. I let my newfound hatred boil over as much as I could. "I like you," he smiled. It was again not a very happy smile. "You get to be a perimeter guard."

By the piteous looks the guards behind Fergon gave me, I assumed that this was not a good thing.

At Fergon's word, Seth and I were separated. Down completely opposite corridors, accompanied by two guards each. I was lucky enough to be accompanied by Fergon himself. We passed by several rooms and Fergon took the lead, eventually holding out one arm for us to stop. He listened very closely, and I heard a light hissing noise. There was an explosion, and suddenly Kir's voice filled my head.
TYROOOOON!!! LEMME OUT!!! I gasped and held my hands to my temples, sinking to my knees. The voice of the Bluestone had hit me like a wall, the unconstrained fear and agony piercing my mind like an arrow.
"Get up," Fergon ordered. He dragged me to my feet and began to hurry down the corridor.

Kir's voice eventually faded. I gulped, realizing that tears had started to flow from my eyes.

Plans of escape, foolish and half-thought ones, began to run through my head at lightning speed. I finally rested on one final idea.

Wherever I go, Herobrine and his army follows. He's determined to kill me. When he finds me here, he'll probably attack the place in effort to get to me. Let's just hope that Seth and I can slip away in the resulting confusion. I winced, glancing back down the hallway. ...And that it happens before they break that sword.

Fergon led me down to an armory, where he ordered me to pick a weapon. I immediately ran over to the highest tier there was available- an iron sword and armor. He then dragged me back and told me to choose again. I tentatively went over to where there was a stone sword and chainmail armor.
My feet were pulled out from under me and Fergon pulled me up by my neck, placing me back on my feet. "I said, choose a weapon," he growled.
I sighed and went over to a wooden sword and leather armor set, putting on the armor and looking at the sword.
It looked like it had been repaired several times, with very questionable dark red marks stained over both the blade and the handle. I realized that the leather armor was in much the same condition, with patched up holes covering large stains of old, dry blood.

Trying to contain my disgust, I went back over to Fergon.
"Now, if you make the slightest twitch at me with that sword, you'll be dead before you can realize you made the worst mistake of your life. Deal?"
I scowled and nodded, invoking another cold, venomous smile from Fergon.

I was given a few loaves of bread, which I stashed in my inventory when Fergon's back was turned. There was no good reason for letting him know I had a very efficient means of compact storage built into my back.
He might try to pull ME apart to get to it. I shuddered at the thought, remembering Kir's agonized screams. Kir was in so much pain... I had never imagined he... or she... could feel pain in the first place. My hand clenched tighter on the handle of the sword. I'll be glad if I'm the one that puts a blade through this *******'s heart.

We finally reached the doors of the Pillar Stronghold.

It was a massive gate, made of interlocking stone bricks. Fergon pulled a lever and there was an electric crackle of redstone audible through the walls, and the gate slowly pulled itself open, revealing the city around the Pillar.
Fergon had been right when he said the closer people to the Pillar were more wealthy. Instead of simple stone houses and towers, there were amazing structures decorated with all sorts of metals and gemstones. Stone was still the basic building material, but there were definite changes in the rarity of the other materials used. I noted that glowstone was being used in place of torches, as it gave off more light.
Fergon looked back at me and pulled me along, obviously not happy with my observing of "his" kingdom.

While he was looking away, I glanced at his hand as he dragged me along. The bracelets he wore were nothing short of mystifying, as they obviously had some sort of special power to them. I noticed that not only were there redstone-powered emeralds, but there were also faintly glowing runes carved intricately into the gold bands.

I wonder what else those do besides make him sound louder and more arrogant, I thought. I almost reached out and touched the thing, then thought against it. He'd probably punch me again, at the very least. Don't want any more bruises than necessary, if this guarding job is as dangerous as it's been hinted at.

We continued through the city, the sights becoming increasingly less shiny and more composed of blank rock. Stonewing's edges came into view, and I saw what appeared to be several gigantic tunnels.
"Those are the Outskirts," Fergon said over his shoulder. "You'll be guarding one of them. Your friend Seth will be working on the project to cover them up." He pointed at where people, no bigger than insects at this distance, were covering one of the gigantic tunnels up with stone.

It looked as though it'd take years to cover them all.

"What exactly am I guarding from?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
Fergon laughed. "Do you really think I'll tell you? I'll leave that to your coworkers."
We continued on towards the Outskirts. Well, at least I won't be alone.

After another silent stretch of walking, we finally reached the Outskirts themselves. Fergon shoved me towards the tunnel and raised his hands, disappearing in a flash of green light.

Well, he could have saved us the walk with that, couldn't he? I snorted.

"Well, well, well," I heard a voice from a wooden watchtower nearby. "We've got a newcomer, boys!"
I turned back to the tunnels and watched as several people in similar gear appeared, walking over to me. One of them, holding a stone sword instead of a wooden one, examined me with a look of disgust on his face. "What are you?" He asked. "Some sort of furry little green kid?"

Hey now, the fur isn't that thick... is it? I glanced at my arm, evoking laughter from the group. No, it wasn't exactly thick enough to be animalistic, but it was certainly there. Wonder why... Ah, well.

"He won't last more than a day," the guard continued. He smirked at me and I narrowed my eyes warily.
"I wouldn't put your bets on that," I said, quiet and threatening.
Silence fell on the guards behind him and he looked at me as though I had challenged him to a duel. Maybe I have.
"Listen here, kid, and listen well," he said. "There are things in there that nobody, nobody, should have to even take a little look at in their entire life. My name's Jack. Might as well tell you before you die."
"I'm Tyron," I said, looking him square in the eyes. "Have you ever heard of Herobrine, Jack?"
"That old fairytale? What about it?" I had his attention. He wasn't nearly as bad as Fergon.
"It's no fairytale," I told him. There was silence for a moment as Jack considered this. Then he laughed.
"Yeah, okay, newbie. For now, I'm gonna stick to the crap we put up with here and now."

There was a yell from the watchtower. "We've got incoming! Four Endermen, mid center!"
Jack growled and stood a bit straighter. "Right. Let's do this, boys." He turned to me as the guards took position at the entrance to the Outskirts tunnel. "Watch and learn, newbie. You ain't useful if you die right off the start without learning anything."
I was about to protest, but Jack turned around and ran off to join his comrades. I decided that I should follow his orders for once.

The first of the attacking Endermen ran towards Jack, while the others spread out to attack the other guards. Jack waited until the Enderman was almost upon him, then ducked down and kicked out its legs, causing it to fall face-first onto the ground. He spun and was ready to jam his sword into its back when it teleported. I was able to hear him curse from where I was watching, and he spun around, looking for his combatant. There was a cry from another guard as one of the Endermen picked him up by his neck and began to squeeze. Jack ran over and stabbed it in the side of the head, causing it to fall down, dead. The guard he saved nodded his thanks and went to join the fight against the other two. I heard a metallic crackle behind me and turned, seeing the Enderman that had teleported away from Jack. It made what might've been a smile and raised its arm to strike.

I wasn't going to let another thing pick on me today.

I rolled under the Enderman's legs and jumped up behind it, spinning and putting a gash across its back. If I had my usual sword, I'd have killed it, I thought bitterly. The Enderman cried out in its gravelly voice and teleported away, appearing at my backside again. I spun and raised my sword, blocking a strike aimed at my head. I stepped to the right, letting the Enderman's arm slide painfully down the blade of the sword, spun, and stabbed it in the neck. It let out a gargling cry of pain and evaporated. I smiled as the rush of combat overtook my senses for a moment. It felt good, after being next to helpless for the last day.

The other two Endermen fell and Jack turned to me. He had been watching. "Well done, newbie," Jack said as he approached. "You've earned a little bit of respect." He stretched out his hand and I shook it.
Thank Notch, I thought gratefuly, someone I might actually be able to work with here!

"You've already seen the watchtower," Jack said. He had agreed to show me around the little camp that he and his guards had set up.
"There's a small cobble house that we all sleep in, and a pile of stuff that we gather from our job, over there..." He motioned over to what looked like a cobblestone box with a hole in it, and a little complex of storage chests nearby. A guard was dropping a dark colored pearl into it, presumably from one of the Endermen.
"And... Well, that's pretty much it." Jack scratched the back of his head. "We don't exactly live very dynamic lives here. We eat, sleep, fight, and die, primarily."
We went over to a storage chest and Jack pulled out an apple and began munching on it.
"So," he asked between bites, "how'd you get here, newbie?"

I thought for a moment. "It was almost an accident, really. A friend of mine, Seth, and I were travelling through the forest up there and met a wolf. The wolf led us down here, where we were captured by Fergon. He had Seth join the building unit and told me to come guard the Outskirts. Doesn't seem like that bad of a job..."
Jack chuckled. "Only because you haven't seen anything yet. Anyway, you said a wolf led you down here?"
I nodded. "Yeah, why?"
"That can't be right," Jack shook his head thoughtfully. "There was an entire pack of wolves that tried to help me get free when Fergon caught me. Intelligent, brave, and downright amazing fighters, for the standards of unarmed creatures. We brought down several guards before Fergon himself finally put me out. Been working here ever since."
"Something makes me doubt that the wolf who brought me down here meant any harm to me and Seth," I said, both to myself and Jack.
Jack nodded in agreement. Now that he had a bit of respect for me, I was beginning to like this guy. I could see why he was the appointed leader of this unit of guards. My stomach growled.
"Got any more apples?" I asked him.
He laughed. This was apparently where his little bit of kindness ended. "Sorry, you have to get your own food, newbie."
I shrugged and pulled one of the bits of bread out of my inventory and began chewing on that.
Jack did a double-take. "How did you do that?"
I shrugged. "Magic."

Jack laughed again, this time happily and good-natured. "Well played, kid! Well played."

The rest of the day continued without fault, which was highly unusual, according to Jack. He led his guard unit into the cobblestone hut and another unit replaced his. This was evidently the "night shift," though it was impossible to tell the time inside Stonewing.
I laid down on one of the surprisingly soft mattresses inside the hut. I remember Jack telling me earlier that they killed too many spiders to hold all the string, so they simply crafted it together into things to sleep on. Thank goodness for that. It almost seems like a slap in the face to Fergon, who probably intended for us to have the very worst of conditions to live in. I laughed silently to myself at the thought.
A few minutes passed, and I was closing my eyes to fall asleep, when there was a very faint, strangled cry from outside, and a dull thud.
I continued to lie perfectly still, listening intently. There were more muffled cries and I realized that guards were being killed.
I peeked out of the hut and saw that they were being felled by arrows. The watchman had gone first, and his body was now lying on the ground from where he had fallen off the tower, an arrow lodged in his neck.

Grabbing my sword, I quickly ran out into the Outskirts tunnel border. Pressing up against a low and hastily built cobblestone wall, I looked around.
None of the guards appeared to be alive. As I looked out into the tunnel carefully, I saw several skeletons riding spiders, scaling the walls and ceiling of the cave.
Damn. Wait, I've got a bow... Yet another slightly foolish plan formed in my head. Fergon had only taken what I had been holding when he captured me, and not known to check my inventory. Assuming he could even do such a thing.
I drew my bow and got an arrow ready, taking careful aim at a skeleton's spider on the ceiling. I let the arrow loose and it struck home, spearing the spider through the head and causing it to fall from its perch, taking the skeleton down with it. There was a crunch as bones broke, and the other skeletons looked around frantically with their bows drawn. I took aim and fired again, hitting one that had been coming close to the gate.
That spider fell too, the skeleton riding it snapping in half as it hit the ground. There were some quiet clicking noises and I looked around again to see the spider jockeys retreating back into the tunnel.
Satisfaction filled me as I saw them go, knowing that I single-handedly defended the Outskirts tunnel.

There was a growl behind me and I leaped forward, looking back when I regained my footing.

There was a zombie there, clad in a full suit of iron armor and brandishing an iron sword. My eyes widened as I realized that it was all in near-perfect condition. Smart zombie.
I stood up and drew my sword again. It's going to chop your sword clean in half if you try to block... so you'll need a different way to not die.
I waited, ready to move, for the zombie to strike. It got close enough and swung its sword straight down at me, and I jumped to the right. I spun and put my entire weight into a horizontal slash to the zombie's neck, taking its head off and cracking the wood blade of the sword.

Triumphant, I discarded the hardly-useful sword and placed the armor in a storage chest nearby. I put on the armor that the zombie had been wearing and took its sword.
Jack is going to love seeing this, hahah. I thought giddily. Or, he's gonna be a little ticked. Could be either.

A roar thundered down the tunnel, echoing through the entirety of Stonewing and waking the guards in the cobblestone hut.

"Newbie! What the hell is going on!? Where did you get that gear!?" Jack was up immediately, storming toward me.
"Zombie," I said, pointing at a bit of rotten flesh on the ground.
"I highly doubt that a little zombie made that roar, kid," he scowled.
I looked into the tunnel, trying to find the source of the roar. "It came from in there, but I've got no idea what it was."
Truthfully, I did have an idea. The giants that tromped around under Herobrine's command made a very similar roar to the one that echoed through the tunnel.

Two massive purple eyes appeared high up in the tunnel. Jack stumbled backwards and gasped.

"COLOSSUS!" He shouted. "Everybody up, come on, move!" He started taking as many useful things from the storage chests as he could. I helped, rapidly filling my inventory with various items.

The Colossus's footsteps began to send tremors through the ground around us. Much, much bigger than a giant, I noted in the back of my head.

Jack continued shouting orders to his fellow guards, and they dispersed off into either the city or more areas of the Outskirts, running as though their lives depended on it. They probably did.
Jack finally got to me. "Kid, you've got to go. I don't know where, but I don't want to see you crushed by that thing. Just go. Toward the Pillar is your safest bet."
I had a very vile, sinking feeling in my stomach. "What will you be doing?"
Jack gave a small, grim smile. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask, newbie." He looked straight up at the Colossus. "I'm gonna buy some time. Now get going!"
He shoved me off and I sprinted straight towards the Pillar Stronghold. Leaping off of a ledge, I landed on the roof of the nearest building and began to leap from rooftop to rooftop in a direct line towards the middle of the city. A light appeared in the back of my mind and I grabbed hold of it, thinking of every last fragmented piece of my ultimate quest to defeat Herobrine.

Seth, my first surviving friend, now stuck who-knows-where trying to build a wall.

Jack, my new commander, who was about to give his life to protect a city full of people who hate him enough to give him the worst job they could find.

Kir, the Bluestone essence inside a powerful blade, with an amazingly carefree and happy personality.

Unknowingly, as I thought about them, the little light in my head grew, shaped, and began to form around my arms, feet, and back.
I made a particularly long jump between rooftops and found that I didn't land.

I flew.

This new ability that I had came as hardly a surprise to my mind, which was focused to a razor-sharp edge. I focused on travelling forwards, and that was what I did. I ripped pieces of stone from the structures around me and they formed into solid feathers, taking shape and being held at their base an inch away from my back, glowing bright blue and propelling me forwards. The Pillar came into view and I carried on right to it, changing focus from speed to accuracy as I searched for a very specific tool that I would need.

A small, diamond-blue object stood out in my vision and I landed at the front gates of the Pillar Stronghold. A larger, darker blue object stood out as well, from underneath the Pillar's floor.

The first object was being carried towards the second.

I gazed at the door, rapidly thinking of ways to get through the interlocking stone. I asked the light in my head what I could do about it, and as a response, some of my stone "feathers" broke off and arrowed straight into the doorway, piercing through it and allowing me to push through some of the bricks. I entered the Pillar Stronghold, only to be confronted by several guards wearing iron gear. They got ready to attack, evidently disregarding the floating stone wings at my back. I raised my sword and focused the light's attention to it, causing a bright flash. The guards were stunned, which was all I needed. I didn't care for killing them. I sprinted down the hallways, desperation beginning to chip away at my focus and causing stone feathers to drop off every so often.

I heard a familiar voice in my head. TYRON! It sounded extremely happy and joyful. With renewed urgency, I sped down the hallway until I found a single man hurrying down the corridor with my sword in his hand.

Fergon.

I roared and flew forward, pinning him to the ground and tearing the sword out of his hand. Kir greeted me with happiness and the last of the stone feathers broke away, leaving me flightless once more.

I slowly became slightly more aware of myself as I went back to a normal mindset, the light disappearing.

"What.... Who are you!?" Fergon roared, the force of his amplified voice hurting my ears.
"My name is Tyron," I repeated to him, leveling the sword at his heart. "I think I forgot a little who you were."
"You filthy child!!" Fergon kicked me away and got to his feet. I held my sword in my right hand and the newer iron sword in my left. I took a stance wielding both.

Fergon raised one hand towards me and I saw flecks of magic appear at his fingertips. He let loose a bolt of lightning and I ducked to the left, raising my swords in the same stance again. He snorted, sounding almost like a bull, and charged at me, magic crackling from the bracelets he wore.

I've dealt with much worse than you! I thought, and spun around in a vicious roundhouse, connecting with the side of his head. He staggered to the right and I kicked him in the face, sending him sprawling onto his back. Putting a foot on his chest to pin him down, I pointed my sword at his neck, scowling at him.
"By the way, Fergon, I thought you should know that I'm eighteen. Totally a child."
He opened his mouth to roar a reply, but he never got the chance. I brought the point of the blade through his throat and he gasped and choked for breath. Not caring enough to watch him die, I raced down the corridor towards the second light source I had seen.
At the end of the hallway there was a reinforced iron door, which I had Kir help me cut through.
Inside that room, I saw a familiar sight. A clump of Bluestone, floating in the middle of a spherical cave. I reached out to it, but there was no response.

Silent one, Kir said, it won't say anything. I was a happy one, this is a silent one, and one in your nightmare was angry one.
So that explains why Herobrine had it and it apparently had no trouble working with him.
I took a deep breath and touched the tip of the sword to the Bluestone, sending an image of the Colossus at the edge of the Outskirts. There was a pulse of energy in response, as though it had done this before. I began to float, and a white light surrounded me.

When the light went away, I was on a building in between the Pillar and the Outskirts, where the Colossus was trying to crush something running along the ground. Hope flared as I realized that Jack had managed to distract it for this long.
The thing raised its giant fist and I glanced back at the Pillar Stronghold, where pieces of it were beginning to fall away, revealing a bright blue light inside.
Hurry up...
The Colossus brought its fist down and time stopped for a moment. It raised its hand and roared triumphantly. Physically, the thing was no different from a really, really big Enderman. However, the massive horns it sported from the sides of its head most certainly gave it a demonic touch. I sank to my knees as I saw it turn its attention away from the ground, knowing that it had finally crushed Jack.
I saw the Pillar crumble a little more, until the Bluestone clump was clearly visible, having moved itself higher into the Piller's structure. It shone brightly, like a blue star. Massive clumps of rock, with similar shape to those that made up my "wings" earlier, floated from the ground and began to fly towards the Colossus at an amazing speed. It raised its head just in time to grab one and hurl it aside.
The monster was incredibly agile, able to dodge the rocks being hurled at it.

It occurred to me later that the rocks were never actually meant to attack the thing directly.

I saw a small figure riding on one of the rocks. Kir, it's that same guy from up above, when he killed the two Endermen!
Yup! Kir said cheerily.

The Colossus batted aside the rock carrying the small figure, and I saw him jump from the projectile just before the Colossus's fist bashed the rock aside. The figure landed on top of the Colossus's head.

Suddenly, there was a bright white flare from where the figure had landed. It caused the Colossus to roar in confusion, and the white star atop its head suddenly plunged straight down, into its skull.

The Colossus fell to its knees and its eyes went dim. The thing evaporated before its head even got close to touching the ground.

I could see the figure fall down to the ground, get up, and face the tunnel. The Bluestone inside the Pillar Stronghold caught my attention again and a second white flash placed me at an unfamiliar area.

As I looked around, I saw that it was one of the tunnels with a wall being built over it. The place was completely deserted, with the exception of one person: Seth.
He ran over to me excitedly. "Did you see that!? It was that same guy, wasn't it?"
I nodded and he noticed that I held my sword in my hand. "Hey, you got your sword back! Can I have that iron one? I'm kinda weaponless right now."
"Sure," I handed him the iron sword I had been holding.
"Think we can go catch that guy out there?" Seth asked.
I looked over to the tunnel where the Colossus had fallen, judging the distance. "Yeah, I bet we can make it. Come on!"

We sprinted off, and I noticed a small army heading in the same direction as us, only coming up from the city. "What do you think's going on over there?" I asked Seth.
He shrugged. "Guess we'll find out when we get there!"

After a minute or so, we reached the tunnel. A makeshift set of barricades had been built, and my eyes widened in shock.

Herobrine's army had already discovered Stonewing.

It didn't take long to spot Herobrine himself. He made such an imposing figure, even if he wasn't any taller than a normal person. The way he stood completely still and just stared at you with his white eyes was enough to know exactly where he was.

In this case, I found him standing at the edge of the tunnel, looking right at me. He appeared to not be paying much attention to the monsters rapidly being slain by some unknown object in the middle of the horde. I guessed this was where the newcomer had gone.
I glanced back and saw the Stonewing warriors approaching rapidly. "Ready?" I asked Seth.
He grinned in response. "Always."

I vaulted over the cobblestone wall and roared, slashing open a zombie's head. Seth entered the fray behind me, and we stood back-to-back, hacking away at the hordes. I stepped forward to dodge an arrow, and soon we were separated in the battle, as the soldiers from Stonewing entered as well.

Kir flared with intensity and I faced off against the monsters surrounding me. I smiled as battle rush coursed through me once more. "Let the games begin...!" I said to myself as they converged on me.
I slashed at the chest of a zombie that approached and tried to attack, and it fell backwards into a mess of flesh and bones. I deflected an armed zombie's sword and stabbed it in the neck when it tried to recover. A spider jumped at me from above and I ducked, jabbing my sword up into its abdomen and throwing it down. I was reminded of my night on Starhill as the puffs of white smoke began to surround me.
It seems like such a long time since then, I thought as I decapitated a skeleton. I became a whirlwind of diamond fury, not hesitating between slashes and annihilating monsters all around me.
Slash, turn, block, duck, stab, kick, slash! My mind raced with adrenaline, and I continued to circle and cut through monsters as though they were made of grass and leaves.
I ducked under an arrow and grabbed the skeleton that fired it by its spine, using it to block another arrow before throwing it under the feet of some zombies. With that side of the vicinity occupied, I turned and jumped over a zombie wearing gold armor, stabbing through the soft material and into its skull. I jumped off of the zombie, shoving its disintegrating body into the dust, and slashed at the monsters all looking up from below me. As I landed, I crouched down with my free hand on the ground and the hand holding the sword up. I felt a mental click and sprung up, spinning and swinging my sword at twice its usual force, cutting through the heads of two zombies at a time.

A creeper's face appeared in the midst of the crowd. I kept track of it and powered my way through, hacking at the mobs on either side of my path until the creeper showed itself. It approached me and began to swell, hissing with its internal explosive. I growled and stabbed it through the eye, stopping the explosion and killing the creeper. Not today.
Looking around, I noted that the majority of the monsters were no longer focused on me, and instead going after the easier prey of the surrounding warriors. At my back, there was suddenly a gust of wind.

I turned and finally saw up close the figure that had brought down the Colossus. He had black hair that hung down to just above his eyes, which were a vivid brown. He wore a dark grey cloak and pants, with grey and white shoes. He carried two short stone swords, one in each hand, and had a large array of weapons strapped to his back, including multiple bows. He turned to me and I saw what appeared to be an Enderman's pearl set in a small iron piece on a necklace. I heard a growl behind me and turned, slashed open a zombie's face, kicked it away, and went back to looking at the newcomer. He smiled and raised an eyebrow at the sight of killing the zombie so quickly. His teeth seemed like they'd fit more on a wolf than a human.
"Well," he said, folding his arms and looking at me. "Looks like we finally meet, eh? M'name's Lupi."

The monsters converged on us and we stood closer, taking combat stance. "I'm Tyron. Nice to meet you, Lupi," I said without looking at him.
He grunted in acknowledgement and we lashed out in unison, Lupi rapidly striking vital points of monsters and knocking them down quickly, while I took a slightly less graceful approach and simply cut them down as they got close to me. We returned to each other's side and watched for another wave of monsters in the tide around us.

I noted that Herobrine could no longer be seen.

"Gah, this hood is degrading," I heard Lupi grumble. "Don't see much use of it now that I don't need to hide... Watch my back for a second." I stood guard as he jabbed his swords into the ground and pulled off the dark cloak, revealing a lighter grey shirt underneath. I cut down another batch of zombies and noted that he had what appeared to be iron gauntlets, with more Ender pearls set in them.

"Much better!" Lupi grinned. He scrunched up the hood into a ball and threw it into the mess of monsters. He picked up his swords once more and we went back to destroying hordes of monsters. As his swords wore down, he discarded them by throwing them with expert accuracy into the monsters, stabbing them in the chest or head before drawing a new set of swords.
We stood back-to-back and I spun, kicking away a skeleton before splitting its skull with my blade and turning to cut down two zombies that were headed toward Lupi from behind.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light and I turned to see Herobrine standing there with black armor and a dark Bluestone sword in each hand, smirking at me. "There you are, Tyron. Was wondering when I'd be able to kill you!" He leaped forward, slashing straight down with both swords. I raised my own to block and Kir roared in anger upon seeing how Herobrine had used the Bluestone within his own blades.
Lupi took notice and threw his swords into the monsters nearby, drawing a bow.

Herobrine chuckled and pressed down on my block, forcing me to my knees. "Where is that spark I saw from you earlier, Tyron? You had an inch of chance only a few minutes ago..."
I strained from the pressure of Herobrine pressing down on the overhead block I had put up, and was unable to answer. The pressure was suddenly gone as Herobrine jumped up to block an arrow from Lupi.
"You!" He growled, bitter with hatred.
Lupi responded by calmly drawing two iron swords. "Hello again, Herobrine. Been a while, hasn't it?"
I got up, starting to catch my breath, as the two faced off with each other. "You were supposed to be dead long ago!" Herobrine spat angrily.
"Yeah, well, I'm not," Lupi responded, his eyes narrowing. Herobrine roared and teleported behind Lupi, bringing both swords down in a similar manner to how he had attacked me.
Lupi brought both his swords up in a crossblock and fell backwards, raising his legs and kicking Herobrine off of him before rolling into combat stance again.

The two were obscured by monsters and I began to fight again, cutting through zombies and spiders. Weariness was beginning to affect me, as I hadn't slept in Notch-knows-how-long.

There was a gravelly, howling screech from deep in the tunnel.

The entire battle ceased what they were doing with a united curiosity.

Endermen. Endermen everywhere. They crowded from wall to wall of the tunnel, teleporting into the battle and beginning to take victims incredibly quickly.
The pitched roars of heated battle began again and I heard a sharp laugh from Lupi as an Enderman, taller than most, suddenly teleported into our midst and brought his arm down, causing an audible crack on whatever it hit. I heard Herobrine roar in fury and saw him begin to fly, facing off with the Enderman in front of him, who seemed to be unafraid.

Do they not get along? Does this mean that Endermen aren't under Herobrine's control? I thought.
Kir began to spout knowledge as I watched them circle each other warily. Herobrine created the Endermen a looooong time ago. The Endermen didn't want to follow his orders and rebelled. He doesn't like that he so far hasn't been able to get rid of them.
Huh, I thought. So this battle is now three-sided?
Yup!
Excellent. I grinned and with renewed purpose began slashing away once more at monsters, carving a path through them to keep viewsight of Herobrine and what looked like the Enderman leader beginning their duel.

The Enderman threw a punch at Herobrine, who dodged and circled around to make a strike to the back of its head. The Enderman teleported away, then a split second later teleported through the air, sailing extremely quickly towards Herobrine. It grabbed Him by His neck and slammed him into the ground.

I spun and delivered a downward slash to a creeper behind me, splitting its gunpowder-filled head open. Next to go were a zombie and a skeleton, who had gotten a little too close for comfort. I growled and kicked a spider away before stabbing it in the head and spinning to face my next opponent.

Herobrine made a successful stab at the Enderman's shoulder, sending it reeling in pain and growling at Him. "You will never take my race back, Herobrine," it growled threateningly.
"Take you back?" Herobrine laughed, venom edging His tone. "I want to do nothing of the sort! I want to wipe you off the face of this universe!" He made a jab at the Enderman's head, and growled as it teleported away again, returning moments later to smash Him into the ground once more. "I am the First!" It roared, pounding at Him again and again.

I turned away from the First and deflected a slash from a zombiefied soldier, stabbing him in the chest and yanking the blade up to his throat before kicking him away and spinning around to cut through a spider's head. I'm not sure I can take much more of this, Kir. I was mentally wearing down extremely quickly. How long do you think this is gonna go on?
Not much more, hang in there! Kir replied encouragingly. I physically nodded and ducked under a skeleton's arrow, jabbing him under the skull.

Herobrine screamed with rage and there was a blast of light from the crater he had been pounded into, pushing the First away. "You're a pathetic little thing, you know that?" He said. "To think you can defeat me! You're almost as foolish as Tyron! My abilities have no end, First!" He spread His arms and His swords morphed into dual diamond scythes, black lightning crackling around His body.
The First raised its arms warily, backing away a little. Herobrine flew at it with both scythes raised and brought them down, missing by only a hair's width as the First teleported away yet again. Herobrine spun around and held out one scythe as the First teleported back in. The First's purple eyes widened in horror as it realized Herobrine was ready for it, and it let out a piercing cry as the scythe plunged into its side.
Endermen around the battlefield turned to see as their leader was brutally wounded.

I spun and slashed open a zombie's skull, making my way to the open space where Herobrine was about to kill the First. Creepers blocked my path and I was forced to back away to keep from being blown up.

Herobrine laughed and raised both scythes. He brought them down, and they pierced the head of an Enderman that had teleported in the way of the scythes' path. It evaporated instantly, leaving behind a pearl. The First wasted no time in scooping it up in his hand and throwing it backwards, teleporting out of reach of Herobrine right as I finally entered the area. Herobrine glanced between me and the direction the First had teleported in.

"You are extremely lucky today, Tyron," He snarled before he flew off, his army retreating with him.

"Seth, is it?" Lupi said. He held out his hand and Seth shook it, smiling warmly.
"Yeah! Nice to meet you, Lupi!

The battle hand ended as what would have been a victory for the Endermen and Herobrine. Only a handful of the Stonewing soldiers survived the battle. If it had lasted any longer, Seth, Lupi, and I would have been the last three remaining from that particular faction.

I liked to think that we could have taken care of it on our own.

We had gathered up a bit of loot that we could manage and gone off towards the entrance to the city, with Lupi leading the way.

"Lupi," I asked, "do you remember the wolf that was with us when you killed those two Endermen a while back?"
Lupi smiled. "Blizzard? What about him?"
"He was with us when we got captured down here," I explained. "Wonder if he's alright..."
"Ah, don't worry. Blizzard's a tough wolf. Smart, too. He'll be waiting for us at the entrance of the waterfall."
Seth appeared to be deep in thought, recollecting everything that had happened so far. He had seen my magical outburst- well, I assumed that's what it was- from atop the wall he had been forced to help build.
"I hardly know what to make of everything that's happened here. There's a lot to learn," he said quietly.
"Like what?" Lupi asked him, wearing a little smirk.
"Well, we discovered that the Endermen are independant of Herobrine, that you have some connection with Herobrine, and that Tyron has a few things he might want to tell us..."
"Hey, it's not that bad!" I interjected. "Just found out that I can use magic when angry. Also, there's apparently different types of Bluestone. The bit inside my sword is a kind, happy type, although you guys can't hear it speaking like I can, while the stuff Herobrine had is dark and angry, apparently."
Seth winced and ran his hand through his hair. "Ugh, so many connections to Herobrine."
Lupi nodded in response. "Yeah, you'll have that. He's a nasty little devil when it comes to self-promotion."
"Right," Seth continued. "What do we make of the Endermen? They're hostile to us, but at the same time I kinda want them to live because they're against Herobrine as well."
Lupi snorted. "Oh, please. Herobrine can wipe the floor with them. You saw it yourself, right? Their leader, the very first Enderman, putting up a stalemated fight... only to see that He was holding back the entire time."

I once again remembered the green-eyed Enderman that had saved my life. "I wouldn't be so sure," I said quietly.
Lupi looked curiously at me. "Why not?"
"Because there's a different Enderman I met once. He had green eyes instead of purple. He saved my life, even. I didn't quite understand what he said at first, but now I'm starting to get it..."
Lupi rolled his eyes. "Get on with it, then."
"'We are some of those that do not follow the First'," I quoted. "Now I know who he was talking about, at least.
Lupi nodded and we reached the stone staircase that led up to the surface. Seth and I yawned and he laughed heartily. "What, are you two tired from the walk!?"
"No," Seth said, "we're tired because we haven't slept in an entire day."
"Hah!" Lupi waved his hand dismissively. "That's nothing. I've stayed up a week before."
"Yeah?" Said Seth, rising to the challenge. "How long did you sleep after that?"

Lupi paused. "...Another week."

Seth and I began to laugh and Lupi himself even chuckled a little, shaking his head.

We began to climb the staircase, and I could tell by the light shining down that it was sometime during the next day.
"So, Lupi," Seth asked curiously, "will you be sticking with us on our adventures when we get out, or will you go back to doing whatever it was you were doing when we got here?"
Lupi shrugged. "Depends on what you guys do."
I smirked, though a little bit of bitterness managed to enter my voice. "So far, all we've been doing is trying to figure out a way to get rid of Herobrine. With limited results."
"Well," Lupi started without hesitation, "allow me to help you out, then. As you might already know, I've got a bit of unfinished business with the Lord of Chaos."

We were almost to the exit. Sure enough, I could see the shadow of Blizzard standing at the top of the stairs, waiting patiently for us.

"About that..." Seth was beginning to question Lupi now, much to the brown-eyed warrior's discomfort. "What's your story with Herobrine?"
Lupi scowled. "I'd prefer to keep that to myself, thanks."
"Right, sorry," Seth apologized.

We all stayed silent for the remainder of the stairway. When we reached the top, Lupi crouched down and smiled, scratching Blizzard behind the ears. The wolf wagged his tail rapidly and barked with happiness.
"So, where were you guys heading when Blizzard and I found you the other day?" Lupi asked.
Seth strained to remember for a moment. "There's a city somewhere beyond the forest that we were walking through," he said eventually.

"Well, then it looks like I know where we're going! C'mon, Blizzard!" Lupi began to jog off towards the forest.

Seth and I exchanged an exasperated glance.
"Lupi, wait!" I shouted. He turned around questioningly. "You think you should let us tired people actually rest first? I'm not sure I can go much longer without falling on my face!"

Lupi trotted back over, an irritated look on his face. "Fine. You've gotta work on your stamina, kid."
"I've been called 'kid' enough times in the last day to turn me into a toddler, Lupi. Please don't call me that."

Lupi raised a questioning eyebrow. "Really? What'll you do about it if I do? I'm curious."
I stood up a little straighter and growled under my breath, staring into Lupi's eyes and trying to calm my frustration. He looked back with a calm and almost uninterested expression.

"Easy there, you two," Seth said, stepping in between me and Lupi. "We don't want to wind up fighting each other."
"I suppose not," Lupi said. He then stifled a yawn. Both Seth and I looked at him, a teasing light beginning to brighten Seth's eyes.

"Fine, I suppose I could use a rest too," Lupi admitted at last. "Just don't expect me to let you two sleep in after I wake up!"

We awoke to the rumble of a thunderstorm overhead and I looked around, wiping my eyes and blinking drowsily. Lupi got up and stretched his arms calmly, ignoring the rain, while Seth groaned and attempted to wipe some of the water off of him.

"Well, this is fantastic," he grumbled.
"What, afraid of getting wet?" Lupi teased. "What are you, a cat?"

Seth decided to leave Lupi alone and look out across the lake, where the rain was sending up a mist against the water.
"Well, better get going," he said after a while. "Better than anything to get out of this thunderstorm."

A lightning bolt hit the top of one of the mountains, punctuating his sentence for him.

"Well, let's get going, then!" Lupi shouted, already jogging off towards the forest. Blizzard was following behind him, his ears flat against his head somewhat warily. Kir was incredibly silent as well.

Anything wrong, Kir? I asked. There was no response. Kir?

There was a prickle at the back of my neck and I stood completely still, rigid as the trees Lupi was jogging towards. Blizzard turned and looked towards the lake, letting out a low growl with his hackles raised.
A crack of lightning struck the lake, leaving a trail of evaporated, superheated mist in the air above.

Lupi turned around slowly, sensing something as well. "What...?"

Seth looked up to see a torrent of blue gathering in the grey clouds above. "Get down!" He screamed, throwing himself to the ground away from the lake. Lupi and I did the same, while Blizzard stood still, glaring at the clouds.
Bright blue lightning crashed down into the lake. The resulting explosion was loud enough to make me cringe in pain and it took a moment before we were able to stand.

Enough mist had been thrown out over the landscape to limit vision to about two meters around me.
"Tyron? Seth? Where'd you guys go?" I heard Lupi calling.
"I'm over here! Closer to the lake!" I yelled back.

Blizzard's barking, abnormally aggressive, was heard.
"Blizzard! Calm down, boy! What is it?" I heard Lupi say. Blizzard continued to growl. The wolf eventually stopped and a deadly silence fell over us.

"Isn't it supposed to be raining?" I asked, worry creeping up around me. Nothing here is quite right, I thought. There's something in the air, almost like a-
A sudden flash of heat interrupted my thoughts and I cried out as a patch of grass nearby burst into flames. I noted in some back corner of my mind that fire occupied spaces of about one cubic meter.

"What was that!?" I heard Seth shout. A pair of glowing red eyes appeared in the clouds of fog, and a growl that dwarfed Blizzard's snarls reached my ears.

"I think I just found out," I managed to reply, my voice a quiet, timid noise.

The eyes came closer, accompanied by a slow thumping noise. The fog drifted apart to reveal a black, scaled snout, then the rest of the head.

By all logic, I should never have known what the creature was. I had never seen one before, and the thing's head was the only visible part thus far. Yet as the fog continued to drift back, the creature's name made itself the only thought in my head. Dragon.

More black scales, a large, muscled body, two massive, folded wings. Each feature that was slowly uncovered reinforced the name stuck in my head. I might have heard Seth and Lupi's shouts, but they had become nothing more than drowned out murmurs. The mist around me began to turn red, and the dragon snarled. Its black scales glimmered in the faint light and it began to circle me, its head low and threatening, showing its teeth in an aggressive snarl.
I stood completely still, watching as the dragon paced around me. It was slightly smaller than I had thought it would be, as I would be able to jump onto its back without much effort. Still, it was much bigger than anything I'd seen before, excluding the giants and the Colossus.
The dragon stopped in front of me and I stared straight into its glowing red eyes. They yielded nothing but intense rage, burning as brightly as the fire sparking at the sides of its mouth. Somehow, however, I could tell that the dragon's red eyes were a facade in front of something much more calm and friendly.

"Do you like him?" An all-too-familiar voice said behind me. "I may not be able to command every single one at a flick of my fingers anymore, but I can certainly take control of them one at a time..."

I had no idea what He meant. Turning slowly, I faced Herobrine once again, gripping my ever-present sword tighter. The Bluestone inside seemed to be dull. "What are you talking about?" I asked him, my voice quiet and menacingly steady.

"You never heard, Tyron?" Herobrine replied curiously. He chuckled. "What a shame. I shall tell you a story, then."

I opened my mouth to interrupt, but He stopped me with a raised hand. "Ah, ah, ah. Remember that you have a very dangerous creature directly behind you, ready to follow my every order." I settled with glaring at him bitterly.

"Once upon a time," Herobrine drawled, clearly enjoying his total control of the situation, "I needed another creature to do my bidding. I decided upon creating one that could roam around with more freedom than the rest, teleporting for the sake of mobility and moving pieces of material for building things. Unfortunately, this got out of hand and they became the Endermen. As you know, I now hate and despise them, much like anyone else with the sheer nerve to stand against me." He shot a pointful glare at me. "So I decided, 'why not make another creature to combat them for me? One that can destroy things easily, like how they can create things easily?' What a wonderful idea, don't you think? I made the dragons. They worked extremely well. In fact, they kept the Endermen occupied for thousands of years." He stopped, turning away from me and gazing in the opposite direction, as though deep in thought. "Then they managed to cut away my sight of them. I, the Lord of Chaos, whom you should so fear, was outsmarted by these... beasts." He whipped around, His white eyes sparking with the same venom that was in His voice. "And after I'm done dealing with you, and dealing with the Endermen, I will go to see exactly what I can do about them and their... disobedience."

I took in the information, admittedly intrigued by Herobrine's story.

"You might ask," He continued with a smug grin, "why this matters in any way to you. Well, I thought you should know that my best suspicion as to what occurred to the dragons has to do with a certain boy named..."

He paused, letting the realization and effect sink in.

"...Tyron Dragoknight."

I half expected something huge and climactic to happen. Instead, there was just a long silence. In a way, I supposed that was just as huge and climactic as anything that could have happened otherwise.

I had something to do with dragons? I outsmarted Herobrine before I even arrived here? What, then, caused me to lose my memory and whatever I had beforehand?

My stance had shifted into an unguarded, somewhat surprised bearing while I thought about it. I cried out in pain as Herobrine suddenly lashed out at me, a sword materializing in His hand. I dropped to my knees, my vision already blurring. The cut made its presence known in a fierce, clawing pain across my stomach. The grass reddened beneath me. I dropped my sword at Herobrine's laughter.
"You're so foolish, Tyron! If I had known you'd be caught off guard this easily, I wouldn't have told you the truth!" To add an extra bit of salt to the festering injury, He kicked me in the chest and sent me sprawling on my back in front of the dragon, who looked down at me blankly.

Aside from the almost insane laughter of Herobrine, everything was silent as I gazed up at the dragon. What has He done to you? Could I have had stopped it, because of my connection to you? My thoughts almost made it out of my mouth, and I realized that I couldn't physically move any longer. Can you help me? Can you even see me, or is it all just a blank world for you under Herobrine's control?

The dragon blinked and I noticed a minuscule sliver of purple under the red glow of the slave-cast eyes.

You can hear me, can't you? A sliver of hope about the same size as the dragon's true eye color appeared inside me. You can get out, can't you? I can help you get free...!

I noticed that Herobrine had gone a deadly silent. He hadn't left- His presence was as easily felt as the blood pooling beneath me. "What are you doing?" He asked, His vocal tone suddenly quite wary.

He's afraid, I thought to the dragon, mustering up as much focus as I could, afraid of what we can do. Come on, break free!

I heard His footsteps slowly approaching us and the edges of my vision shadowed. There were, however, noticeable changes in the dragon. His face was no longer emotionless, now displaying faint traces of anger and a fiercely determined volume of concentration. The violet color in his eyes returned, cancelling out the red. It occurred to me in a rather backended manner that the eye color appeared to be made out of minute little squares, and circled though multiple tones of shimmering color. Like cubic, violet fire.

"Dragon, step away from him. Now." Herobrine's command was sharp and cold. The dragon did not respond and I felt a slight tingling feeling inching through my body. Herobrine stepped forward and slashed His blade across the dragon's head, opening a very small cut above his eyes.

The dragon's reaction was spectacular and violent. In a flash of black scale, he picked Herobrine up in his jaws and threw Him several meters away, standing over me protectively as the tingling feeling increased. The shadows narrowing my vision backed away, and I realized with a light gasp that I was being healed.
Herobrine growled and the dragon roared its reply, rearing up on his hind paws and shooting a blast of purple fire into the air above. Strength began to return to me as Herobrine threw His sword to the side, preferring to use tendrils of black lightning instead. The dragon charged and Herobrine ducked to the side, rolling a couple meters and holding His arm out as He stood, firing a crackling bolt of lightning.
The dragon raised his wing and the bolt glanced off of the lightly scaled surface. He lunged again and puffed a burst of fire after Herobrine as He tried to escape the dragon's claws, burning Him across His shoulder. Herobrine backed away, lightning sparking at His fingertips.

I managed to pull myself to my feet and look around. My sword was nowhere to be seen, and the swirling mist around the three of us had grown more intense in reaction to the brawl between Herobrine and the dragon. Where are we, anyways?

A bolt of lightning suddenly shot by my head, causing me to jump and run to the side. Herobrine had taken a wild shot at me in hopes of distracting the dragon, and failed. The dragon raked his claws across Herobrine's chest and I wondered where all of the power He displayed against the Endermen had gone. Could He be holding back for a reason? Does he not want the dragon dead? It was an interesting thought, but more important in my mind was being able to help the dragon. There was nowhere to run anyway, with the clouds of ether whirling around us.
I remembered how I had summoned wings of stone to carry me through the underground city. Could I do such a thing again? Taking the memory of the light in my head and holding onto it, I closed my eyes and attempted to do something, anything, to aid the dragon.

To my surprise, it actually worked. I felt a sharp and energetic rush around my hands and I opened my eyes to see a blue glow reaching halfway up my forearms. Herobrine noticed this too and I recognized what was almost a flash of desperation in His white eyes. He's scared of me! I cheered. I leveled my arm at Him and forced more energy down into my hand, creating a brighter glow and finally letting loose a blast of what appeared to be ice in His direction. Herobrine took His attention off of the dragon clawing at Him and spun on His heels, throwing His hand up and creating a shield of black fire to intercept my projectile.
The dragon took advantage of this and blasted Herobrine with fire, scorching the cyan shirt he normally wore. He growled in pain and advanced on the dragon once more.

Experimenting quickly with what I could do, I found that I could create blades of sharp ice that grew starting at my arms and freezing over my hands completely, protruding out and into long but lightweight swords.

Herobrine managed to get close to the dragon, bearing a few more scratches, and kicked him under the muzzle, sending him rearing back again. Herobrine put a crackling finger to the dragon's chest.

Not today. I sprinted forwards and drove a blade of ice into His side, directly under His raised arm. He gasped and the black lightning vanished from His fingers as he looked at the ice embedded deep in his flesh.

"You...!" He growled and His eyes flared brightly. He vanished, leaving the ice blade covered in blood where it had torn into Him. His voice boomed around us. "You will need more than that to kill me, Tyron Dragoknight. Enjoy your one and only victory!"

The ethereal clouds began to close in, changing color to a soft blue. The dragon and I looked at each other silently. His eyes registered immense gratitude. "Thanks," I told him. "I would have been a goner without you."
The dragon nodded his large head and we both vanished into the mist.


When I awoke, I was back at the foggy lakeside.

"Tyron! Where the hell did you go!?" I heard Lupi shouting for me frustratedly.
"Relax, Lupi, he's gotta be around here somewhere." Seth's voice was a bit closer, and I was able to stand and walk over to it.

Out of curiosity, I attempted to summon the ice blades again. The only response I got was a slight chill around my hands. Figures.

I almost ran straight into Seth. He turned and jumped, surprised. "There you are! We'd been looking for you for around ten minutes!"

Really? It seemed longer than that...

"Seth, did you find him?" Lupi's voice was getting closer.
"Sure did!" Seth called happily. He turned back to me. "We found your sword a ways away. I had wondered what caused you to drop it." He held out the sword and Kir's voice appeared in my head.

Tyron! Yay! Kir began to scan my memories, almost sparking with joy and wonder at the dragon. You saw a dwagon! A dwagon! That's so cool! And you poked Herobrine with ice, and you used magic, and...! Wow!

The little Bluestone entity made me smile a little with its usual carefree nature. Lupi finally arrived through the fog. "About time!" He shouted. "Where did you wander off to!?"

"Herobrine found me with a dragon," I said. The look on Lupi's face as he registered this was a priceless expression of dumbfounded confusion. Seth and I both tried and failed to hold back a laugh.

"What the..." Lupi cursed under his breath, shaking his head. "Were you two conspiring against me this whole time?"

I steadied myself, still giggling a bit. "No, I- heh- I actually did get taken off by Him. I think He used some sort of arcane art to get into my head and attack me."
"So you fought him off?" Seth asked, his natural curiosity igniting.
"Not really," I replied. "He had a dragon under his control- yes, they exist- and I managed to snap the dragon free. He told me something about me having to do with why dragons didn't follow His orders like they should, too. I got the dragon to attack Him and I figured out how to use magic of my own." I raised my hand and attempted once more to summon the ice. Still nothing but cold air. I winced. "I can't manage to do it now, though."

"Well, I wouldn't expect you to be able to." Seth sounded more interested than disbelieving. "Using some sort of magic at all would take a heavy drain on almost anyone, depending on what they did."

That might explain why I can't do it again.

Lupi sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Yeah, you know what, I'm just gonna go off and let you two talk about something that happened in a nightmare." He turned and walked off into the mist. Seth and I wisely shut up and followed.

Into the forest we went. Lupi kept up his brisk pace ahead of us, with Blizzard trotting along at his side. Meanwhile, I continued to probe my consciousness (with the help of Kir) to enable my use of magic again.

What'd you do to make that happen? Kir asked.
I sighed frustratedly in my head. I have no idea, I replied, I wanted to help the dragon, remembered my flight in Stonewing, and through some lucky streak found the same thing that made the wings.
Kir was silent, pondering this for a moment. Think that maybe you need to be really angry or sad or something to do it?
Maybe...

So caught up in the conversation, I missed Lupi's signal to stop and ran straight into his back, grunting and falling onto my rear. He rolled his eyes, turning to me and holding out a hand to help me up. Seth chuckled behind me.
"Blizzard found something," Lupi told me. "He's off investigating now. Stay quiet, alright?"
"Right," I replied.

Sure enough, Blizzard's rapid barking was heard up ahead, behind the foliage. Lupi sprinted forwards and I followed, Seth staying quiet at my side.

We emerged into a clearing, seeing Blizzard growling fiercely with his head low, teeth barred and hackles raised.
In front of him was a very, very large mushroom. It was red with white spots, the cap creating a dome that left only a block's worth of space to the ground. That space was filled by stone bricks, and a little wooden door marked the entrance to what was apparently a small hut.

"Stay out here," Lupi ordered, drawing a stone dagger from the sleeve of his grey shirt.
Where does he manage to keep all of those?
Regardless of his orders, Seth crept up behind, so silently that not even Lupi noticed. Lupi pressed his back to the wall of the mushroom hut, right out of view should the door open, and tapped on the wooden surface with the handle of the small weapon in his hand.
There was no noise from inside.

Blizzard gave a warning bark.

I stood back and Kir's presence in my head weakened a little. Imma scan the shroomy hut, he told me.
Lupi began to reach for the doorknob as Kir returned, stating ever-cheerfully that there were no signs of life within.
Then why is Blizzard so on edge?
Kir giggled. Maybe he smells ham!

Lupi turned the doorknob and flicked his hand, opening the door and pulling out of view. I stepped forward a bit. From my perspective, I could only see a crafting bench, a storage chest, and a small table occupying the interior. "There's nobody in there," I told Lupi. He dipped his head and entered the mushroom hut. He took one look inside, then immediately backed out, holding his hand over his mouth and nose. "Ugh! I can see why Blizzard hates this place! That stench!"
Seth entered as well, making sure to pinch his nose. "Yeah. There's a dead body in here. Of course it's gonna smell!" He came back out, wearing a look of immense disgust.
I shrugged and went over to the door. I braced myself to enter... and didn't smell a thing. Confused, I looked around, then back at the doorway. Seth and Lupi were both watching me, confused expressions on their faces.
"...You don't smell anything?" Seth asked, his nose still plugged and giving his voice a somewhat humorous, nasally tone.
"Not at all," I said back to him.
Lupi huffed, "Lucky."

I went back to searching the hut. There was indeed a grotesque lump of moldy and decaying flesh, in a humanoid shape. It was slumped over in a chair next to the table, a hastily-crafted wooden dagger on the floor nearby what might've been its hand. Green and brown colors mixed with a white and fluffy mold covering the majority of the body, giving it the color palette of... possibly vomit in a snowbank. There were a few bones showing, and I puzzled at this for a moment when I noticed that the skull structure didn't quite look normal.
Where a mouth and nose should have been, there was a large triangular hole, with yellowish remnants of some organic material hanging limply off of it. One eye socket was showing, and it was a bit bigger than it should have been.

I tore my eyes away from the corpse to examine the rest of the hut. My curiosity grew as I saw pictures and maps posted on the wall opposite the body. One picture was framed, standing neatly out from the rest. I went over to it and carefully pulled it off of its place on the wall.
Depicted on the picture were several birdlike creatures. Each of them stood upright, with slightly longer than normal arms and hawk-like heads, their beaks curved to a point. They were, however, smiling, and I got the sense that these things were less bird and more human. Their smiles and eyes portrayed a slight glimpse of sentient knowledge that was not present in normal birds. Their feathers were very bright, and their clothes stylishly colored in similar fashion. I looked back over at the dead thing, wondering if it might have been one of these birdlike creatures.
Setting the picture neatly back in place, I went to examine the objects in the hut. The chest contained little of use; any food being rotten and any tools being too badly damaged or simply not up to par with what Seth had to use. After a while of searching, though, I eventually found something of note.
It was a small, leather-bound book. Upon opening it, I saw that the writing inside was a mess of scribbles, in some odd language that I couldn't interpret.

I flicked through the pages. As they went on, the writing became less and less organized, and a few drops of liquid stained the paper. I didn't venture to guess what it was. Finally, on the last page, I found something I could understand.
A very vivid and accurate drawing of Herobrine's face. The ink was a slightly different color than the rest of the book, and I realized that it had the dark red color of dried blood.
Avi went kinda crazy, Kir's voice said.
Avi? I asked the little Bluestone entity.
Yup! Avi! That was his name. You can read it right there in the paper.
You can read this? I questioned dubiously.
Nope. Just his name.
...How?
Magic.
I huffed in annoyance and almost put the book back, then noticed an odd bulge in the leather bindings. Upon examining the inside back cover a little more, I found a small, stitched-together seam in the material. I went out into the open for Seth and Lupi to see.
"Seth, can I borrow that?" I said, pointing to the dagger in his hand.
He hesitated, then gave it to me. I carefully put the point of the blade to the leather covering, then pulled it across and cut the thing open.
A light-colored object fell out, landing in the grass below. Blizzard barked at it and I carefully knelt down to pick it up.

The object was a white, crystalline gemstone. Scratch that, a very, very light blue gemstone... It fit easily in the palm of my hand, weighing slightly lighter than I thought it would. I tapped it gently with my finger, and to the surprise of everyone in the clearing, it shone a whitish color for a few seconds.

Kir, got any idea what this is? I asked.
The Bluestone entity seemed to examine it for a moment before gleefully coming to a conclusion. Nope! Not a clue!

"What do you think it is?" Seth asked. I shrugged and Lupi stayed silent.

"What else was in there, Tyron?" Lupi questioned after a while.
"In the book, there's a drawing of Herobrine, but not much else. There's a few maps inside, let me check them again." I turned, holding the gemstone, and went back inside the hut to examine the maps.
After a while, I realized that the majority of them didn't seem to be of the surrounding area. Avi, if that was indeed the dead creature's name, had for some reason painted the foliage a bright red on several of the maps, and other colors on different maps. Only one of them had trees resembling the ones around here, and that map only seemed local- though it did have the entrance to Stonewing mapped on it, which gave me a general idea of what direction to go if we were to head North. I looked at Avi's book again. Taking a point of the gemstone, I turned to the final page and cut a gash through Herobrine's blood-drawn face. I set the book down, open-paged, in front of Avi's decaying body, then looked at him one last time and went out of the hut.
"We were heading North. Right, Seth?" I asked. He nodded.

I tightened my grip on the blue-white gemstone for a moment, then held it over my back and let it go into my apparently infinite inventory of things. I gave the stone dagger back to Lupi and turned North. "Let's get moving, then."

"So, what about you and Herobrine, Lupi?" Seth prodded again as we continued our venture Northwards.
"You won't get an answer out of me, no matter how many times you ask," Lupi growled in return. Seth simply shrugged with a tiny grin and silently walked along.

I was ahead of them, leading the way this time. Lupi seems quiet, for not being in the lead, I noted to myself. I thought he'd have been a bit more vocal about losing his position as leader.
Lupi's not ​that much of a wolf, Kir pointed out.
I suppose.

Our journey through the forest remained quiet and uneventful for some time. Part of me was bored, while the other part relished not being attacked out of the blue for once. Or at least, not having any unforeseen surprises to jump out at us. At the very least, time like this gave me the ability to think. I'm not Herobrine's only target. It seems like the Endermen pose a large problem for Him, and for some reason this other creature, Avi, was important enough to kill. Even if, by the looks of it, Avi killed himself. He must have been driven insane by Herobrine somehow. I thought back for a moment to my sprint through the snowy forests after leaving Fairial. They seemed too long ago to be real now, even if only a short time had passed. I suppose, though, Herobrine has the capacity for scaring people like that. He certainly made good use of the snow that day...

My mind shifted idly between topics, resting on the gemstone that I'd found in Avi's journal. It's obviously got some sort of significance to it. Nobody seems to know about it, though... Not even Kir. Wait... I glanced back at Lupi, remembering how instead of denying knowledge, he had stayed completely wordless. Could he know something about it? I doubt he'll tell me if I ask now, but it's a worthy topic to bring up later, when he trusts us a bit more. Hopefully he will.

I changed topics again. Towards where we were travelling. This city that Seth knows of... I wonder what we'll find there? If nothing else, another opportunity for Herobrine to attack us. At least I'm better prepared now. Maybe we'll even find another person to join up with us. I ran my hand idly over the back of my neck, blinking in mild surprise as I noted the fur again. It's able to be called legitimate fur, now... Not really all too hairy, no, but it's there. Hopefully nobody freaks out. The last thing I want to do is cause problems for everyone wherever I go! I'm supposed to help everyone, right?

I sensed Kir grazing though my thoughts and memories as well, probing the bounds of my amnesia with normal curiosity. Herobrine almost seems to arrogant and proud for His own good, I thought. Telling me about things that I've forgotten like that can't be a great career move for Him. Granted, He did think I'd be dead after that last encounter.

Look out! Kir shouted. I snapped to attention and did a quick spin, seeing a dark figure in the trees behind Seth and Lupi. Not even Blizzard seemed to notice. The figure raised multiple items in their hand and before I could shout, threw the objects towards us. I ducked out of the way, feeling a sharp point graze past my shoulder.
Seth, Lupi, and Blizzard weren't so lucky. The three of them were hit between the shoulder blades, staggering and almost unanimously falling to the ground, unconscious. It would have been funny if the situation were not so dire.
The figure in the tree dropped down and started approaching warily. Their face and shape were hidden by a dark cloak, and I watched their arms carefully while drawing my sword. I made a few quick looks toward my friends, allowing a sigh of relief when I realized that all they had been hit with were small dartlike things. Lupi was already snoring, so I assumed they were quite alive.

I advanced toward the figure, standing protectively over my friends. The newcomer seemed to take a hint out of this and stopped their approach. "Who are you?" I called out. There was no response. Instead, the stranger bolted off in the opposite direction, quickly disappearing among the trees.

Well, so much for that, I grumbled to myself.
Yeah, Kir agreed, really looked forward to meeting a new friend.

I almost berated Kir's positive reaction. Almost. Instead, I sat down next to my sleeping friends and carefully pulled the darts out of their backs, waiting for them to wake up.

Eventually they did, several minutes later. Blizzard was the first, followed by Lupi, who groaned and pushed himself into a sitting position. "What the hell just happened...?"
"Someone knocked you out," I replied.
Lupi stared at me, somewhat surprised. "...They got me and Blizzard, but not you?"
"Nope."
He stared, open-mouthed, and Seth regained consciousness next to him.
"Eeh...? What'd I miss...?" Seth droned groggily.
"Some nutcase with sleeping darts," Lupi answered him. His vocal tone was quite sour, and I resisted the urge to chuckle.
Lupi noticed regardless, and met me with a scowl. "Don't laugh, Tyron, or I swear I will have Blizzard tear out your throat."

I bit my tongue to hold back the laughter.

"So, you couldn't get anything else from this person?" Seth questioned, rubbing his eyes.
"No," I shook my head, glad to be on another subject. "They just knocked you out, missed their throw at me, and ran when I asked them who they were."
Lupi made an indignant huff. "Coward."

Seth got to his feet, brushing himself off. "Well, as long as they're gone, I'd say we stop making a fuss about it and get going. We've got places to be, y'know?"
Lupi stood as well, semi-reluctantly, and I followed suit. "Alright, then. Let's go!" I waved at them to follow as I started off in our previous direction at a light jog.

Not five minutes had passed before Kir shouted another warning. I turned and saw the figure again, even closer than before. "Guys, get down! Now!" I managed to shout as I saw the arm raise again. Lupi cursed and ducked behind a tree, while Blizzard snarled and Seth simply fell on his face, his arms over his head. I saw the figure hold back the darts, unwilling to throw them at an unsurprised enemy. They turned and started off into the trees again, disappearing just as rapidly.

"...They're gone again," I called out. Lupi made a frustrated noise, coming out from behind the tree with an arrow ready in his bow.
"You better keep that ready," I told him. He dipped his head and silently motioned for us to continue as Seth stood again.

The next appearance took much longer. Lupi was only just beginning to bring down his guard; the trees were becoming thinner and more sparse, and light was filtering through the leaves much more easily. Kir gave his squeaky early warning and I immediately spotted the stranger.

This time, they were only a few feet away, standing next to a tree. The dark hood and robe continued to show nothing of their face or structure.
Lupi was quick to aim his bow threateningly, causing the stranger to inch closer to the tree. "Run and I will have my wolf chase you down and pin you. It's not a very pleasant experience, so I suggest you stay put and answer our ques-" the stranger interrupted him by leaping into the tree above, dodging the resulting arrow that he let loose.
I happened to be standing close enough to Lupi to hear the steady stream of muttered curses as he continually fired and missed the stranger's dark-robed form, which was hopping from branch to branch with the agility of a squirrel. I sprinted off after them, giving chase on the forest floor.

Left! Right! Jump! Grab that branch! Kir spouted directions to me and I followed with timing faster than I knew I possessed, soon leaving the view of Seth and Lupi in my chase of the hooded stranger. I grunted with effort as I flung myself into the trees, following directly behind my quarry.
There was a blur of dark color as they dropped down to the forest floor into a clearing. I followed along, reaching out with my mind and willing my magical abilities to obey me for a small moment.
To my surprise, they did. A chunk of earth rose in front of the hooded stranger, blocking their escape. I approached with my sword drawn, leveled at their neck.

"Now..." I began, panting slightly to catch my breath, "let's see who you are..." Using the tip of my sword, I nudged away the hood over the stranger's face.

I contained as well as I could my shock. By the responsive look on her face, I could tell that my attempt was not nearly enough. The stranger appeared to be a young girl, with green eyes and straight dark hair that hung down to her shoulders. She raised an eyebrow at me and smirked.
"You seem way too surprised," she noted, before whirling and bringing her fist to the side of my head, knocking me unconscious.

Ugh, my head... Where are we? I slowly found my thoughts and questioned Kir.

No response.

Oh, great. Separated from Kir. I lifted my head and looked around. The area was empty of other people; a small clearing in the forest. The moon was directly overhead, and I was left weaponless in the middle of the place.

Well, I guess I can be lucky I'm not dead yet.

I brought myself to my feet and dusted myself off. Oddly, when looking around the surrounding forest, I saw no monsters at all. Regardless, I very slowly and cautiously went about exploring exactly where I was.
After a minute or so of creeping through the trees, I could see a dim light ahead. Having nowhere else to go, I shrugged and kept moving towards it.
The light was a single torch in another clearing, illuminating what appeared to be a piece of paper on the ground. As I got closer, I saw that this was a map of the forest. The northern boundary was at the top of the map, indicated by a strip of landscape lacking trees. Scattered throughout the map were circles, which I assumed to be similar clearings to the one I was in. The center clearing was the only one without a drawing of a torch in it, and the one directly below had a scribbled "you are here" written in.

Who the hell is doing this? I asked, frowning at the map.

"Excellent question," a light voice said behind me. I whirled around to face the source: the same girl that had knocked me unconscious. "See, it gets really boring here after a while, and I make up these fun little games to fool around with travelers like you. You'll get your sword back when you find the treasures at each clearing, and manage to find your friends as well," she informed. "Oh, and I'll be running around and trying to knock you out again."
...She read my mind. And put me in a puzzle for her own amusement. My thoughts began to race.
"Sure did!" She replied, smiling at me gleefully.
Stop that. I glared at her.
She shook her head. "Nah, I like this."
I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Fantastic," I said aloud.

Soon enough, she had me going off to find the other clearings. It wasn't too difficult of a challenge, since I could find my directions easily by looking up at where the moon was in its vertical arc across the sky.
The nearest of the multiple clearings was close enough so that I could see its torchlight after only a short walk. I planned a course around the different clearings as I approached, then looked up to see a small object resting against the torch in the new clearing. I went over and picked it up. It was the blue-white gemstone from Avi.
She took more than just my sword, then. I scowled. I looked at my map again, plotted my direction, and began to jog towards the next clearing.
Still no monsters in the forest, though I kept a lookout for the girl's shape among the trees. She did say she would try to knock me out again.

The second clearing was slightly farther off, its "treasure" turning out to be a stack of cobblestone from my inventory. I grumbled and returned it to its place inside that inventory, then started off towards the next clearing.
How many are left? I wondered, counting the clearings out on the map. Only four. I looked around again, then stopped and checked my inventory. Only my armor was missing. I should have kept that on, I thought to myself. Maybe she wouldn't have taken it.

The next clearing seemed to have nothing around. Puzzled, I began to search for anything that may have been around.
Suddenly, an iron sword was at my neck. I backed away and Lupi stepped out of the shadows in front of me, dropping his sword to his side with relief. "Ah, good, it's you. What happened to us?"
"That person who was trying to knock us out earlier," I replied, guessing that Lupi was this clearing's "treasure".
Lupi growled under his breath as we started off towards the next clearing. "So he got you in the end, huh?"
"She," I corrected.
Lupi's eyes widened in surprise. "It was a girl?"
"Mhmm. Say, where's Blizzard?"
I saw Lupi glance around, then put his fingers to his mouth and let out a sharp whistle. Blizzard came bounding out of the foliage happily, running towards his partner.
"Well, that's simple enough," I commented, continuing my pace towards the next clearing. "We have to hurry now, though. She said she'd want to knock us all out again."
"Fantastic," Lupi said, sounding hardly as enthusiastic as the word may have meant.

We jogged to the next clearing hurriedly, finding none other than a snoring Seth sitting up against a tree trunk. I grabbed hold of his shoulder and he woke with a start, his eyes panicked as he looked around for a moment, then saw it was me and relaxed. "Hey, Tyron. How're you doing?"
"Eeh, I'm doing alright. C'mon, we have to go. The girl that knocked us all unconscious is still tracking us."
Seth stood up, looking at me questioningly. "That was a girl?"
I nodded to him and started off towards the second-to-last clearing. There was almost a path through the forest leading us through the distance of only a few hundred more meters, and I continually cast my gaze around the surrounding trees, nervous for when the girl would surely appear and attack us again.

I didn't notice at first, then, when we entered the clearing, who was standing next to the torch. I turned and there she was, her hood down, beaming at us with a cheery grin.
"Well, guess who your 'treasure' is for this marker?" She asked me.
I opened my mouth to respond, but was cut off by Lupi stomping past me and glaring at her. "It was you!" He said angrily. "Why did you do this!?"
"'Cause I was bored, big fella," the girl chuckled, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. "What, you're not mad, are you?"
Lupi closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose, his arm half-raised.
"What, you don't want to hit a girl?" She kept prodding at him.
"Ooohhh, this isn't going to be good..." Seth muttered under his breath. He folded his arms and observed the conflict unfolding with his lips pressed together in a slightly frustrated line. Lupi continued to glare at the girl as she physically poked at Lupi, making him twitch and try not to react. She wasn't any taller than I was, which put Lupi at almost a full head's height above her.
"Why try so hard to keep your temper, hmm? It's not like I'm afraid of being hit, you know. How can someone, if she were stuck in this forest for months on end?" She circled Lupi, nudging at his sides and back. She made a mocking gasp. "Could it be that you're... afraid that I'd beat you?"
Lupi finally snapped and roared angrily, whirling around and bringing his elbow up towards the girl's head. She ducked down and rolled around him, standing upright in front of Lupi. He backed away a step and brought his other arm around. The girl caught his arm and twisted it around, making Lupi grunt in pain and adjust his stance to avoid dislocating a joint. He tried to strike with his other arm, which met a similar fate. The girl now had both of Lupi's arms crossed and pinned. She wasted no time in bringing her knee up in a very, very painful location, grinning deviously. Seth, me, and even Blizzard winced in pain as Lupi fell to his knees, his eyes shut tight and his arms pulled free of the girl's hands, crossed over his waist.

"Anyone else?" The girl asked, turning toward us. Seth shook his head and raised his arms, leaving me to face her.
I approached with as little aggression as I could, not wanting to hurt her anyway and wanting far less to wind up like Lupi, still hunched over in pain. "No thanks, really, but can you at least give me back my sword and armor? I need those."
She raised an eyebrow questioningly at me, then seemed to think about it for a moment with her chin resting on her hand. "Sure, but you're going to have to race me there."
"Alright," I said, going over and standing next to her. Whatever it's going to take to get my stuff back. As weird as Kir is, I kinda like having him...? her...? it, I guess, around to talk to.

"Ready..." She crouched down slightly. I mirrored her and set myself on a hair trigger.

"...STOP!" At the first noise out of her mouth, I bolted. Only after a second or so did I realize what she had done. I attempted to stop running, only to fall flat on my face. I heard her laughter behind me and grumbled, picking myself up. As I did so, I felt a foot collide with my back as she used me as a vault, leaping into the trees and consequently pushing me back down into the ground.
Oh, it is on! I got to my feet again and raced after her along the forest floor, quickly working myself to a heavy pant as I sprinted along. I saw her swinging through the trees above me, and realized that I was beginning to pull ahead. I saw the clearing up ahead and pushed myself farther, putting my head down slightly and forcing myself to regulate my breathing.
I burst into the light of the final clearing, seeing my sword and armor stacked neatly up next to the torch. Kir was felt entering my mind (though snoring- it needed sleep too, apparently!) and I gleefully reached out towards the sword.
There was a large force suddenly at my back and I toppled into the ground face-first yet again. "Hey, you think you can just take that stuff and run!?" I heard the girl's voice above me. I mumbled a few unintelligible words of frustration into the grass and waited for her to get off of me. Eventually she did, allowing me to pick up my gear.
"...Are you going to let us leave now?" I asked the girl, noticing that Seth and Lupi were entering the clearing. Blizzard was trying to support Lupi, who walked with a very slight limp.
Upon seeing them, the girl giggled and nodded. "Yeah, you can go. It'd be fun to see you again someday...?" She waved her hand towards me, and I realized that none of us had been introduced.
Why would we, though? It's not like we met on friendly terms.
"I'm Tyron," I said. "Those two are Seth and Lupi, and the wolf is Blizzard."
The girl nodded. "I'm Rathina," she replied.
Lupi glared at her venomously and she giggled once more before waving goodbye to me and dashing off into the forest, leaving me with my mouth half-open to say something else.

She... If she's so bored here, why wouldn't she stick around anyone?

Somewhat reluctantly, I turned towards where the edge of the forest was and began to jog again, with my friends close behind.