"Ugh… why do I always get hit on the head? I thought that leaving Sipsco would give my head a vacation from the bricks he always throws at me…"
Sjin opened his eyes slowly and blinked several times to get his eyes adjusted to the light.
He was in the Nether. Ghasts were flying around, paying no attention to confused farmer. Zombie Pigmen could be seen roaming around off in the distance. A sea of lava stretched as far as the eye could see.
"Holy shit… What the hell happened?" Sjin tried really hard to remember what happened before he ended up in the Nether.
That's right. Kim. She banged me on the head with a pipe. Why? Why would she do that?
Sjin looked around and surveyed the area around him. He was on top of Strawfinger's little tower. His hands was bound behind his back, and he was sitting in a little wooden chair. Inspecting the chair closer, Sjin saw that the chair was mahogany.
At least it's mahogany. Not that fleshy pink wood. Eugh. Where's Strawfingers? Where's Kim?
"Sjin?" Kim's voice rang out uncertainly below him. She climbed up the stairs. "Are you okay?"
"Well, besides the fact that I have a horrible headache after you bashed my brains in with that pipe, I'm quite okay," Sjin muttered. "What are you doing here anyways? To gloat?"
Kim turned away in shame. "I didn't want to hit you, I told you that."
"Yeah, but why did you do it anyways? It's quite hard to trust you now after all that happened. I suppose you're in the league with Strawfingers?"
Kim looked him straight in the eyes, unexplainable sadness in her own. "Sjin, listen. I-"
"Farmer! Are you awake yet?" A gnarly voice called as a purple scarecrow climbed up the stairs. "You are! Good, good. Now, do you know why you're still alive?" He ignored Kim completely as he placed himself directly in front of Sjin.
"I don't know. You tell me," Sjin muttered. Thoughts were racing in his head. Why was he still alive? Didn't Strawfingers want the satisfaction of killing him? What was he up to? And why was Kim here? Why did she bang him on the head with a pipe? Why didn't Strawfingers tie her up too, if she wasn't in the league with him? The numerous questions and overthinking was hurting Sjin's head a little; he still had a slight headache after getting throttled by the pipe.
"You are alive because I still need you, farmer. You see, I don't want to kill just you. I want you to see your little friends blown up as well. And you can watch them die before I kill you myself. Doesn't that sound like a wonderful plan?" Strawfingers smirked.
"No, it doesn't," said Sjin. "And how are you going to blow up all my friends if I'm stuck here in the Nether?"
"I've already thought about that, farmer. You see, during the day you get to go back to your little farm and work on those buildings. At night, you come back here and sit obediently. How does that sound?" The purple scarecrow chuckled. "I know, just wonderful, isn't it?"
"You can kill me and blow up my farm, because I won't finish those buildings and the Sjindig won't go on. You won't kill my friends that way," Sjin smiled inwardly at his response. That's right. He can't hurt his friends if they don't come to the farm. Most of them have indestructible armor, and Duncan has a force field around his castle.
"If you don't do it, then you can witness your friend over there die a slow, painful death." As quick as lightning, Strawfingers reached out and grabbed Kim. His apprentice struggled for a moment before the scarecrow pressed a steel sword, his steel sword, against her neck. Kim flinched as the cold metal touched her skin.
"Sjin!" Kim whimpered. Her eyes were wide open in terror.
Sjin had only a few moments to think. Kim betrayed him, but was that really the case? She did have something to tell him earlier before Strawfingers came. If there was the slightest chance that she wasn't in the league with Strawfingers, then letting her die would be a huge mistake. If he agreed to go with Strawfinger's plans, then maybe he and Kim would be able to figure out a way out and a way to get rid of all the TNT under his farm. If Kim wasn't in the league with the scarecrow, she would just respawn elsewhere and most likely hate him for the rest of her life. He really didn't need someone else to hate him.
"Okay. Strawfingers, you win. I'll do what you say. Just let Kim go."
A crooked smile broke out from Strawfinger's scarecrow face. "I thought you would've listed her out as a traitor and left her to die. I've underestimated your trust, farmer. Tomorrow you will start building the things necessary for your little Sjindig. As for you…" He stopped pressing the steel sword against Kim's neck and pushed her towards Sjin. His apprentice stumbled to the ground.
"Hey!" She protested. "What are you-?"
Strawfingers pulled Kim up roughly before she could say anything else and led her to the same wooden fencepost Sjin found her on before. He pushed Kim against the fencepost and quickly tied her hands around her back. "Thanks for spying for me, girl. Now, that I don't need you anymore, you can stay here on this fencepost and rot just like I was destined to."
"You, lying, cheating, filthy-"
"Yeah, yeah, vermin, evil, monster and all that," Strawfingers listed off boredly. He turned towards Sjin. "Don't fail me, farmer. You know what's at stake." The scarecrow let out an evil laugh.
Sjin glared daggers at the purple scarecrow's back as he strolled down the stairs. Sjin waited for several minutes to make sure that Strawfingers was long gone. Then he turned and glared at Kim.
"So? What were you going to tell me?" He asked suspiciously.
Guilt filled Kim's eyes again, and she looked down at the ground. "You probably won't forgive me for this, but… really, I'm not in the league with Strawfingers! I swear!"
"Yeah, so what was that earlier?"
"Strawfingers made me… he said that he'll personally kill you in front of my eyes if I didn't do what he asked of me! I wanted to tell you, but that freak was always watching! You might not realize it, but he was always watching you from a distance…"
Sjin relaxed a little, but he was still wary. "So you're not in the league with Strawfingers anymore?"
"No! Of course not! I was never in the league with him. I'm not a heartless person! He was threatening me to do things, like spy on you and tell him of your farm progress, or to do other things like that fake warning and the smashing-your-head-in thing. Even if I was helping Strawfingers on my own will, I would've deserted him after what he did to me."
"Oh… but why did you do what he said just because he was threatening to kill me? I can take care of myself, you know. I've made war with Duncan before, and I have defended myself against Rythian." Sjin narrowed his eyes at her.
"Yeah, well, that was the time when you had advanced machines, armor and weapons! Plus you had Sips to help you for most of the time!" Kim defended herself. "You don't wear any armor on your farm, plus you only carry around a steel sword with you, or no sword at all! It would be a piece of cake for Strawfingers to kill you out of the blue."
"I suppose you have a point… I was looking for a peaceful life on a farm…" Sjin sighed. "You know if I did die I can always respawn somewhere else… I wouldn't hold you accountable for your actions. Everything, all this," he gestured to the tower with his head, "This is all Strawfinger's doing. The thing that I don't get is why he wants revenge to such a high scale. Even Rythian, who lost more than he did, didn't want to kill Sips to spite me. He just wanted me. So what's the deal with this Strawfingers character?"
"I don't know…" Kim said slowly. "I didn't have too much contact with Strawfingers. I just did what he told me to do…"
"Oh, well that's fine," Sjin shrugged. "We can figure that out later. Now how are we supposed to save our farms, our friends, both our lives AND kill Strawfingers without blowing everything sky high?"
"Um…"
The two were silent for several minutes, then Sjin broke the eerie silence.
"Shit."
A/N: Sorry for such a delay with the chapter! I couldn't get the chapter to go the way I wanted. This chapter was unavoidable, so much talking and no action, and it looked like crap. It still looks like crap, so leave a review to tell me what I can do better! Thanks everybody!
Havs, out!
