Alex whistled as she whittled away at a piece of wood.
Now, that was a perfectly normal, non-dangerous thing to do (unless you were seriously stupid), as anyone would agree .
Unless you were, of course, doing it outdoors, in the middle of the night, in a particularly thick patch of forest that was near a cave system. Also a place where no one would hear you scream.
Alex, being Alex, was doing exactly that.
Alex wasn't worried. And she definitely wasn't stupid. She could handle monsters just fine. Plus she had a little bit of fire magic and anyone worth their blocks know that fire and mobs don't mix well, at least in the mob's case.
She stopped whistling for a moment to examine her work in the light of her campfire. It was an intricately carved staff, made with obvious skill.
Apparently she found it unsatisfactory, as she went back to her carving and whistling moments later.
A zombie crept up behind her, hoping to take Alex by surprise.
One step. Two steps. Three steps—
Just as the zombie was about to reach her, the back end of Alex's staff swung around and hit the zombie with enough force to knock its head clean off its shoulders.
Alex sighed in annoyance. Now she was going to have to wipe zombie muck off her staff.
She resumed her whistling as she scrubbed zombie blood off the stick with a rag.
The mobs gave her a wide berth that night.
Steve knew he wasn't going to enjoy his stay as soon as he stepped through the doors to the throne room. The king's smile looked like one of those paste-on ones that you can buy at a shop for two gold nuggets each. The prince (who seemed to be at the same age as Steve) was openly showing his disdain.
"Welcome to Sylder, Steve...?" The king trailed off, looking at Steve.
Steve wasn't the brightest person in the world, but he knew if he said: "Oh, I was raised by Endermen!", his 'holiday' would be even more unpleasant. So he said instead :"Son of none, sir. I was orphaned since birth". The prince snorted. Steve pretended not to notice.
The king said:"Well, Steve. As you know, it is a bit late into the night. I am tired, so we will have our conversations tomorrow. The servants will escort you to your rooms."
The king rose and left, followed by the prince.
Steve stared after them. He inwardly groaned. Next time he has a holiday, he was not going to let Notch plan it.
On the bright side, he got to sleep in a comfortable bed for the first time in months.
The Ender Dragon roared and lunged at the intruder standing on her obsidian spire. The white-eyed demon/god dived away just in time. Then He performed a jump so far that no mortal would have dreamed of doing onto the next obsidian spire.
Zariah growled in irritation. This had been going on for some time now, and neither of them has gained the upper hand.
She spewed a narrow jet of indigo flames, hot enough to melt bone. This time it was met by a shield of flickering white light. The intruder leapt off the spire and flew around in circles, taunting Her. Zariah shot after Him in pursuit. He flew toward the center spire with the Dragon hot on His heels. Just as He was about to hit the spire, at the last possible moment, He disappeared in a flash of white-blue light and reappeared at the top of the obsidian tower. Zariah tried to stop Herself but She was going too fast. She closed Her eyes and concentrated.
Vwoop. She disappeared in Her own flash of purple light. Just because She was a dragon doesn't mean She couldn't teleport.
She lunged for the white-eyed god again. He somersaulted out of the way. Her claws hit the spot He was, tearing up the obsidian. He dropped off the edge of the tower and landed on the ground far below gracefully and without a sound. The Dragon was there in an instant, leaping at Him with a roar. He back flipped over Her head.
But He didn't see Her tail coming.
Zariah's spiked tail slammed into Him and smashed Him against a pillar so hard that the pillar cracked. He fell to the ground, stunned.
The Dragon leapt at the trapped god, claws and teeth flashing in the half-light—
And met nothing but air.
There was a soft whisper of air and Zariah felt a weight on Her back and a blade at Her throat.
"How?" Zariah stammered out.
Herobrine did a double backflip off Zariah's neck and landed with unnatural grace.
"Simple. An illusion." The shadow of a smile flickered across His lips. "The real me dodged your tail and flew up". His lips didn't move while He talked so Zariah knew He was using mindspeech. He preferred that over speaking out loud.
The Ender Dragon snorted. "Fine. You win this time".
"Correction: I win every time."
"Shut up." The Dragon hissed.
"Sore loser. Anyway, how's your Dimension doing?"
"Crafters come, crafters die. Sometimes the occasional human or Testificate." She paused. "And the Endermen are scared of me".
"That's fine. Keep it that way. At least they won't try to kill you. Anyway, I'd best be going." Herobrine turned to leave.
"Why? You don't rule the mobs anymore".
The demon/god stopped, a dark look flashing across his face.
"I have ... other things to attend to".
Zariah sighed. "Well, see you soon, then".
Herobrine nodded and teleported away in a starburst of white-blue light.
Little did he know that he was not going to see her again for a very long time.
A/N: As for why I named the Ender Dragon Zariah, you'll find out in later chapters.
~Nanosecond