After I'd collected a fair amount of stone and a black material that was probably coal, I turned around only to find that Author was no longer mining with me. I figured I should drop off my load of coal someplace, so I walked back up the stone stairs of our makeshift mineshaft.

When I got back into our house, Author was sitting on the ground, writing something into her notebook. Unfortunately for me, she was in the corner, which meant I couldn't read it at all.

"Heya, Coal Digger," she said without looking up.

I blinked. "How'd you know I was here?"

She yawned. "The grass in here made a crunchy sound effect. But never mind that, did you get coal?"

I nodded. "Yeah, some."

She closed her book and held out her hand impatiently. "Well, give it here then."

Author took the coal, then threw some planks in the air, turned them into sticks with a wave of her hand, then took the sticks, threw some coal on top of them, and grabbed torches,

"Go and light that mineshaft with these, okay."

I took one, dubiously. "These aren't lit."

She shrugged. "They don't need to be. Watch." With that, she took a torch and slapped it against the wall. Instantly, it caught fire and began lighting up the entire room.

"Isn't that a fire hazard?"

She snorted. "In Minecraft, the only fire hazards are lava and actual fire." With that, she went back to writing in her journal.

Myself, I slunk back down into the mineshaft to light it up.

When I'd finished lighting the mineshaft, I walked back upstairs to find that there was a door in the house and that Author was gone. As I prepared to slink back into the mine, though, the oak door slammed open and my summoner came running in.

I frowned. "Why were you running?"

"Because it's faster than walking. Also, the sun's going down."

"Where were you?"

"Exploring a dungeon sticking out of a cliff. I found some iron, one diamond, and plenty of mossy cobblestone. Now hand me 16 pieces of wood."

I obliged, and Author threw them into a square shape, then pulled two chests out of the air and slapped them onto the ground next to each other, where they merged into one.

"Stone and wood on the bottom, everything else at the top."

I opened the chest and deposited my wood, stone, and coal. That's when we heard something strange - a screeching noise.

"What was that!?" I snapped, my survival instincts kicking in.

Author slapped down the table she'd made on the first day, then threw iron and sticks into a new formation and pulled out two iron swords. "Cave noise."

"C-cave noise?"

"Yeah. It means there's a large, underground, unlit space somewhere nearby. And -" here she paused, grinned at me, and tossed me a sword - "possibly Herobrine."

"Already?"

She opened the chest and threw a few things into it, then turned to face me and nodded. "I'd wager that your destruction of an entire forest garnered some attention. Look out the window."

I did just that. Everywhere I looked, monsters were popping into sight with a variety of creepy noises.

"See anything unusual?"

"Besides the monsters, you mean?"

"Yeah. Those are normal."

"Are you sure?" I cast a suspicious glance at one of them, a skeleton with glowing green eyes.

"Why, what's wrong with 'em?"

"There's one out there that has eyes the color of...uh...a slightly unripe lime."

"O-okay. That's not normal, but it's not what we're looking for. See anything white and shiny?"

I really wanted to ask the Author about the green-eyed mob, but I also didn't want to get ambushed by Herobrine, so I kept looking.

"Hang on... On the horizon, on top of a mountain, there's a pair of stars that aren't moving with the rest of the sky." I turned back to her. "Think that's him?"

"Let me see," she ordered, then crossed to the door and shoved me aside. "All right, I see the Meteor Mob you mentioned - and no, we don't need to worry about it - and on the mountain... Yup. That's our guy."

I gulped. "Is he going to attack us?"

"Tonight? I don't think so. We might get a cryptic warning though." She crossed back from the door and sat on top of the chest again.

I continued watching from the door. "Uh, Author?"

"Yeah?"

"He's got something glowing in his hand. I think it's an Inferno spell."

"Ah, fecal matter. He is attacking tonight." (Okay, she didn't actually say 'fecal matter', but I think you can guess the term she really used.)

"What do we do?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing!?" I was, at this point, concerned for Author's mental health. "A high-level spirit is attacking and you don't want to do anything!?"

"One: We can't really do anything and two: he'll take it as further reason to antagonize us. I went out and got food - hand me stone."

Well, that settled it. My summoner had officially gone nuts.

She glared at me. "Bartimaeus. This is critical to our survival. Eight pieces of stone, two pieces of coal, now or we die."

I didn't see what the stone and coal was going to do to magically save us, but I obliged and handed her the materials.

Author threw the stone into the same shape that had made the chest, then placed down a furnace and shoved the coal into one end and what looked like uncooked meat in the other.

"How close is he?" she asked, her voice suddenly bubbly.

"Almost here..."

"Get into the mine, okay? Go down just enough so he can't see you."

I nodded. "Fine. You're going to get yourself killed."

She smiled one of those fake smiles that doesn't go up to a person's eyes. "Oh, no I'm not. Not in the least."

"Hi! Come in! Man, nighttime is savage, isn't it?"

No response.

"You must be low on hunger. I'm cooking some steak right now, would you like some?"

"...No," came the sullen reply. It was definitely Herobrine.

"You sure?"

No response again.

"So! Your skin's really cool. Herobrine, right? Gotta love urban legends."

What was Author even doing? She knew it was him; why was she acting clueless?

"I am Herobrine."

I could practically hear that sneaky grin of hers in the retort she gave. "Oh? So why visit me?"

Herobrine laughed. "Don't think too highly of yourself just yet. I want you out, magician."

"Author, actually." Her voice had completely changed - it was cold and reminded me of someone else, someone dangerous. I shivered a little.

"It doesn't matter once you're dead, does it?"

She laughed. "If I die. Which I don't intend to do. Honestly though, one might think you'd be a little more receptive towards help."

There was a long pause before Herobrine spoke again. "By this time tomorrow, you're gone."

"Yeah, yeah." Author's voice was already back to bubbly; I found myself wondering how she'd done the switch so fast. "Offer on the steak still stands, y'know. Have a nice night!"

The door slammed, and everything was eerily quiet for a few minutes until she spoke up again.

"You're good to go, Bunker-man. Come on out."

((It's me. Was going to refrain from commenting here, but I couldn't resist. I've been uploading these as they happen/when I have time to write them down.

((Aaaaaaanyways, I want to ask you guys something! Do you think I should add my journal entries to this tale, and if so, should they be separate chapters or part of the other chapters?

((Please let me know!

((Author out... for now.