Chapter 2: Ryan
The lack of sound wherever I am is the first thing I notice as my consciousness fades back into place. It's almost piercing, slicing through the soft rumble of my mind. The noises of the right still ring in my ears, but the silence is slowly dragging them away.
Light fills my vision as I ruefully open my eyes. Everything is blurry for a moment, but I blink a few times and my eyesight clears up. I'm lying on a modest red bed, surprisingly soft and comfortable, and the room made entirely of oak wooden planks is lit by four torches. A window is embedded into a side wall. When I gaze out it, I see the sun barely peaking over the mountaintops.
Everything is blissfully quiet. The silence is no longer piercing, and I close my eyes and savior the moment. I'm still feeling a little woozy; maybe if I just sleep for a few more minutes . . .
Suddenly, the sound of a loud explosion makes me bolt straight up and faceplant off the bed. The sound of a door opening reaches my ears, and as I push myself off the ground, someone asks, "Well, that was one heck of a wake-up call for you, wasn't it?"
"Sounded like a nuke," I retort, shaking my head to clear it.
"It was one of the many trials of potion making," the person replies while laughing. I turn to face them, seeing a girl leaning against a doorframe that I didn't see before. She has long black hair, wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans. She looks about eighteen years of age. "If it was a nuke, we'd all be dead. Besides, those only exist in the Tekkit Pack."
I jump to my feet, brushing the dust off my jacket as she continues, "What's your name anyway?"
"Ryan S.," I answer, holding out my hand. "Username-wise, Militaryfire33."
"Guardian." She grasps my hand firmly and shakes it. We're around the same height, me being just a bit taller, but not by much.
"So," I mention, breaking the handshake first and scratching my head. "Just exactly what am I doing here?"
She turns her head, not facing me, but staring out the window. "If you remember anything about the fight you were in . . ." she trails off, but picks back up again. "You were knocked out by one of the Endermen. I chased them off and brought you back here . . . you were out for a week. By that time I already gained some information from the locals. Not surprisingly, the only thing they're talking about are the attacks." She glances around, and then turns around and walks off through the doorway. "Follow me."
I shrug and take one step through, finding myself falling through air one second later.
"Woohoo!" I hear Guardian call from somewhere below me. "Try to keep your legs straight, or you'll take serious fall damage!"
I let out a small meep and flail my arms, trying to regain my balance. No such luck, as the only other thing around me is all the air blowing my clothes back. With that being my problem, I end up plunging face-first into freezing cold water.
The impact makes my breath leave my lungs and a bunch of water take its place, leaving me in a coughing fit. I can detect my health dropping rapidly, but before it reaches zero I feel something grabbing me and pulling me out of the pool. Next thing I know, I'm coughing the water out of my lungs and grabbing fistfuls of air on my knees.
Laughter rings from somewhere, and I push my hair out of my face to see Guardian howling at me from a little ways away.
"You never told me there was water down there!" I protest, pushing myself to my feet and shaking the water off myself.
"That's why I told you to keep your legs straight!" she replied, trying to calm herself and failing pretty badly.
"I almost drowned! And plus, why would anyone free fall into a pit of water anyway?"
"Parkour purposes." She finally quits laughing. "Look behind you."
I turn to see what she's talking about and stop short. The room around us is fairly large, made out of smooth stone and patches of dirt. Various ores are present in the walls. Several large chests line the room, and in the direct center is a fountain-slash-waterfall coming from the roof. A one block tall wall of cobblestone blocks the flow of water from flooding the room.
"A secret room?" I breathe.
I can feel her smirking at my back. "Did you expect anything less?"
"Yeah, yeah . . . so what did you want to tell me?" I turn back around, facing her. She produces a piece of coal from her pocket and turns to a section of wall completely made of smooth stone, scribbling a few pictures on it before turning back to me.
"Have you been in this server for at least two years?" she asks. I shake my head. "Then you'd better take a seat, because it's storytime."
I sit cross-legged on the floor as she turns and sketches a few more figures on the wall.
"First." She points at the scratching of a person, looking back at me. "This girl is known as Shado. Two years ago, she was just a normal player of Minecraft, back during Herobrine's rise to power. I expect you know who Herobrine is?"
"Evil guy who tried to take over all of Minecraft," I answer with a sigh. "Immensely creepy."
"Good." She points to another sketch. This one seems to be a person surrounded by Endermen. "She was somehow able to gain control of the entire Enderman race at age 12, within a span of three weeks. Renamed-"
"Whoa whoa whoa, back the truck up," I interrupt. "One player gained control of the entire race within three weeks?"
"Without landing a single blow to them," Guardian clarifies. "She was able to tame them with kindness and passion, never hurting a single one. Pacifism, in a way." She pauses to sketch something else, talking at the same time. "As I was saying, she became known as the Enderqueen and lived with them for a while in the End."
The next diagram Guardian reveals is a dark mass of mobs, I can't pick anything out. "One day, Shado's brother, Ryan, who was a servant of Herobrine, led an attack with a countless number of skeletons against the species. You see," she starts scribbling again, "Ryan had followed his sister into this server soon after her, having risen to power with the help of his Lord and gaining control of the skeletal army. And our good friend Herobrine wanted the Enderqueen on his side or dead, because he knew she would be a threat, having acquired so much authority so quickly. Not wanting to engage her directly, he sent one of his most loyal servants." The simple sketches have turned into something resembling a mural now. "Shado refused to join him, which caused a bloody massacre that resulted in the death of ninety-nine percent of the Enderman race."
"So I share a name with the king of those bone-heads?" I inquire with a smirk. "Awesome."
Guardian glares at me before continuing. "Only a few survived. They fled to the Overworld, where Herobrine got tired of waiting for them to die and killed most of the survivors in an ambush."
I almost want to recoil at the picture of Herobrine on the wall. I have never seen the God myself, in all my time in this game, but drawings and sketches are enough to send shivers down my spine. One cannot calmly stare into those blank eyes and not expect to be haunted by them afterwards.
"Shado got away once again, recovering with the help of server allies. The species finally started to respawn, and in three month's time, a battle - the final battle – between Herobrine and the Enderqueen occurred, in which the former was defeated and the latter still lives to this day."
"Sounds a bit OP," I mention, leaning back.
Guardian hisses at me. "I'm not done.
"Anyway, with the major threat out of the wall, all the players in the server returned to their normal lives. Unfortunately, Shado couldn't share their relief. You know how we consider Endermen as monsters, right? And because of that, we kill them. For two years, she tried to get through to others that they shouldn't kill them. She was afraid she was going to lose the entire race again.
"Around a week and some days ago, she snapped, forming her people into an army and sending them out every night to show the players what the consequences are for not listening to her."
"So that's why they attacked my village . . ." I murmur, looking off to the side. "I understand her reasoning, but not the attacks. What if she wipes out the entire human race? Endermen are pretty strong . . ."
"I'm afraid if that's her plan," Guardian answers. "Two years of stress and sadness can really build up on someone."
I leave the words hanging in the air between us. When I finally move, she's already swimming back up through the waterfall. I take one last glance at the timeline on the wall and allow myself to think, how does she know all this? before swimming up after her.
I surface in the dark cavern, and when I spot Guardian, I almost fall back into the water. She's climbing up the wall on all fours, no ladder, no stairs, no kind of support whatsoever.
"How did you get up there?!" I shout, swimming to the wall.
"Potion of spider DNA!" I hear her call back. "You should try it!" When she finishes speaking, something splashes into the water beside me and I pick it up. It's a glass bottle filled with a maroon-colored liquid. I shrug and down the contents quickly. My vision shifts, and I suddenly feel faster and more flexible. Looking up at the wall, I shrug and start climbing it. The feeling of being able to go vertically up this way, knowing I have no supports is kinda mind-blowing.
"You are the absolute weirdest person ever," I point out when I scuttle back into the main room, standing up straight and closing the door behind me. The time is now midday, and I'm almost itching to be outside.
Guardian looks up from petting a small black cat. She has a black cloak on now, with the hood down. "You don't even know half of it," she answers with a grin, standing back up. "Anyway, I was wondering if you'd like to see your village again."
I mull it over. Honestly, I need to see how much damage has been done and who is still alive, but I feel somewhat nervous on what I would see. ". . . Sure, why not?"
Guardian nods and turns, opening the door to outside. Cold mountain air blows in through as she darts off. I breath in the fresh air and bolt after her.
