Teleportation was especially tiring the next day. Tamer had stayed up most of the night thinking, so he was exhausted and half-asleep the next morning. Though his body was slow and unresponding, thoughts were still whirling around inside his head like a tornado. During the day, Endermen would normally do slave labour for the Great Leader, but today there was no whispered command in the sky above the End, no directions as to what to do. Days like these came very rarely, and usually meant that the Great Leader was deep in thought. He seldom thought of the welfare of his servants. Tamer knew what he would do on a day like this.
He skulked off to a niche in the End Stone, where he couldn't be seen from the clearing. He tucked his arms around himself and thought very hard of a small island of stone, a little ways off from the End. He suddenly felt himself tingling all over. A flurry of purple dust began to swirl in clouds around him, and he squeezed his eyes shut. Tamer felt as if he were spinning around in circles, too. All of a sudden, the feeling was over, and Tamer collapsed on the ground of a small chunk of End Stone, miles off from the End. He felt slightly sick and fatigued. He heard a sound above him, and he looked up. "Tamer!" a voice cried. His vision came into focus, and he saw an Enderman looking down at him. A girl; her hair was tied into a purple ponytail. She began to giggle. "What did you do? Let me guess; you forgot to teleport from Light's End, right?" Light's End was the tip of the main End island. It was closest to the little island they were standing on, and anyone teleporting here from Light's End would not be so tired; yet from the outside of Tamer's home, it would be a lengthy distance to teleport. The girl Enderman offered a hand, and Tamer gripped it. He stood up shakily, and the world seemed to spin around him. He regained his balance and let go of the other's hand. "I'm okay now, you know, Salem," he said sheepishly. The girl, Salem, grinned at him. "Alright, Tamer. But don't you come running to me when you fall over again!" Tamer playfully poked her in the shoulder, but she just doubled over laughing. Tamer couldn't help himself; he started to laugh too.
He walked over to a corner of the island. There were many tiny, makeshift huts set up here; it was a bit of an escape for some of the young Endermen. Tamer often thought that he'd have gone insane if it weren't for here, a place where they could do things out of the sight of the Great Leader or their parents. Salem retreated into one of the huts and returned lugging a canvas made of wheat stalks. On it was a stunning painting of a creeper, staring out at Tamer. "D'you like it?" said Salem. "I've been working on it for a long time, so..." Tamer gazed at the painting. Every little detail was right, from the blades of grass to the tiny gleam in the creeper's eye. "It's amazing!" stated Tamer simply. "Y'really think so?" said Salem. Tamer nodded. "Yup," he said.
Salem turned from the painting, which she laid on the ground. "Alright, where's everyone else? I mean, there's no work today. They shouldn't be late." She stalked off in a huff and plopped onto a raised piece of stone. "Grr!" she growled. "I cannot BELIEVE the nerve of them! I mean, Cyan I can understand. After..." Her voice trailed off and she averted her eyes to avoid looking into Tamer's. She didn't finish, but Tamer knew what she was going to say. After the torture. Of course. Nobody wanted to speak of it, and it had become an unspoken rule among Endermen society.
A sound issued from the space behind one hut. "Must be them, right?" chirped Salem, who glanced briefly at Tamer, then hurried to the source of the sound. Tamer followed, to see Salem standing beside another Enderman. "Obsidian!" she yelled. The Enderman named Obsidian gave Tamer a watery smile. "Ah, yes. Tamer. Good to see you again." Tamer nodded. "Yes, Obsidian," replied Salem. "And how's Cyan?"
Obsidian was the one who had taken close care of Cyan after the events of the last night. He gave a grim smile. "Yes, he'll live now. Had some pretty nasty bruises, though. They all do, and he's no exception, weak as he is." He suddenly grinned fully, like a ray of sunlight piercing a layer of dark clouds. "Hey, Tamer! Did you hear? I've got a great story for you. Cyan told me while I was helping him. It's why he didn't come back with anything," he said confidentially, and edged closer to Salem and Tamer. Salem flashed him a grin. "Let's hear it, then, Sid," she warbled. Tamer nodded, signalling Obsidian to go on. "Don't call me Sid," mumbled Obsidian, but then he looked up and began to relate the story.
"Cyan's foray into the Overworld started out pretty normal," said Obsidian, "but he strayed across the village on the way to the mine. He was going to try to get a block of some impressive ore, but he should have taken the long way, around the village. He was...spotted."
Salem winced. "Poor Cy. Why did he go and have to stroll across the village streets like that? I mean, it was only sunset." Obsidian nodded. "Yes, Salem. Village walks are all very well in the pitch dark of night, but at sunset, the humans can see you. Cyan probably knew that, but was in a hurry to grab the blocks before anyone else did. He didn't think that anyone could see him, but he was spotted by a human. This human was a guard. A mob hunter, to be exact. He drew his sword and chased Cyan. Cyan panicked and teleported back to the End, blocks the last thing on his mind," he said simply.
Salem was staring, round-eyed, at Obsidian. "And is he okay now, Sid?" Obsidian nodded, and as an afterthought, he cast an annoyed glance at Salem. "And don't call me Sid."
Tamer was in too much of a daze to laugh. I can't believe they would torture anyone for only forgetting a simple duty, he thought pensively. Cyan was only 13,000. He didn't deserve it. Now that I think of it, nobody does.
He got up slowly, and mumbled a quick excuse to Obsidian and Salem. He closed his eyes, wrapped his arms around himself, and pictured the spiky rock of Light's End. He didn't want to fall over from fatigue now. Violet particles swirled around him as he disappeared from view and reappeared on a large rock, at Light's End.
Tamer sat down for only a few seconds, to regain enough strength to walk-no, run-to his home. When he arrived, he jumped down the tunnel, and hurriedly began to gather up his toque and the rag he slept on. He glanced around the hole one last time, then closed his eyes. Images flashed through his mind, rapidly one after the other. His first day outside the hole...his initiation as part of the Endermen's country...his triumph after his teleportation test. His whole life, Tamer had lived here, in the End. What lay outside the island? Oppressed though it may have been, it was familiar to him. Earth was all but impossible to navigate, a new world he'd only explored in the dark of night.
All the Endermen he knew lived in the End. Salem, Obsidian, Cyan, his mother...yet inside, he knew they'd never break ancient laws for him. What had they ever done for him? Yet if he left, he'd be totally alone in the world. Tamer's resolve didn't waver. He climbed out of the dwelling, his hand lightly brushing the wall of the tunnel as he clambered into the open air. He scampered to Light's End, the toque and the cloth in his arms. Tamer ran up to the very pinnacle of the overhang, nearly skidding into the Void. He wrapped his arms around himself, and took a deep breath. His heart rate quickened steadily as he concentrated his whole mind on a place he knew would be far away. A tornado of purple dust swirled around him. Just as he was about to vanish, he reached with one hand into the bundle in his arms and slipped on his wool toque.