Hey guys, sorry for the wait. You see, I got back, and then I was braindead, then I left town again, and I tried to take a break by writing a small one-shot, but it turned out it wasn't as small as I was planning and I couldn't get the dialogue quite right, so I abandoned that and came back to bring you another chapter! :) Enjoy. (Woooh! Ten chapters! That's the farthest I've gotten on… anything!)

Also, quick note, no offense to any noobs out there. Just saying so ahead of time. Slime does not like people.

I DO NOT OWN MINECRAFT, ONLY MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS.

Boring Conversation

"Alright." Slime slapped a hand on Brown's rather large dining table, eyeing everyone seated around it. "Let's start at the beginning. You:" Slime turned to Jonathan. "What are you doing here?"

"I-I thought it was obvious." Jonathan sputtered, startled at being put on the spot.

"Well I wanna hear it again." Shrugging, Jonathan repeated what he had said several hours earlier. "I came because Brown is a good friend of mine and I wanted to make sure he'd be okay."

Slime looked like he was ready to interrogate, but was interrupted by Trouble. "What about you, Slime?" He said. "What have you been up to here? I thought you lived several chunks north." At this comment Slime's face turned a brilliant shade of crimson and the entire table stared at him expectantly. Slowly, ever so slowly, he sank into his chair until you could only see his face.

"Fine." Slime grumbled. "I was headed for the jungle because I ran out of cocoa beans, and had trouble with mobs on the way. Let's say that Brown's barn is very comfortable."

"Until you blew it up." Brown remarked quietly. At this, snickering started, slowly grew, and soon enough Hawk, Chase and Trouble were all laughing uproariously. Chase began to rap on the table's surface with his knuckles.

"You blew up his barn?" Trouble translated, stifling his giggles.

"I fixed it!" Slime's face was now the vibrant color of ripe tomatoes, and he held his arms stiff at his sides in embarrassment.

"Yeah, 'fixed it.'" Hawk chimed in, his shoulders heaving as he chuckled.

"Anyway." Jonathan intervened, seeing where this was headed. "I believe… Hawk, was it? You said something about a forest?"

"Forest." Hawk corrected. Jonathan gave him a confused glance. "Um…"

"Forest is his name." Slime explained. "He's a good friend of ours… actually, I haven't met him personally, but Trouble and…"

"He was our mentor." Trouble intervened. "And currently he's mentoring Hawk and Falcon."

"Yeah!" Hawk was getting excited again. "You see, he sent me because-"

"Because what?" Slike interrupted yet again.

"Hey!" Hawk shot back, clearly offended. "If you'd just let me finish-"

"Well?"

"I said, if you'd let me finish..."

"Well, you finished! Keep talking!"

Jonathan watched this exchange with amusement in his eyes, then let his gaze slide over the rest of the table. If what he was picking up was correct, and he had no reason to doubt it wouldn't be, then everyone seated there were spawn. Farmer Brown and himself excluded, for obvious reasons.

It was surprising, considering all he had once thought he knew. The high priest was somewhat fascinated by the idea of spawn, their mysterious nature and elusive origin. In all the reading he'd done, they were portrayed as elusive demons that threatened the local populace, but now Jonathan was not so sure.

The villager glanced over at Brown, who staring at Chase with his head tilted thoughtfully. Chase seemed to be aware of this, but kept his gaze focused on Slime and Hawk, who were almost to blows over letting Hawk finish. If a spawn who had seemingly nothing to do with Brown would go out of his way to save the Farmer's life, then surely there was more than what met the eye?

"Fine." Slime took a deep breath, drawing Jonathan's attention back. "Go ahead."

"Thank you." Hawk groaned. Clearing his throat importantly, he began, "As I was saying…" Slime snorted but said nothing. "Forest told me to fetch you guys and any friends I found along the way and bring them back to him because he has something important to tell you."

"Which is…" Slime prompted.

Hawk shrugged. "Didn't tell me."

"Ughh!" Slime banged his head on the table and drew his hood up to cover his face. "More walking."

"Hawk." Trouble prompted, apparently translating for Chase again. "Where is Forest now?"

"At the Capital City inside the King's library." Hawk said matter-of-factly, and everybody stared.

"He's WHAT." Slime said.

"Yeah." Hawk nodded. "He's been reading in there for weeks. It's been really, really boring and me and Falcon can't go do stuff."

"HE BROUGHT NOOBS TO THE CAPITAL." Slime slammed his head on the table again with a jarring thud. "He. Brought. Noobs. To the CAPITAL."

"We're not noobs anymore!" Hawk huffed. "We have experience."

"No. You don't." Slime facepalmed. "What was Forest thinking?"

"What's a noob?" Brown asked. Trouble looked startled, like he'd forgotten the farmer was there

"Fresh spawn, completely new to the world. The dimwits can hardly lift a block of wood." Slime explained. "Definitely NOT material for the capital."

"Like I said, we're not noobs anymore." Hawk protested.

"Have you been to the Nether?" Slime raised an eyebrow. Hawk only glowered. "Then you're still a noob. Congratulations."

"If 'Forest' is in the Capital City," Jonathan suggested, "shouldn't we be leaving immediately? It's quite a ways."

This stopped all conversation, and the newcomers glanced at each other uneasily. Slime coughed carefully. "I think you have the wrong 'we,' Mr…"

"Jonathan will be fine."

"Jonathan, you and Brown won't be coming with us."

"Why not?" The priest inquired.

"Because this will be dangerous!" Slime snarled. "And besides, we can't have…" He glanced at Brown uneasily. "Commoners running around with us. It would only get us all caught."

"Now that we all know about all of you, Slime." Farmer Brown spoke up quietly, looking at the table. "Wouldn't it be better to have both of us where you can see us?"

"Ehh…" Slime glanced at Chase, who held his hands up in a 'don't look at me' gesture. "No offense, Brown… but… you'll slow us down… and don't you need time to recover?" Was it Jonathan's imagination, or was Slimeball being gentle with Brown?

"I just spent this whole conversation recovering. You know, it helps to actually have people around you once in awhile."

"Ehh… fine." Slime put his head back on the table. "Get a good night's rest, we leave in the morning."

Not much later that night everyone began to find a place to sleep somewhere in the house. Brown had never had so many guests over in his life, but luckily the spawn turned out to be an adaptable bunch. Slime, Chase and Trouble all volunteered to sleep in the barn, after all Slime had been doing so for many weeks now.

"You could take the bed if you like." Brown offered as they sat on the couch behind Hawk, who was sitting in front of the hearth. The fire crackled merrily and offered a lovely, warm feeling to the simple wooden living room adjacent to the kitchen.

"No, I could never do that to you. Not after that ordeal." Jonathan waved him off. They sat in silence for a while, until Jonathan spoke up again. "Pardon my asking, but what was it like?"

"Hmm?"

"Being a zombie."

"Oh…" Brown closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, shuddering. "Awful. It's like… like… I don't know. You just can't control yourself. Your entire world is meat, and blood, and dark, and it's always cold…" He broke off abruptly.

"Sorry." Jonathan apologised. "I was just curious."

"You're okay." Brown smiled softly, his bald forehead crinkling. The zombies moaned outside, and Brown was sure that he heard a skeleton crash into the wall to his right. The bones rattled and clanked with a dry, hollow sound, moving away again.

"Father Jonathan?"

"You can just call me Jonathan here." The old priest smiled again.

"Why was the big one so quiet?"

"Who?"

"The big guy? Chestnut hair?"

"You must mean Chase." Hawk's voice made them both start, apparently he had been listening to every word they said. The auburn-haired boy talked without turning his head, and the feathers behind his ear danced with gusts from the flame. "He's deaf. Forest says he's a nice guy, though. Master lip-reader, as long as you're facing him he won't have a problem understanding you."

"Oh… thank you." Brown commented, glancing at Jonathan. Hawk shrugged.

"By the way Hawk, where are you going to sleep?" Brown asked. It was a valid question, after all this was his house.

"I'm a bird, I sleep where I want to." Hawk grinned at his own statement. "G'night!" Suddenly there was a flurry of matter and in place of the young man was a hawk with a bright red tail. It bobbed its head once and flew up on top of a cabinet to roost.