We stood there in complete silence. Blaze continued crying, but now, she was in the loving arms of Sonic. Still, I have a weird thing locked within my personality that makes me feel hurt whenever anyone cries. This, and just the general fact that Shadow was actually gone... I stood completely still, silently and gently sobbing, tears coming down my face with no chance of stopping for a while.
I thought we had it all... I thought nothing like this would ever happen. Let alone to the Ultimate Life form.
I began to believe that indirectly, yet definitely, I was completely responsible for it. My sadness made me begin to believe that I was a dumb fool not to shout out the fact that running into the Blazes would damage them regardless of the potion. That I was now considered an ignorant idiot by the others. That I didn't deserve to be allied with them, let alone be Silver's forever companion.
"It's all my fault..." I whispered, almost inaudibly. "Why didn't I warn him?! Why?!..."
"Don't put the blame on yourself!" Sonic told me. My whisper must have been just loud enough to register in his ears. "It's not your fault whatsoever! Shadow just grew reckless. He was pushed to his breaking point; he was extremely impatient with having to stay with us in this world.
"Yeah, but..." I countered, struggling to speak smoothly. "but if he knew not to run into the Blazes, he'd still be with us!" Then, I just lost it, bursting into tears and falling to my knees. I was thoroughly embarrassed, but I just couldn't control myself for a few seconds. I was able to calm down a bit when I felt a hand on my shoulder, though. Opening my eyes, wiping them, and finally regaining my composure, I saw that it was Silver's hand, and that he was kneeling down beside me.
"If Shadow knew what was best for him, he would have gotten out of there when he knew that he was being hurt," said Sonic.
"I don't think he was that dumb," I snapped. "He probably didn't know what was hitting him..." Another few tears ran down my face.
"His death was not your fault, Rachael!" said Silver. "It was nobody's, but if anything, it was his own! One thing he didn't realize about the world of Minecraft was that you need to take your time and be careful."
These statements made me feel a whole lot better. My tears were still not dried because of the fact that Shadow was gone, but I was able to compose myself and simply mourn instead of being attacked with guilt to a breaking point.
"You're right," I sighed. "Sorry for my behavior."
"It's alright," said Sonic. "This is a tough time."
Indeed, it was. We stood in silence for another few minutes, Blaze still in Sonic's arms and Silver's hand still on my shoulder. We found it hard to comprehend the fact that he was really... gone forever...
We were so absorbed in bewilderment and sadness that we did not realize that the sun had set a long time ago. Out of nowhere, I felt Silver take his hand off of my shoulder, and I heard him cry "OW!" Then, to my shock, he took my hand, and we both ran back up to the house. It was clearly a monster, and all sadness was replaced with fear for a minute. Sonic and Blaze noticed it next, cried, and did the exact same thing we did.
"What was it?!" asked Silver.
"It was green," said Sonic. "Walked on two legs."
Extremely relieved that it was not a Creeper, I took a deep breath, calming myself down.
"We should get to sleep," Blaze said with a nervous chuckle.
"Let's do that," said Silver with the same nervous chuckle. We all went inside. At first, I was a little disappointed that Silver and I weren't getting more alone time, but then I remembered that if all went as planned, we'd get years and years of alone time!
I took what used to be Shadow's bed. Before climbing in, I looked down at it, one more tear running down my face.
Climbing into it, I decided to look ahead. Normally referred to as "the future", but I couldn't help but think of it as "my Heaven." Me and Silver, living in Minecraft, together, alone, in harmony... and if things were to go extremely well, we'd have a wedding run by Villagers, a cat as the flower girl, a wolf as the ring bearer... okay, that's a little exaggerated, but I can dream, right?
I heard a sound throughout the night that would not stop bugging me. I couldn't sleep! It was the call of the Enderman, and I knew there were at least 2 of them nearby. I was eventually driven to quietly get up and go outside.
Sure enough, on another part of the balcony (keep in mind, the balcony went all the way around the house), there were the 2 Endermen I had been hearing. I quickly tiptoed inside, sifted through the chest for a few cobblestone and a stick, and made a sword. Then, I went back out. Still, they were right next to each other. Would I be able to take one out without accidentally provoking another?
Fortunately, this problem was quickly resolved when Silver suddenly came out of the house. I began to wonder how he always knew to be there whenever there was even the slightest possibility of me being in danger... Anyway, he saw the 2 Endermen and got his sword out.
"I'll take the first," he said quietly. "Then, you go after the other."
He moved his head carefully. He really was smart. He knew that he had to look at the first without looking at the second. Soon, the first one saw him and teleported behind him, and Silver responded by hitting it. He responded to each and every movement the Enderman made like a ninja.
I looked at the second one, and it decided to fight me. I was able to hit it every time it got near me. Eventually, just as I was running out of breath, it cried out in anguish and dropped an Ender Pearl. After I picked mine up, I turned around and smiled at Silver, who had an Ender Pearl in his hand as well. I grew really excited. It wasn't that I wanted to be rid of Sonic and Blaze, but I wanted to make them happy by giving them the chance to go home. We were 2 steps closer to that in one night.
"How many do we have total?" he asked. "I've got 2 now."
I quickly took a look at my bracelet screen to find out that I had 5. If he had 2, that would mean that we only had to find 5 more, for we had 7 total.
"5!" I smiled. But then, I noticed that he was staring at something behind me. His face held a mixture of disgust, shock, and excitement.
"...Look," he gasped, pointing in that direction. I turned around, slowly, for I knew that whatever he had seen, it was something to be shocked about.
When my view finally did shift in that direction, my face widened like you wouldn't believe. There were Endermen there. Not 2, not 3... but 5. So it was true what I read in the Wiki once. That they can spawn in groups of 5.
"Oh dear..." I said. "...Should we wait for them to spread out?"
"Probably," said Silver.
We watched them meandering around. After what seemed like about 2 minutes, they were safely scattered. I took out my new sword, the attitude of a soldier kicking in again. He did the same.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Yep," I nodded.
And we dashed down the stairs, starting with a couple that were on the left. We took them down easily (I realized how quickly Silver's telekinesis could take one of those things down). We carefully murdered the rest without a problem! Pretty soon, he held 3 more Ender Pearls, and I held 2 more.
Looking to my left, I saw yet another. I went and murdered that one as well. I was feeling pumped, I did not have a single scratch, and we'd probably need an extra Eye of Ender to even find the Stronghold!
So I ran back to Silver, holding yet another Ender Pearl. Without me expecting it, his arms were open. When I got to him, I was in his embrace again. I was happier than I had ever been before. I could have squealed and jumped all night, but that'd be a little awkward, wouldn't it? So I simply smiled the biggest smile I had ever smiled before while we hugged each other.
Then, we let go, went back into the house, turned the Blaze Rods into Blaze Powder, crafted 13 Eyes of Ender, and went back outside. Silver threw one. My face fell. I was expecting to go on a long journey to find this Stronghold. The Eye of Ender stopped in midair above the little "front yard" of our house, and fortunately dropped to the ground instead of disintegrating.
We ran down, and Silver picked it up. When he threw it again, something happened that was against all odds whatsoever.
It wouldn't go anywhere. It flew just inches above the ground before dropping again. The Stronghold was right below our feet.
"Should we dig diagonally down in this direction from the mining hole over there?" Silver asked gleefully.
"Sure!" I cheered ridiculously.
We ran over there, got any spare pickaxes we had out, and dug, then mined. We went down one level each time. Eventually, we reached the glorious sight of stone bricks, causing us to give each other a high-five.
This is where I determined that we were being given a Mary Sue situation. Bear with me, readers. We mined the side of the wall, coming across the End Portal. Looking in, we found that there was already 1 Ender Pearl in one of the frames.
"We've done it," he said, sounding mesmerized. "...We made it! We found a Stronghold!"
We were overflowing with joy, and before I knew it, yet again, I was in his arms. I hugged back, as tight as I could without making him feel uncomfortable. Tight, with all the excitement, happiness, and pride I was feeling.
"Rachael," he said quietly. "I feel like I don't say this enough. I love you. I love everything about you; your courage, your optimism... everything. I know we've only been together for a somewhat short time, and you can go ahead and say 'no' if you want, but... may I... kiss you?"
I was swept with a wave of shock and happiness. I was ready, but this would be my first kiss... ever. At first, I didn't feel ready, but then I decided that if I never did take the chance, I would never be ready. In short, I was ready.
"S-Sure," I whispered. I was so happy that I could not make sound with my voice. I wasn't even concerned with the fact that he was a hedgehog and I was a human, and clearly, he wasn't either. We both spoke English. We both acted and felt like humans in a way. The species we each were didn't seem to matter one bit.
And it happened normally. We both leaned in, closed our eyes, and locked lips. The moment was more magical than anything I had ever felt before. I was oblivious to all else. It was a feeling that would save me from any sort of sadness, anger, stress... negative feelings of that nature. It was like absolutely nothing I had ever felt before. In my mind, it was rainbows and flowers everywhere. I felt the sparks of true love that they mention in some romance novels. That kind of electrical current that connected us and reassured us that it was true, irrefutable love we had for each other. I'm guessing some of you know what I'm talking about, right?
When we broke apart, the sky was already a dark shade of blue. When I thought the sun would completely rise... it began to rain. I thought I had just missed my "kiss in the rain" opportunity.
That is, until we leaned in and kissed again, this one being for a shorter time. To recover from the lasting effect of our first kiss, we continued to hold each other close and let the rain fall on us.
That is, until we heard Blaze called "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" When we saw her and Sonic appear above us, at the top of the hole, we separated, but not too quickly. I was proud of our relationship, and so was he, I knew. We didn't need to hide it anymore.
"I knew it," Sonic boasted. "I knew it from the first day you two met each other."
"Now, Sonic-" laughed Blaze.
"Alright, alright, I'll stop," said Sonic. "You guys are a cute couple! So, what's this you've found?"
"A Stronghold," said Silver. "We need to gear you two up, then once you enter, it's either Mobius... or death."
"You're saying once we go in, we can't simply come back out, like we can with the Nether?!" Sonic worried.
"Unfortunately, that's correct," I nodded gravely.
"And what do you mean by 'us two'?" asked Blaze. "...You mean you aren't coming with us?!"
Author's note: The description of the kiss was unfortunately not based off of real life. I'm like the Forever Alone guy. That aside, PLEASE leave a review! Do you have any idea how much your opinions mean to me?