A/N: Late, I know. And don't expect this to change. THIS IS IMPORTANT: This story is going to enter a very tedious stage after this, so I've decided to save you readers from getting bored to death altogether – which means the next chapter will take an eternity to come out because what I've written, I've played through in my Minecraft world. And my schedule's really tight. 'Kay?

Also, linebreaks are now original.

~~~*{O}*~~~

It was pouring again, fat raindrops stirring up the wide river's surface. Underneath it, Avi shovelled away the side of a dirt mound to make room for the current that flowed through an underwater cobblestone hut – the recently-built water source room utilising flowing freshwater.

She eventually shot out of the river, gasping for air as the downpour crashed down upon her, and clambered to an area where the water was only one block deep for some rest. Just as she prepared to dive in again, though, she heard a Creeper explosion and started. Waylon? She thought, but the amount of shouts that reached her ears confirmed the presence of multiple people.

Avi clenched her teeth and swam towards the commotion, cursing her speed. Using a lily pad as a kind of springboard, she leapt and landed a few blocks away from her sword on the riverbank. Snatching up and unsheathing it, she sprinted towards the small group that was fending off monsters, nearly falling into a crater as she approached them.

There were a handful of men in leather armour, using stone swords and bows to ward off blows from zombies and spiders. Women and two children struggled to dodge arrows from skeletons on the roof of the refuge. "Go in, now!" Avi cried, knowing that the refugees inside had already heard. Without waiting for their reactions she bounded up the hill the shelter's entrance faced, swerving to dodge any possible projectiles. She then sought cover behind trees, grabbing her bow in the meantime, and began firing with all the arrows she possessed, namely half a dozen; only one skeleton remained afterward, and by then the last person had already vanished inside the shelter.

Avi then dashed inside herself, narrowly avoiding getting shot along the way.

~~~*{O}*~~~

The new refugees were swiftly introduced and settled. They were of lower and middle class from a town close to the city Avi was residing in prior to the Endermen attack, some of them broken families – a few were women along with two girls, both of them younger than Avi; the group brought the number of the shelter's residents up to nineteen.

Two days after, the inner circle of dormitories was taken down, leaving the entrance hall about three times larger than it once was, while the outer ring of the refuge had been separated into small rooms with numbers assigned to them by signs. The wool Waylon was bringing in gave everyone immense comfort in the form of bedding, and Avi even received a pleasant surprise afterward:

She happened to be in the storage room near midday, fetching cobblestone for the expansion of the second floor, when Waylon burst in, looking as if he had ran all the way back.

"Waylon—?"

"I require an iron pickaxe," he gasped, his face radiant.

"For redstone?"

Waylon shook his head and doubled over, panting. It only took Avi a moment to realise what he found and snatch up a few iron ingots and sticks from chests.

"How could I be so ignorant." She muttered while putting the pickaxe together. After passing the tool to Waylon, she cautioned: "Come straight back, and do not, for Notch's sake, act rashly!"

Four gleaming diamonds and an enormous pile of redstone dust found themselves in the storage room soon after.

A day later, as the sun was nearing its zenith, Avi found Waylon climbing up the hill as she exited the refuge.

"What are you doing here?" The two of them exclaimed simultaneously after they noticed each other.

"I wanted to join you at the quarry, for the cobblestone supply has been depleted," Avi replied, "but what of you?"

"The farms." Waylon said as they ascended the hill. "They have been rapidly expanding and it generally takes half a day to complete my work in them."

"You should have informed me earlier." Avi's voice was quiet but only slightly reproachful. "I will send someone else on the morrow."

"But—"

"I have no choice until the shelter becomes self-sufficient, and that will take time…"

Only a few necessary phrases were exchanged between the two afterward while they worked alongside each other.

That evening it rained, the weather unchanging at sunrise. Avi was looking out at the darkened sky with concern when distant clamour and the clanging of metal were heard again.

Avi hurried down the stairs to receive five or so near-identical men – namely they possessed similar leather armour, stone weapons, grim expressions, wounds and similarly mud-splattered limbs. For a while they had to heave for air. Then a heavily bearded one with a large build, seemingly slightly older than the others, took a step forward.

"A – dozen – Netherwalking – zombies – outside," he growled, "and no messenger ever informed us of the monsters assisting those blasted Endermen. Have you—" Here he stopped with his mouth agape, scrutinising Avi. "This cannot be…?"

"Indeed," Avi answered, trying to gather some poise. "Who else did you expect?" She regretted the words once they left her mouth. It was obvious the man was expecting: A strong, unwavering woman with an air of reliability, not a frail girl with a height of a block and five tenths who looked more like the queen's young daughter than the queen herself who was the only hope of all humans in the Overworld.

"My apologies, Your Majesty," the man muttered.

The new refugees were from Branstone, a small town a day's walk from Azura. They assumed they were the only survivors. Keaton, the man leading them, also informed Avi that once they received the news of a possible shelter from the Endermen, they had sent out a hoard of messenger bats so that the knowledge might spread further.

"Bats?" Avi asked.

"Bats, Your Majesty." Keaton replied with a gruff voice. "Our research is centred on those nocturnal creatures as much as Azura's research is centred on water."

"Ah." Pondering about the importance of the information, Avi gave the new residents rooms and food, and then returned to the second floor, where she began to construct a spiral staircase with Waylon's help. Deep in her thoughts, she failed to notice the other observing her, and jerked with surprise when Waylon asked, "What is it, Your Majesty?"

"I…" she faltered, then forged ahead. "I have the feeling this is another beginning – a somewhat negative one. With word of this sanctuary spreading, we will be once more pressed for resources even as we save countless lives." She chipped methodically at a cobblestone slab. "There will be no more silence, space and privacy. No more abundance…and I have no inkling of how long this state will last."

"Whatever mistakes you have made so far were within the excusable range, Your Majesty," Waylon reminded. "We can start anew, as planned, here, with you being our rightful leader. You still have our loyalty and trust."

A short, bitter laugh issued from Avi, causing Waylon to turn towards her in surprise.

"That is exactly what I am concerned about," she sighed. "I have long known the fragility of trust. Hard to earn and easy to break, they say…"

After a moment of silence, a sudden notion caused her hand to tighten around her pickaxe handle. "And when new refugees continuously arrive…the Endermen will be sure to follow."