Man, I'm getting these chapters out fast! I guess I'm trying to make up for the gap between 7 and 8. Anyway, yeah, I'm still accepting OC's in PM's at the moment, but I'll probably shut it off at chapter fifteen or so. I hear from a lot of authors that having too many OC's ruin the story, so I don't want to make that mistake here. I think I've gotten six OC's since the beginning, two of which I'm not going to use. So four.

Responses to Reviews

RenThePyro—Thanks, I think Jordan's awesome too. And yeah, you're right, I need to stop commenting on chapter length.

I'm pretty sure you've all gotten this, but in case you're a little slow: Jordan Phoenix isn't CaptainSparklez. My character is called Jordan after one of my friends, and I just happen to like that name.

-{0}-

It was freezing cold in the mountains, but neither really were bothered by it. Swift, the horse, was kneeling down in the snow, eyes closed. Sitting two blocks away was Jordan. Tired as he was, he was too unsettled to even think of sleep.

They were sitting on a small, flat, snow-covered ledge about three and a half quarters up the tallest peak, the half-moon at its zenith. In the center of the ledge was a small flickering fire, providing little warmth in the biting cold. Jordan didn't really know why, but he was used to the cold. He guessed that wherever he came from was always freezing, and that was why he wasn't bothered by it.

Only he had no idea where he came from. His memory was gone, every last bit.

Jordan had no idea how it had happened. About two weeks ago he had woken up on a beach with nothing but the clothes on his back. He found Swift a few days later, and they began heading north. Xirnies, the North, was the coldest country, so Jordan had a feeling he had come from there. It was his best guess.

Snow was beginning to fall, the frigid mountain winds blowing it every which way. He hoped a snowstorm wasn't brewing, because that would force them to hide in a cave till it was over. He didn't think he had time for that. The sooner he could retrieve his memory, the better.

Jordan leaned his head back against the mountain face, staring at the sky. His thoughts kept wandering back to what had happened just an hour before, with the terrified Enderman. It made no sense whatsoever. Why would the most feared mob in the world be scared of him? He was just some, um, normal sixteen year old, so why did it run?

I'm far from normal, he then thought, smiling slightly. I can't kid myself.

All he could do now was keep heading north. He would find answers in Xirnies. Hopefully.

-{0}-

For the next few hours, all I did was drift in and out of sleep. There was nothing else to do. No one else to talk to. And yeah, I had already tried to parkour into the hole that led to the surface. It didn't work. I ended up flat on my back.

I rolled around, trying to stay asleep for more than a half hour at a time. But I wasn't tired at all. Growling to myself, I sat up, my back against the iron bars. Looking into the hole, I could see it was about midnight, the half moon obscured by a few cubic wisps of cloud. Just yesterday I would've taken my last tests. Nope. I was trapped down here, for Notch knows how long.

Maybe he didn't know how long.

"Can you even hear me down here?" I asked.

Silence.

I guess he couldn't.

-{0}-

The range of mountains was surprisingly small, consisting of maybe five peaks, with a plateau in between them all. With the sun just making an appearance over the most eastern mountain, that was where Jordan and Swift walked.

The light streamed down over the western side of the plateau, the mountain's shadow leaving the eastern side in shadow. The sunlight reflected off the snow, making it almost impossible to look at. Still heading north, Swift was having a hard time seeing where he was going. Jordan urged him over to the shady side so he could.

Looking ahead, just beyond the plateau, Jordan could see a break between the two northernmost peaks, where a wide, fast-flowing river was. There were sheer rock faces on either side, so they would have to take a boat.

"Faster, Swift," Jordan muttered, and with a bit of reluctance the horse picked up more speed.

Swift was bay with a black tail and mane. He had black sooty patterns all over his back, and had blue eyes. Jordan had found him on an acacia plain with a herd of other wild horses. They had been traveling together for about a week and a half, but were already loyal to each other.

Soon, they reached the end of the plateau, and were staring over its edge. Just below where they stood, a thick stream of water broke through the rock, feeding the river.

"We have to sail through here to get out of these mountains. I'll make a big enough boat for a horse," Jordan said. Swift breathed out heavily through his nose, anticipating with dread what was to come.

Hopping off Swift's back, Jordan knelt in the snow and began to unpack his crafting table. He took the minimized cube out of his bag and placed it in front of him, where it expanded into its normal size. He took out some wood planks, and placed them in their minimized form on the 3x3 grid on the crafting table's surface. He made a boat, but one larger than normal so it could support his weight and Swift's.

Soon it was ready. He put the rest of his things away, but left the boat out. The two then made their way down the plateau so they were level with the river. Finding a small ledge, they stood there. Jordan tied the end of a piece of rope to the boat, and weighed the other end down with a large, heavy rock, which he then put on the ledge.

"Go on, Swift. Jump in the boat." Of course, he didn't want to. He just stood there glaring at the wooden thing bobbing about in the current. Sighing, Jordan gave the horse an unexpected shove toward the ledge. Neighing with surprise and unable to balance, Swift decided it was best to get into the boat. So he leapt as lightly as he could to avoid capsizing it when he landed in it. For a few scary moments, the boat looked like it was going to do just that. Jordan gripped the rope, trying to steady it. When it stopped tilting, he scooted towards the edge, then jumped. Swift took a step backwards to make room. Being lighter than the horse, the boat no longer tilted, and it seemed to support both of them just fine.

Turning around, Jordan unsheathed a knife from his belt, and cut the rope.

The sudden burst of speed almost whisked him out of the boat, but he miraculously managed to hold onto the edge. He ducked down into it, and Swift copied him. The boat was mercilessly mauled by the rapids, thrown against small rocks peeking above the water's surface. Jordan was expecting it to split apart any second. He moved one of his hands to the boat's other side, as if doing so would keep it in one piece.

That might've been what kept it from breaking. The small transportation device was holding its own, refusing to break as it was tossed further downstream.

It was impossible to judge time as it passed. It could've been hours before the little boat reached a more slow-moving part of the river. Looking back where they had come from, Jordan surveyed the distance they had traveled. The mountains loomed far behind, a wide expanse of rolling grassy hills between them. The river was indeed a long one, its source in the mountains, and its mouth still nod visible. Turning to see where they were going, Jordan saw the short, wide silhouette of an upcoming roofed forest biome, which the river cut through.

"It's going North; we might as well stay on it," he told Swift, who merely huffed in agreement.

Both were sopping wet, and the horse was not particularly appreciative of that fact. Swift made an attempt to shake the moisture out of his coat, which succeeded for him, but didn't really help Jordan. Swift immediately stopped after a glare from his master. He was the kind of person you didn't want to make mad….and his unnerving flame-colored eyes only made him seem more intimidating.

-{0}-

It must've been near dawn when they actually gave me food. Bread and some water—how generous. When I asked about my sentence, I received only silence. The guard ignored me and quickly left, as if I was infected with the plague or something. I resisted the urge to insult him, knowing that wouldn't really help my case.

"Oh, for the love of Notch," I snapped. No one could hear me, but I couldn't have cared less at the time. I didn't want to eat the bread; but I simply couldn't resist. I was way too hungry, not having eaten for over twenty-four hours.

When the bread was gone, the water glass drained, I flopped back onto the hay covered floor, determined to sleep this time. That's not how it worked out.

"Ow!" I yelled, having been impaled by something on the cell floor. I rubbed my injured side, while studying the floor with great interest. What had I just laid on?

I reached out and began to move aside the hay, soon revealing a leather-bound book. I must've laid on its corner.

The book was very thick and very old; many of its paged seemed to crumble when I picked it up.

"…What…?" I whispered. However had a book found its way down here? And more importantly, what was inside it?

Curiosity took hold of me. I started to flip through its pages, all of which were covered in writing, diagrams, charts, graphs, you name it. It had information about everything. All of what I knew was probably between those covers, plus more that I didn't.

An idea popped into my mind.

I frantically kept turning the pages, looking for something on the End—or simply Endermen.

There was nothing. I searched the whole book.

I sat back in confusion and frustration. Maybe this was written when no one knew about Endermen. It made sense. Still intrigued, I turned to the very last page that was written on and read its contents.

I don't think it was a manmade structure that I found. It was…too complex. The paths seemed to lead to nowhere; they had no pattern and went in all directions. Like tangled rope. When I told my father, he didn't know what I was talking about. When I showed him, he said there was nothing like it in the world. He told me not to tell anyone else, though. I guess that was a wise choice. I mean

whatever you do dont try to find it dont listen to what i wrote just burn this just dont

help

I stared at the page. …What had I just read? And the ending sentence—all the grammar was off, the handwriting messier…almost as if whoever was writing it was rushing through it. I was suddenly very unnerved. I looked fearfully around the dark, as if something was watching me.

Don't be stupid, I thought. There's nothing there.

Still confused, I flipped through the last pages, which were blank. I turned them with my thumb, and almost missed the large ink blot hidden among them.

Wait, what?

I frantically flipped back to it, looking for the splotch. I quickly found it. And my jaw opened just slightly, in my shock. Written across the otherwise blank sheet of paper was one word, four letters.

Aenj.

-{0}-

HOW OMINOUS.

Anyway, still accepting the OC's. Review, please.

-Angel