Date: 10181, forty-first day of summer

The Temple of Notch

After dinner, recording from where I left off earlier today

We're starting to make plans for a trip to the End, but a lot happened in a few hours. Let's hope I don't fall asleep on my page. I've been doing too much writing today. If I don't finish, I'll keep going tomorrow morning.

Here goes.

When we reached the Temple of Notch and got the armor out of the secret compartment under the altar, Dragon decided to go and track down the others and bring them here. His reasoning was that we needed to be together to take any big actions like going to a completely unexplored dimension. So, while I made myself comfortable and set up my room in the barracks, he took a horse and rode off.

I had time to kill, in the mean time.

I entered the sanctuary cautiously, feeling that the Temple was altogether too quiet without its yeomen and priests. I wore no armor at the time, and I held in my arms a rectangular cloth-wrapped parcel with a small seal holding it shut.

This was something Herobrine had given me back in the Nether. I was just leaving when he stopped me and asked for a favor.

"Wait, Huntress," Herobrine called as I was walking down the dark brick-lined hallway. I stopped and turned, and Herobrine held up a vaguely book-shaped package in one hand, wrapped in rust-colored fabric. "There is one more thing I want you to do for me."

"Yes?" I asked. He held up the package for me to take. "What's this?"

"The holy books. The Book of Notch, and my book. The Book of Herobrine. First, I wish to thank you for bringing it to me. It has restored to me memories I thought I would lose forever. But there is one more use for it yet. I have written a message in the back of it, one intended for my brother. Could you deliver it for me?"

"How would I do that?"

"Just take it to the Temple, to the beacon. Read it before the holy light of Notch, and he will hear. It is what the beacon was designed for, in part."

I looked down at the parcel in my hands, thinking it over. It was a favor to Herobrine, but it couldn't do any harm.

"Okay."

Herobrine looked at me with an expression of utter relief. "Thank you, Huntress. I cannot express how much this means to me."

Now I stood in the Temple, fulfilling that favor. I walked down the aisle of the sanctuary and went to the altar, which I had polished earlier until it shone. A beam of sunlight struck it at an angle from the skylight above the pyramid, scattering light around the room in a blaze of color like a prism. Kneeling before the diamond altar, I broke the wax seal and pulled the soft, dusty fabric off of the book. The ancient black leather of the cover had been oiled until it was soft and pliant again, and the gold inlay spelling out the title, The Book of Herobrine, had been newly replaced.

Leaving the book on the altar, I went to the pyramid and flipped the switch, activating the mechanism that would turn on the beacon. Blinding light flooded the sanctuary, overpowering the sunlight. Slowly, the light condensed into a single beam, which shot up into the sky higher than the eye could follow. A soft blue glow was left in its wake, illuminating the entire room. I went back to the altar and opened the Book of Herobrine to the end pages in the back, where Herobrine said he had written the message to his brother.

Inside, there was a large block of text written neatly in flowing, flourished script in black ink. Taking a deep breath, I began to read aloud.

"Year ten thousand, one hundred and eighty-one since my Descent, ninety-eight days after the opening of the Nether. From the pen of Herobrine, delivered by a Son of Steve messenger.

"To my brother Notch-

"Greetings and blessings. It has been a long time since we have last spoken, Notch. I mourn every day that passes that we must be divided, but the danger is too great. If only we could see one another face-to-face again! But the force that nearly destroyed me before is active once more, and I must not leave the Nether until I have gained my strength back against the foul thing.

"I know that there is no excuse that can be made for my actions before my imprisonment, against the Overworld and against you. I believed I was right at the time- but I was also driven mad. I blamed you, and blamed you for centuries before I realized the truth. You must believe me- I am truly sorry. It was no fault of yours that I was not strong enough to fight the madness, and I could not stop the destruction before it was too late. I pray, in the time that I have been absent from the Overworld, that the scars I left have healed and the world has begun to grow once more. Yet I have come to realize now, why my strength failed me when I needed it against the pain and the madness. I allowed my anger to drive me- my hatred- and it let the forces of evil have even greater control of me. A part of me asks for mercy, Notch, but another asks that I be held fully responsible as I should be. What was done should not have happened. I allowed myself to despair where hope could have saved me.

"I remember the beginning of the Ender Wars clearly, and how we fought in that time. I remember how you refused to help me to punish the human race for their wickedness, and how you wanted my anger to cool. I never believed my actions unrighteous, in fact, I still don't, but your opinion was the wiser. Had I not allowed myself to be pushed to the brink, I could have realized sooner that I was being manipulated. We both were.

"Thanks to this messenger that I now send to you, I have been able to regain much of what I lost. I defeated the enthrallment over myself, but I fear that that is just the beginning of what must happen. The forces of evil are in motion once more, and none of my tricks are going to stop them now. I am sending this messenger, Huntress, to find answers about our enemy, and I ask that you protect her. Protect her soul from the force that enslaved mine, and if need be, if I am wrong, protect her from me. History cannot be allowed to repeat itself.

"I believe myself on the brink of recovery, perhaps enough to return from the Nether in due time, but I will be forever scarred, body and mind, by what was done to me. I cannot wage this war again alone. I beg of you, Notch, to return to the Overworld and set things right. Your creation needs you, now more than ever. I fear ten thousand years has been ample time for the enemy to prepare once more.

"Above all, brother, I need your healing not only on our creation, but on me. I have committed a great evil against our creation, and already nearly relapsed into enslavement and madness once before I caught myself. If I am wrong, it could easily happen again. I am sorry, brother. I beg you forgiveness for what I have done, and if it must be, I will accept whatever punishment you deem justified. But first, the enemy must be defeated. I need you, brother. Our creation needs you. By our combined power, let us set things right.

Things have gone too far, and the fault lies with my own choices.

With all of my heart, I am sorry.

-Herobrine."

I set the book down on the altar and shut my eyes, grinding the heels of my hands into my closed eyelids. They burned with that prickling sensation you get when you want to cry, but can't. Herobrine had written that letter just days ago, right before he released us from the Nether.

Something in my chest clenched, and I couldn't breathe. Snapping the book shut, I looked up at the ceiling, struggling to keep my feelings in check. My hands clenched into fists, and I eventually buried my face in my arms, taking one shuddering breath after another.

How did this letter have this sort of effect on me? It was written by my enemy. It wasn't written to me. The manner it was written in was so strictly formal and restrained, and yet- I couldn't deny the soul-shaking sorrow it awakened. Running my hands through my hair, I looked up at the beacon light again, gazing straight into the beam.

"I just want to understand," I whispered to the light. "Notch, if you can hear me, let me see the truth. Gods above, I just want to know what's really going on. If he really is good, help him."

At some point, I need to learn the full, undiluted story of what really happened ten thousand years ago. Something bigger than just Herobrine and Notch happened, and I have to know what. An entire civilization fell within the span of a year. If Herobrine alone were capable of that, wouldn't Notch have stopped him sooner at least? I've seen the destruction he's capable of, but to do it on the scale that he allegedly did according to the Chronicles, it would have taken him so much longer than just a year. Mankind was spread out across thousands and thousands of miles.

So what else is out there?

I suppose that's what Herobrine's enlisted us to find out, eh? He thinks it's in the End, so to the End we go. But even if we find it, I still have to know the story.

"We saw the beacon go up," Dragon announced as he walked into the Temple. I had been napping on a pew as he walked in- startled, I nearly rolled right off the padded oak and barely managed to catch myself. Shaking my head to clear it, I got to my feet and looked up. Behind Dragon stood all of my companions, all the sons of Steve in the world.

Notch, I missed them so much. And some of them, at least, had missed me as well.

"Huntress!" Dawn caught me unprepared and slammed into me in a violent hug. I stumbled backwards several paces, hugging back just as fiercely once I regained my balance. I'm pretty sure we came close to cracking each other's ribs, but we didn't let go for a long time.

Now that I think of it, I haven't considered what everyone else has been feeling since this started. I've been off literally getting killed, but waiting... waiting is worse. Much worse. They've been in hiding for months, wondering if the rest of us are alive.

Yikes. Sitting in my bunker for three days was bad enough.

"Good to see you too, Dawn," I said softly, half choked by the tears I struggled to hold back and my friend's crushing embrace. Rose came over and joined the hug, being a little gentler than the energetic Dawn and refraining from crushing the life out of me.

Sky and Lee gave hugs in the more masculine way, but Wolf stayed off to the side, greeting me with a nod and nothing more. He seemed more serious than usual, more taciturn. I noticed his hand staying close to his sword hilt at his side.

I looked over each of my friends then, as we exchanged words of greeting, and reflected on how each of us had changed. Dragon and I were obviously looking the most beaten-up from our travels and our Nether ordeal. We had all lost a little weight, and the signs of the lack of sunlight showed on us all, with paler skin and darker hair all around. But there were other changes as well.

Dawn, for all her explosive energy, was less enthusiastic than before. There was a hint of worry behind her eyes, and when she let go of me at last from the hug, she was trembling. Wolf, who was always a serious person, was now paranoid and sullen. He was much sharper with me, less patient with my answers to his questions. Dragon was missing the classic twinkle in his eye, and Lee seemed less confident than usual. Sky, the youngest of us, was more openly afraid. I could see something instinctual in everyone's eyes, some childlike need that we'd never had before. We were in deep in something we didn't know how to work out, and I've gotta tell you, that stinks.

The past months have been hard on us.

For a moment, we all just stood in silence after the usual "how are you's" and "good to see you again's", until Sky leaned against the back of a pew and broke the tension.

"So," he began, "Where has everyone been?"

Right before dinner, as I was in fact writing in this journal, I had a very nasty scare.

I had escaped from Sky's question, promising to explain things over dinner, and was musing over a few things I had written down in my journal. The wager, Herobrine's behavior, and most importantly, the fallen god's warning.

The white eyes.

I still wasn't used to it. It was disturbing enough to know I was working for the same person who had killed me twice, but there at least I had some sort of instinct guiding me. Disturbing, yes, but it felt right.

The eyes, however, still felt wrong.

Putting down my ink and quill for a moment to rest my hand, I pulled an Ender pearl from the stash found under the altar out of my inventory and examined it in my hand. It gave off tiny purple sparks, and in its glassy surface I could see my white-eyed reflection.

It's funny, the things I can swallow. I know any one of my friends would have balked at the idea of making a deal with Herobrine. Now that I think of it, I was almost defending Herobrine when Dragon saw the ruins of the Temple village. I've seen so much since that night, or really, since the day I set off from my home. The phantom-Herobrine in the library, and then seeing him again in the flesh in the old ruins of Luminara. I've seen Herobrine triumphant and gloating over me with his sword in one hand and a fireball in the other, murderous glee in his eyes, and I've seen him on his knees among wood splinters and broken glass in a fallen city, tortured by a force I could not see.

I want to know the truth. Who is Herobrine really? What is the real evil behind all this?

And most of all, what does this all have to do with me?

I can't deny all the driving feelings I have felt since this started. The drive to leave. The drive to fight, even when the odds were impossible. The drive to follow the advice of my enemy. The drive that favors Herobrine... to what end, I don't know.

Now I was sitting in the Temple, bound by a wager with Herobrine, with white eyes. I still couldn't believe the white eyes. Everything else I could swallow, but this... this felt wrong on a deeper level. I recalled a village priest associating white eyes with a being who has lost its soul and shuddered.

Anyway, I was mulling over all this when Dragon knocked and came in. I made the mistake of turning while I still held the pearl in my hand.

With a shout, Dragon drew his sword and attacked.

I gasped and leaped out of my chair, knocking it over behind me as I dove to the floor to avoid getting beheaded by Dragon. The Ender pearl rolled out of my hand as I went down, and I didn't chase it. When Dragon swung again, I got to my feet and jumped backwards, vaulting up onto the table.

"HOLD, Dragon!" My voice hit a very high pitch that it had seldom reached before. Dragon froze, the tip of his sword trembling as it dawned on him who I really was. With the pearl on the other side of the room, I half-hoped my eyes had returned to normal.

Voice trembling, I said, "Dragon, it's just me. I already told you about this, remember? My eyes change." I tried to control the shaking in my voice, but it was with little success. My hands were shaking, too. Blinking, Dragon lowered his sword and hurriedly sheathed it, not meeting my eye. I had in fact told him about the effect of end energy on me, while we were on our way here from the portal, but he hadn't actually seen me yet with white eyes.

"By Notch, Huntress, I'm sorry..." Dragon began, clearly deeply shaken from mistaking me for Herobrine. I stopped him.

"Listen, it's fine-"

"No," he interrupted, "it isn't. I could have killed you."

I sat down on the table's edge and slid off, standing on the floor again. "I would have drawn steel if I had seen Herobrine here. Any of us would."

He wasn't convinced. "There's a big difference between you and him, Huntress. I should have been able to think first. Blast it! I really could have hurt you."

"Dragon." My harsh tone stopped him dead. "Forget about it. It was a mistake, and you won't make it again. I trust you."

Swallowing, he shook his head and looked at the ceiling. Was it just me, or did he look to be almost on the verge of tears? I squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

"We'll be all right," I said, looking at his face and wishing he would meet my gaze. Looking back at me, Dragon let out a slow breath and then suddenly caught me in a hug. I was too surprised to pull away.

"How do you do it, Huntress?" he asked softly, near my ear. "How do you forgive so easily?" He heaved a shaky breath, struggling with what to say next. "You... don't understand how I feel about you. I don't know what I would do if I hurt you." From how closely he was holding me, I could tell he meant that as more than a friend.

Forgiving. Hah. Funny he should remark on that. People are easy to forgive. But your own actions- those are something you'll regret much longer.

"You'd know better," I murmured. "You'd learn from what you did." Dragon put a hand on top of my head playfully.

"The way you put it, it almost sounds like logic," he said, trying to sound humorous, but his voice was hoarse.

I pulled away far enough to look Dragon in the face. He had a strange light behind those determined blue eyes that I had only seen a few times before, including in the Nether. I never fully understood what it meant. Seeing it made something in my chest flutter.

"Now, when did this... when did you start thinking like this, about me?" I hoped he would catch my meaning- when did I suddenly become so special.

"It's always been this way," Dragon replied, releasing me and turning towards the door. "I just haven't been able to say it until now." He half-turned to look at me. "I guess it took going to the Nether to put things into perspective."

I swallowed hard. Oh, bloody, sulfurous, burning Nether. I didn't know what to say to that. I've seen people in love before, among the villagers, but this? This was different. This felt... I don't know. Anyone else would call it wonderful. Dragon's steadfast loyalty and gentle friendship had kept me going through a lot of trouble in the past, but this is something entirely new to me, even as I write this. Mostly, I recoiled from the idea, finding such a feeling dangerous, something that slid under all the layers of my happy past with Dragon and ripping it off like scales on a fish. It would change things. But part of me, some small part of me, warmed at the idea.

I'll... think about this later.

"Well," Dragon said as he walked out of the room, "It's time for dinner. I hope I haven't put you off your appetite." He sounded genuinely regretful, and my heart went out to him for it. What if our positions had been switched? The same thing could have happened, and I would have been holding the sword.

As for my appetite? Surprisingly, I was still very, very hungry.

Okay, I give up. I'm falling asleep at my desk, and I would hate to sleep face-down in my journal.

What went on at dinner and the episode afterwards will have to wait.

Good night.

Amanda the Huntress here.

Don't start throwing things at me, please! I know, it's been a long time since I've updated this story, and I've updated at an awkward time. (With a doubly awkward chapter, in my opinion, but also vital to the plot, so it stayed.) Trust me, I have my reasons. Exams, mostly.

Now, business! Huntress and her friends are finally reunited, but Herobrine's wager is still hanging over their heads. And what is the truth about Herobrine? Find out soon, in the next update! (To my readers of Chronicle and the original A Minecraft Tale, sit down and keep your mouths shut. Spoilers will be dealt with under my personal zero-tolerance policy.)

Now, I tried this on another of my stories, so I'll try it here. How many of you read my little author's notes down here? If you do, then as you review, remember to type out yourself raising your right hand, like this: *raises right hand*. And do leave a meaningful review! What am I to do without your constructive criticism? And as usual, if you want to see more where this came from, remember to Favorite or Follow, since my updates tend to be erratic.

See you next update!