The group trudged towards the village slowly, their feet becoming sore from the non-stop travel. Thankfully, they had been smart enough to leave behind all four of the blanket filled bags, but brought the one filled with food. Because, honestly, how could they leave behind a whole bag filled with perfectly good food?

The small settlement was only twenty blocks away from the "shortcut" they had come up from, so the walk there only took about ten seconds.

Wither could see as Max became uneasy, but He couldn't tell why. He did notice, however, her holding Kreaya's hilt tightly. He looked around to see what made her feel so threatened but saw nothing out of the ordinary. People were walking around, running stalls, buying things, falling over because the things they bought were too heavy to carry, falling over again because they tripped over children rushing through the streets, yelling at said children to slow down and that they're gonna kill somebody. From what Wither could tell, this was perfectly normal.

But why was Max so tense?

Ten minutes and an...odd conversation later, He found out. This conversation, began like this:

"Hello, beautiful." A very short, overconfident brunette said when the group walked past.

Max glanced at him dismissively, then did a double take in shock. She stared at the young man for a moment, evidently making him uncomfortable as his eyes swept over her companions so he would not need to look at her odd stare that was filled with amusement and...was that anger? Either the small man was too intimidated by Max's almost glare, or he thought Wither just had weird eyes, so he didn't react to the swirling grey.

"Cartsin," Max muttered to herself incredulously.

"How do you know my name?" Cartsin backed up, fearing the vengeful look in her eyes. This was, surely, not what he imagined his flirting attempt would lead to. But his question was something Wither was curious about. How did Max know this man's name?

"I also know you have two younger brothers, Phil and Tirink. Correct? You're the runt of the family and your brothers only listen to you because that's just the way it has always been. Since their birth you brainwashed them into always following your 'orders'. You then terrorized the other children, but one in particular."

Cartsin's eyes widened in realization. "M-Mental Max?" he stuttered. "B-but you're dead! We all saw you being carried off by that scary lady!"

"Guess what, Cartsin. I'm alive. And I think I may be more terrifying than that 'scary lady'." Max disappeared, but only for a moment, and then she was right behind Cartsin. He didn't notice her until she whispered in his ear. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"Gah!" He tripped forwards in an attempt to get away from her, but instead he just face planted into the dusty ground. He quickly scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could away from "Mental Max".

As soon as he was out of sight both Wither and Max burst out laughing. Steve stood off to the side looking very confused, and eventually just wandered away to look at all the shiny things.

Their laughter died down enough for Wither to ask: "How do you know that kid?" But every other word was almost unintellageable from His gasps of air.

"H-he used to bully me." People were beginning to looked at them funny. Apparently someone making a weird laughing snort noise for no visible reason, was not normal. "Payback is sweet. That teleport was worth just the look on his face."

"And did you hear the noise he made? He sounded like a cross between a pig and a cow!" More laughter ensued.

After a few minutes, they calmed down. Which Wither was not happy with seeing as Max got another odd look on her face. Then she ran away. "Wha- ! Max! Where are you going?"

He shrugged. She had Kreaya and could take care of herself. She'd be fine, He was sure of it.

But this presented an excellent opportunity to make Max's gift. He already had an object in mind, and He knew what to make it of.

A second later He was in the Nether. Max had taken Him there the year before to see if ghasts could be ridden. That adventure, as expected, had ended abruptly when the ghast they were on did a flip over a pool of lava. Only Wither's quick thinking and ability to morph saved Max from a painful death, and Him from firey pain. He quickly snatched some quartz from the netherrack wall, and teleported away. The only sign of Him being there was an actual sign next to the wall that said:

haha

mine now

Not very clever, but it amused the God all the same. As soon as He returned to the Overworld, He got to work. Hiding behind a house and next to a torch so no one would think anything of the light they saw coming from that area, He began to create. He held the Quartz in His hands and started to shape it, letting His power slowly trickle into the object. He formed it into a four pointed star, then pulled some light from the torch to make it glow as an actual star would. The torch died as its life was pulled into the object.

He studied the star. And finally deemed it worthy for His gift*.

Pulling the power from Himself and putting it into the gift made both Him and the star glow brightly. The light died down and it was finished.

He grinned at the shining Star. If He had made it correctly, it would grant Max something akin to eternal life. That was, if she wanted it. She could just use the Star as a shiny useless bobble. Or even wear it as a necklace. At that thought, Wither pulled a silver chain from the air and wrapped the Star in it. After many failed attempts He finally managed to keep the Star in the chains instead of having it fall to the ground. Perfect.

Now He just had to find Max.

Whom He quickly found was in the house He was hiding behind. Luckily though, she hadn't investigated the increase of light. In fact, when Wither rejoined her she was far from a window. In fact, she was next to some old dude's bed, holding his hand, listening to his shallow breaths.

"Hi, Wither," she said when she noticed Him. She sounded almost...sad. Which alarmed Wither to no end. He had seen her mad, happy, annoyed, embarrassed, curious, and all other sorts of emotions. But she was never sad. Not that He could see, at least. When Max was sad, she was also most likely angry. And her anger had a tendency to burst through all her other feelings like an efficiency five enchanted diamond pickax would burst through stone.

"Are you okay, Max?" He asked, His worry evident in His voice.

The old man's eyes opened slightly, and upon spotting Wither, gave a small, quiet chuckle. "I told you you would make a friend someday, Max," he said. "I just didn't expect that friend to be a God."

"Neither did I, uncle." She gave the man a small smile.

Wither stepped forwards, making the floor creak which in turn made it bend enough for Kreaya to slip from its resting place next to Max's leg, down to the floor. She released her uncle's hand to pick it up again, which gave the old man a clear view of her left hand. Or, should it be said, her lack of a left hand.

"Max!" He somehow managed to find the strength to grab her stump with both of his hands. "W-what happened? Are you okay?"

Kreaya now safely by her side once again, she placed her one hand ontop his two. "Yes, uncle. I'm fine. Really. And it's a long story. Just know that I'm okay now. Don't worry."

"It's my job to worry about you. To take care of you. Looks like I didn't do a very good job at that, though." He gave another chuckle, but it sounded unhappy. Almost as though he regretted something.

"Shh. No, you did a wonderful job."

Wither, sensing that this was someone important to her, pulled an item from the air as they continued to converse.

"Uncle, I have a question."

"Ask away."

"What was my father's name?"

Wither stepped behind Max, the item in His hand as He prepared to drop it.

"I-" her uncle said, obviously caught off guard by the unexpected inquiry. "His name was Charles. But he hated that name as soon as he turned twelve. I could never figure out why, until he introduced me to your mother. Apparently she miss heard him when he told her his name, so she called him Charlie. Well, he liked it so much he changed his. Gave me a few bruises every time I teased him about it, but it was all fun and games. He was actually a really sweet guy." He got a faraway look in his eyes, and Wither could tell he was rembeeing something that happened far in the past. A good memory, if his small smile was anything to go by.

Max gave a small intake of breath, which was when Wither dropped the item onto the old Minecrafter's stomach.

He gave a small "oof" when the cake landed on him. Max whirled around without looking at what Wither had seemingly assaulted her uncle with, ready to attack.

"Happy Birthday!" He shouted, startling her and making her stumble back in surprise. He grabbed her to keep her from falling onto the cake He had dropped onto her uncle's lap.

Max's uncle was laughing hoarsely at the spectacle. "Happy birthday indeed, Max."

"What?" Evidently, Max had once again forgotten her birthday. "Wait, oh."

"I got you a present!" Wither handed the gift to His best friend.

She puzzeled over the glow of the object, but she seemed to like it anyway. She gave Him a smile and said: "Thanks, Wither."

"Nope! You're not allowed to thank me yet! You don't even know what it does!"

"You mean it does something other than glow?" she teased Him.

"Yep! Don't do anything until I tell you the full extent of it, though." He said. He wanted Max to know what it did before she did something she would regret. Wither knew her well enough to know that she would immediately try to use it on her uncle. But if she did that, she would doom him to and eternity of sadness. "Promise me."

She gave Him an odd look at His request, but relented. "Okay, then. I promise."

He grabbed the Star from her and placed the chain gently around her neck. "I made the Star from quartz that I borrowed from the Nether. I gave it the life of a torch so that it will glow like a real star. It looks pretty, but that's not what I've spent months working on," He said. "I call it Respawn. If you prick yourself with it, then you'll stay the same age as when you're pricked forever. And if you die, you'll just wake up on your bed. You have to want it to work when you prick yourself, so don't worry about accidentally poking yourself. If you don't want to live forever, then just don't prick yourself and use it as a necklace."

He beamed at her. She stared in shock at Him.

"You two are an adorable couple," Max's uncle said after a moment.

They both blushed. Wither wondered why His cheeks felt warm while Max said "We're not a couple."

The rest of the day was spent eating cake and laughing.

*I almost died when autocorrect tried to turn this into "Girlfriend" apparently a computer program ships Max and Wither XD*

NotReallyAName, Guest, and Starrysky789, you all got it right, to an extent. And I've brought Barcubus back!

Though this is late, Happy Halloween! If you went, what did you go as? I was a zombie bride. Or the mistress of the night. Whichevers cooler. And again, though this is late, Happy birthday to my youngest sister! She turned eight on November 1st. And Happy belated/early birthday to everyone else!

NotReallyAName:

Yeah, that could go on forever. So I'm going to stop it with this thank you. Thank you! Your review is very much appreciated, it made me smile as soon as I saw the notification in my email. And I didn't know what was going to be the object until you reviewed, so yay! Here's another acronym for "mod": Many Oranges Dance. Does it make sense? No. Is it amusing? I think so.

Guest:

It probably would've. And yes, something like a hand replacement machine, except it replaces her whole body when she dies. Thanks for the review!

Starrysky789:

Definitely magic. Thank you so much! That makes me really happy!