Steve's POV

I dreamed I was standing before a hovering diamond sword in an underground chamber of some kind. The walls were made of stonebricks, many of them were cracked or covered in moss. Then, I realized that there were mobs all around me, more than I could count. I could only see zombies and spiders, but that didn't comfort me in any way. They all seemed to be in a frozen state.

Suddenly, everything unfroze. All the mobs began to surge forward. I quickly lunged for the sword and grabbed it. Seeing no escape, I let out an unusually courageous shout and swung the sword around me in a full circle.

The room filled with smoke, and I realized it was the lingering essence of all the defeated monsters that had attacked me.

"Wow…" I muttered in awe as I looked at the blade's gleaming surface. It glowed with a purple aura, and looking at it somehow gave me insight into what this sword was.

In the distant past, it was called the Sword of Heroes. It had been crafted by mankind in the ancient past with one purpose-to hold back the darkness that had threatened to swallow Minecraftia so long ago. It was wielded by the Great Hero of Minecraftia himself when he destroyed the great evil. And after almost a hundred years of sleeping, it was finally ready to play its part.

'Steven, you are the chosen one…' a smooth voice echoed within the very depths of my mind. I immediately gasped in shock and lost grip of the weapon, but it continued to hover.

"First mobs, and now weapons!? What the heck is this!?" I stammered, eyes wide with disbelief.

'You and I are destined to do great things for this world…' the sword revealed, 'However, before you can claim me, you must unlock the truth of your family…'

'Steven, return home, back to your childhood village. The truth will then be made clear…' I opened my mouth to say something, but the dream vision quickly rippled into darkness.

I woke up and found myself buried by my soft but chubby pig's belly. Momentarily startled, I pushed him off my face, where he landed on my waist with a surprised oink, then sat up and shook himself awake.

"Joey… you know I hate it when you smother me like that…" I sighed with annoyance. "You aren't even supposed to be on the bed." He just looked back at me with a look that said something like 'oops.'

I could tell it was noon. I probably should go look for Howard, so I got myself out of bed.

"Joey, come on." He looked up at me curiously. "We need to check in with Howard and that Will guy." I told him. Joey nodded in understanding and we exited the house.

Outside, I could see people walking all around the village. Many of them carried tools as they headed off to whatever work they had to do. Iron golems walked across the grassy paths, though some played with village children. It was similar to how Howard's village had been, but something seemed… different. These people didn't seem to socialize nearly as much with each other. The adults barely even glanced at one another as they went to work on their own assignments. The village itself didn't seem as welcoming as Howard's had been.

I tried to look for Howard or Will, but couldn't find either. I did however spot Javier approaching a blacksmith's forgery. Quickly, I made my way over towards him, Joey right behind me.

"Hey, Javier!" I called out to him and drew his attention.

"It's you." He replied. "I never got your name…"

"It's Steve." I informed him, "Steve Stonewall. Have you seen Howard and Will today?"

"Actually, they wanted me to send you to them when you were up." He pointed out.

"Really? Where are they?" I asked. He turned and pointed to a large cobblestone building behind him.

"In the Strategic Base. It's back there, the large building, you can't miss it." He informed.

"Okay, thanks." I responded as he nodded and continued on his way to the forge.

"Let's go, Joey." I said and headed over to the building, wondering what they were planning.

After a few moments of looking around, I found what I believed to be the base. It was a large building made mostly out of cobblestone. It appeared to have two floors, at least it looked that way from the outside. The second floor expanded beyond the first, and was larger. It looked like an observation room, and had glass all across the walls, though it appeared empty. I could see oak fences were used to support the corners of the second floor from the ground.

Once we went over to the door, I immediately noticed Howard standing at a big cobblestone table, with Will and two other people I didn't recognize sitting in cobblestone chairs. I told Joey to stay quiet while we entered the building. As soon as I closed the doors, they all turned to look at me.

"Steve, it's good that you're here…" Howard said, "Maybe you can help me explain to these idiots how bad things really are!" Hearing this, I was shocked at how harsh he sounded. He was clearly really frustrated.

"Howard… you really need to be more respectful to my colleagues…" William muttered.

"Well, I don't need to be lectured on how I failed my people by her!" he growled, giving the woman an angry glare.

"Howard, that wasn't what I meant-" she said in a calm voice before Howard interrupted her again.

"Telling me that I made the wrong decisions with fortifying the village is the same as telling me that it was my fault!" he snapped, raising his voice. "And it wasn't, I took all the necessary precautions-"

"Wait!" I hollered and went over to them. "What happened?" Howard turned towards me.

"Katlyn thinks I didn't do enough to ensure the protection of the villagers!" he said angrily. "I set up a full cobblestone wall around the village and had the knights and iron golems aware and on guard for when they would infiltrate the walls."

"Howard, she's not blaming you at all." William defended. "She just thinks that it doesn't need to be top priority to arrange the meeting for the other village mayors. We just got a bit off-track."

"Will, you were not there when the walls went down. You did not get to see all the mobs that the horseman had under his control. If you had, you would know just how much danger this village is in…" Howard argued.

"Howard, we don't need to get the council involved." The third person said. "Our village is very well supplied, and should the worst-case scenario occur, we have the underground village space."

"That won't work!" Howard shouted, then turned back to me. "Steve, back me up!"

"Oh, um…" Suddenly, I didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at me now. "well…" And then I knew what to say.

"He's right. We were attacked by a skeletal commander like that one underground. He trapped me in the Nether!" The three leaders shared shocked expressions. "Not only that, I think that this horseman might have a connection to a horrible monster named Herobrine."

"Wait-what do you mean Herobrine!?" William stammered. I nodded with a bleak expression on my face. I explained to them what had happened to Joey and me while we had been in the Nether.

By the time I was finished, they all had faces of disbelief, including Howard.

"That's why we'd need to bring this council together. If Witanos has some tie to the horseman that ruined Howard's village, then perhaps they both are connected to Herobrine." I proclaimed. Katlyn's face changed to skepticism.

"Now look, just because the appearances of these two skeletons occurred very shortly after each other doesn't exactly mean they are tied together. Herobrine never existed, he was only made up for priests and librarians to get easy emeralds for selling books about the myth." At this, William shot his head in her direction.

"Are you kidding me, Katlyn!? Herobrine IS real. The stories of how violent and dangerous Herobrine was are way too realistic to the events of the past to be faked." He argued loudly. I could see a wild look in his eyes. There wasn't exactly fear in them, but more of an understanding at how serious things had just become.

"But William, how are we to even believe that Herobrine even exists? All we have is the word of this person that came from nowhere. Do you really want to bother the Council with something like that?" she questioned.

"If it's true, we're going to need all the preparations we can get." He insisted.

"And if it's not," Nick butted in, "we just wasted months' worth of materials for weapons and armor. And not to mention that the entire village would be angry."

"At least let the Council know so that they can start an investigation!" Howard yelled. "If this is truly the work of that vile creature… we MUST know at once!"

"I agree with Howard." William stated. "Mobs have only organized once in known history, and according to legend, it was Herobrine that managed to unite them."

"You guys are being ridiculous. All this is some creepy rumor. The war wasn't started by him, it was started by a split in the old kingdom that made mankind more vulnerable to itself. Herobrine is just a myth, he never existed and never will." Katlyn scorned. I stared at her.

"He's real, I saw him with my own two eyes." Joey raised two legs onto the table and squealed in agreement. She looked back at me with a sarcastic look in her eyes.

"Sure you did." She said dismissively. I was growing frustrated by her lack of comprehending the potential risk that we were in, but before I could speak Nick interrupted.

"Well, one thing's for sure." Nick stated. "Something is definitely going on with these skeletons. And I'd like to find out what it is."

"Majority rules, Katlyn." Howard said with a scowl. "The other mayors are going to be informed at once."

"Now, wait a second. I never made a decision." Nick pointed out. Howard stared at him.

"But you implied it." He said.

"That doesn't mean a thing, I never said it." William glanced back at Nick.

"Nick, you know I would never want to bother the others unless it's absolutely required." He stated. "And this is very important. If everything Howard and Steve had said is true, and Herobrine IS out there planning and attacking, then we must take immediate action." Nick took a moment to think about this.

"Well… I suppose you do have a point…" he decided.

"You two are such little kids! Herobrine is not real! He was just some monster tale conjured up by some selfish priests!" Katlyn growled.

"Kate, the decision is final. It's two to one, and so we're going to at least inform the other leaders." William ordered.

"Fine…" she said, biting her bottom lip in frustration.

"So, that's gonna conclude this discussion?" Howard questioned, a brow raised. William looked back at him.

"Yes." He answered. A faint thought came to me.

"Hold on… I need to find my village." I pointed out. I wasn't sure why, but I felt the urge to go look for my home.

"Why's that?" William questioned.

"I don't know…" I responded as I rubbed my forehead, struggling to recall. It had something to do with my dream last night, but I had no clue what I had even dreamed about. It was as if the memory had intentionally been blocked from my mind. "I just have a feeling something is there that might be helpful."

"Helpful, how?" Nick asked.

"I… don't know. But I just know that I have to go." I replied. "I can find my way, easily. I have a compass-" I muttered as I looked around within my inventory. But I couldn't find it, and looked through it a second time. "What the… my compass is gone!" I gasped as I scrounged around my inventory a third time, but to no avail.

"Well, when you first arrived at our village," Howard started, "we were concerned that you were with that griefer faction. So, the nurse removed anything that could've been used to find your way back to the griefers." He admitted. "She took your compass under my orders, out of fear that it might've led back to a griefer camp."

"Are you kidding me?" I groaned. "Where is it now?" He shrugged.

"It's probably still back at the village." Howard informed. I briefly considered looking for my village without the compass, but immediately decided against it. I really didn't keep track of what direction we were from the other village.

"Then, I'm going to need to go back to the village and find it." I decided.

"You'd need at least one other person to go with you." Nick said. "Those are the rules. No one leaves this village alone. Last time that happened, we never saw them the next morning." I looked at Howard. He sighed.

"I guess I'll go back with you then." He said.

"Okay, so when should we go?" I asked. "I think now would be a very good time, since it's still the afternoon."

"Yes, it's a really good time to head out." Howard agreed, glancing at William.

"Go on ahead. But first, be sure to stop at the local ranch. You have my permission to borrow two horses for your trip." William said with a slight smile. "I just would like to know how long your journey should take before you come back here." Howard looked at me.

"Um… at the soonest, I'd say three or four days." I guessed.

"That's good. It normally takes a week to set up a council meeting and bring everyone to one village, and we're going to need you both in order to discuss what course of action we must take." He informed.

"We'll be back by then, I can assure you of that, Will." Howard promised as we went to the door. Joey oinked by my feet, eager to leave.

"Just be on your guard. And don't get trapped at night." William hollered as we left the building.

"Where's the ran-"

"This way." Howard interrupted as he went left and headed down the path that led to a large fenced-in area with some animals in it, us following along behind him. "I've been here a lot of times. Follow me." He said, providing no explanation into his history with the village.

I noticed while we were approaching the ranch that it was much larger than I thought ranches typically were. Although my memories of living in my home town were very vague, I don't remember our local ranch being very big, only being able to hold a few animals.

I could see some of the villagers giving me strange looks. I returned some of them with an innocent grin. As much as I wanted to talk to some of them, daylight was still important, and we needed to leave before the sun started to set.

As we came by the ranch, a young child burst out from the door, wearing blue overalls and a straw hat. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and he was also barefoot. The boy was giggling to himself as he was being chased by a baby grey sheep, which baaed happily. The boy stopped once he saw he saw us coming.

"Is your father here?" Howard questioned the small child.

"Uh huh. Papa's taking care of the horses out back." The boy said in a young farmer's accent.

"Alright, thank you." He said to the boy. The child went back to running around, and the sheep proceeded to chase him again.

We entered the house and I noticed that it looked different from the houses I had seen so far. The house had been made to be very wide, but not very long. To our side, there was a counter made from stone slabs by the far wall, and lining the wall in front of us were wooden seats and a table.

"It looks kind of like a shop…" I noted.

"Well, yeah. This place is the butcher shop." Howard informed. "This is where cooked meats are produced for the villagers. A lot of farmers and butchers work closely so if there are too many animals in ranches, they're sent to the butcher to be turned into food." I could see Joey shuddering nervously by my side. He had a scared look in his eyes as he gazed around the building. I didn't blame him. I remembered one time when I had been trapped underground and was badly injured from mobs. I had never been so paranoid of danger from all angles while I was slowly making my way out of the mine. I could only imagine that Joey was experiencing a similar kind of fear.

"From the looks of things, I'm guessing the butcher had to run an errand." Howard suggested.

We went through quickly and just as I was about to follow Howard out of the house a loud voice called out.

"Hey there, would you like for me to take care of this pig?" the loud and gruff voice questioned behind me. I turned back and saw a man in a stained apron grabbing ahold of the back of Joey's neck with one hand. He held an iron axe with the other hand. "A big one like this would yield one or two good and juicy porkchops for sure." He noted. Joey kicked and squealed with terror to get out of the butcher's grip.

"NO!" I hollered, stopping in front of him with my fists raised. "That's my pig, don't hurt him!"

"Alright, alright. Settle down, kid." The butcher reasoned, letting go of my pig. Joey sprinted over behind my feet and stayed there, peeking out to watch the butcher fearfully.

"Thank you." I said with a sigh of relief.

"There's no need to threaten me, kid. I'm just trying to make a living here." He grunted. Howard poked his head back into the shop.

"Steve, you coming-oh…" he said as he noticed the butcher with the axe in his hand and put two-and-two together.

"Yeah, we're fine." I assured, and we went out, leaving the butcher shop.

Outside the shop, I could see the large ranch, which spanned several dozen blocks and was all surrounded by fences. There were all kinds of animals on the field, from sheep eating the grass, horses running after each other, and cows just frolicking, to name a few. There was also a small lake with some sugarcane around it, and some chickens were in it, flapping their wings repeatedly as they tried to swim out.

In the middle of the field, a man was knelt down, patting a baby pig on its back. Howard was already talking with him. I could tell Joey wanted to join in on a nearby gathering of pigs and looked at him.

"Go on, Joey. Just be ready when we leave." I told him. Joey gave me an oink and a happy look as he made his way to the rest of the pigs, which were watching curiously as the newcomer came over to them. I then went to the two.

"-so would you be willing to let us borrow a couple of your horses?" Howard request. "We'll be back with them in less than a week."

"Eh, sure. An' you can keep 'em. Better then sendin' em' to my brother to be turned to leather." The farmer said, gesturing to the butcher shop.

"Even better. Thank you." Howard said. Then, he turned to me. "Well, let's pick out the horses." He then went to a group of three horses to check them out.

I looked around the ranch to see every horse. There were about seven in total, not including the baby ones. Only one of them was actually staring at me, which caught my attention. It was a light brown stallion the color of oak wood, with a slightly darker mane. There were white splotches across parts of its body as well, as if someone had made a mess with bone meal dye, though it looked natural. The horse was beautiful, and I knew I wanted it immediately.

"That one!" I exclaimed, pointing over at it.

"Kiddo, I'm not sure you wanna tame that one." The farmer said to me. I turned to face him.

"Why not?" I asked.

"'Cause that's one of my most stubborn ones, that's why." He explained. "She's given me so many hard times trying to move her around. A kid like you ain't gonna make her do squat." I wondered to myself why so many people insisted on calling me a kid. I was clearly an adult, and it was starting to really annoy me. But I knew that I really wanted that horse, no matter what.

"What if I can tame her? Can I keep the horse?" I asked.

"Of course. Good luck though, I'd hate to see ya get trampled." He said as he gave me a saddle. I grabbed it and went over to the horse, which was eyeing me down while she towered over me.

"Uhh… hey." I said gently to the horse. She continued to stare me down. "You want to join me on a journey?" I asked the horse. No response, which was definitely better than the horse somehow being able to talk, considering that I learned skeletons were able to talk less than a week ago.

I figured I should just go for it and jumped up onto the horse's back. She immediately bucked and kicked, whinnying in protest. I held on, and spoke gently to her, or as gently as I could manage while violently being shaken up and down over and over. Then, I got thrown off and landed on the ground with a grunt as the horse jogged away from me. I heard the farmer chuckle to himself. I scowled and followed the horse, only for her to see me and move further away.

This time, I stayed behind the horse, so she couldn't see me very easily and crept up slowly, moving around in the thick grass as much as I could.

Once I was close enough, I lunged back onto the horse, causing her to go instantly back to rampaging. I managed to stay on her for what felt like a long time before she bucked me off again. I landed on the ground again with a groan. When I got back up, I could see Howard was going through the same thing, his own horse thrashing around while he tried to tame it.

"If you two are gonna tame horses," the farmer hollered, "ya gotta give 'em something. Otherwise, they're gonna fight ya tooth 'n limb before they'll accept ya." Hearing him say that, I went through my inventory, trying to find something that might help. Unfortunately, all I had were a couple dozen raw steaks and an apple, a sword, an axe, my pickaxe, some torches, and several dirt and cobblestone blocks. Then, I looked around the ranch and found the lake with sugarcane around it. I knew horses really liked sugar, so I decided to try my luck with it.

I hurried over to the sugarcane and picked off several stalks when I got there, then turned them into five sugar. Howard came over to get some sugarcane as I went back over to the horse, showing it the sugar in my hands. The horse was staring at me with daring eyes, but didn't move away as I came over to her.

"That's it. Easy girl…" I said in a calm voice as I gave her one sugar to eat while I climbed onto the horse's back. She grunted, but didn't buck at all, and I slowly equipped the saddle onto the horse.

I heard the farmer give an impressed whistle as he walked up to us.

"I mean, I still expected it to take longer than that." He complimented. "Young man, ya chose a horse that I couldn't even control. How you managed to, I dunno. She only accepts food from people she deems worthy of her attention."

"If you were certain I couldn't tame her, why'd you give me that suggestion to get sugar?" I asked him, a scowl on my face.

"I wanted to see you fail a few more times." He said with a grin.

"Well," Howard said as he rode over to us on his new horse, "what do you think?" I checked out his horse. It was a black stallion with a mane that blended in with the rest of its body. On its head was a white spot.

"Nice horse." I praised with a smile. He nodded, his face beaming with pride.

"Thanks, yours looks great too." He commented. I looked at my new horse, who gazed back at me. I noticed not a look of loyalty in her eye, but merely one of tolerance. I knew right away that even though I had tamed the horse, she wasn't completely sold on the matter. I could tell there were going to be some problems in the future.

Howard looked up at the sun, which was beginning to head westward. "Well, we should probably be heading out now." I nodded in agreement.

"But first," I looked over towards the pig herd, trying to figure out which one was Joey, "Joey!" He walked away from the group, giving each pig a parting glance before walking up to us.

"Joey, meet our newest companion." I proclaimed happily. My pig went to the front of the horse and squealed with a warm smile, but the horse just snorted dismissively and looked forward, which seemed to take Joey by surprise.

I lowered my arm down for him to put his hoof on and with a grunt lifted him up onto our horse. Joey snorted a somewhat saddened snort.

"It's okay, Joey, she'll just have to get used to us." I told him, trying to cheer him up. He gave me an upbeat grin. I looked over at Howard, who had been watching the whole thing.

"Well, shall we get going?" he asked. I nodded.

"Yes, let's go…"

"That way." Howard pointed over to the west. "It's where we came from."

"Err… right!" I said, pointing west. "Onwards!" I commanded the horse, but she didn't move. "Um… Onwards, that way!" I said, trying to steer the horse, but she refused to budge.

"Um, Steve, your horse doesn't seem to be listening to you…" Howard said.

"I know…" I sighed and jumped off, then tried to push her to face west, but she let out a whinny of protest, standing on her hind legs and knocking Joey off her back.

"Hey! Come on!" I hollered. The farmer hurried over to calm the horse down.

"Hey there, settle down! You're agitatin' the other horses!" he shouted, pulling out an apple and giving it to her. The horse stopped her protest as she ate the apple, enjoying its taste with a shudder of energy. He looked back at me.

"Seems to me like ya need to keep her satisfied so she don't go kickin' an' hollerin'." He noted, reaching into his inventory and pulling out some more apples. "Here, keep 'em. She likes sugar, but they make her more energetic and easily set off. But if she's up to it, she'll also move faster when you give her some sugar. Apples will calm her down." I accepted the apples and nodded in understanding. I now had ten apples.

"Okay, thank you." I said as I stuffed the food into my inventory.

"One last thing, it may take a while before she gets used to you. That horse respects people that demonstrate leadership. That's why she loves William and is friendly with Howard. Until ya become like that, she'll keep pushing ya."

"Okay…" I said, mentally groaning. I had no idea how I was ever going to be like that. It was just a week ago when Joey and I had been on our own, trying to survive in the Overworld, completely unaware of how much civilization really existed.

"We need to head out now." Howard informed, pointing at the sun, which was now descending closer to the horizon.

"Right." I said. Joey hurried into my arms and I lifted him onto the horse's back. I jumped on and directed my horse. She listened this time and turned to face the right way.

"Let's go!" Howard commanded, and our horses sprinted towards the fence gate, then managed to jump over it, taking us past the building where we had had the meeting this morning and then beyond the village border. I heard the farmer shout farewell as we were moving.

We were heading back to Howard's village, and hopefully we would make it there tomorrow with these fast horses.