Aurora's POV

Rose had been quiet for the past few minutes, likely reflecting on what she had overheard. I felt embarrassed, not only by how I had acted but by how I had been told off and sent to my room like a child. It seemed like people just assumed that I was that poor kid with no family structure in her life, but that really wasn't true.

I glanced up from what I had been working on; I was patching up the rip in my elytra. I had chosen to use leather, although there really wasn't any Overworld fabric that would match the quality of the special kind used for elytra.

She sat up from her bed. I personally enjoyed them; they were very soft. "So. The End, huh?"

I looked back at her. "I mean, yeah." What more was there to tell? Well, a lot, actually. But it was long and I was tired. I had already poked my finger with the needle a few times and it tingled slightly from it.

"I guess I should have known something was up. Seems like everyone else did." She mumbled, half to herself and half to me.

"Don't worry about it, okay? As far as I know not many people know much about the End."

I flinched back as the needle poked my thumb again. I considered myself an excellent sewer, but right now I was tired, hungry, and sewing with a strange material using a strange needle. Rose was once again silent, and I paused to rub my eyes. My patchwork job was sloppy considering the leather wasn't exactly the material of choice for elytra.

Every now and then, some ender scientist would find a better way for creating elytra. Within five years they might go from what we had currently- the stiff frame with fabric stretched over it- to a much more advanced glider. It could be possible that there would be made of flexible supports, much like a dragon's wing, and have stretchy fabric that would allow the wearer to have much more control, go farther and faster… who knew what could be accomplished in my lifetime. But, back to the main point, simple Overworld materials weren't going to cut it.

I sighed, thinking about the End. There, I had felt so different. I enjoyed the blessed silence in my head when I was up in my room. I felt that I was really making a difference being a medic and saving lives. Yet, here I was, being the cause of a death. What would happen? I didn't know.

"Hey, Aurora? Um, why don't we go ahead and go to sleep, Luna and Ryan are coming back."

I looked out the entrance of the room which had been cut into the stone. We had left the door propped open to let in some of the cool sea air, and I could see them heading down the wooden walkway.

The light source of the room was a simple redstone lamp. I nodded to her question, setting down the needle and thread I had borrowed back into the little case. I dropped the elytra on the floor next to the bed, and it landed in a heap.

She clicked off the light, the only illumination of the room coming from the soft glow outside the door. Night in the Overworld seemed strange to me. It was a bit like the End, except the sky was dominated by the moon, giving everything an odd white glow. Outside, the only sounds came from the waves lapping at the stone base of the cliff. Ryder had explained how any mobs in the area were effectively locked out of the cliffside base as there was no way for them to get to it. The top of the cliff was too steep for anything to safely get up and over it.

Rose turned over, facing away from the moonlight streaming in through the door, but her breathing was still lighter and I could tell she was still awake. I stared at the back of her head for a few minutes, before taking several deep breaths. Concentrating hard, I mentally said, Rose?

No answer. After another minute or two, I heard her breathing even out. She was asleep. If I couldn't talk to her while she was awake, I wouldn't get her attention when she was asleep.

Maybe I was just too much of an ender to ever really act like a human. I spoke like an ender, and I thought like one too. I thought in pictures and emotions, conveying messages without words. Humans just weren't like that.

Shutting my eyes, I too slipped into sleep.

~*~*~*~ Oh Look Morning ~*~*~*~

"You're gonna need to be quicker on your feet if you want to avoid the sharp end of the sword Aurora!" Ryder told me as he made a lunge with a wooden mock blade. Luna and Ryan insisted I get some practice with a sword before we left, though to where I had no idea. I was just wondering when I'd get to go home.

Ryder was swiping at me with a little knife blade, acting quick and honestly pretty scary. He had traded his normal brightly coloured waistcoat for more practical clothing, as well as a cape matching to what Naomi wore.

I had eaten very little during breakfast, instead choosing to finish repairing my elytra. I was quite happy for this decision, considering the circumstances. I still wasn't wearing any armor, so it hurt when Ryder did manage to land a hit on me, but I felt a bit better with fully functional elytra on my back.

Ender weren't exactly fighters. Yes, they had twice the health of the normal human. Yes, they were taller. But they weren't carefully trained and the society didn't revolve around war.

However, ender did have incredible reflexes, not to mention being light on their feet. So long of flying at incredible speeds, balancing and running along branches, and the extra help of being rather fit did make it so that I wasn't "dying" every five seconds in these mock battles.

I had been given a stick to work with. It was longer than Ryder's short wooden blade, but he was able to dart around any of my clumsy blows. He gave me a stiff poke in the ribs and I winced. I probably already had a nice collection of bruises.

"Nice to know that lesson I gave you sunk in." Luna called out, rolling her eyes.

Gritting my teeth, I tried again to whack him with my stick, and he ducked under it before sweeping my legs out from under me. He did grab my arm before I fell, but that didn't make it much better.

Finally, out of frustration, I tossed the stick to the side. I obviously wasn't going to land a single hit trying to do this Luna's way.

I jumped back from his swing, whirling around to try and ram my shoulder into him. Completely on accident, my elytra opened with the force of the sudden movement- smacking into him, hard. He lost his balance, taking a few wobbly steps backwards before regaining his footing.

He smirked slightly, and I knew I was as good as dead. He faked moving left, lunging at my unprotected side. I gave a half-stifled shriek, trying to jump out of the way but horribly failing.

Probably as revenge he hit a little harder than normal, causing me to almost fall to the ground. I groaned in pain, clutching my side and letting myself fall to my knees. I don't know about him, but I'm done sparing, that you very much. With all these bruises flying is going to be one heck of a challenge, considering the way that the straps tug and wind around me.

"C- can we be done for now?" I asked defeatedly through clenched teeth as Ryder, Luna, and Ryan walked over to me. We all knew I was dead if someone actually tried to kill me, why were they trying so hard to prevent it? I saw Rose come hurrying over as well, kneeling next to me and looking like she was making sure Ryder didn't break anything. I stood up, pushing her away. I was a healer too, ya know.

"You need to be able to protect yourself Aurora, Luna and I won't always be there to save your butt." Ryan said sternly while I threw my arms in the air in frustration. I considered showing him my incredible defense skills by trying to shove him off the cliff, but decided that the others wouldn't take kindly to him dying.

"Besides Dragon, no one is going to try to kill me when you guys aren't around! It's not like I travel to the Overworld in my spare time!" I shot back, glaring at him and Luna.

Luna sighed loudly before whispering something to Ryan that I couldn't make out. I knew they could just talk telepathically so it was obvious she wanted to know she was saying something. Ryan's expression changed slightly before he nodded and the two of them walked off, speaking in hushed tones.

"Well then. Now that your whining has stopped…"

I shrieked and ducked, only for a wooden blade to go whistling over my head. I attempted to elbow Ryder, who was standing behind me, and I heard him jump out of the way. Rose, seeing how our fight was obviously about to pick up again and I was an unwilling candidate, chose to vacate the area. I watched her begin to walk away, and called out annoyedly, "Come join in the fun!"

She stopped in her tracks, turning her head to face me, "I'm not very good."

"You've got to be better than Aurora," Ryder told her, slightly smirking, "She wouldn't last a minute on the battlefield."

It was true, yes, but I still chose to kick him. I heard him wince, so I assumed it at least hurt a little. It was also the second blow I had landed on him today, something I could be proud of.

Rose sighed, "If I must," before picking up a wooden sword from where a few were scattered across the ground. She walked over to us before letting the sword hang loosely in her hand. The way she held herself reminded me of Luna during our practise session, and I assumed this wasn't her first time holding a sword. I guess even medics in this world had to be trained with a blade.

I stepped back slightly, letting her have some space. It was obvious Ryder wasn't too worried about facing her, but then again he wasn't fighting her. I was, while he stood off to the side. I debated just going ahead and jumping off the mountainside, but these thought were quickly dispelled as she practically leaped forward.

I jumped back, landing lightly on my feet. Her posture was heavier and her blows clumsier than Ryder and Luna's, but that was still better than I had.

I glared at her. I didn't like this. I didn't want to be sucked into all this "battle training."

She went to lunge at me again and I saw Ryder watching her tactic. If what we'd overheard last night was true, then he was a full-blown assassin and it was right I couldn't beat him. In fact, everyone- even Rose, a medic with a questionable amount of expertise with the sword, was better at this whole "fighting" deal than me.

Yelling, I body slammed her, something that'd probably get me killed if this were a real battle. It knocked the practice weapon out of her hand, and I jumped back when she stumbled, finally regaining her footing. I noticed Ryder step in to interfere, trying to grab one of the straps on my elytra. I slipped out of his grasp, launching myself off the cliff.

Forget them. I didn't sign up for this, and the fact that they were all treating me like a poor little girl was infuriating. Worse yet, their version of making me better and stronger involved beating me to death with wood.

My elytra snapped open and caught the wind, saving me from a bad fall. The cliff was high, and I could travel a good distance before I'd either fall into the ocean or have to land. Come to think about it, the former was likely the better option considering I didn't know how to swim.

I didn't feel any tears welling up in my eyes or anything. I just felt… alone, I suppose. In the End there were always so many minds so close together. Here I was left with nothing but my thoughts and a bunch of people who did their best to embarrass me.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I could see that Rose was nowhere in sight along the cliff top, while Ryder had chosen to watch me fly. They were all talking about preparing me for a battle, but the simple point was that I wouldn't be in any battles. I was going to go home soon.

I spied a rocky shelf slightly farther down on the cliff. It was a little bit above tree level, and I angled downward towards it. At the last moment before impact, I curved upwards slightly, causing the elytra to catch the air and slow me down, allowing me to safely drop to the stone. It was a move I had done hundreds of times before, swooping down on the walkways of the ender buildings.

My elytra went limp, folded nicely against my back.

Because it wasn't quite yet noon, steep shadows lined the rocky cliff. I stood partially concealed in one such shadow. The stone was cool, having not yet been warmed by the sunshine, but I had no bias and sat down, leaning against the wall with my elytra spread slightly to accommodate. I had a fairly good view of the valley, and could see that the trees were mainly white-trunked birch.

There was the sound of footsteps on stone as someone ran down the steep slope, siding on loose rock every now and then. Suddenly, Ryder appeared in my view, looking around for a few moments before his eyes finally landed on me. He jumped down to where I was sitting, and I looked up expectantly.

"Have you come to talk about me disapprovingly?" I didn't say it in a particularly glum tone or anything of the sort, just sorta neutral. He shrugged.

"I suppose your defense and evasive techniques weren't that bad. If you were really trying to use your speed and agility you would be pretty good for someone with no training."

"Well, literally everyone here is trained in combat. Even Rose, and she's only a medic!"

He was looking over at the forest. "Here, even medics will have to face the battlefield. Most are considered neutral, but there's always a chance they can be attacked. This world is a dangerous place."

That sounded horrible, where even healers must face death just for helping.

"I'm, well, I'm not exactly a medic in the End. I haven't gone through any formal training. But I live in a medical homestead, and no one has ever tried to attack me."

"What's it like, in the End?"

"It's amazing. Nothing but total emptiness, an open sky. Islands that float in space, covered with flowering trees." There was so much more to say, but I was still annoyed at Ryder.

"Your home sounds lovely," he said, before pointing out somewhere in the trees. I followed his point the best I could, staring off towards a place near the base of the mountain. A small river flowed between the mountain and the forest, but at one place I could see the trees were smaller and not as thick. There was also what looked to be buildings as well, but whether or not they were intact I couldn't decipher.

"That was my home."

His home burned down, didn't it? They had been attacked.

"I- I'm sorry." Yes, that was the best I could offer. The delicacies of human comfort and emotions still managed to elude me.

He shrugged. "It's all in the past, now." He looked away from the forest for a moment, gaze turning towards the sea. "Aurora, do you… y'know, do you remember your parents? Or have you been in the End-"

"I was rescued from my home and brought to the End when I was three. I… I don't really remember anything. Dreams, more like it. I think in a village or something, and it was raided and destroyed. I'm not really sure, but my mother's name was… Caroline, maybe? Just a guess, really."

He blinked, but turned his face away from me so I couldn't tell what he was thinking. At that point, he changed the subject back to the original point.

"You're light on your feet and can practically blend into shadows. You have a lot of potential, Aurora. But whatever it is you choose to do, I hope you do well. Come on then, we'd best be getting back."

I nodded, and we began our ascent up the slope. It was difficult going, with the gravel sliding under my shoes and the rocks occasionally shifting. I much prefered the islands of the End. Even if they were floating, they were still solid masses and not so… shifty.

Scrambling up and over the top I paused for a moment to catch my breath. I had great stamina but I didn't like jogging straight up a steep mountain side.

I froze just as I was about to take another step as Naomi ran over to where we stood. She pushed back a few loose strands of hair that had gotten in her face, looking at me dryly. Her expression clearly said "I can't believe you just flew off" and her next words mimicked this thought well.

"I can't believe this, Aurora. You can't just run off whenever something happens that you don't like."

Ryder probably said something because she glanced at him with a look I couldn't read. I rubbed my arm, watching them have a private conversation. It seemed they finally came to some sort of agreement when Naomi shrugged and Ryder turned to face me.

"Aurora? Um, how about you go find Ryan or Luna and go hang out with them for a while?"

I wasn't very interested in going to see Luna considering how she had been laughing at me during our mock battles. I knew I had no chance in winning those things, so why should I bother trying?

"Um, I'll go find Ryan. Bye guys."

Standing up, I starting running along the ridge before jumping down and landing on the flats of my feet. Looking around, I searched for Ryan before starting off down the wooden pathway.

As it turns out, I found Ryan sitting on a piece of rock that jutted out from the surrounding stone. He was poring over a small stack of books and papers.

I jumped down, landing beside him and making a few of the papers flutter. They had little stones on them to keep the papers from blowing away and falling into the sea below whenever the wind blew.

"Hey Ryan!" I chose not to explain the events leading up to me coming over here.

He glanced up at me, closing the book he had been looking at and setting it down beside him. "Are you done training already?"

I just nodded quickly. "Yep, I am. What're you doing here?"

He motioned to the papers around him. "I asked Ryder what he knew about the End. As it turns out, many years ago when he was collecting information about a special kind of explosive he came across a book written in the old language. He knew enough of it that he was able to read most of it, and that's when he heard the legends. I can't read the old language very well, so I'm using what he has translated."

Stooping down, I picked up the book he had set down. I opened it to a random spot, seeing what looked like a bunch of short stories.

"Huh. This is the language my book is written in," I pointed to a few words on the page. "It's a lot like the language we speak in the End, but it's missing a few letters and some of the words are spelled wrong."

He shrugged, and I skimmed a few of the paragraphs on one of the pages. It was talking about something having to do with a "monster born of lightning and destruction itself." It sounded like whoever came up with these had no clue what they were writing about

Ryan stood up and moved to look over my shoulder. "This is one of the ones he had translated. As it turns out, the story is referring to a creature known as a 'charged creeper.' When a bolt of lightning strikes a creeper, they'll gain a blowing aura and are far more dangerous."

I vaguely remembered something in my book about those, but nothing specific. I mean, it wasn't like I studied everything I could find. I was the most interested in human culture and such, and especially hadn't had time for reading old stories. They didn't seem very interesting at all.

Flipping the pages, I stopped at another random point. It was another story, this one about "great dragons formed of shadows who breathed acid and scooped up adventurers, banishing them to eternal darkness of which they originated."

"Whoever wrote this seems loony." I said.

"Much of fiction had its origination in fact, Aurora. What if there are more dimensions than just the End, Nether, and Overworld? What if there are beings that we've never seen, because they're out there, living just out of our view?"

"You're sounding loony as well. We have a word for that, too. 'Skxawng,' or maybe 'keye'ung' is a better word."

He gave me an odd look. "I don't know what those mean, anyway."

It was probably a good thing, too. He might take offense to be called an insane moron.

"I never know what you guys are saying when you use your telepathy," I retorted. He just shrugged, clearly not knowing what to say.

"Oh well."

I handed him his book back and he sat down once more. "So why are you reading all of these now?" Did he really not have anything else to do?

"I have my reasons."

Hm. His suspicious answer either led to the conclusion that he was hiding something or purposely messing with me.

Chapter written by Author 2