AN: That took way too long. Finals next week, and I'm getting my wisdom teeth out. That's going to be fun (not). Next update ETA: 2 weeks.
Chapter 25: Little things Echo
"You're asking me for iron?"
"Yes I am."
"On what grounds?"
"I broke my knife and I can't make myself a new chair without one."
"Let me see the knife. Maybe I can fix it."
"It's in the trash."
"What did you do to it?"
"Threw it at the wall."
"Okay. One new iron ingot coming up."
"I need three."
"For one little knife?"
"It's an odd recipe."
"You're getting one. I've seen the players make more out of less."
"I'm not like them."
"You're enough like them to make due with one ingot. I'm not going to give you enough iron to make a pick axe."
"Fine. I'll figure something out."
"Good. Here you go."
Player spent one more day in the walled village, collecting supplies. The builders had made a lot of progress in three months. There were stores set up selling everything from fresh baked goods to mining equipment. Not that there were very many people buying mining equipment, and since he had a find iron pick and plenty of torches he gave that store a pass.
"The miner?" said the woman at the front of a store selling basic supplies, "I'll give you a discount."
"You're the one who gave them the stone?" the boy in the bakery asked, "Here, some cookies. On the house, don't worry about it."
"The sentry was yelling at you last night?" the man polishing the display armor in his shop window laughed, "That'll be Tom. He's a little over enthusiastic. Don't mind him. Want some armor, you say? Leather? I can do that."
"Just wrap it up and give it to me," Player said, "I'm not going to wear it right now."
The man complied, "Going for a long trip?"
"Seems like it."
"Get yourself a horse. It will carry you, if not some of the burden."
"I'd prefer to walk." Player had once been thrown by a horse he had managed to steal from a gladiator during survival games. It had not been a pleasant experience.
"Go see Joel on the edge of town, trust me," the man winked at him, "you two will get along."
"What do you mean by that?" Player asked, but the man only chuckled and gestured him out of the shop.
He did end up going to the edge of the town, but only by accident. He was following a map given to him by Jericho that was supposedly leading him to a second gate out of town in the direction he wanted to be going. The area he was passing through was lined on either side by barns storing food and pens of chickens and pigs eating from troughs.
They probably grew the food on the outside of the wall, Player thought to himself. He hefted his heavy bag higher up on his shoulder-the cookies the baker had given him seemed heavier than they should be. It would make sense. They didn't have enough resources to build a 20-block high wall around the fields.
Right at the edge of the town, as he traced the path of the wall, there was a large fenced area. Player paused to look at it, curious as to its contents. He couldn't see anything alive apart from a few trees, but there were troughs for water at the far end and a couple feeding stations.
Player shrugged and kept on walking. It was going to take him long enough to get to where Clarence was anyway. He was going to find Clarence, and from there make a start on finding Hero-Herobrine. He kept repeating that to himself, "I am going to find Herobrine," and ask him two very important things. That was the plan.
He was just about to pass the edge of the fence when there was a yell, followed by an animal scream. An animal exploded into the enclosure, all bunching muscles and massive legs. It circled the enclosure twice, slowing to a trot from the gallop.
It was a shaggy creature, smaller than a horse, larger than a donkey. Brown in color, with a mane and tail darker than its body.
"Woah," Player said.
The animal slowed further, to a walk. It whinnied, tossing its head in a combative manner. It eyed him for a moment, then carried on by.
Player walked back over to the fence and leaned on it, watching the mule trot around and around. He whistled, and its long ears pricked up. It brayed at him. It wasn't a very pretty sound.
Player dug into his inventory and produced one of the carrots he'd just bought. He offered it to the animal. The mule took a few steps towards him and stopped, flicking its tail back and forth. It huffed out a breath and stamped its hooves.
"You don't want to come closer?" Player asked. The animal's ears went back flat against its head. "Okay." He tossed the carrot into the pen, not directly at the mule, but a little to the side.
The animal shied away, but a moment later it was back and munching appreciatively on the carrot.
"There, you see?" Player took another from his bunch and held it out, "Not bad at all."
This time it shambled up to him, turning its head left and right to look at him out of big brown eyes. It took the carrot out of his hand, soft lips brushing over his fingers.
Player reached out to stroke its neck, and the mule jerked away. It swept off again, trotting around the enclosure before returning to stare at him some more.
"I'm not going to hurt you" Player told it.
The mule shook its mane as if in agreement that it could kick him into dust if he so much as tried.
"One more go," Player told himself, removing a third carrot from the bundle. He held it out.
Again the mule approached, and again it took the food from his hand.
"There you go," Player said to it. He laid a palm between the animal's eyes, and though it flinched it didn't pull away. "Good girl."
The mule flicked its ears and blinked at him. It ducked its head away from him and stamped, but didn't run.
Player stroked its neck for a minute, just thinking. The mule was taller than he was, a huge powerful creature that could probably kill him with one powerful kick. He was watching the muscles in its shoulder quiver.
"You must be one of Joel's," he said to the mule, conversationally, "I was told he's the one with the horses."
She blew a gust of warm air at him, and Player smiled. He gave her neck one last pat.
"Okay. I'll see you later," he told her, and turned away, replacing the carrots in his inventory.
The mule brayed at him from the enclosure, sounding very upset with his decision.
"Sorry," Player called back, "I have places to be."
After he had gone through the gate on the edge of the village, another man came out of the shadows near the stables and crossed to the mule. He wasn't wearing a shirt and his upper body showed evidence of the fall he had just taken off the mule's back. He offered her a carrot of his own, and, to his surprise, she took it out of his hand.
"That's something you don't see everyday," Joel said, patting the mule's flank. She huffed at him. "What?" Her ears went back. "Oh, so you let him talk to you but not me?" The mule trotted off, flicking her tail distastefully at him.
Joel went and found a lead rope for her. He managed to tempt her back in with another carrot and slipped the halter over her head.
"How much do you think he'd pay for you?" He asked the mule.
She only shook her head, trying in vain to dislodge the leather.
"Well, I can't keep you around forever." Joel looked down at himself, "let me grab a shirt."
Player was about half a mile out of the village when he heard someone yelling at him.
"Hey, you, hold on!"
He turned and saw a man leading the mule towards him, tugging gently on the lead every few steps to get her to move. The man looked like he had hurriedly washed his face before he followed Player. There were faint outlines of dirt stains on his cheeks and forehead, and there were streaks of dirt on his arms. This, Player decided, was Joel.
He stopped and let the man catch up to him.
Joel paused a few feet away and brushed a hand through his hair. He seemed to catch his breath. The mule stamped and shifted side-to-side. Player waited for him to speak, watching the animal more than the man.
Joel gained his composure and looked Player over, surprise flickering in his eyes. His shoulders slumped slightly, "You don't want a horse, do you?" he said, like he already knew the answer.
Player shook his head.
Joel turned and patted the mule on the neck, "Thought so. Too bad, would have been nice to get this hinny off my back." He turned away and walked back towards the village, perhaps a little faster than he had approached. The mule resisted for a moment, and then allowed itself to be tugged after the man.
Player shook his head and turned away. "Hinny?" He said to himself. Female mule, perhaps? That was the only explanation he could think of. He was glad that Joel hadn't pressed the issue. He guessed he liked the animal well enough, but he didn't have the know how or the patience to care for it.
Player stayed put and opened up the copy of the map Prague had given him. He had circled the proper settlement on it in red dye and traced what had seemed to him like the best path to reach it. The path went around the outside of the ring of mountains, because he had figured there might be something to the claims of a malicious force there. There were no other villages directly in the path, which he thought was pertinent. If he wandered into other settlements he risked getting sidetracked by rumors of interesting mines or something similar, or even people like Joel for that matter. It was going to take long enough to get to where Clarence was without taking any detours.
Player put the map away again and kept walking down the path. After another half mile or so he turned off of it and put the mountains on his right side. That was how he was going to navigate, he decided, by tracing the ring of mountains. Hopefully along the way he would find some lead to what exactly was inside the ring.
Far behind him, Joel was having trouble pulling the mule back towards the village. She really wanted follow the strange man, and he did not want her following him.
"Come on, girl," he scolded her, "you won't be happy with a miner, you know. He'll drag you into all kinds of small cramped spaces, and we both know how much you hate those."
She brayed and pulled hard against him.
"He was paired with a guy who killed someone," Joel continued, "I was there, I saw it. Someone like that may not treat you nice."
She took no notice of his words.
Finally, as a last resort, Joel produced a carrot from his inventory and tempted her with it. She followed that happily enough.
Joel took her back to the pen, but he didn't attempt to bring her back into the stables. That was a losing battle.
He made a very quiet complaint later on the subject of the miner to an old gladiator friend named Tom who was working as a sentry for the village. It wasn't so much a complaint as a warning: this guy was paired with a murderer. Worse, a murderer who bore a distinct resemblance to the legendary Herobrine.
In the next week, the matter worked its way up the chain to Jericho and the other builders, who, though skeptical, agreed to look into the matter if and when Player ever returned to their little village.