I need to let you guys know that in this chapter, there are quite a few missing pieces in this chapter. I'm not sure what happened during the transferring process, but I don't think they'll affect the storytelling too much. Also, the original story was heavily inspired by CaptainSparklez's Fallen Kingdom music series, which at the time only had two music videos. In fact, I had initially planned to make the events of Fallen Kingdom literally in the same timeline as A Hero's Hope. I guess you could say that was the original beginnings of Minecraftia's timeline, even though Fallen Kingdom is no longer in the timeline.
Chapter 2 Friends worth dying for...
Steve dreamed he was listening to a strange conversation.
"I see the Hero you meant..."
"Steve?" Steve heard his name being used and figured he'd better listen to these strange voices. Oddly, they sounded somewhat familiar.
"Yes, it has reached a much higher level now, it can understand our thoughts..."
"Let it, it won't impact the destiny it was chosen to fulfill..."
"I like this human. It fought hard, it fought as though its life depended on it..."
"And it never gave up, no matter how close to death it was..."
"And we know it is capable of slaying the Enderdragon..."
That's why they sounded so familiar. After Steve slew the Enderdragon, he took the Enderportal back to his world and on the way, Steve listened to these mysterious servants of Notch telling him of his significance to the universe.
"And we know it is capable of slaying the Wither..."
"But are you certain it has what it takes to defeat the Dark One?"
"Only Fate can decide that..."
"What about its connections to the Dark One? They will either lead to everyone's preservation... or destruction..."
"I told you, Fate and only Fate can decide the future..."
"I sure hope your judgement proves correct, old friend, otherwise... may Notch help us all..."
"Do not worry, Steve has great potential..."
"And the girls?"
"They too have their own part to play in its destiny, very... important parts... and they are to be left alone until their destiny's intertwine with Steve's..."
Suddenly, one of the servants seemed to bring attention onto him.
"Now Steve, you must awaken to begin your Fate..." And with that, the whole dream faded to white.
Steve woke up to find a villager spoon-feeding him what tasted like apple sauce. The taste made him want to cry. His mother used to feed st time before that night came and took them away.
"Oh, you're awake! Thank Notch!" A tall, blond woman was looking down at him. He wondered if this was one of the g"Well, good morning, I guess. I'm Jessie and I'm your nurse for the moment. What's your name?"
"Umm, I'm Steve..." His voice sounded nothing like his original voice, it sounded more like a zombie. He tried to get up but he started to feel a familiar feeling of wooziness again wh"Don't get up! Your body needs more rest." Jessie said.
"Where... where am I?" Steve asked in that strange zombie voice of his.
"You are in Block Village. We found you passed out after Irony did."
"I-Irony?" Steve croaked.
"Yes, the local iron golem. We call him Irony."
"Oh."
"But, you really lucked out." Jessie continued.
"What do you mean, 'lucked out?'" Steve stammered.
"When Irony found you, you were getting beat up by an enderman, with at least a dozen mobs on your tail."
"Oh, I remember now." He remembered everything from the previous night, inc"And once we got over shock, we wondered why mobs would attack you if you were 'Him'". She said it like it was a name or title of someone, "and that's when we decided that you couldn't be 'Him',"
"Pardon me but, who is this 'Him'?" Steve asked.
Jessie looked around then whispered, "His real name is Herobrine and you look exactly like 'Him'." That name seemed to lower the temperature by 20 degrees for some reason.
"Wait! What? Herobrine?" Steve stammered. The name Herobrine sounded familiar.
"Yes, Herobrine."
Steve remembered why the name sounded familiar. Steve recounted the mythical man's legends. He had heard the legends from his mother. How Herobrine had terrorized villages for generations. He had even destroyed a kingdom. But, a hero of that fallen kingdom grew up and sought Herobrine out in his castle, where they fought. Then, in the end, the Hero defeated Herobrine. Later, he was discovered to be the prince. At least, that's how the legend goes.
"But, Herobrine's not real. He's a myth, he's a-"
"No, Steve. He is real."
"But... even he is real, wasn't he killed by a hero according to legend?"
"I don't know. All I know is that he exists."
Steve tried to get up again, but his whole body ached with pain.
"Relax! Don't push yourself, you need rest." And then, he passed out.
When Steve woke up, there was someone else taking care of him. It looked like a man. He looked about 20 years older than Steve and had light-brown hair and sandy-tan skin. He "Oh good, you're finally awake." The man said.
"Who are you?" Steve asked.
"The name's Jacob. I hear your name is Steve, am I right?" Jacob guessed.
"Yes." Steve replied.
"Well"Why not?" Steve shrugged. After all, why not try to make some new friends? He got up.
Jacob went over and opened the door. They walked out and into the street. Steve recognized the house they were in as the house he passed out right outside of. They started to walk down a gravel road towards the center of the village. Whenever they passed by a villager or villager trader, they either gave him a nasty look or just hid inside. He wondered why.
They stopped at a building with an anvil and two furnaces and a lava pit. Steve tried to think of the name of it, it was so long since he'd seen one. 'A Frog? No. A Fudge? No. Oh! A Forge!' He recalled.
"Isn't that a Forge?" Steve asked.
"Yes it is..." Jacob exclaimed, "...but I'm afraid the Blacksmith isn't there right now."
"Where are they?" Steve asked.
"He's probably out with Miranda."
"Miranda?" Steve questioned.
"Miranda's his wife." Jacob explained.
"Oh."
"So, who are you exactly?" Jacob asked Steve.
"I'm not Herobrine, if that's what you mean."
"I can see that. It's just kinda suspicious how similar you both appear. Especially right after 'the Incident'."
"The Incident?" Steve wondered what that meant.
"Tell you later. And I'm sorry, but some of the villagers might be afraid of you and not treat you as well as us because you look exactly like 'Him'." Jacob warned.
"I've been told."
"The only difference is that he has pure white soul-less eyes." Then, they continued on forward in silence until they stopped at a peculiar house. It was made entirely out of mossy cobblestone. That was strange, mossy cobblestone was incredibly rare. You could only find it in spruce forest biomes, jungle temples or... dungeons.
"This is Stephanie's house, I'm going to leave you in her care. Don't worry, she can seem rough at first, but once you get to know her, she's an angel." Jacob told Steve. Then, Steve headed for the door.
Steve's POV I braced myself but I wasn't too concerned. 'I have fought hundreds of mobs and slain all of them. How hard can this be?' I opened the door and stepped inside. I turned around and closed the door. Then, I turned around again.
Suddenly, I noticed a blur of green and next thing I knew, I was knocked on the ground and there was a creeper standing on me. 'A CREEPER!' I start to panic, and I grabbed for my sword.
Then, I noticed it on the ground 2 blocks away. 'I'm doomed!' I thought as I waited for the inevitable explosion. And waited. And waited. But the creeper didn't blow up. It didn't even swell.
"ASTLEY! DOWN!" A female voice commanded the creeper. The creeper hissed. "It's okay, it's just the Noobie." the voice assured. Reluctantly, the creeper got off of me. Then, a woman walked up to me. She held out a hand. "Get up!" she ordered. I grabbed her hand and she helped me up.
Now I got a chance to look at her. She had brown hair like me as well, except it was longer. She also had the same cyan shirt as me. But, she had a dark blue skirt and I had dark blue pants but, well, it was still shocking. Every detail was the same. "Sorry about that, Mr. Astley is very protective of me." That sounded completely opposite of creepers, but then again, it did attack me and not her. "I'm Stephanie, but my friends call me Steph. So, I take it you're that new person they rescued?" she guessed.
Finally, I snapped out of the shock. "Uh... yeah... I guess. I'm-", I was cut off.
"Steve, yes I've heard. Most of the village knows who you are."
"Uh... how did you befriend a creeper?" I blurted out without a thought.
"Well, seeing how you're the trustworthy type, I guess I can tell you.(Sorry, I don't normally do this kind of thing, but this particular part makes me cringe so bad, it's really bad character building) Two years ago, I found him with a broken leg, he had fallen off a cliff and he was laying on his side with his leg bent at a painful angle, he was obviously in serious pain. At first, I wanted to kill him so he couldn't blow me up, better not to risk it, right? So, I was walking up to him with my sword in hand. I think by then he knew I intended to kill him, so then, he gave me Wolf Eyes. By then, I knew something was wrong with him, but what could I do? We were natural enemies. But I couldn't just end his life when he was giving me those Wolf Eyes. So, I decided that, since he hadn't exploded I was going to take him in with me and fix his broken leg and let him go. But then, when I took him to the doctor, after the doctor got over his shock, of course, he reluctantly took a few tests on Mr. Astley. After the tests, he told me that Mr. Astley had a genetic disorder called 'Creeperocitus', a disorder where a creeper has little to no gunpowder, therefore, he couldn't blow up. Then, he took an X-ray of Mr. Astley and showed me the results. Mr. Astley has no TNT in him." Stephanie said roughly. That last sentence hung in the air for a few moments. I had never heard of a creeper without TNT. "The night is cruel, and mobs sometimes attack each other, thinking they're humans. A creeper with no TNT can't kill its attacker. Mr. Astley would've died out there and if not by a human, then by a ally zombie or witch. So I decided to take him home and seeing as how he couldn't explode, try to teach him how to fight back if he's attacked." She looked at Mr. Astley and smiled. "Then, after his leg healed, I just couldn't release him. I grew fond of him, and he grew fond of me. Since then, I taught Mr. Astley how to use his limbs for self-defense."
"I see, so do you have any more nasty surprises for me?" I asked, looking for anything that might jump out at me. Suddenly, she grabbed me by my arm and judo-flipped me. "Owww. What was that for?" I complained.
"That was for not knocking first before entering. And yes, I do have more nasty surprises. Just not now." I got up and brushed myself off. "Those are some peculier clothes you have on." She had obviously noticed that we both wore basically the same clothes.
"Oh, these?" I grabbed at my shirt, "These are my only clothes."
"You've worn the same clothes for 10 years straight?" Stephanie asked, her eyebrow raised.
"Yeah." I replied.
"I don't believe you." She declared.
"It's the truth!"
"Yeah, well why isn't it all torn up as if you actually were in a few battles then?" Stephanie pressed on aggressively.
"I wore armor most of the time, mostly iron armor!" I answered.
"How old are you?" Stephanie asked, more nicely this time.
"I'm around 18, I think."
"Around 18? That means when society was destroyed, you were around 8 right?"
"I think so."
"Then, how can you wear your clothes? They wouldn't fit."
"ENOUGH! Why are you asking me all these dumb questions!" I practically hollered. Mr. Astley hissed at the sudden shouting. I remembered what Stephanie said about the creeper being protective over her. And despite the fact that the creeper couldn't blow up, I really didn't want to get in a fight with a martial artist creeper.
"Mr. Astley, no! Steve, I need to know. Just tell me."
I sighed, "My clothes are made from Aethian sheep wool. That's how it survived all these years, and the wool stretches with my body." That brought back memories of when I first got my clothes. Aethian sheep were so rare, they went extinct right after the war. Their wool was so flexible and so sturdy and precious, few people had seen them and even fewer actually raised them. I just found an Aethian sheep out in a snowy plains biome. I was quite the adventurer back then even as a child. It was the most beautiful sheep I had ever seen. It was a sheep with wool that faded to different colors. According to legend, when a Aethian sheep fell from the mythical Aether realm, it gently floated down to Minecraftia in the arms of Notch. Notch told us that beauty and value lies in even the simplest of creatures everytime he carried a Aethian sheep down from the Aether and blessed someone with an Aethian fleece. He was also believed to bless only the kindest and the most worthy with one.
"Aethian sheep wool?! How is that even possible!?" She gasped.
"One day, before the war, I wandered through a distant snowy plains biome and I found an Aethian sheep. I promise you it's genuine."
"You know what, I'll take your word for it, after all, there's not much reason to lie." Stephanie went to the door and looked through the openings, "Well, I guess Jacob has left me to babysit you for the night. Might as well go to sleep."
"Wait, it's nighttime, already?" I looked out the window. Sure enough, it was dark and there was another creeper looking into the window as if it noticed Stephanie's creeper friend.
"Stay here, I'll go get another bed from storage." Stephanie said.
"Um... I wouldn't do that." I said.
"And why not?" She asked.
"Because, there's a creeper out there." I pointed out. She looked out and saw the creeper looking into the window.
"Oh, you mean Cupa? She's a sweetheart."
"Oh great, another creeper friend?" I groaned.
"Yes, that's Cupa. I think she's Mr. Astley's mate. At least, she gets along with Mr. Astley real well. Unlike Mr. Astley, Cupa can blow up but she's kind to me. She won't hurt me." Then Stephanie walked to the door and opened it, went out, then closed the door. I walked over to the window and watched. Sure enough, the creeper just looked at Stephanie as she said something I couldn't make out in that voice that people speak to babies or pet wolves and cats.
Then, Stephanie walked away. I turned around and saw Mr. Astley in a corner. He just stared back at me. It became really awkward. I wished that I could understand the language of creepers. Creepers seemed to know more about human language than we knew about theirs as they could speak a little of our language. But I had full faith that if it could, like any other, it would try to blow me to little blocks. I just ignored him and began to set my things down. I walked over to my sword, picked it up and set it down with the rest of my things. I still couldn't believe a village actually survived 'that night'. I had never expected this kind of chat. If only Emily were here...
A few minutes later, I heard a scream. It had startled me and Mr. Astley's eyes widened which told me something was up. I grabbed my sword from my bag. Just when I thought I had gotten out of trouble, it found me once again. I ran out of the house with Mr. Astley hot on my heels. I ran past Cupa and she hissed and swelled. 'Uh-oh! Is she going to explode?' Then, Mr. Astley hissed in that strange creeper language of his. Cupa stopped swelling and she followed us. The screams continued and I followed them until I saw something that horrified me. There was Stephanie being chased by at least a dozen zombies. She was trying to fight them off but she wouldn't last long without help. Their groans filled the air. I looked as fast as I could through my bag for something that might help. Mr. Astley and Cupa went on ahead to help out. I knew the quickest way to kill a zombie was to leave an axe in its head, not with the sword. I searched for an axe or two, but I found three stone axes! I remembered packing them. I got them ready and walked towards the first zombie. There were four zombies in front of me. Again, the zombies were too preoccupied to notice me. I raised my axe, then swung it to the right of ones' head.
"GRRAARRAA!" the zombie moaned. It turned around to slashed at me. I dodged the attack and it fell to the dirt, dead. I left the axe in its head in case it was still alive.
Next, I did the same to the next zombie. This time, it died right away. After that, the other two zombies noticed me. They stumbled after me and I braced myself to dodge their attacks. One of them swung its arms at me and I dodged the attack. Then, it charged at me. I sidestepped the charge and as it ran passed, I jumped up towards it and used my weight to my advantage. I brought my axe up and as I fell, I swung it downwards on the zombie's head. It cut clean through the zombie's head. I hated doing such a evil thing, but I had to. It was obviously dead but I couldn't use the axe again as it broke from all the pressure and force. I looked over at the creepers. Who I thought was Cupa was headbutting a zombie while Mr. Astley I guess was either punching or kicking at its chest. And it kept stumbling around because of the attacks until finally, its head fell off and it fell to the ground. Next, they looked at me and ran to me which confused me. 'Um... why are they coming to me?' I wondered. Suddenly, I was knocked to the ground by something heavy. 'Of course! The other zombie!' How could I have forgotten so quickly? The zombie moaned and groaned as it tried to bite me. It was so hard not to be overpowered. I felt all the energy going out of my arms as I tried so hard to hold back the zombie's arms. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw more zombies stumbling towards us. I started to struggle to hold back the zombies as they began to pile up on me. I was really straining now! My muscles screamed with pain. My whole body felt like it was on fire, it burned with pain. I thought to myself, 'Is this really how I'm going to die?' There were at least five zombies on me. I had no idea how I was still holding out, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I would run out of energy completely. Every one of my muscles ached horribly. Suddenly, I felt the sharp the pain of a set of teeth biting into my arm, then into my leg, then my waist and on my other leg. I was being eaten alive! That's when I knew, my time was up. My body had absolutly no strength left. I could hold out no longer. Not even a strength potion could help me. I was going to die. At least I was finally going to be reunited with my family. I wondered if the Aether really did exist. If so, maybe my family would greet me with open arms. If anyone deserved to go to the Aether they did. I heard a voice, "Holy Great Notch! Irony! Save-" Then my mind went a million miles away. And then, I blacked out.
I saw a light ahead in the darkness. With a gasp, I wondered if I was in the fabled Void, rumored to be a pit of nothing but pure evil, darkness and death beneath Minecraftia. I followed the strange light. After all, the light was always good to me. As I got closer to the light, it slowly got bigger. I got closer and closer until I was surrounded in light. Finally, after a few minutes of flying up, I was out of the Void and I could see only light. I knew now that there was an Aether as that was where I was going. Suddenly, a voice rang out all around me. "Steve, you still have a destiny set out for you by Lord Notch. You cannot escape your destiny that easily. Only after you complete your destiny will you finally be allowed to rest in peace." Steve recognized that voice. It was the voice of one of the servants of Notch. "Wait... No... No!... NOOOO!" Steve yelled as he was brought back down to the Void below and the beautiful light was gone.
Meanwhile...
Stephanie's POV
I couldn't believe it. Steve was dead. And because of me. If I hadn't been so careless, I wouldn't have been caught by surprise and he wouldn't have needed to help me. Basically I killed him. I ran up to his limp form. I started to cry when I saw what happened to him. It wasn't like I was in love with him or anything stupid like that but he was just starting to seem like a friend.
"Holy Great Notch!" Jacob gasped in horror at the gruesome sight. "Irony! Save him! Now!" the village's Iron Patrol Golem obliged and killed all the zombies. "What in Lord Notch's name happened here?!" He shouted.
"It's my fault! All of it!" I cried.
"What?" Jacob stabbed a lunging spider in the head, "Well, explain later, I have a feeling these zombies aren't the only uninvited guests here." He said as he blocked an arrow from a skeletal archer with his sword. He began to run.
"Mr. Astley! Cupa! Get Steve! Bring him with us!" I commanded. I ran after Jacob. Usually I don't like giving the creepers orders as every part of our trio was equally important, so there were no bosses, but it was life or death. They carefully positioned his body on their heads and hurried along with us, careful not to drop Steve.
"Where are we going?" I asked Jacob.
"For now, anywhere but here!"
"What about my house?" I suggested. My house wasn't too far, it was only three houses down the road.
"All right." He agreed and we hurried to my house. We made it to the house opened the doors for the creepers, then shut it once we all were inside.
"Now, explain what happened!" Jacob demanded.
"Ssssssss..." Mr. Astley hissed.
"QUIET ASTLEY!" Jacob shouted. That shut Mr. Astley up. I knew I had to speak up. Jacob rarely got angry but when he did, it was best to what he asked before it got ugly.
"It was night so I went to storage to get a bed for Steve. On my way there, I had my mind set on other things and then, before I knew it, a horde of zombies surrounded me and I knew I couldn't overpower them all at once, so I shouted for help. Then, Steve came along with Mr. Astley and Cupa and started fighting their way towards me. And then it happened, a bunch of zombies piled up on him and then you came by." I looked back at Steve. I held back more tears.
"Steph, what happened? You're always alert." Jacob asked, concerned.
"I don't know. It's just what happened during the 'Incident'." I replied, not wanting to meet his eyes. Jacob sighed, "Steph, that incident upset everyone, not just you." Jacob said in a comforting voice. Just then, I thought I saw Steve's body move.
"Did you see that? Steve's body just moved!" I noted. But Jacob just shook his head.
"There's no way he can be alive Steph." But then somehow, Steve's eyes suddenly opened on their own.
What? But I thought this world was in Hardcore! Oh well, you guys might not think it's unforgivable, but I personally can't help but cringe badly at the storyline. Not that it was bad, it's just that the way I write my stories is very different from how I started out, and I think it's great to see how far I came. But enough of the ego, I wanna talk about other things. Jacob was the OG version of Howard, in case you didn't notice. The two share similar personality traits. Also, the prince from the Fallen Kingdom series that was mentioned in this chapter was the original Great Hero of the story, but when I decided to separate the FK series from my own to make it fully my own story, I actually had spent quite a lot of time thinking on how I could keep the Great Hero roughly the same as before while it was a different character. A surprising amount of time went into that process, considering that the Great Hero doesn't even make a physical appearance in the story.
Now there's Stephanie. If you guys read my declaration of the end of A Hero's Hope, you'll know that I intended for her to be Steve's love interest, and that couldn't be more obvious, at least in my eyes. I guess I just didn't know what type of character I wanted her to be. She was before Alex was added into the game, so she has a lot of Alex's initial personality when they first meet, but then she becomes soft for some reason. I think because I had read so many fanfictions online at the time, I wanted to hurry up and get them together, but it was way too rushed. Also, Cupa the creeper... yeah, some of you know what's up. Don't look at me like that, I was a young teenage boy who checked out all kinds of mods :)