"I had already found Fortune by the time I started back. He wasn't with the other horses, he was at the edge of the gravel flats, waiting for you to come get him. That's a good horse you have."

Arix said nothing. He hadn't for the several hours they'd been riding, but Steve kept talking to him in hopes that he would.

"He's a bit worse for wearing his tack for several weeks in all weather, but he should be fine after a rest." he was also a bit worse for being dragged along behind an untiring skeleton horse, but Steve felt that was unavoidable. "Doing better than you are, to be honest." nothing. Steve sidetracked around a hill where he'd seen several skeleton archers. Fortune was beginning to lag, tugging at the reins in Steve's hand and stumbling now and then over uneven ground. But the sky was lightening. "Not much longer, friends."

Arix would remember crossing a rope bridge over a chasm in deep woods untouched by the fire, clouds of smoke and steam still rising lazily behind them. Steve pausing for a moment in a field and raising his face to a light rain. Dark clouds hung down to meet the smoke far behind. "Thank you," breathed Steve. Then he moved on.

It was bright day before Steve was willing to stop. He walked the horses to the edge of a lake. A small island with one tree sat a short distance out. Steve headed towards it after a zombie stumbled out of the underbrush behind them. The zombie made it to the edge of the water, where it hesitated, before falling forwards with a hiss of steam and lying inert in the clear water. On the island Steve took off Fortune's tack and watched the black horse drink deeply from the lake and finally flop down on the grass, too tired to eat. Steve had settled Arix into a nest of soft grass and he lay there without moving, eyes open. Steve lay down next to him. "You should get some sleep. We're going to keep moving after this." nothing, of course. Steve gave the surrounding area a final scan, drove his sword into the ground nearby where it would be within easy reach if they were interrupted, and closed his eyes.

Arix didn't sleep. Or at least, his eyes were still wide open when Steve started moving again at early afternoon. Steve was conflicted between taking the most direct route and a route that might throw off Herobrine if he followed, as Steve expected him to. But for the moment nothing interrupted them. Not even a creeper.

Steve was growing worried about Arix. They stopped to rest later in the afternoon and he examined him again for injuries. Did he have a concussion Steve had missed? No. Not even any broken bones, except maybe a few ribs. Steve remembered hearing that the limper you were when you were hit, the less it hurt. Maybe Arix had blacked out on the way down and it had saved him physically. But the constant silence was starting to worry him. He was able to get Arix to drink some water, but nothing else. They moved on.

Arix was in a glass tunnel. Outside was time, and an endless succession of trees and shade, light and wide open spaces, hills and valleys. At night Steve walled himself and Arix into a dirt block hut and talked to him. Steve went out first in the morning and killed anything that needed to be killed, then foraged a quick breakfast for himself if possible, packed Arix onto the skeleton horse and started riding. Flickers of light against tree trunks, ruins, waves upon waves of grass. And then the sea, stretched out unbroken before him. Steve slid to the ground and led the skeleton horse to the edge of a cliff, where he pulled Arix down and sat him in the grass, facing the shore. "Pretty, isn't it?" Steve flopped down on his stomach and looked over the edge. "Have you seen the ocean before? You probably have." nothing. He waited for several hours. Stars began to appear. He dirt-blocked the two of them in and rolled Arix onto his back in what looked like a comfortable position. Then he waited, watching the stars through a gap he'd left in the roof. How long could Arix go without food? And what about sleep? Steve wasn't sure if he ever slept. He was getting better though, he told himself. The last day he'd been less rigid and had seemed, briefly, to understand what he was saying. He looked at Arix and moved his arm to rest on the ground. "I don't know if you can hear me. I'm used to talking to myself. It's nice to have someone listen for a change." he huddled into a ball. "Just please don't die. Maybe in the city they can help you." he sat there for several hours, listening to the soothing sound of the waves. It was like the music, deep and throbbing, like the heartbeats of an unimaginably vast and beautiful creature. After a while he heard a new sound. The dry hollow sound of bones knocking together. He filled in the hole in the ceiling, dug a doorway on the opposite side and stepped out, filling it in behind him. He peeked around the corner and an arrow whizzed past. Well, it was only an archer, that wasn't so bad. Unless the zombies in the distance joined it. He waited for it to come closer, calling his sword into his hand. The clattering came slowly closer.

At the last minute he heard a growl and smelled a scent that told him that had been a bad decision.

The skeleton wobbled around the corner along with a mass of open-mouthed zombies. Steve plunged forwards and swung his sword wildly, careful to catch the archer's bow in his first sweep. The snarling, hissing and clattering lasted for nearly a minute, then it was over. Pieces of rotten flesh and disconnected bones lay strewn across the clifftop around the hut. Steve stretched, took a deep breath and looked towards the east. The sky was still dark. He had several more hours to wait. He went back inside, putting one block in the bottom of the doorway so nothing could easily walk in on them, and slumped down. Then he realized that the floor where Arix had been lying was empty. There was a scuffling from the corner. He looked. Arix was crawling across the floor towards him. When he reached him, he curled up next to him and lay trembling. Another zombie was mouthing at the open block of the doorway. Steve filled it in without looking and the sounds from outside became muffled. He gathered Arix up and hugged him. "You're back."
"Hmm."
Steve squeezed him. "It's so good to hear your voice again."
"I'm… not saying anything."
"You just did."
Arix said nothing but slowly started to relax. "Where's Herobrine?"
"Far away from here. I left him tied to a tree and ran. It's been days and I've seen nothing of him." Arix sighed.
"Maybe… maybe he's gone?"
"I hope so. He shouldn't be able to track you now, remember?"
Arix took a few deep breaths and raised his head. "Wait, you tied Herobrine to a tree?"

A/N: Arix gets to cameo in a few pages of Rift!
(without the spaces and *s) h*t*t*p* : / / baserbeanz dot deviantart dot com /art/Rift-847-With-guests-619527560
Arix looks so much better here than I could draw him.