(Prologue: "Making the Bet")
Steve found himself deep within the caverns of a dug-out mine, making his way slowly towards filling his quota enough for the day to finally allow himself the peace and quiet that he deserved after countless nights of hard labor.
Herobrine found himself watching him from a short distance, tagging along for the journey as he allowed the other to work with no outside distractions, though he couldn't bring himself to avoid conversation entirely.
The two have been in what could vaguely be described as a friendship for about a couple of months now, slowly beginning to accept each other as neutral influences in their individual lives as the days went on. Herobrine usually came to Steve for a human insight on how to see the world, and Steve often fought back the man's insistence on giving up the entire human species as a whole to the mobs, despite how persistent Herobrine was to propose otherwise. There were often discussions about journeys taken in the past, sights previously seen, and people that they were fond of, but the deeper details of those stories were often left untold or non-elaborated on beyond a quick tidbit given and nothing more. Their conversations were brief moments of excitement given by gentle tones followed by silence, but that was just how they preferred it for the time being.
It was quite the change of pace for Steve to have someone significantly quieter than his usual mining buddy come with him, though it was rather strange to have Herobrine of all people willingly following him despite the more than obvious danger that idea entailed. Their words slightly echoed off the walls when they spoke together, with no responding groans or hisses from the mobs deeper within the cavern much to Steve's delight. Herobrine's presence alone created an ominous, stagnant feeling within the air, but Steve didn't exactly perceive it as a threat; he was fairly confident that he wouldn't be harmed by the guy other than by sheer accident.
Usually, he could expect a normal day to go by, with the addition of his new friend adding a pair of eyes that he slowly got accustomed to feeling on his back. The moments when his regular village companion came, however, the cryptidesque man was gone, the volume of the conversations rose immensely, and the mobs returned with a vengeance. Yes, he always knew Herobrine was still there, that was evident by the significantly less amount of mobs sent to the cave compared to the time when they didn't know each other, but he wouldn't ever interfere with them directly. It was only when Steve exited the cave alone that he ever saw Herobrine again that day, and it was then when they usually continued their previous dialogue that, more often than not, had been rudely interrupted.
However, today Steve had the confirmation that his friend, a tall burly man named Pickett, wouldn't be joining him today due to other personal duties, so he relished the time alone he currently had with Herobrine, even if it was held in near-silence for most of it.
Again, they found themselves discussing previous experiences, though their words paused when they heard the tell-tale groan of a nearby zombie, slightly confusing the both of them as it appeared to originate from a place only slightly further down the stone pathway.
The miner was the first to vocalize his concerns.
"I…thought you drove them away?…" Steve turned to question the other, pointing in the only direction that the sound could've been coming from.
His companion didn't even blink as he met his confused gaze.
"...I'm guessing that it still senses you in here, so it's just ignoring my orders so that it can find a lunch." Herobrine shrugged, continuing to walk forward as he attempted to find the straggler in the dark.
"And yet all the others still don't know I'm here?…"
"Correct."
Steve followed closely behind him, choosing to leave the conversation as is.
As they walked further down the rough stone halls, Steve placed torches on the walls, making sure that the next time he came down, he wouldn't have any nasty surprises waiting for him. When the groaning grew even louder than it had been earlier, Steve stopped in his tracks, waiting for the other to confirm the location of the mob. It sounded as if the creature was dragging something made of metal on the ground, leading him to suspect that it might be armed. Though zombies tended to pose a threat with armour and weapons equipped, they, all too often, didn't have the brainpower to use these things properly, so their presence warranted no fear unless they were found in large groups or the weapon/armour in question was enchanted.
Or, like in their current case, the cave tunnel they happened to be in was split into several different pathways, all holding some type of danger that could rally behind the single zombie as it displayed defiance.
When Steve saw that his friend still hadn't found the creature, he began to grow slightly worried. Herobrine looked rather confused as well, glancing around momentarily as he, every couple of seconds or so, closed his eyes and remained completely still as he attempted to listen for the source. Curiously, Steve looked around as well, though his field of vision was significantly diminished compared to the bright-eyed being's point of view. His ears might have been well-tuned to the sound of potential danger, but, like his companion, he was unable to predict where it could possibly go.
Several minutes of silence had passed before Steve let out a sigh, attaching his pickaxe to his hip as he went to cross his arms.
"You found it yet?…"
Herobrine echoed the sigh and shook his head.
"No. There are more mobs further within the cave, and they're blocking my ability to pinpoint that one zombie down correctly. It definitely moved, but I can't exactly tell where it went, nor if it decided to just bug off."
Steve smirked at the other.
"Huh. And here I thought that the King of Mobs would know where each and every one of his subjects was." While his conscience was internally screaming at the way he was addressing the other, Steve's brain began to come up with several ways to annoy and tease Herobrine, forcing him to keep a sharp tongue ready to retaliate with.
Herobrine mulled over his words before letting out a quiet scoff.
"Physically, that's impossible. But, I tend to have a better sense of where mobs are when I'm a certain distance away from them. When we're separated like this, it's a bit harder to tell, especially when they're in large groups that are further away from me."
"So we're just gonna have to wait until that zombie gets the jump on us?"
"No. You'll keep working, and I'll keep an eye out for you."
The miner raised a brow at his words, but he shrugged and turned towards the unlit pathway directly in front of them, choosing this one apart from the others as they continued their descent.
Despite their briefly shared time together, Steve still wasn't accustomed to the man giving any sort of concern for his well-being, let alone actively placing himself in the role of being his protector. Sure, the absence of mobs was nice and all, but one could only take so much comfort in the idea that an immortal being with the power to level nations in a blaze of fire was making sure that you didn't accidentally take a wrong turn that led straight into a room filled with other horrifying monsters that were technically still under his control. The gesture was nice, but the potential motives were setting off alarm bells within his mind, constantly.
Well, at least the situation gave him the opportunity to poke fun at his "friend."
"Hm. You really care about me that much, huh?"
Herobrine sent a glare in his direction, though it held little heat.
"I'm only concerned with how your death will change our little agreement. Nothing more."
Ah yes, the agreement. The details of their initial agreement to come to a certain understanding and not kill each other (well, to come to a certain understanding that Herobrine will not kill Steve, actually), vaguely rested in the back of his mind, but nevertheless, Steve decided to push his limits even further.
"Sure you are. That's why we're just chilling out in the caves, having friendly conversations, sharing our lives with each other, and all that good stuff. Because it's part of our agreement. Yeah. Right."
"These discussions are only an occasional thing to better acquaint ourselves." Herobrine was starting to sound rather annoyed.
"Which is why we end up talking every time we take a trip down here."
"Which is why I'm beginning to regret ever starting to speak with you directly. Would you rather be left in silence as I follow you?"
Stopping in his tracks, Steve gave him a fake whine as he waited for his reaction. Taking the lead, his friend continued his fruitless search, though he tried (and failed) to ignore the miner.
"Aww…you don't really mean that, do you? That hurts!"
Looking down a hole in the wall for a second, Herobrine lifted his head back up to stare at the miner with what he could only assume was slight guilt. He hesitated before opening his mouth.
"…If that legitimately offended you, then I…apologize. If not, then I'd like to say that the feeling is just starting to become genuine."
The expression of guilt turned to one of intimidation.
"You have time to change my growing negative opinion of you, however, so be thankful for that."
Steve smiled at him candidly, the mischievous glint in his eyes momentarily absent.
"I appreciate and accept the apology. I'll try not to step too out of line."
"Good." Herobrine gave somewhat of a small smile in return to the miner, dropping it almost immediately afterward and quickly refocusing his attention back on their surroundings.
The sound of the zombie had become fainter as they had gotten lost within their bout of teasing. As Herobrine led the way, more and more mobs strayed clear away from his overwhelming presence, though unfortunately, the two of them could hear the occasional clattering of bones or hissing of arachnids that were closer than what Steve would've preferred. Neither of the two could hear the zombie and its mystery weapon clearly anymore, and as the cave began to split into several more tunnels, it was becoming near-impossible to simply go on any further for long, as the miner was beginning to run out of torches and the demigod was beginning to run out of patience.
In the silence that followed their small argument, suddenly, an idea sparked in Steve's mind as a smug grin reappeared on his face. He stopped in his tracks and clasped his hands behind his back, attempting to look somewhat innocent as he prepared himself for the next few minutes of convincing.
"…Hey, wanna make a bet?"
Herobrine turned back towards him, confusion remaining in his expression.
"You're in legitimate danger of a mob gaining the upper hand on you, and you're insistent on playing a game?"
Steve shrugged.
"That's the point. We both know that a zombie is hanging out somewhere near us, and we both know that it's not exposing itself anytime soon, so I wanna place a bet."
The cave was filled with momentary silence as the demigod processed his words, appearing to be silently debating whether or not the proposition was worth his time.
After a few seconds, Herobrine crossed his arms, fully facing the other as he raised a brow in curiosity.
"…Explain."
The miner pointed a thumb at himself, his smile growing wider in playfulness.
"I bet that I'll be able to find that zombie before you do."
Herobrine scoffed, walking closer to the miner as he straightened out his posture in order to maintain his intimidation factor, attempting to make himself seem taller even though he and Steve were the same height.
"And if you do manage to find it?" He asked with a low tone, a smile on his lips as the miner attempted to further the distance between them out of habit.
Gaining a sudden boost of confidence, Steve fired back with another forceful step forward, his violet gaze holding nothing but mischief within them as he got even closer to the other.
"…I'm kinda getting tired of this whole 'high-and-mighty' thing of yours. You live day-to-day as my shadow, coming along to stalk me as you please, but how about we step it up a bit? Give you a promotion?"
Herobrine tilted his head to the side almost comically in response to Steve's words, prompting a momentary chuckle from him.
"Let me explain. What I'm saying is, if I find that zombie first, you'll have to spend a day as me. Not just dressed up as me, you gotta do everything I usually do, chores, mining, all that. I know you have a knack for acting and whatever, so it wouldn't be hard, huh?"
Herobrine's expression didn't change.
Steve became nervous.
"I-If we actually do this, I mean. I-I know it's childish, but-"
The miner's stammering was halted by the other raising his hand to silence him. Slowly walking past him, Herobrine decided to occupy himself with a burnt-out torch on the wall, looking at it with examining eyes as he kept his voice low.
"I have a problem with the terms of that punishment."
Steve blinked.
"I-I knew that you wouldn't like it, but I was just-"
Herobrine smirked as he turned back around to look at Steve, the torch having been taken from its place on the wall in one swift motion.
"-It's a weak betting proposal. A day as a lowly human is insignificant to me in terms of length. How about instead of a day, let's make it a week, hm?"
Steve was shocked at the other's counter-proposal, nodding hesitantly as he watched Herobrine tighten his grip around the torch in his hand.
"A-and your betting terms?…"
Herobrine chuckled darkly.
Suddenly, the end of the burnt torch lit up in a flame as the demigod extended the tool out towards Steve. Without a beat, he pulled his arm back and tossed the torch to the other, who barely caught the stick-end in his hands as he looked back at him with visible confusion on his face at the action. The new torch had a larger flame and produced more light, so with a shrug, Steve held it out in front of him and tested it out, watching as the cave was well-illuminated with every move he made.
The demigod pointed directly at him.
"Vice-versa. You don my crown and live as me for a week. Hunting and terrorizing others, being challenged by idiots, and all of my other usual tasks."
The man opened his hand for the miner to shake, watching with anticipation as Steve hesitantly accepted.
"Then it's settled."
Without another word, Herobrine had disappeared in the blink of an eye, startling Steve badly as he briefly looked around in shock before calming himself.
He focused his mind on the task ahead, putting aside the concern for the ores he needed for the time being. While he had been pitted against the King of all Mobs himself, Steve had gained quite the mob-hunting knowledge after he'd been appointed the village mob-slayer a couple of years back, and he was not about to let that go to waste. He'd spent countless nights listening for approaching mobs, tracking down those in hiding, and watching for the tell-tale signs of increased activity, all the while becoming extremely accustomed to the feeling of being the hunter rather than the hunted. Of course, those activities had been put to the wayside ever since he realized that he'd been tricked to do the villagers' dirty work for them, but the skills he had built up hadn't faded in that time, giving him an edge that he knew Herobrine wasn't fully aware of beyond his pure dumb luck.
His objective was to focus on two things. There were two things he had to listen for in order to find that walking, mindless corpse. Groans, as expected, and metal. Whatever tool that was being used to make that sound was made out of something heavy, canceling out the possibility of it being made of wood, gold, and sadly, diamond. While he wished for the zombie to be carrying diamond tools with him so that he'd be able to loot the body once it had been taken care of, he was guessing that more likely than not, the monster was dragging around heavy iron, or at the very least, poorly-carved stone.
A couple of tunnels were laid out before him, both echoing the faint sounds of distant mobs that were present within them. Steve had no idea of knowing where Herobrine had teleported off to or which direction he chose to go in, so all he could do was just hope that he didn't choose the same pathway as he did. Quickly deciding to head down the tunnel that was to his right, Steve carefully began his trek as he held the gifted torch further in front of him, illuminating the path in a brilliant display of yellow. As he walked, the light bounced off of unbroken veins of ore and caught his attention, though he found himself shaking his head at the idea of taking a detour to mine them out.
'I'm not going to give Herobrine any more of an edge than he has already…I'll be coming back here anyway, right?'
Placing an older torch behind him as he realized he was stepping deeper into darkness, he noticed the continued absence of other nearby mobs, finding no other noise but his own footsteps echoing throughout the cave. His double was near him, that's for sure, possibly either driving the zombie further away from him or forcing it to change directions without knowing it, screwing them both up.
He hoped that they'd find the mob soon, or at the very least, give up while the sun was still hanging in the sky. He lived within a forest, and frankly, he wasn't looking to encounter even more zombies before he was ready to, especially if they were popping out at him from behind the shield of oak trees.
The area in front of him began to widen out, his torch becoming less and less useful as the light it produced only stretched out a few feet in front of him. The sound of rushing water came to his ears as the sight of blue came into his vision, but other than that, he found no other sight of importance in his immediate vision, making him slightly disappointed with himself.
'I highly doubt that Brine will actually let me take his place, but…I don't think I'm going to be able to-'
His thoughts were interrupted as he spotted a bit of red out of the corner of his eye, coming from a dug-out hole as it was briefly illuminated by the torchlight.
"…Was that…wool?" the words failed to remain in his head as his wonder took hold of him.
Stepping closer to the opening, he bent down to better analyze the item that was now in front of him. Picking up the fabric, he realized that the material was well-worn out and covered in both dust and ore residue. The surface was no longer soft, and as he flipped the item that was now clearly a fragment of an old blanket around in his hand, he found several holes of various sizes on it.
"Well, if there's a blanket here, there should've been a bed too…"
Dropping the fabric back down, he waved the torch around to check for any signs of a bed, finding nothing but another small tunnel that led further down into the cave, placed just across from the entrance in the wall that he came from.
'As much as I'm gonna hate this, this seems to be my only lead for now…'
He began his trek down the extended pathway, paying even closer attention to the stone walls around him. Searching for any other improvised openings, he didn't even notice as the cave opened into a slightly bigger space than the tunnel, only being taken from his focus as the torchlight reflected off of the surface of an old, fragmented pickaxe that laid on the ground in front of him.
Steve squinted as the sight became clearer in the direct light of his torch, revealing what appeared to be an abandoned campsite, bedroll and all, with an opened chest that held the remains of somewhat decayed tools and foodstuff.
'This must've been where the zombie got its tool if I had to guess…but where did it go?…'
Behind the open chest was another cave opening that he had missed with his initial look-over. Stepping in front of it, he shrugged, seeing as there was no alternative before climbing over the box to get into it.
After minutes of walking, he finally found himself within a large clearing, his eyes adjusting to the enclosed space that was better illuminated by his torchlight. However, during his quick glance-around, his gaze immediately focused onto the center of the room, his eyes widening at the sight before him.
There it was.
A zombie stood out in the naturally-carved room, staring back at him with cold, dark eyes as it groaned, hunched over. Slowly realizing that he was human, the monster straightened itself out, only to fail as its weight was dragged back by the iron shovel that it held within its hand, forcing it to lean back as it attempted to walk towards him.
No other monsters could be heard besides the creature before him. It had ignored its master's demands as it hungered for flesh and blood, ultimately heading back to its little chamber as it failed to locate him the first time it sensed him.
This was the zombie that they were looking for.
Steve had won.
Excited for the fact that he'd get to mess with Herobrine once again, he didn't even notice that the zombie had gotten too close for comfort, attempting to claw at the miner while his attention was elsewhere.
The sound of a blade being drawn followed by the sound of metal cutting flesh brought Steve back down from his impromptu, victory celebration-caused high. When he turned back to face the zombie, what he found instead was his competitor, standing over the now-unmoving body beneath him at his feet, his sword covered in black, rotting blood.
Herobrine looked back over his shoulder at the other, slightly amused by his look of pure shock.
"So, I guess you found him first?…" the demigod quietly asked him, shaking his blade to dry it off quicker.
Steve snapped out of his stupor and nodded.
"Y-yeah. He went back toward his old camp, I'm guessing, and I just…found him here."
Nodding, Herobrine fully turned to face him.
"Truth be told, I had teleported in the other tunnel as far as I could and searched all through it, but I eventually had to trace back my steps and take the other way. If I had not hesitated, I would've been here before you."
The demigod sheathed his blade as he drew closer to the miner, instead opting to cross his arms in front of his chest as his expression changed from indifference to restrained anger. Though he hesitated at first, he looked the miner in the eyes, taking a deep breath before beginning to speak.
"…As much as I hate to admit it, I didn't think that you really had a chance, but yet, here we are. Congratulations on your win, Steven."
The miner bowed in response, attempting not to laugh as he lifted his head back up to find Herobrine's annoyed gaze glaring down at him.
"I thank you for your kind words, sir!"
Steve stood back upright, clearing his throat as he watched the other tap his fingers against his arms in what he assumed to be a subdued form of nervousness.
"Now, about our little bet…"
Herobrine let out a sigh, tightening his arms around his chest as he reluctantly accepted his fate.
"When do I start being you? Would tomorrow suffice, or do you need some time to plan out my walk of shame?"
Steve laughed at the questions as he began to walk back towards the hole he came in through.
"Tomorrow would be fine. I won't adjust my schedule all that much to mess with you. I think that you'd already have a lot on your plate with my usual chores, so…"
He gestured for the other to follow him, now allowing himself to stop at and mine out the ores that he missed during his initial search.
"I just hope you won't kill anybody while you're masquerading around as me." The miner let out a nervous chuckle, while the other merely shrugged in response.
"I won't actively try to cause a fatality. You have my word on that. Though, I will be upset if I don't get at least some sort of excitement."
"Oh, trust me, you will. I'm not all that boring."
The two left to escape the cave, both mentally preparing for the potential hijinks that were bound to ensue.
Hi, I had this one in my drafts for a hot minute, but I'm finally posting it out of boredom.
Fun fact! This was originally a part of another story with a few other characters involved in the bet, but I decided to make it a separate, yet still partially-related thing on its own. I'll maybe post that story as well, but that's for another time.
Anyways, that's all for now!