ZackTheDemon: Ah, okay… I'm sorry if I sounded a little too defensive in that regard. I didn't mean to; I've just been feeling a little tense lately and I'm not sure why.
Glad to hear you like the story though! Thank you.

Chapter three: Leaving the Realm

Alright, just stay calm, Jack thought to himself. Can't let anyone see me.

He was hiding behind a thick tree, hoping that the surrounding bushes and tall grass were enough to keep him out of sight. Athena and Yaebi weren't that close, but their eyes and ears were sharp as knives.

Of course, should they find Jack, he could always say that he was just out for a stroll. Give them the whole "I couldn't sleep" speech. Not that they'd believe him, but at least he'd have some sort of excuse. It might just reduce the prison sentence he'd get.

"You've been a bit off, lately," he heard Yaebi say to his sister. The mobs were barely within hearing distance. "What's wrong?"

Athena sighed. "… I guess there's no harm in telling you," she said. "It's Jack."

Jack froze when he heard his name. Did she know he was there?

"No matter what I…what we say to him," Athena continued, "he keeps talking about going to the Nether. He doesn't even seem to care about Minerva being there. Or Iris."

Those names were familiar indeed. Minerva and Iris were the biological sisters of Athena and Yaebi, respectively. They—as well as the slime girls' Nether relatives—formed some of the dangers Jack had been warned about.

"Sorry," Athena apologized. "I didn't mean to mention…them…like that."

"It's okay," Yaebi said. "You're as much my sister as Iris was."

"That means a lot."

The two continued talking as they walked farther away from the tree Jack was hidden behind, much to the human's relief. He'd had to walk a very specific way as to keep his footprints hidden from them—something he'd planned during the day. If it weren't for that and the unrelenting flora growth in the Realm, they'd have been able to track him with no effort at all.

After a while of silence, he continued moving towards one of the cave entrances that lead to outside the Realm.

He just had to be quiet and stay low. The tall grass would do the rest.

The remainder of the way went smoothly for the most part. He had to find cover at several instances, but whatever he thought he'd heard turned out to be false alarm every time. He eventually reached the cave entrance he had been looking for.

Upon getting deep enough into the cave he sat down, calming down a bit. In the dark, he put his backpack on the ground and searched for the Realm's map with his hand. He also lit one of the torches using the flint and steel he'd brought.

He resumed his journey, using the map as his guide. It was going to take three days, but he'd get there eventually. Probably even a little sooner if he hurried.

Unless the mobs found him, that was.

The following morning

"Ari!"

Ari, who was taking a stroll in the early morning, looked over to where the voice had come from. Cassandra was running towards her with an unusually distressed look on her face.

"Ari," Cassandra said, alarmed. "Jack's gone."

Ari froze. "He what?"

"Andr went to check up on him. She found nothing. Jack's just gone."

Ari fell silent, shocked. "We should go," she finally said. "Take a look in his room. Maybe we can find something there."

As Cassandra followed her to Jack's room, Ari sensed a new kind of discomfort in her sister's way of behaving. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but she had an idea.

Halfway to Jack's room, Ari turned to Cassandra. "Hey, Cass…"

Cassandra frowned. "What? Keep moving, will you?"

"What's going on with you?"

Cassandra's frown deepened.

"You're my sister," Ari said. "I can tell when something's bothering you."

"What are you talking—"

"Don't lie to me, Cass."

Cassandra glanced away. "It's not important right now. Let's just go."

Ari wanted to continue asking, but she decided that it might be better to let it rest for the moment; Cassandra wasn't one to talk about what was troubling her—especially now.

"Athena," Ari said when she and Cassandra entered Jack's room. "Found anything? Any chance Jack's just taking a stroll around the Realm? Please tell me yes, because literally everyone else is waiting just outside, and they want answers."

"I'm afraid not," Athena said as she gestured to the rest of the room. "Jack's backpack and emergency healing potion are gone. I had the others check our central storage; some food, torches and a set of flint and steel are missing, as well as two maps—one of which is a copy of the map that leads to the inside of the Realm. Andr has been looking all over the place, but she didn't find any trace of Jack or our supplies."

"Right. Doesn't sound like a stroll to me. More like a trip to…somewhere."

"Ironhand, probably. The other map he took can lead him there." Athena's eyes darkened. "He's headed for the Nether portal."

"But how's he going to get past Ironhand? Jack's not stupid, and I doubt he feels like risking a reunion with the Hunters."

"That's one thing I'm afraid of. But if he somehow manages to reach that portal unnoticed, the Hunters are going to be the least of his problems. We've got to stop him."

"He's probably pretty deep in the cave system by now," Cassandra, who was looking around the room, spoke up. "And we have no idea which cave he went into."

"We still have time," Athena said. "With Andr's teleportation and Mystia's map, we should be able to find him."

"If we're lucky," Ari mumbled.

"We have to try," Athena said. "We know that Jack left sometime during the night, and it's a three-day walk from here to the outside—regardless of which cave he chose."

"Well, at least that's a good start. I'll tell the others."

And so she did.

But alas, their efforts yielded no results.

Jack threw his last torch—which was no longer burning—on the ground at the outside entrance of the cave and took the other map out of his backpack. He looked over it and examined the land in front of him, trying to figure out where he was according to the map.

Let's see… he thought to himself when he found his location. I could try to go in a straight line, but I think it's a better idea to just go back via the way I came. He looked up. First stop is the mineshaft where Athena and company lived before the Fallen Realm. I'm going to have to be careful; we left that place for a reason. There could be humans there.

He started walking. His feet hurt and his legs felt heavy; he'd been wandering through the caves for three days straight. The little sleep he'd gotten hadn't been without nightmares. Not a good sign—he'd half expected them to stop once his journey had begun.

By the time he found the mineshaft, evening had fallen. A quick inspection of the place made it clear that it was deserted. The hallways were eerily quiet, with the only sounds being Jack's footsteps. As he explored, he kept looking around in search of danger, but he found none.

He still didn't stay for too long. After examining the familiar rooms and hallways he'd seen during his brief time there, he finally left the place.

Outside, he took another look at the map, searching for the quickest way to reach Ironhand without going through the cave system. He soon decided that he should get some rest before continuing. Sleeping in the mineshaft would be too risky; there was still the danger of other humans visiting.

He eventually found a much smaller cave nearby—really, it was hardly larger than his bedroom in the Realm—and put some dirt and leaves down as a makeshift bed.

As he laid down on the terrible excuse for a mattress—using his jacket as a pillow—he thought about the mobs and how things must be going in the Fallen Realm. He only hoped that, if the mobs were looking for him, their hunting trip wouldn't extend to where he currently was. He'd come this far, he couldn't afford to abort his quest now.

It's too important, he thought. I don't know what kind of threat this Áhýdan exactly—

Wake up.

Something made him blink. In the back of his mind, it was as if something tried to make itself audible. Something oddly familiar that he hadn't felt in a while—at least not as clearly as he might've used to.

Is anyone going to explain what I'm doing? Why I left my only real friends in the Realm without so much as a message? I'm desperate, yes, but have I ever stopped to think about how crazy this is?

I need to get to the Nether. Herobrine—

May or may not have given me a bunch of nightmares. That's all. Still not a good reason to do this.

Jack gripped his head. What was happening?! It was as if he was fighting himself. As if there were two minds—two versions of himself trying to take control.

If I don't make it to the Nether, then—

Then what? You know there're mobs in the Nether. If anyone's qualified to help Herobrine with whatever he needs help with, it's them.

There's got to be a reason why he asked for me specifically. Maybe he wants to take me back to Earth—

That's just wishful thinking. Besides, I doubt he'll give me the chance to say goodbye to the friends I've made here.

Well, why else would he want me to come to him?

I'm from a different world. Here, I'm an anomaly. Maybe that's why he wants to kill me.

You don't know if—!

You're right, I don't know! But judging from what I've heard about him, the risk is too high. I wouldn't even get the chance to fight back.

"Stop," Jack said out loud. What was this? "STOP!"

His thoughts fell silent.

Jack sighed and closed his eyes. The thoughts didn't return for the rest of that night, though the shock stayed. That wasn't normal, he realized. He'd been conflicted before, but this was something completely different.

Something that scared him.

"Once Jack left the caves—that is, assuming that he has—there's a number of directions he could've gone to," Mystia said. "Too many directions. And since we don't know through which cave he left, when exactly he left, the exact route he took, or how fast he is, there's no pinpointing his current location. It'd be even more difficult to find him now. I'm sorry."

Andr shook her head. "We can't give up. Not now. I can still look for him. Inside and outside of the Realm."

"You can't do that," Cupa said. "Andr, you've been doing this for three days straight. Alone. You're powerful, but you can still get hurt. Do you really think Jack would want you to risk your life for him like this?"

"Jack wanted to go to the Nether," the tall girl said. "Because of a dream. And because of that, he's going to get hurt…!"

"But where do you even begin?" Cupa asked. "He could be anywhere between the Realm and Ironhand. Maybe he's gone in a different direction entirely, or maybe he's still in the caves right now, if only to confuse us even more."

"I'm the only one who can look for him…" Andr tried. But she knew that Cupa and Mystia were right. She sat down on the ground, sighing, downcast.

Where could you have gone, Jack? Cupa thought as she put a hand on Andr's shoulder. Why'd you go alone? Didn't you trust us?

But she already knew the answer to that question. We would've just tried to stop you.

And truth be told, I barely realized what I was truly doing myself.