Book 1: The Mob Invasion
Chapter 5: A Horse and a Saddle

Days Since the Mob Invasion: 747

The sun was high in the sky over the beautiful pine forests of northern Minecraftia. The birds were chirping, the squirrels were in the middle of their daily grind of gathering nuts to last them for the rapidly approaching winter, and the ocelots were slinking and stalking through the bushes in search of any prey. Wildlife was absolutely teeming and thriving as the natural cycle continued just as it had done everyday for the past thousands of years.

And then there were them...

A lone zombie shuffled aimlessly throughout the forest, constantly drawn to and from all of the sounds of nature in pursuit of its next meal. Occasionally it would stumble over a root or tree stump and thrash around on the ground for awhile, only to clumsily regain its posture and make its way back to its feet again. Whatever was left of its clothes had long since rotted away, exposing its bare, green flesh to the world. Any distinguishable anatomy that it had in its previous, non-zombie life that differentiated it from a man or woman had long since rotted with the rest of its skin. Its eyes were black and sunken in, the hair that it did have left was covered in green moss and mold, and its teeth were chipped and a horrible shade of brownish black. Its stomach looked like it had been ripped open, perhaps by a bear or some other animal, and the abomination's rib cage was clearly open and exposing several of its bottom ribs. It was truly a evil, disgusting sight that perfectly captured the horrors of the mob invasion.

A twig snapped in the distance, and the zombie turned its head and let out a raspy groan in the direction of the sound.

Thwunk!

A well-placed arrow pierced the rotting flesh and skull of the zombie as it stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, completely motionless. Two figures made their way over to the corpse as one pulled the arrow out of the rotten head.

"Hah! Score another one for me! What's the score now, Rin? I'm pretty sure I'm in the lead," Zoe said enthusiastically as she wiped the black zombie blood from the arrow off on her leather pants leg.

"I thought I told you to be quiet," Rinoa groaned, clearly annoyed. "And, like I said earlier, I'm not keeping score because I'm not playing," she emphasized. About 2 days ago Zoe had gotten the "fun" idea that they should make a game out of the zombie kills by having 1 point for whoever killed a zombie, 2 points for skeletons, and 5 points for creepers. Rinoa wasn't playing along, but that didn't stop Zoe from trying to run up the score.

"Well fine then," Zoe said, almost pouting. "Just trying to pass the time."

"This isn't a game, Zoe. Do you want to die? Because these things can kill you. There's a reason why the Empire fell, and it's because of these mobs. They aren't to be taken lightly, do you understand? " Rinoa sounded like a mother scolding her child, and even she knew it. She didn't like scolding anyone, but she had never met anyone so ignorant as to just how dangerous the mobs were. Rinoa figured that Zoe's stay behind Monteian's walls with her own personal guards sheltered her from most of the violence that almost everyone up to this point had experienced during the mob invasion. It wasn't her fault, but if Zoe didn't shape up soon, she'd be dead within a couple days' time.

Zoe looked down, clearly hurt by the scolding and Rinoa sighed. She kept forgetting that Zoe was still a few years younger than her. At 16 years old, she would have only been about 14 when all of this started, clearly still a child. At 19 years old, Rinoa was barely an adult herself, but she was forced to mature faster than most.

"Look," Rinoa started, "Just... Just forget it, alright? Take care of the creepers for me with your bow and arrow at least until we get to a village or town or something to drop you off at. Then you can play whack-a-zombie as much as you want. Deal?" She raised her eyebrows, waiting for Zoe's response. The sunlight was shining down on them through the leafy canopy above, providing them with ample light to see their surrounding. Zoe looked back up at her companion.

"Deal..." she said, still sounding rather solemn. Rinoa frowned a little bit at this, then got an idea as she started unbuckling the sword from her leather belt. Zoe looked at her, perplexed. "What are you doing?"

"Here," Rinoa pulled the sword off and held in in front of Zoe. "Take this sword. Now you have something for close quarters if you ever need it, and I don't have to worry about taking care of all of the zombies up close by myself. It's a win-win."

Zoe took the sword and unsheathed it. It was a standard iron sword, but it looked like it had been well polished its whole life. The double edge caught a trickle of sunlight and glared it in Zoe eyes inadvertently for a split second. It was like looking into a mirror almost.

"Do you know how to use it?" Rinoa asked. Zoe was clearly skilled with a bow, but she had never seen her with a sword before. Zoe nodded, still looking at the blade.

"I'm no sword-maiden, but yeah. But... I mean, don't you need it?"

Rinoa chuckled, slapping the sheathed hatchet hanging from her hip.

"I think I'll be good. Always preferred axes anyway. Could never get the edge alignment right for swordplay."

Zoe took one last look at the sword before sliding it back in its sheath. She smiled, looking up at Rinoa. "Thanks, Rin! It means a lot." The gratitude was very genuine, and so was the smile. It caught Rinoa off guard.

"It- it's... Don't worry about it," Rinoa mumbled before taking a few steps forward in the direction they were previously going. Zoe followed beside her, eager to get out of the chilly shade of the canopy.

"It's a good sword. Did you make it?" she asked. Rinoa shook her head.

"No. It belongs to my friend, Hunter. He's... letting me borrow it until I meet up with him again." Rinoa said, memories of Hunter and Hunter's Watch flashing in her mind.

"Sounds like a good friend!" Zoe said, blissfully unaware.

"Yep. He was so insistent that I take it, he practically threw it at me!"

Rinoa reached up and grabbed the area of her ribs that the sword made contact with when Hunter threw it at her in their previous fight, right before she met Zoe. When he abandoned her. The wound had long since healed due to the potion of regeneration, but Rinoa could still remember the pain of her ribs cracking from the impact, the only thing preventing her from getting stabbed from the sword being her leather armour.

Don't worry though, Hunter, Rinoa thought to herself. You'll be seeing your sword real up close and personal again one day. I promise. Her brow creased in anger as she thought of her betrayal by Hunter's Watch, as well as Sofie's murder.

Zoe saw Rinoa's demeanor change and decided it was probably best to not say anything, at least for awhile, lest she upset her friend anymore. She was beginning to suspect that there might be more to her new friend than Rinoa was letting on. Judging by Rinoa's expression, though, it was probably not best to ask about it right now.

They walked on in silence.

After a few more miles of walking through the forest with minor interruptions from mobs, they had finally made their way to a wide open clearing. It was a field, miles long, of pure countryside. The sun was lower in the sky than it had been previously, and Rinoa figured that they only had a few hours of daylight left.

"Should we camp here for the night?" Zoe asked. Rinoa looked over at her incredulously.

"In the middle of the field? We'd be sitting ducks."

"No, I mean, at the edge of the forest. We put up camp now, build a fire, rest for the night, then we can cross the field tomorrow," Zoe suggested. She didn't know much about camping, having spent her entire life in her father's mansion at Monteian, but she thought it was a good idea at least.

Rinoa looked back at the field. It was a very long stretch of land. Camping in the middle of it wouldn't be an option, they'd be an easy target for both mobs and griefers. Waiting until tomorrow to try and cross the field would be the better option, but...

Hunter's Watch... I need to get to Hunter's Watch...

"No," Rinoa said shaking her head at the idea. "We cross the field now, we rest when we reach the other side."

Zoe's shoulder's slumped and she groaned.

"Rin! I'm exhausted!" Zoe whined. Her leather armour was flexible, but the iron reinforcements that she had on it made it heavier than the traditional, light leather armour that Rinoa had on.

"You can rest when we find someplace safe," Rinoa said, uncaring about her partner's exhaustion. "And I can rest when I make it back to Hunter's Watch." She stepped forward and began the long walk across the field. Zoe hesitated for a bit, looking back at the forest, then finally sighed before running to catch up with Rinoa. When she finally caught up, she was already out of breath. Having walked all day, her feet were killing her, and she wondered if Rinoa planned on doing this much walking every day. She figured talking might pass the time.

"You never told me about Hunter's Watch. I know you're going there, but not much else." Zoe inquired, hoping to extract more information from her rather mysterious partner. Rinoa shrugged, not bothering to take her eyes off the horizon. "I, uh, hope you don't mind me asking. It's just that, you know, we've been traveling for 3 days now and... well, I barely know you." Zoe laughed nervously. Rinoa nodded, understanding where Zoe was coming from.

"Not much to say about Hunter's Watch. I got friends there. I'm just looking to get back to them. It's across the Iron Mountains."

Zoe whistled clearly amazed.

"Past the Iron Mountains?!" she echoed. "That's all the way in the South! What are you doing this far in the North? We were nearly at the Red Mountains when I found you."

"We went on a supply run. Used a few nether portals to travel faster. We were looking for medicine, but we got separated when one of the portals broke. I waited for a couple days, but they never came back to get me. Trying to make my way back there now is all." Rinoa was lying through her teeth and she knew it, but she felt no need to tell Zoe, someone that she barely knew, the full story of what actually happened between her, Hunter, William, Lana, and Sofie. The less Zoe knew, the better.

"Is that where the compass leads to?" Sofie pointed to the redstone compass that almost always seemed to be in Rinoa's hands. "I've watched you clutch onto that thing for dear life for the past few days now. I kind of figured Hunter's Watch is at the end of that red needle there."

"Exactly. If my estimating is correct, I'm still about 2 or 3 weeks away."

Zoe nodded, respectfully paying attention to her friend's story. And yet she couldn't help but get the feeling that Rinoa wasn't telling her the whole truth. Still, she couldn't prove that she was lying, so she decided to just leave it at that.

"What about Monteian? Tell me more about that," Rinoa asked, finally taking her eyes off the horizon and looking at Zoe. "I was surprised to find out that they had managed to survive for so long when you first told me."

Zoe looked away for a second. It wasn't a story she was necessarily proud of, but she felt like she at least owed Rinoa some explanation in return for her explanation of Hunter's Watch.

"Monteian, the 'Iron Capitol of Minecraftia'." Zoe repeated the title of the city in an exaggerated fashion. "My dad owned the mines and, in return, I guess you could say that he owned the city. I mean, that's why they called me the 'Iron Princess', after all," Zoe said, putting her hands on her hips in a victory pose.

"Are you sure you're not the only one who called yourself that?" Rinoa asked, slightly amused.

"There were others too!" Zoe exclaimed, visibly flustered. Rinoa shook her head but decided it wasn't worth pursuing. "Anyway," Zoe continued. "After the mob invasion, we had the manpower, the miners, and the iron. We built a wall, hunkered down in it, and for 2 years we were relatively safe. Until, well... until about 2 weeks ago..." Zoe stopped, taking a moment to compose herself. She felt the familiar feeling of grief creeping up in her stomach.

"Griefers?" Rinoa asked. She figured that griefers would be just about the only thing able to get through a well-maintained wall like that. Surprisingly, Zoe shook her head.

"There was... a creeper. But it wasn't like any creeper I had ever seen. It... well, it was practically glowing. We had never seen anything like it. By the time it got to the walls, something triggered it and it exploded. The explosion was huge, way more than a typical creeper explosion... and it took out an entire chunk of our wall. It was almost like the rest of the mobs were waiting for it, because they all started pouring in. And they... They just... They..." Zoe felt the tears involuntarily start to well up in her eyes as she tried to finish her sentence.

Rinoa noticed Zoe stammering and stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder. It seemed to snap Zoe out of it as she looked up at Rinoa.

"It's okay. I understand. You don't need to finish." Rinoa said. Zoe let out a deep breath and nodded, feeling her heart rate return to normal.

"After that," she continued. "I grabbed what I could and ran. Cue one week of me roughing it out on my own later, and then I meet you and, well, here we are." Zoe let out a small smile. "But, what about you? Where did you live at before all of this? You're clearly Northern," Zoe pointed out, taking note of Rinoa's pale complexion.

"The Capitol," Rinoa simply responded.

"Ahhh... I should have guessed with that hair!" Zoe giggled, pointing at Rinoa's pink dyed hair. "Hair dyes were pretty popular in the Capitol, weren't they? But I've never seen anyone pull off pink before. I think it suits you!"

"Thanks..." Rinoa had been dying her hair since she was a child to the point where she was starting to forget that pink wasn't even her natural hair colour. She instinctively brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear.

"But, wait," Zoe spoke up, remembering something. "If you were at the Capitol before the mob invasion, then that means you were there when-"

"Yes." Rinoa interrupted, slightly annoyed. She was starting to wish Zoe would stop talking now.

"The Capitol... The Scorched City..." Zoe whispered, sighing. Her eyes were sympathetic, and she could only imagine what Rinoa had to go through that first night of the mob invasion. She had heard stories from some of the supply runners in Monteian as well as other Capitol survivors that told about how the entire Capitol went up in flames during the first night of the mob invasion. Those who weren't killed by the mobs were either burned alive by the fire or trampled to death trying to escape. Out of the thousands of people who lived in the Capitol, it was estimated that only a few lucky hundred were able to escape and survive that first night. The handful of survivors who were able to make it to Monteian referred to it as "the Scorched City" ever since.

Rinoa didn't say anything and just kept walking. She was done talking. She never talked about what happened at the Capitol to anyone, not even to Sofie or Lana. Rinoa tried her best to forget about that night, even though she could still hear the screams in her nightmares. As far as she was concerned, that was the only place where thinking about the Capitol belonged: her dreams.

"Neeeeeeigh!"

They both jumped as they quickly turned around to see where the noise came from. Axe in hand, Rinoa was prepared for a fight. What she wasn't prepared for, though, was a lone horse to come trotting up to both her and Zoe. It was a slender, white horse with a black mane. Rinoa noticed that it also had a saddle strapped to its back, clearly indicating that this was – or at least used to be – somebody's horse. It stopped about a dozen yards away from them and looked at the two humans curiously, before stooping down to graze on some of the knee-high grass from the field.

Zoe looked over at Rinoa excitedly, nearly squealing. She had always loved horses ever since she was a young child, and she couldn't help but get excited over seeing one. She noticed that Rinoa, too, had a feint smile on her lips.

"Rinoa, what should we do?" she asked, whispering to avoid scaring the horse. Rinoa thought for a minute over their options.

"Alright, stay here," Rinoa responded. "I'm going to try and see if I can't coax him into letting us ride him."

"But it has a saddle," Zoe interjected. "You don't think that his owner is still around, do you?"

"If he is, he's probably dead, green, and eats people now," Rinoa stated, matter-of-factly. "Now be quiet and let me see what I can do."

Zoe nodded and Rinoa made her way to the horse, ever so slowly. Each step was deliberate, as she wanted the horse to know that she was there, but also not be loud enough where she would spook the horse. She held her breath, praying that the horse wouldn't up and run away whenever she got close to him.

If we could coax this horse into letting us ride it, Rinoa thought, then the time it'd take me to reach Hunter's Watch would be cut in half...

The idea alone was all the motivation Rinoa needed. Finally, she was within petting distance of the horse. Its head still lowered to the ground chomping on some grass, the horse's ears perked up curiously at the new visitor.

"Don't worry, buddy," Rinoa cooed. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Slowly - painstakingly slowly – Rinoa reached out and felt her fingertips make contact with the horse's shoulder as she gentled petted him. The horse's skin flinched involuntarily, but the horse made no effort to move from it's spot. After a few seconds of light brushing, Rinoa started using her whole hand to pet the beast, moving up to its neck. The horse let out a gentle whinny and raised his head from the grass to look at Rinoa. Their eyes met, and Rinoa was able to tell that this was a relatively younger horse, but still old enough to be considered an adult. The horse neighed as he pushed his neck into Rinoa's hand, apparently enjoying the stroking. Rinoa laughed.

"You must like it when you get your mane stroked, huh boy?" She ran her fingers through the wiry threads of the horses mane, enjoying their touch. She turned around to look over at Zoe and motioned for her to come over, much to her excitement. Walking as fast as she could without scaring the horse, Zoe walked over to where Rinoa was petting him.

"Wow!" she exclaimed, beaming with joy. The horse seemed to be slightly cautious of this newcomer, as he took a step back away from her. Zoe's face dropped. "I guess he must not like me," she sighed, clearly hurt. Rinoa shook her head.

"Here," Rinoa said, taking Zoe's hand in her left hand while still petting the horse with her right. Zoe was a little surprised by this, but didn't say anything. "Just gently pet the hose on the shoulder, like this," she said, demonstrating. She raised Zoe's hand with her hand and placed it on the horse's shoulder for her to stroke. "This is the spot they feel less threatened by you touching," she explained. Zoe's eyes widened, seemingly unwilling to believe that she was actually petting a real, live horse.

"My dad... he would never let me get near the horses in Monteian. Said they were too dangerous because his cousin was killed in a horse accident when they were kids. I was never allowed to go near the horses in the stables, much less pet one, no matter how much I begged." She took off her glove so she could pet the horse with her bare hand. The fur was soft, yet strong and coarse at the same time. It was much different than a dog's fur, that much was certain. She looked over at Rinoa who was staring at her, smiling.

"You remind me of myself when I pet my first horse," she chuckled.

"Really?" Zoe asked, slightly blushing. Rinoa nodded.

"My father taught me. My grandfather was a stable boy for Emperor Notch's army during the Baron Wars. He taught my father how to ride horses when he was a kid, and Dad taught me how to ride when I was a kid."

"Are we going to ride him!?" Zoe was bewildered by the mere thought of touching a horse. She didn't know if she was ready to ride one. Rinoa scratched the back of her head.

"Well, that's up to him to decide," Rinoa pointed to the horse, who had gone back to eating grass as Zoe stroked his shoulder. "Judging by the saddle, he's at least been trained before, so that's good. Only question is, will he let us ride him?"

"How can we find out?" Zoe curiously asked.

"Only one way to find out," Rinoa stated, smirking. "Keep petting his shoulder, I'm going to try and mount him. Okay?"

Zoe didn't seem prepared for this, but she nodded anyway, clearly nervous. Rinoa put her foot in one of the stirrups and, in one heave, hoisted herself onto the saddle on the horse's back. The horse, surprised, let out a loud neigh and bucked as he tried to kick Rinoa off.

"Woah there, boy! Easy!" Rinoa shouted with authority. The horse stopped bucking, and shook a little bit. When Rinoa still failed to get off the saddle, the horse resigned in the fight, and Rinoa was left sitting on top of the saddle, both feet in the stirrups, victorious. "And that," Rinoa said, slightly panting from the excitement, "...is how you mount a horse."

Zoe's eyes were wide in admiration. Sitting on the horse with her leather armour and white robes, Rinoa reminded her of the war maidens that used to quarter in Monteian on their way to the Edgelands during the Edgelands' Rebellion when she was a kid. Looking at her now, she could tell that there was something about Rinoa that pushed her forward. A motivation. A drive that she had only seen in seasoned soldiers. Zoe wasn't quite sure what it was, but she could tell that whatever it was, it burned inside of Rinoa like a wildfire, fueling her to keep going, no matter what.

Rinoa might be a little rough around the edges, she thought, but she's still pretty cool. She smiled and extended her hand out towards the mounted warrior.

"Me next!"

The sun had set and and the sky was slowly starting to darken as Rinoa and Zoe made their way into a swampy forest at the end of the prairie that they had just crossed. With the horse, they had drastically cut down on their time to cross, and now all they had to do was find a place to set up camp. Zoe was having the time of her life; how could she have known riding on a horse would be so much fun? Rinoa, however, felt like every rib in her body was bruised from how tight Zoe was holding on to her.

"Grip with your legs, not your arms," Rinoa repeated for the dozenth time as she squirmed uncomfortably under Zoe's iron grip.

"Sorry!" Zoe apologized from behind her as she eased up. "I'm just afraid of falling, you know?"

"It's not like the fall would kill you..." Rinoa murmured more to herself than to Zoe. She could hear the sloshing of puddles underneath the horses hooves and the rotten smell of swamp in the air. She groaned. "I hate swamps... Too many bugs..."

"But it should be good for shelter at least, right?" Zoe replied optimistically. Rinoa was starting to pick up on the fact that Zoe was a "cup half-full" type of girl.

"That depends. Look for a clear area that's at least semi-dry. I don't want to be sleeping with the frogs tonight."

Zoe looked around trying to find something of use. Trees... Trees... Pond... More trees... Cute frogs!... Trees... Finally, something caught her eyes.

"Wait a second," she said, poking Rinoa in the shoulder. "Look!" she pointed in the distance.

It was hard to make out due to the lack of light, but there was a clear outline of some sort of structure just several yards away from them.

"Well, well, well, what's this?" Rinoa asked as she steered the horse to go towards the building. Getting up close to it, they could see that it was a small, one story, wooden shack that was built at the base of a large tree. It had a small, 3-step staircase leading up to the door, but little else in terms of a porch or patio. Judging by the state of disrepair that it seemed to be in, it looked like it had been long since abandoned by humans, maybe even before the mob invasion. Rinoa and Zoe both dismounted the horse and walked up to the door.

"This would be perfect," Zoe pointed out. By this point night had fully fallen and the stars were out in the night sky. This was their best bet for shelter for the night.

"True... if it's empty." Rinoa pulled out her axe and banged on the door, waiting for any indication of movement from the inside, whether human or zombie. She waited for a full minute with her ear up to the door. Nothing, not even a peep. She looked over her shoulder at Zoe who had just finished tying the horse to a tree and nodded. "Coast is clear."

"Well.. you first." Zoe had a tint of fear in her voice. The shed was pretty spooky looking, and she hated being in forests at night. Rinoa just shook her head dismissively and pushed open the door that let out a sinister creeeeaaak.

Pitch black. The shack seemed to lack any windows whatsoever. Taking a step into the darkness, the floorboards creaked underneath her weight. Zoe followed closely behind her, not daring to stay too far away from her axed companion. When they were fully through the door, Rinoa turned to Zoe.

"Hey, can you hand me a redstone torch?"

"Sure, one sec," Zoe replied as she reached into her satchel.

BANG!

The door behind them immediately slammed shut, causing both of them to jump in shock and Zoe to latch on to Rinoa's arm in a panic.

"What the hell?! Who's there, show yourself!" Rinoa shouted, gripping her axe, ready to start swinging. Suddenly, the room was filled with a lazy haze of blue light. Rinoa and Zoe both squinted as their eyes tried to adjust from the darkness. When they finally opened their eyes, however, they saw the source of the light. Multiple torches on all 4 walls of the shack, each burning a bright, blue flame that had mysteriously just ignited all of the torches all at once. In the middle of the room, there was a table... and at the end of the table, an old, fragile looking woman.

"Well hello there!" the raspy voice said, pleasantly. "You have to pardon the introduction, sweetie. It's been so long since I've had any visitors." The woman then let out a shrill cackle that pierced Rinoa and Zoe's ears. The lady was wearing a long, black robe with the hood over her head covering her eyes. Underneath the hood, some fine, white hairs were poking out; the woman could very easily be at least 80 years old. Perhaps the most distinguishable feature, however, was her long, crooked nose, and when she smiled, she had very little teeth.

"What the hell is this? Who are you?" Rinoa demanded. This caused the lady to cackle again, even louder this time.

"Please, please," she said, wiping a tear from her face from her laughter. "We can go over all of that in due time, my dear. Take a seat," she motioned to the empty chair at the end of the table across from her.

"Rin..." Zoe whispered, still clutching Rinoa's arm. Rinoa looked down at her, and she could see the fear on her friend's face illuminated from the blue flames of the torches. It was clear that this was the last place she wanted to be right now. "I've heard stories about women who live alone in shacks in the middle of the woods like this, they're-"

"Witches?" the woman completed Zoe's sentence before descending into another cackling fit. "Well... she's not wrong," she said, smiling. "Still, even old witches like myself deserve a little company every now and again, don't they? Please, take a seat." Once again, the witch motioned towards the chair.

Zoe's grip on Rinoa's arm tightened.

"Let's get out of here," she whispered. "Please," Zoe pleaded. Rinoa looked back to the woman sitting at the table and shook her head.

"That's gonna be a no, you old bat. Zoe, go ready the horse. We're leaving," and they both turned their backs to head out the door, much to Zoe's relief.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... That's a pity," the witch said, shaking her head in disapproval. "I guess you'll never get to hear the truth about your sweet, innocent, sister Sofie then..." she said, waving her hand dismissively.

Rinoa stopped dead in her tracks. Zoe looked back behind her.

"Rin?" she had her hand on the door handle but stopped. Rinoa turned around back towards the woman, her eyes wide open in shock.

"W-what... did you just say?" she stammered, totally bewildered. "Did you say... Sofie?"

The witch smiled, clearly her words having the effect she intended them to. She looked up from under her hood, and it was only then that Zoe saw that the woman's eyes were a deep shade of purple. They looked... unnaturally evil. For a third time, the woman motioned towards the empty seat across from her at the end of the table.

"Please, Ms. Rinoa Carr... Have a seat," she smirked, showing the few teeth she had left. "I've been waiting for you."

Next Chapter: Errands