Running Into The God

Once Steve reached the top of the ravine, he turned around and clutched the side of the ledge to peek over the side of it. He panted and stared down at the bottom of the ravine in satisfaction. It looked untouched. It looked as if he had never been there. It looked perfect.

Steve, feeling satisfied, slowly turned away from the ravine and looked across the jungly, grassland biome, deciding where he should hide next. The oak forest he had traveled in the day before kept him covered quite well, but it might be the first place Herobrine checks. A faint memory had come to the miner's mind about how Herobrine likes oak forests, not grasslands.

Ah, that's right. He doesn't like to travel out in the open either. We have that in common.

Steve decided that taking the jungle route over to the open grassland was the best choice. Out of all of the biomes in Minecraft, Steve has never seen or heard of Herobrine going into a jungle. Never.

Once Steve was at the grassland, he would create an underground base and live in it for a while. It would be extremely hard for Herobrine to find him unless he dug around in the earth, which is NOT typical Herobrine behavior...but even so, Steve could see him doing it. He could picture Herobrine with a diamond shovel snarling down at the grassy earth while furiously digging it up, his lips curved upwards in disgust and desperation to find Steve.

Steve laughed as he pictured this. Herobrine is such a child. A crazy, chaotic, childish man. Well, I guess I kind of am too... That's why we get in so many stupid arguments. We're more alike than we realize.

The player from Alpha cleared his thoughts and slowly entered the dense jungle, dreading the thought of having to journey through it. He'd have to though if he wanted to go unspotted by the god, which is totally worth the struggle.

Steve hobbled through the overgrown, clustered forest, soon finding it useful to use his sword to slash away leaves and vines that got in his face. The sun beat down on the canopy of trees and grasses, making the ground underneath the canopy dense and humid. After only a little while of venturing through the jungle, Steve was sweating profusely.

Steve muttered and cursed under his breath as he climbed over leaves and batted away vines from his face. "Stupid jungle. So much stupid stuff in the jungle." He rambled angrily, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.

After about an hour of journeying, Steve decided to sit down and rest. His head was on fire and his blue shirt was practically soaked with sweat. The miner noticed this and took it off, not even thinking twice. He didn't care if Herobrine saw him at this point, he was so, SO hot...

Steve placed his crafting table down in the middle of a leaf patch and made a few cookies out of the coco beans he had picked up along the way. Hopefully eating some cookies would restore his sanity here.

As he bit into a cookie, he noticed a blue parrot slowly fluttering towards him. Oh no... This is the absolute last thing I need in this World: an animal campaign.

Steve gulped down his cookie and waved one of his hands in the air at the blue parrot making headway towards him. "No, shoo. No cookies. Go away." He said sternly.

The parrot only squawked in response, flying towards Steve persistently. The miner rolled his eyes and sighed, biting into another cookie and turning his back towards the parrot. He didn't have time to deal with innocent, loving animals in this silent battle between him and Herobrine. Animals don't deserve to get in between the action of the two.

Steve turned a little bit to adjust his legs, but the side of his leg hit something warm and feathery.

"AH!" Steve yelled and flinched, staring at the blue parrot insanely. He quickly realized his fault and slapped his head over his mouth, huffing and puffing crazily. Oh holy Notch. If Herobrine heard that then...

The blue parrot squawked loudly at Steve and pecked at his cookie. Steve snatched his cookie away from the parrot and glared at it, his purple eyes piercing into the parrot's small, black ones. After their stare contest, the parrot walked towards Steve's lap defiantly, attempting to peck at his cookie once more.

"No! I said NOOO." Steve whispered harshly at the parrot and poked it's feathery head angrily. The parrot still wasn't getting the memo though, it pecked at Steve's hand which held the cookie unceasingly. Steve glared at the parrot and muttered, "screw it," under his breath. He shoved the whole cookie in his mouth and devoured it in front of the blue parrot with a 'whatcha gonna go do now?' type of glint in his eye. The parrot only watched, its eyes glued on Steve's mouth as he chewed the cookie.

"There. It's gone. No more cookie." Steve mumbled, smacking his lips while swallowing the last bit of his cookie. The parrot squawked at him and jumped up on Steve's lap, strutting around it defiantly. Steve grimaced in discomfort as the parrot dug its sharp claws into his skin, pecking here and there, probably looking for another cookie. "Oh, aren't you something special..." Steve muttered sarcastically and wrapped his hands around the blue parrot, causing the parrot to squawk nervously at the sudden action. Player Steve held the blue parrot to his bare chest with one hand and put some seeds in his other, cupping his hand and lifting it up towards the parrot's beak. Steve really couldn't help being gracious with mobs. He loved them all.

The blue parrot soon realized that the player from Alpha was treating him and quickly dug his beak into the pile of seeds in Steve's hand, cooing happily. Steve smiled down at the parrot, his heart warming. Animals really are his weakness. Even in a World where he's alone with no other player present, animals are all he needs in order to lift his spirits. That's how he survived in Alpha. He befriended all of the animals in order to keep his internal structure intact.

After the blue parrot finished his snack, he wiggled out of Steve's grasp and hopped up onto Steve's shoulder, pushing its feathery head into Steve's hair. The miner almost melted as it did so. Man, I'm such a softy. I can't handle mobs when they're nice to me. All I've ever done is destroyed parts of their World, yet they love me no matter what. How bizarre is that? These innocent creatures love monsters who are BEYOND undeserving of their unceasing love and affection. How precious can they be?

Steve dug up his crafting table and slowly continued his journey, the parrot sitting on his shoulder the whole time. Sure, at times the parrot's claws hurt Steve's bare shoulder skin, but most of the time it just tickled a bit and reminded Steve that he wasn't alone, which was very nice. He always appreciated that feeling. Well, unless if it's Herobrine making him feel like he's not alone.

The rest of the walk through the jungle was nice. Steve paced himself at a slower speed as well for the parrot, resulting in him not sweating as much as before. He whispered things to the parrot here and there, explaining what he was doing and where he was going. Even though Steve mostly spoke nonsense to the parrot, it still comforted him that another living creature was listening to his words and not judging them. Steve doesn't really know how much he has bottled up inside him until he finally starts talking to another creature, unfortunately.

Before player Steve knew it, he had made it to the grassland. The jungle leaves slowly stopped spawning along the ground and the jungle trees faded into oak trees, the leaves on the oak trees dark green and small, clustered together in tight blocks.

"You sure do make the journey easy-breezy for me, huh?" Steve mumbled and reached up to rub his finger in the blue parrot's neck feathers. The parrot cooed in response and lightly nibbled at Steve's finger.

The miner smiled and walked over to a small cave entrance in the middle of a flat, grassy plain. "Let's camp here for a bit, alright?" He told the blue parrot while setting his crafting table down along the stone wall of the small cave. It was barely a cave at all, just a small indent in the Overworld's terrain. Even though it was a small hole, it was just big enough for Steve to hide in and not be seen in from above.

Player Steve set his chests and furnace down, emptying most of his stuff into them. The one thing he always kept with him was the enchanted stick, just in case something happens.

"Want to sit down? Want to take a break from my shoulder?" Steve mumbled to the parrot, putting his hands around it and gently taking it off his shoulder. The parrot squawked and hopped around on Steve's crafting table, looking up at him with its intense, beady little eyes. Steve smiled and chuckled a little. The bird sure did have lots of personality.

As soon as Steve pulled his cyan shirt back over his head, the parrot flew up and perched on his shoulder once more. Steve could only shrug and chuckle, rubbing his finger into its blue belly feathers.

"Well, I guess we better get mining, huh? I should grab some more cobblestone to make more furnaces to cook my raw meats." Steve stated, his blue parrot replying to his words with a rather cute peep.

Steve took out his iron pickaxe and started gathering blocks of cobblestone, digging a straight line into the Overworld's earth. He continued digging in front of him for a while, stumbling across a patch of coal and three blocks of iron. After gathering the last of the coal from the coal patch, he decided to mine straight up to see how far he had gone from his crafting table and chests.

As the young miner tunneled upwards, his parrot began to hop up and down on his shoulder rather quickly, pecking at Steve's shirt almost aggressively. Steve shot the bird a quick glare and shooed away its beak from his shirt. "We're almost to the top, okay? Just hold on a bit longer, birdie." Steve murmured impatiently, quickly placing blocks underneath his feet as he got himself out of his tunnel.

When Steve reached the top level of the grass, he came face to face with two, blue legs in front of him. He screamed louder than ever before and cowered in his one block indent in the ground, breathing erratically and whimpering in pure shock.

Much to Steve's surprise, Herobrine screamed too. The god lifted his hands up to pull his brown hair outwards and holler up at the sky like a maniac.

"AHHH!" Herobrine yelled, "Don't DO THAT, crazy human. Don't SCREAM. I hate that!" He furiously rambled, itching the back of his head with fidgety hands.

This made Steve start laughing in amusement. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I scare you?"

"NO. You just FREAK ME OUT WHEN YOU MAKE LOUD NOISES." Herobrine growled back, standing over Steve with his hands on his hips arrogantly.

"What?! The god of monsters and darkness, lord of the Nether and all hellish places gets freaked out by a little, harmless adventurer like me? What a joke!" Steve laughed, clutching the grass blocks around him in order to balance himself and his parrot that was still holding onto his shoulder.

"Shut up you purple-eyed, brown-haired SCOUNDREL."

Steve lost it and cackled loudly, falling into the dirt block in laughter, making his parrot squawk loudly and fly off of him, zooming up into the air.

"What so funny you little shit?" The god spat.

"Oh H-Herobrine, you are so—"

"You know what, don't even speak. Don't even talk to me. Don't even say MY NAME. I'm done." Herobrine grumbled, grabbing Steve's arm. Steve's laughter immediately disappeared as soon as he felt his arm being tugged upwards by the demon.

"Um...let go of me please?" Steve asked awkwardly, looking up at Herobrine's face in confusion.

The demon took a few steps closer to Steve so his face was inches from the human's, the atmosphere between them suddenly growing disturbingly tense. "No, Steve. This time I'm not letting you go. You will come with me to the Nether, NOW. I have been waiting so patiently all this time."

Steve wiggled around in the god's tight grasp, yanking and pulling his arm around. "No! I do not want to go! Let go of me!" He panted, softly kicking his shoes into Herobrine's legs.

"Goddamnit Steve why do you have to make things so difficult. Just come with me, just ONCE. I need to show you something. It'll only take a few seconds, idiot." Herobrine said, giving Steve a disgusted look and yanking on Steve's arm more.

"I don't even know what you want me to do! I don't even know what this is! What do you want to show me? Why won't you tell me about anything you're doing in the Nether?" Steve wailed, "you're lying!"

"No! I'm not fucking lying!" Herobrine snarked back, giving Steve's arm an extremely hard tug, bringing Steve to his knees with the force of the pull.

Pain seared up Steve's arm and he clenched his teeth shut, hissing. Due to the amount of pain his arm was in, he quickly started to ramble out meaningless sentences in order to distract Herobrine from hurting his arm again. He quickly blurted, "I saw your portal! I saw it. I almost went into it. Okay? I almost went to the Nether for you. Please, please don't force me into there when I was already about to go there. Please..."

Herobrine's harsh grasp on Steve's flesh suddenly loosened and he gave Steve a mysterious look, one Steve couldn't read.

"Portal?" Herobrine almost whispered.

Steve gasped and looked up at the god's confused face, replying in a breathy voice, "Yes. Yes, I did. I did."

"Where was this...portal?" Herobrine questioned, the unknown expression on his face causing Steve to flicker his eyes from and to the Nether lord's face in awkwardness.

"Uh...the one at the end of your redstone trail?" Steve mumbled back, raising an eyebrow in confusion. How forgetful and careless is Herobrine?

The god snorted, his grip on the human's arm tightening once more, causing Steve to wince in pain. "You're officially out of your mind, Steve. I'm sick and tired of hearing your psychotic excuses and childish nonsense," he told the younger miner.

"W-What?"

"Oh, look here. This is another sign that you've officially lost it," the god said in an almost sarcastic tone, turning to the side, dragging Steve's arm along with him. The player from Alpha tried his best to stifle his whimpers with his other hand, but the pain in his arm was too great, and a few noticeable sounds of pain escaped his lips. Even worse, when Herobrine turned back around, he was clutching Steve's blue parrot in his hand, smirking.

"H-Hero-"

"Come with me to the Nether...NOW." He growled, his pale, skinny fingers wrapped around the parrot's body tightly, making the poor bird shriek and wiggle around in the god's grasp desperately.

Steve breathed in and out heavily, locking his eyes with the god's white, lifeless ones. "Herobrine, that bird did nothing to you. Killing him will do nothing."

Herobrine shrugged and gave Steve the evilest smile the player had ever seen. "Sure, killing it won't do anything to me, but it will do something to you."

And just as Herobrine finished his sentence, his fingers wrapped around the parrot tighter and tighter, making the parrot start shrieking in pain.

"HEROBRINE STOP." Steve yelled sternly, glaring at the god his intense, violet eyes.

The god gave him a small snicker and pulled on his arm harder than ever before, dragging him across the grassland. Steve yelped in agony and tried his hardest to hit Herobrine with his other arm, but the god's grasp on his arm was too tight and he was dragging him around the grass too fast for Steve to fight. His arm was on fire, it felt as if it was being torn off.

The demon raised his other hand clutching the blue parrot above his head and threw the parrot onto the ground, punching it mercilessly into the ground. Steve screamed and hit Herobrine's arm over and over with his other hand, yelling at the god to stop.

Steve screamed while listening to the parrot's cries of pain, his heart shattering into a million pieces. It's all my fault. It's all my fault. It's all my fault. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh my god.

The parrot's cries turned into weak peeps as Herobrine killed it, panting insanely. Steve yelled and hit Herobrine's arm continuously, but his punches did absolutely nothing. His parrot was dead. He was next.

"I HATE YOU." Steve yelled uncontrollably, making Herobrine turn back towards him, clutching the feathers of the parrot in his hand.

"Really?" The god smirked, giving Steve a satisfied look.

The miner nodded crazily, his cheeks wet with tears. "I HATE YOU!" He shouted again, his face scrunched up in pain and anger. Steve's body shook and he sobbed, staring at Herobrine's face in pure hatred.

"GOOD. Now we're even. How nice is that, huh?" Herobrine replied, crouching down by Steve's head, giving him a controlling look.

"WE WILL NEVER BE EVEN. YOU WILL NEVER BE LIKE ME." Steve screamed, taking this opportunity to swing his purple, enchanted stick into Herobrine's stomach, yelling insanely as he did so.

Herobrine was sent flying backwards into the air, his body rising up into the night sky and then being pushed hundreds—thousands of blocks away. Steve screamed like a madman as he watched Herobrine's body fling out of sight in the night sky, sobbing, "I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU."

As soon as Herobrine was flung out of sight, Steve collapsed to the ground in a crumpled heap, sobbing. He held his enchanted stick close to his chest and pushed his cheek against it, the searing pain in his arm making him whimper helplessly. No help was coming, so he just closed his violet eyes and embraced his pain, sobbing, "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you" on repeat.