It was very quiet in the cave as they walked together. Petra's hand was tight on her pickaxe as she glanced down at the ground, and for once Jesse was at a loss for what to say.
Finally, like usual, Jesse broke the silence, clearing her throat. "So... um... you- set the zombie on fire. From halfway across the clearing."
Petra scuffed her feet on the stone a bit, looking down. "Y-yeah."
More silence. It was heavier than sandbags.
"... how'd you do it? That was really awesome. I mean, it looked like a fireball, but... I don't know, you can't shoot fireballs. Normal people can't... I don't think, anyway." Jesse's voice sounded a little stilted.
Petra smiled a little at Jesse's bad joke, but then her smile faded her gaze was still fixed on her boot scuffing along the ground, as though it were the most fascinating thing in the world since Notch himself.
"Yeah... no, they can't." Scuff. "I don't know how I did it, either, to be honest." Scuff. "I just... reacted, I guess." Scuff.
"Ah." Petra waited. Jesse said nothing.
Petra finally lifted her head and twisted to look at Jesse, mouth opening, before pausing, her eyes widening slightly. "Wait... Jesse, what's that on your sides..?" she asked.
Jesse looked down at herself. Instead of reacting in horror at the fact that there were very pointy bumps starting to stretch her dungarees out, like Petra had expected, she just sighed and the pointy bumps seemed to curl in a little bit. "... Petra, can you keep a secret?" she asked, finally.
"What do you think?" Petra asked, rolling her eyes, spreading her arms out and making Jesse grin.
"Okay, I get it. Umm," and Jesse rolled the 'm' around her mouth. "Well, I had this sort of... I guess you could call it a vision, earlier. And it was me. As... a spider hybrid."
Petra blinked.
"And at first I thought it was dumb but now-" Jesse was picking up steam now, starting to gesture with her hands and her voice was getting louder, like her usual volume. "I have these bumps on my sides and I shot string out of my hand like frickin' Spiderman or something, and I feel like my left eye is getting even darker than usual, and the bumps are getting bigger, and I can see almost as well in the dark as I do during the day. Maybe better, actually. And now the bumps are getting BIGGER," and she was practically shouting now, voice at the highest pitch it could get without going to hysteria level, "and I actually have to make an effort to hide them and I can move them!"
At this point, her overly loud, high-pitched voice practically shut off, leaving the last two words echoing in the cave as Petra took in the overly long paragraph that Jesse had just ranted out.
"Ah." Clear her throat. "Can YOU keep a secret?"
"If you can keep mine, it's fair that I keep yours," Jesse responded, crossing her heart and then putting a hand over her eye. Petra hesitated at her weird 'oath'... hand signal thing, before nodding. "Okay." And she rolled up her left sleeve.
Thankfully, Jesse didn't gasp or do anything- that probably would've just made Petra worry even more about the whole thing. She just leaned a little closer to see the now-reflecting-light arm of Petra's. "... that looks like a Blaze Rod," Jesse finally noted.
Petra cleared her throat again. "Yeah. I think it's a Blaze Rod too." She checked her arm. "Especially since I shot fire out of that arm." Her attempt at a joke fell flat when she saw Jesse's serious face, as the raven-haired girl kept scrutinizing Petra's arm.
Once Jesse had that face, she meant business.
Jesse stared at it before looking up at her friend. "Okay. Petra, this is what we're going to do," she said, straightening up.
Petra blinked again, moving the sleeve back down. "Okay..." She spoke slowly. She wasn't at all sure what Jesse was going to suggest.
"We swear an oath to not tell ANYONE each other's secret unless all our lives are in danger, somehow. We can divulge it ourselves, but we can't tell ANYONE about the other's secret," Jesse said, sternly.
"That seems fine," Petra agreed slowly, feeling a little childish at the thing about 'oaths'.
Jesse held out her hand, and Petra shook the left hand Jesse extended. Then Jesse let go of Petra's hand and crossed her heart before covering her eye again, chanting, "Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, a secret's a secret, my word is forever, I won't break my word, I won't break it ever."
"Haven't heard that version before," Petra said, somewhat surprised at the chanted poem.
"It's a variant of the very long original poem," Jesse responded promptly. Petra blinked, before slowly repeating the motion Jesse had done. "Um, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye... a secret's a secret, my word is forever, I won't break my word, I won't break it ever," she repeated.
"There ya go," and Jesse grinned at her friend. Petra slowly grinned back.
That might've been a rather childish exercise, but it had still made her feel a lot better in the end.
"So," and Jesse arched her eyebrow now, the bumps curling back in since they'd stretched out again and her arms crossing curiously as she tilted her head. "What were you doing out in the woods, anyway?"
"Ah," and Petra grinned a little bit, imagining the surprise Jesse was going to get, "since we're on the topic of secrets right now, have you ever seen..." she reached into her seemingly endless pocket, and pulled out the black skull that she had stowed inside earlier, her secretive grin spreading across her face. "A Wither Skull?"
A/N: Annnnnd cliffhanger! xD Sorry, just had to do that to you guys.
Thanks to Toni42 for putting a cameo of this story in her amazing story Movie Mode! Check it out; it's a really good story.
Responses to commenters!
Toni42: Technically Petra doesn't know how, so she can't explain it xD So hence why she's all like 'I dunno' this chapter, yes, and are you reading my mind? xD
MissyMattingly: Thanks!
Gamerwhogames: That's actually in the original game, if you say 'Reuben is not food' to Aiden.
TheRealRedGaming: I didn't know that ship existed, and honestly, I don't get that shipping. Perhaps I should rephrase, I ship everything in Minecraft Story Mode that makes SENSE. xD to me, at least
Guest: Lol that made my day XD
rebekahtpe: I do ship it to a point. I still like Lukesse much better, but since it makes sense, depending on the story it's fine. :)
Ninjacat: Thanks!
angelwings: Thank Toni42 for giving me a suggestion and thus giving me the idea to rewrite the chapter :) And thanks! That means a lot to me, since I love writing and have been writing stories pretty much my entire life. Fun fact, I think the first one I ever wrote had to do with an injured dog when I was 6 or 7 xD
See y'all next time!
x.X. A.L. X.x.
