Jesse watched Petra patiently. Petra finally slowed to a stop, looking at her shoes again, like when she'd confessed her worries about being half a Blaze.
"I feel bad about ditching everyone else, but I just wanted to talk to you about this alone. It's a little tough to talk about," Petra spoke finally.
"Hey, whatever it is, you can tell me," Jesse responded, giving her friend a warm smiling.
"Thanks for being so understanding," Petra answered, and the two of them smiled at each other a bit, Jesse finally reaching out and giving her friend's right hand a squeeze.
She released it a second later, chills rushing up her spine. "Petra, you're freezing..." she gasped, rubbing her hand. And Jesse was not joking. It was literally smoking with frost.
Petra rubbed the back of her head. "You got me away from the Witherstorm... but I'm worried I didn't get away soon enough."
"Petra?"
Petra pulled up her sleeve in response, showing that her left arm- the one that had been a shade of gold- was stone-gray, with a strange purple mark on it. It looked like a bruise, but not really- if you looked closely the veins in her arm that weren't turning faintly silver were a horrible shade of purple.
"Oh my god! Holy crap, what are we doing down here?!" Jesse gasped immediately, "we need to get you help!"
"I don't know if there's anything we can do, Jesse," Petra responded quietly. "... do you know what Wither is?"
Jesse blinked, taken aback. "Th-the Wither? Of course, we've been-"
"No, Jess," Petra said softly, "just Wither. Or... Wither Sickness, I guess. And I feel like it's just going to keep getting worse."
"But- but you're half Blaze!" Jesse spluttered, waving her arms in the air like pinwheels, "how in the name of Notch did you get Wither Sickness?!"
Petra frowned down at her arm. "I don't know..."
"Well, we should go back and tell the others!" Jesse exclaimed, "w-we can get help-"
"You can't tell anyone about this!" Petra looked alarmed, but before either of them could say anything more a creeper lumbered into the hallway, hissing loudly as it flashed, preparing to explode.
"Creeper!" Petra yelled, rushing away before it could explode right in her face. Jesse was not so lucky.
The explosion blasted a hole in the floor, Jesse falling through it and her hand smacking into the stone ledge painfully and her clinging on for her life.
"Grab my hand!" Petra cried out, running back over, "I'll pull you up."
Reuben squealed in alarm as Jesse reached up and grabbed Petra's hand with her topmost set. The others began to work their way onto the ledge, too.
Immediately her hand started smoking with frost, and Jesse shivered as she clung onto Petra, who started to pull her up. Petra's arms were shaking, her forehead was beaded with sweat, and even though they'd just started Petra looked as though she was about to die.
Jesse's fingers were going numb, her chest was starting to hurt, and the frost had crept all the way up past her elbow, when Jesse's numb fingers slipped from Petra's exhausted ones, she unbalanced, and toppled backwards into the hole, landing harshly on the stone ground.
The amulet bounced out of Jesse's pocket, and Jesse lay there on her back for a moment, watching the amulet bounce away hazily, starting to emit dark blue light, and landing several feet away from Jesse, lighting its way in the darkness.
Jesse lay there for a minute, before she became aware of someone shaking her. "Jesse!"
Petra was shouting, and Jesse slowly came back into focus. Petra must've flown down here, because Jesse could see Petra's Blaze rods fading away, although they looked more silver and purple, like her arm. And they seemed to be falling apart. Petra's breathing was also pained as she leaned over Jesse, Reuben shivering next to her. "Jesse, I just couldn't... I'm so sorry!" And Jesse felt a jolt of alarm at the sight of tears in the tough redhead's eyes. "Jesse, are you okay?"
Reuben let out a worried whine.
Jesse winced a bit as she sat back up. "Haha, yeah, sorry- I just went kinda out of it for a moment. You're the one that's sick, anyways. Take care of yourself first, I'll be perfectly fine." She forced a smile through the aching pain that was starting to spread through her body.
"Okay..." Petra relaxed a little as Jesse struggled to her feet. She tensed again when Jesse unbuttoned the cloak and put it around Petra's shoulders. "Wh-what-?"
"You're freezing," Jesse responded, adjusting the cloak, "you probably need this more than I do."
Petra gave Jesse a bewildered look, before her eyes relaxed again- they were turning dull gray, too- and she also got to her feet. "Thanks, Jesse."
The two of them- three of them, can't forget Reuben- kept going, Jesse retrieving the amulet, and they continued onwards, the glow fading a bit as they came into a brightly lit room.
Jesse squinted a bit, and Petra winced as their eyes adjusted to the light. When they did, they both gasped. The room was HUGE, even bigger than the area with the doorways and the amulet where they'd gone their separate ways, glowstone on almost every surface. It looked like a beautifully large library. And on the floor, in the center of the room, was an amulet themed decoration. Reuben let out a wondering oink.
"This is a ton of books," Petra gaped around them, "who needs this many books?"
"Soren, apparently," Jesse hummed.
They came into another room, opening the door, spotting a figure with their back to them. Petra's eyes widened, and her fists clenched. Jesse glanced at Petra, before back at the figure, who was muttering, "He must have something useful in here! He has to! Why would he have so many books, was he just... collecting them? He can't possibly have read all of these..."
Jesse's eyes widened. "Ivor?" Her voice had dropped to a whisper.
Ivor turned, his eyes narrowing. "Trying to interfere with my plans again, I see," he sneered, "your tenacity is commendable, but misguided. You found your way here, so now you may find it back out again. Immediately."
Jesse sighed. "You're cheerful as ever... I can't see why I wanted to see you so much as a kid-"
She let out a sharp gasp as more chills raced up her back, grabbing her head in pain.
Jesse bounced up off the floor and dropped her knitting and her book the moment saw the Order come in. "Is Ivor here today?" she asked, eagerly. Last time they'd started reviewing how to make Potions of Strength... no, draught of strength... no...
Gabriel made a little face that made Jesse's hopes sink, and her arms drooped a little bit as her smile faded. "Sorry, Jesse- he said he was too busy making potions of healing."
"That's probably our fault," and Magnus made a hand motion at his cheek, which had a sort of scar on it, "I got that from racing Gabriel on my sheep."
"I still say I won."
"No you didn't!"
"I say you both are idiots," Ellegaard rolled her eyes. The warrior and the rogue looked at her, offended. "Hey!"
Soren was snickering in the background as Ellegaard relented and gave the rogue a little kiss on the cheek. "But you're less of an idiot."
"Thank you so much, Ellegaard," Gabriel remarked, sarcastically
Jesse drooped fully this time around, and Lukas padded up to her, making the little girl look at the ocelot hybrid. "Hey, don't worry," and he smiled cheerfully, "you can spend some time with me and Soren! He's teaching me how to craft stuff."
"No, no," Axel burst in, waving his arms and nearly smacking Magnus in the face by accident, "you should stick with me and Magnus! He's gonna teach me how to use fireworks!"
Olivia shook her bouncy curls, attracting Jesse's attention, "We're learning how to use redstone torches today!"
"Gabriel and I were going to practice. I think I'm getting closer to beating him!" Petra said, bouncing up and down excitedly, actually floating a little into the air each time with each bounce due to her Blaze Rods.
Jesse shook her head a bit. "I think I'll stick with Olivia today, but thanks, guys," making the other three pout a bit in disappointment.
So the three of them spent the day working on the usage of redstone torches. It wasn't too bad, but honestly, Jesse would've liked for Ivor to teach her how to make a potion of Strength... no, no, draught of...
And also for him to remind her of the name of the potion.
Jesse shuddered again, shaking herself out of the memory. She glanced up at Ivor, who had a frozen look on his face for a split second, but then it faded, his face hardened and he stepped forward. "Out of my way."
"Wait-" Ivor shoved past her, but found himself being blocked by a stone sword. "Oh, you're not going anywhere," Petra snarled.
Ivor's face blanched a bit. "Petra?"
She grinned, but she'd just backed him up to a sword stand, and Ivor grabbed a gold sword before she could do anything, slashing at her. Petra blocked. "Foolish girl, I-"
She cut him off, shivering so barely that you'd have to really look at her to notice. "Shut up. I don't care what you have to say." And blocked another swing from Ivor, whose eyes had hardened and seemed to be shining a little, for some reason.
"I'm just going to take you down."
A/N: Another flashback! Jesse remembers something about the Order, ooh la la. And Petra's wither sickness comes out! And finally, we have a description of a Blaze with Wither Sickness. I hope this is satisfactory, NoItsBecky, because this took me forever to think of.
And the review section is still bugging out. (sighs)
Please vote on the poll on my profile, please! It will literally take less than two minutes, and I really need ze feedback. To the two people so far who have voted, thanks!
x.X. A.L. X.x.
