Chapter 5: Unbelievable
"Deci, you… know this mob?" Ender asked, raising a metaphorical eyebrow.
"He's… not a mob! Why… why can't you see it?" Deci asked, staring at Ender in confusion. "He's the same Player that has come after me twice now! He's just wearing a stupid pumpkin on his head!"
Ender looked between Deci, and the Player, Flynt. Then back again.
"Are you sure? He doesn't look like any normal Player I've ever seen." Ender said.
"Yeah, Deci, he doesn't—GAH! WHAT THE—!" Zoe said, as Deci stormed over to Flynt and swiped the pumpkin off his head. "It… really is a Player!"
"Get him!" Crea said, rushing forward.
"Wait, I want you to see something. And I want him to see something, most importantly." Deci said, gritting her teeth and stopping Crea from charging further with one hand. "Besides, Aunt Crea, if you explode now you'll take out everything else with you."
"That's true Crea. Please just calm yourself for a few moments…" Ender said, though he sounded just as angry himself. "Deci must have a reason for keeping this Player alive for the time being."
"I—will try to make it quick, anyway." Deci said, stalking forward.
Flynt nearly backed up nervously, but he would have backed straight into the skeleton's arrow, already fitted to its bow. Deci was storming over to him. She… definitely could make him nervous.
And the way she had just called off the mobs from attacking. He hadn't been oblivious to the Creeper attacking. She had pretty much just hissed a few words, and something had come over the mobs.
"Flynt!" Deci said, looking angry as ever. "You come back!? AGAIN?!"
Flynt shifted his weight nervously.
"Well, I-I…" He said, unsure of how to respond. The way that the other mobs were staring at him was definitely scaring him. They looked like they would like nothing more than to tear him apart.
"Come." Deci said, still frowning. She grabbed his hand, and nearly dragged him over to the Enderman. "My father."
Flynt looked down quickly. Deci saw this, and put her hand under his chin, lifting his eyes to the Enderman's.
"Watch." She said, pointedly. After a few seconds, she walked over to the Creeper, still toting Flynt along. She led him in a similar manner to each of the rest of the mobs. As she finished, she turned to him. "My family. You no kill. You kill, I kill."
She was deadly serious on that finishing note. But as she looked into Flynt's frightened expression, her own softened somewhat.
"Family…" she said, struggling for words. "Family no bad. No kill, no bad. Watch."
Deci began unstrapping Flynt's armor, and removing his weapons from his belt. Flynt began to protest, but did remember that he was surrounded on all sides by mobs who obviously felt protective of Deci, and looked ready to pounce as it was.
When the various pieces of equipment were removed and carefully laid on Deci's bed, Flynt stood before the mobs in plain jeans, grey T-shirt, and simple black boots. He lowered his eyes under the mobs' gazes, and the mobs glared at him as though they were trying to pierce his soul.
Deci noted the near-palpable hatred flowing throughout the room. Nobody moved. Nobody so much as blinked. Flynt most of all. He was so still he could've been a statue, and he was sweating bullets.
Deci finally broke the silence.
"Okay, I guess it's time to say goodbye to Flynt, and—"
The mobs jumped forward, but Deci stopped them at the last second.
"—SAY GOOD MORNING!" Deci finished quickly. "I meant let's just let him go home now!"
The mobs looked at Deci, then between each other.
"Deci, if he brings back more Players, we could very well be killed in such an attack." Ender said.
Deci turned to Flynt. "You bring back more Player to kill family?" she asked him.
Flynt looked around at the mobs' intent gazes, and shook his head emphatically. "No!"
"He says no…" Zoe growled. "...but what if he means yes?"
"I will personally guarantee that he won't. If he does, then I swear by the Dragon Jean herself, I'll kill him myself." Deci said. "After, of course, we all get to safety, that is."
The mobs still looked hesitant to just let the Player go. Deci tried once more.
"Please trust me on this. I would never do anything to hurt you four. I'd rather swallow an Iron Golem whole, first." Deci said. "But Flynt here knows about us, and I get the feeling that somehow, despite all apparent signs he's just beginning to get it."
"But Deci…" Bones began, but Deci cut him off.
"Uncle Bones, I don't want to just sit by and watch as the only Player I've really seen who cared is killed in front of me. Especially when the only reason he's here in the first place is because of me." Deci said. "But if he poses a true and immediate threat, then I'll do everything in my power to prevent him from threatening us again."
The mobs looked at each other again. Everything they'd ever encountered of Players told them that they should strike this Player down where he stood. Kill or be killed.
But then they saw the pleading look on Deci's face. They noted the stoic passivity of the Player called Flynt. And for the same reasons that had possessed them to adopt Deci in the first place, all those nights ago, they wanted her to be happy.
Deci saw this in their silent conversation between each other and even more, and interjected, further pleading her case.
"I love you all, and wouldn't trade you four out for anything at all in this world, or the next. I wouldn't trade places with the Dragon queen herself, if it was my choice. But in this, I would like to know at least one of my kind who understood my love for you all. And finally, after many failed attempts…" Deci said, glancing back for a moment at Flynt, "I think he finally understands."
The mobs sighed.
"Deci, for your sake we'll back off of this matter." Ender began. "But there are conditions."
"Name them. I'll do anything you want me to." Deci said. The mobs smiled.
"We know you would, sweetheart." Zoe said, touching Deci's arm. "And we appreciate it."
"The first thing, above all, is that the Player cannot bring any others with him to our cave. The first time he does, we will kill both Players to prevent them from bringing even more." Ender said, deadly serious.
"Agreed. I'll help you myself if the case needs be." Deci said.
"Secondly, this Player cannot bring any—" Zoe began, but Crea interjected.
"CATS!" she said emphatically. "NO CATS!"
"—weapons, is what I was going to say," Zoe said. She rolled her eyes before continuing. "But he can't bring any weapons within a bowshot of the cave. We don't want you getting hurt, either accidentally or on purpose."
"Third, if he ever makes any advances against any of us, we retain full right to slay him on the spot." Bones said.
"Agreed." Deci said.
"And one other thing." Ender said, quietly. "I want you to only allow him to come at night. I want to be awake and alert when he comes, if he comes. I won't risk anything happening to you, daughter."
Deci smiled and wrapped her arms around Ender's long frame, and he returned the hug compliantly.
"Promise." She said.
Bones went to the mouth of the cave and shot an arrow. The boundaries of the cave. Deci walked over to Flynt, who was still standing very, very still.
"Flynt, you safe. But…" she said, frowning. "But…"
Flynt looked up at her slowly. "But?"
Deci turned back to Ender. "Father, how do I tell him the rules? I—I can't speak Player that well."
Ender turned to Zoe. "Zoe, can you—?"
"Uh, I don't think so. I was rusty when we met Deci. After these sixteen years, I've virtually forgotten that I ever knew Player." Zoe moaned.
The four mobs fell silent as they pondered over what could be done. Flynt glanced between each of the faces in the cave, finding them deep in thought.
"Well, there is one mob who might help…" Bones clacked. Crea turned to him.
"No, nonono Bones…" she hissed. "She'll… She'll definitely try to kill Deci. Even if we didn't bring her, she'd wonder why we would want a potion to let a mob speak Player."
"That's true." Ender noted. "If we got reported for even attempting to talk to a Player we'd be investigated. For the high-mobs to learn that we adopted a Player? We'd be imprisoned for life at best, probably we'd be executed as traitors."
"But she hates the authorities almost as much as we do!" Bones said. "The chances she'd report us just because we asked for a potion…"
"It's not worth the risk, Bones." Zoe said.
"But… Deci. We've got to at least let her try…" Bones clacked.
"Uncle Bones, absolutely not." Deci said. "I will not ask you four to risk something like that, whatever it is. We'll find another way. Flynt and I can figure something out. Given enough time, the two of us can communicate, to an extent."
"But what would you try, Deci? He's definitely not allowed in here until he knows these rules. We're just not comfortable being in the same room as him at the moment. He can't—" Zoe began, but Deci finished for her.
"He may not be able to come to me, but I can go with him. He lives in a house not far from here. I can stay with him for a day or two, and then come back. He doesn't mean me any harm, I know that much. Even though I've drawn a weapon on him at least twice, and also exploded in his house, he still came after me to do something or other. I just know that he doesn't mean to hurt me.
"Now, before you guys say no, I just want you to consider this. If I were to go with him, you all would be safer form any surprise-visits from mobs. And it will only be for a few days." Deci said. "I'll only stay long enough for me to tell him the rules, then I'll come back."
"Is that it?" Ender said, after a few minutes pause.
"It is."
"Good. No." Ender said. "I don't like the idea of you living with… him, for a few days. That just sets every instinct I have on red-alert."
"Okay then, I'll respect your wishes." Deci said, though the mobs could tell she wasn't exactly pleased with the decision. But at least she recognized why they made it.
Deci walked over to Flynt, who had patiently waited for the other mobs to finish.
"You need go home now." She said hesitantly.
"Deci, I—" Flynt began, but Deci placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I come to you later." She said with a half-smile. "Talk."
Flynt was about to continue, but saw in her eyes that any further arguments would be fruitless anyway. He closed his mouth and nodded.
"Later." He said, before turning and slowly walking around the mobs, giving them a wide berth. He was out of the cave, and this time, the mobs (and Deci) made sure he actually left.
Hm. The Player was walking out of the cave unharmed. Either, he was able to somehow massacre every mob in there, or…
Wait. Another Player stood at the entrance of the cave. This one a girl. She was waving to the other Player as he left, so maybe they both took care of the mobs togeth—
A long black arm rested on the shoulder of the girl-Player. It pulled her in gently, and she let it, giving no resistance.
What the Nether was going on here?
The two zombies looked at each other from their cover in the treeline. That girl. The mobs. The mobs were still alive, and what's worse, they were living with a Player.
The zombies smiled, before shuffling back into the cover of night, heading off in what seemed a random direction.