Chapter 10: Warring Opinions
Deci's POV:
Deci appeared in front of Flynt and Zach, startling both of them. Flynt's sword was drawn quickly, but upon seeing that it was Deci, he lowered it to the ground again.
"Oh, is everything alright?" Flynt asked, eyeing her expression. It was hard to see in the dark.
"Yes, Crys and I took care of the situation," Deci said, somewhat quietly. "Here, grab my hand. We do have to hurry a little bit."
Zach seemed to trust Deci the longer he knew her, and didn't hesitate to scamper back up onto her shoulders. Deci held out her hand for Flynt to grab.
Flynt looked hesitant. "What do you mean you 'took care of the situation'? Which situation?"
"The Players from the town we last visited were in a hunting party, trying to track us down," Deci said. "Crys and I made them leave us alone."
Flynt tried to peer through the darkness in front of his eyes, though Deci, having grown up in the darkness, was accustomed to low levels of light, and could therefore see just as well as in the daytime. "Deci, what did you and Crys do?"
"Well, they attacked first," Deci began, suddenly feeling like she needed to be defensive. "So we retaliated. Most of the Players are alright, just heading back to the town. Now take my hand! Crys doesn't seem like a patient sort of person."
Flynt slowly took her hand, and suddenly they were in another clearing. Crys was, at first, nowhere to be seen, but as Deci appeared, they heard a soft voice from behind them.
"Took you long enough," Crys said, before actually looking at Flynt. Though her expression remained passive, Deci could see a hardening in her eyes at his expression. "What did I miss?"
"Deci was telling me that you two killed some people?" Flynt asked, still seeming mildly incredulous. "How many?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe three?" Crys said, shrugging. "They were about to attack us, it was self-defense. Had to be done."
"You couldn't have just scared them off?" Flynt asked, becoming more impassioned the longer this conversation took place. "I mean, you could've—"
"Done what?" Crys said, her voice subtly, but noticeably, harsher. "Asked them to pretty please leave us alone? Players don't like Players interacting with mobs in a friendly way. Neither do the Mobs. They saw Deci save Zach, and they figured she was dangerous, based on how she destroyed two iron golems almost by herself."
"You don't know that they wouldn't have tried to see reason!" Flynt said, his own voice growing louder. "You didn't have to kill—"
It was at this point that Deci, who watched this exchange with the perspective of an outside party, knew that this was a dangerous topic of conversation. She stepped forward, standing between Crys and Flynt, breaking their ever-increasing harsh glares. "Look, I'm sure we're all just tired. Flynt hasn't slept for the time span of two days, and frankly I'm a little bushed myself. The Players wouldn't give us a room in their town, so we'll just have to sleep out here. But maybe after we all get a little sleep we can tackle this problem with more open minds."
Flynt thought about it for a moment, before backing off. Deci looked to Crys, who gave Deci an expression with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" she asked, though her voice sounded mollified for the moment. "If you're looking at me like that for me to agree that I could really use some shut-eye, then forget it. I slept a few days ago. Someone in my position doesn't like sleeping when creatures can easily sneak up on you."
Deci smiled slightly. "'In your position'? What position would that be exactly?"
Crys grinned back at her, but it was more sarcastic than Deci's. "Hunted by other Players, Deci. If you're trying to get me to open up about my past, you're going to have to be more clever than that. For now, you and Flynt find a good place to camp for the night, and I'll start work on a fire."
Deci nodded, and looked at Flynt. Flynt looked back at her.
"Well?" Deci asked a moment later. "Where should we 'camp'?"
"Why are you asking me? This is your quest," Flynt replied.
"I've never been this far away from the cave before. I don't know a thing about 'camp' or stuff like that," Deci explained.
"Oh," Flynt said. He was sort of surprised. This was some of the first things he had learned how to do, when he was little. Although growing up with mobs, he assumed it was natural to mostly live without some of these educations. "Well here, the first thing we'll need are some sheep," Flynt began, but as he looked around he didn't see any white wool gleaming in the darkness. "Hmm…"
"About forty-six blocks away, that direction," Deci suddenly piped up, pointing in what Flynt would have assumed was a random direction.
"What? How do you know?" Flynt asked, peering that direction. All he saw were a handful of trees.
Deci turned to him, eyebrow raised and a smirk adorning her mouth. "Three adults and two kids," she added. "One of the adults is black."
At this point, it was impossible for Flynt not to find out if what she said was true. He began walking that direction, Deci on his heels. He came to a treeline, but his count was still at twenty-seven blocks. He came around a tree, and his eyes bugged.
Three adults, one of them black, and two baby sheep were grazing in a small clearing. Flynt turned to Deci, who had an amused expression on his face.
"How did you do that?" he asked, looking at her. "Did you see them before I did?"
Deci rooted around in her pocket for a moment, before pulling out an Ender Pearl. Flynt felt confused for a moment.
"You teleported? Seems kind of like a waste of energy," but Deci laughed at this.
"No, silly, I used the End Force," Deci said.
Flynt's eyebrows furrowed as he went to work, shearing each of the sheep. End force? What the heck was that?
"What is the 'End Force'?" Flynt asked, terribly curious as he worked.
"The End Force is a flow of information, originating from the End Dimension. It is the excess energy left over from something or other in that dimension, which the Endermen and the Dragons harness by eating the Ender Pearls," Deci explained. Flynt's jaw dropped as Deci continued, an air of smugness about her as she stood proudly, "It seems that while you were learning how to shear sheep and trade with villagers, I was learning how to utilize a primordial force."
Flynt chuckled, turning as he gathered up the last wool from the ground. "Yeah, that may be. Ready to go back?"
Deci nodded, and followed Flynt as he walked to the clearing they had just left. Crys had already set up a crackling fire. She stared at the embers as they flew up into the night sky, the fire playing with her shadow as it splayed out behind her. She heard Flynt and Deci approaching, and nodded casually to them in greeting, before turning back to face the stars and the fire.
Deci sat down beside Crys as Flynt began to craft some beds. "So, whatcha thinking about?"
Crys was silent for a moment. She sighed. "My home. It's been a while since I've—since I've seen it."
"Oh really? Where are you from?" Deci asked.
"Somewhere far, far away from here," Crys sighed. "But unforgettable in almost every way."
"That sounds amazing. Was it beautiful?" Deci asked, pushing her luck. She didn't know if Crys was purposely giving her answers about her past or if she was just responding to conversation.
"It was an acquired taste, I suppose. Not too many people care for it," she shrugged. "But I miss that old slab of stone."
Deci nodded. She could relate. Living with mobs was about as much of an "acquired taste" as was possible.
"Why did you leave?" Deci asked.
Crys seemed to come back to reality, and her expression grew a little darker. "I'd rather not talk about that right now."
"Okay," Deci quickly said, not wanting to upset her. "Which constellation is your favorite?"
Crys pointed up to a cluster of stars, brighter than the rest. "I like the Great Dragon, but Aetherhaven is nice too."
"Personally, mine is the Netherstar. I've always wanted to visit the Nether, but uncle Bones and my father won't let me. They say it's too dangerous for me."
Crys raised an eyebrow. "I don't know. You seem like you could handle yourself. As long as you avoid Wither skeletons and the lava everywhere, you'll be fine."
Deci looked at Crys with a touched look.
"What?" Crys says, shrugging.
"I'm touched you think I could do it!" Deci said, smiling widely.
Crys nodded. "Well, don't read TOO much into it. I mean, you'd probably still need a shield in the Nether."
"Too late, compliment is takeeen…" Deci sang, chuckling.
"Well, I tried," Crys said, chuckling herself.
Flynt walked over and placed down three beds.
"I know you said you didn't want one, Crys, but there's one if you want it," Flynt said.
"I claim the black one!" both girls said at the same time. Then they both looked at each other with some shock. "Why do you want the black one?"
"It reminds me of my father's bed," Deci said. "But if you want it, you can have it."
"I can only sleep in absolute darkness," Crys said. "Darker sheets help with that. Go ahead, you can take it. I'm probably not going to sleep anyways."
"Yes you are!" Deci said, standing up. "You've got to get rest! It's only healthy!"
"I can't do that, not when I feel like I'm being watched from every angle," Crys retorted. "I'll keep watch tonight."
"Crys," Deci said pleadingly. "PLEASE get some sleep. We'll need you to be fully rested for tomorrow, and I really wouldn't like to see you having a hard time!"
"I miss weeks of sleep at a time, Deci. One night isn't going to do much anyways," Crys said.
"Both of you can stop arguing," Flynt said, rolling his eyes. From his inventory he pulled out a squid's ink sac. He carefully slit it open, and the entire sac of ink fell on the bed. In moments, the entire bed was pitch-black, just like the other one. "Now we have TWO black beds."
Both girls looked somewhat sheepish for a moment.
"After you," Crys said, motioning to the beds.
"Nuh uh, After YOU!" Deci said, getting behind Crys.
"Deci, just go get on the bed!" Crys said, grabbing Deci's arms and swinging her back in front of her, towards the beds.
"If I'm going to sleep, you're coming with me!" Deci said, grabbing onto Crys's arms and performing much the same maneuver as her.
"I'm not GOING to sleep!" Crys said, exasperated.
"That's what you think!" Deci retorted, pulling Crys forward.
Thus the bickering continued anew, as Flynt watched with exasperation. Eventually, he just slid between the sheets in his bed, and closed his eyes, as the shadows of the two bickering girls flitted over him from the campfire. Zach crawled under one of the black beds and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.
The sun was just over the horizon when Flynt woke up. First, he looked over. Both black beds remained untouched since last night. He sat up, fearing for a moment if the girls had vanished.
This was not the case. Halfway between the foot of his bed and the smoldering campfire, exactly where they had been bickering last night, both girls were draped over each other on the ground, tuckered out. Deci was underneath Crys, mumbling something about 'gotta sleep, you black-haired screwball', while Crys was snoring softly on top of Deci. It was almost a sort of chuffing sound.
Flynt rolled his eyes and went off to find something for breakfast. He found a few rogue cattle nearby, and quickly made short work of them. He found a clean stream, and filled three bottles with water for them to drink. Then he carried his steaks and water back to the campsite, where the girls were beginning to stir. He relit the campfire, and placed the steaks around the crackling flames.
"Haha, I wiiiin…" Deci giggled sleepily.
"Did not," Crys said, her eyes fluttering open.
"Did too, you fell asleep," Deci chuckled, rubbing her eye.
"Did not, I was just resting my eyes for a moment," Crys said, groaning a little as she got to her feet.
"Sure you were. You're just afraid to admit that I beat you," Deci said, sitting up as Crys stood up.
"Nuh uh, I beat you. You never made it to the beds," Crys said, smiling somewhat smugly. Before Deci could retort or continue the argument, Crys turned to Flynt. "Those smell amazing. Beef?"
"Yeah, I got one for each of us, and there's one extra," Flynt said, flipping the steaks over to let the other side cook more evenly. "They'll be done shortly. If you two want to wash up or something, there's a stream that direction, and here are two bottles of cleaner water."
Flynt tossed Crys a bottle, who caught it adeptly between her hands. For a moment she looked at the bottle strangely, before she nodded her thanks to Flynt and stored it away for later. The bottle Flynt tossed to Deci went wide, accidentally sailing over her head, straight for a rock nearby. Flynt sighed as he realized would have to smelt another glass bottle for Deci.
Fortunately for Flynt, Deci was an anomaly among Players. She reached out as if trying to catch it anyways, and a few moments before the bottle hit the rock and shattered, a small black hole opened up, and the bottle sailed right through the hole. Another black hole opened inches away from Deci's hand, and the water bottle sailed right into her waiting palm. She uncorked it and took a long drink.
"Thanks Flynt," she said, putting the rest of the water away in her inventory.
Flynt nodded, by now completely used to the fact that Deci could wield some strange superpower or other over pretty much anything. He nodded, taking the steaks off of the heat of the flames.
"Who's hungry?" he asked.
Deci and Crys looked like they were about to maul Flynt for the steaks, which he almost laughed at.
"Well, here you go but they're still pretty hot—" he said, handing each girl a steak.
Crys just popped the whole steak in her mouth in only four bites. She chewed quickly, and thus set the fastest record for eating a steak and swallowing that Flynt had ever seen. Meanwhile, Deci was still alternating between taking more sips of water and wolfing down the hot steak.
"This is so good! What do you call it?" Deci asked, gnawing at the meat ravenously.
"Uh, steak," Flynt said.
"What's it made of? I've never tasted anything like this!" Deci muttered, her mouth full.
"Uh, meat," Flynt said, his brain connecting pathways. "Wait, you've never had meat?"
"Where do you get it? I haven't seen any plants that grow like this," Deci said, holding up her last bite of steak before shoving it in her mouth.
"It doesn't grow on plants, it's made of cows. And Chicken meat is made of chickens, and pork is made of pigs—"
Deci was staring at Flynt blankly, unmoving.
"Deci? You okay?" he asked, stepping closer.
"OOOOOOH so THAT'S why there are so many of those things around the villages!" Deci finally said. "I never understood that!"
Crys laughed outright.
"What have you been surviving off of, potatoes?"
"And carrots, mostly. Every now and then I'd find sweet berries in the forest. Oh! And those small red things. Beets? Yeah, I think they're beets. They don't taste as good."
Flynt whistled. "Dang, you've missed out on a lot of the Player-world, haven't you?"
Deci nodded. "Yup. Can't say I'm all that sorry though. Except for this 'meat' stuff. Can I have another?"
"Actually, I'm still hungry too. Let's go hunt something," Crys said. She unsheathed her knives, and tilted her head, as though listening for the nearest prey. According to Deci, Flynt realized, this is actually what she could be doing; listening to the flow of information from the End Force.
After a moment, Crys smiled. In one motion, she turned and flung one of her knives towards a tree. Just as the knife reached the trunk, another cow had the unfortunate timing to come out from behind the wood. The knife impaled its head and killed it in one blow.
"Nice shot," Deci said appreciatively. Crys walked over and retrieved her knife from the cow's skull, before sheathing both knives.
"Thanks. That fire still hot enough to cook these?" Crys said, holding up several slabs of raw beef.
Flynt poked at the sputtering flames. They hadn't much time left. "Maybe. It's gonna be close anyways."
Crys waved dismissively. "Nah, we'll be fine. Here. Put these on."
Flynt put the steaks next to the fire as Crys went over and sat on one of the black beds. She simply sat there, unmoving, as she watched the rapidly dying fire. The steaks were almost done, but not done enough, when the fire winked out. Flynt sighed.
"Dang, I've got to find more wood for the fire. I'll be right back," he said, grabbing his stone axe and heading off towards the treeline for a suitable tree for chopping. Deci began to follow after him, when she stopped, and turned back to face Crys.
Crys's back was facing Deci, and her attention was on the small and dying fire. But as Deci watched, she felt a strange sense with her End Force. She popped a pearl into her mouth to check, and saw what Crys was doing.
There seemed to be an unnaturally bright beam of power flowing from Crys's hand to the smoldering remains of the fire. As Deci watched what her senses were showing her, she saw the beam begin to reform, waving the tips and fluttering as though in wind. The power transformed, turning into a source of heat, and Deci gasped. She opened her eyes. The campfire was lit again.
"How did you do that?" she asked, walking up behind Crys. Crys almost jumped in surprise.
"Deci?! I didn't even hear you come up!" she said, standing up quickly and brushing something off her midnight-black cloak. "Do what?"
"How did you just relight the fire with the End Force?" Deci asked.
Crys looked sheepish.
"What fire?" she said, looking away.
Deci just gave her a look. Crys sighed.
"Oh Notch, I can't believe I actually just tried that. Okay fine, you got me. I relit the fire."
"How did you do it?" Deci asked, terribly curious. "I never knew you could do stuff like that with the End Force!"
"Then you'd be surprised when I tell you that what I just did wasn't even a fraction of what the End Force can really do. I've met people way stronger than me who use the End Force, even without knowing about it."
"Really?" Deci asked, shock evident on her face.
"Yes indeed," Crys said, sitting down on a black bed. Her expression looked both thoughtful and dismayed. "You won't tell Flynt, will you? He can't know about this."
Deci cocked her head, confused. "Why not?"
"Let's just say he wouldn't understand," Crys said. "I don't want to put you in that sort of situation with him."
"If you really don't want me to tell him, I won't," Deci said. "I just don't see why it's important NOT to tell him."
"Like I said, he wouldn't understand," Crys replied quietly, as Flynt began to approach. He looked at the crackling flame and the smoking steaks, and frowned.
"Where did you get more fuel?"
"I had some on me. I forgot to tell you until you were already out of sight," Crys lied smoothly. She prodded the steaks, flipping them over with a stick. "These are almost done."
She flipped the steaks into her hand, and handed one to Deci, before swallowing her steak almost whole again. Deci gasped at the heat, but carefully set it down, instead of dropping it.
"So when you're done with that steak, we should probably get going," Crys said, standing and kicking out the remaining embers of the fire. "The witch's hut isn't too far away anymore."
Deci walked over to the black bed under which Zach was resting. She reached under and pulled him out, his form limp in her arms as he continued to snore lightly.
"(AAAWWWW)!" Deci whispered, seeming to be the only one who found anything endearing about a sleeping rotten infant. Carefully she repositioned Zach's chin to rest on her shoulder as she held him. With her free hand, she broke the bed and put the item in her inventory for later.
Flynt broke the other two beds, and held out the remaining black one to Crys, who took it and stored it away as well. Flynt picked up the crafting table he had used last night to craft the beds, and with that they were prepared to be on their way again. Crys led the way, with Deci and Zach behind her, as Flynt still wasn't so sure of the baby zombie's neutrality.
It was a good solid walk until Zach finally began to stir again. He moaned on Deci's shoulder, shifting to the other one as he sniffed the air.
"I hungrryyyyyy…" he moaned quietly.
"What would you like to eat?" Deci asked calmly, though Flynt wanted to roll his eyes. Brains, Deci, brains are what the zombie would like to eat.
Flynt was rather surprised when Deci pulled something else out of her inventory; several spider eyes.
Zach sniffed the air again, his eyes still closed as he homed in on the spider eyes in Deci's hand. Flynt didn't see any appeal spider eyes had, but the baby zombie seemed to be drawn towards them.
Deci handfed him spider eyes, which he sleepily took, before moaning again and falling back asleep for ten more minutes. The entire walk up until now, and for the walk during those ten minutes, Deci calmly and patiently held the rotten infant as they walked. She must be rather tired of doing that.
Flynt walked a little faster, falling in step by Deci's side. "Spider eyes?"
She grinned. "Yeah, zombies as an adult can eat pretty much anything, but juvenile zombies usually don't have the teeth to try and bite through the skull, or chew through meat or some other solid. So they mostly eat spider eyes. Don't they teach you guys this stuff?"
"No. Not a single Player in all of Minecraft aside from you knew that," Flynt laughed. Crys chuckled.
"Actually…" she said.
"How on earth could you kno—" Flynt began, but Crys just chuckled again.
"I can speak Entitian, remember? It's much easier to learn secrets about mobs if you can actually understand them," Crys said.
Flynt sighed.
Crys and Deci laughed again, before paying attention to where they were walking again.
It wasn't long at all until the group of four finally reached the edge of the biome, where the grass took on a darker hue and became much more marshy. Crys nodded to herself as she surveyed the scene. Out in the distance, barely perceptible to anyone because of the fog, the corner of an elevated wooden hut peeked out, hinting at the direction of the witch's hut.
"We're here," she said quietly. "Everyone remember to stay absolutely quiet."
Ender's POV:
Ender sat in the corner of the room, pondering. They could be anywhere, in any of the dimensions, surrounded by any number of guards… The Entity 303 himself could be right outside the door for their execution, and he'd never know it.
He sent out his senses into the End Force, trying to discern any bit of information it could tell him that it hadn't told him already. The room was covered in cobblestone, a good indication that they were in the Overworld. Every now and then, in the far right corner, a single drop of lava would drip through the cracks in the ceiling high overhead, but it cooled before it could do any damage to any of the mobs. Not that this particularly helped narrowing down which dimension they were in.
If only they could get some sort of visual outside of their cobblestone cage. Just to get a glimpse of where they might be.
Ender looked over, and in the darkness he could sense that Bones was sitting beside Zoe, pondering over what they might be able to do as well.
"Crea, could you detonate one of the walls?" Bones thought aloud. "Then we could potentially escape."
"They would've thought of that already when they put a Creeper in here, Bones," Ender said, sighing.
"Yeah, I wish I could, but they already washed all the gunpowder off of my scales. It'll take me at least a week to even make enough gunpowder to make a good-sized explosion."
"Besides that, if there is lava covering this entire room, then it would be suicide to try and remove one of the walls," Ender finished. He huffed in annoyance. "Any way I look at it, there's no way for us to escape."
"There's GOT to be a way! Deci still needs us!" Zoe moaned, her face in her hands. "What is she gonna think when she gets back to the cave and sees that we've just gone!"
Instantly, with that thought, the tension and need to get out of the cobblestone cage doubled at least. None of the other mobs thought about how that might look.
"Nether," Bones clacked, sitting up straighter. "What do you think she'd do next?"
The mobs fell silent as they pondered over their predicament, and their worry for Deci.