A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this new chapter! Please leave a review if you like it! I miss hearing from you guys!

Chapter 11: We're Off to See The Witch… and Friends

Deci's POV:

Deci crouched low, with Zach by her side, groggily keeping close to her as she crept forward, hiding behind one of the posts that held up the witch's hut. Crys walked over to a tree with vines overhanging from it, and began to climb up. Flynt stood back about twenty paces from the house, hiding behind a small mound of dirt as he readied his bow, just in case.

Crys leapt down from the tree, landing on the wooden porch of the witch.

There was silence in the hut for a moment, as Crys pulled out a black shield, and walked in, holding the shield in front of her. "Wicket, it's just Crys!"

Deci sent her senses out into the End Force to get a better view of the scene taking place in the house. Crys was lowering her shield, and the Witch was glancing around nervously.

"Crys?" Wicket said, grunting a little bit, "What are you doing here?"

"I need some information. Where and when is the Council meeting?"

There was a silence for a moment, before Wicket leaned forward a little over her cauldron, stirring the ingredients.

"Is this an official question?" she whispered.

Crys leaned against the wall, pulling out a dagger and running her hand across the smooth surface of the blade. "You know me better than that."

Wicket sighed, and reached over, breaking a stalk of sugar cane that was growing outside her small window. She poured it into the cauldron and stirred some more, before adding a red mushroom.

"Five glowstone," Wicket said, somewhat mysteriously.

Crys pulled out a brightly glowing powder, holding it out. "Six, if you also give me a map."

"Deal," Wicket said, turning and grabbing the glowstone. Suddenly Deci felt a small spark of End Force, nothing in comparison to the levels of an Enderman, herself, or Crys, but a small spark nonetheless. A map swirled into being in the Witch's hands as she conjured it.

"The Council meets in two days at this location," Wicket says, pointing to one spot of the map in particular. "They will decide the fate of several cases, before they will be gone again. Past that, I have no idea where they'll be, so whatever it is you're planning on doing—"

"—Make it quick, and make sure that they don't know you're involved, I know," Crys said, swiping the map and turning to leave.

"Crys," Wicket says, and Crys turns once again to face the Witch. "Your mother—"

Crys's face turned downward into a sort of a snarl. "I don't want to talk about it, Wicket."

"—You know she's—" Wicket began again, but stopped short as she suddenly stiffened. Deci felt something like a thin line of energy streaming out from the Witch, spinning around and around like she was searching for something. The physical form of the Witch pulled out a splash potion out of her robes as she scanned outside her windows. "Someone's watching us."

Deci held back her huff. She'd been spotted through the End Force. Quickly, she opened her eyes and retracted her senses, turning to leave as stealthily as she could. From underneath the house, she could hear Wicket moving around.

Quietly, she motioned for Zach to follow her as she wove through the pillars supporting the house, heading for the nearest tree to hide behind. Zach obediently followed at her heels, not making a sound as best as he could.

She was almost halfway to the tree, when she heard a grunt behind her. She didn't need to see a face to know who it was.

As she spun around she drew her shield, as a potion struck the wood, sinking through. Deci felt her insides suddenly shout out in pain for only a moment, as if she had been struck by an arrow without piercing the skin. She grunted in pain a little as she stumbled back a step.

"Dang splash potion of harming," she said to herself, standing up and unsheathing her sword. Wicket eyed the gleaming diamond warily, as she pulled out another potion.

At her feet, Zach saw the potion flying towards Deci, full of murky liquid. He had just seen one of those bottles really hurt her, and he didn't want her to be hurt again, so he did the only thing he could think of doing. He drew his wooden sword and ran straight up to the bottle flying towards Deci, swiping at it.

"Zach!" Deci said, rushing forward as she could, but she wasn't fast enough.

His sword struck the glass, and for a moment he was excited, until the glass shattered under the blow, and the liquid came streaming out at him, splashing him head-to-toe. The glass shards from the bottle also flew forward, stabbing into several places.

Immediately he crumpled to the ground.

Deci glared fire at Wicket, who glanced with shock at the baby zombie's attempt to stop the attack on this player.

"No you did not," Deci said, starting forward. She put the shield away in her inventory, and quickly broke a pearl in her mouth. Her slow walk turned into a run, as she raised her sword.

Wicket threw two bottles, one of harming and one of poison, but Deci simply teleported ahead, dodging the bottles completely as they crashed harmlessly behind her. "YOU DIDN'T JUST HURT ZACH!"

Deci swiped upwards, and Wicket only just barely had time to block most of the strike with another potion bottle, this one full of speed potion. The glass broke under the attack, and Wicket started to move much faster, but Deci still was teleporting about.

Suddenly, Deci felt something else streaking towards her. She immediately teleported behind Wicket, avoiding the projectile.

The arrow lodged itself in Wicket's leg, and she fell to the ground with a grunt. She pulled out a red bottle of healing potion from her robes and uncorked it, beginning to raise it to her lips.

"Uh uh I don't think so," Deci said, knocking the bottle to the ground with her sword, as she pressed Wicket to the ground at swordpoint. Flynt walked up behind her, bow drawn back as he made sure to stay out of range of Wicket's potions. "Why shouldn't I just kill you now?"

"I still need her alive, Deci," Crys said, walking up. "Don't kill her, she's my informant. Wicket, this is Deci. She's a friendly, don't worry."

Wicket looked like she was still plenty worried as Deci held the Witch as swordpoint. Crys stared harder at Deci.

"Deci, let Wicket go. She won't attack again."

Deci snarled once, before looking over to the limp form of the baby zombie. She got up and rushed over, before beginning to inspect him.

"He's not dead," Deci sighed in relief. "He's just very weak. He needs medical supplies."

Flynt turned to Wicket. "Healing potions?"

"No, we need harming. For zombies, healing potions harm them, and regeneration is poisonous," Deci said.

Flynt looked at Wicket expectantly.

"I don't have the harming potions you need, my harming are all short-range combat potions," Wicket quickly said, eyeing the bow in his hands apprehensively. "You need to force-feed him a natural harming. If you can find a brewing stand of your own, I'm sure you could make it work."

"Where's the nearest town?" Deci asked, walking over with a limp Zach cradled in her arms.

"There's a small settlement of Players to the east of here," Crys said. "They'll have proper medical supplies."

"Then c'mon, we have to go," Deci said, turning eastwards. "How far is it?"

"Not far, I think it's just past this swamp," Crys said, falling into step by Deci's side. "Dang, you're really driven."

"I can't just let him die!" Deci said, walking a little faster over the marshlands of the swamp as the Witch's hut faded into the background fog. Flynt slung his bow over his shoulder, before thinking better of it and storing it away in his inventory.

"Of course not, but it's not like we're short on time," Crys said. "He'll be just fine, I just sense that the potion is just weakening him."

"It doesn't take much to hurt him when he's already weak," Deci said quickly, jumping over a larger-than-normal puddle.

"Still," Crys said, shrugging. "I mean, I can understand why, but I'm just saying."

They came upon the 'settlement' in virtually no time. It consisted of not much more than a somewhat-more-glorified-than-others village, with an additional house nearby. There were the sounds of Players chatting, but not very many probably. Deci fell silent as they approached, for the same reasons as what happened with the last village; people wouldn't understand a girl who only speaks like Creepers, Endermen, and Zombies.

Crys walked forward, stepping into the Village. "Hello?" she called out in the Player's language. "Is anyone here? We need a—"

Crys stopped in her tracks as she stared at something in the distance. Deci almost ran into her.

"Hey, be careful! You almost—Crys, what happened?!" Deci whispered softly, scanning and trying to see where Crys was staring, still as a statue. Flynt walked up behind them, seemingly unfazed. He stepped further into the village, before walking off to try and find some healing supplies he could purchase, not even paying much attention as both girls stood there, one stone-still and the other scanning their surroundings somewhat frantically.

"It's really him," Crys whispered, her eyes wide. "He's. Right. There."

Deci followed her line of sight. About forty paces away, with his torso facing to their left, was a Player clad all in a bright green. The only deviation from the bright green of the Player's skin was a white, smiling face printed on his torso. It seemed innocent enough. Though he didn't look like most Players Deci had heard of or seen, she felt like she knew him somehow. He looked familiar to something, at the least. The green-clad Player was talking to someone else wearing a huge pair of glasses or something, not paying any attention in the slightest to Crys's direction.

"What, the green guy right there?" Deci asked. "That's why you almost made me run into you?"

Crys didn't respond, only staring straight at the lime green Player with wide eyes. Deci was almost tempted to wave her hand in front of Crys's eyes to see what would happen, but she wasn't sure if she'd like it much.

Deci rolled her eyes. "C'mon Crys, stop staring at the Player. We have to go find Flynt."

Deci grabbed Crys's hand with her free arm and began walking off after Flynt, wherever he had gone. Crys let herself be led by Deci, her wide, violet eyes never wavering from the green-clad Player.

"Dream. He's standing right there. Not forty paces away," Crys said, in a shaky voice.

Suddenly Deci remembered. Horror stories Bones had told her when she was growing up. Most of the time, Bones' horror stories were just so spectacularly bad that it was funny, but the stories about a Player named Dream had really gotten to her. The stories Bones had told her about how this 'Dream' was the nightmare of Mobkind, and how Dream would hunt down whole fortresses filled with Blazes, and entire shades* of Endermen, and slaughter them all in minutes.

She took another look. He sure looked like how the stories had described him as. But she felt like Dream didn't exist. Well, maybe…

"I'm sure it's not actually Dream, Crys," Deci whispered as they walked through the paved streets. "I'm pretty sure he's a myth."

"He's no myth. He and I have a grudge-match to solve," Crys said, coming back to herself once the green 'Dream' was out of sight. She frowned, her expression deeply troubled. "But I'm not so sure if I could win."

Deci shrugged. "I'm sure you could. You're the fastest, strongest person I know."

Crys chuckled once, without humor. "Thanks, but it won't help. He's fought creatures WAY more powerful than me."

"None that I can think of anyway," Deci shrugged. Crys walked ahead of her, peeking into windows of buildings to see if Flynt was inside one perhaps.

Deci huffed as she checked inside another window of the village. "I don't see him anywhere! Where could he have gone?"

Deci heard other Player voices to their left, and she wondered if perhaps any of those Players had seen which building Flynt had gone into. Mustering up what little she could recall of the language that had once been her own, she stepped forward, searching for the Players as their voices grew louder.

She turned a corner, and looked right. There, only a few paces away, a man with a striped hat was talking to another figure. This figure was wearing a crown, and had a red coat on that looked awfully warm. But that wasn't what grabbed most of Deci's attention. The figure's face was that of a piglin. She smiled. She never would've thought that these Players were so easygoing in the presence of piglin! Maybe mobs were actually welcome among these players? Or perhaps the piglins had diplomatic relations with these Players? The piglin in question looked like a king to Deci, so she assumed…

Deci walked up, tapping the piglin lightly on the shoulder. His speech was paused as he turned to face whoever it was trying to get his attention. Two sharp tusks jutted out from just above the corners of his mouth, and his eyes shone brightly in the sunlight. A scar crossed over one eye, doubtless from some battle or other.

"Hello, have you seen—" Was all Deci managed to get out, before the king piglin's eyes fell on Zach in Deci's arms. The other Player with the hat glanced at Zach, and immediately, his expression became humored, though he held his head in his hands, shaking his head.

Meanwhile, the piglin king's entire expression changed into surprise, then defensive, as he stepped in front of the other Player with that hat protectively and drew a gleaming black sword. Just having the sword close enough to her body, Deci was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of powerful enchantments on the weapon she could feel through the End Force. She squeaked in surprise as the weapon was pointed at her and Zach.

"PHIIIILLZZAAAAAAAAAAA!" the piglin-Player-thing screamed loudly, brandishing the weapon to impale the baby zombie in Deci's arms. "LOOK OOUUT!"

Deci squeaked with surprise again and teleported away quickly, before the piglin-looking Player could attack them. Luckily, she seemed to have teleported right into a villager's house with a bed. She laid Zach on the bed, before administering what care she could to him.

Crys appeared at her side, leaning over Zach. "What did you do?!"

"Me? This was Wicket, remember?!" Deci said, in indignance. "I would never—"

"You introduced a baby zombie to the 'Blade'! What did you think was gonna happen?"

"Let me get this straight," Deci sighed, working over Zach as she force-fed him spider eyes. "you want me to believe that both Dream and the 'Blade' are in the SAME village that we just HAPPEN to stumble into?!"

"YES!" Crys says. "We have to get out of here as fast as possible, before we somehow manage to get in even more trouble."

Flynt chose that moment to walk in through the door. Upon seeing Deci and Crys, he grinned.

"Okay, I found a potion of harming, left an emerald in its place," Flynt said, calmly as he didn't know what had just transpired as of yet. He handed the ingredient to Deci, "And I also found this golden apple!"

He pulled out the golden apple aforementioned.

"Flynt, wai—" Deci began, but it was too late.

Flynt helped Zach eat a bite of the golden apple, and suddenly Zach's little body was shaking. Flynt backed up, worry in his eyes.

"Oh no, I thought it would help! What happened!?"

"He had a weakness potion, Flynt," Crys said in surprise. "I didn't even think he was that fresh of a zombie. This means he's only been a zombie for about a week. But in the future, golden apples give the same effect as a potion of regeneration. It would've hurt him more."

"Okay, making a mental note. Sorry Deci," Flynt said.

Deci could hear commotion coming from outside from other Players. She walked over to the window and peeked out quietly.

"C'mon Techno I don't know what you're hoping to achieve but—" a voice said, coming from the player with the striped hat.

The piglin was searching through the alleyways for something. "I'm trying to make sure the zombie doesn't hurt my villagers, because I'm too poor to fix them back up. I've, like, hit the bottom of my money piles."

"You have like a full basement full of emeralds and diamond gear, not to mention all the netherite stuff," the striped-hat Player said.

"I know, I'm BROKE!" the piglin said, peeking through a window.

"What about the girl, you're not going to comment on that?" the striped-hat said, chuckling a little.

"What girl?" piglin-man said, opening one of the doors to the houses and quickly peeking in. He was getting closer.

"The girl who was holding the baby zombie. The one that just teleported off like an Enderman?"

"Philza, I'm not sure if you recall, but there are these handy little devices we call the Ender Pearls. They've been known to have similar effects to the transportation habits of Endermen," the piglin said, closing the door behind him.

"She didn't use a pearl, Techno. She just yelped as you drew your sword and vanished. You seriously didn't notice!?"

"Nah man, I was busy thinking about my potato farm," the piglin-man said, walking over to the door to the house Deci was in. "I should probably go check on that soon."

Deci leapt to the bed and scooped up Zach. Crys was already ahead of her, and grabbing Flynt's hand they zapped out. The door opened. Deci opened a rift in her mind. She wasn't sure where it led to, she hadn't had time to pick a location, but she knew she had to get out of here. Zach wasn't fully cured yet.

"How long have you spent on this farm of yours?" the stiped-hat man asked, stepping into the now-empty house.

"Uh, I don't know, two days?" the piglin-Player said, entering behind the man with the striped hat.

"Only two?" the striped-hat Player asked.

"Straight," the piglin Player said, rifling through a nearby chest. "Oh hey, that's nice. Found some carrots I didn't know I had."

The stripe-hat player stopped what he was doing and looked over to the piglin-Player with wide eyes. "Two STRAIGHT days?!"

Meanwhile, Deci was internally panicking. In her haste to escape, she found herself stuck halfway in a wall. She pulled, but couldn't seem to reach in her pocket for another Ender Pearl; hers were all in her pocket that was still stuck in the wall.

"CRYS!" she shouted, hoping Crys could hear her from wherever she had gone.

"Who was that?" another voice said, above her on what must be a second floor. Deci took a sharp breath in. Why the Nether had she just screamed out loud? She was supposed to be hiding?!

Steps began to thump down the stairs in the center of the room she now found herself in. A floor made of—

Crafting tables?

Deci reached into the part of her inventory she could reach, and threw stone and sticks together on the nearest patch of floor she could reach. The image of a stone axe appeared, and Deci snatched it out of the air, striking the wood she was stuck in as the footsteps began to grow closer. Almost there…

The wood planks broke under her, and instantly she was out of the house, making sure to quickly replace the wood. She reached into her pocket and produced another Ender Pearl, quickly crushing it outside of the house as the owner(s) walked out; none other than the Dream-lookalike Player. A gleaming black axe was in his hand.

"Where—?" he began, scanning the nearby vicinity for signs of other Players.

Deci vanished again. This time, she wanted to appear right over that village church steeple. She stepped through the rift in she created, and instantly found herself at her intended destination. She let out a large sigh of relief.

She sat on the edge of the tower, letting her legs dangle over the edge as she took a moment to breathe and examine Zach.

Zach was, at this point, definitely more Player than zombie anymore. His skin was beginning to redden, and become much healthier and softer than the hardened, rotten skin he had previously had. His eyes weren't empty black sockets anymore, Deci could see that they had color, though what it was she couldn't know yet. Zach's eyes were still closed.

She heard the sound of someone teleporting behind her, and almost fell off the roof, if she hadn't been careful to reach out and feel who was behind her. It was just Flynt, who was putting a stack of Ender Pearls back in his pocket.

"Hey," Flynt said, sitting down next to Deci as they overlooked the terrifying town before them. "So that just happened."

Deci snorted. "Yeah, let's not go through that again."

Zach moaned and turned a little in Deci's arms, stirring from the transformation at last. What had been moments ago a rotting corpse, undead, was now a pristine little Player child. His ragged and torn clothing hung limply on his frame, from lack of actually edible things to eat.

"Poor guy, he's going to be awfully hungry," Flynt commented, pointing to the scrawny condition of the child.

"If we're going to have to try to find somebody to take care of him, I'm sure they'll have food," Deci sighed. Flynt glanced up at Deci.

"Why not you? You and Zach are already fond of each other, last time I checked."

"Oh yeah, that'll be an awesome thing to try to explain to my parents; how I found myself to be taking care of a strangely devoted Player baby," Deci snorted.

"Well, why did you start taking care of him in the first place then?" Flynt asked, confused.

"Because at that point he was still a baby zombie. It would've been clear enough then that it wasn't actually my child, but now that he's actually a Player… Think about it Flynt, who are they automatically assume is gonna be the father? Hint; I've only ever known three Players, one of which isn't here and another is a woman."

Flynt's face went beet-red. "Oh, hadn't thought about that."

Deci looked down at Zach, whose breathing was beginning to fluctuate again as he slowly began to regain consciousness. "But I know I'll definitely miss him."

There was another moment of silence, and steady breathing from the three Players on top of the church.

Then the sound of someone else teleporting in rang out behind Deci.

"Crys, do you know of anyone who might be willing to—" Deci began, but immediately shut her mouth as she turned to face who she had assumed to be Crys.

Behind her, standing in a dark red-and-black cloak, stood a smoky stranger. A cowl hid his face from view, but two blank white eyes peeked out from under the edge of the hood at Deci, then at Flynt, then at Deci again.

Deci's eyes were wide as she realized she had said almost an entire sentence in Entitian in front of this stranger, who was regarding them with much confusion. Would the stranger try to attack them? Was Zach transformed enough that he actually looked like a Player now? Were they in trouble?

The stranger began to speak, in a gravely, intimidating sort of voice

"Who are—" the stranger began, but immediately fell to coughing. After a moment, he cleared his throat again. "Ugh, sorry about that. Who are you guys? I haven't seen you around here before!"

The voice that was now coming out of the stranger's cowl was not aggressive whatsoever, in fact it was rather inviting, considering how intense that past few moments had been for Deci. And it was not a low voice either, like the stranger's appearance would have suggested. Deci almost would have grinned in humor, if it had not been for the fact that her heart was still pounding so hard.

"Uh, we're not really from around here, just passing through," Flynt quickly said. "Just needed some quick medical supplies, but we're all good now."

"Well that's good," the stranger said, turning to rifle through a chest that was on top of the church tower. "Oh, you can call me 'Bad', if you want. Don't mind me, I just had to grab some of these potions real quick."

Deci nodded her thanks to the stranger before awkwardly turning back around, but before she had completely turned again, 'Bad' glanced up from the chest, and saw Zach.

"Awww, cuuute!" he said, walking over and getting a better look at Zach. For a moment, he glanced up at Deci. "Is he yours?"

Deci nearly fell off the church-tower again. Uh, how was she going to tell him that she wasn't Zach's—

"Yeah, he is. Adorable, isn't he?" Flynt quickly said, smiling widely.

"Absolutely. Here;" 'Bad' said, placing a loaf of soft and spongy bread in Deci's hand, "There's a muffin for him when he wakes up."

Deci nodded politely, but inside she was fuming at Flynt. As soon as she could speak freely again…

'Bad' stood up straight again, and waved, before tossing an Ender pearl towards a nearby hill. In a few moments, he was gone again.

Deci turned on Flynt. "Why would you tell him that—"

"Deci, I don't know how much of the legends of Technoblade you know, but there's one thing that stands out as fearful even among many Players; Technoblade. HATES. Orphans."

"So?"

"Zach's parents are most likely dead, or gone. It's only logical to assume that. So if 'Bad' were to tell Technoblade that there is an orphan in his town, quite possibly in his house, you can be sure that Zach won't be treated kindly," Flynt said.

Deci's expression of anger began to slowly fade as she thought over it. If what Flynt said was true, and she had no real reason to doubt it, then he had actually possibly saved Zach. Not that Deci expected they'd stay in this horrifying village for long enough to run into Technoblade again, but just in case.

In the distance, Deci suddenly caught sight of a dark figure, weaving between trees. Though it was a far distance away, Deci could just barely make out the stature of Crys as she ducked behind trees, seeming to try and get Deci's attention.

"We'd better get going before the others start finding out about us," Deci said, standing up. "Follow me."

She began teleporting back towards Crys's location as she held Zach, teleporting from roof to roof. She felt a projectile soaring through the air overhead, and knew that it was a Ender Pearl thrown by Flynt. She sped up, wanting to reach Crys before Flynt did.

The two of them teleported basically on top of each other, and fell to the ground quietly laughing a bit. Crys stood over them, and when Deci looked up at her, she just rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, I don't want to spend another minute here, it's just been bad luck right after another. Besides, we've got to make good time tomorrow," Crys said, turning and beginning to walk in a specific direction as the map showed her the way to go. "Follow, or I'm leaving you behind."

Deci quickly untangled her limbs and started off after Crys, with Flynt right behind her, as they began steadily off towards their next destination.

From the shade of one of the trees in the fog of the swamp, a tall black figure sat watching the group walk further and further away, before turning, standing still and straight behind the tree for a moment more, and vanishing in a puff of bright purple particles.

? POV:

"My liege, we've found her."

"Good. The others?"

"They are sticking close by her, making it hard for us to interfere without raising their suspicions, but—"

"—BUT? I did not send you on this mission to hear 'BUT'."

"The male is an ordinary Player, but she… she was speaking Entitian with the other girl. Not only that, the other girl was speaking Entitian back. Fluently."

"What? How is that possible?"

"I don't know, your honor. Shall I look into it?"

"No, I don't care about the elocution habits of the others, just bring her back to me without raising too much suspicion."

"As you wish, my liege."

This final message flew rapidly over the winds of the End Force.

* Multiple Endermen in a group of more than two is called a "shade" of Endermen