TehLulz opened his eyes immediately close them again, his vision was blurry and he was still very sleepy.
"Dude." A familiar voice said, he wasn't sure but it seemed to belong to Ambigious.
TehLulz was about to sit up as he heard the voice again. "Stay down, I need to get her away from you first."
After hearing that he noticed that the witch was lying right next to him, half leaning on him would describe it better. Any movement TehLulz would make now could wake her up. Ambigious reached over his friend with his hands and tried to carefully push the witch away from his friend without waking her up. Suddenly a sting of pain went up Ambigious' arm.
"Damn it! I almost forgot that wound was there." Ambigious said, trying not to be too loud.
TehLulz carefully pushed the witch off of himself, moving her a little to the right.
Ambigious started to grin.
"You know TehLulz, there are enough witches in Minecraft already, you don't have to make more." He said with a half-straight face.
TehLulz stood up and stretched, making a lot of his joints creak.
"I wasn't doing… that." He said, yawned and then added: "I think I will never get fully used to sleeping on the ground… And by the way, she saved you." He said.
He then pointed at the witch who was now lying where he had been lying a few seconds earlier, he yawned again.
Ambigious stopped grinning. "Oh… Don't tell her I said anything, okay? But how did we get here anyway?"
TehLulz told Ambigious everything from him falling asleep in the boat to the strange euphoria after leaving the boats. He stopped when he was about to mention Fire.
TehLulz asked: "You noticed Fire here, right?"
"Yeah, has he been waiting here?" Ambigious wanted to know.
"No. Look at his chest." TehLulz answered.
Ambigious turned around and in the face of Fire's gaping wound every bit of humor disappeared from his look and his face turned dead-serious.
"Holy crap! What happened to him? And how didn't I notice that?" Ambigious asked.
"I don't know either. At first we thought that he was dead but then he wasn't… entirely. It is still not certain that he will survive."
"Man, that is bad." Ambigious said. "Is there anything we can do?"
"The witch put a drop of Fire's potion into the wound, let's hope it helps." TehLulz answered, then he added: "I don't want to talk about that anymore."
Ambigious looked left and right and promptly changed topic: "This is one strange hut."
After a standing up and walking around a bit he asked: "How did she save me by the way?"
TehLulz replied: "That illness you had is called blaze fever, you seem to have caught it in the Nether. She cured it by giving you a Fire Resistance potion."
"That seemed logical." Ambigious commented.
He removed the bandage Unchosen had made him, looked at the wound and his face changed to disgust. The wound hadn't gotten any better, it was about the same with the only difference being that a hard crust had formed on the wounded flesh.
He didn't comment on the wound but instead asked: "Should we wake up the others?"
TehLulz asked: "The witch too?"
"Not yet, we need to talk about things first. By the way, do you know her name?"
"No… She didn't tell me."
"Whatever." Ambigious said and proceeded to poke freeZe in the shoulder.
"Hmmm?" freeZe muttered.
"Wake up." Ambigious said, a winning smile on his face. "By the way, I woke up before you."
freeZe pushed herself up from the ground, but after she saw Fire, she dropped to the floor again.
TehLulz demanded: "Come on, stand up."
"But Fire is dead… and Ambigious, how are you talking, you have a fever." freeZe said, still very sleepy.
"I got cured." Ambigious said.
"Fire is not dead, not entirely at least." TehLulz said and immediately regretted adding the second part.
"Not dead?" Unchosen muttered, who was woken up by freeZe's movements.
TehLulz explained: "The witch gave him a bit of his potion, the golden apple concentrate, you know."
"Witch?" freeZe asked.
"Okay, time to tell that story again. Are you really awake? I don't want to tell you twice, I'll make it short this time."
freeZe and Unchosen sat up and said: "We are awake."
TehLulz quickly explained: "Right after we saw Fire I heard the witch coming up the ladder, you two had passed out. I explained the situation and she gave Ambigious a Fire Resistance potion to cure his illness, she called it blaze fever I believe. Then she put a drop of Fire's golden apple concentrate into the wound. Remember how Fire did that to Oalrhm? Oalrhm wasn't really dead either, he was just something like a very deep sleep, let's hope that it is the same for Fire. But I still don't understand how he would be able to live with his heart lacerated like that… Also she said that she knows Fire, or at least her mother knew him."
"Hold on now." Unchosen said. "So Fire might be alive. Ambigious is cured but we still have his wound to deal with, which might be easier now that the witch is here. We might actually be in good shape... If we find a way to repair Fire's heart that is."
Ambigious asked: "So, will we wake up the witch now?"
"I think so." TehLulz answered and gave Ambigious to remind him not to say anything.
TehLulz knelt down next to the witch and tried to wake her up by poking her in the shoulder, she didn't show any reaction.
"Hey, wake up." He said.
This didn't seem to have any effect, the witch was still fast asleep. Then Ambigious pushed his friend aside and shook the witch with a bit more force, this did wake her up.
She yawned, then looked at Ambigious. She dryly said: "It seems you have recovered."
TehLulz broke the following awkward silence: "Time to properly introduce ourselves. This is Ambigious, that is freeZe, that is Unchosen, I am TehLulz." He pointed at his friends in order.
"Nice to meet you…" She said, still more asleep than awake.
freeZe asked: "What is your name?"
"My name? I am Aurone." She said.
freeZe smiled: "Nice to meet you Aurone."
Aurone demanded: "Now you need to tell me all about that journey of yours, you owe me that after breaking into my house."
They looked at each other, not sure what to do as they didn't want to mention the server or the hackers. It didn't feel right to lie to someone who saved their lives but they were not sure what the witch, an NPC, would do if they talked about the server.
"I'll start." Unchosen said, the others were visibly relieved.
"Okay, so until a few days ago we were slaves in the Rockbane Quarry in the Deepsand Desert, which is also where we met Fire."
"There is a slave mine in the Deepsand Desert?" Aurone asked, obviously surprised.
"It's fairly new, it's only been there for about a year." freeZe explained.
Unchosen continued: "We spent months in the quarry until one day Fire said that he had a friend who would bring us potions to help us break out. That friend came and we jumped into the volcano with the potions protecting us." He paused and added: "Don't be surprised by that, there are much stranger things on our journey."
Aurone asked: "Where did you live before you were made slaves?"
Unchosen didn't answer at first, Ambigious quickly made something up: "We lived in the area around the edge of the desert. Farmers and hunters, that kind of stuff."
Unchosen gave Ambigious a thankful look and continued: "At the bottom of the volcano was a Nether portal, after going through we had to walk a long distance to get to a Nether Fortress."
freeZe said: "We got attacked by a magma cube on the way, Fire saved us from it but the cube swallowed him, he survived but as you can see his scales are still deformed from the heat."
TehLulz continued. "In the Nether Fortress we met Wither cultists that were friends of Fire, they gave us food and the bow Fire has on his back right now."
Aurone said: "You didn't lie when you said that there strange things on your journey. Wither cultists that aren't out to sacrifice you, I didn't think that was even possible."
TehLulz continued: "We exited the Nether through another portal and climbed a mountain." He left out the part about them discovering that freeZe was a mage and moved on with the story. "After climbing down on the other side, we made ourselves some wooden armor in preparation for the Graveyard of the Forest."
freeZe continued explaining: "In the forest we met Oalrhm…"
"You met Oalrhm?" Aurone interrupted, she sounded excited.
"Yes… What about him?" freeZe asked.
"Every witch should visit Oalrhm at least once in her life, I have yet to go. How is he?" Aurone asked.
"I don't know. He is friendly but he clearly explained that he can and will kill if he has to. He seems to be much more powerful than you would think." freeZe said.
Aurone answered: "Oalrhm is one of the most powerful creatures of Earth in existence. But nevermind that, continue."
Unchosen started talking again: "Alright, where did we stop…? After Oalrhm opened the passage we had to fight out way through the Graveyard, that is where Fire got hit by some spell from a skeletal mage, he just disappeared, no idea how he ended up here. After that, we walked through the swamp. So, that is how we got here."
Ambigious said: "Now, we told you about us. Who are you?"