Chapter 7: The Very Bad Beginning

I was standing in a landscape I knew well. Inky black skies dotted with stars and great obsidian pillars rising into the Void from the faintly glowing yellow ground, and slender Chorus trees here and there.

I must be dreaming. Again.

A voice suddenly spoke from behind me:"Hey, um, Steve? If you could turn around so I could actually speak to you, that would be great."

I was so surprised I jumped like a rabbit being shot at. But yes, I did end up turning around.

In front of me (And previously behind me) was my childhood buddy Xeraph the Enderman.

"Long time no see! I haven't the faintest idea why I'm dreaming about you this is really-"

He interrupted me. Seriously, he needed to break that habit of his. "I gotta talk to you about something." He glanced around us nervously as if he thought we were being spied on while stealing cookies.

"What?" I was, at this point, very curious indeed.

"You know Notch, right? Tell Him to come to the End with an army or something. Just get Him to come. Tell him that there's something in the End that He doesn't want anywhere near His world, something that hates him even more than he hates us. Please."

To say that I was shocked would be an understatement. It must have been important, because Xeraph never said 'please', unless he was in serious trouble (Usually it's with his parents). "What's wrong? It's not Zariah you're talking about, is it? I get that She can be a bit sadistic sometimes, but-"

And he interrupts again. "It's not Zariah. It's something else-" And he looked around again.

Suddenly my vision flickered. Xeraph paled considerably (Considering the fact that he is an Enderman). "I gotta go."

"Wait a diddly darn moment-"

"Just get someone to help! Bye, Steve!"

And I blacked out. Before I could even tell him that I couldn't contact Notch anymore.

I woke up with a jolt. It was barely dark outside, the sun was just rising and I was definitely not in the End. And I also realised somewhere else where I wasn't.

"YAY! I DIDN'T FALL OFF THE BE-"

THUMP

I was so busy celebrating that I didn't notice I'd rolled over. Typical me.

"Good morning."

I almost jumped out of my skin.

"Behind you." I turned around. Horus crossed his arms and stared at me like I was an idiot.

"Well, I'm sorry. It's a bad habit of mine, I admit, but there's no need to look at me like-" Then I got a better look at him. By that, I meant he was covered with blood and looked like he'd just walked out of a Mob Grinder. A scythe-like weapon was leaning against the wall by his feet.

"What happened to you?!"

"Oh. You mean this?" He indicated at his gore-splattered shirt. "The blood isn't mine," he explained patiently. "My acquaintance from last night led me into an ambush. I killed a great number of monsters. I fell down a ravine, killed more monsters, and got back less than five minutes ago."

"Ah..."

Pleasant.

"You seem to be in a hurry to go somewhere."

Oh, right. This was awkward. And now I had to explain how I have to go to the End without sounding weird. Great. To a sorcerer with several charges of murder and one admitted charge of Existing With Malicious Intent, to quote his own words from last night.

"I, um, have to go somewhere..."

"Bathroom's out the back."

"Not that! I mean I actually have to go somewhere."

"Where?"

I scratched my head and tried to think of something that wouldn't imply that I used to be an honorary Enderman. "Home." I said at last.

"I would advise against going back to the Aether right now. Notch will lock you up and not let you out until He is sure of your innocence. Which, knowing His Almighty Buffoonery, would be never."

"Yeah, I guess, but I didn't mean- Wait, how did you know that I live in the Aether?"

He jerked his thumb towards a space next to my bed. I tracked his gaze and found my sword leaning against the wall. How did I not notice that?

"That does not prove anything."

His face was entirely devoid of any kind of expression. "I was under the impression the Gods did not just randomly give them out."

I sighed. "Fine, I'm an Elite, a Ranger, or whatever people have taken to calling us these days. But unlike what appearances may suggest, I'm not actually stupid enough to crawl back to the Aether right now. I'm going somewhere else."

"Which is where?"

I paused. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm curious and frankly, you owe me."

He did have a point there.

I took a deep breath. "I'm going to the End." I said.

"All that reluctance, just because you didn't want to say you were raised in the End?"

He acted like he met someone who spent their toddling years in an entirely different dimension every day. I gaped at him. "This is not the first time a human child was taken to the End and raised there, you know," he said calmly.

"Uh-huh. You're saying this has happened before?"

Horus raised an eyebrow. "More times than you would think." He paused for a bit. "Do you know your way around here?"

"Oh... I hadn't thought about that." I replied sheepishly.

"Excellent. I will go with you."

"But-"

He gave me a cool look. "You need a guide. And you would not last longer than two seconds out there, judging by the state I found you in."

I hurriedly revised the game plan. I guess I did need a guide of some sort, anyway. So I shut my mouth and went along with it.

I really miss my horse now. He'd probably been sold to someone else now, alas. Swift was not my problem anymore.

We'd being walking through this damned forest for I don't know how long. Well, Horus had been walking, I've been tripping. There were honestly more roots in this forest than could be accounted for by trees.

"You say the End Portal is in the West Region?"

"Yeah. I heard from a few Endermen. Where in the West Region though, I have no idea." I replied. That was a little vague, considering the fact that the Western Region was a quarter of the Overworld. "Where are we heading to, by the way?"

"A little town somewhere around. Why they built it here of all places, I have not the faintest clue. Especially with all the evanji howling at night, they mustn't get a lot of sleep. Not to mention the monsters." he said.

"You don't seem to be very fond of Mobs, considering the fact that you're a Mobmage." I tripped on a root and cursed at it roundly.

Horus gave me a blank look. "Neither are you."

"Touché." I acknowledged.

He turned away. "The village is a few more hours away. I suggest you save your energy for walking."

He didn't talk again for the rest of the trek.

"How much longer to go?" I wheezed after tripping over the nth root.

Horus shot me a slightly amused look and said:"It's right there."

I looked around."I don't see a village."

"Look up."

I did as he said.

Above us was a crisscrossing patchwork of rope bridges, linking from one tree to another. The houses were built into the trees and unlit glowstone lamps lined the walkways.

I spoke the first thought that came to my mind:"I didn't know there were elves in the Overworld."

Horus gave me a sideways look that spoke volumes of my mental incompetence."And you would be correct. They live in the Twilight Forest. When you live on the edge of a forest infested with things that want to kill you, you want to be out of their reach."

"How are we gonna get up?"

"There used to be a cage on a pulley that they pulled people up on." He replied."But now they simply cannot be bothered. The ladder is over there."

"Also, one thing you have to know." He added just before we reached the ladder."Fire is forbidden here. Any fire-involved things that is not a furnace is not to be taken out of your Inventory. Remember that"

I nodded absentmindedly.

"Good. I know an inn around here somewhere. Try not to get into trouble."

The inn was called the Dancing Pig. The inside justified the name. It was dimly lit and reeked of alcohol and Awkward Potions, and the chairs were thrown in a pile with no regard for order.

"It's the only shelter here." Horus whispered as we approached the counter. "Otherwise I would obviously have gone somewhere else."

"Why do we have to stop here? We could have walked on."

"Because the next safe place is a day's walk away and I do not want to be caught in the open at night. The Monsters seem to have a burning hatred reserved especially for me," he replied.

He rapped on the wooden counter and waited. "Coming!" Shouted a voice from the kitchen. A few minutes later, a grime-covered woman wearing an apron came out and looked at us as if we were something unpleasant on her warted nose. She opened her mouth to say something but Horus beat her to it.

"A room for the night please. With two beds." He cut in smoothly before she could say anything, dropping a glittering something onto the counter.

The barkeeper swept it up and put it away in one quick movement.

"Any drinks?" She asked in a rough, low voice.

"Just water for me, thanks." He glanced at me. "Steve?"

"Obviously nothing alcoholic," growled a voice from behind us. "The kid looks hardly out of the cradle!"

Somebody laughed. I turned around, bristling.

The (smelly) hairy giant of a man grinned at me and said in a high-pitched voice "Oh, is baby gonna run home to mommy now?"

More laughter.

I gritted my teeth.

"Steve." Horus said, a touch of warning in his voice.

The big man grinned even more. "You wanna prove that you're not an utter wimp? Beat me in a drinking contest and I'll publicly announce defeat and worship your shoes."

I looked over at my companion. "I'm going to do it."

Horus sighed. "You have the freedom to make your choices. You also have the freedom to regret them afterwards."

Horus led Steve to their room in a disappointed kind of silence. Of course he lost, the fool. And got made fun of, too, after he fell off his chair in a dead faint.

"Meanies" Steve muttered."Why were, why they were, so mean?"

"Perhaps because you made a complete and utter fool of yourself," he replied caustically.

"Oooh...I don' feel sho good. Oooh." Steve slurred.

"That would be because you are drunk." Horus said. "You are going to bed. Now just wait here while I unlock-" Then he realised Steve was no longer by his side.

"Nether" He swore under his breath, and bolted downstairs in search of the aforementioned nitwit.

He found him in an open broom closet kneeling before one of the brooms.

"Will you *hic* marry me, my lovely *hic* Broom-ilia? He slurred while gazing at the broom lovingly.

Horus carefully kept his face expressionless.

He lifted the inebriated miner up by his collar and proceeded to drag him away.

Steve whirled around angrily and smacked him in the face. Or tried to. He ended up missing by a mile because he was drunk.

"Leave me wissh *hic* my lovely-" Steve paused. "What wash *hic* her name again?" he asked, waving in the vague direction of the broom closet.

Horus ignored his latest attempt at intelligence and proceeded to drag him away by the ear, seemingly impervious to the cries of pain echoing up the stairs as he made his way to their room, whereupon reaching it he threw Steve in and blocked up the door with two blocks of cobblestone (Steve was too drunk to remember he had a pickaxe in his Inventory).

After a few minutes of on and off banging on the door, the room went quiet. Horus opened the door and glanced in.

Steve was sound asleep on the bottom bunk.

Horus breathed out. Now that was done and over with-

Just before he reached the entrance of the inn, there was the sound of blocks breaking and a blur rushed past him. How was the idiot awake already?

So, apparently Steve did remember about his pick. Well, this complicated things.

Horus did an about-turn and ran after said drunk, hoping to stop him before anything serious happened. Notch forbid, if Steve had a flint and steel, Horus did not want to take the blame for what happened afterwards.

He followed him out of the inn and caught up to him on one of the wooden platforms where the ladders were. Steve had stolen a welcome mat from someone's doorway...

"I would like to know what you think you are doing." Horus was unamused. Steve was sitting on the welcome mat and giggling like a three-year-old. People who were walking past stopped and stared at the scene.

"Imma gonna fwy to deh Aaeether on mwy magic carpet." Steve sang.

"Remind me to never let you touch anything even slightly alcoholic ever again."

Steve giggled again."Well, bwy bwy fellas!"

Horus stood back. It was evident that he could do nothing to bring him back to his senses, and there really wasn't anything Steve could do to worsen the situation.

Steve stuck his tongue out at the crowd. "Imma gonna flyyyyy!" He sang again.

Then he threw the welcome mat over the platform and jumped off after it.

It soon became apparent to him that he was wrong.

Horus winced when he heard the CRASH that followed, but then remembered that Steve was 100% guaranteed to respawn, alas.

Though Steve probably would be very upset if his stuff got looted. Something extremely unfortunate was bound to happen to anyone who appropriated the sword, because Horus would not hesitate to decapitate them to get it back.

Horus lay idly on the lower. How long did it take for someone to respawn again? He'd forgotten. It had been a while since he had run into a Ranger.

Something hit the top bunk with a heavy thud, and promptly rolled off.

Steve hit the floor with a muffled ouch and got up, opening the door quietly and walking outside.

Horus ignored him and went back to staring at the ceiling. After all that, Steve couldn't possibly be still drunk.

... Right?

I woke up with a pounding headache. My face seemed to be greeting the dirt. Wait, what happened? I remember getting into a drinking contest and...

"Oh good. You're awake." Horus.

"I feel terrible." I groaned.

"And you should." He replied coldly. "Take a look around."

I slowly lifted my face from the ground. The first thing I noticed was the firelight. Then I noticed the ring of angry people around me and Horus. Then half the treetop village burning.

"What... happened?" I asked groggily.

"You got yourself drunk. Then you did some things I will not mention right now. And then you took out your flint and steel and set fire to the village. And now we are surrounded by angry people in the middle of the night and if the villagers don't kill us then the Mobs will." He said in an emotionless tone.

"Oh... Sorry?" I gulped.

The villagers raised their torches and various other weapons threateningly. A pitchfork landed inches from my face and stuck there, quivering.

"Run," Horus suggested after a pause.

So that was what we did.

Many years earlier. (The Unlocked Backstory of Steve, Part Two)

A seven-year-old Steve wandered alone in front of a cave.

He was irretrievably lost. To start with, he was in the wrong dimension.

The Overworld was unbearably bright, even at dusk. The air was humid and clung to his skin uncomfortably.

They'd been at a picnic. His aunt, his uncle, and Xeraph. It was a coming-of-age thing, Xeraph's big day. It was the first time either of them had been to the Overworld, for a picnic, no less. His uncle had gotten rather creative with Chorus Fruit, and the results were delicious. Xeraph had gotten rather creative with the alcohol, and the results were disastrous.

Then there had been a creeper, he remembered. It was bleeding. There were arrows in it, and by then its fur was more red than green. It was obviously panicked and out of its mind, the poor thing. His aunt had tried to calm it down.

He didn't remember anything else after that.

Steve didn't know what to do. He didn't even know if they were still alive or not. Maybe they were only separated by the blast. Maybe they'd teleported away. Steve and Xeraph were the furthest away from the creeper, but Xeraph was nowhere to be found. Not even an Ender Pearl to signify his death.

Trust disaster to happen the first time he was allowed to come to the Overworld.

An arrow whizzed past his ear, missing by an inch or so. Steve jumped and whirled around. In the cave's entrance stood a weird white thing made entirely out of bones.

Skeleton. He remembered they were called. And they come out in nighttime, along with the other things that would love Steve pattie for dinner if they could manage it.

Uh-oh.

Steve looked at the sky. It was dark, like the skies of the End.

Which meant it was night.

Double uh-oh.

Another arrow whizzed by, this time closer. Steve took a final look at the undead creature and ran for his life.

A rotting, stinking green creature stumbled out in front of him and made an attempt to grab him. Zombie. He ducked under its swinging arms and kept going.

He had to get to a shelter.

Then a black shape descended from a tree just as he ran under it. Steve screeched and swerved sharply, barely avoiding its snapping mandibles.

Spider.

A cacophony of groans, clacks, hisses and shrieks sounded behind him. Steve didn't look back, just ran harder than ever.

An arrow landed at his feet. Steve yelled in shock then tripped over it.

He kept shrieking for some time, before realising he wasn't dead.

He slowly opened his eyes. Where the Mobs once stood, there where arrows sticking in the ground.

"I've got you, kid. No wonder you were screaming so loudly. Why are you out here by yourself?" Came a gruff, friendly voice. It wasn't like the Endermen's voices, which you could hear in your head, but it came from somewhere. Namely, right beside him.

Steve turned to face the owner of the voice. It was a human. He (Steve thought it was a male human, for it had short hair and a square jaw) had brown hair and pale blue eyes, and the beginnings of a beard. When he spoke, his mouth moved.

"Your mouth moves when you speak." Steve said in surprise.

The man laughed "And so it should. What's your name, kid?"

"Steve." He answered.

"What are you doing out here on your own?"

"My family, they-" Steve broke off, chest tightening. "Supercharged creeper." He finally said.

"Ah. I am sorry for your loss." The man said solemnly.

Steve nodded, unsure of what to say.

"Hurry up, man! I don't want to wait here for longer than necessary."

Steve look around, only just noticing the group of humans a little distance away from him.

"Coming!" Shouted the man.

He took Steve's hand and said:" My name is Edin Evetsor." Then he grinned. "Let's not keep those idiots waiting, or they might deafen your ears with their whining."