Shroud and the young smith travelled back to the house with silence clinging the air around them despite the loud chatter from the other villagers. The young villager shot daggers at Shroud in a hateful glare for making them go back to the house. But he was also confused at Shroud's actions and also heavily nervous for her sister now that he realized he left her at the house by herself.
Just less than a mintue goes by and the two were already halfway to the house now that they weren't checking each and every house. Suddenly, Shroud stopped mid stride causing the young smith to bump into his back.
"what are-?" the small villager began to ask before Shroud answered his incomplete question with another question.
"Where is the mines?" Shroud inquired without turning around to face the young smith.
"It's just by the small pond near the library, but why-?" the young smith answered only to have his question cut off again.
"Go to your house and check on your sister. If your father happens to be at the house, come get me at the entrance of the mine." Shroud carefully explained to the confused villager only to be meet quickly with accusion.
"Well why wait until now to tell me this?! we could've been at the mines if we left when we were at the church! Just what are you planning?" The young villager questioned sourly and bluntly only to be meet with Shroud's unamused glare that caused the villager to zip it.
"Well for one, to make sure the Priest didn't dog me the whole way in and out of the mines and to give you more time to check the house. So get to it, we need to move as swiftly as possible." Shroud explained quickly though the young smith was still a bit sore at being told what to do, but nodded anyway (mostly at the priest part)and started to head back to the house with haste.
However, the young smith turned back around to glimspe Shroud walking away to the mine. It was at this point the young smith notice Shroud barely hiding a bad limp. He knew Shroud had to rest soon or face having to crawl back or worse being hounded by the Priest. The young smith shivered at the thought having felt the wraith of the Priest's nagging before.
Leaving the thought of the Priest behind, the young smith dashed off to his house which laid almost at the outskirts of the village to check on his sister and possibly father.
It wasn't long before Shroud disappeared from his view and he arrived at his small-ish house. Already it was obvious that his father never made it back to the house or he wouldn't hear the quiet weeping noise coming from inside the house.
He opened the door and was instantly enveloped in a tight hug by his crying sister.
"sniff... I thought you'd...sniff... never come back brother!" The little sister weeped into her brother's arms. The young smith winced at seeing his sister like this and sought to try to cheer her up.
"It's okay me. and Shroud were just checking the houses looking for father, it wasn't like we went to the farlands or nothing." The young smith stated as his sister continued to cry.
"I...sniff... guess... but where is mister Shroud anyway?" The young smith's sister asked confused.
"Umm he's at the mines right now looking for father, i came here to see if father came home while we were gone. he's not here so i'm going to go to Shroud as planned and-" The young smith was explaining rapidly only to get a slight surprise.
"I'm coming with you." The little sister boldly yet fearfully stated, fear dripping out of her voice like a waterfall. The young smith's face quickly shaped itself to show surprise.
"WHAT?! But you HATE the mines. y-you said you'd never go near the place!" The young smith exclaimed his surprise with a stutter at his sister's decision to faced the mines with him and Shroud.
"I don't wanna be alone in the house anymore though! It's scarier being alone in the house than in the dark." Sister explained weakly, shaking from fear of being alone and/or in the shadows of the mines.
"FINE. But Shroud might not like this." the young smith retorted back with slight irritation
Well it would probably just make Shroud hate the current day even more as earlier in the same day he walked slowly over to the mines, his bad leg barely able to hold his weight.
Then, there was the villagers eyeing him with fear or curiousity and all the eyes staring at him made Shroud hate his life at the moment. He continued forth however and soon made it to the mines right where the young smith told him it was at.
There were a few torches lighting the entrance and so Shroud grab one of the torches and proceded down into the mines hoping to find out where the father went. Shroud had seen some of the mobs and so walked forward with caution, but haste, not sure if there was any time left to save the older smith if he needed to be rescued.
Shroud also had to mind his leg as he descended from one block to another. Sometimes, jlott would point things out to avoid so he didn't hurt his leg further or mentally pointed at signs of someone being there before. this helped Shroud a bit as it lead Shroud on a more confident path. other than that jlott keep quiet allowing the two of them to listen to any signs of life; good or bad.
By the time Shroud remembered to go wait for the young smith at the entrance he was already seeing the glint of gold in the darkness. Shroud made to turn back but a whisper in the air made him rethink for a second.
"It sounds like... um.. i dunno zombies? Should we check it out?" jlott said questioningly to Shroud who only nodded and preceded down the twisting mines towards where the sound was coming from.
Time had barely passed a minute when Shroud stumbled upon a massive group of zombies; at least twenty pounding against a cobblestone wall.
Shroud quickly hid behind a pillar of stone and peeked at the mass of zombies crowding the wall wandering what to do since he couldn't face that many in his condition. Though, he was more focused on what the zombies were doing just clawing on a random wall.
"jlott do you think that the kid's father is behind the wall? cause it seems likely he is." Shroud thought-talked to jlott who only agreed to the idea. Now Shroud was trying to decide the best way to defeat all the zombies without hurting himself.
In the end, Shroud decided to attack from above by mining upwards into the pillar of stone creating stairs that reach two blocks high before simply mining in a straight path towards the open area where the zombies were at. It wasn't long before Shroud broke a window into the open space where the zombies continued to mindless throw themselves on the wall.
Shroud took out the cobblestone he just mined and starting making a pathway over to the zombies who couldn't reach Shroud to attack him. However, Shroud had a sword and now height advantage and was easily chopping away at the mobs below.
The zombies, of course, now realized Shroud was there and attacking them and tried to attacked back. For the zombies, they were having a difficult time dodging Shroud's iron sword and sought to find a way around for an opening to attack.
Which some of them did...
"SHROUD! Behind you!" The player quickly warned Shroud just before a clever zombie could hit him in the back. Seeing their ally next to Shroud, the rest of the zombies looked to where said ally found the weak point.
It was the stairs as Shroud forgot to block the staircase to the thin platform he was standing on and so the rest of the zombies made their way towards it. Shroud was now having a more challenging time as the last of the zombies charged for the stairs and forced him to the ledge of the floating pathway.
Old Faithful swung back and forth in Shroud's attempt to knock the zombies off the ledge and buy himself time. It took a while, but after several minutes only three zombies remained, but Shroud was having a hard time keeping his balance as his leg throbbed with pain.
A zombie was about to knock Shroud off the ledge when a familar voice rang out.
"Not by Notch's hand will you defeat US!" The young smith shouted as he charged forward with a stone sword much too large for him and slashed the one zombie away, efficiently killing it. Shroud then saw the little girl show up and much to his surprise and see her throw a potion of sorts and heavily wound the second zombie which then fell to the young smith's blade. Shroud then took an offensive stance and killed the last of the zombies.
"HA! We did it! We defeated some zombies!" The young smith bounced up and down at his achievement. "See? I can be just as good a fighter as a minecraftian!"
"Well you should've been here earlier when there was an army of zombies still around." Shroud joked a bit, but still he couldn't help but be a little proud at the two siblings' work no matter how small.
"ooooooooooo... an ARMY?" The young smith awed, obviously impressed. "But why were you not at the entrance like you said? me and sis waited for you up there."
"I got a bit carried away, besides i think i might've found out where your father is." Shroud edged around the subject trying to avoid it and it worked.
"really? where is he?" The younger of the two piped in quietly, still a bit shaken from just fighting a zombie. Shroud then explained to the two how the zombies were pounding on the cobblestone wall and how he thought their dad might be just beyond it.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go find our father!" The young smith shouted quickly before jumping off the platform and dashing to the wall of cobblestone. his sister and Shroud followed him and all three started to mine away at the wall although the little girl had trouble breaking even one block.
It didn't matter as the three broke through a two block thick wall and entered the other side. Soon both of the sibling shouted with joy as what- or who laid in front of them happened to be their father. Their dad was awake and tending to a damaged arm, but he was alive and hugged his two children.
"Son? Daughter? I never thought i'd be seeing you two down this far in the mines!" Their father exclaimed as his daughter weeped in his arms and his son began telling him what happened. Shroud however was curious.
"I glad you're okay, but why were you down in the mines anyway and this deep too?" Shroud inquired. The father sighed before answering.
"In truth, i came down here to get coal. I just wanted to get my son's iron smelted, he worked hard to get that iron and i just wanted to get the coal he forgot. I didn't want him to risk the mines again... i didn't know what i'd do if something killed him down here." The father admitted. "and the only reason i came down this far was because i got chased down here by all those zombies. They just came out of nowhere!"
"Dad, all i care about is that your alive! That and i could've handle myself." The father's son quickly boasted, but hugged his dad again to show he appreciate the attempted help. "Now how about we get back to the surface?"
Everyone nodded and picked everything they had brought with them and headed out of the mines.
"I just hope such a freak accident never happens again." The father stated tiredly as he cradled his injured arm. Everyone agree and continued on their way. However, when Shroud took one last look into the mines, he doubted the incident was an accident.
For a pair of white glowing eyes flickered in the depths of the mines...