Evie finally caught up to the pig- man, this little one was fast for being so small- and skidded to a halt next to it, the little pig still squealing up a storm and running around in a little panic.

Actually, she might've overbalanced a bit and crashed onto her side.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down there!" she exclaimed, trying to keep her voice steady and calm, and you know, not completely panicked and breathless. "Easy, easy..."

It didn't help, though- the pig (Reuben? Yeah, she was pretty sure that was it) was so riled up about being on fire (well, but Evie could understand, after all, it was on fire) that it- he, not it, Reuben was a guy's name- just kept squealing and running.

It took Evie a few mistimed swipes and one instance of smacking herself in the face, but she finally managed to yank off the wings, which were now mostly consumed by the flames. Dumping them on the ground unceremoniously, she seized ahold of the dragon head- which was really well made, by the way, points to whoever had made it- and popped it off.

The minute it came off, Reuben was off running again, and Evie actually dropped the Ender Dragon head onto the piled-up wings, flames slowly dying down and finding nothing else to burn, before scrambling to her feet and racing after him. "Hey, come back here! It's okay!"

The little pig squealed in reply, Evie still chasing after it. She tripped a few times, getting a good amount of dirt smeared onto her front- oh well, she'd been planning on doing her laundry soon, anyways- nearly toppling headfirst into a stream, and nearly cracking her skull on a few rocks- but she somehow managed to keep up with Reuben. Which was a first, since she usually was so darn slow.

When she'd finally caught up to Reuben, he was hiding in a big patch of grass, shaking with terror and squealing from the ordeal. "Hey, hey, shhhh, shhh, it's okay." Evie held up her hands to show she was unarmed, giving the pig a nervous sort of grin. "See? I'm not gonna hurt you, buddy."

At last, Reuben managed to calm down, snuffling a bit as he emerged from the grass- enough to poke his head out and get a better look at her, anyways. Evie let out a little sigh of relief, leaning over and patting the pig gently. "There you go. You're feeling better, huh?"

He snorted a bit, as if replying. Evie blinked down at it, before waving it off dismissively- of course Reuben couldn't reply, he was just a cute little pig- and giving it a smile. "There you go, shhh..."

Evie got fairly repetitive when she was trying to be calming, as you can probably tell.

Now that the initial concern was gone- mainly, that Reuben wasn't going to die at the hands of a mob- Evie's mind immediately went back to that little altercation between her and her 'friends'.

She had no idea where that little outburst had come from. Sure, she'd been annoyed with them before, and it wasn't the first time they treated her like a little kid or like she wasn't even a part of the group. Yeah, it was the first time that Christina had shoved her, but still. Most other friends did that to each other sometimes, right? Playful shoving and that?

Except that it wasn't playful, was it? That shove wasn't intended to be playful. Not with what Christina had started to say.

Weren't friends supposed to ignore shortcomings like that? Or- I don't know, accept them?

Did that make her a bad friend?

"Guess it doesn't matter," she mumbled to herself, ignoring the way Reuben perked up at her suddenly speaking after a minute of silence, "after all, after basically calling it quits with all of them, I don't really... have friends anymore, so I don't have any way of judging it."

At those mumbled words to herself, she started feeling tears pricking her eyes again. Great. She was crouched in the middle of nowhere with encroaching dusk and a pig and she was about to start crying like a baby because she'd broken up with her group of friends who hadn't been very nice to her but hey, at least they'd been willing to be friends with her. Except now they weren't because she'd just broken up with them.

Yay.

"Reuben?"

Evie jumped in surprise at the voice, realized too late that she was crouching, and toppled forward, accidentally landing right on top of Reuben, who let out a startled squeal at suddenly being squashed by a not-very-tall-or-heavy teenage girl.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Reuben. Didn't mean to squish ya there," and Evie quickly rolled off, allowing Reuben to get back up. Rolling over allowed her to see that the source of the voice was the girl from earlier, her long black hair now slightly disheveled.

"Uh, hey there. Sorry, didn't mean to... startle you that much," the girl blinked, looking a little surprised. "I'm Jesse."

If Evie was a normal person without social anxiety, she would've just replied normally, but because she wasn't a normal person who did have social anxiety, she just managed a weak little smile and nod. "Hi, Jesse. I'm Evie. I mean, Evangeline. I mean, my full name's Evangeline but people call me Evie."

Evie decided to shut up so she didn't keep making a fool out of herself.

Jesse, for her part, didn't act like Evie's weird attempt at a greeting was weird (even though it was)- she just smiled and nodded. "Nice to meet you, Evie." She then paused, before rubbing her head a little. "Uh, thanks for coming after Reuben too. I didn't think anyone would."

"Uh-huh," Evie managed, struggling back to her feet.

Jesse gave Evie a friendly sort of nod, before immediately crouching down next to the little pig and giving him a big grin, rubbing his head. "Hey buddy. You want a carrot?"

Reuben let out an excited squeal at the prospect of carrots, crunching down on it eagerly. Jesse sat back on her heels a little bit and let out a relieved sigh. "Oh I am so happy to see you!"

Reuben grinned at that.

"We should probably-"

Right then, Evie heard a loud groan, twisting to look over her shoulder and spot- oh joy!- zombies, blocking the way that both of them had come. "Oh no- Reuben, Evie, run!" Jesse yelled, staggering to her feet and tearing off to the right.

Evie quickly followed, although she was careful not to just trip and fall like usual- in this case, if she accidentally did that, there was a big chance that that would prove deadly.

For once, the girl got lucky, catching up to Jesse as she stooped down and patted her pig with a relieved look. "Whew... I think we're good."

As if the universe was intent on thwarting Jesse, a creeper came approaching them, with an almost curious hiss.

"Maybe not!" Evie squeaked, Jesse letting out an alarmed scream and dashing away again, shoving through tall grass as the little group ran away from the creeper, Jesse and Reuben pulling forward again because really, Evie could only run at a jog without her clumsiness getting the best of her.

Up ahead, Jesse had come to a stop in front of what looked like a shallow cave. Evie increased her speed a little bit-

And promptly tripped over a ledge of land that had been camouflaged slightly, knocking her forward and slamming right into Jesse, taking both girls down in a rather painful pile. However, in this case, Evie's clumsiness might've just saved both of their lives, because they'd barely hit the ground- once again, nearly squashing Reuben, who squealed and dodged out of the way in the nick of time- when they heard the hiss-thud of an arrow.

Jesse looked up to see an arrow quivering ominously in the cliff where they'd just been, turning her head to see the skeleton aiming again-

"Okay let's move!" and she shoved Evie off of her hastily, lurching out of the way and avoiding the next arrow as well. Evie scrambled to her feet and managed to chase after Jesse again, the long-haired girl turning a corner with Reuben-

And then all three of them came to a screeching halt at the several-meter-tall sheer wall in front of them on all three sides. A dead end.

The moans of zombies came along again, and they all turned to see mobs begin to pour through the entrance of the dead end- mostly zombies hobbling along, straight towards the little group.

Jesse blinked for a moment, looking slightly off guard... before her gaze hardened, and she pulled out a wooden sword, the sound of wood scraping on its sheathe sounding, holding it at the ready and preparing to attack. "Evie, do you have a weapon?"

"Ye-Yeah!" And Evie pulled out her lucky iron hoe.


Reuben and Jesse stared at the wavy black-haired girl standing next to them, amber eyes glinting nervously.

Maybe that was because, upon being asked if she had any weapons, she'd proceeded to pull out a hoe.

Evie blinked back upon spotting their stares. "What?"

"What... is that?" Jesse asked, slowly, completely forgetting about the approaching threat for the moment.

"... my lucky iron hoe?" Evie replied, blinking uncertainly and sounding as if this was some sort of trick question.

"... you have a lucky hoe?"

"Yes, of course I have a lucky hoe. Don't you?"

Jesse was about to reply when Reuben let out a loud squeal of alarm. Spinning to face the front again, the rotting, seeking hands of zombies groped at their faces.

"... let's come back to this conversation after we're not in imminent danger."

Evie shrugged, raising her lucky hoe in a sort of defensive way. "Sure, though I'm not sure what we'd talk about..."

Jesse lashed out immediately, the wooden blade smacking meatily into the nearest zombie and knocking it back several places. "Back! Get back!" she snapped at it, before glancing back at Reuben. "Stay behind me, Reuben."

The little pig let out a little whine and crept behind her a little more.

Lunging forward again, she knocked the zombie down and stabbed the wooden blade into its head, causing it to explode in a cloud of smoke.

Another zombie approached Evie, the girl edging backwards a bit nervously with the hoe still in her hands. The zombie halfheartedly swiped at Evie, and she immediately jumped back and swung the hoe like a baseball bat, smashing right into it and knocking it to the floor.

The force of the swing caused her to spin around in a little circle, stagger as she was knocked off-balance- and slam her foot straight through the zombie's skull, making a funny crunching-squishing noise and making the zombie explode in a cloud of smoke and rotten flesh.

Evie made a funny little face at that. "Oh, gross..."

Jesse grimaced a little bit as Evie lifted her foot, which was now dripping with blood, rotting gore, and... other stuff and furiously scraped it off on the grass with a disgusted expression on her face. "Yeah, that... did not look fun."

Both of them looked up as twin groans issued from a duo of zombies, lurching towards them in odd tandem.

Jesse lashed out with the sword again, this time, knocking one of them into the other and making both of them stagger oddly. Evie moved forward as well, although she did so extremely cautiously- then again, she did have a hoe as a weapon.

Jesse had just thought this when Evie swung the hoe into the air above her head like a tomahawk and hacked towards, smashing the hoe's sharper end right into the zombie closest to her and cracking into its already-rotten skull, making it puff into smoke quickly.

"Okay, that was kind of cool," Jesse told her, as she dodged in front of Evie and smacked into the zombie again, although unfortunately this time she hit it slightly wrong and it just flew backwards several paces again.

Evie perked up, head turning to stare at Jesse rapidly with wide eyes. "I- that was cool? You think so?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Jesse replied, returning her attention to the zombie and smacking the sword into it again.

"Well- I mean, that was an accident, I'm really bad at fighting."

"What do you mean you're bad a-?"

And that's when it happened. Right as Jesse brought the sword down, the wooden blade, already having gotten dangerously fragile, snapped in half perfectly, the hilt remaining in her hand but the snapped-off blade flying through the air, doing a perfect 360 before clattering to the ground, exploding into smoke not a half second later.

Moments later, the hilt followed suit.

"Stupid wooden swords!" Jesse groaned, backing away with Reuben still behind her and Evie feebly fending off the mobs with her lucky iron hoe. This was... yeah, this was not a good situation.

Wait, unless- "Evie, you wouldn't happen to have any more weapons, would you?"

"Ummm... unless you can somehow figure out a way to weaponize an iron helmet, no," Evie replied, glancing over her shoulder very quickly before back at the mobs approaching.

"Darn. Okay, uh... don't worry, Reuben," Jesse said shakily, backing away slowly from the mobs, "we'll think of something..." Looking at Evie a moment later, she practically squeaked, "Please tell me you've got a plan."

"I definitely do not have a plan."

"Well that's just fantastic." Jesse stared at the approaching mobs for a longer moment, before glancing back at Reuben. "You're going to have to make a run for it, Reuben," she told the pig, who looked up at her anxiously and whined, shaking his head. "I'll meet you back in town. I promise."

Evie lifted her hoe and smacked another zombie away, stepping back again and nearly backing straight into Jesse. "Jesse, if Reuben wants to run... he's gonna have to do it fast!" she squeaked, as more and more mobs crowded in.

"Now, Reuben! Run!" Jesse screamed, fear galvanizing her into action, and Reuben immediately started galloping away through the crowd of monsters. One zombie halfheartedly swiped at him, but the little pig easily dodged and made it out of the crowd.

Evie stepped back again, Jesse following her lead a little bit and checking over her shoulder to find that if they backed up any further, they'd be smacking straight into a wall of dirt.

An approaching spider let out a hiss, backing up a pace or two as it prepared to lunge at them... it launched itself forwards-

Evie yelped, flinching and swinging out with the hoe randomly. The hoe smacked into the spider with a sickening sort of crunch, knocking it sideways and sending it flying like a gigantic, misshapen baseball.

"Do you usually fight... like... at all?"

"No."

"... oh." Well, it explained why she was bringing a hoe out with her, rather than an actual weapon... still, she was still holding her own with the hoe fairly well.

"Duck."

Jesse glanced at Evie, blinking as she was caught off guard by the single syllable. "What?"

"Move!" Evie lunged sideways, slamming into Jesse and knocking them both to the ground as a spider lunged through the air where they'd just been. Before either of them could catch their breaths, Evie was knocked back to the ground as another spider landed on top of her, and since she was right on top of Jesse, that was kind of bad.

Just kind of.

Evie thought quickly- either that, or she completely panicked and just happened to roll over. Whichever option it was, she proceeded to roll off of Jesse, allowing Jesse to suck in a huge breath of air as she flopped onto her back- where the spider was perched.

Jesse cringed at the loud, squishy but crunchy sort of noise as Evie rolled over onto the spider, momentum and her body weight combined working together to crush the spider into a pulp. Moments later, the spider exploded into smoke beneath her, Evie's free hand entangling in a knot of string that the spider had dropped.

Jesse struggled to sit back up, Evie also jerking into an upright position and swinging her hoe in a full-on swing at another encroaching mob, smacking a zombie and knocking it over while sending a spider flying.

"... I thought you said you didn't fight?"

"Jesse, I'm literally just flailing randomly with this thing. The fact that I'm hitting anything at all is just that these things are so close and so big that I literally can't miss!" Evie shrieked the last two words as a spider lunged at Jesse, her hoe still unprepared from the haphazard swing she'd just made-

A pickaxe slapped the spider aside, and suddenly Petra was standing over them both, a sharp glare on her face as she took her usual pickaxe and violently stabbed the spider with it, one, two, three, and before it even completely dissolved into smoke she was already turning to the other two girls.

"Petra?" Jesse gasped, her heart still jackhammering away in her chest.

"C'mon," was the only thing the redhead said, "let's get out of the open."

Evie managed to climb to her feet, putting the hoe and the string away and helpfully reaching out her hand so Jesse could pull herself back upright, before the three of them ran away from the mobs, Petra swinging out with her pickaxe and clearing a path while Jesse scooped up the string from the spider Petra had just killed.


A/N: Huh, so I guess the lucky hoe actually IS lucky to some extent.

So so far, we've seen that Evie is totally clumsy and not very good at fighting. Though she is good at smacking things with reckless abandon upon using her lucky hoe, so maybe there's something to be said with that.

Yay, Petra! Next few chapters should be fun. xD

x.X. A.L. X.x