You know I think I changed my mind, it's these author notes that I'm bad at, I mean I couldn't think of anything while writing this. So yea what else, I always forget to put things here until after it's out. Oh I edited the last chapter a bit to put in some minor details, like what Pith looks like, giving the horse a name finally... so yea sorry about that.
"Come on, faster, faster!" Pith yells into Snow Drift's ear.
Snow Drift rides faster, and grunts in annoyance as its ears ring, ignoring the arrows flying by them. The conga line of mobs behind them eventually lose ground, and the moans of zombies and rattle of skeletons slowly drift into the distance.
The two come to a stop at the foot of a mountain that stands in the middle of the snow plains. With a backwards glance Pith drives Snow Drift upward, and at the mountain's peak the two find a cave glowing gently with the light of torches.
"Hey did we pass by here before?"
Snow Drift snorts.
"Well you'd remember if we did,"
Pith sighs and puts his hand to his face.
"Right, I'm arguing with a horse… wait,"
The sounds of zombies moaning reaches their ears, and in a moment a half dozen green bodies start climbing the mountain.
Pith dismounts Snow Drift and leads him into the cave with the zombies nipping on their heels. A few blocks into the cave a single door and a barricade of cobblestone blocks the way further in. Pith knocks on the door furiously, but no reply comes from the other side.
"Right doesn't look like there's anyone home, stand back,"
Pith pushes Snow Drift back and readies himself to smash the door open. His ax smashes into the door, and as Pith readies another swing the door opens and someone walks out. Pith barely manages to divert the ax into the stone wall. And the stranger jumps as the pieces hits his face.
The stranger wears a leather suit painted green, but smoothed to the point it looks like cloth. The suit has a black diamond on his chest and a black x over each of his eye holes which reveal light brown eyes. An image of what looks like a tree is painted between his eyes, with swirling roots that reach to his nose and leafless branches that come together at his forehead. The entire suit is held together by dozens of straps and in a few places stitches where gashes had been torn into the leather. His mask is partially pulled up to make room for a baked potato.
"What's whit all the noise out here?" he says, finishing his meal.
"We need help, there's a line of zombies coming this way,"
The stranger looks past Pith and almost seems like he's smiling at the line of zombies filling the cavern.
"Oh thanks for bringing them here, I needed some more XP,"
The stranger takes a step inside his house and a loud click of a switch being thrown comes out. The sound of pistons working fills the cavern and the smooth stone above him move aside revealing a, wait is that an anvil?
The anvil falls in the middle of the zombies and catches one in the head. Pith jumps back and has to look away.
"What raving madman uses an anvil as a trap?" Pith says as he looks towards the door.
The stranger leaps out and in a whirl of motion the other zombies fall with a groan. The stranger slices a zombie in the chest and it collapses into a puff of smoke and ash, and the remaining zombies turn and run. The XP orbs float to the stranger, who looks at the fleeing zombies and turns away.
"Aren't you going to get the ones who ran away?"
"Well I really only like a fair fight,"
The stranger watches the zombies go, and covers his entrance with a wall of cobblestone. The stranger turns to look at them, and as his eyes goes to Snow Drift he almost squawks.
"Oh horsie!" he says putting his hand on Snow Drift's face as if he hadn't seen him before.
"Hey do you mind if we stay here for the night,"
"Course, come in come in, I'll get the food cooking,"
"Hey why did you use an anvil?" Pith says stepping around the anvil.
"Because it's funny,"
"Great, we're stuck with a nut for the night," Pith whispers to Snow Drift.
"Oh come on, how is an anvil trap not that bad, you should have seen the lava trap," says Whitewolf, apparently what Pith said was loud enough for him to hear.
The stranger waves Pith in, and Snow Drift trots in after the stranger widens the doorway by shattering the framing cobblestone. The inside is a half dirt half cobblestone cave. In the back a hole leads deeper into the underground and at the corner a bed and chest are wedged together.
The stranger walks into the next room and returns with an uncooked slice of pork. When Pith looks back at him the stranger waves for him to eat it.
"So I guess I'll start, I'm Whitewolf 2013, no nicknames please,"
Pith looks down at his meat, and then up at Whitewolf, before eating the porkchop.
"I'm Pith, Sir Pith," either ignoring or not caring about the strange name.
"Oh you're a knight? You don't fight very well for one,"
"I'm a craft knight, architect class," Pith snaps.
"I build forts, homes, those sort of things. I don't usually fight, not without a horse anyways,"
"So you've got land and people to work for you?"
Pith stays silent as he finishes his pork.
"I... may be exaggerating a bit. I… haven't been knighted, yet,"
"So you've got a learner's permit or something?" Whitewolf says as he chuckles to himself.
"Damn it it's not funny,"
Snow Drift neighs along, and Pith shoots him a glance that would have made an enderman look away.
"I think it is. So why are you all the way out here knight wannabe?"
"I don't want to talk about it,"
"Come on, we've got nothing else to do,"
"Just leave me alone,"
But no matter how he argued, Pith couldn't get a word in edgewise.
"Fine fine, I'll tell you if you shut up,"
Whitewolf crosses his legs and sits down in the middle of his dirt and rock cave waiting.
"I... I had to prove myself as being worth the title you see, and I always had grand designs of castles and fortresses and towns built into the faces of cliffs and hanging upside down in arches,"
"Sounds cool,"
"That's all it was in the end, it sounded cool. I could never complete my projects, I would start on one and leave it half finished then jump to another. Eventually the king told me I was making the kingdom ugly with all the half finished castles and he threw me out,"
"So now you're..." Whitewolf spins his hand, urging Pith to finish.
"So now I'm here, on the edge of the wilderness, if I can build a proper town in the middle of the wilderness there's no way in the nether that the king won't give me my knightship,"
"Right, sounds like fun, finished anything yet?"
"I'm almost finished with a hall, a big place for people to get together, with sturdy cobblestone walls and a wooden roof. It's not finished yet,"
"What do you do?" Pith says after a moment of silence.
"Adventuring, wandering from one place to another. Though adventuring 'round here's been hard,"
"Why's that?"
"The wild's been busy lately my naïve little knight, there's bands of greefers, adventurers, and general thieves roaming around, the worst of em is the Smoked Band,"
"What is so bad about them?"
"They're four of them. They work out of a castle in the smoke desert, lording over one of those big nosed villages. Strange thing is that for a band of idiots they sure are well armed, and have some good enchantments and potions to boot,"
"What's got everyone going into the wilderness?"
"You haven't heard?"
"Heard what?"
"There's a treasure out there, it's probably the only reason they're out and about,"
"What kind of treasure?"
"I don't know, the tale that's been going around doesn't say much,"
"A rumor? Your going deep into the wilderness on a rumor?"
"Sort of, some people started whispering about a treasure, a relic from the birth of minecraft. Trek over the frozen plains, through the iron peak mountains, past the shifting desert and over the squid's arm bay, in the fallen kingdom a treasure lays,"
"Nice rhyme, but there's nothing in those ruins, they've been picked clean years ago, and even if there was no one can find the place," Pith says sarcastically.
"Yada yada yada, lots of talking, I'm gonna find out for myself, besides people on the frontier have been talking about a beam of light coming from the opposite side of the bay, coming from the Fallen Kingdom,"
Pith's watches the torches on the walls for a second, then shakes his head and sits back.
"I hope it works out for you,"
"Well I have to get ready for the trip, you know all the essentials, iron, diamond, wood. That's why I've been sticking around here,"
Pith snaps his head up, and yelps.
"We can help each other here,"
"Oh? How's that?"
"I found a cave under my house, it's got all sorts of things that we can use and I need help diving in there. If you help me you can get all the stuff you need quickly and I can get my materials,"
Whitewolf smiles, or Pith guess he smiles its hard to tell underneath the mask, and puts his hand forward.
"I like it, you've got my sword,"
"And you've got mine," Pith says taking the handshake.
Whitewolf looks over to Snow Drift, and chuckles.
"I bet the place's got plenty of gold, and that means golden apples in your future,"
Snow Drift turns to them and neighs in what seems to be excitement.
"Then we've got a dungeon delving party," says Pith.
"Great! I'll pack the food, those monster's never know what hit 'em,"
And that's this chapter done, I'm not sure what to think about this one. On one hand I finally get to introduce another of the three leads, it's a bit of a spoiler but not much the last of the trio'll show up next chapter. On the other hand I had originally wanted this chapter to be a bit longer and introduce all of the main characters but... ugh I had to rewrite this chapter three times more or less. Well its done now, next chapter should be easier I hope anyways.
-Fixed a few things like Whitewolf's description.