Hm, this took longer than expected, well I guess that's another win for procrastination.
Right so new chapter, new summery (yea I know I already did that before this chapter but shhh), everything looks good. Though I still have to fix a few things in the earlier chapters, I guess they could wait… I'll be right back.
Pith draws his sword, and screams a warning. The enderman teleports behind him and knocks the sword from his hand with a single swipe. It grabs onto Pith's arm, and opens its mouth. The cavern fills with its shriek, Pith reaches for his bow and Snow Drift pulls back trying to get free.
"Quiet down already the both of you,"
The enderman closes its mouth, and takes a step back.
"Now why'd you go and do that?" she says.
"What?" is all Pith can say with his heart beating out of his chest.
"Why'd you go and point that sword at him? What are you a sociopath or something?"
Pith stares at her for a minute, dumbfounded. As he sees Whitewolf and Raven reach his side he looks back at the woman and avoids the enderman's eyes.
"I'm… sorry about that,"
"Don't tell me, tell him. Don't worry he won't attack,"
Pith looks at the enderman, and repeats his apology. He braces himself to be torn to pieces the enderman just stands still.
"Alright, now how about we do this right? I'm Lily, and this is Rift,"
The enderman bows so slightly the three barely noticed it moved.
"Um, right I'm Pith, Sir Pith," Pith says putting his hand out.
"He's a squire," says Raven.
"Hey keep quiet, it's a technicality,"
"Heh, nice to meet you," Lily says.
"I'm Jett, but you can call me Raven," says Jett, keeping her sword arm ready.
Wihitewolf on the other hand strides to the two and shakes each of their hands.
"I'm Whitewolf, nice to meet you two,"
"Yea, I guess it is nice to meet an enderman that doesn't try to kill me. So what did you tame it or som-,"
The enderman glares at Pith, who gulps and tries to back pedal fast.
"Um I mean, how'd you come to befriend such a noble creature?"
"That is a long story," Rift says, his voice is scratchy and in the background the faint sound of static can be heard and the three had to force themselves from dropping their jaws in surprise.
"You can talk?" Jett says.
"That he can, so if you want a rest you can stay at our place for a while. I'm sure Ara would like to meet you," says Lily.
"Who's Ara?" asks Pith.
"He's a villager we cured while exploring these caves, a little weird but nice enough,"
"Yea he's weird," Jett whispers to Whitewolf.
"It would be nice to have a bed," says Whitewolf.
"I guess I can't disagree," says Pith, dismounting Snow Drift.
"Oh great! Let's give them a proper tour," Lily says waving them down the tunnel.
The group heads down the tunnel the two had come from, though at some points they had to stop to raise the ceiling to let Snow Drift through.
As they walk Pith and Whitewolf stay ahead while Raven stays in the back, keeping an eye on the enderman also hanging behind.
Raven had never really gotten a chance to see an enderman in detail, even up close in the midst of a battle things were usually too chaotic to notice details. Rift's skin is smooth and looks eerily similar to obsidian. The purple particles that float around it almost look like they are about to take a shape before disappearing back into his body. Though for an enderman Rift isn't very tall, only a half block taller than the minecrafters.
The party comes up to a ravine and the trio stop in their tracks. The ravine glows with the light of hundreds of glow stone and torches built into the walls. Glass bridges cross the Rift and flowing lava pipes up and down the walls through glass pipes, which curve down to the bottom of the ravine.
"Welcome to Home Base,"
"Do you like it?" says Lily.
"It's amazing," Pith says walking up to a lava tube and pressing his hand against it, and jumps back when it burns him.
"Careful its hot," Lily says laughing.
"How'd you do this?" Raven asks.
"We're a good team, he gets me around lava, and I take care of water flows. Oh this place has stories,"
Rift teleports over the ravine, and pushes a button hidden in the rock face. The sound of pistons resounds through the walls and reveal a two block wide doorway. Rift waves them through, and ducks through the opening just before it closes.
Inside the room is flanked by row upon row of chests, to the right a door opens up to a smaller room with a twin bed, and in the back, a narrow passage leads down.
"Hey what's down there?" asks Pith.
"That? It's an abandoned library. That's where we found Ara locked up and zombified,"
"A library?" Pith says his eyes shining.
"Oh great," Whitewolf says.
"Come on let's see it,"
Pith drags Jett and Whitewolf into the next room, finding rows upon rows of dusty bookshelves with cobwebs in the corners.
"Oh look, books and cobwebs, how exiting," says Whitewolf. "I'll be outside."
As Whitewolf steps outside and Jett walks to the back of the library Pith examines a bookshelf and pulls one out exited, when the half torn papers spill from the book. He pulls out another book with the same result, most of the books had long rotted away into dust. Pith sighs and while sorting through the books notices a few in one section that look newer than the others. Before he can pull it out Rift and Lily come through the gap, Lilly carrying a diamond sword and wearing a black four pointed star amulet around her neck.
"Hey is Ara here?" Lily asks.
"No, there's no one in here," Raven says, emerging from the back of the library
"Great, he must've gone into the ruins again, let's go Rift," Lily says and walks towards the back of the library.
"Hey do you need any help?" says Raven.
"Hm, not really, but you should come, oh the ruins are beautiful at this time at night,"
The group walks to the back of the library, where a small opening leads into a darker tunnel lit only by a few torches.
Down the tunnel it leads onto a stone outlook that reaches out into open air. Above a tiny sliver of the sky lets in rays of moon light into the ravine, but despite the light the ravine is so deep their eyes can't discern the bottom and no lava lights its depths.
"This is amazing," Raven says, walking to the edge of the ravine.
"Yea, why don't you guys live here?" asks Pith.
"It's um, it's a little too airy for my tastes," says Lily, and leads them onward.
The outcrop leads to a path carved into the ravine wall, and after walking around the bend the trio sees what ruins they were talking about. Along the ravine walls dozens of abandoned mine shafts, square rooms and other signs of ancient digs cut into the stone, lined with long burned out torches. They reach a glass bridge that crosses the ravine that leads down into what looks like a large room made of cracked stone brick, bellow them more mineshafts plunge vertically into the depths.
Inside the building looks almost intact, and here and there are signs of earlier expeditions. Abandoned crafting boxes, bookshelves, scattered notes, maps and burned out torches along side still burning torches.
In the corner a white coat lies on a chair, by chair I mean wooden stairs, and not far away the sound of someone digging can be heard.
They round the corner and see a strange scene to say the least. A villager is digging through a wall of glass with a wooden door, flipping through the pages of a book; while a small silver colored shelled insect crawls over the glass.
"Just give me a moment," Raven says and notches an arrow.
The arrow strikes the glass, barely missing the tiny target. The creature flinches, and then turns and leaps at Raven, who jumps back with a yelp when it tries to bite her. Whitewolf draws his sword and swings at it, and the creature jumps back and slides behind Pith, curling itself around his leg.
"Ah! Get it off, get it off," Pith yells.
The silverfish jumps off of him and lands on Jett's head who yelps and tries to pry the creature off.
Rift bends down and picks up the silverfish, who curls around its arm.
"He's harmless," the villager yells running out from behind his glass wall.
Rift leans down and picks the silverfish up, and saves the two some of their dignity.
As Pith calms down he reaches his hand out to touch the silverfish who doesn't complain.
"He's tame?" he says careful not to stick himself with the silverfish's needles.
"Oh very tame, Sticker, come over here,"
'Sticker' skitters to the villager and sits on his shoulder.
"Oh hello again Lily, Rift. Are these new friends?" he says noticing her standing at the back.
"Yep, we found them wandering at the end of the ravine,"
"Ok, I'm Ara, librarian,"
"Whitewolf, the two thousand and thirteenth, but you can just use the first part,"
"I'm Pith from Sea Stone,"
"I'm Jett,"
After the trio introduced themselves Lily begins to look around nervously.
"We should go back," Rift says in his usual voice.
"Yea, it's probably close to dawn by now and the exploding men will be coming down,"
"That's fine, we need the rest," Jett says, realizing how long they've been awake.
The band set back the way they came, looking over their shoulder for every bump.
"So why are you staying down here?"
"I was studying these ruins, this must have been the site of a city before any of the kingdoms were around. Well that and I can't walk out of here,"
"What, monsters deep underground? What a shock, hey squirt how about we blow through the tunnels to the exit?"
"I… don't think you want to stir that pack of wolves. Don't worry, we'll find a way to get you to the surface. Rift and I've been talking, and we've got a great plan, how do you feel about disusing as a creeper?"
Pith follows behind, but notices what sounds like a pick striking rock. Pith looks down the tunnel, and for the briefest moment he could have sworn he saw a man standing there. Wearing a simple aqua shirt and blue pants, and hefting a diamond pick axe. For a moment the thoughts of the white eyed ghost Herobrine passes through his mind, but the man turns to look at him with eyes to match his pants. The man stares at him for a moment, before running down the tunnel and disappearing.
And here we are again.
I'm getting tired of this section being empty, so I'll be opening Q&A (he says as if he could prevent questions) both for me and for any characters in the story. Though this'll will be as much for my sake as it is for yours, oh and if someone asks a question on a chapter that's already been posted past this one I'll be happy to edit it in, so long as there aren't too many already on it.