Okay, hi peeps. Sorry I haven't been working on this as much, and I didn't upload last Saturday! High school sucks.
Also, I just realized that the Enderside's thoughts for some reason refuse to have the underlining properly. I might have to fix that… or does it make it better? I'm not sure.
Krystal-Glass- *Backs away slowly*
Info- Yes, he's sort of a forest spirit. I'll probably write his back-story someday. He's sort of a mix of an elf and a nature spirit, and he's also Sapling royalty. Yeah. I upload every Saturday (hopefully!) but not necessarily this story.
Reyanna Pov
No scream left my mouth as I stumbled backwards in pure shock and fear.
My heart pounded loudly in my ears, drowning out any other sound. My vision goes black. My hands clench into fists at my sides rather than stopping my fall.
Someone screams near me. Loud curses ring out. My heart finally stops beating so crazily, so that must be why I can hear other things again.
Wait, how long has it been?
Daring to reopen my eyes, I see most of the group is sitting up or brushing themselves off. A few are trying to scan the horizon, but if anything it's darker than before.
C'mon, just use it already. Glowing eyes aren't the weirdest thing they've seen.
They distrust me enough as it is.
Rythian's using it anyways.
They know Rythian.
Maybe they met him a long time before they did you, but you'd be surprised how much a little sister act can pull off.
I won't deceive them into trusting me, that's how this mess of mistrust started.
Seeing as I'm not in control, at least make sure to fix up our head, will you? I do feel the same pain as you.
You do?
We inhabit the same body, fool.
True…
I sit up painfully, feeling the back of my head. There's a lump starting, but it's not bleeding, even if I'm a bit dizzy. I stand up uncertainly, still nearly blind in the dark.
"The fuck just happened?" Lomadia asked unsteadily.
"He's trying to turn us back." Ridge said hesitantly. "It… probably, hopefully, means he thinks we actually stand a chance."
I glance around and see my Ender-side wasn't lying- Rythian's eyes are glowing fiercely purple, but no one seems to notice much, more worried about what just attacked us… if you could really call that an attack. More of a, I don't know, fear tactic?
Whatever.
"Well at least I know where we can start finding him." Ridge said. "See that little reddish-gold glow down there? That's where we need to start."
"Is that… a shrine?" Rythian asks, squinting at it. Lalna toggles something on his goggles and then nods.
"That is definitely a shrine or something." The scientist agreed.
"Then that's where we go." Ridge said heavily.
Without another word, he starts to inspect the edge of the floating island.
"We can jump down safely from here, there's an Aercloud we can land on and we have our flying rings."
Lomadia, apparently not scared of heights, was the first to jump down with her sword drawn. Xephos and Martyn jumped down after her. Toby followed willingly, but Nilesy waited until Lomadia yelled at him to hurry up to go down. Eventually we all made it to the Aercloud, landing safely of the soft and squishy… thing.
It was really weird, when I thought about it. Landing on it, there was no shock of landing-just like landing on a huge fluffy pillow. It felt almost damp, like dew has soaked into it, but not actually wet. Unfortunately, when you walked on it, you sank about eight inches with every step- making it pretty slow moving. Luckily, it wasn't too big, and we were walking into the brush covering the island before too long.
"There's no sign of that shrine thing." Sips complained after a minute or so of searching the area.
"Keep looking." Xephos replied calmly.
"Umm, guys." Zoeya said nervously. "Why can I feel Nether magic here?"
I froze for a moment, and then followed the direction her voice had come from until I found a group of them already gathered around.
"Which way?" Ridge said undoing and redoing the golden buttons on his coat nervously.
"Umm… I think it's this way." Zoeya pointed southward, but then moved her hand a bit east.
At least, I think that's south. The Aether's messing with my head.
I could only barely see Rythian by the bright purple glow of his eyes as he stepped next to Zoeya protectively.
"That way, then?" Lalna asked.
"May as well." Honeydew complained.
"It would make sense, wouldn't it?" Xephos asked.
"He was the Nether's god, originally. Some say he was even Notch's brother, but I'm almost certain that's not true. Close cousins might be more accurate. After a… incident, Herobrine was meant to be destroyed. Not even Notch had that power, though, so Herobrine lives on as some sort of dark, regenerating traitor." Ridge spat out the last word with such venom, it almost sounded personal to him.
How, though? He can't be that old? Or… or do Aetherborns respawn forever?
I remembered suddenly what Toby had said earlier, about Ridge and Xephos being leaders. That thought is comforting, that at least Ridge is fully honest with us about this. Probably.
I fall into step behind Nilesy and before Teep as we pushed our way through the dark, plant-infested island. The sun was still completely gone from the sky, but no stars or moon had appeared.
If it bothers you that much, you could just-
My Enderside's taunt is cut off by a startled cry from Minty. "Oh, shit!"
I hurried my way over to where the blonde bartender was, judging by sound alone. Something felt off in the air, like a huge Blaze was breathing down our necks. Despite the darkness, the air was turning hot and humid.
I untie my blue hoodie from around my waist as I jogged, dodging under a lower branch hanging from a tree nearby. With one hand, I shove it into my alchemical bag. Without it, I can move faster through the branches and brambles. It takes me a minute or so more to find the main group.
I hadn't realized we'd split so far apart.
Well, if you could have seen properly, you would have known.
I shake my head to dispel the short conversation and pay attention to what the others are saying.
"I'm fine, just my foot is stuck. Geez, stop worrying about me. It just startled me when I tripped, that's all." The bartender exclaimed, clearly exasperated.
"You need to be more careful!" Sjin scolded her gently. Minty probably rolled her eyes, but I couldn't see much from here.
"You gave us all heart attacks." Lomadia said, half jokingly.
"Just help me out of here." Minty groaned.
"Here." Kim said. I could hear rustling as more of us came into the clearing. "Where's your foot stuck?"
"It's under a tree root, in a stupid flipping hole." Minty said. There was a moment of silence before she spoke again. "It won't budge."
"It might be an Aerbunny hole." Ridge said. "Cute little buggers, but they dig everywhere." He chuckled nervously again.
"I like the sound of that." Honeydew joked.
"Where's Martyn?" Toby piped up. "He could get the root to move away, easy."
"Yeah, where is he?" Rythian agreed.
"Martyn?!" Toby called out towards the forest.
"Yeah?" Came the faint reply. Someone sighed in relief nearby. "What is it?"
"Can you get your butt over here?" Toby yelled back. "Just hang on, guys." He added to us.
While we waited for Martyn and the others to show up, the air grew still. There had been the faintest breeze blowing the tree branches, but now everything was silent and calm. Deadly quiet. The giant blaze from earlier was holding its breath.
Calm before the storm.
Wait, what?
Confused by my Enderside's seemingly random comment, I hardly notice Martyn dashing into the clearing. I step aside subconsciously.
"That's not a tree root, that's a fake one." Martyn said. "Which means it's probably a tripwire of sorts. Don't move, Minty."
"Shit." The blonde murmurs under her breath, but we all hear it.
"What if we cut it?" Kim asks, fisting her hand into her kimono's sash.
"We can't, it'll go off." Martyn frowned.
"We could dig it out, maybe." Sips said.
"If there are more of them, we could be in big trouble." Ridge warned.
"Do we even have a choice?" Lomadia asked. No one responded. "I thought so. Honeydew, got a shovel?"
"Is that even a question?" The dwarf replied, pulling out an iron shovel. "Diggy diggy hole!"
I could hear a bit of scuffling as Minty moved to the side, allowing Honeydew to safely dig out the hole.
As we waited silently broken only by the odd joke from Sips, I could feel the nervous sweat start to trickle down my neck. Something was wrong. Even the wind had stopped, and the only sound was from our group.
Like I said, calm before the storm.
You mean something's going to happen?
No, Herobrine wants a tea party, that's all. My Enderside's mental voice dripped with bitter sarcasm.
Oh, shut up would you?
Considering that They fell silent, I assumed they'd ignore me (thankfully) for the next little while at least.
"There we are." Honeydew said, stepping back. Sjin and Kim helped Minty stand up, careful to not move the root, I was sure, as much as I could be in the pitch dark.
The ground suddenly rushed up at my face faster than I could realize I was falling.
"It's a trap!" Xephos shouted as we fell.
Ow!
I landed awkwardly on my back, feeling the old pained bruise from my fight against the Queen of the End in the Nether flare back up again. I tried to hiss rather than squeak in pain, but there wasn't any air left in my lungs to make any noise.
For a short while, I lay there, trying to cough and gasp the air back into my body. When I finally did, though, I managed to sit up carefully.
The place was practically pure darkness. Looking around frantically, I managed to make out a faint light coming from above, in a perfectly square shape, maybe four metres square.
The ground had fallen out from underneath us.
"Is anyone hurt?" Someone asked. I stood unsteadily, feeling a smooth wall behind me. I leaned against it as my eyes burned, trying to see something, anything.
Suddenly, a splitting headache hit me, forcing me to double over and slide down the wall. My vision went dead.
Stop struggling!
Ears ringing, my hands clenching into fists, the throbbing finally subsided from its pounding in my ears like they were anvils.
Took you long enough. My Enderside hissed. I was getting bored of not being able to see. You're welcome.
Deliberately ignoring the voices, I dared to open my eyes, but the headache immediately returned.
Everything looked… wrong. Colours didn't match up at all, everything was a bright blinding white, and the tunnel spun. I squeezed my eyes shut again as nausea took hold.
Wait, tunnel? We fell into a tunnel?
No duh. Ughh, stupid human genes, making us feel sick. Hang on.
I suddenly felt the world stop spinning around me. My eyes open almost without me wanting them to, but this time the colours swirl without making me sick.
I don't move a muscle, somewhat weirdly entranced by watching the colours spin and change against a white backdrop. Finally, the colours seem to revert to normal ones, ones that make sense. It seems like normal seeing, except for the glowing auras and lack or lighting.
It was strange. Nothing had shadows, no lighting came from anywhere, I could just see. Light not required.
I don't understand why you humans have an inverted colour scale from us.
I don't get how you don't need light to see. It's freaky.
It's natural. The End has not sun, only faint stars and the magic crystals. We developed no need for light long ago.
That sort of makes sense but it doesn't. Forget it.
Fine.
Not only were there no lighting effects in my vision, I could see faint auras. Some were stronger than others. Rythian was closed off but still gave off enough Ender magic to mess with me. My human side wanted to draw away from it, my Enderman side wanted to join forces with it, which would not be good for our sanity.
Ridge was surprisingly not closed off, but I closed myself off as to not accidentally pick up on random thoughts from him. It was difficult, but I managed to block out his golden aura.
Zoeya was so open if I wasn't closed off, I would have probably read her emotions in a few seconds. Not only did she give off a warm, orange aura, but a fiery red one as well. It was unusual for someone to have more than one basic aura.
Others had faint auras too- Xephos had pale blue, Kim a unusual mix of purple and red, Lomadia and Martyn green, though Martyn's was far stronger.
Shaking my head quickly to dispel as much of the unusual auras and information as possible, I managed to take in our surroundings.
We had fallen into a tunnel, just over two meters wide and tall and perfectly square. The walls, which were made of some strange rock I didn't recognize, were perfectly smooth. Glancing down the way to my left, I noticed a dark red aura. To my right, was a tunnel that opened up into a larger room or something?
"Which way should we go?" Nilesy asked, fiddling with what looked like a cat toy.
Lomadia tugged her owl hat down lower over her ears. I'd never seen her without the hat, even if she wasn't wearing it.
"Left, right, or up are our only options. I wouldn't suggest splitting up."
"Splitting up is a bad idea." Kim agreed.
"There's an r-red light to the l-left." Honeydew stuttered nervously, but nowhere near as pale as before.
"Yeah, and a room to the right." Rythian said much more calmly.
"Considering this isn't a normal thing in the Aether, I'd guess that this is a creation from our…" He stopped talking for a long moment. "Enemy. We can't get out through the top, so we have to go in." Ridge said.
"If it's a maze, we could follow the left wall." Sjin suggested, taking Minty's hand.
"That's the classic approach, he'll be expecting that." Xephos said firmly. "Right wall would make more sense and he won't expect that."
"Plus, then we don't head towards the scary red light." Kim added gratefully.
"Reverse psychology?" Lalna asked, adjusting his goggles unnecessarily.
"Whaaaat?" Sips asked.
"Doing the opposite so someone will do what you want." Lalna explained. "He's probably knows that Xephos, being a leader, always follows the right wall. He also knows that the red light is probably a bad thing and we'll steer clear of it, so we go right. Therefore, left is where he doesn't want us to go."
For a moment, the group falls silent. I listen in with interest. Lalna makes perfect sense, but some of the others look confused.
"But will he have anticipated that you'll figure this out?" Minty asked suddenly. "We don't know what he knows, we don't know which way to go, we don't know where he is, what he's doing, what he has planned, anything at all. We're like slugs in a salt maze with no exit."
"That's an interesting simile." Lalna muses. Kim smacks his hand.
"Focus, Lalna!"
"Sorry."
"Minty has a point. We have the disadvantage." Lomadia grumbles.
"Is reverse-reverse psychology a thing? Because then he might actually not want us to go right, or left, or maybe he doesn't care which way we go because they lead to the same place or something." Zoeya offers, somehow still optimistic.
"I give up!" Xephos throws his hands up in the air.
"Relax, mate." Nilesy said. "We should take a vote."
"Yaay, democracy." Sips mutters. A few people shoot him glares but he ignores them.
"Who thinks we should go left?"
Most of the hands, mine included, are raised. I notice Kim and Honeydew don't, but I can't really blame them.
"Left it is then." Ridge agrees. "Let's be careful, though."
The Aetherborn takes the lead and Xephos watches the back, constantly jumpy. It takes us maybe five minutes to find the end of the corridor. Without any lighting, I find it harder to decide how far away something- or someone- is, but I still somehow manage to not bump into anyone.
"Holy shit." Lomadia gasps from somewhere in front of me.
I hear a few more exclamations as we pile into a small room, but was still fairly big considering we where underground. Reddish light from redstone torches on the stone walls. Passages opened off to the side- three on the left, two on the right. On the far wall was a huge message spelt in letters of gold and glowstone.
The painful part of someone lying to you is not that they were dishonest, but rather that you weren't worth the truth.
The moment I finish reading it, my eyes automatically flick over to Lalna, remembering the hurt when he used me, but when I realize what I've done I lower my gaze to my boots guiltily.
How can I look at him first when I read something like this, after I tell him I forgave him?
Lifting my gaze up a bit, I feel my ears start burning as I realize everyone is looking at someone here- and at least a half dozen are focused on me, glaring daggers. My mouth tastes like something metallic as I bite my lip nervously.
Ridge swallowed hard, the coughed to get everyone's attention. The sound was like gunshot, turning everyone's eyes to him.
"Alright, ignore that. He's trying to unnerve us. Which tunnel should we take?"
The rest of the group shuffled uneasily.
"It's a maze right? So let's be classic and stick to the left wall." Honeydew said quietly.
No one else offered any suggestions, not even Xephos, so we went into the first tunnel on the left silently.
I was grateful to return to darkness, because beneath my mask and hair, my face and ears are burning up in shame. I was hurt when Lalna lied to me last year, and now…
Now, I've done the same.
I'd lied to them… why hadn't I seen it sooner?