Chapter 4
Here I was, sitting in the library again. Steven and Roth has yet to arrive so I was left fiddling with my coat pocket. I scanned through a book on blazes and another one on brewing before I saw Jace, Hughie and Abel arrive. "Lock isn't coming today." Abel told me and the trio took their seats around the table.
"Looks like Roth and Steven are running a little late too." Jace pointed out. I nodded in agreement.
"Like books?" Jace started some light-hearted conversations, I shook my head,
Abel spoke up, "Oh I read all the time, like the other day when I finished five books in a day!"
Jace laughed, "Comic books don't count, Abel."
"C'mon! They're comic books, they're still books so don't be so bookist."
'Bookist?' I smiled at the argument that is causing the rising of several eye brows of people reading nearby.
"Hey mister? You never told us your name, did you?" Hughie asked a question which I thought I had managed to avoid.
"M... Me?" I could lie but my head was completely empty for names, I had already hesitated too long to just shake off the question so I answered, "Can't you just keep calling me mister? I'll be gone after the story anyway."
"But it'd be nice to be able to call you by your name instead of 'mister' all the time. Why don't you take the hood off too, you look kinda creepy." Flinching at the thought of me being creepy, I shrugged and said, "You'd be more scared if I took off my cloak" Hopefully he'd fall for my bluff and not question the matter any longer.
"But-" Before Hughie could ask again Steven and Roth came rushing through the door, earning a glare from the librarian.
"Sorry we're late guys, we had to look after Sunny." Steven apologise.
I heard Jace say something like "His eyes are still like that?" However Roth had opened to a page that was marked by a white feather and began reading.
"Day 37
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'It was Abbie's birthday today, well, we sort of just made up days that would be our birthdays since none of us can actually remember the date'
I stretched and placed the feather quill down besides my diary. Steve was snoring softly besides the window. The sun rose a few minutes ago but I was already awake. We arrived at a new city today, it was massive on the map, covering the full face of four medium maps. We planned to get her a present there. By doing some research, we found that this city dealt in glowstone: block and dust. Thankfully we came across a town a week ago that sold us pretty much all their stock of glowstone.
I heard Axel get up, he walked over to see what I was writing. I pulled some bread from a chest but Axel still refused to eat anything. Frowning and biting into my own bread, I added to my mental to-do list- Find something for Axel to eat.
'We headed for that city which we soon learned was called Belfa city'
"This is quite nice... That one too." I pointed around at the small trinkets and jewels which were displayed by the market stalls. Ranging from diamonds to dyed cyans, there was not a single spot of the market that wan't plain.
"These are quite expensive, ya know." Steve scratched the back of his head and it was true, the more extravagant jewels costed stacks of glowstone. Abbie was busy shopping for supplies so me Steve and Axel strayed off.
I felt a tug at my shirt sleeve, "What's wrong Axel?" I had to mentally remind myself that Axel is actually a six year old who is just really mature looking for his age. Without words, his stomach growled a deep rumble. "Hungry?" I chuckled, "Hey Steve! let's get some food."
After trying six or seven restaurants we resorted to searching for other sources of food. Whenever Axel as much as licked any food, his face turned green and he would refuse to even look at the item anymore. "What do you eat?" Steve sighed in frustration, "You don't eat human flesh? Do you?" I know this was meant as a joke but it gave me a bright idea,
"We haven't tried sushi!" I grabbed Axel's jacket sleeve and ran off.
"Hey kiddo, what ya ordering today?" A furry creature with an apron and fish knife spoke from behind a counter.
"I think I'll have one of everything." Steve gave me a glare. Every restaurant that we've visited, we had to finish off what Axel couldn't eat... So pretty much the entire menu. The different dishes were served. Each earning a similar result from Axel, the boy was just allergic to eating.
We walked around the market in defeat. There was probably just enough time to get Abbie a present before we left. "Let's just get her cake or something, she'd like that better than any of these scarves." Steve wasn't one for clothes shopping, I wasn't a fashion expert either.
"Look." I followed Axel's gaze towards a certain necklace. It was an eye of Ender, except the slit was white instead of black and instead of being the blue-green pearl, it was a light crimson. Without noticing, I was an inch away from bumping into it.
"Hero's Eye!" The shopkeeper gave me a small fright. "Legend has it that this belonged to a great being maybe even Notch, interested?" I half-heartedly nodded, my attention was focused on the gem.
"I'll take it." Steve handed the man a stack of glowstone and claimed the Eye. "You sure this thing doesn't have any weird enchants on it?" He asked afterwards.
"I'm pretty sure, it's not glowing or anything." I poked it for good measures.
"Hey, isn't something missing?" Steve looked around, I had to tear my glaze away from the Eye.
"A...Axel!" I shouted "AXEL!" I found him soon enough. He was speaking to a villager though it didn't look like he was listening. His eyes were black, a tiny speck of white replaced where his pupils would have been. I felt wind rush by me as Steve walked towards them.
The blackness of Axel's eyes suddenly covered his entire face, his mouth stretched to an impossible size, going literally from ear to ear. With an audible crunch, followed by a thud, screams erupted with a rippled effect. I pocketed the gem and rushed over, matching pace with Steve.
I took Axel by the arms while Steve gave him a whack strong enough to knock him unconscious, with this, his face returned to the normal pale white.
'What was that?'
We told Abbie that the commotion was over someone trying to sell us a creeper. While she was away getting fire wood, me and Steve watched over Axell as he still slept. "Brine."
"I know but there must be a reason,"
"He's not a crafter,"
"... And neither are we." My brother stared at me, I couldn't meet those eyes but I knew what I said was real. Me and Steve woke up one day, not born, just woke up. Actually I'm not even sure if he is my brother or not but then we found Abbie, she also 'just' woke up one day with no memory. Maybe, just maybe, Axel was the same?
As Abbie walked into our mud hut, Steve shouted a big "Happy birthday!" and showered Abbie in a pool of paper which I suppose was meant to be confetti.
"Haha, thanks." Steve looked at me. I then remembered that the gem was still in my pocket.
"Happy birthday," I handed her the necklace.
"Eh? It's beautiful." Abbie turned around as I put it on around her neck. "Thanks guys." She twirled it around and posed before bursting out in a fit of laughter. Axel woke up, he looked more hungry than... than... I can't even explain the look on his face as he picked up a block of glowstone. Due to the power of Mincraftia, the block expanded as he willed it to, growing until it reached from his lap to his shoulders. He opened his mouth and began eating the block.
"He can eat that?" Abbie backed down, Steve was reaching for his sword.
"Steve wait. Axel?" He looked up at me but kept crunching at the block, "Does that taste nice?"
"I remember." He said in between gulps, "I remembered." It wasn't before he finished before he started talking again, "I was really hungry before, so I forgot everything. My name is Axel the EnderChild, that's what they called me." He pointed to the two ender pearl he always carried around.
"EnderChild?" Steve was just as confused as me.
"Mama is a happy lady, who fell in love with a fearsome man~" He began singing to a hymn like tune, "Papa was like no other, half an Ender by his side~" Tears poured from his eyes, they soaked his hair on the side where his eye was covered by his bangs. Abbie hugged him, Axel cried silently, he trembled as he sobbed.
"Let him stay." I said to Steve.
"Only because you're my little brother." He patted Axel on the shoulder and gave me a soft shove before heading to bed, it was his way of saying good night.
'He said he was an EnderChild, his parents didn't want him to stay with them and be chased by villages all his life.'
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... That's quite sad." Roth finished, when he flipped the page, he had to pry the pages apart which had been stuck together by some brown substance.
"Ewww, is that poo?" Abel joked, but I knew, I had seen it more times than I wished to. It was blood, dried but definetly blood.
"Day 38? I can barely read this." Roth complained,
"Lemme see," Hughie took the book, "She ran out... screams came... fire every where..." He creased his eyes as if it would help with seeing the words better.
"Let's stop there." Steven was paler than when we started reading the diary. "Tomorrow, same time?" He left, not waiting for Roth to follow.
N/A: Well that took a dramatic turn... Yep it's not all happy and carefree after all!
MUHAHAHAHA...HAHahaha...haha...ha?