Chapter 23

Herobrine ran after Clara with his arms around Crackle. She led him through the forest. Her heart pounded in her ears and every small noise made her jump, even if it was just Crackle.

"Where are we going?" Herobrine asked, adjusting how he was holding Crackle.

Clara didn't answer the question for a full minute, mostly because her brain was too preoccupied to even register it. "Uh… we're going somewhere…" she heard a stick snap, and she whirled around, only to see a sheep giving her a startled look. She sighed, lowered her bow, and kept going. "It's a surprise, okay?" she said. The truth was, she had no idea. She had never been in this part of the forest and had no idea where they were. She could only hope that they would eventually run into some sort of civilization before night fell. She didn't want to fight mobs and the Netherwalkers at the same time.

"Oh." Herobrine glanced at a snail crawling across a fallen branch. "When will we get there?"

"I don't know."

Herobrine stumbled over a stone and Crackle squeaked indignantly at being jostled. "Where's Mister Steve? Why isn't he coming with us?" he asked.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Clara suddenly shouted. Herobrine flinched back and she instantly felt terrible. She stopped, turned to face him, and got down on one knee to be eye level with him. "I'm sorry, Hero. Steve is doing something important right now. He'll catch up if he can, okay? In the meantime, I need you to be quiet. I need to be able to get us to the surprise."

Herobrine nodded. "Okay."

She smiled at him. "Thank you."

They walked a few more hours in near silence, with the ambient sounds of the forest surrounding them. When it started to get dark, Clara found a tree for them to camp under (which wasn't hard in a forest) and got a fire going. She had been able to grab a bag and fill it with food and other things they would need to survive in the forest a few days. She gave Herobrine a sleeping bag and bread for dinner. She munched on her own rations and stared into the greenery.

She couldn't stop thinking about Steve and Jackson. She was so worried that it was physically harming her. She was worried enough about her and Herobrine's own safety, but her concern for her husband and best friend made it worse. A part of her blamed Steve for this, since he was the one who contacted these hunters. She had to keep reminding herself the circumstances Steve did that under.

Herobrine, who was clearly reading her concerned, distant expression, suddenly snuggled up against her and gave her a big hug. She couldn't help but smile and hug him back.

"Are we gonna be okay?" Herobrine asked.

Clara hesitated. She couldn't tell him what she actually thought. "Yeah, we're gonna be fine." She stood up to put out the fire. "Now go to sleep, okay?"

"Okay." He climbed into his own sleeping bag and let Crackle join him. Clara smiled and climbed into her own bag.

They were going to be fine.

Clara woke up a few hours later. The moon was high in the sky and she could hear mobs in the forest. She grabbed her bow and looked around, seeing if any of the monsters were nearby. She couldn't see anything, but she did see something that made her heart fall out of her chest.

Herobrine and Crackle were gone.

"Herobrine!" Clara shouted, scrambling out of her sleeping bag. "Herobrine!" Nobody responded.

Oh no.

Possibilities began running through her mind. Did the Netherwalkers find him!? How did she not hear them!? She cursed herself for falling asleep. She should have kept watch.

Clara broke through into a small clearing. To her relief, Herobrine was standing in the center of it.

"Herobrine! You scared the sh—" she stopped when two zombies, who had been previously facing Herobrine, turned around and started coming toward her. One was armed with a very rusty iron sword. She drew her bow and aimed for one of the zombie's foreheads.

"No!" Herobrine stood between the mobs and Clara. "She's my friend!"

The mobs stopped and the armed one lowered its sword. Clara just stared at this bizarre scene, far too exhausted to fully comprehend this. "Hero. What is going on!?" she demanded.

Herobrine quickly realized that he was in trouble. "I-I'm sorry, I just wanted to say hi."

"'Hi!?'" Clara exclaimed. "Hero, these are zombies! They're dangerous!"

Herobrine looked up at her with big, sad eyes. At night, their faint glow was even more prominent. "They won't hurt me, though."

Clara then realized how many mobs were around them. Crackle was running with two other creepers about her size while an adult watched them. An Enderman stood in the shadows, the only proof of its existence in the dark being its glowing purple eyes. There were skeletons, spiders, and zombies everywhere, watching the conversation between Clara and Herobrine intently. A few of them had weapons at the ready, but most of them didn't need them. She realized that if these mobs wanted to hurt them, they would have done it by now.

"Are you sure this is safe?" she asked, looking back at Herobrine.

He smiled. "Of course it is! They're my friends!"

Still unsettled, Clara lowered her bow. She didn't want to do anything that would make them attack her. There was no way she could fight off this many mobs at the same time.

"Do you want to say hi?" he asked.

Clara glanced at all the mobs. She wasn't going to leave Herobrine alone with them. "Sure," she answered.

He smiled and took her hand. He led her through the mobs until he reached a small group of younger creatures. An Enderling and a baby zombie sat next to each other watching the rampant group of baby creepers play what looked like a game of tag. Clara had absolutely no idea how creepers played tag, as they had no arms. The Enderling let out an excited chirp when Herobrine walked over.

"Are these… your friends?" Clara asked.

"Yup! That's Abby and Naid… Naidi…" He trailed off.

The Enderling chirped something, probably correcting Herobrine on the pronunciation. He was taller than Herobrine by almost a foot, but he was still half the size of a regular Enderman. Clara had never seen a juvenile ender before and she had to admit, it was pretty cute.

"Sorry, its hard to pronounce," Hero said to his ender friend, who just shrugged it off.

"You can understand them?" Clara asked.

"You can't?" He looked up at her.

Clara hesitated. "No, I can't."

"Well, that's okay! You have me."

Herobrine started a conversation with the ender and the zombie. Clara sat there, not doing anything but feeling uncomfortable. She was terrified that at any moment the mobs would snap and descend on her. They barely seemed to notice her, though.

Clara was starting to nod off from sheer exhaustion. She tried to cling to consciousness, not wanting to fall asleep while surrounded by mobs, but she couldn't help herself. She laid down next to Herobrine. She'd close her eyes for just a minute…

An Enderman's dying scream jolted her awake.