Hi guys! I hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Unfortunately I have not had easy access to the Internet so this chapter is very late..kinda a filler so sorry for that, but enjoy!
"While I agree we should get moving," CaptainSparklez said slowly, "where should I go?"
"Where should we go?" AntVenom said firmly and Sparklez stared at him. He saw the determination in his friend's brown eyes and sighed,
"I suppose there's no way I can get you to stop this fool's errand of joining me in finding and killing Herobrine?"
"Nothing short of death."
"That's what I was afraid of," Sparklez said as he packed up all their gear. "That's what I'm trying to stop, I don't want you to die, AntVenom. Can't you just understand that?"
"Of course I understand Sparklez, and I don't want you to die either. But I'm not a weakling, I can fight as well as you and Sky!" Ant was frustrated with Sparklez treating him like he couldn't defend himself.
"Physically, yes you are both my equal at fighting in the Overworld, but what truly counts in this battle is mental strength. That takes months to learn and years to master, even for a demigod like me!"
"You can teach me Sparklez. And you remember we beat Herobrine last time, or did you forget that whole ordeal?"
"AntVenom," Sparklez suddenly felt guilty, "do you remember when you killed the Nether King? I had been fighting him mentally and, very briefly, I lost. Herobrine had taken control of my mind and body and he was draining away my strength. Then you killed him, but I didn't have enough strength to stay conscious. My body was dying and it needed energy it didn't have. Lucky for me, you knew what to do and you touched me, so the magic left in my body reached out and stole some of your energy to save me."
"What does that have to do with our situation?" Ant asked impatiently.
"I couldn't beat him then, and I doubt I'll be able to beat him now. If I do happen to lose, then I don't want to have to lose you as well. Ant, you're probably the best thing that ever happened to me, and I don't want to be responsible for your death."
"It's okay Sparklez. I won't die, you should worry more about yourself than me."
"If only," the blue-eyed man responded wistfully.
"Now come on, let's go do something. It's almost noon and we haven't even left this clearing!" Sparklez smiled sadly at his friend's naïveté and nodded, knowing he wasn't going to win this argument. "Do you know the way back to the village?" Ant asked, having forgotten to bring a compass.
"No," Sparklez lied. All magical creatures had an innate sense of direction. "Do you want to just explore until we find something?" He asked his human friend.
"Sure, but I will contact Grail and Sky every once in a while. And as long as we don't get hopelessly lost far away and never find our way back, we can explore all you like."
"Great!" said Sparklez with a genuine smile, "which was do you want to go?"
"That way!" Ant said and pointed towards a large tree in the distance.
The two friends walked for a few hours before they stopped for lunch, which Sparklez cooked with his summoned fire. Then, they walked a bit longer before coming across something interesting.
"Hey look, there's a jungle biome!" Ant exclaimed excitedly, "I don't think I've ever seen one before!" Sparklez took in the towering trees and was awed by the amount of green in front of him. It was an exact opposite of the bare red landscape in the Nether that he had grown up in. The son of Herobrine sighed appreciatively as he walked around the edge of the biome, the hot and humid air remind reminding him of his old home in the Nether Fortress.
"What's that over there? Do people live here?" Sparklez asked and Ant turned to see where the Nether Prince was pointing.
It was the ruins of a cobblestone structure covered in moss, with vines creeping up the sides. It was about the size of a normal Minecraftian house but Sparklez didn't think it had been used in hundreds of years.
"That's a jungle temple, I've heard you can find treasure in those. Let's go check it out!" Ant replied excitedly. Sparklez shrugged and followed his human friend to what had to be the entrance to the temple. The temple didn't have any torches in it but the noonday sun broke through the holes in the ceiling brightening up the ancient structure. Inside there was a small cobblestone staircase that led to a floor above and a floor below.
"I'll go down, you go up?" Ant suggested and Sparklez nodded. The heroes split up and CaptainSparklez carefully went up the small staircase, wary of any danger. There wasn't anything of interest on the small floor but Sparklez was looking more closely to make sure he hadn't missed anything when he heard a soft click and the unmistakeable twang of an arrow in flight. The Nether Prince raced down the stairs and heard a small hiss of pain and a muttered curse from his friend.
"Ant! Are you hurt?!" Sparklez almost shouted, panic visible in his blue eyes as he looked to see what had shot at Ant.
"Yeah, the arrow just nicked my shoulder."
"Where did it come from?" Sparklez calmed down slightly now that he saw there was only a small wound on Ant's shoulder and the arrow was stuck to the wall behind them. He didn't see any skeleton or person that could have shot the sharp projectile.
"Dispenser, it's across me. It was hidden by some vines." Ant stated tiredly, looking at his scratch.
"What's a dispenser?" Sparklez asked curiously, having never heard of it before.
"A machine that shoots out stuff when activated, in this case it was an arrow."
"How was it activated?"
"Usually by redstone," Ant bent down and stared at the floor, looking for something. "Got it!" He grinned at Sparklez holding something small in his hand.
"Duck." Sparklez immediately dropped to the floor, unsure of what his friend had planned but trusting him to the end. Ant moved his hand and Sparklez heard the same click as before followed by the familiar twang of an arrow shooting out from behind the vines AntVenom had been talking about and hitting the wall behind them.
"What did you do?" Sparklez asked, eyes wide with surprise.
"It's a trip wire," Ant informed his friend, "it will activate a dispenser." Sparklez sat up and looked carefully at the thin piece of wire his friend held and nodded his understanding.
"Should we put something on your shoulder? It's not a big scratch but still..." Sparklez said, concerned for his friend's safety.
"What? Right, we probably should. Too bad we don't have any more scraps of your shirt to use. Not that it did much good as a shirt anyway, you never bothered to button it." Ant said jokingly, laughing at Sparklez's expression. CaptainSparklez opened his mouth to make a reply but couldn't think of an excuse.
"Touché," he said and Ant smiled again.
After putting a bandage that Ant found in his pack on his wound the two heroes passed the trip wire and, careful not to step on the trap, continued deeper into the temple.
So I'm going to be finishing this story in a few chapters, probably somewhere between five and ten. Also my next chapter will be late as well, because of lack of wifi(I'm in an Internet Cafe as I'm typing this), so I'm both warning you and apologizing in advance. Bye!