Alabur stepped into his little part of the cave. Every monster who lives in a cave has his or her sleeping quarters. His wasn't much of a sight to behold. Grass blocks, sand, and gravel was his furniture, Dandelions and brown mushrooms were his decorations, and his bed was only a pile of wool a Zombie gave him.

Alabur removed a block of wool and laid the child on it. He felt sorry for it. Clearly, the human had a long night. The Enderman lied on his own bed, using his cape as a sheet. He had a busy day of research ahead of him…

Across the endless Overworld, a strange, dark creature appeared and disappeared along the landscape. Hiding within the shadows, he watched the movements of man villages, searching for something.

Well, more like someone.

He came across a desert village. It had about thirty villagers, but it was very quiet. Farmers were tending their fields, Blacksmiths were crafting tools and weapons, and everyone was trading among themselves.

Something in one of the windows of the houses caught the creature's eye. Being careful not to be seen by both humans and Testificates, he disappeared from his hiding spot from the distance and appeared near the window. Fortunately for the creature, the window was facing away from the village.

It quickly peered inside. Facing the window was a young woman who was holding something in her arms.

A human infant.

The creature smiled.

The woman spotted something in the corner of her eye. Taking her eyes off her precious child, she looked up at the window.

Nothing was there.

Six weeks later.

Cab wasn't happy.

Well, he was a Creeper, so he was never happy.

But nether less, he didn't like what he was seeing.

With him were his chums Bearach and Sam, who weren't paying attention to what Cab was watching. Sam, being the idiotic Zombie as he was, was leaning against the cave wall, waiting for some hot chicks to walk by.

Like an undead needed a girlfriend.

Bearach, a Skeleton, was keeping an eye on Sam. Honestly, if Bearach wasn't around, Sam would've have been long dead by now.

Well, dead again that is.

"And that's how stone is born," said Sam to Bearach, finishing something he was talking about. The Skeleton could only give him an uncertain stare. "That…doesn't make any sense," Bearach replied slowly, with his rattling, clicking voice and Irish accent. Sam rolled his eyes as if his comrade wasn't smart enough to understand a word he was saying. All of a sudden, another Skeleton was coming their way toward the two undead.

Sam licked his hand with his dry, dead tongue and swept it over his decaying hair, only messing it up even more. He got into a casual pose, sticking one of his legs out and having his thumbs in his pants. As the Skeleton started to pass by, Sam said "Hey! How's it going, babe?" Still walking, the Skeleton punched the Zombie in the face, knocking him to the ground.

"Shut up, punk!" he replied with a low, manly voice, then turned the corner. Wrong gender. Bearach helped Sam onto his feet. "How do you tell each other apart?" Sam asked. "We wander the same about you," replied Bearach.

Cab turned to face his companions. "Have you guysssss sseen thisssss?" he whispered, with a tint of hissing in his voice. The two undead turned to their friend. "Seen what?" asked Bearach. "Thisssss!" said Cab. He signaled Sam and Bearach to come over to him. The three peered through a small hole in the cave wall, exposing a sleeping quarters. To be more specific, Alabur's sleeping quarters. He was holding the Boy in his arms, who was slowly dossing off to sleep.

The Boy sure did sleep a lot.

But the child wasn't ticking Cab off. Oh no, no, no. It was Alabur. It sounded like he was gently talking, but his Enderman voice stretched with every word he spoke and his tones rose and fell along with them. Alabur's words git the three with confusion and a tint of fear:

Hush you by

Don't you cry

Go to sleep my baby

When you wake

You shall have

All the little horses

Black and bays

Dappled and grays

Coach and six white horses

Black and bays

Dappled and grays

All the pretty horses

"Hold on," said Sam, and he dragged Cab and Bearach away from the hole. "I've heard that…that strange way of talking before. I was roaming around in a forest when I saw a human doing that while cutting down a tree." Bearach raised an eyebrow.

Well, his non-existent eyebrow.

"Funny," Bearach replied. "I've heard other monsters say they witnessed Alabur do other human interactions." "I knew it!" said Cab. "My ssusspicionsssss have been proven correct." "What suspicions?" Sam asked. Cab looked straight at his fellow comrades.

"Alabur hasssss gone ssoft."

"Who's gone soft?" said an old voice of a Spider. Sam, Bearach, and Cab jumped out of their skin (well, the two out of the three of them did), and turned to find Silth standing before them with a displeasing look on her face.

"I'm disappointed in you three," she scolded, as a mother would to her grown children. "I've heard many monsters suspecting that Alabur was turning away from us, but I never expected any of you to think such thoughts. You're one of his very few friends! Now Sam I can understand, but you two?! You should be ashamed."

Sam hung his head, but Cab and Bearach weren't easily moved. "But Silth," the Skeleton argued. "How do you explain his behavior resent—"

"In order to raise the Boy properly," Silth interrupted, "Alabur is stalking a human child the same age as the Boy who he calls 'Little One'. By watching how Little One's 'guardians' take care of him, Alabur will know what to do, what not to do, and what might help. He's merely mimicking what he sees and nothing more. He still acts aggressive toward the humans."

There was a moment of guilty silence before the old Spider added "This is the very reason why Alabur banished himself to the Overworld and I took him under my wing in the first place." Now it was Bearach and Cab's turn to hang their heads. The three left Silth without another word. The old Spider glanced through the hole. The Enderman had just laid the child down on his bed of wool.

"Don't worry about them Alabur," she whispered. "I'll take care of it."

One year later.

Silth was refurnishing her sleeping quarters. Spinning Spider silk around as if she was preforming a dance of arachnids, she replaced old, broken webs with new, sturdier ones. The pearl white, abstract lines made the quarters appear as Spider heaven.

"Silth!" an Ender voice abruptly called out, causing the elder Spider to almost lose her consideration. She turned her head to the doorway where she saw Alabur with a panicked look on his face. Concerned, Silth gently slid down to the cave floor and crawled her way toward the Enderman. "What's wrong, Alabur?" she asked, worried. "What happened to the Boy?" "The Boy's fine, Silth." Alabur reassured. "Really. Caralite gave me new strength potions to feed him. It's just…something went wrong."

Oh no.

"And what is this 'something' that you speak of?" Alabur sighed nervously and began to explain as he rubbed one of his arms. "A few weeks ago, I was watching Little One, when I saw his older female guardian continually speaking the same word over and over again. At first, I thought maybe she was losing it when I realized she was trying to teach him how to speak. Since the Boy is Little One's exact age, I decided to teach him the same word. (Honestly, I don't remember learning words being so difficult!) Just today, I got him speaking the word and I decided to check up on Little One to see which word the Boy needs to learn next…"

"And…?"

"…He was saying at least five more words. Five, Silth! I couldn't figure out which word was his second one! What do I do now?"

You've got to be kidding me, Silth thought.

She felt like slapping herself in the face, but kept herself from doing so for Alabur's sake. "Alabur, why were you teaching him to speak Human in the first place?"

"So when we send him out to exterminate the humans, he'll blend in easier."

Hm. Not a bad idea really. Alabur wasn't giving himself much credit than he is.

"But if all he knows is Human, then how will we be able to communicate with him?"

Alabur had one of those "oh snap" looks on his face. "Don't worry about blending in right now," Silth reassured him. "For now, you'll teach him to speak Enderman, Caralite can teach him Witch, and I'll teach him to speak Spider." "But what about the other monster languages?" Alabur asked "We'll deal with that problem later," Silth answered. The Enderman nodded with understanding, and began to head back to his sleeping quarters.

Before Alabur could teleport however, a group of six Zombies came up to him. One of them, who was probably their leader, twiddled his thumbs.

"Umm…may I help you?" Alabur asked. His voice had a tint of courage in it and he didn't stutter. That was an improvement. The leader continued to play with his fingers until he looked up at the Enderman.

"Do…do you think you could let us teach the Boy to speak Zombie?" he asked.

Five years later.

Alabur sat in a private meeting room. To his right was Silth, who demanded to come with him. "If I can't go than Alabur won't attend," he remembered her saying. Across from them was a Zombie Pigman named Choiron, a Blaze named Chakoru, a Witch named Berlin, a Skeleton named Cahir, and a Creeper named Rig.

Silth began the conversation. "Alright then," she said. "What is this meeting about?"

"It's about the Boy," Cahir cautiously answered. Silence filled the room.

"Continue," Silth said.

"You remember our plans with him?" asked Chakoru, with her metallic, fiery voice. "How we would use him against the humans to invade the Overworld?"

"Of course I remember. I was the one who thought up the idea!" Again, there was a moment of silence.

"The plan hasssss failed," Rig said, getting straight to the point. "Miserably!" Choiron added, with his squealing, disgusting voice.

"In what way?" Silth asked, crossing her arms.

"His appearance," Berlin explained, with her deep, screeching voice and mix of Swedish and German accents. "Come on, Silth! You know he looks nothing like a human! Don't deny it!"

Silth sighed. "Yes," she admitted, "he does have an inhuman appearance to him."

"And he's WEAK!" Choiron squealed. "The WHELP! He can't even even pick up the wimpiest of sticks!"

"Not to mention all he can ssee isssss darknessssss," Rig added.

"Of course all he can see is darkness," Silth calmly said with an obvious tone of voice. "He's human. And he lives in a cave. With hardly any light!"

"But Alabur has taken him to the Nether at least once," Chakoru argued. "And he saw nothing but black! No light, no color. I doubt he even remembers what those two things are! He's in no condition to be a warrior."

The room filled itself with silence once more. They spoke the truth, and Silth couldn't deny it. After staring at the cave floor, she looked up and asked "What did you all have in mind?"

The five looked at one another before Berlin finally spoke. "Alabur is still watching Little One, correct?"

"Yes, that is true," Silth answered.

"He ssoundsssss like a normal human being," Rig explained.

"We'll kidnap him!" said Choiron. "Raise him ourselves!"

"And he'll be our warrior instead," concluded Cahir.

"As for the Boy…?" Silth asked.

There was a tense moment of silence until Chakoru answered.

"We'll abandon him to the wilderness," she said.

Alabur snapped.

Up until this point, he allowed Silth to do all the talking, but he stood up to speak before the elder Spider even had the chance to open her mouth. The Enderman stood straight and tall as he possibly could. His eyes lit with rage and his mouth widened into a growl huge enough to reach the edge of his face.

"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!" Alabur screamed. The static in his voice was more dominant now. "THE BOY WOULDN'T EVEN LAST TEN MINUTES OUT THERE ON HIS OWN! THE WOLVES WOULD DEVORE HIM LIKE THEY WOULD HAVE DONE WHEN I FIRST FOUND HIM! AND LITTLE ONE WOULD NEVER LOVE US THE SAME WAY THE BOY DOES! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES FOR EVER HAVING SUCH THOUGHTS!"

Choiron, Chakoru, Berlin, Cahir, and Rig cowered down in their seats terrified. They had never seen Alabur like this before. And they certainly didn't want to see him like this ever again. Even Silth was shocked. This wasn't Alabur's normal behavior. Immediately, the Enderman started taking deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Alabur?" a weak, croaking voice called out. All eyes turned to the doorway. Before them stood a little six year old human boy.

But he didn't look human.

He had dark, brown hair that had never been combed. His eyes were extremely glassy, making it very hard to tell that they were indigo. His attire included a cyan-blue shirt, a pair of indigo jeans, and grayish-black boots. But all were a few sizes too big for him, making him appear smaller than he really was. His limbs were positions in inhuman angles; his left arm was completely twisted, his shoulder stuck out and the back of his hand was move as far back as it would go, his left leg had a clubfoot, and his right leg was completely facing to the left. To top it all off, his skin was so pale, his blood could be clearly seen running through the visible veins.

"Excuse me everyone," Alabur said calmly. "But I have other matters to take care of." He walked over to the child, who appeared as if he was about to collapse. Alabur picked him up and carried him on his back as if he was giving him a piggyback ride. "Did you miss me while I was gone, Boy?" he jokingly asked, already knowing the answer. The boy only quietly giggled and hugged his tall, dark friend around the neck as the two wandered through the endless hallways of the cave.

"Alabur?" the young child asked.

"Hm?"

"What were you talking about with the other monsters?"

Alabur thought hard about the question before finally answering.

"Nothing of importance."

And that wasn't a lie.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

Sorry it took a while to update. I ran into a writer's block about halfway and I got a little distracted.

I can see bright futures ahead. (Sarcasm)