I leaned back, looking at the floor. Rek-tan was right. I remembered everything. "Oh, Notch," I whispered. "Alex is my daughter?" The villager next to me looked confused. "I don't know. You never said the name of your daughter...you wouldn't even say much about what exactly happened to her." But I remembered. -MORE FLASHBACK-
"Steve." The man knelt by the bedside of his lover, a red-haired woman with a brilliant smile. But she wasn't smiling now, and Steve knew she might never again. "It's too late. Just kill me now, or get away. Take Alex, keep her safe…" The sun that was high up amongst the clouds looked dreadfully out of place as Steve shook his head, tears running down his face, "Lauri, I'm not leaving you!" Lauri grabbed his shoulder, blood streaming from the open flesh-wound on her other arm where a stray, unexpected zombie had bitten her. "Go, Steve!" she shouted, and the man recoiled, knowing the transformation was happening. It pained him to even think about going, but he knew he had to, for Alex's sake. He gave her hand one last squeeze before the warmth left it and she joined the undead ranks that wandered the nights. He could finish her off, the thought of her blood on his sword would be impossible to cope with. "Alex? Alex, baby, come with daddy," Steve called standing and running out of the room, the iron door locking behind him. A very young girl came around the corner, hugging a teddy bear her mother had fashioned out of white and brown wool tightly to her chest. "Is mommy OK?" she whispered. Steve couldn't lie. "I was too late," he said quietly, and scooped the six-year-old up in his arms before grabbing everything he needed from the chests and stuffing it into his inventory bag: food, weapons, extra armour, a few potions, and plenty of wood and coal for torches. Alex began to cry, "Mommy!" she screamed, and Steve held her tightly as she flailed in his arms. "Take me back to mommy!" But her cries quickly turned to frightened shrieks when she heard growling and snarling from inside her parent's room, and Steve knew it was time to go. "Shhh, baby, it's gonna be alright," Steve said, trying not to let the tears falling from his eyes alarm her. Alex knew that whenever daddy cried, it was really bad, whether it was an injury or the situation. So she wasn't convinced as she buried her face in the nape of his neck, and Steve ran. He barreled towards the stable, where their trusty horse was waiting. Steve mounted the creature, unlocked the gates, and sped off towards the east, clutching the shaking, sobbing Alex in his arms. As the day progressed, Alex slowly began to calm down, and eventually went silent, and Steve realized she had fallen asleep. We'll keep heading east until we find a village, Steve thought to himself. That's the only safer place I can think of… When the sun began setting, Steve pulled the horse into a cave, blocking the entrance with wood and putting another wall inside the cave, then put torches around them in this enclosed area. The horse was fenced off to one side of the cave, and a crafting table placed. Steve woke Alex up long enough to feed her some soup before she fell asleep again, and Steve munched on a porkchop. He held his daughter close, listening as the mobs came out and praying that she didn't wake up to hear them, too. He continued to cradle Alex in his arms, her head on his chest, and her heart beating steadily, until he too succumbed to the tiredness. " !" The man in question was falling through darkness, and heard the letters of his name with some kind of rushing air noise in between them. He felt the looming sense of danger, like there was a ground that he was going to hit if he didn't stop descending. "STEVE!" It was female, but it was hard to tell who. "Lauri?" Steve called out, assuming that it was his wife whom he had just lost. "Lauri!" He flailed his arms, but he continued to fall violently. With a sudden drop in his stomach, Steve was prepared for what happened next. He hit the ground, or was it floor? with a sickening crunch, and he heard someone scream. He wondered how he hadn't died instantly. "Why would you do that?" a girl shrieked, but it was fading, and everything went cold and white. Steve woke up in the cave, Alex still huddled in his arms. He gently shook her awake, and got them ready for another day of travelling. Steve mounted the horse with Alex clinging to his back, and they took off.
They repeated the process, ride for the day, sleep for the night, until it was interrupted by a grim turn of events. Steve was sleeping, dreaming of nothing, when he woke up to Alex screaming. But when he opened his eyes, she wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere. The horse was worked up, but other than himself, there was no one else in their newest cave hideout. "Alex?" Steve called, but no matter how long and how much he searched, he couldn't find her. She'd just up and disappeared, and as time went on with no sign of her, he slowly felt like he was going to lose his mind. He finally decided to keep riding onwards to a village, but without Alex on his back or in his arms at night, Steve knew he couldn't forgive himself for what had happened. So, he decided to talk to the Cleric, and get a Potion of Forgetting. He knew they weren't supposed to give them to humans, but he'd brought along a hefty number of emeralds, just in case. So thus, he found the village where Rek-tan, Tek-shay, and the others reside. "You have an astounding memory," Rek-tan said, rubbing his chin, a grim look on his face. I sighed. "I wish I didn't, honestly." I rubbed my eyes, "Alex is my daughter, I know that now. She is a Child, so that's why she's aged but I haven't. So, where'd she go? I'm out to rescue her from...Herobrine, whoever that is." Rek-tan shivered a little at the mention of his name. "That creature, the one you last mentioned, is a force to be reckoned with," he said quietly. "That's exactly what Notch said," I said, my head snapping over to look at the villager, who shrugged. "It is very well known that Herobrine is a dangerous man...if he can even be called that at all." "Do tell," I said, leaning forward again. "It all started many, many years ago. So many, it's just taken as a near legend by now. Notch and Herobrine, they are brothers." "That he told me, too," I put in, rubbing my chin. "They did not get along well. Notch was always insisting that Herobrine, who was sadistic as it was, lighten up. They were like two halves of one man, one the good side and one the bad." \ "Notch referred to Herobrine being his brother in the past-tense," I though aloud. "What does that mean?" Rek-tan pursed his lips slightly. "That is no surprise. As I was saying, a long, long time ago, both Notch and Herobrine were creating this and the many other worlds. While Notch added peaceful mobs, such as sheep and pigs, Herobrine added the creatures that hunt and kill; spiders, zombies, creepers. While Notch did not necessarily approve completely of Herobrine's choice, in order to appease his brother, he let him do as he wished. "The peace did not last long, for one day, Notch awoke to find that his brother had laid waste to the land, and hellish creatures walked the earth and soil. It took a great deal of power, but the Creator managed to banish this evil from the world and using it to create a new one, one only accessible by portal. He named this place the Nether. "But so came the confrontation of the two brothers. Notch was furious at Herobrine for causing so much destruction, while Herobrine was going mad with power. But Notch only wanted his brother to be happy, although he had crossed the line. He gave Herobrine a last chance, but soon found out that Herobrine had killed himself and come back as an overpowered, undead monstrosity. All traces of humanity were lost, and the Creator realized that. "Feeling like he had no choice, Notch created a new world which hung silently in a black void. This world is now known as the End. He then exiled his brother to this new world. Not even Notch himself likely knows what Herobrine has been doing ever since; he broke all contact eons ago. "Wait," I interjected. "Notch thinks I'll be able to go up against his undead, super-powered brother?" Rek-tan sighed, "That I cannot say I know why. My only guess would be that there is more to you than even you know." I was silent for a second, looking at the ground. "So Herobrine can't get out of The End, is that correct?" "According to the holy book, yes." "So that's why he sent and Enderman to kidnap Alex." "Pardon?" "Alex is a Child, right? That's why she and I look relatively the same age, although I won't age and she will continue to. Well, I stumbled across her, knocked out, in a cave, and brought her back to my place so she didn't die. She woke up and beat the crap outta me, knocked me out, then left, along with half my stuff." Rek-tan nodded, signaling to continue. "Then, the next day, I woke up to her screaming. I ran outside and there she was, running towards me. "It all happened almost simultaneously. I grabbed one of her hands, she chucked something at me, and an Enderman with white eyes appeared behind her. The next moment, she was gone, the thing she threw had fallen down my shirt, and I was so confused what had just happened." The old villager rubbed his chin. "Why did she attack you, only to come back?" "I have no idea," I replied. "She mentioned, uh, I think it was Marvin?" At the name, Rek-tan's head shot up. "What about that devil?" I shifted uncomfortably, running a hand through my hair. "She said he had said the same thing I had, which was 'I'm not going to kill you.' My guess is that he did eventually…" "Marvin," Rek-tan said with a dark scowl that unnerved me completely, "was the man who came through and desecrated our village!" I was, once again, taken back. "Rotten scoundrel," Rek-tan continued. "Preys on the weak and helpless," he seethed.
"Sure sounds like it. I don't know, I hadn't seen another human around until Alex showed up." Rek-tan sighed, calming down. "Either way, you can't think of getting anywhere, much less fighting Herobrine as exhausted you are. Get some sleep, we can talk more in the morning." He didn't have to tell me twice. "Alright. Thank you," I mumbled, and he went and brought back some blankets and a pillow to me. I curled up right there in the chair. "Goodnight, son," Rek-tan said as he went into his room. "Night gramps," I replied. Alex… I wondered, thinking to myself, listening to things growl and groan outside. How are you doing, my (apparently) daugher? I laughed in my head. Oh, Notch. What have I gotten into?