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Heather took a step, and stopped short as a pulse of light emanated from her foot, followed by the telltale clicking of a sculk sensor.
Both she and Herobrine froze, and she exhaled softly. "I didn't even see it." She whispered.
"Don't worry." Herobrine murmured. "Nothing here to hear it." Heather nodded, but swallowed, peering into the darkness for more of the blocks. Sure enough, she could see the faint glow of sculk deeper down the tunnel.
"Should we stop?" She murmured.
Herobrine huffed a soft breath. "Should we? No mobs spawn inside, so it should be safe. Perhaps we can find a pocket in there and wait for 303."
"Mm." Heather made an effort to lighten her steps. "Quiet, though."
"Right…"
It had been about half an hour since the two of them had killed Null, in which time they'd slowly made their way deeper into the tunnels. Null was almost certainly following, but they hadn't seen any sign of him so far. Heather and Herobrine had made an effort to make their path confusing, choosing their way randomly at any forks in the road. Hopefully Null had taken a wrong turn and was long gone.
Herobrine leaned down by his wife's ear as he spoke, trying not to set off the sensor again. "I'm a little concerned that Theo has yet to find us."
"Me too." Heather whispered back. "I guess… he doesn't have any way to track us."
"Likely not, we may have to go back to the guardian chamber." Herobrine muttered. "At least, if he hasn't found us in a good amount of time." Heather nodded in agreement, creeping into the Deep Dark.
Their progress was slow, but uneventful. Being mindful of the noise they were making almost completely negated the danger of the biome, though they couldn't see any shriekers anyway.
Eventually, Herobrine led her under a small overhang, sitting down on a piece of exposed deepslate.
"Let's wait here." He said quietly. "There's no point in getting hopelessly lost." Heather nodded, sitting down next to him. She was glad to have the chance to rest her legs, at least. Her feet and injured knee hurt, and her thighs burned from an extended period of walking.
Heather leaned against her husband for a while, as neither of them spoke. Gazing up at the glowing flecks of sculk in the blocks around her, Heather's mind wandered, back to what she expected this trip to be like. A small celebration with her friends, a chance to rest and relax. Not this… any of this. At least, she thought ruefully, she was broadening her horizons. In what other situation would she explore the Deep Dark, or befriend an Elder Guardian?
Herobrine's arm slid around her waist. "What are you thinking about?"
"Everything." Heather tilted her head back to look up at him. The cut across his face had started to mend, now only a thin line of red. The two of them gazed at one another for a few moments, quiet.
"Did we turn off the oven before we left?" Heather broke the silence at last. Herobrine snorted.
"I don't recall that we ever turned on the oven, but you're terrible." He told her. Heather giggled quietly and closed her eyes.
"You're awful casual about the prospect of our apartment going up in flames."
"Compared to our current situation of being hunted down by a psychopath, suddenly it seems so unimportant."
The two of them chatted quietly for a little while. They discussed work, retail for her and construction for him, their upcoming wedding and should they have ordered more flowers? And whether they should reconsider their honeymoon. In an appropriate fashion, rather than flying off to the Bahamas or a comparable vacation, the two of them had planned to drop themselves in a remote part of the Minecraft world and just play survival for a few weeks, or until they got bored of it.
Heather had never lived the experience, and Herobrine hadn't since he became powerful enough at the age of 500 or something. So, it would be a nostalgia trip for him, and new to her. Now, though, after spending weeks fleeing from Null, stripped of their power… they might find it to be more tense than anything else.
Their conversation stretched on, the two of them comfortable in each others' presence, until from a few caves away they heard the sound of an arrow landing.
Followed by the bone-chilling screech of a sculk shrieker.
Heather's head jerked up, feeling Herobrine's arms tighten around her as darkness overtook them both. Neither of them said a word until the blindness receded, and Herobrine slowly loosened his grip.
"Mobs can't activate shriekers." He said lowly.
"Null?" Heather muttered. Herobrine nodded. Silently, the two of them rose, drawing weapons as they hurried deeper into the sculk-infested caves - only to stop short when Null stepped out in front of them, blocking their path.
"Going somewhere?" His voice set off a sensor, and Heather winced as it clicked, but luckily there was no shrieker near enough to be set off.
"Move." Herobrine told him icily. "Or we'll kill you again."
"I'll take that chance." Null looked the two of them over, and Heather shifted more of her weight onto her good leg. She could make a decent guess that her knee was sprained, and they were both tired out, though they'd recovered slightly since they had the opportunity to rest. Still, Heather really didn't want to fight Null again.
"Besides," The entity spoke, voice unhurried. "I won't be fighting you myself." A bow and arrow appeared in his hands, and Heather braced herself as he drew it, but instead of firing at them he turned and released it down a side tunnel. It landed, and the shrieker went off again.
None of them moved as the darkness filled the cave again. Heather kept her gaze fastened on Null's eyes, glowing fiercely in the darkness, until the cave faded into view again.
"Plan to sic a warden on us?" She scoffed. "Finally realized you're outmatched?"
"Merely trying to simplify the process." Null took aim again, and Heather broke away from Herobrine, charging at Null with her sword raised above her head.
Her action set off several sensors, none of which, fortunately, were attached to a shrieker. Null swapped out his bow for a sword and slammed it against hers, halting her attack and forcing her to duck under his next swing. Heather slashed at his legs, and he jerked back, nearly falling off the block he was perched on as he dropped to his knees.
Herobrine took this opportunity to attack, swinging at Null's head. The entity blocked, then counterstruck, which Herobrine parried with his pick. Heather thrust her sword towards his chest, but it was batted aside, Null swinging for her throat. She wasn't able to get her sword up in time to block it.
Herobrine's pick slammed down on Null's sword, causing it to clatter to the ground before the blade could touch her. Heather gasped out a breath she didn't know she was holding, then lunged again to finish him off. Null lifted a block to intercept her blow, and Heather didn't have time to change trajectory, the blade of her iron sword smashing into the block.
Immediately, fire flowed through her veins, and the next thing she knew her back was slamming into the wall. Heather folded over her knees, groaning, as Herobrine shouted her name and rushed to check on her.
"Enough of this." Null snarled, and Heather lifted her head, forcing her vision to focus just in time to see him place a command block. That must have been what she hit. Herobrine knelt next to her, brushing her hair out of her face as Null pressed his hand to the top of the block.
"Why should I wait for the shrieker when I can do this myself?" Null smirked at her, then lifted his hand with a flourish, and the cavern shook as everything went black.
Heather and Herobrine were frozen, all but holding their breath as the groans and snuffles of a Warden filled the room. A slow, lumbering footstep sounded, only blocks away.
Null chuckled lowly. "Seek them out… I know you can." Heather shot an incredulous look to where Herobrine's eye glowed faintly. Why didn't it attack Null?
Slowly, Herobrine shifted, drawing a torch from his inventory. It did little against the darkness, but that wasn't its purpose, as Herobrine hurled it down the cavern a moment later. A sensor clicked, and the Warden growled, stalking down through the cave to where the torch had landed. As soon as it was out of range, Heather scrambled upright, searching the dim cave for where her sword had landed.
A heavy form slammed into her, and Heather cried out as she was thrown onto her back on the sculk. She could hear sensors clicking as Null pressed a blade to her throat, eyes blazing bright enough to illuminate his grin. "Got you."
Herobrine's pick nearly took his head off, missing - missing? - only by an inch. The action was enough to catch Null off guard, and Heather socked him in the jaw, causing him to shout in pain. She brought up her knee to slam into him, and Null grunted as it connected, blade faltering enough for her to seize the handle of his sword. They had a brief tug of war before Herobrine grabbed Null by the throat and tore him off of her, slamming him onto his back on the ground. Null raised his sword in a weak and ultimately pointless defense, as Herobrine's pick went through his chest a moment later.
Heather pushed herself up, panting. The pounding of her heart and the ringing in her ears was almost enough to drown out the footsteps of the approaching Warden.
A huge hand closed around her arm, and Heather shrieked as she was yanked off the ground, suddenly coming face to face with a furious warden. Heather gasped, clawing at the hand clamped around her forearm. The warden looked… wrong. She had never encountered one in real life before, in person, but… were they supposed to look like this? The creature's body seemed to be glitching, flashes of color around its horns and the fist that held her.
The Warden roared in her face, then hurled her against the far wall, a crack reverberating through her body as she made impact.
"HEATHER!" Herobrine shouted. The monster paid him no heed. As Heather crumpled to the ground, gasping in painful breaths, it charged towards her again, lifting its fists above its head and bringing them both down on her defenseless body.
Heather could hear a faint cry from Herobrine through the ringing in her ears, and she tried to curl her arms around her body. Pain radiated up through her chest, she had at least broken ribs, and one of her arms wasn't responding like it should. The Warden still towered over her. Was this how she was going to die…?
Abruptly, the Warden vanished, leaving the darkness effect to fade away. Heather's vision was blurring, and though her mouth was open, gasping for breath, she couldn't seem to draw in any air. She fumbled her good hand against her chest, feeling the stickiness of blood.
"Heather!" A figure dressed in white appeared in front of her, followed immediately by the blurry form of her husband. "I'm so sorry, I came as fast as I could, I couldn't find-" Theo cut off. "Heather! Can you hear me?!"
"Heather!" Herobrine gripped her arm. Heather couldn't move, or speak, or breathe, staring blankly at the two men kneeling in front of her. Though her lungs were burning, she was perfectly aware, vision going in and out of focus as she stared at them in the dim cave. Her heartbeat, pounding in her ears, slowed.
Then stopped.
"####. ####." Theo cursed. "Give me her hand." Herobrine grabbed her wrist, lifting her limp hand, and something cool and smooth was pressed into Heather's palm.
Yellow and green sparkles exploded around her as the object vanished, and Heather gasped in a breath, yanking her hand out of Herobrine's grip to grasp at her chest. She looked down. Her shirt was still bloody, but she could find no wound.
"Heather." Herobrine all but dragged her into his arms, and Heather grunted, clumsily wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Careful." She wheezed. "Chest hurts." Herobrine released her, albeit reluctantly.
"I'm sorry."
"We need to get back." Theo said lowly. "Before Null comes back. Ready?" Heather nodded, pressing her hand over her chest again. Herobrine enfolded her in his arms, and Theo laid a hand on his, teleporting them all back to their base in the End.
yall. I literally cannot overestimate how important it is that you leave comments on fics you like. it can mean the difference between a fic getting finished or getting abandoned. There's a reason that most authors share their works, and it's for other people to enjoy. If I don't get any comments, I don't know that it's being enjoyed, and I toss the fic aside like a frisbee to work on something more interesting. that's one reason this fic has seen little update over the last three years lol
so yeah. leave comments please. those who regularly review ily
~FFF