I'm sitting on the dry brown grass as I look beyond the tiny cobblestone cellar house. There is a wide stretch of plains with scattered buildings, and sparse forest beyond the town, eventually cut off by the ascent of the barren mountains. I see one hog slowly and reluctantly grazing in front of me, while the other drinks from a metal trough off to the side of the house, and Jonas watches them while sitting against the house. It's well into the afternoon, and the sun will soon reach the horizon in the west.
Suddenly I hear barking and growling coming from behind me. It continues incessantly and each bark is louder than the one before it. Out of curiosity, I stand up and turn towards the road. There's a grey husky running directly toward us from the road, and further down the road is a tall, pale man in a full-body cloak, carrying a basket covered with cloth.
The husky has just run off the road and is still barking at us. Its tail is dramatically wagging from side to side, propelled by the thrust of its breakneck sprint. It's running right towards me. It propels itself into the air with its paws stretched forward. I feel them knock into my gut and the wind rush out of my lungs from the energy of the stab. I lose my balance and fall backward as the weight of the husky crashes its fur into my chest. The husky's face stares at mine, leaning its wet nose closer to me as I fall. My back painfully thuds on the dry grass as its tongue and teeth slam into my nose. It stands up on uncomfortable places on my chest and groin, covering my face with its slobber and stinky breath as I struggle to lean my face away with my eyes closed.
"Sunshine, no! Get off of him!" Says an unfamiliar, deep voice, annoyed and out of breath.
After a painful push of its hind legs and a scratch of its claws, the husky jumps off of me. I wipe the sticky saliva off my face with my arm as I sit up. The husky is trotting joyfully alongside the legs of the tall cloaked man, launching restrained leaps towards the lip of the basket as the man struggles to walk around it.
"Honestly, I don't understand how I live with her! Jonas, is that you?"
"Yea I am," Jonas says behind me.
"What's that strange man doing here? My brave princess ran right towards him!"
"He's a good friend of mine who needs your help," says Jonas.
"Is that so?" Jonas' cloaked cousin's tone changes, becoming much gentler and slower, almost reflective. He stops walking and glances with his unnervingly vibrant blue eyes over his shoulder back towards me, just as I finish standing up and begin brushing the twigs off my back. "Of all people you could have asked, why me?"
"It's has to do with a sentient entity of sorts. It is probably wise that we discuss the matter indoors."
"Then it will be so! Say, what's your name, stranger?"
"Umm... Fristad," I mutter, still a little surprised after being knocked over by that dog, "What about you?"
"My name is Vrendan Wildheart Ti'Drannes. But please do call me Dan!" Dan grins pleasantly with his eyes directly on my own. "I thought I knew you were a good friend when Sunshine ran towards you. She has a sense for those things. She's smarter than most people give her credit."
Sunshine barks eagerly, sitting close to Dan between him and the cellar house.
"See? She's pretty frustrated about that!" Dan sidesteps around her again, walking towards the house. "Come on, Fristad. Let's go inside and discuss what's troubling you."
I walk with him up to the house, and reach for the reins of one of the hogs.
"Don't worry about your steeds. Sunshine will guard the fields and make sure they're safe. Isn't that right, girl?" Dan reaches into the basket and pulls out a porkchop. Sunshine becomes entranced by the porkchop, staring at it while staying very still. Dan bends down to hand it to her, and she swiftly and zealously chomps her jaw around it, carrying it as she trots several meters away, then laying down in the dry grass to chew on it, holding it between her forepaws.
"It is a pleasure to have you as a guest," says Dan.
He walks to the door and opens it, entering inside the cobblestone structure. I follow him through the doorway, and Jonas closes the door behind us as Dan begins to step onto the stairs. We follow him down the narrow stairway to the library floor below. Dan walks towards the wall on the right with the chests and artifacts, and stops in front of the strange dark chest with glowing purple smoke. He bends down to open it, and places the basket, covered in cloth, inside of it. As the basket nears the lip of the chest, the basket as well as his arms begin to turn translucent, enveloped by thickening purple smoke that seems to slither and dance around his arms. The smoke traces along the length of his arm with playful vigor, as if it were alive. Dan leans down a little further. The basket and the fingers holding them disappear entirely, then Dan stands up, his arms no longer carrying the basket, and remaining translucent for many seconds until the slithering purple smoke gradually recedes back into the open chest. He then grasps the lid of the chest with one hand and swiftly closes it. The chest seems so odd and alien... I wonder what causes it to have such an unusual aura.
"What's up with that chest?" I ask.
"What chest?" Dan inquires nonchalantly. "Do you mean this one I just opened? This is just an Ender chest."
"I've never heard of that before. What does it do?"
"Oh, it's just like an ordinary chest, really. At least, it behaves exactly like an ordinary chest... under most conditions. It's very useful for long-term storage... it's great for keeping food from spoiling and private belongings out of reach of prying eyes." Dan chuckled as he gave me a contemplative stare.
"Sounds really useful... but why the purple smoke?"
"The purple smoke is due to void energy leaking out. That's also why it's made out of Obsidian." Dan kicks the chest gently with his foot, which resulted in a low, muffled thump. "Only a material as hard as Obsidian could withstand the all-consuming caustic atmosphere of the void."
For a brief moment, the memory of the void burning away my consciousness creates a cold dread within my stomach... but the strange nature of the chest then becomes ever the more fascinating with the thought of the terrible evil it keeps at bay.
"Why isn't the void energy burning up all the items, then?"
"That's where the Ender-magic comes in. It negates the void's destructive nature, creating purple smoke as a result."
"That certainly doesn't sound like as ordinary a chest as you claim it to be."
"It certainly wouldn't seem to be, would it? But really, in practice, its use is the same. Here, I'll show you!"
Dan walks behind us, between the bookcases. I hear the sound of small wooden drawers being open and shut. Dan walks back holding a dried daisy in his hand. He hands it to me.
"Try opening up the chest and putting this inside."
I walk up to the chest while holding the flower. I open it, and my eyes begin to feel a little fuzzy. Everything seems to have a purple tint. The inside of the chest is dark like the outside, and aside from the purple smoke, the square shape on the inside seems normal. I bend my knees a little to reach my hand with the flower down into the chest. My hand and the daisy don't seem to become translucent, but I feel a strange tingling warmth on my arm as the purple smoke dances about it. I drop the daisy into the chest... and then I realize that there should be Dan's basket in there. Where did it go?
"Wait, hold on a minute," I say. "Why isn't your basket in here?"
"A very good question! That is one of the few unusual anomalies of the Ender chest... its contents are unique to the person using it. Anything you put in there can only be retrieved by you, and no one else..." Dan's voice trails off wearily. He pauses for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. "...which reminds me of something I probably should have told you earlier... You must be very careful when you open that chest. Don't bend too far over it, don't lean your weight on it, and close it quickly when you're done using it."
His sense of fearful caution is a sudden change. "What do you mean? Is it dangerous?"
"Not at all... as long as you use it correctly..." Dan seems to hesitate for a moment. "There have been many reports of young children who have wandered into an Ender chest and become trapped inside. Some have even fallen accidentally into an Ender chest because it was carelessly left open. They become trapped inside their own dimension, inaccessible by the outside world. They will never be able to get out."
"Yea, but... I could never fit in there. A very small child could fit in there, maybe... but I probably could hardly fit any more than my head in."
"I wouldn't think so either... but it's better to stay safe. What I'm trying to say is... be careful. It's nothing to be afraid of and I encourage you to use it... but just be mindful."
"Alright, then."
I open up the chest again, take the flower out of it, close the chest, and give the flower back to Dan.
"Thank you." Dan goes back quickly behind the bookshelves to put the flower away in a wooden drawer.