Chapter 1 - Scrambled Dragon Eggs
Part 1 - Mushroom Stew and Honey
Nothing built can last forever.
And every legend, no matter how great, fades with time.
With each passing year, more and more details are lost... until all that remains are myths.
Half truths.
I hope it does.
(And if it doesn't, I ask why are you here?
For an entertaining little story, most likely.)
This story, the one I wish to tell you, is a familiar story. It isn't the same as the one you know, with the Order, its Warrior and Engineer, the Rogue and the Architect— and, of course, the forgotten Brewer who sought revenge for being rewritten out of his own fairytale.
It's similar, yes. Very, very similar— in such a way that might make it seem like a cheap copy.
But that isn't what you're here for, is it?
You're here for a story. Another legend, faded and ruined by the years, with patchwork holes and messy corrections to fit the present. Mismatched and unorganized papers, scattered across the room.
Some are found, salvaged and repaired— others are left to be eaten by the silverfish and endermites.
Sometimes, though, the heroes of the story are still alive.
At least, their disciples, that is.
In this world, a world familiar to you and a world similar to the one you knew, there was a group of four players— their names, sadly, have been lost to time —that took it upon themselves to defeat what were deemed the "bosses" of that world; to conquer the various dimensions and provide safe places for players of all kinds.
None of them were friends— from what we could tell, they weren't even familiar with each other —but each of them found it much easier to fight together rather than on their own, as most often do.
Depending on which perspective you look from and which spyglass you look through, it's debatable which boss was the easiest. Everyone knows that each of them were tedious to fight and properly prepare for, but we are pretty sure the most well-known of them was the Ender Dragon, so we might as well assume that was the first to be defeated.
The scriptures describing the fight, like most records, were only found in bits and pieces. Some think they approached it traditionally, with swords and arrows and strong gear, others assumed they went for the quickest way and bed-bombed it. It didn't matter, though, because in the end the Dragon fell and the realm was conquered.
The next, as we can presume, was either the Wither or the Elder Guardian. Not many considered the Elder very important to be defeated in the long run these days, but those four players of the past wanted to take over all aspects of every realm— and there were actually quite a few successfully salvaged papers detailing on how to defeat it and conquer its monuments, considering there were quite a few of these structures scattered around the world.
Though we aren't sure what a majority of the order was, we can guarantee that the horrifying Warden of the deep dark had been the last of them defeated. A few recovered pages had described how close two of the four players had been to death, having to run and hide away from the monstrous entity.
But, like the rest, the creature was defeated, and the last of the realms were conquered.
You'd think that, at least.
You see, this story started long before players were as abundant as they are now— when the cities were small and most were nomads set on seeing everything this world had to offer.
So, let me list everything that had been conquered as of then;
The End, now belonging to who became known as the Dragon.
The Nether, now belonging to a person named Wither.
The Ocean, now belonging to someone who chose the name Guardian.
And the Caves, now belonging to what everyone called Warden.
There seems to be something missing, correct? Not even someone— something isn't right here.
Despite being the most diverse, yet well-known realm of all, the Overworld itself was too vast to be controlled by a single player. No, people would fight for that right— and people have fought for that right.
But they wanted to conquer it all.
So a fifth joined them.
The Surface soon belonged to Illager.
Why was Illager the owner of the land, you ask?
I apologize.
Those scriptures seemed to be lost as well.
Then again, this was a long, long time ago. You can't blame Time for taking back what rightfully belongs to it in the end.
Thankfully, some of the story hasn't been reclaimed just yet, and I can still tell you the bits and pieces that I know.
Over the years, as more and more players started appearing and following underneath the guide of these five players, there became a name they were known by; the Preservers. Not a name they came up with, but a name nonetheless.
To put it short, they basically "preserved" the power and status of players above everything else— it was a lot less heroic than people thought back then once you think about it.
But as I mentioned before, nothing built can last forever.
As time passes, heroes will fall.
And new ones can, and will, take their place.
"I'm NOT going to the stupid festival!"
Not these ones, though. These guys are, admittedly, a little pathetic.
"How many times do I have to tell you, Kai!?" Casey cried, trying her best to keep up as the other speed-walked through the barn, "We made a deal. If you didn't go on your own in the next three years, I would drag you there my-flipping-self!"
Kai groaned at the reminder, putting away the freshly-sheared wool in its designated barrel, "Well, I've decided I've changed my mind. Not going. Nope."
"You promised—"
They cut her off by throwing their shears at her, watching as she ducked to the side with a squeak and they instead landed in the chicken pen, thankfully missing any of them too. The chickens clucked at them in protest. They really did have a terrible aim.
"I didn't promise anything!" Kai retorted, walking past her out of the barn and into the pouring, "My mom said I'd go, I said no. And yet, who would listen to me of all people?"
Casey let out a melodramatic sigh, glancing at the shears a few times before deciding to retrieve them later, instead sprinting out to follow Kai outside. She swiftly pulled up her hood, unlike Kai, who liked the feeling of rain soaking their messy, unkempt hair.
"I try to listen," Casey shouted over the sound of thunder rolling in the distance, sprinting over to where they'd crouched at the edge of the sweet berry field, "and you always say you need to work on your anxiety."
Kai scoffed, plucking a few of the ripe berries and shoving them into their inventory, "And when did 'working on my anxiety' translate to 'competing in a massive tournament while being watched by hundreds of people'?"
"You don't have to compete," Casey said, rolling her eyes and leaning against a fence.
Kai gave her a deadpan glare, "And I'm supposed to think you know more than one person— other than Rex —that would be willing to compete for you?"
Casey opened her mouth to respond, but stopped herself short. She may have evidently been a lot more social and confident than Kai, but she also didn't go out very often. She did have a few friends outside of their little village, but they all had their own go-to teams they were loyal to. That, and no one else in the village was very interested in the festival.
"Fair enough," she finally admitted, before shaking her head, "but we can just— we don't have to compete!"
Kai stood up with an armful of berries, giving her an incredulous look, "I'm sorry, have you forgotten the requirements to even get in to the festival?"
The festival was made for competition— a named team of four to eight people was required to even enter the premises in the first place, even if you didn't participate in most of the games. Of which, these two didn't have. You even had to sign up for at least one game as well, and none of these players were very good at any of the games.
As Kai began making their way back to the barn to put away the berries they'd gathered, Casey followed, still trying to come up with a way to convince her friend to come.
"..if you come, we can just find a fourth person who wants to go on their own," Casey suggested, "then, they can sign up for a game by themself, and you, me, and Rex explore the festival together!"
Kai paused for a moment, hands lingering over the barrels filled with other crops from previous harvests, all stored to prepare for the coming winter months when nothing other than the indoor crops would grow. They silently contemplated their choices— they have been wanting to go to the festival one day, they just hadn't felt.. ready, yet.
They let out a short sigh. "I.. I just don't really..." They struggled to find the proper words to convey their thoughts, "...not yet."
And yet, Casey still didn't take them seriously.
"You always say that," she whined, slumping over the fence of the sheep pen. One of them started nibbling on her hair. "When are you ever gonna be ready?"
Kai shot a glare at her, "Maybe when you stop whining about me staying at home and taking care of Aunt Arcadia's farm. Like I'm supposed to."
Casey immediately froze at the reminder, making Kai smirk slightly at her.
"I'm helping," Casey said nonchalantly, sprinting over to the chicken pen to snatch an egg from over the fence, then going over to a random barrel and shoving it in, "See? Helping."
Kai raised a brow at her.
"That's the sugar cane barrel," they deadpanned, before pointing at a barrel higher up to their left, "eggs go over there."
Casey quickly took the egg back out and went over to where Kai had pointed, putting it in that barrel instead and pretending she hadn't nearly messed up Kai's entire organization system.
"Helping."
Kai rolled their eyes with a shake of their head.
They then walked back out of the barn, this time making their way back towards the house where Rex was probably napping to also avoid doing his share of the chores.
"You know what— even if you did find two more members to go to the festival with, you wouldn't even last one game," Kai scoffed, snickering at the indignant noise Casey let out in response.
"We totally would!" Casey insisted.
Kai turned to face her as they were halfway up the porch stairs, crossing their arms over their chest. "No, you won't," they said more sternly, "Rex would fall asleep during literally any of them— I've seen him fall asleep while riding a pig, for crying out loud! And you have the worst sense of direction and aesthetic I've ever seen."
Casey flushed slightly at the reminder of her lack of decorating skills, grumbling, "It's not like you're any better."
"Oh no, I'm also terrible," Kai admitted like it was obvious, "but at least I know creeper heads aren't exactly the best decorations for a mushroom house."
"They fit the room.." Casey tried to protest.
"Yeah, no they didn't," Kai retorted, their hand landing on the handle of the front door, "it was a brown mushroom house, with acacia walls for some reason— creeper heads didn't fit. Nothing fit! It looked like a messed up fever dream!"
Kai didn't let her get another word in before they finally swung the door open, immediately greeted by two of their aunt's dogs, barking and jumping on them excitedly, while the third sprinted past them and ran circles around Casey.
"Yes, hello my beautiful puppers," Kai chirped, giggling as they had to shuffle in through the door, keeping it open for Casey to follow suit, "it's nice to see you all too. Have you been holding the fort while I was doing everyone else's chores?"
"I did my chores."
Casey and Kai looked up to see Rex halfway down the stairs, still in his pajamas with a small, white rabbit held to his chest. He yawned slightly, rubbing his eye as he made the rest his way down.
"Oh really?" Kai raised an eyebrow at him, crossing their arms, "So me replanting all the carrots and potatoes was just me imagining things?"
"My indoor chores," Rex elaborated with a frown, "it's raining."
Kai let out an indignant groan, hissing out a quiet "useless" under their breath as they stormed past Rex and up the stairs, all three dogs excitedly following suit, leaving Casey, Rex, and the rabbit alone in the living room.
Rex gave Casey a perplexed look.
She sighed, "Festival's soon. They still don't wanna go."
He clicked his tongue in realization, "Ohhhh. So you didn't just throw a bucket at them again."
"Hey, they keep throwing their shears at me," she retorted, turning her nose in the air.
"But have they ever been able to actually hit you, though?" he asked, walking over to place the rabbit in its pen in the corner of the room.
She didn't respond for a few moments, before grumbling, "No.."
"That's what I thought," he said.
Casey reluctantly followed as he made his way into the kitchen, already sifting through the various chests in search of something for Kai.
"So, while I prepare a peace offering," he mumbled, taking out a honey bottle and a bowl of mushroom stew, "I need you to go to the mailbox in case Arcadia's sent another letter yet."
Casey whined, "Do I really have to go back out into the rain again?"
"Says the person who keeps yelling at Kai to join the festival."
"They literally promised!" Casey insisted, throwing her hands into the air, before groaning and reluctantly making her way towards the door again, "Fine, I'll go this time. Maybe they'll come if Arcadia goes too.."