surprise! bonus wednesday chapter. i have scooted the thursday chapter back to friday.
Reviews replies:
LPK9: Herobrine just really loves to kill people.
Okuri-Chan: Stephen: "you're so obsessed with me lol" Cafos: "I am nOT obsessed sHUTUP" also, my lips are sealed :x
Lenticel: …ya know you might be right. I can't remember if that was intentional. Also so glad to hear that! I had fun writing the minecraft mechanics in that series, I imagine it must be quite different rereading them with context! This comment also had me rereading Stephan this morning lol. i should write another oneshot for that verse.
Herobrine limped through the quiet forest, one hand braced against his sloppily wrapped wound as he made his way through the darkness. It was late at night, his preferred time to travel as he was unlikely to run into anyone on the road. In this forest, though, he was unlikely to come across anyone at all. These forests - in his time, anyway - had a reputation for being cursed, due to the darkness beneath the canopy sheltering less than friendly creatures. Herobrine was not concerned with monsters, though. He knew he was the most frightening of them all.
He shuffled to a stop, rubbing at his tired eyes. As he'd aged, his darkvision had deteriorated, and he could no longer see as well at night as he once did. He glanced up at the canopy, weighing his options, then teleported, appearing on a strong, sturdy branch beneath the night sky.
The moon was bright, drowning out many of the stars with its light. Herobrine reached out with his bad leg and prodded at the leaves. The trees grew fairly evenly even at this height, and the interwoven branches served to be nearly as steady as the grass below. He did have to take slightly more care to keep his balance due to his leg, but got into a rhythm quickly enough.
His thoughts had been troubled of late. Encountering the Lady of Melbourne's child had brought up memories that he struggled to keep suppressed, joyful memories that now pained him to recall. Memories of his own son, in his wife's arms.
The trees blurred before him, and he lurched back, struggling to catch his balance. He reached up to brush away the tears, and grimaced as they continued to fall. He didn't have time for this.
He had to find the portal, had to find a way to the Aether. He had been working towards this goal for years, and now, now he finally had at least a clue. Even if the Lady had been silent, her presence had told him enough - there was a portal in this area, somewhere. He would find it eventually.
And once he had, he would kill Notch. He would make him suffer for every day that Herobrine had suffered since that night fifteen years ago. The painful memories banished, his tears slowed, and Herobrine dried his face before continuing on over the trees.
Movement above him caught his eye, and Herobrine looked up with a frown.
Immediately, he jumped down to a lower branch, crouching on the thick bough as a valkyrie's silhouette crossed past the moon. He tracked the shape with narrowed eyes. A scout? Valkyries typically traveled in groups, but this one seemed to be alone. Perhaps it was a messenger…? As he watched, though, the valkyrie began to descend, disappearing through a gap in the trees.
Herobrine's hand moved to his belt, gripping the handle of his sword as he teleported to the ground. If it was a messenger, the valkyrie may have information. If it did not, at least the kill would cheer him on an otherwise joyless night.
"You really like that bucket." Stephen commented, walking just behind Alexis as the redhead led the way through the trees.
"It's useful." The aforementioned bucket now hung at her side, filled with apples that they had picked off of a tree encountered earlier that day. "Carries food."
"I can see that." Stephen smirked a bit as he ducked underneath a low-hanging glance. They were very fortunate to have found the tree earlier, and Stephen felt considerably better after eating three or four of the sweet fruits. They had napped again through the afternoon, and now traveled at night. It was considerably harder to see under the trees than it had been on the plain, but that was a blessing as well as a curse. Cafos stood virtually no chance of spotting them from the sky, and it was highly unlikely that he would run into them in the woods.
Their current mission was to find water. The juice in the apples had helped to quench their thirst for the time being, but they would need fresh water eventually. If they could find a river near to a fruit tree, they could survive here indefinitely, or at least until the seasons changed. Hopefully Cafos would move on and search for them elsewhere.
The woods were dark and peaceful, the only sound being their footsteps and the crickets chirping faintly in the trees. Stephen's questions still plagued him, of his past and his origins, but he was forced to conclude that there was nothing he could do about them. Short of going back to Lucius, but he had lied to him his entire life, nothing he said could be trusted at this point. A stab of hurt went through him as he wondered if his mentor had ever really cared.
"Hey, Alexis." Stephen mumbled, nudging her with his arm. "Thanks again for making me leave."
"The training camp?" Alexis nudged him back. "No problem. Thanks for not letting me get executed." Stephen chuckled softly.
"Sure." They kept walking, and their footsteps sounded suddenly louder in the silence.
The crickets had gone quiet.
Stephen grabbed Alexis's arm, putting a finger to his lips as he pulled her over to a tree. Setting her against the trunk, he leaned out from behind it, searching for anything that seemed out of place. Something moved beyond a beam of moonlight, and he turned to see a winged silhouette stalking across the forest floor.
Stephen sank into a crouch, gesturing for Alexis to do the same as he pointed out Cafos to her. Alexis didn't question it. Neither of them moved as they watched him pick his way through the woods, and Stephen had to admit he was impressed with the way he made absolutely no sound. If they had continued talking they certainly would have been caught.
Cafos made his way towards their hiding place, and Stephen sank down further, his heart beating so hard he could swear the hunter could hear it. Slowly, the valkyrie passed by, scanning the underbrush as he did so. He stopped at a large tree, turning back for one last sweep, and Stephen remembered too late that his eyes glowed.
Cafos' face lit up in a grin, and he took a single step towards them before a figure moved at blinding speed to slam him back against the tree.
Stephen startled at the movement, and Cafos let out a cry of pain as the man seized him by the collar of his shirt. Cafos lashed out with his sword, and there was a sharp clang! as it glanced off the man's own silver blade. The man retaliated before Cafos could attack again, and the valkyrie's blade flew from his hand. The stranger had eyes that glowed, blazing with white light. Undoubtedly nobility… oh Notch, was this the man who had killed all those valkyries?
Unarmed, Cafos threw a punch at the man's face and flapped his wings, trying to get some leverage over his opponent. The man dodged the punch, then thrust his sword through Cafos' wing and into the tree, ripping a scream from the valkyrie's throat. Stephen flinched at the cry. He and Alexis needed to get away… he hated to leave Cafos to die, even after what he had done, but they needed to escape in case the man went after them next.
"Make this easy for me," The man hissed, "and I will ease your suffering." Cafos' face blanched white, and his frantic thrashing stilled. Stephen patted Alexis's arm, urging her away, and they began to flee the scene as quietly as they could. "Tell me where to find an Aether portal." Stephen stopped in his tracks, looking over his shoulder. A portal? What could he want with that?
Cafos took a shaky breath. "I don't know-"
"Don't LIE TO ME!" The man roared. Cafos cringed back, again trying to struggle away but stopping quickly when the silver blade pressed against his neck. "Tell me."
"I've never even been to the Aether, how would I know?!" Cafos cried out. Stephen felt a tug on his arm, and he turned to find Alexis gesturing him with her. Still, he hesitated, turning back. Cafos was grasping at the blade at his throat, his hands bleeding from where he had cut himself on the sharp edge, but he barely seemed to notice as his focus was completely on his captor.
"Last chance." The blade was forced closer to his throat, heedless of his attempts to stop it. "Where. Is. A portal?"
"I don't know I swear I don't know, please…" Cafos begged as the sword pressed against his neck. "Please…" Stephen hesitated, looked at Alexis, then tugged her hand from his arm and teleported.
He was only within the man's view for a moment, appearing beside the two for a split second, in which time he'd seized Cafos by the arm and teleported again. The two of them appeared nearly a hundred feet away and Stephen's legs buckled beneath him, the strength leeched from his bones from two long jumps in quick succession. Cafos gasped, and Stephen clamped a hand over his mouth, pinning the valkyrie back against the nearest tree with his own body as the white-eyed man whipped around in shock.
Stephen's heart raced as the man searched the forest. Even if that man didn't kill him, he might have sacrificed his life by putting himself straight into Cafos' hands. To his credit, at least, the valkyrie was still and silent, the only sounds he made being his panicked breaths that were muffled by Stephen's hand.
He heard a couple of slow, measured steps in their direction, then the man retreated. Stephen listened as the man grew further and further away, his footsteps eventually growing too faint to hear. Slowly, Stephen removed his hand from Cafos' mouth.
"Notch." He whispered, feeling his hands begin to shake. "What- who was that? What did he want with you?" Stephen turned towards Cafos, only to go still in shock at the sight of tears running down the valkyrie's face.
"Th-that was your father." Cafos choked out. "That was Herobrine."
