Chapter 8: Escort
"I am telling you; he is a bad omen! The signs are clear as day! Why will you not heed my warnings?"
"Because not only is he still sufficient, but appears to be harmless, too. His intentions are pure, and there aren't many people who would go out of their way to help out an entire town with a problem such as our own. Not to mention, we can't afford to make more enemies!"
"You know I hold nothing but respect for you, but this is not going to end well if you let it go on. Do you have anything to add to the conversation?"
"..." The third figure seemed conflicted but remained silent.
"*sigh* Look, let's just wait until they return. Not enough time has passed for us to jump to conclusions. This could still be just a coincidence. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt."
"..."
"If that doesn't work, there's always the alternative..."
...
I dug away the brown, earthly blocks, and got on the upper floor.
Nighttime was in full effect. Unlike the ground floor, there were no artificial light sources at all. Only the stars and the crescent moon offered illumination. Thankfully, I had a couple spare torches handy, so I plunked one of them down.
"H-Hello?" a timid, almost frightened voice called out. I whipped my head at the direction it came from. In a corner, I could faintly distinguish the outline of a person sitting. Drawing nearer, I placed down my last torch to get a better look at them.
With a light bright enough now, I was finally able to make out details and be greeted by the sight of...Rana? She didn't look anything like what I had expected. I was anticipating that she'd look like any other Cornelian citizen, but that couldn't be further off.
For starters, she was a young woman. She had a peculiar, yet – admittedly – kinda cute appearance: red hair tied into two pigtails, pale skin and dull, blue eyes. Her outfit consisted of a green hat that resembled an animal of some type, a green raincoa- wait a minute...
'Have I seen her somewhere before?'
Anyway, appearances aside, she looked afraid, and the dried tear streaks beneath her eyes, indicated that she had been crying.
"...W-Who are you?" she asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"My name is Steve. You must be Rana, right?"
She nodded with hesitation.
"I was sent from Cornelia. I'm here to help you out."
"...Cornelia?" Her eyes lit up slightly as she said that. I nodded in response.
"...Thank God...I-I thought I was..." she trailed off.
"Don't worry about it; we are safe for now. Are you hurt?"
"...A little," she stated weakly.
I retrieved the potion of healing from my inventory and handed it to her. The red liquid inside was sparkling. Now seemed like the perfect time to use it.
"...W-what about you? Aren't you hurt?"
"I'm fine. You probably need this more than I do," I responded.
With some initial hesitation, she drank the content of the bottle and handed it back to me. Once done, her skin color turned from pale, to a healthier, more fair shade. Her eyes also sparkled just a bit brighter. 'Seems like the potion worked.'
"Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, thank you."
I sat down across from her, trying to make her feel more at ease, while the torch was glowing moderately between us.
"Hey, umm, could you tell me your name again? I... forgot..." she said, almost awkwardly.
"That's fine. My name is Steve."
"Steve, right. Thanks."
...
"So, what's the plan?" she asked, after a short pause.
It probably wouldn't have been a good idea if I told her that I didn't really have a plan, and that I got here mostly thanks to luck; it could've freaked her out. I racked my brain trying to think of something to say. Eventually, I remembered the two other 'hostages' that were allegedly in the location.
"A plan, huh? Well, that depends. Do you, by chance, know where the iron golems are? I was told they were abducted and brought here. Is that true?"
The girl's visage turned into one of discomfort.
"Well, did you see the giant cages outside?" There was a tone of uneasiness in her voice.
"I didn't really get the chance to take a good look at them...Why?"
"That's where one of them is being kept," she responded blankly.
"One of them? What about the other one?"
Slowly, fresh tears began subtly cascading down her cheeks, as she flinched. She laid down five iron ingots, as well as a single poppy. My eyes eventually widened in realization.
"...This is all that's left of it..." was all she could say before breaking down. I felt bad for her. I briefly wondered whether she was blaming herself for the iron creature's death, or was she just traumatized by the experience? Whatever the case, she sounded broken.
'Just how long has she been trapped here like this for?'
I briefly considered giving her space, but then decided against it. I couldn't just sit there and do nothing! I had to try and make her feel better. I placed my hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, don't cry. I'm sure you did everything that you could, I can tell. Don't worry, because we will get through this, okay?"
"I tried...I-I really did...It's not my fault..." she uttered between sobs.
"It's okay, Rana. No one is blaming you."
She slumped against the wall. A few moments passed and the crying regressed. I tried talking to her, only to notice that she had fallen asleep. It was okay; I was thinking we could free the last golem remaining at dawn, where visibility would be clearer, and we wouldn't have other aggressive mobs to worry about.
Since it was around midnight, I let her rest for a while. She probably needed it anyway. As for me, I tried to take a nap, but couldn't sleep for more than a few moments at a time. In the end, I gave up trying and stared off into the night sky, trying to ignore the grunts and the growls.
...
...
Alright, this was it. The first rays of sunlight began to poke out of the dense flora. I gently shook the funnily dressed girl awake.
"Hmm, huh? Oh, did I doze off?" she asked groggily, while rubbing her eyes.
"A bit. Now, come on; it's time to go. Are you ready?"
"I'm ready." As she got up, I noted that she was around the height as me, if not just slightly shorter.
"Good. Oh, by the way, do you have any weapons with you?"
"Well, I had a sword with me, but it broke, so... Whatever, not a big deal. I'll just craft another one..."
Her gaze turned to the five ingots.
"Are you okay?"
"You know, at first, I really didn't want to use these; it kinda felt disrespectful. You understand, right?" she began. I simply blinked in response, waiting for her to continue.
"But, now that I'm thinking about it, it's not as bad as I thought."
"How so?" I asked.
"Think of it this way: Even after its death, that iron golem will still be by my side to protect someone, just like it was created to do! It might sound a little cheesy, but it's kind of poetic, I think." A light smile crept on her face as she was saying that. It was a welcome sight.
"Hmm, I guess that makes sense."
She proceeded to place down a crafting table of her own, and an iron sword materialized before my eyes. I was amazed by the fact that someone else could craft and wield tools in this world, other than me.
"Alright, I'm ready!" she announced with determination.
As we descended the stairs, I explained to her the plan I had come up with: First, we'd go and fetch my horse from the forest, so that we'd have a reliable way of outrunning the foe, and then we'd go and free the golem. Sticking together was the most important part in all of the above, since we'd have a better chance of pushing back the pillagers that way.
As we reached the sealed back entrance, I took a deep breath. I could only imagine the number of foes we'd face the moment I mined those blocks away.
"Stay back," I told her. It would've been far more dramatic if I had a pickaxe with me to quickly break the cobblestone with, but since I didn't, it just created an awkward moment in which I was mining away a rock-hard material with my bare hands, in complete silence.
"Uh, do you need any help, or...?"
"My fate is sealed... No one can help me."
"Uh, okay...You know, we could just break the wood- Or not..."
Before she could finish her sentence, I'd already finished mining the rocky blocks, and peeked my head outside. I looked to my left and to my right, but there wasn't an enemy in sight. I cautiously took a step outside, motioning Rana to follow.
"The coast is clear..." I whispered. It really seemed like we were completely alone. Come to think of it, I stopped hearing grunts as the night went on, but I assumed it was just because I was getting used to the noise.
We speed walked our way to the tree line and reclaimed the animal. All this seemed far too...easy? We discussed our concerns about this being a trap. Apart from us, it honestly felt like there wasn't a soul around. All the while, the air felt awfully stagnant.
"Huh...Let's go to the cage. Maybe the other iron golem is still here, at least," she suggested.
"Doesn't hurt to try." We reached the cage. To my surprise, the golem was, indeed, still there! When Rana and I tore down the fence that made up the cage, I took a mental note of the biomechanical creature's appearance.
It was a tall, hefty, humanoid being that, as the name suggested, was made of iron. Its face almost reminded me of a villager's: It too had a unibrow and a long nose – both made of metal. Its eyes were red though, and its bulky arms and chest had vines running along their length. I wondered how old this thing must've been.
Once it was freed from its containment, the golem took turns staring at both of our faces. After a while, to my surprise, it started heading towards a seemingly random direction.
"Wait, where is it going?" I asked, baffled.
"I... I think it's going to Cornelia," Rana answered. I wasn't actually expecting to get an answer to my question, so it was appreciated.
"In that case, we'd better follow it closely. Here, hop on."
"What about you?" she asked.
"This saddle can only hold one person at a time. Also, this is supposed to be me assisting you. I'll just walk along."
"Well, okay then, if it's fine by you..." she replied as she got on the horse. "Thank you," she added.
"Don't mention it."
With that out of the way, we trotted along, following the never-steering giant to our destination. While on the way, I couldn't help but feel like we got off the hook a little too easily. I was expecting an onslaught. But sure enough, we didn't encounter a single foe on our way back. We even made sure to look at our surroundings.
'Maybe I shouldn't worry about this too much. Now that there's three of us, I'm sure we can handle whatever those villager-lookalikes throw our way.' Looking once more at the red-haired girl's face, I could tell she was feeling much better than she did last night. 'I guess it's safe to call this escort operation, a success.'
...
A/N: The frog girl finally makes her (physical) debut! To celebrate, here's a few fun facts:
1) I had to rewrite Steve and Rana's first conversation around 3 times, because I wasn't happy with how the initial drafts came out.
2) Even though she's labeled as such in the story's description, Rana isn't actually my OC. She used to be a mob in Minecraft's indev phase, and was designed and created by Hayden Scott-Baron, alternatively, Dock. He used to be the game's artist at the time.
3)The original plan (before Cornelia was even conceptualized) was for Steve to meet Rana in an abandoned mineshaft, where he'd rescue her from a nest of cave spiders, but I scrapped the idea, since I didn't want her to be a damsel in distress, but rather, a fighter who ended up in a sticky situation.
And, that's it! Thanks for reading!