Chapter 56: Dawn's Peak


Now that he was able to get a better look at the place in the light of the rising sun, Steve finally understood what Herobrine had been talking about when he said that the buildings weren't enough to support a full village.

It was nothing short of being an almost destroyed, absolute chaotic mess of a village. Actually, even that was being generous in terms of what his eyes were seeing. Though he hated to admit it, he felt a strange bit of fear and non-brother-related dread enter his body the longer he looked. Some buildings had clearly been reduced to rubble and were only there as remnants of what used to be a full village. Other buildings had clear fire damage, and quite a few lacked doors and windows, as most had seemingly been broken completely. Buildings of broken wood and large piles of ash sat next to heavily-impacted ones that remained standing, and as the light of the rising sun bounced off of each, all looked like they were about to catch fire once again. Though not all of the structures had been completely trashed, it seemed like none of them had been fortunate enough to avoid damage in some way or another.

Stunned at the sight, Steve quietly dismounted from Squash as he drew nearer.

From what he could deduce, the village was roughly half-populated. Though he couldn't exactly say so for sure, the presence of heavily-damaged buildings along with those that were void of any sort of light source around them led him to believe that they weren't necessarily being put to any kind of use whatsoever. The houses that did seem to have people inside of them were still somewhat lit up, and from what he could see, they were being protected by two golems patrolling the street. Given what he knew about the typical ratio of golem-to-villager (putting aside the fact that his own village had an absurd amount of golems activated in comparison to the number of people actually living in the village), he could at least say that the number of buildings that had been built in the savanna village would suggest a higher number of golems present. The fact that there were only two solidified the sense of unease within his stomach.

He could wager a bet that this village had been attacked severely by mobs. Though the lack of them at the present moment was due to the presence of his brother, he bet that if he asked around, his suspicions would only get confirmed. At the very least, that was a more comforting idea than the possibility that the damage was human-made.

Before he could step onto the streets themselves, Steve paused by a nearby acacia tree, leaving Squash beside it as he gestured for her to rest.

"Stay right here, I'm going to check things out, alright?" He said quietly, earning a small huff from Squash in response.

Walking closer to the quiet village, Steve found himself glancing nervously toward the activated golems, hoping that they wouldn't spot him in the streets. Even though he didn't exactly think that a golem would attack him due to him looking like a regular ol' human, he didn't want to chance upsetting the clearly-overworked creatures by appearing out of the blue in front of them. As he continued to walk, it slowly dawned on him that the area was completely silent. Deafening, even. Though he already accounted for the lack of mobs, the air seemed to be rather still for some reason that he couldn't figure out. Even the golems themselves were barely audible, despite their massive footsteps.

Even more confused, Steve soon found himself on the village's main street, feeling a bit on edge as he tried to catch a small glimpse of the inhabitants of the remaining homes there. The homes that hadn't been completely destroyed were bordered up fairly tight. Though there were some gaps in between some of the wooden planks that were being used, he still couldn't see much.

Not long after he began his impromptu solo exploration, Steve was badly startled by the sound of a door slamming open. Before he could even think to try and protect himself from being spotted, he was met with the sight of a woman running frantically toward him. She stopped a few feet in front of him, soon after brandishing a heavily-damaged stone sword that he hadn't even realized that she'd been carrying.

"Not another step! The sun just rose, why are you here already?!"

Blinking as she finished, Steve looked at the woman with confusion.

"…Already? What?"

The woman tightened her hold upon her sword before continuing.

"I saw you ride in on one of those beasts! You're one of them, aren't you?! You're one of the Banished!"

As she pointed her sword toward his face, Steve raised his hands in defense.

"I-I'm by myself! I'm not one of…um…the 'Banished' or whatever, I'm the Champion of Beasts, I tamed her myself!" He briefly nodded his head back to where Squash was. "I just wanted to check out the village for a bit, I've been traveling for a while, and I…well, I found this place, and…"

Trailing on with his words, Steve only saw the woman's suspicion growing, leading him to briefly worry about the possibility of having another sword being thrusted into his flesh sometime sooner than what he'd generally prefer. Though, after a few moments of silence and careful examination, her sword lowered for a brief moment before she resumed her stance.

"…Champion…are you…are you one of the reinforcements from Lunarus that we requested ages ago?"

Though he briefly opened his mouth a bit to let a quick little lie escape his lips, he found himself staring into the emerald green gaze of the villager woman before him, finding himself hesitating as desperation slowly creeped into the edges of her expression. Feeling somewhat ashamed at his brief urge to lie, Steve instead shook his head, lowering his hands to his sides.

"…I'm not. I just happened to stop by, sorry." He paused, briefly glancing off to the side before returning his gaze to her. "…Ah, but…since I am a champion, maybe I can help out somehow?"

The woman briefly paused to examine him again before lowering her sword even more, this time opting to slowly sheath it as she kept a wary eye on him.

"If I can take your word for it…" She paused, letting out a small breath before continuing. "Our village is dying. We only just settled out here a few months ago, but it's already on the verge of collapse."

At her explanation, Steve's eyes widened slightly.

"…What do you mean by that? How is it-"

"-The Banished!" She whispered harshly, drawing closer as she spoke. "They keep coming! Every week they keep coming! T-they launch attacks on our village, and the golems haven't been able to keep up with them anymore! The bastards usually come around sundown, so we can't even defend against them properly with all of the mobs, either. We started calling for help from other villages, but no one wanted to get involved, so we resorted to begging for Lunarus to take note! We're at our wit's end!"

Glancing around, Steve found it easy to sympathize with her. A massive village shouldn't have been so empty. He let out a small hum as he thought to himself momentarily, a small realization soon dawning upon him.

His entry into the village was simple and easy. There were no stone walls to clear, or guards to interact with. The village, in terms of defense, was incredibly lacking.

"Wait, you guys don't have anything protecting the buildings, don't you? Have you tried setting something up?"

The lady shook her head fervently.

"T-they killed our woodcutters and stonemasons the first chance they got. Lights do nothing except reveal ourselves to the mobs. We…there's almost nothing left here! We need help…"

Steve glanced off to the side, conflicted.

"I…I don't think I can really do much on my own, but I'll try to help out in any way I can, alright?" He began with a smile. "For now, I'd say that since you guys already seem to be boarding up the houses here, you might want to try to order the golems you have left to be focused more on those places instead of having them wander. If things don't let up, you might just have to think about leaving the area, if that makes-"

"-We absolutely cannot just leave!" The woman shouted at him, causing him to step back a bit. "We're the ones who were given the responsibility from Lunarus itself to build out here! That's why we're asking for their help!"

Giving another look around, Steve found himself unable to build up the confidence to support the other's insistence.

"I don't think the Banished are going to let you guys do that, if I'm going to be completely honest with you. Any champion would tell you that, I think."

The woman narrowed her gaze at him.

"Then I'll wait for the other champions to arrive and prove you wrong. In the meantime, I guess we can take your advice to heart." She began to walk away, only to pause once she was a few feet away from him. "There's no inn for you here. The actual building got burned down to the ground, and you can't stay anywhere else. Now leave us be!"

With clear venom in her tone, the woman continued walking away, leaving Steve a bit bewildered as she left. Before he could think about the bizarre nature of the encounter for much longer, he decided to leave things as they were and slowly walk away from the village, back to where he knew Herobrine was waiting for him. Retrieving Squash, he took one last look at the village behind him before moving on.

Walking away from the grassy fields of the savanna into the calm sands of the desert, Steve found himself pondering the woman's words the further he got away from the village. The buildings had been utterly destroyed beyond what a mob could typically do, yes, but the fact that the attacks the village sustained had been weekly occurrences somewhat didn't add up within his mind. If the goal had been to get rid of the village, given the amount of destruction that had already occurred, why hadn't things been finished already?

Shaking his head, Steve decided to try and find the others first before he could come to any conclusions on his own.


Finding the right cave to duck into was hard enough, but eventually, Steve managed to find the others after quite a bit of walking on both his and Squash's part. After explaining that he'd found someone to briefly talk with, he suddenly found himself within an interrogation session that led him, Herobrine, and, at his request, Malgun back outside of the cave, keeping the distant village in their line of sight. Though Malgun kept to the shadows, he still remained in the other twos' vicinity.

"So what you're saying is that the village is only half-destroyed? Who's been launching the attacks?" Herobrine asked him, crossing his arms over his chest as he spoke.

"Apparently 'the Banished' are the ones who made this village look like it does now, and if I had to take a guess, I'm assuming that they're talking about…well, the…Illagers, I guess?"

"...They say Illagers are attacking this area?" Herobrine rose a brow at him. "...Are you sure?"

Steve nodded.

"They need help to fight them, at the very least. The person I talked to said something about being sent here from Lunarus, so they're requesting backup from them specifically."

Herobrine thought to himself momentarily. His gaze trailing over to the village in question once again. Before he could say anything, however, Malgun spoke up, drawing the attention of the two immediately.

"…I haven't seen any indicators that there even was an Illager clan in this area. Usually if the attacks have gotten significantly frequent, you could expect at least an outpost or a banner to be visible a few miles away from the village." He said, taking a short glance around the area as he spoke.

"…The banners are to mark their targets, am I correct?" Herobrine asked.

Malgun nodded in response.

"Normally speaking, if a village has been this damaged, someone would've already placed a banner somewhere within to mark it as a goal for conquest. Steve, did you happen to see any grey banners?"

Thinking to himself for a moment, Steve mentally traced back his steps before looking to Malgun and shaking his head slowly.

"I didn't see any, no."

Malgun thought to himself briefly.

"…Then that's very strange. If there are no banners, then this place wasn't meant to be a long-term target. If that's the case, then the village shouldn't still be here."

As Malgun finished and the others pondered his words for a moment, Herobrine let out a sigh as he shrugged briefly.

"...We'll have to send some scouts out. I can't imagine that this village would be significant enough to launch any sort of major attack like this in the first place, regardless of whether or not Lunarus was the place that founded it. It's not a stronghold; it looks like a fairly standard, bare-bones village, if anything."

"…Is there any other reason why this place might be getting hit like this? I mean, I don't doubt what you said for a second, but…I dunno, there's gotta be something about this village that'd make it such a massive target, all things considered." Steve asked.

At his question, Malgun lowered his head as he thought quietly to himself. Before long, the skeleton looked at Steve with a neutral gaze.

"…The only other thing I can think of is that they're dealing with more of a delinquent group."

"…Meaning?…"

"The clan that's doing this is just doing it for fun. For the sake of it."

At the other's words, Steve's heart fell, though he couldn't exactly say that he was entirely surprised at the possibility that he suggested.

"…Meaning that unless the champions get here, they're doomed?"

"Only if they still think that dying is better than moving. For your poor, poor heart's sake, I hope they realize the reality of their situation soon enough." Herobrine answered, earning a glare from Steve in response to his light teasing.

"…Yeah."

"But besides that, did you get a name?" Herobrine questioned.

Steve looked at him in confusion for a brief moment before realization flashed in his eyes. Not even a second later, a groan escaped his lips as he hung his head in self-disappointment.

"...I completely forgot about asking for a name."

Herobrine let out a small sigh at his admission.

"…Then we'll make our guesses, or make a name up, if needed. Dawn's Peak has to be one of these deserts, and this one seems like the most promising candidate. You could also go back and ask, even if it's embarrassing."

Steve gave him a small, defeated nod.

"…I hope it's this one."

"We all do."

As they finished, Steve found himself turning to look back at the entrance of the cave, which dug deep into the sands below. A small hum escaped his lips as he began to speak.

"Any luck searching the caves? I know I didn't leave you guys for too long, but...is there any chance that you found any hints or whatever regarding the End portal?"

Herobrine shook his head at his question.

"Unfortunately, no. The most I've gotten from this cave system is the fact that it's looking fairly average. I was already informed that one of the pathways within leads to a collapsed tunnel."

"...Any signs on why that tunnel collapsed?"

Again, Herobrine shook his head.

"No, but it's likely natural. I'm assuming you'll only agree with my observation, but the walls around it were fairly weak and made up of a mixture of stone, dirt, and gravel."

Steve thought to himself for a moment before agreeing.

"Yeah, that seems like a natural collapse. The way that the cave's situated makes it even more likely to be unsupported, I think, if the entrance has anything to say about how it is further down below."

As he finished, Malgun began to turn away back to the depths of the cave.

"I'll continue the search down below. If all else fails, we'll likely have to risk another one of those…well, eyes. You both realize that, right?"

The two remaining nodded in response, with Herobrine letting out a sigh as he brought a hand to massage his temples.

"Unfortunately, yes. And I'm afraid we're going to have to go through all of them at one point or another."

"...We can't really afford that, right?" Steve asked, even though he knew well enough the answer.

Herobrine nodded his head.

"Not in the slightest. Let's keep searching through this area."


Unfortunately, the expedition in the cave had been absolutely fruitless, as each pathway that the mobs had found led to dead-ends or collapsed tunnels. In their search of the area, the group managed to come across a couple of other caves, but they all resulted in the same outcome, leaving them at essentially a complete standstill.

While Andvari had yet to return from his part of the search, the rest of the group found themselves waiting patiently, situating themselves beside a cave that had been naturally dug into one of the massive, central trio of mountains itself. As Malgun rested himself more within the cave, the others remained outside. Constiere had flung himself over a large rock, appearing surprisingly rather comfortable as he glanced down at Herobrine, who remained standing, and Steve, who was leaning against the rock itself as Squash laid by his side.

"I just can't believe that the caves are pretty much all duds. They'd make some pretty nice living spaces, but…man does it suck!" Constiere complained, folding his arms as he pressed his face against the rock beneath him.

"...It's actually kind of weird, I think." Steve responded, taking a moment to glance to the cave next to them. "There were more caves than I thought there would be, but the fact they're all essentially dead-ends? It's kind of bizarre, if you think about it…"

As an agreeing hum came from Constiere's lips, Steve found his attention being pulled elsewhere as he continued to look at the cave. Herobrine, on the other hand, stood with his hands on his hips as he let out a small sigh of frustration.

"I was hoping for an honest miracle here, but it looks like the fates have other plans. Looks like an eye will have to be sacrificed for the greater good here, unless we have any other objections."

"Do we do another look through, just in case we missed any openings?" Constiere asked, messing around with the frayed edges of his gloves as he spoke.

"…While I doubt that we did, I suppose that we could even further exhaust our efforts just a bit, if it means being thorough." Herobrine responded. "Constiere, direct your forces to complete another go-around, I think that would be for the best-"

"-Wait a minute." Steve subconsciously interrupted, a hand placed under his chin as he continued to think intensively.

Herobrine raised a slight brow at him.

"…What is it?"

"…Sorry." Steve blinked, briefly recognizing the fact that he'd actually spoken out loud before continuing. "…We said all of the caves around here are dead-ends? What are the odds of that, you think?"

"…What are you getting at?"

"…I'm just thinking, with all of these caves being so close together, you'd think that they'd all connect somewhere, right? It doesn't exactly make sense that all of these massive caves would just…y'know, end so suddenly. Even the caves back home connected to other systems, and you saw how big they were. Something isn't adding up, here."

Constiere gave him a bit of a smirk as he finished, while Herobrine went to think to himself for a moment.

"Is this your professional opinion as a miner?" The boy teased, though he was met with Steve giving him a genuine nod in response.

"I'm saying, there should be a connecting point somewhere. We should've been looking for it already, but…"

Suddenly, a look of realization flashed across Steve's features.

"…Those dead-ends look natural, but are they?"

At his words, Herobrine's own eyes widened as he met Steve's gaze.

"Are you implying-"

Steve interrupted him with a small nod.

"-You guys were reporting waaaay too many collapsed tunnels for my liking. Depending on where each of the caves here end, they may be connected to the same place!" Steve finished somewhat excitedly, though he soon became a bit embarrassed as his energy died down. "That's just a hopeful guess, though. If you send the mobs through again, it's probably going to result in the same-"

His words were interrupted by Herobrine raising a finger.

"No, I think that's a viable probability. We might not exactly be able to break through the earth that effectively, but should I send some silverfish down, we might find that hidden cavern space that you're suggesting, and it might lead us to some answers." Without drawing much attention to it, Herobrine sent out a silent call to the silverfish as he continued to speak. "If the mobs locate the dead-ends once again, we'll hopefully find a viable space to open up a path soon enough, if the silverfish find evidence."

Before Steve could even respond to his words, Herobrine cut him off by simply giving the miner a small, yet proud smile.

"Impressive thinking, Steve. If we can pull a small victory from this, we can finally advance our preparations even further."

A feeling of genuine warmth spread through Steve's body at the small amount of praise he was given, involuntarily drawing a smile as he gave the other a nod.

"Thanks!"

Somewhat amused by his excitement, Herobrine returned the nod briefly before continuing to speak.

"In any case, we should do one more look-around to see if we've truly located all of the caves in this area, and if they're all truly dead-ends. I don't believe we've examined the ravines yet, so those will be our current priority. After I speak with the silverfish, we should be on our way."

Receiving hums of agreement, Herobrine proceeded to wait for the silverfish along with the others, ready to carry on their examination of the area.


With only the ravines that sat by the massive desert mountains left to explore and Andvari having returned with no further discoveries, the group decided to carry out the rest of their investigation as the sun began to set, sans Malgun for the time being. As small as the desert truly was, the ravines that sat within it still existed nonetheless, somehow not taking up as much ground space as what was likely possible; in fact, in comparison with other ravines that they'd seen, they appeared to be quite smaller. While waiting for the silverfish to return with either confirmation that the caves had been blocked off from a connecting point or confirmation that they simply existed on their own, the group examined one of the ravines that sat beside the central mountains, finding nothing of note besides the fact that such a deep cut within the earth could simultaneously be deep and shallow.

"You'd think that something so large would be a bit…well, more intimidating, don't you think?" Steve asked with a bit of a laugh, watching alongside Herobrine as Constiere and Andvari explored the shallow area below. "I mean, in comparison to that nightmarish ravine I saw, this is like…well, nothing."

"…In all honesty, it reminds me of an optical illusion." Herobrine replied with a shrug. "From afar, it seems so deep, yet I could jump down below without any fear of potentially shattering a bone should my landing go poorly. Amusing, but disappointing given the fact that we're looking for caves here."

Steve nodded slowly.

"…Yeah. But at least we don't have to search this place for long."

"…Fair."

Steve glanced up from the ravine to look across the desert once again.

"…The village gets attacked every day at sundown. You think that we'd be able to catch whoever's launching the attacks?"

"Hopefully we don't. Illager or not, I'd much rather prefer to have our investigation encounter as little potential interference as possible." Herobrine responded, crossing his arms over his chest as he spoke.

Steve let out a small disappointed hum as he finished.

"…Yeah. Same, I guess."

Herobrine rolled his eyes.

"Again, if you're that desperate, you can investigate on your own, but don't be surprised when your body suffers as a result."

"I'd rather not, thanks." Came Steve's quick reply, though it didn't come without a slight twinge of guilt.

Finally, after a few more minutes of investigating, Constiere and Andvari arose from the ravine, with the former shaking his head as he approached both Steve and Herobrine.

"Nope. Complete dud. Not even the suggestion that there was a cave or anything here." He reported, dusting off his clothes a bit.

"Likely due to the overall depth. Any sign of the silverfish yet?" Andvari added, glancing at Herobrine.

"Nope. We're still waiting for them. Once the sun fully sets, we'll have to gather Malgun, so hopefully we'll have something to inform him of." Herobrine answered.

"We're still waiting for the rest of our forces to double-check the area too, right? I know my creepers are pretty much done with our area, but Malgun's is still looking, I think." Constiere asked, earning a brief nod from Herobrine.

"They're still occupied. No updates on either front."

A general air of worry still hung around the group, though, it wasn't enough to get them fully down. After a brief moment of silence, a small yawn came from Constiere's lips as he stretched his arms upward, giving a quick glance around the area.

"Well, nothing left to do but wait again. Anyone want to go ahead and watch that village deal with whatever's coming to it?" Constiere grinned mischievously with his morbid suggestion.

Steve immediately shook his head, backing away slightly.

"Hard pass!" He held his arms up in an 'x' as he spoke. "I don't want to watch that at all…"

Constiere let out a small giggle at his reaction, waving him off.

"Kidding! Kidding…barely."

"While it might be intriguing to see how they're dealing with things, I agree with Steve, it'd be horrible to watch." Andvari spoke up.

Herobrine shrugged at his words.

"Horrible? Sure. But if we managed to figure out where the Illagers were coming from, it might prove to be helpful, potentially. Disregarding that, however, I do believe that we need to focus our efforts more on exploring instead of studying Illager fighting techniques."

As the mob generals agreed to Herobrine's words and continued on with discussing the village, Steve found himself stepping away from the conversation as a general feeling of disgust began to creep up within him. In an attempt to distract himself from the topic at hand, his eyes trailed away from the others and over toward the rest of the desert that they had yet to fully explore.

He had enough time to get a bit started with the investigation on the other ravine by himself, right?

Walking bit by bit to peer around the mountainside that was currently blocking his line of sight, Steve found himself freezing in his tracks as he glanced over to where he knew the other ravine was located.

Light was emanating from the ravine. It was barely noticeable, but light had made itself known from the break in the earth. As the sun continued to set further beyond the horizon, it became clearer that something, somehow, was present within the ravine.

Carefully, Steve broke off from the group and made his way over to where the ravine was, though, his efforts at stealth were for naught as Herobrine quickly caught onto his actions. A brief sigh escaping his lips, Herobrine paused their conversation and motioned for the others to follow. As Steve approached the edge of the ravine, he soon crouched down to the ground in an attempt to hide himself a bit just in case, allowing him to safely peer over the edge in order to take a glance. Not two seconds passed by before a brief shock overtook his body, causing him to flinch as the rest of the group behind him froze in response to his reaction.

"What is it?" Herobrine asked quietly, causing the miner to flinch a second time as he realized that he'd been immediately followed.

"T-there's another village!" Steve glanced back at the others with sort of a stunned gaze.

Herobrine raised a brow at him at his expression, drawing closer.

"…Another? What do you mean by…"

As Herobrine approached the edge, his eyes widened in realization as he briefly leaned over the side of the ravine to confirm Steve's findings, though, it was easy enough to say that they already had been confirmed if the faint conversations he had been hearing from down below had anything to say about it.

The ravine was significantly deeper than the pathetic one that they'd just explored, traveling well into the depths of the earth. What seemed to be man-made holes were located all around the area, digging into the walls and acting as sort of impromptu living spaces. Dark oak structures were also built into the walls of the ravine, supporting various pathways and bridges for easy travel while also complementing the natural stone that they'd been built around. Some fires could be spotted coming from within the holes that had been dug into the walls of the ravine, though the smoke hadn't gotten far enough to be spotted that far outside. Most noticeably, however, was the decent amount of people who were making themselves comfortable within the earth, walking and talking about their man-made haven.

A certain grey tinge seemed to be affecting their skin. Rough, battle-ready clothes covered their forms.

Backing away from the edge of the ravine, Herobrine gave Steve a smile that did nothing to eliminate the unease that was currently building up within him.

"Well, we found our Illagers, I believe. The Banished don't seem to be all that banished from the other village."

With a somewhat tired expression, Steve turned away from the other as he focused on the people in the ravine down below.

"…You think that they'd be friendly enough to be convinced to stop their attacks?"

His eyes were drawn to the weapons that were clearly strewn everywhere within the ravine, settling in organized piles that were easy enough to access.

"You think that they look friendly?" Herobrine asked him in return, leading to a sigh escaping his lips.

He already knew the answer. He just wanted to hope.


GUESS WHO GRADUATED FROM COLLEGEEEEE ITS MEEEEEE!!! RAAAAAAAH I HAVE A BACHELOR'S DEGREE RAAAAAHHHHH

That final homestretch was BRUTAL, but now I'm on summer break! I'm so happy, it's finally over lol (for now). Now for Graduate school!

Personal victory aside, in any case, the group's discovered another couple of villages! I've actually also created these two villages in Minecraft (though they both need significant updating lol). I've been wondering for a while now if I could take my separate MC worlds and paste them together somehow to have a single world with everything from my fic in it. I've messed around with a MC world editor/builder before in the past, but I'm just curious again lol, I think it'd be pretty nice to have everything in one place like that. Then again, that would mean that I'd have to spend time building the places I haven't actually built yet, which would take literal ages lmao (especially Lunarus, that place would be a BEAST). I have a little Google Doc ready with Highland Village in it for y'all to see (I've had it for a while, just unsure if Drive was the best place to have it), but it's on its own (and the mines are unfinished). It's been a while since I first started talking about these builds, but if anyone's still interested, I'll get a post ready on my Tumblr to have it available!

Fun Facts!:

1.) The moon-shaped mountain in Dawn's Peak is actually natural! Due to its appearance, the desert was originally the site of a small capital in the past (of one of Minecraftia's earliest kingdoms), but the people have long since moved away in search of better living conditions. The village that currently sits in its place is considered as an attempt to rebuild that ancient capital, though, as you can guess, it's not going too well lmao

2.) There is an actual reason why the savanna village had an air of unusual quietness about it, don't you worry lol

Annnnd that's it for now! See you in the next chapter!