Chapter 57: Ill-Intentions
"I mean, the most obvious solution here is to just not try and interfere with whatever they're doing, you know. Since you don't wanna watch the villagers over there get pummeled."
The half-hearted suggestion left Constiere's mouth as his gaze remained fixated on the hidden village down below, arms crossed in front of his chest.
"If I had to take a guess, perhaps the people living in a natural cave system might have some more knowledge regarding the bizarre cave layouts of this area?" Andvari questioned with a hum.
"Better yet, they might have further access down below into the caves we can't seem to access. Best case scenario, our lead on the End portal is finally confirmed as fact." Herobrine added, his lips slightly upturning in a smirk.
"But how are we going to check that if...well, they're ready to fight?" Steve questioned. "They're getting ready to…well, attack now. We don't know if they're gonna talk, and…well, we don't know if they're going to be occupied with whatever they might bring back."
"...And 'whatever' is referring to…?" Herobrine leaned his head a bit toward Steve in somewhat playful anticipation of his response.
"...Anybody captive. If they do that." Steve answered reluctantly, earning a small, satisfied smile from Herobrine in response.
"So you know they're dangerous. Good. As long as that's established, we can proceed however we want." Herobrine said, moving farther away from the edge of the ravine as the rest of the group slowly followed.
As they walked away from the potential viewpoints of the Illagers, Herobrine crossed his arms over his chest, thinking to himself quietly as he stole another glance at the illuminated ravine, a small hum escaping his lips as he came to a conclusion.
"...I don't think meeting them on the warpath will do anything except prompt an unfortunate encounter. As much as I would love for us to get some group training in, I don't think that'd be ideal for the time being. Not until we get our confirmation about the portal, at least."
Constiere raised his hand with an excited grin on his face.
"...After that is free game though, right?"
A bit of nervousness made itself known on Steve's face as Constiere finished, his gaze quickly turning toward his brother as he hoped for a swift and sound "no."
Instead, Herobrine answered him with a shrug, much to Steve's silent dismay.
"Depends. We'll see whether or not they remain adamant about brandishing axes to anyone who stands in their way. We just need to figure out a way for us to get closer without them mistaking us for potential foes."
Steve blinked at the suggestion, a bit of confusion arising in his gaze.
"...Wait, you're going along with this? Fully?"
Herobrine debated whether to actually answer his question for a moment before giving the other a slight shrug.
"...Believe it or not, I think your general curiosity has genuinely started to spread to me. It's rather intriguing why they haven't yet seemed to fully commit to destroying the village, and I think that we have a unique opportunity here to gain some information."
Briefly surprised by the fact that Herobrine had admitted such a thing, Steve blinked at his words.
"...How?"
"How else? Simple eavesdropping, nothing more, nothing less."
While the rest of the group looked at Herobrine with momentary confusion in their eyes at his suggestion, Andvari brought up a claw to his chin in thought.
"...Wouldn't it be best to give this task to our forces? Or better yet, the silverfish alone?"
Herobrine thought about his words for a second before firmly shaking his head.
"As reliable as they are, I believe that we need to have a look at this ourselves. Especially since it's looking like the champions themselves are expected to arrive, if 'all goes well.'" Herobrine paused, his gaze trailing back to the devastated village behind them. "While I'd love to summon the silverfish to monitor them, there's a good chance that with the Illagers' sensitivities to magic, they're already well aware of my presence here, they've felt it once, and depending on how they see that, they might be on even higher alert than usual. If we want to figure out what they know, and to…well, try to limit the potential casualties, I'd say it's better to get as little of us involved as possible."
"Noted, but…if that's the case, where would be the best place to keep an eye on them? Surely not down in the ravine, once they leave to march on that poor village?" Andvari asked.
Herobrine shook his head in response.
"Since the Illagers are planning to march and we're so keen on figuring out why, there's not really any other options we can use for eavesdropping beyond using those old buildings and hoping that we're close enough to hear something."
"Wait, why can't we just hide normally, again? If the ravine's not an option, can't we hide somewhere else besides the one place they're planning on attacking?" Constiere asked.
Herobrine sent a small glare at him, unamused.
"...Hide where?"
Constiere glanced back to the village behind them briefly, a bit of embarrassment appearing on his face as he was met with the sight of a relatively empty desert and mostly flat savannah plains.
"...Right."
Herobrine rolled his eyes before continuing.
"They're more likely to avoid the buildings they've already ravaged; if we pick those buildings to occupy, then at least someone might actually manage to pick something up regarding a plan or a course of action."
"And if that happens, what then?" Steve spoke up, his quiet question bringing the others to a pause. "If we find out why they're attacking the village but not finishing it, what then? How is that going to bring us any closer to figuring out where the portal is? Are we gonna get involved?"
Herobrine raised a slight brow at him.
"...I thought you wanted to figure out what was going on?"
Steve nodded in slight confusion.
"I do, but…what's gonna happen afterward?"
"...Well, once we figure out what they intend to do…" Herobrine trailed off, his voice suddenly losing a bit of its firm, commanding edge. "...We'll have to choose our course of action from there. Depending on their reasoning for launching these attacks, we can decide for ourselves whether or not to directly engage in a conflict with them."
Steve thought over the other's words for a moment before a bit of a teasing smirk began to grow on his face.
"...You don't have an actual plan, do you? You weren't kidding about my curiosity rubbing off on you, huh?"
Herobrine waved him off, beginning to walk away as he ignored the slight bit of quiet laughter that began to rise up behind him.
"I said what I meant. Again, this is a rare, unexplained occurrence, and on the off chance that it leads us closer to our End portal, I want to take any opportunity I can find in order to take that lead."
Steve fought off the urge to roll his eyes before soon after joining Herobrine, along with the others.
"In any case, we shouldn't all be in the same building; when the time comes, let's try to separate and see if we can pick up anything from multiple positions, though I'm guessing that our options are going to be fairly limited." Herobrine instructed, briefly glancing back to the others in order to address them. "They seem to be planning on attacking sometime sooner rather than later. I'd imagine that in order to see if we can get any kind of proper answer for our plight this week at least, we'd need to find a decent place to hide immediately, yes?"
Looking down at the ravine and then back up to find the sky growing more and more fiery by the second, the group gave some quick nods and comments of agreement before moving forward, heading back to the damaged village in a bit of a rush.
As carefully and stealthily as they could, the group managed to make their way inside of the village without causing alarm. While Steve had opted to remain close to Herobrine in fear for his (generally unthreatened due to his condition) life, Andvari had decided to go into a separate building, located on the opposite side of the main village road that they were on. Constiere, on the other hand, had opted to tag along with both Steve and Herobrine, a bit of a smirk growing on his face as he'd argued that he "needed to be properly looked after, right?", though Steve mostly assumed that he was just tagging along for the sake of entertainment.
It was strange, hiding in a village that he knew was about to be raided for the sole purpose of figuring out why. Though his heart certainly bled for the villagers, it was odd, admittingly enough, that he was growing slightly eager to see what would happen. He wanted to avoid seeing bloodshed, of course, but his curiosity was continuing to get the better of him.
For the most part, they'd found temporary "refuge" from the raid within what would be best described as a "halved" building. The front of the building was mostly intact, with a large, somewhat broken window almost perfectly placed for them to view the main street of the village, along with a couple of the large, central desert mountains farther away. To say that there was a "light breeze" coming in from the back was an understatement; the back of the building had been utterly reduced to rubble, though there still existed a wall that struggled to remain upright yet protected them from partial view. Despite the entire lack of a backside, the roof remained somewhat unharmed, leaving a healthy cover of shadow for them to utilize. Herobrine remained standing beside the window, using the shadows to his advantage to remain just out of view against the wall. Both Steve and Constiere found themselves crouching beneath the window itself, hoping that the raiders would simply avoid traveling in from the open back of the building, lest they be spotted.
As Steve peeked over the windowsill a bit in anticipation for the coming attack, one question came to the forefront of his brain: how would the Illagers leave their ravine? The mobs had searched through all of the caves that they could find, but not once did they find a possible entrance. Though he wasn't exactly writing off the possibility of a hidden entrance, it really proved that they were determined to keep their defenses up, if that truly was the case.
Thankfully (though unfortunately enough), he soon found his question being partially answered.
From what appeared to be the side of the mountain that stood by the ravine came a group of five ravagers, all decked out in what seemed to be leather-supported iron armour, with their Illager riders shouting them forward from on top of their saddles. Their heads trashed about wildly as the riders situated upon their backs attempted to regain control, soon directing them toward the village with a couple more shouts. The sight alone caused Steve to momentarily flinch, his gaze looking frantically around the village in search of his own beloved ravager.
"For the record, I do believe that those belong to them, Steven. Squash is elsewhere, in a safe place. They couldn't have possibly taken her, and even if they tried, I don't believe that she'd go down without a fight." Herobrine commented in a whisper, momentarily shocking Steve with the fact that he'd even noticed his brief, silent panic.
"They just…" Steve paused, taking a moment to think before shaking his head. "...I dunno. Already they seem so different from Squash that it's kind of jarring."
He was met with a brief shrug.
"Unfortunately, Steven, not all ravagers are as lovely as Squash happens to be. They're bred for war, remember?" Herobrine said with a light chuckle in his voice.
Steve gave the other a bit of a sigh.
"I know...still kind of shocking to see other ones like her doing…well, that, though."
He nodded his head back over to the Illagers, flinching as they approached the village and immediately started wrecking both old and newly reinforced wooden structures alike, knocking down fence posts, breaking streetlamps, and ruining porches as they made their way through. Though the two golems that were on duty tried to intercept them as they approached, the golems were shortly knocked over onto the ground by the ravagers, with one even managing to get caught up in what appeared to be an Illager's net.
"Her cousins might actually know how to wreak some real havoc, I'm actually excited to watch!" Constiere said with a slightly unsettling grin, his hands gripping his knees as he remained seated beneath the window with a kind of eagerness that almost sent a shiver down Steve's spine.
It had almost left his mind, just barely, the fact that he was traveling with a group that had an unimaginable amount of bloodlust. He'd gotten rather comfortable, even.
Behind the ravagers and their masters came a solid group of Illagers, most carrying sharpened axes (and the occasional iron sword). Though they gave enough space for the ravagers to do their work, in the wake of their destructive march, they went around to various different locked doors, swinging their axes in place of knocking on the solid wood. It wasn't until they came across a fairly intact building, one with a slightly damaged porch, that they started to grow in their intensity. With a few exchanged glances and some quick nods, the rest of the Illagers began to swing their axes at the wood of the porch, decimating it piece by piece as the sounds of shocked villagers came from all angles, though well-hidden enough.
Steve could barely watch. Despite his overwhelming desire to try and dissolve the situation in whatever way was possible (which wasn't a whole lot given the number of people that were currently marching their way through the destroyed village), he remained hidden, watching with bated breath and a troubled conscience as the Illagers continued to march right through the unprepared village, hoping that he wouldn't have to witness an entire massacre.
"Again, I'm certain that they can handle their own problems, if the state of the village has anything to say about their efficacy." Herobrine commented, doing nothing in the slightest to ease Steve's worries.
"I know they can, it's just…" Steve paused, taking a moment to wring out his hands a bit as the Illagers marched forward. "...Look, I'd just like to know why they're doing this, why they're…you know, taking…this, well…"
"Taking their sweet time demolishing the village? Why they're bothering with taking a single porch apart inch-by-inch instead of all at once?"
With a quick, yet uneasy nod, Steve gave him a hum.
"Yeah. That. I want to figure that out just as much as you do. I don't want to watch them do it, that's all."
Herobrine took a moment to ponder his words, his eyes focused forward to the marching group of Illagers before them. A small hum left his lips as he met Steve with a shrug.
"...My simplest guess would be that the villagers have something that they want, but aren't so brazen to take. Something that the villagers have that can only be gained through their relinquishing of it. A taboo artifact, perhaps? Knowledge of a larger target for them to raid? Information in general?"
Steve thought of Herobrine's suggestion in turn for a moment before responding.
"...So you think it's a matter of…what, pride?"
Herobrine shrugged once again.
"More or less. They could easily dominate those villagers, especially with all of Squash's cousins there, but where's the honor and pride in that? I'm assuming we'll see soon enough what they're aiming for, but…even for me, this seems rather…odd."
As Herobrine's authoritative tone faded away as he finished, Steve found himself only able to let out a small hum in response, his gaze turning back to the conflict before them almost hesitantly.
Not soon enough, the Illagers came to a halt, falling behind one particular Illager who had happened to lead the ravager charge through. As she guided her ravager forward, sharpened axe in hand, a small scoff, soon followed by a hearty laugh, escaped her lips as she glanced around the village surrounding them, emerald green eyes flashing with particular frenzy. Her long, black hair was tied back in a messy braid, managing to barely keep the rest of her hair away from her grey-tinted face as she continued forward.
"You all know how this goes by now! Really, we've been more generous than you folks deserve!" Came her somewhat gravelly voice, her ravager huffing as it went about ramming into poorly fixed fences as the rest of the Illagers remained behind.
Before the air could become too overcrowded with the sound of destruction, the sound of a somewhat distant door struggling to open became apparent, along with a somewhat familiar voice for Steve.
"And you know our answer! We're not giving up! The champions are going to come soon enough, and you'll get wiped off this side of the realm!"
Cautiously, Steve moved his head closer to the right corner of the window in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the other woman who had spoken, soon enough finding the appearance of the woman who had originally met him when he'd entered the village. As she yelled out to the Illagers, she kept hidden behind the door of the building she'd apparently retreated to, only daring to just barely peek out from behind the shield of semi-broken wood.
The Illager at the front of the herd grabbed the reins of her ravager, pulling back harshly as she brought the creature to a halt.
"Oh really? You're really just gonna hand the champions our relics just like that, huh? So soon you'll go and betray The Chosen, huh?!" The head Illager swung her axe, taking out a nearby lamppost with hardly any effort.
A small, quiet chuckle came to Steve's ears as he found his attention being momentarily grabbed by Herobrine, his brother obviously amused by the situation playing out before them.
"Our relics? The Chosen?" Herobrine whispered with a bit of a smirk, leaning forward a bit to gain a better viewpoint of the encounter. "Sounds like you weren't told the full truth, Steven."
"I don't think that's enough to make a full conclusion!" Steve whispered back harshly, earning a dismissive wave from the other in response.
"It's enough to raise suspicion."
Before Steve could respond in turn, the conversation outside continued with added frustration.
"-The Chosen betrayed us first! It's taken so long to get our connection to the kingdom back, and that's without his help!" The villager woman responded, taking a moment to bang her fist against the door for emphasis. "When the champions come-"
"-Cut yer crap, Ileana! We already have a champion! We had a champion, and he told us to keep outsiders outside and away from the relics! To hell with trade! To hell with Lunarus! Our duty is set! We can't fail-"
"-And when will we get paid for our service, Iluz?!" 'Ileana' interjected. "When will we be able to fill our tables, to earn our place in the realm? Lunarus abandons blighted villages like our own, but without the villages around it, how will ours stand?! Our crops cannot withstand the heat, the ill magic that you dare to protect corrupts whatever's left along with our animals, and without trade, we cannot hope to remain here much longer! When will 'our' champion come back to save us?!"
"How soon do you forget! Those who protect the land don't live the way that the other villages do! You can't rely on Overworldian supplies, on their trade! Forget Lunarus! Forget their collaborators!"
"Those who protect the land?" Steve whispered, looking to the other two for an answer.
"Soldiers of some kind?" Constiere questioned, breaking Steve's gaze and glancing up to Herobrine.
"Guardians." Herobrine stated with a bit of finality in his voice. "Guardians of…something that qualifies as 'relics' of some sort…Promising."
"When Lunarus is the one offering to keep us alive, it's fairly hard to ignore them!"
"You think they want you alive?!" Iluz let out a laugh of disbelief. "The only reason why Lunarus might even consider sending one, let alone a group of their attack dogs this way is because they know what we have! They know we'll fight for it too! You're just a gateway to them; once you let them in through the village's defenses and they find what they're looking for, they'll just slaughter you and everyone else who was stupid enough to trust them! Our magic and our knowledge are taboo; they don't want us around, regardless of whether or not you're actively practicing!"
"You don't know what the hell you're talking about!" Ileana shouted back. "Go and destroy your homes all you want; I'm not rescinding the call to arms, and I'm sure as hell not going to watch you ruin everything for yourselves! Have fun ruining your own lives!"
At that exchange, their eyes widened in response to the information, glances being quickly exchanged as they took note of the information.
A chuckle escaped Iluz as another swing of her axe took down the rest of a nearby lamppost.
"Funny. You balk at the idea of participating in the old ways, using the magic gifted to us, but you have no problem with allowing strangers to take advantage of it themselves. You lot!" She turned to glance at the raiders behind her. "Finish up your rounds for the day. Take a straggler or two, we're taking back three buildings today. Make sure their dear champions know what they're messing with!"
With that, a war shout rang through the air as the raiders continued their assault, the ravagers charging ahead as those on foot continued to swing at the buildings around. The sounds of a few off-guard screams came to their ears as well, but before Steve could even think of moving to do anything in response, a smaller hand on his shoulder held him down with a strong grip, leading him to briefly turn to find Constiere glancing at him with an amused smile and a shake of the head.
"Hiding, remember?"
Steve let out a harsh sigh of frustration, hanging his head in response.
"I know."
"Both of you would do well to remember that a bit more. Silence." Herobrine reprimanded.
Before long, the sounds of destruction came to a gradual halt, the raiders finishing up with their buildings before gathering around Iluz once again.
"I think we've really outdone ourselves this time, guys! Take those two and let's head our way out!" As Iluz spoke, she pointed over to a couple of villagers who had been tied up, their bodies each hanging over one of the ravagers as they struggled fruitlessly to escape. Though they squirmed around attempting to fall off somehow, they were kept in place by the riders beside them grabbing the backs of their shirts firmly, holding them steady as they turned to ride away.
Before they could even let out a sigh of relief at the Illagers' retreat, a single pound of the wall drew their attention, causing them to remain quiet and still at the loud noise.
"Eavesdroppers usually get what's coming to them, but I feel a certain kind of pull that's not that different from the tug of the Nether. The maw-shaped cave, an hour past nightfall." Came Iluz's lowered tone, a bit of a chuckle leaving her lips as she walked away from their hiding spot.
Steve sent a bewildered expression Herobrine's way as the man in question sent him a smirk, clear excitement rolling off of him in waves. As soon as the Illager went out of earshot, Herobrine lowered himself a bit as he whispered to Steve.
"Looks like we've somehow secured a meeting. Let's wait for things to die down before we acquaint ourselves with the rest of the local population. Of course, don't let your guard down, either of you."
Nodding, Steve let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding, listening carefully for the sounds of a stunned village.
Hi y'all! Did not mean to take such another long break again, but writer's block keeps slapping me across the face. It's taking a bit to get past that initial lack of motivation that comes with switching from academic stuff to more fun stuff, but I'm able to make more time now! I got accepted into Grad. School, and I've already started working (teaching as a College Instructor/Professor!) and studying again, but I'm getting a hold of my schedule! Also, getting distracted by catching up on my to play/watch list sidetracked me quite a bit this summer too. I finally received my copy of Baldur's Gate 3, and I'm now obsessed with it lmao I'm on playthrough #4. I will probably be continuing to do this as I'm also distracted by real-life events. Shorter chapter just to get back into the hang of things, but I'm trying to work things out as best I can!
Lots of Minecraft news recently! The movie looks uh…yeah! I still can't get through the trailer I feel physical pain lmao. I'll probably go see the movie regardless, but…ehhhhhhhh T_T At least the hostile mobs look pretty cool!
So anyways! We're getting introduced to the Illagers and Villagers of Dawn's Peak! I keep mentioning the different worlds I've built throughout the creation of this story, and again, this area was one of them. The initial meeting between the gang and the Illagers was actually one of the small batch scenes that I first wrote when I started planning this fic out, believe it or not! Obviously there were some changes from that original draft, and some things that I'm definitely still revising, but this part of the story is one I've been waiting to get into for a while now lol. I've already dabbled in underground cities and whatever, but I love the concept of a ravine base!
Fun facts!:
1.) While Ileana last chapter said that the village got established a "few months ago," in all actuality, that's when the village basically split in two. The population has been there for ages!
2.) Rumour has it that the original denizens of this desert were descendants of the divines (demigods in particular), but at some point in time, they'd left and headed their way to the Kingdom of Lunarus for more support. The people they left behind continued their legacy within the village, supposedly, but whether or not the people are aware of their roots remains to be determined.
3.) The villagers were already fairly fractured before the whole champion business ramped up, but it certainly didn't help things lol
See y'all eventually!
