It was a normal day in Minecraftia. All over the world, people were doing their daily business. Everyone had something to do, a place to go. Some people were busy chopping down trees, providing wood for their villages. Others were building mighty structures – new homes, farms, castles. Even more people were travelling all over the world, seeking new places to go, new things to do. The list of jobs was endless.

In a small village, Runnel was checking over his inventory one last time. He was a traveller, searching for the fabled Mushroom biome, where food was plentiful and mobs were few. Although the day was ruled by humans, the night-time was a completely different world. The mobs came out from their hiding places, roaming the lands while people slept in their beds. The two had no ill will between each other, but they preferred to stick to themselves, and it worked well that way.

However, in the Mushroom biome, there were only peaceful mooshrooms: cows with glitches in their code, leading to mushrooms growing on their backs. They provided infinite mushroom stew, an easy source of food, so it was every human’s wish to find one.

Run was about to leave when he heard a strange sound. It was like a gentle hum, so deep it was almost inaudible. He checked the furnaces, brewing stand, enchanting table… yet none of them was the cause of the strange noise. He stepped outside, pushing past the small crowd that had already gathered outside, and what he saw made them gape in shock.

In the centre of the town square, just in front of the fountain, was a shimmering, translucent rectangle. It was made of a swirling, ethereal substance, glowing as bright as the sun and blue as the sky. A memory flashed into Run’s mind. He had seen this before, but where? At once, he remembered. “A new human is spawning!” he shouted.

A murmur of surprise rippled through the crowd. A new human? The last time someone had joined their village was hundreds of years ago. They were a fairly small community, consisting of only nine humans. However, since they were fairly isolated, danger didn’t often strike. They were well acquainted with the mobs around these parts, and were allies with all the villages within a hundred thousand chunks; not that there were that many villages close by anyway.

Only a couple of people could remember the last time a human had spawned. Run could still remember it clearly. It had been a rainy, moonlit night, and he had been sleeping happily, until he was awoken by a bright light shining in through the window. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he went to investigate, and what he saw was exactly the same as what he was seeing now. That was the day Halberk joined their community.

However, as the spawner rippled and hummed, Run could see that something was wrong. It seemed to be struggling to spawn the new human somehow. Suddenly, with a sucking sound, an arm reached out of the spawner, causing the crowd to gasp in shock. There was another arm, and a leg, and the human stepped forward to reveal his face.

Although he didn’t have a single hair on his head, he possessed a fine black beard that made up for it, and deep black eyes. His shirt was slightly torn, but his trousers and shoes seemed smart and unscratched. As he staggered out of the spawner, the village saw his name for the first time, floating above his head: Notch.

However, the spawner didn’t fade away like last time. It kept on humming, and at once, another arm appeared from the spawner. The whole village gasped again. Two humans from one spawner? Not one of them had ever heard of this happening before.

This human took a lot longer to spawn. It must have been nearly a hundred ticks since the first appearance before another limb finally appeared. The newly revealed leg strained to push the human forward, and after what seemed like another thousand ticks, the village finally saw the human’s face.

His eyes were a startling blue, and he was clean-shaven with brown hair. He wore a green top and jeans. Run squinted to see his name. Herobrine.

The village waited expectantly for someone else to tumble from the spawner. However, nothing happened, and as the humming died down, the spawner slowly faded away. Notch and Herobrine sat on the ground, breathing heavily. Run rushed forward to help.

“Are you all right?” Run asked. Herobrine looked at him, confused. Run remembered that these humans had only just spawned. He wasn’t sure if they even understood him. After a moment, Herobrine looked away again. It was clear that he had no idea what was going on.

Notch seemed to be adjusting slightly better. A couple of other people hesitantly stepped forward to lend him a hand, and Notch gratefully accepted their help, getting to his feet. Run held out a hand to Herobrine, and after what seemed like an eternity, the newcomer took it. Soon the two of them were standing side by side.

Everyone shuffled around anxiously. Nobody knew what to do next. Then the crowd parted to let the village leader, Core, approach the strangers. He smiled at them. They just stared. Still smiling, Core turned to face the expectant village.

“People of Excalibur,” Core began. “It is our duty to take care of these two humans that have come to us today. Chaff and Jan, get building a new home for our new friends to live in. May, Drop, you go mining to provide the builders with building materials. Runnel, Five, Halberk and Khet, look after these two for a bit.”

Run looked at the two strangers, and they simply kept on holding the same blank expression. Then they smiled, and Run felt a smile spreading across his own face. These two were going to fit right in.

~o~O~o~

“Remember, it’s important to light up where you go,” May told Herobrine, mining a vein of redstone. “Torches mark your territory. The mobs won’t wake up when there are torches around, and you don’t want anyone to be interrupting your mining, do you?”

Herobrine shook his head. After his initial arrival, he had picked things up pretty quickly. He already knew the language, despite his silence earlier. He had just been a little surprised. Although he still wasn’t confident enough to talk yet, he was happy to make basic gestures.

He studied May as she mined. She was an attractive young girl, wearing a pair of white and pink headphones over her waist-length brown hair. She also wore a small heart-shaped pendant that almost seemed to glow. She looked at Herobrine with her large brown eyes and smiled.

As the duo explored the cave further, Herobrine made sure to place down a torch every few steps. May had given him the responsibility of lighting up their way, and Herobrine made sure to honour that duty as well as he could. No mobs were going to venture where they went.

Herobrine wondered how his brother was getting on. After Core had finally managed to coax a response out of the duo, he had split them up so that they could see how mining worked, and hopefully find a job in the village. Notch had gone with Drop, while May had taken Herobrine. However, Herobrine didn’t really feel like mining was his thing. It felt too… monotonous. He wanted something that was full of action.

“Catch,” May said, tossing Herobrine an iron pick. He managed not to get his hand cut open, and looked enviously at May’s diamond pick. She laughed. “Don’t worry. They’re literally exactly the same, except you can’t mine obsidian. We don’t need to worry about that now, though. Try it out on that vein of iron over there.”

The pick was heavy in his hand as Herobrine turned it over, inspecting it carefully. He cautiously approached the vein of iron, and hesitantly hit the iron with the pick. A small crack appeared. Herobrine kept on hitting, and the iron came away easily, falling into his inventory. “That’s it!” May encouraged. Soon the whole vein was mined out.

“Well done,” May smiled. She paused for a moment. “Okay. My inventory’s almost full, so I think we should head back now. Let’s go.”

They followed the trail of torches, all the way back to the surface. The sunlight hurt Herobrine’s eyes after so long in the dark mines. He followed May back to the village, where Core was waiting for them.

“There you are. I was waiting for you,” Core smiled. “Notch has already gone off with Chaff. Jan here will show you how to build.”

Herobrine stared at Jan, and Jan stared back with his strange purple eyes. He had pitch-black skin and wore a black suit. However, Herobrine could tell that underneath his closed exterior, Jan was a softie underneath. He knew that the two of them would get along well together.

~o~O~o~

“Pass the crafting table.”

Notch obligingly put the crafting table on the ground. Chaff thanked him, and laid out some wooden planks on the crafting square.

Chaff was… well, Notch wasn’t exactly sure what he was. He looked like a cross between a bunny and a cat. His fur was as white as snow, and his eyes blue as ice. The only clothing he had on was a pair of green boxers.

“There we go. Some stairs to make the roof,” Chaff said. He laughed at Notch’s confused look. “Yeah, I know. Roof stairs sounds a bit weird. Looks nice, though.”

Notch watched as Chaff kept on placing the stairs, talking all the while. “I’ve built a lot of homes in my time. It doesn’t matter how big, how small, I always put stairs as the roof. It works so well. That’s how you know if a building is made by me. Look around this village. The good ones are the ones with stairs as the roof. The bad ones don’t have stairs. Those ones are made by Jan. He’s good at interiors, but he sucks at exteriors. That’s because he doesn’t know my secret. Stairs on the roof make everything better.”

Notch slowly tuned out of Chaff’s ramblings. His eyes drifted over to where Herobrine and Jan were building. He smiled as he watched Herobrine fall off the wall, and Jan reach down to help him up. He wasn’t sure who this Herobrine person was, but he liked him. When they had spawned, it had felt like they had some sort of connection. But was there a connection between these two vastly different people? And even if there was, what did that connection mean?

He turned away when he heard his name being called. “Try building some yourself, now that you’ve seen how a pro does it!” Chaff said, passing him some wood and cobblestone, as well as a few blocks of glass. “Of course, you won’t be as good as me. You only know one of my secrets to building a great house. I’ve had years of practice, during which I’ve gathered plenty of professional techniques. The stairs as the roof is just one of thoooooly crap.”

Notch stopped building for a second to see Chaff’s dumbfounded expression. The look on his face was priceless. Notch didn’t see what all the fuss was about – until he saw what he had built.

The other buildings paled in comparison to his. It was a huge mansion, made solely out of wooden blocks, planks and cobblestone. “How did you even…” Chaff gaped. Notch shrugged. He had just built whatever had come into his head. He saw Herobrine staring at the mansion and he fell off his building yet again. Herobrine’s strong point was clearly not the same as Notch’s.

Notch felt a hand poke him in the back, and he turned to see Herobrine. Although he didn’t say a word, it was clear as day what he was asking. Herobrine wouldn’t be able to live a single tick in the meagre attempt at a house he had built. He needed somewhere to go, and Notch could help him with that. Slowly, he nodded. Herobrine smiled gratefully, and hugged his brother. Brother. That was the word he was looking for. They were brothers.

~o~O~o~

Herobrine held the heavy sword in his hand. It was expertly crafted, and very, very sharp. Halberk had told him that it was made of pure diamond, and had to be handled extremely carefully.  One false move could end his life. Although Notch had found his strength, Herobrine still didn’t know what he was good at. Core had instructed Hal to help him try his hand at PVP. Hal checked Herobrine’s stance one last time.

“Bend your knees a bit,” Hal ordered. “No, not that much. A little less… perfect. Now, try slicing the air a couple of times.”

Herobrine slashed the sword through the air, wielding it with both hands. It didn’t go as fast as he wanted it to. He tried again, holding it with one hand this time. It felt much more natural, and he quickly got the hang of it.

“Great. Now try and crack that watermelon,” Hal said, pointing towards a large melon growing nearby. Raising his sword, Herobrine rushed towards it. With all his might, he swung the sword down hard, and with a splintering crack the melon split neatly in two.

Herobrine looked to Hal for a reaction, but he seemed too stunned to speak. “Wow. That’s some… power you’ve got there,” he eventually managed to say. Herobrine didn’t have to be told to know that Hal was clearly impressed. Herobrine smiled. Maybe this was his special strength.

“Okay. Let’s try using a bow and arrow now,” Hal said, throwing a bow to Herobrine. He stuck the sword in the ground and expertly caught the bow with one hand. Hal handed Herobrine some arrows, and without being asked, he notched an arrow in the bow. “Right. Now try shooting that other melon.”

Herobrine focused on the watermelon and smiled confidently. He drew back the bow as far as he could, narrowing his eyes. Then he released the string. The arrow sped towards the melon and with another crack, the melon burst into pieces. Herobrine looked at Hal expectantly.

“That’s… incredible,” Hal breathed. “The power. The accuracy. It’s just… incredible. You’re incredible.”

Herobrine smiled. He had found it. This was where he belonged.

~o~O~o~

The zombies growled in the moonlight as Notch lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He was exhausted. For the rest of the day he had been doing nothing but building. Although Chaff still insisted his building skills were better, Jan had admitted defeat and let Notch improve the current housing system. Eventually Chaff had reluctantly let him renovate his house. However, all that building had left him completely drained of all energy.

He could hear his brother snoring in the room next to his. After Herobrine had discovered his skill at PVP, he had been practicing over and over again until he had fallen to the ground, too tired to continue. Halberk and Khet had carried him to his bed, where he now lay, snoring just loud enough to keep Notch awake.

Notch looked out of the window. He could see the mobs outside, wandering about and making inhuman noises. Why couldn’t he be out there? The day wasn’t long enough to do anything in. He had barely managed to finish all the houses. But if he could build during the night, there would be much less strain, and he could take his time…

He sighed. He was too weary to be thinking about this at this time at night. Closing his eyes, Notch slowly lulled himself to sleep.