“Notch! Notch!” Herobrine screamed, frantically looking for an escape route out of the blazing inferno. He looked out of the window and saw the chaos going on below. That was one way out, but the ground looked distant. He would die if he jumped from this height.

Suddenly the door burst open, revealing a girl by the name of Sly. “Found him!” she shouted, and Herobrine heard more footsteps thundering up the stairs. Sly smirked and started approaching Herobrine. He whipped out his sword, trembling, but Sly was unfazed. She backed him up against the window, taking out a sword of her own. Another person burst through the door: a bow-wielding pig hybrid called Epic. However, before they could attack him, Herobrine smashed his sword through the window – and fell.

He was still screaming when he hit the ground. Struggling to his feet, Herobrine realised that he had just about survived the fall with half a heart. Picking up his sword, which had fallen a few blocks away, he looked back up to his bedroom. A bow was pointed straight at him. The danger wasn’t over yet.

Herobrine started running. The arrow hit just a fraction of a block behind him. He needed to heal up. As he ran, he ate a golden apple Hal had given him yesterday. The arrows were still coming thick and fast, but Herobrine ignored the pain. Where was his brother?

When he turned a corner, he saw his brother being teamed up on by two people. He was being teamed up on by a guy called Rouge and a girl called Mack. Notch didn’t stand a chance… unless his brother intervened.

As he ran towards them, he readied his sword. Remembering the skills Hal had taught him, he attacked the two of them by surprise. Although they tried to fight back, Herobrine wasn’t even scratched. The sword felt like a part of him now, and besides, he could tell that these two weren’t used to fighting. Soon enough, they had turned tail and fled. Herobrine didn’t bother chasing them down. All that mattered now was his brother,

“Are you okay?” Herobrine whispered, taking Notch’s hand and helping him to his feet.

“I’ll be fine,” Notch smiled weakly. He looked at Herobrine gratefully. “Thanks.”

“Take this,” Herobrine instructed, passing a potion of healing to his brother. He could hear more people were coming. “I need to go. Can you take care of yourself?”

“Of course,” Notch said quickly. “Run!”

Herobrine didn’t budge. He knew his brother was underestimating him. Three people were heading towards him, the two from before and another girl called Fae. He could take on these new foes in an instant. As they ran towards him, Herobrine readied his stance. He decided to pretend he didn’t have a sword, looking like he was fighting with his fists.

“Look out! He’s got a Sharpness V diamond sword!” Fae yelled. How did she know? Then Herobrine spotted the strange device she was wearing over her left eye. That must be it. He had to smash it. Summoning his courage, Herobrine made a beeline towards her.

“Stop!” Notch yelled, but Herobrine didn’t listen. Raising his sword over his shoulder, he got ready to slice Fae into tiny pieces. However, just before he reached her, he hit something. There was only air, and yet it still felt like he had just ran into a brick wall. Herobrine started panicking when his feet lifted off the ground. A strange purple bubble started forming around him, and Herobrine noticed Fae’s single visible eye glowing a bright purple. One arm was held in front of her, which had a mystical purple aura surrounding it. What was going on?

“She’s an enderchild!” a voice cried. Somehow Herobrine managed to force himself to turn around, and saw Hal lying on the floor, desperately trying to fight off a guy named E with just his fists. “You have to–”

E punched Hal in the stomach, and Hal was cut off as he gasped for breath. Herobrine looked back at Fae fearfully. A slow smile crept across her face. An enderchild? What was that supposed to mean? She had him helpless in her grasp. It was difficult to move, difficult to breathe. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed his brother running away, and he smiled sadly. At least he would be safe.

“Agh!” Fae screamed suddenly, an inhuman, almost animal-like scream. Her eye flickered briefly, and then she disappeared completely. The bubble vanished, and Herobrine flinched as gravity slammed him against the ground again. Head spinning, he stood up, and saw that someone had taken Fae’s place. It was Khet, his face deadly serious. In his hand was an iron sword.

“What’s an enderchild?” Herobrine whispered.

“When a human spawns, there is a chance that their code is corrupted,” Khet explained quickly. “Usually the corrupted part doesn’t do much, but sometimes it can be extremely severe. One example of this is the enderchild phenomenon.”

“So what else can they do, besides levitation?” Herobrine asked, even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“I don’t know much, but what I do know is that they can also teleport, which is what you just saw,” Khet told him. “They also have infinite health.”

“What!? So you can’t kill them?”

Khet shook his head. “There’s one disadvantage of being an enderchild, though: the inability to break blocks. For some reason enderchildren can only pick up certain blocks and place them down again in different places. So the best way of dealing with them would be to trap them in some sort of cage.”

“If you didn’t save me… would I still be trapped?”

“…Yes. Once an enderchild has you in their power, there is nothing you can do to stop them apart from hope that either the enderchild gets bored, which is highly unlikely, or that someone else with attack them for you. Look, we can’t waste our time. People are dying.”

Herobrine watched as Khet sprinted away, only stopping to give E a quick stab and help Hal regain his senses. The two of them ran off to fight more people. Herobrine turned around and came face-to-face with a guy called Tiger. “Enjoyed your little conversation?” Tiger hissed. “You took your time.”

“I… why didn’t you attack me earlier?” Herobrine stuttered, instinctively taking out his sword. Tiger smirked.

“I’m not as uncivilised as some people. I have respect for people’s conversations,” Tiger said. “Although I was nearly losing my patience with this one. You took forever. You’d better get ready to fight.”

“You’d better get ready to die!” Herobrine screamed, getting over his initial shock. He ran at Tiger, holding his sword up high. However, he was stopped by something even stronger than his diamond sword. Tiger had blocked the sword with a single paw. “W-wha?”

“These beauties here will make sure I won’t get a single scratch on me,” Tiger laughed, holding up his paw. This time, Herobrine could see the long, razor-sharp claws embedded in it. “And they’ll also make sure that I’ll get a lot of scratches on you!”

Herobrine felt a searing pain in his cheek, and realised that Tiger was a lot faster than he looked. He had to step up his game if he was going to win this fight. He wasn’t nervous, though. The thrill of the fight kept him smiling. This was it. This time he would prove that he was stronger than he looked. He had stunned Hal with his raw talent, and he would stun this guy with his skill as well.

Tiger aimed another blow at Herobrine, but although he was fast, Herobrine was faster. He blocked the attack and felt a blow to his stomach. Tiger had kicked him. “I don’t just rely on my claws. I have four limbs, and I aim to use every single one of them.”

“Well I won’t give you an opportunity to!” Herobrine said between gritted teeth, and swung the flat of the sword at Tiger’s feet. The full force of the heavy sword was enough to make him fall to the floor, and Herobrine relished the look of surprise on his face. Without wasting a single moment, he took one of Tiger’s feet, and threw him into the burning wall of a nearby house. Tiger’s fur started to singe, and he sat slumped against the wall, dazed. Herobrine drove his sword into the wall above him and brought his face close to Tiger’s.

“Look, Tiger, we all know who’s the better fighter here,” he said under his breath. “Why don’t you quit trying to outsmart me and just give up?”

Tiger smiled confidently despite his wounds. “You really think that? Well how can you fight me when –” suddenly Tiger disappeared, and Herobrine whipped around to see him standing a little way behind him – “you don’t even know where I am?”

“How did you–”

“Ender pearls,” Tiger said simply. “Living with an enderchild has its benefits. Good luck catching me.”

“No!” Herobrine cried angrily. He charged at Tiger, and before he could teleport away, Herobrine drove his sword deep into Tiger’s stomach. As the ender pearl landed, he disappeared once more, but Herobrine could tell that he was weak. He ran at him once more, and Tiger was only just able to block his attack. He was definitely really weak now, but he still looked determined.

“I won’t go down… without a fight!” Tiger roared, and slashed at Herobrine with a newfound energy. He landed multiple kicks on Herobrine, and although Herobrine hit him a couple of times, Tiger was doing surprisingly well. “You’re going down!”

“In history!” Herobrine shouted, slicing at Tiger. “Thanks for going easy on me, Kitten!”

Then Herobrine plunged his sword into Tiger’s neck, and the last glimmer of life faded from his eyes. As the code faded away, Tiger’s items sprayed onto the ground like a colourful, mismatched fountain. Breathing heavily, Herobrine looked at all the different items before him. The reality of it struck him. He had just killed another man. Tiger would never see the light of day ever again.

What had he done?

~o~O~o~

“Where is he? Can you see him?”

“Stop asking, I’m looking!”

Notch held his breath as the muffled conversation took place over his head. He was sitting curled up in a one-block space with only a single torch to light up the tiny hole. As the footsteps passed right over him he let out a sigh. He couldn’t stay trapped here forever. He needed to help.

He broke of the hole when the coast was clear, and what he saw made his jaw drop.

His houses, his wonderful houses that he had worked so tirelessly on, were being devoured by bright, ravaging flames. One person called Garnet was running round frantically, wielding fire with her fists. “Keep going, Clypsia!” Garnet yelled, and a blue-eyed white wolf ran past, holding a flint and steel. It had taken him forever to make them, and yet it only took moments for the fire to take hold.

“Stop!” Notch cried without thinking. Garnet and Clypsia stopped running and stared at him. Notch gulped.

“Kill him,” Garnet ordered, and the two of them ran towards Notch, getting out iron swords. Notch did the only thing he knew how to do. He ran.

“There he is!” came another voice. Fae joined in the chase. “Boo, hurry up!”

“Coming!” Boo yelled, a blonde-haired girl with mismatched eyes. Epic ran behind her, holding his bow as usual. The arrow hit Notch in the foot, but he limped forward, not giving up.

Suddenly Boo was right beside him. She smiled at Notch innocently before slashing him with her diamond sword, forcing Notch to drink another potion of healing. He didn’t have many left. “Stop trying,” she laughed casually.

“Help,” he tried to yell, but it came out as nothing more than a whimper. His voice was thick with desperation and fear. He couldn’t keep on going like this for much longer. There were too many people behind him. Taking a deep breath, he shouted again. “Help!”

Notch was almost deafened by a loud, deep boom. At once, Herobrine was standing between Notch and the attackers, who were rooted to the ground. A smouldering crater surrounded him. Notch shrank back in fear when he saw Herobrine’s glowing white eyes. “Another enderchild?” he whispered to himself.

“You do not belong in this place,” Herobrine said. Although his voice was quiet, Notch could hear it clearly, like a bell. “Now go.”

Abruptly the sun vanished, and the sky changed to a dark, blood-red colour. A bolt of lightning came down from above, striking the five terrified attackers. More lightning bolts came raining down, until all that remained of the plucky warriors were a few items, lying on the ground. Fae was nowhere to be seen. Herobrine collapsed on the ground, and the sky returned to normal like nothing had ever happened.

“What happened?” Notch asked, rushing to his brother’s side. Herobrine’s eyes fluttered open, and Notch was relieved to see that his eyes were back to normal. A small crowd gathered around them, composed of both friends and foes. “Does anyone know what just happened?” Notch asked, scared.

Khet stepped forward and bent down to stroke Herobrine’s face. “That’s something I’ve never seen before,” he said softly.

Notch looked at Herobrine, both worried and frightened of his brother. “I hope you’ll be all right,” he whispered.

~o~O~o~

Herobrine walked along the new village pavement, admiring the new houses that adorned the streets. Notch had worked hard to rebuild the village, and this time the houses looked even grander than before. However, he wasn’t even looking at them right now. He slipped through the village doors, searching the nearby woods for survivors for the third day in a row.

However, this time, he could hear something other than the rustling of leaves and hissing of spiders. Herobrine stood still and listened attentively. He could hear it properly now: the sound of someone crying. He upped his speed, rushing through the undergrowth and searching for the source of the sound. Then he saw him. A man who looked just like him was sitting underneath a tree, sobbing quietly. He was thin, hungry. When he caught sight of Herobrine, he instinctively covered his face with his hands. “Please don’t hurt me. I only spawned a few days ago. I don’t know anything,” he whimpered.

“So did I,” Herobrine said suspiciously. “Exactly five days ago.”

“Same here!” the man gasped. Herobrine wasn’t taking it.

“How do I know you’re not going to kill me in my sleep?”

The man took a deep breath. “You can’t. I’m just a runaway from Musket who can’t even fight for his village because he’s too scared. I can’t go back to Musket, and Excalibur would simply turn me away, or maybe even kill me. So I’ve been living in the woods for the past couple of days, living on grass and whatever else I can find, and that’s probably how I’m going to live for the rest of my life.”

“You won’t,” Herobrine said gently, and the man stopped crying. He smiled. “My name’s Herobrine. What’s yours?”

The man hesitated for a moment. Then a broad smile crossed his tear-streaked face, and he shook Herobrine’s hand. “I’m Steve.”