Jesse was sitting against the wall, with her knees pulled up to her chest when Lukas came back into the small cave. She had her head resting on her knees, her eyes closed.

"Hey." He said softly, sitting down beside her again.

Jesse opened her eyes, looking up at him. Relief flooded her face, and she smiled. But then her expression sank slightly again.

"No luck?" She asked softly.

Lukas shook his head. "No. It's Netherrack, gravel and lava for as far as I can see. No sign of the portal or the others."

Jesse sighed, laying her head back down on her knees. She clenched her fists to stop her hands from shaking.

"What do we do now?"

"I don't know." Lukas admitted, leaning back again the reddish stone wall. "We need to get out of here, but the Nether is absolutely gigantic... I don't even think it has an end, does it? We could be anywhere."

Jesse nodded, closing her eyes again. She knew Lukas was right. They couldn't stay long in there. All they had on them were their weapons and basic tools. They had no food, no water. If they didn't get out soon, they most certainly wouldn't make it.

The two of the them sat in silence for a few more seconds. Jesse opened her eyes again, looking over at Lukas. He was staring out in front of them, focusing his gaze on the Netherrack wall opposite them.

You need to snap out of this, Jesse. You're the leader of the Order. It's not Lukas's job to look out for the both of you on his own, don't make yourself his responsibility. She scolded herself.

Taking a deep breath, Jesse sat properly upright. Lukas looked in her direction, when she moved.

"We need a plan." Jesse said firmly. "We can't stay in here for long."

"Believe me, I know that." Lukas said, leaning back against the cave wall again. "But right now, I'm out of options."

"I know, me too, but we can't just sit here." Jesse insisted. "If we do, we're going to die."

She stood up, holding out a hand to Lukas. "Come on. Between the two of us, we'll get something done."

"Are you sure you're up for that?" Lukas asked gently, as he allowed Jesse to help him to his feet.

Jesse gritted her teeth, almost ashamed at how... helpless she had made herself out to be. She wasn't about to let a fear, created by a mere dream, bring her down."

"I'm fine, I promise." She said. "We're not going to be, if we don't get out of here."

Lukas looked like he was going to say something, but then just nodded in agreement. The two left the cave in silence.

"We need to be careful not to loose the location of this cave." Jesse said, as she scanned the surroundings. "It's a good place to hide out."

Lukas nodded in agreement, once again not saying anything. Jesse turned back to continue surveying their surroundings.

"It's a terrible Nether spawn." Lukas voiced her exact thoughts.

It was an awful place for entering the Nether. Sheer cliffs and rocks led up to their cave, which was positioned right on top of a drop off. The only way to get to the entrance and back, was a small ledge, that was just about large enough for Jesse to fit both her feet on.

Beneath them were a variety of rivers, filled with bubbling lava. Smoke rose from the rivers, making it even harder to breathe.

"Is this the only way to get off here?" Jesse asked, gesturing to the tiny ledge.

"I'm afraid so." Lukas said, raking a hand through his hair. "It's not very safe, but at least it's sturdy. I've used it twice now."

Jesse nodded. "Let's expand it with some Netherrack." She decided. "Then we'll at least be able to move back quicker, if we need to."

It didn't take too long for Jesse and Lukas to collect some Netherrack, laying out a broader path to their cave. While it burned some energy, entering and exiting the cave was no longer a risk.

Jesse leaned down on her pickaxe, a droplet of sweat running down the side of her face. She watched as it dripped onto the Netherrack, and evaporated before a full second could pass.

"I wish we had some water at least." Lukas said, as he attached his pickaxe back to his belt.

"Me too." Jesse said, as she did the same. "Without water, we're not going to make it for very long, even with a shelter."

She pushed herself upright again, looking around at the surroundings. It was a very cave-like area of the nether, large Netherrack stalactites hanging down from the roof.

There were many different pathways that lead in and out of the more open-spaced Nether, all going in completely different directions.

Just the thought of having to explore through them all to find a possible route home, made Jesse's hopes sink into her boots.

"Where will we go first?" She asked, turning back to look at Lukas who was sitting with his back against the Netherrack wall.

"I don't know." He admitted, before looking up at her in concern. "Come sit down, Jesse."

Jesse just shook her head, returning to glance at the intricate Nether system that awaited them.

"Jesse, sit down." Lukas insisted, holding out his hand towards her. "You need to rest as well."

Jesse groaned and lowered herself to the ground beside Lukas. She knew he was right. After doing labour like building the ledge, they needed a bit to rest. Pushing onwards would only increase the chance of suffering from dehydration.

Jesse leaned her head onto her knees, breathing in deeply. She was glad Lukas convinced her to sit down. Now that the pressure was off her legs, she felt almost slightly light-headed.

"How long have we been in here?" She asked Lukas softly, not lifting her head off her knees.

Lukas shuffled beside her as he checked his watch. He let out a sigh before speaking.

"It may not feel that way, but we've been in here for 62 minutes now."

"You could've just said an hour." Jesse pointed out with a faint chuckle.

She couldn't believe it's only been one hour, when she already felt like she's been in an oven for days.

"I like to be precise." Lukas joked back weakly.

Jesse opened her mouth to reply, when a shadow fell across her. She glanced up, and immediately it felt like her heart stopped beating.

Staring down at her was a pig man, grunting and snorting in an unnatural way. It's eyes were bulging, it's pink skin rotting away to reveal it's ribs.

Almost immediately, Jesse's relaxed attitude turned around completely.

She felt her hands starting to tremble slightly. Memories of her awful dream came flocking back. Her heart rate started increasing, her breath short and raspy.

The pig man snorted, his curiosity piqued by Jesse's unusual behaviour. He leaned in towards the trembling girl, sniffing at her.

Jesse was at a point where it felt like her chest was going to explode. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open as she breathed in heavily and unsteadily. Beads of sweat were making their way down her face, dripping onto the hot steel of her armour.

"Jesse."

Jesse heard Lukas say her name, but her mind didn't even register. It took all her self-control not to scream or leap up and run, as the pig man leaned in closer, grunting and pressing it's snout at her armour.

"Jesse!"

Jesse jolted slightly, turning her head to look at Lukas. He was on his knees beside them, his face filled with concern.

"Breathe, Jesse." He instructed calmly.

Jesse just looked at him with wide eyes, letting out a muffled whimper as she felt the pig-man's fowl breath on her face.

"He's not going to hurt you." Lukas said gently, keeping his gaze locked on Jesse's. "Just calm down."

Jesse shut her eyes tightly, edging away from the pig-man. She knew Lukas was right, she knew the pig-man wasn't going to lay a hoof on her, unless she made the first move. But that didn't change the fact that her mind was overwhelmed with bad memories, fears.

Tears of fear brimmed her eyes, as she covered her head with her arms, terrified of the harmless creature that was towering over her.

Her rational thoughts slowly fading as the panic took over. Seeing the clear image in her head.... all the pig men advancing towards her... ready to kill her...

The pig man titled his head in puzzlement, confused by the way this person was behaving. He came closer, ruffling her hair with his snout.

And that was simply too familiar. She remembered back in the tree house days, when she over-slept Reuben would climb into her bed and ruffle her hair that way, encouraging her to wake up. This felt exactly the same way, only this time, she was laced with absolute fear of the creature.

Still covering her head with her arms, Jesse's shoulders started shaking violently, muffled cries escaping her lips.

Remembering the face of her little piglet right at the front of the horde... no less bloodlust in his eyes than the monsters right up behind him.

The pig man snorted in surprise, intrigued by this new human behaviour he has never witnessed in a Nether-traveler before.

"Hey!" Lukas hissed to the pig-man, clicking his fingers together to catch it's attention.

The pig-man turned away from Jesse, tilting it's head at Lukas.

"That's right, come to me." Lukas encouraged, beckoning towards himself.

Bored with it's previous target, the pig-man now shuffled over to Lukas, curiously sniffing at him. He pressed his snout into Lukas's hands, trying to sniff out anything edible. When he discovered that Lukas had no carrots or apples on him, the pig man quickly lost interest.

Jesse hadn't even noticed that the creature was no longer towering over her, her arms still covering her head as she whimpered in fear.

"Jesse? Jesse, hey listen to me, it's gone now." Lukas tried to calm her down, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Lukas?" Jesse asked in a small voice as she looked upwards, her gaze met by his.

Immediately Jesse had her arms wrapped around Lukas's neck, her face buried against his shoulder.

"Ssh, it's OK, it's gone." Lukas tried soothing as he rubbed Jesse's back. "Calm down now, don't cry."

Jesse took a deep shuddering breath, relief washing over her as she felt the security of Lukas's arms wrapped around her.

She knew it was ridiculous. She knew she had just shown incredible fear, for one of the most harmless creatures in the Nether.

But at that moment, she didn't care. All that mattered, was that it was now gone, and she was safe.

Jesse's breaths slowly began steadying again. The rapid thudding inside her chest started to cease as her heart rate slowly dropped back down to calm, steady beats.

She let out a slow, long exhale as she slowly came to her rational senses again. Lukas pulled slightly away from Jesse so their eyes met again.

"I'm sorry." Jesse said softly, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand.

"It's OK." Lukas reassured, taking her hand and squeezing it. Despite the situation, he mustered as much of an encouraging smile as he could.

"Next time we take a break, we do it inside the cave, OK?"

___

This is somewhat a filler, but also not... considering the way this book's plot works xD I hope you guys don't mind chapters like this one, where things are happening, but nothing plot-wise is. Because we still have quite a few ahead of us!

Basically what this chapter sums up, is that Jesse is quite frankly the most afraid of the most harmless mob in the Nether... so far. 

I'm personally quite excited for the next five days to past, as I can't wait to post chapter seven! 

Something I should probably mention however, that I don't think a lot of people realised/caught on to yet.

Of course the only proper book I've done so far that isn't a challenge/once shot/collab, is SBTL. Which happens to be one of the longest books I have ever written, not counting collabs.

When I said this one is very short in comparison to SBTL... well, let's just say we're already nearly halfway.

I actually didn't realise this one was as short as it is, otherwise I probably would have mentioned sooner that it'll classify as a short story.

Don't worry, we're not at the halfway mark yet! 

Sorry if anybody is in fact disappointed by this.... but hey, you all know I have another book coming right after this one x'D 

Now, let my nervous self stop rambling.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you with the next one in 5 days!