The Elytra breaking was bad timing.

Honestly. It was the worst possible time to break. Bdubs was high in the sky, looking at his builds below. He loved flying. He used more rockets to zoom higher, making loops in the air. It was at the point where he couldn't even see his builds anymore, he was too high up.

It felt free, flying around. It got you places faster, not to mention a thrill every time you do it. Unless you were afraid of heights, of course...

Bdubs closed his eyes and let the wind fly around him. He probably should be building right now, but he wanted to take a break from trying to figure out a block palette or repeatedly placing blocks. He loved building, don't get him wrong, but everyone needed a break every now and then.

Then came the sound of ripping. Bdubs opened his eyes in surprise and looked around. Then he realized: his Elytra had broken. He stopped his flight in midair, then started falling towards the ground at terminal speed.

"No, no, no, no." Bdubs frantically checked his inventory for a spare set of Elytra. He always kept one around, but the pair that just broke was his favorite. Now it was ripped. He hadn't checked the durability. Stupid mistake, Bdubs. You check the durability AND bring a spare set!

Even though Bdubs had Feather Falling IV on his boots, this wouldn't save him. He was flying above build height, for goodness' sake. He'd need Feather Falling X at least to survive.

Potions of slow falling? Why would he bring those around? Potions in general? No. Scaffolding? Curse it--he had used it all on a tower build.

"Well. This is how I die. Falling from the sky because my Elytra broke and I was a huge idiot. Someone write this on my grave, please."

He expected the rushing sight of his multiple builds approaching fast. Instead, what he got was a large oak forest with two clearings--one smaller than the other. Had he flown this far out? This didn't look familiar. Then again, Bdubs had scoured his world for perfect building spots ten times over. This should have looked familiar. But it didn't.

Then Bdubs saw something that looked like a beacon of hope. Water. A rushing river.

Bdubs tried to angle his body towards the river, but the wind was interfering. He gritted his teeth and tried to control his broken wings to help guide him. The ground was approaching faster and faster.

"Come on. C'mon. I'm not going down this way."

Bdubs hit the water, barely missing solid ground. The cold was shocking, and Bdubs got a fair amount of water up his nose. That didn't matter. He was alive--thank goodness for this river.

He climbed out of the water quickly. He was inside the larger clearing. The river ran straight through the middle. To his surprise, there was a dirt hut nearby. It was perfectly square and very basic. Bdubs knew he didn't build this--so who did? He was the only one in his world.

Even more surprising, Bdubs could see other people. He was beginning to think that he had built the dirt hut but had forgotten about it, but no. There were people. Where was he? This wasn't his world.

There were five of them, and there were three more arriving. One person, who was sitting on the ground nearby, had spotted him. He blinked. This mustn't be normal in this world--I mean, in which world would it be normal to see a random guy fall from the sky like in the Greek myth--what was the guy's name? Icarus?

The stranger got out from where he was sitting and crouched next to the river. To Bdubs's surprise, he stuck out a hand and helped Bdubs out of the water. "You okay?"

Bdubs studied the man. He had some sort of gray suit on over a helmet. Too late, he realized that the man was waiting for an answer. "O-oh! Yeah, I'm fine."

He raised an eyebrow. "You sure? You just fell from the sky."

Okay. That's good. At least his current state wasn't ordinary. "I'm fine. I swear."

The others in the clearing were watching them with a decent level of curiosity, but not enough that they were shocked. More like mildly surprised. No one came up, though.

Two people, one looking like some sort of freaky mutation and the other a harmless scientist, were alternating between watching Bdubs and glaring at each other. Obviously, not all of the people here were friends.

"Okay, this might be a weird question, but..." Bdubs stammered. "Uh, is this...normal? I mean, obviously not the falling-out-of-the-sky thing, but this thing where random people appear out of nowhere?"

The man shrugged. "Sort of. We all got here in our own weird ways. Falling out of the sky is new. What happened?"

...Okay. So this was normal-ish. Good to know. "Well, I was flying. With my Elytra. Now it's broken. And wet. I barely managed to hit the water."

"So this is water." The man noticed Bdubs staring at him, then he cleared his throat. "Anyway. Elytra, you say? I thought those were only found in the End."

"They are," Bdubs said, a little confused as to why he didn't know this. "I found it while raiding an End City. I just brought it home."

The man chuckled at himself a bit. "Sorry. I'm just a bit of a derp today."

"So...where are you from? You said everyone got here in their own ways. What's your story?"

As they were walking back towards the clearing, the man told Bdubs about he was from the End. The concept was completely alien to Bdubs--living in the End? It seemed impossible. Apparently, the End had gotten unstable and he and his twin brother had to run away, through the portal that was in the middle of the main island. He was the first to arrive in the group.

"What about your twin brother?" Bdubs asked. He immediately regretted it as he saw the look on the man's face.

After a long moment, he answered. "I lost contact with him after we went through the portal. I haven't seen him since. We were really close."

"I am so sorry." And Bdubs meant it. He felt really bad for this stranger. He had always been alone in his world, and when he had somehow fallen into this world, he had found others. They had gone through their fair share of hardships. Bdubs would bet his broken Elytra (in its former state, obviously) that each person here had gone through some sort of problem or suffered a loss.

In a way, Bdubs had too. He had lost one of his most prized possessions after being careless. In his world, there was no one to blame because, well, there was no one else. Sometimes the loneliness was nice, but other times, it wouldn't hurt to have someone to talk to.

Was this Elytra breaking thing a one-way thing? Or, if he flew up into the sky and fell back down, would he be transported back to his old world or a new one? Or, more likely, just fall from a high place?

Whatever the case, he was here now. He might as well make the best of it.

"My name is Xisuma, by the way," the man said, breaking the awkward silence. "You can call me X."

"Bdoubleo. Call me Bdubs."

Bdubs shivered. The water was really cold, even though it was a sunny day. He shrugged off his Elytra and winced at the sight. It was damp from its time in the water and badly ripped. This was his best set, too--the first one he ever found. And now it was broken--possibly beyond repair.

X looked at the set of wings thoughtfully. "You know...I might have something that could replace that."

"What do you mean?"

X left Bdubs and headed inside the dirt hut. He came back quickly, holding a set of shiny Elytra. They looked pristine--probably never seen the wind. "I was given this a while back."

Bdubs gaped at it. It looked so new, like X had just stolen it from an End Ship. Either it was a recent End raid (probably not likely, the gear everyone had looked basic) or X had kept it in top condition. "Are you sure?"

"Just...promise me you'll take care of it. It's really special." X handed Bdubs the wings.

Bdubs felt wrong holding these. Maybe it was a gift from someone close to him. Someone in the End, perhaps? But X had given it to him willingly. These wings were probably a prized possession, but he trusted Bdubs enough in the short time they had known each other to give it to him.

Bdubs didn't know what to say. In the end, he opted for a tiny "Thank you".

It wasn't enough. But Bdubs didn't say any more.

"Better than the latter choice." X smiled mischievously. "Grian wanted to have the wings." He pointed to a person wearing a dark red sweater sitting next to someone else. "I don't trust him to fly with these. From the stories he's told me, he's a bit...accident-prone when it comes to wings."

Bdubs chuckled. "Well, I'm glad you trust me enough to have these."

"Come on. I'll show you the area around." X led Bdubs through the clearing and into the forest.

(WC: 1578)