The most awful, terrible day of Joel's life ever started pretty normally.

He had been doing odd jobs around the quiet village of Morturubu Hill as usual- it was his only way of making money until his mother finally let him begin monster hunting.

He had to do many jobs, his favourite of which being rescuing a cat from a tree here and there, but Joel spent most of the morning delivering some books to the local library. The dog hybrid had also spent a good ten minutes eavesdropping on two of the librarians, who were chattering about the ongoing war between the Sandlands and Dogwarts.

They were the two biggest nations in the surrounding area and they had been in the midst of continuous conflict ever since the latest king of Dogwarts (nicknamed the Red King by many) came into power and immediately started a war.

Members of both nations had travelled far and wide trying to recruit different kingdoms, towns and villages to the cause- they said that every soldier helped.

The village of Morturubu Hill had even been approached and almost been convinced to join the war by both sides, but both offers, despite how tempting the spoils of war had been at times, had been denied, the residents of Joel's village wanting to keep their peaceful lifestyle.

He was still thinking about this as he stood outside the local blacksmith's. The place was run by a cheerful Blazeborn called Nicole- she had curly ginger-brown hair, amber eyes and a permanent mischievous smile, and she had appeared outside the village about ten years ago, where she was taken in by the previous blacksmith/armourer.

Joel was dragged out of his train of thought by Nicole clearing her throat. "Joel? Joel. Joel. Dogboy." He glanced sideways, and the amber-eyed girl snickered slightly. "Ha, you answer to dogboy- anyways, here's the sword. Be careful when you're carrying it- I don't want any scratches on it, Piper's a stickler for perfection." Nicole added with a sigh as Joel awkwardly attempted to carry the very large netherite sword.

"Will- do, wow this thing is heavy-" The brown-eyed man said with a laugh, gasping and tripping slightly under the weight of the sword. How does Piper carry this thing? Nicole raised one eyebrow skeptically.

"It's made of netherite, of course it's heavy. Now hurry up, I don't have all day to be chatting with you." Joel nodded hastily, turning around with a muttered 'thank you' and making his way towards Piper and Abby's house.

Piper was certainly an interesting character. She was the latest leader of Morturubu Hill, having been elected five years ago after Joel's father Nolan stepped down from the role, and she was also incredible at swordfighting- Joel wouldn't have been surprised if the reason Morturubu Hill was approached so many times to join the war was purely because of her skill.

She was kind of scary, if Joel was being honest.

The leader of the village also happened to be the mother of Joel's girlfriend Lizzie, so that may have contributed to the intimidation factor just a tiny bit.

After what felt like hours (but could only have been minutes if Joel was being realistic), the dog hybrid finally reached the large cottage on the edge of the relatively large village. Very aware of the other villagers' amused stares as he stumbled under the weight of the sword, Joel simply kicked the door instead of knocking on it, not risking dropping the sword on his foot.

The door opened a moment later. "Joel Smallishbeans, if you kick my door agai- oh, your hands are full, fair enough." Piper said with a shrug, taking the sword off of Joel as if it were something as light as a...

A stick? Maybe? Joel couldn't think of any other light things.

The blonde haired woman searched through her pockets for a moment before producing a handful of golden coins and giving them to Joel. He quickly shoved the coins into his own pockets, smiling awkwardly as Piper paused, turning around and shouting into the house.

"Oh- Lizzie! Sweetie! Joel's here! She wants to show you something." His blue-eyed companion added quietly to Joel.

The two stood in awkward silence for a few moments. Joel, desperate to end the gap in the conversation, was the first to speak. "So- how's Abby?" He said quickly, referring to Lizzie's other parent, who had recently come down with a nasty case of the flu.

"They're almost back to normal now, they just have a bit of a headache." Piper informed him with a smile. "Thanks for asking."

Lizzie rushed to the door a moment later, letting out an excited, "Hi!" She glanced back at Piper hesitantly.

"I'll leave you two to it." Lizzie's mother's gaze flicked to what her daughter was holding. "Have fun!"

Lizzie nodded eagerly, muttering a goodbye to Piper before grabbing Joel's wrist and dragging him seemingly towards the woods. "Okay, I have- something cool to show you. So, I think I've found a spot where endermen spawn! In the day!" The woman with bright pink hair said brightly. It was at that moment that Joel noticed the iron sword in her hand.

"Uh- I'm not sure about that. I mean, I haven't even finished my monster hunting training, and I don't think my mother will be too happy with me like- hunting... monsters." The brunette said slowly. He did really want to do monster-hunting to be fair, but he also didn't want to get in trouble with his mother.

Lizzie shrugged. "You're twenty-one now Joel. You don't need lame precautionary training for teenagers. Besides! I've been monster hunting since I was seventeen." His girlfriend shot a toothy grin in his direction. "I'll protect you." She declared grandly.

Joel sighed dramatically. "Fine. If we have to." He said before smiling as well as Lizzie let out some sort of excited squeak.

"Yay! Come on, let's go!"

New AU :D don't get too attached to any characters in Morturubu Hill (apart from Joel) btw

Hope you enjoyed! <3 :] comments and votes are appreciated

Updates may be infrequent/rare as motivation is an odd thing <3

Sorry for any errors I don't proofread lol