The forest was full of bird chirps and animal chatter and the splashing of a stream and the rustling of leaves, with a breeze blowing through that bore some of the chill from the snow country not too far in the north. Without warning, a blur of colour came out of nowhere and stopped in the middle of this forest and Herobrine was standing there, hands on hips, looking around and waiting. The warning cry of the birds came a second too late for his arrival but was in time for the arrival of a second man, who stumbled as he returned to normal speed and stood hunched over with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. Herobrine gave a little laugh as he saw his comrade.

          "Having fun?" he asked.

          Adam could do nothing but shake his head, still puffing, his sunglasses threatening to fall off. After a few moments, he stood up and put his hands on his head, taking deep breaths. "I've never been so exhausted in my life." He waved his hand a little. "You want to tell me why we're here, in the middle of nowhere?

          "I told you, we're going to update Anne on what's happening, and then we're going to visit Notch," Herobrine said. "Speaking of, let's get going, we don't have a lot of time to waste."

          Adam let out a breath and followed Herobrine as the latter set off through the trees towards a nondescript clump of boulders that jutted up from the ground. Upon closer inspection, Adam saw that there was a thin crack in the middle of the rocks that was just wide enough for someone to walk through. The tunnel beyond sloped down and then across for a while before slanting back up a bit and the two emerged into a very different place in the forest, blinking in the sunlight.

          While the forest they had come from was fairly standard, this section had huge trees that towered above them, ancient branches drooping down, vines dangling from them, tainting the sunlight green. The largest and most tangled of the trees seemed to form something similar to a wall around a section that was more sparsely populated by trees. Tents had been erected in these gaps and the people walking around wore speckled grey pants and light blue tops, clearly more suited for the snow than for a lush green forest. Even so, Adam recognised Queen Anne as she stepped out of one of the tents to greet Herobrine, who walked up to her.

          Adam awkwardly shuffled on his feet and looked around the forest as Anne and Hero exchanged some words and embraces. The camp was rather basic but seemed to be running well and none of the Snow Strikers seemed to be complaining about their current circumstances, which was pretty amazing for an army. Finally, Herobrine finished his conversation and came back to Adam.

          "Next stop, Notch," Herobrine said. "You ready to do some more running?"

          Adam gave a deep sigh. "No, but let's go."

          Herobrine grinned. "We're heading inland, just make sure you slow down in time otherwise you'll end up in the lake."

          "In the what?" But Herobrine had already started to run.

          Luckily for Adam, he did stop in time to avoid going for a swim and when he managed to blink away the tears from his eyes (his sunglasses didn't help to keep away the wind) and focus on the world around him, he saw that the two of them were standing on the sandy bank of a huge lake that was vaguely shaped like a jellybean. At the end furthest away from them, the lake spilled out into a river that twisted and wound away and out of sight behind the sparse trees that dotted either side of the water body. When Adam turned around, he could just see the very tips of a castle base in the distance.

          Herobrine immediately turned to the left and walked away from the lake a little to a spot where the ground sloped almost vertically downwards and the uneven ground far enough below to make it a foreboding drop, but Herobrine didn't hesitate as he jumped down. Adam let a breath go before he followed, his knees and ankles automatically flexing to absorb the force as he hit the ground.

          "Let's go," Herobrine said quietly, slipping into a gap in the rocks that was invisible unless you moved aside some of the branches and vines that grew over it.

          "Another secret tunnel, nice," Adam murmured as he moved into the darkness.

          It wasn't completely dark in the tunnel, however, as some light shone from Herobrine and Adam's glowing eyes, when the latter had pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head. The tunnel twisted and wound down, splitting off in several sections but Herobrine never hesitated at these junctions, leading them onwards and deeper into the earth.

          "So uhhh, you and Anne," Adam said, trying to keep his mind off of the disorienting sensation it was to have light coming from his eyes and the idea of the huge weight of rock sitting above them. "No kids?"

          "Well obviously," Herobrine said quietly back, choosing another split in the path.

          "Yeah, but why?"

          "Seriously, you're asking about this now?"

          Had the tunnels been more open, Adam would have held his hands out in a shrug. "When else is going to be a good chance to ask? No one is going to eavesdrop down here."

          "Except for my brother, who's home we are breaking into."

          "Just answer, I'm curious."

          Herobrine gave a huff. "Do you have any idea how much of a logistic nightmare kids are? And that's just for normal people. If Anne and I were to have a kid, what would happen to them? I'm always on the move and fighting and hiding, and that's no way to raise a kid. Anne's in charge of an army and so she doesn't have time to be looking after a kid and anyway, having a kid there is a dangerous thing because they can be used against you. So if we were to have a kid, they would be constantly in danger, have a family that is almost never together, be a subject of fear because they would most likely inherit my magic and just generally not have a great childhood or adult life."

          "Oh." There wasn't much else Adam could say to that but he kept up the conversation as they emerged into a larger room-like section of the tunnel. "What about if none of those were factors?"

          "But they are, there's no point in thinking otherwise," Herobrine said, stopping and turning to face him.

          "But if, just imagine if. Would you have a kid?"

          Herobrine sighed and started to walk backwards and turn as he spoke. "If Anne and I were normal people living normal lives-"

          Whatever he was going to say next was cut off as a tripwire, invisible up until then, suddenly tightened and pinned Herobrine's feet together, rapidly pulling them to the roof with a surprised shout and leaving the man dangling in space. At almost the same time, Adam caught sight of movement to his right and instinctively dived forward and to the left, rolling up to a crouch as the net sailed where he had been half a second earlier, falling uselessly to the floor. His right hand burst into flame as he faced the tunnel that the net had come from, still crouching and ready to spring into action.

          "Woah, hey, calm down," Herobrine said, holding a hand out to Adam and twisting his body to face the same tunnel. "Notch, we're not here to steal anything, we just need to talk and your front door is always locked."

          The tunnel remained silent, as did everything else.

          "Notch, come on, stop hiding, let me down, I'm not going to try and kill you again, promise."

          "You say that and yet his eyes say differently," a voice said from the tunnel. It was low and masculine and even, but not accusing. Yet.

          "That wasn't me," Herobrine said, pointing at Adam. "He did that in his own stupidity, but that is what I'm here to talk about."

          While Adam was busy trying to figure out whether or not he should be offended, a man stepped out of the shadows of the tunnel. He was probably a little taller than Herobrine, with a bald head but a jet black goatee. He wore plain long pants and a long shirt that seemed to be burnt and stained in some places. His deep brown eyes watched them warily, particularly glaring at the fire in Adam's hand which was starting to spit and dance erratically.

          When he saw this, Adam suddenly noticed the sick churning in his stomach and pounding in his head and he glanced to his right and saw that his sunglasses had fallen off in his roll. He dove towards them, scooping them up in his hand and quickly slipping them on. The headache faded quickly and he realised that both Herobrine and Notch were looking at him with confused expressions.

          "I uhhh... need these to control my magic," Adam said.

          "Oh, that explains a few things," Herobrine said with an air of realisation. Notch turned his confused expression to him and Herobrine briefly explained several main events, what had happened last time Adam got his magic, how he had got it this time and the actions of Entity, Dreadlord and Acid, which can all be summarised in "Weird magic, no reason, got rid of it, Entity bad, huge warriors, war, need help."

          "And you expect me to believe this, why?" Notch asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

          "He's the proof," Herobrine said, motioning to Adam. "No previous connection to magic and after a star shower of high magical and molecular energy and shortly before I found Entity and Dreadlord again, he develops magic that is very similar to strength and characteristics as my own. Sound familiar?"

          "They're close then?"

          "Very."

          Adam made a time out gesture. "Hold on, you guys want to fill me in or-"

          "Entity and Dreadlord are trying to synthesise a magic identical to Herobrine's so that they can control and destroy the world as we know it," Notch said as if he was delivering the dining menu for the day.

          "Most times it only develops in a magical sickness but you're the first one in whom it came as an actual fighting force, means they're close to getting it right," Herobrine added in the exact same tone.

          "Oh. Right."

          Notch frowned at Adam like he was a curious contraption that he couldn't understand. "You said that you need your sunglasses to control your magic? And that you had no control over it the last time you had it?"

          "Yeah, exactly," Adam said. He shrugged a little. "Last time my sunglasses had nothing to do with my magic, now I can't go anywhere without them."

          "Hm. Were you wearing your sunglasses when you got the magic a second time?"

          "Yes."

          "And you willingly chose to have your magic this time?"

          "Yes- why, is that bad?"

          Notch only hummed, tapping his fingers together.

          "What are you thinking Notch?" Herobrine asked, still hanging by his ankles. 

          Notch turned to him and pointed his fingers at him, palms pressed together. "Would you agree that magic alters and enhances the body and causes it to function in such a way so that it is able to channel and control magical energy?"

          "Well yeah, that's how- Ohhhhh that makes so much sense."

          Adam tapped his foot on the ground, really disliking being left in the dark. Notch waved the two of them over. "I talk better when I walk, I'll take you to my home."

          "Awesome," Herobrine said. "But can you let me down first?"

          Notch rolled his eyes and walked back to the tunnel, his hand brushing the wall. The tripwire holding Herobrine suddenly loosened and he fell to the ground with an "oof" but quickly got back up and dusted himself off.

          "We're not dead yet, this is good," Herobrine whispered to Adam as they followed the brother.

          "What?!" Adam asked, more than a little horrified and concerned.

          Herobrine only winked at him, grinned, and walked on ahead.

Why part 1, you may ask?

Because part 1 and part 2 were going to be a single chapter but if that happened, it would be hUGE.