Yo fam I'm back and better than ever!

Also I had this prepped a week in advance lmao. The reason why it wasn't published earlier today is because I'm pretty sick so a lot of reading just makes my head hurt. I had to do little by little.

K bye

• • •

Where we last left off, Lily had just escaped the evil clutches of the murderer Jess. Cole managed to find a map to get back home, only after discovering that people knew who he was and were after him. In the town of Hidenburg, the leader (and Amber's uncle) Brad was murdered.

• • •

~ Lily ~

So maybe running away at night with minimal gear was a bad idea.

A creeper exploded to my left right after I moved away from it. I almost backed up into a zombie, and squealed. I continued on sprinting forward. Regret filled my body. I should've taken a horse. Why didn't I take a horse.

I was tempted to make a dirt house, or dig underground, but those weren't wise. Jess could find the house, and it was too dangerous to stop and try to dig down. So I kept running.

It was hard to see in the night, but I could tell I was getting close to the town. I remembered from the route Jess and I took a few times.

Jess... I couldn't believe I trusted her. No, actually, I could. She was the first face I saw in the world and she gave me a temporary home. She seemed so nice. But then I found out her dirty little secret, and the fact that she didn't tell me the whole truth about it made it worse.

I rubbed my hilt in anticipation, and swung at a zombie in front of me. Cringing, I stabbed at the zombie's stomach. The blade punctured it, but the zombie was still living. I panicked and pulled it out, swinging again. Finally, the zombie died.

I shuddered. I hated killing things. Violence just wasn't my thing.

I ran forward, finally seeing the town in the dark. There were a few lights on, but there wasn't anyone on the street.

It was quiet as I walked on the streets. I sped through the marketplace and made it to Jerry's stall. He obviously wasn't there, instead there was a "CLOSED" sign. I recalled that he pointed to the right after the first conversation we had. It was right after we were talking about that one man, Harold, so I guessed that he pointed to where he lived.

Before anyone could see me, I dashed through the marketplace and into the outskirts of town. The sound of movement made me quickly jump into an alley. I watched a mother and her young girl laughing as they went by. The little girl was skipping and the mother was smiling at her as if she was her whole world. They were probably heading home. I caught myself smiling at the scene. When they were out of sight, I left the dark alley and ran on the road.

Finally, I made it out of the town. I was heading down a narrow plains biome, with a forest on either side. I couldn't see far in the dark, but it didn't seem like the plains would stop any time soon. Luckily, there weren't as many mobs around as before.

I continued on.

•    •    •

About after twenty or thirty minutes of running and walking (I lost track after a spider ambush almost made me cry), I finally stumbled upon something.

I was looking up at a giant tree. There was no way it could've been naturally spawned in; the twisted and gnarled trunk was about ten blocks in diameter. The diameter of the leaves was around fifty or sixty blocks. There were branches everywhere, holding up spherical and cubic wooden rooms. Unstable-looking bridges connected the small buildings, and some ladders were used as well. The roots in front of me were big, and didn't seem to have any pattern as they dug themselves into the dirt and wrapped around each other.

Yeah. There was no way a tree like this was natural. I admired the person that built it.

I peered up at the tree. There were windows (actually, the windows were just open holes in the walls), but no lights inside. The whole thing was dark as if no one was home. My face fell for a second, thinking that Harold might've not been alive after all. However, I reminded myself that it was still night. He could've been sleeping.

At first I didn't know what to do. I couldn't have just climbed up there and made myself at home. So I walked over to a root, and started to dig the dirt that was next to it. Soon I made myself a little hole. I closed the top, and then I was in complete darkness.

I exhaled, making up a mental checklist of what to do tomorrow.

Wake up.

See if Harold is home/alive.

Make friends with Harold if he is.

Learn about spawns.

But then what? I didn't have a plan after that. And what if Harold wasn't friendly? What if he wasn't even there? There were a lot of questions, and not enough answers.

It was hard to fall asleep with my head spinning, but I managed.

I woke up a minute later. Well, it seemed like it was a minute. Actually, it was daytime when I broke one of the dirt blocks. The sunlight blinded me for a second, so I ducked my head down. I blinked a few times. Even though I was sleeping in a dirt hole, it was a surprisingly comfortable slumber.

I peeked my head out to check if there were any mobs. But as soon as I was about to climb out, I heard a thud. I jolted from the sound, and looked around. On the ground right next to me was an apple. I looked up to see where it came from. More like who it came from.

On the bridge right above me about twenty blocks up, there was an older man. He had wispy white hair surrounding the bald spot on his head. His blue eyes were disturbingly bright and young, not matching his slightly wrinkled face at all. He wore suspenders with a pair of brown trousers, and a long-sleeve white shirt. The look on his face was either disgust, anger, or both.

"Missed." I heard him say in a partially scratchy voice. He took out another apple, and dropped it right above me.

I yelped and crawled out of the way just before the apple hit the ground where I was.

He was seriously throwing apples at me. I guess he liked apples more than windows ( 👉( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)👉 ).

"Hey!" I called up to him. "What's the big idea, throwing apples at me?!"

"Go away!" He grouchily yelled. "I thought I got rid of you hooligan teenagers years ago! Now here you are, ruining my masterpiece!"

I looked back at the tree root, and up to the tree. "You made this? It's beautiful."

"I don't have time for your brown-nosing." He waved me away, and disappeared.

"Wait!" I exclaimed. "Aren't you Harold?"

"Who wants to know?!" His voice was harder to hear now that he was farther away.

"I'm Lily! I heard you knew about spawns?"

Silence for a second. Then, "Yeah, so?"

"Well I'd like to learn some information about them! And more, if you'd like to teach me!"

The older man's head popped up again. "You want to learn about spawns? Why? They're all gone now."

I hesitated. If I wanted him to trust me, I had to trust him. "No, they aren't. Because I'm a spawn."

He stared at me for a good five seconds. Then, he went out of sight again.

I sighed, and sat down, wondering what I should do next. All of a sudden, I heard the sound of pistons moving blocks. I looked up and saw a recessed hole in the trunk of the tree that revealed a ladder.

"Come on up!" Harold called.

•    •    •

~ Amber ~

My hands were shaking. My whole body was vibrating. My head was foggy. I was feeling both cold and hot at the same time. It was like I was sick, but ten times worse.

I hated that it was an open casket funeral. To see Brad like that... it was so unnatural. I kept looking at his unmoving chest, hoping he would soon inhale. His face was horrible peaceful, his eyes closed. He was dressed up in a tuxedo with a blue flower pinned on his breast pocket. Blue was his favorite color. He, however, hated tuxedos.

My feelings were not nearly as depressing as Cameron's. In the three days since Brad's passing, he went through three of the five stages of grief. First there was denial, then there was anger (he broke a table or two), then bargaining (he blamed himself for not getting Brad to the hospital sooner), and now he was on the fourth— depression. Even though it didn't take him long to get through the first three, I knew it would be a long time before he finally moved onto the fifth stage. Acceptance.

I was still on the first. I tossed and turned in bed, I stared off into space multiple times, I just couldn't grasp the fact that he was gone. Sure I cried at first, but it was a quick reaction. Now I'm just in denial that it all happened. Like it was just a dream.

However, as I was about to go up and state my eulogy, I was in between shock and depression. Seeing most of the town at the outdoor funeral was a horrible sight. Everyone dressed in black or close to it with grim expressions. Some were crying. Some were comforting others that were crying.

"He was both my best friend," Cameron's voice cracked at the words best friend up at the podium, "and my husband. May he... may he..." He trailed off. However, he swallowed and finished, "I'm sure he's doing fine up there. Flying around on his elytra that he loves— loved so much." Cameron looked at the crowd for a few seconds, then walked down. However, he remembered to mention I was up next. "And now, a few words from our niece, Amber."

I didn't move at first. However, I felt Sky's hand on my shoulder, and that made me start walking. I slowly made my way up to the podium, and looked at all the people.

I opened my mouth, looked at the note cards, and tried to speak. However, nothing came out.

It wasn't that I had stage fright. I'm not usually one who gets scared of crowds. But it was something else. My whole body just tensed up, not letting me move or speak.

Finally, I managed to make out a few words. "Hi everyone." From there, it got easier. "I'm Brad's niece, Amber. Although a lot of you know me."

On the notecard, I wrote down a funny joke about me being a pain, but I chose to ignore it. "We came here to mourn the... the death of the town leader, Brad. It was..."

I was supposed to say 'it was a tragic mishap', but something else came out. "It was completely unfair. He didn't have to pass like that."

At first I was surprised that I said that. However, I kept going. "He should not have been taken away from us. That scumbag that shot him—" everyone knew how he died, "— will be hunted down and will get what he deserves." My voice hardened at the end.

Most people gave me a weird look because of my outburst. Sky had a worried expression.

I realized what I said. This wasn't supposed to be an angry or vengeful speech. I was supposed to comfort everyone and remind them of Brad's greatness. Which is honestly ridiculous. They should be comforting us. We knew him longer. We were more hurt and affected by this. And why should we be reminded of his greatness? It's not going to bring him back. Nothing is going to.

I looked down at my notecards. I still had a few more to go. But I just simply finished off with, "Brad was a great leader, husband, uncle, and friend. He will be missed."

I then walked off the podium, and went away from the gathering.

•    •    •

"Hi..."

My grip on the grass got tighter as Sky sat down next to me. It relaxed as he didn't say anything. He just gazed at the view alongside me.

I expected him to say something about the funeral. Even scold me. Or just ask if I was okay. Not that I wanted him to do any of that. It just seemed like the Sky thing to do.

"So." He cleared his throat. "How are you?"

How are you? Not are you okay? That's better I guess.

"Fine." I said, my eyes on the horizon.

"You know, people always say 'fine' when they aren't fine. You can talk to me."

For a second, he sounded like my brothers. Always trying to take care of me no matter how much we annoy each other. In a weird way, I could've considered Sky like a brother to me. Even though we had only knew each other for a few days at the time. But I trusted him.

So that's why I decided to say the following sentence.

"I'm going after him."

He looked at me. "What?"

I exhaled, looking at a group of sheep on the side of a mountain. "I'm going after Brad's killer."

•    •    •

So Lily found Harold.
How is that gonna play out?
Is she going to get the knowledge she wanted?
Is Jess going to look for her?

And not much happened in Amber's PoV tbh.
But she's going after Brad's killer.
Who do you guys think it is?
Is Sky going to go with h— bahaha of course he is wtf

Rock on, my little rebels.