Strings of Fate

Out of the Pan, Into the Fire

...

STRINGS OF FATE
Part IV: Out of the Pan, Into the Fire

...

The heat was a slap in the face. He loathed the way his lungs felt with every breath, yet suffered on. The feeling never lasted long, despite the nether making the hottest desert in summer look like the tundra compared to it.

The tendrils of the purple portal slipped from his body.

As he stepped off the obsidian rim, his weight was met with the creak of floorboards. A more substantial and spongy sound than the floorboards he knew in the overworld. Cyan blue mushroom wood made up the entire shack. Small windows filled with a fence barrier were on all sides, allowing airflow. They made the door out of iron to ward away any curious intruders from entering. In the corners were chests filled with extra supplies and loot they hadn't carried home yet.

A larger window and another door led to the balcony Alex made. Steven went back in and added a rail just for safety measures. It hung a little over the edge of the cliff and overlooked part of the warped forest and long over that. It was an alien yet gorgeous sight.

The shack was a temporary base, the one he and Alex had built their first adventure here. A feeling of home, as distant as it was, calmed his nerves in a way he couldn't describe. It made being in the nether less... depressing. A haven within the haven of the warped-forest. No threat of angry mobs or an even angrier demon. A breather. Somewhere where he wasn't on edge every second.

'Grrreeaaaahhhh... Creeaaak... Ccrruuuueeench... Haaaaah...'

Steven shuddered. The ambiance of the nether was a bone-chilling one. A world of infinite woeful moans, grunts, creaking, and buzzing. The sound of the mushroom trees creaking and snapping as they grew. The distant growls of nether inhabitants. No matter how long he stayed, it terrified him.

The trees absorbed most of the dreaded heat, turning the thermal energy into light in the form of shroomlights and the glow of the pulsing hyphae stem veins. Steve felt lucky to have the portal spawn here, though he couldn't imagine why their old portal disconnected; more pressing matters were at hand. At least this area wasn't depleted of resources, which made his job easier.

Alex had returned in the morning, an inventory and some filled with supplies, stuff to repair the house, and her arm wrapped neatly in a stiff cast. Like Steven had suspected, the blast and fall mixed and resulted in a fracture. A minor one, thankfully, but time healed those injuries much better than any potion could.

She rode back with a light soul, cheerful about something. And thankfully his nerves calmed. His voice had returned under the duration of the night. The doctor wound her arm in a plaster cast and put it in a sling. Steven was correct in his assumption that something wasn't entirely right, and it turned out that the bone had a minor fracture. How she hasn't frozen in pain was beyond them, but it wasn't her first or her last fracture.

Luckily, with Alex's amazing healing speed, she should be ready to go within six weeks. But that meant two months of Alex being out of service in the middle of storm season. And that wasn't the only news she brought.

True, she had depleted most of their emerald store for supplies, but with the stakes being as high as they were, he honestly didn't care. But excitement welled when he saw her procure the shiny armor from her inventory. Crafted specifically for him.

"The blacksmiths wanted to repay their debt to you. They've never found a miner that could find iron as good as you and wanted to give you something special. Also, a bit extra for saving their asses when the season got rough and supplying them."