𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕥𝕚𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕖𝕤 ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝔸𝕗𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝔸 𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕞

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟾

It seemed to take forever until the two phantoms left the cave. She wondered just how much time had passed and the number of times she had dozed off to sleep while she was stuck there, doing absolutely nothing. It was a waste of her time and she hadn't even accomplished her goal.

She couldn't even put into words how furious she was. First of all, she couldn't even kill her target since there were double the idiotic winged creatures than she intended for there to be, and secondly, she thought her trip away was going to be quick.

"I'll be back by midnight." The thought came back to her, seeming to mock her now. Yeah right.

But finally, they were gone and Peony could emerge from her cramped hiding spot and grasp her pack from where it lay among the other items clustered into a messy pile before she stomped back out into the night.

Into the night. Surely it hadn't been an entire day she had spent in that cave! The sudden prickle vulnerability she felt sent her fumbling for a potion. But some sort of annoying intuition from deep within her told her not to.

And she listened to it because if there was anything she had learned from her mother, it was that she should always trust her instincts. She looked around wildly above her, searching the starry sky for a familiar pair of wings. A lone phantom, preferably with no other creature around who could stop her from making her kill.

She spotted it almost immediately, its gray underbelly sticking out against the black background that made up the night sky, illuminated by stars. But of course, knowing her luck, there was another phantom flying ahead of her target and they were heading... away from the swamp?

For as long as she had been tracking the monster, it had never once left its respective biome. So, what drove the phantom to do so now?

Her curiosity got the best of her and she found herself trudging through the sticky marshland and the thick curtain of vines that hung from trees above her head. But it was difficult to keep her eyes on the creature when she was also trying to focus her attention on staying hidden and out of sight of any other monsters that may have been lurking in the night.

It wasn't very long until the damp undergrowth and gross mud beneath her boots began to dry out and turn to tiny grains the color of fully-grown wheat that was ready to be harvested. The murky water that edged the swamp biome also began to clear up and turn to a shade of bright blue and waves were sent crashing onto the bank every once in a while.

The gentle sound of the ocean would have probably been peaceful to her if she wasn't stressed out at that current moment trying to follow the phantom. And just when she thought things couldn't get worse for her, she watched as the two flying monsters began to soar over the ocean, far beyond her abilities to travel.

She let out a groan, half annoyed and half disappointed that after all of that dedication and energy she spent, she still couldn't accomplish what she had set out to do. Her doubts were quickly replaced with a slight twinge of hope though when she spotted a dock not too far from her, boats tied to it with leads.

She took off at a full sprint toward the wooden platform, throwing herself over the edge and nearly missing one of the boats before she landed. She swayed on her feet for a few moments, trying to maintain her balance and get herself used to the constant motion beneath her.

She sat down, resting her hands on the pair of oars at each side. She had never steered anything in her life besides her own two legs, but the sudden hisses and growls that erupted from behind her drove her to figure out the experience for herself. She shot a quick glance at what monsters had gathered near the dock, trying to glimpse what had just full-on ran into the ocean in front of them.

A fox met her gaze with curious green eyes and beside her was a large spider with narrowed crimson eyes and it bared its teeth at her once it saw her face. "No way... Is that a human?" She heard the gray-furred vixen squeak from behind her as she sped away, paddling the tiny boat as fast as she could across the water.

Her muscles screamed at her as she continued on and eventually, the phantoms she was following were barely more than small clouds in the distance, like shadows against the starlight. And the next thing that came up on the horizon was as unexpected as the entire journey so far had been. A massive looming mountain came into view, covered by purple grass and towering mushrooms that sprouted out from the ground.

Red and white cows grazed lazily or lay near the island's bank with their legs splayed out beneath them. She hurriedly snatched a potion from her pack, chugging it as fast as she could before she could be spotted.

She took a deep breath as she stopped rowing, her boat coming up to the oddly colored shore. She stepped out as silently as she could, careful not to catch the attention of the monsters who roamed the land. Up ahead, just as she saw two familiar pairs of wings duck beneath the entrance, was a large hallway that had been excavated into the hillside and brilliantly lit up by torches and lanterns. Narrowing her eyes in determination, she set off toward it, avoiding the paths of any more of those strange rosy-colored cows. She still couldn't help analyzing them from afar as she passed by and she was shocked to find things growing from their leather hides. Are those mushrooms? She wasn't exactly sure she wanted to know the answer.

With their backs turned to the tunnel and looking bored as they waited through the night was a creeper and a polar bear, each taking opposite sides of the wide entrance. They weren't guarding the stone corridor, were they? All of the other monsters and animals were dumb and mindless. They couldn't possibly come up with a sophisticated society where they appointed guards and maintained an occupation.

She didn't bother pondering the matter any longer. It wasn't like she should actually care what lives those monsters lived, especially when they wouldn't hesitate to kill her on the spot if they could see her.

She strode silently past the guards, no stupid monsters, and into the open tunnel. The walls were smooth and made up of stone and she had to maneuver around multiple iron carts that were scattered around. She looked down each separate hall that split off and away from the main chamber until she spotted the path her target had taken. There they were, the two phantoms. And with them were two more tall figures that she unmistakably recognized as endermen.

She crept closer to the gathered monsters, her curiosity unsatisfied, and watched as only one of the endermen, as well as the phantom she had been tracking, disappeared into what looked to be a pool of darkness.

And just like that, they were gone. But Peony wasn't one to give up on her mission so easily.