Hero's Bane

Chapter 11: The Spectator

A small droplet of water splashed on Steve's forehead and he opened his eyes to the sudden contact of the cold dampness, he immediately stirred from his sleep; dazed and confused. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and a blank light gray sky hung over him with the threat of rain falling and a low growl of thunder reinforced that forewarning of dreary weather. A cold draft of air blew across his arms and made him lightly shiver, now he had become fully awake as he brought his arms together and rubbed away at the chill. Steve then sat up and blinked in confusion from his natural surroundings, and it wasn't a moment too soon that he realized he had been laying on grass?

"Where-?" He paused as he quickly scanned around himself again. He then rubbed his eyes but it didn't remove the beautiful landscape that had encircled him on all sides, nor the soft green threads he sat upon. He was sitting in the middle of a grass field with a few soaring mountains not too far off in the distance. He gently rolled onto his knees then pushed himself to stand upright, it hurt a little to do so but not as much as it did before. In fact, he was sore all over but not in too much pain to his relief. Steve looked around again to get a better view and then what he saw startled him.

There was a large gaping hole only feet away, it went straight deep into the ground, no incline. Cautiously approaching the border he peeked over to see it's long recognizable walls drop down into darkness below, walls that he had previously attempted to climb last night and fell to what should have been his tragic death. His expression contorted into one of fright and confusion, he was still supposed to be down there; not up here. Steve knew he fell, the pain in his joints was proof enough. This disturbed him on a whole new level and he found himself backing away from the pit and tripping to land back onto the grass. He crawled backwards a few more feet without ever taking his attention away from the gap, unable to find words for what was running through his mind.

'How?' He breathed, remaining motionless as his eyes and brain tried to catch up with each other. He forced his eyes shut and shook his head violently. "This has to be a dream." He whispered to himself, before lightly bashing the side of his head with his pam in an attempt to wake himself up. He started to pound harder as tried to find a reasonable explanation for his appearance on the surface. "Gahh." He winced, all he did was hurt himself more, it did nothing to clear up this realistic hallucination. He began to rub at the tender spot on his cranium before making himself stand again.

It had to of been a dream right? There's no way he should have been able to get up here unless he could somehow sleep-climb, but that he really doubted as he's done no such thing before. He definitely didn't remember giving it a second go, all he could really remember was blacking out after hitting the bottom. So the only explanation he could come up with was that he had to of had help and was taken up by someone else; someone who was strong enough to climb with the weight of another person, someone most likely inhuman. ...

There was only one powerful and inhuman being that he knew of at the moment that he had just encountered recently...

The miner quickly turned away from the hole and ran, he didn't know where he was running to or if he was being followed, only that he had to find a place to make into a shelter and hide in it. Even if the back of his mind kept telling him it that this was all possibly a dream he chose to act as though he was in real life, just in case it was and he sort of hoped it would be. Any place was better than that never-ending abyss of cave tunnels and gaping chasms. Herobrine's nightmares were just too real and it only took two of those cursed dreams to realize this, and for all he knew; he could be in another at that very moment.

His legs hurt, everything just hurt. His feet, lungs, chest, arms, and even his head, the pain magnified as he pushed himself and he was really beginning to feel fatigued. He slowed to a stop as he ran down from small hill, there were some trees a few yards out and some woodlands not much further then that. Dense trees meant supplies, tools, and maybe food. Just thinking of the word food made Steve fall back and sit on a dirt heap as he caught his breath, he pulled his chest pack from his back and reached in to grab a loaf of bread. He took another quick moment to survey his area before taking a huge bite to calm his groaning stomach.