The explorer

*~1~*

He's free.

After thousands of years of being stuck in the end dimension, he was finally free again. Someone found and entered the stronghold, thus freeing him in the process.

He had no idea who this person was or why they were here, but he had no time to try to figure out their motives or how they even found out about the existence of the stronghold. His only duty was to get them out of the ancient structure and away from the portal. Maybe he'd thank them later, who knows?

He decided that staying hidden and observing the creature is better for now.

~~~

They had found it. "It seems as though all the research and reading old books instead of having fun finally paid off." They thought as they stared at the entrance of the ancient building. It was sticking out of the side of a mountain, but it wasn't easy to spot, taken that it was covered in vines and various plants that they didn't even know the name of, despite loving nature and spending most of their time exploring and learning.

They liked the flowers covering it though. They looked beautiful. A soft purple color adored their petals, the early morning dew making them look as if they were glowing under the sunlight. The sky was beautiful too. Pink, orange, red, yellow and you could still see blues of the night washing away. The colors mixing to create one of the most beautiful sunrises they'd seen.

If they had to guess, they'd say it was around 5 in the morning. But they didn't know for sure, as they didn't have a watch on them. They had lost theirs on the way here, while fighting for their life with zombies and skeletons.

It had been 5 days since they had left their home to try and find the stronghold. Five days of walking in one direction can be exhausting even with the breaks they gave themselves, believe it or not. Having to fight for their life constantly during the night sure left a mark on them. The dark bags under their eyes a constant reminder of the little sleep they've gotten in the past week.

They had explored almost every biome this world had to offer. Running through plains biomes in tall grass, climbing on jungle trees just to get a better view of the way ahead of them, walking through deserts and stopping at nearly every lake or river just to refill their water bottle, shuffling through snow piles in tundra biomes. They had even swum with dolphins in a lukewarm ocean at some point. Though they'd have to admit, swimming through coral reefs was pretty awesome.

They had come a long way to get here, left the comforts of their village to come explore the unknown. Sure, they missed the little village they had for a home. They missed their friend. If they hadn't come on this adventure they could've been baking with Niki or talking about fishing and potions with Phil. But they thought it was worth it, if it was gonna satisfy their curiosity.

They've been putting off the adventure for way too long. Now, you may ask "How did they even find out about the stronghold? And why do they want to find it so bad?", and I can tell you how it happened, how they found out and what they're searching for.

As you've probably guessed they aren't the relaxed type of person. Sure, they can be when needed to, but there's always something in the back of their mind, just begging them to get up and do something exciting, something risky, to find out about a new plant or explore a huge cave or ravine.

The way they found out about the stronghold wasn't from an old grampa with crystals and shit, and they didn't get sent by a king to find it, It was actually pretty boring. One sunny evening they were bored out of their mind. There was absolutely nothing interesting. Niki, the best baker in town, was swamped with orders and Phil was out with his sons on an adventure in the sea. So, they did what any person like them would do, and went to the library.

You may think that is stupid, but if you knew anything about the library maybe you would change your mind. It wasn't any ordinary library. This one they had found while exploring a cave. It was old. You could tell just by looking at it. There were cobwebs everywhere, it was so dusty, that if you blew on a book (as they do in movies) you would start coughing so violently your friends would get worried you were going to die.

The books were amazing though. They were ancient. They were with leather covers in many colors. Blue, cyan, red, brown, purple and different shades of green adored the bookshelves. They had looked through some of them and with time they learned that the color of the cover had meaning. Cyan books were about oceans, rivers, lakes; any existing body of water. The red ones were about the Nether dimension; the Nether biomes and mobs that spawned in it's confides. The blue ones were about the icy biomes that littered the Overworld. The green books were about forests, plants and flowers; they had everything you'd ever want to know about nature. The green ones were their favorite. Brown books were about the mines, caves and ravines.

The purple ones though, they couldn't figure out. All of them were written in some sort of ancient language. There weren't that many purple ones, only about 4. They had tried, again and again, to translate them, but failed every single time. And every time they'd try, they'd get a headache.

The stronghold was mentioned in some of the other books though. Like the cyan or green books. They had both mentioned an ancient structure hidden in the depths of the earth. One green book even mentioned how to find one. With the way it was written though, it was hard to read it. It looked as though the words were scribbled in a hurry. Ugly letters with different sizes littered one of the pages of a certain green book.

With quite a lot of effort the explorer managed to craft some eyes of ender and use them. They followed and followed them until they found it.

The questions "Why were they even searching for it? What do they want?" come to you immediately, and to you I answer easily. Knowledge. They were curious and bored. The stronghold seemed like the perfect place to explore and learn more about. They wanted to study it, find every little detail, solve every puzzle that they found within its confines. To them it was like learning there was a whole new flavor of your favorite snack that you didn't know about. You'd want to try it as fast as possible.

So, they stood in front of the ancient structure, wondering what they could find inside. And after a few moments they decided to find out. And with that thought they went inside.