Herobrine's Heir

Chapter 14 - Woken Up

I jerked myself out of bed. Someone was banging on the door of my room at the inn. Prepared for horrible news. I swung open the door to find an old villager man bringing his hand down to knock on the door, but instead rammed his knuckles into my face. More than a little annoyed, I demanded, “Yes! What do you want?” The man, who appeared to be a shepherd, was trembling.
“Nick Hidrec, Heir of Steve, s-s-sir, me sheep ran away, and…”
I groaned and slammed the door. I didn’t want to deal with some loser’s sheep at midnight. Didn’t he know how much I hated being woken up? The typical stupid villager. Just as I was about to stomp back off to bed, the shepherd called out, “Wait! There’s more!”
Sighing, I turned and reopened the door. “What is it?”
“Sir! There was a mighty big explosion out west in the desert! Me ole eyes couldn’t believe it! A big ole blast a white shot up and me sheep all ran away! I came as fast as me ole joints would carry me!” Now that sounded more like a real reason to wake me up.
“I’ll be out just as soon as I get dressed. Don’t move!” I told him and then shut the door. It had been all too long since I had a real adventure. I was getting sick of all the hospital and orphanage tours. You’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. The admiration of the children was nice, but not when they were clinging to anything they could get their grubby little fingers on, and hospitals always felt hideously grimy. I quickly pulled on my diamond armor and drew my enchanted diamond sword. I rushed out the door and looked around to find the old man looking out the window at the end of the carpeted hall.
“I told you not to move!” I snapped angrily. The old man turned to me and his face looked ashen in the light of the Redstone lamps embedded in the ceiling. I shoved past him to see what the old geezer was gaping at, and my mouth dropped open. Out in the desert, a column of smoke bigger than the biggest mountain I had ever seen rose. That was saying something because I had seen Mount Glerk, the biggest mountain in the Eastern World. I turned back to the old man and said, “Get me a horse, then get ten of the village guards to accompany me!” He didn’t need telling twice and hobbled down the hall as fast as he could. I needed to gather more supplies, who knew what would be waiting for me out there.
I dashed into my room and poured the contents of the bedside chest into a saddlebag. There was just about everything I could possibly need: healing potions, an extra sword, a pickaxe, a golden apple, food, water bottles, and various other necessities. I pulled out a comb and fixed my fiery red hair into submission, then checked myself in the reflective glass pane to make sure I looked good enough to be in public. Once my check was complete, I ran out of the room, down the stairs to the reception hall, and out the ornately carved double doors of Harvey’s Inn. I found ten guards and the old man waiting with a horse saddled and ready. I threw my saddlebag into position, mounted the horse, and galloped towards the desert with the ten soldiers on horseback in tow without ever looking back.
Thump-a-da-thump-a-da-thump went the horses’ hooves as they ran full speed across the sandy plain. Their nostrils flared, and they were huffing hard from intense exertion, but we didn’t have time to let them rest. My group had spotted a few husks wandering about, but we were going so fast that there was nothing to worry about. We had almost reached the smoking column, which they now saw was a gargantuan crater. It would have taken at least a hundred charged Creepers to make anything so gigantic.
“Anything?” yelled one of the guards in the back.
“No! No fire! No people! No mobs! Just a big hole!” I yelled back. What could have made such a massive amount of destruction? I guess we’ll find out. Once we reached the rim, we place fence posts and tethered the horses to them. The hole seemed to be shallow around the edge and get deeper towards the center.
“What should we do now?” asked one of the guards.
“We pull out torches and go in!” I barked. It was good to be bossing others around again. I was very good at it.
The company slowly crept towards the deepest point of the crater, the center. It was entirely too silent. There should at least be a few night mobs roaming around, but none were in sight. Though, we could be surrounded by mobs for all we could tell though; the smoke was just too thick. I pulled my shirt up over my mouth and nose, trying to prevent myself from breathing too much of it. My eyes watered as I tried to see past my feet but to no avail. Then I heard it, faint at first, but louder as we moved towards the center. It was the sound of a girl crying. Now I was confused. What was a girl doing in a smoking explosion zone in the middle of the night? It must be some sort of trick. I slowed down even further to avoid being detected. The best way to deal with an unknown enemy was to figure out what it was before fighting it. The weeping grew louder until I saw the figure of a girl knelt with her face in the stony bottom of the crater, crying. Now I was really confused. I slowly approached her, but she didn’t look up.
“Hello?” I called out, but she still didn’t respond. Tentatively, I laid my hand on her shoulder. She jumped and quickly turned to look at me. I yelped at the sight of her. Her face was covered in sand, tears glistened on her cheeks, and she had the most sorrowful expression I had ever seen, but I expected all that. What I didn’t expect were her eyes. They were not only white, but they glowed, just like in all the fairy tales about Herobrine’s eyes. They shone like two bright beacons lighting up the smokey darkness. They also lit up her face enough for me to see her grey skin. An illager! With a human face? “Men surround her!” I commanded. She looked around, bewildered, then suddenly registered what was happening. She was surrounded by eleven heavily armed men, who probably weren’t there for a picnic.
I held my sword against her neck and demanded, “What are you, and what’s your name, girl?”
She opened her mouth to respond, but all that came out was a sob. Of all things, I wasn’t expecting a grey-skinned girl with Herobrine’s eyes who couldn’t even speak! Why couldn’t it have just been a hoard of creepers and we could have all gone back to sleep? Should I take her prisoner or kill her on spot? I still wasn’t sure what happened here, and she may be my only source of information. But if she proved to be a powerful enemy it would be better just to go ahead and kill her. Before I could render a decision, one of the guards called out, “I think I know her! She’s the half-illager from the orphanage! How did her eyes start glowing?”
“Does anyone here know her name?” I demanded. They all shook their heads.
“What happened here? What’s wrong with your eyes?” I questioned and put more pressure on my blade.
“He’s dead.” She whimpered.
“Who’s dead?”
“He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead…” She continued as though I hadn’t said anything.
I growled. I wanted to know what happened, but I would have to bring the girl back and put her in prison until she snapped out of this trance. I sheathed my sword and heaved the girl over my shoulder.
“Come on! Let’s get back before the night mobs ambush us.” I barked.
Once we reached the horses, I tied the girl’s wrists and ankles and secured her behind the saddle. She was still mumbling those words and didn’t resist in the slightest, which made everything much easier. I just wasn’t looking forward to listening to her mutter all the way back to the jail.