Difference

Ch2

Birch could barely pull himself out of the small pool he managed to luckily fall in. Was it really lucky if his body felt like hundreds of arrows pretreated his body?

Birch's ears were still ringing from the Enderman's screeching. Birch, with his eyes still closed, slowly lifted his hand to face, wincing as he felt a large wound on the left side of his face. Luckily, it didn't felt too deep.

Being blinded as a wandering trader would be a death sentence.

Suddenly a loud huff made the trader open both of his eyes, despite the slight sting in his left. He looked up met eyes with a not-so-happy looking pillager holding a loaded crossbow towards his face.

Guess his vision was okay. Great.

" Stop staring and get to your feet, trader."

The pillager's voice sounded rough. They glaring down towards Birch, who shook under his stare. Intimidated. Pillagers were the lower classed Illagers, but they felt just as scary. 

The pillager still clinging to the crossbow tightly, loaded. Huffing again to indicate to get moving.

Birch attempted to stand and listen, but as he pushed, his arms gave under his weight and he collapsed back into the waters edge.

Birch grumbled angrily at himself. He hated being a weak being in front of the enemy and here he was, weak and achy. 

While pillagers weren't as aggressive to traders as to your average villager, they still liked to bully them. Being weak wasn't a great idea as Illagers thrived off showing weakness.

The pillager's patience must have been very low as they reached down, hauled Birch to his feet, picked him up like he weighed nothing and tossed him over his shoulder.

" You're pathetic.." The pillager grumbled, picking up Birch's bag.

Birch didn't even attempt to struggle nor did he really want too. He was just too tired, sore and wanted to conserve as much energy as he could for an attempt at a future escape

Also he was terrified of confrontation. Better just allow them to take what they want. It's how Birch had survived since he was young.

It was something he learned to do when interacting with illagers. Act stupid was usually the best thing.

Birch decided to try to act friendly to lower the pillagers' guard and act clueless. Maybe that could work.

" I'm Birch! How did you get down here? I fell down here."

" None of your Business, trader."

The pillager huffed angrily, clearly annoyed and wasn't too interested in his small talk. Birch sighed, maybe this was going to be harder than he expected. 

Soon the pillager finally dropped him after just waiting in silence as they walked in darkness.

Birch fell hard on the ground. He looked around, wanting to get a better look. He kinda wished he didn't.

All over the place on the ground were bones of many animals scattered about. Clearly this pillager had been down here for a decent amount of time.

Due to the little bit more light from the fire and torches around, he could finally get even a better look at the pillager's appearance-

They looked a bit thin, but still were a bit muscular. Wore your stereotypical pillager outfit, with a pillager flag tied to their hip, had three visible scars- One of his cheek, an X, two claw-like marks on their collarbone and one going down their eyebrow, Black hair tied back.

Finally, their eyes remind Birch of prismarine. Duel-colored.

" Why did you bring me here? You're very messy."

Birch attempted to stand again, this time using the wall, he could finally half-stand. His body was hurt, but Birch didn't want his pride even more wounded than it already is.

Birch watched the pillager pace around with the crossbow still in hand. They looked to be thinking, though, Birch wasn't so sure

The Pillager moved in a way where the light barely hit their face, so he couldn't read his expression.

" leverage. Got caught doing some daily raiding and I fell in this very ravine. Got the village hero really pissed and threatened my life." The pillager smirked, " Yeah, life of a powerful, smart raid captain."

" I'm a wandering trader. Not worth that much.." Birch said, rubbing his arms. " You're out of luck there.."

The pillager narrowed their eyes and walked over to Birch, still with his loaded crossbow in hand. Birch tried his best to not look about to faint. His poor heart raced, afraid of what this pillager was capable of.

" Doesn't matter, trader. I'm guessing you made friends with the nearby village, right?"

" I guess,..."

Birch tilted his head in confusion. Would the villagers really beg for his life? Sure, he remembers one of the villagers mentioning they had a human visit their village often, but would their hero even care?

Wandering traders didn't have the best rep with humans or anyone really. The only thing he was good for in anyone's eyes were leads. Birch never carried them though, so he wasn't a target ever for leads luckily.

"Exactly..."

The pillager grinned, sitting on a large rock, taking out a rag and began shining the metal bits of their crossbow, finally unloading it.

Birch sank to the ground and rubbed his arms and looked down, sadly. He wasn't even sure of his pillager intentions, but he knew he had to make a plan.