Warped

Chapter 2 - Strangers

When I finally woke up, my head was pounding.  My skin prickled uncomfortably.  Why did the World Below have to be so hot?

Don't be a baby, Daring.  It's the World Below, for Genesis' sake.  Did you think it'd be paradise?

Still, I missed the jungle.

All the more reason to get on with the mission.

Wait, the mission!  I remembered the send-off vividly, how the rest of my village had gathered together to see me safely through the portal.  My leader had given me a bow and set of arrows to use against the demons, telling me how brave I was for stepping up.

I remembered going through the portal to the World Below, but what happened after that?  There was some kind of pig-mutant-thing that attacked me, right before I passed out.  I needed to get up!  I needed to get the sapling!

I shifted on the bed, groaning as the movement threw my burns into focus.  Wait... bed?

My eyes shot open, hands clutching at the dark teal sheets.  They felt silky beneath my fingers.  The room around me was small, but oddly comfortable.  The ceiling was made of a weird, leafy substance held up by dark stone crossbeams.  Small orange lights hung down in clusters, like some kind of odd cocoa bean.  I glanced back, to see the headboard of the bed was made of an strange, teal-colored wood.

"What kind of tree?-"  I muttered, running one hand over the odd wood.  It didn't feel any different from jungle wood.

Enough about the wood, Daring.  How did I get here?

The door to the room snapped shut.  I turned so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash, and met a pair of glowing orange eyes.  I screamed.

"DEMON!"  I scrambled back as the stranger whirled around frantically.

"Where!?"  he yelped, pulling out a sword.  He looked a bit... odd.  While I had expected him to be a Demon Steve- after all, what else had glowing orange eyes?- he didn't match the description I was given.  There were no horns, for one, no claws, for another, and... were Demon Steves supposed to be turquoise?

The steve spun back toward me, eyes wide, and as I got a better look at his face, I realized something else.  

How did a child get to the World Below?

My grip on the bed sheets loosened, and I scooted forward, ignoring the stinging of my burns.  The weird teal steve sheathed his sword, not taking his eyes off me.

"I've never seen a steve like you before."  he muttered, tilting his head.  "You're so... what color is that?"  I frowned, glancing down at myself.  I winced as I realized how wilted I was starting to look.

"...green?"

"Green."  he echoed.  "I've never seen green before."  I frowned.

Not even when you were alive?  I wanted to ask.  Instead, I held my tongue, asking a more polite question.

"Who are you?  Did you take me here?"

His expression lit up as he held out a hand for me to shake.

"I'm Warped Steve!  I found you being attacked by hoglins, so I took you here so you could recover."  he flourished to the room around us.  "This is my house!"

"You're... Warped?"  He nodded eagerly.

"What's your name?"

"...Daring."  I said slowly.  I'll admit, when I stepped into the World Below, this wasn't a conversation I was expecting to have.  Still, it couldn't hurt to introduce myself.  Suddenly, a thought struck me.  "Warped, you said this is your house.  So you live in the World Below?"