Council of the Heir

Chapter Twenty - unwilling homies

"Wait," Valor cut in before she could say anything more. "You've written this too? How many stories have you written??"

"Way too many." Lydia resisted the urge to peer around the corner again. "Um, this is... gosh, this is the third book in a series, if I remember the plot correctly. Aaand... man, that might explain the no-mobs thing too, 'cause uhhh... the, uh, villain, he's controlling the monsters. To..." she gestured aimlessly. "...attack those guys."

"Why did you hide?" Herobrine asked. "Is it a problem for us to be seen?"

"Well, we're not supposed to be here," Lydia pointed out. "They're only supposed to stop in this town for a bit, then move on. If they see us, if we interfere- well, you saw how much I screwed up the plot of your story."

"It still ended the same," Valor pointed out.

"Yeah, but I had to die six or seven times to get to that point," Lydia told him flatly. "And I'm not real keen on letting that happen again. This story has kind of a lot of, uh, violence."

"And whose fault is that?"

"It's- okay, listen-"

Before Lydia could plead her case, the sound of hoofbeats came upon them suddenly, and Lydia looked up in alarm as a chestnut horse raced around the corner and skidded to a stop on the dusty path.

"Who are you?!" Alex demanded, wheeling her horse around to face them. Valor immediately brandished his pickaxe, and Lydia threw out a hand to stop him.

"Whoa, whoa." She stepped in front of her stab-happy companion, raising a placating hand. "It's okay, we don't mean any harm."

"Who are you?" Alex repeated, and Lydia took note of the axe strapped to her back. "Are you players?"

"Noooot exactly. We, uh..." Lydia trailed off a second horse trotted around the corner to join her- Steve.

"We're honestly not sure how we got here?" She tried. "I'm Lydia, and this is Valor. We were at a party at his cousin's house and I patted his arm, and the next thing we knew we were here. That's genuinely all I know." Steve and Alex exchanged a glance. Then, Alex nodded to Valor's left.

"And who's that?"

Lydia looked over to where Herobrine stood, his eyes narrowed where he stared down Alex, and it was then that she realized that he was entirely visible. "Oh," she said. "That's Valor's dad. Uh, Herobrine."

"That's not Herobrine," Steve said bluntly, and Lydia was immediately struck by how nice of a voice he had. "Herobrine's with us."

"Yes, well, we came from an alternate reality," Lydia said, noting Valor's open mouth. "So now there's two." Alex stared at her for several, long moments.

"Alright, you three are coming with us." She drew her axe and pointed it at them, her tone making it clear that she would not be taking no for an answer. Lydia exhaled deeply, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Okay." She gestured down the path. "Lead the way."

Steve hopped out of the saddle as Alex prodded them around the corner, taking his horse by the lead and guiding it as he followed behind them. He was big, but much closer to Valor's build than Steven's uncle, Lydia noted as they were herded out into the open. Alex was clearly built as well, to absolutely no one's surprise, though she looked a fair bit shorter than Steve.

The remaining two horses were waiting in the center of town. Herobrine had dismounted, and was standing behind his horse with a protective arm around his wife's shoulders. This would have been only a day or two after she was attacked by the warden, Lydia realized. Notch, on the other hand, remained on his horse, eying them critically beneath his furrowed brow.