Another one-shot for The Herobrine Quest Series! This one focuses solely on Ranger though.
The first thing Ranger registered was the smell of smoke.
For a few moments, she lay unmoving, trying to regain her senses. Then she froze. She was not in her bed. She was on the cold, hard ground. Not able to find the strength yet to open her eyes, she lay there for another few moments.
A loud crash echoed in her ears, and her eyes snapped open, though she immediately wished they hadn't. Before her was a sight she had dreaded seeing.
The town was in ruins. Every single building reduced to rubble. Purple fire engulfed some of the remaining structure frames, burning through the supports and sending them to the ground.
The impact of what she had done hit Ranger like a punch in the gut. This was her fault. Whatever this Ender Rage was, it had destroyed the town she had held so dear. But she wouldn't cry. She wouldn't show any outward sign of weakness.
It would only make her situation worse.
Taking a shaky breath, she lifted her head long enough to scan around her. What she saw made her want to curl up into a little ball and disappear. The bodies of the townspeople were scattered haphazardly about, and the burns and sword marks made it obvious that they had died at her hand.
She recognized all of them. Looking out over them, she tried to hold back her horrified shriek. Closing her eyes again, Ranger focused on her breathing, something her father had taught her.
Soon, nothing was left other than the sound of her own breath. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Repeat. She opened her eyes and was snapped back to reality. Now, not even focusing on her breathing could help.
She threw back her head and let out a wordless scream.
To who, she didn't know. At some unknown god in the sky. At the spirits of her dead friends. At herself, probably more than anything. This was all her fault...
She hated not being able to remember. The event had wiped her memory of what had caused the Ender Rage, and what had gone on during it. She wanted to know what - or who - had caused her to Rage.
Ranger's head snapped to the side as she sensed something, pinpointing the location of whatever had set off her Ender instincts and summoned all of the strength she had left on teleporting to it.
When she appeared where she knew whatever had caught her attention would be, her eyes widened and she went completely still. Laying on the ground in front of her was...no...she didn't even take a single look at the person's face before stumbling away.
Her only human friend...dead. Killed at her hand.
The only person she had befriended in this town, the only person who knew about her Ender lineage - the only person who accepted it, who wasn't scared of her. The only person who trusted her.
Ranger fell to her knees and blacked out.
Slowly, Ranger woke. Then her eyes snapped open to find that she couldn't see. Reaching out a tentative hand, her breath caught in her throat as she hit something solid. Metal, by the feel of it, and partially rusted.
Ever so carefully, she sat up and tried to look around at her surroundings. Darkness. Even the night vision that came with being Ender couldn't chase away the unending black. She began to panic. Where am I? What happened? Am I dead?
A small part of her wished that she was dead, just so that she could get it out of the way. She pounded on whatever she was inside, to no avail. After a few minutes of thinking, she realized what she was inside. The old bomb shelter. The ground must have collapsed and brought Ranger down with it while she was unconscious.
Ranger felt pure and undiluted terror seep into her heart. She couldn't teleport through iron. She was trapped in here, doomed to die alone and afraid, of suffocating or starvation or dehydration-
Ranger started out of the flashback, realizing that her breathing was shallow and faster than normal.
She stared at one of the glowstone lights placed throughout the room just to prove to herself that she wasn't trapped in unending, suffocating darkness.
When Ranger finally convinced herself that she was in no danger, she sighed heavily and leaned against the wall. It was so real...so very real. It was a memory, a memory that had haunted her for years on end with no escape.
There was no way she was going to relax after that, so she zoned out completely, staring at the wall.
