Wither

Chapter 31-Home

After a brief but sudden unconsciousness, I awoke to a sight I hadn't seen for almost a year. "Ms. Sageflower?" I gasped, shakily getting to my feet. I felt a stinging on my face and realized that I had multiple cuts and gashes around my face and neck.

"Ember!" Seto rushed forwards, stopping next to me. "You did it! Oh, your face!" He cupped my face in his hands. I wordlessly shook my head and gestured to Ms. Sageflower. "Her?" He echoed my confusion. He nudged the woman with his foot. "Lady...Ms. Sageflower...ma'am..." He called her various names until her blue eyes fluttered open.

"I'm alive," she gasped. "I'm alive? I'm alive!" She tried to get to her feet, but fell over with a grunt. I noticed that there was a gruesome bloody wound in the center of her stomach. "You kids, get away from me!" She lifted her eyes, usually so tranquil and serene, that now had a light of insanity. She viciously lashed out at me and I fell over with a grunt.

"Hey!" I heard Seto yell at the woman, who was scrabbling to her feet with a knife in her hand. She slashed at him, and he jumped out of the way in the nick of time. Then the madwoman turned towards me. I backed up hastily as she stabbed the air where I had been. I sweep kicked her and produced a knife of my own. I pinned her easily and looked at Seto, the knife raised in my hand. The moment of hesitation was fatal. She burst to her feet and threw a dagger with deadly accuracy. In surprise, I froze and felt a knife embed in my gut.

*Seto's POV*

Ember gasped and fingered at the hilt of the tiny knife. Wordlessly, I produced a huge fireball and hit the woman. She was momentarily enveloped in purple flames, and puffed into code within three seconds. "Ember? I asked, my voice wavering. She groaned. I gently picked her up, grimacing as blood seeped onto my hand.

When we reached the point where the rest of the hybrids were, I set Ember on the ground. "Poof?" I asked for the little ice sorceress. Fearfully, she came forward. "Ember can heal herself, but the knife here is blocking that power. Can you pull it out? You have the smallest hands and probably are the gentlest here, so you can get it out without hurting her more than she already is."

Poof nodded, swallowed apprehensively, and grasped the knife with her trembling hands. She gingerly eased it from Ember's abdomen and soon the short knife came out. Blood spilled all over the Netherrack and Ember glowed with white flames. Her face scrunched up and she shook her head fiercely. The fire dissipated and the wound started to bleed. "It's because when she was trying to heal Lauren, the fire hurt her sister. She's not going to use it," Peterson said quietly.

I stepped towards my friend and whispered in her ear, "Lauren doesn't want you to die. She knows that you have a life ahead of you, so heal yourself. Heal your pain while you are healing hers, healing ours, healing mine." I stepped away and saw that the blaze hybrid was glowing with white fire. The dreadful wound soon closed and, exhausted, she stopped healing. Romani pushed through and began cleaning the wound. He grasped his daughter's hand and whispered reassurance to her.

"Poof, River, Mabel, Jayden, Jet, Liz, stay here with Romani, Ember, and Flint, who's still resting back in the tent. Sora, Johann, Toboe and I are going to Herobrine's mansion to look for some obsidian." I ordered.

"I would like to stay," Toboe said weakly, and blanched at Herobrine's name. She had had enough of the former Overlord of the Nether. I nodded knowingly and gestured for the rest of the search party to join me.

We marched through the scalding heat like troopers until we reached Herobrine's mansion. We opened the purposefully creaky doors and went into the nice, air conditioned home. It seemed eerily quiet without the constant scream of torture and sounds of troops drilling. Every step echoed dreadfully even though we were careful to tread almost silently. "Toboe said that the portal was in a center chamber," I muttered to myself.