Six Stone Souls (The Pack)

Chapter 17

Warnings: None

     ~Lachlan's P.O.V.~

I officially hate swamps. Everything about them is absolutely disgusting, from the murky brown waters to the icky green moss covering pretty much everything that's not under the water. Not to mention the random witch huts scattered in the water... Those things are ugly and hostile!

"Remind me again why we're trudging through filthy mud and water, and not sailing boats down the Diamondback River?" I whine, my pants now thoroughly waterlogged and mud squishing in my shoes.
"For the millionth time Lachlan..." Mitch states, a hint of frustration in his voice, "I saw the ruins of a small village up ahead, and there might be resources there we can use." He finishes, dragging himself through the water with great difficulty.

After what seems like an eternity of wading through waist-high water, we finally approach the shore of the small island, at its highest only climbing four blocks above the water level. There are no Endermen, and no people either.

"Okay, I think we should split up in two groups." Jerome decides, wringing his clothing out as we crawl onto the land, "With Herobrine and tons of mobs that want us dead on the loose, we shouldn't ever go anywhere alone."
Vikk nods his agreement. "Wanna go with the classic Merome and Vikklan?"
"Sounds good." Mitch pitches in, currently whacking his shoe to get the mud out.
"Alright, meet back here in half an hour. This island isn't too big, it won't take us long to search it."
"What's the signal if one of us is in trouble?" Jerome questions.
"I'll imitate the scream of a little girl." I offer, earning a small chuckle from everyone.
"Okay then, the official 'help' signal is screaming like a little girl." Mitch snickers.
"Wh- hey! I wasn't serious!" I huff, pretending to be offended.
Jerome rolls his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips, "Come on, we're wasting valuable time."

While Mitch and Jerome break off to search the left side of the island, Vikk and I head towards the right.

     In every direction, no matter where I look, I can only see the remains of buildings and houses, not a single structure still standing.

     "Herobrine actually needs to fudge off." I spit, thinking off all the innocent lives taken.
     Vikk nods, "Yeah... Hey look, there's a few chests over there." Vikk states, cocking his heads towards two chests, just peeking out from under a pile of charred logs.

     We stroll over to the pile of junk, heaving the unless blocks off and rummaging through a chest each. Though unfortunately for me, literally the only thing inside the chest is a few pieces of raw fish.

     "Fish, fish, fish, mate." I complain, holding up a fish for Vikk to see. "Literally."
     "Eh it's not all that bad. I mean, it's still food and I'm sure Jerome would appreciate it." Vikk chuckles, eyes still scanning over the contents of his chest. "Mm... It's not the best but it's still something." Vikk continues, pulling out a few pieces of bread, a fishing rod, and a few slime balls.

     The items vanish into his inventory, and we walk away from the rubble in search of more abandoned loot.

~~~

     After a good twenty-five more minutes we managed to locate some decent ores, some used tools and weapons, stone, wood, and a ton of other random crap. I'm currently rummaging through a chest, picking out the mob loot inside and Vikk is a little ways behind me, doing the same. After I finish scooping the materials up, I turn and make my way back towards Vikk, who's reaching into a double chest.

     "Vikk! Anything good?" I greet, stuffing a piece of cookie in my mouth.
     He smiles, "Yeah, there was a random emerald sitting in this chest, and a couple of splash potions of healing too." He continues, holding up the bottle to prove it, "Other than that just a bit of random- get down!"

Suddenly Vikk is grabbing a fistful of my hoodie, and pinning me to the ground behind a pile of cobblestone. I'd scream, but Vikk already has a hand over my mouth, preventing anything but a muffled noise.

He puts a finger to his lips, takes his hand off my mouth, left go of my hoodie, and gets off me to peek over the pile of cobblestone. Out of instinct, I turn invisible.

"What is it, Vikk?" I whisper, mentally preparing to fight and/or scream for Mitch and Jerome.
"Enderman... I don't know if it saw us or not."
"One of Herobrines?"
"Yeah..." Vikk confirms in a hushed tone.

Vikk ducks back down, and we stay immobile for another minute or so. This time when Vikk peeks to see if the Enderman is still there, he stands up fully.

"It's gone, you can come out now." Vikk assures me, watching as my form fades back into view. "Sorry for pulling out down like that, I just wanted to make sure it didn't see us. Hopefully we were quick enough." Vikk apologies, offering me a hand.
"It's fine, you did give me a bit of a fright though. Now... Let's get back to Mitch and Jerome, they're going to wonder where we are."

~~~

"An Enderman? Here? This place is in ruins, and surrounded by water, what would an Enderman be doing here?" Mitch questions, a troubled look upon his face.
"I'm not sure, but I'm pretty certain it didn't see us. Just in case it did though, we should probably get out of here." Vikk suggests.
"Did you guys get any good stuff?" I ask the Merome duo.
Jerome tilts his head side to side, "Eh we found some pretty decent stuff. Nothing too special though. What a bout you guys?"
"Same situation here." I chuckle.
"Alright, the Suns is getting low, let's get out of here before something finds us." Vikk ushers, stepping down into the murky waterline. "If we keep heading South, we should reach the Great Desert in a day or two."

     With that the four of us slide back into the deep muddy water, and start wading our way out of the swamp.

     Out of the corner of my eye, I could've sworn I saw the spindly figure of an Enderman, lurking in the shadow of a tree. But when I look, there's nothing there. So I shrug it off, and tail after the others.

~~~

Question of the chapter:

What's your favourite subject in school?

My answer: Either Music or Math (I, along with many other from my class, take AP math, which means we take a grade ahead of our math aka we do grade 9 math even though we're in grade 8)