Living in Me (Sequel to Not Gonna Die)

|Chapter 12| Explaining Your Life pt 1

          The forest was full of bird chirps and animal chatter and the splashing of a stream and the rustling of leaves, with a breeze blowing through that bore some of the chill from the snow country not too far in the north. Without warning, a blur of colour came out of nowhere and stopped in the middle of this forest and Herobrine was standing there, hands on hips, looking around and waiting. The warning cry of the birds came a second too late for his arrival but was in time for the arrival of a second man, who stumbled as he returned to normal speed and stood hunched over with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. Herobrine gave a little laugh as he saw his comrade.

          "Having fun?" he asked.

          Adam could do nothing but shake his head, still puffing, his sunglasses threatening to fall off. After a few moments, he stood up and put his hands on his head, taking deep breaths. "I've never been so exhausted in my life." He waved his hand a little. "You want to tell me why we're here, in the middle of nowhere?

          "I told you, we're going to update Anne on what's happening, and then we're going to visit Notch," Herobrine said. "Speaking of, let's get going, we don't have a lot of time to waste."

          Adam let out a breath and followed Herobrine as the latter set off through the trees towards a nondescript clump of boulders that jutted up from the ground. Upon closer inspection, Adam saw that there was a thin crack in the middle of the rocks that was just wide enough for someone to walk through. The tunnel beyond sloped down and then across for a while before slanting back up a bit and the two emerged into a very different place in the forest, blinking in the sunlight.

          While the forest they had come from was fairly standard, this section had huge trees that towered above them, ancient branches drooping down, vines dangling from them, tainting the sunlight green. The largest and most tangled of the trees seemed to form something similar to a wall around a section that was more sparsely populated by trees. Tents had been erected in these gaps and the people walking around wore speckled grey pants and light blue tops, clearly more suited for the snow than for a lush green forest. Even so, Adam recognised Queen Anne as she stepped out of one of the tents to greet Herobrine, who walked up to her.

          Adam awkwardly shuffled on his feet and looked around the forest as Anne and Hero exchanged some words and embraces. The camp was rather basic but seemed to be running well and none of the Snow Strikers seemed to be complaining about their current circumstances, which was pretty amazing for an army. Finally, Herobrine finished his conversation and came back to Adam.

          "Next stop, Notch," Herobrine said. "You ready to do some more running?"

          Adam gave a deep sigh. "No, but let's go."

          Herobrine grinned. "We're heading inland, just make sure you slow down in time otherwise you'll end up in the lake."

          "In the what?" But Herobrine had already started to run.

          Luckily for Adam, he did stop in time to avoid going for a swim and when he managed to blink away the tears from his eyes (his sunglasses didn't help to keep away the wind) and focus on the world around him, he saw that the two of them were standing on the sandy bank of a huge lake that was vaguely shaped like a jellybean. At the end furthest away from them, the lake spilled out into a river that twisted and wound away and out of sight behind the sparse trees that dotted either side of the water body. When Adam turned around, he could just see the very tips of a castle base in the distance.

          Herobrine immediately turned to the left and walked away from the lake a little to a spot where the ground sloped almost vertically downwards and the uneven ground far enough below to make it a foreboding drop, but Herobrine didn't hesitate as he jumped down. Adam let a breath go before he followed, his knees and ankles automatically flexing to absorb the force as he hit the ground.