Hermitcraft short stories, One-shots, Random stuff & AUs

Cleo (PT 2)

Opening one eye slightly she saw the man with his swords by his sides, he had taken a step back from her, his eyes held a mixture of surprise, confusion, pity and guilt.

“Are-are you… conscious?” He said, “Sorry that isn’t the right word-”
She nodded, understanding what he meant, she lowered her arm, looking up at him.
“Can you speak?” He asked, looking at her, cautious.
She nodded again, “What’s your name?”
“Cl-cleo…” She said, her voice sounded gravely and hoarse from years of not speaking, she coughed a few times, “My name is Cleo.”
“Well Cleo, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Xisuma, but most people call me X.” The man explained, he reached out his hand to her, she looked up at him, untrusting, and still scared.
“You can trust me.” He said.
“The last person who said that to me threw me to the zombies.” Cleo said, getting up on her own and stepping away from him, leaving a few meters between them. X could see that it would be hard to get this girl to trust him.

“I’m sorry.” He said, “You don’t have to trust me, but you could come with me, I can get you out of this dimension, to a safe place, with nice people.”

"But- I'm a zombie?" Cleo said, confused, "No-one would want me there-" Cleo said.
"You're underestimating these people's ability to love and befriend almost anyone, jeez they even welcomed my brother with open arms." Xisuma said,
Cleo nodded, "Your brother?"
"I'll tell you about everyone on the way, that is if you'll come?" X held his hand out to her again, this time she reached forward and took it.
"O-ok, let's go." She said.

Xisuma lead Cleo through alleyways, and across empty streets, seeming to be attempting to avoid as much confrontation with the zombies as possible, until they finally reached an old bank, which, surprisingly, looked semi untouched.

“Come on, there’s a portal to my dimension, it’s in the vault.” X said, she nodded and he lead her further into the bank, down some steps and into one of the large vaults.

Cleo stood staring at the swirling purple portal, on the other side, she could see a group of people, A dirty-blonde boy, who's eyes were glowing purple, he had large purple wings, and was seemingly holding the portal open,

To his left stood a girl with blonde hair, who held a sword defensively, looking ready to deal with any threat that came through the portal.

Next to her was a guy that looked like he was half robot with weird green skin and a torn lab coat, who was welding some kind of trident,

Behind the first man stood too more, one wearing a cowboy hat and the other with a clean white lab coat, they both had one of their hands of each the first's shoulders, their eyes were closed and she could see the light blue swirling magical aura around them both, they were giving the first strength to keep the portal open it seemed.

She looked around at the other people in the crowd as they looked back, some of them talking with worried faces or some looking at her, then the silence was broken by the dirty blonde holding the portal.

"I can't keep it open for much longer!" He yelled, "X hurry!"
“Cleo quickly!” X said, taking her arm and half leading, half dragging her towards the portal, she snapped out of her daze and leapt into the portal, her arm still in his grip.

For a minute of so, she felt like she was falling into nothingness, she thought for sure that she was going to die, when her stomach flipped over and she was spat out of the portal onto wet grass. She felt sick and dizzy, she heard a crack and the portal disappeared.

“Hey are you ok?” Someone asked her, she looked up, her brain was filled with fog from the strange portal experience, she shook her head to clear the foggy sensation and looked up, seeing the girl with the sword. She wanted to say something but she was afraid she'd throw up if she opened her mouth, so she didn't.

"She's probably never travelled by portal before," said the man in the torn cost, walking over, "She's acting like someone would after their first trip."
Cleo nodded, to confirm that he was right.

"Here," someone said, it was Xisuma, who had appeared in front of her and was offering his hand. She took it gratefully and let him pull her up.

"Who's this?" The man in the untorn lab coat asked X, coming over, with the cowboy, they both looked drained with effort.

"This is Cleo." X said, Cleo nodded, slightly nervous.
"I-i'm a zombie, Xisuma saved me from that world…"
"Hey Cleo! I'm Falsesymmetry, but just call me False." Said the girl.
"I'm Doc." Said the guy with the torn cost rather bluntly.
Cleo smiled, "It's nice to meet you."

The boy with purple wings came over, Cleo noticed that his eyes were no longer glowing purple and now we're dark brown and shone with happiness. 

"I'm Cub, This is Scar." The other lab coat guy said, gesturing to the cowboy,
"Hii!" Scar said with a wave, they both smiled, “Nice to meet you Cleo.”
Cleo smiled, she hadn’t felt so happy in so long she almost forgot how it felt.

“Hey Cleo, how would you feel about joining Hermitcraft?” Xisuma asked her, she turned to face him, confused.
“What is hermitcraft?” She asked.
“Hermitcraft is what we call this world, we live and survive here." False said.
"You would accept me info your world?" Cleo asked, "Just like that?"
"Of course! I can tell we can trust you." Scar said.
""Thank you all so much… you're so kind…" Cleo said, "I'd love to join Hermitcraft, if you guys will have me."
Xisuma nodded and then Cleo was engulfed in hugs, the people she had just met piling on top of eachother, giving her their welcomes. The people who hadn't yet introduced themselves said hello to Cleo happily.

And just like that Cleo was part of the group. She never questioned their trustworthiness, and they never gave her a reason to. She never had to worry that she would wake up and have to run again. She had finally found a home after four years of running, after four years without a family, she finally had people she could rely on.