四** (Chapter four)
eng: Magic...?

~

Wither

~

There's something odd about that Stray we call Skeleton. No, I'm not talking about how salty he is. He's a bit... Off. Secretive.

I glance at him from the distance. He seems to be trying to craft something...

"Are you kidding me...," he mutters, tossing a whole stack of wood planks onto the ground, angrily.

I swear... Either this guy has some hidden secrets or he's just a plain idiot.

Standing up from my bed, I walk over to the crafting table he was previously trying to use.

"I wonder what he was trying to build..." I shrug. "It's not like I care, anyway." It was currently eight o'clock in the morning, and Skeleton seemed to be hitting the hay. Already?

I glance at him, making sure that he's fully asleep before teleporting outside.

A soft morning breeze sweeps over my shoulders. I sigh and take a deep breath before taking my usual morning stroll. It's such a shame that mobs have to miss out on such beautiful mornings such as this one. A pity, really.

~

It was currently three in the afternoon. I yawned nonstop, my whole figure starting to slouch as I started getting more and more exhausted.

"Damn... I guess it's time to call it in..." I teleport back to the little house, flopping straight onto my newly crafted bed. I could hear Skeleton's soft snores from the distance, but I was too tired to complain. I fall asleep almost instantaneously, my mind drifting into the world of sleep...

"Wither." A soft voice says, "You're your father's son... So strong and courageous..."

I glance at my mother, my eyes filled with nothing but hatred. My father? I wanted to be nothing like him. All he knew was to make others suffer, whilst enjoying every moment of his pathetic life.

"No," I whisper, my voice barely echoing, "I'm not like him. I never will be."

She smiles a soft yet sinister smile, my body trembling at the mere sight of it.

"Son...," she says, pausing for a moment, "Your father and I took great pride into raising you... One day, the Nether will be yours. You will be your father's notorious successor... I'm so proud of you..." Her eyes were full of joyous tears. I felt sick to my stomach as I watched her delicately cry, her soft and silky robe slightly tracing my hands.

"Mother... I don't want to," I whispered. She pauses, swiping her robe across her delicate tear-stained cheeks.

"Oh, my son... May I ask... When did you start believing you had any choice in this matter?"

~

"Wake up, Wither." I wake up to a sharp pain in my chest. My eyes jolt open immediately.

"What the fuck...," I groan, letting the curse slip. I glare at Skeleton, who was staring at me with an unreadable expression.

"You wouldn't wake up no matter how many times I called you, so I just decided a light punch in the guts would do the trick." I stare at him in disbelief. Who does he think he is, huh?!

"I'm exhausted, leave me alone." I throw my covers over my head, snuggling back into my pillow...

...Only for another jolt of pain when my left side gets hit rather roughly.

"That's it!" I exclaim, hopping out of my bed and pinning the smaller Skeleton onto the wall behind him, "Do you even know who the fuck I am and how bad I could fuck you up?!" I expected a rather fearful expression to be drawn on his face, but... He seemed rather amused by it all.

"Nice vocabulary you've got there, Wither. Interesting wordplay as well." And with that said, he effortlessly pushes me away. I was left in so much shock that he had the guts to retort back at me, that I couldn't even move for a few seconds after.

This idiot. I swear... If we weren't classmates and Herobrine wouldn't find out, I'd have killed this stray in a matter of seconds.

"Anyway. It's eight and we have thirty minutes left to arrive to school. We'd best get going."

This guy couldn't be anymore unbelievable. We have thirty fucking minutes. It takes like, what, five minutes to walk from here?

"You're crazy," I grumble, "I'm not leaving this early." Besides, if I wanted to, I could teleport to school last-minute.

I yawn, my body not especially liking the idea of sleeping for only five hours. I sit down on one of the dining chairs, putting my head down.

"No way. You're not gonna be late on my watch." Skeleton was roughly tugging at my arm, grunting in annoyance when I wouldn't budge.

"Stop it," I grumble. He continues to do so, annoying me to the brim. I groan in defeat, standing up and pushing my chair in, unamused. "Happy?"

"Very," He replies, obviously sarcastic.

"Whatever. But before we go to school, we're going to take a bit of a detour. The sun's almost completely set." He looks at me questionably, yet not protesting as he trots behind me, quietly.

It was rare for me to actually wake up this early, so I almost never got to watch the sun set. I always found sunrise to be the most beautiful, but I couldn't just give up my chances at watching a perfect sunset.

"Sit," I say, pointing to a large rock.

"What are we even doing?" He asks, sighing as he sits down. I sit next to him quietly, leaving his question unanswered.

The sun... I've always loved the sun. The sun is so beautiful, yet so magical. When I was younger, I was never able to experience such beautiful light. It was only until recent years I've been able to watch sunrise and occasional sunsets.

"Wither...?"

I scoff and glare at him. "What is it now?"

"I hate to break it to you, but... It's eight-twenty."

"So...?"

"We're going to be late. C'mon." He grabs my hand and tugs softly. I sigh and take in my last few moments of watching the sunset before reluctantly following the annoying stray.

~

"Wow, you're on time for once!" Zombie exclaims in disbelief as Skeleton and I enter the classroom. I roll my eyes and plop down onto my desk, putting my head down.

"Not so fast." I felt a sharp pain on the top of my head, hissing painfully. Herobrine shakes his head, his ruler in hand. Skeleton was next to me, giggling quietly.

"Anyway," Herobrine says, "Mobs, today we have an adventure planned. Today's challenge is to find the rarest item you can in the wild by the end of the night. You'll be paired with your tablemates as per usual. The winning pair will be rewarded with all of the treasures your other classmates find. I'm finished talking, the challenge starts now." Most mobs start hopping out of their seats, darting out of the classroom in search for rare items.

I reluctantly push my chair in, not wanting a lecture from Herobrine or a snarky remark from Skeleton.

"So...," Skeleton says, "What's our goal?"

"Don't care. If it were my choice, I'd take this chance to skip class and sleep in."

"We're not doing that. Anyway, I think it'd be best if we just walked around for a bit and see what we come across."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

Skeleton lead the way, seemingly happy to do so. Many uninteresting things interested my weird roommate. It seemed as if every new type of flower we'd come across interested him, along with all sorts of ores. A few hours had gone by and we made little to no progress, thanks to Skeleton.

"This is a waste of time. I'm going home."

"Wither, wait! We're literally in the middle of nowhere... You could get lost!"

"Doubt it," I say, already starting to walk away, "I've got a pretty keen sense of direction if you ask me."

"Wither, you can't just leave me here!"

"I can and I will."

He flinches at those words, sprinting towards me and grabbing my arm. "Please don't go..."

I groan. "Fine. But I'm leading for the rest of this 'adventure'."

We walk silently alongside each other for the next half hour. Skeleton kept his curiosity in tact, in which I was secretly grateful of.

"There's a cave over there. That's our best chance to find rare ores. Do you have a pickaxe?" He shakes his head and I sigh. I hand him an iron pickaxe from my inventory and pull out a few torches before entering the dark cave. Without torches, it was almost impossible for me to see a thing.

"This is hopeless...," He says, "We've been mining for over an hour and have found absolutely nothing but stone and coal!" We exit the cave, our inventories filled with unnecessary amounts of stone.

"As I suggested, we should've just skipped the whole thing and slept in. You're the one who insisted that we go forth with this stupid 'adventure'."

"At least I'm actually willing to put in effort! All you seem to be interested in doing is sleeping!" We bicker back and forth until we hear something snap. Skeleton freezes and whispers, "What was that..."

"Probably nothing," I say, scanning the area, "But I guess I'll take a quick look to be sure. Don't move."

"W-Wait-! Wither, don't just leave me here!..." I ignore his pleas and continue walking a bit deeper into the forest.

Yeah, I think it was just a rabbit or something.

That was until I heard his scream.

I retrace my steps and rush back to where I asked Skeleton to stay, only for him to not be there. I could hear him screaming in the distance, panicked breathing and quick footsteps.

Damn it. Maybe I should've stayed next to him after all.

I sigh and teleport to Skeleton's coordinates. Skeleton was currently pinned down by a wolf, his health decreasing rapidly. In a calm yet quick motion, I manage to distract the wolf. I had telepathically shoved the wolf off of Skeleton, causing the predator to float multiple feet in the air. I release my hold on it and it falls, almost all of its health depleted. With one finally blow with my sword, the wolf falls limp and disappears.

My sword disappears from my hand as I sigh. I turn around and decide to check up on the stray, his health stats extremely low. His hunger bar indicated that he was on the verge of starvation, and his health indicating a single heart left. His icy-blue cheeks were extremely pale, and his cloak was basically ripped to shreds. His breathing was extremely labored.

"Idiot. Do you not eat or something?" A potion of harming appears in my hand. I pull the cork off of the top, shoving the tip into the nearly unconscious stray's mouth. I tip the liquid down his throat, repeating the process with three more bottles until his health bar was completely full.

Once he's fully healed, he groans softly and glances up at me. His expression was rather unreadable, but, I could see a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"How... H-How did you do that?" He whispers. He leans up against a tree. I raise an eyebrow. "Do what?"

"You... You somehow got the wolf off of me without physically touching it, I... I'm pretty sure I wasn't hallucinating that. R-Right?"

Should I tell him? None of my classmates knew about my abilities, not even Herobrine did.

"...Yeah. You weren't hallucinating."

"T-Then how...?"

"Look, Skeleton," I say, "You better not say a word about this to anyone. You got it?"

"Y-Yeah. I promise."

"Since you'll probably never stop bugging me about it, I guess I'll tell you. I, um... I have some unique abilities."

"Like...?"

"I can teleport, float, turn invisible, all of that fun stuff. I'd love to tell you more but the challenge is going to end in a few minutes." I spawn a diamond and emerald into Skeleton's hands. "Here, just tell Herobrine we found these."

Skeleton was still extremely shocked, but managed to nod his head. "Y-Yeah. O-Okay."

On cue, Herobrine teleports in front of us. "Wow, you two did better than expected. Good job, you two." Herobrine praises us, collecting the gems from Skeleton's hands.

"I'll teleport you both home now. I'll announce the winners of this competition tomorrow morning."

~

A/n: ...AN UPDATE!