The doorknob clicked and turned. And slowly, that great door opened.
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It had been about a week since getting injured. Now, you were well off enough to withstand returning to camp. You said a brief but tearful goodbye to Anna and thanked Manfrid for taking such good care of her. Anna desperately wanted you to stay, but Herobrine had other plans.
He teleported the two of you just outside of where the camp supposedly was and was glass to see it still in good condition. The only big difference being that all the tents were now covered in branches to better hide from any surveyors above. As you entered camp, one monster after another noticed, staring at though witnessing a ghost. Then,
"HERO!!" Sandrah leapt for Herobrine, wrapping her arms around his neck. She didn't seem to care anymore about not showing affection towards him in public. She was just too happy to see him again. "Where have you BEEN!?"
Herobrine embraced the woman loosely, chuckling awkwardly as he thought of a response. "(Y/n) got into a little trouble is all. She was stabbed and had to be nurses back to health." Sandrah confused/glared over the man's shoulder at you. You, fearing you would never hear the end of this, lifted the side of your shirt a little to reveal part of the mostly healed massive scar. Sandrah mouthed "oh," letting it slide.
"Well I'm soo so so so so glad you're okay!" She just as suddenly returned to being overjoyed. Hero chuckled, letting her down. Once the other girl was down, she calmly walked over to you. "You doing alright?"
You nodded and faked a smile. "Yep.." She pat your back aggressively, in an endearing way.
"Well if you need some rest, there's still room for you in the lady's tent!" You smiled softly and passed her further into camp. Herobrine started giving orders immediately that soon they would start to move. Everyone was a week behind schedule and it was clear the man wanted to make up for that extra time. While everyone packed up, you casually searched the small collection of books in Herobrine's possession while he was away. In one of them, you found a book on rare magic and myths deemed false by the general population but were actually somewhat true. It was an older book, so there was an interesting page in there about the "Troubling Twins:" two immortal men believed to be Notch's opposite, both possessing great power and glowing white eyes. Their names were unknown, but... Aha! In the corner of one of the pages in the chapter about them was a picture of a little flower, as well as a small blurb regarding where it could be found. You tore the corner piece off, making sure to make it look like an accident just in case someone started to catch on. You slid the little piece of paper into a small booklet and tucked it away in your pocket. You'd have to find a better hiding place for it later.
And then the journey started up again. The hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers moving at a faster pace than before. Herobrine kept you close on a horse beside him so that he could ensure you were safe. Sandrah clung to his other side, also riding a horse. He rode a ravager. And, at long last, you knew why you all were trudging through a forest. In the next week, you stopped at THREE woodland mansions. Herobrine would either recruit them with bribes or threats to join his cause. In the end, none could deny him and simply had to join his side. Every woodland mansion seemed to have their own separate governing system. So, apparently all those Iillager watch towers weren't run by the same, mass organization, but rather each mansion owned three to five of them respectively. Apparently, also, it was common for the mansions to go to war with one another, even though they all heired from the same ancient Iillager race. That, of course, meant there was a lot of arguing and confusion within the camp.
You couldn't exactly see how this would end well... Good.
All you needed now...was a good excuse to be gone for a while.
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Unfortunately, the nightmares never really went away. And because you kept keeping all the other women awake in the community tent, you were asked to sleep outside. Even Sandrah joined in, at the end, since she was too tired to put up with something you couldn't even control anymore.
You were sad, but understood. It was all so much easier with Anna around...
You sat alone by the embers of a dying fire with a blanket wrapped around you. Your mind wandered, bags under your eyes..but you didn't want to sleep anymore.
"Thought you would be here..." Herobrine spoke calmly as he approached the fire. You didn't even acknowledge his emergence by looking at him.
"What are you doing awake?"
"I don't need sleep unless injured." Herobrine sat down on a log to your left, staring at the faint glow of the embers as well. He clasped his hands together, elbows leaning on his knees. "I've just been circling camp for the past few hours.... Bad dream?" He asked. You nodded faintly. "Darn... Wish I could make those go away.."
"Mhm..." You were so tired, one of your eyes started leaking small tears, and your body swayed as though about to tip at any minute. Seeing this, Herobrine got up and sat down on the grass beside you. Both his arms wrapped around you and pulled you against his chest. "Ay! St-op!" You protested, trying to push yourself away. He only held you tighter.
"It'll be okay... Just sleep." He gently spoke as one hand of his brushed through your hair. You were stiff as a board, but, eventually you gave in and melted into his hold. In that moment, Hero felt as though he already owned the world. Your half asleep self was woken again when your body jostled. The fallen king set you on his lap and wrapped his arms around you fully, tightening them in a possessive sort of way. Your heart skipped by several beats.
"Let me go." You demanded, hoping not freaking out right away would help.
The immortal chuckled. "Mine." Flopping with you onto his side. His body curled into a ball around you, a pillow manifesting for the two of you to lay your heads on. You growled and squirmed.
"I'm no-ot. Your. Snuggle buddy!"
Herobrine just hummed into the back of your neck, instantly freezing you in place. "Mmm, believe what you want, but I missed this..." He hugged you a little tighter, bringing one leg up to wrap over the two of yours. Your heart thumped in your ears, having not a clue what the HECK you could even do! The fact that you were essentially trapped in a netting of your own making: the blanket -- didn't help at all either!
Slowly, Hero dozed off.. and slowly, you did too...
Huh, odd... You didn't have any nightmares for the rest of the night.
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When you woke up, you were back in the tent you'd just been kicked out of as though nothing even happened. You began to wonder if it was even a dream or not until, "Sorry for kicking you out of the tent last night. I was...really tired." Sandrah approached, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck.
"Yeah...same." Another woman added as she sat in her bed up, rubbing out a sore spot on her leg. You forgave them briefly and got up yourself. Everyone was taking down the tents and packing up again. You didn't have much to pack and so spend much of the time helping everyone else. And once everyone was getting into position to march again, you...wandered toward the back. You knew it was useless even trying to leave your normal post, but you at least wanted to try.
As expected, Herobrine approached you himself at the very asked with several questions on his mind. "Why aren't you at your usual post?" Trying to look demanding and intimidating in front of his soldiers. Huffing, you gave him 'the look'.
"You know why." Hero's jaw tightened. Indeed he did. It was kind of hard to talk about this in front of his men, so the two of you, especially him, tried to be as obscure as possible.
Standing taller, "It would be an act of betrayal if you didn't assume your usual post." He laid out for you. Not wanting to destroy the reputation you had built up, you, reluctantly returned at his side as before. "Have your armor at the ready." Herobrine said as the two of you sat on your rides. "We will be approaching enemy lines shortly." This caught your intrigue. Hero smiled when he saw just how curious you were. "...We will be conquering the house of Notch today." His smile widened into a smirk, aiming his eyes ahead. "I'm sure of it."
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Everyone spread out, hiding in the forest that circled the GREAT kingdom; fit for a god, Notch's castle alone was massive and grand, made with quartz, gold, glass, and deepslate bricks. Its structure jutted up into the sky marvelously, a testament to the true power of the one who lived in it.
You sat at a makeshift table with Herobrine, Sandrah, and a few monster generals. Together you devised a plan. Well they devised a plan. You didn't want to contribute too much to the destruction of your last hope. However, you did give some input every now and then to at least cover up your deliberate avoidance.
"Alright," Herobrine went over the plan one last time, pointing to the map as he did so. "So regiments two and three will take the ammo houses and block off the escape routes. Regiment one will follow me into the throne room with Notch. (Y/n), that includes you." Your eyes widened a little bit. Crap. "Regiments four and five will surround the castle and fire all who try to flee. Exactly ten minutes after I enter, the final regiment: six, will follow in after and finish off whatever enemy is left. Got it? Now each of you generals are allowed to make your own detailed plans for your own regiments, but stay in your general positions." All the others nodded. As they left, you scratched your chin and slowly walked around the tables staring down at the map.
"What is wrong?" Herobrine asked.
"I just... I dunno about my positioning here."
"What do you mean? You will play a crucial part in taking down Notch at my side."
"And I am honored, truly, but..." Your head lowered, mind swirling with variations of the next thing to say, masking it with sadness. "I just feel like... Like Sandrah would be a better fit.."
"Wh...! But why?"
"I was..." Your shoulders dropped. "..no help in the last battle..."
"You still remember the incantation to keep him from teleporting away, don't you? Jhiethro ren, san-mulaok--"
"I- I do! Just..." You looked down at your shirt, touching a hand to your recently injured side. "Tssss!" You hissed in pain. It didn't sting nearly as much as you made it out to be, but it still did hurt at least a little. You hoped, though, that if Hero truly cared about you, he wouldn't force you to join in in the heat of battle. That just wouldn't work well with your plans.
"Stop." Herobrine grabbed the wrist of the hand touching your side. You looked up into his eyes, surprised by his little pleading face. "...I get it..." He empathized. "You can go with regiments two and three... I'll teach Sandrah the incantations instead." He resolved under a gentle tone. You smiled a smidge, glad to hear it. And, just because it would be a little awkward if you didn't, you leaned in and gave the man a little hug.
"Thanks."
The immortal placed a kiss on your hair and held it there for a while. His arms wrapped around your waist as he did so. Finally lifting his lips from your hair, "Anything for you.."
How...crushing.
Especially since you had no plans to ever come back.
At least not as his ally that is.