by Cube Kid
“It’s what we’ve been tasked with, Emerald. It’s for the safety of
our village.”
“Yeah. I know. I just miss hot baths, y’know? I’m totally caked in grime, these new boots are hurting my feet, and—hey, look! Over there!”
“Is that an ocelot?”
“Looks like it. What’s up with the blur fur, though?"
“What were you saying about nothing interesting happening?”
“I stand corrected. This is even more interesting than that human girl showing up at our village. What’s her name again?”
“ilovedragons1. Why do some of the humans have such odd names?”
“Who knows. Hey, why isn’t this ocelot waking up?!”
Finally, as I felt something nudge me, my eyes flew open.
“He’s adorable!” the girl with greenish-blue hair exclaimed.
“Is that even an ocelot?” the other girl asked. “Looks more like a monster to me.”
“Whatever he is, I say we keep him.”
“Keep him?! Are you joking?! I thought you didn’t like monsters, Breeze.”
“Wouldn’t a monster be attacking us by now?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“It’s strange, though. I thought ocelots were afraid of people? Has he already been tamed?” It took a moment for the realization to hit.
Breeze?! The girl on the left is Breeze?! Is that some kind of luck or what?!
I rose to all fours and yawned. “You don’t need to talk as if I can’t understand you. I’m well versed in your language.”
The girls jumped back. “Um, like, did he just …”
“You can really talk?” Breeze asked.
“Yeah?”
“Why do I feel things are about to get crazy around here again?” Emerald said.
“I’ve been sent to find a girl named Breeze,” I said. “Also, two boys. One goes by the name of Runt. The other is known as Pebble.”
The girls exchanged glances.
“I don’t understand,” Breeze said. “How do you know about us?”
“Through our mutual friend. Batwing.”
Her smile faded.
Emerald sighed. “Um, is he talking about that skeleton you’ve been dreaming about?”
“Yes.”
“Right. Shall we head back now and warn the mayor of impending craziness the likes of which we’ve never seen?”
Breeze slowly nodded at her, before staring into my eyes. “What’s your name?”
“Eeebs.”
“Nice to meet you, Eeebs. May I ask why you were sent to find us?”
“It’s a long story.”
“That’s fine. Would you like to head back to our village with us? You can tell us on the way.”
“Of course,” I said. “Oh, and now that you mention it, I should say that I’ve been instructed to inform you of something. Regarding your village.”
The girls exchanged glances again. “What is it?” Breeze asked.
“All of you should leave before the moon is full,” I said, “and head to the capital, as according to the Prophecy … your village is about to be annihilated.”
While searching for the village of Shadowbrook, I met two girls named Emerald and Breeze.
I told them about how I was sent to find them and how, according to the Prophecy, their village would soon be destroyed.
Come to find out, I was never going to find Shadowbrook. It was Breeze’s home village, and it was completely wiped out some time ago. She’s one of the survivors who fled.
“Wait,” I said. “Where are you taking me, then?”
“Villagetown. We believe it’s the last village still standing on this side of the continent.”
“Well, the humans say it’s not really a village,” Emerald said, “but a town. And maybe they’re right, y’know? It’s changed so much.”
“It has.” Breeze turned away. We were standing on a large hill overlooking a river, and she pointed at something far away. I’d never seen anything like it before.
“Is that some kind of tree?” I asked.
Breeze shook her head. “It’s one of our watchtowers. It also functions as a beacon. Our builders constructed them around our village to help the scouts find their way back.”
“All we have to do is head in that direction and we’ll be home,” Emerald said. “Max came up with the idea. A friend of ours. Actually, I guess Runt should get some credit for—”
I almost jumped when she said his name. “You know Runt?!”
“Of course,” Emerald said. “He’s part of our group. In fact, he should be with us right now.”
“Why isn’t he?”
“He’s currently being punished.” To my blank expression, Emerald sighed. “We recently graduated from school, and the mayor gave us one last little school assignment. We had to write twenty pages about our chosen profession. Now, I love my village and all, and I have absolutely zero regrets about becoming a warrior, but dude … c’mon. Who wants to write twenty pages about anything? Luckily, Runt thought of a way for us to avoid writing so much without breaking the rules, and every other student copied Runt’s idea. Needless to say, the mayor wasn’t too thrilled about that. Guess that’s why Runt is back to crafting potato-based food items.”
Resisting the urge to ask, “What’s a potato?” I nodded. “Hmm. Do you think I’ll be able to speak with him?”
“Probably,” Emerald said. “That is, if the entire village doesn’t freak out upon hearing the bad news. By the way, what kind of dragon is supposed to attack?”
“I have no idea. I don’t even know what a dragon is.”
“…”
After the girls took me to their village, I was surrounded by so many people. No one seemed to be afraid of me—not even the children:
“Is that really an ocelot?”
“It looks more like a monster!”
“Wow! Where can I get one of those?!”
“Thanks for the fish,” I said, to a human boy named LazyGiraffe. “An hour of sprinting can really drain your food bar.”
“You can talk?!”
“Hey, what’s your name?!”
“What kind of ocelot are you, huh?!”
My introduction to Villagetown went pretty much like that.
A girl named Ophelia gave Breeze a hug. “Glad to see you back safely. What’s the deal with this guy?”
“It’s complicated,” Breeze said.
Emerald laughed. “I’ll say. Just wait until you hear the news.” She turned to Ophelia. “Hey. Your dad’s a librarian, right? Ever heard about something called the Prophecy?”
“I haven’t. Why?”
“Never mind.” Emerald glanced farther into the village. “I’m out. Time for a bath. See you guys at the meeting?”
Ophelia blinked. “What meeting?”
But Emerald only winked before taking off.
“Um, okay?” The yellow-haired girl turned to Breeze. “What’s going on?”
“Seems like this kitten came from a city of monsters,” Breeze said. “Good ones.” She reached down and scratched my neck. “Isn’t that right?”
“I don’t consider myself to be a monster,” I said, “but yes. You are correct.”
“So, why are you here?” Ophelia asked me.
“Have you ever heard of someone known as a Savior?”
“No?”
“How about Chosen Ones?”
“Um …”
The other villagers looked just as confused.
Moments later, a man known as the mayor approached, along with many serious-looking men in black clothes.
“Breeze? What’s going on here?! And … what is that?!”
“We found him sleeping under a tree. He h
as a message for us.”
“Right.” The mayor stared at me without blinking for at least five seconds. “Um. Good work.”
One of the men in black robes threw something around my neck—I’d later come to learn that it was a leash.
I hissed and tried running away, but whenever I moved more than five blocks away from my captor, I flew back toward him.
Breeze moved up to the man. “Father, stop!”
He smiled slightly. His eyes were concealed by these weird-looking black things. “You know what must be done.”
They hauled me away to a small, dark room and asked countless questions. The kind of questions cautious people ask when a blue kitten suddenly shows up at their village.
Yes, it’s true. And their breath isn’t nearly as stinky as yours.
I told them everything, but they didn’t believe a word. No one had heard of the Prophecy, and as for dragons …
“The Overworld hasn’t seen dragons for over a thousand years!” the man named Brio shouted. “One kind of dragon still lives on, yes, but only in the third dimension!”
“All I know is what I’ve been told! The enderman gave me this book, and …”
After I talked about the book Greyfellow had loaned me, Brio brought in more villagers. They wore white robes.
I came to learn that they were librarians and had in-depth knowledge of this world’s history. Yet, none of them could recall ever reading about the Prophecy.
“What about these abilities you speak of?” the mayor asked. “Care to demonstrate them?”
“Sure.”
To their awe, I breathed fire, climbed a nearby cobblestone wall, and turned almost invisible when standing still.
“If there was a pool of lava nearby,” I said, “I could go for a swim. I’m immune to fire, just like the monsters that live in the Nether.”
Finally, I summoned my visual enchantment screen. Brio and the mayor recognized it immediately. Amazingly, they had visual enchantments as well. They summoned them using their mind, the same as I had.
“Almost every living being has them,” Brio said. “Yet, most are unable to access them. They must be … unlocked.”
The two villagers closed their screens, and the mayor looked at mine, which was currently displaying my enhancements. “What’s that?”
“The enderman enchanted me somehow,” I said, and held up my purple claws.
“Did he ask you to step into a metallic box of some kind?” Brio asked.
“You mean a rune chamber?”
“Yes.” Brio turned to the mayor. “Perhaps he speaks the truth?”
The mayor nodded. “Listen … Eeebs, is it? I’m going to call everyone in the village. We’re going to have a meeting.”
“You’ll need to tell everyone what you’ve told us just now,” Brio added. For some reason, he was smiling again in that strange way. “I suppose we’ll soon be making yet another alliance.”
The man named Drill spoke up. “Tell me this creature is joining our army. Please. I want this thing on the front lines.”
“Perhaps he will.” Brio stopped smiling. “One last thing, kitten. Did that book mention the names of the two Saviors?”
“Yes. But I forgot them. The enderman asked me to remember so many different things. The book said that one of them was a human. Does that help?”
“Not exactly.”
An hour later, I stood in a fancy-looking area of Villagetown. A countless number of villagers had gathered before me.
Wait, no. Roughly half of them weren’t villagers. They looked different … wore different clothes. Perhaps they were the humans I’d heard about?
(Now that I think about it, I’ve seen villagers several times before, back when I was just a normal kitten, but I don’t recall ever seeing humans until today. Where’d they come from?)
The mayor eventually introduced me and asked me to tell everyone the news.
I suppose it was strange for them to hear an animal speak.
Stranger still to hear me speak of a city filled with monsters willing to cooperate.
“The monsters I met know about magic,” I said. “They’re very smart. I believe both sides could help each other.”
Of course, there were many who didn’t believe or trust me. Such as a young man who emerged from the crowd. A human, I think? He looked up at the mayor and called out:
When I saw him, I could sense that there was something different about him. It was the same feeling I got after meeting Greyfellow, Batwing, Brio, Breeze, Emerald.…
Still, he was different from even them. Stronger, maybe? Was the power I sensed due to him being higher in level and possessing stronger abilities than the rest? I’m not sure.
“You certainly have a point,” the mayor said to this human. “We will discuss this at length and have a vote.”
This caused a huge commotion. The crowd only grew louder when the mayor added: “Although it’s hard to imagine, there may come a time when monsters live among us an—”
An old villager man glared at me and shouted, “The day I live alongside monsters is the day I make my own village! I know how to dig! I’ll make an underground house and start a bat farm!”
More villagers joined in:
“I’m with you, Leaf!”
“Me too! This is madness!”
“No one’s even heard of this Prophecy!”
“If a dragon really does attack, we’ll be ready! We’ve already fended off thousands of zombies!”
“Working with monsters?! How can anyone suggest such a thing?! Do you not remember the attacks?!”
“No mobs allowed!” someone screamed.
“Yeah! No mobs allowed!”
Roughly half of the crowd began chanting this phrase. Then someone threw a carrot at me. This was followed by some seeds, an apple, and, finally, a loaf of bread.
(I ate the bread, topping off my food bar, so the joke was on them.)
“Stop this at once!” the mayor shouted. “We cannot ignore what this animal has to say! If there really are good monsters out there, we must consider forming an alliance!”
He left the raised platform and stood next to me. “Even though he is an animal, he appears to be quite intelligent, and he will be treated with respect for as long as he stays here! Understood?”
There were many grumbles, weak attempts at protest. But just as many people walked up to me. Including Breeze.
“I’d like to take him around and teach him more about our village,” she said to the mayor. “Is that okay?”
“Only if Eeebs agrees to it.” He sighed. “Kitten, I’m sorry for their outburst. We’re a little distrustful of monsters. That being said, do you really wish to stay here for the time being?”
“Why not? I like being held.”
“Very well. In the meantime, our librarians will do more research. We’ll see if we can shed some light upon this mysterious Prophecy you speak of. And you’ll be able to speak with Runt after he’s … through with his punishment.”
“Thank you.” I suddenly remembered the human’s words. “Sir.”
“I’m exhausted,” Breeze said to her father. “I’ll take him back to our house and show him Villagetown tomorrow.”
As she turned around, holding me in her arms, she bumped into another person. A villager in a dark red robe. A bunch of white hair hung from the lower part of his face, and he was wearing a huge red hat and the same black things Breeze’s father wore. You couldn’t see much of his face.
“Sorry,” he said. “Forgive me, my lady.”
She stepped closer to him. “Hey, don’t I know you?”
“N-no, no. I … no, I don’t believe we’ve met before. Yes, certainly I’d remember a damsel such as yourself!”
“What’s your name?”
“My name?” He paused. “Korbius!” He nodded profusely. “Yes, that’s my name! Korbius Wijjibo!”
“I don’t recall ever seeing you in Villagetown before.”
“Of course not, for I am … a traveling merchant! Yes! A merchant who travels! That’s meeee!” He bowed. “Would you like to trade?”
“No thanks.” Breeze lingered in front of him for a moment, her brow furrowed, then carried me off. It was strange, the way she acted.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, still purring.
“Nothing.” She glanced back at him. “Guess I’m just paranoid.”
When we entered Breeze’s house, I was shocked at how small it seemed. Compared to Greyfellow’s hut, it was tiny. Her bedroom was five blocks wide.
I sat down on the carpet. “Is it really so hard to believe that good monsters exist?”
“We’ve been through a lot,” she said. “Monsters attacked several times already, and some of us were … well … we’ve lost people.”
“I’m sorry. Then I guess I can understand why they’re so distrustful.”
I sniffed around and saw a book lying on top of a raised flat surface. It was a diary, just like mine.
Where did she learn how to draw like that? I’m so jealous.
She rushed over and closed the diary before I had a chance to really look at the drawing. Her cheeks were so red!
“That’s Runt, right?”
“Yes. You’ve … seen him before, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. Using one of these.” I withdrew the tellstone from my inventory and told her about it.
“That explains a lot,” she said. “I was beginning to think Herobrine was behind those dreams. Maybe we could use this tonight to speak with Runt?”