Ami bustled around her friends, barely avoiding an Izzy to the entire body. Luckily, she managed to keep herself and the bowl of mushroom soup she carried safe as Izzy sprawled into the wall. Izzy shook her head, dizzy from the impact, but clearly not hurt.
"Don't kill each other or anything!" Ami called.
"She has to learn somehow," Charlotte said, rolling her eyes and preparing herself for Izzy's next blow. As Ami headed outside she pondered about Izzy. She had insisted that Charlotte train her in combat, and though it was good for her to know how to defend herself, Ami couldn't help but worry. Izzy had certainly changed since Aiden's death, and she wasn't quite sure how healthy she was mentally. Ami sighed, shivering from the cold as she walked across the roof and to the obsidian cell. Now that she considered it, perhaps it wasn't right to keep someone locked up in a really small space for hours, days on end. Luke could go even more insane than he already was.
"Luke?" Ami opened the trapdoor on the top of the cage. "I brought you breakfast." She saw his dark lump of hair in the corner slowly move and look up. His face was blank, devoid of emotion. Unnerved, Ami passed down the bowl of mushroom soup into his shaking hands. Upon receiving the food, Luke almost immediately vanquished it. Some of the soup splattered on his face and clothes, but most of it went down his throat.
"Don't choke on it!" Ami exclaimed. Luke suddenly stopped his ravenous eating and glared at her with piercing eyes.
"It would be better though, wouldn't it? Having me die rather than live. I don't understand why you all keep me alive." His words surprised Ami. Not because of how lenient Luke seemed to be about his life, but the very fact that he spoke.
"You shouldn't think of yourself that way," Ami found herself saying, unsure of why she kept the conversation going. "It's not healthy." Luke laughed scornfully.
"Healthy? And keeping me here is? You lot are a riot." He went back to eating his half-empty bowl of soup.
"I still don't understand why you did it." Ami leaned her head in her hand, lying down.
"What?"
"You know what! Trying to kill me, for one thing, and then trying to kill everyone else!"
"Oh, that." Luke finished his soup neutrally, passing the bowl up to Ami. "Seeing as I can't leave, your friend Steve made sure to make this cell tall enough so that I can't just jump out or break it, why don't I tell you my life story?" Ami listened in, interested in what he was going to say. Luke cackled at her.
"You really think I'm going to tell you? Hah! A stubborn little wench like you doesn't need to know things she shouldn't. Go stick your gross face somewhere it belongs." Ami huffed at him, red in the face.
"For the record," she said, shutting the trapdoor with so much force that Luke jumped. "I was planning on making your life easier. Now, though…" she trailed off, getting up and leaving the boy to yell at her.
Ami put the bowl in a chest with a loud clatter.
"I'm guessing it didn't go well?" Michael confirmed worriedly as he crafted more armour.
"That little turd-ball is on my last nerve. I was going to be nice to him and not be a jerk, but I seriously need to get a counselor." Ami fumed.
"Judging from the lack of logic you just used in that sentence, I'll bet this apple that he said something rude to you." Steve threw an apple in the air, catching it with ease.
"I'm done!" Ami threw her hands in the air. "Aaaagh!"
"Now you're just being over-dramatic," Steve smirked. "We can give you some leverage to relax, though. I'll take over for his next meal, give him a piece of my mind." Ami sighed. "It's not that bad, really. He's just rude, obnoxious..."
"So a jerkface?"
"Exactly!" Steve laughed at Ami's rage. Michael stuffed a chest plate in a chest, dusting his hands off and spinning to face them. "Now, with that out of the way, we should talk of what comes next."
"Already?" Charlotte leaned back in her chair, the back legs teetering to hold her. "We just settled something, can't we just rest?" A troubled look crossed Michael's face.
"I'd love to, Char, but we're so close to defeating the Ender Dragon...like, so close that we're just about ready to hunt down its lair!"
"So? What will waiting another day to do it do? Let's enjoy another day before anyone else has to die." Everyone went quiet, especially Michael. "It's true," Charlotte said quietly. "Every time we go out, we either come close to death or one of us dies. Can we stay for a bit?"
"Okay," Michael agreed. "But we'll need a couple of people to go out to get a little food today, just to stock up before we leave here for good." Charlotte nodded solemnly, solidifying her dark eyes on the ground.
"I'll go." Steve volunteered, raising a block hand.
"I can go with him, then." Ami bounded to rest beside him. "How much do we need?" Michael scrunched up his face. "Enough to feed all of us for a day or two. I wouldn't stress that much on the amount though, just get as much as you can, and we can divvy it all up from there. Finding the Ender Dragon's lair should only take us a day or two, but I want to be prepared."
"I think the proper term is extremely prepared," Steve smirked. Michael rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Better to have an overfull supply of food than a hollow one. You guys should hurry and go, though. It will be dark in a few hours."
"Roger that." Ami saluted with a grin. "I'm ready to go, everything I need is with me...what about you?" He waved the thought away. "I'm fine, don't worry about me." Ami quickly tied her hair in a ponytail. "Okay, let's go!"
It was a beautiful day outside. Chickens were making obscene noises, cows were grazing. On days like these, the time was ripe for a good harvest...of flesh. Ami thought that her train of thought had taken a dive towards the dark side, which made her a little uneasy. Shaking away her peculiar daydreams, she turned to Steve, who looked just about as squeamish as she did.
"So, are we going to do this, or what?" she wasn't so sure she wanted to maim livestock today.
"Maybe we should just get the crops today," Steve flushed. Ami smiled, her heart sighing in relief. They walked past the wide fence that contained cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens, and instead went to a large strip of land where the ground was tilled in even lines. In between every line was a strip of water, which nourished the crops enough to produce a fine harvest. They would have a lot to harvest, including carrots, potatoes, wheat, sugar canes, and a couple pumpkins and melons littered the tail end of it all.
"Michael really needs to learn how to grow less food. I'm not complaining, but his grotesque amounts are almost reaching hoarder status." Ami laughed. "I see what you mean." She looked to the sky. "Shoot, we should grab some things, it's almost sundown. Michael will kill us if we show up with nothing." Ami and Steve set to work, Ami pocketing potatoes, and Steve collecting carrots. They both made sure to replant any extra crops for the next harvest. Occasionally, a joke would be cracked in the midst of things, but otherwise it was fairly silent. Ami thought perhaps that she had exhausted all conversation topics with Steve, but knew that she herself wasn't feeling up to a conversation anymore. Instead, she focused herself on her work. One potato, three potato, plant potato. She had a successful rhythm going, too. It got to the point when she would mutter her tactics to herself, "One potato, three potato, plant potato..." and didn't notice how time rapidly went by around her.
"Ami?" Steve snapped her out of her routine.
"Yeah?"
"It's dark."
"Dammit." Ami thought that Steve had to have been focused on his work as well, and maybe none of them watched the sun go down. Either way, they needed to head back pronto. Ami planted one last potato in the soft, moist soil, and dusted her stubs off as she got to her feet.
"Okay, let's head back. Good thing the house isn't that far away, huh?"
"Definitely. We would probably be okay even if we had to walk further. I think we could handle ourselves."
"You think you can handle yourself. I'm not the best at fighting."
"Then you can just cheer me on," Steve said, chuckling. Ami rolled her eyes, grinning herself. "As if. I'd cheer the monsters on."
"What?" Steve protested. "That's cold." They both laughed, the only other sound in the night being their crunching footsteps. The house towered above them, and just as they were passing by it, Steve took a long stretch.
"At least we didn't see any monsters this time around. I find that there are a lot of days in which you don't see anything at night unless you go looking for it. Even then, the chances are a little slim. But if you live in the desert, that's a different story."
"Are there more monsters in the desert?" Steve's eyes widened as he nodded very slowly. "Ohh, yes. You wouldn't believe how many just pop out of nowhere."
"Sounds like a horror movie."
"What's a movie?" Steve asked, confused. Ami was taken aback herself, surprised that such an answer would come form anyone's mouth.
"You don't know what a movie is? Where have you been all your life?!"
"Here," he said simply. "I live here."
"Oh, right." The thought never occurred to Ami that there would be another soul that didn't know the comforts of a modern life. She thought that she could try and explain the concept to him, anyway. "A movie," she started. "is something that a bunch of people gather around to watch. Uh...it's kind of like a play, if you know what that is, except with technology." Steve nodded to show his understanding. "Well, Brit used to blabber on about some old guy called Shake a spear-" Ami couldn't hold in a spurt of laughter. Steve looked genuinely concerned. "What? What did I say?" Ami waved the comment away.
"Nothing. It's kind of like that, actually." The two approached the house, Ami still trying to stifle her laughter. None of them noticed what was unseen until it was too late.
Ktsssss...
"Get out of the way!" Steve reacted quickly, shoving Ami to the side as a significant sound of an explosion filled the empty air. Ami gasped, having no time to react to anything herself. She fell, tumbling to the side, safe and unharmed. What was that explosion? What just happened? The gears in her brain suddenly clicked, and a wave of dread seeped through her. Ami scrambled to her feet, and to her horror saw what remained of Steve dissipate into the night. There was a huge hole left where he once stood, and Ami was left alone again.
ns 15.158.61.52da2
