The Void's Song.- Desert Duo. (slow updates)

Nether.

PearlescentMoon was following Martyn LittleWood around like a sick puppy. She didn't mean to, she just kinda felt herself... gravitate towards him. If that made sense?

Yeah, they realized pretty darn quickly that they weren't soulmates, but they still sang cheesy songs about iron cooking, and they shared valuable food and resources when the other was running low. They weren't soulmates, but they were friends, and anyone had gathered anything at all, from the mysterious book at spawn, that was just as important.

So they stuck together, having fun whilst journeying around the server, searching for their soulbounds. They made jokes about frogs, they laughed at Jimmy for being hornless, y'know, the good stuff.

So she tried to bury the feelings of guilt and anxiety when she saw Martyn pull out a water bucket near a lava pool under a stone ledge. She maintained steady breathing as he manipulated the lava and water with outstanding precision, into the wispy violet rectangle that plagued the occasional nightmare.

Martyn had been nothing but an amazing friend, there was no way he was going to intentionally lead her into danger. So she followed, stepping through the portal and allowing the heat of the massive lava lakes and red mist to sink into her bones, the air somehow humid and thick even though it was impossible to place water in the cursed place.

She probably had to follow anyway, going into the nether alone this early on was like jumping from the precipice of the cliff. A death sentence, if you will. Besides, at least if they found a fortress, then they would be able to gather blaze rods and be able to brew potions! Everything would be fine.

Everything was decidedly, not fine.

In all honesty, Pearl should have expected that things would turn out this way. It had been okay at first, their spawn was decent and they were able to find the fortress without much difficulty.

But the loot chests were few and far between, containing not much of value. They were barely able to find any nether wart. When they eventually found a spawner, the blazes were harsh, stronger and angrier than usual. The fiery projectiles that the blazes launched had come far too close for comfort far too many times, barely scraping past as Pearl and Martyn dove and weaved to avoid the incoming assault.

Pearl cursed loudly, quickly patting at her trousers in order to stop the flame that had landed on them from charring them completely. She mentally apologized to her soulmate as she took another hit of damage, whoever they were, she was probably taking enough consistent damage for them to be well and truly freaking. At least her armor made sure that it wasn't too much damage. Right?

Whatever, she didn't have time to dwell on it. Martyn had already spied what was probably more random shit in the distance, and was sprinting towards it. She shoved away her worries and went hurtling after him, not pausing for even a second, in fear of losing him entirely. "C'mon Pearl, this way!"

She finally reached where he was stopped, and almost fell over her knees. "Hang on," she gasped. "Just a sec, lemme take a quick breather."

She stood up properly, taking a quick swig of water from the small container that was roped to her belt. She was careful not to spill any, the intense heat that swamped the underworld was infamous for causing any water to turn into steam before it so much as hit the netherrack floor. "Alrighty, so." She wiped the side of her mouth with her sleeve. "What are we doing here exactly?"

Martyn grinned, sharp toothed with an odd glint in his eye. She wondered if she looked like that as well, the heat making them ever-so-slightly delirious. "Look, over there." He pointed into the distance, somewhere out among islands floating above boiling depths. Pearl's gaze followed the finger, squinting through the red fog of the nether, trying to see what he was pointing at. Large cyan fungus, in the shape of wonky trees. The occasional poof as violet particles traced the path of the three block tall figures that wandered the region. A warped forest. That would spawn endermen. Ender Pearls crafted eyes of ender. Those were invaluable if they wanted to reach the dragon. This was undeniably an incredible find.

Martyn grabbed some cobblestone blocks out of his inventory, and started carefully bridging across one of the largest lava lakes Pearl had ever seen. She gently pressed a foot down on the cobbled path, testing her weight on the bridge before following. One foot in front of the other. Left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right.

It felt like years in order for the pair to successfully cross the lava, but they did it. Martyn chopped down some of the overgrown fungus, clearing out a space with a cobblestone roof where they could walk around with relative comfort, although having to be slightly hunched over. The limited height, though, meant that endermen were too tall to reach them.

Pearl stared at her surroundings with malice in her gaze, locking onto an enderman and glaring at them till they got aggravated. It didn't take long. Endermen probably had worse social anxiety than several of the hermits, who, for privacy reasons, and because she had an ounce of self preservation left, she wouldn't name. The enderman teleported right outside the safe zone, and with a few slashes of an iron sword, the tall, inky black figure poofed into nothingness and Pearl held an ender pearl in her offhand, buzzing with a strange and unidentifiable... something.

A little while later, and between them both, Pearl and Martyn were struggling to juggle the obscene amount of pearls that they were holding. Why they needed so damn many, she would never know. Overkill was never a bad thing though, and it was always good to have spares. Especially if some of the pearls broke when they turned them into eyes of ender and used them to... to find... to find the stronghold... "Uhhh, Martyn?"

He stopped in his tracks to look back at her, a confused expression making itself at home on his features. "Yeah, what's up?"

"What are the chances of there being a stronghold inside those world borders?"

Martyn's expression dropped. Pearl grimaced, as he looked to the sky, and rather loudly, he verbally abused whatever gods had put them there.

They soon realized that they didn't need nearly as many pearls as they had collected, choosing to throw around two stacks of pearls, and some random pieces of junk into the lava pools beneath them, as they traced their way through the nether, and headed back home.

As they stepped through the portal, and misty indigo swirls began to cloud her vision and the heat began to dissipate, Pearl took one last look at the hellhole that they had just crawled through for no apparent reason, and swore to herself that unless it was completely and utterly necessary, she would never return.

The world warped and spun, and then they were back, centered in the lava pool covered by a stone overhang, patches of water dotting the pond, obsidian cooling some of the hot liquid.

Pearl tried to keep from sprinting away from the portal, the mystical swirls felt like they were trying to draw her back in. No fucking way would she listen to them, magic or not.

A/N:

HEYYYY.
Sorry this chapter took so long, I had more written, but I'm gonna end up including that in a later chapter.
Idk, I don't really have many thoughts abt this chapter. It's mostly just filler, but by the time I realised that, I had already written a lot of it, and didn't want to waste it all.
On abother note, I think I finally figured out all the dynamics that im gonna include, and how the big events are going to play out. I'm really freaking proud of myself, usually I just jump right in and start writing without a plan, and while quick and easy, definitely isn't a good thing to do in the long run.
I'm probably going to save what I had planned for the other half of this chapter, to be 1 or 2 chapters in the future, because it just gives me more time to focus on other chapters then. I probably screwed up by making zero schedule for myself, and just posting whenever I am done with the chapter, but I just like it better that way. Who cares ig.

Aight bye 

6/07/23 edit:

HA

OLD ME THOUGHT THIS WAS FILLER

OLD ME THOUGHT I HAD THE STORY PLANNED

OLD ME WAS SO DAMN NAIIVE HOLY SHIT.

lmao i have basically nothing the same late-story. 

i have different dynamics now. different bases. I ORIGINALLY WAS GONNA HAVE VILLAIN SCOTT. HAHA NOT ANYMORE BOYS. IM A CHANGED MF. NEW STORY. NEW PLOTPOINTS. NEW DYNAMICS. NEW MAIN CHARACTERS. NEW ENDING. HA.