Chapter Text
When you were really small and lived in your old village, the adult would tell you a story of Herobrine. A vengeful ghost… or an angry forest spirit… or even a fallen god, stripped of his status by Notch – every story was different when it came to explaining what Herobrine really is. But the core was always the same – he’s a man with glowing white eyes and supernatural abilities, who burns villages and stalks and kills lonely mines. No matter who told the story and how they interpreted Herobrine’s origin, he was always the same – a powerful entity with undying hunger for blood and destruction.
While most people really did believe in these stories, the purpose of telling them to children, besides passing them to new generations, of course, was always to scare them into behaving. So they wouldn’t wander off anywhere alone, especially into dangerous places, like mines. That always worked and the stories would get passed down from one generation to another.
On you, however, these stories did not work. At all.
It was quite the opposite, while other kids shook in fear when even saying the name Herobrine, you shook with excitement. Not that you found him to be cool or anything, at least not in a “he’s so cool!” way – he did still give you the creeps. But as soon as you heard about his existence for the first time, you couldn’t help but want to battle him one day. Any reasonable adult, when they heard about that, would look at you shocked and shush you for even thinking such things, let alone saying them out loud. But you didn’t care – your wild imagination would paint pictures of epic battles, where you, with a huge diamond sword in hands, would go against this monster, who has ruined and took so many lives. You would stand up bravely, say something really cool and then you’d fight. You knew it would be tough, but if you believed in yourself hard enough, you’d win, no doubt! And then you’d be the hero!
One day, you and a few other kids from the village were playing in a forest that was nearby. You weren’t supposed to be there, but it was so much better for playing hide-and-seek than the meadow! Eventually, though, a game of hiding turned into mindless running through the lush trees. To kids who have never been in a forest before it felt wonderful, like a small adventure that none of the adults will ever know about.
But all the fun running around suddenly stopped when you ran into something and stumbled onto the ground. Surprisingly, when that happened, every single one of your friends suddenly stopped laughing and running. They’ve gone so quiet, you couldn’t even hear them breath. That was strange, you expected them to laugh and tag you, or maybe help you get up. You opened your eyes to see what was going on. And suddenly, you realized why everyone was suddenly so quiet.
When you hit something and fell, you thought you stumbled into a tree, because of how sturdy, cold and unmoving it was. But as soon as you looked up, you realized it was definitely not a tree.
Standing before you was a towering figure of a man in blue pants and cyan shirt. But what made you instantly recognize the man were his white glowing eyes.
It was Herobrine, no doubt! He was looking down at you with a weird expression on his face. He looked really unamused. For some reason, you expected it to be something else, rather than something so… casual.
But it didn’t matter what face expression he had – he was still Herobrine. A creature that made so many people shake in fear was standing right there, right before you! You looked behind you to see your friends frozen in fear, their eyes wide open and completely focused on the abomination in front of you. Oh no, you just realized that your friends were in danger too!
But you were ready for this day. Feeling brave, you stood up on your feet and, without looking away from the glowing eyes, told your friends to run while you buy them some time. Your friends only hesitated for a short moment, before running away in the direction of your village. Meanwhile, you kept your eyes on your sworn enemy. Now his face showed slight amusement as he raised his brow at you.
But you didn’t care how he looked at you. Nothing he could do could make you lose your courage. You stood straight, trying to make the most determined face you could muster, not breaking the eye contact with the monster. You put your fist up in an attempt to make yourself look more serious and heroic and said: “Herobrine! I know who you are and I’m not afraid of you! And I will fight you to protect my friends and this world!”
And with that, you dashed at the man with all you’ve got. As in, with your small fists. You generally were very small compared to him, so you only managed to hit his legs and just a small part of his stomach. You hit with all your might, but no matter how much you hit him, Herobrine didn’t seem to care. You hit him with as much power as you had, but it felt like hitting a stone wall – cold, hard, and not suffering any damage at all. You put even more strength into your hits, to the point you started to lose your breath. Your hands got tired, your breathing became heavy, and eventually you lost all your energy to battle. Meanwhile, Herobrine didn’t even move an inch.
Finally, you realized that you just can’t battle anymore and stopped hitting Herobrine. You rested your fists on his legs, leaning on him a little as to not fall, panting. You did not dare to look the entity in the eyes. How could you have been defeated?... But suddenly, you felt Herobrine’s body vibrate in a weird way, and you heard him make strange noises, as if he’s chocking. Did you… did you actually win?!
You finally dared look up at him. You expected to see his face to be twisted in pain from your mighty hits. But that wasn’t the case. He had a weird expression on his face – his mouth was twisted in something like a smile, except it looked like he was trying to hide it. He was breathing sharply through his nose drills, and his eyes were trying to hide… amusement?
Wait… was Herobrine laughing at you?!
Maybe the fight should have waited until you acquired a diamond sword… And suddenly, running away didn’t seem like such a bad idea.
Meanwhile, Herobrine finally managed to suppress his laughter, while you were paralyzed and unable to run away. The creature with glowing eyes looked down at you with an amused half-smile.
“Was that supposed to do something?”
His voice was deep, a little raspy, as if he hasn’t used it in a long time. Suddenly, you weren’t as scared anymore as you were embarrassed. You felt your cheeks get warm and you looked away, nothing to say. You puffed up your cheeks too. In hindsight, fighting was a pretty dumb idea, huh?
Herobrine gave you a small, amused sideways grin. “Well, run along. Be more prepared next time”.
He said it in a playful way, but your child mind decided that the entity actually meant it and ended up taking it seriously. You looked up at Herobrine with wide eyes, suddenly feeling scared. You jumped back, as if burned, and as soon as you were no longer leaning on the glowing-eyed man, you turned around and bolted in the direction of your village, fleeing the situation that, let’s be honest, you brought upon yourself.
Once you made it out of the forest you were met with a group of concerned adults that were going to search for you. As soon as they saw you, they brought you back home. Of course, later, after making sure you and your friends were alright, all of you got a stern lecture about the dangers of going anywhere alone, especially forests.
You never told anyone about what happened to you with Herobrine. Partially because you didn’t think anyone would believe you – when your friends ran back to the village, scared, shouting that you stayed behind to buy them time and keep Herobrine occupied, the adults, for some reason, were adamant that it was all just your imagination playing tricks on you. Maybe they were just too scared to admit that their village might have been visited by the fearful entity. But the second reason was… that you were really embarrassed. All your life (or, well, for how long have you known about Herobrine), you thought that when you would encounter Herobrine, and you were absolutely sure that it would happen at some point, you would be able to beat him. Or, at the very least, would be able to put up a decent fight. That day, however, made you rethink your abilities. Maybe believing in yourself is not enough…
Might wanna get that diamond sword before facing your arch nemesis again, after all.