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The ocean was calm and the skies were blue, hardly a cloud in sight despite the awful storm that had raged through the night. It was nice like this. Warm. Warm was better than the harsh cold winds and the rain that soaked to the bone. Those were cold. He didn’t like cold.
Bee gazed down under the water below his feet at the edge of his dock, the dark brown of the spruce wood only making the pop of blue from the ocean stand out more and more. If he looked deeper into the murky depths he could see kelp, some sand, the occasional squid or cod swim past… but he wasn’t looking into the water. No no. The sun was hitting it just right. He was gazing at himself.
Carefully, he ran a clawed hand down his face, looking at himself with his one good eye. He could see out of the other one, it was just a bit blurry from when… well, that was a story for another time. The reflection of himself mirrored the action… as reflections tended to do. Of course. Bee didn’t know why he was surprised.. Maybe it was because he was still not sure why he looked like that. He didn’t see that… as him.
And then sometimes he caught his reflection in a window, his armour, or in the water like this and he paused.
He slowly looked away and turned back to his house. The purple glow of the portal he built there hardly visible over the small hill of dirt and his own house, but visible when he knew what he was looking for. He stood.
That was the first time he’d ever seen thinks that resembled him. Sure, it wasn’t a perfect match, but it was closer than any actual pigs he’d seen in the overworld. Besides, the voices had said that they like gold and so did-
No.
Bee scowled.
He wasn’t going to think about the voices.
Bee grabbed his helmet that he’d removed to get a better view of his face in the calm water and put it back on his head. The silver metal reflected off of the sun. It was a new helmet since the last one broke, so it was far more reflective compared to the almost busted armour he wore covering the rest of his body.
His gold helmet rested safely in his chest. He loved it a lot and it was nice to wear… but it was weak and not as safe as the iron one. He’d only wear it sometimes he decided. Yes. Good idea.
But the voices said-
What did the voices know! They knew nothing of him.
The Piglins seemed to look at each other without wearing gold perfectly fine! If he really was a Piglin like he felt so deeply connected to… then they would be friendly with him, right?
They could be new friends.
He could take the chance. Experiment. They would be kind to him. He could learn their language. Yes. Yes, he liked that idea. That was what he would do today.
And with his armour, even if they attacked, he could leave. It would be fine. He wasn’t worried. It was just another adventure.
With a smile and a spark of hope in his chest he ran from the edge of the water and across his dock, metal boots clanking across the wood as he did so. He felt safe running with the fences he’d lined his doc with. After all, he didn’t want to fall into the water…
Before heading straight to the portal though, he went to empty his pockets into his nonsense chest so he wouldn’t accidentally lose it within the lava land. He especially didn’t want to lose his good sword or diamond pick, so instead, he just took out some iron tool he had to replace them (and hopefully seem like less of a threat). Bee paused at the handful of gold nuggets he removed from his pocket.
A gift.
He didn’t usually like or accept gifts…
But this one was different. He barely even realised it was a gift until Lukas was already gone. The glow of the gold distracting him and making it almost snatch the items from his hands.
He smiled a tad.
Maybe not all gifts were bad… but he hoped that Lukas didn’t expect anything in return or thinking he had to give him anything else. He put the nuggets safely away in his chest and closed it again. There. Safe.
The sun was still high in the sky when he dashed out of his house, petting Arson’s fur as the loyal dog sat beside his door in his hurry. He couldn’t forget that after all. He felt good.
He felt hopeful. Finally, friends he could rely on.
Not Lukas. Not the voices. Piglins!
He raced to the portal before suddenly stopping right in front of it. He looked around. Should he really be doing this… Was this really a good idea? Maybe the gold helmet would be a smarter call…
The voices seemed very persistent that he would need it when speaking to the Piglins-
That’s it. He was going in. He needed to remind himself that he didn’t have to listen to the voices when they weren’t here. He needed to stop being so reliant on them. They did not control him when they weren’t here. He could take care of himself. He didn’t need them. He didn’t need their advice.
He walked through the purple glow and watched as the green melted around him and instead turned into a deep wine red.
The dry heat of the underworld hit him and he gasped before grinning. He forgot how good it felt down here. He stepped out and looked around before frowning. There was nothing here. Last time there had been a Piglin creature right in front of the portal pretty much, but this time… there was nothing.
Just the fake trees and flammable floor.
He stepped forward, his boots crunching against the almost dirt like stone underneath him. Well… he’d just have to move further away from the portal. Yes. He’d find some somewhere. He didn’t need to stay close to the portal anyway.
Bee walked forward out to the edge of the cliff that he saw last time he was here just before the voices went quiet. There was a strange flood of nostalgic familiarity when he stared at it. He couldn’t explain it if he wanted to… He knew he would need to explore it soon. Next time he travelled there for sure he would. He had to. He felt a pull to it like nothing else in this world.
It had been so strong, it was able to push the voices away. Not much was able to do that recently. They could be so loud and were getting stronger and stronger. He swore… sometimes he could hear them when they weren’t there. Like whispers of things already said in his head.
Echoes…
Looking away from the strange fortress structure sticking out from the lava, Bee made his way down the cliffside carefully. There was more forest down there, maybe there he would find more Piglin friends?
He jumped down the last few blocks carefully once he had built down a safe enough staircase, his iron armour clinking together at the landing. It was getting a little too hot… he considered taking off the heavy armour but… no. No, he would keep it on for now. That would be best. He wasn’t so hopeful that he was stupid.
He had to act smart with this.
Bee’s face did light up, however, when he looked across the dark red ground in front of him and, at the beginning of the red forest, stood two Piglins speaking to one another. They were both armed with crossbows, but the weapons were lowered. They weren’t acting hostile.
This was it. He was right. They didn’t-
When Bee stepped forward, his iron boot crunching against a particularly crumbley piece of ground, both Piglin’s heads shot up and as did their weapons. They prepared to fire as Bee’s grin fell.
“Hey! Wait, no! I’m safe! I’m like you!” He exclaimed and, in his panic to prove himself, he removed the new shiny iron helmet. Maybe they just couldn’t see his face. “See! I’m a Piglin too! I belong here! I’m-“
There were two possibilities for what happened next. Either Piglins had a naturally good shot or that particular Piglin was just lucky because Bee didn’t even finish getting the words out of his mouth before there was an arrow embedded in his right eye, shooting right through and into his skull.
Bee fell forward onto his knees and dropped that shiny iron helmet that glowed almost the golden colour it needed to in the light the lava cast across the whole of the Nether...
When he woke up, gasping for breath and sitting upright in bed, he immediately scrambled up on unsteady legs and slid down his ladder. Where was it. Oh god where was it.
He needed it. He needed it. He needed it.
Safety. Comfort. Good. Bright. He needed it. He needed it.
He opened all of his chests until he found it exactly where he’d left it before (he should’ve checked there first). There was a knock at the door and Bee hardly had time to compose himself before he was answering it, wearing nothing but the golden helmet on his head.
Safe .
It was Lukas, but no matter what, Bee struggled to focus on him. Why was that? It was like half of the picture was missing?
That didn’t make any sense.
“Bee, are you alright? I just thought I’d stop by and-“ Lukas kept talking, worry clear for his friend in his voice, but Bee wasn’t listening. White noise was starting to build up in his ears.
His eye. His right eye. The one that had gone blurry after the last incident.
It had gone blind.