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Ranboo stomped down the large hallway of the castle, a scowl scribbled over his face. His older brothers and his parents were all in a royal meeting that he had no need to attend and he was bored out of his mind. He considered eavesdropping but he honestly couldn’t care less about boring royal business. Being the youngest of three princes, he didn’t need to learn anything about his kingdom of Endlantis and he didn’t want to. As long as it didn’t affect him, he didn’t care.
A maid glided down the hall towards him, long purple dress flowing behind her. Ah, finally, someone here could get him what he wanted. There weren’t any servants outside his room like normal so he had to travel all the way out of his chambers to get a cup of chocolate milk. Stupid servants. They should be thankful to even be near him.
“Hey! You!” Ranboo yelled at the maid, who came running up to him immediately. Her deep purple eyes were wide and she gave a low curtsy.
“Yes, Prince Ranboo, what do you require?” The maid stood up straight and smiled nervously. Good. She should be nervous.
“Finally! Someone is here, gods!” He complained, just to give her some extra nerves. “Go get me chocolate milk and bring it to my chambers. Now.”
“Of course Prince Ranboo,” the maid turned around and ran towards the kitchen. Ranboo smirked to himself and turned to go back to his chambers.
Ranboo sat at his vanity, half-empty chocolate milk in front of him and brush in hand. He dragged the brush through his hair and looked into his reflection. His raven black hair curled up at one side and had a perfect shine to it, which he was very proud of. His brothers’ hair was similar, but his was simply better. Ranboo pulled out a little box from under the mirror and pulled out his jewellery; three rings, three bracelets and one necklace. The rings were basic, just plain silver, but one had had an allium carved into it and another had an Ender particle caved into it. The bracelets were again even more simple, and each had an amethyst shard hanging from it. And the necklace was his favourite. An Eye of Ender, green, blue and black. It was one of the nicest things he owned, it also reminded him that he, an Enderian, was better than the boring Enderman he was decent from.
He adorned the jewellery and leaned back, satisfied. Damn, he is so cool. He picked up his golden crown and put it on his head and went to take a sip of his chocolate milk when there was a loud knock at the door. Ranboo groaned and got up.
Ranboo swung the door open and was met by three royal guards who burst into his room, picking up his stuff and shoving it into a bag. He squawked angrily and tried to stop them, to which he was met with a firm hand on the chest. It was his older brother, Ralien.
“What’s happening?! Why are they going through my stuff?! Stop them!” Ranboo protested, but Ralien gave him the most serious look he had ever gotten. Okay, something is going down.
“They’re coming. We need to leave,” Ralien said, putting his hands on Ranboo’s shoulders and desperation clear in his voice.
“Who?! Whos coming?!” Ranboo stamped his foot on the ground and squeezed his hands into fists.
“The Hunters. Hybrid Hunters. They just found our outer village and they are on their way. Our parents and Ranis have already fled.”
Ranboo felt his heart drop. He had never experienced Hunters but he had heard enough stories to want to stay away from them forever. And why didn’t his parents and oldest brother wait on them? “We can take them, can’t we? Our army. I thought we were the strongest! And why didn’t they wait on us?!”
“Our army isn’t stronger than their human weapons Ranboo,” Ralien kept one hand firmly on Ranboo’s shoulder and put the other hand out to take the bag from one of the guards. “They left earlier so they’re safe and so they can make sure the villagers are too, heir to the throne and all. Now we really need to leave.”
Ralien pushed him out of the room and the guards followed them out and surrounded them. They ran through the halls Ranboo knew so well and he wondered how this had all happened. How had the castle been found? He didn’t usually listen in his lectures, but he was sure that there was something stopping humans from getting in here. A forcefield or something. This wasn’t fair, not on him. Hunter numbers had been rising but he never thought once that they would even think of coming to Endlantis.
They burst through the doors leading to the back of the castle and through the guards’ doorway out of the castle walls, where more guards joined them. Ranboo had never been outside the castle before, only ever looking out from his balcony, but this wasn’t the time to look. And there wasn’t much to look at anyway, just barren, dusty streets. His family had done a good job of getting everyone out of here.
But he didn’t care about that. Currently, he was in danger and that was a problem.
They ran towards the forest and through the trees. He almost tripped on a protruding tree root but was caught by a guard. Ranboo brushed the guard off of him and kept running with the others. His hands moved to his cloak and he pulled it tighter around his body. They were close to the border of the kingdom when…
Snap.
The group turned around and there stood five humans. Hunters. They held crossbows with the arrows pointed towards them. The one in the middle held a crossbow with a firework. The guards jumped right into battle, battle-axes raised as the Hunters shot at them. Ranboo stood behind them, shaking. He had never fought properly before, he skipped most of his lessons in fighting because he thought it was useless, and that he was always going to have guards to protect him. His brother turned to him and threw the bag towards him. He caught it and Ralien drew his own axe.
“Ranboo, run!” His brother yelled as he ran towards the hunters. Ranboo wanted to shout out, tell him to get back here and go with him, but he knew he wouldn’t listen. “Go!” His brother yelled again, “I’ll find you, I promise!”
Ranboo took a few steps back, watching the guards fall to the arrows, silver armour slowly being painted red. Then he turned on his heels and ran as fast as he could, teleporting every minute. His teleporting still wasn’t great, but he just had to get away. He travelled as far as he could, away from the screams and explosions.
He ran up until he reached a flower forest and the moon was high in the sky. Ranboo was so tired he just wanted to curl up into a ball and sleep. He was too tired to even teleport anywhere. And just as he thought this day couldn’t get any worse…
It started to rain.
Ranboo squealed and slid under the nearest tree, avoiding the acidic water. He leaned up against the tree and grumbled to himself. He had no choice but to wait here until the rain stopped.
Gods above, this day couldn’t get any worse.
Apparently, he was wrong, because halfway through his huff, an annoying buzzing sound attacked his ears. Ranboo’s ears twitched and he looked around, searching for the source of the annoying noise so he could shout at it. He squeezed his eyes shut in annoyance, but when he opened them he was staring directly into cloudy blue eyes.
Ranboo screamed and jumped back further against the tree. The person in front of him was a boy with brown hair and the blue eyes he opened his own to see. The boy wore a yellow jacket and blue dungarees and he had antennas and small wings. He was clearly a Bee hybrid. And also clearly the source of the annoying noise.
“Who are you?” The boy asked, tilting his head. Who is he?! Well, surely the boy should know who he is!
“Ranboo, y’know, Prince Ranboo? From the kingdom of Endlantis? And who are you? You’re invading my personal space!”
“Well I don’t know any ‘Prince Ranboo’ and I’ve never heard of Endlantis,” the boy folded his arms. “And I’m Tubbo if you must know.”
“Well Tubbo,” Ranboo huffed. “Could you stop that stupid buzzing? It’s annoying me.”
Tubbo grinned and Ranboo sighed in relief when the buzzing stopped.
But then he kept on buzzing. Loudly.
“Oh, my gods! You are so infuriating! Stop!” Ranboo demanded, expecting Tubbo to stop. He didn’t.
“Why won’t you listen to me! I’m a Prince! You’re just a peasant!” Ranboo stamped his foot on the ground repeatedly.
“Come stop me then!” Tubbo teased, laughing maniacally.
Ranboo folded his arms and scowled. “It’s raining, idiot! I can’t!”
Tubbo stopped buzzing. “Do you have anywhere to go Ranboo?”
“No, I don’t. And it’s Prince Ranboo to you!”
Tubbo scoffed. “Yeah, I’m not calling you that. Well, we’ll wait here until it stops raining, then you can come with me!”
“I’m not going anywhere with you, you disrespectful little gremlin.”
“Well, then I’ll just chop down this tree, and all the other trees nearby and leave you to die!” Tubbo said way too cheerily. That’s it, this boy is insane.
“Ugh, fine, I’ll come with you,” Ranboo huffed and rolled his eyes. Tubbo grinned.
“Good! I just need to get some flowers and hopefully, by then the rain would’ve stopped.”
Ranboo watched Tubbo go around and pick flowers from the ground. It must be a pretty sad existence being a Bee hybrid, only being able to eat flowers. Tubbo was quick and seemed to mostly pick tulips and buttercups, but avoided cornflowers. Good, cornflowers are ugly anyway.
Eventually, the rain stopped and Tubbo had collected enough flowers. He walked back over to Ranboo and gestured for him to follow. Ranboo stepped out from under the tree and saw the sun just beginning to rise. Wow, it had been longer than he had thought.
“So where are we going?” Ranboo asked as he followed Tubbo.
“To the pube!”
Ranboo stopped. “To the where?!”
“The pube! It’s a pub in the sky!” Tubbo looked at him. “My friend, Phil, built it. He’s an Elytrian”
“Okay...so there are other people there?”
“Yup!” Tubbo chirped. “There’s Phil and his kid Tommy, he’s my best friend. And then there’s Wilbur, Sneeg, Fundy, Scott, Jack and Niki. Were all hybrids.”
“All...different hybrids?”
“Mhm! Tommy’s an Avian, Wilbur’s a Phantom, Sneeg’s an Inchling; were all different!”
Ranboo nodded. “No humans though.”
“No humans,” Tubbo frowned. “Pretty sure Phil banned them. This area’s basically completely hidden though.”
“Oh. And why aren’t you flying? Don’t bees fly?”
“You sure ask a lot of questions Ranboo. Its night. I’m all weak and feeble at night, so I can fly it’s just really tiring.”
“Oh, that sucks.”
“Yeah, it does Boob Boy,” Tubbo mocked. Ranboo glared at him. Gods above, he is annoying. “Look, you can see the pube from here!”
Ranboo looked up and...Woah. The pube was a huge building on a chunk of land hanging in the sky. The building was made of stone and wood, with a stream of water flowing down into a river and a ladder hanging down next to it. It was one of the most elegant buildings he had seen outside his kingdom. Which, he had never really been outside his kingdom, but his point still stands.
“C’mon, let’s go!” Tubbo picked up the pace and booked it towards the pube. Ranboo, who was majorly fed up with all the running he had done today, hesitantly followed him at the same speed.
They made their way up to the pube and walked through the door. Inside, a man stood by a wall, hanging up a picture. He had large black wings. This must be Phil, then.
“Phil! Phil! Phil! Philza Minecraft! Look, I found a boy!”
Phil—or Philza Minecraft?—laughed and smiled at the two of them. “That you did Tubbo,” he moved over to them and held out a hand to Ranboo. “Hiya mate, I’m Philza, but you can just call me Phil. What’s your name?”
Ranboo straightened up. This guy so clearly thought he was above Ranboo, he needed to assert his dominance—or whatever the correct wording is. “I’m Prince Ranboo of Endlantis.”
“A.K.A Boob Boy,” Tubbo laughed and Ranboo glared at him.
“That’s treason, you know. I’ll get you arrested.”
“Oh no! I’m so scared! Sorry to break it to you bossman, but you aren’t anywhere near your kingdom right now. And as long as you’re here, we’re equals.”
“I’m not and will never be equals with a little bug—”
Tubbo lifted a fist. “You little cun—”
“Tubbo,” Phil warned and placed a hand on Tubbo’s shoulder. “Don’t poison him. And welcome Ranboo, you can stay here as long as you like. I promise not everyone here is as violent as this one.”
Ranboo hummed and Tubbo folded his arms. “Y’know when people get offered stuff, they usually say ‘thank you.’” Tubbo said sarcastically.
Phil sighed. “Tubbo, calm. Can you plant the flowers you got in the beer garden?” Tubbo nodded and saluted, and sent a glare in Ranboo’s direction, then walked out, flowers in hand.
“Sorry about him, he can be a bit, um, hostile sometimes,” Phil laughed. “So how did you get here, all the way from Endlantis as well.”
“You know Endlantis?”
“Yup visited there for a building. Y’know the huge watchtower in the centre of the main town? I built that.”
Ranboo’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“Yeah, one of the best projects I’ve ever done. It was built way before you were born though. But you didn’t answer my question, why are you here mate?”
“Kingdom got overrun by Hunters, had to leave,” Ranboo mumbled. Phil looked sympathetic. Good, he deserved sympathy right now.
“Oh I’m so sorry, I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with Hunters. Again, you’re welcome to stay in the area, and you can meet the others who live here. I think you would get along well with my son.”
Ranboo looked out the window at the huge mountain with a small cave. “Yeah, okay. I think I’ll stay.”
Even if he had to deal with an annoying little Bee hybrid.