Chapter Text
Calico had been walking for days. Months, even. She had run for as long as she could remember and now… Now they were free. They had made it out of the dark forest and now was surrounded by beautiful cherry blossom trees, flowers scattered around her feet.
“It’s perfect,” she muttered, as her pointed ears twitched.
The young witch began to smile before erupting into relieved laughter. A group of children and teens walked out from under the trees two steps behind her and a scarred girl with taffy coloured hair set down the witchlet, Calico’s sister, from her back and made her way towards the tall witch with blue and green eyes.
“You’re right. It is perfect.”
It had been so long since Sphynx had seen her best friend smile properly and seeing them happy in such a perfect place made everything seem okay for a minute. Behind the older girls stood a young boy with robotic features making up his right side (and for some reason a fake beard glued on-?) holding the paw of a ten-year-old hybrid with blazing green eyes filled with so much hope looking up at her brother figure. Blaze was leant against a tree frowning. He didn’t trust these people. Why should he? He’d just have to wait and see where life took him. The young witchlet was chatting to a white eyed human smiling and laughing at their newfound freedom, cherry blossoms floating down to the ground around the pair.
~0o*o0~
Sphynx grabbed Calico’s wrists and the pair span in circles on the ground littered with pink until they collapsed, smiling, and laughing. Blaze stared over at the happy duo.
‘They might’ve escaped, and they might pretend nothing’s wrong, but each person here had something they were running from - some memory that they were hiding. And those memories never leave. They linger in the back of your mind until they attack, and others are left to suffer the consequences.’
Blaze observed the others. Python was sat on the floor, flexing his metal arm with Annabelle and Agoti, the two ten-year-olds hanging on to his every word. He was probably saying something about being ‘really manly and cool’ and lying about his strength, and his combat skills.
‘Whatever makes him happy, I guess.’ He returned his gaze to the tall witch and the scarred human girl.
‘Calico’s whispering to Bunnee?’ The younger witch smiled up at her sister, before making a sudden run up towards him. Blaze stiffened.
‘What could this girl want?’ he thought to himself.
Bunnee smiled up at him, extending a small hand adorned with purple-painted nails. Before Blaze could shake his head he was being dragged across the field and was… struggling to keep up?
‘How is such a small person so damn fast?!?!?!? SHIT!’ Blaze then discovered himself to be face down in the dirt.
~0o*o0~
Bunnee began laughing as she watched Blaze heat up whilst dusting himself off.
“I shouldn’t laugh at you, but that was hilarious-” she commented.
The metal rods that circled Blaze were piping hot and he mumbled something about how his foot caught on a root.
‘Yeah right. More like he was just slow. Ha!’ Calico giggled.
Blaze tried to walk back over to the trees so he could sulk. Silently, Sphynx grasped the back of his shirt and contorted her face into a manic smile.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going to, Blaze?” She whispered threateningly.
Blaze, slightly panicking, stated in a monotone voice, “I’m going back to the trees... because... uh... I can.”
“No. No you can’t. And you’re not, are you? That wouldn’t be very nice.”
Calico’s giggling grew louder. She was the closest to Sphynx out of the group. If only they’d met under better circumstances, with... less trauma, if you will. It would’ve been a lot easier then.
~0o*o0~
After multiple hours of gathering resources the world supplied, a small area was set up for outside gatherings and before long, the group of seven were sat eating a small meal of fish and apples. It was enough to live off of for a few nights. Basic tools had been fashioned from wood and stone. It wasn’t much, but they’d survive. Everyone had a sword on them at all times. Annabelle looked off into the trees where she saw something move.
‘Probably just a trick of the light…’
Just in case, she retrieved her stone sword from her backpack and held it near. Nobody noticed. Nobody cared. That was until an Enderman appeared, and it became pretty useful. Or... not so useful? Annabelle wasn’t sure what to do in this situation of meeting an Enderman. It had never been an issue before. She weighed her options in her mind and was about to run and slash at the beast, but Calico, alert as ever, yelled at her before she could react.
“EVERYONE LOOK DOWN! DO NOT LOOK UP, NO MATTER WHAT! YOU WILL ONLY PROVOKE IT!” Seeing Annabelle’s confused face, Calico chose to explain further.
“Endermen are deaf, so they rely on what they see. They have a bit of a thing about eye contact, so if you look at them, they WILL attack you.” She lowered her head once more, and the group followed suit.
~0o*o0~
Blaze had dealt with endermen back in the old days. They were traders, who came with expensive materials to offer the royal family. He knew why eye contact was a no. It was a sign of respect, showing you were not like those of old who shut off the end, trapping end creatures until they evolved. With chorus fruit being a teleportation device, and the only food of The End, endermen evolved to have their own version of a chorus fruit. An ‘eye of ender’ located on an end being’s stomach. Not that overworld beings cared or bothered to learn. Pretending they were above everyone.
‘These people seemed different though…’
Either way he didn’t trust them. Blaze walked forwards, head bowed, and hand stretched out to shake. The enderman took it, before nodding and leaving. They knew they were safe and respected.
~0o*o0~
“What the hell?” Python questioned, confused. “How did you do that?” Blaze grunted, before returning to the log he was previously sat upon.
“I’m not from the overworld. I know what respect is.” He said bitterly.
“What do you mean by ‘You know what respect is’ Blaze?” Python retorted.
Before the argument could continue, Sphynx and Calico, sensing a fight growing, stepped in saying everyone should finish their meals and go to their temporary tents. Blaze stalked to his tent in the trees, whilst the two remaining boys went to theirs. The younger girls went to their shared tent (not that they’d sleep at all), and the older two girls remained sat on the log. They stared at the setting sun in the sky and chatted quietly about the day and all that had happened.
~0o*o0~
The sun had long since set, and the girls were still sat smiling at the moon.
“Soooooo… I can’t really believe we finally found somewhere,” Calico murmured.
“Yeah,” Sphynx responded, distracted. “It’s nice… Do you have any clue what he meant Cal?”
“Hmm?”
“What Blaze said. What did he mean?”
“Oh… That. Well, I did a lot of history in my schooling, and in the past, Nether and End beings have been seen as inferior by overworld beings. We would kill them as sport - or at least humans would. Us witches generally stayed out of your silly little fights unless given a fair price for our magic. Some mobs were inherently hostile like ghasts, but I’m not too sure the history books are right there. I believe ghasts were passive mobs until humans started hurting them. They weep for the lost, and that that’s why they attack on sight. Other mobs are neutral until provoked, like piglins, and endermen. It’s respectful to wear gold in front of a piglin, but that only works if they haven’t been infected with the zombie virus. If they have been infected, my advice is to just run. With endermen, it seems to be that avoiding eye contact is respectful. I was unaware that to show you are not a threat you should offer your hand.”
Calico chuckled to herself, realising that she didn’t really need to say that, and could have said it much quicker and straight to the point but... hey. Who doesn’t love a good history lesson?
“Ok… I think I got all that…” Sphynx smiled and laughed softly.
“Sorry,” Calico said “I’m just a bit of a history nerd. Heh.”
The two girls sat laughing together, before Sphynx frowned.
“I can see what Blaze said potentially being an issue in the future.”
“Oh, definitely” Calico sighed. “He just needs to learn that not all humans are the same and that’ll take time if he grew up learning we were monsters.”
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
~0o*o0~
The area around them was illuminated by the small campfire. At the centre of the logs, the glow of the fire was slowly turning to an ember. Just as Calico was about to say it was getting quite late and they should get back to their tent, they realised Sphynx had fallen asleep. How Sphynx could fall asleep anywhere, she’d never know. Calico laughed and stood up. She attempted to pick up the taffy haired human and… miserably failed. Calico may have been abnormally tall, but by no means was she strong. In her words, their arms were ‘weak nerd arms.' Her eyebrows creased and she cracked her knuckles.
“Come on weak nerd arms. We got this.” At that very moment, the sky decided it would be a suitable time to weep.
“Are you bloody kidding me?”
As water poured from the sky, Calico managed to bundle Sphynx into her arms and run to the tent, putting Sphynx on the floor, and laying a blanket over the girl. She removed her black converses before turning back to her human friend. Calico was about to remove Sphynx’s eyepatch, before remembering the interaction between the two last time she’d mentioned the topic… Her right eye seemed to be a touchy subject.
‘It’s closed now, though, so I guess a can change it to a more comfortable one…’
Rummaging through Sphynx’s bag Calico saw a softer, flimsier eyepatch. More practical for sleeping. Calico slipped off the magenta, padded patch and replaced it.
~0o*o0~
After staring at the young human for a couple minutes, Calico headed to the front of her tent and sat down staring at the rain her long legs crossed, and arms wrapped around a fluffy, turquoise cushion. A singular tear rolled down her cheek. A tear that represented so many emotions. Sadness of what they had lost and how young they all were. The youngest – Bunnee – just ten, and the oldest – Blaze – not quite fourteen. Happiness that she had met all these people and formed close bonds with some. Anger at those who had caused this, for them not being better. For one reason or another they, were all alone, until they had found each other. Hope that they could all grow as people and live here for a long time growing up into adulthood here. With so many more chances than any of them did at ‘home’ - if any of them really had one to begin with. Fear, for the risk of things going wrong at any moment. Calico wiped her eyes.
“Shit. I’m crying.”
Calico smiled weakly. She stood up and removed the red bandana around her neck the scar inflicting the flesh between her shoulders and head being revealed. A token given to her in her childhood. She then removed her overalls and inspected them. Slightly dirty, but able to last another day.
‘I should add a patch for Sphynx… after all, I have a music note patch for me, and a heart patch for Bunnee, but... what should it be?’
She’d have to think about it. She removed her several earrings, lingering on the small mushroom that hung from the point of her ear. It was the earring she had given them. Calico then finished changing into a pair of cotton shorts and a soft top as her nightwear, and lay down on the floor a turquoise cushion behind her, pulling a soft grey blanket over her legs, curling up to cover her feet. It took Calico what felt like hours to sleep. It always had taken her a long time, but the first night was always the hardest.
~0o*o0~
The next morning, she woke up early and slipped on her black converses and an oversized, grey hoodie over her pyjamas, before heading out to collect several apples for breakfast. After collecting them, they headed back to get some bread from the small stash that the group had baked. She toasted the bread, spread the little butter and jam she had onto the slices, left a plate with a slice of toast and an apple on each person’s spot around the campfire, and waited. After staring off into the endless skyline for about 20 minutes, the first people began to appear from their tents. The first being the and only Sphynx. She shuffled over to the logs and sat down. She was wearing a mahogany red hoodie.
“I hope you don’t mind I borrowed one of your hoodies. I was cold. Also… When you changed my patch… You didn’t see anything. Right?”
The hoodie was extremely large on Sphynx, coming down to just above the knee. She had a small frame and was roughly 5”4, which was taller than the average human girl of 13. Calico, despite witches being taller than humans in their teenage years, was unusually tall at a height of 6”5, with a curvy figure, meaning, unless clothes were tailored specifically for them, baggier clothes were a regular.
“Yeah. That’s fine, don’t worry and no. Both eyes were closed so I saw nothing,” Calico grinned down at her friend. The two girls sat quietly in their hoodies and began eating the small meals Calico had set out.
~0o*o0~
Bunnee and Annabelle were next to appear, still wrapped in the blankets each child was provided with.
“Mornin’,” Bunnee mumbled, eyes still half closed, before sitting herself on one of the logs and resting her head upon Annabelle’s.
“Did you two actually sleep last night? Or did you just stay up chatting?” Calico asked teasingly. Bunnee responded, smirking.
“Sister dearest. You cannot ask me to disclose this information.”
Calico smiled. No doubt, she was pissed that their sister hadn’t slept, but at least she was happy. Shortly after, Python and Agoti wandered over from their shared tent on the other side of the small camp. The group proceeded to eat their meal. Sphynx looked over to the trees as Calico went around retrieving plates left by the others, who had now proceeded to begin the day’s work, and she saw the lanky 13 year old she had been waiting to see. As Blaze walked over in his black jeans, trainers and amber coloured jumper, rods circling with a dim light emitting from them, he tried to grab his plate and slip back to his tent among the trees. Sphynx was about to repeat their little conversation from the previous morning, but Calico grabbed him by the front of his jacket, holding him up to her height.
‘Woah. Didn’t know my best friend had that in her…’
“Oh no you fucking don’t, Blaze my good sir.”
Calico said, and with all the force of the dragon herself threw him down onto a log, and, smiling handed him a plate of food.
“I do apologize for my language, Sphynx. Here is your meal, Blaze dear.”
Sphynx snorted at the lofty woman’s sudden politeness behind her hand and went red at the noise she created. Calico and Sphynx soon found themselves in fits of laughter as Blaze awkwardly ate his food in silence.
~0o*o0~
It was a new start. A new way of life. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to thrive. Everyone was safe now.
They could finally stop surviving and start living.