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Wemmbu soared through the scorching, barren mesa, wings beginning to grow fatigued. He truly wondered why Flame had chosen here to live of all places.
As he spotted the jarring dark oak of Flame's base, Wemmbu started his descent to the ground. He swooped down from the cloudless blue sky, landing quite gracefully right by his friend's front door. Dust rose at his feet, which made him cough violently. He stood there for a minute or so, hacking his lungs out, before he finally approached Flame's base and knocked on the door.
Rap! Rap! Rap!
Flame jolted awake, sitting up suddenly in his bed. He rubbed his eyes, which were still bleary from sleep, and put on his blindfold. The persistent knocking at his door had awakened him from his peaceful slumber, and Flame already knew who it was. Sighing heavily, he got out of bed, traipsing to his front door. Still half asleep, he attempted to unlock his door, but it wouldn't budge. Flame tried repeatedly to unlock the lock, but to no avail.
"Have you tried the other way?" Wemmbu's voice sounded from the other side of Flame's door.
That's when it hit him. He'd been turning the key the wrong way this whole time.
The door swung open, revealing a rather dishevelled looking FlameFrags. Wemmbu's eyes momentarily widened in shock, for Flame was a surprisingly neat individual, but returned back to their normal size a second later. Wemmbu waltzed into Flame's base as if he owned it, inviting himself to take a seat in the spot he used to sit at back when...
Wemmbu's brooding was interrupted by a loud yawn from FlameFrags, who once again sat across from him with a couple slices of buttered bread, likely courtesy of Lomedy. As the sleep deprived Immortal Demon ate, Wemmbu began to talk.
"Yo, so where are we going today?" he asked, staring straight at Flame with boredom written all over his face. Flame took a big swallow. "I have to go visit Lomedy, then I'm probably gonna have to restock on potions from Parrot's shop."
"Alright, so when are we going?" Wemmbu pried. Flame rolled his eyes. "We're not going anywhere, bro. I'm going by myself, and you're gonna go back to your base or something."
Wemmbu let out a loud, childish whine, the same one that caused Flame's ears to bleed every time he heard it. "Please?" his friend begged, batting his eyes pleadingly. Flame slapped himself in the forehead. "Fine," he caved, partially because it sounded fun and partially because he wasn't sure if his ears could take another hour of Wemmbu's whining. His friend, the former ghost, whooped in excitement, tail swishing impatiently as Flame took his sweet time to finish his breakfast.
Once he had finished getting ready, Flame led Wemmbu to where he had left his horse, having built a new stable for it just the other day. "Thank Mojang," Wemmbu chuckled. "It's finally receiving employee benefits! You were really underpaying him last time, y'know?" Flame scoffed at Wemmbu's quip, throwing a wind charge at him while he mounted his horse. The projectile sent Wemmbu tumbling backwards into the scalding red sand, landing with a muffled thump! on the ground. He shot Flame a withering look before klutzily clambering onto the horse's back. Without wasting another second, they took off in the direction of Lomedy's base.
Wemmbu had been there twice before, once when Flame couldn't see him yet, and once when they had gone to the farmer's house to borrow a book. Wemmbu was pretty certain that the farmer would be scared out of his mind at the sight of him, but he didn't really care that much.
When they arrived at Lomedy's farm, Flame tied his horse to the fencepost the farmer had set up for him due to how frequently he visited. Near the fencepost was a sign with an inscription so neat it looked printed, which read, Flame's horse. Once Flame had ensured his horse couldn't escape, he made his way to Lomedy's front door and knocked. Wemmbu trailed after his friend, standing a little way off behind him.
Through the peephole Flame could see the golden pupil of Lomedy peering at him, recognition eventually dawning upon it. The door was flung open, and Flame was immediately enveloped in a bone-crushing hug by the farmer. The Immortal Demon subsequently began to choke, but Lomedy ignored it. "Flame!" he greeted his friend enthusiastically, eyes shimmering with excitement. "It's so nice to see you here, I-"
The farmer abruptly stopped speaking as his gaze travelled upwards. "Flame," he whispered in his friend's ear. "Don't- don't panic or anything, but Wemmbu's behind you." To Lomedy's shock, Flame shrugged. "Yeah, he is. Say hi, Wemmbu." The farmer's jaw dropped as the infamous elytra-macer gave him a friendly wave. Seeing Lomedy's dumbfounded expression, Wemmbu burst into laughter. He pounded his knee with his clenched fist, tears of mirth streaming down his face.
"Uh...what's so funny?" Lomedy asked, glancing back and forth between Flame and Wemmbu. The latter shook his head, approaching the farmer, breathless with laughter. "We're homies now," Wemmbu explained, grinning at Flame. The Immortal Demon shook his head exasperatedly, guiding Lomedy's arms off him. "Yeah, Lomedy bro. Don't worry, he's chill."
Still apprehensive, Lomedy invited both of them into his house and sat them at his table, serving them each a slice of brownie. Flame devoured it instantly, while Wemmbu poked at it tentatively. "I haven't poisoned it, y'know?" Lomedy assured him as he sat down and dug into his own brownie. Eventually, Wemmbu scooped a tiny portion of the brownie and put it in his mouth.
Instantly, Wemmbu's tense shoulders loosened. His tail curled, a telltale sign of contentment. He let out a low hum of satisfaction, scooping another bit for himself.
Watching this unfold, Lomedy whispered to Flame, "Yo, I think you might have some competition now bro."
They stayed there for another two hours or so, Lomedy and Wemmbu eventually starting to talk. They began to drone on about their interactions with Flame, gossiping like grandmothers in a nursing home about how silly Flame was. It was lowkey driving him nuts, but Flame decided to stay in The Zone and ignore them. A painfully long two hours later, Wemmbu got up from his seat. "It was nice getting to know you bro, but I think we've tortured poor FlameFrags enough. See you around?"
Lomedy nodded. "Yeah, bro! I'll send you some bread later, I hope you'll like it!"
As soon as Lomedy closed his front door, Flame smacked Wemmbu in the arm. "Dude!" he hissed. "What was that?!"
The former ghost smirked. "All is fair in love and war, FlameFrags."
Flame huffed, turning to focus his attention on the tight knot he had tied to keep his horse from escaping. While he did that, Wemmbu sat around kicking rocks, occasionally picking up small pebbles and flinging them at Flame. About nine pebbles later, Flame was seated on the back of his horse, waiting impatiently for his friend.
"C'mon bro," he grumbled, clearly still disgruntled, but he helped Wemmbu up nonetheless. Flame's horse then galloped off, with Wemmbu almost sliding off its back before Flame pulled him back up.
Riding through an open meadow, Wemmbu piped up.
"Dude, where are we even going?"
"Capital City," Flame responded, not looking back at Wemmbu. "I have to restock on potions, that last Law fight absolutely drained me."
They rode in silence for a while, Flame taking the opportunity to finally relax, breathe in the crisp, cool air, rest his eyes on the flowers-
"Are we there yet?"
Under his blindfold, Flame's eye twitched.
This guy was genuinely a five year old.
For the rest of the horse ride to Capital City, Wemmbu's impatient whines filled Flame's ears. I'm gonna knock this guy off the horse, I swear, Flame thought bitterly. I hate him so-
"Are we there yet?"
They arrived at Capital City not too long later, however for Flame it felt like it had been a millennia. He was genuinely astonished that his ears hadn't started bleeding during the ride, but he was too busy to question the logistics of that. He dismounted his horse, paying a player at the stables a few diamonds to look after his horse while they were gone.
Flame led the way through the bustling streets of Capital City, grasping Wemmbu's wrist tightly to prevent him from getting distracted and walking off. He guided his friend through the crowd of players, eventually arriving at a stone brick building with red and white banners adorning the entrance.
At the counter, mindlessly skimming a book titled How to Read, sat Theo. His head moved slightly as he glossed over the words on the pages, the avian muttering bitter curses under his breath as he 'read'. "Yo!" Flame greeted Theo, who perked up at the sound of his voice. The potion shop owner smiled, thankful for being freed from his condemnation. "What's up Flame? What can I do for you?"
"Uh...I need a few strength potions bro. I'm almost completely out bro," Flame admitted. Theo nodded, turning around to start brewing. That's when Wemmbu entered the shop, tapping Flame on the shoulder. "Can you get me a healing potion bro? The glistering melon juice is lowkey fire!"
Theo whipped around, staring dumbfounded at Wemmbu. "Shit!" he cursed loudly, kicking over an empty bucket that lay on the floor. "I owe Parrot five diamonds now!"
"Speak of the devil," Wemmbu remarked as Parrot entered the shop, arms laden with golden carrots. "Oh look," the avian mused, smirking. "Cough up, Theo!"
Grumbling, Theo pulled the diamonds out of his pocket, refusing to make eye contact with his business partner as he accepted the payment. He remained silent for the rest of the time he spent brewing Flame's potions, only occasionally muttering, "Ridiculous" and "Never thought I'd see the day" under his breath. Once he had finished brewing the potions, he glanced at them expectantly.
"Oh! Oh yeah, here bro," Flame tossed the avian a shulker box. It was then filled with potions before being handed back to him. "Have a nice day, bro," Theo wished him, clearly not wishing for him to have a nice day. Once they had left, Theo turned to Parrot, who was leaning against the stone brick wall, grinning smugly. "Be quiet, bro," Theo mumbled.
"Didn't say anything!" Parrot chuckled, raising his hands innocently.
Theo shot a fleeting glance to the area where Flame and Wemmbu had stood just moments earlier, a question coming to mind. "How'd they get so buddy-buddy anyways?"
Parrot shrugged. "No idea, dude. Wemmbu just dug through the floor last time when you were away, and he said he needed some invis pots to break Flame out of prison. I heard some rumours that he'd died though, so frankly I got no idea how he got there."
Leaving his spot against the wall, Parrot began to scale the ladder that led upstairs to their living quarters. "Wanna have some cake?"
Theo grinned. "You know it, dude."
They spent the rest of the afternoon speculating how Flame and Wemmbu could've become friends, coming up with theories such as 'they got over their stupid petty rivalry' and 'they're doing a dare', none of which were even remotely close to the truth.
Flame and Wemmbu once again rode their horse through the meadow, this time on their way back to Flame's base. They had plans to take Ashen for a walk together, and seeing that it was already mid afternoon, figured they should probably pick up the pace. Unbeknownst to them, however, a certain trio of troublemakers were peering over the top of a mound of dirt, watching their every move.
"Yo!" Zam whisper-shouted, turning his head to look at his companions. "Since when were those two...?"
Spoke and Mapicc made brief eye contact, mischief sparkling in their eyes. Spoke cleared his throat. "Oh yeah, they've always been like that."
Zam blinked in surprise. "They have? I could've sworn back in Zam Empire they hated each other's guts!"
Mapicc shook his head. "No, bro," he insisted. "They've secretly been friends this whole time. Jeez dude, how long have you been away from the main server from?"
The monarch sighed. "Too long dude, too long." The three of them watched as Flame and Wemmbu's horse stopped dead in it's tracks. "Bro," they heard Flame say, albeit very faintly. "I think I just dropped the potion shulker somewhere." Significantly less faint was Wemmbu's groan of frustration, before the purple demon reluctantly began to help Flame search for the shulker.
"They're so close!" Spoke squealed excitedly, his hand beginning to glitch. Unfortunately for them, Wemmbu had sharper hearing than they thought, as his head whipped around to try and locate the source of the noise. It seemed that he had walked off a few minutes later, so Zam remarked, "Dude, that was really close!"
"Prince. Fucking. Zam."
Zam went still at the sound of the terrifyingly familiar voice. His head turned slowly, eventually catching sight of a purple menace standing ominously behind him. "Hey...Wemmbu...!" he greeted him with a hint of fear in his voice. By then he was shaking like a leaf in the wind, and Spoke and Mapicc were nowhere to be seen. Maintaining eye contact, Wemmbu pulled out his sword.
He was not staying there.
Prince Zam scrambled to his feet, fleeing as quickly as his short legs could carry him. "Prince Zam!" Wemmbu growled, clutching his sword tightly as he chased after his target. "Get your ass back here! I'm gonna fucking murder you!"
Zam squeaked in terror as he and Wemmbu ran circles in the meadow, all while FlameFrags spectated with bored interest. Wemmbu was gaining on him, oh boy he was getting close-
In the blink of an eye, he was back home. Before him stood Spoke and Mapicc, the latter's hand damp from pulling the ender pearl stasis chamber. "You good?" Spoke checked in, and when Zam nodded, he burst into shrill laughter. "You-you should've seen the look on both your faces!"
Mapicc nodded vehemently. "Like bro, you looked like you were gonna piss yourself! And Wemmbu looked like he was gonna kill you!"
"Pretty sure he was."
The trio fell silent, their eyes darting around like flies.
They burst into rowdy laughter once again, tears of mirth pooling in their eyes.
"Damn it!" Wemmbu cursed loudly, stomping on the ground like a toddler having a tantrum. Just another reason why Flame thought he was secretly five.
"It's fine, bro," Flame assured him. "No point crying over spilled milk. Now let's get home if we wanna walk Ashen some time before the sun explodes. We discovered this really cool trail last time, I gotta show you that."
Flame started out that morning alone. He'd expected to be alone, heck, he was even enjoying being alone. But then that stupid little shit waltzed into his base like he owned it, and flat-out refused to let Flame go run his errands without him. He should be mad. He expected himself to be mad.d
He wasn't mad though.
He was grateful.