Chapter Text
“Lomedy, we have to go!”
Silence.
“Great,” Flame mumbled as he began to search the base.
That morning, he and his best friend, Lomedy, had been out tending their farm when they received a letter from a royal guard. It was addressed: ‘To Flamefrags, from ParrotX2’. Upon opening it, they found a request for both of them to make their way to the Northern Council as soon as possible to discuss an urgent matter. The letter sounded pretty desperate, so Flame decided the two would take a couple of minutes to gather their things before beginning the journey north.
Or, at least, that’s what he planned.
“Lomedy?” Flame called again, rolling his eyes.
He continued to examine each room of the base in search of the slippery farmer. The deepslate walls stood tall, stretching high into the pale sky above. Warm rays of sunlight bent through the large, silver-rimmed windows, casting intricate patterns of light across the floor.
After searching high and low for his best friend—deciding the farmer wasn’t indoors—Flame made his way outside where crops of all kinds stretched for acres. After the Five Day War, he and Lomedy decided to settle down to start a farm, and they had been there ever since. It had been a little over 100 days since then, but the farm looked as if it had been there for years. Yellow wheat stretched far into the horizon, and the barns and stables stood sturdy on the rolling hills.
It was the perfect farm.
Flame made his way down the winding dirt path, careful not to trip over any roots, until he eventually found himself at the barns. Each one was filled with all the sheep, cows, pigs, and chickens the duo accumulated over their time on the land. Flame headed directly to the sheep pen and leaned an ear against the door.
They were muffled, but Flame could hear a variety of sounds, all different variations of baa, until he eventually heard a giggle echo from inside.
Now that was not a sheep.
“Lomedy,” Flame grumbled, swinging open both doors. “What are you doing out here? I told you we have to—”
The sight before him cut his train of thought immediately.
The pens that the sheep were supposed to be in were now empty, and the fluffy animals were free-roaming inside the barn. Clusters of white wool covered nearly every surface, so much that even the ground below was barely visible.
“Flame?” a voice broke though, thin and buried. “Help me!”
A, not-hoof, human hand suddenly appeared from beneath a large pile of wool, waving violently as if the body it was attached to was drowning.
“The hell?” Flame stuttered, rushing over like a lifeguard to save the drowning soul. “Lomedy—what are you doing?”
He grabbed the wrist of most-likely Lomedy and yanked it upward, sending white balls of fur flying—prompting irritated baas from the surrounding sheep—and a golden laurel crown finally began to surface. After a couple seconds of struggling, Lomedy finally planted both of his feet on the ground and let out a hearty laugh.
“Oh my gosh, bro, thanks man,” Lomedy laughed. “I swear they were, like, trying to kill me.”
“How does this even happen?” Flame questioned, dragging a hand down his face.
“I came to feed them,” Lomedy chirped. “I didn’t know how long we’d be gone, and I didn’t want them to get hungry—”
Flame reached up to pick white fluffies out of Lomedy’s brown-black curls.
“—but they must’ve been angry with me or something, bro, because when I opened the gate they just flooded out and jumped me! You know how much I adore the sheep.”
“Mhm,” Flame nodded, grabbing the last of the fuzzies. Of course he knew. Just like how he knew Lomedy meant well, so he couldn’t be mad at him for long. “We can’t deal with this right now though, okay? We have to go. Northern Council, remember?”
“Oh,” Lomedy mumbled. “Right, right, Northern Council, sorry, let’s go.”
They maneuvered their way out of the pool of sheep and eventually reached the outside. Flame locked up the barn, and the duo made their way toward the stables. As they walked, Lomedy turned back one last time to glare at the sheep, giving them a ‘I’ll deal with you later’ look—getting a, ‘Sheep 1 Lomedy 0’, stare in return.
“So, why do we need to go to the Northern Council anyway?” Lomedy questioned. “You haven’t spoken to Parrot in months.”
“No clue,” Flame admitted. It was a bit odd to have received a letter from Parrot. Their last interaction hadn’t necessarily been positive, but it hadn’t been negative either. “Guess we’ll have to figure it out when we get there.”
The duo eventually arrived at the stables and began prepping their horses in silence. Once they finished, they mounted the 900-pound beasts and set off toward the Northern Council.
As the farm faded into the horizon behind them, Lomedy started rambling about the sheep once more.
“I wasn’t even provoking them, bro,” Lomedy insisted.
“Yeah, sure, bro,” Flame nodded.
“I wasn’t!”
“Sure, sure.”
Lomedy sighed in frustration and Flame let out an innocent laugh.
Too easy.
For the remainder of the journey, Lomedy talked about whatever came to his mind–about sheep, about nothing, about everything. And Flame tried to listen, he really did, but he eventually tuned it all out.
He hadn’t seen Parrot, or anyone other than Lomedy for that matter, in over 100 days. He had agreed to help with dethroning Lettuce, but he never thought about who would reign after him. Parrot seemed like the obvious choice, and Flame didn’t like to involve himself in politics, so that’s the arrangement that came to be. At least the farm hadn’t been griefed yet, so that’s something. Maybe Parrot being king wasn’t so bad.
Eventually, after what felt like eternity, the tall statues of the Northern Council came into view. The closer Flame got, the more his eyes narrowed slightly. He hadn’t been there since the war, so this? This was new.
The castle was massive—larger than Flame remembered. It was made of stone brick, and stretched higher and farther than his eyes could easily follow. Two towering statues stood at the front, swords in hand and wings spread wide. A cold breeze blew past, making the blue and green flags atop the watchtowers ripple softly.
“Woah,” Lomedy gasped, jaw dropped. “This is the Northern Council?”
“It looks a little different from the last time I was here,” Flame admitted. “But yeah. This is it.”
The two left their horses in the guest stables and shuffled up the stairs. Once they reached the top, they were immediately met by two guards in netherite armor.
“The immortal demon and the farmer,” one of them said flatly, sizing the duo up and down. Their helmets remained on, hiding their faces. “We are your escorts.”
“We don’t need an escort, bro,” Flame muttered, stepping forward slightly to put himself between the guards and Lomedy. After everything he and Lomedy had been through, he wasn’t quick to trust random people.
“It’s fine,” Lomedy reassured, offering a small smile at the now irritated Flamefrags. “It’s probably required. Nothing personal. Show us the way.”
Flame shot Lomedy a side-eye but kept his mouth shut as the guards led them inside.
The interior was just as—if not more—impressive than the exterior. The stone brick walls were lined with gold and velvet. The arches stretched overhead, each carved with intricate patterns. The hallway itself seemed to go on forever
Anything for the king, I guess.
As they continued down the corridor, Flame kept his eyes on the guards, quietly noting their behavior. They walked at a swift pace, and kept their hands resting on the pommel of their swords.
In the corner of his eye, Lomedy began to drift, distracted by the grand paintings lining the walls. Before he could wander too far, Flame grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back.
“Stay where I can see you,” Flame whispered. “I don’t know what's going on but the guards are on edge. Stay alert.”
Lomedy’s eyes flickered from Flame to the guards and back again. He simply nodded, not daring to say a word. Flame gave his shoulder a little squeeze.
“It’s probably nothing,” Flame reassured, though his grip didn’t loosen. “Come on, we need to catch up.”
After walking for what felt like hours, the throne room finally came into view and the hallway began to fill with the echo of overlapping voices.
“We can go on our own from here,” Flame insisted, quickly turning to grab Lomedy by the hand. “Let’s go.”
Before the guards could protest, Flame dragged his best friend along the rest of the way and the two entered the room.
The moment they entered, Flame blinked—hard.
The chandeliers shimmered overhead, their light reflecting off gold furnishings and deep crimson velvet that covered the floors and ceiling. A large round wooden table sat at the center of the room, surrounded by a handful of familiar faces.
“Flame! Flame!” a black void whooped, throwing his hands in the air. “Flamefrags is here!”
Seated at the table were Parrot, Theo, Spoke, and Mapicc. Spoke was being as rowdy as ever, and Mapicc seemed to be enjoying the ruckus his friend was causing. Theo stood halfway out of his seat, trying—and failing—to get Spoke to quiet down. Flame hadn’t seen any of these guys since the war, but, reassuringly, they all seemed roughly the same.
Except for Parrot.
Parrot sat at the head of the table just…staring.
He wasn’t reacting to the noise. Wasn’t joining in. Just, staring past everything. He didn’t even blink. He seemed smaller, like the golden crown he wore weighed heavy.
For a moment, Flame wasn’t sure Parrot had even noticed them.
“Hey guys,” Flame started, awkwardly. He began to shift his weight from heel to toe.
Parrot blinked and straightened a bit. “Flame, It’s nice to see you. How are things?”
“Good. They’re, uh, good. Nothing to report,” the demon finished, flatly.
Spoke and Mapicc shared a not so subtle glance that said more than enough.
Awkwarddd.
Parrot cleared his throat. “Well, that’s good. Please, sit.”
Flame and Lomedy quickly made their way over to the table, taking the two seats closest to the exit—one of the Immortal Demon’s usual habits.
“So,” Flame started. “Why are we here exactly?”
His gaze drifted briefly to Spoke, who had already crept his way over to Lomedy and started firing off questions. Lomedy looked slightly overwhelmed but he answered anyway.
Flame’s lips crept into a small smile.
Now he knows how it feels.
“I’ll explain everything soon,” Parrot replied. “We’re just waiting on two more—”
“Good timing!” an annoyingly loud voice interrupted. “See, Egg, I told you. Fashionably late is always the right move.”
“Are we serious right now, bro,” Flame groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he watched the purple figure and his odd looking friend enter the room.
“Very serious,” Wemmbu smirked, taking an empty seat. “Hi Flamey.”
Flame only rolled his eyes. Lomedy gave a little wave.
“Now that everyone is here,” Parrot started, rising to his feet. “We need to begin. This is an urgent matter.”
“Bro are you like, ok? You don’t, uh, look great.” Wemmbu observed. Stupid, stupid Wemmbu.
Parrot’s expression snapped. “Oh my gosh, dude,” he exploded. “Can we lock in, please? That’s not important. What’s important is out there,” he finished, pointing at the room’s exit.
“What do you mean?” Flame pressed. “What’s out there?”
“Exactly my point,” Parrot started, sounding calm again, but there was an edge in his voice. “Yesterday, Theo and I went to perform our weekly check on one of the civilizations in my territory. However, when we got there, everyone was gone. Just…vanished into thin air without a trace.”
An emotion flickered across his face—sadness? Flame couldn’t blame the guy. These were his people who went missing. The thought of hundreds—no—thousands of players just vanishing sent shivers down his spine. How could no one have seen anything?
“We did some searching of our own, but more people began to go missing one by one,” Theo explained. “That’s when we decided to come back and gather the best fighters we know to help us.”
“Missing players,” Spoke sighed deeply. “It’s always missing players.”
Flame’s jaw tightened. “What’s your plan? Surely you don’t need all of us to go. You said you needed your best fighters, not all of us here are fighters.” He couldn’t help but glance over at Lomedy.
The farmer sat there diligently and quietly. His golden eyes match perfectly with the surrounding furniture.
“I hate to admit it.” Parrot took a seat back in his chair. “But we need all the help we can get. We need to figure out what’s going on before it becomes a larger issue. We’ll be leaving as soon as possible.”
“It’ll be fine,” Lomedy reassured, grabbing Flame’s hand. “You worry too much.”
Flame wasn’t too pleased with this arrangement, but he was outnumbered, so his opinion didn’t matter.
“Then it’s settled!” Spoke chorused. “Team trip!”
One by one, the group got up from their seats and headed toward the exit. Parrot informed them that it would be a day's worth of travel before they reached Skymore, so Wemmbu opted for taking his elytra instead of a horse. He left Egg in the custody of the immortal demon with a wink and flew off.
The journey was slow, but the group eventually reached Skymore before another nightfall the next day. Wemmbu was waiting for them at the front gate when they arrived.
The town sat unnaturally still. There was no movement. Not even the usual sounds of animals or wind through the buildings. Just thick and suffocating silence.
Flame tightened his grip on the reins slightly. Something about this place made his skin crawl.
As the group passed through the gates, the first thing he noticed wasn’t what was there–but what wasn’t.
Not a single sign of life.
The entire civilization stretched in rows of wooden and stone buildings, some even left half-finished. It was as if their builders had simply—stopped. Axes and shovels still lay scattered where they’d been dropped and some doors hung open.
A fog consumed the area, curling around their feet as if it didn’t want them there. They pushed on, and the deeper they went, the heavier the silence grew.
“Let’s split up,” Parrot decided. “Cover more ground.”
So, the group split up into their respective duos and set off. Parrot and Theo took the North, Wemmbu and Egg headed West, Spoke and Mapicc decided they would search the outskirts, which left Flame and Lomedy to head South.
“Let’s go,” Flame commanded.
The two set off down the gravel path, the fog slowly swallowing the rest of the town behind them.
Flame glanced over his shoulder one last time, noticing something shift in the fog.
He slowed, eyes narrowing as he scanned the haze for any sign of movement.
“Flame?” Lomedy asked. “What is it?”
A beat passed before Flame decided to respond. He reached out and caught Lomedy’s hand, steady but firm.
“Nothing,” Flame murmured. “Just, stay close.”
His gaze lingered on the fog for a second longer, then he turned forward again, sharply.
Then they were off.
Whatever had been in the fog didn’t move again, but that didn’t ease the growing concern in Flame’s mind.