Chapter Text
A baby rested in a bundle of clothing in the middle of an abandoned human trail. The sun began to set and the child began to wail and became a beacon for all things that went bump in the night.
The first creature to pass the small bundle was a curious Enderman. Her harsh pink eyes softened when the child began to babble at her and reach out his chubby fingers towards the nightmare-fueling creature. The Enderman knew of human’s cruelty and bigoted ways but she did not have the heart to let the child be swallowed by the night.
She raised her hand towards her right eye and grimaced as she extracted the essence from it. The pink life fueling light lingered on her fingers as she lowered them towards the child. The child giggled and grabbed her bony finger and the essence floated into the child eye. His right eye blazed pink for a moment before drifting back into its green. The Enderman sighed and knew that she was making the right choice.
She heard low growls of zombies behind her and guilt burrowed into her stomach when she realized that she had teleported into safety involuntarily. The zombies groaned and approached the child. The first of the herd had just about reached the child with his gnarled hands when he and the rest of his herd was pierced with over a dozen arrows. Before the zombies could even flinch, they were hit with another volley. The child blinked in confusion as the zombies fell into a pile of experience.
From the darkness of the trees, a squadron of skeleton archers emerged and they all were clicking in disgust. Only zombies would have the nerve to attack a human child. It had been serveral generations long agreement within all the mobs that they would never harm human children. This was due to several reason including moral but most of all in fear of the humans retaliation. The archers’ bones rattled while they surrounding the smiling child.
“Humans never fail to disgust me.” One archer clacked.
“Quite barbaric if you ask me,” Another tsked.
“We all know of the humans … simple nature but there is no reason that a mere child must suffer. We have a duty as protectors of this land to protect anything without the ability to help themselves,” The general of the squadron clicked gallantly.
The others clattered their bones in agreement. Night passed and the archers stood vigil over the child, killing any zombie or spider that dared get too close but as the sun began to dawn, the squadron was forced to retreat into the safety of the caves.
Before he left, the leader looked down at the smiling child. He looked deep into the child’s eyes and saw the glimmer of pink and an unusual sharpness. He felt something deep in his chest cavity and with practiced ease he slipped his prized bow and placed it atop the child’s clothe bundle. The bows emeralds gleamed in the dawn light creating a contrast with the dull iron finish.
“A gesture of goodwill.” The leader nodded before running to the safety of the cave.
After being left in the wild for the third time in his young life, the baby began to cry again. This time, its cries reverberated through the forest attracting the attention of two newly mated creepers. They followed the sound until it was near deafening and at their feet was the bundle.
They looked down to the child. The pink residue of an Enderman danced around the small boy and in his hand was the emerald bow.
“ It seems we were not the first to visit this rather loud child.” The larger creeper mused.
“Look how small he is!” The smaller one cooed and reached her hand towards the child. With his free hand, the baby grabbed the creeper’s warm fuzzy fingers.
“Heather.” The male warmed.
“Robert. It’s only a child.” She said rolling her eyes.
“I know, love, but be careful.” He said nuzzling her.
Heather felt no danger when the baby tugged at her fingers and in one swift movement, she picked the child up in the first loving embrace of his life.
“What are you doing?!?!” Robert said slightly bulging.
“He isn’t a threat.” Heather said trying to calm her mate, “Look at him he is thirsty and hungry. He will die out here if we don’t do anything.” Robert looked down at the child’s cracked lips and sunk in cheeks and sighed.
“Heather what about when he’s-“
“We will deal with that later. Much later. And that’s the end of this discussion, Robert. Now grab his bow and let’s go.” Heather said carrying the baby towards the colony.
“Yes, dear.” Robert said grabbing the bow and following after his mate.