Thank you all for the love on the first chapter, so here is chapter two. What I am going to do is post the rough versions on Tumblr and all of the polished chapters will be posted on AO3; so bear in mind that the link I will put on this post will be for chapter one and chapter two will be under the cut 😊
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
He doesn’t know where he is going.
He doesn’t remember how he got down to the Crossroad, so the way back up is just as hazy.
The Stranger still hasn’t said their name, but they also haven’t let go of Avery’ hand yet; a steady grounding presence.
Avery couldn’t tell how long he had been down under ground, or how long they had been walking for.
The Stranger stopped and Avery almost walked into the side of them; still unbalanced and disorientated from having the blindfold on his face.
“Uhh… sir? What's happening?” Avery was unsure, he was randomly trusting this person and now they had stopped, hadn’t made a sound. He felt a finger placed on his lips and felt the ghost of an exhale spread over his face. Avery could hear shifting in front of him before he felt the Stranger start shaking. Rough hands grabbed his own and dragged him somewhere quickly. Avery stumbled after, trying to get some protests out but his voice had left him again. As they kept moving, Avery could hear it.
Rushing wind.
Wailing voices.
It was coming closer
And closer.
It was almost at them now.
What was happening?
Make the screaming stop.
Too loud.
Too loUD!
TOO LOUD!
TOO-
Hands clamped over his ears and Avery shoved his face into the Strangers chest, breathing heavily, scared. What was that? Why was it chasing them? Where were they? Are they safe now? Too many questions raced around his head, making the faint headache rage to life again. He daren’t move from his position. He couldn’t anyway, the hands were still over his ears, keeping him in place against the Stranger.
He doesn’t know how long they stayed like that for, eventually though, the Stranger slowly removed their hands from Avery's head, but they didn’t push Avery away yet, letting him get his bearings again. Avery felt his breathing slow again and carefully pushed himself away, dutifully ignoring the slight heat in his cheeks as he realised how he essentially was hugging the Stranger.
“What was that?” Avery questioned, looking around the best he could with the cloth still.
“I’m not sure, but they like to give chase when they find you. I have found that it is best to hide and wait it out. They are gone now, but I don’t know for how long, so we need to get moving again.” With that, the Stranger grabbed Avery’s hand and started moving again. Avery still didn’t know where they were going, but he did trust the Stranger (did he?) to help him get back to the surface; from there Avery knew the way home… sort of. The mine wasn’t far from Avery’s home, and it was a somewhat direct route, so he could figure it out even with the cloth still on. Hell, the sunlight may even help guide him because things would be far brighter than a cave system. In other words, he would figure it out.
The Stranger was quiet, and Avery could tell that they were tense.
“Hey, mister. Is everything okay? Well as okay as it can be? I don’t know if you could tell but,” Avery waved a hand over his eyes as he chuckled. “Still can’t see.” He heard a sort of breathy exhale that could be passed off as a laugh and he couldn’t help but smile at making the situation a bit lighter (he hoped he had anyway).
“Sorry, yes, currently everything is okay. Just a bit on edge, I do not trust this place.” Avery could hear the tiredness in the Strangers voice but also a sense of fury? Although Avery could not pinpoint why.
“Understandable. Also, what can I call you? Because I cannot keep calling you ‘Stranger’ in my head, feel’s weird dude.”
“Oh, uh, you may call me DerLorde.”
“DerLorde? As in a title? Odd, but okay, your name Der. Can I call you that, Der?” Avery felt a slight tug on his hand and he was pulled forward closer to the Stran- to DerLorde.
“That is fine Avery, I want you to stay here as I need to do a little bit of mining to get us out of here, okay?” Der asked, letting go of Avery’s hand and grabbing the pickaxe that Avery was shocked he still had on him.
“Yeah, cool- wait, how do you know my name? I’ve never met you before.” Avery felt Der tense for a second before a small sigh left his lips and both of his hands were on Avery’s shoulders.
“There are a lot of things I will explain to you, but a lot that will come with time. For now, know that the thing you saw briefly cursed me with a lot of knowledge. Past, present and future. There are some things I do not know, but I know a lot of things about nearly everything.” Avery stood there stunned, not quite believing what DerLorde was saying. That can’t be true, nothing or no one can know nearly everything. That was just some insane crazy talk.
“That can’t be true. So what, you can, like, read minds?”
“No, I cannot read mind’s Avery. I already know this knowledge.”
“Sure sure, what number am I thinking of then?”
“I told you I cannot read minds. But I can tell you that you moved here to get away from the chaoticness of Central; that you prefer cold chocolate milk to hot, but like the way the heat of a hot chocolate warms you from the inside out. I can go on if you wish.” Okay, so Avery was starting to believe Der a bit more but was not fully convinced still; it was a lot to adjust to, but this being, Der, had saved him twice now, so Avery felt like it was only fair to try and understand what Der had told him.
“Okay, still don’t fully believe you, but you know my name and somehow two facts about me, so I’ll try to understand it if I can.”
“Thank you, I know that you will eventually, but take your time, it is a lot to process. Now, I am going to step away and get us through this wall. I apologise if this is loud.”
And with that, Avery heard Der walk away and start the tedious task of mining through a Gods knows how thick of a wall so they can leave.
Avery sat down on the ground in the direction that Der was mining in and watched what he could.
His eyes had adjusted quite well to the red over his vision and he could now make out a lot shape wise, so he could watch Der bring the pickaxe up over his head and back down onto the stone in front of him. Avery was strong, participating in tournaments would do that to anyone, but being part slime meant that certain strengths he lacked. Mining was one of them, he could do a little bit of mining here and there for ores, but anything tedious like carving through a wall to escape somewhere was out of his scope. He sat there and watched the repetitive motion and wondered what DerLorde actually looked like. Avery knew that he was wearing armour, he could feel the smoothness and coldness whenever they brushed sides, and through the cloth it looked orange-ish, so he assumed it was most likely made of gold; but he wondered what he looked like under the armour. Was he human? A hybrid like Avery? Was he young or old (Avery lent towards old, but not that much older than what Avery was)? Maybe once he could take the cloth off from over his eyes, he would be able to get the answers he wanted to know.
The sound of metal hitting stone and stone crumbling to the ground echoed in the cave system, a steady thrum that was not helping Avery’s headache, but a welcome distraction to whatever the hell happened earlier on. Avery thought back to that, the screams in his head, whatever the hell he saw briefly, the pure fear that coursed through his body.
The whispers in the tunnel.
The wailing voices that chased him and DerLorde.
What was this place? Maybe Der could tell him when they left?
”Avery, we can go now, the wall is gone.” Der’s voice echoed out and Avery looked in his general direction. When did the mining stop? Was he really that lost in his own head? Carefully Avery stood up and took a step towards Der’s figure.
”Okay then, lead the way my good sir!” Avery let out an exaggerated bow and couldn’t help the smile that lit his face when he heard a slight snort from Der. The man grabbed hold of Avery’s lower arm again and guided him through the hole he had made.
When they got through something had shifted.
The air felt calmer, less stilted.
Avery felt like he could breathe again and his headache had seemed to dissipate the moment they walked through.
It was nice.
He didn’t feel trapped anymore.
Der kept walking and taking Avery somewhere, he hoped out but still Avery could not remember how he got to where they were. He knew that there were stairs that led down to the ‘proper’ entrance of the mineshaft, but that was it. Everything after that seemed to be a distant hazy blur in his mind, up to the gate and Der grabbing him.
Oh gods, has he lost his memories? No, he remembered everything up to that point and everything after, just not… during. He shook his head, he can try and figure it out later. Get out of the mine, get home, see if he can take the blindfold off, have a nice hot bath and sleep for like three days.
Yeah, good plan Avery.
He nodded to himself, pleased with his plan of action, then almost fell up a step.
”Scheiße. Sorry, I forgot to warn you where the step was.” He felt hands grab both of his and Der carefully pulled him forward to the next stair. Slowly the two made it up the staircase and Avery could feel fresh air blowing towards them, it was warm and comforting; like a gentle hug wrapped around them. Much better than that of the mine.
Avery let out a sigh and took an unguided step forward, feeling the soft grass brush against his legs.
What he didn’t feel was Der next to him.
Turning back towards the mine (at least he think he did), Avery cocked his head towards Der.
”You coming or what? I can’t quite make it home with this over my eyes.”
”You.. you wish for me to still assist you?” His voice was low, guarded, lost.
”Well duh. Plus, I would like to repay you for helping me down there, so a nice home cooked meal seems like a good idea in my opinion,” Avery shrugged his shoulders, but in his mind he was pleading for Der to come with, he didn’t like th idea of Der going back into the mines by himself with whatever was down there.
Footsteps drew closer and Avery felt his shoulders relax.
”I will guide you home then, I hope you do know where you live.”
(Click for quality.) I’m doing spec evo designs for the Minecraft mobs. I don’t usually post art here but oh well. If y’all want the speedpaint or lore tell me.
