Unrecognizable

~Chapter Twenty-Two~

Present day

Citrus wasn't expecting much from Stress, but this was far duller than she thought it would be. The two weren't even at her base-- to quote Stress, they were at her "Little temporary setup"-- so it wasn't like she could even get anything good out of this. At least it was a nice place. It was cool. Quite literally, being that Stress's camp was set up in an ice spikes biome. 

It seemed to have been set up in a very short amount of time. Into a spike was built a small wooden shack with only one room, a bed, a crafting bench and furnace, a few chests, and little more than that. Citrus had soon found the chests to be quite comfy, and resting on a chest by a torch was a nice way to spend the night. But even so, that didn't change the fact that instead of being around a bunch of Hermits, gathering intel, she was off in the middle of nowhere, freezing her tail off.

But now that it was morning, Citrus was up and ready for 'work'. Of course, being quite secluded, it was difficult for her to take any mental notes, the fact being that there was nothing on which to take any. Stress didn't seem to be doing anything, really. She was simply wandering around, looking at things. Occasionally, she'd write in a notebook. It was nearly midday and this was all the Hermit with flowers in her hair had accomplished. How was Citrus going to be useful if she couldn't find anything to report on? She didn't exactly have any idea whatsoever what exactly she was looking for, but literally anything was better than this. 

But then something caught her eye. It wasn't anything Stress was doing. No, it wasn't her at all. Off in the distance, she saw a silhouette that definitely didn't belong here. The cat meowed loudly and flicked her tail in the direction of the creature to direct the Hermit's attention to it. "What's the matter, little cat? What do you see?" She turned to where Citrus was gesturing, then gave a small gasp. "Oh!" 

For hovering, just a few ice spikes away, was a singular blaze.

That was a new one. Citrus was aware of strange happenings going on around this biome. Void was very easily convinced into giving information about things, given that soon enough none of it would matter anyway. But generally, blazes didn't show up in the middle of the most wintry place in Hermitcraft. The cat hissed as the mob approached them, sizzling and crackling with flames as it went. Citrus's fur stood on end as she backed up slowly. Nope, she was not in the mood to die today. The beast turned straight to her, and a burst of flames erupted from its form. Oh, no. 

As a flurry of fireballs shot at Citrus and Stress, the cat weaved and ducked and dodged the endless stream of murder bullets. Maybe she should've stayed home! The cat got distracted for just a moment by a ding coming from Stress's general direction, and a fireball whizzed right past her ear, singing her whiskers. She jumped back. Why were there so many? But then, they stopped. Citrus turned to see Stress, who was holding up a bow menacingly, pulling back an arrow. The blaze turned to her and hissed before getting an arrow right in the mouth. With a shriek, it disappeared in a flash of red, leaving nothing behind but scorch marks and pools of melted water. 

Citrus turned to Stress, who was breathing heavily. With shaky hands, she placed the bow back into her pouch. "Well," she breathed. "That's that, then." Both she and Citrus turned back to the shack... or what was left of it, anyway. And that wasn't much. Only the bed, the chests, and the furnace were seemingly left untouched. The rest was either scorched, on fire, or both. The cat wasn't exactly afraid of fire, but she certainly didn't care for it and decided to take a step or two back. 

What just happened? As Stress began to repair the shack, Citrus sat and thought about the last two minutes. They had flown by in such a blur that it was difficult to place exactly everything, but one moment she was bored, and the next she was about to die. Quite the drastic shift. The cat fixed her fluffed fur and noticed that she was practically buzzing, and not just from the adrenaline. This was definitely something that the others should know. Maybe it wasn't about the Hermits, but it was still important, right? Of course it was. This mattered. She mattered.