Hero's Bane

Chapter 58: The Bane

Herobrine snorted and took a few steps back from the father and his kids, still huffing and clinging to his head while fighting a terrible pounding ache. He closed his eyes and growled before stopping his movements and letting another memory resurface. He didn't need or want old memories, most of them only made him mad and others made him depressed. He forced his closed eyes open to see that boy now holding his arms out in a pathetic attempt to shield his dad, his expression was riddled with fear; and yet he shook in that spot and defended the man. Those young amber eyes stayed on the enchanted blade in Herobrine's hands.

The old Hero blinked and almost sworn that he saw a different kid standing there for a brief moment, he blinked again and now there was another kid in his line of vision, an older one that looked like he was on the brink of becoming a teenager by his age appearance. His hair was short and brown and his eyes were a deep lapis blue, he wore a dark red shirt and black pants. This kid looked very familiar now, his blue eyes was the first thing to catch attention. The child had tears pouring down his face and he shook with great fear, he also panted loudly with his inhales and exhales. Despite terror he felt, he held onto an old wooden axe that was well worn and splintered at the timber blade end.

-Wait a minute?- Herobrine widened his eyes as he had seen this older child before, and recently if his memory served him correctly; though maybe not too recently. The boy even looked a little like... -No. But those eyes?- He blinked again and shook his head but the vision did not change, only the landscape distorted and reformed; that was it. He noticed the change in the scenery from partially open plains to a small opening in an oak forest with a large enough clearing for a house and a decent sized yard, there were warm lights gleaming through the forest walls with trails of smoke coming from above the tree line; indicating a village nearby. -This place is... familiar.- His eyes moved back down to the kid, that child that reminded him of a certain mortal that he just could not recall the name of them for some reason. His head pulsed again and he twitched and winced for a short second before the throbbing stopped, Herobrine then sighed in relief.

There was only one way to see if that kid who he thought he was, he had been blocking or actually trying to protect the human figure on the ground behind him. The powerful man's white gaze traveled back behind the boy to see a gravely wounded and grounded form of a grown human male with his face hidden in shadow, through the dark shrouded him; Herobrine could easily distinguish the face with his superior eyesight and his eyes honed in on the face. Seeing the features and facial-shape of this human instantly made him hold his breath and gape silently. He suddenly remembered who both the man and boy bear a resemblance to.

...

"What are ... you doing Anthony?" Came a pained and raspy voice. The mortal on the ground grunted as he tried to lift himself up but was unsuccessful and only groaned in his failure.

-Anthony? That name.-

The wounded man wheezed and tilted his head up and towards the brave child. "Leave... now. You can't win. He's t- t- too powerful. I'm not- not going to make it." He painfully muttered and let his head fall back; too injured and weak to even move any other part of his rapidly weakening body, let alone stay conscious with the loss of blood on his greatly damaged body that had been slashed to pieces. But regardless of his fatal wounds, he stayed awake.

"I'm not leaving you dad! You said you were coming back!" Anthony shouted and wiped away at some of the tears that obscured his vision with the back of his hand, he then took a deep breath and tightened his grasp around the dull axe. "You're going to come back home, just like you said you would! I will make that HAPPEN!" He screamed as he suddenly pushed his legs forward towards the White-Eyed man with a face full of determination and willpower to protect his father.