It was a decently warm day, and a young woman found herself working in the farms of the village, pulling up crops for the villagers. They were a little short staffed that day, so [_____] offered to help out. She let out a huff, tugging at a particularly stiff carrot that was stuck in the ground before throwing her arms up in defeat. A laugh was heard from her left, and she frowned as she looked up, before giving them a small smile.
"Heh, those crops givin' ya trouble?" Nick asked, a kind smile etched on his face as he swapped places with [_____], before giving the crop a harsh yank and finally pulling it out of the soil. He turned and chucked it into her pile of carrots.
"Ah, thanks Nick. I'll, uh, bring these to Julia." [_____] said with a grin, before piling the edibles into a cart and wheeling it away. Nick gave her a small wave, turning back to pulling out more crops. Meanwhile, [_____] continued up the path towards Julia, one of the first villagers she met when she moved into the village and one of her closest friends. Knocking on the door, she let a smile fall onto her face as her friend answered.
"Oh! Hey [_____], glad to see you. If you could just put these there, that would be great!" Julia said, laughing as she almost broke the handle of the cart attempting to put it down.
"Anything else?"
"Ah, [_____], I know you're more skilled with taking out mobs than any of us, and I was, uh, we were wanting to know if you'd be a pal and clear them off for us." [_____] raised an eyebrow at her, and she seemed to shrink back. "D-don't worry, we've only really seen zombies wandering around the area."
[_____] seemed to relax at that, choosing her decisions wisely. To be fair, she could take on a handful of zombies, that much was simple. So she nodded, much to Julia's delight, and got the details situated.
It was now pretty much midnight, and [_____] had sorted all of her items. Her sharpness II iron sword was carefully strapped into her holster, and she had a few healing potions she'd managed to barter off the other villagers with her emeralds. She reckoned she should be fine, as long as she kept to what she knew and her back was covered. Sure, a few lone zombies were fine to clear, but when there was hordes, that's when it was difficult. Slinging her arm through the cracked shield she owned, she took a breath and headed out. Leaving her house, she took a step forward, and swore that she would keep her village safe.
~
She had been walking for a while now, ducking through trees to hide herself, but she couldn't see any mobs. That made her kind of confused, but she still continued on. She wasn't entirely sure where she was now, but she was pretty sure she could find a way back. She was about to turn left before a slightly insane giggle caught her attention and she took a step back, her eyes going wide and her head shooting around.
"Careful." Holy- "I'm pretty explosssive!" Another insane cackle fell from the Creeper in front of her. She readied her sword as she took multiple steps away from it.
"H-how are y-you talking right now." It was said as a question but it really sounded like a statement. The Creeper didn't answer for a moment, pausing only to laugh.
"We can all talk. We jussst don't dignify you humansss with our knowledge." A grin was still etched on its face, eyes unblinking as they stared [_____] down. Her hands started to shake but she kept her sword up, the purple glow reflecting in both their eyes. "Why are you in our foressst?" Its eyes narrowed at her, causing her to take another involuntary step backwards, directly into a tree.
"Your forest?" [_____] asked, hoping her voice wasn't as shaky as she felt. The Creeper glared, seemingly loosing his amusement.
"Yesss, our foressst. Why would they sssend an inexperienced human here?" Wait, nope. The attitude was still there. That's when [_____] caught onto what it just said.
"I'm sorry, inexperienced?" Her words cut through the air like a knife, but the Creeper still looked unfazed. It was only when the Creeper started igniting did [_____] realise she'd took multiple steps towards it, and threw her shield up to cover her from the blast that was about to come.
Or so she thought.
When she peered over the top of her shield when no impact came, all she saw were the eyes of the Creeper looking mightily unimpressed. "You done? Sssee, this is my point exactly. Weak."
[_____] glared at it, but didn't try to disprove it anymore. "W-why are you talking to me?" The Creeper looked away and then back at her, but didn't answer her for a few minutes.
"I'm bored." Huh? "You never anssswered me. What are you doing in our foressst?"
"Uhm-" [_____] thought over her words very carefully, considering what she should tell it. It hissed at her impatiently. "I was sent out here to get rid of some zombies."
It seemed to raise an eyebrow (or something like that) in confusion. "What are you on about? There hasssn't been any zombiesss in thisss area?"
"No?" She paused, recalling what Julia had said. "But I was told there were some troubling the local village?" It blinked at her.
"How far have you come? The nearest village isss, like, a good hour walk away."
"What." She couldn't have walked that far, could she? And without coming across any mobs? That just screamed suspicious. "I've been walking for an hour? But I haven't come across any mobs? Well, apart from you."
It was only then that [_____] realised that she wasn't really... afraid? She wasn't entirely sure how to word it. Sure, she was a little shocked at first, probably due to the fact that she had come across absolutely no mobs and the first one she did actually spoke to her, and the fact that it almost exploded, but she wasn't scared, per-say. This triggered her curiosity and she took another step forwards towards the Creeper, ignoring how it leant back slightly and gave her a funny look. She began to reach out a hand and-
"If you touch me I'll fucking bite you." Ah. So. That was fun. She withdrew her hand.
"That's not very nice." The Creeper frowned.
"I do not care." Delightful.
"Anyways. Would you, uh, be so kind as to help me back to the village?" The Creeper threw her a blank look.
"Excuse me what. In cassse you haven't realisssed, I jussst happen to be a mob." [_____] shrugged, resting her hand on the hilt of her sword - when did she re-sheath it? - and tilted her head at it. It didn't take long for the Creeper to sigh and shoot her an annoyed look, but agree with taking her back to the village.
"Why are you helping me?" [_____] asked, walking side by side with the Creeper. It made a motion that it wasn't sure, albeit it was difficult to do without arms.
"I dunno. I wasss bored."
"Why?"
"I don't have to explain myssself." A few more minutes passed in silence, with [_____] trying to block out the increasingly disturbing fact that there were no other mobs in the area. The Creeper, sensing the unease, decided to do something about it. Something stupid and dumb. "My name'sss Haywire."
[_____] turned to look at him with a deadpan expression. "That's your name?" She said dumbly.
Haywire glared. "Yesss. Are we gonna have a problem?"
[_____] sighed. "No. My name's [_____], by the way."
[_____], huh? Haywire liked that.
