Drained

I.

"I didn't do it!" You exclaimed, "I swear to you, Lily, I'd never!"

"Then why are they spreading things I'd only told you?" She hissed, "It doesn't make any sense!"

"I-I know, I don't know, but," Tears welled up in your eyes as your heart broke.

"There is no one else," She turned her face away from you, shutting you off from her emerald green eyes, and from her heart, "Who could have done it."

"Lily, please," You begged.

"Just, leave me alone!"

You gasped for air as you dashed across the harsh nether. The red grass felt as if it would burn through your iron boots, the lava bucket in your hand felt as if it was boiling you alive, while the squealing of the hoglin behind you sprinted after you as if it hadn't eaten in decades. You took a chance to turn your head to look behind you, only to be slammed in the back by two painful tusks, throwing you forward. Except, there was no more forward.

Suddenly, you were falling off a cliff headfirst, the netherrack below you looked as uninviting as ever. Before you could think, you tucked yourself into a ball, throwing your hands out, and the hard ground met you painfully, but you were able to use a summersault to soften the blow. You uncurled, lying on your back. Above you, the hoglin snorted before walking away.

You took a few long moments to catch your breath. Your lava bucket laid face down on the ground a few feet away. At least it wasn't burning you alive. Today had been a horrible, awful, no good day. In fact, the past few weeks had been that way. For the last few days, you had been in the Nether gathering. Gathering what? You looked into your pouches. Empty. You hadn't managed to get a single thing for the village cleric.

You sighed.

Fortunately, now that you were out of the piglins' domain, you could safely mine some gold. You ripped your iron pickaxe from your belt and looked around for some. Though, you ended up venturing into a cave. There wasn't much. At first. But, as you explored further, some blackstone bricks started appearing. Then there was basalt. Then you realized where you were, you reattached your pickaxe to your belt and instead reached for your axe.

You turned a corner. At the end of the hall, there was a huge statue with a gold block. It looked like a pig's snout, but the rest had crumbled. You released a breath you hadn't known you were holding.

"Hello."

You shrieked, whipping around and threw your axe. Like, literally throwing. You looked down at your empty hands and then up at the stranger in front of you, who held his hand to his heart as he stared at the axe. Which was now firmly embedded in the other wall.

"Okay," He murmured, turning back to look at you with wide eyes, "I am sorry I startled you."

"Oh my gosh!" You exclaimed, throwing your hands over your mouth, "I'm so sorry! I didn't- well, I was startled so- Th-this seems like a really dangerous place, and- Oh, I'm so sorry!"

The stranger chuckled nervously, "I-it is alright, I have great reflexes!"

"Still, that could have gone seriously bad," You lowered your hands.

The stranger before you stood only an inch or two taller than you with a nervous expression on his face. He had dark brown hair, tightly braided into long, grown out box braids. His skin was a warm caramel color, unblemished, with gold painted below his eyes, on the bridge of his nose, and on his bottom lip and chin. In fact, his whole outfit was decorated with gold. Plus, he had a vibrant red sash with a white dress shirt beneath it. His belt buckle had a vibrant golden snout with a crown on top of it.