Creeps and Ender vs. the World

SEVERAL MONTHS LATER: PROLOGUE PART TWO

 Ender struggled to open his eyes. The sun was painfully bright that morning, it even shone through the opening of his crude little shelter that he had found, probably belonging to one of the mysterious players that had roamed the world. He felt stiff from having to sleep on the cold stone floor, he was covered in dirt and several bruises. The young enderman stood up, feeling his body ache from laying on the ground for so long. He reached out to touch the wall blindly, as his eyes were still adjusting to the bright morning sunlight. When his eyes adjusted, Ender slung a small cloth bag over his shoulder, stepped outdoors, and teleported.

         He landed in the middle of a village. The resident villagers didn't even seem to acknowledge his existence.

                                                           Perfect.

         He snuck past a few of them that were tending to their fields, harvesting more than enough food to feed the village for several weeks. He figured they wouldn't miss any. They hadn't so far.

       Ender teleported into one of the nearby shops that they used to store the food, checked to see that no one was looking, and then stole enough food to fill the small bag he was carrying with him. The child quickly checked and double checked to make sure that everything looked exactly like it had before he had ransacked the place, then teleported back to his home.

         Ender dug through the food he had gathered: a couple of carrots and potatoes, a few loaves of bread and some beets. Perfect, he thought. Just enough to last for a few days or so. I guess I'll go get some apples, too.

         Ender dumped out the contents of his bag into a small, one-block-wide hole in the floor, then teleported to his apple tree.

         As soon as he got to the gargantuan oak tree, Ender hoisted himself up the lowest branch and began the climb to search for apples. He had found maybe five or six of the ruby-red fruit, which he took and placed in his bag, when he registered the sound of sobbing coming from somewhere nearby. It sounded like the cries of a small child.

         Ender quickly scrambled down from the tree to investigate. He searched for about fifteen minutes before finding the source of the noise, and gasped at what he saw.

         A young creeper, who couldn't have been more than two years old, sat under a nearby tree, crying. There was a sizable bruise on one side of his face. There was a scrape on the knee of one of his four little legs, and he was calling for his mother.

         Ender felt a stab of empathy in his chest. He seemed to have been left there to starve to death.

                                                      Just like him.

         Ender crept closer, only to step on a twig and scare the living daylights out of himself and the other child. The little creeper screamed and scooted back against the trunk of the tree, Ender flipped out, not wanting to make him more scared than he already was. “No, no, I'm here to help!” The enderman cried, and the creeper looked up at him. “Ennermin?” Asked the toddler in his bizarre childish dialect. Ender nodded. “Yeah. I'm lost too…” he said, trailing off. He was starting to remember what had happened before he had gotten to this strange place. Unfortunately, he had left his mother’s necklace at his shelter, so he had nothing to stave off the panic attack that was coming. He felt the usual tightness in his chest, but he forced himself to remain calm. “I'm Ender,” he stated instead of panicking. “What's your name?”

                    The little creeper struggled with this next question.

    “Cee… Cwee… Cweepari… Creepareeis...” he stuttered.

                  Creeparious. Creeparious is his name. Kind of a mouthful though, Ender thought. He started thinking of a nickname, then said, “Can I call you Creeps instead?”

      Creeparious, now known as Creeps, nodded shyly. “I come with you?” He asked curiously. Ender was just about to ask if he wanted to come with him. He definitely needed at least someone to take care of him, since he was left there like that. Ender would have to be that someone for now.  “Sure. Why don't you actually come live with me?” Ender offered. Creeps's eyes lit up with excitement. “Like a seepover?!” He squealed. “Yeah. At least until your mom comes back,” replied Ender, trying not to laugh at Creeps's weird pronunciation of sleepover. Creeps tried to stand up, but soon fell over backwards. Ender stifled a laugh and picked the little creeper up for the first time. He was kind of heavy, but Ender could manage. “You warm,” yawned Creeps, it was obvious he was tired, and Ender smiled. The two started the journey back to Ender’s shelter.