Herobrine X Reader - Love's Wither Rose (COMPLETE)

2 - ...judge my vow.

Careful eyes watched them from a gap behind two vertical chests as they peered into the shulker box. The owner of the eyes didn't move for fear of being seen, so instead he just stood there, motionless, not daring to even breathe above the volume of a feather's fall.

He saw them rummage around the box's contents, muttering the names of the items to themselves as they went. They paused unexpectedly for a moment, and he could see the flickering torchlight reflect the kindling curiosity in their (E/C) eyes. They pulled out a book, bound in leather and barely held together by winding thread. He felt his breath catch slightly in his throat and his heart jumped anxiously.

Damn, he thought. Was writing that book really a good idea?

They stood up straight with the book and began to head up the stairs. He stayed where he stood, unmoving still, waiting until the white fur on the dog's tail to disappear from sight.

He let out a short sigh and turned back to leave the tunnel he made, filling in the stone as he went. He came out at the summit of the small mountain they had built on. The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon, setting the sky aflame in its entirety. The moon also began to inch into sight. Its cool blue hue contrasted beautifully with the fiery reds and oranges of the susnet.

He hid in the entrance of a shallow cave and waited until the sun had left the sky completely and the stars all blinked inquisitively at the same world they had seen a million times. Only then did he emerge. Risking a quick glance back at the building, he saw firelight dancing in one of the windows.

Sharp, breathy hisses of phantoms echoed from above, drawing his attention for a moment. He looked again at the lit window.

"Hope they sleep soon," he mused to himself. "Can't say I'd enjoy a run-in with any of their phantoms."

He turned away and caught sight of their portal, its cobblestone corner peeking out into his peripheral vision. A flash of glowing green eyes passed by his arm, far too close for comfort.

Well, I suppose a little shortcut wouldn't hurt.

He pulled the hood of his dark cloak down low over his eyes and made a break for the portal. Miraculously, he avoided the hostile mobs and stood steady through the increasingly nauseating portal travel. He knew the portal faced North, so he stepped out and immediately went South.

Considering how often he visited the Nether, he was quite used to the temperature and smell. It didn't bother him much as he continued across the crumbly netherrack, sliding down slopes and clambering back up opposite ones. Soon, a familiar structure came into view.

Tall pillars of brickwork the colour of half-dried blood held up open bridges of the same material. Spawn cages spat out blazes atop small towers on one side, and charred wither skeletons shuffled around the corridors and across the bridges. Parts of the fortress' exterior had long since crumbled away into the lake of lava below, leaving behind jagged edges and a long drop down.

He climbed up a steep hill before dropping down onto one of the bridges. Keeping his hood down, he moved quickly through corridors and hallways and small chambers. No creature here tried to attack him, they just carried on about their own business, so he respectfully did the same.

He slipped behind a gap in one of the walls of the towers (a particularly well-hidden gap, if he did say so himself) and was immediately greeted by his own portal standing before him. He stepped in, letting the purple mist transport him to the linked portal in the Overworld.

He stepped back out into the cold familiarity of the stone keep he called home. He had built it up from carving out a mountain and adding stone bricks and and a little botany and the like to make it more...homely. Practical, too, of course.