Hermitcraft: Origins

Extra 2 - Post-Nether

(This chapter was originally a part of canon Origins, but after I completely rewrote the Above and Below arc, there was no need for this chapter.

For context: In this chapter, Zed is still an angel, but Tango was a demon who lived in the Nether. After hearing that Tango didn't exactly like horns/other demon headcanons, I rewrote the arc to better suit it.

This chapter still follows the events of the original Origins. I was going to delete this one, but I was really happy with how this chapter turned out that I wanted to keep it. So here it is, completely unedited.)

Zed had been unusually quiet after their trip to the Nether.

"Hey, Zeddie!" Tango said, coming out from the Nether, holding an armful of shulker boxes. He hesitated a little at the sight of Zed sitting quietly alone. "Zed, are you okay?"

Zed looked up. "Uh, yeah. I'm fine."

For his sake, Tango pretended to look relieved. "Great! Uh, do you want to help me and Impy move some of his stuff over here?"

For a second, Zed looked like he wanted to. Then he shook his head. "I'm fine."

Tango pressed on. "Oh, well. Whatcha doing?"

"Just some thinking."

And with that, Tango gave up.

He took the shulker boxes he was carrying to the pile of ever-growing storage. The others were taking all the resources they could get since Impulse decided to be generous and share. Bad idea.

Mumbo had found a Redstone shulker box and was attempting to make a farm that wouldn't blow up the whole server. Scar was hoarding all of the spare shulker boxes and was building some sort of cottage nearby. Even Grian decided to take a few stacks of logs and had holed himself up in a tree, starting to construct a treehouse.

Impulse stepped out of the Nether portal, carrying a large amount of enchanted iron and diamond tools. Tango whistled under his breath. "Where did you get all that?"

"End City raids," Impulse said, careful not to catch X's attention. In between their trips back and forth, Tango had filled Impulse in on the rest of the story.

Impulse set down his tools, which was instantly taken by Scar. Tango chuckled. "You sure this was a good idea?"

"Yeah, it's okay. At this point, I have a farm for everything: iron, gunpowder, flowers--"

"You can farm flowers?" Tango asked in disbelief. "What, is there some sort of industrial flower farm?"

"That's exactly what it is. It's super productive."

"I don't believe you. You're going to have to show me this."

Impulse shrugged, then glanced over at Zedaph. "Hey, is Zed okay?"

"I dunno. He's been pretty quiet since we got back from the Nether."

"I'm gonna go talk to him." Impulse started walking towards Zed, but Tango stopped him.

"I tried earlier, but he shot me down. I'll try again later. He probably needs some time to himself."

Impulse nodded and stepped through the Nether portal again. Tango looked back at Zed, still sitting quietly, then followed Impulse.

Over the past few days, Impulse had connected an ice road between his base and the forest clearing. His base was a ways out, but he had more than enough ice to spare. Plus, there was the fact that Stress donated most of the needed materials.