"There." Herobrine nodded to the right, and Y/N followed his gaze to a small hollow in the midst of the basalt pillars. "That seems as good a place as any to rest."
"Agreed." Alex followed his direction. "Hopefully the terrain will keep any hoglins away. I've certainly never seen one here."
"Let's hope it stays that way," Y/N murmured, watching the ground idly as Herobrine found his way over the rocks.
The hollow, thankfully, boasted slightly more even ground than the deltas outside. For roughly the last hour they had been picking their way across a hazardous stretch of small, basalt platforms, dotted with pockets of lava. Y/N had expressed her doubts that the queen would have come through such a clearly dangerous area, but Herobrine had pointed out that, with two valkyries, they could have easily just flown over. Herobrine and Alex, on the other hand, were grounded. Y/N had been rather nervous when they first entered the deltas, but Herobrine was sure-footed, and the three of them had managed to get through so far without incident.
Herobrine got down on one knee to lower her down, resting her against the half-wall of their makeshift campground. Y/N uncoiled her arms from around his neck, then gave him a sympathetic look as he leaned back and rubbed at his arms. Between her height, her muscular build, and her wings, she wasn't exactly light - and he'd been carrying her for hours. She was frankly quite surprised that he'd made it this far.
"How are you feeling?" He asked before she could say anything. Y/N hesitated, assessing her state for a moment.
"Tired," She finally answered. "But not in pain."
"Good." He sat down, slinging off his knapsack and pulling it open. Alex sank down on Y/N's right and offered her a canteen, which Y/N gratefully accepted.
"How are we doing on supplies?" She asked before taking a drink."
"Well enough, all things considered." Herobrine replied, unscrewing the cap on his own canteen. "We have enough food and water to last at least three more days. After that, though, we may have to find a forest to search for food."
"Right..." Y/N handed the canteen back to Alex. The queen was likely running out of food as well... Tekno would know how to find more, though, right?
The three of them were quiet for several minutes, eating, drinking, and resting. Y/N stole glances at Herobrine from time to time, still thrown by his abrupt change in behavior, but now was not the time to question him about it.
"I'll take first watch." Alex eventually broke the silence. Herobrine frowned as he glanced at her.
"You should rest. I'll-"
"No, you should rest." Alex cut him off. "Y/N's hurt, and you were carrying her all day. I won't have you dropping her tomorrow because you're tired." Herobrine stared at her for a moment, then eventually seemed to decide that this was not a battle he wanted to fight.
"Very well. Wake me when you get tired." He finally said, casting a glance at Y/N as he did so. "Y/N, you should sleep as well."
"I will." Y/N readily agreed. Passing out from pain and blood loss was not exactly restful, and she was looking forward to getting some proper sleep.
Despite her exhaustion, however, Y/N found herself laying awake for a long time. Her mind wouldn't calm down, constantly going over their circumstances, her injury, the queen... and Herobrine, of course. Eventually, she shifted, sitting up again to lean against the basalt and try to quiet her thoughts.
Herobrine, it seemed, had no such difficulties falling asleep. He rested on his side on the far side of the hollow, with his head pillowed on his forearm and his eyes shut. He must have been exhausted to fall asleep so quickly... Y/N wondered if she would have less trouble if she were to lay beside him.
Behind her, Alex quietly cleared her throat. "Can't sleep?" She asked. Y/N startled a bit, hurriedly averting her gaze from Herobrine's sleeping form.
"No..." She glanced back at Alex. "I'm... preoccupied." Alex raised a brow, looking back at Herobrine.
"You look preoccupied."
"Not-" Y/N flushed, looking away. To deny it would be a lie. "...there's a lot on my mind." She said instead. Alex hummed.
"Are you ever going to tell me what happened between the two of you?" She asked. Y/N hesitated, and Alex went on. "You barely spoke to each other, and then you fought - and you said he left you. Then you got hurt, and now he's..." She gestured vaguely to Herobrine. "What happened between you two? Were you...?" She trailed off suggestively, and Y/N emitted a heavy sigh.
"Fine." At least Herobrine seemed to be fast asleep. "I suppose you have a right to know." Y/N propped herself up a bit better, bracing a hand on her midsection just in case. "Forty years ago, I was banished from the Aether for murdering my best friend."
"What??" Alex pressed a hand over her mouth, casting a nervous glance at Herobrine to ensure that her outburst hadn't woken him. When he didn't move, she turned a shocked look back to Y/N, who went on.
"I didn't kill her- I was framed. Meryl and I had been investigating the disappearances of some of our fellow valkyries, and we got close enough to the source that the man responsible wanted us out of the way." Y/N explained. "So he had Meryl killed, and pinned the blame on me."
"Oh." Alex still looked bewildered. "Is this a different Meryl than...?"
"No, same one." Y/N couldn't help smiling at her face. "She was reanimated as undead, just like, presumably, that poor piglin you came across. At the time, though, she was just a body, and no one knew that... restoring someone, in a sense, was possible. So I was sentenced with banishment, and, when I protested, I was shot down and fell to the Overworld."
"Oh." Alex winced at that.
"I was exhausted, bleeding from my wing, and caught in a rainstorm. I surely would have perished if..." Y/N gestured to where Herobrine slept. "...he had not found me."
"Oh." Alex raised a brow.
"Shortly after, one of Meryl's killers came to finish me off," Y/N went on. "Herobrine defended me. Then, declaring that his home was no longer safe for either of us, he escorted me across the Overworld and defended me from the assassins sent to kill me. And, I..." Y/N hesitated, praying that Herobrine remained fast asleep. "...fell for him."
"Hmm..." Alex studied his sleeping face for a moment. "...but he didn't feel the same way."
"He..." That was up for debate, given his actions in their last days together. Y/N was sure that he had cared for her in some capacity, but... "...no, he didn't." She cleared her throat quietly. "He helped me rescue Meryl from her captor, Sirben, and restore her to a living state. Sirben took both of us prisoner, and nearly executed me, but my commander intervened in the nick of time." She decided that, at least for now, it would be better if Alex didn't know about his kiss. "Sirben escaped into the Nether, and..." Y/N gave a halfhearted shrug. "Herobrine left."
"Went to turn himself in, but the queen recruited him instead." Alex said quietly, echoing what she had heard during their argument. "But... why?? He seems fond enough of you, why would he go to such lengths to get away from you??"
"It isn't that." At least, she hoped it wasn't. "You..." Y/N hesitated. "You know who he once was, right?"
"The king of the Nether." Alex nodded readily. "My godfather told me about him growing up."
"Then you know he was far from benevolent." She turned her gaze on Herobrine, struggling once again to reconcile the quiet, respectful gentleman that she knew with the tyrant that she had helped chase from his throne. "He's changed now... obviously. But the guilt from what he has done weighs heavily on him - or, at least, it did forty years ago." Y/N felt her throat tighten unexpectedly as she recalled his goodbye. "He told me that he didn't deserve to be able to stay with me."
Alex frowned at that. "That... doesn't sound like he doesn't return your feelings." Y/N just shrugged helplessly.
"I have no idea. And if he did, that's almost worse, as he refused to act on them."
"Right." Alex mused over this for a few moments. "...are you still in love with him?" Y/N's shoulders slumped as she once again prayed that he was asleep.
"Yes."
"You should tell him," Alex urged her.
"I have already confessed to him once, and it went over very poorly." Y/N smiled ruefully. "Besides, I think he already knows."
"So, you're just going to... let him go?" Alex's tone was incredulous. "You're not even going to try to win him over??"
"I... suppose not."
"Why??" Alex demanded in a half-whisper. "He obviously feels something for you, it's not fair to you to just give up on him! And if he's so hung up on what he did as king, that's even more unfair, it doesn't have anything to do with you! That was generations ago, no one even remembers-!"
"Alex," Y/N interrupted quietly. "I remember. I was one of the valkyries assigned to drive him from the Nether - and I'm considered young for a valkyrie, remember?" That seemed to shock her young guide into silence. "Herobrine's cruelty still affects this place, even centuries later - or so I'm told, anyway." Y/N went on. "I share your viewpoint that he shouldn't continue to let it shape him, not because it's not important, but because he has changed drastically and should not let his past define him.
"However..." Y/N looked to his sleeping face again. "If he does not return my feelings, there is nothing I can do to force him. Besides, you have no idea how stubborn he can be." Alex frowned, not appearing pacified.
"I just..." She pursed her lips. "...if he knows, then he shouldn't treat you like this."
"Like what?" Y/N wasn't sure if she spoke of the silent treatment that she had endured for several days, or the way he'd reassured and carried her after her injury.
"You know, he..." Alex shook out a hand, struggling for words for a moment. "How he barely spoke to you until the hoglin attack."
"I agree. But-" Y/N nodded to him. "I think he's changed his behavior."
"Still. If he-"
"Alex," Y/N cut her off gently. "Let it go. I can handle being rejected." ...as painful as it may be. Alex just frowned again.
"You should sleep." She finally said. Reminded of the weariness in her body, Y/N nodded, then shifted to lay down again on her side.
"Goodnight," She murmured, then shut her eyes, trying and failing to banish all thoughts of Herobrine from her mind.
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