The Broken Flame

Steve’s whole body trembled the longer he looked at the white-eyed terror standing only blocks away from him, arms crossed and a deep frown on his face. His heart began to pound hard in his chest, as if it was in a race in a life or death situation. And that was what it seemed like with Herobrine standing there. Steve suddenly shouted, “Herobrine!” and turned around in his spot, trying to scramble back on the bed. He was afraid he would fall off if he moved any further back, but his survival instincts were telling him to just get up and run. Steve knew he couldn’t do that though, he was too injured and now he was at Herobrine’s mercy again.

“Herobrine, please, I--I don’t--don’t know what I did wrong---but please! Please don’t take my soul! I beg of you!” Steve shook his head. “Please, I don’t want to die! Have mercy on me, please!”

Herobrine watched the miner with discontent on his face, keeping his arms folded. The man was really panicking at this point, and he hadn’t even done anything.

Steve could feel fear like nothing else surging through him, but he also felt great pain from his sudden movements. He found his voice getting smaller as he continued to beg. “I don’t--want… wanna die. I just… I have… I--I don’t… don’t…” Tears now fell from the corners of his eyes from the pain and fear in his heart and he found himself unable to speak. Herobrine only stood there and stared at the miner with anger on his face. Steve couldn’t keep his composure anymore. He started to cry.

Celina’s heart seemed to break and she placed a hand on her chest as the man before he began to sob out. Steve curled up into a tight ball and cried loudly, making the queen knit her brows and frown. She didn’t even think about how her figurative brother would react to seeing the white eyed man in her castle after what happened last night in the forest. Celina should have known better than to just let him see Herobrine on his own.

Steve couldn’t stop himself from hiccupping and sobbing loudly, tears rolling down his face as he did so. He was so scared, so terrified that he was about to lose his soul to Herobrine. He couldn’t think straight, all the pain in his body and terror in his heart had him crying like a child.

The queen sighed softly. She shouldn’t be wallowing in self-pity, her friend needed her. 

Celina walked up to the side of Steve’s bed as he covered his mouth with his hands, trying to stifle his cries. She frowned and gently put a hand on Steve’s shoulder. 

Herobrine found himself rolling his eyes. “Please, Steven,” he spoke with his echoing voice. “You’re such a weakling. I haven’t even touched you since last night, and yet here you are; begging for mercy like the fool you are.”

Celina shot him a deep frown with narrowed eyes. “Don’t you dare say that kind of thing to Steve! He’s not weak! He’s human, and he’s just afraid! Especially considering you nearly murdered him last night.”

Herobrine simply made a small “tch” noise and turned away from her. Celina sighed again, before changing her expression and looking back down at Steve. “Steve, I’m so sorry. Do you need a hug?”

The miner managed to open his eyes and look up at his friend. He nodded with a whimper, and he embraced the queen when she held out her arms. He leaned up and held tightly to her, crying into her chest. Celina began to gently rock her friend back and forth, hoping to soothe his cries. He sobbed into her shirt, unable to control his emotions any longer.

The queen made a gentle humming noise as she held onto her friend. She should have known better than to just let him see Herobrine on his own. She really should have. Steve spoke up between his hiccups and cries and she found herself frowning.

“He’s… he’s--gonna--kill me. He’s… he hates me. He--he always has.”

Celina held her friend just a little closer at his words. She knew how much he feared this man, how much this being had hurt him, and it broke her heart. But she had to reassure him that he would be okay. “It’s okay, Steve, he’s not going to hurt you. Not anymore.”

“But--but… he hates me. He--near--ly… killed me.”

“I know, Steve, but now he’s gonna help me take care of you.”

After processing those words, alarm bells went off in the miner’s mind. Did he hear that right? Did she say… what he thought she just said? Steve opened his watery eyes and looked up at Celina, his lip still trembling and tears still running down his cheeks. “Wait… what… what do you mean?”

She managed to give him a soft smile. “Well, I beat him in a fight last night, and we made a deal. So now, he has to help me take care of you.”

Steve’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped a bit. What did she just say? That didn’t make any sense. No human could beat Herobrine in a fight. No one. He knew this from experience. He knew this from all the beatings that the Demi-God had given him. “Wait… what?”

“She’s right, Steven.”

The queen and the miner turned in the direction of the voice to see the Nether Prince with his arms folded across his chest, a scowl on his features. His white eyes looked back and forth between the two humans before he spoke again. “I followed the human girl and you here last night so I could finish you off, take your soul, and take the soul of this girl that has evaded my grasp for so long.” He could see the queen huff a bit at that, but he just rolled his eyes.

“So, I attempted to take your soul first, and this human girl challenged me to a battle after trying to stop me. I wasn’t going to stand down from such a challenge, so I accepted.” He turned away and closed his eyes. He really didn’t want to admit this last part, especially to the man who should have been dead already. Seeing the miner’s surprise at his next sentence pained him, but he had to say it. “I fought against her in… hand-to-hand combat, and… she… won.”

Steve let a small gasp escape him. He looked at Celina. Then Herobrine. Then Celina. Herobrine. Celina. Herobrine. A sweet, adorable, benevolent queen of a small kingdom… had beaten the most powerful Demi-God and Prince of the Nether in a fight? “Wait… what,” he questioned.

Celina chuckled at the miner’s expression. “Hehehe. Yeah, I wasn’t sure how I beat him either.”

“You probably cheated,” the Nether Prince responded, shifting his stance and turning away from the humans.

Celina looked at him with furrowed brows. “What is with you saying that I cheated? You’re really a sore loser, aren’t you?”

“I’m no such thing!” Herobrine shouted back. “You just… put a dent in my pride is all,” he said. He tried to not look at the queen, but his gaze moved back to her when she walked up to him.

“Well, you don’t need to be such a jerk about it,” Celina told him, putting her hands to her hips.

“Are you trying to test me patience on purpose, girl,” he asked her.

“No, I’m just telling you what happened. And what happened is that I beat you fair and--”

A small growling noise came from behind the queen, stopping the two in their argument. Celina turned back to the miner after hearing him wince. Steve was sitting up with a hand on his stomach, his face looking a little pained. “Steve, was that your tummy, sweetie?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah… I… I didn’t eat last night before I left for home, and I haven’t eaten since before we headed into the mines.”

Celina frowned with concern. “Do you need me to make you something to eat, Steve?”

“I mean… you don’t have to. I can… try to get it myself.”

“Steve, you couldn’t even sit up without my help,” Celina said gently. “I don’t think you’ll be able to stand.”

The miner seemed to think about this, because he stayed silent. The girl smiled kindly. “Let me go out and get some wheat, and I can come back in and make you some of my apple bread. Are you okay with that, Steve?”

A weak smile graced the miner’s lips as he nodded. “Okay. Your apple bread is really good.”

“Okay, give me a few minutes and I’ll be back.” She gestured to the Nether Prince. “Herobrine, I need you to come with me.”

Herobrine frowned and narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

“I want you to help me out a bit. If you’re going to help me care for Steve, you need to pull some weight around here.” She gestured for him to follow her. “Now, come along.”

Herobrine looked like he wanted to protest, but let out a heavy sigh and just muttered. “Fine.”

*****

The kingdom outside was still fairly quiet for the morning, but then again, Celina had gotten up as the sun had begun to rise. No one else in the kingdom really got up as early as her. Maybe that was a good thing considering that the legendary man known as Herobrine was keeping close behind her. 

Celina led the way to a garden behind one of the large castle rooms, a fruit and vegetable garden surrounded by rose bushes filled with rainbow colored roses. This caught Herobrine’s eye as he followed the queen. “Where did you get these roses,” he asked. “I’ve never seen such a thing before.”

Celina turned to look at Herobrine, seeing him stopping and gently running fingers of one hand over the soft petals of one of the flowers. Its petals shined in shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and indigo. She was surprised. Herobrine seemed to have seen a lot, but she was surprised he had never seen anything like these. 

“Well, one day, I found a few rare white roses. I experimented with giving them water with flower safe dyes in it to change their petal colors, for… no reason other than curiosity. Then, I tried breeding them with red roses to get different colors. The colors I made mixed well, so I kept cross breeding them until I got two that came out in a rainbow.” She chuckled softly. I’m very proud of them, I worked hard to get as many as I have.” 

Herobrine looked at her with slightly furrowed brows. He had never seen anything like this before. She was much smarter than he had thought. This girl seemed to have a very intricate thought process.

Celina smiled and tilted her head, before continuing towards the food garden. She made her way to a small gate surrounding some fully grown wheat. Herobrine looked at her garden in curiosity. “So, who maintains your farm, human?”

“I do.”

He blinked in surprise, then looked at the girl, who was just looking at him with those big gray eyes. “What do you mean, you maintain it? Don’t you have servants or subjects who do it for you?”

Celina shook her head. “No, I do everything myself. I grow and hunt for all my own food and mobs drops, I help my citizens build new structures, I plant new flowers myself, and I even built this castle beside my husband.”

“Why? You’ve got a kingdom you rule. Why don’t you have others do it for you?”

Celina looked at him as she took her crown off her head, holding it in her hands. “I don’t see my subjects as lower than me, like some rulers of bigger kingdoms do. These people mean a lot to me, and it’s my job to keep them happy and safe. I really do care about them and just because I wear a crown, doesn’t mean I will put them on a lower level than me. Besides, doing things like building, hunting, fishing, mining; doing all of that myself makes me feel like I’ve gotten something done. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.”

Herobrine raised a brow. This girl… she was kind and had a hand of mercy that was familiar. It was like… like someone he knew once.

A princess with the same sense of morals.

But he didn’t need to remember that now. He shook his head and sighed. No need to get into old memories. Not when he needed to follow this girl around and do as she said.

Celina opened the gate to her wheat area, looking at Herobrine. “I’m gonna gather some wheat and hand it to you, okay? Just hold onto it and I’ll replant some seeds. Then we can go back inside.”

Herobrine huffed, but nodded. “Fine. Just get it over with.”

Celina frowned. This guy may not have wanted to help her, but it was interesting how he complied with her anyways. 

Maybe there was something he wasn’t telling her. Something going on in his mind.

But she might never know.