The Broken Flame

Celina hopped down a couple of stone terraces, following Brine down as he made his way down the large stone mountain. After the swamp came a biome with a large mountain. Celina’s climbing skills made short work of it and Brine’s strength made the climb effortless for him. It was getting down that was always harder, so the two were just taking their time getting down.

Celina hopped down a few more blocks, seeing Brine looking around. The sun had almost set, and he knew they were in a large area that would get dark quickly. There was no doubt in his mind that they were in what Celina called a “Mob Playground.” He knew they’d have some fighting to do. At this thought, Brine pursed his lips and furrowed his brows.

“What’cha thinking about, Brine?”

He turned his head when the queen spoke to him. “I was just thinking about… the night. We’re probably going to have to do some fighting since we don’t really have a place to rest. Even if we made a small house with some wood from those nearby trees, I don’t think I’d be able to sleep very well.”

Celina nodded. “I agree. Plus, we can always rest during the day with naps. We need to cover as much ground as we can right now, so if we have to fight our way through some mobs to keep going, I’m more than willing to fight alongside you.” She kept a hand on the handle of her sword, feeling it lightly vibrate from its enchantments.

Brine noticed where her hand was and nodded, holding his hands up and letting his swords form in them.

The two kept walking down the mountainside, hopping down to the bottom on the last few blocks and seeing that they were now in a large field of sunflowers. By this point, the sun had set and the moon began to peek from the horizon. A few monsters had already started spawning, a few skeletons, zombies, and a spider, as far as they could see. 

Celina frowned. Seems like they were far enough that none of the mobs had seen them yet. She looked up to Brine. “Are we gonna have to go that way, Brine?”

“I’m afraid so.” He tightened his grip on his swords. “I have no doubt Glistenia has given them orders to attack me on sight by now. My influence might scare some of them, but if they were told to attack me, I don’t doubt they will.”

“Then let’s show them what we’re made of,” Celina spoke with determination in her tone. “Watch my back, I’ll watch yours.”

Brine nodded, taking a few steps back alongside the queen to get a running start. The two then took off into quick sprints, attracting the attention of several mobs that were spread around the area.

A few of the archers quickly readied their bows and a few of the spiders began to scramble towards the human and Demi-God. Celina pulled her blade from her belt and held it at her side, Brine holding his blades at his sides and at the ready.

One of the spiders jumped from a few blocks up and headed for Celina, but she was quick to swing her blade up, slicing the spider through its thorax and abdomen. The monster didn’t even let out a hiss. 

Brine could hear an arrow flying his way, so he raised his blade up to deflect it and ran towards the archer. He spun on his heels with his blades out, slicing through its bow and into the monster’s spine. The skeleton fell to pieces at his feet. Brine could hear a low groan and quickly turned with his sword held out, slicing into a zombie that had made its way towards him. A few more were following behind, not seeming to be afraid of the being. He readied his swords and ran towards them.

Celina quickly sliced through the zombie that had tried to confront her, cutting through its neck and sending its body to the ground. She could see two skeletons aiming towards her and she dropped into a crouch as the arrows flew. She was able to get to her feet and ran towards the archers with a shout, raising her sword up over her head. One of the skeletons managed to scramble away but the other wasn’t so lucky. Bones flew out from Celina’s impact with her blade, and when she straightened up, she ran to the skeleton as it nocked another arrow. She sliced through its spine before it could release the projectile, her adrenaline flow fueling her run.

Brine had sliced down a few zombies at the point and was now heading for a few spiders skittering towards his friend. One of them jumped, only for Brine to teleport in front of it and bring both of his swords into its head. He dropped to the ground and snarled at the other spiders as they neared. He quickly kicked away one of the monsters, sending it careening several blocks away. When another one tried to jump on him, the Nether Prince blocked it with his crossed swords and shoved it away. The spider flew into one of the others and the impact shook them both enough for Brine to jump onto both of them hard. They stopped moving after that, before vanishing into puffs of dust.

An arrow barely flew past Brine, brushing past his long hair as another archer had taken aim. Brine was quick to speed towards the mob, slicing it down with both swords.

Celina pulled her sword from the torso of another zombie, watching it fall limp. She turned and her eyes went wide as something began to skuttle up behind Brine. “Brine, behind you!”

The Demi-God quickly turned as a hiss began and he was quick to jump away before the blast happened. He got into a crouch as the explosion faded, smoke drifting into the night sky.

Brine turned as Celina let out a cry, she had been so focused on Brine’s safety that she didn’t see the skeleton behind her. The arrows hadn’t pierced her but cut her left leg as it flew by. She turned as adrenaline made the pain fade out. She shouted again and jumped from a raised block, swinging down as the blade met the skeleton’s spinal structure.

Brine watched her before he hissed as a sharp pain erupted from his back. He turned to see a zombie trying to reach for him again, but he was quick to grab the mob by the neck and snap it in his grasp. He threw the body aside, watching a few creepers take the hit and fall flat.

Brine moved back until he bumped into Celina’s back, the two watching as more mobs came from the shadows of the hills. “Brine,” Celina spoke. “There’s a lot of them coming in. I think we might be a little outnumbered here.”

Brine shook his head. “Stand back,” he told her. Celina turned to watch Brine, hearing him muttering in another language as he held out his hands, his swords dissolving away. He did this for a moment as the monsters surrounded them, before raising his arms up and shouting out, “GNIR FO ERIF!”

In an instant, the mobs surrounding the duo burst into flames, scrambling around in a panic to stop the fire. Celina watched the monsters run until they fell and puffed away. The mobs who had not been caught in Brine’s spell took one look at the Demi-God, before all of them turned on their heels and fled. Even the zombies and creepers ran in fear, and she scanned the plains for any sign of any monsters. But all fell silent and she nodded. Celina turned to her friend, hearing him grunt in pain. She could see the cuts on his back beginning to heal with the whtie light slowly reforming Brine’s skin and clothes. She moved to his side, seeing him gritting his teeth. “You okay?”

Brine nodded. “I’m--I’m fine. Zombie scratches hurt… a bit more than normal cuts. Their scratches can cause infections, so my body is trying to fight that off while healing me.” He let out a small noise of discomfort as his wounds continued to heal.

Celina nodded, now feeling the pain of the cut the arrow had done earlier. “Well, now that that’s over, let me patch up my wound here and get some of one of my potions on it. We can sit here after I’m done to rest a bit.”

Brine could hear the soft panting in her voice and nodded, knowing that she would definitely need the rest. He carefully sat down with her as she sat cross-legged on the ground, pulling out some pick bandages and one of her potions. He watched Celina pop the cork, pouring a bit of the concoction onto her wound. She let out a whine of pain, biting her lip to try not to cry out too loudly. She then began to wrap her wound.

Brine sat next to her as she finished, noticing something and tilting his head to one side. “...Do you use bandages of different colors for different wounds?”

Celina looked up at him. “What--what do you mean?”

“You used cyan colored bandages on Steve, and you use pink bandages on yourself. Do the different colors apply for different wounds?”

Celina blinked, before chuckling at him. “Actually, I use bandages based on the favorite color of whoever I’m patching up. My favorite color is pink, Steve’s is cyan. Whenever I patch up someone new, I ask what their favorite color is.” She saw Brine look at her in surprise. “It’s… just something I do. I don’t know why though.”

Brine snickered in response. “Well, it’s… it’s cute. A lot of the things you do are pretty cute, you know that?”

Celina nodded and smiled. “So I’ve been told. Everyone tells me I’m cute, but I don’t get tired of hearing it.” She saw him grin and it made her happy. Celina could feel the anesthetic of her potion kick in and she let out a soft sigh. “Okay, Brine, we should probably get going now.”

Brine looked at her with concern, before raising his brows. “I think you should rest here, Celina. You’ll probably need some sleep.”

Celina frowned. “But, Brine, what about the monsters?”

“I’ll keep an eye out for them. You need to rest. You’re only human, Celina. And you need all the rest you can for what we’re going to face.” He gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “Rest, I’ll stay up and watch out for mobs.”

“Brine, you don’t have to do that.”

“But I will.” Brine suddenly wrapped his arms around the queen, holding her close to him. She could feel him trembling as he tried to ignore the pain from his scratch. “Brine? Are you--”

“Celina.. It--it hurts,” he whimpered out.

The queen frowned and wrapped her arms around Brine and held onto him as he whimpered again. She whispered to him, “If you can stand, we can go find a cave or somewhere to rest. You sound like you need it.”

Brine nodded, before moving to stand, letting Celina go. The two looked around, looking back at the mountainside they had come down. Celina spotted a small hole in the side of the large structure, leading Brine inside. She placed down a torch and pulled a few blocks from her backpack, placing them at the entrance to the cave with one block open for air. She did the same about ten blocks away, where the torch’s light stopped. She then pulled out two beds from her backpack and popped them onto the floor. “Well, I guess that’s all the ground we’ll cover for tonight,” Celina commented. “We’ll eat in the morning, then we can set out again if you’re ready by then.”

The Demi-God nodded. “I think that would be best. And it’ll give us time to heal.” 

Celina and Brine then climbed into the beds, one next to the other. Celina softly told the Nether Prince, “Good night, Brine.”

“Good night, Celina. Rest well.”