Eagle sighed.
Lately, Wuffpup had been practically tearing her mage’s tower apart - she wasn’t sure how much it was his personality, and how much it was affected by the black corruption slowly forming on his ears.
She rubbed a black arm self-consciously.
She wouldn’t call him mean, or rude, he was more mischievous than anything.
He liked hiding under loose floorboards and appearing when she didn’t expect it. Her Thaumonomicon went missing, and it took an hour of interrogation to figure out where he’d hid it. More than enough food had gone missing lately, and she still wasn’t sure if he’d eaten it or stashed it. …Or “other”.
She was pondering this when the story above her exploded.
Eagle’s eyes widened as she turned, sprinting up the stairs to the scene of the explosion.
Please don’t be the library, please don’t be the library, please don’t be the library…
Oh.
She knew that Wuffpup liked the library. He liked books, and liked reading in general. He’d gone through ten on his first day, and a few old novels had ended up in peculiar places recently. She wasn’t one to deny him the chance to mess around with the books.
On the other hand, this was horrible.
Empty shells of books littered the floor. Pages and pages of stories danced through the air on a slowly fading breeze. Individual words hung off of shelves, stuck halfway out the window and sitting atop the floating nitor that lit the room (torches were too flammable).
Eagle let loose ten or eleven expletives.
Wuffpup was sitting in the corner, looking at the remains of what had once been a library. His mouth was hanging open as he stared at the wreckage.
”Awesome!”
The mage whirled to look at her companion. She grabbed him with one hand and glared straight into his eyes. “What- what did you do? Hundreds of years’ collection of knowledge, gone in an instant!”
The pet’s eyes filled with tears. “I- I- I… But I just…”
At this, Eagle felt an increasingly painful headache. It did nothing to stop her anger. Her free hand clenched, and she took a deep breath. “J-just… Go. Get out. I’ll clean this mess up.”
Wuffpup stared at her for a moment, before hopping away and slowly floating out the window. He watched for one more brief moment, then fleeing on the wind.
—-
Eagle somehow couldn’t believe she’d missed it. Sure, it’d involved putting away five or six book covers and sweeping aside a couple of stray cobwebs, but laying underneath them was a message.
Written with scraps of words, collectively arranged into an enormous message, it read:
“I jusT wanted to SAy that i LOVe you EAglE. thanK YOu ffor tAking caRe of ME. -wuFFpuP”
She put her head in her hands.
“I’m going to have to fix this, aren’t I?”
—-
She had been looking for her friend in the woods since the sun had risen. Now, however, the moon was hanging almost overhead and the stars had all blinked into existence. There was still no sign of Wuffpup.
She had emerged into a large clearing, empty except a few wilting flowers. Eagle kept a torch in one hand, silently cursing the fact her sword had since shattered while fighting a skeleton.
She scanned the forest, and her eyes caught something shining in the darkness. When she realized what it was, she jumped for the nearest shelter.
She was too late.
Vworp!
The Enderman was behind her now, mouth open in a hideous shriek and arms flailing wildly. One of its claws managed to rake her across her forearm before she’d gotten into a nearby spruce’s shade.
Eagle kept herself against the tree, the leaves now barely protecting her from the angry mob. She clutched her injured arm with her hand, watching the dark grey goop that oozed from her corrupted arm in place of blood.
The Enderman’s screeches echoed in Eagle’s ears and she looked around for some sort of makeshift weapon. She swung her torch at the Enderman, trying to scare it off. Alas, its reach was longer than hers and it sent the light flying, hitting the ground flame-first before extinguishing.
A scream sounded throughout the forest, causing her head to look up in surprise. A small purple ball came whizzing out of the darkness, slamming straight into the Enderman.
After a moment, she realized it was Wuffpup.
He rammed repeatedly into the Enderman, retreating back into the air whenever the dazed monster would try to attack back. After being batted around the bit, the tides seemed to turn. The Enderman was defending now more than it was attacking.
In one final hit, the Enderman disappeared in a wave of purple smoke, leaving behind a sole enderpearl.
Wuffpup turned to Eagle, panting heavily from the fight. “Did I do well? I won right? I won?”
Eagle was smiling at him, despite her slowly bleeding arm. “Yes, Wuffpup, you did. I- I’m sorry for being such a jerk before, but… you need to learn some boundaries, Wuffpup.”
“Yeah…” he frowned. “And I’m sorry for wrecking your stuff. Forgiveness?”
She nodded.
“Yay! Forgiveness!” He snuggled up against her free arm and put his head against hers.
They sat like that for a few moments.
“Y’know, I was thinking…” Wuffpup yawned. “‘Wuffpup’ is a boring name. I wanna be cool! Like you, Eagle.” He blinked his eyes sleepily. “Can I be called something cool? Can you call me like… Hawk?”
Eagle smiled. “Sure. Hawk and Eagle. I like it.”
“Yaaaay…” he closed his eyes. “Thanks, Eagle…” After a minute, he started snoring quietly.
She watched Hawk for a moment, then looked to her arm. It had stopped bleeding, thank Notch.
She would’ve liked them to sit there and rest for a bit, but it was still dark. Who knows what lurked beyond their clearing?
However, as she adjusted herself to get up, the world lurched.
She found herself in her bed, Hawk still leaning up against her. Eagle blinked. After a moment, she shrugged, grabbed her blanket, and settled down into bed.
“Eh, I’ll ask him in the morning.”
by eaglewinged Sat Apr 13, 2013 4:09 pm
