Spider Eye (Prompt: [Hero]) (Minecraft)
Nov. 23rd, 2024 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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fandomocweeklyFandom: Minecraft
Characters: Pillager OC (Merelda), Villager OCs (Ende, Laz)
Rating: K+/PG
Warnings: Briefly endangered child, (killing of a) spider, referenced past death
Word Count: 1,398
Medium: Fan fiction
Notes: Thought it would be fun to write about old OCs. Please forgive the placeholder names that eventually just became the names because I took too long to think of better ones.
Summary: Merelda is just trying to keep to herself in this village until she is fit to leave. A kid who won’t leave her alone makes that harder than it should be.
“Can I help?”
Merelda darn near jumps out of her skin at the sudden voice, nearly letting the stone hoe in her hands slip out mid-till. She whips her head around to see Laz, who is staring up at her with those big green eyes of theirs.
“Dammit, kid!” she lets out in surprise only to mentally curse at herself after. “Don’t tell your mom I said that.”
“Can I help?” they just repeat.
Merelda sniffs. “No.” She turns back to the farmland, readjusting her grip on the hoe. “Go help Ende with, uh, organizing the books or whatever.”
Laz sighs out, loud and long and specifically engineered to try and get her attention. “That’s so boring, though!”
“And you reckon this exhilirating?” she asks, throwing some wheat seeds on the tilled ground.
Laz lets out a prolonged groan before their footsteps finally lead away from her. She sighs. Took them long enough.
She doesn’t get why the kid keeps bugging her. Everyone else in the village is still distrustful of her, and even Ende, who is really the only reason she’s been allowed to stay here, still clearly gets uncomfortable whenever she finds Merelda with her crossbow.
(Sure, don’t thank her for dealing with the leftover mobs come morning.)
Whatever. It isn’t like she’s going to stay here for long—just enough to heal up fully and feel like she’s paid her life dues. Afterwards, she’ll... head back to the mansion, she supposes. That would make the most sense.
...What is she going to tell them?
As she yanks the hoe through the ground, its handle snaps in two, and she hisses out an expletive under her breath (no telling where that kid is). She tosses the broken tool to the side and starts down a path toward the toolsmith’s place of work. Maybe she can get them to make her an iron hoe this time.
Then a high-pitched scream cuts through the air, hitting her square on the back. She halts in place. Laz.
She spins around and runs toward the sound, emitting near the oak forest. Her mind immediately goes to the worst-case scenario—a zombie risked the burn of the Sun to grab at the kid—but once she crests a hill, she is presented with a different scenario. Laz struggles underneath a spider, trying their best to push away the fangs it’s wanting to sink in as they yell for help.
She barrels down the hill, grabs the spider by its scruff and flings it off behind her. The spider sisses as it impacts the ground but swiftly rights itself on its many legs. With an angry hiss, it rushes toward her.
She doesn’t have her crossbow with her, and her hoe just broke. She doesn’t have any weapons or tools to fight this mob with.
So she tackles the damn thing and starts whaling on it with her hands.
It lets out a shriek and bites her several times in return as it squirms in her grasp, but those bites lose their bark gradually until, with a final low hiss, its body disappears in a poof of air and she falls onto the grass. Her arms tingle slightly as the petty amount of experience filters through her being.
With a grunt, she stands up and appraises Laz. They don’t seem worse for wear and are just staring up at her.
She glares at them. Spiders are a peaceful sort during the day; they must have done something to provoke it. “Was that exciting enough for you?”
Those big eyes then quickly water up as Laz’s bottom lip starts to quiver. Merelda freezes up. Whatever amount of frustration she feels instantly flips over into guilt as they begin to sob.
Suddenly, she remembers when she was a dumb kid and threw a snowball at a skeleton and nearly got an arrow to the shoulder in exchange. She was a blubbering mess even after one of the older evokers dealt with the skeleton, and one of her friends had to reassure her that she was okay... and then wouldn’t let her forget it when they both grew older.
And now that friend is dead, just like everyone else from that patrol—everyone but her.
A particularly loud hiccup snaps her out of her freeze, and she drops to a kneel. “Hey, hey, it’s alright,” she tries—she has never been the one to turn to for comfort. “It’s gone now.”
With a wet cough, the kid suddenly wraps her in a hug, rubbing their face on her plaid shirt. Hesitantly, she hugs the kid back.
Behind her, she hears a distinctive tunk, tunk, tunk, and she whips her head around to see the iron golem approaching along with a couple of villagers. She perhaps holds Laz a bit tighter as she looks up at the construct, who she swears is shooting her a mean look.
“I didn’t do anything!” she says.
Its redstone eyes hold her for a long moment more before whatever mechanisms within it give a click, and it turns away and begins to saunter back to the village. In its place comes Ende, who is quick to drop to the ground.
“Lazzy!” she exclaims, reaching out to her kid. Merelda gladly hands over Laz, who is also glad to hug onto their mother. Ende coos at them and whispers reassurances before looking back over at Merelda. “What happened?”
Merelda just pulls out a spider eye from her inventory and dangles it in the air. Once Ende’s face scrunches in disgust, she puts it back in her inventory (the cleric will probably want it).
“You might wanna have a discussion with the kid about not messing with certain critters,” Merelda says, standing up. She begins to walk off, with the two other villagers that came with the construct parting to create a path for her, when she feels a tug on her pant leg. She glances over her shoulder.
It’s Ende who has ahold of her, who lets go as a small smile softens her red eyes. “Thank you.”
Merelda suddenly becomes all too aware of the attention on her, especially as Laz leaves the comfort of their mom’s shoulder with a sniffle to peer up at her. She clears her throat. “Yeah, yeah. Uh, I better get back to the farm.”
She makes her quick retreat, feeling the eyes of the villagers follow her. She can just hear her friend teasing her for her awkwardness.
As Merelda power-walks away, Ende returns her attention to Laz. Their face is red and puffy, but their tears have at least dried up. “Are you alright?” she asks.
“Yeah...” they say, pushing off from her and standing up. Once Ende gets up herself, however, they accept her hand.
Clay, one of the villagers to come with Ende, clicks his tongue, looking over the area. “I’ve been saying we need to light up more of this place. We got the extra coal to do it, don’t we?”
Ame doesn’t reply and instead stares hard in the direction Merelda left. Even when Ende places a hand on Ame’s shoulder, she doesn’t look away.
“She isn’t that bad now, isn’t she?” Ende tries, only for Ame to shoot her a glower with her one good eye. As if burnt, Ende takes her hand away. “Besides, I imagine she won’t be here for that much longer if she’s able to take on a spider by herself.”
Laz frowns as they cant their head up. “But why? I like her.”
Ame huffs at that. “Great. Now she’s got the kid on her side.” With that, Ame leaves, ignoring Clay’s call for her. Clay just shrugs his shoulders apologetically at the two before jogging after Ame.
Ende lets out a tired sigh. While she doesn’t regret the decision to bring the injured pillager back to the village, especially when she is fulfilling the duties of the past farmer in the meantime, she can’t deny that her feelings on the matter aren’t shared with everyone. She never expected them to, though. Besides, Merelda will eventually leave and become just a memory to the village, and... that will be that.
Brushing those thoughts away, she shines a smile down at Lazzy. “I think that’s enough outside time today. Why don’t you help me organize the books?”
As Ende leads the way, Laz groans.
Characters: Pillager OC (Merelda), Villager OCs (Ende, Laz)
Rating: K+/PG
Warnings: Briefly endangered child, (killing of a) spider, referenced past death
Word Count: 1,398
Medium: Fan fiction
Notes: Thought it would be fun to write about old OCs. Please forgive the placeholder names that eventually just became the names because I took too long to think of better ones.
Summary: Merelda is just trying to keep to herself in this village until she is fit to leave. A kid who won’t leave her alone makes that harder than it should be.
“Can I help?”
Merelda darn near jumps out of her skin at the sudden voice, nearly letting the stone hoe in her hands slip out mid-till. She whips her head around to see Laz, who is staring up at her with those big green eyes of theirs.
“Dammit, kid!” she lets out in surprise only to mentally curse at herself after. “Don’t tell your mom I said that.”
“Can I help?” they just repeat.
Merelda sniffs. “No.” She turns back to the farmland, readjusting her grip on the hoe. “Go help Ende with, uh, organizing the books or whatever.”
Laz sighs out, loud and long and specifically engineered to try and get her attention. “That’s so boring, though!”
“And you reckon this exhilirating?” she asks, throwing some wheat seeds on the tilled ground.
Laz lets out a prolonged groan before their footsteps finally lead away from her. She sighs. Took them long enough.
She doesn’t get why the kid keeps bugging her. Everyone else in the village is still distrustful of her, and even Ende, who is really the only reason she’s been allowed to stay here, still clearly gets uncomfortable whenever she finds Merelda with her crossbow.
(Sure, don’t thank her for dealing with the leftover mobs come morning.)
Whatever. It isn’t like she’s going to stay here for long—just enough to heal up fully and feel like she’s paid her life dues. Afterwards, she’ll... head back to the mansion, she supposes. That would make the most sense.
...What is she going to tell them?
As she yanks the hoe through the ground, its handle snaps in two, and she hisses out an expletive under her breath (no telling where that kid is). She tosses the broken tool to the side and starts down a path toward the toolsmith’s place of work. Maybe she can get them to make her an iron hoe this time.
Then a high-pitched scream cuts through the air, hitting her square on the back. She halts in place. Laz.
She spins around and runs toward the sound, emitting near the oak forest. Her mind immediately goes to the worst-case scenario—a zombie risked the burn of the Sun to grab at the kid—but once she crests a hill, she is presented with a different scenario. Laz struggles underneath a spider, trying their best to push away the fangs it’s wanting to sink in as they yell for help.
She barrels down the hill, grabs the spider by its scruff and flings it off behind her. The spider sisses as it impacts the ground but swiftly rights itself on its many legs. With an angry hiss, it rushes toward her.
She doesn’t have her crossbow with her, and her hoe just broke. She doesn’t have any weapons or tools to fight this mob with.
So she tackles the damn thing and starts whaling on it with her hands.
It lets out a shriek and bites her several times in return as it squirms in her grasp, but those bites lose their bark gradually until, with a final low hiss, its body disappears in a poof of air and she falls onto the grass. Her arms tingle slightly as the petty amount of experience filters through her being.
With a grunt, she stands up and appraises Laz. They don’t seem worse for wear and are just staring up at her.
She glares at them. Spiders are a peaceful sort during the day; they must have done something to provoke it. “Was that exciting enough for you?”
Those big eyes then quickly water up as Laz’s bottom lip starts to quiver. Merelda freezes up. Whatever amount of frustration she feels instantly flips over into guilt as they begin to sob.
Suddenly, she remembers when she was a dumb kid and threw a snowball at a skeleton and nearly got an arrow to the shoulder in exchange. She was a blubbering mess even after one of the older evokers dealt with the skeleton, and one of her friends had to reassure her that she was okay... and then wouldn’t let her forget it when they both grew older.
And now that friend is dead, just like everyone else from that patrol—everyone but her.
A particularly loud hiccup snaps her out of her freeze, and she drops to a kneel. “Hey, hey, it’s alright,” she tries—she has never been the one to turn to for comfort. “It’s gone now.”
With a wet cough, the kid suddenly wraps her in a hug, rubbing their face on her plaid shirt. Hesitantly, she hugs the kid back.
Behind her, she hears a distinctive tunk, tunk, tunk, and she whips her head around to see the iron golem approaching along with a couple of villagers. She perhaps holds Laz a bit tighter as she looks up at the construct, who she swears is shooting her a mean look.
“I didn’t do anything!” she says.
Its redstone eyes hold her for a long moment more before whatever mechanisms within it give a click, and it turns away and begins to saunter back to the village. In its place comes Ende, who is quick to drop to the ground.
“Lazzy!” she exclaims, reaching out to her kid. Merelda gladly hands over Laz, who is also glad to hug onto their mother. Ende coos at them and whispers reassurances before looking back over at Merelda. “What happened?”
Merelda just pulls out a spider eye from her inventory and dangles it in the air. Once Ende’s face scrunches in disgust, she puts it back in her inventory (the cleric will probably want it).
“You might wanna have a discussion with the kid about not messing with certain critters,” Merelda says, standing up. She begins to walk off, with the two other villagers that came with the construct parting to create a path for her, when she feels a tug on her pant leg. She glances over her shoulder.
It’s Ende who has ahold of her, who lets go as a small smile softens her red eyes. “Thank you.”
Merelda suddenly becomes all too aware of the attention on her, especially as Laz leaves the comfort of their mom’s shoulder with a sniffle to peer up at her. She clears her throat. “Yeah, yeah. Uh, I better get back to the farm.”
She makes her quick retreat, feeling the eyes of the villagers follow her. She can just hear her friend teasing her for her awkwardness.
As Merelda power-walks away, Ende returns her attention to Laz. Their face is red and puffy, but their tears have at least dried up. “Are you alright?” she asks.
“Yeah...” they say, pushing off from her and standing up. Once Ende gets up herself, however, they accept her hand.
Clay, one of the villagers to come with Ende, clicks his tongue, looking over the area. “I’ve been saying we need to light up more of this place. We got the extra coal to do it, don’t we?”
Ame doesn’t reply and instead stares hard in the direction Merelda left. Even when Ende places a hand on Ame’s shoulder, she doesn’t look away.
“She isn’t that bad now, isn’t she?” Ende tries, only for Ame to shoot her a glower with her one good eye. As if burnt, Ende takes her hand away. “Besides, I imagine she won’t be here for that much longer if she’s able to take on a spider by herself.”
Laz frowns as they cant their head up. “But why? I like her.”
Ame huffs at that. “Great. Now she’s got the kid on her side.” With that, Ame leaves, ignoring Clay’s call for her. Clay just shrugs his shoulders apologetically at the two before jogging after Ame.
Ende lets out a tired sigh. While she doesn’t regret the decision to bring the injured pillager back to the village, especially when she is fulfilling the duties of the past farmer in the meantime, she can’t deny that her feelings on the matter aren’t shared with everyone. She never expected them to, though. Besides, Merelda will eventually leave and become just a memory to the village, and... that will be that.
Brushing those thoughts away, she shines a smile down at Lazzy. “I think that’s enough outside time today. Why don’t you help me organize the books?”
As Ende leads the way, Laz groans.
