Feeling a shift, Miesall stumbled out of the portal in the dastardly hot landscape. His vision was clouded with unidentifiable shapes of red and orange, and two white-ish squiggly rectangle-like shapes. He lost footing of the ground, neither of his feet touching without him intending to. He extended his wings as one of the rectangles grew in size, losing its shape.

He felt Xel grab ahold of him, trying to call out above the sound rushing in their ears. The former human held him there for a few seconds as the influence of the portal lost hold, the eerie quietness of the Nether coming into focus along with the horrific landscape, the white spots assembling themselves into the Watchers respectively.

Steadied on his feet now, Miesall gently moved Xel's arms off of him.

"Welcome to the Nether!" Xel exclaimed, spinning around with his arms extended to gesture to the entire place. "What do you think?"

"It is hotter than I thought it would be." Miesall replied. He had heard that it was hot of course, but he never imagined that being this hot could be possible. Even though he had only been here for a minute, he already felt hotter than he had already been in his entire life. Absolutely dreadful.

The temple had always been temperate, and even the Overworld did not have too much drastic changes in temperature. The sun would beat down on him at noon, and while it was uncomfortable, he could deal with it. Now, barely having walked in, he couldn't stand this place already.

Xel himself had forgotten just how hot it could get here. He resisted the urge to take off one of his robes, or at least undo one of them. Even though they were relatively lightweight, it was almost fully covering him from his neck down, almost concealing his hands and feet, trapping their body heat inside. He opted instead to roll his sleeves as high as he could. Miesall sucked in a breath to scold him for it, but he changed his mind and copied the motion.

Next, Xel rummaged through his inventory. He first took out water bottles and then two necklaces, handing some of the supplies to Miesall. "They're made of gold, so the pigmen won't bother you if you wear it." He explained.

"I knew that." Miesall huffed before taking it and putting the jewelry on. Of course he didn't need it, but it would be rather annoying to be followed by a crowd of not-so-loving supporters wherever he went. "Now let us get going. We don't have time to lose." He said, taking a swig of water.

Xelqua nodded as he himself put on his own necklace. He watched his friend spread out his wings before beginning to fly over the barren and dead landscape. Xelqua was quick to follow suit.

Flying around the Nether proved to be quite difficult. Floating pieces of netherrack jutted out from all sides in unpredictable ways. Cascades of lava flowed freely from the ceiling all the way to the pits of the dimension. Darkness protruded in the rare corners in which lava was not present. A red foggy mist hovered in the air, obscuring the path.

To a Watcher under normal circumstances, it shouldn't matter. They could just escape the poor visibility by dedicating more of their eyes to watching themselves and their path, putting them far ahead of themselves. To these two, however, their few eyes could not go very far. They were much more helpful than a human's, but they still usually only had a second to see what laid up ahead.

The stubborn one of the two paid no mind to this. They had a mission, and if he did a little dip in lava, so be it. Xelqua decided that it was best not to argue, keeping pace with him.

It was less than a minute before the leader of the two clipped the first ridge. He gave a gasp as he felt his wing drag against it, causing him to lose balance. He quickly began tumbling down, blood flowing from his wingtip and smearing into his feathers. He could see lava in his future, and a lot of it.

Why had he let Xelqua convince him to come to the Nether again?

Miesall was falling fast, but Xelqua was faster. He dove below the other, catching him in his arms bridal style. He landed on a nearby piece of land, setting the salt-colored Watcher down.

"You alright?" He asked, frowning. He knew the answer was obvious, but he couldn't help but ask.

"I will be..." Miesall sighed, reaching to grab his injured wing. He felt it knit itself back together, the pain fading as soon as it had come. The sticky blood, however, did not vanish. It stayed as a reminder of what happened. To him, this was more of an annoyance than anything else. He stood himself upright before turning, getting ready to fly once more.

"Wait—" Xelqua began as he watched wings unfurl. He was too late though, because in the next moment, Miesall had taken off again. He let out a sigh before following.

At first, he was worried that the were set at the same speed, which meant it was almost certain that if was only a matter of time before one or both of them reenacted what had just happened moments prior. He was pleasantly surprised to find that they were instead going just a little bit slower.

As they flew along, Xelqua watched as various zombie pigmen looked up at them, acknowledging their existence. There was no way that they could actually see the golden necklaces, but even so they didn't bother getting angry at the newcomers — their code allowed them to recognize them as not a threat.

Even flying, the Nether was incredibly silent. Xelqua couldn't quite figure out why, but it was a very different kind of silence from the one he was used to in the Downside Up. There, it was a sort of peaceful and serene quietness. Here, it was empty and bare, enough to almost make him shudder in fear. He was tempted to use the word cold, but he felt as though the word was far too ironic to use.

When he saw a clearing, he took the time to try to wipe the sweat off his brow. He knew it was useless— his clothes were drenched in sweat within minutes of coming, and the sweat on his forehead was absorbed by his mask.

As they flew along, they zoomed past a hidden figure. It let out a high pitched screech so loud that it echoed for hundreds of blocks, bouncing off the ceiling and platforms of the Nether. It rang in both of their ears, and flinching, Miesall held his hands against his ears.

"Where is it?" Xel asked, slowing down and using his eyes to scan the area.

Miesall had other plans. He had continued on, but had come to a halt in the air when he noticed the other traveller had stopped. "It does not matter as long as we keep moving." He called, signing his words as well.

Realizing that he was right, Xelqua turned to continue onwards. He was about to start flapping his wings so that he was no longer hovering in one spot when he heard the screech again.

Far away, hidden behind a jagged perch of netherrack rose the great white beast. Just from his days as a player alone, a shrill went down his spine as it sucked in a breath, fire igniting inside of its mouth.

"Xel, get out of the way!" Miesall cried as the fireball came hurdling towards the shorter Watcher. He spun in the air, quickly circling back around.

Why was it that Xel couldn't seem to move in that moment? Was it because it felt so surreal, so nostalgic of old times? Or was that even as a Watcher, he was afraid of the ghast which stood far taller than any player ever did?

He watched as the burning ball of flame came hurling towards him. It wouldn't kill him of course, but it would be very unpleasant for awhile, especially if he fell into the lava below.

In the next few moments, he watched as Miesall shoved him out of the way, both of them barely missing the blow.

"Xel, we need to get out of here." Miesall said again, frowning. He wasn't taking any chances this time, grabbing ahold of his former student's wrist before flying away from the mob. Xel struggled to keep up as he regained his focus. Once they were a good distance away, he spoke again. "What happened back there?"

Xelqua shook his head. He wasn't quite sure himself in honesty.

"Just... be more careful." Miesall sighed. He was tempted to add that he didn't want to see Xel hurt, but that was a silly thing to say seeing as he could just heal himself almost instantly.

Once Xelqua got to a fast, stable flight, he let go of Miesall's hand. The two traversed the Nether, ignoring pigmen and the occasional ghast. Geysers of lava that spewed out at them were a little more tricky to dodge, but they managed to bypass them unharmed.

It was definitely more difficult than the Overworld had been, as per the price for travelling eight times as fast. They always had to keep their eyes out, and made sure to go at such a speed that was fast, but slow at the same time.

In a way, Miesall had almost enjoyed the challenge. It was like a brand new obstacle course, but this once came with unfamiliar territory and higher stakes. If it wasn't for the sweltering heat, and the condensation that had collected on every part of his body, he might have even called it fun.

Always on his toes, he found himself dodging and weaving bits of netherrack and lava at the very last second, and not by choice. His former student was struggling a bit more, clipping the occasional rock. He was getting scrapped up, but at least his wounds were healing almost as fast as he was getting hurt. "Miesall, can't we slow down a little? I'm not as good at flying as you are..." he asked after the twenty-somethingith time kissing some of the reddish rocks.

"That is part of the fun, is it not?" Miesall teased. In doing so, Xel could tell that he was in a better mood than he had been in this entire journey. "It was your idea to come here in the first place."

"Yeah, but still..." Xel began, giving a playful smile. He supposed a few unforeseen impallings weren't the worst thing to have happened to him. He breathed a laugh before his shoulder ran against the side of an outstretched piece of netherrack. He winced, watching as blood freely trailed behind him. The purplish color looked strange in contrast to the reddish landscape, he noted.

"Fine, fine." Miesall huffed, fluttering his lowest pair of wings. His smile betrayed him. He slowed down just a little bit more, allowing the two to easily fly side by side without having to do as drastic as turns.

The two flew on for awhile longer, until their robes were absolutely drenched through with sweat and even their wings had begun to grow heavy with it.

Landing on a nice flat area, Xelqua was tempted to faceplant right onto the ground and lay there for a long while. He felt a bit light-headed, feeling the heat get to him. Miesall did in fact allow himself to lie down like this.

"That's enough for one day." He muttered into the ground. He had lost track of time in this never ending night, but was sure it had to have been at least an hour.

"I agree." Xel sighed, sitting on the ground. He rummaged through his inventory to grab a few water bottles. Beginning to chug one, he offered some to the creature who took it without hesitation. He took a few moments to compose himself before grabbing the obsidian from the portal they mined. He allowed Miesall to rest as he constructed the portal.

A cry sounded in the distance, causing him to quick stand up on his feet. "There is a ghast nearby." He observed as he tried to send his eyes out further than they could go in his current state, with no success. He couldn't find the mob, and he just hoped his hair wouldn't get singed.

Xelqua quickly placed the last block as another cry resounded, this one much closer than the last. He jumped down from the top of the portal as Miesall once again used some of his magic to light it up.

The portal sang to them as it came to life, it's melody rushing loudly into their ears. It stretched their minds, and even though it was nearly unbearable, Miesall had no time to dwell on it. He jumped right in behind Xelqua.

The two tripped right into the Overworld, landing onto the grass. From the sun's position, they could tell that they had spent a good hour in there, traveling over half a day's journey.

"Let us remain in the Overworld for the rest of the trip..." Miesall muttered as he got out his compass once more. Still no change. Truly a never-ending journey, it seemed.

"Agreed..." Xelqua muttered, lifting his head from the grass. He took a gasp of the cold, refreshing air. "Can we lay here for at least for a few minutes before we continue?"

Miesall only hummed, not caring to lift his face from the ground.

AN

This is something I've kinda realized especially these past few chapters, but I think Miesall has a bit of sensitivity to loud sounds since he spent his whole life in a quiet environment. 

Also he now has a date of birth due to an outlandish headcanon I have/had--