Lizzie ended up taking Joel to a small, secluded hollow. The closer they got to the start of the dip in the ground, the more purple and oddly illuminated all of the plant life became, and there were tiny, spore-like, lilac spheres of light floating around them.

Lizzie crouched down behind one of the bushes in the hollow, dragging Joel down with her so that he was crouching as well.

"So... how come more endermen than usual spawn in this spot?" Joel whispered, peeking over the bush with an intrigued expression. The hollow seemed basically empty part from the plant life, although on an unrelated note, the interlocking leaves of the purple trees that covered the area were casting an even more purple light onto the area.

There was a lot of purple, was his point.

"Well, there used to be a portal to the Enderian Empire here, but even though it was moved decades ago, there's still Enderian trees and particles here and stuff, science stuff, blah blah blah, so enderman still spawn here!" His girlfriend declared brightly.

"Ohh. Cool." The dog hybrid said quietly, letting out a murmur of protest as Lizzie pulled him back down.

"Stop peeking! If you make eye contact with one, it will kill you." She scolded. "I can see why Lola doesn't let you do monster hunting." The girl with pink hair added, referring to Joel's mother.

"Rude. And there aren't even any endermen!" Joel protested, scowling, although he wasn't actually mad.

"Not yet there isn't. Some will spawn in a minute. So you need to shush and let me do my thing." Lizzie huffed, glaring at him playfully.

True to her word, only a few moments passed before the world seemed to flicker around them and an enderman appeared. Joel stared up at the monster with a slightly startled expression, shying away from it. He knew endermen were tall, but he didn't know they were this tall- the only time the brunette had seen one in person, he was about four years old, so he had assumed that his child memory was exaggerating the height of endermen, but nope, this thing was tall.

Lizzie smirked, putting one finger to her lips to indicate silence before slowly moving into sight of the enderman, still crouching, and staring at the ground near the lanky creature to avoid eye contact. She inched closer to it by the second before leaping forwards and slicing through it with one aggressive swing of her sword. Joel shuddered slightly at the enderman's brief, ear-splitting shriek of fury before it exploded into a burst of glowing purple particles and a very small amount of purple-gray blood.

The dog hybrid grimaced as he wiped the blood off of his face (he had begun peeking over the bush again in Lizzie's absence, and there was some poor timing involved that lead to the blood splattering onto him), watching as Lizzie leant down to pick something up from the cluster of light, waving away some of the particles before straightening and beaming at her boyfriend. "Look! Ender pearl!" Lizzie declared, brandishing the blue-green sphere that was an ender pearl. "Ta-da! Easy as that. You just have to be sneaky about it."

Joel nodded with a slightly dazed expression. "Uh-huh."

The next twenty minutes or so went by relatively quickly, with Joel watching from behind the bushes as Lizzie killed four or five endermen with ease before loudly proclaiming that she was tired and they should go home. After walking Lizzie back to Piper and Abby's house, Joel then returned to his own house, where he was greeted by the sight of his mother Lola leaning against the doorframe with a sceptical expression.

"And where have you been, young man?" She asked curiously. If you didn't look too closely it just appeared as if the brunette was smiling slightly, but if you did look carefully, Lola's slight frown and the tapping motion she was making with her hands were the only things betraying her anxiety.

"On a... walk? With Lizzie?" He wasn't technically lying.

Lola shot him a suspicious look, studying him for a moment before beaming and nodding. "Alright then. You missed dinner, by the way. We thought you were just going to deliver Piper's sword and return home. I did save you some food though- there's some bread and cooked beef on the table if you want it." She added, her smile becoming much more warm and genuine.

Joel nodded gratefully, entering the house and grabbing the plate off of the table. After a moment of thought, the dog hybrid opted to sit on the floor instead of at the table. Just as he started eating, his dad entered the room.

"There he is! Where've you been?" Nolan asked with a laugh.

"He was on a walk with Lizzie and presumably lost track of time." Lola informed him as she walked back into the main room as well, closing the door behind her.

"Kids get distracted so easily. You know, when I was your age-" Joel rolled his eyes.

"Oh, here we go." He muttered around a mouthful of bread, earning himself an amused (yet slightly exasperated) glance from his father.

"Shush, you. Still sitting on the floor, I see?" Nolan added, glancing down at his son. Joel nodded, mumbling something unintelligible to most about how the floor was more comfortable than the lame old chairs, Nolan. "Hey, it's Dad to you, not Nolan-" The brunette rolled his eyes, focusing on his food again. After finishing his food while listening to his parents' conversation about random things, Joel spoke again.

"So. About monster hunting." Joel could practically see Lola restraining herself from sighing. "I know, you think it's dangerous- but I'd much prefer it to being a lame farmer. No offence, Nolan." There was a mutter of protest from the oldest of the three. "I'm twenty-one. I think I'll be fine."

Lola finally let out the sigh she'd clearly been holding for a while, glancing at her husband, who shrugged. "I think he's ready to do monster hunting. I think he's been ready for a while."

"Well- I-" Joel's mother paused thoughtfully for a moment. "Fine. You get one night as kind of- a trial run. See how well you do. We'll talk about it then." Joel cheered silently as Nolan pointed at the door.

"Spare sword's by the door. Have fun, kid. Don't be too long- I know you have to monster hunt at night so it's dark and mobs will spawn, but- still." Joel nodded excitedly as he dropped the bowl and practically ran towards the door, grabbing Nolan's spare sword.

"Won't be too long, thank you guys so much-" Lola nodded, watching as he left.

There was a shout of, "Be safe! Love you!", from his mother, and that was the last thing he heard before beginning his walk to the forest.

This is the last chapter that any Morturubu Hill characters will be relevant btw :D I mean they will be relevant to Joel, they just won't be there for the rest of the story

Also the monster hunting thing won't be that relevant

I just needed an excuse to get Joel out of the village for a bit :)

Hope you enjoyed! Comments and votes are greatly appreciated :]

Sorry for any errors, I wrote this on my iPad lmao