Section 1:

     ' "The dry heat of the Nether found no escape from the firey realm. The flow of lava was consistent, never drying up or cooling down with the breezes that came so rarely. The Nether was like a beast of its own, only a dark red roof capping the massive cave-like landscape. Every now and then the whole realm would appear to breathe; out would go some of the hot air and in would come some cold air. However, that was rare. No one has yet to discover the hidden secrets of this forbidden place. Its dark corners still untouched, just waiting to be explored. Even I, Steve, have yet to travel an explorer's distance from my portal, for it is far too dangerous to go out alone. Luckily, I am not alone on this journey anymore. My equally adventurous partner, Hero, is just as excited as I about the secrets this forbidden realm holds." '

     The human wiped the building sweat from his forehead after finishing that last sentence. Then, he slid the feathered pen between the pages and closed his book as he looked-on over the endless sea of bubbling lava spread out before him. He stood on a twenty to thirty block tall ledge, where the heat radiating from the lava below wasn't as strong. The iron armor he wore helped insulate his skin from the heat only a little, but that little difference could be a lifesaver in this realm.

     "Hey! I found some gold!" Hero appeared from a small hole near the portal, raising the shiny metallic rock above his head.

     "Great! Throw it on the crafting table. I'll be down there again in just a moment." Steve told him. Hero then tossed the nugget in the general direction of the crafting table. The human walked over to the crafting table and bent down to pick the shiny rock up. The moment he did, Steve immediately noticed something was a little off about it. "...Wait.. this isn't gold."

     "What?" The taller man, who's head was still sticking out of the hole, literally spun around to see what his friend was talking about.

     "It's just Smoky Quartz. Gold is usually heavier, and feels a bit softer." The experienced miner explained.

     "...oh." Hero then vanished into the hole to mine some more. Steve slid down in after him. At the bottom of the hole was his diamond pickaxe ready to be used finally. The human had used diamonds so few times before since he felt like it was a waste, but with how easily the diamond shredded through the netherrack, he wasn't sure if he could ever go back to using his old iron tools again.

     After squeezing through the very thin tunnel, Steve reached a pocket in the dark red crust where Hero was mining some quartz. Down in one of the corners of the space, resting on the floor, was the full set of diamond armor Steve had made for Hero.

     "Hey, (Tiny,) why is your armor on the floor?" Steve asked the one mining.

     The younger man was on his knees mining at the floor with his own diamond pickaxe. "Oh, it was too hot in that. I was sweating too much. So, I took it off. Hope you don't mind." He turned to face his friend.

     "No no, you're fine. Just, don't want you getting hurt again." Steve slouched a little, a hint of worry in the eyes he tried to keep on the netherrack he decided just then to start mining.

     "Don't worry, Steve, it's been a while since all that phantom stuff happened. I have learned a lot since then, thanks to you." Hero smiled genuinely, looking Steve in the eyes for a moment or two.

     "Well..it's only been a month, and comparing that to all the time you spent in bed recovering from that I'd probably say you haven't learned as much as you think you have!" Raising his voice out of concern more than anything, Steve exaggerated his speech as he talked by lifting his pickaxe a little and waving it around slightly.

     Hero sighed, "Steve, I was sick for just one week. It didn't even feel like it was that long."

     "Yeah, but, it usually only takes me a couple days do do the same ammount of recovery. Not sure if this is factual, but I think you might just have a weaker immune system -which isn't a bad thing! Just saying~"

     "I have to be more careful?" On Hero's face was probably the first sarcastic eyebrow raise Steve had ever seen him do.

     "Yep!"

     "Hh, alright. If it makes you feel better, I'll go put on the armor." Hero said, standing up.

     With a bit of hesitancy, the human almost made it look like he wanted to recall his last claim, but in the end he just bit his tongue. "Alright, you do that. But, don't feel like you have to wear it.

     "Heh, it's alright. You are still wearing your full set of armor, so why shouldn't I?" The young man half smiled again, but Steve could tell a part of him was still deep in thought. Oh no.. should Steve just not brought up the lower immune system thing? He knew Hero already felt pretty bad about not being able to help him at all while he was sick. And he was really sick too; not just the common cold or anything. Thankfully that was a past both of them and they were already beginning to forget, and soon Hero would be back to his full strength and health, capable of tackling the Nether realm with him!

Section 2:

     Steve tossed and turned in his sleep. All the others in the small house slept soundly, even Tim, who now slept on the bed underneath Steve's. But Steve.. His fingers flinched; his lungs refused to inhale.

Crack!

     Cold, wet, blue. The depths of the ocean swallowed him whole, strangling the man out of any fighting breaths. But he had to keep going. He only swam deeper.

Crack!

     A jabbing pain born from the core of his being pleaded for oxygen. He gave himself none. He was already too deep. A hand reached up for him. A hand just as desperate under the water as he.

Crack!

     Two glowing white eyes, submerged in the blue, cried for help. His arms reaching out; his soul asking to return. "Help" the stranger's lips spelled out. He was too far. Too far to reach. Too far to save.

CRACK!

     "Wake up!" The stranger shouted. In that very instant, the water shifted, pushing upward the stranger, and thrusting Steve back. He kept his eyes on the stranger, though, as he ascended with ease -- not even using his arms or legs -- until he was above the human. Two massive sea creatures emerged from the depths, with long spikes and rough gray skin. The moment all four eyes were on him, the blue.. the deep... vanished, leaving nothing but a chilling black nothingness.

      "Hhah!" The man's upper half leapt from the dream. To his delight, he was still safely in his bed. It was uncomfortable the ammount of sweat coated the man's skin, and because of that, Steve climbed down and stepped outside for some fresh air.

     His heart was still pounding in his chest, even after he had given himself some time to calm down -- walking around the village in the night, enjoying the peace in the air as the night carried on. Eventually, he laid down in the grass and let himself think about simple things, like how the grass he laid down on was annoying, brushing against his neck and arms. Still, even as time went on and the peace rested all around him, the human didn't feel quite right. Then he suddenly had an idea. The man stood back up and walked over to his chest that sat outside, beside his furnaces. Inside, the man dug around for something, eventually pulling out a singular lump of coal.

     "Ah, there you are, Lumpy. Haven't seen you in a while." The human smiled. The piece of earth did not respond, for it couldn't. But that didn't keep Steve from walking back to where he had been before to lay back down, placing the coal to his side. He could always tell which piece of coal was Lumpy, because it had several chips and cracks in it, showing its wear from all the adventures it had been on with Steve.

     Quietly, the man went through all the latest stories Lumpy hadn't been there for, even opening up a little about how he felt and what his plans were for ensuring that those things never happened again, including keeping himself for snapping at Hero ever again. With the gentle breeze, safe nature of the village, and Lumpy laying comfortably by his side, Steve couldn't blame himself when he eventually did drift back to sleep.

Section 3:

     The next morning the human woke up on his own. It took him a moment to remember he had fallen asleep outside, at first thinking someone had created a hole in his roof right above his head. Some hushed mumbles quickly changed to harsh whispers as the man's eyes fluttered open, head still pretty fuzzy. When he sat up, nearly a dozen young villagers jumped back, making short 'hur'-ing noises amongst themselves as if laughing mischievously. Among them was Tim; hiding behind one of the girl villagers.

     "What on earth... wait, what did you guys do?" Immediately, the human felt for anything that might be on his face. Ahahhh.. Exactly what he had feared. Those kids had stuck flower petals -- using honey -- to his face! The moment the children saw the gig was up, they all dispersed; running in every possible direction, screaming. "Hhhh..." Choosing mercy, Steve began picking petals off of his face one by one where he sat. After he was done, he stood up and made his way to the village's river, licking the honey off of his fingers on the way. As Steve sat on his knees, washing the sticky honey off of his face, he heard footsteps behind him.

     "Steve? Are you alright? We have bottles of clean water if you are thirsty." Hero offered, maybe standing about ten blocks behind his friend.

     Steve chuckled a little, "No, it's alright. I just had some honey on my face I needed to wash off." By then Steve was pretty much done, so he stood from the river, then shook his head like a dog to dry off his face and hair a little quicker. Hero laughed at the sight.

     "So, I am almost done with my house if you want to see it." The taller of the two smiled. A brow raised on Steve's face.

     "Already?.. Heh, sounds to me like you are getting better at that whole building thing." He commented, rubbing his hands onto his shirt to dry them off some more.

     "Well, it isn't very big. The walls around the village don't leave very much room for expanding, and I didn't want to build anything that would take up the entire meadow or something. So, I decided to build it back around this area of the village, in the small clearing by the wall... In short, it really didn't take that long to build..because it is so small.... Sooo, yeah." Hero finally finished. By then he was standing right next to Steve along the riverbank, watching as fish swam between the fence posts which held up a shorter version of the wall so everyone could see the thick forest beyond.

     "Heh, that's perfectly fine. If you haven't noticed, I don't live in the most glamorous of places either... The village has been expanding quite a bit.. Hmmm, maybe I should expand the wall in some places..." Steve thought aloud. It really had been a while since he had built that wall... As he and Hero stood there silent, Steve's eyes wandered back to the calm blue currents of the river beside him. He stood there, staring at it blankly for quite some time. "Hey, Hero... Do you know how to swim?"

     The question caught his friend a little off guard. "Huh? Swim? Why would I need to- Aaa!" Hero couldn't even finish, before he was pushed into the deep blue. Steve laughed as his friend fell in, knowing already that the river in that particular spot was shallow enough for his friend to stand in. It took Hero a brief moment of splashing frantically before he too realized this, and out his head and shoulders leapt from the water, sputtering, "it's cold!!" That just made the human laugh even harder

     "Hahahaha!-ha-ha!" Steve nearly fell over. He hadn't expected Hero's head bobbing out of the water, still swishing around in disbelief, to be so hilarious. The moment Hero properly adjusted to what had just happened, he leapt for the unknowing Steve, pulling him into the water by the edge of his shirt. Poor Steve fell in as well, only realizing when it was too late that he was a gonner for sure.

Splash!

     He had forgotten how cold the water had been. Steve surfaced, coughing on air, listening to the whimsical laughs of his friend behind him. Unlike Hero, Steve was barely able to touch the floor of the river with his toes. Luckily he was strong enough a swimmer to only need to hop up and down every now and then. It was the younger's turn to laugh at his friend.

     "Bruh." Was all Steve could manage when he turned to his glowy eyed friend, which just threw Hero into another laughing fit. His laugh was contageous, though, and soon the two of them were laughing like idiots, no witnesses to confirm their stupidity. "Haha..ahh..." Steve sighed, beginning to calm down. "Hah.. man, I don't think I have laughed like that in.. ever!" He acknowledged, still a big smile refusing to leave his face.

     "Same! Haha!.. Except for maybe that one time Hokeson told us all that one joke about a fish and a zombie.." Hero added, also finally beginning to calm down.

     "Soo," Steve began, "do you know how to swim?"

     "Huh, I don't really know. Let me check." Following that, Hero pushed himself further into the deep end of the river, frantically throwing his hands about until eventually he gave up and cried for help. Steve laughed a little, but again slid into mentor mode as he dove in to save his friend. Luckily the river at most was only two Steves tall. As soon as Hero was recovered, Steve began teaching the younger man how to swim properly, and what the best techniques were to use up the least energy for the most speed and power. And, luckily, Hero was a fast learner. Within maybe two to three hours, the younger man was almost as good as Steve himself.

     Satisfied, the two finally left the river and continued on with their daily tasks as always. Only difference was... Hero began noticing something was a little off. Whether it had been that way since before he arrived, or it was a new development, he had no idea; but he was almost sure he saw his friend talking to a rock while feeding the horses, and then again while cleaning out the trash from his chests -- finally doing some form of cleaning, I might add. Eventually, Hero got just a little too curious to keep the questions to himself.

     "Hey, Steve, what are you doing?" The young man approached Steve, who at the time looked deep in thought. Either that, or his mind was off in another world entirely.

     "O- oh, nothing." Steve answered, trying to not make a big scene of him sliding that same piece of dark stone behind the knee he was standing on. "Just, you know, finally cleaning up." He smiled up at his friend. Hero politely nodded, then leaned a little, trying to get a better look at the dark stone behind Steve's leg. The older man noticed, but tried to ignore the obvious curiosity in Hero's face. When Hero leaned so far to the left he looked as if he might fall over, Steve finally gave in. "Hhh, fine. You want to know what is behind me. Well, here he is." Steve said, reaching down for the rock. He then placed it on the lid of the chest, saying, "Hero, this is Lumpy. Lumpy, this is Hero."

     The younger man's brow raised, but, accepting as he was, he decided not to immediately think his friend was crazy. "Well, hello there, Lumpy." The piece of coal did not respond, even after five seconds of waiting patiently for it to do so. Finally, he whispered, "Steve, does Lumpy talk?"

     "Of course he does! He just.. only talks to me." Answered Steve. Again, Hero politely nodded, wondering exactly what was going on here. Of course, while Hero hadn't been around for any more than a month and half, he already had this preconceived idea that non-living things couldn't talk, or think. However, since he was still learning new things every day... perhaps this was another thing he just didn't know about already?

Section 4: (font 1)

     "Hey guys!" Everyone, including me, spun around in our seats towards the classroom door, seeing Hero right away standing through it. Oh no. Did Steve tell him about the flower thing! Aww, man! He would kill me if he figured out I was the one who came up with the idea! I just hoped no one else in the class would tattle on me, maybe even start the Girls vs. Boys War Two, since that was a thing now! "Uhh, teacher, I have a question." He asked the teacher directly. Everyone in class was frozen, every one of us wishing it wasn't going to be about the prank. "...Can items talk?"

     The...what?! Where the heck did he get that idea? I wasn't sure if it was just the question itself, or the overwhelming relief that I wouldn't end up in the gulag today, but I burst out laughing after maybe five seconds of pure silence. All my other classmates quickly followed. Hopefully that would answer the confused human's question.

     "No, Hero, items can't talk." Out teacher kindly answering, giggling with us just a little. "Why would you think that?"

     "Oh.. no reason." The tall human kindly smiled, waving a brief goodbye to all of us, before shutting the door behind him. It took me several minutes of smiling later before I realized his question had been a serious one.

.

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I think Imma just end this one right here, since I passed my 2k word requirement a while ago, and have officially reached 3k words and a good place to pause for now. Finally writing this thing! I only have a few weeks before I had originally set to finishing it, though! Aaaaa!