Section 6:
><>Another POV<><

     My head hurt. Dizziness consumed my thoughts. No longer was I thinking of how I would possibly make it out of here, but instead, of how I would possibly survive another day. My muscles were cramping and my stomach moaned. I could feel my hands shaking even though they weren't cold. My eyes had lost their sense of focus and drifted around the darkness. I refused to think about what any of this meant.

Ka'tump ka'tump ka'tump 

     Finally something other than silence and that haunting phantom. It sounded like horse hooves. Maybe it was my stallion looking for me? Unlikely of him. A wild horse passing by?.. Probably.

Ka'thump

     The hooves stopped not too far away, and the sound of several dismantling caught my attention. No way... Would I finally be meeting the writers of those books? Would, after all these years, I finally learn who it was who had written the very guides to my life? The ones who I had so much to thank for?

     My heart started to pick up its pace when I listened as a little tussle took place above me. I held my breath when the ground cracked a little beneath them, and they suddenly understood what trouble they were in. They were right above that pit too, meaning that if they fell, they would have much worse than a broken leg. Though it was quiet, I could hear one or two above communicate. It was, not what I was expecting. Either the dialect was pretty far off from mine, or were they saying "hurrrrr?"

     The phantom overhead screeched as it took a swoop for the ones above, who I wasn't even sure if they were actually here for me or not. With softer footing this time the three now above me fought with and eventually took down the looming phantom. I could only hope with my clouded mind that the ones above were here to rescue me. After the phantom had perished, the three slowly began creeping away from the crack in the floor, and me. I almost cried out for help, desperate for a rescue, when suddenly a sharp object at the edge of the thin part of the ground pierced through and turned once inside to weaken the soil around it. More swords like the first, lightly enchanted, also pierced the other sides of the same thin crust, breaking away at the terracotta. I gasped when, all of a sudden, the entire sceiling in front of me, crumpled, falling into the pit before me.

     Above, poked through the heads of my rescuers... Villagers?! And not just any villagers, but the ones from my village! They- they- they came to save me?! H- how?! No way! I thought they didn't even know how to ride horses, or use weapons, or- or..! Wh-why?! Nearly out of view, I watched as the smallest of the three plopped down a crafting table and set many sticks on top of it. They really could craft?! I had no idea. I- I had never seen them behave like this before. The little one then picked back up several ladders and handed them to the weapon smith. Wait, I recognize that one! Billy! He had actually come to save me! Oh, what a champ!

     My tired mind had been stressed for so long that my eyes even began filling with tears when I saw Billy building the ladder down to me. Never before did I think I would ever be so happy to see someone like this. But there I was, finally on my way to live another day. 

><>Good ol' Tim's POV<><

     We found the human! Luckily I had packed enough sticks to craft some ladders, because that was exactly what we needed to get him out. Pretty soon I was climbing down it after Hokeson, who was right away attending to the human. Boy, there sure were a lot of items spread around. Even good ones like iron and emergency wood. I decided to do the simpler task of picking all the items up, wondering why they had been spread around like this the first place. An ominous dark cave along the left wall of the human made me wonder if that was how he had entered. Maybe there was a way out through there.. or just a whole lot more monsters. Speaking of which-.

     "Uhh, guys? You might want to hurry up. The monsters are getting pretty close!" Drake warned from above, his sword at the ready.

     "Drake! Hand me your healing potion!" Hokeson called to him after examining the human's condition.

     "Uh, do you even know how to use a potion?" Drake turned back with a hand on his hip.

     "Just hand it to me!" Hokeson's chillingly stern voice was uncalled for. "He has a broken leg!" He clarified. Drake groaned slightly, climbing down the ladder a little so he could toss a dark pink potion over to him.

     "Just make sure he doesn't have too much of it at once. Tried it one time. It made me pass out." Drake chuckled at the end. Then he climbed back up quickly and readied his sword again. By then I had picked up all the important looking items and walked back over to the human.

     Finally seeing him face to face for the first time in days... I could see why Hokeson looked so concerned. The man's face was nearly pale, his arms were trembling and his left leg was throbbing. Hokeson had pulled up the pant cloth a little to reveal red, swollen skin all around it. Dark bags lay under the human's eyes, and for the first time, I could see small tears brimming them. I don't know whether it was him or me who had changed since I last saw him, but suddenly I could see so much emotion in those eyes. A lot of it looked like joy, or relief at least, actually.

     Hokeson brought up the potion to the human's face and though the human tried to hold it, his arms were just too shakey, and he eventually gave up, placing his hands once again on the few bars of gold that sat on his lap. With one hand, Hokeson guided the healing liquid into the human's mouth and with the other he held up the back of his head. The one in pain began chugging the liquid before Hokeson pulled it away as Drake had advised. He then looked down at the leg to see it immediately begin to lighten in color, though it was still swollen. After a moment he let the human have a few more gulps. It was somewhat strange seeing a villager such as Hokeson tending to the human. Almost, refreshing to see, especially since apparently it was usually the human taking care of him. One thing I found really interesting though was Hokeson himself. I couldn't even tell what kind of expression he had. It was so in the zone, refusing to take his attention off the one he was caring for. Pretty soon, Hokeson sighed in relief when the swelling was mostly gone, and the human's face was a lot less pale.

     "I think.. I think he will be okay..." Hokeson finally smiled, patting the human's brown hair. Said human by that point was looking pretty sleepy; probably because he was finally no longer in so much pain and felt comfortable enough to relax; though, we needed him awake. We couldn't just haul him up the ladder afterall.

     "Guys, we need to go NOW!" Drake's voice suddenly shouted down the hole for us. I looked up just in time to see the green robed villager finally lift his sword to strike down a zombie. My eyes metaphorically grew the size of watermelons. No way was I having my brains eaten tonight; and no way would I sit around and watch Drake's be eaten either! Though I was terrified, I sprinted to the ladder and climbed it. Immediately, I ran to help Drake fight off the three zombies and one spider he was facing. Good thing I was little in this case, because it was easy to swipe at their legs without having to worry about them punching me. After a while, I began to wonder what was taking so long. Drake did too. "Hurry up, Hokeson! We can't hold them off all night!" He finished, swinging a zombie around him and shoving it down into the pit far below. My eyes followed the rotting beast, and then a little further up to where Hokeson was standing, stabilizing the human with one of his arms over his shoulder to keep him up. The human seemed to be the one delaying, determined to limp over to pick up a single lonely piece of coal before leaving.

     "Come on, hurry!" I added on.

     "We are!" Hokeson retorted, agitation coming easily in the stressful situation. Me and Drake continued fighting, narrowly dodging punches, bites, and now even arrows. The commotion around us was drawing in even more monsters, and in such an open place.. there were a lot of monsters on their way. I continued my strategy of slicing at zombie and spider legs, letting Drake be the one to actually kill them. I was helping by wounding them at least. Too bad our best fighter was busy already. I huffed a little as tiredness set in. I didn't know how much longer we could keep this up. Luckily, Drake was always full of energy.. when he wasn't sleeping at least. But, looking at him, I could see that even he was getting a little tired. "Alright! I am up! To the horses!" Hokeson finally called. I spun back to see him assisting the human up the top of the ladder and onto solid ground. I cheered in relief, running back over to Snowflake and jumping right on.

     "We still need to hurry! The arrows! They-" What great timing. Drake was just about to help Hokeson lift the human onto his horse when exactly what he was talking about hit him in the back. I was too terrified to scream. Before I knew it we were surrounded too.

     "What do we do?!" I piped up, panicked from head to toe.

     "C-calm, down.. Timbo.. Ouch. This, actually hurts pretty bad." Drake grunted. "Would not advise!" I narrowly dodged another arrow right then. Even Snowflake was a little spooked by that. Half awake but still noticing the situation we were in, the human pushed away from his assistance and stuck his fists up at the monsters closing in, only good leg trembling under nearly all his wavering weight.

     "No no! You can't take them all on! Not when you are already hurt!" Hokeson quickly reeled the human back and managed to make him sit down on the grey speckled horse. "We are going to need some kind of distraction, or weapon that will open up a way out of here!" Hokeson thought aloud, sitting on his saddle right behind the slumped over human. Drake was also pretty slumped over on his pig, still trying to stay conscious through the pain. The only one who could really do anything here, was me... Oh boy.

     "Distraction.." I echoed, closing my eyes tightly. And then, suddenly, I was ready. "Over here, monsters!!" I shouted at the death-hungry creatures, capturing their attention and leading it away from those who were injured. I kicked my heels into Snowflake and sent her running forward, where there was a gap in skeletons.

     "Tim! No! What are you doing?!" Hokeson shouted for me.

     "Quiet! I am trying to distract them!" I shouted back. I had a quick look through my inventory fo rthings that would make more noise. Good thing I had decided to pick up the human's iron for him. I quickly pulled two ingots out and began smashing them together, making a painful cling each time that appeared to almost stun the closest zombies, and really tick off all the other mobs. Arrows came my way, and I made Snowflake run around frantically to avoid them. I kept slamming those two pieces of iron together, enjoying my discovery that the zombies especially were having a hard time listening to it. "Hey guys! See if banging iron together helps clear away the zombies!" I suggested. Hokeson smiled slightly as he pulled his second axe out. Pretty soon he too was slamming the blades together to make terribly painful noises, which, indeed, did make the zombies closest to him back up a little. From that, he was able to make a small path out of there, while I continued drawing fire from the skeletons.

     "Whoo! Great find, Tim!" Hokeson rejoiced as him and Drake were able to escape the circle unharmed. I ran Snowflake around the circle at top speed to join back with the rest of them, and we were off! Even though Drake was still in great pain, he pulled out his compass and took the lead on his pig, making sure we made no detour on our way back. Home, get ready, because we are coming back.