Chapter Four
The journey took another twenty minutes before he could see the town walls. Notch saw something else that made him pause – a horde of spiders attacking the walls. But it was daylight? He took a step closer. The spiders were trying to scale the walls but they were too high. Iron Golems looked on from the top of the wall as if they were sizing up the threat. Why were they attacking?
He saw him. Herobrine. At the base of the wall, almost hidden by a snow covered tree. He was staring at Notch. Was this another illusion? Was Notch seeing things? Herobrine just looked at him, not speaking.
“Hey!” A voice yelled and Notch tore his gaze away from Herobrine.
A man was up on the wall, next to one of the Iron Golems. He was beckoning to Notch, telling him to run. So the spiders were really attacking then. Notch glanced back at the tree but Herobrine wasn’t there anymore.
“If you can get them off of you long enough, we’ll open the gate to let you in!” The man yelled at him, pointing to the gate near the group of spiders.
Notch yelled back, “Okay!” and unsheathed his sword.
The spiders seemed to notice he was here now and were all slowly turning around to look at him. There were six of them. Seeing that it was easier to get to Notch than inside the town, they began to head over to him. Notch got ready, raising his shield. He knew now that the spiders and Herobrine were connected. He’d have to think about it later, once he was able to get inside the town.
The first spider lunged. Notch deflected the hit and slammed his shield into another spider that was sneaking up towards him. That one flew back, knocking the others behind. Notch shoved his sword into the closest spider to him, dealing with it swiftly. As long as he didn’t think about Herobrine, he could focus more easily on the attack.
Notch was able to take down four out of the six spiders before he managed to get close enough to the entrance to the town. The man who had yelled at him previously was pointing behind him. Notch spun around to see a spider lunging toward him. He had been too focused on getting into the town and hadn’t even noticed it.
The spider hit him and Notch flew back, hitting the ground with a thud. It tried to lurch again but Notch threw his sword up, connecting with the spider. This gave him enough time to get up off the ground and finish the spider off.
But his arm was burning and he looked down to see he had been bitten. He mumbled a curse under his breath as he darted through the gate into the town, leaving the last spider behind.
“Hey, man, you okay?”
“My arm…” Notch looked down at it.
“You need to get to the doctor. I’ll take you there. I’m James,” He stuck out his hand to shake Notch’s but then thought twice when he remembered Notch’s injury, “Follow me. Pretty strange the spiders attacked in the day like that.”
Notch nodded in agreement, trying not to wince from the pain in his arm, “They were acting odd the entire time I was heading over here.”
James was leading him into town now. It was larger than Notch had thought it would be. Houses lined the pathways and he could spot an inn, as well as a library and a block of shops behind that.
James glanced back at him, “Is this your first time in town?”
Notch nodded. They kept walking. The streets hummed with activity with some people glancing over at Notch to look at his wound. An Iron Golem patrolled the street next to theirs.
“Was that the first spider attack in the day?” Notch asked, trying to keep up with James.
James nodded, “Yeah. We noticed an increase in spider activity but this was the first time we saw them attack like that.”
“Just my luck.” Notch mumbled, thinking back to Herobrine.
James stopped in front of a smaller building and looked at Notch, “The doctor is in here. I have to get back to the wall now.”
“Thanks.” Notch said and James nodded before heading back down the path.
Notch stepped inside the doctor’s office. His feet seemed to sink into the wool carpet of a small room that appeared to look like a waiting room. It was empty, with a music block in the corner and a makeshift desk in the other. A tired woman was sitting behind it and she looked up at him.
“Hi,” Notch said, feeling silly, walking up, “I…uh…spider bite.” He said, pointing to his arm.
“Just a moment.” The woman replied, getting up and walking into the other room, the door shutting behind her.
He could hear quiet mumbling of her talking to someone else. Then the door opened and another woman came out, her hair up in a bun and her eyes bright and wide awake.
“Spider bite?” She asked, coming over to him.
“There was a spider attack outside the walls.”
She frowned, “In the day time?”
“Yeah. Weird, huh?” Notch said, feeling bad for lying that it basically his fault.
“I’m Dr. Henshen. Come here and we’ll take a look at it.”
Notch followed.
It took an hour to clean out and heal the bite It stung a bit. Dr. Henshen wrapped it up.She gave him directions to the inn he had passed earlier.
The room showed no signs of Herobrine or any other strange things, like lava, luckily. He decided he’d eat and then head to the library to try to find out more. But first…the bed looked so inviting and he felt so tired…just a quick nap…Notch laid down on the bed and snuggled in, ready to try to nap.
But the nap didn’t last long and soon another dream began. Vivid, Notch felt as if he was no longer in the town or in the bed. He was walking towards the temple. It seemed larger than he had recalled the last time he had been here. It was touching the sky and cast a large shadow. No, that couldn’t be right.
The villagers were smiling at him. They were waving and calling his name – Herobrine. They were excited to see him. Someone was trying to talk to him but he kept moving. No time to talk. No he had things he need to do.
He stepped inside the temple. People were everywhere – selling things, cooking things with groups of people around the water fountain, chatting and laughing. When he entered, he could hear them shout his name again. A couple of people actually bowed.
But he kept walking. He had to get to the top floor. He was going to be honored today. He made his way down the hallway to where the temple guardians lived. He felt something grab his arm. He spun around and was staring at the face of one of the temple guardians. But he couldn’t make out the person – their face was a blur of colors under their robe.
“I know what you did, Herobrine.” The voice said, distorted and magnified all at once.
He thought he answered but he didn’t hear anything.
“I can’t let you do this,” The voice said, raising high and then low, “One day, everyone will know.”
Again, he thought he answered. The voice from the shrouded figure seemed to raise an octave in anger, a loud noise that hurt his head. It kept raising in volume until he wanted to scream…
Notch sat up in bed suddenly, sweat covering his body. His breathing was heavy and his head pounding. Moonlight poured into the tiny room and his arm was throbbing in pain from the bite. He shut his eyes tightly. The nightmare was quickly fading away but the voice seemed to stay in his head.
I know what you did…
What had Herobrine done? What was the temple guardian so angry at him for? He tried to recall if anyone else was upset but the memory seemed to be running through his fingers like water. He wanted dawn to come so he could head to the library right away and start asking around town. Notch had a feeling there was a lot to this story.
Notch shut the book he had been looking at. This book offered the same information as the other two he had looked at. Herobrine, the great defender, the temple in his honor and people vanishing.
I know what you did…
But did Herobrine do? He still was no closer to the answer than he had been before. He sig
hed and looked up from the desk. James, the man who had been guarding the gate, was nearby, peering at him curiously. Notch waved his hand as a hello and James came over, sitting next to him.
“Hey.” James said, eying the book Notch was reading.
“Hey, how are you?”
“Fine,” James said quickly and then lowered his voice, “I couldn’t help but notice the books you were looking at.” He nodded to the small pile near Notch.
“Yeah?”
“Your looking into the Herobrine legend?”
“You know that legend too?” Notch asked, feeling a bit hopeful.
James nodded, “Yeah, but those books aren’t going to help you,” He cast a nervous glance around as if he were afraid someone was listening, “Listen, check out the book History of Temples.”
With that, James got up and started to walk off. Notch would have called out but they were in the library and he didn’t want to attract attention. James didn’t say anything else and left the library. Notch felt puzzled, wondering why James had said that and just left. He hadn’t met many people who knew about the Herobrine legend.
Curiously, Notch got up and went through the library to find the book James had told him about. He found it in the back, shoved between two large books. History of Temples was a small, thin book that had a faded cover. Notch missed it the first time because the lettering was faded. He picked it up and flipped through it, trying to find information.
The name Herobrine caught his eye and Notch started to skim it.
Herobrine was said to be a legend due to his protection and saving of the villagers around the temple. However, there were rumors that Herobrine orchestrated the attacks himself and merely would sweep in to ‘save the day’.
Notch had never heard that before. But it would make sense with what the temple guardian had said to Herobrine. They knew that Herobrine had been setting up the attacks and saving the village.
It still didn’t explain what had happened to everyone though. Notch kept reading, hoping to find out more. But the passage ended with describing the civilization was gone and the temple lost to time. No information on how it may have happened. Notch closed the book, thinking.
He decided he’d go after James. James directed him to the book and knew he was trying to find information about Herobrine. He left the library. His arm throbbed slightly in pain but the spider bite was almost completely healed. The town was bustling. Notch heard some people whispering about him saying he had brought the spiders with him but he ignored them.
James was up on the wall again, looking down outside the town. The Iron Golem patrolled the walls silently.
“Hey,” Notch called up and James looked down at him, “Mind if we talk?”
James hesitated for a moment and then replied, “Sure, come up here.” He pointed to a ladder.
Notch climbed up the ladder and headed over to James. James was holding a bow and arrow. He let an arrow fly and it lodged into a spider. Notch could see a group of them forming at the edge of the forest.
“It’s worrisome,” James said, “They seem to be making groups. I’ve never seen them behaving like this before.”
“Me either.”
“Not to blame you, mate, but they showed up when you did.”
Notch shrugged, “No idea.”
James slid another arrow into his bow and glanced at him, “No idea? Is that why you were looking up information on Herobrine?”
“How do you know it was about Herobrine? Could be about any temple.”
James shrugged, “Maybe,” He let another arrow fly through the air, “But I could just tell by the books you had sitting in front of you. This town is the closest connection to the lost temple. We get some travelers once and a while looking up information about it.”
“You help them too?”
“No.” James said simply.
They fell into silence and Notch watched James take out another two spiders. He was waiting to see if he would speak next but he was silent. Notch decided to talk first.
“So. Temple of Herobrine. You know anything else?”
“Depends on what you want to know.”
Notch fell silent for a second, thinking and then spoke, “Why did you help me?”
“You showed up and so did the spiders. I figured they are connected.”
Notch felt slightly uncomfortable that James had picked up on the spider connection already, “What do you know about Herobrine?”
“Just what the books say.”
Notch felt a ping of annoyance that James was being evasive, “All I’ve read is Herobrine saved villages so much the temple was put in his name. Then everyone vanished. But the book you led me to said that Herobrine organized the attacks.”
“That’s right.”
Notch was getting frustrated, “So is it true?”
James fired another arrow and looked at him, “Notch, what are you trying to accomplish?”
“Just trying to find the truth.”
“The truth? No one knows the truth about Herobrine. What I can tell you is what I believe.”
“Which is?”
“I believe Herobrine organized the attacks on the villages. It made him look good. Great, really. They honored him with the temple. Jewels. Gems. I don’t know how everyone vanished but I think he had something to do with it.”
“Why would Herobrine make everyone vanish?”
“I don’t know. Listen, Notch, I’m not asking you to tell me why you and Herobrine are connected,” He raised his hand when Notch tried to protest, “I know, Notch. Listen, you brought something to this town. Possibly to other towns. You can tell me on your own time. But I’m guessing you need to figure out exactly what Herobrine did and what happened to everyone.”
Notch weighed his options. He didn’t want to drag James into his problems. But James seemed to know most of them already. And he wasn’t going to ask James for why he knew so much about Herobrine either.
“Fine,” Notch said, “What do we do?”
James fired another arrow, clearing out yet another spider, “I know where Herobrine was born.”
“Where?”
“Matterhorn, up in the mountains, farther up than even us.” James said, pointing up to a higher point in the mountains.
Notch looked up at the mountains, his heart falling a little. It was a long way up and the journey would be dangerous.
“I’ll come with you.” James said.
“Really?” He replied, surprised.
James lowered his bow and arrow, “Yes. We both have our own reasons for this. But we may as well travel together to get to the bottom of it.”
“Okay,” Notch agreed, “We’ll set out tomorrow.”
James nodded in agreement.