Enderman and Wolfy

I keep batting around two Minecraft OCs in my inky lil noggin, but no plot has come up yet to give them something to do. So I made a oneshot instead. And I'm posting it here, because why not

Posted in games because I wasn't sure if the Writing gang would drag me to Hell over spam.

CW: blood and death

He had a hard time stealing from older mobs at the best of times. Sitting here, crouched in the underbrush with three other bandits flanking a taller, bulkier fourth; he could just make out the semi-translucent glaze over the creature's pink eyes and felt a rock jamming in his throat.

The Enderman was alone. It was older, about fifty judging by the grey in its thin hair. And it was starting to go blind.

Fenrir turned slightly to look at his fellows. The ocelot's green eyes were shining with greed, no doubt eyeing the golden bars barely concealed within the broken latch of the donkey's saddlechests. A rusty wolf was running her tongue over her teeth, ears twitching with every crackle of the fire as it roasted a full chicken. A young cat stared down the horse–she's always wanted to steal a horse, Fenrir recalled–and their leader, a boar, was impatiently waiting for...Something.

"Remember," the boar had whispered to the group moments before arriving at the small camp. "He may be blind, but he's an Enderman. These guys are a bitch to bring down in solid armour. So if he catches a hint of us, we're toast."

"What's the plan?" The cat asked, her hushed voice soothing Fenrir's worried ears.

The boar was silent for a moment, deep in thought. "May, you're in charge of the gold. Lem, get into his tent and see what you can find. Rouge, you've got the horses. Fenrir and I will keep watch in case the Enderman catches on to us."

May nodded, her flicking tail giving away her excitement. Lem kept his cool and stilled his own tail. Rouge gave May a teasing smirk, making the cat pin her ears back briefly. Fenrir swallowed hard and tightened his grip on the (stolen) enchanted iron sword at his side.

The group waited until the Enderman was eating his supper, then they moved out. The horse and donkey immediately took heed until May gently soothed them. She spoke softly to them, her words muted for all but the equines as she carefully pushed one of the saddlechests open and picked up golden bars one by one to stash them away into her bag. Rouge carefully untied the horse and led it away, its diamond armour glinting a strange green colour in the firelight. The Enderman seemed to be oblivious, tearing the chicken apart with long fangs.

Fenrir stared at the fangs and shuddered, pulling his eyes up to watch Lem instead. He had delicately stepped inside the tent and was slowly opening one of the chests up. He watched him reach his hand in and pull out a clump of something glimmering a light blue. Diamonds.

Golden bars, clumps of diamonds...Either this Enderman was a really good scammer or he was quite the miner back in the day.

The robbery was going well, excruciatingly slow movements be damned. Rouge had the horse back with Fenrir and the leader in a matter of moments, grinning with excitement as she undid the straps fastening the diamond armour to its hide. Lem had cleared the first chest of anything of interest and was moving on to what looked like an Ender Chest. Among all the bustle, the Enderman hadn't so much as twitched an ear. 'Is he deaf, too?'

He got his answer when May sent the donkey off with a slap to the flank. She hadn't timed it right, and it came just after a loud crack of the fire.

The Enderman's head shot up and he went still.

The donkey plodding away sounded deafening. None of the bandits dared to breathe, Lem frozen in the act of closing the chest. The group watched in cold fear as the Enderman's nose twitched, ears flicked and tail lashed once, twice, three times.

"I know you're here."

Fenrir glanced at the boar, who looked nervous. Rouge clamped her muzzle shut to stop a worried whine from escaping.

The Enderman slowly got to his feet, pulling a long iron ax up beside him.

"I know you're here," he repeated. "What're you after?"

"Mack, don't!" Rouge hissed when the boar stood up.

The Enderman's head snapped towards the three when Mack stepped out from the underbrush. Despite their confident stance, they were shaking.

"I want your eyes," they said coldly.

"Really." The Enderman's amused smile showed his fangs, making Mack's legs lock up. "You and who else, hm? I counted three pairs of feet."

Rouge sucked in a breath. One of her hands landed on Fenrir's shoulder and gripped it tightly. 'He already knows about her.'

"You're quite sophisticated for a boar," The Enderman went on. "I thought you dumb animals were still that: dumb and animals."

"And I thought you were all eradicated," Mack shot back, standing tall. "Yet here we are. And you speak Common, too! What a surprise!"

"I've been here longer than you've been alive." The Enderman shifted his grip on the ax. "And I'll still be here long after you've died."

"We'll see how long you'll be here yet. Actually, I'll see. Since in a moment, you won't even be able to feel!"

Mack pulled a splash potion bottle out of their bag and threw it at the Enderman's feet. A static-y sound filled the air as the Enderman stumbled back and fell on his own fire.

"Lem, get out of there!" Rouge shouted, hasty re-doing the horse's armour straps and climbing on. "Go go go!"

Lem bolted from the tent and ran towards them, but he wasn't fast enough. The Enderman clawed into his leg and was on top of him faster than he could scream for help. Blood sprayed and Lem let out a choked gurgle as the Enderman sank his teeth into his throat.

"By the moon!" May yelped, close to tears. "Lemmington!!"

The Enderman fought his way back to his feet, leaving Lem's twitching body. Mack bashed his back with the butt of her sword and easily blocked his retaliating ax swing. The other two joined the fray; May drawing a small knife, Rouge drawing her bow and arrow. Fenrir crouched frozen, unsure of what to do.

He was never close to Lem, but May saw him as an older brother. But he was dead by now. But Mack wanted everyone to fight as a team. But they were ganging up on an older Enderman who now had the effects of a Blindness potion on top of his already milky eyes. But he was holding his own pretty well against them, nearly taking Mack's head off before May jumped on his back. But he had a good reason to be fighting them.

Fenrir sat caught in the middle until Rouge's horse threw her and charged into battle, shoving Mack to the ground and trying to stomp them into the grass. It was a warhorse trained to attack, and it seemed to be fighting to defend as he heard no command coming from the Enderman. A horse defending of its own free will had to mean something good for the Enderman.

The clatter of a skeleton caught his ear, and he made up his mind.

"There's a skeleton!" He called as he ran past Rouge, who was getting back on her feet. "I'm gonna make sure it doesn't make our job harder!"

"Hurry, Fenrir!" Rouge snapped. "We need you!"

Killing the skeleton was easy, it went down with two swings of his enchanted blade. He picked up the bow and arrows it had dropped–no, arrow. It'd only dropped one arrow. Which meant he had one shot at what he was going to do.

Rushing back to the scene, Fenrir veered away from the hiding spot and scaled a tree instead. He had a good view of the battle, of the horse chasing May around, of Mack trying to force the Enderman back into his own fire while the Enderman kept bashing them away. His movements were getting sluggish and he was bleeding dark pink from several slash wounds. Fenrir had to choose now.

With shaking hands, he raised his bow and aimed. The string broke as soon as he let go and for a moment he feared the arrow was just going to land in the dirt, yet thankfully it had the momentum and speed to jam through Mack's neck.

The boar squealed, stumbled away, pawed at the arrow and fought to cry for help. May took the distraction to bolt free of the warhorse's stampede as Fenrir scrambled down the tree, ran back to the skeleton corpse, dropped the bow and ran back to the group with his sword in hand.

"You're too late," Rouge said when he arrived with them. "Another skeleton took out Mack."

"So what now?" Fenrir asked.

Rouge turned to the Enderman, who was soothing his warhorse and smiling as it pushed its nose against his shoulder. With his height, Enderman and horse stood practically face-to-face. 'What does he even need a horse for?'

"We can try to take him on again." Rouge shrugged. "Or we can cut our losses and go back. May, do you still have the gold?"

"In my pack."

"Perfect. Then it wasn't a total failure."

The trio left, Rouge putting an arm around May's shoulder when the grief of losing Lem hit her again. Unbeknownst to them, the Enderman had finally calmed the warhorse and turned to the corpse of Mack.

He pulled the arrow free from their neck, pausing when he caught a scent of earthy wolf. The same earthy wolf he thought he'd smelled beyond the bushes.

'One of them saved me,' he thought, tossing the arrow into the fire. 'But why?'