Harsh Truth

"I remember now..." he tells her. "What I'm about to say...you might not want to hear it...and it will damage our relationship....if you don't want me to say anything, just tell me now..." She looks into his eyes with her penetrating amber gaze, "I will love you no matter how this goes...just be sure that it's what you need to say..."

He begins to dig through his memories, "I was a new adventurer to this world. I came here to find a fresh start. Other worlds had shunned me for being...abnormal and different from them..." His gaze never faltered, but began to lose intensity, "I had created a little piece of paradise for myself here. a wooden shack in the wilds....It was a lonely life...so I went searching for others....and I found a village...."

Kim's eyes widen in recognition and shock, "No....it can't be..." He continues, "I greeted the people there and they took me in as one of their own. I helped them rebuild and farm, even helped them fight the hordes of monsters. The elder of the village trusted me enough at that time to tell me of the End, the place were all monsters come from..." She adds her part of the story with a slight tremor in her voice, "His name was....Elder Manias, master of architecture.." Tears form in the corners of her eyes that mirrored his own, "I'm sorry...I couldn't save them..."

They held each other close and sobbed with mutual grief. The water rippled in sympathy for the couples pain. Guilt filled Jeff's heart with each strangled cry; guilt from the memory of leading friends to their deaths.

They had trusted him. They had faith in him. And he had killed them.

After each had grieved for as long as they needed, Kim asks Jeff, "How....how did they pass?" Though grieved, guilt filled, and in emotional pain, Jeff tries to get a hold of himself.

He had to honor their memories and tell their stories.

"We used the gift the Elder gave us to find the portal to the End..." Images of the strange, green eye came to his mind. The Eye of Ender the elder had called it. It was meant to guide them to the portal leading to the End but had led them to a fortress. "We fought valiantly...it was minimal resistance...." He breaks eye contact, "Martin Patio...he was the first to fall...skeleton ambush....shot him in the neck...between his iron plating..."

He turns back and resumes eye contact, but it was becoming difficult. She responds by lightly kissing his lips, "You don't have to tell me if it hurts....I don't want to put you in pain..." He smiles at her, "I have to tell you...you deserve to know what happened..."

He masters himself again and continues, "We tried to stop the bleeding but the wound was too severe. He told us to leave him and he asks his brother Lento Patio to take his equipment and honor the family name. I remember the crest on his shoulder pad, a winged pickaxe..." The sight of a heartbroken brother having to watch his sibling die in his arms was something he wish he hadn't seen.

"We continued on....found the portal...it was open when we found it...we hesitated before entering but entered it nonetheless..."
He begins to shake and Kim holds him closer,
"Endermen...everywhere....they got to Lento....we tried to shield him...but they...." Lentos broken body, organs ruptured and ligaments broken. "They had shown no mercy...they just beat him until....until he stopped moving..." His trembling increased, "Then the dragon came....the endermen feared it...ran away...it almost killed Veteran Vossi....but he avoided it like he had done this before...remained calm...told me to climb the nearby obsidian tower and.... and destroy the regeneration crystal..." He remembered the climb. The dragon had tried to knock him into a **** fall several times but Vossi had used his bow to keep it at bay. "I smashed it with my sword....we defeated the dragon with combined bow fire...but as it died, it spoke to me..."

Their eyes meet, "What did it say?" Kim asks.