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It’s been a long time since Branzy felt warm.
It isn’t that he’s always run cold- he certainly hasn’t. There was a time, once, before the incident, when he was as alive as anyone else, with wild brown hair, the shade of windswept branches, and bright honey-colored eyes that darted around like dragonflies, never staying in one spot.
He isn’t sure he was quite so alive anymore, his color drained out of him and some irreplaceable part of him stolen. That lively, young, full-of-life Branzy is gone, replaced with a Branzy that’s too cautious, too cold, and too changed.
It had been one mistake, one casual slip-up. Just a tiny bit more caution and it never would have happened, but of course Branzy hadn’t been nearly as cautious then.
It had begun when Branzy had foolishly thought he could take on an Ender Dragon, a challenge he’d never again think he could conquer.
He stepped onto the cold, unfriendly stone of the End island with naive confidence. He’d prepared for weeks for this fight, gathering diamonds by day and fighting monsters by night until he was fully geared out and sure of his fighting skills (it hadn’t mattered, really. The enemy that had defeated him hadn’t been one you could simply fight).
Sunflower yellow eyes stared determinedly out from underneath the shining blue diamond of an enchanted helmet. The Ender Dragon didn’t stand a chance against Branzy, the brave warrior!
It was then that he realized the first mistake he’d made. He’d forgotten to bring a pumpkin head- which meant dealing with Endermen.
Yay, him!
He made his way towards the closest pillar, eyes locked on the ground. Fighting the dragon would be hard enough without aggravating Endermen (of course, he should have known he wouldn’t be able to avoid them forever. But he’d assumed he’d be fine- yet another mistake he’d never again dare to make).
Branzy pulled out a bow and nocked a lovingly handcrafted arrow to the string, glancing up to aim (despite the enderman risk that looking up created, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to try shooting blind- that would definitely turn out well).
The arrow hit the crystal with a loud explosion and Branzy allowed himself a small moment of celebration. Take that, all you people who’d called him a bad fighter! Branzy could fight anything!
The dragon roared angrily at the destruction. She probably wasn’t too happy about it. For a moment, Branzy nearly felt bad for trying to kill her, a living creature like him.
But his hesitation was only momentary, of course. Then it was back to running around destroying crystals with no remorse.
He raced across the freezing stone, the motion warming his body. The intense heat of adrenaline set fire to his nerves and he barely noticed how cold the air around him was.
Branzy shut one eye as he carefully raised his bow to aim for the tiny opening in the corner of the second crystal’s cage. This was the shot he’d practiced for, perfecting his aim for this one moment.
And he did it .
The arrow flew straight up through the small gap and an instant later, purple fire flared atop the pillar and chunks of iron were raining down on him from the explosion. The dragon screamed again. Did the destruction hurt her, even if she wasn’t actively healing from the crystal?
Branzy didn’t have the time to wonder about that. But he could test that later. A fun and probably deadly experiment for him, perfect!
Angry purple eyes turned towards him and he grinned sheepishly. “Hi, Mrs Dragon, don’t mind me over here-”
She was unamused. He hadn’t expected her to listen- he doubted she understood him.
Branzy dashed towards the next tower as she dove towards him. To his great relief, he narrowly avoided being ripped apart by a furious dragon-
Only to look up into glowing purple eyes that widened when his gaze met them, a mangled screech reaching Branzy’s ears.
Ah. Well. That wasn’t ideal.
“Hello, good sir, I’m sure we can work something out-” Branzy chuckled nervously. The enderman simply kept trembling furiously, enraged. Really quite an overreaction, in Branzy’s opinion.
His eyes darted absently to someplace beyond the Enderman, attention caught by some stray movement that was hardly important now.
And that was all it took.
The enderman’s long arms smacked him backwards, right into the oncoming dragon, who threw him high into the air with a triumphant shove of her head, having beaten the tricksy little creature that thought himself able to defeat her .
Branzy screamed instinctively- he was definitely not meant to be falling through the air like this. The dragon roared in victory- but Branzy wasn’t dead yet! He still had a water bucket on- him-
He looked down-
Straight into empty void.
Oh. Never mind. He was dead.
He continued screaming, cold air rushing into his open mouth. Hungry whispers came from the nothingness below, the murmuring of some great force that lurked below the islands, ready to snap up anything that came too near.
He was falling. The end island slowly vanished from view, replaced by the same darkness that surrounded him now.
And then he was falling.
Falling.
Falling.
Why wasn’t he dead yet?
Falling.
Falling.
Falling.
Pain.
His skin pricked agonizingly as freezing tendrils of Void grasped his body like unwanted hands grabbing at him, or swords of ice stabbing into him. Either one, really. Or both at the same time.
Branzy closed his eyes and s c r e a m e d .
It felt like his life was being sucked right out of him, his body withering . He was being skewered, limbs torn apart while he was still alive, and that wasn’t to mention he was freezing , dunked in an icy lake in the middle of winter.
He wasn’t granted the mercy of passing out, conscious and screaming the whole time.
Air, wind, void- Branzy didn’t know anymore- rushed past him as he fell down,
down,
down ,
into the greedy hands of void,
that void that would never
let
him
go.
Finally, mercifully, he was lying on the soft dirt of the Overworld, trembling with leftover pain and cold, and promptly passed out.
The aftereffects had never gone away after that. He’d thought after a few months they might get better, but they never had. It’s been years since Branzy had known what it was like to be warm .
He was a changed man after that. He’s never been quite the same- always too shaky, too afraid of the dark, something too strange hiding in his now-violet eyes. His eyes and his death-white hair are the only physical signs of his transformation, but the Void left its mark in other, more invisible ways, such as the ever-present chill that Branzy can’t shake.
Really, the Void had never truly let him go.
And Branzy doesn’t know if he’ll ever feel warmth again.