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pocket-sized-nightmare · 1 year ago

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my second entry for @mcyt-yuri-week!

prompt: post-canon

ship: nature wives (shelby/katherine), post-witchcraft smp!

There’s so much that’s changed since Empires, but the one thing that will always stay constant is the inordinate amount of blaze powder Shelby goes through in a month.

She has a new blaze farm now, far away from the Evermoore. It’s bigger and fancier, but unfortunately, it’s also a bit farther from her new house. Shelby usually goes alone, but Katherine insisted on coming along today. (She says it’s just to protect her partner, but Shelby is convinced she wants to test out her new battleaxe on some monsters.)

They hold hands as they walk across the nether wastes, and Shelby rambles about something new she’s learned. “I have to be really careful tomorrow. I don’t know if it’s totally true, but Cleo told me something back during the witch trials about penumbras messing with weather magic. I think it’s something about the shape of the shadows–”

“Penumbras?”

“Those weird shadows from a partial eclipse. There’s supposed to be one tomorrow.”

“Oh, no way!” Katherine gasps. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.”

“We should have a midnight picnic!” Shelby realizes. She stims with excitement for a moment, then scribbles the idea down on a crumpled piece of paper in her pocket.

To her surprise, when she puts the paper away and turns around, there’s a child in front of her mimicking her stims.

“Oh, hello!” Katherine says. The girl turns and runs away, then peeks out shyly from behind a boulder of netherrack. She’s clearly an Origin – not quite human, but not quite a full mob, either. Her hair is pink with a large white streak, and she’s short and chubby. Judging by her upturned nose and the sharp, fang-like teeth that show in her wide grin, she’s probably a piglin hybrid. She looks to be about nine or ten years old, and she clearly isn’t used to being around other people. Shelby notices the way the piglin nervously fidgets with her hair every time she sees Shelby or Katherine’s expression change, while Katherine realizes that her clothes are singed and ripped in ways that indicate she hasn’t been taken care of in years.

“Hold on a second,” Katherine says. She takes something out of her inventory and walks over to the girl. As Shelby watches from farther up the path, Katherine hands the piglin a tiny golden star charm from a necklace she’s been making. “This is for you!”

The piglin takes the charm and stares at it, moving it around to watch the way it catches the light. She smiles brightly. Katherine is about to walk away when she notices the piglin brush her tangled pink hair out of her eyes for what seems like the fifteenth time that minute. She reaches into her inventory and notices the two pink hair ties she keeps around for emergencies. “Hey, do you want me to tie your hair back? It’ll keep it out of your eyes.”

The piglin cautiously nods and sits down in front of Katherine. She takes out the hair ties and gently styles the girl’s hair into two pigtails. “There. Much better, right?”

The piglin makes a few happy squeaking sounds, squeezes Katherine’s hand gratefully, and scampers away. Katherine laughs as she walks back over to Shelby.

“Aw, you’re so good at that,” Shelby says. “She’s so sweet. I hope that little sprout’s okay.”

“Little sprout?” Katherine asks. “That’s adorable.”

“That’s what my grandma used to call me when I was a kid,” Shelby says with a sentimental smile.

They walk for a few more minutes before Shelby notices something wrong. “Whoa, stop!” She grabs Katherine by the arm and pulls her back.

“What happened?” Katherine looks around, then notices the source of Shelby’s concern. The ground below her is mostly netherrack, but she nearly stepped onto a large patch of gravel – gravel with nothing below it. “Oh, void. Thanks.”

“Anytime.” Shelby smiles and wraps an arm around Katherine. Katherine leans into her and rests her head atop Shelby’s.

“You’d think we’d be better at this whole Nether exploration thing by now,” Katherine chuckles. Shelby grins and elbows Katherine playfully. “Hey, speak for yourself. I’m great at this–” Katherine holds out an arm to stop Shelby from falling into a shallow pit.

Shelby puts her head in her hands, then rests her head against Katherine’s shoulder, laughing all the while. “What are we even doing today?” Katherine asks.

“Not well. We are not doing well.” Shelby picks up a piece of glowstone from the ground and studies it, then hands it to Katherine. “Here. A good-luck charm.”

“Why, thank you!” Katherine says in a jokingly formal tone, then takes a flower out of her pocket and tucks it behind Shelby’s ear. “And one for you, too.”

“Why, thank you!” Shelby says with a curtsy.

They giggle together, then keep walking towards the blaze spawner. From out of the corner of Katherine’s eye, she sees a small blur of movement.

“Oh, hey!” Katherine grins and points to the other side of the path. The girl they saw before is back, hopping across the netherrack to collect tiny pieces of glowstone. She sees Shelby and Katherine and beams with excitement.

“Hi, kiddo!” Shelby calls. The piglin waves, thinks for a moment, then leaps forward and does a cartwheel for her new friends.

Katherine laughs and nudges Shelby. “Aw, she’s got so much energy. Reminds me of you.” Shelby giggles.

Across the path, the piglin notices the gravel floor that Katherine nearly stepped on earlier.

Shelby panics, grabs Katherine’s arm, and calls out to the girl. “Hey, little sprout, that isn’t stable–”

It’s too late. The tiny piglin girl joyfully dashes out onto the patch of floating gravel and digs her feet into it. As she kicks up tiny rocks, she realizes just a moment too late what she’s done as her feet sink through it.

“No!” Katherine shrieks as she watches the gravel give way and fall towards the lava below, taking the piglin with it.

The piglin manages to catch herself on a ledge and tries desperately to grip the netherrack and catch herself. Her nails dig into the cliff for a moment, but she isn’t strong enough to stop her fall. She slips off the ledge and falls into the ocean of lava with an awful squeak of terror.

Shelby and Katherine race to the edge of the cliff and look over it. There’s a terrifying moment where they both think she’s dead, but her head finally peeks out of the lava as she struggles to swim and reach the netherrack shore.

The second Shelby sees that the piglin is alive, she impulsively jumps into action. She takes out a fire resistance potion with one hand and grabs her broom with the other. Before Katherine can react, Shelby takes flight and dives towards the lava herself. “Be careful!” Katherine calls after her as she drops downwards.

The tiny piglin is putting up a good fight to survive. Shelby knows piglin hybrids can survive in lava for extended periods of time, but that doesn’t mean they’re immune to it. The girl is covered in burns, and she’s crying, but she’s alive, and her eyes light up when she sees Shelby come closer on her broom.

Shelby’s feet dip into the lava (thank goodness for fire resistance potions) as she comes close enough to reach her new friend. “I’ve got you! It’s gonna be okay!” She holds out her hand to the piglin, but she can tell from how stiff the girl’s grip is that her hands are burned too badly to hold onto anything.

Shelby takes a deep breath and murmurs a silent wish of please don’t let my broom catch on fire, then dips deeper into the lava to scoop up the tiny piglin herself.

The child goes limp in her arms as Shelby picks her up, but her heavy breathing makes it clear that she’s still alive. Shelby holds her closer and tries to untangle some of her singed pink hair. “Hold on, all right? My partner and I are gonna help you.”

Shelby’s used to flying fast and making sharp movements, but she does her best to work against her instincts and give her new friend a gentle ride. She still reaches the top of the cliff with ease and comes to a just-slightly-too-sharp stop at the top. Katherine reaches out and gently takes the piglin from Shelby’s arms. “She’s burning up.”

“You’d be hot too if you just came out of a lava lake.” Shelby flicks a few remaining drops of lava off her boots to prove her point. “Can you help?”

“On it.” Katherine gently lays the piglin down on the netherrack, then scans through her inventory and finds a small red shulker box with “first-aid kit” written in cursive handwriting. She turns back to the girl and says in a soft voice, “It’s okay. I have to patch myself up when I get hurt all the time. And don’t even get me started on her.” She points to Shelby, who laughs. The girl giggles a bit, too.

Katherine takes out a few things from the kit. “Okay. I’m gonna put some magma cream on your burns first, all right? It might hurt a little bit, but it’s gonna help them heal faster.”

The piglin nods. Katherine takes a few dollops of magma cream and rubs them into the red, burned patches of the girl’s skin. She winces and squeaks as the touch stings, but she slowly relaxes as her burned skin slowly fades back to its normal pale pink.

“There. That feels nice, doesn’t it?” Katherine ruffles the piglin’s hair. “Okay, I have some potions for you now.”

The girl sticks out her tongue and shakes her head. Katherine bursts out laughing. “I know, little one. Potions taste bad sometimes. But Shelby makes really, really good ones. Like this one–” she takes out a level two healing potion– “tastes like watermelon and lemonade.”

The piglin takes the potion suspiciously, uncorks it, and takes a tiny sip. A grin spreads across her face as she drinks the rest of the bottle in seconds.

“See? Told you it was good. You can have this one, too. It’s strawberry- and mint-flavored, and it’ll help you heal even more!” Katherine takes out a level two regeneration potion, and the piglin happily drinks it. She squeaks happily and curls up against Katherine as the potions take effect. Katherine gently hugs her back. Shelby sits down next to them, and the girl leaps into her arms for an even tighter hug.

“What’s your name, little sprout?” Shelby laughs as she ruffles the piglin’s hair. The girl stops smiling.

“Can you talk?” Shelby asks softly. The girl shakes her head, thinks for a moment, then tilts her head sideways to indicate kind of.

“Sometimes, but not right now?”

The piglin nods. Shelby holds out her communicator so the piglin can type instead.

no name

“Did you ever have one?” Katherine asks.

not sure

i’ve lived here forever and ever

i think i had a name once but then everyone left

and so now i have no name

“Would you like a name?” Shelby asks. “I think I’m okay at naming things. I know a lot of magical weather and space things, if you want something like that.”

what’s weather?

Shelby freezes. “Oh, right, you’ve lived here forever. In the Overworld, we have a big, warm sun that shines over everything and helps green plants grow. And sometimes fluffy clouds cover the sky, and water falls down. That’s called rain. And at night, we have a moon that glows and a bunch of bright stars in the sky. You haven’t even seen the sky…”

i like the moon

and the sun

they sound pretty

“What was the thing you were telling me about?” Katherine asks. “The weird shadow when there’s an eclipse? That’s the moon and the sun at the same time.”

“That’s called a penumbra,” Shelby remembers, and the piglin nods and jumps up and down.

pretty!!!

“Do you want that name?” Shelby asks. Penumbra nods happily.

“And we can call you Penny, if you want!” Katherine adds. Penny hugs Katherine tighter than she’s ever been hugged before.

Shelby joins the hug. “Aww. It’s nice to meet you, Penny.”

Penny stays wrapped in their arms for a minute. As they hug Penny tighter, Shelby hears the piglin take a deep breath and murmur, “Let me stay?”

“What?” Shelby asks.

“Stay with you. Go home.”

Katherine and Shelby look at each other with the same expression of hope and love in their eyes.

“Of course,” Katherine whispers as Shelby scoops up her newfound family member and puts her on her shoulders. “Let’s go home.”

In the end, Shelby thinks as she steps back through the Nether portal with a smile on her face and a tiny piglin on her shoulders, this was always how it was going to turn out, wasn’t it? At the start of Empires, she and Katherine were just lost kids looking for acceptance. It’s been eleven years since then. They’ve found each other, they’ve found a family, and they’ve found a world that believes in them.

It’s their turn to show that same love to someone else.

#mcytyuriweek2023 #nature wives #i love them okay #pixel writes

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