Young Writers Society

"Fayne," Mal said. "I'm guessing you're not familiar with it?"

The name was completely unfamiliar.

"I've never heard of Fayne before," he said. "The world I come from is called Minecraftia."

The lion blinked. He looked back to find Lasan making an "oh" with his mouth. When Mal raised a nonexistent eyebrow, Lasan shook his head. A story for another time, Mal guessed.

"Yeah, it looks like we're from different worlds," Mal said, turning to Ryder. "So I'm not sure we could teach you."

He nodded. If they were from different worlds, he doubted he'd be able to do something like that. And he doubted that, even if they were from the same world, he could actually heal someone - his magic wasn't meant for that.

"It was a worth a try," he said, gaze returning to the fire.

Mal scooted a little closer to Ryder. Ryder looked like he was a tad disappointed, and Mal couldn't blame him for that. Hopefully Ryder wouldn't mind the company. "It doesn't sound like you have it all that bad," Mal said. "You said something about healing potions? I don't know anything about those, but it sounds like they work."

"They do," Ryder agreed. There had been multiple times where healing potions had saved people's lives, and he almost always had one on him when outside of the base. Even inside the base, it was a useful thing to have - the base's kids were always getting into trouble and needed a little help from time to time.

He leaned back again, though he didn't lie down like he was a few minutes before. His gaze traveled up to the ceiling. "I'm just always on the lookout for new, innovative things."

Mal nodded. "I can get that," he said. "It helps that this place is probably full of stuff like that. Like that fire." He gestured to the blue flames. "How do those even work? I haven't seen a gas fire like that. They usually, uh, burn a lot faster."

He looked over at the fire, studying it for a minute before turning back to Lasan's boyfriend.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "I've never seen anything like it, either. I would guess it had a netherrack bottom, but it doesn't look like it does."

"Netherrack?" Mal said, leaning closer to the fire. "Haven't heard of that. And it just looks like some pipes to me."

"It's-"

He hesitated, suddenly unsure how he was supposed to describe netherrack to someone who didn't know what it was. It was like trying to explain what a sword was.

He thought for a moment.

"Netherrack's from a region called the Nether," he said. "Most people don't go there due to the mobs and it almost always being on fire, but the few that did realized that netherrack can keep fires going for incredibly long lengths of time - I think the current theory is that a fire burning on netherrack will never naturally go out. Ever since then, it's been used as a resource to heat most homes."

He almost added that it was a status of the rich, but stopped when he remembered that was no longer the case.

The lion scrunched his face. "That doesn't make a lot of sense," he said, holding out his paws to feel the warmth of the fire. "How come it never stops burning? It sounds like it just sucks in the magic around it, but even then it'd have to run out eventually."

His comment brought a smile to Ryder's face.

"Something tells me a lot of things from my world wouldn't make sense to you," he said. Netherrack was just the tip of the iceberg that was the Nether; he hadn't even begun talking about anyone that lived there, or the other cool things that could be found there. "The reverse is probably also true - things from your world probably won't make sense to me."

Moving his paws a little closer to the fire, Mal watched as Lasan's tail stretched out to try and push his paws back. "I guess?" he said, fighting a losing battle against the tail. "I don't think we have anything weird as that, but there's probably something I'm forgetting."

"Speaking of forgetting," Lasan said, wrapping his tail around Mal and pulling the lion closer, "How long have we been in here? Because it doesn't sound all that loud outside anymore."

The lion and lizard craned their heads up to stare at the ceiling.

"You're right," Mal said after a few seconds. His ears twitched as he caught the gentle rush of the wind. "The storm might've passed?"

Ryder got to his feet. He didn't have the same sense of hearing that the two had, but it did sound like a quiet, background noise had ceased. It took approaching the stairs again to make sure what they were saying was true - he couldn't hear the same raging storm he heard when standing below it earlier.

"I think it has," Ryder agreed. "I don't hear it anymore."

Mal and Lasan started reaching for the blankets around them when they got the confirmation from Ryder. "Should we get going?" Lasan said, looking back at Ryder. He held out of the drier blankets. "And do you need any blankets of your own? You, uh, didn't look all that comfortable out there."