21.

><>2nd person POV<><

::: Previously: You managed to slip half of your special potion/poison into Notch's drink, meaning that it will take twice as long for the immortal to finally be claimed as dead. Nonetheless, so far your potion has worked, with Notch slumped over in his chair.. already in a state of deep sleep. :::

"Who could have done this?!"

"What happened?!"

"Where is the medic?!"

"Call in the guards!"

"Lock down the castle!! No one can go either in or out!"

"Someone explain to me what is even going on!"

There were shouts from pretty much everyone in the castle. Even you blend in my breathing too fast and pacing around in a panic. You need to escape before the castle goes into official lock-down. If that happens, you will be caught for sure! Quickly, you run out of the room, making it look like you are going to get something as much as possible. Once in the silence of the distant hallway, you slip the maid's outfit off of you and run to the window you entered through. It is just a little bigger than the majority of the windows, so quite a tight squeeze, but luckily you are small.

Once you have climbed your daw down safely into the ground, you hear a small whistle, and see Carter has perfectly hidden himself and the horse from a first glance look. You smile slightly, nearly out of trouble, and run over to the treeline as quickly as humanly possible, your special energy helping you run a little quicker than even that.

But, you are far from safe just yet. For just outside the window, the gentleman from before spots you running, putting things together in his head... He needs this deal with Notch, so the other Immortals will follow along as well.. Maybe this is how he gets it.

><><>Several Magically Boring Hours Later<><><

Carter is fast asleep on the back of his horse, Prince, while you and your mare guide the two forwards. There can't be any delay as you two travel further north to reach the antidote for that potion. Surprise surprise, it is a flower. One that only grows in a single flower patch in the entire world. You had made sure a long time ago to take note of the antidote's location, as well as the ingredients'. It is a long way to go, but with such a large head start, you doubt anyone will reach it before you. It should take them at least a day just to figure out what kind of poison it was, since the recipe was something you yourself had come up with nearly a couple hundred years ago, and only shared it with one other person, who had promised to keep it a secret. So, you should be in the clear when it comes to competition. The only problem is.. someone might intentionally follow you, knowing you are going to defend the antidote. If so, then that is very smart of them, however, they better have the fastest reflexes in the world if they want to go up against you and your newly crafted bow and arrows.

Night finally sets in and you and Carter both decide that keeping up the same pace is a smart idea, so you lay down on your own horse and fall asleep. Carter takes charge for several hours, until there is a sound unlike a zombie, skeleton, spider, or even enderman. A human. Playing it casual, Carter slows Prince down until both your horses are side-by-side, and he gently pokes your shoulder.

"Pss.. Cody- I- I mean Andrea... I think we have a follower." You wake up groggily, rubbing your eyes and yawning before fully processing what Carter said. Once you do, you fall silent, leaning over your horse silently, even though you now have a pretty sore back for sleeping on the horse. Carter does the same, crouching down. You slowly draw your bow, and Carter draws an old iron sword. There are a few more rustling noises, and the sound of a horse breathing heavily after running fast for so long. Someone must have followed you. They are trying to be sneaky, but it doesn't work like that when it comes to you. Only you get to be sneaky!

Vvv'd Twang!

With the speed of a bullet you fire an arrow into the assumed bushes your follower is hiding behind. Immediately you hear someone yell in pain, desperately trying to muffle their own voice, but their horse completely gives it away by running out into the small clearing you and Carter are currently in. The horse is uncontrollable as it attempts to buck away invisible threats, until eventually it's rider clumsily slips off, and the horse runs back into the forest for fear of the sound he made while hitting the ground. This was obviously not a skilled rider, nor a good horse to take on trips like these. You jump down from your horse to meet the man crumpled on the floor and Carter does the same.

"Why are you here?!" You snap at the man, aiming your bow at his head as he lay there, breathing painful breaths between clenched teeth as he holds his bleeding left arm, still curled up in a pitiful ball. He must have never been hit by an arrow either. It is a little hard to see in the darkness of the night, but the moonlight shines enough so you can see a hint of red in his hair, and pretty well made clothes on him. He must be that same gentleman from before!

"Yh- yhhh.. po-iz-nd- - king!... Wh whh.. whyyy?" The injured man squeezed out of his lungs, right before passing out of the pain. Wow, he must never get injured like that! You sigh, knowing this man's heart is pure. You can't just leave him like this.

"Hhhh, I guess we will be camping for the night. You set up a fire. I'll patch him up." You tell Carter, mostly just tiredness in your solid voice.

"I dunno. Maybe he should see a doctor. That arrow looks pretty deep." Carter examines the injury from where he stands.

"Two things. There isn't a town within miles, and two: I have been handling my own wounds for generations. I even taught a bunch of people how to probably wrap an injury.. I think I've got this." You say. You also smile a little. It is fun having someone you can openly talk about your vast past with.

Carter began by gathering sticks and you search your horse's bag for medical equipment. Luckily, you had some, and by the time you came back to help the injured man, speedy Carter already has a fire going. He helps you grab a log you can set the 'patient' on and together you do just that.

Once he is on the log, you take off his tight, and not helpful, fancy top; there is only a long sleeve, white button-up shirt under it. It isn't cold outside, so you decide to take that one off as well, instead of leaving it on and having to tare one of the sleeves. At least this way he can use the shirt again.. After all the blood is cleaned off of course. You remember countless times you have had to treat both yourself and others as you naturally set everything up nice and neat, how you always used to set it all up. And, you get to work right away, carefully pulling out the arrow, using a bottle of water to make a cloth wet, using the cloth to clean the cut, grabbing a potion of healing and dripping a bit of that on there, and finally, sewing up the wound a little since the potion isn't that strong. And finally, after one last dabbing of the cloth on his arm, you let it dry before wrapping it up snugly.

"Heh, nice job." Carter takes notice of your handy work once you are done as he sits in front of the fire on another log. He a strong boi now!

"Thanks." You get up and sit next to him.

"So, what should we do with him once he wakes up?" Carter asks, looking at the shirtless redhead lying on the other log.

"I heard him speaking with Notch earlier. He wasn't necessarily on his side, so he must be trying to earn Notch's favor by finding the antidote. If I can somehow explain to him how the higher immortals are only going to end up destroying everything as a cause of war, then he might join us, and become a very valuable ally. Because, I am not here just to kill them, but to make sure the humans- you and your people, are able to live peacefully, which seems to be his goal too; and he clearly knows a lot about the government of this world: knowledge which I am lacking." You explain. As much as you try, you can't help but slip out a few smart sounding words and phrases in your tired state. Something random, but you tend to talk smarter when tired... or sometimes the other way around.

"So, we just wait, then?.." Carter asks another question. You sigh a little, looking up into the sky to see millions of stars.

"It won't be long. He should be up by morning. As for us, we should probably go to sleep too." You suggest as you keep your eyes on the heavens. Carter looks up too for a brief moment, a quick sigh from him tells you that he too remembers the time when you and him spoke so long ago, back when you were Cody, and you both just watched the stars silently. After that brief sigh, Carter stands up and grabs a sleeping bag, lays it down, and crawls inside of it.

You just listen to the silence of the night, the crackling of the fire, and smell the gentle breeze as it blows the scent of both trees and animals past you. You smile slightly. This, is what you have been fighting for. You look down once again at the two asleep men as they rest without a care in the world. A distant rabbit catches your attention, and you watch as it dances alongside another in the moonlight. A bat briskly flutters over the trees in the distance. Yes, this is what you will continue to fight for... Life.