Chapter 4: Enderly

Kaico had strange dreams. She had felt a hard pain, but then it had cooled away from her. She was on something soft, it was not her bed. Vuaghly it occurred to her that her mother would be mad if she came home covered in grass and dirt. But she could not seem to get to her feet. She thought she heard someone coming, she wondered if it was one of her brothers, either Tanner or Lucas would be best, both of them were fairly nice to her. She hoped it wouldn't be the younger ones, Asher or Kaden. They liked to pull her hair and steal her stuff, Kaden was only a bit older then her, but that didn't seem to matter.

Whoever it was they had stopped walking, for some reason Kaico could not see. She tried to stretch, to open her eyes. Finally, there was lovely darkness.

When Kaico stirred again she was in a cold damp place. The side of her face was pressed against something smooth and hard. She opened an eye and groaned slightly. How long had she been sleeping? Her head ached when she tried to move. She closed her eyes again and slipped off into sleep.

When she awoke later she opened her eyes and felt less pain. Slowly she turned over and saw darkness. Was it nighttime?

No, she decided, it couldn't be, and she wasn't on the grass. Rather it was some sort of stone. Slowly she pieced it together, she must be in a cave.

Why was she in a cave?

That was when she heard a familiar sound. It was a quiet woosh.

The Ender came to her side and stood there. She saw just its black feet. Then she felt a very light tap on her side.

"I'm awake," she murmured. She hoped it could hear her.

It disappeared again, this time Kaico pulled herself into a sitting position. She was sore all over, the creeper blast had done a lot of damage to her health. She had never been this damaged before.

Strangely she found a healing potion resting at her side. She picked it up and swigged it. It tasted lovely and sweet.

She frowned when she thought of what her brothers might say. Healing potions had a habit of causing overexcitement. Once her brothers had consumed a bunch of them. That was the only time she had ever seen Lucas really laugh. They hadn't let her have any, and that turned out to be a good thing because our parents caught them shortly after.

They lugged stone for weeks.

Some of that stone was probably in my house.

A giggle escaped her mouth, then several more. She was laughing and laughing, she could not stop.

That was when the Ender came back. When Kaico saw it she started to laugh harder. It seemed taken aback. It had been carrying a melon for her, it left it down on the floor and backed up.

"Thank you," she giggled. Then clapped a hand to her mouth. "I'm being pretty silly I guess." She shook her head, then realized that her voice would have been muffled by her hand. That sent her into another round of intense giggles.

The whole time the Ender watched with interest and confusion.

"You know," Kaico said, "my dad wouldn't have liked me spending time with you, but I think you're actually quite nice." She said she had stopped giggling and now was staring up at the ceiling. "The only thing is, you saved my life, and I don't even know your name!"

She watched as the Ender stared at her even more blankly.

"Do you have a name?" She asked. She waited, but it said nothing in return. "Everyone needs a name," she broke off giggling, "I will have to give you one, I guess!" She thought for a moment and then exclaimed, "Enderly. What do you think of that?"

The Ender stared at her and inclined its head.

"Enderly," she repeated. "Ender-lee. You know, like Ender, which is what you are, with Lee at the end. Enderly." Then she started laughing again realizing how funny what she had said was.

Enderly lived in the End, or at least they were supposed to.

Kaico normally would not be so rude or nosey. unfortunately, that was the effect of the potion. "How come you aren't in the End. That's where you guys live, isn't it?"

The Ender suddenly seemed to droop slightly.

"Oh, I didn't mean to make you sad." She said, she felt kind of bad now, "this cave is nice too, very, hm, cavey."

Then she moved to gobble down the melon. But before she ate the whole thing, somewhat lamely she held out a piece to Enderly, even though Ender's didn't eat melons. They came closer to her. Which made her smile.