My Brother's Dog, Collection

Author's Note
...And we're back here again. Yay.

Well, it's been a year (and some days) since I first came upon this website, looking for where all the stories came from; where the ghost stories surrounding one of my beloved games originated.

To celebrate, I'ma just do this. I did think about doing it right after I finished the series (totally not inspired by Green/Frown in any way, shape, or form), but... I held off. So here I am now.

Enjoy.

My Brother's Dog
My brother, Caleb, and I had our first encounter with Minecraft on the X-Box 360. We couldn't build massive structures, we couldn't wire complicated redstone devices, but we could hit stuff. And that's what we did. We were enthralled with the game, mostly because it was so unlike anything we had played previously: games like Call Of Duty, Halo, and all that good stuff.

Our first encounter with a Minecraft "Creepypasta" was a few months after we started, letting us gain some experience before we heard about the being known as "Herobrine". Our cousin, Jesse, was an avid Minecraft fan, and unlike us, could do some pretty amazing stuff. He told us all about Herobrine. Of course, we believed him, and started playing around with the idea that the mysterious Herobrine would come and visit us. And he did... maybe. On one of our cousin's visits, we opened a world, only to find it destroyed. Buildings were rubble, trees split in half, and redstone tunnels everywhere. That world was a dedicated survival world, so we were spooked. Our older brother calmed us, saying it was a harmless prank by Jesse. While that did calm us down a little, it was never really confirmed, which left me guessing.

This is about what came after that.

We were pretty shaken up by the events of the past world, so we made a new world. We wanted to start over.

"Here we go," Caleb said, as we were spawned in the world. This time, we were on a grass plain, with a huge lake over on the right. Animals milled about, and one such sheep was standing on a tree. What made this place especially appealing was the huge, gaping hole on the far end of the field, probably hoarding all sorts of valuable ore.

This was a familiar situation. We both had jobs to do, when we started a new world, and we both knew how to do them. I looked over to Caleb, and nodded, knowing exactly what was going on inside his head. He nodded in reply, and we both went to work. I destroyed all the animals in the immediate vicinity, collecting a whole lot of food; the wool and leather being a welcome bonus. By the time I was finished, the sun was setting, and Caleb had nearly finished up the shelter. I walked over and started cooking the food in the furnace that was inside.

"You're getting a lot more done than usual, Caleb," I said to him. "What's your secret?" I joked.

"Shut up, and hand me that wool. I can make those beds we need, and it's getting pretty dark."

"Alright, alright. It's in the chest." I backed away from the chest as Caleb finished the roof, showering us in complete darkness.

"Oops." Caleb quickly placed a torch over the chest, and placed a few more for good measure. We made the beds, and went to sleep. In the morning, the food was cooked, and we ate it to replenish the hunger we had from yesterday. With my leather I gathered yesterday, I made a cuirass. I thought I looked great.

"I feel like checking out that hole over there. I might explore it a while," he announced.

"Alright, not my fault if you lose your stuff. Take this." In the chest, I put half a stack of wood and some food.

Taking the supplies, he said, "It's not like I'll die, Alex. I have enough torches, and I got skillz." He showed off this skill by T-bagging the ground.

"Literally anyone else has more skill than you. Especially me." I replied, sticking out my tongue. "Bye bye, now." He walked out the front door, and headed out to the hole. Instead of watching his screen, I went to gather more leather for my armor set.

About 20 minutes later, another blow-by-blow account of another battle with a skeleton: starring Caleb, and a pair of leather shoes and a helmet later, I was running for my life from a pack of wolves that decided that they hate me. As I jumped into the lake, Caleb shook my arm.

"Alex! I found something!" he said, who leaked with enthusiasm.

"Wait, Caleb. Kinda busy." I said. I ran into the house and slammed the door behind me. "What did you find?"

"Look." He pointed at the screen, and I saw why he was excited.

He found a stronghold.

That was when I made a sword and slew all the wolves blocking me inside the house. "I'm coming over." I went over to the hole, and jumped in. Thankfully, Caleb had put a puddle at the bottom, so my fall wasn't fatal. I followed his torches. After a few zombies, I made it to Caleb.

"What took you?" he said. "I thought you had skills."

Ignoring him, I pushed through to the entrance. This was the first time we found one of these, not counting creative mode. Playing on that mode has its perks, but this time there's actual danger; danger I actually kinda relished.

What was strange, was that, when I inspected the front entrance, I saw a sign saying "Faith's Tomb". I shrugged it off, thinking that it was probably what Caleb named the place.

"You wanna do it?" Caleb asked.

"What do you think?" Without waiting for his answer, I pushed past him and entered. We spent the next hour exploring and clearing out the stronghold. Anything remotely useful, we took: iron bars, the books from the library, and everything in between. I was surprised we made it through without dying even once, though Caleb almost died twice. My armor soaked up most of the damage to me, so I thanked my past self for making said armor.

When we reached the last room, I stopped. An iron door was the last obstacle.

"Wait, how're you doing on health?" I asked.

"Not too bad. I have 6 hearts still." Caleb said.

"Let me open the door. I have armor."

"But no skill," he muttered. I let him get away with that.

When I opened the door, we quickly dealt with the flood of silverfish that came through. We ran inside and covered the place in torches. After that, we celebrated. We've barely been on this world for 2 hours, but we've already found the end portal.

"Wait." I walked up the steps. Something was wrong.

We might have been newbies compared with most other players, but we knew and understood basic concepts about the game: Build house. Make tools. Find diamonds. Go to nether. Find end portal. Kill the Dragon.

The only thing was... The end portal wasn't there. In its place was an ender chest.

"Something's wrong." I stated.

I walked over to the chest. When I opened it, there was nothing.

"Caleb, see if there's anything in the chest," I whispered, slightly unnerved. He went up and opened it. On his screen, I saw what looked like an enchanted bone.

"What's it called?" I said.

When he hovered his cursor over the bone, it said:

"Old Faith's Bone".

After we had found the bone, we decided to go back to the shack. To be honest, it was kind of creepy; where was the portal? Who was "Faith"? And lastly, why could only Caleb get it, and not me? We followed the torches through the stronghold. Caleb stood back while I finished off some of the mobs that were still wandering the halls. The strangest part about this whole place is when we reached where the entrance was supposed to be.

"How do we get out?" Caleb asked, staring at the obsidian wall blocking us in. It looked like someone put it there, but I didn't want to think about who. "Neither of us have a dimond pickaxe."

"We'll dig up. It'll be faster than going through the tunnels, anyways, and we'll avoid all the mobs that we didn't kill," I said, readying my pick. It was almost broken, so we made more sticks with the wood Caleb brought. We made a few pickaxes after that. "Alright, let's go." He nodded, and started digging up. I did the same: dig up six blocks, build up four. Dig up, build up. I finally broke through to the surface, and it was almost night. Caleb was out of torches.

"Hurry up! Night's almost here!"

"I am!" he said, going through his second pickaxe. As I waited for him, I watched his screen; he was still underground. "Wait, there's a cave!"

"I see that." I looked around his screen. "We'll come back to it. Keep going."

As he looked up, I caught the briefest flash of red in the darkness. Stunned, I only watched as Caleb dug into a grass block. "Oh, it almost is night," he said. I said nothing, and started toward our beacon: a wooden plank tower, lined up with torches; which I built in foresight of our situation. We arrived inside the shack just as the sun sank below the horizon.

As soon we replenished our hunger, we made a few furnaces and started smelting up the ore we had. Since we didn't really have access to dimonds, we practically worshipped iron, probably because you used it to make minecarts.

"How much iron did you get, Alex? I got a stack," he said, obviously proud of himself.

"I only got forty-five."

"Heh. Newb," he said. In response to this, I punched him in the arm. After he recovered, he continued, "Anyways, about the bone. Do you think it's a bone of one of Herobrine's dogs? OoOoooOooOoh." As he ooh-ed, he put his hands in the air and shook his fingers.

"Yeah, that really sells it Caleb."

After that exchange, our mother called us for dinner. It was spagetti that night, so of course we sucked it all up like vacuums.

When I picked up the game in the morning, everything was normal. The sheep was still jumping on the tree, our shack wasn't destroyed, and the hole wasn't covered up. I mean, I didn't know why I expected any different, but something felt wrong.

And that's when I caught it. While I was looking out the window I so graciously made, I saw a path made of gravel. I thought to ask Caleb about it, but he was still sleeping. So I followed it, putting some stuff in the chest. It was a long path: going up and down a mountain, and through a swamp; But I reached the end, and where it ended was just a small pond with a tree. A small mountain surrounded it. I spun around, not sure what this path was for, and I saw it.

There, a grave sat, with the name "Old Faith" on the marker.

I slid off the top bunk, landing on the ground next to Caleb's bed. I shook Caleb awake, frantic to have anyone, anything seeing what I saw.

"What?" Caleb said, rubbing his eyes. I pointed at the screen.

He looked, and closed his eyes. "There's nothing there, Alex. Let me sleep."

I looked at the screen, realizing that Caleb was right. The grave marker was gone, and so was the path. I climbed back onto my bed. I sighed, still tense, and attempted to find my way back home. I made it all the way to the mountain, but I was killed by a creeper while I was looking for the beacon.

"Dangit," I said. Luckily, I had put all my valuables in the chest, and I didn't lose anything important. Instead of respawning, I quit the game, deciding to wait for Caleb to wake up on his own. When he did, nothing else strange happened. No graves, no red. In part, I was relieved, but I was mostly confused: was my mind making this stuff up, or is it all real?

"I heard you die. Looks like I have more skill than you, cos I didn't die yet." Caleb said, doing a little fist pump. I just shook my head.

The following week, we explored the entire cave system, and I moved out of the shack. I made my own little mansion, which looking back now, wasn't all that much, but I didn't mind back then. We found a new cave across the lake, and since we exhausted all the ore from the old cave, we decided to use that one. I even made a bridge over to it, which I thought was pretty cool.

I just came back from the cave, and I met up with Caleb.

Trailing behind him was a dog named Faith.

When I saw it, I stopped dead in my tracks. This couldn't be a coincidence.

"When did you get the dog?" I asked, shivering on the inside.

"Oh, her?" Caleb sat her down, and I noticed the blue collar on the dog. "Well, I decided to use some of the bones we got from last night. This one took them all, so I was forced to use the enchanted one. I really wanted a dog."

"Why... Faith?"

"I dunno. When I used the bone, it automatically named it that. I might change it, once I get my hands on a nametag." He looked at me. "Is there something wrong?"

I paused. Looking down, I said, "Well, it's about time you finally got a girlfriend." I tried to play it off as a joke, but it couldn't hide the fact that the thing unnerved me.

"Shut up." Caleb made a beeline for the house, without standing up the dog. Which left me with it.

"Hey, you forgot the-" The dog's eyes turned red. We made eye contact, as if it were staring at me through the screen. I sat there, unblinking, until Caleb came back.

"I forgot about Faith. My bad," he said, walking up behind her. When I blinked, the dog's eyes were no longer red, but the memory still lingered. I was glad when he walked her to his house, as it meant I could escape. I walked into the mansion, and started putting stuff away; anything to get my mind off of Faith. There was something wrong with it. Or there was something wrong with me.

The next day, I was randomly exploring the forest by the lake when I took a few hits from some zombies. They must've hidden in the shade of the trees. Brandishing my sword, I knocked them all into the water. I finished them all off while they were basically immobilized. I sighed, and continued on.

While I was digging into the mountain, I heard a growl, and saw a pack of hostile wolves headed straight for me. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that it was the same pack from earlier.

I broke into a sprint, cursing myself because my character was getting hungry: I didn't bother to bring food. I ran, and I didn't look back. The trees were getting sparse, and I could see the sun ahead; I was running out of mountain to run on. The cliff was approaching.

And so I jumped.

Luckily, the pond was still there. I landed with a splash, and looked around. It was the same place with the grave, minus the grave: for that, I was grateful. What I failed to notice last time, though, was the cave that led inside the mountain. With the stone I had, I crafted a furnace with the crafting table I brought, and cooked some porkchop. After regenerating my health, I went inside the cave.

I had to be a little stingy with the placement of my torches, because I only had a low thirty left. On the right was what seemed to be a mineshaft.

"Hey, Caleb. Look." I pointed at my screen. "Oh. Cool. Maybe we can build some rails over there," he said, somewhat unenthusiastically. He was busy finishing his tower, claiming it to better than my mansion. "Well, go inside. Take a look."

I nodded in agreement, placing another torch. Caleb went back to his tower, leaving me to explore. As I put more an more torches, it was starting to look less and less like a mineshaft, and more like a... street. There were no buildings, but there were platforms jutting out from the main "road". Also, there were no minecarts, which I thought was a little peculiar.

After a few more minutes of exploring, Caleb left with Mom to go to the store.

"Get me some juice, Caleb."

He shrugged and left the house with Mom, leaving me all alone.

I continued along the platform, until I came to a stop at the end.

Because at the end was a huge mansion.

As I looked up, the ceiling of the cave was a dome, and I couldn't figure out how this fit into the mountain Stay away, A voice said. I jumped, because I knew for a fact that I was home alone. The sound definitely didn't come from the TV. That meant..

Faith walked into the light, her eyes red.

I ran. All the way back. I ignored every cave spider that popped up near me, ignored everything. I just ran. As I made it out into the morning light, free from the mouth of the cave, I finally stopped to look back. The cave wasn't there anymore. Loosening up, I took a pick and mined away at where the entrance was. A stack of stone later, nothing came up. I felt like I was losing my mind. But how did Caleb see it?

Later that night, Caleb came back with Mom. I put down the game earlier, to wait for him. Caleb tossed me a bottle of apple juice, and I chugged it. He motioned for me to play Minecraft, so I joined him. The voice was still fresh in my mind, but having Caleb around reassured me that I wasn't going crazy.

I started the world, and I headed back to the house. Fortunately, I didn't die this time.

I was in the middle of putting the iron ore in the furnace when I heard a growl. It was loud, louder than any growl I've heard in-game.

"Hey, did you hear that?" I asked Caleb.

"Hear what?" He said, scratching his head.

"The growl. Was that from your screen or mine?"

"There was no growl, Alex. Stop playing around." He went back to expanding his house.

Right then and there was where I knew that I wasn't crazy. Everything started happening when we found that bone, and he gave the bone to Faith. I knew what to do.

I was going to kill Faith.

My original, more direct plan was to kill Faith while Caleb slept.

But that couldn't happen, because the real Faith came out whenever Caleb wasn't present. I tried talking to her, once I got over my initial fear, but all I got were hostile growls and that cold, peircing glare. Her deep, crimson eyes were enough to ward me away.

I did get one thing from her, though. The night after I explored the mineshaft, I found a sign posted in one of my secret rooms.

"STAY AWAY."

I knew that she hated me. While it was painfully obvious, the sign really drove it in.

I didn't want to tell Caleb about it. It was too soon. He would've thought I was going crazy. Some part of me wish I was, but I knew that I wasn't. So I had to deal with Faith myself.

If I just killed the dog outright, Caleb would probably never forgive me; at the very least, he wouldn't play Minecraft with me. As ruined as the game was for me, I thought it was fun, but I learned that the game harbored many, dark secrets. One of them being Faith.

I was in the middle of contemplating how to build a new expansion of my house when Caleb spoke to me. "Thinking on how to out-awesome my tower?" he chuckled.

"You're just lucky it hasn't burned down yet. A building that tall, lightning's bound to strike eventually." I replied, still thinking. A piston door there, maybe a library there...

My thoughts almost drowned out what Caleb said next.

"...-ou're right. Maybe I should... Where's Faith?"

I froze, and all my ideas were erased. I spun around, looking to see if Faith was around. She wasn't.

"I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO DO." I spun around and looked at Caleb, the fear compounding. Maybe he said it? Maybe-

"What's wrong?" he asked. He was starting to look worried now.

Suddenly, a spike was driven into my skull.

My head was pounding.

I couldn't focus.

Caleb, seeing my condition, rushed to call Mom.

Everything was in a haze. Caleb shaking me, Mom dialing the phone.

My vision started to darken.

The last thing I saw were a pair of red eyes.

Six days later, I was lying in bed, waiting out a fever. The doctors at the hospital said that they didn't actually know what happened to me. I stayed a day for some check-ups, and they let me go home once they saw my condition was getting better. "Call us if anything happens. Whatever happened... it's not normal," the doctor said as we left the lobby.

"Stay off of that game of yours, Alex. A week, minimum," Mom said, on the drive home. Caleb just looked at me. "It's probably giving you some motion sickness."

Anything at this point, I guessed.

For the next 5 days, I watched Caleb play Assassin's Creed. I admit, I was a little jealous, since he had so much time to play by himself, but mostly I was just thankful that he wasn't rubbing it in.

The next day, I was allowed to play Minecraft again. I picked up the controller, and started our world. It felt good to be back, but I was somewhat afraid what Faith would do.

When I spawned in, everything was completely... well, normal. No weird signs, nothing on fire; just... normal. "Let's see if you got rusty, Alex. Mining we go," he said, not taking no for an answer. He was going to take Faith.

"Because why not?" he said, as he stood her up.

As for me, I was only slightly worried, because Faith was just a normal dog around Caleb. Just in case, though, I only brought stone tools.

"Why the down-graded hardware?" he asked, obviously excited. We had found a new hole quite a bit away from the houses.

"Just in case."

"In case? In case what you run out of iron? Wouldn't surprise me, with the super small amount you managed to mine last time we did this," he said, cracking a smile. I tried to smile back, but the fact Faith was sitting right behind him unnerved me.

Without saying a word, I started placing ladders down toward the bottom. In a couple minutes, we were down, and I had managed to get some coal and iron. Perks of going down first.

The hole lead to a lava pit- more like a lava lake- and the ceiling was extra high. This place would've been awesome as an outpost, especially if the outpost were situated in the middle of the lake. I put the idea into the back my head.

Caleb had taken the lead, and as such, I followed him. Instead of going through the lake withaa well-placed cobblestone bridge, Caleb had decided to skirt around the edge. Faith followed suit.

"What are we doing, Caleb? Stop skimping on cobble. A bridge would've been better in the long run."I said, slightly nervous about my proximity to Faith. She was still a normal dog, though.

"Just because you don't have awesome parkour skills like me, doesn't mean you can whine. Besides, we can build it later. There's a tun-"

A zombie dropped from out of nowhere, wearing a full golden body suit. Caleb was pushed into the lava, and he burned to death. Frustrated, Caleb started running back to the lake. Faith moved in to attack but the zombie hit first.

Faith was pushed into the lava.

Her cry was so loud, so sudden, so intense that I had to cover my ears. The zombie killed me too, for some reason not having any sense of hearing. Not bothering to respawn, I quit to main menu and looked at Caleb.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I thought a fly flew in." I said. In fact, I couldn't be better. Faith was gone, burned to death in the lava, and I was free.

"It doesn't suprise me, since half the stuff in there's dead," he said, a smile appearing. Just as quickly, though, the smile turned into a frown. "Dangit, I knew I shouldn't have brought Faith. Especially with the lava..."

We started up the world again, and I even helped Caleb make Faith a little grave marker, during which I struggled to imagine Faith as a normal dog. It worked for a bit, enough for me to sit through thirty seconds of Caleb saying goodbye. It was a game, at least from Caleb's perpective, but it was Caleb's first dog, so I gave him some slack. But I stopped pretending when Caleb was finished. Faith wasn't normal.

We played a little more, but I was getting thirsty.

I decided to take a break. "I'm gonna get some water. We'll stop here." Caleb nodded, and I left the world. Caleb still looked a little sad.

I shrugged, patted him on the back, and went to the kitchen to get some water. I was smiling the whole way. Faith was gone!

When I returned, Caleb had already started a new world. I guess he was a little frustrated that he lost Faith, and wanted to start over. His world, though, had the "bonus chest" box checked. Eager to begin playing, I picked up the controller and sat down without a word.

Here we go again. Another world.

We spawned in on a snow biome. It was snowing, and the pond we spawned facing towards was covered in ice. We were surrounded by trees, and the chest was sitting at the base of a sizable one behind us. There weren't many animals, but I did see the occasional rabbit sprint by.

"I'm getting wood."

Caleb ran ahead, forgetting about the chest. I decided to open it. A few apples, some wood, a sword, and a bone. I almost fainted when my cursor hovered over it.

"Discord's Bone."

I tried to leave it in the chest. I really did. But the sweat from my hands caused my thumb to slip over the back button. So instead of taking everything else and exiting the menu, I took everything. Including the bone.

I tried to toss it into the frozen water. I tried to drop it into a hole and cover it up. I even dropped it off a cliff, but the thing always showed up in my inventory after a minute or two. I was stuck with it. I sighed, anxious to even have it in my hotbar. I stashed it in the bottom right corner of my inventory, where I would never see it.

I had spent over half of the day trying to get rid of the bone, so I hurried to gather as much food as possible. Caleb had finished the shelter in record time and was doing the same. By the time I had gathered enough wool for a bed, the sun was sinking out of view. I ran for the shelter.

I ran into a pack of wolves, which suprised me. It was huge: having 18 or so wolves in it. For me, seeing them was super rare, even if there were a few in the last world. Even if I was chased by a pack of them last time.

What was most surprising was when a wolf walked out from the center of the pack, and sat down: almost like he was expecting something.

I hadn't noticed it until now, but Discord's bone had appeared in my hotbar. Curious, I equipped it, and screaming on the inside, fed it to the dog. I didn't know what to expect. Clouds sprouted out from the dog, showing that it didn't accept it.

But then, his eyes flashed blue.

O''h, it's been a while. Yes, it has. I really must thank you, because- oh, I smell something... else.'' The voice paused. You have Faith's scent all over you.

I was taken aback. Faith...? I thought she was dead.

''No, no. We don't die. And yes, I can read your thoughts.''

I remained silent.

''Anyways, we don't die. Part of our... spirit? Yes. Our spirits are transfered to our bones. Don't ask me why, you can ask the cre-''

Who's we? I interrupted. While I was asking this, I looked over to Caleb. He was focused on cooking the food he had in a furnace.

Can't wait, can you? A few zombies came from out of the trees. Discord just looked at them, tilting his head slightly. Sic' em', boys. Half of the pack broke off to kill the monsters. Within a few seconds, the monsters were just experience orbs on the ground, floating aimlessly. The group rejoined the pack. ''I just love saying that. Enjoy the little things.''

He continued. ''I'm surprised you don't know what we are. Aren't we in your... creepypastas? What are those?''

''Nothing important. Back to the good stuff. I'm what you'd call a by-product of a...glitch. Me and a few others. Faith is also one of us, but we don't talk about her. Based on the fact that you reek of her, I'd say you're acquainted?''

I didn't need to answer.

''Faith is what you'd call an outcast among outcasts. She can do things many of us can't. The reason she hadn't tried to ruin you as of now is because we've managed to nullify her level a notch or two. Puns not intended. And yes, I know what happened. Word spreads quickly.''

''We don't die. It's a fact. We just... move on. In fact, I believe one of us is a bat, down in a cave somewhere.''

Why are you telling me this? I asked.

''Well, I felt obligated to, since you've given me back my bone. I really missed it. Anyways, I- Oh, I see.''

See what? I asked, confused. Well, even more confused.

Seems like Faith is back.

Then someone slapped my forehead.

When I opened my eyes, the entire pack was gone.

"Are you okay? You were standing in the same place for ten minutes," he said, somewhat worried.

"Yeah, I was just... thinking," I said, rubbing my forehead. "Did you have to do that?"

"Would you have done any different?"

Caleb carried on like he already heard an answer.

"Anyways, I built this awesome tower. You can have the second floor..." Everything else he said was blocked out, while I tried to parse the information Discord gave me. There were even more beings like Faith and Discord, and while Discord seemed nice, he seemed... tolerant. Not unlike a cat.

They didn't die, because glitches in the system couldn't. I don't know why.

Since Caleb had already made beds, I made a painting. I placed it, and found an image of Faith on my wall. I sighed, tired of all the mystery, and left it on the wall. I didn't care anymore.

I just wanted it to end.

As I studied the painting of Faith, I was thinking. Why would she target me? It couldn't be random; chances we're about 1 in a million. I must have done something in the past to--oh, no.

It was a sunny day.

Caleb and I were playing with our dog out on the yard. "Catch!" He said, throwing a baseball. I caught it, and threw it back. We continued this back and forth; until the dog ran out and caught the ball in mid-air. We stopped what we were doing to wrestle out the ball from the dog's mouth. My hands got caught in her red collar, the one we got for her today.

Suddenly, Mom calls one of us in, and Caleb went to see what she wanted. I was left alone with the dog. The dog, with "Faith" on its name tag.

As the realization dawned on me, I shivered. I have no idea how this is connected, but if it is... she's back, and she's back for me. I took down the painting.

''Finally figured it out, did you? ''A voice said. I looked around, and I saw a dog sitting in my window. For a second, its eyes flashed blue.'' It's about time, too. Any longer and she probably would've gotten a hold of you, and you wouldn't even know what happened.''

"You knew?" I was confused. Discord knew, and he didn't tell me?

''Of course I knew. It gets a little boring around here, so I thought I'd give you just enough to get you going,'' He said.

"Tell me. All of it," I demanded. I was done with all the questions.

''You couldn't even ask, could you? I ignored him. He tilted his head. Faith came to us about seven years ago. She, somehow, was stronger than our current "boss", so he ordered us to "take her down", as you call it. You can guess what happened. In the resulting mess, we exiled the old leader, and we're all split up now. You can say I'm the second lord, but I only lead a small part of us.''

Seven years. That's when...

"Why are you telling me this?"

Because I wanted to wa-

"That's a lie," I said, interrupting him. He had to have some sort of stake in this.

''You caught me, he paused. Faith is the only one keeping me from leading the entire shebang.''

"You aren't happy with-"

No more with that. He interrupted. You're running out of time, and you're going to need our help.

"What? Why?"

He looked over behind me. Faith was there, standing in the dark. Her eyes were glowing red. She took a step towards me.

Suddenly, we were outside.

Sorry about that, Discord said. He looked towards the forest.

Go.

Out of nowhere, the wolves charged out of the forest. I saw them fight Faith one by one as they grouped up, until an entire army of wolves were attacking Faith. Faith held her ground, taking the wolves out tens at a time.

Discord started to chant something that I didn't understand.

Keep her busy, now, he said, probably to the other wolves.

Bracing myself, I charged in with the stone sword that I had in my inventory. I waded through the swarm of dogs until I got about 10 feet away from Faith, her back facing me.

Her head snapped backwards to face me, and she snarled.

__

''I was watching Faith while she glared at me. The sun was slowly setting, casting shadows onto the ground. We didn't like each other very much, and I didn't even want a dog. It was almost always Caleb's choice. I looked up from Faith, and I saw a weirdly shaped cloud. It was shaped somewhat like a fish.''

''I was in the middle of thought when I saw that Faith wasn't there. I scrambled to get up, frantically looking for her; we just got her today, and I would be in massive trouble if I lost Faith. ''

I never found her.

__

I snapped out of it, readying my sword. The moon seemed to be watching. Faith dispatched the last of the wolves with ease, never breaking eye contact.

Then she started walking, and impossible effects were surrounding her. A thin, red glow surrounded her as she gained ground; when she reached me, she sat down, like she was daring me to attack. The glow around her grew brighter.

Faith was still sitting when a voice came up behind me.

Forget about me? It was Discord. He tackled her down to the ground.

Faith exploded, blasting me and Discord back. When I looked back, I saw that her glow was now gone. Avacran, Discord whispered.

Faith was showered in a bright, blue light. She started to float into the air, towards the source of the spotlight.

She blinked out of existence.

"What happened?" I said, confused. I didn't expect Discord to answer; not clearly, at least.

Oh, just a little trick I know. He sighed. One-time use.

"Why couldn't you do that earlier?"

I couldn't, not with that pesky shield protecting her.

"What happened to her?" I said, finally.

You could say she left the game.

I took that as a "She's gone now" and left the game without saying a word. I gave the remote to Caleb, and he took it as his que to start playing.

It was done, now. It was over. _________________

Discord sighed, and he surveyed the land and his reviving pack of wolves. He could lead everyone-- no, everything now, without Faith getting in the way again. He smiled as his advisor approached him.

''What is it? '' He said.

''Oh, nothing. I can rule all of this, now that Faith's out of the way. He stood up. ''

Anything else?

The boy should take my words more literally next time.

The advisor stayed quiet, obviously used to Discord's cryptic lines. _________________

The next day, there was scratching at our front door. There was a dog, and a big one at that.

I kneeled down to pet it, scratching below its right ear. While it was busy, I reached down to grab a hold of its collar. There, against a round, brass tag, was a single word.

Faith.

--Credits go to 2017 Cube

Thoughts, and Other Stuff
If you manage to make it through that mess, kudos. I mean, wow. That was... an interesting experience, reading this all again.

I don't remember much about this writing process. I do know that it was weird.

This was a nightmare to edit. Old me had (ew) lots of spelling errors. I might have to go through my written stories and see what's wrong.

Anyways, I hope you all... enjoyed.

Ciao.

--Le CubeDueler