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// Window Pane 
// Story: Welcome to Cubeland 
// by Zaleros 
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	The next few seconds came and went in what felt like forever as my body acted in a fight-or-flight response, both in this case...I wish I actually flew though.
The prince charged at me while I ducked and rolled, holding my right foreleg up to deflect the incoming blow. It hit, but it hit the leg armor I made, which made me thank any and all forms of divine life that his attack wasn’t enough to break through, and it slid off into the ground. My leg hurt, but when I got back on my hooves, Com was already swinging at Kaile. The prince parried the blow and smacked Com on the head with the flat of his blade, dazing him. Anger filled me as I turned around in this cramped house and bucked him with all my might, catching him by surprise and sending him crashing outside of the house.
“Com, we have to move,” I shouted at him, shaking him while the prince stood up slowly outside, still recovering from my buck.
“Nnrgh,” Com managed to sound out before becoming completely coherent again, “Yeah, let’s go.”
I looked back to the front door and saw the guards readying to charge in and attack. Thinking quick, I switched out my sword with a piece of cobblestone I had on me and placed it in front of the door, effectively blocking their entrance.
“Get them! They attacked the leader!” several guards were shouting while trying to break the stone wall I erected in desperation.
The door was no good, the window had Kaile outside, now nearly back up and ready as well, but there was a ladder going up. I took that chance.
“Com, the ladder!” I shouted at him. He nodded and we went up.
Luckily for us this was the one and only building they neglected to place an archer on top of. Unluckily for us, there were several archers on the other, nearby buildings. Now there were arrows flying and an angry prince screaming. I think I heard the golem yelling too.
I broke a few pieces of the ladder and placed a few more pieces of cobblestone where they used to be and made the walls slightly bigger than needed to keep us safe to buy us some time. I knew they could break through at any moment and we were pinned down by arrows and blades, plus that golem, so how in the world could we hope to-
“Hey, you’re that new guy aren’t you?” a high pitched, almost squeaky, voice spoke.
Of all the times I’ve ever wanted something to go right, I hoped this was one that actually did.
“You! Whatever your name is,” I said to it.
“Name’s Big E,” it said back. Big E? What a weird name, “Well, my name’s actually Enderman, but you can call me that if you want.” Just as weird, but I’ll take it.
“Enderman then, can you help us somehow?” please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.
“Probably.” Close enough.
“The meeting went wrong and we need to get back!”
“Craft, who is that?” Com asked at this point.
“Friend of the trio,” I quickly explained, clearly enough at this point since he nodded, “I know they sent you to find obsidian for me but monsters can’t hold blocks. Does that mean you can somehow?”
“Yep.”
“Can you help us get out of here safely?”
“Safely? I can try.”
The soldiers broke through the stone blocking their ascent, though they still lacked the ladder pieces I broke away so they couldn’t reach us.
“Break the ceiling down and kill them all!” I heard a gruff sounding soldier bark to the rest, all of them responding with some form of “Yes sir!”
“Oh snap, that looks bad. Yeah, I’ll help you.”
Suddenly there was a very loud, very painful shriek that stopped everyone from doing anything. Well, everyone except the golem, who kept shouting about invading monsters and protecting the village. When it finally died down there was near silence, the golem being the only source of noise.
“What the hell was that?” I managed to say after a few seconds of intense ringing in my head.
“Help, duh,” Enderman said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Soon there were Players shouting and the sound of things hitting the ground hard, followed by the familiar sound of “poof”ing that accompanied the death of anything in this world.
“What the hell are they?” I heard a soldier shout.
“Oh my gods!” another shouted, soon silent, although the sound of something moving very swiftly could be heard just barely over the chaos.
There were a lot of “poof” sounds as well as the sound of our help dying on occasion.
“Ow, holy crap. Why do I hurt?” Enderman asked to no one in particular.
The soldiers below us managed to regain their plan soon after the deaths were heard and continued to break the ground/ceiling below/above us/them. This was technically the roof but I’ve been in so many fights over what to call it with other architects for years that I just tend to say both for the sake of no stupid arguments. Anyway, they broke the block that Enderman was standing on and he fell, but as soon as they hit him he disappeared, leaving behind that trail of purple behind.
What the? I think he just ditched us.
In the momentary confusion that came with that, I leapt at them and knocked one down, stomping on his arm and dislodging his sword. I grabbed it and held it to his throat, stopping everyone from moving, although their blades were still ready to attack.
“Take one move and I will kill him,” I said, my voice thick with fury. I had the feeling that if Chrysalis every heard me speak with that kind of tone that she’d almost be proud of the way I turned out. She would be proud without a doubt had I not asked to redesign her throne room a few years back; I know she still resents me for that.
“Go right ahead, he’ll just respawn,” the gruff voice from before spoke.
“Not if I kill him,” I shot back, looking at his eyes, daring him to prove me wrong.
“I don’t believe you, creature.”
“Players!” I said to them all, “Do you fear death?”
They were silent.
“I know you do, that’s why you enjoy this world, isn’t it? I also fear death and do you know why?” 
More silence from them.
“Because I know that when you die, you don’t come back. And as long as I am your enemy, I can and will force you to remember what that means!”
My meaning was not lost on them as they began to sheath their weapons, anger filling a couple of their faces, fear filling the rest.
“What are you doing, kill the monster!” I heard the prince shout from below.
“There is only one monster here tonight, prince, and that is you. You constantly send your men into battle without any regard for them. You know what I can do to them but you send them anyway. What kind of coward are you!?” my voice started to increase in volume as I spoke, more rage filling it as I thought of those who have been and may have been lost at his control, “WHEN WILL YOU FIGHT ME YOURSELF?”
A small pause came, followed by the laughter of the prince, cut short by a coughing fit most likely brought on by my earlier bucking. When it was over the prince spoke up.
“And why would I waste my time fighting you when I can have my men do it for me?”
I looked the soldiers in front of me in the eyes, “When the endermen came and attacked just now, how many soldiers did you have stationed here in the village?”
“How many you ask? Ha, I’ll humor you. I stationed forty-seven soldiers here, including the six up there.”
I held my gaze with the soldiers, “And how many are still here?”
“Six, including the six up there,” he said, as though he had lost nothing in the fight.
“Players! When you die in this world, do you fear that this may be your end? Do you fear that you may not come back this time? Where I come from there is a saying ‘there are two things that you cannot escape in life, death and taxes.’ I don’t know if you have any currency here, or anything period to tax, but I know that you have a life and therefore you can lose it.
“I’m a soldier too, but if my queen were to try to send me out on a mission where I knew she thought I would die, I would be afraid. That is what your prince does on regular occasions. How many times have you died?” I let the rhetorical question hang for a second, “How many times have you thought ‘this might be the time I don’t come back’? How many times have you questioned your leader’s care for his own people? How can you follow someone who willingly sends you to your own deaths!?”
“Well now, you sound just like one of those pesky rebels, Craft the changeling,” the prince said.
Rebels?
I hesitated and felt the block underneath me break. Com shouted my name and jumped down to try and catch me, only to watch me receive a gravity induced meeting with the stone floor and a blade being shoved right through my left foreleg while being stopped by the remaining soldiers and having a blade pressed up against his back.
The sharpness of the blade pierced my armor with little resistance and cracked through my chitin, passing right into and out of my leg. The pain was unlike anything I had felt before and soon enough I began screaming and grabbed my leg, bringing it close to my body after he slid the blade out swiftly, and cursing the one who brought me to this state.
“You see, monster,” the prince spoke as his soldiers continued to restrain Com, who struggled against their grasp, earning him a pummel to the gut, “there is no reason I should fight you. You simply aren’t worth my time. You had the opportunity to not only defeat my men and escape with little problem, but also the chance to kill me and you didn’t take it. Is it because you know it’s futile since we will always return while you hesitate because you won’t?”
“You bastard,” I managed between labored breaths.
The prince laughed, speaking softly, “You see, now the tables have turned and yet still here we both are. Do you know why, creature?” He got close to my ear and spoke softly so only I would hear, “Because you are interesting.”
“What do you mean, I’m interesting?” I forced out, feeling each passing moment cover my body and the floor in more of my blood.
“What else? We’re playing a game, aren’t we?” he laughed as one would expect an evil villain to laugh. Appropriate, given the circumstance.
“You asked if I regretted survival” he continued, no longer whispering, “and I said no. What I’ve had to do to survive does not fill me with regret. Why should I regret living on while others fall around me?”
I forced the armor covering my blood stained foreleg off and held it tight, attempting to slow the blood flowing through my leg, “If you always spend your time watching others fall, how can you expect others to stand and help when you begin to start to fall yourself?”
“It’s simple,” he then spoke with complete seriousness and a face that believed his own words, “I won’t.”
I coughed hard and began to yell, “Don’t you see? He doesn’t even care about any of you! Why would you follow someone like him? He has no concern for any of you!” tears flowed from my eyes involuntarily, equally from fear, rage, and sadness that I felt for the Players who chose to follow this prince. The soldiers that I could still see were fighting themselves, caught between my words and their loyalty to their prince. I could only hope they’d see what I meant and free themselves from this madman.
“Bring me the traitor,” the prince said. The soldiers gave in to their training and did as they were told, tossing Com down to the ground floor and watching him land with a ‘thud’.
Kaile lifted his blade and brought it to Com’s throat, pressing lightly against his skin “Disobedience to the crown is punishable by death. Nod once if you understand, shake once if you do not.” His voice became very formal, all traces of who he was until now were gone and replaced with a tone that sounded rehearsed. It was as though this was something he had done before.
“No,” I whimpered, fearing my friend would soon be dead.
There was no response from Com.
“I’ll take that as you understand what I’ve said,” the prince said, his voice returning to an evil and joyful tone.
“No,” I said slightly louder this time, managing to get up to my knees.
“You're next, Craft. Goodbye, Com the traitor.”
“No!” I yelled, followed by the sound of something weird nearby. That hadn’t happened in a while...sort of.
I saw an enderman grab Com and vanish, a confused look filling the Players’ faces as well as the prince’s. I didn’t get to hear his reaction as a moment later something, I assumed another enderman, grabbed me and teleported me to a dark place.
I wanted to shout out Com’s name, desperate to know if he was here too, but the fatigue and blood loss caught up with me as the adrenaline started to wear off and I passed out, holding tight onto my leg hoping that I wouldn’t die from shock in the meantime. I don’t know for sure, but I think I heard a voice saying “sleep” before passing out.