Breathe in. Breathe out.

You slipped into your usual routine-- check on the animals in the barn, start planting the tree saplings in the back, check on the recently planted crops, as an addition you tried to make speculations on when the next harvest festival in the next town over will be. You aren't necessarily running out of money per say, you've made more than enough given the amount of times you've gone out into the mineshafts to mine for resources, but a little more money never hurt anyone, right? Besides, you reckon the townsfolk are going to want some more supplies outside of corn and pumpkin since autumn's running around the corner. 

You pat down your hands, small beads of sweat trailing down your face from exertion. There were a lot of things planned for this autumn, and that involved a lot of fishing and harvesting. Perhaps even a little sight-seeing in the woods, given it's usually when the animals start preparing for winter. 

While the animals necessarily don't mind your company, especially since you've done a great deal of putting up fences around the forest to keep hunters away (not that that would actually do a lot of help, some assholes would just break the fences down anyways), you think it'd still be for the best to not disturb them.

You hum, looking around the back of the house. It was quiet, as usual, nothing out of the ordinary but the sounds of wild critters lounging and prowling about. From the corner of your eyes you swear you see what appears to be a fox, with a beautiful red coat sprawling around the berry bushes. It was clearly not bothered by your presence, but you'd rather not risk a chance at spooking the thing. 

You ignore it in favour of trudging around, looking for some tools you left overnight when you'd completely lost track of time and almost lost both arms to a creeper sneaking around the perimeters of the farm. You had made a mad dash for home, as capable as you are with fighting, you'd really rather not risk having to waste another pair of perfectly good shirts-- or getting more scars. Your body is already littered with constellations to last a lifetime.

You sigh upon finding the handle of your axe sticking out from behind a tree, leaning forward and gripping it in your arms before hearing audible growling, feeling something tug the axe back. 

You raise your eyebrows, instinct kicking in as your eyes snap upwards, ready to wrangle whatever wild animal thought to take possession of your belongings overnight. The sight makes you snort quietly, finding a small bear cub no bigger than a month old gripping the blade of your axe with it's maws. How cute. 

"I'm charmed you kept these tools safe for me, but could you please let go? You're holding the sharp edge of the axe too close to your face" you mumble, tugging the tool back from the ever-persistent bear cub. Who snorts in your direction, grumbly and understandably a little dazed from getting the axe yanked out of it's maws. 

"Go play somewhere else, little guy, you're cute but your mama might be lookin' for you, yeah?" you muse, standing back up and deciding it was about time you head back home to prepare for dinner, before you feel a set of paws with sharp claws tug at your pants, snarling. You'd feel threatened if it didn't remind you of a child tugging at your arm for attention.

As amusing as the sight was, you needed to get home. You huff, pulling your leg back, to no avail as the bear cub only clings to your leg, releasing small animalistic noises. If you listened closely, they would almost sound like a child throwing a tantrum. You bite back the childish urge to groan and swat at the bear, reminiscent of your youth dealing with children younger then you who clung like bees to honey. 

"You think you're so cute, don't you?" you huff through your nose, "You may be small but I have no problems flinging you into a nearby lake" the threat bubbles it's way out your mouth with ease, but it's clearly a half-hearted attempt to get the bear off. You pause, realizing the animal wouldn't be able to understand you like your own barn animals would-- in a sense, at least.

You grumble. This is what you get for isolating yourself from society and only keeping animals around as a form of companionship. 

You finally decide to just pluck the bear by the scruff of it's neck, bringing it up to your height, it whines in your face, clearly annoyed. You can only huff at it, keeping it an arm's distance away from you so it doesn't think of scratching your face off, you're not entirely amused yourself about the situation either. 

"Listen, buddy, I was joking about the lake thing but now I'm seriously considering it. Scamper off before night falls, alright? I'm not gonna stick around for long, and I doubt you will either" you finish, choosing not to listen to it's whiny voice as you begin picking up your tools, shoving them into your basket-- all while still keeping the bear at arm's length by it's scruff to ensure it doesn't try to get in your way. 

You highly doubt the little thing will do any damage to your things, but snatch them? High probability. Especially since you picked a few crops and killed a few rabbits along the way for dinner. 

You move out further into the woods, making sure there's a good distance away from your farm's perimeters to ensure the cub doesn't go around stumbling around where it shouldn't. You don't wanna spook your animals, nor get your crops trampled over by a totally unsuspecting wild critter. 

As you drop the bear off, you consider the idea of putting up stone fences as barriers between your farm and the woods. The wooden fences are fine for bigger wildlife and dangerous mobs, but you'd be lying if you said you didn't have to wrangle a fox or wolf or two out of your crops every now and again. 

You proceed to walk back home, humming an unfamiliar tune as the sun begins to set from the horizons. 

It was time to head back home.

A/N: Welcome back! It's been a while since the last update, my apologies for the wait. I'm trying to keep up a schedule but I've just been droning in and out of consciousness these days. 

Anyways, how are you liking the story so far? Did I also forget to mention that this story was gonna be a slow burn? Whoops, guess I did uwu
Herobrine won't be here for another chapter or more, I'd like to set a base and drop some subtle hints about how the story is gonna play out for the rest of the book. 

Some parts might be essential, some parts might not. Who knows, really? 

Anyways, stay tuned for the rest of the story! Please don't forget to Vote, Comment and Follow me for more Chapters. It would help a ton to hear from you guys' thoughts so far :D