Shoulder to cry on...

     Looking around at the group, I noticed that everyone was back together: myself, AMPHIS, UOPETA, THEROS, Amie and even OROTHO! We had all seen the exact same things, and yet we hadn't seen any of us during that time, which was one of the more disorientating parts of this whole experience. Myself and Amie were the only quiet ones, not becoming involved in the large discussion that now played out amongst the rest of the group. She looked absolutely terrified and when I went over to comfort her, she looked at me and instead flung her arms around my shoulders... I was a little startled by this initially - I just sort of stood there, arms outstretched behind her - but I got the message and wrapped my arms around her as well. We stood motionless amongst all of the chaos going on around us, just holding each other in a tight embrace. When she finally managed to pry her head out from my chest, I could see a few streak lines from where she had begun to cry. Wiping them away with my thumb, I reassured her in the only way I knew how: "Don't worry, you're safe now. It's all over...". She hugged me once more and we just stood there, as though nothing else around us existed.

----

"But that was a real-life Enderman, right before our very eyes! It grabbed me, took me to The End and told me about the Keystone. I experienced that. You experienced that! We all experienced that! How can you deny that?"

"I never said I was denying it... I'm just saying that from an external point of view, it's hard to take in what we've seen and experienced... Even with all six of us saying the exact same thing, it'd be hard for anyone to believe that!"

"We still have to tell them! COLUS and the others deserve to know what's been going on though. We need everyone on our side with this. We have a legitimate method of destroying the master portal and I say we take it!"

"We can't be sure of any of this though! We can hardly go back to COLUS and say 'Hey, can we go to the Nether find twelve illusive Eyes of Ender, activate a portal to The End that we have yet to find, retrieve a Keystone and destroy the gateway to evil'!"

"I wasn't saying it like that. If we inform them of every minute detail that we know about, then at least they'll know the whole picture, and be in the know as much as we are."

"Fair enough, but what about SERVERE? How do he tie into all of this?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, okay. Why was he so interested in this place? He merely told us about an item we could find here, or so we thought. But he never mentioned why he was looking for this place... Or the item we now know to be the Keystone..."

"He was trying to find the Keystone for us to use. Either that or was trying to find it so he could use it against the master portal."

"I have my doubts about that. It doesn't make any sense; he doesn't communicate with us for over a year, and intends to break that by giving us the Keystone?"

"Maybe he was going to use it himself. Does it matter? What does matter is that he pointed us in the direction of it in the first place. Not only that, but he destroyed all of the portals we had found, which was proved by the considerable lack of active primary portals in the master portal chamber! How can you say SERVERE might be working against us with so much evidence stacked against your opinion?"

"I'm sorry, but I guess I'm just the superstitious type. I can't say I completely trust SERVERE since his sudden reappearance, and can you blame me? Out in the field, it's my responsibility to keep everyone safe. I can hardly do that if we're suddenly welcoming potential strangers into our fold. But enough of that. I agree, I suppose, that we need to tell COLUS. We'll leave that until tomorrow."

"What about finding this portal?"

"That can wait as well. We've all had quite an ordeal today, so I suggest we head back to the shack and wait there until tomorrow."

We all headed back to the wooden shack, everyone looking a little shaken. Amie was still upset, and clung onto me throughout the entire conversation. She hadn't spoken a word since the incident, and quite rightly so! It was definitely not for the faint of heart!

     We're now all gathered in the main room of the shack, all discussing what each of saw, and trying to repeat everything that happened and what was said. Amie has instead fallen asleep, close to me for a change. I get the feeling that she's sticking close to anyone who was willing to comfort her. It just so happened that that person was me, although I am a little confused. Amie was always a strong member of the group; she proved this by by easily following us despite UOPETA being vigilant the entire time! But today she just seemed to fall apart. Maybe the stress of recent events had stacked a little too high, and today was just the final thing to make it all come crashing down... We had never really been close before; since merging with our group, she seemed to stick with either COLUS or OROTHO, but COLUS wasn't available at the time. And I hardly considered OROTHO a good person to go to if you were upset! I wasn't aware I was either though to be honest, but with everyone else so eager to get into a discussion about it, I suppose I was the only one available. I don't think she would have made it if I had joined in. I suppose, in a way it was a good job I hadn't joined in...

Syeonyx signing off