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Jack has always lived in the nether but he’s never felt at home.
He’s always felt….different, not being able to fly like other blazes or conjur up his own energy. Well, not enough to produce his own fire. He can stand the heat fine, but it’s not comforting. He has always longed for something more than the soul sand beneath his feet and the thick soot in his hair. Jack had decided from a young age he will not die here.
He cannot die here.
He will not let his bones decay and melt into the lava lakes that bubble around him without feeling the euphoric feeling of oxygen in his lungs. So he saves up, he works hard in the gold mines, searching fortresses and bastions for as much gold as he can muster up. Saving it for when he’s old enough to leave his hometown. He keeps it all stored away, never spending a single bar, even when he’s low on food and his stomach growls for nourishment. He powers through the hunger and the aching in his bones as he outgrows his cramped bedroom, knowing that it will all be worth it in the end when he finally escapes this nightmare. And then on his 18th birthday, he packs up and he leaves. He leaves for the warped forests he heard the townspeople whispering about, in search for the piglins who roam there. Jack’s not sure what he expects, but he does not expect to be met with bloodthirsty creatures and stingy barginers.
He almost crys when he gets his first block of obsidian nearly three months later. Then again when he gets his second 4 weeks after that, and again with the third almost a year after he first set off in search of his escape. It’s a long, hard process but he’s finally only one block away from everything he’s ever dreamed of.
One day when he’s preparing to go out on his training rounds, he hears someone shouting loudly and fighting with the piglins. Jack runs over to the noise quickly and gives the piglins some of his gold so he can distract them and save the unknown man. Jack drags him back to his small home he had dug into the netherack and realises something strange about the man who looks more like a boy.
He was not born in the nether that’s for sure. He can tell by the way he speaks in a language jack cannot understand. Jack lets out a quite mumble, a indication that he cant understand the other boy. The blond furrows his eyebrows before his mouth forms an “o” shape and seemingly nods in acknowledgement.
Jack makes a gesture towards himself and slowly repeats his own name to the boy, hoping he gets the hint. The boy repeats it back to him near perfectly and Jack smiles excitedly. Jack does the same gesture at the boy and he repeated the sound “Tommy” to him. When jack says tommys name correctly back to him, Tommy responds with the same enthusiasm jack had, indicating that the boy had understood jack. Tommy takes a look around jacks small hut, pointing at the portal when he spots it. Jack nods, not really quite sure what to say other than the word “light”, unsure weather tommy would grasp what he was trying to say. To jacks suprise, he watches Tommy produce a small clump of flint and a bar of steal from his pocket, striking the portal with it. In a flash it lights and Jack can’t help but jump around excitedly, shouting “light” back at tommy nodding frantically. Tommy mimics Jacks excitement and euphoria flows through jacks body. Unable to control himself, Jack tightly grabs ahold of tommys hand and throws himself through the swirling portal. He barely feels the nausea churning in his stomach, too overcome with joy to feel anything other than pure happiness. When the portal spits him and tommy out into the overworld he feels a weight being lifted off his shoulders, no longer being held down by the thick ash of the nether air.
But it’s not as perfect as it seems, Jack’s skin burns, even with the protection of his gold armour. He sheiks in pain and discomfort and he rushes underneath shelter and the pain ceases. Tommy looks at him funny and pulls him back out from underneeth the tree, seemingly making fun of the blaze hybrid. Exept jack only shrieks again and “ohh, it’s the rain.” Tommy thinks to himself. Tommy quickly hides with Jack in a neerby village and spends the next few days learning to understand his new friend. Tommy finds it easier to understand Jack’s home language than jack does Tommys, especially since Jack is seemingly a much better teacher than tommy is, holding a lot more patience for the younger boy. Tommy actually finds it rather fun speaking blaze, he enjoys the way the words roll of his tounge and makes his voice sound funny. Tommy offers Jack a place to live back at what he and his friends called “spawn” and Jack happily accepts, just excited to explore this new world with his new friend. He’s never really had a friend before, but he relishes in the way tommy laughs freely at his jokes. He feels at home here amongst the grass and the open feilds, even if the rivers do make his skin itch and the rain burns his scalp.
Jack’s life is only just beginning, and he can’t wait to see where the wind takes him next.