Chapter 17. Friend or foe?

POV: Blue Flame

It was another boring day in my workshop. Ever since the outsiders took our red forest with most of our striders, I couldn't make fire resistance potions anymore, or at least not so much, since the main ingredient for them is the milk of the striders. They shouldn't even know about our existence since we rarely trade with them, they usually prefer to do business with those brutes in the bastion.

If I think more carefully, they did invite us to come under their protection, but we refused since we didn't have any dangerous monsters around here. The brutes were more in danger than us, since beside them was a blue forest, home of Endermans, and the fortress taken over by the outsiders on the other side.

And us refusing them, probably made them mad enough to sell us to the outsiders. Those bastards would sell even their brother for gold.

As I was just sitting bored and thinking about what to do for the rest of the day, a clash in the next room got my attention. With a sigh, I stood up and checked what happened.

"It's you again! Can't you stay out of trouble for one minute!"

A small hoglin looked back at me with a confused expression. Then just went back to headbutting the chest. I had to quickly stop him in case he somehow manages to break it, and then make a bomb with wooden bowls and glass bottles.

While the dimensional poket was extremely useful, it could be dangerous if it broke and had items inside.

The perpetrator for this mess was Hog Chop, a gift from my dear friend Undying Flame. She randomly chose to give this to me, to not complain about boredom anymore or something similar.

I didn't like him the first time I put my eyes on him, I mean who ever heard of rising a hoglin as a pet? They were wild creatures to fear and respect, not to cuddle in your arms.

But the Flame didn't take no for an answer. She was always stubborn like this, and that's why she's the chief of the tribe now.

So with a sigh, I decided to keep it, but as a sign of opposition, I named him Hog Chop, which I think he somehow understood the meaning, and looked very angry at me ever since.

I took him in my arms and feed him some Nether wart which he gladly took. While I was thinking about how to deal with the little guy the front door of my house was abruptly opened, then as quickly as it opened, it was closed again.

"Blue! Where are you?"

It was my dear old friend the Chief.

"I'm here Flame! What's the hurry, did someone got shot with an arrow again? "

I said that in a bored voice while I entered the main room with Flame looking lost on what to do, which was a rare sight.

"No Blue. I just met some outsiders in our forest again, but this time they were chased by a group of Hoglins. So I decided to save them, so more won't come to investigate their death. But once I saved them, they said that they weren't with the ones from the fortress."

She then took a pause to breathe.

"Do you know what that means? It means that another portal got opened! And they even want to trade with us!"

I was surprised by the sudden wave of information and also worried the implications of that.

"Ok wait! So there's another portal open?! Did someone else figure out how to break obsidian, I don't know if that's good or bad news."

"And there's more! And the actual reason I've come to you in the first place. One of them called me Piglin."

I froze when I heard that. That was an ancient name we named ourselves after the great war, there's not much information from that time, but the great war was so destructive, that the Nether was created as the aftermath. I don't know what we fought, or even if we won, but that was the name chosen for the people stuck in here.

But with time, we started to split, we started to fight for resources, and started to forget about our history, I only know about this because I like to study in general and stumbled on this from an old, torn manuscript.

It was shocking history for me, and I shared it with my friend Flame.

"What exactly did he tell you?

"He told me that in one of his travels, he found a ruin that had information about us and that we liked to trade for gold."

"Hmm, I think he found the ruins of the first expedition that got here a few hundred years ago. They did stop visiting us not too long after unfortunately. I'm wondering what destroyed such an advanced civilization, I read that they had enchanted diamond equipment."

"So what should we do with them? I brought them here because they want to trade with gold."

"Are you crazy! Why did you bring them here? What if they will endanger our tribe?"

"That's why I brought them here. I want you to look at them, and if they're going to be a problem we're going to end their journey here."

She said that with a cold voice that made me shiver.

But I understand why she did that. Ever since I was little I had a special ability that allows me to see the truth. It was a rare ability even in my old tribe, which unfortunately is no more. I was lucky enough to be adopted into this tribe as a child when I was lost and hopeless.

"Ok then, bring them here."

She nodded and walked towards the door.

Meanwhile, I was thinking about how I should greet them. And after I looked at my arms I got an idea.

Not too long after the two strangers came in. They wore iron armor typical to the outsider, but theirs was not enchanted which made me admire their breviary or stupidity.

But even if they wore the same armor there was a big distinction between them. One of them had a big nose similar to those in the fortress, while the other one didn't have a nose at all, he somehow looked similar to us than to his companion.

But you could feel that he was not from here, he had an unique aura surrounding him.

I didn't stare for too much, because I started my genius plan. Be as mysterious as possible and scare them a bit.

Unfortunately, my plan was completely thrown into the lava, by my pet Hog Chop who decided suddenly that he doesn't like pets anymore. Which made me angry and I lost my temper for a bit.

I quickly calmed myself down, and casually started the conversation with our guests but ended it with a heavy request. I used my ability and some pressure to show how serious the request was.

It worked, they didn't have any intention to endanger the tribe.

Then I went back to a more casual tone and decided to test their knowledge of how valuable gold is here.

Surprisingly, it was not a lot. I started with double the price for all the items and they accepted it after a bit of thought.

I don't think they know that golden armor has the passive ability to cool you down once worn. The outsiders don't wear them since it's much more expensive and less durable than the iron ones.

I already started to feel bad for them, they only came here for alchemy ingredients. And I respect the pursuit of knowledge and hard work.

So I invited Bobby with me to exchange some recipes and hopefully get some information about the other world.

And I was not disappointed. Their world has much more resources than ours, and a bigger variety of potions than I could imagine. A potion to make you invisible, stronger, or faster.

Those would be very sought anywhere in the Nether, the only downside is the system limit.

This made me more eager to trade with them, they had so many items that could make our lives much easier. But we didn't have too much to trade with them, brewing ingredients were good, but not enough to get stacks of iron or enchanted books.

I tried to find out the location of the portal from him, but he was pretty secretive about it, but he told me some surprising information.

"Don't bother to find the portal, you can't come to our world anyway."

"Hmm, what do you mean?"

"Trader told me that once a creature from here comes into our world, they'll become a monster. I don't know if this applies to you as well, but I wouldn't like to risk it."

"Your friend the Trader, he was also the one that wanted to trade in the first place right?"

"Yes, he was the one who had the guts to make that request in the first place."

He was either trying to scare me into not trying to go into their world, or he was trying to warn me.

I tried to ask him about his friend, but he told me he didn't know too much either, and what he did know he wasn't willing to share. But he did warn me of him.

"Don't try to make an enemy out of him. He's much more capable than he looks like, and if you respect him, he'll give you a pleasant surprise from time to time."

He said that with a vague smile.

That made me think how mysterious this person was, I hope that my friend Undying Flame was handling him well.

I then got back to a more casual conversation and exchanged some tips on brewing. I could see he was passionate about this subject, he studied a lot for it, and whenever I said something, he paid maximum attention to every word I said.

I had a pleasant time with him, but every good moment has to come to an end. So after a few hours, I gave him the ingredients he came for in the first place and went back into the main room.

There Flame and Trader were discussing something so intensely that they didn't even see us coming.

"Uh... Undying Flame, what happened?"

Both of them jumped when I spoke.

"Blue Flame! When did you guys get here?"

"Not too long ago, but you two were too preoccupied with something else to see us. So what was so serious?"

She hesitated a bit but responded quickly.

"I told him about the incident with the forest."

I opened my eyes wide open at that. If she told him about that incident, that means she wants to involve them in our plan to recuperate it. And it's surprising since we just recently meet them.

But then Trader spoke:

"Bobby, we need to make a decision together for this. Can we get some privacy?"