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Tommy was pretty sure he was hallucinating.
Or imagining things, or something.
Because there was absolutely no reason why someone would’ve built a house in the End.
There were the End Cities, the whole reason he was here in the first place, but those were ruins, wrecks of some past civilization that was stupid enough to try to live in the most hostile place ever.
Not that it was much of a problem for him, really.
Tommy had been sent into the End to grab some elytra, since his wings meant he could get up to the ships pretty easily, and more importantly without needing an elytra of his own.
It made it really easy to get people to pay him to do this stuff, honestly. And he didn’t mind it, he was pretty good at avoiding the Endermen and Shulkers-
He shook his head. Okay, focus.
There was a house in the End.
Why was there a house in the End?
Even just discounting the void, and general lack of any resources, there was also the Endermen that were well, endless in the endstone islands that made up the End.
All in all, one of the worst places to build a house ever. At least the Nether had some good stuff, like Warped Forests.
Tommy squinted at the house from where he was standing on the bow of an End Ship.
It didn’t look like it was made out of endstone, or purpur.
Huh. That meant that whoever had built it must’ve brought stuff from the Overworld, specifically to build a house here.
Or, maybe they’d managed to get trapped, and just happened to have the stuff with them? But that didn’t even make sense, because firstly who would bring stuff to build a house into the End if that wasn’t their plan, and secondly it was pretty easy to get back from the Outer End Islands, you just needed elytra or an Ender Pearl-
Tommy cut off his own train of thought. Whoever’s house is was had definitely came here and built it on purpose.
But why? Again, the End really sucked as a place to live, so-
Tommy grinned as he realized something.
He could always go and ask.
It wasn’t like he needed to be back all that soon, and he’d already managed to find three elytra, rolled up and put into his bag, so he was honestly probably fine to take a bit of detour to investigate the house.
And besides, whoever had decided to build a house in the End, of all places, had to be a pretty interesting person.
Tommy stretched out his wings, making a face at the lack of wind, or even a breeze. He’d been to the End a lot before, sure, but he never got used to how still the place was.
It was super weird, honestly. He knew it was cause of the void, and that the void was due to magic and also the Ender Dragon, before it’d been killed, but it was still weird.
It’d only been ten or so years since the Dragon was killed, of course, so there was a chance of things changing, but Tommy didn’t think it was all that likely.
He stepped off the bow of the ship, snapping out his wings to catch himself. It required a bit more effort to fly in the End, especially since he didn’t bother with bringing rockets with him, but it wasn’t hard enough to be a problem.
Tommy got a better view of the house as he got closer.
Dark wood, with what looked like purple glazed terracotta making up a lot of the accents, as well as some other blocks he didn’t bother trying to identify. He wasn’t that much of a builder, honestly.
The thing that really caught his attention about the house, though, was the greenhouse that he could see tucked into the back of it.
So that was how whoever built this was surviving out here. Tommy had thought they might’ve been taking trips back to the Overworld, but honestly? It made sense that someone who went to the effort of building a house out here had also gone to the effort of bringing their own food supply.
Though he did have to wonder if they still took trips for meat and stuff, since it wasn’t like it’d be easy to raise animals out here. Though, to be fair, it wasn’t like it was strictly necessary to eat meat.
Tommy tucked his wings in as he landed a short distance from the house.
He tilted his head. Huh. Someone had gone through the effort of placing down paths. There was one leading a short distance from the front door, ending abruptly, and one leading back to the greenhouse.
The one back to the greenhouse made sense, but Tommy really wondered what was up with the one that just went a bit out into the rest of the island, before stopping. It wasn’t like the End was that pleasant of a place to walk around.
He shrugged. Eh, for all he knew the person who lived here was fine with walking around the End. They’d chosen to live here, after all.
As he started to walk up the path to the door, it occurred to Tommy that the path could also be because of visitors. But that made even less sense. Who would be visiting someone out in the End?
Well, he was doing that, but he meant normal people. Normal people did not go to the End if they could at all help it.
Tommy got to the door, and then hesitated. Should he knock?
He then remember that hesitation was for losers, anyway, and knocked on the door.
Or, well, hit the door a few times with his hand. Knocking implied that he was being polite about it, which he was not. He wasn’t polite about anything, really.
The door opened, and Tommy tilted his head.
Huh. Not what he had been expecting.
There was a phantom hybrid standing in front of him, the edges of his body blurring into his surroundings. The outline of his wings were just barely visible, the thin membranes hanging off his back. He had brown hair, as well as silver eyes, which Tommy hadn’t actually seen on someone before.
Tommy thought for a moment. Actually, it kind of made sense a phantom hybrid was living out here, considering how badly they tended to handle sunlight. Most of them just lived a nocturnal lifestyle, but apparently this guy had decided to do something different.
Which, fair enough, it wasn’t like Tommy was going to judge-
“What are you doing here?” The phantom hybrid asked, his voice tinged with confusion.
Tommy grinned “Saw this house, and wanted to come check it out, big man! Pretty neat that you’re living out here, really, your house is really poggers-“
He was going to continue rambling, but he was cut off.
“Wait. You seriously saw our house, and decided to just, drop by?” The man asked, sounding like this was one of the strangest things he’d ever heard.
Tommy nodded, and then realized the guy had said ‘our’.
“Our? There’s more of you living out here, are they also phantom hybrids? I meant that’d make sense, I know you have that thing with sunlight.” Tommy said, trying to look past the guy into the rest of the house.
The man shifted slightly to block his view, and Tommy pouted. He wasn’t even trying to go into the house, just look!
The man looked at Tommy for a moment, before sighing “You’re not going to leave unless I answer, are you?”
“Nope!”
Another sigh.
“Okay, sure, why not?” The man said, confusing Tommy slightly, before he moved to the side and gestured for Tommy to come inside.
“C’mon, might as well have this conversation inside.”
Tommy grinned, before stepping into the house “Thanks big man, knew you were going to be interesting to talk to-“
He cut himself off in favor of looking around at the house. The inside was a lot like the outside, dark wood with purple accents, but there was also touches of blue, gold, and red in the decorations and furniture, something which Tommy enjoyed. He loved it when people didn’t bother to stick to a ‘theme’ in their decorations, and just went for whatever they liked.
He could tell that a lot of the stuff had been picked out by different people, and that a lot of it was handmade. Which made sense, since these people lived in the End.
He spun to face the phantom hybrid again “Oh yeah, what’s your name big man? Mine’s Tommy, end explorer extraordinaire!” He waved his hand in a small flourish.
Technically, he did explore the End quite a lot, even if it was mostly from the air.
The man laughed, and Tommy grinned.
“I’m Wilbur, and I don’t have a title ready, unfortunately.”
Tommy nodded, a knowing look on his face “Makes sense, not everyone knows how to make an impression like me-“
Wilbur spluttered, pointing a finger at Tommy “I know how to make an impression! Most people don’t just have a ready to go introduction with a fun title at the drop of a hat-“
“Sounds like a you problem, big man.” Tommy said with a shrug.
Wilbur glared at him for a moment, before sighing “Whatever. C’mon, let’s go sit down, since you’re refusing to leave without a story.”
Tommy grinned. Technically, he was more refusing to leave before he knew who lived here, but it was really the same thing, so.
Wilbur led him into a small living room, comfy chairs lining the walls. He sat down in one, Tommy immediately claiming the one next to him and throwing his legs across the armrest, before leaning his head back so he was looking at Wilbur. He was mildly careful to make sure his wings didn’t get smushed, though probably not as much as he should’ve been, based on the slight tug he felt on his feathers.
Tommy felt the blood rush to his head as he hung upside down, but he was pretty used to the feeling from flying, and also from the fact that he sat like this a lot.
Wilbur looked amused, and Tommy was pretty sure it was in a nice way, so that was good.
It would suck if Wilbur turned out to be annoying.
“So, you wanted to know who lives here, besides me?” He said.
Tommy grinned “Yep! It’s gotta be an interesting story, why you’re living out here.”
Wilbur chuckled “Not really. Like you said, sunlight, and as for Techno and Phil, well.”
He paused for a moment, seemingly thinking. Tommy took this oppurtunity to look pleadingly at him.
“It’s not really my story to tell, but Techno didn’t want the attention, and Phil…doesn’t really have a choice.”
Tommy pouted. He wanted to hear the story! Also, it was slightly worrying that ‘Phil’ didn’t have a choice, according to Wilbur. That didn’t really sound like something that would happen unless Phil was dangerous.
But Wilbur didn’t seem dangerous, or malicious, and he liked Phil, so. It was probably fine.
Instead of voicing any of that, Tommy asked a question “Didn’t want the attention?”
Wilbur hummed lightly “Let’s just say he was a bit famous.”
Tommy frowned, his eyebrows drawing together.
He hadn’t heard of anyone called Techno before, but the way Wilbur was talking about him, he’d been famous enough that Tommy should’ve heard of him. If he was hiding out in the End, of all places, he had to be pretty damn well-known-
“Wil. Why is there a child here?” A new voice cut in.
Tommy sat up, twisting in his chair to glare at whoever it was.
“I’m not a child, bitch, I’m old enough to be out in the End-!”
He blinked.
Standing in the doorway was a piglin hybrid, red eyes looking at Tommy intently. He was well-muscled, and looked like he could easily take almost anyone in a fight, an easy grace to his stance. The thing that really stood out, though, was the pink hair braided down his back.
Pink hair. Piglin hybrid.
Tommy’s eyes widened. That was definitely the fucking Blood God what the fuck-
He turned back to look at Wilbur “You could’ve fucking said that the fucking Blood God was here-!”
The Blood God had been the one who’d killed the Ender Dragon. He’d disappeared just after the battle, telling a few people the Dragon wasn’t a threat anymore, before seemingly going into hiding, for whatever reason.
A lot of people thought he’d died, by this point.
Tommy had been one of those people.
But no, apparently he had been living in the End this entire fucking time.
“I hate that title.” The Blood God said.
Wilbur rolled his eyes “I know, Tech, but you really can’t blame the kid-“
“I can and I will.”
Tommy took a moment to think about the fact that the Blood God was apparently who Wilbur had been talking about when he’d said ‘Techno’ didn’t want the attention.
The Blood God had disappeared because he didn’t want to be famous.
Tommy snorted. Okay, that was a little funny.
The Blood God, Techno, narrowed his eyes, and Tommy realized his amusement had been noticed.
“Something funny?”
Tommy had never been one to think things through before, and he wasn’t going to start now.
“Yeah, you. You don’t want fame so badly you’re hiding out here? Dude, maybe you should’ve thought about that before you killed the Ender Dragon-“
Techno froze for a moment.
Tommy frowned.
That…was a weird reaction. He hadn’t looked satisfied, or even scared, just- guilty.
Guilty?
Tommy’s eyes widened. Oh there was no fucking way-
“You didn’t kill it?” He screeched, and Wilbur burst into laughter next to him.
“Oh, nice going Tech, can’t even keep it from him for a minute-“
Techno glared at Wilbur “This is why we don’t just bring random people into the house-“
They kept arguing, about whether the slip-up was Techno’s fault for being a shit secret keeper, or Wilbur’s fault for bringing a random teenager into their house.
Tommy, for his part, was trying to figure out what the fuck had happened, if Techno hadn’t killed it.
The Ender Dragon definitely wasn’t an issue anymore. Which meant something had to have happened to it.
Had someone else killed it? But no, people had tried before Techno and failed, he’d been the only one strong and fast enough.
It wouldn’t have just left, that didn’t even make sense-
“-seriously, Phil’s going to find this hilarious-“ Wilbur said, drawing Tommy’s attention back to the conversation.
Right, there was another person who lived here. Tommy was almost scared to find out who Phil was, considering the fact that the Blood God had been the other person Wilbur mentioned.
Techno narrowed his eyes “We cannot have the kid here when he gets back.”
He sounded oddly serious. Most of the argument had been light, even with the topic, but now Techno sounded like what he was saying was truly important.
Wilbur rolled his eyes “We can too-“
“Wil. We absolutely cannot, have you looked at the kid?”
Tommy glared at Techno. What was that supposed to mean-
Wilbur was silent for a moment.
“Okay maybe you have a point.”
Tommy twisted to glare at him, as well.
“What does that mean, bitch?”
“Don’t worry about-“ Techno started to say, before Wilbur cut him off.
“You can fly and also look a lot like Phil, so. He’s gonna be weird about it. Gods know he was when I showed up.” Wilbur said with a small shrug.
Techno let out a harsh sigh “You’re gonna freak the kid out-“
Tommy was, in fact, freaked out. What the fuck did Wilbur even mean? How was he gonna be weird about it, also why was the fact that Tommy could fly relevant-?
The door opened, and all three of them froze.
Techno made a small noise of displeasure, while Wilbur sighed.
“Too late now.”
Tommy was really tempted to grab him by the shoulders and demand an explanation, but unfortunately, Phil showed up before he could.
Techno moved into the living room so that Phil could come in as well, giving Tommy a good view of the man.
They had the same color hair. And Tommy could see why Wilbur had said him being able to fly mattered, now.
Phil had large black wings on his back, though they weren’t feathered, instead smooth, almost like a bat hybrid’s, but they weren’t. Bay hybrids had smaller wings, and they weren’t quite as smooth-
Tommy froze as the man’s vibrant purple eyes locked onto him.
Oh.
“And who might you be?” Phil said, something curling at the edges of his voice, something which felt heavy, magical.
Tommy could see the scales scattered across the man’s cheeks, the sharp edges to his teeth.
This was- there was no fucking way.
He was wrong.
“…Tommy.” He answered, before promptly closing his mouth.
He’d been right about Phil being dangerous.
And Gods, his name was Phil, was this a joke-?
“Tommy.” The man repeated, before looking at Wilbur.
Tommy turned to look too, and saw that Wilbur was smiling.
“He just showed up, so. And Techno already spilled the beans on the whole Ender Dragon thing, didn’t even take him a whole minute-“
Techno mimed strangling Wilbur, causing Wilbur to break off into a laugh.
Tommy felt a laugh bubble up in his throat and get stuck.
Phil tilted his head “Oh. Well, that’s okay.”
“It was more than a minute, Wil’s a liar.” Techno said, apparently still feeling the need to defend himself.
Phil hummed lightly, just like Wilbur had earlier, before looking back at Tommy.
“Mate, you have to be tired if you’ve been out exploring the End. Why don’t you stay for a bit?”
It was phrased like a request, a polite one even.
There was also a possessive edge to it, and Tommy got the feeling he was not meant to refuse.
And like hell he was going to get into an argument with the fucking Ender Dragon-
“Okay.” He said, already thinking through plans for getting out of here. It couldn’t be that hard.
Phil smiled, and Tommy felt his own mouth pull into one without his input.
“Great! I’ll make up some tea.”
Phil left the room, and Tommy immediately whirled on Wilbur and Techno.
“That’s the fucking Ender Dragon-“ He hissed, glaring at both of them.
Wilbur shrugged “Yep. It’s also Phil, who’s weird as hell but nice. You’ll get used to him.”
Tommy was starting to feel like Wilbur had something wrong with him. He was acting like this was normal, when it really, really wasn’t.
He looked to Techno, hoping for something a bit more helpful.
“We fought to a standstill, and then he turned- well, into how he looks now. Said he’d stop trying to kill people if I came with him, so. He’s nice.” Techno said, his voice flat.
Tommy looked at the both of them with disbelief.
This was so fucking weird.
“Okay, well, have fun with that, I’m leaving-“ He started to say, before Wilbur cut him off, a bit of pity on his face.
“Yeah, not going to work, sorry Tommy.”
Tommy glared “And why wouldn’t it-“
Techno sighed “Ender Dragon, remember?”
Tommy geared himself up to yell, but-
Right. The void. And the End itself. They were tied to the Ender Dragon, and its magic.
Phil was the Ender Dragon.
If he didn’t want Tommy to leave, he wasn’t getting out of here.
Tommy slumped, back into his chair.
Great.
Just great.
Wilbur pat him on the head.
Annoyingly, it was actually kind of comforting.
“It’ll be okay, and you’ll get used to him.” He said, his voice fond.
Techno nodded, before adding “It’s really not so bad, living out here.”
Tommy glared at the wall.
This fucking sucked.