"It's a beautiful day," said Steve.

"What do you mean by that?"

Well, he was sitting on a hill with the sun warm on his back, wind in his hair and cooling the sweat on his neck. There was a dry sleepy sound of leaves stirring on the trees downhill from his spot. The sun's radiating power, which was death to the undead, seemed to hold him in a warm embrace.

"The sun is an impassive ball of fire spinning around in the void," said Herobrine. Steve opened his eyes and looked at his half-brother sprawled on his face next to him.
"Doesn't keep you from enjoying a nice sunbathe, does it?" Herobrine said nothing. "Why do you have to be such a grouch lately, anyway?"
"I'm not a grouch, I am a scientist."
"Yikes!" gasped Steve mockingly, falling over into the grass. "Well, good luck. I also consider myself a scientist."
"There are things you don't think about. That's wise. But also foolish." Steve squinted at him over the dandelions. "I am being slightly melodramatic."
"Want a cookie?"
"Yes." Steve dug around in his pack. "Er… I thought we had more than this."
"Did you eat them all?"
"Nearly." he held out a cookie. Herobrine broke off half of it.

They rested for another half-hour, then Herobrine stood and dusted himself off, carefully avoiding the bruises, and flicked a braid that had fallen over his forehead back into place. "Think you're ready?" Steve looked down at the trees. Darkness hung under the tangled branches. He thought he could see movement.
"Yeah." he stood slowly, testing his weight. His left pants leg was bloodied and a fresh bandage showed through a tear above the knee.
"Sure you'll be able to walk alright?"
"Yeah, it's not serious."
"It better not be." Herobrine liked to complain about the slowness of decoding the lost knowledge of his family's wizards and the fact that he supposedly didn't know any "safe" offensive magic, but when Steve had been whacked from behind by a zombie carrying a shovel he had done something that sent its head flying through the air. Steve was pretty sure he saw it come down in a clearing fifty feet away, in pieces, smoking. Herobrine had seemed even more startled about this than Steve, so he hadn't asked about it. "Lean on this," said Herobrine, picking up the staff that had lain in the grass near him. Steve held it warily. "It doesn't bite, Steve."
"I know." Herobrine had been holding it after the strange event involving the zombie. Neither of them knew who it had belonged to, which was another reason Steve didn't trust it. Several months before, Herobrine had found it standing in an outbuilding, dull with dust but in good condition underneath, and decided to adopt it for himself. He thought it was a family relic of some sort. But he also thought that it "didn't like him." Which did not give Steve good feelings about using it like a walking stick. But then, he didn't have good feelings about being able to make it down the hill without falling on his face, either. He placed the end of the staff on the ground and leaned on it. Nothing terrible happened. They moved downhill, into the shaded light of the trees.

The sun had become too bright for zombies to safely walk even under the trees, and they had either retreated into caves or burned. The brothers passed a charred form lying at the bottom of the hill, and Herobrine stopped to kick the bones apart and spread all the tissues in the sun. Sometimes the burned zombies weren't quite dead enough and jumped up again at nightfall. He kicked the skull along in front of him through the leaves for quite some distance. He stopped, with a disgusted noise, when his foot sank through the tissue at the bottom of the jaw and stuck. "Doing alright, Steve?"
"Yeah. It doesn't seem to mind me."
"We need to stop acting like the stick has a brain. It'll get uppity."
"I detect some things wrong with that sentence."
"I detect some things wrong with your face."
Steve sighed. "Ad hominem. Invalid."
"Your face is invalid."

They had originally been heading for a safe house farther away over the hills, but they had lost time dealing with Steve's injury, and now were traveling more slowly. They changed direction and arrived at a farm in an open valley just as the western sky began to redden. But the fields were deserted and the house was strangely silent. When Herobrine rang the bell hanging by the door there was no response. "Do you think they're gone?"
"Can't be, not permanently." Steve nodded at the cows standing placidly in a nearby pen. Herobrine's eyes narrowed.
"He's got them penned. That's not usual for this time of year."
"Well, he could be checking them for disease. Or perhaps he's going to sell some."
"Huh." Herobrine rang again. A window shot up on the second floor and a bow and arrow appeared and then promptly disappeared.
"Oh, it's you two! I thought something was chewing on the bell-pull again. I expect you're lost again?"
"No, this time we intended to come this way," said Herobrine, craning his head back. "Where is everyone?"
"Gone. We're pulling out. I expect you've heard about Lost Pine?"
"Someone said they were having trouble, but we didn't stay to hear the end of the story."
"Completely overrun. I sent the wife and helpers away soon as I heard. Someone's coming up later in the week to buy the cattle, that's the only reason I'm waiting."
"So you're leaving?" said Steve.
"Yup. Can't sell seeds to zombies, and there's no room for us at Hiré, even if it weren't so damned hard to get to from here. We'll stay with my wife's family in the city for a while."
"I'm sorry," said Steve.
The man shrugged. "Always thought it was going to happen, you know. I'm just surprised it didn't come earlier. And anyway, you've got a new safe house now. You want a cheese? I've got a cheese that didn't fit in the luggage and I'm not carrying it with me when I leave. Hold on, I'll let you in." he left the window and there was a clatter as he put down his weapons.
"Well, now we know," said Herobrine.
"I'm going to miss them."
"Me too."
"So—what are we going to do now? He'll be dead, or gone." Herobrine looked at him.
"There is a third option."
They were interrupted by the door opening.

A/N: So I didn't realize there was a National Brother's Day, but apparently it was yesterday, so I decided to finish this chapter up as a (late) tribute. Hey look, it's human!Steve and Brine having adventures together!