The first day mostly consisted of Jesse and Lukas gathering materials, with Jesse holding her sword at the ready and making sure nothing snuck up on Lukas or her while he was up in a tree collecting wood or stone or redstone or whatever material he randomly remembered while harvesting. Occasionally they'd switch and Jesse would collect some materials.

These occasions, Jesse noticed, usually involved climbing very high up into a tall tree or crawling into small areas that Lukas would be unable to squeeze into. Sebby kept up a rather consistent flow of chatter whenever Jesse and Lukas weren't awkwardly exchanging words.

Awkwardly.

So between Jesse asking Lukas questions about his curse that he never actually outright answered...

"How'd you get your curse exactly? Why'd a witch curse you?" Jesse asked, while trying not to outright die from where she was winding around a tree and tugging at branches carefully.

"Oh, uh... you know..."

Jesse turned to stare blankly at the blonde boy, who was really just a yellow speck on the ground from how high up she was in this tree at this point. She waited a few moments for an answer, but when it seemed that no more was forthcoming, she simply called back down, "No, I don't know. That's why I asked."

An awkward cough floated up to where Jesse was snapping this branch off the tree. Thankfully, it came off easily- otherwise Jesse would've had to yank harder or use her sword, and goodness knows how many mishaps you can have when you're who-knows-how-high-up in a tree with a sharp object. "Uh... you know. The main reason most witches curse people nowadays, I guess."

"I really, really doubt that, Lukas. You're pretty nice to people, so I can't see a witch getting annoyed enough at you that she- or he, I guess," Jesse added quickly, because there were a few male witches, if not that many, "would curse you."

When there was no answer, Jesse looked back down at the ground again. She couldn't see Lukas directly, but she was pretty sure that the little yellow blob on the ground had turned a faint shade of pink as well. And it definitely wasn't Reuben, since he was a distinct pink dot next to Lukas.

"Are you blushing?" she shouted down to him.

Yes, Jesse. How sensitive and kind you are.

"Ye-" Sebby's high-pitched voice was promptly cut off by a loud "NO" from Lukas.

Jesse had to hide a grin at that. Easy to do when you're about twenty feet taller than the guy you're trying to hide it from.

... and Lukas awkwardly coming up with weird trivia questions like Olivia would ask and randomly asking them while collecting materials...

"So if your house caught on fire and you'd have to save one thing in it, what would you save?"

Jesse didn't even have to think about this question to know the answer. Nor did she pause to wonder why Lukas was now randomly asking this question- this was the fourth time he'd done this today. "Reuben."

Reuben gave a rather pleased oink at her answer.

"Okay but if Reuben and Axel and Olivia weren't in there." Lukas glanced over his shoulder, peeking blue eyes over Sebby as Sebby lounged on Lukas's shoulder. He was being rather careful not to accidentally whack his own hand with the pickaxe in it.

"... my bookshelf, with my books in it. I'd throw it out the window."

Sebby promptly made a sound that sounded remarkably like a snort at this answer. Lukas absentmindedly reached up and pinched Sebby's face, cutting the snort off into a muffled, incoherent protest. A few moments later, he released it and gave Jesse an odd smile. "Would your bookshelf fit through the window?"

"... myself? There's really not that much in my house that I couldn't just craft again."

Lukas gave an understanding hum. "Yeah, that's fair."

"I'd jump out the window too, though. I'm not going to climb down a ladder hoping it's not already starting to burn when my house is on fire."

Lukas promptly whipped back around making a sound that was a mix between a sneeze, a cough, and a hysterical laugh, resuming mining away at the tiny piece of redstone that he'd found in the wall with a little more zeal than really necessary.

... it wasn't exactly what one would consider too awkward.

Nighttime fell, and Jesse stacked the iron door in front and let out a satisfied sigh at the wood and stone that now made up the front door- mainly because wood looked more friendly than all stone. And there was also a very nice piece of redstone that was above the door. Jesse'd always liked the color red. It could make things look quite cheerful.

Or violent.

At least she could hear that most of the weird mobs were outside and not inside.

"Okay... let's see, we've got a few redstone pieces left, we have a crap ton of coal and sticks so we've got plenty to make torches," Lukas muttered, checking through the materials that they'd managed to collect through the day, "and... uh, looks like we found a few random pieces of flint and iron. I guess we could make some extra flints and steels..."

The very words that he spoke made Jesse shiver a little bit. No. No thank you. Nothing that could set her on fire easily, thank you very much. Torches were bad enough, but they were necessary. No thank you to flints and steels.

"Uhh, why not make weapons instead? It never hurts to have some extra arrows or swords or whatever," she offered, already feeling her heart speed up from where it was nestled in that pocket at her chest. "And I bet some of the others don't have weapons- it's not like they'd have time to, what with wandering around trying to find Magnus and Ellegaard."

Lukas's expression changed from thoughtful to almost enlightened. A smile crept over his face. "Oh yeah. And we could make bows and arrows. Long-range weapons would be good." He glanced at the darkening sky through the window of the iron door, frowning thoughtfully. "Hmm... I guess one of us should keep watch in case one of them comes back?"

"You go craft stuff or get some sleep- we can trade off in a few hours," Jesse said, giving him a reassuring grin and pulling out the golden sword Petra had given her back at Endercon. "I've got stuff handled here."

The blonde hesitated, blue eyes meeting her own green ones. "Are you sure? I can stay here with you for a bit." His voice had softened into concern and that tone that she still couldn't quite identify yet.

Jesse gave him a friendly thumbs' up, making Lukas's lips quirk up into a wry smile. "Yeah. Just come back in..." Jesse considered the time for a moment, knowing that there was a clock in the main lab where she assumed Lukas'd be working. "Three hours?"

"Two," Lukas countered, Sebby's head turning to look at Lukas out of sheer amusement at the faintly argumentative tone in the blonde's voice. (Reuben seemed amused as well, although Jesse really couldn't tell why for the life of her.)

"You need sleep too," he amended, when he noticed Jesse's raised eyebrow.

Well, two could play at this game.

"Two and a half."

"Two and a quarter," he insisted.

"Two and a half or I'm staying up all night," Jesse said, jokingly shaking her sword at him in a mock-threatening way. She'd pulled all-nighters before. She knew she could do it.

Lukas huffed out a falsely indignant laugh. "All right, all right, you win. But two and a half hours. Not one more second than 150 minutes even," he said, pointing at her and arching his eyebrow at her.

Jesse rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mother," she teased.

Lukas slapped her on the back almost playfully, forcing a little giggle out of her, and he gave her a returned huff of laughter before heading back down the corridor, clicking heels on stone fading away after a few moments, leaving Jesse with a torch in the doorway, a peephole through the window, Reuben curled up at her feet, and the fairytale book tucked in her pocket.

Reuben shot a look at her that, she was surprised to realize, she couldn't understand. That was weird. Usually she could identify every look that Reuben gave her and every meaning he was trying to give her through his eyes and face. But this one was new.

"What?"

He stared at her, Jesse looking back at him for a few moments. "It's... it's not weird that I'm being friendly with Lukas? You're okay with it?" she asked him hesitantly, after a moment or two.

Reuben shook his head a little, although he did give an oink to indicate that something she'd said was right.

"Uh, is it about Lukas then?"

Oink yes.

"Oh. Uh... what about Lukas?"

It took Reuben several seconds to finally snort and just butt his head up against her leg, cuddling into his owner with a sound that sounded suspiciously like his version of a 'Never mind'.

Maybe it wasn't important then?

Several moments of silence lapsed into minutes, which lapsed into an hour.

The moans of zombies penetrated the iron door, the occasional monster with rotted flesh ambling towards the door before losing interest and wandering away.

Occasionally there was the hiss of a creeper or the clatter of a skeleton's bones, but for the most part the night was oddly silent.

Jesse had long lost the fear of hearing monsters outside her home- they always were outside. It's that sort of thing you got used to and yet kept an eye on just because... well, getting too familiar with monsters can get you killed.

So, she wasn't really worried about hearing the monsters roaming around outside of the Order's temple, making low moans or hisses accompanied by a series of four feet padding against grass or the click of bone against nothing but bone and the creeping sounds of spiders.

And without any real worry, there was absolutely nothing to break the monotony of the sounds outside.

In fact, it wasn't until around the last three minutes of Jesse's 'shift' that she heard something out of the ordinary. She strained to hear it, hearing the groans and clattering and the hissing and the strangled hisses of spiders being cut off by... footsteps? Pounding footsteps on grass. Like somebody was running.

The occasional yelp or screech or angry gurgle of a monster as metal swished through the air, followed by a resounding poof that drowned out more monster noises.

Jesse pressed her face into the little window, feeling the iron press into her face a little as her green eyes darted around, searching for the sources of the sounds that broke the monotony of the night. At first, there was nothing, except for a few zombies roaming around and that spider scaling a wall and that dark shadow emerging at the corner of her peripheral vision from the forest-

Hang on.

Jesse's eyes snapped back to the dark shadow, who was beginning to crunch through foliage and really make noise, before bursting into the clearing and racing for the door. It was still too dark to make out any distinguishing features, although the moonlight was beginning to reflect off of some of the choppy, short hair that looked like it had been cut with a sword.

The choppy, short, red hair that looked like it had been cut with a sword.

Jesse pressed into the iron door a little more, dark blue and pale blue and white and black vest and brown boots beginning to show in the light of the torch they'd set outside-

"Petra?"

This came out as a whisper, before Jesse abruptly jerked away from the window, making Reuben squeal in surprise as her leg suddenly moved away from him, fingers fumbling at the wall for the lever she'd stuck in, or was it a button, no it was a lever because there was that bar that Jesse's fingers tightened on and jerked down, making a thudding noise as the iron door sprang open for a moment, allowing the tall figure to barrel in before slamming the door back shut before anything could make its way through.

In the nick of time, too, because an arrow clinked into the door moments later.

Jesse wasn't paying attention to that, though, she was whirling around to see the familiar red hair and bandana and vest over a blue-and-white t-shirt stumble to a stop, looking for all intents and purposes like she'd sprinted the whole way there, a huge grin curling at her lips. "Petra!" she nearly shouted, and she was abruptly sprinting forward and throwing her arms around the redhead in the tightest hug she'd ever given.

Of course, Petra was caught off-guard by the abrupt hug, hands flying up and automatically wrapping around Jesse's torso and almost spinning Jesse around from the force of it as her eyes reflected gold in the light of the torch, irises flicking around in alarm before settling on Jesse. "J-Jess-!"

And then the spin ended up not being enough and Petra fell backwards and landed on her bum, Jesse's arms still around her friend's neck from where she'd tackled Petra in a hug, Petra's startled expression melting into a rather relieved grin. "Oh, man, glad to see you're okay."

"Ditto!" Jesse grinned, pulling away from Petra a little bit, as Reuben gave a happy squeal and practically galloped around the two of them, having recovered from his surprise and looking happy to be there.

Petra grinned and reached out to rub the pig's ears as well, her glove resting on Reuben's head. "Good to see you too, buddy," she said, voice softening a bit.

"Jesse? What the heck..." Lukas's voice cut off as he entered the room at a speed that most people would not be willing to enter a room at, an iron sword in his own hand, before a huge, relieved smile spread across his face. "Petra! You're alright!"

He sheathed the sword and practically skidded so that he was on his knees next to her, kind of dragging them both into a weird group hug. This made Jesse laugh slightly and adjust her grip so that she was holding them both in the hug as well, one hand resting on Lukas's shoulder and the other on Petra's back.

Petra reached up after a few moments, one hand wrapping around Jesse and the other wrapping around Lukas in a tight hug, a grateful smile tugging her lips up.

She was back.

A/N: And Petra is alive! And... seemingly unscathed.

Hey, Jesse and Lukas sorta got to know each other, and are chummier and not just like "so hi" with each other xD

So as some of you may already know from other stories, I'm in my senior year of high school, and planning to apply to art school. And to do so, I have to get my portfolio ready. As of right now... I have little to nothing I'd be comfortable with showing colleges when I apply; not to mention that these art schools are REALLY high level. (Except for one but I still want to take that one really seriously.) I'm also working on Fata Morgana (formerly known as Phantasmagoria) and a few other projects.

I'm... not ready at all, so from now until sometime around early December, I will probably rarely surface on here. (Not that I've been doing that recently, sorry! I've been busy.) When I DO come on, updates will be very sporadic. Please don't be surprised if I don't reappear on here until after that early December deadline- I am going to be snowed under with portfolio preparation, not to mention my last year of high school.

But I hope you guys'll stick around through a few months of inactivity- I really am glad that you guys have enjoyed my stories so far!

Uh, back to Fairytale Curse- whenever I DO update, I will come up with theory hints so that your theories aren't just willy-nilly. I'm interested to see what you get out of the hints xD

Theory hint: Witches and fairies are able to see that people are cursed.

Responses to reviews!

CremeDeLaMeme: Ahh, memes. Of course. xD / Oof, that sounds annoying. Well, I'm glad you sort of found an alternative? xD / 'They' being who?

The Princess of Pink: All curses in that world are eventually broken, if not necessarily in the story.

LunartheMooncake: It literally came out of nowhere- I was like "DISTRACTION" and threw in the first thing I thought of xD / NO xD I don't even remember what he was talking about, honestly. xD / That, and also Boom Town and the correlation between safety for glass is about nonexistent xD

TheAmberShadow: Ahhh, okay! / Lol, literally I have no idea. I was like "uh we need to distract Axel, what's distracting? That's distracting! Okay don't think about this!" and stuck it in xD / Yeeees, I realized T^T / ... I have no idea what he was planning on saying, actually xD / Uhhh, the other routes are more entertaining? xD / Axel's going to Boom Town. Olivia's going to Redstonia with the amulet.

ShiningHopeBeast: Surprisingly not that much. He's not a saboteur. Plus he really only enjoys teasing Lukas xD / Mostly with Jesse, unless there's ever a reason to switch over.

AquaK13: Well, sort of xD / Pft. That's why if he hit a hard edge the game is immediately aborted xD / Lol xD / Haha, yeah. I feel like Jesse's an emotional thinker who'll occasionally abandon emotional thinking for actual logic- depending on the situation. / Either that or Sebby will attempt to be a mischievous little butt and Reuben's just there. / No. She is very careful with that, regardless of who she's speaking about it with. Her fear of being abandoned is worse than the stress that comes from pretending that things are okay.

LittleAngelbun: Mostly toughen up the doorway, although this is only Day/Night 1. xD

Takawari-Senju-SD29: Ah, alright. Nice to see you! / Aha, glad you liked the chapter xD

Welp, that looks like it's all for now.

See ya, so long, and g'bye for a few months!

x.X. A.L. X.x