“Steve! Steve, I found something!”
Steve’s heart leapt in his chest. They were relatively deep underground, 20-30 blocks, too high up for diamonds. But he wouldn’t say no to a nice seam of iron. Or coal, for that matter.
His friend came bounding along the corridor, excited face outlined by the soft glow of torchlight. It was quite claustrophobic in the mines, barely enough room to stand, so he followed Anton single-file back down his tunnel, pickaxe hanging limply by his side. They reached a small circular room, slightly less claustrophobic, with storage chests and blackened furnaces lining the walls.  Then back down another dark tunnel, Anton’s, until they came to an abrupt stop. Silently, Anton gestured for him to move forward. An awkward manoeuvre when you can barely breathe.
Straight ahead was a black, square shaped hole- a window into complete darkness. It was possible to make out the barest outlines, a block here, a block there, but there was no way to tell what was within.
“You pulled me over here to show me an empty room?” Steve questioned angrily. It was probably misdirected anger. He’d found no ores all day.
“It might not just be a room,” Anton warned. He shot Steve a ‘get ready’ look, pulled out his pickaxe, and, just as a precaution, Steve switched to his half-broken sword. Like that will help against a spawner. The block in front of him disappeared with a jaunty ‘pop’, and quietly, they edged into the room.
It definitely wasn’t a dungeon, Steve thought. There was no faint flicker of a caged spawner, and the walls were not overgrown with moss. However, the space had an odd feel to it, a feel that quickened his pulse, and made him breathe in short, sharp gasps. Anton whispered something along the lines of, “We need some light,” and fastened a torch to the wall. It was enough to see. It was enough to see it.
Instantly, it drew him it. A square expanse of black, no, not black, a square of pure nothingness that suggested hidden depth behind it. Stars twinkled ever so softly, so prettily, within the vortex, so, so pretty, and he found himself moving irresistibly towards the hole, like a moth drawn to a flame, just to touch those pretty stars. The world disappeared around him, fading, and he was faintly aware of a siren screaming, “No! No!” but it was all so distant now, and all he had to do was touch those pretty, pretty stars…
Come to me.
There was a roaring in his ears, a roaring that shut out everything but that voice, the voice that demanded him to step into the portal, to come to it, to give in. All he had to do was jump.
So he jumped.

---

“Someone found the portal.”
“What?” Lira snapped. She’d had a bad day followed by a bad morning. The town didn’t feed themselves, so it was up to her to make sure everyone was fed and happy and comfortable… One of the downsides to being Mayor of Loserville.  There weren’t many upsides to balance it out.
“Someone. Found. The. Portal.” Jason repeated, always the handy little secretary.
“And remind me why that’s bad?” Lira leaned back in her chair. “Just exile him or whatever. It’ll be fine.”
Jason sighed inwardly. She could read his face. “He didn’t just find the portal.”
“What did he do? Blow it to bits? Because that would do us all a big favour.”
“Lira. He jumped in.”
Lira froze. Her heart skipped a couple of beats. Finally, she spoke up. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not kidding. We just had a guy come back from the mines. Says his friend jumped in and poof! The entire mine collapsed. He was lucky to make it out alive.”
The collapse was a problem. They’d have no coal or ores coming in, no coal meant no fuel, no fuel meant no light and no cooked food. That would’ve bothered her some other day. But her mind was elsewhere. Desperately searching for the solution. The solution that wasn’t there.
Of course, nothing might happen. It could just be fine. It might not attack. Although her heart told her she was wrong. Grasping at straws.
“Lira?”
“Yeah?” She said absent-mindedly.
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know.” She turned to face the window, overlooking the village. A group of kids were playing in the farms, having some kind of water fight. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“You don’t think he’ll… Come for us?” Jason whimpered. “If the legends are true… If they’re true, man, I’m outta here.”
“If the legends are true, we’re all doomed. Are you gonna lie down and just die?” Lira snarled with some of her usual spark. “I don’t care if I’m doomed. I don’t care if I fall in battle, as long as I save them.” She gestured angrily at the window. The children looked up from their game.
“We can’t just hide. That’s what we’ve been doing all these stupid years. Build a giant obsidian wall around our village, yeah, sure, that’s understandable. But while we’ve been putting all these safety measures in, we haven’t been learning how to fight. We've spent so long on defences, we don't know how to defend ourselves. Now we have to fight. And all you want to do is run away?” She shook her head slowly. “You can run. I’m going to fight.”
Jason stood, awestruck, as Lira irritably shouldered him aside and heaved her sheath onto her back. She left the room, making sure to slam the door behind her. On the way out, she called to a guard, “Put the warning system in place. And the safety measures.” Then, in an undertone, added, “It might be the last time we’ll ever need them.”