It's a start at least...
Nothing built can last forever, and every legend no matter how great, fades with time.
With each passing year, more and more details are lost. Until all that remains are myths, half truths, to put it simply...lies.
And yet in all the known universe, between here and the Farlands, the legend of The Order Of The Stone endures unabridged as self-evident fact.
Indeed it is only a troubled land that has need for Heroes, and ours was fortunate to have so long ago four Heroes such as these...
Gabriel The Warrior, before whose sword and wings were swift and strong in which all combatants would tremble.
Ellegard the Redstone engineer, whose machines would spark an era of invention.
Magnus the Rogue, who would channel his destructive creativity for the benefit of all.
And Soren the architect, builder of worlds, and leader of the order of the stone.
These four friends together would give so much to gain their rightful place as four heroes.
Their greatest quest would take them on a dangerous journey to fight a mysterious creature known as the Ender Dragon.
In the end The Order Of The Stone emerged victorious and the dragon was defeated. Their story complete, they slipped away into the pages of legend.
But when one story ends another one begins...
"But do you think you should be in that new beginning?" Jesse's voice stern and bold, looking down at Jessica as her own set of wings outstretched.
"Oh, don't think I'm not worthy. I am and I am ready!" Jessica declared.
"You think so?" Jesse countered.
"Yes!" Jessica yelled.
"Then do! Take to the sky, sis! Fly!" Jesse opened his broad wings to encourage his sister off the branch.
Without hesitating, Jessica flapped her wings and pushed herself off the high wooden arm of the tree, her wings outstretched and reaching to the sky...only to plummet down to the forest floor with an "oof" sound.
...
That was another fail.
Jesse looked over from the edge to see his sister flat on the grass, "You alright?"
Jessica didn't respond, that gave the cue to swoop down to check whatever was wrong.
"...There goes my chance..." Jessica rolled onto her back, disregarding the ache in her bones after she literally fell from a high treetop.
"Oh, come on! You were close this time, your wings caught air. I saw it with my own eyes, and my eyes do not lie." Jesse circled around Jessica, lightly grazing her arms with the tip of his wings, "Not to mention, it was almost inspiring..."
"Inspiring to not even make it a second in the wind? Let's face it, I didn't fly, I just dropped...again! This is the 27th time, none of these speeches are working!" Jessica strained as she sat up.
"Maybe it's because you aren't opening your wings wide enough..." Jesse tilted his head.
This made Jessica glare at her brother and stagger to her feet, "This is how wide they can get...for now. I...I'm sure, I'll molt into larger feathers...just like yours."
"Or, maybe it's your tail that's dragging you down...?" Jesse looked over to Jessica's extended and lanky tail coated in smaller fathers with an accurate broad plumage at the end of it. Neither of them knew the reason, since Jesse himself didn't have tail feathers like his sister, so it made her more self conscious than ever.
"Are you calling me fat?! I'm not a chicken! I will fly without any weight pulling me down, you'll see!" Jessica huffed and climbed up the ladder nailed against the tree.
Jesse watched for a moment before sighing, maybe he shouldn't have said so much. Jessica had been getting more stressed out that she began to molt out of season, worried that she was falling behind compared to her brother who had already gotten used to branching.
Instead of leaping back into the treehouse, Jesse instead followed after his sister back up the ladder.
Both of them returned inside as Olivia was looking through the open window, when the trapdoor closed, she turned back over to spot the twins. "Did you push Jessica out of the tree again?"
"No! She wanted to try flying again...! I was helping her." Jesse's wings lowered as he tried to defend himself.
He took a step back for a moment before running into a small body that squealed.
"Reuben, come here boy." Jessica knelt down and picked up the small pig who ran to her arms.
Jesse sighed before looking back over to his sister, "Look, I know you're frustrated."
"I'm not," Jessica responded quickly, looking away.
"Yes you are, your wings are puffing." Olivia took a step to Jessica, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"...I'm failing as a flier." Jessica sighed as her wings relaxed.
"Hey, hey! No sister of mine is a failure. You and me are one in the same, success should run in the family." Jesse leaned by Jessica, catching a glance to the pig, Ruben as he snorted in supposed agreement.
Jessica gently place Reuben back down to let him run around, she looked over her shoulder to her brother, "How do you know? We never even met our parents. Who knows if they just dropped us off in a nest and didn't bother coming back to us when we hatched because they knew we'd end up...wrong?"
"Or who knows, we could be better. It's you and me, Jess and J against the world!" Jesse wrapped his wing around his sister.
"Why do you get the single letter as your title?" Jessica looked over to Jesse with narrowed eyes.
"Because I was first, first hatched gets first pick." Jesse smiled.
"Only by two seconds...!" Jessica chuckled as she lightly pushed him off.
"There's that smile..." Jesse looked over to his sister, lightly nudging against her smaller wings.
Olivia watched for a moment before focusing back on picking up a few items from the chest against one of the walls of the treehouse, "I do have a question I have been wondering for a while."
Jesse and Jessica looked over to the Arachnid who pondered near one of the bookshelves, "Would you rather fight a hundred chicken sized zombies, or ten zombie sized chickens? Just to be clear, you wouldn't have any weapons or armor so you'd have to fight them with your hands."
"Chicken sized zombies. Not because it is easy, but because it would be an abomination." Jesse responded, Jessica looked over to her brother.
"Of course you'd think that," Jessica blinked.
"Yeah, I suppose you're not into beefing with other distant relatives...you're not into beef." Jesse looked away, leaving Jessica to ram unto his back from behind.
"I don't like meat, I don't know what you want me to say! Chicken sized Zombies are way better option, and just easier in general rather than just for the sake of it being a challenge. I like to get things over with, thank you." Jessica raised her wings before readjusting them against her back.
"A hundred of them, crawling all over you with their tiny hands," Olivia began to mimic zombie noises.
Jessica was mildly amused as she rolled her eyes, "All I need is like, a shovel, like I said...way too easy."
Olivia seemed content with the answer before placing Redstone to connect it to a nearby lamp stacked onto another block of the bookshelves, "So I got daylight sensors on the roof and if I did this right, these lamps should turn on once it gets dark. I don't want to leave Reuben and Jessica with nothing while we're all at the building competition-"
Jesse's wings puffed by the explanation, "Olivia-"
"Wait, I thought we're coming with you." Jessica looked back over to Olivia, then back at Jesse, "You promised to take me this year...!"
"I just...I don't want you getting into trouble again. You know what happened with Aiden." Jesse sighed.
Jessica bristled at the name, "He deserved it! I don't care how many times he ends up showing up to the building competition every year, he doesn't get away with nearly burning your wings. You'd do the same for me, wouldn't you?"
"Trust me, I'd do worse. But I also don't want to be blacklisted by causing violent outbreaks every year. I'm not grounding you, Jess. But you can't keep getting aggressive whenever that blazeborn ends up harassing us." Jesse shook his head.
"But will that ever change even if she's not with us?" Olivia turned to the window, "I just don't want to give people one more reason to call us losers. We're dysfunctional in front of others, and I'm getting tired of it."
Jesse looked over to Jessica, then back at Olivia, "I wouldn't say we are dysfunctional, sure we get into petty arguments...most of them being between me and Jess more than anything...but, I want you to know that we're a team. We still get things done at the end even if the time is up. We'll still work together, and we might just win before you know it."
Olivia looked over to Jesse for a moment before nodding, "Okay, fine."
There was a sudden hissing from beneath the trapdoors, Jessica was the first to react as she lowered her head and opened her wings slightly.
"Do you hear that?" Jesse looked over to Olivia who was staring at the trapdoors with dread.
A creeper head emerged from the latch as Jessica quickly pounces and ran into the head of the mob, which slipped off quickly as she flew across the room and hitting against the wall. Reuben squealed and slipped off the chest he was standing on.
"Axel, what's the matter with you!?" Olivia managed to regain her composure when it turned out to be another member of their group.
Jessica had one of her talons stuck on the creeper mask as she stood back up, trying to flick the material off her hand, "Oh, cool mask...!"
"But you broke it already, it has holes in it!" Axel exclaimed once he realized where his mask went.
"Did you bring the fireworks?" Olivia trotted over eagerly.
"Of course I did, I even brought something for the little guy," Axel pulled out a costume set, the size for a small pig for sure. A small ender dragon costume with a set of wings and a dragon head for a mask.
"Nice," Jesse nodded in approval.
"You brought Reuben a disguise?" Olivia questioned.
"Uhm, we're going to a convention, SOMEbody's gotta wear a costume." Axel placed the costume onto Reuben who eagerly flaunted his new outfit by running around and leaping onto one of the bookshelf blocks in front of a Endercon poster with a notable ender dragon head as the mascot. It fit Reuben perfectly.
"He looks awesome," Jessica smiled.
"It took me like a billion hours to build it," Axel responded.
Jesse blinked, "Bro, I helped you-"
"We'll meet you downstairs, okay?" Olivia was the first to begin climbing down from the treehouse.
Jessica was about to go next before Jesse held one wing in front of her, "Axel, can you carry Reuben down for me?"
Axel already took notice on Jesse guarding Jessica from the trapdoors, "Isn't Jess coming along this year?"
"Axel, take Reuben down with you. Let Jesse and Jessica handle this between themselves, they won't be long." Olivia called out from outside.
"Oh, alright. Alright..." Axel picked up the small pig dressed up as a ender dragon and began to descend down the ladder himself, "I will never understand sibling bonds...you fight one second and you make up the next, this is crazy..."
As the trapdoor closed, Jesse lowered his wing as Jessica stepped forward, "Please, I don't cause trouble...much."
Jesse closed his eyes, "Jess, I want to believe you-"
"So believe me! If I can't fly, then at least let me help build...!" Jessica circled eagerly with her tail swishing left and right.
"It's not about flying, you're just...too much..." Jesse took a step back, "Look, tell you what, if you don't wander off and you stay with the group, you don't pick a fight with anyone...I won't have to drag you back to the treehouse. If we don't win this year, and you don't cause trouble today, you can come with us next time and I won't trap you again."
Jessica nodded, "I promise I won't be a burden."
Jesse chuckled, "When did I say you were? You're my sister, there's nothing I wouldn't do for you. For this time, I'll let you come with us, we might need another set of hands anyways..."
Jessica tackled her brother into a tight hug, "Thank you!"
Jesse slowly peeled his sister off his arms, "Alright...Now I just need to grab a few things-"
Jessica took out shears and flint and steel, Jesse was looking for those.
"...Stubborn." Jesse simply turned to the trapdoors, he allowed Jessica to hold onto those tools for him.
Jessica lifted her tail behind her as she strode behind her brother with a smirk on her face. "I always have been, J."