Maddie Pixel Book 2

by nikkipheonix

Daniel' gone, and Maddie finds more lost kids who become members of their little "group". Quality time is spent with one another, and they find the trust and friendship they need. But Daniel didn't intend on leaving. In his mind, Maddie was his. In Nate's mind, Maddie was his. If you didnt read book 1, I suggest you do so! If you want to follow the story, please follow "author".

Maddie Pixel Book 2

[MADDIE]

When I came back from my mining trip, Nate had actually finished and was inside the house. Boy was gonna be surprised to see this. I found 4 kids who didn't know each other, they all ended up in the same place the same way I did. One of them was playing minecraft at the time.

[NATE]

She came in the house while I was teaching myself how to play chess. I looked up and nearly died. It's like she attracts new people.

The first one's name was Dani. She was a 12year old with long black hair, and piercing blue eyes. I guessed she was a serious type. The next one was a 12 year old boy named Liam. He was a bit taller than Dani. He had brown hair, and brown eyes. The third was a 12 year old girl named Lilly. She looked like some kid of super cheery gardener. She had long light brown hair and light green eyes. The last was the most surprising. He was only 7. His name was Benny. He had auburn colored hair, and brown eyes.

I said a friendly hello to all of them, and showed Liam and Benny around. Maddie showed Lilly and Dani around.

I told them straight away that if they wanted to live here, they would have to do some work. They both looked at me like I was crazy. "we don't have adults around to work and pay for everything for us." i said seriously "so we have to do everything by ourselves." Liam nodded and looked like he was ready. Benny was still thinking.

"no playing?" Benny looked at me with puppy dog eyes.

"you'll play after you work." I said firmly. "bunt none of it is that hard, except fighting the monsters, and mining."

Liam frowned "monsters? Mining?"

I shook my head at the both of them "sorry guys, but you aren't on earth anymore. " they still looked at me like I was crazy. "I've been living here for 10 years though." I told them " this definitely isn't earth."

"what about-"

"everything will be explained little by little" I interrupted him. "there's a lot to learn."

Liam finally shrugged, and I was able to show them the rest of the house. I showed them the farm, the storage room, the surrounding forest area, the kitchen, and then we sat down in the living room with everyone to answer questions.

[Maddie]

After showing the girls the entire house, they were pretty impressed. Although Lilly was scared silly by the mobs, she would get used to it. We sat down with the boys in the living room to take questions.

"what kind of monsters are there?"

"spiders, zombies, skeletons, and creepers. Creepers are the most dangerous. They move very slowly and they don't make any noise until they're behind you for three seconds. Then they explode." I explained. "spiders and skeletons are medium difficulty. They are a little smart. Spiders can jump really high, and skeletons shoot now and arrows."

Nate explained the last part"zombies are easy to kill. The walk aimlessly around and they don't have the slightest sense of balance. But that also makes them unpredictable. It's best to kill them quickly."

Dani asked the next question. "where did you get all this stuff from anyway?"

"animals provide food, except sheep. Sheep give you wool for beds and clothes. Killing spiders gives you string for sowing and bow and arrows. All our ores are found in mines, the wood comes from trees, and we get extra food from the farm out back." Nate said.

"will we have to learn how to fight?" Lilly asked

I answered this one. "yes, although you dont really have to master it. You just have to know how to defend yourself, and others against any kind of mob, need be." Lilly calmed down

"What are the mines like?" Benny asked

"they are dark and full of mobs" Nate told him. "but you bring torches to see, weapons to defend yourself, picks to mine, porkchops just in case, water in case there is lava, and extran wooden planks to make a crafting table. You really aren't in much danger as long as you are prepared, and the mine is usually lit up already."

There were some more basic questions like: Should you eat rotten flesh? You Gus have medicine right? Where will we sleep? Will monsters come and attack us in our sleep? Will we get weapons? Will we ever get back home? And other questions like that.

After the questions, we got to work building the bedrooms. Lilly and I shared my bedroom, which we enlarged, and Dani built a room for herself above mine.

Liam, Nate, and Benny shared a room, and they built a room above for Their stuff, and to have so free time in.

Chapter 2

I woke Lilly up the next morning and asked her an important question.

"do you want to go to the mine, or work aroungpd the house?"

Lilly decided to work around the house, as I suspected. Dani wanted to gather wood and stuff from the forest, but she need to learn how to defend herself form mobs first, so she was to go to the mine. Nate and Liam were going too, and Benny Didn't want to. Ultimately, we all decided to finish the house work together, and then go to the mine together, for safety. I knew for a fact that Nate couldn't protect two totally inexperienced fighters in a mine.

[Nate]

Dani, Liam, and I chopped wood outside and dealt with the mobs in the garden.

Maddie, Benny, and Lilly put in carpeting, made clothes, cooked, organized, made chests, made more weapons, and then we all made armor for a ourselves.

Soon we were ready to go to the mine. Maddie brought medical supplies, I brought extra weapons, Dani brought food, Benny carried the extra wood, and Lilly carried the other odds and ends we decided to bring.

We entered to mine in the afternoon. And started downwards into the mine.

We collected lots of stuff. Obsidian, iron, a little diamond, one ruby, one emerald, lots of coal, a ton of stone, and we got other dropped items from mobs like string and bonemeal. By the time we got out, Dani was almost an expert with a bow and arrow, Maddie started to learn how to use a bow and arrow, Benny and Lilly learned a lot about medicine. Lilly was pretty good at wielding a sword. Liam could kick ass with double swords. And I got some practice. We went back fooling around, and practicing our skills on spiders, and trees.

Chapter 3

The next day, when Liam, Danni, and I came back from the mine, there were bathing suits in our beds.

"Lilly, Benny and I did some exploring, and we found a beach!" Maddie exclaimed.

"we could take the day off to have some fun right?" Lilly asked us.

Liam and Dani were all for it. "yeah!" they cheered. Benny was jumping up and down happily. I shrugged. I would go too. I could use a break.

[maddie]

Everyone was going! We all packed that night for the trip after dinner because we wanted to leave bright and early. Okay, some of us did. Okay fine! Just me and Lilly. But, we convinced the rest of them too!

That morning we put on our matching bikinis and put our regular clothes over them. We made the boys swimming trunks. Lilly had to adjust Liam's, because he was bulkier than we had guessed. But everyone had something to swim in, and that's all that mattered.

Chapter 4

[Dani]

We headed out almost as soon as we got up. The weather was the same every single day, so that really wasn't an issue. The sun was out, as always, and it was smack in the middle of cloudy and sunny.

"beautiful!" Lilly exclaimed as soon as we got outside. Cheery as always.

"yeah." I said "but I wish it would rain."

"it rains here sometimes." Maddie said. "but usually it's at night and very quiet."

"hmmm." I replied.

We went up a run down and old brick and stone path to the shore. Maddie wasn't lying when she said the beach was awesome. The sand was warm under my feet, and so was the water. To the right, were huge rocks that ran into the river. To the left, there was a old beach house in need of some cleaning up.

Lilly and Maddie put down towels. They sat down on them and chatted. BORING! I decided to join Liam, Benny, and Nate who were swimming. I took off my towel, folded it up and-

"OMIGOSH DANI!" Lilly was looking at me in awe.

"what?"

"your stomach!" she gasped.

I looked down at my stomach. Normal. "what about it?"

It's so toned and flat! Your entire body is!" Lilly said in envy.

"yeah, I guess it is." I was pretty used to this. It didn't seem out of the ordinary.

"what's your secret?" Lilly said with pleading eyes.

I had to say something. "lots of exercise, and a healthy diet." I told her. "just eat good food." I warned her. "don't starve yourself."

"mkay. " Lilly eyes lit up with newfound determination. She and Maddie got up, and dove into the water. They swam around like crazy. Not wanting to join them, I went over to the boys instead.

"hey Dani!" Liam waved to me.

"hi!" I said back. "whatcha guys doing?"

"Marco Polo!" he replied.

"mind if I join you?"

"nah, come on!" he smiled

I dove into the water meet up with them.

[Liam]

We played Marco Polo for a while. I probably got tagged like twice. Benny was Polo for so long a time, Nate gave him a break and was Polo instead.

Knowing Nate would be tough to run away from, Dani and I hid behind a rock.

"he'll never find us here." she whispered breathlessly.

I took a peek. "Yup" I confirmed. Nate was chasing Benny in the opposite direction. "over here." I called her quietly. "I wanna watch the Benny get caught."

She silently dived below spathe surface and popped up right next to me. She climbed up onto the rock and watched with me. After a while Benny got caught and Nate saw us sitting on the rock. He swam over to us.

"so this is where the lovebirds were hiding!" Nate laughed.

Dani have me a look and swam away.

"Nate!" I kicked his shoulder.

"not my fault you didn't tell her yet." Nate argued.

"tell me what?" Dani had been behind him.

"Liam likes you." Nate rolled his eyes. "he's being a total wimp about it."

"shut up." I kicked his shoulder again.

"why didn't you tell me?" Dani asked

"he was being a wimp." Nate said.

"shut your face Nate." Dani put her hand over his mouth. "Benny's coming make it quick."

"I ... I-"

"GOTCHA!" Benny had grabbed my leg before I could think of something to say. I dropped my head in defeat and closed my eyes.

"MARCOOOO!" I yelled

[lilly]

I had to think of a way to get in shape like Dani. That was the only way I could get Liam to like me. I mean, he stared at Dani all the time! She had super pretty long black hair, and she wasn't a pound over weight. She was muscular and tall too!

"Liam likes Dani." Maddie said. "don't force yourself on other people."

"no, he just likes Dani's looks." I replied knowingly. " Dani was clueless, and only good at physical activities."

"she's really smart actually." Maddie pointed out.

I ignored her. That was probably what Dani wanted all of us to think. she had a room to herself for pete's sake! And she only spent time with boys. Maddie says that's because she can be herself around them. Yeah right!

Luckily, Maddie didn't mind joining me for exercise. I did push ups, jogging, and swimming around for an hour. I should do that for two hours everyday and see results within two weeks. That sounded good.

[Nate]

As soon as the Marco Polo game was over, we sat on the rocks to dry. I kept Benny busy, so Liam could talk to Dani.

"why do you and Maddie live together?" Benny asked my out of the blue. "I guess it's because she wants to." I shrugged. "you can ask her I f you'd like."

"Nah." Benny shook his head. "it's okay."

Benny and I got up and left to eat the food we had brought. Chicken cutlets and melon. Yum! Dani and Liam kept talking. I gave Liam a thumbs up for good luck as Benny and I walked away. He was going to need it.

Chapter 5

[Maddie]

Lilly and I had brought food for us all to eat. We sat down with Benny and Nate to eat some chicken cutlets and melon. Dani and Liam were on the rocks talking. "aww how cute!" Lilly said to herself out loud.

"it's gross." Benny said. "what's so good about girls anyway."

"you'll find out when the time comes me friend." Nate told him "stay young while you can. The teenage world totally sucks." he warned him. Benny nodded quickly and started eating melon.

And that's when Lilly started something terrible. "hey Nate," she asked "if you could chose one of us to kiss, who would it be?"

Nate looked at Lilly "you're serious?"

"Completely." Lilly replied."

Nate shrugged and stared at the both of us for a long while. Benny was practitioner traumatized. "you're not gonna kiss anyone are you?" he asked shakily.

"Nah." Nate reassured him. "Lilly just wants to cause trouble, jump to conclusions, and tease Maddie because she's bored."

"girls do that when they're BORED?"

"yeah." Nate laughed "Girls are weird like that. And Lilly is a little weirder than average."

Lilly rolled her eyes "just answer the question."

Nate looked at the both of us long and hard. "Maddie."

"What?" Lilly asked. She was genuinely confused.

"Maddie." Nate repeated "I can't kiss you. You're crazy."

"well thanks a lot." Lilly pouted.

"he's right." I patted Lilly on the back. "what you need, is a sauna."

Nate shrugged "Liam and I can build on of those."

Lilly mouthed formed the shape of an O. "you can?"

"yeah." Nate said. "all it is, is a room with coal, water, and steam." he explained. "we would just need coal and a infinite water source to sustain it."

"Lilly and I Can make an infinite water source!" I said excitedly.

Lilly got up and yelled "WE ARE GOING TO MAKE AN SUANA." to Dani and Liam.

"OKAY WE'LL HELP." Liam yelled back. I waved to Dani. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

Benny crawled over and sat on my lap. "why do you live with Nate?"

"he said I could." I answered

"why don't you live by yourself?"

"I like being around people."

"why?"

"For company, and so I don't go insane."

"Nate kept you sane?"

"yup."

"why?"

"cuz he cares."

"about what."

"other people."

"like what?" he persisted.

"lonely people."

"like who?"

"people who live on their own."

"really?"

"I hope so."

"you don't know?"

"I'm not Nate." I said patiently.

"who's Nate?"

"that guy." I pointed to Nate.

"oh yeah!" Benny laughed "BLONDE MOMENT."

"huh?" Lilly cocked her head to the side.

"people make fun of how blondes in movies are always stupid, so when you have a stupid moment, people call it a blonde moment."

Nate laughed "Nice."

"not nice!" Lilly exclaimed. "that makes fun of blonde people!"

"that's the point." Benny said impatiently.

"but my mom is Blonde."

"is she stupid?" I asked

"NOPE. " Lilly frowned.

"you sure?" Nate joked

"YES YOU IDOIT." Lilly yelled at Nate.

Nate made the "nothing to do here" face. "Just checking." he said innocently.

"then I guess she doesn't count." I said. Trying to change the subject.

"Grrr." Lilly grumbled.

"what now?" I asked

"I'm so jealous."

"WHAT THE HECK ELSE IS FREAKIN NEW LILLY?"

"what?" she asked.

"we get that you're jealous of Dani, but this is getting annoying." I explained angrily.

"you need to move on." Nate said absent mindedly "this cannot be healthy."

"But-"

"Dani and Nate are probably officially dating by now." Nate said coldly. "Liam doesn't like you like that. Changing yourself will only make him like some one fake. MOVE. ON." he said.

"he's right." I said. "this is only going to lead to you and Dani fighting, or even worse." I recalled Daniel and Nate's fight. Nate looked at me. He was thinking of it too from the looks of it.

"Whatever." Lilly brushed us off angrily "it's not like you guys know anything about love anyway." she huffed. "if anything, you're all on Dani's side. You all prefer her over me don't you?!"

Nate got up and went to swim some more, and Benny followed him.

"why can't you just take our advice and move on?!" I yelled in her face "why must you be so, so...IGNORANT?" I got up angrily and followed Benny and Nate. Lilly should take our advice. This will not end well, and I am certain of it.

Chapter 6

[Nate]

I couldn't stand this girl anymore. Lilly was so stupid. If she had seen Daniel, and what it had led to, she would have taken our advice. What an Ignorant moron she is. Dammit!

I took a swim with Benny to clear my mind, and soon after, Maddie joined us. "I guess I'm not the only one who can't stand her anymore." I said gruffly

"I don't want her to get hurt." Maddie worried. "She is so hard-headed!"

I looked up at the sky. "that's the way she is I guess." i shrugged. "hopefully she learn when everything comes back to smack her in the face, and she realizes we are right."

"what if we aren't?" she asked me

"why would Liam like Lilly? He likes Dani."

"Lilly said that Liam only likes Lilly because she is pretty and a good fighter, and isn't girly, and hangs out with him all the time."

"that's just the way Dani is, and Liam likes her for it. There's nothing wrong with that." I said

"I should've said that!" she slammed my fist into the surface, creating ripples. "why do you always know what to say?"

"he's perfect." Benny said.

"huh?" Maddie and I said

"Nate is strong and brave and smart and clever and wise and useful and a leader and isn't ugly, and he's nice and friendly and has a good sense of humor."

"uh thanks." I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. How did he come up with all of this?

"the only thing you're bad at, is talking to girls." Benny said simply.

Maddie covered a laugh with a cough. "sorry." she smiled. "but that's just really true."

"meanie." I said. I ruffled her hair

"NATE." Maddie yelled at me. "you don't touch my hair. Ever."

I put up my hands in defense " yes mother."

Maddie's eyes turned to slits. Uh oh, I thought. U tried to get up slowly but she noticed. I gave a low grunt as I scurried away from her just in time.

"NATE." she yelled at me. She got up and race after me. I looked back a couple of times, and to my amazement, it looked like she was gliding over the sand. Her heels never touched the ground, and a flurry of sand was trailing behind her. I picked up my pace and searched for an area to loose her. Check, found one. I headed for some tall rocks up ahead and dived behind one as she came roaring by. She skidded to a halt, and I took off in the other direction. I wasn't fast enough though. As soon as I changed directions she grabbed my arm and my feet went our from under me. I landed on my butt and she landed on her face.

"owwwwww." she groaned. She turned herself over and brushe the sand out of her face. "you okaaaaaaay?"

I tried not to laugh "yeah" but then I noticed something was wrong. "is your nose bleeding?"

He touched her nose softly and gazed at her finger. "I guess it is. " she shrugged it off and pinched her nose to stop the bleeding. "owwwwwwwwwwwww" she moaned.

"did you break it?"

"ummmmmmmmm."

"well?" I asked. Wasn't she supposed to know this stuff? I shook my head and went over to the spot where she hit her head. Aside from the blood, it looked pretty normal. I felt it. It was hard? The thought of buried treasure entered my mind, but I quickly dismissed it. This definitely wasn't the time to be dreaming. I dug away at the sand for 15 minutes until Maddie came over to help. "are you okay?" I asked. The blood had stopped streaming from her nose but she looked a little out of it.

She shook her head. "I don't think so honestly." she sighed and kept digging "my head hurts, and I can't remember your name." she frowned hard for a while. "I think I might have lost some of my memory, but that's it."

I sighed with relief. I thought it was gonna be like in the movies or something. That would've been a nightmare. "okay then, I'm nate, and maybe you should lie down."

"nah, I might fall unconscious and that won't be good."

"huh?"

"if whatever we find is valuable and heavy, I won't be much of a help unconscious. You might have to leave it and carry me back. In that span of time, some one could come down here, and take it right?"

"um yeah." I answered. She really thought everything through.

Chapter 7

After another half hour of digging, we finally dug it up. By that time, Maddie was back to normal. "a chest?" she stared at the chest blankly. "I wonder what's inside."

"you wanna open it?"

"how about we open it together?" she proposed. I nodded in agreement and we lifted the lid on the count of three.

[maddie]

What was inside blew me away. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" I screamed. I clutched Nate and closed my eyes hoping I was imagining all this. It was an ugly looking head. It had a big face, but you could barely recognize it. The rest of it was decayed and stunk really bad.

"zombie pigmen." Nate breathed. His eyes were wide with wonder. "they exist."

"It would be helpful if you told me what you are talking about." I said.

He kept looking at the head. "they are rumored to live in another universe called the nether. Everyone knows how to make a portal going there, but no one does it anymore because most people don't cone back from their trips there."

"what do they go to the nether for?"

"glowstone which is a really great source of light, and netherrack, which is awesome for fireplaces. And the some people go to the nether in search of strong holds. Those are the people that never come back, so no one actually knows what's in a stronghold and if they even exist." he shook his head in doubt. "they probably don't exist anyway, no point in going."

"what do you mean there's no point in going?" I asked "there's glowstone and netherrack! I NEED that for the house!"

Nate looked at me seriously "you want to go just so you an get some glowstone?

"AND NETHERRACK!" I shook his shoulders.

"it's not worth it!" he yelled at me.

"maybe not to you!" I yelled back "but I want some glowstone and netherrack!"

"I'm not letting you go." he crossed his arms.

"lets get this straight." I lowed my voice. "you are not, the boss, of me." I looked straight into his eyes. "I'm going. You can stay behind, or you can come with me pal."

He bit his lip in anger, but he knew I was right. He couldn't possibly stop me from going. "fine." he mumbled. "but I'm coming with you."

"and do is Liam and Dani." Nate opened his mouth in protest, but I stopped him "they're going to find out, and they are BOTH going to want to tag along. And so is ben, but he's going to stay with Lilly. Hes way to young to go."

[Nate]

She softened her eyes. "okay?"

"yeah." I rolled me eyes, trying to fight a smile. I was going to the nether!

Chapter 8

[Dani]

It was about 5:00 when we started to head back to the house. Mobs started appearing around 7:00, and Maddie simply wasn't in the mood to deal with brainless demonic bastards as she put it. On the way back, Nate brushed by me and whispered. "big news when we get back, tell Liam that we are going in a trip."

I didn't get to reply, but it was okay, Maddie explained when we got to the house. Liam's eyes widened with worry when I told him, but he claimed down enough to turn the knob of the front door.

[lilly]

As soon as we got inside, Maddie had us sit down in the living room. Nate wasn't even standing up. He sat beside Liam and Benny.

"I've got some big news." Maddie said nervously. "but I think Nate can explain it better than I can." she looked at Nate expectantly, and they traded places. As soon as he got up, he rubbed his hands together and started speaking.

"what I'm going to say, might come as a shock to some of you, but I ask that you leave questions until the end."

He took a deep breath "Maddie and I have decided to take a trip to the Nether. Now, I don't honk any of you know what the nether is. As far as anyone knows, the Nether is another universe. There's only one way to get there, and that's through a portal. The nether is made up of mostly lava and netherrack. Lava being water and netherrack being the ground out world was opposite to it. There is also this grey sand that makes you really slow when you travel on it. Lastly, there is glowstone. It's a black that lets off an eerie yellow glow, and it looks like natural light inside homes. But there is also a downside. There are mobs there." at this point, I gasped along with everyone else. "zombie pigmen, and ghasts are the only ones that we will come in contact with at first. Zombiek pigmen will only attack you if you attack it, and ghasts are like huge ghosts that spit fire balls at you. You kill ghasts with arrows and you can use basic weapons to deflect the fireballs back at them. One last thing." Nate said. His voice became grave and low. "show them absolutely no fear, you're easier to kill that way."

[Liam]

I could feel Dani's nails pressing into my hand as Nate spoke. She was so excited I though she would burst. Her hand shot up as soon as Nate was done talking. "can Liam and I go?"

Nate looked at Dani and I, then shrugged a yes. "You guys can go, but there is something else we need to discuss."

Nate turned to Benny. "I don't know if you can go little guy."

" that's okay." Benny said "on one condition."

Nate sighed."okay."

"you need to get me a dog." Benny squirmed uncomfortably. "My dad always said he would get me a dog, but he never did."

"okay, how about we get everyone a dog?" Nate stole a quick look at Maddie, who was clutching Lilly's hand. Girls.

"deal. " Benny stuck out his hand and spit on it. Reluctantly, Nate did the same. Then he ran out of the room to the sink to wash his hands.

Chapter 9

[Dani]

We started "Nether training" early the next morning. All the house work was left to Benny and Lilly, who wasn't going under any circumstances.

We started with shooting, because ghasts were the main threat. We shot trees while running, from a distance, and close up. I mastered it all of course, but Liam was having some trouble. But that was okay I guess. He was really good at deflecting. He never missed, and when he did, it was because he was dodging. Maddie and Nate decided that Liam and Nate would deflect, and Maddie and I would shoot. Liam wanted to shoot with me, but he was better and deflecting. Next we practiced hand to hand combat. We put our weapons away and practiced punches, kicks, and so on. Liam and I were paired up first, which made it really fun.

[Liam]

Ready, set, go!

Dani charged forward and kicked me in the side. All the air was knocked out of me and I fell to the ground with an "oof".

"great job Dani!" Maddie cheered. "Liam, don't wait too long. React a little faster."

"Go!" Nate yelled again.

This time a charged at Dani. She flipped out of the way, and pushed me forward onto the grass. I got up, refusing to loose this time. She smiled mischievously and kicked me to get me off balance. I fell back and rolled to the side before she got the chance to give me another kick. I got up and punched her in the shoulder. I threw a couple more punches, which blocked, and then I kicked her in the stomach. She fell down on her back, but she immediately jumped back up and gave me a wink.

"you are indestructible!" I exclaimed. She dodged my next punch and moved behind me. Before I was able to turn around, she kicked the back of my knees, and I doubled over.

Nate sighed. "why don't you try sparing with Maddie?"

"okay." I said glumly. This couldnt get any worse.

[Dani]

Nate decided that Liam should spar with Maddie instead, because I beat him so many times. So much for being evenly matched. Nate drew a circle. "if you are down for more than 10 seconds or if you step out of the circle, ya loose. Kay?"

Maddie gave a curt nod, and Liam said "okay"

"GO!"

Maddie held up her fists and spread her legs apart calmly. Liam on the other hand, was quite excited. He immediately charged toward Maddie and tried to knock her over with one kick. Maddie obviously saw this coming, because she sidestepped, and Liam jump-kicked the air, leaping right out of the circle.

"try not to put all your momentum into one strike." Maddie instructed "you'll put yourself off balance wether you hit or miss." she helped him up and they went at it again.

Nate turned to me. "I guess we should spar then."

I shrugged "okay."

Nate drew out a circle, and we both stepped in.

[Nate]

Since I knew for a fact that she wasn't going to come at me, I came at her. Left punch, right punch, one, two, I kept going until she rolled between my legs to the other side of the ring. As soon as I turned around to face her, she sent a kick my way. I held up my arm to block it and advanced toward her more. The next kick she threw was powerful. she kicked me square in the chest, sending me back. I guess something finally clicked, because she kicked me the chest again, and again, and again, until I tripped over a random stick and fell out of the circle.

"looks like I could tech you a thing or two about balance." Dani smirked.

"looks like you could." I replied.

We stepped back into the circle and started over.

[unidentified point of view]

As I watched them spar I the clearing, I scowled. They were such good fighters. 'I hope Dan is as good as he says he is.' I thought. I had only been spying for 10 minutes, and I was blow away by Maddie's skill, Liam's adjustability, Dani's speed, and Nate's power. There was no way Dan and I could take them on all at once. I got up and hurried off into the forest back to our hideout. I had gathered enough information.

[lilly]

Benny and I finished our share of work early, so I called all of us in for dinner. We sat in the the living room, having no need for a dining room. We ate and talked well into the night, until we heard hisses and growls way too close for comfort. We ignored it at first but Nate finally raised the question when a creeper explosion was heard not to far away. "Benny, did you forget to close the door behind you when you came in?"

Benny's face reddened with guilt "I dunno, I don't remember."

Maddie immediately stood up. "I'll go check." she announced, and walked out followed by Nate, naturally.

We all sat there nervously, waiting for them to come back, but they didn't. Liam and Dani went next, and they came running back, there faces, shocked and emotionless. "there gone." Liam chocked out.

"What?" I stood up, unable to control my disbelief. "they couldn't have just disappeared."

"there's nothing there." Dani replied shakily. "just mobs."

[unidentified POV]

I had Maddie slung over my should as I ran through the undergrowth, Nate hot on my trail. As Dan predicted, Nate wasn't giving up, and Maddie was beating her tied fists against my back with all her strength, screaming Nate's name, and demanding I put her down.

I led them deeper into the forest using the roots and vines to slow Nate down. After a while, I reached the clearing Dan described and hung Maddie by her wrists on a branch that was high enough that she would be afraid of falling. Nate tackled me from behind to the floor just as I had finished tying up Maddie. When I got up, jaws greeted by countless punches and kicks to my face and stomach. But it wasn't enough to knock me out or anything. I got up when he stopped to catch his breath. Luckily, I was a little taller than Nate, so I had some kind of advantage, I think. He was fast, but one of my kicks to his stomach eventually sent him flying into a tree. He lay there, dazed, and clutching his abdomen in pain, while Maddie screamed in anger. She was really getting annoying.

[Maddie]

With an evil grin on his face, the kid started toward me. I finally got a good look at him then. From the start I noticed how toned and muscled he was, but I didn't take the time to appreciate his golden blonde hair and grayish hazel eyes. All in all, he has what girls back in my world would call HOT. But that was totally beside the point. No matter how gorgeous he was, he was going down. But tied to a branch, suspended two feet in the air wasn't really working in my favor. I was forced to clench my teeth and bear the punches.

[Nate]

Who knew a kid could be so strong? I was almost positive I had broken something, but that wasn't the time for that. I shakily got up, just as a heard a muffled scream from Maddie.

"Hang on!" I yelled desperately clawing at the brute, to get him away from her. Punch after punch, her face got paler, and paler. I grabbed his hair and yanked it as hard as I could, tearing out his roots and drawing blood. He elbowed me hard in the shoulder, and I collapsed again. In spite of her pain, Maddie was still screaming, kicking and yelling for me to get up. Again I got up and beat his shoulder with all my might. "Stop!" I yelled at him. He looked at me briefly with so much annoyance that I was shocked. He couldn't possibly be thinking of this as a trivial matter. I got so angry that I clenched my fists and bit his arm.

"ARGHHHHH" he screamed in pain and held his arm where I had bitten it. I took the chance to land a kick where I knew it would hurt. He fell to the ground clutching between his legs whimpering.

[Maddie]

Nate got the chance to untie me while the IDOIT was on the ground moaning in pain. I didn't have much feeling in my legs or any part of my body for that matter, so I collapsed.

"Maddie?" Nate shook me. "Can you hear me Maddie?"

"it hurts Nate." I breathed "It can't feel my legs goddammit."

Nate sighed with relief and picked me up like a baby. "your welcome."

"Yeah..." I choked out. I wasn't able to speak anymore after that.

Nate carried me half a mile through the forest before the sun started to come up. "we didn't run into any mobs." Nate murmured. "weird."

We kept going until Nate couldn't walk anymore. He set me down and l practiced clearing my throat.

Chapter 10

[Dani]

Immediately after she heard what was wrong, Lilly had us search for them the entire night. When daytime came, we were forced to go back home. We were all tired, hungry, and thirsty.

"what could've happened to them?" Liam said to no one in particular.

"how could they have possibly disappeared like that?" Lilly mumbled.

"they were kidnapped." Benny said.

I looked at him. "how do you know?"

"some one pbviously took them away. Why would they leaveon their own?" Benny reasoned "they didn't take any supplies with them."

"Benny's right..." Liam's face lit up. "now we have to figure out who did it."

"but there aren't any enemies in the area." I chided.

"how do we know something didn't happen before we came?" Lilly questioned me.

"we don't." I realized "you know when we came, Nate had bandages on and stuff. I didn't want to say anything, because I thought it would be rude."

"Maddie and Nate have some explaining when we rescue them." Benny pouted

"How do you know we'll get them back?" Liam finally spoke. "has it occurred to you all they we don't know where they are?" he shook his head disdainfully "they could be miles and miles from here."

"then we will just have to get our stuff together." Lilly shot back. "we are going into the forest to find them. And we aren't coming back until we find them. We'll come back in a month if we still can't find them."

"After a month, either they're lost, dead, or whatever." Liam bit his lip.

"I'm coming right?" Benny asked "I ALWAYS get left behind."

"you're coming." I said. "we can't leave you here anyway."

Liam nodded, agreeing with me."you've gotten really strong, so you can carry furnaces and

Crafting tables." he turned to me "you'll hold everything having to with weapons." then he turned to Lilly "you can hold medicine, and food. I'll hold clothes."

"NO WAY." Lilly and I both said together.

"what?"

"you think we are going to let you carry our undergarments?" Lilly asked him indignantly.

"well-"

"you can hold Benny and your clothes." I stepped in between them. "Lilly and I will hold our own."

"where are we sleeping?" Benny asked nervously. "I don't want to sleep on the ground with all the monsters."

"we are going to sleep in trees." I told him. "Maddie taught me how to twist the branches. We can even travel along the tree tops during the night if we want."

Liam nodded in appreciation. "cool."

"I'll get our stuff." Lilly announced. She ran in the stairs with Benny trotting behind her. Liam and I went downstairs into the storage room to find stuff to bring.

[LIAM]

As soon as we got down there, Dani was looking through all the chests to see what we needed to take. She pretty much threw everything over her shoulder expecting me to catch it. She finally payed attention when a fishing rod fell on the floor.

"oops." she said, and stuck her head back into the tool chest. She chucked out 6 swords, 3 stacks of arrows, armor, a dagger for Benny, 3 picks, 3 axes, 3shovels, 4 beds-

"what's a bed doing in the tool chest?" dani giggled, slightly confused.

"well, it doesn't belong in any of the other chests, so Nate classifies it as a tool because it's not even related to anything else." I answered.

Next was the medicine chest. Potions of healing, speed, defense, salves, syringes, thermometer, lotion, creams, jellies, and so on. After that, she got to food. Lilly had stored lots of preserved meats and fruits in there. We didn't take any ores because we could just mine them with picks. But we did take obsidian, diamond, gold, and sapphire.

Chapter 11

[Unknow POV]

"you okay?"

"yeah."

"did you catch them?"

"uh no."

*sigh*

"sorry Dan. "

"its fine."

"really?"

"no."

"oh."

"I will have to this myself. You may come."

"alright."

"don't fail me this time. Got it?"

He got up from his chair and grabbed a cloak. He slipped in over his thin shoulders, and pulled the hood over his head. He picked up his dagger and stabbed at air. It was a iron dagger, and it had rubies embedded into the sides. He made it himself.

"next time, there won't be any second chances." he shoved me out of the way, and stood in the doorway. "not for you," he clenched his fist "not for Nate."

[Maddie]

Nate had gone off to check the area. When he came back, he had a sullen look on his face.

"I don't recognize anything around here." he said sullenly. "but, I do know our house is west of here." he pointed west. "we have to go that way." I dropped out of my hiding spot in the tree and gave him an apple I found.

"lead the way Nate." I said.

We ran full speed for about a mile and a half, and then climbed up a tree to rest. We needed to get back as soon as possible. Lilly and the others were definitely wondering where we were.

"do you think he'll come after us?"

I nodded my head yes. My throat was still sore, and I didn't want to risk it.

"maybe we should sleep here?"

I shook my head no.

Nate sighed "your throat still hurts?"

I shook my head yes. I look up and saw that the sun was in the middle of the sky. I pointed up.

"hmm yeah." Nate bit his lip and looked at me. "c'mon, we gotta fix your throat, I'm not gonna live with this." although a frowned with confusion, he grabbed my hand, and we leaped out of the tree.

"here." we came to a clearing with a small lake. It was so pretty. I didn't really have anything to say, so I just sort of stood there with my mouth hanging open.

"you might want to drink something." Nate said nervously "you've got blood in your mouth."

I blushed a harder than I have ever done before and I dunked my head into the water. Gulping, spitting, drinking, gargling, and all of that good stuff. I finally tore my head out of the water, and I felt much better. The horrible taste in my mouth was gone, and it seemed like the big lump in my throat was gone.

[Nate]

She looked at me expectantly "better?" I breathed a sigh of relief. She could talk. But she had still taken a huge beating. And so had I. So we both dived into the lake. I watched as blood flowed into the water and my clothes became light and clean. Smiling Maddie dived to the bottom of the lake, swimming with the squids. She came up taking a huge breath of air and laughed.

"we are alive aren't we?"

"um yeah?" I looked around.

She floated on her back and closed her eyes. I grinned. Quietly, I snuck up behind her and dived beneath her. Then, I surfaced, grabbing her up in the air. "NATEEE!" she screamed laughing, and tackled me under the water.

[Maddie]

We finally got out and sat on the edge of the lake, drying off. The sun was setting now, and I swear no mobs were around. But then, an arrow shot through the silence and embedded itself in a tree next to Nate's arm. Terrified, Nate grabbed me and ran in the opposite direction. Away from the house.

We kept running for 10 minutes, and then I looked back. To my horror, 7 skeletons were after us, plus there were two spiders. I looked at Nate. We couldn't run forever.

"Nate."

"I know" he said frustrated. He tore a branch off a tree and charged at one spider. I did the same. I drove the branch into the other spider killing it, and then I faced the skeletons. Dodging two arrows, I clubbed one over the head shattering it. Then I turned around and knocked the second one's head off. Nate had already killed a spider, and two skeletons too. Next I hid behind a tree and rested for 10 seconds before sneaking up behind a fourth one and bashing in its ribs. Large branches are very useful makeshift weapons. I froze when I heard some one calling my name. "MADDIEEEEE!" was that... Benny? I rushed towards the sound of the voice, motioning for Nate to follow me. I ducked under a tree in my way and slam, smacked into Dani.

[dani]

Rubbing my head, I handed her a bow with arrows. "her Maddie."I said shakily

Maddie took the bows and arrows and nodded hugging me. "thanks." then she led me to the mobs that had gathered beyond the tree.

By this time, more mobs had gathered there. Liam grunted with annoyance "at the worst of time too."

Maddie laughed grimly "there's never a good time for mobs to appear."

She hid behind a tree and started to pick away at a crowd of zombies and. Creeper without giving away her position.

Benny rushed at a creeper, driving his dagger clear through its neck. Vicious.

Nate had gotten a sword from Liam, and was now hacking away at a crowd of zombies with Lilly.

After a while, I realized I was staring and got to work. I took on a spider by surprise and shot an arrow that went right through its head. Next I sliced off the head of a creeper and advanced. Hm, two zombies. I tool out my sword and sliced one's stomach open and decapitated the other. I choose not to look at the fresh carcasses I had created. I turned around instead to be face to face with the most horrific looking creeper ever. I mean, creepers weren't that intimidating, but when they get you by surprise they are as ugly and scary and FUCK. Instinctively, I brought my sword down on its head, but at the same time the tip of a sword tore through its neck.

I looked around the limp body to see Liam.

"fancy seeing you here."he joked, and cut off the arm of a wandering zombie.

"fancy indeed." I replied, finishing the mob off.

It was kind of funny how normal these monsters were getting. Liam headed off in the other direction, motioning for me to follow, and we bonded a bit over some gore and mobs. Delightful.

[benny]

The creeper was huge, but I took care of it. The thing practically gave up when I had finished gutting it with my new dagger Liam gave me. I searched for Lilly through the fighting to see her fighting a skelly, so I went to Maddie instead. She, was fighting a spider really graceful-like. "need some help Mads?" I asked her. She she nodded to me and we both went around, taking down monsters we saw in our paths. It's kind of odd saying this, but it was kind of fun. I mean, out of context that would sound really weird, but I was fighting with my friends, so I knew I was safe.

Right?

[liam]

After the 10th zombie, my muscles started to fail me. Me blows became slower, and slower, until I was as fast as your average zombie. "come on." dani kept urging me on, but I knew I was gonna pass out or something sooner or later. But I couldn't disappoint her. I kept telling myself that, and I managed to keep going.

"duck!" Dani struck and skeleton, killing it.

"behind you!" I desperately swung at a zombie.

"jump!" we leaped from a spider infested tree.

"run." I kept her away from exploding creepers.

"Liam!" she protected me from skeletons.

It wasn't enough.

[unknown POV]

I think they were like 11 or something. They both tried to escape. I literally laughed at how feeble their attempts were. The rest of the gang didn't even notice they were gone until the battle was over. Wow. Anyway, I let the jockeys take them back to Dan. No problemo. The actual challenge, was capturing the rest of those annoying ticks.

[nate]

When we had finally finished killing all those mobs, the sun had tarted to rise again. I hadn't noticed how much time had gone by. Something was wrong though.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

"LIAM?" we called over and over "DANI?" finally a figure emerged from the trees.

"hey Nate, Maddie." he said cooly. "It's all good man." he stretched his arms up towards the sky. "they're in good hands now. It was Lilly's turn to loose it I guess. She picked up her diamond sword and flung it at him with such force, dominance, and anger, you'd think hpshe was his extremely pissed off mother. The evil asshole, of course dodged it. Luckily, it grazed his right shoulder and Lilly grinned at the sight of his grey t-shirt turning dark red little by little on his shoulder. Benny walked up to Lilly, gave her his dagger, and climbed up the nearest tree, out of danger. Lilly simply smiled and waved at him. As soon as she faced the brute, her expression shifted into a twisted anger. Maddie was frowning to, but not as... Insane. She too, Came to Lilly's side. Feeling left out, I walked to the other side of Lilly, and looked at him. Huge, intimidating, scary, those words could all describe him. There was something else though. It wasn't exactly fear, or sadness, or anger. It was, in a way, a mixture of all of them.

Lilly pointed her sword at the guy and said "Who are you?" she never faltered, or broke her deathly stare.

"Will." he said smiling. "Will Mason." he nodded to us. "And them?"

"Nate Maverick, and Maddie Stephens." she raised one eyebrow at him. "I am Lilly."

"no last name girly?"

"I will tell you." she smirked "when you beat me."

Will's face scrunched up in disgust. "you are foolish." he chided. "Cute, but foolish."

"why thank you." Lilly smiled "but you'll be calling me something along the lines of Miss Nightmare when we are finished." she raised her sword and smirked. She tossed her long hair behind her shoulder and said. "Come At Me Bro."

[Lilly]

Will came at me with such force, that I was thrown into a tree. As I caught the breath that had been knocked out of me so rudely, Will drew his sword from its scabbard. Maddie and Nate had stepped back after catching my drift. I was doing this alone.

"HYAAAAA!" I charged at him, grazing his already shoulder with my diamond blade, before he sent me flying back onto the ground with a kick. I rubbed my stomach. "owwwww." I groaned. "you big meanie. That hurt you know." I pouted like a kid. I knew for a fact that Will thought I was good looking (score one for LILLY!) , and I was gonna use that to my advantage. So, while we fought, we had a most interesting conversation.

"so how did you end up here?"

"just landed here by mistake, Maddie saw me though, thank Notch."

"you believe in Notch?"

" if he's the creator of this world, then technically he's a god, and since he exists, I believe in him."

"whatever."

"do you always do that?"

"do what?" he asked. He tried to stab at my leg, but I jumped out of the way.

"brush things off when you don't think they're important."

"I don't know, I never noticed."

"then, would you brush me off?" I asked him. I stopped swinging my sword and looked at him with pleading eyes. "would you just brush off all the pain and suffering you caused me?" I gestured to Benny, Nate, and Maddie. "Us?"

"I don't know." Will replied firmly. "would you brush me off?"

"what?"

"well I'd like to know." Will raised an eyebrow at me. "I don't even know you last name."

This was so not happening. Enraged, I started to rant. "excuse me?" I put my hands on my hips and started to advance to him. "you absolutely do NAWT tell a girl she is cute, and then act like its nothing!" I pointed my sword at him. "I'm delicate."

"really?"

"yes" I said impatiently. This was going to take a while. "Maddie, Nate, go on ahead. I'll take care of the oaf."

They looked at each other, and then me hesitantly, and dashed into forest.

[Maddie]

"Seems like Lilly made a new friend." I said, as Nate and I ran in the general direction of what was supposed to be Daniel's hideout.

"yup" Nate nodded. "she was always the flirty type."

"no really?" I said sarcastically. "I never noticed."

Nate laughed. "Harsh Maddie. Harsh."

We eventually came to this huge rocky spot on the side of a mountain. It was old, and cracked, with vines growing everywhere on it. We both searched for some kind of opening. I was almost positive this was where Daniel was hiding all this time. Not that I had ever known his true self long enough to know him well. Still, I figured it looked evil and morbid enough for Dan to make a house in. I mean, i would, if I was an evil, psycho, violent, traitor who was deeply in love with me. But enough of that.

"hey!" Nate's call broke my thoughts. "I think I found something!"

"Kay!" I replied, making my way over to him. The cracked ground wasn't the easiest of surfaces to walk on. I awkwardly trotted/stumbled over to him.

"look." he wiped away vines and dirt, to show me a wall. He knocked on it and put his ear to the surface of it. "it's hollow."

I took out my pickaxe and dug away at the stone, until we could see inside.

[unknown POV]

I could hear a cracking noise on the wall opposite to me. I didn't know if it was Will or Daniel, so I made my way over to a corner and stayed quiet. Finally, a hole was made in the wall, and light poured in. I squinted saying "hello?"

"uh hi." I heard. It wasnt Will, or Daniel.

"who are you?"

A different voice answered. A girl. "I'm Maddie, and this is my friend Nate." she widened the hole, and before I knew it, I had two teenagers I my cell. The boy was tall. He looked Irish or something, with his orange-red hair and green eyes. He was built, carried a sword, and he looked kind of like a knight. The girl was a shorter. She had brown hair, and hazel eyes. I wasn't gonna lie here. She was pretty. She had light leather armor, that covered The light green, knee length dress she had on. She had brown lace-up knee high boots, and her medium length was tied up in a messy bun, with her side bangs framing her face, and hiding her ears.

"you guys look like heroes." I said as friendly as I could. "are you here to rescue me?"

The boy named Nate looked at Maddie and shrugged. Maddie nodded back and said "if you need rescuing, then we'd be happy to oblige."

My eyes widened with happiness as Nate broke my shackles and led me outside. I was free!

At least, for now.