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Season One, Episode One:
The Order of The Stone
Jesse POV
"Would you rather fight, one hundred chicken sized zombies or ten zombie sized chickens?" Olivia, my brainy best friend, asks me while she was busy doing something with redstone behind me. "Just to be clear, you wouldn't have any armour or weapons"
We were in my treehouse waiting for Axel before we headed off to the Endercon building contest, we went together every year regardless of weather.
My treehouse wasn't massive but big enough for me and Reuben. It was two floors, with the bedroom and bathroom upstairs and everything else downstairs. There were two trap doors in the middle to the back and in front of that a seating area, to the left a small kitchen. I was at the far end by the stairs, practising my sword fighting against an armour stand I received as a present one year. I didn't actually have any amour so I thought I'd make use of it in some way or another. Reuben was busy batting at the bottom half of it, helping me take down this 'enemy.' Did I mention that Reuben was a pig? No? Well he is, and the best pig you'll ever meet, we were always together.
"I'd have to go with the giant chickens" I replied after some thought. "Not because I want to or because I think it would be easy, but because they would be an abomination."
"Can you imagine their feet?"
"Like I said, an abomination." Olivia seemed happy with my choice and went back to putting down some redstone. My poor treehouse had been the subject to many of Olivia's, erm, creations over the years we'd been friends. Reuben looked at her, then me and made a small grunting sound. I think he was concerned for his home, I knew the feeling.
"Soo... I've got a daylight sensor on the roof..." Olivia started. It was just over a mumble so I assumed she was talking to me, I made a sound of acknowledged back. "... And if I did this right, these lamps should turn on once it gets dark. I didn't just want to leave Reuben here with nothing while we're at the building competition."
"He's coming with us." I said without a pause.
"Really?" Olivia replied back to me, sounding surprised. I stopped beating on my armour stand, turned to her and sheathed my sword. Reuben stepped out from the stand and stood next to me.
"What kind of question is that? Of course he is!" My voiced was raised a tiny bit, I hadn't meant it to be.
"Okay, I'm not saying he shouldn't come, I'm not!... But don't you think it's a little weird that you take him everywhere you go?" Reuben put his head up and walked over to the window, jumping onto the ledge as if to say 'I am here you know, I can hear you!' Olivia continued, "He kind of makes us look like, I don't know, amateurs"
"Reuben's my best friend, my wing man!" I don't know why I felt the need to point that out, surely 'Liv knew that by now.
"I thought I was your best friend" Came a slightly sad reply. Surely she wasn't jealous of a pig? Albeit a brilliant pig but now I felt a little bad. How could I save this without making them both feel bad? Luckily Olivia continued, "I didn't mean anything by it, I'm glad he's coming, really. I just, don't want to give people another reason to call us losers." She turned away from me, averting her eyes and looking down ever so slightly.
"Who cares what other people think about us?"
"I know, it just wears you down after a while" 'Liv replied sadly with a sigh. I looked at her wearing her signature green beanie accompanied with her trusty goggles. Two little pearl stud earrings were just visible behind her dark hair, which was in it's normal pigtails framing her mocha coloured skin. White short sleeves clung to her shoulders while the long red body of the shirt hid the tops of her black trousers. She had her long dark boots on over the top of them and a bracelet on her left wrist. This was Olivia's weakness, she was so smart yet had no self confidence. I was always trying to bring that out in her.
There was a small hissing noise, we looked at each other and then towards the trap doors.
"You hear that too right?" I asked Olivia who replied with a nod. I started inching forward, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was, a Creeper. I didn't need a big hole blown into my house on Endercon day. As I moved my hand toward one of the trap doors, it flew open.
"BOO!"
We all screamed. Me falling backwards on my butt, 'Liv jumped out of her skin and Reuben fell off the window ledge, bumping into a chest on his way down. I looked up from my place on the floor.
"Hahahaha, oh man, you guys totally freaked out. That was aweso..." Reuben cut him off running into him with a head-butt, a well deserved head-butt, and an "Ow!" followed. The 'him' was Axel, he finished off our little group of misfits. Olivia had known Axel longer than me, after I moved into the town and became good friends with her she introduced me, the rest as they say is history. Right now as it was, Axel was standing, in all his massive size, taking off his Creeper mask and complaining. "Great, now I'm gonna smell like a pig at Endercon. I thought we were buddies." Axel was a very tall, large build of person with dark hair and dark eyes, a lot of people thought he was a griefer, which of course made him happy even though he was a big softy really. He wore his usually green long sleeve shirt in honour of Magnus I was sure. Black fingerless gloves, brown trousers and sandals, I never did understand why sandals. He was the oldest of our group at eighteen and Olivia was the youngest at sixteen, which placed me right in the middle.
"Axel, what's the matter with you?" Olivia asked, now fully recovered from the shock.
"You deserved that" I said crossing my arms.
"I bring you good times and now I'm being punished for it?"
"You scared us half to death!" I told him.
"Nothings fun if you're not scared half to death" he replied. I looked at 'liv who wore the same 'that's your idea of fun' expression?
She shock her head and asked "Did you bring the fireworks?"
"Of course I did. I even brought something for the little guy!" Axel exclaimed pulling out a black shape from his inventory, a couple of black shapes actually. He stuffed them onto Reuben and I got what it was supposed to be. He was an Ender Dragon well... Ender Pig. Reuben ran about the room excited.
"You brought Reuben a disguise?" Olivia questioned
"Err, we're going to a convention. Someone's got to wear a costume" Axel pointed out.
"He looks awesome! And if Reuben's happy then so am I" I told Axel. Said pig then jumped up onto low bookshelf and oinked loudly.
"It only took me like a million hours to build" Axel let us know. Slight exaggeration? I think so.
"All right all right." Reuben jumped down and gave Axel a leg nuzzle.
Olivia then spoke up, "You definitely brought the fireworks right?" She made her way over to the trap doors and opened one. Axel followed on over.
"Yes already! Just waiting on you guys"
Olivia turned to me as she made her way down, "See, now he's your wing man."
"Stop!" I said back to her. Bad joke!
"Hurry up and grab your stuff" Axel rushed us along.
"We'll meet you downstairs okay?" Olivia told me.
They had both gone down the ladders and I thought about what else we might need, or what I even had actually. I searched the chests and found a flint and steel and some shearers, might as well take them I thought, I already had my wooden sword on me. I saw Reuben stood patiently waiting for me. "Give me a dragon roar Reuben, let's hear you!" He let out a very loud squealing oink. "That'll do Reuben, that'll do" I gave him a pet and picked him up. "I think we have everything I'm going to find in here." I told him, making my way over to the trap doors. "Not like I have that much stuff anyway".
Olivia and Axel were stood waiting for us. Reuben jumped out of my arm when we reached the bottom, his little wings flapped as his did so making it looked like he glided. A little squee left my mouth at how cute it was and everyone looked at me, including Reuben, I coughed and scratched the back on my head, "Err, lets go shall we!" I walked off in front of them in an attempt to hide that moment and I think it worked.
"I heard a pretty juicy rumour about this years building competition" Axel pipped up. "But you guys have to promise to not tell anybody!"
"Okay, what is it?" Olivia questioned.
"Also, it's in two parts, each part more exciting than the last."
"Spit it out Axel!" I said.
"Part one, the special guest at this years Endercon is none other than Gabriel the warrior him-frigging,self!"
Me and Olivia goggled at him, "WHOA! What's part two?" I said back rather loudly.
"Part two, according to my sources the winners of the building competition's gonna get to meet him." He paused, me and Olivia in a happy shock. "If we win, oh man this would make up for all the losing"
"Meeting Gabriel would be a dream and an honour" I proclaimed. The Order of the Stone were Heroes, legends! Gabriel the Warrior, Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer, she was Olivia's idol. Magnus the Rogue, of whom was Axel's idol and finally Soren the Architect and leader of the Order. Together they had many tales and battles, their most famous was of course the Ender Dragon, which together they defeated. I, as you can tell, was a big fan. To be honest I didn't know a person who wasn't.
"Totally!" Olivia agreed. "It would be amazing to meet him!"
"Reuben better be careful in that costume" Axel spoke, "the last time Gabriel met a dragon it didn't end so well." I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not.
We we're all quiet for a moment just letting the news sink in, when Olivia started to speak "So, does this 'source' of yours make posters for a living?" She questioned looking about. I followed her line of sight and stopped. Stuck to just about every single tree, we were walking through a thinly wooded area by the way, were posters advertising Endercon. Some of which had the news that Axel had just told us.
"Yeah, my 'source' uhh, doesn't uh actually exist. You guys are my only friends" Axel said looking sheepish.
"Guys let's stay focused. We have a competition to win!" I announced.
"We never win, and this year we have Reuben with us" Olivia complained. What was she trying to say about Reuben!? "We basically have no chance."
"Faith Olivia." I comforted her.
"What?"
"A little slice, a sliver, a portion. Just a little faith, that's all we need" Olivia made a face at me. "I'm also hungry. TO WIN!"
"No no, I'm down with that" Axel agreed with me, glad he was on my side. He often was, I was sure Axel had stolen all of Olivia's positivity sometimes, because he had minecarts of it some days!
"All right" Olivia said back, finally giving in. I smiled at her.
"Wait a minuet wait a minuet! We're thinking about this all wrong. The point of the building competition isn't just to build something, it's to get noticed by the judges." I thought allowed to them.
"Okay, so how do we do this then?" Olivia questioned.
"We don't just build something functional, we build something fun!" I proclaimed. I think I had their attention. "After we finish the fireworks machine like we planned, we build something cool on top of it."
"You might be on to something." Olivia replied, liking the idea.
Axel crossed his arms, "if you want to get a reaction out of the judges you build something scary. I say we build a Creeper."
"Wouldn't an Enderman be better? I'm more scared of Endermen than Creepers" Olivia stated back.
I thought a moment while they talked between themselves. Endermen weren't so scary, as long as you didn't look at the anyway. And Axel did scare us with a Creeper today... "I think we should go with the Creeper. Fireworks and Creepers go together." I finally said, agreeing with Axel.
"Aw, you're going with Axel's idea?" Complained Olivia
"What's wrong with my idea?" Objected Axel
"Nothing, I guess." She paused and we walked on a little further. "You know, I think this is the first time that we've actually decided on something before getting to the competition. Think we've got everything we need?"
"It wouldn't hurt to grab a little more" I replied back, stopping. "We're so prepared, we can't lose. Cannot! Bring it in." I put my hand out in the middle of us, everyone followed suit including Reuben who stood on his hind legs to do so. "'Dare to prepare' on three, no 'preparing is daring', nope that's the same thing" What was the saying again? Everyone looked at me with a confused look to their eyes "Forget it, 'team' on three. One, Two, Three..."
"TEAM!"
We all raced off to collect, well to collect whatever we could: Wood, stone, sand, wool, flowers and squid for dye, Reuben even helped me with some warm up exercises. We were ready to build and ready to win!
"We know what we're building, we got all the stuff for it" Axel said with confidence.
"This year it's going to be different. I'm not just ready to build, I'm ready to win!" Olivia said with the same confidence as Axel. Hurray, I've finally got some out of her. That was until someone walked past us saying "nice pig, losers" and Olivia's smile faded.
I sighed. We still had this, fireworks weren't too easy to get a hold of, we had been fighting Creepers for weeks to collect the amount of gunpowder we needed. We'd even gone and found some more rare dyes to colour them with. I was confident that we not only had the skills to build but also a creative fun idea, I'd never seen a Creeper fireworks machine before, so I was sure no one else had.
"Oh great, there's Lukas and the Ocelots. The rivalry continues" said Axel from behind my right shoulder with a grump in his voice. They were stood in front of us at the team register counter.
"Man, they've got matching leather jackets and everything." Admired Olivia over my left. And I will admit, inside my head, that they did look cool with their black leather jackets with their Ocelot symbol on the back... We needed some sort of team thing. While I pondered, three of the four turned around and noticed us. Gill, with his dark hair and dark eyes. I didn't know much about him other than there wasn't much going on upstairs. Maya, with her light brown hair and eyes such a light blue they were nearly white, creepy. She was very rude and never had a nice word to say about anyone. The last of the three to look our way was Aiden, probably the most spiteful person you'll ever come across, dark brown hair and green eyes mocked us.
"Well well well, if it isn't the Order of the losers" called Aiden, leaning against the register stand. Gill laughed.
"Great, the fail squads here" joined Maya, snickering.
"Lukas, get a load of these losers" Gill called to their leader, of whom had finished registering them for the competition. He turned around, blond hair and blues eyes looked at us and then to his team.
"Let's go guys" And into the competition grounds they went, Aiden giving us a mean smile as he went
From all of our many encounters with the Ocelots, unlike the rest of them Lukas was never horrible to us, or well anyone. I think he kept them in check as well like just then, telling them to move on. I admired that, it wasn't always easy being a leader I thought as I looked to my sulking team. I sighed. "Come on guys" I ushered them over to the lady sitting at the register table.
"Name?" She asked us
"Axel, and how do you do?"
"No, your team name?" She replied looking a little perplexed.
"Team name?" Repeated Axel who then looked at me, "We are so not ready for this."
My brain ticked over so many words and things we could call ourselves. I looked over to see the Ocelots watching us and then Reuben oinked. I smirked, I had the perfect name in mind. "We're the Order of the Pig" I announced, placing one hand on my hip. I glanced back towards the Ocelots who laughed under their breath except for Lukas who smiled. Ha, I think he got it, even though I was kinda mocking his gang who liked to call us names. But I wasn't someone who let those sorts of things get to me, laugh in the face of bullies! Reuben then oinked in satisfied agreement with my choice.
"Really?" Dead-panned Olivia.
"Is that meant to tie us to Reuben, or are you making fun of me?" Axel then questioned. In what way was that making fun of you Axel? I thought, I didn't get it.
"Ok" Said the lady behind the desk. "Order of the... Pig. You guys are in booth five." Axel then went through the gate, or well, the correct way of saying this is he got stuck in the gate and we pushed him through, told you he was big. That was met with another laugh from the Ocelots who finally turned away and headed to where they were going to be building today.
Axel and Olivia headed right to our booth but I decided to have a quick look about first, see what we were up against and all that. Now I know for a fact the Ocelots, or well Lukas, was a great builder but I hadn't seen much but some of the other people here today. We were out in a grassy open, with trees about us and a lake off in the distance. The area was fenced off with fenced booths littering the borders, so people had a place to walk about in the middle. I greeted a few of the other teams, wishing them good luck, I even got chatting to one team who were doing something with lava, something safe I hoped. I waved them good bye and headed for our booth.
"Is that a beacon? They have a freakin' beacon. Freakin' beacon!?" Whispered Axel to us, he was looking over at the Ocelots who were in the booth next to us, I glanced over my shoulder trying to be sneaky and it was, they had a beacon. Wow, you have to get a Nether Star to make one of those, so they went to the Nether for this competition? That's commitment.
"That's stained glass. They aren't just building a beacon, they're building a rainbow beacon." Olivia stated. Of course she knew what it was before they'd even pulled out all their materials. "We're gonna lose".
"What're you saying? We got this." I said as a matter of fact.
"Who are we kidding, we got nothing"
"We've got... A mascot!" I knew that wasn't going to help much but I was thinking on my toes. Reuben then oinked as if he could win as our entry. I think he was forgetting he was a pig.
"We should probably stop staring at them" pointed out Olivia a little too late as Gill had noticed us looking.
"Hahaha, look, it's the order of the losers, again!"
Maya laughed "Good one, Gill"
Olivia huffed at her "We were just looking"
"Oh, there will be plenty of time to look at our build when it wins and gets shown at Endercon" called Aiden walking to the front of them.
"Well you're being unpleasant" replied Axel who crossed his arms in defence.
"Well maybe not all of you" continues Aiden ignoring Axel completely. "Endercon doesn't allow outside food or drink" He point at Reuben who oinked in shock.
I puffed up "Reuben is NOT food" I glared at him. No one says anything about my friends like that, no one. To me, my friends are my world and I will do anything and more for them. Just before he could reply, something sarcastic I imagine, Lukas called to them,
"Stop wasting your time Aiden, we've got work to do"
He didn't reply for a moment, turned to Lukas and then back to us, "you're lucky I'm busy" then sulked off. More like you're lucky I thought. I'd get him back for calling Reuben food. I myself was a proud no-pig-atarian, I ate nothing remotely pig related.
"Hey Jesse" called a familiarly female behind me.
"Hey Petra" I replied back as she came and stood next to me. I'd known Petra ever since I came to this town, she was a little older than me at nineteen and a bit mysterious but dependable, if you needed something, she could get it. I thought to myself, I bet that's how these guys got that Nether Star. She asked how our build was going.
"Only time will tell, but we're optimistic" answered Axel.
"Petra" called Lukas who came forward in his white and purple striped shirt, denim jeans, black and white trainers and of course, leather jacket with the Ocelot logo on the back. I think he was about Petra's age. "I forgot to thank you for that Nether Star". Called it. I smiled to myself, proud of my detective work.
"Hey Lukas, not a problem" Said Petra in her normal relaxed tone.
"You helped these tools?" came a shocked Axel. I gave him a look as if to say 'now who's the unpleasant one?'.
"For the right price, I'll help anyone" shrugged Petra "if you need anything, you know where to find me" she finished, her dark eyes turning to the forest and off she went, her red short hair coming from under her blue hat. Black and blue shirt covering her with only one sleeve down her left arm a black glove on the other hand of which was carrying a stone pickaxe over her shoulder. Dark blue shorts and shoes finished her.
"None of us know where to find you" pointed out Olivia.
"Exactly" and with that she was gone. We all stood there a moment in the silence watching the space she'd just disappeared into until Lukas turned to us and spoke.
"No hard feelings guys, and if you're cool with Petra you're cool with us" He put one hand behind his blond hair. I think he was unsure of where to look. "So why don't we just forget about all this and you know, make it about how cool our builds are?" Well this was unexpected, I didn't know Lukas well but I had always assumed that he was just like the rest of them, apparently I was very wrong. Aiden on the other hand just stood behind him glaring at us, I didn't think I was wrong about him.
"May the best team win!" I beamed back at him. I never wanted drama between anyone if I could help it, hopefully I could start patching up this gap, however it started.
"Be careful what you wish for" he smirked back at me.
"Ladies and Gentleman..." Came the voice of an announcer who was stood in the middle of the area on a platform. "welcome to this years Endercon building competition!" The crowd cheered. "This winners of this years building competition will have their build featured at Endercon. They will also win the chance to meet, in person, Gabriel the Warrior." Me and Olivia grabbed each other and jumped up and down, Axel threw his hands in the air.
"Ocelots!" we turned to look at the group who had moved over the their area, they were doing some sort of team handshake.
"Whoa, a handshake, we don't have a handshake" grumped Olivia.
"Then let's make one up. Right now!" I said. We came together and did something that can only be described as awful. I don't think any of us were going to remember that.
"And just like that, I'm nervous again" Olivia said to me with a shaky voice.
"Don't talk like that. We can do this! Just stick to the plan and everything will be fine" She took a deep breath in and looked at me with some confidence. If we lost now, it was going to be hard to talk her up next year. "This year, the Order of the Pig can't lose" They all nodded at me and we came together for a hug.
"Building starts..." Came the announcer once more, "NOW!"
We raced to start building, we each had a share of the things we needed. Me and Axel started building up the fireworks machine while Olivia worked on the redstone wiring. We were putting the dispensers in place when I sighed at a voice calling over to us.
"Oh no, a fireworks dispensers? I'm so scared" It was Aiden, I bet you guessed that. He was stood on some clay blocks being his usual irritating self.
"Hey" I called back over. "You worry about your build, we'll worry about ours"
I saw Lukas put his hand to his head and shake it, he then reach over and pulled on Aiden's sleeve. I couldn't quite make it out but I think he said something like stop it. Lukas saw me looking, I smiled at him and mouthed 'thank you', to which he smiled and nodded back. I turned to Olivia and asked if she had finished with the redstone, she had.
We all climbed our way down the machine and to the front where we got our green and black dyed wool out and started to build a Creeper shape. When we reached the top Olivia put a lever in place to start the machine. I looked about at the other builds. We had finished ours but a lot of people still looked as though they had so much to do and the lava one, what was going on there? I knew we had the skill and this sort of build suited all of us. Olivia and her great redstone brain, Axel just liked explosions and me, well I was happy building, just building. Reuben was running about on the floor in his costume, I saw people pointing and smiling at him. See, Jesse beings the fun! If people we're having a good time, then so was I!
"And now!" I boomed to the sky. "My Creeper, attack!" I pointed out towards the people and nothing happened. I whispered and nudged Olivia "That means go."
"Oh uh!" She pulled the lever and the Creeper went crazy, with tons of fireworks shooting into the sky, it was a shame it wasn't night but it did the trick. "Okay okay, I admit it. The Creeper was the way to go." Olivia said, receiving a 'told you' and a smug face from Axel. "This is great. We'll win this for sure" People came over as we were admiring the sky from atop the Creepers head. I even heard one guy shout 'Good build, man!' And of course that annoyed a certain Ocelot.
"What!? No way! It's just a bunch of dyed wool!" Aiden, who was now on the ground, looked up at us angrily. Our build was cool, and we were going to win of course, but he did have a beacon, come on, that was cool too. A piece of stone next to him then got the blunt side of his anger in the form of his fist. It poofed and left the cobblestone block which was burnt away by the lava now pouring out. Oh well done you idiot I though, I was about to call down and tell him to sort it out, that was until I notice that Reuben was on fire! Well his costume was, but being a pig with no thumbs he was stuck in it. He ran off into the forest.
"OH NO! REUBEN!" I all but screamed. My friends had witness what had happened, I told them to stay here, protect the build and the stop the lava, I was going after Reuben. I ran to the edge of the Creeper, grabbed it with one hand and slid my way down, doing a roll at the bottom so not to take damage, as I launched myself out of the roll I knocked Aiden over. I all but sprinted into the trees making a note that Aiden would get more than that later so help him if more than a hair was singed on Reuben.
Building Competition: Lukas POV
I was busy writing down all our names and talking to the register lady at the desk, my team around me, when I heard Aiden laugh and call "Well well well, if it isn't the Order of the losers" Gill and Maya laughed and she joined in calling them the fail squad. Gill then asked me to 'get a load of these losers'. I finished talking to the lady behind the desk and turned to see who they were insulting now.
It was Jesse and her group, she was stood in the front, arms folded not in the least bit intimated by Aiden. I inwardly smiled, protecting her friends, that's something anyone could admire. I had seen them around and knew that Jesse was a skilled builder and had heard that Olivia was it? Was a master at redstone. Wanting to avoid what I knew was going to be confrontation I ushered everyone inside.
I was hoping my leadership would change these guys into being less stand-offish towards everyone. The world wasn't against them unless they made it, and they did.
I looked over my shoulder to see the three of them watching Jesse's group. I decided to stay with them, in case they chose to carry on.
They were choosing a team name it looked like, Jesse was stood with one arm across her chest and the other playing with her lip. She looked up at us, her green eyes full of confidence behind her black hair that was pulled to one side in a yellow clip. She smirked something playful at us and then looked at her pet... Pig? Dragon? Wait what...?
"We're the Order of the Pig" She then exclaimed putting one hand on her hip, looking back over to us. The guys laughed not getting it but I smiled back at her. She was mocking them and the names they'd just been called, as if to say 'yeah and what about it?'
I headed towards our booth, number 6, and started sorting out all our building materials. I looked over my shoulder to pass Aiden all the stained glass we'd be using and saw Jesse, talking to the other teams and shaking their hands. Aiden nudged me "What're you staring off into The Nether for?" I nearly replied back saying that it was nice to see good teamsmanship but thought better of it.
I set our beacon off to one side, we had this. No way anyone could beat our rainbow beacon. I was thinking about the most practical yet compact way to place our redstone when I heard behind me
"Reuben is NOT food" I looked over to see Aiden standing up close to Jesse, who was standing her ground and glaring something evil at him. I sighed and called over to him telling him to stop wasting time, to which I received a glare but then he reluctantly agreed. Jesse watched him walk back to me, boring holes into his back with her eyes.
I hear Petra arrive and great Jesse like an old friend, they knew each other? I walked over to join them as I remembered I needed to personally thank Petra for the Nether Star.
"Petra, I forgot to thank you for that Nether Star". Jesse smiled to herself. Huh?
"Hey Lukas, not a problem" She replied back to me in her normal uncaring attitude. Getting a Nether Star? Just another day in the life of Petra I guess. Axel, Jesse ridiculously tall friend then asked Petra why she helped 'these tools'. Well ouch. Jesse then shot him a look and he backed down, I knew how she felt. Petra then exited the group doing what she does best and vanishing, I turned to Jesse's group
"No hard feelings guys, and if you're cool with Petra you're cool with us" I put one hand on the back of my head, I wanted to make cool with these guys, they had never done anything to us so I don't see why the other three had to be so mean to them. "So why don't we just forget about all this and you know, make it about how cool our builds are?"
Jesse tilted her head to one side slightly and all but shone at me. "May the best team win!"
"Be careful what you wish for" I smiled back at her. Then the announcer came out, telling us about the competition who some reason. When she said about Gabriel Jesse and Olivia started jumping about the place, it was cute to watch. I shock my head and me and my team went into our handshake.
And the building begun!
I was confident in our building ability but still nosed about at what the other teams were doing, and from what I could tell Jesse's group were building a fireworks machine, as Axel brought out arm fulls of fireworks my suspicions were confirmed. A lot of gunpowder was needed to make that many. Petra had asked about their build earlier which meant she didn't help them get any, one of them had to be a great fighter.
I was laying down some redstone when I heard Aiden shout over to them, Jesse told him to go away in an amount of words with more manners in them but he didn't listen. I visibly face-palmed and grabbed his jacket. "Get back to work. You wanna win right?" I saw Jesse looking over at me and she mouthed a 'thank you'. I nodded back to her and carried on wiring.
All of a sudden I heard a shout, everyone looked over in the direction of where it came from.
"AND NOW!" called Jesse from the top of a, Creeper? Oh I get it, Creepers explode, fireworks... Clever. I'd never seen people care about the looks of a firework machine before. "My Creeper, attack!" She pointed out and nothing happened. Then all of a sudden Olivia jumped into action and set off the fireworks. It's a shame it wasn't night but it worked, I could see why people liked it. I stopped admiring and carried on with our beacon when Jesse screamed "OH NO REUBEN", I looked up at her and then down where she was staring. Lava was pouring out, Aiden was stood next to it and her... Ender Pig? Was on fire. I was about to start moving when I noticed Jesse already had. She yelled to her friends exactly what to do, swiftly jumped from the top of the Creeper rolling at the bottom and knocking over Aiden, which I'm sure was on purpose. Then she ran into the forest.
Jesse POV
I ran as fast as I could following after what I hoped was the path Reuben had taken. I stopped to catch my breath by some pig tracks and called out to him. Nothing. Then I heard some pig-ish noises coming from in front. I jogged in the direction I heard the noises, I found no pigs but I did find some carrots, I collected them thinking I might be able to lure Reuben out with them, they were his favourite snack. "Reuben, I have carrots for you!"
Still nothing. I continued down the path I was going and came across a load of pigs. Reuben was such a small pig, it didn't look like he was here but I couldn't tell his oink from these other pigs. "All pigs but Reuben, shut up!" I said to them crossly. I received a snuff and they moved away from me, I let out a sigh.
I searched behind trees and grasses, only to be startled by a chicken, then I saw something behind some blocks of stone, it looked like, smoke? Reuben!? Running over I lifted up one of Reuben's dragon costume wings only to find no Reuben, but I was glad to not find him here right now. I stamped out his costume so it didn't set fire to the forest and stood up. Where could he be? It was starting to get dark which meant the monsters would start appearing, you didn't want to be out here then. I headed through a small cave, hoping he had taken shelter but he hadn't, coming out the other side I looked about, which is when I noticed something moving in the tall grasses. Taking out my wooden sword and inching forward, I parted the grass and a blob of pink looked up, shivering. "Reuben!"I exclaimed loudly and he launched himself at me. "Am I glad to see you!" I told him, putting him down and fishing about in my inventory I pulled out a carrot for him. "Here you go boy!"
I heard a groan and looked up, two zombies were emerging from a cave across from us. "Reuben, run!" We turned tail, back the way I came. Yes I had a sword but that didn't mean I'd charge right into a fight, I might need it more later. When I thought we'd lost them I stopped and crouched down to catch my breath, only to have a Creeper sneak up behind us, "AH!" Grabbing Reuben I dodged to the side just before it exploded. I ran over to a small hill, slid over a grass block and hid behind it, Reuben by my feet. "Did we lose him?" As I peaked over I heard something and an arrow just missed my head sticking into the wall behind, looking up I saw a skeleton getting ready to fire another. "Ahh! Go go!" I rolled right dodging the second arrow, Reuben was lucky he was small.
We ran but hit a down end, a stone wall too high to climb up quick enough, zombies were right behind us. Drawing my wooden sword I faced them "Stay behind me Reuben!" He sank back behind my giving me enough space, I hoped my sword lasted long enough for us to get away.
I swung at the first one, once, twice and knock him down, I stabbed him and he poofed. Two then came at me, I would have to fight them at the same time. Knocking one back I switched to the other and made sure to keep them at a distance from us, one went down, followed by the second. I knew how to build, but I knew how to fight more. That was until my sword broke, it poofed away. "No! Stupid wooden swords!" There were at least three more zombies from what I could see and then a spider came down from a tree. Reuben oinked at me as I backed up against the wall. "I know it's bad, don't worry I'll think of something"
"You're going to have to run. I'll distract them." Reuben looked at me, he didn't want to leave me. "GO! NOW!" He squealed so loudly at me and ran while the mobs focused on me. A spider jumped at me and knocked me down, I managed to punch it off. Standing back up, I panted, I had no idea what to do. Another spider jumped down from above me and started towards me and then it jumped at me just like the other one had. I started trying to hit it away but then it just wasn't on me any more. Sitting up I saw that Petra was here, she had dragged the spider off me and stabbed it with her pickaxe several times, it poofed away, dropping two strings.
"Come on, let's get out in the open." Petra said to me helping me up. Oh diamond blocks was I glad she showed up, I grabbed the strings as we ran passed. After a short while we came to a mined out cave which I guess was hers. "There's something I want to show you" Petra called up to me as I was making my way down a ladder. I followed her inside for a while
"Not that this isn't a really cool, dimly lit tunnel and all but, what is it you wanted to show me?"
"Careful Jesse, you don't want to get a reputation as a wimp." Petra teased.
"Ha ha, this isn't my first time in a cave you know?" Correcting her, I wasn't a wimp, and sulking to myself.
"Yeah, but have you ever seen..." She reached behind her into her inventory "A Wither skull?"
"Whoa!"
"Fresh from the Nether. You're the first person I've shown it too. Soo... You better appreciate this"
"That's insane Petra!" I exclaimed excitedly, that was impressive. "Why exactly do you need one?" I wasn't exactly sure what uses one had but it couldn't be many.
"There's this guy I'm meeting at Endercon - he's gonna trade me a diamond for it" Petra explained to me. I was sure that was worth more than a single diamond but Petra had agreed to it so she must of been happy with the deal.
"So this guy, what's his deal?"
"Well he's kinda strange, but hey, everyone's got their own thing" she shrugged. A diamond was still a diamond, even if a strange guy traded you it.
"Wow." I said to fill the silence.
"Wow, what!?"
"In a single day, you went to the Nether, killed a Wither skeleton..." I pointed at her "I mean I did build a super cool statue and all but wow, it's pretty sweet being you" after I finished I realised that could come across a little rude, but she seemed to ignore it.
"You know, you could come with me" She turned and kept walking. Petra the mysterious loner was asking me, me Jesse to come with her!? Wow I said to myself. "I mean if you're too nervous I totally get it, but I wouldn't mind a little... back up?"
"No no, I would be honoured to be your back up" I hurried next to her, and now I've gone from rude to creepy. Wow Jesse, well done.
"Starting to regret the decision now..."
"Sorry. I mean, I just..." I was acting like such an idiot, me and Petra were friends I was just so happy that she wanted to let me tag along. I saw a crafting table and thought it best to change topic, "you just keep a crafting table down here?"
"Comes in handy. Speaking of, your sword broke didn't it?" I nodded at her. "Why not make yourself a new one, there's some things in that chest." I opened up the chest and pulled out some cobblestone and sticks. Placing them on the crafting table I made a lever, I turned to Petra who gave me a confused look "That's not gonna do you much good in a fight is it?" We both laughed, placing the lever in my inventory I crafted my new stone sword.
I turned and gave it a swing. "Thanks loads Petra!"
"See, isn't it better when you make it yourself?" We carried on out the other side of the tunnel and into the cool night. We were on a giant bridge above a long and wide river, to my right Endercon, which was lit up with the Ocelots beacon. I guess we didn't win.
"Check it out, Endercons all lit up." Called Petra stopping on the bridge.
"Aw man, I guess this means Lukas and his Ocelots won again" I grumped and stuck a frown on my face. What was I going to say to Olivia and Axel? I was more sad for them than me.
"Sorry Jesse" Petra tried comforting me, "but you've got to admit, that beacon does look pretty sweet."
"Yeah yeah" I sighed "I just wanted THIS to be the year we finally beat those jerks"
"You know, Lukas may be kind of arrogant, but he has come through for me in sticky situations" I didn't think he was arrogant but I saw her point. "You might want to get to know him - just in case. He's good at building, that's for sure. It's always useful to have a guy like that around, no matter what you might think of him personally."
"Yeah, you might be right" I didn't have a problem with Lukas per se, it was the rest of them. But that only went for me, I didn't know what Axel and Olivia thought after all.
"I'm just saying, if you see him at Endercon, try talking to him"
"I don't need a lecture on the power of collaboration Petra." I said back at her.
"How about a lecture on the power of my fists, it's short, but deadly!" She retorted back at me with a serious face and I laughed walking past her.
"Come on, let's go"
"Remember what Endercon was like BEFORE it was cool?" She questioned me.
"Remember what WE were like before WE were cool?" I smiled sideways at her.
"Some of us, will never be cool" She joked back
"Har har!" I replied sarcastically. Then Petra stopped on the bridge I looked at her only to see she was staring ahead, I followed her line of sight. "Creepers!" And a whole bunch of them. We turned only to have the other end of the bridge blocked by zombies and spiders
"This... Doesn't look good" Petra said to me. "Well there's only one way off this bridge, whatever it is, we do it together."
We were back to back, I looked over my shoulder to her, "I say we jump!" We both ran to the edge and threw ourselves off just in time to miss two Creepers exploding. A third fell with us, behind me. Petra saw it and pointed, turning around I pushed it out of the way and into a group of chickens. Sorry chickens! It exploded, sending them and feathers everywhere. We came crashing into the water, Petra of course managing a lovely dive, me on the other hand? I just hit it. "It burns, it BURNS!"
"Don't you know? You dive into the water not land on top of it" She laughed at me as we swam to the shore.
We finally made it to Endercon, I was hoping Reuben was here somewhere, Petra saw me looking glum. "He'll be fine, I'm sure he's waiting for you around here somewhere"
"Thanks Petra... I hope so"
"So, when we make this deal, I need you to let me do all the talking. Okay?" She paused looking for the right words "I just don't want anything to screw this up"
"It's ok Petra, I'll keep quiet" I'd never done anything like this before so I was more than happy to keep quiet and let her show me how it's done.
"If you want to be really useful, try to look intimidating?"
"Erm, how's this?" I said putting on my best mean girl face and making myself look big.
"... I'm less scared of you then scared for you" I sagged, I wasn't used to looking mean and bodyguardy. I'd have to improvise when we got there and try my hardest for her.
"Jesse!" came a familiar voice, the owning of whom came running up to me, it was Axel, Olivia on his tail.
".. And, Petra?" She questioned. 'Liv knew we were friends but I don't think she knew we hung out, actually that had only just happened.
"Hey, you all know Petra, my new-super close friend. We're super close now" I said so cooly all it needed was a hair flick. Petra face palmed, oh. I shock my head ,"We ran into each other while I was looking for Reuben"
"Couldn't find him either huh?" Replied Axel
"I'm sorry Jesse, we looked everywhere" Olivia said softly. I can believe that, he wasn't easy to find.
"It's ok, I found him for a second but then I had to let him escape, we we're being attacked. I'm hoping he's around here somewhere."
"We'll keep our eyes open!" Olivia noted.
"What were you doing in the woods Petra?" Questioned Axel. Actually, that was a good question.
"Just, drawn by the sound of Jesse's high pitch screams." She joked and nudged me. I gave a small glare followed by a smile back.
"I would've been spider bait if she hadn't found me!" I didn't know what Petra was doing in those woods but it didn't matter, she saved me. I knew Olivia thought she was cool but Axel always took a while to warm up to new people. Hopefully they would get along.
Axel turned toward the Ocelots rainbow beacon which I had only know noticed was behind us. "Gotta admit, I'm pretty bummed they won, again"
"It's ok to be a little disappointed right?" Olivia asked me sadly.
"Only a little" I smiled back. "We'll get them next year, but you have to admit they deserved this win"
"Yeah ok" Olivia moped. I let her mope, I wanted to as well.
"The spirit is willing, but the flesh is sad" quoted Axel. I knew it was a quote, I couldn't remember from what but it fit.
"Hey" Petra joined in "If at first you don't succeed. Then succeed, later than... Originally planned?" I smiled at her, I liked that. "Hey Jesse, it's time to go and see about that thing."
"Oh yes, the 'thing'"
"Subtle" Olivia said
"Yeah?"
"Like a punch to the face" Oh, that was sarcasm. She shock her head, "Me and Axel were going to head into Endercon anyway, see you in there?"
"I heard there was free cake by the map booth" Axel suddenly remembered happily. He and Olivia walked off together into the crowd path ways and then Petra turned to me.
"Hurry, we're supposed to meet in that alley over there" She said pointing to a dark, creepy alley. Oh great and if this wasn't sketchy enough, now there's an alley way involved? We moved into it.
"Dark, dark, so very dark in here" I said to no one following behind Petra.
"That's odd, he said to meet by the dark creepy alley by the gates, but he's not here. Maybe he's late?"
"Are you sure THIS is the dark creepy alley he meant?" I crossed my arms over my chest sarcastically.
"I was..." Pondered Petra, raising an eyebrow. "Ok new plan, you stay here in case this is the spot he meant and I'll go look around"
"Okay I'll stay here, but something about this feel off to me" I told her.
"All of my secret deals feel off, that's why I keep them a secret" Petra replied back to me making a good point. "I'll be back before you know it, and if he shows up while I'm gone, just stall for me." And off she went out of the alley way, leaving me alone.
So I stood about a while when I noticed a chest and of course went to look in it. An unguarded chest in an alley way? Chh yeah I wasn't not going to look in it. Just as I was about to open the lid...
"Ahem!"
"Ahh!" I span around to see a man standing there in an olive coloured robe. At least I think it was, after all it was a very dark alley.
"And just who are YOU?" He sneaks up on me and asks who I am? What a strange man.
"Don't you know it's rude to sneak up on people?" I replied back, standing from the chest. He had dark eyes and long black hair and a beard. Along with his robe he was the exact sort of person you didn't want to meet in a dark creepy alley but that's exactly where we both were.
"I'm supposed to meet with Petra not whatever you're supposed to be." Didn't I know someone already who was this rude? "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't walk out of here right now?"
"I'm her partner"
"My deal is with her, not you. Do you have the skull?"
"Petra has it and she'll be back any minute now." I hoped. I didn't want to ruin her deal on the first time she invited me along.
"Well, as long as she's bringing it, I suppose it wouldn't kill me to wait a minute longer" He put his hands on his hips. I weakly smiled at him, hurry Petra.
"Ivor!" called Petra walking back into the alley, oh thank Notch because this was getting awkward. "Sorry I'm late, but good things are worth waiting for, right? I have what you asked for."
"IF you have what you promised us." I said crossing my arms and imagined that I was talking to Aiden.
"You never said anything about an us when we met" replied Ivor crossly. Ah shoot, I remember Petra told me to be quiet. I shot her a 'I'm sorry' look to which she rolled her eyes. "and I don't like surprises. If these are the sorts of people you associate with..." Hey! What's wrong with me? "Perhaps we should call the whole thing off?"
"My friend is fine, right Jesse? There's no problem here." Petra asked me. I looked to her and back to Ivor.
"I'm cool if he's cool."
"It's settled then, you're both cool" Petra decided, cooling things off between us with a smile.
"Proceed, then." Ivor said hurrying us along, to which Petra pulled the Wither skull from her inventory and handed it to Ivor, who took it and looked it over, he seemed very pleased with it.
"I'll take that diamond now"
"Take it, you've earned it" Ivor replied, gesturing towards the chest I was about to look in earlier. We both turned to look at it, Petra moving closer to open the lid while I looked over her shoulder.
"Uh, this isn't a diamond" I said unfolding my arms, oh no.
"No!" Petra said crossly "It's Lapis!" We turned to say something to Ivor but he was gone, of course he was. "Of all the dirty, underhanded tricks to pull!"
"Let's go after him! We can;t let him get away with this!" I told Petra. She turned and nodded at me and then we started running out of the alley.
"I'm either getting that diamond or I'm getting my skull back!" Proclaimed Petra as we ran.
"Or you'll make him pay, right? Right?"
We decided to split up to cover more ground in the hopes of finding him. I started by the entrance and man it was crowded, finding your way was hard enough let alone a person you'd only ever seen once in a dark alley. That was when a bunch of important looking people waked across with wait, Gabriel!? That was him and I wasn't the only person who noticed, suddenly people were flooding by, I fought my way through them, I'd already missed my chance to meet Gabriel, I had something important to do for my friend!
Lukas POV
I was stood leaning against one of the many stalls at Endercon. We'd won he building competition, no thanks to Aiden nearly setting everything on fire, but I knew we'd win. Jesse's friends were quick to stop the lava spreading and everyone worked together to put the fires it had started out.
There was a commotion to the right of me that caught me attention, was that Gabriel I saw? I knew I'd get my chance to meet him later, actually meet him. In person. I was so excited as I imagined anyone would be to meet him. So I didn't go and investigate to see if it was. That's when I saw a worried girl push herself out of the mess of people, it was Jesse. She brushed off her white and red sleeved shirt and denim overalls. That's when she saw me looking and smiled, she walked over in her brown boots.
"'Sup?" She asked.
"'Sup?"
"Nothing, 'sup with you?"
"Nothing, 'sup with YOU?"
"I just said, nothing..." Oh yeah she did. I'd never really spoken to her before so this was awkward. I wonder why she came over to talk to me? I took the opportunity;
"Sorry you guys didn't win this year" I told her honestly, rubbing the back on my head. "It might have turned out pretty cool, if you know, it hadn't burned down or whatever" Her eyes opened wider, "Ah you didn't know?" She sighed "Sorry"
"It's ok, really. You guys deserved that win" She smiled back at me.
"Wow, thanks for being so cool about it" I was a little taken back at her niceness. I guess I was expecting her to treat me badly because of how the rest of the group treated her, nice to know she didn't. "It's not fair you had to deal with Aiden being an idiot".
She smiled in agreement and then asked me a question. "You didn't happen to see a creepy guy with long hair and beard roaming around did you?" Why was someone like Jesse looking for someone who sounded so suspicious? Not that I really knew her but she didn't come across that way to me, definitely not now.
"I don't think so... Why?" I questioned. Wondering if she would actually tell me and she did!
"Well he kind of scammed me and Petra out of a diamond earlier." Said answered me crossly.
"Whoa! Everyone knows you don't mess with Petra, not if you know what's good for you." Petra let Jesse come along with her to her deals? I didn't know they were so close. I looked right at Jesse's green eyes that were looking at my blue ones, clearly this girl was full of surprises. "I'll keep an eye out, okay?" She beamed at me.
"Thank you! I really appreciate it."
"So, uh, we're cool?" I hoped so, I didn't know much about Jesse as I'd already mentioned but what I did know, I liked. Beings friends might be awkward but things have a way of working themselves out I thought.
"Yeah, we're cool" she replied back with an awkward smile, playing with her black hair, looking down ever so slightly
"Cool-cool"
"Cool beans"
"Cool-o-rama!"
"Ha! See you later Lukas!" She waved to me and she turned she left. I really didn't see why the others had to be so mean to everyone, nothing was wrong with Jesse. I just couldn't figure it out. I watch her walk away as I thought about it and that's when I saw Aiden pop out of no where at her.
"Well if it isn't team trashbag." I stayed where I was just watching, hopefully Aiden wouldn't start causing too much trouble. Jesse was trying to look over Aiden's shoulders but he kept moving in the way. "How's your stupid pig? I hear intense heat causes brain damage. It does boost the flavour something crazy though." He laughed and what came next shocked the both of us, me and Aiden. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down eye level with her.
"I don't know when, but some day in the future, when you least expect it, I'll pay you back for hurting my friend." I couldn't see her face but Aiden was clearly taken back he stuttered out some noises. "Now move you idiot, I'm busy" She shoved him to one side and walked off at a speed looking for the guy she mentioned. I smirked at the confused look Aiden had on his face, 'it's your own fault' I thought to myself, he grumbled something to himself and sulked off, probably to bother someone else.
Jesse POV
So I'd spoken to Lukas like Petra had told me to and I was right, he wasn't like the others in the group, I was thinking to myself 'why would he hang around with such people?' when Aiden jumped out of thin air, catching me off guard.
"Well, if it isn't team trashbag" he said mocking me. I wasn't in the mood for you right now Aiden, not that I ever was. I looked past him and thought I saw Ivor, I tried moving around Aiden but he just moved, blocking my way. "How's your stupid pig?" He carried on talking but I was busy looking past him trying to see where Ivor was going, I caught Aiden saying something like heat and flavour and knew he was taunting me about Reuben, he laughed and I just grabbed him by the collar.
"I don't know when, but some day in the future, when you least expect it, I'll pay you back for hurting my friend." I stared right into him, our green eyes meeting, my glare was probably something evil because he didn't reply and just stuttered. I groaned. "Now move you idiot, I'm busy", I shoved him out the way hearing him complain behind me, ignoring him I carried on towards Ivor who had now stopped.
When I reached him I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around only to see it wasn't a him but a her... Whoops.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm sorry!"
"Get away from me!?"
"I said I was sorry!" It was an honest mistake but I couldn't really tell her I thought she was a man, what with her being so mad already. Shaking her head she turned back to the people she was with and I hurried off, spotting Axel by a stall. Save me!
"Haha, thought you could just wiggle right out of there didn't you, well..." Axel said to a chicken who was in some sort of machine.
Looking at it, it looked rather pointless. The chickens found they way to the top, trying to escape but then the combination of pressure plates and sticky pistons made them fall back down, only for them to start over. I gave Axel a sideways confused glance, what did he like so much about this? "Wiggle as much as you want, you're not going anywhere."
Shaking my head I spoke to him "Hey Axel, seen Reuben yet?"
"No not yet, I'm sorry Jesse, but he'll be okay, he's a tough little ham" he assured me. He was tough but that didn't mean I couldn't worry. I moved on,
"Any chance you've seen a creepy looking, beard-y guy anywhere?"
"No, but Petra told me what happened, I'm keeping an eye out" I gave him a quizzical look and put my hands on my hips, unless he was a chicken this was an odd sort of 'keeping an eye out'. "Okay I got a little distracted." He admitted. "Its just this machine presses all my buttons, unnecessarily complicated, mean to birds for no reason."
"Come on Axel, we could use you're help!" I pleaded with him.
"I'm looking, I just got distracted. Fine! I'll help" He told me looking back at the machine, "Right after I watch one more bird get owned." Sighing, I shock my head and walked off.
Right then I heard a panicked squealing, Reuben!?
"Get your pork chops here, fresh off the bone!" Wait, what!? No! "Nothing sticks to your ribs quite like a juicy pork chop" the butcher at the stall said reaching down and lifting up a small pig, it was Reuben!
"REUBEN!" I called running over as the butcher got out a stone axe.
"What's the big idea? I'm trying to run a business."
"That's MY PIG! You kidnapped my pig!" I was is disarray, don't you hurt him! Give him back!
"I found him wandering around by himself in the woods, I don't know what you're talking about! Not the fattest pig ever, but he should cook up real nice." Reuben was stood on the counter, shaking on his little trotters.
"That's my friend, give him back to me right now!" I glared back, slamming my hands down on the counter.
"You wouldn't be threatening me, would you?" he asked dryly.
"So what if I am?"
"I'm not interested in arguing with you, but... I might be amenable to some sort of trade?" He hinted at me. "Not that you look like you've got much of value on you" He scoffed at me crossing his arms, "I gotta get some kind of return on my investment."
Urgh this guy. I pulled out my stone sword and handed it to him "All I've got is this sword"
"Oh that's very nice, with this I could cut my butchering time in half" Yeah it's nice, crafted it myself. He looked at me and the sword, one hand on the scruff on his chin thinking. Hitting Reuben on his rump, the butcher pushed him off the table to me and grabbed the sword from my hand pocketing it, "nice doing business with you".
I bent down and scooped up Reuben, "Come on boy" He glared at me, angry I'd let him be capture by his worst fear! I held him tight trying to reassure him that I hadn't meant to. "Sorry I let you run off boy, I just wanted you to be safe" I received a piggy snort and that was that.
I thought I saw an olive robe out the corner of my eye, I put Reuben down and followed after but lost where it went. Instead I spotted Olivia and went over to inform her with what was going on. I knew she'd want in on this.
I tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to me "Remember that thing I had to do with Petra?" She nodded, "Well long story short, we met up with some guy and he cheated me and Petra on a deal, and now we're trying to track him down. You want in?"
"Oh I'm in all right" Olivia said crossing her arms and looking ready for business. That's when I heard Petra behind me, she was followed by Axel.
"Any sign of him?" She asked hopefully.
"I thought I saw him earlier, but it was just a false alarm" I rubbed my head awkwardly because it certainly was. I looked up towards the main hall where Gabriel would be later and wait, "There is he!" I said allowed pointing towards him. Ivor was right there sneaking into the hall.
"But we're going to have to get past that usher to get in." Petra pointed out walking over to him. "What would it take to get us in tonight?"
"Uhhh, tickets?" Came a reply followed by a laugh from the usher. This guy was one diamond short of a pickaxe.
"This might sound crazy" I tired, "but we're actually on a really important mission. Please!"
"I hope that mission came with tickets, 'cause otherwise..." The usher wasn't going to let us past, but I guess that was his job after all. We turned away regrouping and that was when a chicken flew past and the usher jumped away, "Chicken! Chicken! It's ok, it's gone, you're a cool dude!" he motivated himself wiping his forehead. My friends started talking while my brain started working.
"We have to do something" Petra said with a little desperation.
"Like what?" Asked Olivia, "this show has been sold out for ages"
"I could bust right through, I just need a little wind-up room" Axel offered and I looked at him and shock me head. No violence! That was when I noticed yet another chicken themed machine behind him, that must of been where that escapee came from, wait this is perfect!
"We need a distraction" I concluded, looking at the chicken machine. All three of them looked at me and then the machine. "What if I told you that I wanted to break this guys chicken machine to create the mother of all distractions! The usher is afraid of chickens"
"But you need to break that pane of glass." Olivia said pointing to the lowest middle one, "How are you going to reach it?"
"Look around, there has to be something we can do!" Petra said as she split up from us.
Right at the end of this part of Endercon I saw a guy jumping on some slime in a sort of demonstration, that would be perfect! Walking over to the booth I was hoping to get a free slime block when I noticed the person running the stand was the woman I'd wrongly grabbed earlier.
"Oh, hi again!" She looked crossly at me but waited for me to continue. "One slime block please!" The lady rolled her eyes at me,
"We don't give away slime blocks here, only slime balls. We have a limited supply so it's only two per customer. You could craft your own block with nine balls"
Well ink sacs. "I'm uh, really sorry about earlier" I told her, "I honestly thought that you were someone else."
"Apology accepted." Her face didn't match her words though. But I was glad I was able to meet her again and apologize anyway.
"A round of slime balls for everyone!" called Axel from behind me.
"Wait this is only eight balls" I noticed telling everyone, "we need one more to make a block!"
"Okay, we need to find a way to get more slime and quick!" Petra told us and we split up again.
One more, one more. I didn't think there were any other slime stalls and she wouldn't give any to Reuben because well, he's a pig he can't craft. I was thinking to myself, one arm crossed over my chest the other playing with my bottom lip when I looked up and saw Lukas standing against a stall. Petra was right.
"Hey, uh, Lukas. Can you do me a favour?" I asked nervously and hopefully. I was cool with him and he was cool with me, so maybe...
His blue eyes looked in my direction, "Anything's possible"
"I need smile balls, I swear I have a really good explanation..." I pleaded with him. Explanation yes, good one, well. I needed them to break a chicken machine which was an odd thing to say to someone really. I fidgeted which is when the others came over and Lukas looked at them, catching on to the fact that we were up to something.
"Whatever you guys are doing, count me in" He smiled and handed me a smile ball from his inventory. I thanked him, smiling back.
"Thanks Lukas!" Petra came on behind me and whispered, "told you he was useful." I gave her an eye rolls.
"Aw man, this guy isn't actually cool, is he?" sulked Axel.
"Remains to be seen" joined Olivia crossing her arms. I shock my head and went over to a near by crafting table to turn these balls into a block. Lukas, to my surprise, tried talking to my friends,
"So you guys been crafting together long? You've got good chemistry"
"You jealous?" Axel replied instead of answering he's question.
"I'm just saying, I think it's cool you have a team that works so well together." Lukas tried again.
"You're totally jealous!" I didn't think he was jealous, the Ocelots worked well together, Lukas was just trying to be nice Axel. I'd finished the block and walked past Axel giving him a nudge as if to say 'knock it off'. He puppy-eyed me and Olivia stole the block from me.
"I'll take this and put it right... Here" She had placed it between the the stall and the chicken machine.
"It's all you Jesse." Axel said smiling at me.
I pointed to the stall roof, "Gimme a boost" to which he did and I clambered up. Looking about I saw that everyone was too busy enjoying themselves to notice us and a me on a stall roof. I lined myself up with the block and the glass, I hoped this slime gave me a big enough jump boost otherwise I was going to be in pain and trouble... And also look pretty silly. You got this Jesse.
Running forward a few steps I pushed myself off the end of the roof and landed on the slime, it didn't give me any time to think and flung me off the other side towards to glass. In a split second I'd got my fist ready and punched through the glass. Success!
I fell to the ground and gave myself a fist pump as chickens began escaping everywhere.
"My poultry, my precious poultry!" Said the machine's owner, currently trying to gather his chickens but our plan had worked and the usher was panicking.
I looked at my group who all wore matching smiles and we ran into the hall, the usher saw us but then he got owned by a chicken.
"Where'd he go?" Questioned Petra once we were inside. The room was big with a scattering of people putting the final touches to tonight's main show. There were a few doors with people coming in and out of then but then I noticed a lone door on the other side, it was slightly ajar and not a single person next to it.
"Over there?" I answered, pointing to said door.
"What do we do once we catch him?" Came another question, this one from Lukas. "I mean, there are a million ways to play this. But considering this isn't my fight, I'll follow your lead."
I looked at Petra, nodding I replied to Lukas "Whatever we have to"
He was a little taken back "Wow, you're way more intense then I gave you credit for Jesse."
"Ha! Maybe just a little pay back then?" I tried, toning down a bit. That seemed to work as he nodded at me.
"He deserves it for crossing Petra!" We all made noises of agreement and creeped through the door and down the stairs.
The stairs ended in a tiny room with some iron blocks stacked on top of each other in a T shape and there was an opening to the left, we all lined up against the wall as I peered around, I couldn't see anything other than bookcases, so many bookcases, and potions littering the tops. The room was dimly light and didn't look particular inhabited. Petra's head came just under mine as she tried to get a look, with one hand on my other side to steady herself. I was a little taller than her, but not by a lot. Olivia's then popped under hers with Reuben below her, 'Liv was definitely the shortest of the group. Lukas's hand then appeared on my shoulder and he looked over my head, he was a good couple inches taller than me. And what was I? A leaning post? Axel didn't need to peek over anyone's head as he just won the who's tallest competition hands down.
"Anything?" I whispered
"He must of gone out another way" Petra complained. But this at least looked like the sort of place a creepy beard-y guy would hang out and do whatever creepy beard-y guys do besides scamming my friend. We all broke apart and scanned the place.
"What is all this?" Olivia said to no one in-particular.
"Looks like it used to be a basement" I thought out loud.
"I bet you anything, we'll find my Wither skull down here" Petra said determined.
Axel had hopped down the stairs and was looking around happily. "And if we find anything else cool to steal, along the way, then so be it, right?"
"Axel," warned Petra, "that's not what we're here to do."
"Axel, no stealing." I said agreeing with Petra. "Just find that skull."
"Aww, you guys never let me have any fun" He sulked.
"We let you hang out with us" I gave him a cheeky nudge and smile to which is shock his head and plodded off behind a maze of bookshelves. "The faster we find what we're looking for the faster we can get the heck out of here"
We split up about the room, looking in the few chests that were about, behind books, on tops of shelves. This guy had a lot of stuff down here.
"Oh hello" Petra said as I was walking towards her, she pulled out a gold sword and gave it a couple swings. "eh, too heavy, and too soft"
"It's super flashy though" I said smiling.
"Yeah, something tells me that this guy doesn't do much fighting" She paused. "You still have that one stone sword right?"
Ahh... I looked at her sheepishly and sighed, "Nah, I had to trade it to some jerkward butcher to save Reuben's life."
"Jeez, oh well, I guess that was a pretty good cause. Here" She handed me the gold sword. "Now that's two you owe me" giving me a cunning smile.
"Thanks Petra, again!"
"Don't lose that one!" She warned me.
I carried on forward and came to a slightly more opened part. Axel, who was on my right, was muttering to himself and pointing at things he wanted to steal. Reuben was by Olivia who was stood on a ledge looking over books and Lukas was to my left doing the same thing and rooting about in a chest. Something shiny caught my eye, it was some sort of fancy potion, I walked to get a closer inspection.
"You're not going to believe me" Axel said, turning to notice me looking at the potion, "but I swear I had a dream about this." He was right, I didn't believe him. "Okay potion, you're coming home with me"
"Come on Axel, make yourself useful and go find that skull"
"I am looking" He complained as he swiped the potion in his hand.
"Nope, nope. You're literally doing the exact opposite of what I just asked you to do." I grumped at him crossly putting my hands on my hips. I gestured to the now empty spot. "No way he won't notice his fancy potion is missing."
"A good thief always covers his tracks" Axel beamed, looking around he grabbed a different, much less fancy potion and put it where the other one was. "Fixed it" He seemed happy with himself and walked off.
"Oh yeah, the perfect crime" I sighed crossing my arms over my chest. I looked up to notice Lukas watching me with amusement. I rolled my eyes and gave him a smile shrugging, I bet he knew exactly what it was like to not be listened to by your friends.
I looked towards where Axel had stolen the replacement none fancy potion and saw something sticking out from the wall, there was a lever hiding behind the potions. Walking over I pulled it and the book cases in front of Olivia started descending. I had a feeling there would be a secret room down here, call it a hunch about dark creepy basements, but assume there is a secret room. Everyone gathered around.
"What is all this stuff?" Olivia asked?
"Soul sand." Petra answered. "It was everywhere in the Nether." It wasn't so much a room but a space that had Soul Sand in a T shape, with a weird block in the middle and a chest below it.
"What about the block in the middle?" I said, voicing what was on everyone's minds.
"I've never seen one of these before..." Olivia mumbled as she stood back on the ledge to get a closer look. "It's shining and, do you feel that? It's like, it's like it's pulsing."
"Whatever it is, let's not touch it." I called to Olivia who turned to me, nodding in agreement. "What's in this chest?" Remembering it existed. I crouched down and opened it up. "Sooo, good news, weird news" Everyone came up behind me to look in the chest.
"What the hell?" Petra said crossly and with confusion, "why I'd risk my neck for that skull when he's got two of them already? He was in such a hurry too. There's got to be something bigger going on here."
"Well these were all HIDDEN behind these bookcases..." I thought allowed agreeing with her.
"I think I know what's going on here" Lukas chimed in. "Soul Sand, plus three Wither skulls. That's the recipe for a Wither!"
"But, a Wither, that's..." Petra sounded as shocked as I felt.
"One of the worst monsters there is" finished Lukas.
"Well, we came down here to find the skull annnnnnd we found it." I said looking from Lukas back to the chest of skulls.
"We should just grab it and get out of here, while we still ca..." Petra was cut off by the sound of a door shutting. Oh no.
"Uh, guys..." Lukas whispered.
"Scatter!" Petra told us. Reuben nosed the lever again to close the bookcases and we all ran to find hiding spaces. I had no idea where anyone else was. Peering over the top of a bookcase I was crouching behind I saw Ivor come into the room, I held my breath. Even though there were six of us he did posses everything to make a Wither, that was worth not jumping him over.
"'Don't you recognize me', or... wait 'surprised to see me'" came Ivor's voice loudly as he walked through the room, what was he doing? "No, that's not good...'Thought you were rid of me, didn't you?' That's better." I was watching what he was doing when I heard something like glass hit the floor, someone had knocked over one of his potions and Ivor had noticed it as well. "Who's there?" he called out to the room, turning back the way he came and moving closer to the sound. Think fast Jesse,
"Hello, Ivor!" I said confidently appearing from my hiding place and moving towards him. He turned, shocked.
"What are you doing here? What did you see?" The guys had started coming out from their hiding places and moved to join me. Turns out it was Olivia who knocked the potion over. "You two!" Ivor exclaimed to me and Petra "Did you follow me here?"
"You thought you could just screw us over and get away with it, didn't you?" Came Petra, her voice had some malice behind it.
"We're here to prove you wrong!" I said to him
"What are you doing to go about it?" Ivor replied making a point.
"We know what you're doing down here. Soul sand and three Wither skulls, you're building a Wither." I said probably a bit too smugly.
Ivor was taken back a bit, clearly shocked with the news that we knew what he was doing. "Humpf, smarter than you look." He finally said.
"Hey, nobody talks to my friends like that, now shut your mouth, or else!" Axel warned him, folding his arms and getting up close, Ivor ignored him.
"Enough! You've wasted too much of my time already!" Ivor exclaimed and ran out of the room, we all followed after him but he'd just disappeared.
"Where'd he go?" Petra asked to the room.
"If you won't leave of your own volition," Ivor said to us, appearing behind the iron blocks, "I'll happily remove you myself" He pulled out a pumpkin and put it on top of the iron blocks... Oh no. It poofed into an Iron Golem who stood up tall. "Show our friends the door, will you?"
The Golem swung at us and we all dodged to the sides, it was now stood between us and the only exit out. I saw Olivia and Axel make a dash for it as it was looking at me and Petra, Reuben was to my side looking so tiny in comparison. I dodged under it's arm which was swinging at me and leapt for Reuben, bundling him in my arms and rushing for the door. I heard the Iron Golem roar metallic-ly behind us.
"Oh man, this is so exciting..." Called a lady announcer on the stage. Apparently the main show was beginning. "And now, ladies and gentlemen, for the first time ever, here at Endercon, we are very proud to present..."
"The one, the only..." A man stood next to her continued.
"GABRIEL!" They shouted together and parted the stage, the crowd went crazy. I couldn't believe it I just stared, mouth open, there he was, Gabriel, one of the four members of the Order of the Stone, who I idolized, wearing his signature dark and light blue armour and helmet.
"Are. You. With. Me!?" He boomed out to the crowd, who all cheered out various replies.
"Everybody ok?" I said finding myself and asking my friends.
"Um, guys... Where's Lukas?" Olivia asked looking around us.
"I thought he was right behind me" I told her, rubbing my head.
"Well if he's not here," Axel said, "the only place he could be is..." We all turned to look at the basement door. I had to go back and help him.
"Ivor's got an Iron Golem and all the ingredients to make a Wither down there" Petra called up summarizing our predicament. "If he were to unleash it in this crowd of people... We have to act fast!" There was alarm in her voice and rightly so.
"Well it just so happens that the greatest warrior of all time is in this building" Olivia said matter of factly. "We have to get him to help somehow."
"I'm going after Lukas myself" I told them and they all looked at me in shock. "You guys try and get Gabriel to help us. Do whatever you can!" I turned to leave back down to the basement but Petra grabbed my arm.
"Are you sure?" Concerning over me.
"Yeah. Just get Gabriel." Me and Reuben were already heading towards the basement door before I'd finished that sentence. I could hear the Golem but not see him, I made my way down the stairs silently and peeked into the room, nothing. I snuck along the bookcases trying to keep as small as possible.
"Lukas?" I whispered. I couldn't really call for him or the Golem would hear me, or Ivor. Where was he come to think of it? I tried again, "Lukas? Can you hear me?"
"Jesse?" Where did that come from? "Is that you whispering super loudly?" I looked in the direction I heard Lukas and saw him peeking out from inside a chest on the far side of the open area, I waved at him to confirm I saw him but he looked shocked and then hid back in the chest. What? Then I heard a noise behind me, it was the Golem
"Ah!" I backed up, as it took a swing at me Lukas's voiced called out
"Hey!" and then he hid back in the chest. The Golem looked over to him and I took the chance he'd given me and hid behind a bookcase. A confused Golem wandered into the open area having nothing to do now. I peered around the corner of the bookcase, my eyes meeting blue ones peaking from the chest.
"Run!" I mouthed
"Run where?" He whispered back, "Don't you think I tried that already?" Okay okay, I'm trying here.
I saw a potion on the top of a bookcase in front of me, I sunk down and crept forward, keeping out of site of the Golem and grabbed it, ducking back down as it turned around, Lukas hid back in the chest. I waited until I heard it walk away from me and threw the potion, hitting the wall in front of it, the noise grabbed the Golem's attention and it headed over to investigate. "Now!" I whispered and Lukas jumped out of the chest, ran passed the Golem. One check to make sure the Golem didn't see us but it spotted me and moved over taking a swing, that was when Reuben jumped out from behind it and oinked loudly. The Golem turned to see what was happening and I dodged under it's arm, grabbing Reuben in one arm, I ran to Lukas and grabbed his sleeve pulling him along.
We made it back up the stairs without problem.
"Thanks for coming back for me." He said to me, "I didn't know if anyone was going to"
"Don't be silly, of course" I replied to him with a smile and we left through the door. I saw my friends trying to grab Gabriel's attention.
"What are you not understanding?" Came an Axel sounding exasperated. "Do you want me to tell you charade style?"
"I can assure you," Gabriel answered, "that's the last thing that I want you to do."
"Six words, eight syllables. Sounds like, 'there's a shmunster in the shamasment'" Oh dear, why did Petra and Olivia let Axel do the talking?
"I have a question for you!" That sounded like... Ivor. Where did he come from?
"Excuse me sir, you'll have to wait your turn." Gabriel called to him.
"Just answer me this first" continued Ivor, "do you really believe anyone can be great?"
"With enough hard work, yes" Gabriel answered honestly.
"Was that where I went wrong? I simply didn't work hard enough?" Ivor said angrily up at Gabriel as he pushed his way to the front finally showing himself.
"Ivor!?" Gabriel exclaimed, shocked. "Is that really you?" Wait wait, they knew each other?
"That's the guy who attacked us!" I looked up and told Gabriel, "how do YOU know him?"
"I don't think I ever REALLY knew him" Gabriel answered me in a sort of not really way, "but what I knew, I didn't like."
"The feeling is entirely mutual" Ivor agreed making his way onto the stage with Gabriel. "Why don't you tell them the real story, Gabriel?" Asked Ivor. What real story? I was utterly lost now, what was going on?
"I see time has made you bitter Ivor."
"And I see that it's made you an even bigger fool! Now these people were promised greatness," Ivor turned and announced the crowd, "and I'm here to deliver." He turned to the back of a stage and stood next to a lever, "I'm sorry this is how they had to learn the truth."
"Oh no, Gabriel stop him!" I shout up but it was too late. Ivor threw down the lever and out from the back of the stage rose a nearly complete Wither, with only the middle head missing.
"Nothing built can last for ever, Gabriel!" Ivor said to him as he placed the final skull on the middle block.
"Ivor, NO!" Gabriel tried, but it was far too late, the Wither poofed into life with the strange middle block at it's centre, it's completion knocked both Ivor and Gabriel off the stage into the front of the crowd, it rose higher and made a weird cry/roar noise.
"Creature! Attack!" Called Ivor to his Wither. I don't think he needed to tell it that. It fired fire balls at us and the crowd scattered, running to get out any way they could. I dodged one, two fire balls, making sure Reuben was protected at all times. Blocks started floating up around us and were sucked in by the Wither. It roared.
"Everyone stay calm!" called Gabriel, drawing his diamond sword and standing impressively in front of it. "This foul beast is no match for me!" He jumped towards it making a swing but it did nothing and knocked him back. I didn't know what to be more surprised about, the fact that Gabriel was just knocked down fighting the Wither or that Gabriel was right here, fighting a Wither. It was a like a horrible dream, not a nightmare, a horrible, very real, dream. "Ivor what have you done?" he called getting up from the floor. I ran to him.
"Gabriel!"
"No, stay away" He put a hand out to stop me. "It's after me, not you!" The creature flew at us both, we dodged and it threw another fire ball towards the ceiling.
"Look at him, the mighty Gabriel." Exclaimed Ivor to the panicking room, "it looks like true greatness is out of his reach." he said smugly. "He might not be able to defeat this creature, but I can!" Ivor turned to stand in front of it, "Creature, retreat!" It did nothing and the Wither carried on sucking up blocks and blowing up the room. "Ahem, Creature, retreat!" Ivor tried again, the Wither turning to him, the middle head had changed, it had one big purple eye and a mouth full of teeth, it was no longer a tiny little skull. "Retreat I said, retreat!"
"Uh, that's not working" I shouted over the noise of the Wither.
"Errr, no need to be alarmed my friends." I don't recall becoming friends with Ivor... "I have an elixir that will destroy this creature." He reached into his inventory and pulled out, oh no, it was the replacement non fancy potion, the real one Axel had. I looked to Axel as Ivor threw the potion against the funny block in the centre of the Wither, it did nothing. "What!? Impossible! It should of worked, I took such care." Ivor looked confused for a moment and then panic came over him.
"The potion!" Olivia said to Axel, "you've got to throw the real potion!"
"But, finders keepers!" Axel complained back to her. Oh my gosh he wasn't serious was he? There was a very real very angry Wither and what he stole would, hopefully, stop it and he was being selfish.
"You thieves!" Ivor shouted at us, catching on to what Axel had done, "you're ruining everything!"
"Axel, come on!" Olivia said again as he took out the potion from his inventory and looked at it sadly. I grabbed it and took aim, it hit the middle block perfectly, or it would have if the Wither hadn't covered it up.
"It's protecting itself!" Ivor said, pointing out the obvious. "Without the Command Block exposed the potion is useless! It wasn't suppose to happen like this!" Ivor then turned and ran away, friggin' RAN. AWAY! Now what were we supposed to do? We couldn't leave this thing here destroying and killing.
"Ivor!" Called Gabriel after him, "You coward! Come back here!" Yeah I don't think he wasn't going to listen to that. That was when a purple beam came from the Wither highlighting Gabriel and lifting him up. "Ahh!"
Olivia grabbed his leg and I rushed to help her pull him out. We landed on the floor in a heap, the others rushing to help us to our feet.
"Thank you!" He said to us, "Ivor was right about one thing, I can't defeat this thing. Not on my own. Everyone's running away, except for you." He turned to me, seriousness in his dark eyes. "Will you help me? I must get to the temple, but what needs to happen next, I can't do alone."
"Of course we'll help you!" I answered for everyone. The Wither was getting bigger with every passing moment, it couldn't be allowed to carry on. Gabriel nodded at my answer and told us to follow him. We left the, well what was left of the hall and ran outside.
People were screaming and running in all direction, I turned as the Wither burst through the roof, it was gaining size and fast, a giant mass of blackness with three giant black heads, each with a purple eye and many teeth. Purple beams were sucking up people while parts of Endercon were breaking apart and moving towards the Wither. As I ran forward a beam caught me, I called out for help but my friends were no where and people were too busy saving their own lives. I grabbed at some stone blocks slowly breaking away and pulled myself along, I flung myself off and out the beam just as the stones finally came loose. My body hit hard stone and rolled down stairs, I clambered up and ran, the wind knocked out of me.
As I jumped over a group of chickens I saw Lukas run in front of me, I called out to him and he stopped and ran over.
"Oh my gosh. If you hadn't come back for me, I... I'd still be..." I took his hand, this was no time to freak out about that.
"It's ok, you're here now, we need to move!" I started pulling on him.
"Thanks Jesse" He told me as I heard Petra call out to us.
"Jesse! Lukas!" She was hidding under a stall with the others, me and Lukas ran over and ducked under. I was about to ask what we should do next when the stall broke apart and started lifting into the air. We all scattered.
"Wait wait, we have to stay together!" I was going to chase after them until Petra called out to me again, she was caught in a beam. Running to her I grabbed her hand and attached myself to a fence post with the other. The beam slowly lifting me up. "Can't, hold, on!" We both screamed as the fence post broke and we starting to rise, that was until Gabriel grabbed my leg and pulled us both down, we landed with a thud. I was going to be so bruised and battered after this.
We caught up with the others and I asked if we had everyone, a quick head count confirmed that we did. "We must set out to my fortress!" Gabriel explained and led the way, we all rushed after him.
"Thanks for that just now." Petra said running next to me.
"Yeah well, now we're eve..." She jumped into me, pushing me out of the way of a fireball I hadn't even heard let alone seen. We all ran for the gates of Endercon dodging debris and purple beams. Fire and explosions. The gate started to close but I made it by doing a barrel roll under it. I huffed getting to my feet, continuing with the running.
Gabriel told us to all stay together and I agreed but looking ahead that might be easier said then done. Just about everything was on fire, people were everywhere; running, injured, being beamed up. Fireball explosions made it hard to see where to go and created massive holes in the ground. It was also dark, night time, mobs were scattering the forest picking people off or trying to run themselves.
A mass of trees in front of us were on fire, we split up and I followed Reuben to the left, jumping over a line of fire. Gabriel shouted that his temple was just ahead, I was glad to hear that he wasn't staying far from Endercon. I looked left and a giant black tentacle arm slammed into the floor, another coming down on the right over my head, I dodged. Then the one on the left moved towards me and I rolled under it. A third landed with a loud thud in front of me, I leapt over it and followed my friends into a building ahead.
"The inner chamber is build entirely out of obsidian. We should be untouchable in there." Gabriel explained to us moving towards a lever. I checked about, everyone was here; Olivia, Axel, Reuben, Petra and Lukas. We all stood completely out of breath, until a purple beam found it's way in, not stopping to welcome it to Gabriel's temple we ran into the now open chamber of obsidian.
Gabriel draw his sword and turned to face a tentacle that was trying to find us, "hurry, if you can get through the portal, you'll be safe." There was the framing of a Nether portal at the end of the chamber, Axel run through it,
"Uh, something's not right here..." He simply came out the other side, of course, the portal wasn't lit. I took my flint and steel from my inventory that I'd had since that morning, crouched down and struck the portal. Purple swirls formed inside in obsidian frame. It looked ominous. Petra told everyone to go, and go now. Axel picked up Reuben and dove in, followed by Olivia, I was about to follow when I heard Gabriel cry out. The tentacle had grabbed him, turning I ran, dodging another that burst through the ceiling and grabbed him, pulling him free.
Petra had taken up to fighting the tentacle behind us while this one grabbed a person and left, the purple beam sucking up another. "There's so many of them, I can't, I can't save them all!" Gabriel said defeated. "I can't stop this by myself, we need to find the others."
"Others?" I questioned him.
"Sorens been missing for years, but the others, you must seek them out. Take this amulet and guard it with your life!" He pulled from his inventory and handed to me a gold and black ring, from each gold part came a colour; blue, white, red and green, then in the centre ,encased in a smaller gold ring was purple. I took it, goggling at it.
"How am I supposed to find Magnus and Ellegaard?"
"The amulet will guide you" He vaguely explained standing up. "Take it through the portal and then..." He didn't get to finish as another tentacle decided it hated the roof, he pushed me out the way and told me to go. I turned, pulling out my gold sword with my free hand and tried to bat away the tentacle that Petra was fighting, Lukas who was stood by the portal, screamed. The tentacle nearly knocked me out but I dove to the floor in time and scrambled back up.
"You two; go through the portal and meet up with the others. I'll stay here and do what I can to help." Petra ordered.
"I'm not leaving you here!" I pleaded with her.
"I'm not asking Jesse, if anything happens I'll meet you guys at the temple, now go." She pulled my sleeve and shoved me toward Lukas and the portal. It was then that a beam caught Gabriel, Petra ran to help only to be caught in another. No no no no. I ran over to them dodging the tentacle.
"LUKAS!?" I shouted, I couldn't save them both where was he? Fear had him frozen by the portal, I turned back and reached for Petra she was closer, I pulled her free and we got up to help Gabriel, that was until the tentacle slammed into me shoving me backwards with such a force that I knocked right into Lukas and we both flew through the portal, whether we wanted to or not.
After a moment of blackness and whirling noises we came out the other side. I was completely winded and lying on Lukas who sat up and helped me to my feet. I coughed a sorry and a thank you then averted my eyes sheepishly.
"Where's Petra?" Axel's voice said.
"We did everything we could" Lukas answered back.
"What are you saying?" He asked back quietly
"Jesse, what is he saying?" Olivia asked me nervously. I know Lukas froze up but I wasn't about to admit that.
"It was chaos, there wasn't much I could do!" I answered them both and we were quiet for a moment but my brain still working in overdrive, everything had happened so fast. No less than a few hours ago we were all building at the competition and being mocked by Aiden. Now the five of us were stood in the Nether and a giant Wither, if that's what it still was, was tearing our world apart. That was when Lukas sighed and spoke up,
"I got scared." He admitted, "Just for a moment."
"You got scared?" Axel repeated moving towards him
"It wasn't my fault" Lukas replied, stepping backwards. Axel was a big guy, I didn't blame him.
"You got scared and it wasn't your fault?" He repeated again. To my shock, Olivia defended Lukas.
"Back off, Axel." To which he did.
"We have to go back" Axel said, heading towards the portal again.
"No!" Olivia said standing in front of it, "We just have to wait, think about what you're walking into."
"Well I'm going back!" Lukas and Olivia looked at me in shock. "I'm not letting my friend die. Not if I can do anything about it." I warned her trying to move her out of the way.
Olivia protested, "She just needs more time, please Jesse!"
"Hey, look!" Lukas called over our arguing and pointed at the portal which had started whirling. We all watched it with baited breath.
"Come on, come on!" I said to the portal begging it to give me Petra. The portal responded by spitting someone out, but it wasn't Petra...
"IVOR!?"
"You again?" He said to the five of us. That was when a tentacle reached through the portal, scaring us all. We all leapt out of the way, dodging it. It gave up wiggling at us and wrapped itself around the portal, crushing it into pieces and disappearing.
For a moment we all just stared at where the portal was, panic coming over us that now we were stuck in the Nether with nothing, no tools or building supplies. I had my gold sword but that wasn't going to help us, not here.
"You ruined everything!" Ivor said breaking our silence. "Don't pretend you don't know, thief. You took my most valuable potion!" My friends had all gathered about me.
I walked towards him, stood there and then punched him in the shoulder. "This is YOUR fault, you created that monster, not us!" Ok, we DID take his fancy potion but what if that didn't work like it was supposed to anyway? Don't go creating monsters, period.
"There's nothing left up there" He told us, "Nothing but that Wither Storm."
"Why are we wasting time talking to this jerk? We have to go and get Petra!" Axel pointed out.
"The girl. I saw her" Ivor let us know, "While I was running towards the portal I passed her, she was running in the opposite direction! Such bravery! Of course, there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity!"
"Petra is going to make it." How dare he call her stupid and assume she wasn't going to survive. This way Petra we were talking about and I was confident that I would see her again. "I won't give up on her!"
"Aww, you're concerned about your friend!" He jested and moved on, "Through that tunnel is a system of minecarts built by the Order of the Stone" He nodded his head behind him. "It's your only way out."
"We should go that way." Axel reluctantly said.
"Times wasting, let's go" Lukas joined.
"And how are you getting out?" I asked Ivor, he wasn't going to use the minecarts by the sound of it so did he have a secret easier way out?
"I'll use my imagination." He answered me. I was about to question him further when a groaning noise came from somewhere. We all looked about. "I would wish you good luck, but luck won't carry you through the Nether. You have my sympathies." Ivor pulled out a potion from his inventory and drank it, vanishing, the empty bottle landing on the ground. The noise sounded again and we turned to see what I assumed, never seeing one before, was a Ghast. A big white face with lots of little tentacles came floating over groaning and hissing at us, it opened it's red eyes at us.
"Let's not stick about." I concluded and turned, running towards the minecarts. The Ghast followed on after us until we came to a set of minecarts all parked up neatly.
"This must be what Ivor was talking about" Olivia said. The Ghast fired a ball of fire at us and we all dodged to the sides then ran for the carts; Reuben at the front with an empty cart in front of him, then me, an empty cart, Olivia, Lukas and Axel was at the back. Off we went.
We we're travelling along a thin minecart track above the biggest lava lake you can imagine. Groups of Netherrack formed little islands, some hovering above us with yet more lava pouring down, fires were burning all around. If someone asked me to describe the Nether is three words, those would be: Dangerous, Red and Lava. A tunnel was ahead of us.
"Wow, the Nether." Lukas awed about the place.
"Yeah..." Came Olivia is just as much awe. "That's a LOT of lava. And fire. And other stuff that could burn you to death."
Reuben oinked and hid down in his cart. "Oh, that's a drop. That is very, very much a drop." Lukas said loudly, ahead of us was very much a long drop down.
"What are you talking about, new guy? What drooo, oh crap, you weren't kidding!" Axel finally far enough forward to notice it. As we reached the end I threw my hands in the air and gave a WOOOO!
The drop shot us forward at a speed and through a tunnel. I heard Lukas shout duck as we approached a low hanging section, it was only just big enough for the carts to get under, we all passed it but it was followed by another.
"Okay, so, I'm not the only one seeing that we're running out of track, right?" Axel asked us, he wasn't. There was a lava curtain spanning the whole width of the tunnel.
"JESSE! That switch!" Olivia shouted pointed to a lever coming up on my right.
Leaning down over the side slightly, "Oh arm, don't fail me now!", I just caught it. The carts stopped right in front of the lava curtain, and started moving downwards by the power of a load of pistons. "ha, wow. Oh, I thought something bad was going to happen there, but heh, I guess everything's going to be..." I didn't get to finish that sentence and the carts had finished their descent and started moving forwards again, only to break apart from each other, sending us in a different directions.
I was on my own little thin track. I tried calling out to everyone but got no replies. Oh please everyone be ok, I thought to myself, that was when I heard a panicked squeal, "Reuben!?" I looked to my right to see him behind a broken, crumbling wall, a skeleton in the empty cart in front of him trying to shoot an arrow at him but Reuben dodged. Thankfully our tracks came along side each other and I got my gold sword out, standing up in the cart. I hit to skeleton but he still stood, so I swung at him with more force and he feel into the lava. Reuben gave me a happy oink and jumped into the empty cart behind me. "Okay, remember when I said everything was going to be just fine before? I know I was wrong THEN but now, I have a very good feeling this time... Whoa!" And life came to prove me wrong, again. A Ghast flew out over us and followed on behind, two of it's friends appeared and joined, the first one shot a fireball and I told Reuben to duck as I did the same, the fireball bounced off my sword and back at the Ghast. I stared at my gold sword and thanked it for existing. Reuben was hiding in the cart as I stood to face all three Ghasts each time hitting the fireballs back until they all died. I sheathed my sword and sat down, "well Ghasts are officially crossed off my to see list. Done with the Ghasts, never need to see them... Oh crap!" As we rounded a bend another was waiting and shot a fireball at us, it hit Reuben's cart who jumped forward into mine, and then we hit a big climb with no track at the end "This is bad, this is bad, this is BAD!" We launched off the end, in front of the Ghast, we landed with a massive thud and hit the back of everyone else in their minecarts, they all turned to look at me saying nothing. Lukas was right in front then Olivia and Axel up taking the lead. "Is, ha... Everyone okay?" I asked to break the silence.
"I mean, I'm not dead, guess that's pretty good" Said Axel turning back around.
"Ditto. Ditto with the not dead." Olivia added also turning back around.
"I just can't believe that Petra comes down here all the time. This place is awful!" Lukas said with a shaky voice and I had to agree with him, what was worth coming down here for? Lukas laughed "Your throats gonna be sore later, Axel"
"Why?"
"I'm just saying, wasn't that you doing all that screaming just then? Sounded like you were really shredding your larynx."
"Oh yeah, I heard that too" Olivia joined Lukas in mocking Axel, "really high-pitched? Kind of like a squeaky piston?" She giggled at him. I joined in with them laughing.
"What? No, shut up!"
We reached what looked like a centre meeting point, I guessed a kind of station for all of the different minetracks. As we made our way up the stairs and to the top I asked to nobody in-particular "Can you like, throw up, inside of your body?" I held my stomach because I was sure that's what was going on, today had been a rough day.
"uh-huh" Olivia confirmed, "I know because I just did, like five times." She paused as we reached the top and stood about looking perplexed. "All the tracks seem to converge at this point, you can probably get to anywhere in the world from here!"
"This is what Gabriel was talking about" Lukas thought out loud in front of a portal. Axel made to move into it.
"This must lead to the surface." Obviously Olivia, I thought.
"Yeah but, the surface is also where that creature is!" Lukas pointed out to her and Axel froze.
"He's right" I agreed looking from Lukas to Axel, "we have no idea what we're walking into." We all stood in silence and Axel turned back to the portal sheepishly.
"Thanks for being so brave, Axel" Lukas cheered to him.
"All right, I'm gonna go, I'm going, I'm going right now" He wasn't going.
"I'll go first!" I said pushing in front of him.
"That's not what I was saying... But if you absolutely insist."
I did insist and I stepped through the portal and... Out into a pool of water in a cave and the cool night. "O... Kay. Not what I was expecting." I heard a zombie and turned to see one on my left, I took out my sword and made quick work of it, the portal then whirled and an Axel came out of it. "There, was a zombie!"
"Oh." He dead panned. "Is it dead? I mean, you know dead-dead?"
"Yeah" We made our way from the pool as Olivia and Lukas made their way out of the portal and followed us.
"Where are we?" She asked as if I was a map.
"In the middle of nowhere" I summarized, looking about, trees everywhere. "At night."
"Maybe we should bed down for the night? It's dangerous to be out when it's this dark" Came a good idea from Lukas.
"I thought we were heading for a temple?" Questioned Axel.
"We're looking for a giant building, it should be pretty obvious" Olivia retorted back making a good point.
"Well Ivor said..." Lukas started but didn't get to finished as Axel decided this was a good time to start being rude.
"Ohhhhh 'Ivor said', well maybe this is the temple?"
"Axel, come on." Olivia said
"Yeah cut it out." I agreed with her, "we have to build a shelter!" I crossed my arms over my chest.
"I thought that was what I said, but uhh...?" Lukas said awkwardly.
"You're right, we should hurry" Olivia said to him. "I say we build a treehouse"
"That'll take forever and we'll be exposed while we do it. We just need a quick and dirty hut." Axel objected her.
"Well whatever it is, we gotta do it fast!" Came another good point from Lukas, but the two of them just stared at him. "What?"
"In a hut," Olivia started ignoring Lukas's question. "we won't know what's coming until it's knocking on our door." That was a good point, it's why I chose to live in a treehouse.
"Let's build a treehouse!" I said running out of patients with them.
"It's functional, it'll keep us out of danger", chimed Olivia happily.
"It's not a bad idea." Lukas agreed.
We set about gathering what we needed as fast as we could, Lukas even went back into the Nether to get some Netherrack so we could build an endless fire, Netherrack never stopped being on fire once you started one, it had it's uses, and then we built up our treehouse.
Starting at the base we built the trunk and added some ladders, a floor with the Netherrack in the middle and built up the sides a little, we didn't add a roof, we were all far too tired and just wanted to sit down after the day we'd just experienced.
"If I wake up with a spider on my face, I'm gonna expect you to deal with it" Axel said looking at me.
"Lower your expectations Axel" Olivia said starting the climb up, followed by the grumbling Axel.
"Well, maybe if we built into the tree a bit more, it could of... Nevermind" Lukas sighed and I pat him on the back, giving him a reassuring smile.
"It looks good" I received a weak one back and he climbed up, gathering up Reuben I followed on up.
The fire burned with me, Reuben and Olivia sat around it, Axel was pacing around and Lukas was sat to the back wearing a sad expression, I bet he was thinking about his team. I had my friends, well most of them, I couldn't imagine how he felt. I was about to get up and sit with him when Axel suddenly sounded pleased with himself.
"Oh man!?"
"What?" Both me and Olivia asked at the same time.
"I'm going to tell you guys something, but you have to promise not to freak out."
"What is it?" I gave him a curious look.
"I, have cookies" he pulled out a few and beamed at us all. I just blinked at him, was that all? I was expecting a lot more from the way he made that sound
"One for me, one for Olivia, one for Reuben and... One for you Jesse!" He said handing me one. Reuben looked at his and gave it a sniff, had he had a cookie before? I honestly couldn't remember.
"Sorry Lukas, I only have four" Axel said, and to me it sounded planned.
"Oh, no, it's ok. I'm not that hungry anyway." he replied from his corner. Nope, not happening. I got up from the fire, handed Lukas my cookie and sat myself down next to him. "Thanks, Jesse." He looked happy to know someone was on his side as he ate the cookie, I looked to Reuben who was still unsure at what it even was, I smiled at his confused face.
"That was for you Jesse, not him" Axel complained to me, he crossed his arms, I sighed and ignored him. Olivia looked at Axel being grumpy and then over to us sat in the corner.
"If you had to, which would you rather fight, one hundred chicken sized zombies, or ten zombie sized chickens?" She asked Lukas trying to help the atmosphere.
"Heh, choose wisely." I joined nudging him.
"Ahaha, that's a good one, let me think."
"How can you guys joke at a time like this?" Axel pipped up yet again. "Petra, is still out there. She's all by herself." Way to bring the mood back down.
"We can't just mope, we gotta keep our spirits high Axel!" I tried.
"No, we should be moping. That's exactly what we should be doing."
"Axel!" Warned Olivia.
"She's going to be fine Axel... She has to be." I said sadly bringing my legs and hugging them. Lukas put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.
"We should get some rest, we gotta start looking for this temple as early as we can. Now my guess, is if we start at the portal and sorta split up..."
"Whoa whoa what are you doing?" Came Axel yet again, who walked over to where we were sat, Lukas stood up to challenge him.
"Did I do something to you? I'd really like to know. Because you seem to keep getting on my case for what seems like no reason." He'd finally had enough of Axel giving him a hard time. I sighed I knew it was coming.
"Lukas is just trying to help Axel" I called up from my spot on the wood rather weakly.
"See?"
"I'm sorry Jeese. I'm not going to sit here and listen to this guy telling us what to do."
"I'm just trying to get ready for tomorrow." Lukas pointed out to Axel.
"You're the only one wearing that stupid jacket, don't tell us what to do"
"Take. That. Back." Axel had apparently crossed a Lukas line.
"Can't. Wouldn't"
"You know what, I get to wear this jacket because I know how to build, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to break stuff!" Lukas warned Axel.
"Your threats don't scare me now that we know how you really are" He was referring to when Lukas was scared over the Wither Storm and to be fair, I think that was a normal reaction to having the biggest, worst monster in the world sucking up everything and trying to kill you.
"Jesse!" Lukas called to me, "Your friend is way out of line! I wasn't going to bring it up, but I can only take so much!"
I stood up fast from my place on the ground and shouted "Let's just drop it!"
"Aw, come on Jesse, don't be like that." Axel said to me.
"Just. Drop. It." I glared at him. I was not about to pick sides and I was exhausted from not just trying to stay alive from various monsters and things that burned, but also from these silly little digs. Lukas was trying to make good here and Axel was doing everything to stop him. I knew he wasn't quick to warm up to people but geez!
"Haven't you done enough damage for one day?" Axel continued, not dropping it and getting into Lukas's personal space. "Petra might be dead because of you."
"Axel, you're taking this too far." Olivia finally joined, standing up from the ground, trying to pull Axel away.
"I don't have to take this." Lukas said to Axel. "Listen, why don't I just leave and you guys can hash this out."
"You can't leave it's dangerous out there" Olivia squeaked, Axel slunk off against the other side of the treehouse.
"I can take care of myself", what, against Wither Storms? Oh no. "It's what Axel wants, right?"
"Let him leave if he wants to leave."
As Lukas made for the ladder I grabbed his arm, "you're not going anywhere"
"But Jesse.." Objected Axel.
"Enough! We're all on the same team now, he's staying. End of discussion." I turned Lukas around and pushed him back away from the ladder. He gave in and sat by the fire with Olivia and Reuben, who I then sat down next to. Axel was still stood in the corner having a personal protest and we were all silent for a while until Lukas spoke up,
"Zombie-Sized chickens. That's what I would fight."
"Heh, I picked that one too." I smiled at him.
"And why is that?" Asked Olivia.
"'cause I'm starving." He answered weakly. Ah, that would be great. None of us had really eaten since either Endercon or before that. We would have to find some food before heading off in the morning. I still had a carrot in my inventory for Reuben, I fished it out and gave it to him, petting him. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, he always helped calm me down. Then down came the rain...
"Of course." sulked Olivia.
"Rain is better than monsters." Lukas concluded, he was sat in front of me with Reuben between us, I was sat mostly facing him as I was petting Reuben who had all but inhaled his carrot. "Thanks for keeping me around Jesse" He said quietly, so not to let Olivia and Axel hear.
I leant down and hugged my legs again, looking up at him "'s'alright" I gave him a smile to let him know that regardless of Axel, I still liked him, and at some point I feel asleep, his face the last thing I saw that day.
Lukas POV
Morning came and with it our next challenge, finding the temple. We found food before setting off, cooking it by the fire, then left our makeshift camp and headed out. Axel walked passed me with a not so 'good morning' face, sighing I stopped. He went ahead to join Olivia.
To my surprise Jesse stopped next to me and asked if everything was all right.
"It was... A rough night." I told her, although that was probably obvious.
"Hey, it happens." She tried comforting me in a soft voice, "we were all tired after running for our lives yesterday... I'm just glad you're okay now?"
"I guess I am... Thanks for being so cool about it."
"Cool beans!" She grinned back, making me laugh remembering our slightly awkward conversation at Endercon. "Axel will get over it."
"I dunno, the way it all went down, it wasn't cool..." I admitted. I let the stress of the day get to me and forgot that we weren't exactly friends, well not all of us I hoped, and that the Ocelots weren't exactly nice to Jesse's gang. She shrugged.
"He used to be like that with me."
"What!?" I found that hard to believe.
"Mhm, when I first moved here, I bumped into Olivia and we became immediate friends but Axel, he took a while to warm up to me. Just give it time, he'll get over himself." She paused and grabbed my arm, pulling me along with her to catch up with the others. Jesse laughed, "Just trust me, everything will be okay!" I just let myself be dragged along a bit taken back by her niceness. I felt a little bad, all these years of not knowing her and letting the guys push them around, but Jesse just dusted herself off and carried on... I wish I had that outlook on life, and how she still found the strength to do that now was beyond me. Something this bad happens and most people just freak out, but not her, she just said 'okay' and got down with what needed to be done.
I shock my head and noticed that the others had all wandered off a little ways looking for this temple, seeing a hill next to me I decided to climb it in hopes of getting a better view, and it worked. Just in front of us, behind some trees was some sort of stone building poking out, it wasn't really that far from the portal.
"Hey! There's something over that way!" I shout down to them, they all looked at me and then in the direction that I was pointing. Climbing back down, I joined them in moving towards it.
There was a flat face of dirt and stone with vines hanging down, it didn't look like there were any stairs so we set about climbing it to reach what was hopefully the temple. Jesse asked Olivia if she needed a hand but got waved off with a 'pshh', she laughed and picked up Reuben under one arm and climbed up with the other. I stood blinking at her, then followed on up.
At the top we all stood about having a good look at what was left of this 'temple'.
"Think this is it?" Axel asked the question we were all thinking.
"Well, that's what we're trying to figure out." Olivia pointed out to Axel. None of us really knew what we were looking for and Gabriel didn't have much of a chance to draw us maps and pictures or he probably would of come with us.
I noticed the stained glass on the front in a coloured circle sort of pattern. "It's the temple of the Order of the Stone. It has to be!" I pointed at the glass shape and Jesse took out the amulet, holding it up. They matched.
"He's right, look!"
"Holy crap!" Again, Axel saying what we were all thinking.
So we'd met Gabriel, sort of fought with him and then he gave us a mission to find the others starting from their actual temple... If it wasn't for the fact we were here because of a Wither Storm destroying the world, this would've been the best day ever.
"If you spot anything, call it out!" Jesse said leading the way inside with Reuben a tad bit in front, he was a tough little ham I thought.
"Isn't it weird," Axel thought out loud, "that dispensers are carved to look like spooky little faces?" He really thought some odd things. We were in a corridor with plenty of dispensers on either side of us. "What do you dispense little guy?"
"III... get the feeling that we don't really want to find ou..." Olivia said nervously, stopping at the end because we all heard a strange noise. Spiders? No. What was that? Jesse slowly inched forward until the noise happened again and Reuben took off. He activated something as a gate slammed down behind us causing us all to jump and the dispensers to start clicking.
"Aww, come on dispenser faces, I thought we were friends." Axel said to one next to him.
Jesse called to us to run pulling Olivia forward and shoving her along, I followed behind. The dispensers started spitting out so, so many arrows, me and Olivia we already half way and made it without a problem. Axel somehow got lucky and didn't get a single hit considering how big of a target he was. Jesse rolled under an arrow, grabbed Reuben up, jumped then slid under another and joined us in a safe spot in between sets or arrows. Well damn.
"We activated the dispensers with that pressure plate. If we can figure out a way to hit it again, I bet that'll turn them off." I said to the group pointing to the far end where there were two pressure plates on the floor. Oh, now we see them.
"There's a crafting table" Jesse pointed out. Wow, how convenient. "We could make something."
"Out of what? We don't have anything. All of our tools and materials are back home" Olivia made a good point, I know I didn't have anything more than some wood sticks from last nights build.
"All right everyone, empty your pockets!" and we all handed Jesse what we had. Olivia had a piece of flint and a piece of string, Axel had some feathers. Wow, we really didn't have anything.
But Jesse took everything, went to the crafting table and made a set of four arrows. I thought okay but those are useless without a bow, that was until she crafted one . I guess she had some string on her. Taking aim for the pressure plate at the far end, Jesse had to miss all of the coming arrows to hit the plate to shut them off and she only had four shots to do it in, but to my amazement she only needed the one, landing a prefect shot first time and shutting them off.
"The Order of the Pigs luck is changing!" Axel announced as we continued coming to the end of the corridor and a sort of room covered in bookcases and an enchantment table. "Doesn't this look like Ivor creepy basement?" I agreed with him, it did, a lot! We all split up and looked around the place for anything that could be useful.
Jesse started reading from an open book on the enchanting table, "The battle was fierce, but the Order of the Stone emerged triumphant, saving the land and ensuring that peace and prosperity would reign forever..."
"Well, not exactly 'forever'" I interrupted her standing behind to listen. She continued,
"These five members, five friends. Would give so much to gain their rightful place as five heros." Five? That wasn't how the legend went. Jesse turned to me, looking as confused as I'm sure I did, which is when Olivia spoke up next to us, she'd come over to listen to apparently.
"Ivor was a member of the Order of the Stone!?" It made sense, "The stories never mentioned him."
"This might explain why Ivor had such a grudge against Gabriel..." Jesse pondered putting a hand to her mouth thinking.
"They lied to us!" Exclaimed a cross Olivia, "they lied to the whole world!"
"Why would they do this?" Axel said behind us all, "Man, I can't believe you punched a member of the Order of the Stone."
"heh."
"This is so crazy!" I said to the enchantment table. I mean, they were still the Order of the Stone, but what if there were more lies? How could they fake their legend cutting a whole member out like this? No wonder Ivor was mad, I would be too, not so mad as to create a Wither Storm, but I got where he was coming from, kinda.
"The Order might not be what we thought they were, but Petra is still out there! That monster is still out there!"
"Jesse's right. We need to focus on what we came here to do!" I said trying to move us along. We needed to find what members we could.
"Where do these stairs go?" Came a quiet Olivia form the other side of the room. There were indeed stairs. We all looked at each other and then Jesse headed right on up.
We came the top the and into a large empty room with barely any roof, one of the walls was practically not there anymore, which Axel said out loud,
"What happened to the wall?"
"More like what happened to this whole place!" Jesse said throwing her arms out gesturing to the building.
"This must of been where they met!" Olivia assumed.
"Well, where are they then?" Axel asked us as if we knew.
"Gabriel said that once we we're here the amulet would show us where to go..." Jesse said pulling it out of her inventory and holding it up, we all watched and... Nothing happened.
"Well that was a let down." Axel grumped and went to look at the map.
There was a giant map in front of the stairs which had to have most of our world mapped out and an altar type thing was then in front of that.
I sat down on some stairs right in front of the map and looked around some more. There were actual gold blocks forming columns in here and quartz helped make the place more temple-y, or well it would of if the rest of it was still together and there weren't vines and moss everywhere. I took out a book I'd brought with me from downstairs, Jesse came over and asked about it,
"Find anything useful in that book?"
"The only thing I've found so far is that the amulet was used to track the positions of the members of the Order"
"Does it say how?"
"Weellll, it's less technical and more historical." She sighed and let me continue reading to checked on Reuben, after which she went to speak to Olivia who was poking around at the altar.
I think Jesse was expecting her to have figured out something but instead Olivia looked up perplexed and said "We're in the temple of the Order of the Stone, the ACTUAL temple! Who'd of thought it, a bunch of small town outsiders like us wrapped up in a big adventure like this." I really wasn't the only one thinking that then.
"Yeah, it's pretty insane. I just hope we all make it out the other side in one piece." Olivia nodded and Jesse stared at the altar. It had a picture of the amulet so she placed said amulet in the gap at the top, nothing happened. She gave it a puzzled look and continued moving about the room. After a while a noise sounded behind me and we all looked up to see that either side of the map were stain glass blocks, the top three were lit up; Purple, white, blue, red and green. Then the white and blue turned off and the bottom two turned on? Huh?
Looking back to the room I saw Jesse stood at the other side behind a short stone row with a redstone lantern on top of it in the middle, she had an arm crossed over her and the other was to her mouth, talking to herself. Leaning down she must of pressed something as the lights switched again.
I thought to myself that we must have to get all the lights on and I was about to go over when she pressed something else and they did, in fact, all turn on.
A beam shot out from the redstone lamp, into the amulet which then split into a red beam and green beam and hit the map. Everyone looked at Jesse who stood proudly with a smug face and came back to us.
"It's absolutely incredible! How did they build this?" I'd like to know that as well, not everything about the Order might be true but they're crafting skills clearly were.
"This must be the tracking system your book says about Lukas!" Jesse exclaimed to me.
"But we don't know enough about how this thing works." I said to everyone, "Maybe the amulet only works when they're on the surface? It might not work when they're in the Nether. We have to go off what we DO know."
Jesse nodded at me, "It's trying to tell us something though, there are only two lights on that map, only two members left? Gabriel said that Soren was missing..."
"That leaves Magnus and Ellegaard." I said to her and she approached the map. The two lights weren't anywhere close to each other, the green on the far far left and the red on the complete other side. Magnus was the green and Ellegaard the red.
"Well, then let's head out" came a confident Jesse.
"I'm not going with you guys. I have to stay here" They all turned to me confused, I explained before they asked why. "If I know Petra, she's probably doing everything she can to find this place."
"Okay." Jesse said right away, "Stay here for when Petra finds us." There was no hint of doubt in her voice that Petra wasn't going to find and join us.
"Go, get help. I'll stay here and focus on making this place safe before nightfall." We had to have something better than that treehouse, more defences. "This place is pretty big though. If we're gonna have a chance of fortifying it, I'm going to need some help. If, uh, one of you guys could hang back and help me?" Jesse and Olivia seemed down with that plan,
"Sounds like Olivia will have you totally covered while me and Jesse are out finding Magnus."
"'Finding Magnus'? You really think that's how it's going to go?" Olivia turned and gave him a blank expression. "We need Ellegaard, she's the world's greatest engineer. She'll figure out a way to stop that thing."
"We're trying to DESTROY it, and when it comes to destruction, Magnus is the master." Axel tried again.
Jesse gave it a thought, looked at me and then to her friends. "Get ready to roll Axel, we're going to go find Magnus." That resulted in a hurray and fist pump from him. "Olivia stay here and help Lukas. Put that brain to use, I know you can magic up some great defences!" She gave Olivia a wink and started pushing Axel to the stairs, she gave me a wink as well and wished us luck.
"Please hurry!"
