CHAPTER TWO
Llamas.
There was a lot of llamas.
Jesse had never seen that many llamas before in her life… or at least, as not many as she saw at that moment. Each different llama had a different colored saddle on their back and they were scattered in front of the gate looking off into the distance as if they were in their own little world.
"Uh… excuse me, anyone here ask for the Order of the Stone?" Jesse called out to the herd of llamas but nobody responded. She looked at one of the llamas in the herd with a questioning gaze. "You didn't happen to need help, did you?"
"Buh-wa," Came the llama's reply.
"… Yeah, thought not."
Hearing footsteps behind her, Jesse turned around to see her friends looking at the pack of llamas with wide eyes. All except for Axel, who had just shrugged his shoulders in indifference at the sight in front of the gate, having seen it before moments ago.
"Uh, we didn't get asked to help a bunch of llamas, did we?" Lukas asked as he stared warily at one of the llamas looking in his direction. He could have sworn it was glaring at him.
"What? No, that'd be stupid," Axel said as he looked over the pack off llamas. "There should be a lady somewhere around here…" His eyes scanned the pack before pointing towards the middle. "Aha! There she is, right on that horse."
Right in the dead center of the pack of llamas, was a white horse that had blended in with the other llamas. On top of the horse was what looked to be a person with dark blue shoulder length hair wearing a light blue poncho that had a similar design to one of the llama's saddles. On top of her head was a hat with a design that was the same as her poncho and had little ear flaps on the side, covering her ears. From what Jesse could tell, the foreign girl had her eyes closed and was nuzzling the mane of the horse with her face.
Wait, was she snoring?
"Wow, she's asleep? I didn't think I was gone that long," Axel said as he scratched the back of his head as he tried to count down how many minutes it took him to find the rest of the Order.
"Uh, hey! Wake up!" Jesse called out to the girl but there was no response. "Hey! Wake up!" Jesse tried to call out a little louder but there was still no response. Taking a deep breath, Jesse yelled at the top of her lungs, "WAKE UP ALREADY!"
"AH! CREEPER!" The girl, having been woken up from a sound sleep, flailed her arms out randomly as she not-so-gracefully fell off her horse. The llamas, startled from the fall of their master, fled in all directions and revealed the girl had landed on the ground with her face. "Ow…" She groaned.
Jesse jogged over to her and reached out her hand in an attempt to help. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to ask you something."
"No, it's okay… I fall off my horse all the time. I'm used to it," the strange girl said, accepting the hand Jesse offered and pulled herself up to her feet. Her eyes widened the moment she laid eyes on Jesse and then looked behind her at the other people. "Oh… my… gravel… It's the Order of the Stone!" The girl practically squeaked out. Her eyes went straight to her hand, who was stilling holding onto Jesse's hand, before letting go and stared at it in awe. "Oh my… I touched one of the members of the Order of the Stone's hand!" She smiled before it dropped from her face and she paled. "Oh… the Order of the Stone saw me fall off my horse… like an idiot…" She groaned to herself before she covered her face with her hands in embarrassment.
"Uh… it actually wasn't that bad. I've seen plenty of people fall off their horses before! I'd give your fall a nine out of ten!" Jesse joked in an attempt to lighten the mood. The girl, however, groaned in response, so Jesse decided to try and move the topic away from horse falling. "Uh… so are you the one that needed help?"
"Yes…" The girl said as she brought her hands back down to her sides. "Uh, actually no…" She then rubbed the back of her head. "Uh… sorta?"
"Wait, which is it? Do you need help or don't you?" Olivia asked as she walked up to the girl and stared at her questioningly.
"Well, it's more like I was asked to bring help," The strange girl said before shaking her head and tried to gain her bearings. "Ugh, okay, let me start over. My name is Malia and I'm a trader and part time map maker. I travel all over trading building blocks, supplies… you know, that kind of thing. Anyway, this morning I stopped by a village that I haven't been to in a month and apparently there's this… okay, they didn't tell me what it was, but someone or something invisible is taking villagers."
"What do you mean 'taking villagers'?" Lukas asked, his hand on in his chin as if he was in deep thought.
"Uh, I have no idea. I was told that the moment the sun sets, one of the villagers just… disappears."
"Wait, if they just 'disappeared', how do you know they were taken?" Jesse questioned, as she tried to get more information out of the trader.
"Uh… I don't know, I think someone saw something?" Malia said unsurely before scratching the back of her head. "I'm just the messenger, I didn't really investigate. I just know there were A LOT less villagers than there was month ago and that they asked me to go get the Order of the Stone."
"So how far away is this village?"
"Hm… I'd say it takes almost half a day to get there by horse. I arrived at the village at around dawn and they told me to hurry up and get the Order before anyone else was taken," The poncho wearing girl sighed and rubbed the side of her temples. "I would've liked to stay at the village a little longer before they rushed me out. I didn't sleep last night because I was on the road and I couldn't sleep and there was monsters and I was too freaked out to sleep and-"
"Well, I guess that settles that then," Jesse said, cutting off Malia before any more time was wasted. She turned toward her friends with a smile. "You guys ready to go save a village from an invisible monster?"
"Yeah, I'm down with saving some villagers. Count me in," Lukas responded with a nod.
"Heck yeah! It feels like it's been months since I went on a genuine adventure with you," Axel said, pumping his fist for emphasis. Then he blinked and scratched the back of his head, "Oh wait… it has been months."
"Unless you count the time we were kidnapped by that weird woman and was trapped in that obsidian prison," Olivia said before shrugging. "But I digress. Lead the way, Jesse! I'm ready to go save that village whenever you're ready!"
"Oh yeah! That's right, we did get kidnapped," Axel said before he frowned at the memory. "I wouldn't really count that as an adventure… we hardly even did anything and we barely saw any action other than Jesse fighting that old guy. We're totally due for some action ourselves!"
"I'm totally in too, even though I'm not good at fighting and I can't help with the invisible monster part," The strange poncho wearing girl added before rubbing the side of her arm shyly. "Well, seeing as you guys have never been to the village before, I thought I'd, um, take you guys there myself. You guys can ride my llamas while I lead you there," Malia said before squealing with delight. "I can't believe I just agreed to help the Order of the Stone. Oooh, I can't wait to tell people!"
"Well, that settles it then," Jesse said before she raised her fist in the air, pumped for a new adventure. "Pick a llama, guys! We'll head out as soon as everyone's ready!"
Everyone nodded in agreement before Jesse's three friends spread out and looked at their choices of llamas to ride. Jesse turned back to Malia with a friendly grin, "Thanks for helping us get to the village. We owe you one."
"Eep! Um, it's no big deal! I'm just really glad I met all five members of the Order of the…" The girl trailed off as she looked between the members of the Order of the Stone and mentally counted who was there. "Wait… wasn't there a fifth member?"
Jesse blinked and looked over at her friends. There was Olivia, Axel, and Lukas… but no Petra. As Jesse thought about it, she hadn't seen Petra all day and nobody had said anything about her. "Hey, has anyone seen Petra?" Jesse called out to her friends, wondering where her red-headed friend could be.
"Oh, uh, Petra went to the Nether," Lukas said, turning away from the orange and black saddled llamas he was staring at and looked at Jesse.
"The Nether?" Jesse's brow furrowed as she looked at Lukas in confusion. "We haven't even been back in our world very long and she already went to the Nether? I thought for sure she would have wanted a break from jumping through portals."
"Apparently, an old client asked for something that could only be found in the Nether," Lukas replied with a shrug and turned back to the llamas he was staring at. "She should be back by the time we return home."
"Well… alright, guess we'll go to the village without her," Jesse said with a shrug. If Petra was off doing her own thing, then Jesse had to hope that they can handle the invisible monster without her.
"Aw sweet, this one has a Creeper face on its saddle!" Axel said as he pointed to a llama with a green saddle before he hopped onto the llama's back with gusto. Taking the reins, he tried to urge the llama to move. "Hiya! Giddyup!" Axel cheered before noticed the llama wasn't moving. "Uh… mush? Onward? Open sesame?" He tried to encourage the llama to move at his command, but to no avail. "I think my llama is defective."
"Woah there, bucko. You can't ride llamas like a horse. I have to put a lead on one of them and the rest will follow," Malia said before pulling out a lead from her inventory and waving it in the air.
"Aw man," Axel groaned before slumping in his saddle, extremely disappointed he couldn't try any cool tricks on the llama before they headed out.
Jesse looked over all the llamas before she finally settled on one llama that had a similar color to her armor. Looking over toward her friends, Axel was looking bored and Olivia chose a red saddled llama and looked ready to leave at a moment's notice. Lukas, on the other hand, seemed to have had some trouble with the orange saddled llama.
"Easy there, big fellow. I just want to ride you," Lukas said as he tried to calm the llama down who seemed to be glaring at Lukas and making threatening noises. The llama just grunted in annoyance at the boy before making a gurgling sound and hacked a big wad of spit in Lukas' face, hitting him right in the eye and caused him to flinch. "OW, HEY! What did I ever do to you?!"
"Lukas, you okay?" Jesse called out to Lukas, wincing as she saw Lukas holding his eye as if he was in pain.
"Uh… I'm okay. I'm fine. My eye feels like it's on fire, but otherwise, I'm fine," Lukas replied back with a wavering voice as he took his hand off his eye and blinked it several times before putting his hand back on with a groan.
"Oooh… probably should have warned you about Timothy. He doesn't like people riding him when he has a full load in his chest," Malia said sympathetically before she saddled up on her horse and looked around at the other llamas before pointing at a pink saddled one with a smile. "Hey, try riding Blossom. She's super friendly."
Lukas looked at the pink saddled llama warily before shrugging as if he was resigned. "As long as she doesn't spit me in the face like the last one did, I'll take it." He sighed before he saddled up on the llama, who just let out a soft and friendly 'mwa' as if she was greeting Lukas.
"Okay, looks like everyone is ready," Malia said as she looked over at her new travel companions. Pulling the lead back out of her inventory, she slipped it onto the closest llama and almost immediately all the llamas in the general area rushed to stand behind the other until they formed one single line. Not having a say on where their llamas ended up in the line, Jesse's llama was in front of the line, Lukas' llama ended up in the middle and Axel and Olivia's were right on the end.
And with that, the Order of Stone was on their way to helping the village.
-MCSM-
Jesse was bored. Unbelievably bored, if she said so herself. With her friends too far away for her to talk to without resorting to yelling at them, Jesse decided to look at the scenery around her. However, after about an hour, Jesse grew bored at the ever changing scenery that she had to have seen a million times before and finally decided to look at her friends behind her to see how they were doing. Axel and Olivia seemed to be chatting away while Lukas was engrossed in writing in his journal. Jesse was tempted to look at what he was writing but decided against it; he was too far away for her to take a quick peek.
"Hey, uh… Jesse the leader?"
The voice snapped Jesse from her thoughts and she turned her head forward to see Malia looking curiously at her while still keeping a hold of the horse's reins. Jesse gave her a friendly smile before speaking, "Yeah, what's up?"
"Can I… ask a few questions?" Malia asked, looking rather uncertain if she should be asking the leader of the Order of the Stone anything.
"Sure! Ask anything you want," Jesse said as her grin grew even bigger, happy that she finally had something to do while they were traveling.
"Um… what's it like to be the leader of an awesome team of heroes?" The poncho wearing girl asked, looking rather excited. "It's probably the awesomest thing in the world, right?"
"Well, being leader is pretty awesome… but it's also hard work," Jesse said in a serious tone. "There's a lot of people looking up to you for when things go wrong and they need someone to save the day. So, I need to be ready for whatever comes at me so I can to help out my friends and other people."
"Wow, that's so noble. You're so awesome," Malia said, completely starstruck. "Okay, question number two. What would you say the Order of the Stone's all-time favorite food is?"
"Cake. No debate about it, I'm pretty sure all my friends love cake."
The strange girl made a mental note to donate all of her cakes to the Order of the Stone before she nodded and broke into a smile. "Okay, third question. It's about something that guy… uh, Linus said."
Jesse blinked in confusion for a second, unsure who Linus was before she realized Malia's mistake. "Ah, his name is Lukas. Not Linus."
Malia looked confused before she glanced behind Jesse to stare at Lukas for a moment. "Really? 'Cause I could have sworn that was his name. He even looks like a Linus."
"No, I'm pretty sure Lukas looks like… well, Lukas. Anyway, what are you curious about?" Jesse said in an attempt to get back on topic.
"Ah, right. Well, Li… uh, Lukas said that Petra went to the Nether for a client, right?"
"Yeah… where are you going with this?" Jesse questioned, confusion evident in her tone of voice.
"Well, I'm a trader. Part of my job is to know who is trading what and for what price. As far as I'm aware, Petra tended to deal on the… darker side of trading. You know, stuff hard to get from the Nether. Ghast Tears, Wither Skulls… shady stuff," Malia said before she shrugged. "Anyway, word around the jungle vine says that Petra left the trading business months ago. Dunno the exact details as to why, though."
Jesse's eyes widened at this new bit of information. Why hadn't she heard of this from Petra herself? "Wait, really?"
"Yeah, that's why I was a little curious about what Lukas said. If she got back into the trading business, I'm interested in doing some business with her," Malia said before breaking into another excited grin. "I would love to get my hands on some blaze rods. People would love to craft some brewing stands with those. " The trader then heard her horse neigh at her before she turned around and made her horse weave around a few trees before she crashed into them. "Ooh, looks like I need to focus on the road again. Anyway, thanks for answering my questions! Really appreciate it!" Malia called out over her shoulder before she put all her attention on getting the Order of the Stone to the village before nightfall.
"You're welcome," Jesse said before her thoughts drifted to what Malia had said. Did Petra quit the trading business because of what happened with Ivor? Maybe Petra quit because she was too busy with the Order of the Stone to focus on trading? Jesse decided she'd ask Petra about the details when she got the chance.
Just like that, Jesse had nothing else to do and she was bored yet again. She grumbled for a moment before she stared at the back of the trader's head.
"… Hey, Malia?"
"Yes?"
"Are we there yet?"
-MCSM-
"… Anyway, so this guy tried to hit me with this block of TNT but, like the awesome King I am, I avoided that thing like a boss and that thing went BWOOOM right behind me. It was pretty awesome," Axel said, regaling Olivia with tales from his last trip to Boom Town… or at least, he was trying to.
"Uh-huh," Olivia mumbled, staring at the trees as they passed by them.
Axel raised an eyebrow, confused as to why Olivia seemed distracted and not more focused on his awesome story. "Hey, you listening?"
"Yeah, you ran into a guy in Boom Town, he threw TNT at you and you avoided it," Olivia recounted as she still stared at the trees passing by.
Axel blinked a few times in surprise and rubbed the back of his head. "Okay, maybe you are listening," Axel said, still confused at Olivia's distant attitude. He decided to change topics to see if he could get Olivia's mind off… whatever had her preoccupied. "So… have you told Jesse about that thing yet?"
Olivia sighed heavily as she glanced back at Axel. "No… not yet."
"What? Aw, come on, why not? I would have told her the moment she got back to our world."
Olivia just looked at the passing trees as she absent mindedly petted the llama's fur. "I guess I'm just… having second thoughts to it… Maybe I shouldn't-"
"WHAT?" Axel practically yelled out and almost fell off his llama in shock. "Why would you be having second thoughts about THAT? I would've thought you'd jump at the chance! I mean, you'd be-"
"Yeah, well, maybe I thought about it harder than you would!" Olivia snapped defensively at Axel, without even thinking. She turned around and her face softened as she noticed the hurt look on Axel's face, the guilt filling her insides. "I'm really sorry, Axel. It's just I've been feeling a bit pressured and I still don't know what I should do. I just don't think I should tell Jesse yet." She sighed and looked back at the passing trees. "Does that make me a bad person?"
"What? Now you're just talking crazy talk. Keeping THAT a secret definitely does not mean you're a bad person. Besides, you're still one of the awesomest people I know," Axel said, breaking into the biggest grin he could possibly manage in an attempt to cheer his friend up.
It had worked because Olivia had let out a sigh before she smiled softly. "Thanks Axel. I needed that." She paused for a moment before turning to him. "Promise to keep it a secret until I get the courage to tell Jesse?"
"Yep, I'll keep my lips sealed tighter than a locked chest," Axel said before he held out his fist towards Olivia. "Promise Pound!"
Olivia stared at the fist in confusion before she stared at Axel with an eyebrow raised. "Promise Pound?"
Axel's smile faltered for a moment and he rubbed the back of his head. "Uh… it's like a fist bump except we just made a promise so it'd be a Promise Pound."
Olivia considered this for a moment before she raised her fist in the air and bumped Axel's fist. "Alright, Promise Pound." After she let her hand drop, she looked up at Axel curiously. "Now, weren't you saying something about avoiding TNT?"
Axel's grin was back on his face and he raised his hand in the air. "Oh yeah, almost thought I'd die for a moment there! So anyway, after I avoided the TNT, I ducked behind a building and pulled out a flint and steel…"
…
Unbeknownst to the two friends chatting away, a certain blonde guy had heard every word as he continued to write in his journal…
-MCSM-
After what felt like forever to Jesse, the sight of the village as the caravan left the forest made Jesse feel relieved and she could feel her boredom disappear into nothingness.
The village wasn't any spectacular; it was just a bunch of houses made from oak wood and planks. There were a few farms dotted around the village, but they looked rather unkempt with hardly any food growing at all. Not a single villager was out onto the street, almost like it was a ghost town.
"Where is everybody?" Jesse asked as she and her friends got off the llamas they were riding as soon as the caravan had stopped. Jesse looked over at the horizon and saw that the sun was close to setting. "The sun hasn't even begun to set yet."
"All the villagers are really spooked about this whole invisible-monster-taking-villagers-the-moment-it's-night thing. So I guess they're going in their houses a lot earlier. Maybe you'll talk to them in the morning," Malia said, as she began to usher her llamas into a stable that was built onto the side of a house. "Now, if you need me, I'm going to go hide with my llamas."
"You're not going to help us with this monster?" Olivia asked as she saw the trader lead her llamas to a bunch of hay bales which they began to nibble at earnestly.
"I don't know how much help I'd be in the first place. I'm not the best fighter in the world and I'd probably just get in the way," She shrugged and walked into the stable and closed the gate behind her as soon as all the llamas (plus one horse) was inside. "I wish you guys the best of luck, though. I mean, you're the Order of Stone! You guys can probably do anything you set your mind to." With that, she walked deeper into the stable and was out of sight.
Jesse just shrugged as she turned to her friends. "Well, she's right about one thing: we can do anything we set our minds to. So let's figure out how we're gonna stop this invisible whatever-it-is and keep it from kidnapping anymore villagers.
"I can set up some redstone traps around the houses and see if I can trap it," Olivia said as she pulled out some redstone and pistons.
"I can climb up onto one of the house's roofs and see if I can scout out anything," Lukas added as he pulled out a bow and arrow. "If I see any floating villagers try and leave the village, I'll let you guys know."
"And I'll… uh…" Axel paused and rubbed the back of his head, "I'm actually not sure what I can do."
"Axel, you and me will patrol around town and see if we can see or hear anything suspicious." Jesse put her hands on her hips and nodded. "Okay, team; we don't have a lot of time. First, let's help Olivia with her redstone traps and then get into position. Sunset is probably going to happen any moment now and we need to get ready." Jesse held her hand in the air. "Order of the Stone; move out!"
And with that, the team prepared for the inevitable battle.
A/N: You smell that? THAT'S THE SMELL OF A TOUGH BATTLE AHEAD!
... And by tough battle, I mean with me trying to write out a long fight scene. Well, I guess it depends on a person's definition of long, but I digress.
ANYWAY, I got a new Beta Reader! And that person is... drumroll please... Ariza Luca, that one person who wrote a bunch of MCSM stories that I'll probably read eventually. I just gotta find the time to read a 176 chapter story.
Yeeeaaaahhh, this story is not going to be that long... maybe fifty chapters? Maybe less? Maybe more? I have no idea.
I DO know that this story will have five episodes with episode five being the longest because OF ALL THE THINGS THAT'LL HAPPEN. But I'm getting waaaay ahead of myself.
ANYWAY, this chapter introduces an OC of mine. Good ol' Malia... who I literally just made at first just to be a ride for the Order of the Stone. But then I developed her a lot and now she has more of a role in the story, so that's gonna be fun! It's not a major role, but a role nonetheless.
ANYWAY AGAIN, thanks for the nice words about the story. It means a lot and makes me all nice and warm inside. :3
ALSO... literally one person voted on the poll on my profile which is a little... disheartening. But I will thank the one person that voted!
The poll will still be open for a few chapters so GO VOTE and stuff.
Mmm, if not a lot of people vote, I'll probably stop the poll thing. Oh well...
AND WITH THAT I bid thee adieu.
