Episode Three: The Last Place You Look
Jesse POV
"You won't get away with this!" I called after Ivor as he was shutting the door, there was no way we were going to catch up after that potion of slowness. I heard Lukas tell me to move out of the way and I turned around to see Axel who had tripped coming towards me, luckily we went back to normal speed and Axel hit the floor instead of me. "... I uh," Everyone was stood by where the door was looking pretty weirded out by the whole moving in slow motion thing. "Is everyone okay?"
"I felt all of that." Axel said with his face in the floor.
I looked to see Petra hobbling to the table in the middle while Olivia and Lukas pondered about the door and if we could get it open from this side. "Doing okay?"
"Why are you asking me that?" Petra snapped at me.
"Just checking up on you!"
"Everything's fine, all of it. Wait, are you..." She started coughing not able to finish her sentence. She looked awful, pale skin and bags under her eyes, she showed me her arm again, the purpleness was spreading, "I'm not trying to freak YOU out right now, but I'm pretty freaked out."
I was freaked out, "We have to tell the others Petra!"
"No! I don't want to cause any panic. Look if it becomes any worse I'll tell them, but please, let me do it." I sighed and agreed with her, but what I didn't noticed was that Lukas was looking this way, he knew something was up.
Petra had to be okay, she just had to be. She was such an important person to me, even more so now after we'd nearly lost her earlier.
"Hey guys, I have an idea." Axel spoke up. Really? "Magnus, help!" he shouted through the bookcases. I sighed, I was an idiot to think that it would be anything helpful. He turned to us who all gave him 'you're an idiot' looks. "Well all right, but I have another idea."
"Is it yelling for Ellegaard?" Olivia asked.
"Well... Not, any more..."
"Look, they aren't coming back. We have no idea where they are" Lukas said sadly and moved away from the door.
"They couldn't abandon us even if they wanted to, as long as we have... This!" I said pulling out the amulet! The green and red section were glowing but then faded.
"Is it, broken?" Petra asked.
"Here, let me see it!" Lukas all but demanded, walking up and grabbing it. We had a game of tub of war. "Maybe you're just holding it wrong."
"Do you mind?" I said crossly, what was his problem? I knew how to use this and Gabriel gave it to me, I felt responsible for it.
"I just want to see it."
"You can see it without touching!"
"Not if you can't get it to work!"
"It's working fine!" The rest of the group stood looking just as confused as I was by this. Me and Lukas looked at each other while pulling on the amulet, what was he thinking? The white part of the amulet started glowing and he let go. "Soren!" I started moving about the room with it, just as I did in Boom Town, to figure out which direction he was in, I came to a stop at a place above the floor. That was where the white light glowed the brightest. "This is the spot, it has to be." I told everyone who came and gathered by it. "Get ready to dig people!"
"Who knows how far down we'll need to go, we're not really equipped for this." My! Lukas was being strange right now, we didn't really have much of a choice, we needed to get to Soren and through the floor was looking like the only way.
"We're digging, with our hands if we have to!"
"Yeah, okay Jesse. I'm with you, it's just..." He replied awkwardly rubbing the back of his blond hair.
"PAI GOW!" Axel shouted punching the ground hard enough to cause a piece of it to break.
"Let's get to it then." I said to the group and we started to dig a small tunnel downwards leaving a few blocks sticking out to jump up and down from along the way. I hope Soren didn't mind us destroying his place.
I was at the bottom and my friends all at the top when I broke through to an open tunnel. I used the amulet glow as a light, it wasn't far to jump down.
Axel shouted down to me, "Are we cool?"
"It's a hole." I shouted back. "I'll jump down and see." I landed on my feet and well, it was a dark tunnel, I called up to the guys saying it looked fine and Olivia started climbing down over the edge. I looked around and noticed that the wall behind me was moving... "Wait!"
"You have to say that now?" Olivia said not too happy as she was a little ways down. That's when bats exploded around me and I screamed, causing everyone else to above me and Axel asked what was going on. I shooed them away and told them it was just bats and that it was definitely okay now, Olivia didn't look so sure about that but made her way down. Lukas pretty much just jumped the whole way and landed on his feet, Reuben did the same. Axel must of slipped as he came crashing down on top of Lukas, I winced feeling his pain but still giggled and went to offer him my hand to help him up, which he took, giving Axel a shove at the same time. Lukas had a grumpy look on his face as he dusted himself off which caused me to laugh again and I gained a smile from him.
Reuben came and nudged my leg, I gave him a pat and then Petra made her way down, not looking so great. I knew she didn't want anyone to know so got everyone moving, but I was sure that Lukas knew something wasn't right.
We eventually came to the end of the longest tunnel in the world and moved slowly to what wasn't an end but an edge. Looking down, you could barely see the bottom but it looked as though there was a pool of water down there. All along the sides were other tunnel openings sticking out at various heights and distances across. You could see ores and blocks poking about and the whole place was lit up with torches and glowstone. What in the overworld...?
"We have to get out of here!" Came Olivia sounded very scared causing us all to look at her confused as she backed up and Lukas asked why. "You don't understand, this is a grinder!" At that moment water came pouring out of one of the tunnels pushing some skeletons over the edge and down into the pool of water where pistons suddenly crunched them into nothing. Oh my Notch! It was for controlling monsters and gathering loot from them with no effort and we were now standing in it.
"That means there's a loot room down there right?" Axel said a bit too happy for the situation he was in. We all gave him a look... "Just saying..."
Suddenly a hissing noise came from behind us and two Creepers appeared, me and Petra didn't even hesitate, both jumping to take one each with our swords, but then a third came from the darkness of the tunnel and exploded, thankfully, no one was hurt. It had blown a hole in the side and I looked down, the amulet glowing as I knelt by the edge. Water sounded followed by Creepers trying to get away, the hole stopped a lot of the water from pushing my friends down but the force of it caught me, I dropped the amulet and nearly fell with it but Axel caught me and pulled me back in time, and we watched as the amulet 'tinked' it's way down, bouncing from the sides of tunnels and coming to a rest about half way down.
"Was that...?" Olivia looked at me.
"The amulet, yes."
"Wait, are you going to jump?" She questioned me again.
"Jumping is easy, just, gotta make sure you can land." And jump I did, taking out my gold sword as there were monsters walking about on top of the tunnels. Petra came after me, taking out her stone sword, running in front and pushing a Creeper down, who blew up as it hit a tunnel. Everyone came down with us.
We were running across what looked like purpose build walk ways with stairs leading to the next one, another Creeper stood on a tunnel top and I told Petra that this one was mine. I ran down and hit it right into the side of a wall, it exploded and spiders came crawling out. None of us stuck around to welcome them and jumped across to the next walk way. Mobs were falling all around us, my friends split up, all going different directions trying to dodge them and the water so that they didn't fall down into the grinder part. I spotted Axel having a hard time with some zombies and jumped over, knocking one of the edge, he told me to duck as he hit one over me and it shared the same fate as it's friend. "Who wants more?" He shouted running off.
"You're asking for more?" He was crazy.
A skeleton was taking aim at Olivia who didn't have any weapons or weight to throw around like Axel, it noticed me coming to help, sliding down past an arrow it shot at me, I knocked it over the edge. The both of us carried on making our way down when I saw Lukas stood kicking a bunch of spiders, one saw me and launched at me, I dodged and jumped down to join him. Water poured over where we were stood and knocked us over the edge, we both somehow held on until the water, and spiders, were gone and crawled our way back up. I looked at Lukas, I didn't know about him but I was out of breath from this, we didn't get to rest any as Reuben's squeals came to me and I looked up to see him being chased by a bunch of zombies, me and Lukas ran to join him.
I saw Petra just below me holding her own against a Creeper when another came from behind, jumping down I slammed it over the edge before it could explode on her, it slammed into another and they both went over. Result! Hearing a hissing noise from above, Creepers started tumbling down at us and no one hung around to deal with them; the four of us jumping out of the way, down to the next tunnel top. My jump ended with me landing on Lukas in a heap, we untangled ourselves and Lukas pointed to the amulet, it was far. Axel and Reuben were so close to it but then water and mobs rained down on their tunnel top, the water pushing the amulet down further and nearly over an edge, but I had to help my friends. Lukas looked at me and told me to go, he would get the amulet, I nodded to him and I jumped to them. Pushing mobs off edges, why fight when you have a massive long drop at your disposal?
"Get away from my pig!" I shouted at a zombie as I struck him down hard. Lukas saw and looked surprised by my anger at said zombie. You don't hurt my friends, end of story. That was when the world went sideways as water swept me off the edge with a Creeper. The grinder was coming on fast and my brain went to auto pilot, I reached for the Creeper, pushed it down and it exploded the grinder just in time for me to not be grinded by it. I hit the water looking up, amazed to be able to feel it and not be squished. My friends joined me, how kind of them to not leave me alone, but before we got a chance to swim up a force was pulling us down into pipes, no one could get away and we were all sucked down different ways.
I landed with a thud in a small, but long room, I heard Reuben squeal and then he landed on me, to which I was glad of because at least he was okay. Standing up I took in my surroundings; a few chests were about the room with glass columns and loot travelling up them, the floor also had glass sections where you could see loot going to wherever it was going to. Looking up there were chests inside minecarts moving along tracks to other sections of the building. The rest of the room was chiselled stone and stone bricks.
Suddenly everyone else came crashing down in the same way I did, they tried to gather themselves in moans and groans of being flung about when I noticed Axel was missing and asked, and as in to answer my question he came barrelling down and fell on Lukas again. I couldn't help myself and laughed, going over to help the both of them up.
"I knew you'd come for us. I owe you." Axel spoke to me, picking up Reuben,
"You don't owe me silly, you're my friend. I'm here to help you." I playfully hit his shoulder.
"There's something different about you Jesse, you're... Hold on hold on hold on!" Completely losing his minecart of thought, Axel had spotted what was going past below us, "This is where all the loot gets sorted, right? See that, things are starting to look up" And it shoved me out the way rather hardly, Olivia shook her head at him.
"That was cool what you did up there," Petra said coming to stand with me, "if we stick together, we'll be fine."
"You feeling any better?" It was a bit of a pointless question, but I wanted her to know that I was still thinking of her.
"Not even a little bit, and now I'm wet." She paused, "Everyone is looking to you to lead, well... Maybe not everyone" Petra gestured to Lukas who had the amulet, trying to follow the glow again. I just don't think he was used to someone else being the boss, and it's not like we sat down and voted or anything, it just, sorta happened.
"Any sign of Soren on there?" I called and moved over to him.
"He's close, he's got to be... This way!" He held the amulet to one end of the tunnel and it was indeed brighter. A clunking sound came from above us.
"I think the grinders packed up." Olivia speculated. A speculation which was bang on, considering we'd just blown bits of it up I wasn't surprised, a wave of water came down and I tried to push Lukas out the way but I was too late and we were knocked to the floor with monsters joining us. I shouted to everyone to keep moving, we couldn't hang around waiting for more to join us.
Axel had a spider jump at him, which he took care of, then another jumped onto his back, running over, I knocked it off. "I have had enough of this!" I yelled stabbing it with my anger, causing it to poof away, Axel kicked yet another spider and we ran to join the others, who had made it to the end of the tunnel and were stood by an End portal. I didn't see any other way out, that was when I noticed that Petra wasn't with us, turning back I saw she was having trouble with the mobs.
I ran back, killing one zombie, spinning around and taking out another, then dodging an arrow to take out a skeleton. Grabbing Petra's hand I ran, pulling her with me. "I think I'm getting the hang of this. Let's go!" And jumped into the End portal without giving it a second thought.
Lukas was the second person to follow me through the portal, "Oh, great! It just keeps getting better."
The End was a desolate place; a void of black sky, End stone, Obsidian blocks and nothing else. End stone formed the ground which floated with blackness all around, like a night sky, empty of stars. Obsidian spikes were dotted about. The Nether might not be the friendliest place, with it's fire and lava everywhere, but there were signs of life there. Compared, The End had nothing, and it was pretty cold. After jumping through you fell a tiny bit, no portal was above us to leave through. I nearly missed the mob grinder, nearly.
Axel was the last to come through the portal and of course, landed on poor Lukas again, the amulet bouncing from his hands. I was starting to think that it was on purpose. Lukas shoved him off crossly and put his hands to his eyes, was it hurt?
"Are you okay?" After I'd picked up the amulet I went and crouched in front of him.
"What? No, I'm not crying, just look." He pointed behind me, I barely turned around before looking back. Endermen, everywhere, hundreds of them, well this was their world I guess. We all dove for cover behind a spike. "So, what we do we call that? A 'herd' of Endermen? A flock, a swarm?"
"A crap ton of Endermen?" I joked to him, "but no, I think it's a haunting?"
"You might want to hold off on the grammar lessons until later." Olivia suggested, she asked me which way we were headed next so I took out the amulet, the white light flickered, so I tapped it, the light going out altogether.
"Stuff like that doesn't work in the Nether, probably doesn't work in The End either." Petra thought out loud.
"ahaha, great, woo, man. So we were trapped and now, we're lost!" Lukas said sounding like he was starting to crack, "We go from a death machine that nearly drowns us to here, The End. Heh, which is the right name for it since now, incredibly, we don't even know where we're going."
"Hey, at least we're alive, and well" I tried back at him, he looked to Petra and gave me a weak 'yeah' back. He was smart, I knew she wouldn't be able to hide it from him. "We just have to keep on truckin' until we get to Soren!"
"Face it Jesse, we might never find this guy."
"There is he." Axel said, interrupted Lukas and pointed to some stairs high up in the distance with a guy walking up them.
"Did that just happen? I can't believe that just happened!" I think we were all thinking along the same lines as Lukas there. Petra moved to take the front telling us to all follow her through the Endermen, but her determination was caught short by another wave of coughs. I was about to take the lead when Lukas stepped forward and looked at me. Ah, I see why he was being strange recently, he wanted to prove himself, do his bit, I felt bad for shooting him down now. I nodded and let him take the lead and with our eyes keeping to the ground, Lukas led us through the Endermen towards the stairs. If we looked at even one too much, in the wrong way or directly in the eyes, it would set off others around it and considering we had no where to properly hide right now... Yeah, let's not think about that happening. Endermen were very tall, black with purple eyes and fast, they could also teleport and were the only mobs that could move blocks about.
At the base of the stairs there was a strange altar type thing with what looked like a portal in the center, our way out I hoped. Everyone started to climb said stairs right away, Lukas hung back as I watched them go and thanked me for giving him a shot. I put an arm around his shoulder and pulled him with me, "You got this." I told him, trying to restore some self belief in him.
Axel came past me after a while, "I hope that some day, I love something as much as Soren seems to love stairs." He was out of breath, we all were. Looking down I thought to myself that if we fell, which we could since it was literally just stairs, no hand rails, nothing, we were dead. Everyone had carried on when I noticed Petra falling behind, I called to her,
"Keep up slow poke." I knew she would respond better to that then me offering a hand. Petra was a tough as nails sort of girl with fiery red hair that matched her fighting abilities.
My comment earned a laugh from her which I smiled at and we carried on up the stairs, Lukas and me shared a look, I knew he was suspicious and I wanted to tell him, I didn't like secrets and lies but I also did promise to Petra that I wouldn't say anything, stuck between obsidian and bedrock it seemed.
Axel, Reuben and Olivia were sat on a flat part between stairs complaining about the sheer number of them. I puffed, "There's a ladder." It was at the top of the next flight of stairs.
"Better not be a long one." Axel said to no one and slowly got up from the floor. I seconded that thought.
Luckily, it wasn't. I went first and pushed through the trap doors at the top into a 'room'... Wait, what?
Lukas called up asking what I saw before they followed me, but I didn't know how to respond to that question, "I, uh, I think... What? I'm hallucinating, it's just so beautiful."
Around me was a room that looked like an outside. A blue sky with white clouds and a sun hovering in the center, green grass and trees, a river system with bridges and hills, it was like an untouched world, hard to think we were still in The End. My friends followed up the ladder and each in turn gained the same look I'm sure I was wearing. We made our way down a small hill, Axel tripping and falling on Lukas yet again, seriously dude? I moved over to touch a tree, "What in the... It's made of wool!? Everything, it's all wool."
"You're telling me," came Lukas sounding not too happy, picking up a block of wool, "we've been resting all our hopes on this guy, and the whole time he's been building some... Artificial happy land?
"He probably just misses home." I offered.
"If you miss home, you go and visit. You don't build an exact replica." Lukas had a point. But Soren was one of the greatest builders who had ever lived, some of his builds had to be a little, weird, like experiments. He threw the wool block away, "we came here for nothing." He started to walk away from the group.
"What's the matter, are you okay?" Something was clearly eating him.
"Just look around Jesse!" he yelled at me, "If the greatest builder of all time has spent years working on THIS, what're the chances that he'll even have that bomb, huh? I've had enough crazy for one day." Lukas was clearly done talking to us and stormed off.
"What's his problem?" Petra asked, and I wish I had the answer to that question for her. I concluded that we should just give him some space and see how to move on from here, as I wasn't seeing an exit.
A cloud shaped light pattern on the wall went off suddenly, huh? Olivia took Axel and Reuben to investigate and I stayed with Petra a little while, we sat down together.
"So, on a scale of 'ugh' to 'argh!' how are you feeling?"
"Somewhere in between, but I'm holding on." I was glad to hear she wasn't at 'argh!' yet.
"Well, this place is a little crazy, isn't it, like, the weirdest thing you've ever seen?"
"Actually no, I once saw a villager dig a big trench and fill it with like, a million carrots." I gave her a confused look but didn't ask any further questions about it, it sounded very strange indeed. We talked a little more about an assortment of things before I left her resting to see if Olivia had figured anything out.
Reuben was stood by some pink wool, just kinda starting at it. I gave him a pet and we did a little high five, which put a smile on my face. "I bet this wool feels pretty good under those trotters, doesn't it?" He made a satisfied noise and rubbed the ground with his feet, I'd have to look into getting some carpet or rugs for my treehouse for him when this was all over. I called over to Olivia from my spot on the floor, "found anything useful yet guys?"
"Well, we found that button, but it doesn't seem to do anything though." Olivia answered me back, pointing to a button under the funny light cloud.
"You both doing okay though?"
"Could be worse, could be better" Axel said indifferent, Olivia shrugged in agreement I think. Average was fine.
I left them pondering the button and went back to poking around. There was a fountain with real water not blue wool, I took a much needed drink, the water just as cold as the air, I forgot we were still in The End, it was easily done in here. I found an odd stage type thing, Soren had even created mini monsters from wool and monster heads, this guy was seeming stranger and stranger the closer we got to him, I mean, who lives in The End by choice? Not a completely sane person, he may be a few wheats short of a loaf, but he was our only hope at this point.
I looked to Lukas who was leaning against a tree away from everyone else with a face on, I sighed, time to see if I could cheer him up.
"What do you want?" Was the question he gave me when I walked over to him, and it wasn't said nicely either. I tried to not take it personally.
"Lukas." I tried, keeping my voice quiet, "no matter how upset you get, you've just gotta try and keep it together!"
"I know, I really do, it's just..." He sighed and I waited for him to gather himself before carrying on, "Listen, I know I've been a bit prickly, but... Jesse, I think somethings wrong, with Petra." I knew that he had caught onto something, "You have to of noticed..."
"... I, uh, I shouldn't say, it's not really my place, I wish I could though." I replied awkwardly, rubbing the back of my head and not making eye contact.
"Wait, talk about what? Jesse! If I'm right about this, you have to tell me. It's not fooling anyone, at least not me." He was right, I should say something, Petra had said that if she got any worse she would tell people, but I had a feeling that her toughness didn't want her to admit that to anyone.
I kept my voice low, "Petra is sick, Lukas." He stopped crossing his arms and looking all defensive.
"How long have you known?" He said to me softly.
I sighed, "A while. But she promised me not to tell anyone, I'm sorry! I wanted to say, I don't like hiding things but, it was promise..." I felt my lip quiver, I hope Petra could forgive me, "The Wither, we think it infected her with something."
He'd stopped leaning against the tree and moved to sit against the 'not hill' next to him. "So, everything I was worried about, it's all true? This is all my fault Jesse!" I sat on my knees next to him waiting for him to explain that further, but he didn't.
"No way this is because of you Lukas, what are you saying?"
"If I hadn't chocked, you would've been able to pull Petra out of that beam sooner."
"Hey," I said softly putting a hand to his shoulder, "for all we know, Petra didn't get sick until way after that. We don't know what happened between that and when she reached us." He gave me a look that didn't inspire confidence. "It's not your fault, really, but Petra is still with us, you could try making it up to her, if that would make you feel better about it?"
"You're right, but, if one of our best fighters is sick, then what chance do we have?"
"Hey, you have me!" I said standing and posing, giving him a cheesy grin that got a chuckle out of him. "If we stick together, we can do anything. Even things that seem impossible." I held out a hand to hep him up.
"It just seems extra impossible"
"Then we stick together extra hard." I gave him a hug, and I didn't know that I needed one either until it was happening. He hugged back, let out a sigh and thanked me. I could see it in his face that he was feeling better. "I should go and tell Petra that you know, you're right, we shouldn't keep secrets." I moved to leave but he grabbed my hand.
"Tell her the truth, that I figured it out. I don't want Petra thinking that you can't keep a promise, because you did."
"heh, sure. Thank you." He let go and I moved back over to Petra where she was leaning against a tree, looking sleepy. I crouched down next to her,
"Petra?"
"Hnn?"
"Lukas knows you're sick. I didn't break our promise! I think he's been suspicious for a while, it's one of the reason he's in a mood I think. People finding out their friends are keeping secrets... It's not a nice thing to find out."
She gave a defeated sigh, "I've been trying to hide it best I could, so not to cause a panic."
"I know, but everyone is here for you. You should tell Reuben, Axel and Olivia yourself, before they catch on. I know they'll be hurt more than Lukas is."
"... Maybe."
"Don't worry, we'll still think you're super tough, we all have off days."
"Heh, thanks Jesse. I guess I should tell them." Petra made no move to move. I gave her a small hug and told her to rest a bit then tell them. I think we all needed a break and while it was safe, we should do so. I went to go and let Axel, Olivia and Reuben know, even though Axel was already lying on the floor and Reuben was poking about with the pink wool still. Olivia was at the button wall, listening to it.
"You hear that?" She asked me, so I put my ear to it, it sounded as though there was music or someone talking behind it.
"Mhm, but how to get behind it. I'm guessing you've not found anything?"
"Not a wheat seed."
"Well, while we're safe and since we can't seem to figure out a way behind this, I've told Petra and Lukas we're having a little break..."
"That's more like it!" Called Axel from the floor.
"Not for long so don't get too comfy. I'm gonna look about this place in a bit more detail, okay?" Olivia nodded and I went back over the room, starting at the fountain.
Lukas POV
Jesse had gone and told Petra that I knew. I think I came off a bit harsh to Jesse, she was only trying to help each of us yet I knew I'd taken some of my frustration out on her, I made a note to apologize later. I watched her give Petra a hug and leave her sitting against a 'not tree', then go over to Olivia who was poking about by a wall, I was sure she was listening to it. Can you hear redstone?
I shut my eyes for a moment, taking in the quiet, peacefulness while it was here. Once we found an exit, found Soren, I knew we'd have to actually find the Wither Storm. I chuckled to myself, what people in their right minds went looking for something like that, it was an odd sort of day. Jesse was poking about again and came closer to me in her search,
"So, what did Petra say?" I asked her. Jesse looked to Petra, then to me and sat down next to me. Sighing, she hugged her legs closer and rested her head against them with a shiver, I'd forgot about the coldness of The End.
"She's gonna tell the others when she's rested. Olivia's taking a look to try and figure out what that button does."
"I'm glad and I'm sure Olivia can figure it out." We were silent for a little while until she yawned.
"Tired?"
"I wasn't, until I sat down, on this soft comfy wool."
"Mm." It was super comfy in here, you could lie anywhere, even in a 'not tree' and it would be soft. Jesse hid her face in her knees and sighed again. She hadn't stopped being positive and keeping us altogether since, well, since the whole thing had started, it was impressive but also looking like it was starting to take it's toll.
I put a hand on her back, "you okay Jesse?" Had anyone asked her that this whole time? I looked at her worried, hoping that she would talk to me.
She didn't say anything for a moment, before looking up and taking a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm fine. Really. Just sleepy I think." She yawned again and rubbed an eye. "I think the last time I slept was in that tree house we build, and even then, it wasn't well. Hard to sleep after you've witnessed Wither Storms and the joys of the Nether." She had a point, "and anyway, I'm good if you're good now!"
"That's really cute." I said idly, playing with her hair, she blushed and looked away. I blinked out of my daze and took my hand away, coughing to cover up the awkwardness. "I.., uh, I mean, why don't you have a nap, or something?"
"s'too cold to sleep really." I thought for a moment, we couldn't start a fire, wool plus fire equals bad time. Ah, I know.
Leaning forward I took off my jacket and put it around her shoulders causing her to snap her head right towards me in question, I put my hands up in defence, "too keep the chill off." She stared right into my eyes and I held my breath, did I do something wrong? After what seemed like an eternity, she held the edges and pulled it around her, blushing and looking at the floor, she fidgeted her feet and muttered the quietest of thank yous. I just smiled at her and went back to leaning against the 'not hill'.
We were silent after that, until I felt something on my shoulder, looking down I saw that she'd fallen asleep against me. To say I was shocked and embarrassed would be an understatement, but I left her be, I didn't want to move her, Jesse needed rest just as much as the rest of us, if not more.
Minutes went past and all that I could hear was water slowly moving past and Jesse's slow breathing; she told me that Reuben wasn't allowed any more carrots and that no, Axel wasn't allowed to bring TNT inside her treehouse. Even in her dreams she was thinking about her friends, even if she was telling them off. I thought to myself that I didn't mind being stuck here right now and smiled, Olivia's voice took me out of that thought though, I think she was arguing with someone. I slowly tried to remove myself from Jesse and lie her down, covering her back up with my jacket, satisfied that she was still asleep I went to investigate.
Jesse POV
A noise pulled me from a sleep that I didn't know I had taken, it sounded like people. Yawning, sitting up and rubbing my eyes, I felt something slip off me. I looked to my lap to see Lukas's leather jacket there and then remembered, had I fallen asleep in his jacket next to him? Well this was embarrassing, I was sure I was beet red, but thinking of Lukas, where was he? He wasn't where I'd left him, Petra wasn't either actually. I looked past the 'not tree' next to me, over to where Reuben, Axel and Olivia had been, to see all of them stood there, voices were being raised. I held the jacket against me and started heading over to them.
Olivia was the first to notice me approaching, which caused other heads to turn in my direction, I yawned again and rubbed my face, I was not awake it seemed,
"wha's goin' on?" I managed in my sleepy state. Lukas was stood closet to me with his arms crossed, Petra stood pretty well to my other side, her rest had helped a little it seemed. Reuben was still sitting against the pink wool, Olivia was tapping a foot and Axel had a slight hurt look on his face.
"Sorry to wake you up Jesse," Lukas said to me, "I was just saying how we should keep it down." He shot them all looks.
"Did you know about this Jesse?" Axel said to me as if that made any sense.
"You're gonna have to elaborate on that Axel."
"He's talking about Petra's sickness, which I totally get by the way, he also doesn't seem to understand why I'm angry." Olivia explained to me, again not going into detail about her own problem.
"And why is that?" I asked her, "and yes I did know about Petra. Before you bite my head off she promised me to not say anything and Petra is as much my friend as you are." Axel opened his mouth to protest but Lukas whispered 'don't' to him and he shut it again. I realised that came out a bit brash but hey, I'd just been woken up from the best sleep I'd had since the Storm, I knew I wasn't a happy bunny when I got woken up, let alone from people arguing and then blaming me for stuff that I didn't know you could be blamed for.
"See Axel? Just let it go, Petra didn't want to cause a panic, she explained!" Olivia said to him and I looked at Petra who just sighed at me giving me a 'told you so' look. I then noticed that the wall behind us, was open, leading into a room it seemed.
"Hey good job on figuring this out!" I gestured to the gap. This caused both Petra and Lukas to sigh together this time, did I put a foot in it?
"Well thank you!" Olivia said dramatically to me. "All I got from this one," She pointed at Axel, "Was an 'about time' after all he did was lie there, even when I asked him to help!"
"I can see why you're upset, but you're the best at this sort of thing 'Liv." I tried
That was met with a humpf and, "help or gratitude would of still been nice."
We were silent a moment, the second I was gone everything, or more like, everyone exploded. I'd had about enough of people falling out recently, I sighed and put my hand to my face.
Axel broke the silence, "Why do you have his jacket?"
"Because unlike you lot, he was concerned about me!" I shoved Lukas's jacket back to him, he took it and I stormed off into the opening.
I barely took in my surroundings; stone walls, a few tables and chairs, plants and bushes, a couple of indoor fountains, it was a long room and I stomped down most of it with Reuben at my heels, before making a right turn and heading towards the music. I opened a door which seemed like the most obvious choice and went inside, I couldn't see anyone inside.
I sighed and looked down, Reuben oinked and nudged me with a trotter, I smiled and crouched down to give him a hug. "I'm okay, really. And I'll apologize, I promise."
"You don't need to apologize to anyone Jesse." I looked to see that Olivia was in the room and had shut the door behind her. "I should be the one to say sorry, I didn't mean to lose it. We were all a little stressed and needed to let it out I think."
"Heh, it's okay. All good now?"
"I think so, want me to help you look in here?"
"Sure, I'd like that."
The room was a sort of miss-mash of things. Paintings were on the walls, bookcases were scattered about, crafting tables and ovens were by the door, with plants growing to the left, there was something odd involving brewing stands at the far end by a set of iron doors and a couple of armour stands. The windows were purple stained glass and there was also a ladder at the far right, heading up to a second floor. What an odd room, I thought to myself, I noticed some records in frames on a wall and a jukebox between the plants and the brewing stands. Going over to see if they had anything useful to tell, Olivia spoke up,
"So, you and Lukas then... What's going on there?" She giggled at me. For all of Olivia's lack of confidence, she made up for it in mischievousness.
"What? Nothings going on. I was cold, he had a jacket." I shrugged her off, she was looking way too much into it.
"Mhm, if you say so." Olivia had moved to the other side of the room than me, noising at books while I played and listened the the records.
If these were indeed recorded by Soren then he was a strange fellow, one talked about pumpkin pie and another about Enderman love songs? The most important one though, told his findings on trying to get Endermen to work together to build things and considering we were in The End, home of Endermen, it made a lot of sense and along with what Olivia found in a chest, it only added to that. She had found a blueprint building plan, it was very simple; on your normal three by three crafting grid, you would place three cubes of clay to the most left in a line and then along the bottom to make an L shape, a sixth block was in the uppermost right. We both found it interesting but mostly insane, Soren would be in a lot of danger if he was seen by the Endermen, that was a big risk.
That was until we looked at what was on the armour stand; a black costume, it looked just like an Enderman with it's purple eyes. The stand next to it was empty which meant Soren had to be wearing it we figured. Soren was outside with the Endermen right now and we needed him.
I looked to the spare suit and around the room, seeing a few clay blocks and knowing what it was that I needed to do, even if Olivia didn't look so sure. So I put the Endermen suit on over my clothes and asked her how I looked.
"I don't think you want my honest opinion. But, how are you going to tell which one is Soren? Go up to each Enderman and ask, 'Hello, are you Soren?'"
"I'll be crafty." I said vaguely, giving her a cheesy smile. Olivia left to find the others after I, myself, left the safety of Soren's lab. Reuben made an attempt to come with me, but I told him to follow Olivia and that I would be okay, I couldn't have him getting hurt out there.
Nervous is a word I would use to describe how I was feeling, although it really doesn't cover to the exact extent of how absolutely terrified I was. One Enderman teleported right to me and stared at me, even though I was looking though little purple eye holes I still shut my eyes, more out of reflex than anything else. I guess he was okay with me, because he gave up and went back to standing about like Endermen do and I went back to trying to blend in.
I was one clay block short but hoped that my plan would still work, that was until I saw one Enderman holding a clay block. I had to risk stealing it from him, so I crept up slowly and stood near him, he seemed to have no problem with me, I grabbed the block and started to pull it away, again, he didn't seem to mind, but then when I took the block completely from him, he looked at his hands and started to freak out a bit, this caused other Endermen around him to do the same and I knew I had to work fast.
Soren had built a fake crafting table top, on a big scale, in the End Stone. Using my clay blocks, I build the shape I saw from the blueprint on the crafting table and prayed that he noticed my 'false' Enderman intelligence that I was showing.
By the time I had finished, the Endermen were creeping closer to me, making the strange roar/growl noise that they do, I was in trouble. Then from out of nowhere, I could of sworn I heard one say that 'it had to work' and that he was sorry, but my brain wasn't working fast enough and a fist connected with me. Blackness.
"I don't think it'll bruise... Your face I mean."
A voice? I blinked my hazy eyes to see Reuben's face all up close in mine, my head was a bit fuzzy and was I back inside? I don't remember coming back in, so add disorientated to that list. I was still wearing to Enderman suit, I pulled off the mask.
"Those suits were built with durability in mind." Came the voice again, a man's. Sitting up and having Reuben take to my lap, I took notice that the empty armour stand was now full. I blinked about again and my eyes finally came to rest on a man, the owner of the voice I guessed.
"You must be Soren!" He had ginger hair and beard to match, his eyes were dark, maybe super dark blue? He was sat across from me in a black long sleeve t-shirt with shoulder and forearm silver metal guards, light brown trousers and shoes, again with the silver guards on his shins and to finish a short light brown waist coat, that I was sure was just pockets sewn together.
"Well, I am, but must I be? Sometimes I don't know if I want to be." He paused, "Sometimes I'd prefer to be anything but Soren, Like a donkey for example." Okay... Huh? I wasn't conscious enough for more ramblings, I gave my face a rub to try and get my brain working.
"I need your help", that was a good first try I thought.
"I just did!" Soren exclaimed
"You hit me. Hard and in the face."
"You upset the Endermen and I got you to safety." Okay he had a point, things would of turned out a lot worse if he didn't step in. "By the way, as far an introductions are concerned, this is not going very well."
"We're in danger!" I tried again
"Oh, what else is new? Whatever your issue is, whatever your problem. It has occurred before and has been solved before." I very much doubted that. The overworld would of still been talking about a Wither Storm like this for generations to come. By this point he had risen from the floor and gone to look out the window, "even so, what do you need me for?"
"I need Soren the hero, we need you to save the world, please! There's a Wither Storm on the loose and I need your help."
"Ah I see, you misspoke. You don't need me, you need my stuff." He turned to me, not looking to happy. "I've found that when you give people what they want, they turn on you." He walked passed me, pacing the room a little.
"Soren... Had someone done that before? I'm sorry, I promise I would never do that." And I honestly wouldn't, what a horrible thing to do to a person. I was standing now and moved a little closer to him.
"... I prefer Endermen. They always do what you expect, almost to a fault."
"I'm sorry I tricked you Soren, really, but I needed your attention." I felt bad for ruining his Enderman experiment now, I fidgeted a little.
"Well, you have it now." Soren said, finally facing me.
I took a moment, trying to think of what to say next, "Gabriel asked me to reassemble the Order of the Stone."
"The Order of the Stone... They asked for me?" Why did he sound so surprised by this?
"Well, Gabriel is your friend" I tried, but he didn't sound so convinced.
"Hmm... I don't know. Does he ever talk about me?"
Well this was awkward, yes he did, but I'd only know Gabriel for moments before... "Uhh, sure!" I tried smiling at him.
"What kinds of things do they say?"
Think fast brain... "That... You were the best of them!"
"Well that's very nice to hear" Soren paused, "What about you? Are you my friend?"
"Of course! Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet either, I'm Jesse and this little guy is Reuben." Said pig gave an oink.
"That's the best thing I've heard in years!" He exclaimed throwing his arms about, "admittedly, it's not a very high bar..." Soren came over and placed a hand on my back, "Don't worry, I'm going to help you... Because that's what friends do. Before we leave I'm going to give my old friends a gift." Then he walked over to the purple windows before announcing, "the gift of song!" Um, what? I gave him a quizzical look and I had the feeling I would be giving him that a lot, Reuben followed my thoughts. The Endermen were all stood looking into the windows by this point, I didn't have much time to think about it though as Soren burst into song,
"Gary may seem scary but he's a swell guy, Sally dilly dallies, but give her credit, she tries. They might look the same to the untrained eyeeeee!"
"What's happening?"
"But that's a lie, and so I say..." Soren did get to finish his song and Lukas burst into the room, I was thankful for that and as I looked to him he wore the same expression I was. All I could do was laugh a little at this timing.
"Wait a second, is that... Are you?" I think confusion had the best of him. Everyone else came following on behind, Olivia had finally found them it seemed, just how big was this place?
"Soren!" Olivia said loudly. While they all stood about gawking at him, Lukas came to my side and tugged at my arm, moving me away from Soren and closer to him. I could only guess because he was unsure about Soren? Which meant he was trying to keep me safe? The thought of it made me blush a little, Petra introduced herself coughing, which brought me out of my thoughts thankfully.
"You look... Terrible" Soren said walking up to her and she really did. Petra was so pale now, to say she was sheet white wouldn't be far from the truth and her eyes had bags even though she'd only just had a nap. Her arm was covered up so I couldn't see the purple mark, but I bet it was a lot worse now. She suddenly hid her eyes, I was going to ask what was wrong until she whispered and pointed, Endermen, they were inside Soren's lab and more were teleporting in, we all shielded our eyes. They were not happy and one even opened it's mouth to roar at us, but they didn't attack.
"You've upset them!" Soren said, a little anger in his voice. "You've altered their behaviour." None of us argued with him, happy to leave the room.
Now here's something we didn't anticipate, more Endermen were in the rest of Soren's place.
"I wasn't expecting so many house guests." Soren said as he joined me in the main corridor, everyone else had followed my lead out of the Lab and hidden themselves behind whatever they could, "there's no way I have enough sea shell soaps for all of them." I don't think Soren saw the bigger picture right away...
"How are we going to get out of here?" Lukas asked, "we need a plan and not our usual 'we'll come up with a plan when we have to OH WAIT now we have to' kind of plan" Olivia told him to quiet it down in the form of shh's.
As I looked at him it hit me, tugging at his sleeve I pulled him a little closer, "Do you remember back with those columns, when we fell down and when we fell into the water? The Endermen didn't follow us." Lukas looked to the room and then followed my thought immediately.
"Naturally," came Soren, "Endermen hate water... Oh! If we could force the fountains to overflow somehow..." He had caught my minecart of thought as well it seemed. "Jesse, you still have the Enderman suit, with that on you'll be able to safely reach the fountain."
I looked at everyone nervously and with a sigh, put the mask back on. Axel gave me a good luck and Soren told me that they'd wait back, where it was safe he then told me to try not to die, he didn't really need to add that last bit.
Slowly making my way towards the fountain in the center of this part of the long room, I made sure to keep a close eye on where the closest Endermen were, which was close, and kept my head down so to avoid any eye contact, I knew that I didn't have to in this suit but I wasn't fully convinced. After I'd destroyed the sides of the first fountain and the water had chased away all of the Endermen to higher ground, I called my friends to join me before heading to the next. One Enderman teleported right in front of me, and for a moment I thought it seemed like he knew what I was up to, I stayed still and silent for a while until he moved on, then made quick work of the second.
My friends all ran past me back the way we came, the fake outside made of wool, but they'd all stopped in the doorway, keeping their heads low still, oh no. I made my way past them all only to find that the 'outside' was full of Endermen as well.
"They're everywhere, how are we supposed to get through this?" Lukas whispered from behind me, that was a good question. The exit, the trapdoors, were at the other end of the 'room' and there were a lot of Endermen between us and them.
"Everyone hold onto me, like in a line. I'll guide us through them!" It was the only plan that I had and I didn't think that anything else was going to come to me. So taking up the lead with; Lukas behind me, one hand holding onto my shoulder and eyes closed then Axel, Olivia, Soren and Petra at the back, with each of them was doing the same, I started to make my way forward slowly.
The Endermen noticed us straight away but only watched, they didn't seem angry by us being there, so long as no one made eye contact, I thought, we'd probably be safe, that was until we were nearly over one of the bridges that spanned a narrow stream of water, an Enderman teleported in front of me and I stepped back out of reflex. He brought his face down, staring right into my eyes. "This guys right in my face." I whispered back to everyone and shut my eyes in hopes that it might help and for what felt like the longest moment in my whole life, nothing happened. Risking a peak, I saw that he was moving his face away and standing back up straight but I was still holding my breath. Then he roared, which set off all the others. "Quick! Into the water!" I shouted and started to break the fence railing apart and everyone dived in. I had no idea what to do now but then Soren spoke up,
"Oh! When I constructed this place, I worried about how flammable my building material was. So I built a fire suppression system to prevent the whole thing from going up in flames!" He was moving through the stream and pointed towards the 'outside' fountain.
"Soo... There's more water?"
"Much more? If we could activated it could disperse all these Endermen while we swim to safety."
"Can we get to the controls from here?" That was the main problem, we couldn't risk not being in the water right now, or at least everyone but me. Soren told me that lever was at the top of the fountain, of course it was, no where simple and easy to reach. I climbed out of the stream and up the ladder to the top. The Endermen were still roaring away all around me but none of them had made a move to kill me, yet I thought quickly so not to jinx myself. Reaching the top I didn't hesitate to throw the lever, around the 'room' things clunked and thunked and the motions of which caused me to fall from the top of the fountain, luckily the floor was already covered in water, neck height, and it was rising fast. No one wasted any time and swam towards the now underwater trap doors. Endermen were too busy retreating to higher ground to pay any attention to us although they were still roaring. I took a deep breath when I reached the other side of the 'room' and dove down, following after my friends. Lukas was holding the trap door open while everyone swam through when he pointed behind me, Petra was struggling in her weakened condition, I spun around and swam towards her, grabbing and pulling her to me, I started to swim back. I only just made it in time before running out of air.
Going down four zillion flights of stairs is much easier then going up don't you know? We made our way back to that strange altar portal in no time and exited through it. The portal spat us back through into the loot room under the grinder. Lukas ran over to help Petra up while I was getting my own self to my feet and taking off the Enderman mask.
"We made it!" Everyone had the same happy yet slight astonished face on. We'd defied so many odds but our biggest was still ahead, the Wither Storm. Petra called out and pointed towards the main part of the loot room. Monsters. "Oh come on!" I cried in aspiration. We just couldn't catch a break.
I knocked back and killed a zombie then dove for cover as to skeletons took up aim at me with their bows, we didn't have enough weapons for this. I was stood behind the wall one side of the arch way and Soren was across by the other. "Not that this isn't a ton of fun" I called over to him, "but let's grab that Formidi-bomb and get out of here."
"One small problem. Tiny really, minuscule. I haven't actually built it yet" Soren explained to me as he was holding back and killing a zombie.
"That's a small problem!?" I yelled back.
"You seem like a person who appreciates cool stuff that's cool for no reason." Soren said to me not giving me time to cover from the 'haven't actually built it yet' dilemma.
"uhh, thanks?"
"Pull that lever." He called across, pointing to inside the arch. I could just about reach it without having to expose myself, so I pulled it. "Hold onto your socks, 'cause they're about to be blown off!" I hadn't noticed the T shaped iron stacks in the loot room until pumpkins came from the ceiling, landing on them and turning them into Iron Golems. "Go to work, boys." Soren said calmly. There were so many of them, big tall creatures made entirely from solid Iron. Monster started flying around, poofing into smoke all over the room. One Golem even caught a spider, threw it over his shoulder while another used a zombie like a bat and hit into it more monsters. We all stood about the arch way, so glad that they were on our side this time and that Soren had had the foresight to build these. They easily cleared the room for us.
"That was pretty cool." I said coming to stand by Soren.
"I wouldn't lie to you Jesse." He replied back, "oh no, wait a minuet, I would. I didn't lie to you, that's what I meant." And then he walked off, ordering the Golems on what to do next for him and leaving me with a puzzled look on my face. Lukas came behind me, patting me on the back and I turned to him with my confused face which just made him laugh and walk off. We all followed Soren to the main part of the loot room, where the water had sucked us up and brought us to before.
"Guy, do you hear that?" Axel asked.
"Hear what?" I replied.
"All that stuff whispering 'take me. Take me now.'" He answered back putting his arms in the air.
"I think it's saying... 'Olivia should get to take more than Axel'" Olivia said in a spooky voice. Had they not remembered last time Axel stole something?
"I know this is cool, but we just need the ingredients to make the Formidi-bomb." Axel and Olivia turned to me with Axel responding to me,
"The loot says you're wrong."
"I'll just fetch the super TNT," Soren interjected, "it's right up there." He continued, pointing to some chests on a ledge. I asked him how he was going to get up there as I couldn't see any steps or ladders. The response I received was; "Oh I have my ways." Followed by one Golem climbing on top another to form a makeshift ladder, which Soren quickly climbed up. He reached the top and called down to us, "Feel free to help yourselves. Just make sure to keep you're eyes open fr that gun powder we'll need to make the Formidi-bomb." Axel and Olivia dashed about the room at that, I guess if he said it was okay I wasn't going to stop them, but me personally, I wouldn't be joining them.
I set myself the task of finding the gun-powder and I found four pieces in the very first chest I looked in. Olivia was behind me rooting through another chest, "Have you found any gun-powder?" I asked walking over and sitting on a step beside her.
"None in here, hey what do you think? It would be really handy to have some glowstone dust BUT it would be really cool to have some spiders-eyes..."
"Take both? Soren did say we could help ourselves." I offered her, she grinned back at me and pocketed both. I noticed Axel, who was sitting between chests on a step looking glum. I pushed myself up and went to see why him, out of everyone, wasn't cramming his pockets. "Are you in paradise or what?"
"Honestly, I'm more in 'what' right now. All this power went straight to my head and then I got a head rush, and now I'm too overwhelmed to take anything." I tried my hardest not to smile at his silliness.
"Stay strong Axel."
"I'll try..."
Petra was sat a little away from everyone else not looking to great again, Lukas was stood with her. I knew telling everyone was the best idea, we could all support her now, even if she didn't like to be fussed over. Blue eyes caught my green ones as I was looking over, the person they belong to shook his head. I gave Axel a pat on the shoulder before going to see how bad things were. I sat next to Petra and put an arm around her,
"It's gotten really bad," Lukas started, "part of me is hoping that when we bomb the Wither Storm this sickness will just... Dissipate."
"That's exactly what I was thinking! You know what they say about great minds don't you?"
"Fingers cross, right?"
"Toes too!" Petra looked at me and chuckled a little. I gave her a reassuring squeeze as Reuben trotted over to me and sat himself down next to me with a huff. "Just because everyone else is grabbing stuff, doesn't mean you have to." I gave him a pat with my free hand then told him to stay with Petra while I looked for the rest of the gun-powder.
I tried a couple of chests, finding various items before then finding another four pieces of gun-powder, that now made eight in total, was that enough?
There was a button next to some minecart tracks, I pressed it guessing it would bring some forward and give us a way out. It did just that, the end of the loot room opened up with tracks leading off into a tunnel and four minecarts. Not enough for all of us, but we'd squeeze in. I went to Soren to see if I had enough gun-powder, I did.
"And this, is my super TNT." He said holding up what looked like a normal TNT, only it looked to shine and sparkle on the inside.
"Wait," Said Olivia, "but I thought the super TNT was the Formidi-bomb?"
"Of course not! They're completely different words, aren't they?" Soren answered a bit rudely causing Olivia to look embarrassed. I kept the conversation going to help her,
"Let's build us a Formidi-bomb then... How do we do that then?"
"The crafting recipe is quite simple really; Super TNT in the middle and gun-powder all around." I nodded to him to say I understood and made to grab the super TNT, "no, no, no, no, the ingredients are highly unstable, even putting them in close proximity to each other is a risk!" Soren explained backing away from me.
"Well, at least we have all of the ingredients. Progress!"
"And now that we have them... We... I literally don't remember." Soren said honestly.
"We go destroy that Wither Storm." I reminded him.
Suddenly an Enderman teleported into the room and we all turned away.
"Oh dear..." Soren started, "I was afraid of this, with The End underwater, the Endermen will try to escape. Of course! To the minecarts everyone!" And to them we did, "I've been waiting ages to say that, to people, I mean..."
Axel jumped in the back one and Olivia in the front of him, I helped Petra in to share Olivia's so that she was with someone. Reuben was trying his hardest to climb into the front one but he just wasn't big enough, I let my inner self squeal at how adorable his defeated face looked. "So you want this one then?" He oinked at me, I picked him up in my arms and noticed Lukas, "you in first." he blinked at me as if I'd just asked him to go and kick one of the Endermen. "in the minecart... I'll sit in front...?" Soren, hearing this, made himself at home in the second cart, "or you could stay with the Endermen." I could see him mentally shake himself and climb in. Axel took up a whole cart and no offence to Soren but he was a little odd, so that left us sharing. I squeezed myself in front of him with Reuben still in my arms, "see, I'm not that big, and Reuben's a tiny piglet."
"What? No... I didn't mean..." I laughed at his awkwardness as we started to move, the minecarts hit some power rails and we shot forward at speeds I'd never seen minecarts achieve. The force of which sent me slamming backwards into Lukas. I tired to pull myself forward but it just wasn't happening, I shouted over the minecart rattling on the tracks that I was sorry and hoped I wasn't crushing him. "I'm right here" said a voice right next to my ear, "it's okay, you're not heavy" I turned my face a little and his was right there, I turned mine back fast as I'm sure I was blushing, but why? Was it because I fell asleep in his jacket earlier? That had to be it I told myself, Reuben squeaked at me and I realised I was hugging, more like crushing him. Telling him I was sorry I remained hugging him tightly and thought that Petra and Olivia must be in the same situation. I would turn back to look but I was too embarrassed.
There was a light at the end of the tunnel finally, or well, it wasn't as dark as the tunnel is more correct. We hadn't been moving long but at how fast we were going it made me wonder where we were now, I wasn't in my thought long as in front of us was a Creeper on the tracks. Our minecart hit it full on causing it to poof and us to be sent flying before I had any time to prepare. The carts behind left the tunnel in exactly the same way. I held Reuben tight and tried to turn to the side to shield him, it worked but my left arm hit the ground hard, I knew it was going to be grazed enough to draw blood. Considering me and Lukas had merged into one being due to the speed of our journal, he flew out of the cart with me and we landed in a heap of tangled confusion together.
I didn't move, "Am I dead?..." I felt Reuben try and wiggle free, so I guess we weren't. Letting him go, I peaked an eye open only to find Lukas's face right next to mine. He was above me, which was to be expected considering he was behind me in the cart. His face was red as I'm sure mine was, neither of us moved for what felt like a long time until Ellegaard's voice made us snap out of it,
"There you are!"
"So glad you could make it" added a Magnus from somewhere as well.
Lukas got off me quickly and helped me up, we both um'd and er'd a bit until he noticed my arm, "your arm. It's bleeding..." He reached a hand out towards it but didn't quite touch it, I followed his hand with my eyes to my arm which was indeed, bleeding.
"I hit the ground trying to protect Reuben. He's not injured so I'm not bothered." I shrugged him off, it wasn't that bad, sure it stung a little but it would heal up fast enough. I thought I heard him say something along the lines of 'I should of gone first in the cart' but it was so quiet that I couldn't be sure. I was all of a sudden aware of the sheer amount of monsters running past us and that Ellegaard and Magnus were busy fighting them, giving myself a mental shake down, I drew my gold sword and ran to join them. "Thank goodness you're okay!" I was so glad that they were here and, from a quick look, they looked pretty good.
"This looks like 'okay' to you?" Magnus snapped back at me. The three of us stood back to back ready to take down monsters but none of them seemed all that interested in us. All running in the same direction and part of me felt like I should be too.
"I thought Ivor was coming to you?"
"Ivor? We haven't even seen him" Ellegaard told me. That was odd, where was he then? More importantly, what was he up to?
A Creeper came running at us and exploded, sending me backwards but otherwise unharmed. Lukas helped me up and asked to the group what was going on.
"You don't have to worry about the monster.s.." Soren answered, "they're running away. Worry about what they're running away from." He pointed to the sky and in it was a massive black shape, floating above everything with giant tentacles. How I hadn't noticed it before was beyond me, I must have been very distracted... The thought made me blush but I couldn't quite place why.
The Wither Storm had double doubled in size, maybe doubled again. You could see it's three heads scanning for more things to hoover up.
"I feel like that got bigger." Axel said absently.
"It did." Olivia replied plainly.
"Soren?" Questioned Ellegaard, finally noticing her old friend. They greeted each other but it didn't get much further as the Storm roared, it had spotted us. Soren stood on a slight platform. We were by what looked like a barn for horses.
"It's time to go, we only get one shot at this" He announced to us all. After everything we had gone through, after coming this far, through the Nether and The End, we were finally here, ready to take down the Storm. "Remember, once the Formidi-bomb is crafted, it'll explode in a matter of seconds. It means whoever is doing the crafting, will be in great danger." He paused to let that sink in, "I was hoping, perhaps, we could... Draw straws?" None of the Order stepped forward, they all came up with excuses, what was this? They were supposed to be heroes... And there was no way I was letting any of my friends do it.
"I'll do it." I said to Soren
"That's what I was hoping for." He replied back, stepping down and handing me the Super TNT, I pocketed it. "The rest of us will be distractions in it's path. Hopefully it will buy you some time."
"You should be ashamed of yourselves." Petra said to them. I knew it hurt her as well, not being able to help more. Magnus and Ellegaard hung there heads.
Ellegaard stepped towards me, "Jesse, take my armour. It'll help."
"Nah, you can take mine, it's gotten me out of a lot of jams" Magnus said, also stepping forward. After a thought, I picked Ellegaard's, it was designed to fit women after all.
"Jesse, you deserve this. What you're doing means we're all gonna DIE!" I don't think Ellegaard meant that last bit but she was startled by the Storm roaring again, louder, closer. I changed my Enderman suit for Ellegaard's amour and had a little moment to myself for the fact that I was wearing one of the Order's actual armours, this thing had seen battle and it was about to see more. We all grouped and ran towards the Storm.
"Jesse," Soren said as he ran next to me, "you're going to need to put down a crafting table out there and make that Formidi-bomb." I nodded to him, I knew what I was doing. "Everyone else, grab a buddy and split up! We need to keep that Wither Storm on track, so build, build, build!" As he, and everyone else, split from me, Soren shouted back the recipe. "Jesse, don't forget. Super TNT in the middle and gun-powder all around."
After they had split and started to build various things I wasn't paying mind to, I sprinted towards the Storm, I need to be right under it for maximum effect. Oddly, I wasn't scared as I ran towards the giant black shape with three heads and purple beams that sucked up the world, I dodged trees and bits of ground knowing what I had to do, no fear in me. This creature was going down, I didn't want my world destroyed so this thing had to go, it was as simple as that. One objective and nothing was going to stop me.
I set my crafting table down close and places the Super TNT in the middle, then found the powder, but before I could put down the final piece a purple beam found me and sucked me, the crafting table and the materials up.
"No, no, no, not yet!" I said as I began to float up towards it. A piece of gun-powder floated by me and I grabbed it, I wasn't going to give up. I 'swam' about in the beam, collecting everything, dodging a big tree coming right for me and as I dodged I saw a tentacle hit Magnus and Ellegaard, they both went flying, Ellegaard into a tree and I called out. No! I was wearing her armour, would she be okay? I held my breath and got back to 'swimming' towards the crafting table. I placed everything down and the whole thing, including the table, turned into a giant piece of TNT but with 'F' on that side. I held onto it and span about in the beam, pointing the Formidi-bomb at the head that had me in the beam, "EAT THIS!" I shouted as I pushed the bomb towards it, then I wasn't moving up any more, I looked back and saw my friends had hooked me with a fishing pole and were pulling me to safety. The bomb was right next to it's face when it exploded but the force still sent me flying backwards and then all I can remember is white.
There was ringing, definitely something ringing... Or was I underwater? Really far away? Or maybe all three. I tried to sit up but everything felt heavy, I opened my eyes to blurriness and all my friends gathered around me, they were talking but I couldn't hear them. Behind, I saw a black shape slam to the ground, followed by another. They all looked at it and then back to me, noticing that I was awake, Olivia and Lukas helped me sit up and said something to me again, I furrowed my eyebrows and shock my head at them.
"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" I heard myself say that, this was odd. The power of the blast must of temporarily deafened me. My eyes opened wide, the bomb, that's right, I made the Formidi-bomb and sent it towards the Wither Storm. I stumbled to stand and ran over to the bits of black littering the ground. My friends behind me,
"Jesse, are you okay?" I heard 'Liv say and I turned to her.
"I... Think so? I'm a bit dazed... Wait, I heard that! I can hear!" I gathered her into a hug that she return. There was still a ringing but I was sure that would go away over time as well.
"Is it over?" Axel asked as we looked at the carnage.
"I can't believe it's... actually dead." Olivia said, realising me so that Axel could have a hug.
"You did it Jesse, you actually did it!" Lukas was next in line for hugs.
"That sounded like you doubted me." I pulled away giving him a pretend sulky face and then we laughed.
"ahaha, handled like a champ!" Magnus stood the other side of Lukas, I gave him a hug as well, even if he was reluctant to give one back. I saw Petra standing by Axel who was keeping her upright, I gave her a hug,
"now the Storm is dead, your sickness will start to go away. I'm sure!" She agreed with me and returned the hug. I heard oinks and Reuben pushed through to me and I gathered him up, spinning him about and giving him the biggest hug I could give. "Thank you for saving my life guys." I said to everyone, "I thought I was... But I'm not!" They all gave me 'anytime's and 'of course's.
"Anyone seen Soren and Ellegaard?" Olivia asked and we all looked about and I put Reuben back on the ground. I spotted them by a tree, bits of fire scattered about from the Storm, Ellegaard was lying in Soren's arms... Oh no. I ran to them, knelling down beside her, everyone followed.
"You fought valiantly, my friend." Soren said softly to her.
"You and I both know, my fight.. Is over." Ellegaard was having trouble speaking, her words were laboured and her breathing already unsteady.
"Stuff and nonsense, stuff and nonsense." He said trying calm to her, "save your strength Ellegaard, we'll take care of this. We'll take care of you." She looked at him knowing there was nothing that could be done, and then to me,
"Jesse..."
"Ellegaard?"
"My armour... Really suit you... I want you to keep it, okay?"
I took up her hand in mine, "no Ellegaard, this armour belongs to you."
"You... Earned it... Jesse." What could I say back? I knew that she wasn't going to be all right but I just couldn't let my self completely believe that. Ellegaard turned to Soren,
"At least I... Finally got to be... A real hero... Right?" He couldn't reply to whatever that meant and just hung his head.
There were noises and groans behind us, I turned to see people, real live people, coming out from the remains of the Wither. Storm and I knew some of them! I didn't know how but they were still alive, it was a miracle.
"All those people, they're alive. The Wither Storm didn't kill them!"
"Jesse..." Ellegaard spoke to me softly, "those people. You have to help them... All of them."
"Of course I'll save them." I gave her hand a squeeze, "every last one of them."
Ellegaard never said anything else after that, her hand going lax in mine and her eyes closed, she had died. I lowered my head in respect for a moment and Magnus came to stand by me. No one said anything and I think, despite their differences, Magnus and Ellegaard did care for each other, I couldn't imagine how him and Soren were feeling right now, losing such a long time friend.
I took Magnus's hand with my free one and tugged gently to bring him down, then transferred Ellegaard's to his, I gave him a pat on the back and stood, not wanting to be in the way. They deserved some time to themselves.
"Come one Reuben, we've got a job to do." I turned to my friends and we all moved away. Shock and numbness were clear favourites among emotions being felt right now. "You guys, help these people. I'll head to the Storm and find anyone who might be trapped." They all looked at me, eye's glossy, no one really home, but each of them nodded and followed my order. I took a deep breath in and put everything to one corner of my mind, I'd mourn Ellegaard after I'd kept my promise to save everyone.
Bits of tentacle and debris were trapping many people around the Storm and Reuben helped me find lots of them. He was such a good friend, I definitely wouldn't of made it this far without him to keep my spirits up. I rounded a corner of Storm debris wall and...
"No, the Command Block? That's impossible!" There it was, just above me between what looked like the ribcage of the Storm. From this distance it looked intact, not a singe mark on it, "I don't understand. Soren said that the Formidi-bomb would destroy it, but it looks perfectly fine." It buzzed and burst into life, the colours shining in the middle, "Guys! Over hereee... No no no!" A force had grabbed me and was pulling me towards the block, there was nothing I could do as it started pulling me back, nothing to hold onto, Reuben had no hands and my friends who did were too far away to here me. "Someone help!" I shouted as loud as I could as my feet left the ground, what would happen if I came into contact with the Command Block? Luckily, I didn't have to find out as two hands grabbed mine and pulled me out, I gasped in shock at who's they were... "Gabriel? But I... You were... Dead?" I stammered getting to my feet.
"What... What happened here?"
"I'll explain everything, just not right now." I heard a roar that sounded a lot like the Storm and sure enough it started to come back to life. A head rose up behind the Command Block, the ribcage fixed itself and blocks started to reform it's body. The Wither Storm started to rise higher into the sky and then things got worse. How you might think? Well, the other two heads were no longer attached to the main body, they were their own Storms now, three separate Storms. Blocks started to form tentacles and roars could be heard as they continued to pick up pieces of the world around us. "C'mon, we've got to get out of here!" I shouted to Gabriel over the noise of the Storm and turned to run, but he didn't follow me. "Gabriel, let's go!"
He turned to me and then I saw it, his skin was no longer a chocolate colour, it was pale and his eyes were red, Wither sickness? Well I guess he was in the Storm for a very long time, then he said something that stopped me in my tracks,
"Who's Gabriel?"