CHAPTER 4- THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

Junior year of high school Brine was one of the most beautiful girls in school. Charlie's grades had gone back up and he had gotten a lot more friends since he entered high school and wasn't such a loner anymore. Barely anyone spoke of the Supercharged Creepers attack back when they were in eighth grade because it was old news.

Brine was getting tutored by her friend while they spent time together. For instance one day they'd mined into a cave and were fighting spiders and Charlie called out, "What's the square root of sixty four?"

Brine was focused on the fight but thought for a second, What times what is sixty four, umm oh, "Eight!" and Charlie said good job before finishing off his spider and a couple seconds later she killed hers. It was during the second week of school junior year that they were running around a cave lighting it up when Brine screamed. Charlie ran over to her and saw what she was looking at. A couple feet in front of her was a three block tall, lanky black creature that he recognized from the book and from monster class as an enderman.

"Whatever you do don't look at it or it will attack. Put on your diamond armor quick." At the tops of their inventories they kept a full set of diamond armor each with Charlie still having enchant boots and chestplate while Brine had the other two that they'd repaired at the anvil to full. Most fights weren't life threatening so they saved it from losing durability. "Okay Brine follow me, and whatever you do, don't look directly at it." He said. Charlie was always in charge whenever they went mining. Although he only had a little more experience than Brine he was always quick to switch into gear when a dangerous situation arose. Turning around to go back up the cave the enderman teleported in front of them. Brine tried not to look but it was right in front of her and it spun around. It's mouth unhinged and a screeching noise was heard along with static and the teens froze, it was the most horrible sound. Teleporting a block away it punched Brine with both hands and even with her armor it took down three hearts.

Charlie acted fast and hit the monster so that it would be focused on him. It turned and hit him taking out three and a half hearts. His new diamond helmet helped he realized after his last mine he found a whole lot of diamonds and made some more armor for them or if another enemy attacked the town. He'd remembered something he read about endermen as he hit it again and it teleported away. Getting out his water bucket he saw Brine holding her bow fully charged. Firing the arrow was right on its mark but right when it should have hit the monster it vanished and the arrow clanged harmlessly into the wall. "Where did it go?" Brine shouted spinning around. Charlie felt a sharp pain in his back as the monster hit him again but as it continued swinging it's skinny arms to land another blow, Charlie dropped some water on the floor and the monster screeched in pain as it teleported away again. Standing in the center of the water spread he waited for it to appear again. The enderman came back right next to Brine who had her sword back out but instead of attacking her, the tall dark mob ran past. It stood at the edge of the water and gave a bloodcurdling screech and static was heard from every direction making them hold their ears. Brine knew that Charlie had to stay in the water and her health had gradually came back until she was at full but the monster didn't stop screaming. Sneaking up behind it, it didn't even process that she was there it was so focused on Charlie. Oh fuck me, she jumped up in the air and critical hit the monster's head. Landing she swung again and again and again knocking the enderman back every time until it screamed one last time almost like a call for help it was so loud before crashing to the ground and releasing an little orb.

"Good job!" Charlie congratulated, picking back up the water source he placed. "Let's get out of here I didn't like the sound of that last yelp." Brine showed him the sphere and Charlie's eyes grew wide. "There is mention in Steve's book about those and it says that they're really important but as it continued to talk about them the next few pages were ripped out."

"That's weird," Brine started, "you'd think whoever ripped those pages out would have taken the diamond too."

"Strange indeed, now let's go," Charlie suggested and they headed out of the cave. He tried to think of what the importance of the enderpearl was but without those pages he was clueless and there was only one person he could ask about it.

Four months later, Brine and Charlie went to school but Charlie brought along the enderpearl with him. After school was over they went into their old tenth grade history teacher who really liked them, not because of them saving the town, but from their interest in his class. "Brine, Charles, to what do I owe this visit?"

"Mr. Dean," Brine started, they'd aleady planned out how they were going to approach the topic, "we'd like to know about the history of those tall black monsters, the umm endermen, I think," she put a confused look on her face to look sincere. Though she knew more than she was letting on Mr. Dean didn't need to know that.

"Hand it over," he stated. Both teenagers looked at each other with startled galnces and shrugged. "Don't play dumb with me, I know that you two spend all your time doing things, dangerous things. I want you to show me your enderpearl."

Charlie grinned, this was exactly why he liked Mr. Dean, he was sharp. "Can't get anything passed you can we?" Charlie asked rhetorically and pulled out the sphere dropping it in front of the teacher.

"Careful!" he shouted taking the sphere into his inventory. Getting it back in his hand and holding it in front of him he explained, "I assume you somehow killed an enderman to get this?" he looked at Charlie who tilted his head at Brine who was beaming with pride. "Very good dear, now the reason I said to be careful is because if a ball like this is thrown, the thrower will be teleported, like an enderman, to the spot it landed and the sphere will be gone forever," he handed back the sphere and Brine looked really excited but Charlie looked at him confused.

"Are you sure that that's its only use?" the boy asked and for the first time since they met him in the beginning of their sophomore year, the man stuttered.

"Y-yes, there's nothing else special about it." Mr. Dean said a little too quickly. How could they possibly know about it.

There's no way Steve had something about it being super important and then removed his own pages. Brine might think someone else took it but I think he thought they were too dangerous to be lucked upon by the wrong hands. Whatever it is, Mr. Dean isn't telling us everything. "Mr. Dean," Charlie said raising his voice making Brine look at him oddly, "What are endermen? Where did they come from?"

The teacher turned away from them and his lips quivered, "I d-don't know what you're talking about." Finally he sighed and looked back at the two teens in front of him. They'd saved his life and so many others, they could be trusted. "What I am about to tell you is the biggest, most well kept secret in the world that I don't believe a handful of people know about. Under threat of death, you still can never release this information, understood?" Charlie and Brine nodded smiling wide and leaning in close. "It was thirty years ago..."

Francis Dean walked into his monster studies class after the seminar had ended and walked up to his college professor. Throughout the class period he'd been bringing up questions about the endermen but Professer Walken wouldn't answer them and kept changing the subject to his annoyance. It wasn't the first time Francis had done it either and although the teacher was happy about his enthusiasm there was nothing he could say while in front of a class of that size. Seeing his student march down the steps of the lecture hall he resolved to answer the boy's questions once and for all.

"Before you say anything my boy, come with me," Dr. Walken had told him. Mr Dean was already twenty at the time and resented being called 'my boy' but let it slide. Going into the teacher's office he saw the professor close the blinds and lock the door behind him. Giving him the same speech he just gave the two teens he pressed a button on the wall behind him. A whole appeared on the floor and in it was a chest, in the chest was a book, a very old book. Blowing the dust off it Dr. Walken sighed, "This will never leave this room, but it will stay with you forever."

Opening the book the doctor started, "In the beginning there were two worlds, the world of humans, and the other world of fire know as the Nether." Francis seemed irritated, he knew all this already, he'd already had his Nether course in his freshmen year. "The two worlds lived in harmony until one day someone found something, and this something changed the world. It was back in the time of the ancients when the room was discovered. These men were making mineshafts deep underground to mine the gold deposits they believed to be hidden down there. They hit something," the professor flipped the page and turned the book so that Mr. Dean could see the pictures. "What looked like normal stone contained what we now call silverfish but this was the first time the men had ever seen them. Believing they were close to discovering something big they dug, they dug tunnels throughout the area where their mineshaft ended and kept digging on the hope to find some sort of riches when one of them broke through a wall into a room. In the room there were more silverfish but they were coming out of a spawner which the men quickly destroyed."

"What does this have to do with endermen?" Francis asked impatiently.

"Quiet boy I'm getting to it." Dr. Walken snapped. "As I was saying, the silverfish spawner wasn't the most impressive part of the room. No what was inside changed the face of the world." Francis's eyes opened wide wondering what one room could have held. "See at this time there were no such thing as endermen, at least they didn't exist in our dimension. Like the Nether portals of old, there was a portal in the room, only they didn't know that yet. In the center of a group of green and white blocks there was blackness. The blackness was covered in purple specks that flew out of the portal constantly and the men were amazed. They'd never come into contact with anything such as this before, in fact nobody had." He paused taking a sip of water. "You have to understand before I go further, the man who gave me this book told me that there were people who would kill if this information was known. I won't tell you who it was so don't ask but in his voice I heard truth and I've never told anybody about it, ever." Francis nodded obviously wanting the man to go on. "As you wish, the men heard sounds from inside the portal, scary sounds but back then diamonds were not a rarity. A person was expected to have stacks of diamonds and they were used as not only money but people used them for all sorts of things like armor, and even weapons. These men suited up in their finest armor. It is said that twenty went in and none came out. Nobody knows what happened to them but as soon as they were in, the others waiting in our world had to fight an onslaught of endermen. They appeared almost out of nowhere and never before had one been seen so the first thing they did was stare at them. I know that you know what happens when you look at one of them," Francis Dean nodded, "well not many survived. They smashed the little boxes that were somehow keeping the portal open trapping the others inside but hoping that it would stop the monsters from coming in. The portal however, was not their only way and once introduced to our world, they were able to teleport in. That is where endermen come from." He shut the book and pushed the button quickly placing it back in his hidden chest.

"Wait professor, what happened to the men, did they ever make it out?" Francis asked, the book looked like it lasted much longer than where they read up to.

"The rest is a bunch of myths that were probably handed down long before the book was written and can't be taken with a grain of sand." he said preparing to tell his student the finale to the story. "It is said that Steve, the original Minecraftian, and his arch enemy teamed up to enter the portal to somehow stop the flow of these creatures that kept killing them as they were immortals and wouldn't stay dead for long. This we know now as foolish as such people couldn't've existed. They spent months putting thousands of combinations of materials in crafting benches until they finally found the missing piece that re-completed the portal. Supposedly the two entered the portal and reappeared five hours later with their inventories gone, having placed down beds that somehow revived them to the spot they retold what they had seen. The tale of their story included thousands of endermen, a mystical world that was the size of an island not even a quarter the size of our own, and a dragon. A big black dragon with purple eyes, they fought it for the entire time they were there. They said that there was no way out and once they entered the portal there was no sign of the portal they'd exited from, it was like they just appeared out of thin air. The dragon never stopped attacking them and they fought hard but there was no way to kill it, they didn't have the power. They'd checked their watches during the fight and the dragon was taken only below three quarters health no lower throughout the entire battle because there were towers they had to climb to destroy the contraptions that were healing the dragon, it's all a bunch of fairytales. The men were nowhere to be seen when the two entered the world and although his nemesis disappeared after the fight, Steve stayed preparing the men who had called him there in the first place for a fight to avenge their friends.

"Come on what happened? Did they go back in and kill the dragon?" Francis asked on the edge of his seat obviously not taking it with a grain of sand but as if it were all fact.

The professor sighed and answered, "This was the time around when Steve no longer became a piece of peoples' histories but instead as a figure that only appeared once every century or so. Something happened when they went back in, during the fight they managed to kill the dragon and experience fell from its body giving the three remaining men, including Steve, forty levels, each. It was on the way out of the portal that an incident occured. As the men retold the story of what happened in The End, the name they gave the world, Steve looked into the distance depressed and angry. One of the men is said to have started retelling the trip back to their world when Steve shoved his sword through the man. Panicing most people scattered but the other man who had made it out was chased by Steve and mercilessly slaughtered in front of the man's wife and son." Francis gasped, Steve was always the pinnacle of perfection, a symbol of the ideal person. "Nobody knows what happened on the way out of the portal but centuries went by before anyone went near the portal again. Apparently a new civilization was in power over the portal and knew almost nothing about what had happened in there hundreds of years before but Steve was waiting down there. It was his home that he stayed from then until that point. The people there were rich and liked unique things and had heard that a different type of block resided in there. Running past Steve they jumped into the portal and since endermen never stopped entering our world, they knew not to look at them. It wasn't the endermen that shocked them though it was the dragon that had been reborn. Steve wasn't prepared but the portal that he'd opened out of the world was still open. There was an egg sitting on the exit portal and he remembered trying to hit it the last time they were there and it disappeared. Bringing the people back into the portal it is written in the book that they instantly ran away from Steve who hunted every single one of the rich people down and killed them for their knowledge of whatever they saw on the way out that they were too afraid to tell people about when leaving the End."

Mr. Dean stopped talking and his former students were looking at him in awe. Charlie's mouth was open and he was having trouble determining which parts of the story to believe and which not to. It all seemed so fantastical but there was no denying that some of it could be and probably was true. Brine was the first one to speak up, "What ever happened to your teacher? Mr. Walken?"

The man's face became dark and he looked at his students, "What I said about this not leaving this room you must follow. I don't know how but my professor never came to school again after that day. I searched his office that looked like it had been ransacked but luckily nobody had found the book."

"You still have it!?" Charlie asked excitedly.

The teacher shook his head. "I believe my teacher was killed, assassinated by whoever it was that he was trying to hide his knowledge of The End from. I read the book cover to cover over and over again until I had it memorized and then I buried it. Buried it in the deepest hole I could dig and then placed a sapling over the spot so that hopefully I'd be able to find it again although who knows how many people could have cut the tree down. It's probably lost forever." the two kids moaned and he stopped them, "Good riddance, that book probably cost the lives of many others before my teacher."

Charlie thought for a minute and the room was silent, "Mr. Dean, what were the things they used to enter the End with."

"An enderpearl and a piece of blaze powder are put together in a crafting table, and out comes an eye of ender." He tried remembering the specifics from the book, "If I'm right, by throwing one up in the air it will arc in the direction of the portal that you can pick up and throw again, if you can find it. These things are attracted to the place where they can become one with the blocks that open the portal. After Steve went in with the greedy rich people, he is said to have taken out all the ender eyes that he put in and burned them in lava pools before closing the room for good and disappearing." Charlie looked at Brine who smiled back at him and their high school monster teacher stepped back falling onto his chair. "You can't possible be thinking..."

Brine grinned, "Thanks Mr. Dean, you were a big help."

"Yeah massive, this will really help us with our schoolwork." Charlie and his friend cracked up running out of the room.

"Wait kids!" Francis shouted after them and they spun around bouncing up and down ready to sprint away at any time. "The two most powerful beings in history couldn't handle what I'm sure you're both going to try and do. What makes you think you'll stand a chance?"

Charlie pulled out his diamond sword and turned it to Mr. Dean so he could read what was engraved in the material. "Yuri asked me the same thing when he thought he could beat me when we fought for the town. I tell you now that it's because I think I can do it, that I will do it." he looked at Brine, "We will do it!" he yelled and they charged down the hallway knowing for once in their lives what they wanted to do. Mr. Dean smiled off at his students who were running down the hallway such free spirits, he thought and turned around going back to his desk and sitting fown happy that after three decades he was finally able to get the weight of being the only one who knew off his chest.

Brine spent the rest of junior year trying to convince her parents to let her go on an adventure. Mr. Flynn was set on his daughter doing what she wanted to do. His other daughter, Alice, went to college unlike most women who found a suitable husband. She even went to Grend National University on the mainland. His wife however, was very concerned about her daughter not finishing high school and going to college, and not finding a husband right away, the only two options in her opinion. Traveling the world with her best friend was not a profession she'd said, but Brine held firm. She wanted to leave on good terms with her parents so before she was eighteen she wanted them to allow her to make the decision since she was going to make it anyway once she was legally an adult. Her mother agreed on the condition that she finish eleventh grade.

The two never told anyone about what Francis had told them but the news did spread fast that the town's heroes were about to leave on an adventure. Many believed the two were going out secretly but they never were even if they did have strong feelings for each other. Final preparations were made for their departure as they created an enderchest that they believed was worth the use of one of the five endereyes that they were able to create with the blaze powders from the chest as it almost doubled the size of their inventories. Refraining from creating a nether portal to save it for another time, they did make diamond pickaxes and mine obsidian. Using it they were able to make the enderchest, but also an enchanting table they used on their swords and armor that weren't enchanted and Charlie also enchanted a bow to level thirty with the bookshelves they made. In each of their enderchest they had extra enchanted diamond armor, swords, and bows, along with a stack of diamonds each. They had the ingredients for the potions that they knew they would have to make one day and many other diamond tools. When the chest was full it was broken and picked up by Brine who put it in the same top right spot that Charlie kept his mother's grave dirt. The way it worked was that when it was placed down both of them could access their own personal chest that no one else had access to so even if they left it unlocked in the open, whoever opened it would find it empty and could put their own belongings in it too. That way even with only one chest they were still both able to double their inventory space.

Charlie, on the day before graduation, brought Dennis and the other policemen down his mine. This was the first time that anyone besides Brine, (and her father who had asked to come down and see what they were doing) ever saw the place. "Kid, this place could fit the entire population of Freightport if we ever needed to escape underground!" Dennis shouted echoing off all the walls. He handed the man a book that had detailed directions of which tunnels had been mined, which had caves at the end, where the spawners were to get unlimited supplies of not only skeleton droppings, but also spider and zombie spawners were also found over the years. Finally he broke all the signs to the chests in his basement along with his deep basement and told the cops that it was for everyones use now and they could decide how to distribute it. As Charlie walked away the men looked around the room they'd been brought to which was covered wall to wall in chests full of everything, coal, iron, redstone, and hundreds of full double chests of cobblestone.

Knowing that the two would not be there for senior year they were allowed to graduate with the class a year older than them. The Flynns were all in attendance, even Alice who had come back from college a month earlier as her school year ended earlier.

Two days after graduation the pair left their homes at six in the morning getting up early to use the day to the best they could. On their hotbars, which were identical, from right to left was a stack of torches, a full stack of bread, a compass, an iron shovel, an iron axe, an enchanted diamond pickaxe, a enchanted bow-Charlie's newer one, and Brine's one from the chest which had lost some of its durability, both had enchant diamond swords with Charlie's proudly brandishing the name Yuri, and in the first spot was a blank map that they had enlarged six times to make sure that it would last a long time. In the inventories were doubles of most of their items, they were wearing full diamond armor but had another full set in their inventories. They didn't have doubles of the compasses or the bows but above the compass and the blank map were more blank maps to continue their progress on so they would always be able to find their way home no matter how far they went and how many maps they filled up. Above the bow for Charlie were three stacks of arrows as he had good enchants, Power III Flame I, but not Infinity, while Brine only had one arrow and a couple iron picks so she wouldn't have to waste her diamond one all the time. Both had a full stack of iron blocks that they could turn back into ingots at any time but was better for transporting and a full stack of obsidian.

While they walked from their front doors and met each other in the street they smiled at each other. Looks of anticipation, excitement, and nervousness was written all over their faces. "You ready?" Charlie asked his long time friend.

"Of course I am, are you?" she asked. He nodded and they turned for the front gate. They walked as slow as possible taking in as much of the town that was beginning to look more like a city every day. They'd grown up in Freightport, it was all they knew. "I wonder if we'll recognize it when we return." Brine commented as they passed another house that was working on construction of a third floor, probably from their own material that was given out by the police to pretty much everybody in town. Even the coal was distributed which was great for everyone except for Mr. Tums who instantly changed his coal business to iron business and promised higher wages and a safer work environment.

As they walked, Charlie took a quick glance behind him and turned back forward snapping his head fast. The nervous boy appeared again as he stuttered when he spoke, "B-b-b-Brine d-don't look behind us." Obviously the first thing she did was turn around and not ten blocks behind them were Brine's entire family. Behind them was the police force followed by the entire high school student body and faculty followed by every single soul in Freightport.

She spun back around and looked to the side as they passed a house and the door opened and a family of four piled out to join the massive crowd. They were wearing full diamond armor and had swords in their hands and quickly switched to the blank maps. They reached the front gates and Dennis was waiting for them and saluted before hitting the lever opening the gates to the town. The two walked outside the town and a thousand people came out behind them: the elderly, the young, everyone had taken off from work to come see the heroes depart. Brine looked around again and didn't know what to say they were all looking at them expectantly, do they want a speech or something. She tapped her map and it showed a small circle around where she must be standing and Charlie did the same thing.

Oh god if this goes backwards into the town it's going to be really embarrassing. Charlie took out the enderpearls, replacing his bow as he didn't see a need for it at the moment. Before he was able to throw it Brine shouted out, "Thank you all for coming to see us off," he looked at her as the whole crowd was silent. "You have all been nothing but supportive of us for years and we love you for it. Don't worry, one day we'll return. I promise!" Her voice was as loud as it could be because she had to make sure everyone heard her and for a second after she stopped talking everyone was still silent. Then, all at once, the entire population started cheering and clapping. Charlie took it as his cue and threw the enderpearl up in the air; it flew straight to the right and he let out a sigh of relief that it didn't go backwards into the city. "Goodbye everyone!" Charlie yelled as he ran following the enderpearl to the right.

All except for one person in the crowd was confused about what the boy was doing or what he threw up in the air but it didn't matter and they all called out goodbyes back, hoping that somehow their's was heard over everbody elses. Brine sprinted after Charlie, he'd reached a dirt mound but instead of climbing over it or going around he barely slowed down and had his shovel out digging straight through the hill. Brine came up next to him and made the tunnel two wide and because of the diamond shovels they got through the hill like speed demons. The citizens watched in awe as they disappeared into the distance seeing the sphere like object get thrown up into the air again.

My daughter is all grown up, Mr. Flynn thought staring into the distance. I hope she's alright out there. Charlie you better protect my little girl.

Charlie picked up the enderpearl and threw it back into the air chasing after it. He glanced behind him and couldn't even see the wall in the distance anymore, his childhood home was gone. Brine occassionally picked up the eye and threw it up into the sky and after a couple minutes they lost it having to search in between a group of trees for five minutes before finding it again. They had no idea where the portal was going to be but they didn't have the luxury to lose a single eye, especially not this early in their adventure. The pearl was heading west telling from their compasses and that led straight to Drakeport and if it wasn't there, then they would have to go to Grend. They reached the outskirts of Drakeport and decided that the chances it was in the town were slim so they should just keep heading west over the bridge before throwing another eye of ender. Approaching the city they saw a farmer outside of the walls who was harvesting some potatoes and they waved to him but he dropped his potatoes and ran screaming.

"Crap, Charlie, these people aren't used to us wearing glowing diamonds, remember it's like highly illegal," she said quickly putting her diamond sword away and pulling her stack of bread eating two and then leaving it out to make her seem friendly.

Charlie took his bread out too and said, "Maybe we should just make some boats and cross the sea that way. It's not even that far we could probably swim, I mean they built a bridge between the two lands so it couldn't be that far." As the contemplated walking away they saw ten men in partial iron armor with iron and stone swords running out of the gates. "Looks like we have a welcoming party," he whispered then he started shouting as they neared the group of men and women who looked like they were about to pee themselves, "We're not here to hurt you. We are friendly visitors who just happen to want to cross into Grend using the bridge."

The leader, police chief Rolldale tried to keep his cool as he spoke but it cracked a couple times, "I don't think we believe you. Queen's Bridge is a very important place and we can't let, excuse me when I say it, criminals, cross it without trying to stop them."

Brine acted quickly, "Okay you win, we won't use your bridge." She started walking away and Charlie turned his back to the group as well who were befuddled that these people who they thought were going to try to kill them were just walking away.

One of the women called out, "Wait where are you going?"

"To make some boats," Brine called back without turning around. "I would've loved to buy one from the boat store here, I heard it has the finest boats on Lewis Island." Now some of the militia were feeling a little less threatened and some even lowered their swords.

The police chief thought for a second, guys with that much diamond must be loaded, it'll be great for the whole city. "Wait, sorry about misjudging you two please come back." he shouted and Charlie looked at Brine amazed she was able to get them access. I'll just have to explain this to the King and maybe he'll understand, the man gulped.

They went into town and bought some stuff: a couple loaves of bread each to refill their stack to the top, a pass that would give them access across the bridge- it had to be checked off by the gate guards on the island side of the bridge, and the guards in Grend who were said to be ruthless thugs who excersized their power excessively- and everytime they saw a guard pass by them he would smile having been notified by the King that their guests weren't to be hurt probably thinking they were some of the people he'd given special allowances to.

Eating soup at a restaurant in the city keeping up to their promise that they were going to buy stuff to help the town's economy they talked about the bridge. They assumed the chief was going to tell the bridge guards they were coming but then they'd be on their own and the other guards might try to engage them if they cross while in diamond armor. One thing in particular as they finally headed for the bridge after lunchtime caught Charlie's eye and he went and bought a whole stack of pumpkins from a street vendor who was grinning madly as Charlie threw a wad of cash at her. "Charlie what are you doing?" Brine asked, "That was a quarter of our money you just used on pumpkins. Why would you do that?"

"Because I want the guards to be so afraid that they don't even try to fight us," Charlie replied and Brine just looked at him like he was an idiot. As they got to the bridge the gate guards were quick to let them through opening the gates and bowing like they were VIP's. I am not taking this diamond armor off for anybody. The world is a scary place and I won't be caught off guard.

"Wow when I said we could swim the distance I must have been on drugs," Brine commented. Instead of sprinting they were walking the bridge and already a couple minecart trains had passed them by, probably filled with chests of coal and furnaces to keep the carts going to wherever the coal was being shipped. This is much bigger than I thought it would be. Charlie wouldn't have even been able to build it this far in a day, let alone all the engineering that went into it. Althought there was no need for them, there were huge pillars all around the bridge supposedly keeping it up although they knew that it would have held up fine without them. The bridge was twenty blocks wide and they'd only passed one couple walking the other direction towards Lewis Island.

In the distance they finally saw the other guard house and stayed back where they were. Charlie put his stack of iron blocks in his hand and made five letter T's out of them with four blocks each. Brine was about to ask him what he was doing when he tossed her a pumpkin and said, "Put it on," holding himself back from laughter. She decided to humor him and removed her helmet putting on the pumpking over her head. She could see through the eye holes but it seemed like a bad idea, I lose my periferal vision with this and I'll be less effective in combat, let alone not having head protection. She looked at Charlie who had his pumpkin head on and heard him mumble, "Those poor, poor gate guards." She couldn't take it anymore and was about to shout at him and ask what he was planning on doing when he put the pumpkins down, one on top of each letter T and she screamed. In front of her were five giant monsters that were made of the iron but had somehow animated themselves into life by some sort of magic.

"Geramo, Geramo did you hear that?" Fillipo the gate guard asked his buddy who was standing next to him. Unlike the other side of the bridge where the entrance is in a city, there was no town in the area near the gate house and they were all alone out there. It was a long commute to work but the pay was good and the company wasn't bad.

"Yeah, that lady we messed with who was with her hubbie before probably saw a ghost or something, don't worry about it." Geramo repied not looking away from the television.

Kurama jumped in, "No I heard it too that definitely was not the same woman."

"What the Hell?!" Fillipo screamed as charging towards them were two, what looked like people except their faces were orange with black eyes and had crooked smiles. They were in full glowing diamond armor compared to the gate guards' iron but what was worse was the five golems that were also barrelling down the bridge towards them.

Charlie and Brine were letting out a war cry as they sprinted down the bridge, shouting out, "We are the mighty pumpkins hear us Roarrrr!" They roared and the golems behind them roared too but much more menacingly.

"I didn't sign up for this," Kurama said dropping a minecart on the tracks and pushing it before jumping on as it hit a powered track sending her flying away. Fillipo and Geramo were right behind her bugging out. Charlie and Brine cheered breaking through the gate only big enough for them to get through leaving their golems behind.

Charlie went back and opened the gate a little wider so they could get off the bridge but then in a very stern voice said, "Go, run away." They looked almost sad as they were being released but Charlie knew they would draw too much attention if they stayed with them and if he left them here they would be killed when the guards came back with reinforcements. He and Brine put back on their helmets and she tossed him back the pumpkin to put with the rest of the stack. The iron golems she swore started whimpering but when Charlie made a really serious face to show them they couldn't come with them they scattered into the forest around the minecarts.

"Wow Charlie, that was a good plan, Charlie what are you..." Brine asked as Charlie turned away.

"It's nothing," he said trying to sound as serious as he just did but he'd gotten attached to his monster children he created and was holding back tears. "Let's keep going," he said throwing up the eye of ender and running off into the woods. They ran for the whole night and reached the top of the nearest mountain where the sun was setting and they decided to set up a house as it would be too hard to find the eye during the night. From the top of the mountain they couldn't help but feel a tinge of doubt, they didn't know where they were going or what they would do when they got there but from that mountain they could see the edge of Lewis island across the sea and with one last glance, walked over the summit and set up a house on the other side of the mountain losing sight of their homeland for good.

A/N Finally I finish Part 1. I'm sure you're wondering what happens next. At least I hope you are but you'll have to be in suspense for a while longer as it'll take me some time to get more chapters written down before I upload. As always review if you can and I hope you enjoyed!

- Aeyrn Levia: Thank you for your reviews and your support for my story. Knowing that someone enjoys my story makes it worth it to continue writing and making a second part.