Chapter 8: Fallen Falls
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Minecraft, all rights go to Mojang.
I was back in my dream world. I was sitting on a hill, looking up at the glorious sky. I was alone. It was peaceful. Before I could react thunder struck in front of me and the leader appeared from the place the bolt struck. This time he didn't wear a distinctive cloak; he only wore a red cape with flames burning at the end. I stood up and looked at him straight in his eyes, if he had any. The sun was too bright and my sight went blurry, meaning I could not see his face.
"What do you want now?!" I asked him furiously. The man did not reply. By then my vision went blank and I became blind. "Answer me!" I yelled. There was still no response. I sighed and lied on the floor. Instead of feeling the light grass, I felt a cold and uncomfortable material. It was smooth and slippery. "What is this? Iron?!" I shouted. The leader did not speak. I don't think he had even moved a muscle. "Whatever, be that way."
Suddenly a firm hand grabbed my chest, and immediately pulled me up. He whispered something I could not hear, and my vision returned. I was in a room where everything was made of gold. I checked to see who was holding me up, and I was surprised to see that it wasn't the leader. It was another man. He did not talk either, but he was definitely able to move. He wore a dark cloak like the leader usually wears, but this man was not him. In fact, he shouldn't even be called a man. He had no flesh, so all I could see was his skeletal remains. Even though he has no eyes, I couldn't help but feel a slight discomfort as if he was staring at me. The skeleton finally dropped me and I awoke from my strange dream.
These dreams must all mean something, but they were getting more confusing. It's as if a spirit or a ghost is telling me something, but it cannot say it directly. I looked at a clock that hanged above my bed and it was only 1:00am, meaning I only slept for an hour. I sighed and tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. I got out of bed and grabbed a sword and a few apples. I headed out of the the bomb shelter and left Cubonia entirely. I quietly walked to my horse Red, who looked lonely and parched. I sat next to her and offered her a juicy apple. I rubbed her head gently as she ate the delicious fruit. Draydic's horse also came to me, and I gave him an apple as well. I felt happy where I was and slept next to the horses.
I woke up to see a blast of sunlight shining on my eyes. I used my arm to cover the light, only to realise that I slept in the dangerous plains all night. I quickly returned to the bomb shelter unnoticed, forgetting the apples that are left with Red. When I went down to the sleeping quarters I was met with an angry father.
"Where were you?!" He shouted. "I woke up today, only to realise that my son was missing! Again!"
"I'm sorry dad, it's just that...It's nothing," I replied.
"Don't try to hide secrets with me anymore! Why can't you just speak the truth and stop being mysterious all the time?!"
"Alright then!" We went downstairs and sat on a dirty couch, and I told my father everything about my dreams. He was left with a surprised face when I was done.
"Cedric," My father gasped. "Why were you holding this away from us?"
"I didn't know if these were nightmares, visions or a very coincidental incident! I wanted to tell you, but all the traitor nonsense the other day blanked my mind out."
"I can understand that, but Cedric, I think this is a serious condition. I'll tell you about it once you return from your mission."
"Why can't you tell me now?"
"I'm not certain it is what I think it is, and it is pretty conplicated to explain."
I nodded my head and left my father to meet up with Stanley and Sylver, who were already having breakfast. I joined them. I was surprised that they were unaware of my current situation, as if my father yelling wasn't enough to at least make them attentive. I chatted Sylver and (rarely) Stanley explaining to them that we have to go as soon as we finish eating, and get ready immediately. Stan kept his mood to himself and didn't seem at all angry. Yet. They agreed and did as they were told.
An hour later we were done and were in the negotiating room with William. He told us to get supplies from the armory. I kept the armour I wore yesterday, so Stanley and Sylver went by themselves to the armory. Stanley returned with an iron helmet and two iron swords, while Sylver returned with full iron armour and a bow enchanted with Power II. We brought our only Potion of Healing with us in case of injuries.
The time was set, and we were ready to adventure off to Golden Falls. We said our goodbyes to our town and we left the ruined city. Once we crossed the walls I led my companions to the horses. When we reached them they were peacefully munching on the apples I forgot to bring. I patted Red and mounted on her. I commanded Stanley and Sylver to ride the Draydic's horse. Sylver was the rider of the horse, since Stanley had no experience with riding a horse. In fact he was frightened of being with the majestic stallion, but after a while Sylver was able to help him overcome his phobia. However, Stanley still looked worried, but it was aside our problems. I checked my enchanted map to see where we were going, and was happy to see that we were not far. We were finally ready and we headed off to Golden Falls.
As we travelled we saw the small town from a cliff, but it was definitely not what we expected. Wd believed that there are Minecraftians there, but we were wrong. There were zombies and skeletons gathering supplies for some sort of weapon or building. All the old buildings were completely demolished, leaving what seemed to be nether towers. Archers guarded the areas heavily.
"I can't believe..." I gasped.
"Great, well this was pointless!" Sylver remarked. She turned the horse around, much to Stanley's discomfort.
"Stop! We still have to search!"
"And why is that, hero?" I don't know why, but the word hero irritated me heavily.
"We're scouts for a reason."
"Whatever you say." Sylver rolled her eyes and jumped of the horse. Stanley did the same and quickly moved away as the stallion raised its front hooves. We tied our horses to a nearby tree and began to climb down the rocky cliff. I have never actually rock climbed before, and by the looks of my companion's faces, they haven't either. Nevertheless we continued to sink until our feet touched the soft grass. Golden Falls was right in front of our eyes. The pathway that led to the inside of the ruins was guarded by a dozen of armour-wearing zombies, each holding a clean polished iron sword.
"What do we do?" Stanley whispered to us.
"We can go two ways about this," I answered. "One way is that we take them all one by one. The other is that one of us distracts them while the other sneaks in quietly."
"I dunno about the first plan," Sylver commented. "It would be pretty obvious that reinforcements would come. I'm going with the second one."
"Okay then," Stanley added unenthusiastically.
"Great!" I rubbed my hands together. "Who wants to be zombie bait?" We all looked at each other, hoping one of us will accept.
Sylver finally accepted her fate and went to the guards while we hid in the tall grass. She shot a bow and accurately pierced the mouth of a zombie. The other eleven stared at her with fire burning in their eyes. They growled and sliced their swords at her. Sylver walked a few metres off so that there was enough space for us to sneak through. One zombie lunged a sword at Sylver but she sidestepped and used an arrow as a shiv to penetrate its head. She used the dead zombie's helmet as a shield from another incoming sword. It deflected and the blade cut the zombie's face. Sylver stole the guard's sword and decapitated it. Finally she saw Stanley and I watching her in awe, and she mouthed us to get in. We quickly entered the gates of Golden Falls, leaving Sylver behind with the zombie guards. She was even able to attract nearby archers which helped us enter the city unnoticed.
A long stone bridge connected the entrance to the structure portion of the city. The bridge was a pathway over a large river. I followed the stream and it came from a tall waterfall, almost 100 metres high. Despite the place being called Golden Falls, the water didn't look so golden. It was filled with litter and bones and has a slight tint of purple mixed in, suggesting that blood has entered the stream. It sickens me how the monsters may have killed the Minecraftians and dumped them in the river. Stanley was much more horrified than me, as he was cringing in almost every thing he saw.
We entered houses one by one, but none of them seem to show signs of humans inhabiting it. The archers were easy to bypass since they were fixated into looking at one direction, so all we had to do was sneak up behind and kill them. Finally, the only place we needed to check were the nether towers.
"What do we do now?" Stanley asked me.
"Check the towers. See what's inside. We can easily infiltrate one tower and travel each one via sky bridges connecting them," I said.
Stanley nodded but I could see worry in his eyes. i could tell he has had it rough for the past few months. I tried to pat him on the back encouragingly but he quickly pushed my hand off. He glared at me menacingly.
I'm trying to reconcile with him but it just won't work. I rolled my eyes and we sneaked to the nearest tower. A guard was standing next to the door, so I threw a brick randomly so that the guard will leave his post. It worked perfectly and Stanley and I went inside before the guard returned.
Inside was what I grimly expected: a tall flight of spiral stairs. There were no torches or windows, so it was as if I was looking at a void. We had no choice but to travel upwards. It took ten minutes, but we made. We panted heavily at the top floor. Once I regained my breath and checked my surroundings, and believe me it was dreadful.
The floor was circular in shape. In its circumference were what looked like jail cells, except for the one opening where we were standing. Inside the cells were Minecraftians. They were extremely pale, their hairs were long and messy (some didn't even have hair), they were lanky to the point that you could faintly see their bone structure, they were what looked like leather tunics and their eyes were filled with grief. To make matters worse there were plenty of guards: a mix of skeletons and zombies. Each of them had either a surprised look or an evil grin. They had their weapons aimed at us before I could even scream "RUN!"
But Stanley figured out what I was going to say. We both turned around and swiftly went down the spiral staircase. We dodged arrows and random swords thrown to us. The zombies were slow since they were, you know, zombies. We were about three-quarters away from the floor when we saw about twenty mobs waiting for us. The skeletons already begun shooting us. Luckily our armour deflected them.
"I have a plan!" I told Stanley.
"Spit it out!" He shouted angrily.
"Okay. Follow me!"
I jumped off the staircase and landed on the grouped mobs. I landed badly on a zombie, but I was fast enough to take out my sword and swipe it. My sword kept deflecting on the mobs' armour so I practically made no progress. I looked up to see that Stanley didn't follow my orders, so I decided to yell at him to jump one last time. He looked down in fear. Before he considered to jump, a spider jumped on his back and forced him downwards. luckily he landed on the same zombie I fell on. Instantly he grabbed his sword and thruster it through the spider's stomach. He pushed the carcass aside and we jumped out of the tower. I grabbed a wooden piece of plank and plotted it between the door knob and the the floor.
"What are you doing?" A familiar voice called. We turned around and saw Sylver bruised cutted. Otherwise she was okay and stood firmly. Plenty of archer bodies lied around behind her.
"You're alive!" I exclaimed. It was stupid, but I couldn't think of something else to say.
"'Course I am." She sat down on the soft grass cross-legged.
I faced Stanley and offered my hand. "You did well," I commented. His face was filled with scratches. His eyes still showed pain and misery. But he grabbed my hand and shook it firmly.
"Thanks," He said normally. From that moment we were able to put our troubles aside.
"Oi boys lets go now!" Sylver snapped at us. "This place is depressing me."
We rode our horses back to Cubonia. Stanley and I told Sylver about the gruesome things we saw.
"So there are humans there, but not necessarily able to help us," Sylver summarised.
"Exactly," I said.
"So there is no point going to save them."
"What?!" Stanley and I said in unison.
"If they can't help us, then we can't help them." Sylver explained.
"Yes they can!" I argued. "We just have to take care of them and they can help with some jobs back in Cubonia.
"What job?! Spreading diseases to us? They are too weak to help us Cedric. Get that in your head."
"Remember when I was weak? And helpless? And almost bled to death three years ago?" I remembered that fatal experience, where I lost everything, including my hand.
Sylver sighed. "Even if we are willing to save them, how can we get them out of the tower safely. Even more so how can we transport them back to Cubonia without being terrorised by mobs?"
"I'll figure something out."
I couldn't figure something out.
Favourite, review and/or follow if you want to. :D
