Chapter 10: Troll
They were at it for days.
Pickaxe mined like a maniac. Jewel was harvesting from the farm and the animals. Madison was slaying monsters every nightfall. They had amassed an impressive inventory, plenty to survive several weeks of voyaging. It was after Pickaxe had checked his clock that he realized how long the day had been. For what seemed like hours, he had dug deep into his cave, mining the resources, replacing his tools. He had broken into several other cave systems, and came close to death too many times to count.
It was all worth it though, because he had a surprise for the group.
The sun began to rise as Pickaxe exited the wooden shack leading to his cave. He felt sore, so it would be nice to relax a day before the journey. Besides, he had a lot of crafting to do. He had just gotten back into the house. Jewel was still hard at work in the back. She was using this wonky jagged white stuff to make the plants grow faster… bone meal. Of course. Madison was on her way back to the house as well. It looked like she had just finished doing some lumberjacking. Perfect. He needed the wood. "Heyo," she greeted, leaning against the doorway. "How was mining?"
I have a new respect on the subject, thought Pickaxe.
"Got any wood?" he asked instead. Madison nodded, and tossed him some wood blocks. Unknown to the two girls, Pickaxe had managed to mine 128 diamonds while on his mining spree. That was more than enough to create some armor and tools. Of course, he also had to craft some bows, arrows, other tools, and foodstuffs. There was so much to do! Hopefully he could finish it all in time. It seemed so important to Jewel… he thought of her as a sister. He wanted to take care of her, protect her. But he could only do that if he actually started crafting.
Unbeknownst to him during his oblivious crafting spree, Jewel came into the house, placed some crafting ingredients in the chest beside the crafting table, and gave Pickaxe a hug before retiring to her room.
They knew something was wrong the moment they stepped outside.
Originally, they had been planning to leave after they had gone through the materials. Pickaxe had given everyone a set of iron armor and tools, diamond armor and tools, a bow and arrows, flint and steel, shears, 64 dirt blocks, a bed, and foodstuffs. On top of that, he made sure to give Madison a second axe (both an iron and diamond one) as compensation for the whole "axe breaking" incident. They had just opened the door, when Pickaxe suddenly realized something was… off. Well, it was in front of his face… and the entire house.
The entire house had somehow been buried in sand.
"What the heck!?" Madison yelled. True that, thought Pickaxe. With some difficulty (and annoyance) they dug the house back into the daylight. Then they heard something. Well, someone. And they were, no, HE was… laughing. "OH, OH MY- I CAN'T EVEN-...GOOD GRACIOU-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The group swiveled their heads. Several blocks away from the house was another miner. He had a black shirt with green stripes and ripped sleeves. He wore torn jeans and sand-colored sneakers. His eyes, when they were open, were a startling shade of neon yellow. His hair was dirty blonde, and it looked like he had a SERIOUS case of bed head.
"Great. A griefer," Jewel muttered. Pickaxe didn't like the sound of that.
"OK, ok," he gasped between laughs, retaining his "composure." "Give me all your materials, and you can live! Don't, and you'll die!" he barked, a very malicious grin on his face. "Um, how about no," retorted Madison. "Suit yourself!" the griefer replied, pulling out a bucket… filled with lava. "Oh, heck no!" yelled Pickaxe. He pulled out his bow and arrow, and shot at the griefer, causing him to spill his lava on himself, but not injure the group. "OWOWOWOW OH WHY IT BURNS!" he yelled, before using his bucket to reclaim the substance.
"Now you're gonna get!" he bellowed, before pulling out a bow and a… glowing arrow?
"GET DOWN!" cried Jewel, tackling Pickaxe to the side. The purple-glowing arrow struck the side of the house, setting the wood block on fire. "It's enchanted!?" gasped Madison, "You've gotta be kidding me!" "Nope!" yelled the griefer, who turned his back on them. "Smell ya later, NOOBS!" he declared, and with that, he took off like a coward. Meanwhile, the house was burning in flames. "No…" Pickaxe was at a loss for words. It had taken him so long to build this house, this home. And it was burning in front of his very eyes. Jewel snapped him out of it. "Go after him!" she commanded. "I'll take care of the house!" Madison grabbed his hand and ran after the griefer, while Jewel was running to the back to get water.
...he needed to make that guy PAY.
They found him in the forest, still running. "Get back here, scumbag!" barked Madison, obviously a bit ticked off at the griefer. "Nah, I'll just wait 'til you die, than steal all your materials. Watch your step!" "Wha-?" was all Pickaxe could say before he immediately stopped himself. Madison wasn't so lucky. She stepped on a wooden pressure plate, and the two suddenly heard an ominous hiss. "RUN!" cried Madison. The two began running, but it wasn't long before they began to hear the explosions. The TNT took a heavy toll on their health.
As expected, the griefer was laughing at their "stupidity."
"Hahaha! You're such idiots! You might as well be saying 'Here are my materials, good sir!' Pathetic!" The griefer said all this while making a weird contraption. Pickaxe didn't know what he was building. It used a lot of weird stone-like blocks...dispensers. Then he filled them with what looked like black stones with fire encrusted in them...fire charges. Now he and Madison had to run. He grabbed her hand and started sprinting past the machine. "Oh no you don't!" he giggled, as he threw a bottle of a dark pale blue liquid at the two.
Pickaxe shoved Madison out of the way, just as the bottle made contact.
For some reason, Pickaxe's own body was holding him back. The world was moving faster than he was, an alarmingly uncomfortable phenomenon. The griefer walked up to him with an iron sword. He started slashing at Pickaxe. One hit. Two. Three. There wasn't a single bit of regret on this griefer's face. He was going to kill him in cold blood. "Nighty night, miner," he said, raising his sword for the final strike.
Madison slammed her axe into the griefer, sending him right in front of his contraption.
"Now who's stupid?" Madison growled, flipping the switch on the griefer's contraption. The fire charges came full force, burning the griefer and forcing him to take cover. "I'll be back! You all will regret this!" He yelled behind a tree, before once again retreating from the battle. Madison wanted to chase after the dirty rotten trash, but there was Pickaxe. He was still suffering from the effects of the Potion of Slowness. They were never gonna catch the griefer at the rate Pickaxe was moving. She tossed him a bucket of milk. Pickaxe gave her a questionable glance, but Madison simply urged him to drink it. He drank, and suddenly, he could move normally again. "Milk removes status effects," Madison stated, gesturing for Pickaxe to follow.
The griefer was not getting away that easily.
They found him on the edge of the canyon next to the waterfall, but he was being occupied by something. A creeper, to be precise. "Outta my way, bub! I got places to be!" the griefer yelled. "Is he that stupid!?" Madison gawked in disbelief. As if on cue, the creeper began to hiss. "W-wait, hold up!" said the griefer, obviously panicking, "C-can't we talk this o-out!?" "Good riddance," grumbled Madison. But Pickaxe thought different. As much as he hated this guy, something about him dying wasn't too… appealing to think about. He had no idea why he did what he did next. He suddenly dashed beside the griefer, punching him out of the creeper's blast radius, and jumping into the canyon to escape it himself.
The last thing he saw was the creeper's explosion, just as he plummeted into the canyon river.
Jewel was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes.
She sighed from relief upon seeing that Pickaxe was alive. The second thing he noticed was that the house was no longer up in flames. You couldn't tell that it once was. The third thing he noticed… was the griefer, with Madison staring daggers at him. So he came to the house after Pickaxe's near death experience. Pickaxe honestly didn't know what to think. "What's your name?" he asked. The griefer looked offended. "You wake up almost dying because of me, and that's what you ask?" Pickaxe looked unfazed.
The griefer sighed. "The name's Texik."
"Figures," Madison muttered under her breath. "Why is he here again?" she asked, obviously annoyed by his presence. Jewel sighed, "I already told you, we called truce. Besides, he IS in Pickaxe's debt for saving him from the creeper…" "One of the worst ways to kick the bucket," Texik added. "Plus, he agreed to help on the voyage!" Jewel said optimistically. Madison scoffed. "Yeah, yeah. Just keep him out of my way, and maybe he'll actually live a few more years." Texik winced. What happened to the arrogant griefer that tried to murder them a few moments ago?
Guess he was just ignorant then, thought Pickaxe.
Pickaxe walked up to Texik. He extended his hand to the reformed griefer, who accepted it somewhat hesitantly. "Okay, Texik," Pickaxe began, "I'm willing to give you a second chance. But let me tell you right now…" His red eyes suddenly glared with intimidation. Texik hoped he wasn't shaking as much as he thought he was. "You can mess with me all you want, but if you hurt or betray my friends, I will find you and kill you without any remorse." The air was tense. Texik forgot how to breathe. Pickaxe placed a bed down. "Now get some rest, before you worry yourself to death." He walked into the room, Jewel and Madison following.
Well, at least I'll be kept in check..., thought Texik, as he crawled into bed, and slept peacefully for the first time in years.