Chapter 10: Reviving the Gold

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Minecraft, all rights go to Mojang. I only own my original characters.

I was sitting on a bench at the cafeteria staring at my bowl of warm water and a loaf of bread. I had not said a single word since yesterday. I was already wearing a full set of iron armour with my rusty diamond sword sheathed behind me, while most of the other soldiers have just woken up. I was still staring at my plain food until a finger immediately snapped in front of me.

"Ced!" Draydic exclaimed.

I turned my head to him. He wore only an iron chestplate,with two iron axes sheathed behind him. His short black hair and goatee gave him a serious look, but I knew Draydic was not like that. He was always more of a laid-back joking person. The war must have taken most, if not all, of his humour away.

"Are you going to eat?" He asked.

I nodded my head and proceeded to eat pinches of my bread. I didn't notice that Letta was sitting beside me. I couldn't see her face since she had a fringe covering the left side of her face. She wore full chainmail armour, and I could see her wearing her black vest. She always wore that vest ever since she was around 15 (I think) and she never explained its significance. Probably some 'passing on' gift from her family.

"You think you can still lead the army?" Letta said worryingly.

"Yeah, of course!" I said, my mouth still half full. I swallowed. "I'm still shocked from yesterday."

"Whatever you say," Letta said, sounding like she did not buy my excuse. She stood up from her bench and swiftly took out her bow. Just when she notched an arrow on her bow my instant reflexes made me jump on the table (My foot on the bowl of water) and sliced the neck of the arrow. She nodded her head, as if to say 'You still got the moves.' The people in the cafeteria turned their heads to face me and Letta.
I cleared my throat.

"Uh, never let your back guard down, even if you are having breakfast with your comrades." We sat down and continued eating awkwardly.

About an hour later we said farewell to our family and friends and set off to Golden Falls. My father told me to stay as long as I want there to help the Minecraftians. We brought plenty of bread and water in case the people there needed it. Stanley, Draydic, Letta and I led the army on horseback. I rode on my horse Red and Stanley rode on his horse he now named Jumper. The others didn't bother naming theirs. There were about five other knights on horseback, three archers and eight warriors. The archers all wore chainmail armour and held bows, none of which were enchanted. Everyone else wore a mixture of iron armour and wielded iron/diamonds swords/dual axes, some of which were enchanted.

As we travelled I looked at Stan, who had a very flushed look on his face.

"Is Jumper okay Stanley?" I asked him gently.

"Oh," He turned his face to me. "It's not the horse. It's just that..." He glanced up worryingly. "Golden Falls reminds me of when I was raised during my teen years."

I was filled with regret. "So you were-"

"Yes, I was like the prisoners there!" Stan interrupted me with an annoyed tone. "Jamie and I had a really hard life."

Jamie: Stanley's younger sister. Maybe that's another factor for his grumpiness."Sorry man."

"Don't be." Stanley sighed. "Look, I know you're trying to be friends with me, and I appreciate it. But there are other things you should worry about. Like Herobrine."

I nodded my head and concentrated on travelling. The kid is pretty unusual.

When we reached the cliff we decided to take a long detour, going around the cliff instead of climbing down. This took about 20 minutes longer than last time. Some of my soldiers already looked worried by the sight of the invaded city. I had to admit the nether structures intimidated me.

Finally we reached ground level and decided to take a quick break in the shadow of the cliff before we attacked. I stared at The purple waterfall that flowed in Golden Falls. I used to visit this town when I was younger when my father needed to help aid injured people. He told me that he would teach me to become a doctor, just like him at the time. Obviously my views changed and I became a warrior instead. My father still taught me basic medical knowledge like healing and regeneration potions however.

Once I called off break I mounted on Red and faced my soldiers. If there was a time to make a speech, it would be now.

"Now I would go on talking about courage and determination but you guys all know that now," I began. "Let me just tell you the plan." I talked about the Ground and Air team's missions then I split the 20 of us into the two groups. I was in the Ground team with Letta, all the archers and all the horseback riders. Air team consisted of the people left over. "I will conclude my speech by saying this," I said after setting the teams up. "Quality over quantity. There are 20 of us and 2000 of them. But we are much faster, and much stronger than them. Remember that when we enter battle."

I turned Red around and faced Golden Falls. I wasn't feeling worried like I was an hour ago. My blood was pumping determination and courage inside me. I felt like my old 19 year old self.

"Attack!" I commanded.

I charged to the city gates, my sword held firmly and raised high. The sunlight shined on the blade, almost making the rusty sword look new. Armed skeletons and zombies rushed outside to defend their stolen town. Just before I crashed into the large amount of mobs I jumped off Red and landed perfectly on the floor. I sliced a zombie head clean off, and proceeded into slaying more of the undead. A few seconds later the Minecraftians on horseback came and helped me defeat the mobs. We were able to push the mobs back inside, so we were fighting inside the town. There were only ten of us and we were slicing through every mob that stood our way. The Air team was led by Stanley and Draydic and they proceeded to infiltrate the nearest tower. Mobs kept pouring out of the doors but my soldiers took them out easily.

We went through Golden Falls, street by street, clearing out the undead in every home and building we could find. In around twenty minutes my team regrouped. Oneunlucky knight and his horse didn't appear. I think the man's name was Samuel; I wasn't so sure.

When we reached the farm I saw mobs taking down the crops and animals and poisoning them with potions. Wait...potions. I noticed a line of small huts beside the farm. Witches.

"Archers, clear the farmland!" I commanded. "Everyone else destroy the huts!"

Witches came out of their miniature homes and threw potions at us. As I dashed through the huts on Red. One bottle was thrown at me, so I lowered my head and it hit another knight. He fell to the ground and hit his head on a fence post. Blood quickly poured out of his forehead. His skin turned to green rather significantly. I quickly turned away in horror and jumped inside a hut. I quickly jabbed a witch on her head and stole a handful of potions. I returned to my stallion as fast as I could and began riding around the huts. As I passed each home I threw a potion inside. I dodged all the bottles the alchemists threw until one finally hit me on my chest. I fell of Red instantly and landed on my back. I felt as if most of my blood suddenly evaporated from my body, and two pistons sandwiched me at the same time.

"Potion of Harming," I murmured.

I painfully checked the archers to see how they were doing. They are actually doing quite well, with no one gone yet. It almost gave me a smile on face until I realised that only one last warrior was fighting at the witch huts. Letta.

Everyone else was down, like me. Mobs from the farms were retreating and were targeting Letta. She was still fighting off more witches, unaware of the creatures' presence. I noticed one vial in my hand and was amazed what was inside.

Potion of Regeneration III.

I smashed the vial on the floor and a pink gas expelled. Within seconds I felt my body regaining health. Red was also in the radius of the potion and raised his forelegs.I jumped back on my feet and retrieved my rusty diamond sword. I told Red to take down any of the leftover witches. Then I raced to Letta's aid as she finally realised the position she was in. I looked at her scratched face. Her brunette hair waved slowly, revealing a pretty face. I glanced at the approaching mobs, and we nodded our heads at each other. I thrusted my weapon through the head of a sizzling creeper, and Letta shot arrows like a robot. A REALLY accurate robot. Every arrow punctured its victims head. I kept running around defeating creepers, skeletons, spiders, zombies and witches. I kept getting cuts and bruises by the monsters, but the regeneration potion kept patching my wounds immediately.

Letta and I were exhausted after the miniature battle. Corpses laid on the the once perfectly clean grass, now stained by who-knows-what. I was glad to see that the archer's fight was over. Although there were three, one returned. It was Sylver. She was covered in bruises and she limped towards me.

"Creeper blew up Rodney and Edwin was overtaken by zombies," She summarised. "Too late to cure him. Then a frickin' skeleton was able to get my left ankle." She sighed miserably. "How are the others?"

I checked where the horseback riders were. Two of them were lying down on the floor. Their body was deathly grey and they have their eyes and mouths open. I could see a third man, but he was lying on his back against a witch hut. Samuel. He looked like the other corpses except he was moving. We ran to the soldier (Letta helped Sylver to get there) and kneeled before him.

"C-Ced," Samuel sputtered. He coughed out what I wished wasn't blood.

"Sam..." They were the only words that came out of my mouth. "You did a service to Cubonia. Thank you for leading us to victory."

"No..." He put his shaking hand on my shoulder. "We will not win."

Silence.

That was his last words before his body tilted to the floor. He was dead.

I was shocked at the comment he said. I could not believe his final words. Letta and Sylver were right behind me with similar thoughts. I faced them with a cold expression.

"Let's go to Draydic and Stan."

We walked to the nearby tower casually since all the visible mobs were gone. I was just about to open the door when it opened itself and almost slammed my face. Draydic was standing in the doorway.

As he walked out Stan followed him.

Then the soldiers.

Then all the prisoners.

The Minecraftians were cheering and had grins on their face. Of course there was still the minority who were too far gone in depression to feel happy. Otherwise I was happy with the outcome. Letta hugged Draydic and Stanley. I shook their hands gleefully. After the reunion I faced the humans.

"People of Golden Falls, we have retrieved your home!"

Sylver went around the crowd offering the bread and water we brought. I retrieved my healthy stallion Red from the with huts. The population of probably 1000 sat on the floor consuming food. As that occurred my army and I sat together in a circle. There was me, Letta, Draydic, Stanley, Sylver, Permus, Timothy, Norman, Zellick, Callum, Kerbell, Manny and Vincent.

"Didn't know it was possible," Norman chuckled.

"Good job Cedric. We actually did it," Stanley commented.

"Thanks," I said, pleased. "And thank you all. Honestly, I had my doubts too...and apparently some did as well."

"What do you mean?" Draydic asked.

"Eh, nothing," I lied. Draydic eyeballed me fiercely.

"Okay then lieutenant."

"How long are we here for?" Callum said to me.

"Probably a week," I replied. "We could have one or two people going back to Cubonia daily to get supplies and offer news. Otherwise we need to help these people get their lives on track."

"Great, it isn't over!" Sylver murmured sarcastically.

"'Course it isn't!" I grinned and stood up. "In fact, we have some jobs to do now!"

I ordered Zellick, Callum and Kerbell to clean up the area by burning to bodies and (try) to rebuild the homes. Letta, Draydic and I will kill any unwanted creatures around the town, as well as retrieve any equipment. Manny, Vincent, Timothy and Permus will aid the Minecraftians and begin growing crops and the animals. Finally Stanley and Sylver will return to Cubonia to give the news and get more supplies.

When we finally separated to complete our duties, I had a smile on my face. all the sadness flushed away from me. I was actually giving hope to us Minecraftians. Maybe I was too late to give hope to Samuel, but I was able to give hope to the people in Golden Falls.

It took like another month to publish a new chapter, and I still don't have a schedule yet (which I really should have). Hopefully I can update this more frequently.