A roar.

Jesse jolted out of her sleep, everyone barely having even gotten an hour of it. Ellegaard and Petra were sleeping in the back of the cave, a cloak draped over Petra. It turned out the cloak Petra had lent Soren was still in Soren's pocket, and he'd returned it to the redhead.

"I- we need to get moving," Jesse said, fingers wrapped around the amulet firmly. She looked down at the amulet with worry. Would she be endangering all of her friends if she kept ahold of it?

Then a larger hand took it. "I'll take it."

Jesse looked up, shocked, at Axel. "Axel- you- you can't! You could be killed!" she exclaimed, "you- you heard what Ivor said about the amulet- if-"

"We could all be killed, Jess," Axel pointed out, tugging the amulet from her grip.

"Are- are you sure?" Jesse asked, in a small voice.

Axel shook his head a bit, a sheepish smile coming onto his face. "Of course not."

"But you'll have three Witherstorms following you everywhere you go!" Olivia pointed out, eyes wide.

"If it gets too intense, I'll duck into the Nether or something," Axel shrugged it off, but Jesse could see it in the way his grey eyes crinkled up. He was scared.

Axel pocketed the amulet, before saying, more quietly than before, "I'm tired of always being the selfish one."

"Well, Axel shouldn't do this alone. I'm coming with you," and Magnus stepped up so he stood next to the burly male.

"Well, I'm coming with Jesse," and Jesse turned to see the Gabriel standing next to her, crossing his arms. "I pledged that I would help. And that's what I intend to do."

Jesse looked around at all of her friends, all of them watching her intently. Soren with a hand on Lukas's shoulder, Gabriel and Petra standing together in a small clump, Olivia supporting Ellegaard as she got up to bid her friends good bye, Axel next to the much smaller King of Boom Town, and Ivor standing a little behind them.

"Stay safe," she told them, "all of you. Take care of yourselves."

Petra stepped forward and pulled Jesse into a hug. The spider hybrid wrapped all six of her legs around Petra, before everyone slowly crowded into the group hug, Ivor even putting a hand on Jesse's back tentatively, before they all split apart.

Jesse hopped up onto a horse, Ivor jumping up after Soren onto another one, Lukas perching on one as well with Gabriel crawling after him onto the saddle, Olivia hopping onto her own, and Magnus and Axel hopping onto a horse as well. Jesse pulled her little pink pig up after her onto the saddle, Petra and Ellegaard retreating into the cave.

Jesse gave them all one last look, before looking back at Axel. "See you later, alligator," she said softly.

"In a while, crocodile," Axel responded, before they all split up, Ellegaard blocking up the entrance to the cave with stone blocks. Jesse watched the cave, watching Axel and Magnus go in the complete opposite direction, the cave, before the group she was travelling with turned a corner, and it was lost from sight.


Jesse squinted into the rain, as they passed through a forest of oak and birch trees. She'd made a scratch on the saddle leather to mark their first day, but she was bored already.

So, leaning over the horse's neck, she pulled out the journal and squinted at the words as the horse clopped after her friends.

'The children are very shy around others, but the moment we come into the room they're... ecstatic, really. There's no other way to describe it. Ivor has started coming weekly (I'm fairly certain Ellegaard had something to do with it) and I've never seen Jesse happier than when she's reading a potion book with him. Sometimes he extracts some of her venom to make Potions of Poison. The Potions of Poison made from Jesse's venom is the strongest I've ever seen.'
~ Gabriel

'I don't mind coming around, really. It's nice to see Jesse again, and I think she's happy to see me, if her jumping on me is any indication. Lately, we've done little IQ tests for them. Even Magnus, and it took us about a week to convince him to do it. Their IQs are rather high for the amount of total seclusion that they have from the outside world. Well, that's not COMPLETELY accurate. The children have one small window the real world apparently, and that's us.'
~ Ivor


Three more days had passed. The valley they were traveling through was a pretty long one.

Jesse pulled out the journal again, her eyes scanning the messily scrawled words.

'We had a bit of a mishap today. The children were not in the best of moods- probably due to the fact that they had several medical tests done on them the day before- and so they were all huffy today. Well, to cut a very long story short, we had quite a time trying to clean up, what with the smashed glass on the floor, the several scorch marks, the burning cobwebs, and Magnus's clothing being on fire. Oh, and the random blocks of dirt and leaves all over the room. You should've seen Ellegaard's hair afterwards!'
~Soren

'I think the children have trouble controlling their powers when they use it past the point where they're used to. Petra set quite a good deal of the lab on fire by accident this morning. I'm glad that Olivia managed to build a wall high enough to keep the flames and the smoke suppressed while the scientists ran to go put it out. Otherwise, we had a relatively uneventful day.'
~ Ellegaard

Jesse stopped reading and looked up from the journal. "Are we there yet?"

"Almost," Ivor responded.


They were traveling through the desert, cacti and sand everywhere. Three more days had passed.

"Are we there yet?" Jesse repeated to Ivor.

He sent her a look. It seemed vaguely annoyed. "Not much longer now."

Jesse sighed and pulled out the journal, as it seemed to be habit now.

'Ivor thinks we should go after the Ender Dragon in two or three months. Honestly, I think it's time we try. We've been preparing for ages; it's about time we try to get this thing done. We mentioned it to the kids that we're going in a few months, and they all wanted to come with us. Even Lukas and Jesse, who are not known for liking fighting, seemed really curious. I have no idea how to tell them they can't come.'
~ Magnus

'Petra and Jesse are getting VERY good at sword fighting. Ivor couldn't come today, but I think he's taught her a couple tricks, because Jesse's not half bad. She actually managed to stay in the fight with me for longer than three minutes before I knocked her over, but she didn't seem too upset about it. She just asked Petra if she wanted to spar, and five minutes later the Blaze and the spider were swordfighting. It's a wonder how well these different mobs get along. Even Axel and Lukas have stopped hissing at each other by now.'
~ Gabriel


Two days passed. Now they were traveling through a frozen tree forest. It was... actually, it was pretty beautiful.

Jesse looked up at them, before back at Ivor. She was forced to cover her mouth with her hand to keep herself from bursting into laughter at the sight of Ivor leaning on Soren's back, fast asleep. Soren elbowed him, making the dark-haired male bolt upright and nearly fall off the horse.

Jesse tried not to meet Lukas's eyes- judging by the muffled sounds he was making, the two of them would burst out laughing if they made eye contact.

To distract herself, Jesse pulled out the journal again. The dates skipped around, some being weeks after each other, some being mere days.

'I brought my work to the lab. Jesse helped me out today, actually brewing Potions of Healing and Speed and Strength. For someone as young as she is, she's surprisingly good at it. I don't know if Jesse practiced with the other scientists before, or if it's just from how often she reads the potions books I bring her, but she had almost no mishaps, except at one point when she mixed Blaze Rod and gunpowder together and the whole thing nearly blew sky high.'
~ Ivor

Jesse laughed at that.

'There's only a few more weeks until we have to go fight the Ender Dragon. We told the children that after defeating the Ender Dragon, we might not be able to visit them. They didn't seem at all upset about the whole thing... well, okay, they did get a bit sad, but then we promised that we WOULD come visit, just not as often. That cheered them up. They were even more cheered up when I shared some chocolate with them, and for Lukas I had a fish. Chocolate is like poison to cats and dogs, apparently. Lukas didn't seem at all upset about the whole thing.'
~ Soren


Another three days. It had nearly been two weeks.

Jesse gave Ivor a plain look. "Are we nearly there yet?" she asked, sounding more tired than whiny.

Ivor let out a sigh. "No," he said flatly, not even bothering to try to tell her that they were 'almost there'.

Lukas snorted, Jesse giving her friends a funny look as they all gave her amused grins. Even Ivor gave a grudging smile after several moments.

Jesse pulled out the journal again.

'There's only a week until we have to face the Ender Dragon. Where did the time go? The children are becoming more aware about the whole thing, too, and Olivia and Axel have, on several occasions, asked if they could please come. I think Petra has been bugging Gabriel, and Jesse and Lukas have been bugging Ivor and Soren respectively. We can't let them come. What are we supposed to tell them?'
~ Ellegaard

'I'm fairly sure that Ivor and Jesse have been brewing potions as their activity. Only Ivor and Jesse can chat without stopping and still not screw up a potion massively. And only Jesse can make and mix an incredibly complicated potion in less than ten minutes without stopping chatting once. Her multi-tasking skills are incredible. I wish I could do that, too. It'd make griefing sooo much easier.'
~ Magnus

'We're going to face the Ender Dragon tomorrow. The children have given us little gifts to help us. Jesse's is the most astonishing. Apparently, Ivor left his brewing stand with her for her to play with, and she recruited all of her friends to make potions for us. Hers are the best, but theirs are not half-bad, which makes me wonder if she specifically taught them. Whatever the case, she did a terrific job. And they all wished us the best of luck. Now, to see if that luck will help us.'
~ Gabriel

Jesse put the journal away for now, shifting in the saddle.

A/N: Wow. Just... wow. This is one of the longest chapters in this story, and it's not even one of the most exciting! Logic, right?

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