I Get Involved In Some Fishy Business

Contrary to popular belief, riding a dragon is not as fun as you think it may be.

One of the factors making riding a dragon such a non enjoyable experience was probably that Shell's back was pretty hard, even with the leather saddle I was sitting on. Another factor was definitely the heat, which made sense since we were in the desert. And Shell's scales tended to soak up lots of heat because they were black, making riding Shell in hot weather the equivalent of riding an enormous frying pan with wings. Which is weird to think about, now that I think about it.

"Why," I panted, "did the bounty hunters have to set up their base in a desert, of all places?"

Dan glanced back at me. "Would you prefer to be in the tundra?"

"At least you can bundle up for the cold." I complained. "And if the heat doesn't kill me, it's the erratic flyi—CACTUS!"

Dan yelped as we swerved to avoid a rather tall cactus, and I nearly flew off Shell's back for what seemed to be the sixth or seventh time. I wasn't keeping track.

"Erratic flying." I finished, glowering at Dan.

Dan sighed and looked forward. "Alright, fine, I'll pay attention to what's in front of me."

"Why the desert?" I ask again.

Dan shrugged. "Well, we were in a plains biome before this..."

I blinked. "Huh?"

"There have been a few incidents here and there," Dan said airily. I remember there was a big jailbreak from a prison back in the 90's—some criminals found the base and practically nuked it. I wasn't there, but I heard about it. Same for the plains one—was completely annihilated. You know. For revenge purposes and stuff." Dan looked back at me again.

"Right," I said. "For putting them in prison."

Dan sighed. "Most deserve it, of course. There are some that don't, though. Bounty hunters are kind of a mixed group. Some do it for the money, some for the glory, and others to help people, but those types of bounty hunters are rare nowadays." Dan looked back at me with a grin. "Of course, I'm part of the latter."

"For god's sake, keep your eyes on the road!" I yelped.

Dan rolled his eyes and turned back to the front. "Most of them do it for the money, though. Which makes for kinda nasty people. Which, of course, kind of spreads the whole 'bounty hunters are jerks' stereotype."

"Yeah," I said. "To be fair, I believed that too."

"Well, what do you think about me?" Dan said.

"I'd say you're…not what I expected," I said thoughtfully.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you're not as self centered as I thought you would be."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Dan chuckled. "We're almost there, so hang in there. Speaking of which…"

"No," I said stubbornly. "I know what you're going to say."

"And what's that?" Dan said, raising his eyebrows.

"You're going to tell me not to raid the prison."

"Right you are. It's a terrible idea."

"But an idea I'm willing to go through with."

Dan scowled. "It'd be more likely to survive hugging a creeper. You realize nobody in my group's going to take you seriously, right?"

"I have to try, don't I?" I said.

"You're as stubborn as a mule." Dan growled. "I suppose there's really no way to convince you otherwise?"

"Yeah, so I'd appreciate it if you'd stop asking." I snapped.

Dan sighed. "Fine. But don't blame me if one of your limbs get chopped off or something."

"Thanks for the image," I groaned.

"We're here," Dan said suddenly.

Shell dived down, making me shriek. He landed on the ground with a thump, jolting me.

I groaned as I slid off. "I'm never ever getting used to that."

Dan grinned as he slid off Shell. "I feel completely comfortable riding Shell."

"Where is the bounty hunter's base, anyways?" I asked, looking around. I couldn't see anything except for a few dead bushes and some cactuses.

"You'll see soon," Dan said as he glanced around. He spotted a particular dead bush. "Perfect." He walked over to it, knelt down, and grabbed one of the branches. I stared at him like he was nuts. "What are you doing?"

"You'll see soon," Dan repeated. "Alpha. Delta. Omega. Ave!"

There was a rumbling noise, and to Dan's left, an enormous hole opened up in the ground. Sand poured into the hole for a few seconds before stopping.

I stared at the hole. "Ah. I don't know what I was expecting."

Dan grinned and bowed, gesturing towards the hole.

I cautiously walked over to the hole, and peered into it. I couldn't even see the bottom. "Uh...we're supposed to go in there? Are there stairs or anything at all?"

Dan shrugged. "No. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to jump down there."

I glared at him. "Are you nuts? No thank you."

Dan grinned. "What's wrong? Scared?"

"Not scared," I corrected him. "Just slightly concerned about falling to my death."

"You'll be fine," Dan said dismissively, like falling from the height of a skyscraper was an injury you could walk off.

"Listen, why don't we just get your dragon and swoop down there?" I asked desperately.

"He already left," Dan said. "And besides, does it look like he would fit?"

I looked around. Sure enough, Shell was gone. "Where'd he go?"

"To the stables, probably." Dan said, which only half answered my question.

"We're really jumping down there?" I said apprehensively.

"How many times must I tell you?" Dan sighed. "Fine. Ladies first."

"What do you mean ladiesAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" I screamed as Dan pushed me into the pit. "DAN YOU PRICK!"

I screamed and flailed my arms, trying to slow my fall, when I saw the floor—some green blocks. No water.

To think I would die like this, I thought. I'm sorry, Toni.

I shut my eyes and slammed into the floor, feeling the air leave my lungs…

…and flew up again.

…

…huh?

I landed on the green blocks again, this time only bouncing a bit as the block under me made gross squelching noises.

…

…it's slime.

I turned to see some obsidian a few blocks away. I struggled through the slime over to the obsidian, which was annoying since my feet stuck to the slime every time I took a step. I noticed that the walls were all made of obsidian.

Dan landed on the slime, bounced up once, and then smoothly rolled onto the obsidian.

"That was fun," he said.

I pointed at him, my legs still slightly shaky. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Dan snickered at the look on my face. "I thought it would be funny to see your expression."

…

I punched Dan in the face, knocking him flat on the floor.

"OW! MY HANDSOME FACE!"

"I'm going to kill you if you pull something like that again!" I bellowed as I kicked at Dan, who rolled away.

Dan stood, brushing himself off. "Okay, okay! Chill out."

I glared at him. "Chill out? You just pushed me into a deep pit without telling me what was at the bottom! That's a total jerk move!"

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." Dan said, raising his hands placatingly. "I won't do something like that again. Even though it was kind of funny."

I called Dan a non family friendly name and then turned to the wall, scowling.

Dan walked up to a certain part of the wall, pulling out a green card. He slid it in a groove I didn't even notice in the wall, and a part of the obsidian wall slid open, revealing a dimly lit hallway.

Dan mockingly bowed and gestured to the hallway. "Ladies first."

I snorted, swatted him across the head, and entered the hallway, Dan close behind.

As soon as I stepped into the hallway I was immediately blasted in the face with cold air. I shivered.

There's really no in between. It's either burning hot or freezing cold.

The obsidian door slid shut behind us, and now we had no light except for some redstone torches on the walls.

At the end of the hallway, there was another obsidian wall. Dan slid the green card through a second groove, and the obsidian door slid open. A bright light shines into my eyes, and I shielded my eyes at the sudden light. Once my eyes adjusted, I lowered my arm, and I stared.

We were standing at one end of an extremely huge hallway. Like, five times the size of a church chamber. A red carpet streaked down the middle of the hallway, and practically everything was made of quartz. Most impressive, on the ceiling was an enormous TV screen that was around the size of a movie theatre's screen. Every few seconds, the image on the screen changed. There was a lunch menu on the screen one second, and then a mug shot of a scrawny looking guy with dirty blonde hair that looked like hay.

"Woah," I said.

"First time you've seen a speculum before?" Dan sounded amused.

"A spectacle?"

Dan chuckled. "No, but I suppose it is a spectacle. We've got some extremely talented redstone engineers here. It's fairly recent in terms of inventions. In fact, a speculum the size of a door would make around three months to make, so how long do you think this one would take?"

I turned to Dan. "You can't be serious."

"When we got this speculum, people were stoked as hell to see it. My friend Orca, a redstone engineer, was practically bouncing off the walls." Dan grinned reminiscently. "Anyways, let's go talk to my crew."

As we walked along the hallway, I glanced around and saw an entire food court to my left. I thought about asking Dan for something to eat when someone hurled a sandwich at the back of a girl's head. The girl jumped up and dived at him, and they started beating the crap out of each other. I quickly turned away from the fight.

I also saw multiple doors that led to messy offices to my right. I saw a middle aged man yelling and frantically waving a stick at a picture of the teen up on the speculum.

I started to wonder what this might mean, but before I could come to a conclusion, Dan grabbed my wrist and dragged me towards another metal door.

I yanked it away. "I can walk, you know."

Dan ignored me and hit a button, and the iron door slid open. We walked into a room the size of a broom closet. The door slid shut, and there was a humming sound as we descended.

"Is this an elevator?" I asked Dan.

"Yeah." Dan said. "Like I said: awesome redstone people here. But why concentrate on the boring stuff? We also have other cool things here. Like, for instance, there's this one laser beam contraption that Orca built."

I stare at him. "A what?"

Dan coughed. "Oh, wait. I wasn't supposed to talk about that. Uh, forget I said anything. There's also that huge bunny cannon that we use for—no, I wasn't supposed to talk about that either."

The door slid open, and someone with black hair walked into the elevator.

"Actually, there's also this flamethrower, but I think Orca just made that one for fu—JESUS! ORCA!"

I jumped, and turned to the boy with black hair, who huffed and pushed up his glasses. "Are you really going to tell everyone about my projects?"

Dan clutched his heart. "Orca…you little stealth demon. You scared me. Also, why were you standing behind me?"

Orca stepped out from behind Dan. "No reason. It just amuses me when you get scared."

I could see why his name was Orca—there were white patches in his black hair that definitely looked like the markings on an orca. He wore black sunglasses that looked like they'd been taped together with masking tape multiple times, a black business suit with a black tie, and black pants. All in all, he looked like a very snazzy businessman.

"You're a psycho," Dan grumbled.

"I assume you got the call?" Orca said, adjusting his tie.

Dan shot Orca a bewildered look. "I got a call?" He pulled a flip phone out of his back pocket. "I had my phone turned off."

Orca rolled his eyes. "How foolish. Is there a reason for that?"

"I was on…a mission." Dan said lamely, glancing at me.

Orca finally noticed me. "Who's the girl? Is she by any chance the secret project you suddenly had to leave to work on? We can't really babysit in a situation like this, you know."

"Babysit?" I repeated, insulted.

"Oh, I apologize." Orca said. "Sometimes I can be a bit...insensitive, Seu says."

"She's…it's a very lengthy explanation." Dan sighed.

I stared at him. "But Orca has a point. Why did you come and get me?"

"Erm…" Dan said. "Look, we're here."

The doors opened, and Dan rushed out, followed by me and Orca.

Our surroundings resembled that of a police station, with cubicles two times larger than the average office cubicle and a cell behind one of the cubicles. Before I could take it all in, a boy with a sword strapped to his back ran up to Dan. "Oh thank god! You got the call?"

"I had my phone turned off," Dan repeated.

"What?" the boy said, agitated. "You know how stupid—?"

The boy had curly brown hair with a white buttoned shirt, a leather strap holding his sword to his back, and dirty brown pants.

"That doesn't matter," Dan said impatiently. "Just tell me what's wrong."

That's when the boy noticed me. "Who's this? Surely not a recruit?"

"No," Dan said, exasperated. "Just—"

Then a girl with long unkempt red hair and a slightly freckled face ran towards the boy, clutching a crumpled envelope. "We got him! He's in the Emerald Forest, west of here!"

The boy pumped his fists into the air. "That's not far from here. We can get there in time."

"What do you mean, we have him?" Dan said, frustrated. "Can someone in this damn office elaborate?"

"Fisherman," Orca said shortly. "He was spotted."

Dan cursed, but a sort of light seemed to come on in his eyes. "You should have led with that! Heather still on her vacation?"

"Yup." the girl confirmed. "Just me, Durham, Ender, Nikai, and Ben."

Dan cursed again. "Damn it."

The girl noticed me. "Who is she?" the girl said, a slight frown on her face.

"Guys, this is Calliope. Calliope, the boy's Nikai, the girl's Seu, and you'll meet the others later." Dan quickly introduced me.

"Nice scar," Seu said, taking me aback.

"Uh, thanks?" I said. "So, looking for someone?"

"Yup. We found a target we've been looking for for a while." Dan said. "So we're going after him."

"Now?"

Nikai jerked his thumb towards me and said in a rude tone, "Why's she here, anyways? She looks like she wouldn't last a second through training."

I immediately took a disliking to Nikai.

"The entrance is getting crowded," Orca observed. "Let's prepare."

"Are we going to catch someone?" I said, disoriented.

"We're going to catch someone," Nikai snapped. "Not you...whoever you are."

I turned to Dan, dismayed. "Am I really staying? We just got here!"

Dan shifted his feet uneasily. "Sorry Cal, but this mission is pretty dangerous. I don't think I should—"

"It's not like I haven't been in life threatening positions before!" I protested. "I survived the prison in the Nether, remember?"

"You survived the Nether Prison?" Seu said.

"Seu! You believe her?" Nikai protested. "She's a kid!"

"We don't have time for this," Orca said.

"I'm sixteen." I said stubbornly. "And I'm coming with."

"This isn't something to take lightly," Dan warned. "I don't even know your combat prowess."

"I-I'm good!" I defended myself. "I got good marks in combat class."

Nikai rolled his eyes. "Impressive. But sixteen still isn't that high of a number, and—"

"We need to go," Orca snapped. "You need to decide in the next thirty seconds whether she's coming or not."

"Orca! What do you think about this?" Nikai said desperately.

Orca's expression was neutral. "I don't give a damn whether she catches Fisherman herself or whether she gets herself killed as long as we find Fisherman."

Dan looked from Nikai to me, who was doing my best impression of a begging dog.

Dan sighed. "Against my better judgement, I'll let you come. But you have to promise not to get involved in any of the fights."

"It's better than nothing," I said. "Sure."

"Are you nuts?" Nikai exclaimed. "She doesn't look like a bounty hunter. If anything, she'd be a damsel in distress."

"If I'm the damsel, you're the ugly dragon at the top of the mountain." I retorted.

Before me and Nikai could strangle each other, Dan stepped in between us.

"Nikai," Dan said dangerously. "Get your stuff."

Grumbling, Nikai jogged off, and the group in front of the elevator scattered.

I followed Dan to an office block about the size of a large bathroom. There were papers and pictures of random people everywhere, strewn apart on the tables, the floors, and even the walls. On one of the walls was a bulletin board covered with so many pictures and so many red strings that connected pictures that it looked like a bird's nest made out of photographs and red string.

"Messy," I commented. "Although my room wouldn't have been much better..."

"Yeah, well, we don't really take much time out of our lives to keep things clean." Dan said offhandedly as he reached into a trunk, pulling out a broken compass. "Wow, I still had this?"

After a few minutes of chucking things out of random trunks, stuffing random things into his pockets, and generally making his space even messier, Seu ran into Dan's office space.

"Dan, we're waiting on you!" Seu urged. She stopped and observed the office space in which Dan was currently shuffling papers in a hurry. "Wow, your place is a pigsty."

"Shut up." Dan stuffed a paper into his pocket and turned to us. "Okay, I'm ready. Come on, let's go!"

We ran over to the elevator, where three more people stood besides Nikai and Orca.

One of them, a girl with black hair fading into purple wearing a black leather jacket with spikes snapped, "Dan! Where is my supply of ghast tears you promised me?"

"Good to see you too," Dan grumbled. "I only got six. Didn't have time to get more." He pulled out some teardrop shaped objects that were pale as quartz and dropped them into the girl's hand.

The girl grunted. "There's only six."

Dan rolled his eyes. "I said that."

"I need more for my projects, Dan."

"I told you, I didn't have—"

"What are we doing just standing around?" a large, muscular man said. "Let's go!"

We all ran over to a second elevator. Everyone ran in, and Dan punched a button.

It was pretty stuffed, and I was a bit too close to the people around me.

"Move," Nikai growled.

I stomped on his foot in response, making him yelp in pain.

"Whoops. Sorry. Didn't see your foot." I smiled sweetly, the way I always do when I want to piss someone off.

"Why you—"

The door slid open, and Nikai tripped, falling onto his face. I made sure to step on his fingers as I ran out.

You've made a mistake making an enemy of me, I inwardly smirked.

"You did that on purpose!" Nikai howled, and I laughed. Dan and me made eye contact, and he let out a sigh—it was the half amused, half disappointed sigh that dads sometimes do when their kid is getting into trouble.

We were in a large stable practically coated in hay. There were a bunch of horses in stalls, and to my surprise, on the other side of the stables was Shell, snoring heavily. The horses next to him were skittish, nervously snorting.

"How did he..?" I began.

"I'll explain later," Dan said as he jumped on. Shell opened one of his eyes—he seemed to be considering ignoring Dan and going to sleep again.

I eyed Shell. "Do I have to get on him again?"

"Don't be a chicken, just get on." Dan said.

I sighed and reluctantly jumped onto Shell's back. Shell stood and stretched his wings, flapping them with a silent yawn.

Everyone else got on a horse, and Orca flipped a lever. One of the walls slid open, and Shell lifted into the air, shooting out of the opening like a bullet.

"We'll see you there!" Dan called to the others as Shell went airborne, spreading his wings.

"Who even is this Fisherman?" I yelled to Dan as the wind blew against my face, deafening me.

"This Fisherman is a number one target." Dan scowled. "He's killed tons of people, and he's a psychopath."

"Why is he called the Fisherman?" I asked. "Does he use a fishing rod to kill people? Wait, does he use actual fish to kill people?"

"Yeah."

"He uses FISH to kill people!?"

"What? No! That would be weird! He uses a fishing rod." Dan clarified.

"Well, that's not that weird, I guess..." I muttered. "What makes him so deadly, if he just uses a fishing rod?"

"It's not just any fishing rod." Dan said grimly. "It's enchanted with Reach Ten, Pulling Five, Grappling Five, Knockback Two, and Sharpness Eight."

"Sharpness Eight?" I echoed, shocked.

"Yeah. He can pull himself towards people or pull people towards himself, depending on what he wants. He can also grab blocks and items with it, and use it as a grappling hook."

"So, in other words...a multi purpose fishing rod."

Dan blinked. "I…you have the dumbest way of summing things up."

"Okay, but am I wrong?"

After a few minutes, we were flying over an enormous canopy of leaves that was so thick you couldn't see through it. All you could see was a sea of green.

"There's people running!" I pointed to a clearing just ahead where three specks were sprinting through the forest.

Dan grinned. "Good eye. Come on, boy! Let's—"

"What is that?" I asked Dan, whose eyes snapped to the black line that was flying towards us.

No, not a black line…

A fishing line.

"DAN, LOOK OUT!" I yelled, but too late. The hook on the fishing line snagged Dan's shirt, pulling him right off Shell.

I screamed as I watched Dan plummet through the sky.

How? We must be at least a thousand feet on the air. How did the fishing line reach so far into the air?

"It's enchanted with Reach Ten."

"Shell! Go! Get Dan!" I said, my voice an octave higher than normal.

Shell plunged into a dive without warning, making me scream. I was grabbing the saddle Dan had been sitting on, and I knew for sure I would become a pancake at the bottom of the forest floor if I let go.

Note to self: install seatbelts on dragon.

Wind tore at my face, making my eyes water and practically blinding me. As we got closer and closer to the canopy, I saw three blurry shapes fighting on the ground through my tears. Dan? Fisherman? A bounty hunter? At this point, I was more worried with not falling to my death.

They went out of view, and I braced myself. We smashed through the canopy, and I yelped as branches slashed and scratched at my unprotected face. A particularly large branch nearly smacked me right off Shell, but luckily I somehow dodged. Shell pulled out of the dive and flapped his wings hard.

Suddenly we slammed into the ground, and I bounced off Shell's back and landed on the ground with a thud.

"Ohh…" I moaned. "My crotch is destroyed. I think one of my ribs broke."

Shell snorted and flicked me with his tail, like 'stop whining and get up.'

I groaned. I didn't think I broke anything, but I think I'd banged my arm on something, because it hurt.

Without waiting for me, Shell bounded off, toppling trees and smashing through greenery.

"Don't mind me," I groaned. "Just lying on the ground."

But I couldn't lie here forever, even though that would be most comfortable. I had to get up eventually, even though I had no idea how I would help if I got to the clearing.

Also, I didn't want to be found in such an embarrassing position.

I got to my feet, with much groaning and cursing in the process. I then stumbled off, following the trail of splintered trees that Shell had left in his wake.

Finally I burst into a clearing the size of a football field. I saw Shell roaring and blasting fireballs at a man that was narrowly dodging all of the fireballs, having multiple close shaves while throwing daggers at Shell, though they seemed to just be bouncing off.

Dan was duking it out with a large man wielding a diamond pickaxe, and I noticed he was wearing a pair of gray wings. The man swung with deadly force, and Dan's feet dug trenches into the ground as he blocked with his scimitars. There was a big rock a few feet ahead that was the size of a small car. On the rock, a scrawny boy with dirty blonde hair sat there, watching the fights with a smirk on his face while humming placidly and swinging his legs.

The man hurled multiple daggers, but they all bounced off Shell's hide like darts.

"Oh RHM," the boy called, still swinging his legs. "Maybe get the tranquilizers."

"Can't," RHM muttered as he swept aside one of Shell's fireballs. "In the shulker box."

"Ah, right." the boy said. "I forgot about that. LHM, doing good."

"Come down here and fight like a man, Fisherman!" Dan shouted at the boy.

"Hmm…" Fisherman said, observing one of his nails. "I would, but I'm feeling a bit under the weather today."

"You—!"

LHM delivered a swing that knocked one of Dan's obsidian scimitars out of his hands. LHM swung the pickaxe down with deadly force, and Dan just barely managed to get out of the way. Dan tried to get back to his scimitar, but LHM kept him busy with swings that could have shattered obsidian in one shot.

I ran towards the scimitar, intent on picking it up and stabbing LMH multiple times in the back when I felt something snag my back.

Uh oh.

I yelped as I was pulled backwards. My already sore back screamed in protest as I slammed into the rock Fisherman was standing on. I looked up and saw Fisherman grinning at me.

"Interesting," he said as he lifted me up by my foot using a fishing rod with the signature glow that indicated an enchantment. "You're not the potion girl. Or the redhead. So who could you be?"

I growled, "Let go!" I punched Fisherman in the chest, and he dropped me. I rolled off the rock and landed on the floor with a grunt. I got to my feet and looked up just in time to see the hook flying towards me. It lashed across my face, and I doubled over in pain, blood dripping from my cheek.

Great. Another scar for the collection.

"You're not much, really." Fisherman said casually, spinning his fishing rod as he leaped down from the rock. "Who could you be? Maybe…Dan's girlfriend? Dan, I'm sorry to say, but you really could do better."

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Dan roared and tried to get to me, only to be blocked by LHM.

I got back to my feet. I saw the scimitar and ran towards it, but Fisherman sent his hook towards me, snagging my pant leg and pulling me off my feet.

"Not much of a fighter, are you?" he commented.

He grabbed me by the neck and lifted me into the air with surprising strength. I grabbed his wrist as he slowly crushed my windpipe and struck his throat as hard as I could with my foot, making him stagger. I struck him again, and he dropped me. I lay curled on the ground, retching and desperately trying to catch my breath.

"I changed my mind. You are a fighter. Eugh." the Fisherman gagged. With a flick of his hand, the hook slammed into my chest, sending my flying backwards into the ground, driving whatever breath I had left out of my lungs.

Knockback, I thought dizzily.

"I don't like to kill girls." the Fisherman massaged his throat. "But today I'll make an exception. My, aren't you lucky?"

I don't feel that way.

Suddenly there was a loud roar. RHM flew through the air and slammed into a tree, falling to the ground in a heap.

Then, the sound of horses hooves filled the air, and Fisherman shook his head in disappointment. "How sad. Looks like I won't kill you for now. Ah well. There's always next time. RHM, finish your fight, peel LHM off that tree and let's go."

Get up, I urged myself. Get up! They're getting away! And yet, my body couldn't move.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw purple flames illuminate the clearings. Then, there was a loud thud as Shell keeled over, slamming into the ground.

I heard Dan curse and fall to one knee, using a shaking scimitar to keep himself from falling over.

As I slowly slipped into black, I heard clearly as if he was whispering into my ear, Fisherman say: "Give Dan my regards, won't you?"

Then, nothing.

?-V-?

I woke up to the smell of bacon. Sizzling, crispy bacon.

"So. The sleeping beauty wakes."

My head felt too heavy to lift, so I turned it as much as I could. I expected to see a smirking Dan at my side, but instead I saw a smirking Nikai, which was not nearly as endearing as a smirking Dan.

"What?" I croaked. "Explain. What happened?"

"Well, we came and we found you guys unconscious, including Shell, so naturally we assumed that the Fisherman and his henchmen had kicked your guy's behinds. Ben and Durham went to follow him into the woods, but most of us agreed," Nikai coughed, "most of us agreed that we should wait for you guys to regain consciousness, even though we'd lose Fisherman waiting for you guys, and I was rig—" Nikai stopped and glared at me. "Most of us agreed to wait for you guys. That means not all of us agreed. Especially—"

"Oh, stuff it." I said tiredly. It could not have been more obvious that Nikai did not want me around, and to be honest, I did not give a crap. All I wanted was bacon, and ten buckets of water.

I stood, pushing a scandalized looking Nikai out of my way and walking towards the scent of bacon. I came across the girl named Seu was cooking bacon and eggs on a frying pan over a campfire.

Breakfast for dinner? Yeah, sure. That was pretty normal compared to being beat up by a guy with a fishing rod.

"So you're up." Seu said without looking at me. "I'm Seu, but you probably know that already. Sorry we couldn't meet under different circumstances. Here. Have a water bottle."

"Is your guy's…er…business always that chaotic?" I asked, taking a sip from a water bottle Seu handed me.

Seu chuckled. "No, you just came in one of the good days. It's usually worse."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you saw Dan's office. We don't get much breaks." Seu flipped the bacon. "Sorry, I'm not very good at introductions. Usually when I meet new people I'm arresting them or beating the snot out of them."

"I think you're doing good so far," I said, my eyes on the bacon. "D'you always cook?"

"Oh, yeah. The others can't cook for jack. Hey, Durham! You like your eggs fried or scrambled?" Seu called.

"Fried!" Durham called back.

I stared at the long scar on his face. "What happened to him?"

"Had a bit of a run in with a pillager outpost. Got an axe right to the face."

"Oh." was all I could manage.

"He looks big and scary, but he's a big softie. Don't want to get near him when he's pissed, though. He is scary when he's pissed. By the way, what happened?" Seu asked, and I explained what had happened, what with the free fall and the getting beat up by the Fisherman.

Seu nodded. "Well, that explains why Dan had his elytra on."

"A what?"

"An elytra. It's like a set of wings that lets you glide places."

I blinked. "So...he flew down?"

"No, he glided down."

I didn't see much difference, but I went on with the conversation.

"By the way, where's Dan?" I asked. "I don't see him."

Seu glanced down at the eggs. "He's, uh...kinda unconscious."

"Wait. How long has it been since the fight?"

"Uh...two hours?"

"We've been unconscious for two hours?"

Seu held up her hands reassuringly. "Don't worry, Dan is fine. Judging from the wound on his head, he took a bit of a nasty blow from a pickaxe to the head. He'll be fine. He's just resting on that log over there." Seu pointed to a nearby log, where Dan was lying, apparently unconscious.

"But do we know where the Fisherman is?" I asked.

Seu frowned. "Well, he seems to have left a clear trail, which isn't like him."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he usually covers up his trail pretty good. He doesn't let people follow him unless he wants them to. The only reason we found him this time is because he made a tiny mistake, which is unlike him. Usually he's pretty elaborate about keeping his trail hidden."

"So..." I said slowly. "Essentially, we could be walking into a trap."

"Probably." Seu tasted a bit of bacon. "But then again, we can't just let him get away. I think—"

Someone burst into the camp, making Seu jump.

"No monsters seem to be nearby." the boy had shiny blond hair that looked a lot neater than Fisherman's straw-like hair, and he wore a hot looking ski jacket even though it was the middle of July. His eyes brightened upon seeing the frying pan. "Ooh, bacon!" he reached for a stripe of bacon, but Seu slapped the boy's hand, making him yelp.

"It's not done, Ben, and you'd do well to wait until it's fully cooked." Seu brandished her tongs threateningly.

"Fully cooked?" Ben protested. "That one's burnt!"

Seu hastily turned back to the frying pan, and Ben glanced at me.

"Hi," he said. "You good?"

"Yeah," I said.

There was an awkward silence as Seu hurriedly flipped bacon.

"It's done!" Seu shouted into the forest, and after a moment people emerged from the woods to start eating. I stood, and almost immediately sat back down. I let out an involuntary groan of pain as my head spun.

"Maybe you shouldn't stand," Seu said as she put two strips of bacon and eggs on a paper plate and and handed it to Ben. Ben handed it to me, and when I tried to protest, he said, "It's ok, I'm not hungry. I ate a pork chop a few hours ago."

Until then, I hadn't realized how hungry I'd was. I hadn't eaten since I'd been captured by the pigmen, which felt like forever ago. It was shocking to realize that it had only been one day since then. It almost felt like a few weeks had passed.

Nikai stared down at his plate. "I like my eggs scrambled."

"Well, then you should have told me, and I would have whipped up some fried eggs for you," Seu said briskly. "Go on. Eat."

I didn't have any utensils, so I started shovelling eggs into my mouth with a hand, but stopped at the disgusted look on Nikai's face.

Seu handed me a fork, thankfully not commenting. "Here," she said. "I have a few others."

"Thanks," I said as I started eating ravenously.

For a moment there was nothing but the sound of metal rubbing against paper plates, when Ben said, "So what's the plan?"

Ender set down her plate. "Well," she began, "the Fisherman left a clear trail, which suggests that he could be trying to be leading us into a trap."

"Suggest?" Nikai snorted and as a result nearly choked on his bacon. "He never lets people follow him unless he wants them to."

"Maybe he was too rushed and couldn't cover his tracks." Durham suggested.

Orca cleared his throat, and everyone glanced at him. "As Nikai said, he never lets people find him unless he wants them to. Even if he was being chased by an enderdragon, all he would have to do is cover his trail roughly fifty blocks and it would be impossible to find him. He could have easily killed Dan and Calliope if he wanted to. They were defenseless and unconscious. No, he wants us to follow. The Fisherman is a psychopath, and people like him play with their food before eating it."

Everyone was silent at this grim proclamation.

"So we've got no choice but to follow Fisherman into a death trap and hope we don't die." I summed it up, and all the eyes in camp turned on me. "Where's he headed? What's the general direction he's going?"

"Well," Ben shifted uneasily. "He seems to be heading north west. He's heading somewhere, but the only structure within 500 blocks of here is...Kiosk's Temple of Entity."

Everyone dissolved into muttering.

"That place has got bad history," Ender muttered.

"Sorry, but...what happened there?" I asked.

Nikai snorted. "You are painfully ignorant, girl. You're sixteen, you should know."

"Well, I wasn't the most attentive person in school, so you'll have to enlighten me since you're so intelligent." I said sarcastically, and Seu snickered.

Nikai smirked and began talking in a pompous tone, like a condescending adult talking to a bunch of kindergarteners. "Well, this guy named Kiosk, who was a huge supporter of Entity 303, or Klith, made the temple just for him before the First Great War involving Notch and Entity 303. Of course, it's also the place that Klith brought a bunch of Notch worshippers under a flag of truce and brutally slaughtered them all, literally hanging their bodies from the rafters. Seventy six dead in total."

I gasped in horror. "Holy crap, that's morbid."

"Yeah, it caused a big uproar and that was the first time that people actually started paying attention to Klith. Before that, he was just making big threats about how he was going to take over the world, how he was going to kill tons of people if no one did anything, you know. The usual megalomaniac claims. Eventually, I guess, he just wanted people to pay attention to him. And he got his wish. You've gotta be a big psychopath to kill even one person under a truce. I don't think even Fisherman would do stuff like that." Nikai finished.

"So it's settled?" Ender asked. "We're going there tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" Nikai choked. "We need to go now!"

"Nikai, you don't expect us to keep chasing after Fisherman until we collapse of exhaustion?" Durham asked Nikai.

Nikai threw his hands into the air. "So then are we going to sleep and let Fisherman escape?"

Seu sighed. "You both have a point, but I think we should rest, seeing as we're all tired. And besides, with our leader unconscious we can't really do much in our own."

"He's not even the leader," Nikai grumbled. "Sera just appointed him as the temporary leader because she liked him. And I'm older."

"That's quite enough," Orca warned. "You know Sera, while she can be…eccentric, knows what she's doing. She appointed the best person for the job, which is Dan. Now. Everyone should shut up and go to sleep."

Nikai grumbled a bit more, but when there were no more objections Orca said brightly, "Alright, that's settled. Everyone, go to sleep."

We all laid down on the ground or on a log, and soon, most of us fell asleep. I could even hear Nikai snoring.

I stared at the night sky for a long time before going to sleep. I had a lot on my mind.

A chapter that doesn't end in a cliffhanger? What a surprise!

Anyways, I was really close to not reaching the upload date on this one, considering I uploaded this at 10 P.M. in the night. This was a pretty long chapter, which I hope makes up for the times I haven't uploaded.

Anyways, have a great Halloween!

Krios