Chapter 9: Clue= Whodunnit?
Deci's POV:
"WHAT!?" Deci said, startled. "But… I thought that—"
"Deci, I don't really know what your parents, your mob parents that is, told you, but there are SEVERE penalties for mobs becoming involved with Players," Crys said, sighing again as she resumed walking away, "The majority of mobs are still angry at Players, and at this point it's like they've forgotten what they're even fighting for."
"But—" Deci mumbled, still shocked, "How could they even have known? Nobody EVER visited our cave!"
Crys turned, her violet eyes staring into Deci's.
"That's actually a very good question. Perhaps that's what we should begin by asking," she muttered. "Follow me. We're going to make a quick detour."
Crys changed her direction to the right, and began confidently walking through the edge of the forest, Deci, Flynt, and Zach trailing close behind. Zach scuttled up Deci's leg, before perching on her shoulders, getting comfortable.
"Where are we going?" Deci finally asked, holding Zach's feet to keep him from falling backwards off her shoulders.
Crys answered without turning back. "To find information. Whoever reported your parents had to know where the nearest mob of authority might be located, which means…"
"… That they had to know where the high-council of mobs are currently stationed?" Deci said, gasping. "Crys, you're a genius!"
Crys glanced at Deci over her shoulder. "Er, thanks."
They began walking again, but it wasn't long before Crys leaned over towards Deci again.
"Deci," she said softly as they walked. "We're going to a Witch's hut. She's going to attack you and Flynt on sight. Have you ever met a Witch?"
"No," Deci said, frowning. "Are they really that bad? We can't try to reason with her first?"
"We can try, and who knows? Maybe she'll listen. But more than likely, she'll ignore the fact that we don't have any mobs with us and just start hurling potions at us," Crys whispered back. "I want you two to stay out of sight until I give the all-clear once we get there."
Deci nodded. "Will you be all right?"
Crys nodded. "Witches aren't much of a threat for me. But just stay out of the way, okay?"
"Okay," Deci said again.
For a moment, there was silence again.
"So, how far is it to this Witch's hut?" Deci asked.
"Wicket prefers to live, for reasons beyond my comprehension, in the SwampLands far west of here. Maybe, a day of walking? Two days? Something like that."
Deci nodded. "So you've been there before?"
Crys glanced back at Deci over her shoulder. "What makes you think that?"
"Well, you called her by her name, know where she lives, and you know enough about her personality to know that she prefers the west Swamplands," Deci said nonchalantly. "By definition, that would mean that you've at least met her before. Long enough to know her personally, to an extent."
Crys said nothing, only made a low noise in the back of her throat as she glanced at Deci with only a hint of being mildly impressed. Flynt sped up, catching up to walk with Deci and Crys.
"I'm sorry, but did you two mention something about 'Witch huts'? Why are we visiting Witches?"
"Crys said that we need to find the information about who reported my parents, and she thinks that this Witch, Wicket, might know the answers," Deci shrugged.
Flynt bit his lower lip. He didn't want to have to deal with Witches…
Deci noticed his expression before he could hide it. "Flynt? Flynt, what's wrong?"
Flynt tried to make his face placid again, but obviously it was not fooling Deci. Deci stared at him as she walked backwards, somehow managing to follow Crys perfectly without needing to watch where she was going. Flynt sighed a little.
"Adam mentioned once that he specializes in speaking the other languages of Minecraft. That's his Admin thing. But he also mentioned that he and I got into a pickle once, and his Admin powers were not particularly helpful to us. It involved a thunderstorm, and a lot of Witches. Since then, I just can't look at Witches the same again."
Deci gave Flynt a sympathetic look.
"If it helps, Crys wants us to wait on the sidelines while she does something or other," she said.
"Yeah," Flynt said a little sheepishly, "That does help. Thanks, Deci."
Deci beamed. "You're welc—"
"SHH!" Crys suddenly said, freezing in place. Her hand was up in the air to motion them to pause for a moment.
Deci and Flynt followed suit. Nobody in the small party of four almost dared to breathe, as they waited for what Crys had to say.
Crys suddenly glanced towards the left. "They're close," she quietly whispered to Deci and Flynt, as she quietly drew her knives. "But I can't tell why they've stop—UH!"
Deci sensed the arrow before she saw it. She pulled out a shield, trying to block it, but the arrow lodged itself in Crys's arm. Crys grimaced and pulled the arrow out quickly. But as she pulled the tip out, glyphs began to flow off of the tip of the arrow, covering Crys's skin in a glowing translucent frame.
"I hate spectral arrows," Crys growled, "A coward's tool for tracking. Come on, they won't be far behind."
With that, the four of them began rushing through the forest at a much faster pace than before. As they ran, Deci sensed more incoming arrows. She grabbed Flynt's hand, and held on to Zach with the other. Flynt glanced at Deci for a moment as she popped a quick Ender Pearl into her mouth.
"Deci, what ar—" Flynt began, but suddenly he found that they were all three blocks to the right, just as five arrows landed with a thud where they had been running only a moment ago. Crys glanced to her side to see Deci teleporting to avoid the arrows.
"So you found out what the Ender Pearls can do, have you?" Crys laughed as she ran. From her inventory she pulled an Ender Pearl of her own. "Personally, I can't get enough of them either."
With that, Crys popped an Ender Pearl of her own in her mouth and suddenly she was all over the place. Teleporting much faster than Deci ever had, and much more randomly. Suddenly she was in a tree. Then she was on the ground, running the wrong way. Then she was halfway up a trunk, but before she hit the ground she would teleport again.
It was only after Crys vanished out of sight that Deci realized what she was doing. Sounds of surprise came moments later as Deci assumed Crys was fighting the Players. She let go of Flynt's hand, and quickly took Zach off her shoulders.
"You two stay here for a second, okay? I'll be right back," Deci said, before teleporting off to help Crys.
Flynt stared at the baby zombie on the ground, who stared back at him. It was a weird experience to have a zombie not attacking him.
Meanwhile, Deci was teleporting through the thick forest, searching for the sounds of Players. She was getting close. She could feel Crys's constant use of teleportation on the waves of the End Force.
Deci teleported into a clearing, her trident already in one hand and her diamond sword in the other. She hurled the trident at the first Player she saw, who yelped and dove for cover behind a tree. She swung her sword at another Player who was charging forward, who blocked with his own blade and began to commence swordplay with Deci. The other Player was good. Deci was fueled with the End Force. It was a quick fight. Deci turned to face the next Player.
That's when she saw Crys fighting. Crys was everywhere, stabbing quickly with her twin curved daggers, before teleporting away again. Occasionally one of the Players would get a good stab in her, or hit her with an arrow, and she'd growl in pain. But she didn't stay down.
Soon, all the Players were either disappearing in puffs of smoke, or already running back to the town. Crys grimaced as she pulled out two more arrows. She looked helplessly at the wound running out of her arm.
"Ugh, what am I supposed to do with that?" she said to nobody in particular, scowling at the blood running down her arm.
Deci walked over and took a look. The wound was rather large, and bleeding somewhat quickly.
Deci took her sword and cut a small corner of her shirt off. "Here, press this over the wound until it stops bleeding. First town we come across, we'll try and get some healing supplies."
Crys glanced over at Deci, gazing between the rag of cloth in Deci's hand and Deci's face. After a moment's hesitation, she took the rag and gently pressed it to the wound. After a moment, Crys began to more eagerly staunch the wound.
"You say you grew up with mobs?" Crys asked, raising an eyebrow at Deci.
"I did," Deci said, glancing back at the direction she had come. Flynt might be worried, she'd have to return to him soon to tell him it was all right.
"Where did you learn how to heal?" Crys asks. "The only mobs that practice healing are the Witches, and you don't strike me as having been raised by Witches."
"I wasn't raised by Witches, but I learned from trial and error," Deci said. "Living in a world of mobs, a Player's gonna get hurt. I found out that the simplest way to heal was time, rest, and having enough food on hand. But then I started to experiment a little more, and so I just… learned."
Crys shrugged. "Okay. Suits me."
"What about you?" Deci asked. "You strike me as someone knowledgeable in all things fighting. How do you not know how to heal?"
"I'd rather not say," Crys said, turning and beginning to walk back towards the direction she had originally been going.
"C'mon, I won't laugh. Promise," Deci said.
"I don't think you would laugh," Crys says over her shoulder. "And that's not the issue. But like I said, I'd rather not talk about it anymore."
"Well, can you wait a second for me to get Flynt?" Deci asked. Crys stopped walking, but did not turn around. "Thanks."
Deci vanished. Crys knew she would be back, and would invariably want to know more about the mystery woman who was helping her. She glanced at the starry night sky that she was more than familiar with. Absently, she fingered the two daggers sheathed in her belt.
"What have I just gotten myself into?" she whispered into the night sky.
Ender's POV:
Swirling, unconscious blackness. Not unfamiliar, but not quite comfortable either. What was this place? Where was I? What happened?
Suddenly, I remembered. Deci was supposed to keep watch. For some reason, she wasn't there when the Mob Officials came into the cave. Though I was worried sick about where she was, I tried to play it cool and deny that she was living with us. I couldn't very well stop them from noticing the fifth room in the cave, however. The one with a crafting table.
Held at arrowpoint, and manacled by my own brothers and sisters of the End, I, along with Crea, Bones, and Zoe, were led away from our home. None of us knew where Deci was. The mobs didn't seem to have her, but then again they were all stoic. Expressionless.
I knew what the sentence for interacting intelligently with a Player was: death by execution. The High-Council of Mobs would convene to decide our fates, and that would be that. I didn't see any clever solutions to the problem before us.
My eyesight returned, and I opened my eyes. We were in a dark place. I couldn't see, but I could sense my surroundings. A cave; a deep one, to be precise. I didn't have our exact bearings, due to my previous unconsciousness.
"Ender, thank Notch you're up!" Zoe said to my left. Her tattered dress was even more shredded than normal. "Can you get any sort of reading on where we are? What building are we in? Do they have Deci? Can you sense where Deci is?"
"Whoa, slow down, Zoe," Bones clacked. His jaw creaked as I deduced he realized the situation we were in as well. "One at a time. Ender, can you tell us where we are?"
"I can only tell you the basic shape of the room we are in now. The outside must be covered with water or lava," I said. I couldn't sense things through things that flowed continuously. "The room we are in now is a square, with only two doors; one that we came through, and one in the ceiling."
"Do they have Deci?" Zoe asked.
"I—" I began, taking a deep breath. "I don't know. Like I said, I can't sense anything beyond this room."
I could sense the slight changes in Zoe's expression to horror.
"Can you maybe teleport out? Try to find a way to break us out?" Zoe asked again.
I shook my head. "I can't say for sure, but the mobs who took us would be feeling pretty stupid if they left us in a room without a way to catch any of us if we tried to escape. I'm guessing there are at least six Endermen guarding this cell."
Zoe slumped to the ground in defeat, rotten head in her hands. "Deci, my little girl…"
Crea walked over to Zoe, "I'm sure everything will be alright. The mobs will rule that we didn't have a Player in the cave at that time, and… I'm sure they'll let us out."
Bones, knowing that I could sense him in the darkness, slowly shook his head.
And I agreed.