Chapter 9: Arc Finale

The Jewel of the Plains

BanjoNote: Hoooooooo! IT'S OVER! WE DID IT! The Road to Pillage Arc is over!Deep Breath - YEAH!

Two chapters in one day? Kudos to a friend who told me it was perfectly fine. This is what friends are for!

I don't want to keep you up. Let's start this chapter... with Athara!?

BanjoMano does not own Minecraft. Did you really think I did?

[Athara]

At least I slept.

I woke up on my extremely comfortable bed of leaves and twigs, brushing my shoulder-length hair out of my face. My clothes had taken a darker turn, more of a mahogany instead of a red. I switched my iron armour with a chainmail, as it allowed the most maneuverability. Looking below me, I saw the pillagers laying on the trees, sleeping still. I took out my dagger and leaped to the next tree, careful not to make a sound.

"Going somewhere?" Said a familiar voice.

Whirling around, I was looking at Aidan_Hei. I threw my dagger at him, but he quickly sidestepped the projectile. Picking it up from the leaves, he tossed it into the ground in front of me.

"You dropped this." He remarked, dry humor in his voice. I gave him a disgusted look and kneeled down to pick it up. "Aidan, why the fuck are you here?" I snarled, taking out my bow. He shifted his robe and sat down. How do the kids call it? Criss Cross Apple Sauce?

Kids are retarded.

"To be honest, I didn't even know you were up here!" He exclaimed. "I was looking for... what's her name? Alex? So, have you seen her?"

I nocked an arrow and held it to him. "I'm not telling you shit, Aidan. This ended at Quersit, and you're lucky I didn't nail you in the neck with an arrow back then."

"Ah yes... Quersit. A shithole, if you ask me. It really did deserve to burn down, in my opinion."

"Where is Redonath?" I pushed, advancing with the bow still ready. "I see you aren't following him like a dog still."

He shrugged, a weird postion in a cloak and sitting like a kindergartener. "I mean, he's busy in Anaklos. Y'know, with the master coming back and all. You could come with me again. Just like old times."

"Ol-" I sputtered with anger. "WE NEVER KILLED ANYONE IN THE 'OLD TIMES', AIDAN!" I yelled. I let loose the arrow into his chest, which promptly made him fall over.

"Well," He coughed, and pulled out an arrow. "At least I tried. Good thing I have some minor powers from the Eldest."

Whipping my dagger out, I ran straight at him. He rolled to the right, and took out a sword. He raised it over his head, and swung it towards me.

[Alex]

"It's got to be in here somewhere..." Yara muttered to herself, angrily shutting the last door in the hallway. I pointed the opposite way.

"Well, if it is or isn't," I remarked. "Our destination is that way. So we should get moving."

Giving me a dark look, she stormed off in that direction. I resigned to follow her, though I had no intention in getting in her way.

We ran straight towards a dead end, and Yara swore worse then Samuel Jackson.

"FUCK!" She yelled, slamming her fist into a stone brick wall.

The sound echoed throughout the hallway, way louder then it should have. I looked around us, wondering what made the noise so loud.

Yara looked at me as if I had some sort of disease. "What's wrong? You look... unnaturally pale."

"I... do?" I wondered, looking at my arms. Sure enough, they were snow-white.

"Wha..." I began, but just then... pain.

I felt as if someome just stabbed my head with a white-hot spike. The crossbow fell from my hand, And I fell to a knee.

"Alex!" Yara ran up to me, panic in her eyes. Looking around, she tried to find whoever did this to me.

"No one's -" I winced, causing Yara's eyes to fall down to me.

Words started to float around my sight, and I started to take random words that I saw.

"Music of Thunder," I mumbled. "Heat of Flame."

She gave a concerned look, then realization shone in her eyes. "Alex! Keep speaking!"

"Mansion of Peace, One without Shame." I started to speak a bit louder. The more I spoke, it felt like someone was pushing the spike deeper, but I kept chanting words like there was no tommorow.

"Cowardice is Key," I looked up at Yara, who wrapped an arm to stabilize me. "Enter the Dark!"

She nodded, putting them to memory. "You got this. Just one more verse."

"Find the Gem!" I was practically screaming to hear the words over the sound of blood rushing through my body. "BREAK THE ARC!"

And with that, I collapsed in a heap, tears of pain gushing down my face. Yara brushed a tear away, shrugging as another one took it's place.

"I understand now." She muttered to herself. "You were the clue. Not some ancient tome."

I choked back the last of the tears and sat up. I still had a searing headache, but I managed to pull out the words "So what now?"

"Now... I guess we try to pull apart that prophecy." Yara pulled out a book and quill and wrote down the lines. Pausing at 'Shame', she looked at the verse and swore.

"Fucking Nether, it can't be." She rushed the rest of the book, signed her name on the cover, and stuffed it in her pocket. "I think I know where to go next."

Remembering the verses, I quoted myself. "Mansion of Peace? What the hell is that, though?"

She smiled, though it was a pained one. "I have to go to my brothers mansion. The BanjoManor."

[Gimero]

"Emeralds, please!" The guard at the gates called. "If you have no emeralds, then you cannot enter!"

"Bu- but I must be on the list!" One man argued at the beginning of the line. "Check the B's, I must be in the B's!"

"Pal," A female guard walked up. "You're obviously not in the list. The fee is but 5 emeralds, so pay up."

I frowned at that. "What list? Am I required to be on a list?"

A nearby man in line snorted. "If you want to get into town free, you can have an important person in town let you in. Hell, you can just have a Crafter tag you in, if you know one!" He laughed. "But no one here in line knows a Crafter."

Oh. Oh.

Where is Alex when you need her?

I stood in line for half an hour, waiting as people lied about knowing people in town or knowing a Crafter. One even claimed to be the 7th Crafter, Fade, before being told that Fade died decades ago.

That was a high bluff to pull.

Finally, when it came to my turn, the guard held up a book and asked, "Name?"

"I am Gimero, and this is Josie."

"I'M JOSIE!"

"Race?"

"Villager and Iron Golem."

"I'M THE IRON GOLEM!"

"Proffesion for the Villager?"

"Wandering Trader."

He looked up, adjusting his glasses. "Nice try. That's not a profession."

"Uh... it was added for the new update." I explained, and he nodded with understanding.

"Right on. Do you have any people you know within Lafor?"

I thought about that. "I'm meeting up with some friends. Athara, a human, and Alex, a Crafter."

He coughed, choking on saliva. "That's a tall tale. Athara? She's practically the most famous woman in Lafor. You're going to need some proof of that, and second of all, a Crafter!?"

"Alex is the 14th Crafter. We kinda got separated, after some..." I shuddered. Notch, even remembering the outpost gave me the chills. "...Events. Look, I can pay you -"

As soon as I took out my stack of emeralds, a man wearing complete black leather armour snatched it right out of my hands and ran towards the forest. Before the guards could react, an arrow pierced his leg and tripped him.

Athara stepped out of the forest, her bow raised. Picking up the stack of emeralds, she stepped up to me and handed it over. I took it gratefully, stuffed it in my backpack, and realized someone was missing.

"Where's Alex?" I asked. Athara sighed and shrugged.

"We got separated. The campfire we set up, for some reason, sent up a smoke plume."

"A-Athara! You know this young man?" The guard stumbled over his words. He quickly scurried something into the book and waved us through.

"And uh, Athara," He stopped her. "The inn is serving their special potatoes. They're using something called a steamer, and they taste positively divine!" His face went dreamy, then realized who he was talking to.

"Oh, uh... I'll get back to this."

She gave him a pained smile. "You'd better."

We walked into the city, which was just as impressive as the walls, maybe even more. The roads were made of stone bricks, well kept yet having a comforting rustic sense to them as well. The buildings looked like they came straight out of a fantasy world, with inn's and even a church to the Crafters. The Castle rose above the city, now even more imposing. I saw lime green banners with a head of a horse, the symbol of the plains of Morvin.

I looked at Athara. She was dirtier then the last time I saw her, and her clothes now were a darker colour. A scar lined the left side of her face, narrowly missing her eyes.

I began to twist the gold rings on each of my hands. "So... potatoes?" I asked, trying not to sound too wistful. "I haven't eaten anything good since... wow. Like, ever."

She sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you what happened, but you pay. Then we get to Sileeno; I have to talk to him about Alex."

[Athara]

I rolled to the right and kicked off the tree at the very edge of a leaves block, flipping up and around. I landed on another tree and fired an arrow at him, nicking his arm.

"Your aims gone sloppy, Athara!" He leaped at me, higher then what he should have been able to.

Landing right beside me, I twisted my body to avoid a fist. I stuck a leg out and swept it, knocking him on his face.

I stabbed a dagger in his back, jumping onto his back as he got up. Stumbling around like an oaf, he walked right off the tree. I leaped off his back and rolled, taking no fall damage due to feather fall.

"Equara, you're making this harder then it needs to -"

"DON'T CALL ME EQUARA!" I roared, charging at him. He swung his sword, cutting a gash across my face, but by that time I was intent on killing him.

I leaped towards a tree and vaulted off of it, reaching for my dagger that was stuck in his back. I felt my hands wrap around the hilt, and I ripped it upwards. Aidan grunted in pain and fell to a knee. I slid 5 blocks to his left, burning a part of my legs. I brushed off some grass stains and whipped my dagger at his neck. The second it connect, Aidan toppled over and disappeared.

I grabbed my dagger and some of his loot Picking up his head, I held it in my hand and said "My name is not Equara, bitch. I lost that name the second I joined the Greifers."

Stuffing it into my belt, I muttered to myself, "Redonath, you're next."

[Alex]

Yara helped me to my feet once I was able to stand. "I'm going to assume you're not coming with me." She presumed. I sighed and nodded.

"I promised some friends that I'd go to Lafor." I told her. Yara nodded and grabbed my wrist.

"What-" I started, but then the world went fuzzy and reformed.

We were in an alleyway, dark and alone. My body was practically see through, but I controlled my breathing, trying not to panic again. When I turned to Yara, I recoiled in shock.

Not only was she translucent, but I could see the faint outline of rapidly changing characters from a computer, like someone hacked into her system. She stood there, completely still, until the characters faded away and moved her arms.

"Sorry, I don't usually give people taxi rides." She gave me a grin. "I normally could've jumped ud here with no problem, but Crafters are problematic. Their code is built differently then... pretty much anyone else."

So this is Lafor? I thought to myself. "How long are you going to rest here?" I asked her, worried. "I don't think that traveling with a Crafter into a big city is a great idea."

"Maybe an hour, maybe two." She waved her hand. "Go on. Find a man known as Sileeno, he'll help you with your powers."

"Sileeno? Athara's husband?" I remembered the campfire. "I guess that's a good first place to look."

She smiled at me. "Well? Your long journey is hella long from being finished, but I can safely tell you that you're on the right track."

I gave Yara a last nod, and stepped out into the main road of Lafor.

BanjoNote: One of the shortest chapters yet, but two chapters in one day! What do you want!!

Sobs in a corner.

Anyways, the highlight of the finale is Alex's prophecy. For those of you who want it written down in a row, here you are:

Music of Thunder, Heat of Flame

Mansion of Peace, One without Shame

Cowardice is Key, Enter the Dark

Find the Gem, Break the Arc

I knew that there was going to be a prophecy, but I made that up on the spot. Pretty good, am I right?

...right?

Anyways, this week or next, I'm putting up the first three chapters of The Fall: An Update Story! In fact, here's a little clip from the first chapter!

Chapter 1: Chasing Waterfalls

The first sensation was falling.

The next sensation was realizing that I was, in fact, not falling.

I was three seconds into my life, and I was already confused.

The world was black. Darkness surrounded me, but I saw a palette of colours swirling around me. I turned my head, and they followed my gaze.

That's when I realized my eyes were closed.

I opened them.

Expecting an explosion of colours, I mentally prepared myself for a meltdown. Instead of colours, I was on top of a mountain. It was cold, and I shivered as I looked down the valley.

I was on top of a large mountain, a snow-covered stone valley stretching around me. A large boom! followed by an explosion of white snow. Frowning, I began to walk down the mountain before a question popped up into my head.

The hell is my name? I wondered. I stared into the snowy air, and I shrugged.

"First thing that pops to my mind'll be my name!" I proclaimed, then a voice called back at me.

Banjo...

Perfect.

Ah yes. Exactly how you choose names.

Next Chapter: The Engineer, The Merchant, and the Crafter! We start the Broken Arc!

Read, Review, Favourite and Follow! And, as always, Banjo-on!