During the day, Sjin quickly built the stands for food, dessert, drinks, and all the other good stuff. Before the day was over, he grabbed a sack of wheat from the storage to feed Baby Sips and his family.
"Hey, little guy, how's it going?" Sjin said as he closed the fence gate. Baby Sips looked up at him and headbutted the bag of wheat playfully.
"You hungry?" Baby Sips baaed loudly. "Yeah, I guess you are. Eat up!"
Sjin grabbed a handful of wheat and offered it to the lamb. He sniffed it and grabbed the wheat with his mouth, chewing hungrily.
Sjin petted Baby Sips while he ate and fed his parents too. "Man," he said. "Baby Sips, you are going to grow up to be a strong, handsome ram. Okay?"
The little sheep looked up and stared into Sjin's blue eyes. "Baa," he replied.
Sjin was suddenly struck by the cuteness of Baby Sips. "Aw!" He kneeled down and hugged Baby Sips' neck, not caring if he smelled like old grass. "You're so cute!"
"Baa!" Baby Sips cried out in alarm and tried to pull away. Sjin quickly released him from the hug.
"Heh heh. Sorry, Sips. Are you okay now? I'll leave this bag of wheat here so you can eat when you're hungry. I don't think I'll be coming back soon, so take care of yourself, okay?" Sjin set down the bag of grain at Baby Sips' feet and stood up. He smiled one last time at the small guy and closed the pen behind him.
When night fell, Strawfingers came over and escorted Sjin back into the Nether. "So," he hissed. "How are the buildings going?"
"It's going fine, but I need a bit more time… My buildings aren't exactly how I wanted them to be, since I didn't have as much time as I wanted to." Sjin glared at Strawfingers.
The evil scarecrow just shrugged. "Make do with what you have."
Sjin rolled his eyes. "Jeez, why do you want to blow up everyone I care about just because I made you my scarecrow? It's a little extreme, don't you think?"
Strawfingers didn't reply. Instead, he shoved Sjin through the Nether Portal and jumped in after him.
Sjin entered the top of the tower and was relieved to find Kim still standing next to the fencepost. Strawfingers tied the ropes around Sjin's hands and slapped him with his scarecrow hand before he left.
"Ow! That jerk…" Sjin muttered. "Kim, can you get me out?"
"Jeez, what did you say to him?" Kim asked as she hacked through Sjin's bonds. "Did you insult him or something?"
"No, I just asked him why he wanted extreme revenge. He didn't say anything though." Sjin stood up and rubbed his wrists to get the blood flowing again. "Let's get our gear on and go and meet Duncan and Rythian at the storehouse."
"Yeah. God, this is so intense," Kim said as she pulled on her diamond boots. "I just hope that those two made it here."
"I just hope Duncan managed to persuade Rythian to leave Zoey for a short time and come here. Those two know more about forcefields than me."
"Forcefields? What do they have to do with the TNT?"
"Well, if we create a forcefield around the bombs, we can detonate them without harming our farms. The TNT will explode inside the forcefield and not everywhere else, yeah?"
"Hm… okay. So did you tell Duncan to bring his equipment?"
"No, he can use my materials. It'll be alright. I don't want him to be using his resources to help me. I have enough resources for him to do his things."
Sjin fitted on his diamond helmet and looked at Kim. "You ready?"
His apprentice nodded. "Let's do it!"
"Alright, we need to be sneaky…" Sjin whispered as they sneaked down the stairs. "I don't know where Strawfingers is, but we can't let him see us."
The two farmers stayed silent as the two of them noiselessly climbed down the stairs. It seemed like the whole Nether was holding its breath until the two made it to the ground floor, safe and undetected.
"Coast is clear, let's make a dash for the Portal!" Sjin ran to the black structure in the distance. Kim followed close behind. Together, the two ran straight into the swirling purple smoke in the Portal and warped back to Sjin's farm.
xxXxxXxx
Duncan flew as fast as he could to Rythian's temporary desert home. He had no idea how he was supposed to tell the Mage about the farmer's dilemma, and how to persuade him to leave Zoey for a night and help the man who he had such a long grudge on. Hopefully Rythian made a truce with him like he did with the scientist.
As Duncan flew closer to his destination, he could see the walls and the dim lights of the enclosed village.
"Whoa!" The scientist rolled over in midair to dodge an bullet that had whipped past him. He quickly spotted the source of the flying projectile. Teep the dinosaur was holding up his sniper rifle, aiming at Duncan.
"Hold up, Teep! I'm here to talk to Rythian, not make any trouble. Don't worry." Teep still looked suspicious and kept his weapon trained on Duncan as he landed in the middle of their base camp. Rythian looked up from the crafting table in the corner to see what was going on. His eyes widened at the sight of the trespassing scientist.
The Mage charged at Duncan with his Thaumium Sword. The scientist held up his arms and started to explain, but not before Rythian tackled him to the ground.
"Hey, Rythian! What are you doing!? I thought we had a truce to not hurt each other!" Duncan struggled under Rythian's grip, but the persistent Mage held tight.
"What are you doing here!?" He growled. "How did you find out our location?"
"Look, I knew where you were all along, okay!? I'm not going to tell you how I know, but I'm here to tell you something really important!"
"What do you want? I thought I told you the last time we met to get out of my sight! I want to live a peaceful life with Zoey and Teep, and not deal with you ever again!"
"I know, I know! I wouldn't come here unless it was an emergency! Sjin's farm is jeopardized and so is his life!"
Rythian stopped struggling with Duncan for a moment and glared down at him. "That's it? Can't the guy take care of his own problems?"
Duncan stared back at Rythian. "You don't understand. Sjin's scarecrow went rogue and set tons of TNT under his farm. There's also a 99.9% chance that he got a few nukes down there too. Sjin told me to get you so we can help him with the problem."
"Why would he need me? Wouldn't you be enough?" Rythian narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"You have a lot of experience with science, even though it's a bit rusty. I think Sjin's got a plan up his sleeve. We need to help him! Plus, maybe this would make us trust each other a bit more."
"But I can't just leave Zoey and Teep alone. They need me." Rythian glanced at Zoey, who was tinkering with her robo arm and humming a tune to herself.
"It's just one night, Rythian. Zoey's an adult, she can take care of herself!"
"She's a very childish adult then!" Rythian snapped. "She always gets into some sort of trouble every time I turn my back on her."
"Who is a childish adult?"
Rythian and Duncan looked up to see a disapproving Zoey. She crossed her arms and smirked at the two.
"Wow, um, are you guys gonna stay like that forever?"
Rythian looked down and noticed that he was still on top of Duncan and blushed slightly. He quickly stood up and brushed the sand off his robes.
"Sorry," he muttered.
The scientist stood up and rubbed his wrists. "No problem." Then he turned his attention to Zoey. "Zoey! You have to tell him to go with me! Sjin's farm is in danger because an evil scarecrow is going to blow it up with nukes!"
Zoey's smiling face turned serious almost immediately. "Sjin's farm is going to be blown to pieces by a nuke!? Hurry, Rythian! You have to go and save it! I can't let another nuke go off… but every time I get close to one or a blast site, bad memories come back…. Please! Rythian! Do it for me! Don't let another nuke blow off!"
Rythian still looked uncertain, but he relented. "All right, fair enough. How are we going to get there in time though?" he asked. "I lost my Swiftwolf's Rending Gale and all my other magic stuff a long time ago, and it's going to take a long time to walk to Sjin's farm…"
Now it was Duncan's turn to smile. "Don't worry, pal, I've got you all covered." He retrieved an extra jetpack out of his bag and handed it to Rythian. "Here. We should leave as soon as possible."
"But, Zoey-"
"I can take care of myself," Zoey interrupted him. "I have Teep, and I can fight. Besides, the two people who were trouble for us before will be miles away!"
The Mage sighed. "Just… take care of yourself, okay? I won't forgive myself if anything bad happened to you. I'm supposed to protect you."
"And you are, but not right now. You need to help the people who need you. I promise I will be safe, okay?" Zoey smiled at Rythian. "Go kick some scarecrow butt."
"Alright, Zoey. Be careful. Duncan, let's go." Rythian strapped on his jetpack and the two flew off to Sjin's farm under the cover of the night.
xxXxxXxx
Sjin and Kim tumbled out of the Nether Portal together. "Ow…" Kim mumbled as she rubbed her head, which had hit the side of the Portal when they ran through.
"You okay there?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. The diamond helmet absorbed most of the damage."
Sjin walked outside and scanned the skies. He expected Duncan and Rythian to make an appearance in the sky soon, or else there was a better chance he and Kim could be found out. If Strawfingers wasn't in the Nether, then he was definitely in this world, probably up to no good.
"Look, there they are!" Kim pointed upward. In the distant night sky appeared two rapidly approaching characters, one with a bright white lab coat and googles, another with mystical robes and a black mask.
"That's Rythian and Duncan all right," Sjin nodded. He was quite impressed that the two came together. He wasn't even sure if Rythian would agree to come in the first place. "Let's go and meet them at the storehouse then."
The farmer and his apprentice ran to meet the scientist and mage at the farm storage house.
"Hi guys!" Kim waved at the two as they descended. "Thanks for coming!"
"Yeah, uh, no problem," Rythian said. He looked at Sjin. "What's going on?"
"Well, do you remember seeing a scarecrow in my wheat field the last time you came here?"
Rythian thought for a moment, then he nodded. "Yeah, it was purple."
"Well, that scarecrow came to life and wants revenge. According to Kim, he put a lot of TNT under my farm, and he holds a remote control, which probably means that he put nukes under there too."
"Oh… wow." Rythian sucked in some of the crisp night air. "So what are we going to do about it?"
"We build a forcefield around it and detonate the nuke inside the forcefield. Then we can collect the TNT so it won't blow. Done deal." Duncan shrugged. "Won't be too hard."
"Okay, so do you need some stuff for the equipment? I have materials in my chest," Sjin offered.
The scientist shook his head and smiled. "I brought everything already. Just lead us down to the nukes and I'll set up everything there."
"Yeah, let's go." The group followed Sjin to the site of the Sjindig. Rythian and Duncan stopped several times along the way to comment at the farmer's progress.
"Wow, you expanded a lot man. Good job."
"Those are some nice trees you got there. Very nice."
"Those are some pretty cool buildings, Sjin, but don't you think you could've done better?"
"Hey, I only got three days to build everything! I was rushed! I'll make them better once all this is over. Alright, here it is." Sjin stopped everyone at a small patch of ground.
"Is it underground?" Rythian guessed.
"Yeah, here it is. It should be right… here." Sjin scooped up the dirt to reveal a long, massive hole in the ground. Everyone peeked over the side. Already, they could see several blocks of TNT at the bottom.
"Yup, this is the hole… with a shit ton of TNT." Duncan whistled. "Alrighty, let's get down here. Anyone got any ladders?"
"Yeah, I've got some," Kim said. She brought out a long rope ladder from her bag and passed it to Duncan. He then secured one end to a nearby fencepost and flung the rest down the hole. It stopped short halfway.
"Um, we might need to drop down a little," Duncan said. "Shouldn't be too hard, right? I mean, you two have diamond armor, and Rythian has some iron armor."
"Yeah, let's go," Sjin agreed. "We don't have that much time anyways, so let's hurry." He led the group down into the depths of the TNT hole.
A/N: Sorry for being so late with the new chapter! School and other stuff... anyways, I'm back and I have an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! There are three endings to this story. It isn't something that I would normally do, but I thought out three seperate endings, one being the REAL ENDING. And to go about these three endings, I thought we might do a little choosing. Red or Blue! Make your descision in the reviews section, and after three days I'll tally them up and write the endings! We're getting close to the end, guys! Strawfinger's motives and all will make sense soon!
Havs, out!