Chapter 5
Scratches of a quill filled the room, I was writing a letter. I wasn't sure that the recipient was going to understand what it meant, but I had to try.
'Dear Steve, I hope that it's not too late...' Looking at the first line I sighed loudly and crumpled up the paper.
'This is urgent, RUN...' I let out a long breath, no this won't do either.
I don't even know if he's going to get this letter, maybe he has forgotten how to even read. The torch that was glowing on the wall was slowing burning to the base, if I was going to stay up any longer, it would mean changing the torch. Taken by fatigue, I scribbled a single 'run' and threw it out the window. I watched it get carried away by the magic of the server before falling asleep.
"Sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to leave so early." Steven was the first to arrive at the library after me. "I don't know what came over me." He said with a guilty smile.
"It's okay." I confronted him, Roth was doing the same by patting him on the back.
"As long as you're feeling better!" Abel came in during Steven's apology. Hughie and Jace not too far behind.
"I went and asked the old librarian if he could make out any words, but we still had to skip a few days. Here we go, Day 56
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'We went to visit Abbie again today. I can't believe this happened though.' As I tried to write what happened, tears clouded my vision, Abbie was like a big sister to us. She was the only feminine figure of our lives.
"We should get some sleep, there's a big trek over the mountain tomorrow." Steve passed me an apple and Axel a glowstone block. Ever since we found out what he ate, he seemed to be talking more and more.
"Good night." I said to no one in particular, I received a duo of "Night." and "Sleep well."
Day 57
'The trek over mount Neverest wasn't so bad, we're at the top right now. The view is simply stunning.'
I finished my diary entry just as the sun sank under the horizon. Clouds crashed into the mountain below us, just a few blocks above our heads is the building limit. We don't really have a destination anymore, it used to be Abbie leading us all over the place, now it's just pointless wandering.
"This would've never have happened if we never saw that necklace." Steve cursed under his breath as he punched the wall of our loge cabin.
"There's no point in beating yourself up about it." Axel said, he was curled up on the bed in the corner of the room.
"Axel's right." I pointed out, "Let's just head to the old shrine that Abb-" Steven shot me a glare, his voice had ever sounded so cold,
"Don't say her name right now."
"Sorr-"
"Don't apologise either."
I didn't know what to do. After spending half a day in silence, I decided to have a wander around the mountain peak. The snow was almost blinding, everywhere I looked, there was whiteness. I crunched around, not straying too far from the cabin. I counted my breaths to ten, stopped walking, looked back, changed directions so I was going in some form of a circle outwards and repeated this process until the cabin was a tiny speck in my vision before I headed back.
Click
I stumbled on a piece of string. A tripwire. The ground beneath me shook, I could hear blocks of TNT being set off. "Steve! Axel!" I sprinted towards the cabin, the sound of explosion grew louder as I ran, "Steve! Axel! RUN!" I shouted again. A puff of purple smoke and Axel was beside me with Steve holding onto his jacket.
"Ouch." Axel was hit by a block of stone that was sent airborne during the explosion. He fell face first onto the snow. "Steve, run!" I hefted Axel onto my back and tried running. I underestimated the EnderChild's weight and tripped after trying to sprint. Steve noticed that I wasn't keeping pace and ran back to my side.
At this point, an avalanche was making steady progress towards us. "Give him to me." Steve pulled me up quite forceful by the sleeve and swung Axel across his shoulder.
The rocks beneath our feet softened and collapsed. With one hand, Steve grabbed onto what remained of the now open chasm, his other arm was firmly grasping onto my shirt collar, I had to then grab onto Axel's hood.
"Let go Steve, there's a river down there. We'll make it." I shouted, Steve took one glance downwards and released his grasp on the cliff. As we fell, I noticed that the day was turning into night. The chasm would be very dark and mobs would start spawning if it isn't already infested with cave spiders and zombies.
The water, like the weather above ground, was absolutely freezing. Thankfully it wasn't too deep so getting out was not too much trouble.
"He's hurt pretty bad, I made some makeshift bandages so we need to get out as soon as possible." I patched up Axel's head as best as I could.
"If we follow the river, it should lead us somewhere."
We walked with me and Steve carrying Axel side by side. Strangely, nothing was spawning, we didn't come across a single mob. Walking a bit further, we met what might have been the explanation: torches littered the cavern walls. "Someone's been here reciently." Steve stated the obvious.
A deep rumbling echoed around the dark. "Well someone's hungry." I managed to joke,
"It wasn't me." Steve held up his free hand that wasn't supporting Axel.
"You don't suppose that there's some monster living here... Do you?" My mind raced to remember every fairytale that Abbie told us.
Another wave sent cracks down the floor, "We better not fall any deeper." Steve said, annoyed.
Crash
A wall of water blasted from the direction we were going, Steve reacted immediately and threw Axel onto his back, we ran back the way we came. Reaching the torch litter path again, we saw that it was blocked by white, fluffy snow. "It's no use!" I cried, my attempt at trying to shovel away snow resulted in more pouring in.
"We've got no choice." Steve sat Axel up by the cave's side and pulled me closer, "Give the amulet to me!"
"No! You saw what happened!" I shoved him away, I was now trying to blockade the incoming wave with cobblestone but the cavern was too big.
"We're not going to get out of this." Steve's voice became a harsh hiss.
"I'm not letting you end up like Abbie."
"We're ALL going to DIE!"
"You will DIE!"
"Then we'll use it together. Whoever comes to their senses first takes off the amulet off the other."
Nodding hesitantly, I pulled the amulet out by it's silvery chains. "Here." I wrapped the chains around our wrists and I grabbed Axel by the sleeve.
Concentrating on one thought, 'up', my right eye's vision went white. Steve's left eye had turned a glowing white with no pupils, I suspect that's why I lost my vision as well.
We nodded at each other, Steve blasted a hole in the ceiling while I levatated us up. As I did so, the cavern below became engulfed by blue rapids.
Steve formed what I think was the fourth fireball and shot it upwards, finally we hit light. We flew through the surface and crashed onto the snowy ground. Water erupted behind us in a cold geyser.
I ripped off the amulet from our wrists before my head started hurting. Steve was on his knees in pain. "You're alright now." I managed a small chuckle, 'that was way too close' I thought. Axel started stirring, in a way, I was glad that he was knocked out during all that. He would have never agreed to jumping into the river at the bottom of that chasm and walking down a dark cavern would have been like asking him to walk throught a lava lake.
"M...my head." Axel murmured,
"Ha, my head hurts a little too." Steve smiled, clearly he found the near death experience funny as well.
'Today, we nearly died... Now that's something you don't get to say everyday. We're still not sure what this amulet is capable of, wearing it for too long causes the user to lose control. Like... Abbie'
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"So that's what happened," Steven crossed his arms,
"Time really does fly when you're having fun." Hughie pointed outside, it was orange as the sun started sinking.
"We're nearly at the middle, I'll see everyone tomorrow. Same time." Roth got up and left. I also stood up, I had something to deliver after all.
Ethan was relatively easy to find, I just had to look for a clump of silver hair. "Here, a present." I found him near a tree, he was sat with a red, leather case book.
he took the box that I handed him and shook it, a small rattle could be heard. After opening it, he held up a blue note pad and a quill. "You won't have to write on the ground anymore."
'Thank you!' He took up the quill and wrote on the first line of the first page. The world of Minecraftia is a funny one, you could just aim a feather at paper and ink would appear. Throwing a written message in the air while thinking of a person's face would transport the message to that person.
'I will treasure it.' Ethan's handwriting was surprisingly neat, but then again, it wasn't that big of a surprise since he's had plenty of experience with writing.
"Bye... Then." I waved and left, it was a sort of awkward meeting, I didn't know what to say, a 'look after yourself' or 'stay well' might have been a hundred times better than my half-assed 'bye'... Oh well... Maybe I'll get another chance.