I woke super early in the morning. The sun was just rising, but I was ready to go. But first, I had to take care of Sky. Now, what to do about him… and then it hit me. Sky has a private reading room that locks from the inside if you don't want to be disturbed. Perfect, I will tell him I'm spending the day there, and then I won't be bothered. When he first built the palace, he installed secret passages in case he ever needed to evacuate because of a surprise squid attack, but since I spend a fair amount of time in the map room, I just happen to know where all of those passages are. And one of them happens to lead out of that private library. Into the outskirts of camp. I am so smart. I threw my uniform into my backpack, and grabbed a bunch of books so it looked like I would be reading, and I darted down the hallway. Sky saw me running so fast and pulled me to the side. "Lia, where are you going?" "The reading room," I said with as much sincerity as I could gather. "Oh, well ok then. Will you be done by dinner?" he asked, and with a quick nod of my head I was dismissed towards the reading room. I entered and closed the iron door. I had broken the lever on the outside so I was locked in. Perfect. No windows and reading by the light of a torch, I put on my uniform, threw the books in a chest, and opened the trapdoor in the back of the book room connected to the reading room. I walked for a bit in the underground tunnel. It was composed of blocks I had never seen before, smooth stone laced with intricate patterns of butter. It was truly gorgeous, but I had to keep going. All recruits would be called to get up and report to the day's station, so I had to hurry. I opened up the trapdoor, and just as I moved the leaves back over it, the bell sounded throughout the camp, the pure note that signaled the start of the day. After 5 minutes recruits started filing throughout camp, creating the hustle and bustle of the Sky Army HQ. I pushed my way through the crowd, but it was nothing that any hardened recruit wasn't used to. I maneuvered through the crowd until I got to the meeting point, where I was met with the smiling face of Crispin, the mysterious one of Tobi, and a new, chipper face of a mystery girl. I walked up to the group, and I turned to the mystery girl, asking, "And you are?" Tobi piped up by saying, "This is my sister, Piper. Piper, meet Mari," he said, gesturing to the girl that stood before me. I had to say, she was very pretty. She had red hair and amber eyes, and she was a bit shorter than me. But when I say red, I mean like the color red. She wore the same hoodie and shirt, but she wore purple cutoff shorts, and purple sneakers. "Hi!" I said, than turned to Crispin. "So, what we got for today?" "Welp, looks like us two are headed to crafting with CaptainSparklez, while Tobi and Piper are going woodcutting with SetoSorcerer," he said, the signature goofy grin plastered on his face. "Well, better get goin, shall we?" I said, and we both made our way over to the sign in for crafting. "Name," a bored looking recruit said. "I'm Mari and this is Crispin." She scrawled each of our names on a nametag and handed them to us. We then proceeded over to the crafting hub, a giant butter building in the corner of camp. Pretty much anything you can imagine that needed to be made was made here. Plus, we will get to meet the famed CaptainSparklez! Meeting one of Sky's friends should be cool, except I will just have to be really careful. Being around my brother and only my brother, I may have picked up some of his mannerisms. That was what I was told when people still knew I existed, before Mom and Dad's death. They would say things like 'You're just like ya brother,' or 'You act so much like Sky,' or crap like that. Ugh. Anyway, Crispin and I made our way into the crafting hub. It. Was. Huge. And when I say huge, I mean like ginormous. Gigantor. Big. Wow. We walked around for a bit, until my klutziness got the better of me, and decided that I should go bumping into two people that may or may not have been transporting the friggin Ender Sword back to the armory after it had been repaired. "Wow Mari, wait to go," I heard Crispin whisper down at me under his breath, and I couldn't help but blush. I had just totally made a fool of myself. I looked up to see two pairs of eyes, one a light gray and the other a deep blue. It was at that exact moment that I realized the Ender Sword had been knocked into the crowd. Immediately I dove into the crowd, crawling on the floor, being kicked and smashed around until I found it, lying and being kicked around, similar to the way I was. I grabbed it with an iron grip and proceeded to go back the same way I came, being knocked around. At one point, someone managed to lodge their foot in my ribs, and I heard a sickening crack. But I had to get it back. After what seemed like an eternity I was faced with 3 familiar faces. Crispin bent down and helped me up, but I groaned in pain when he touched my rib. "What is it?" he asked, his voice practically coated in worry. "Some recruit has a pretty strong kick, cause I think I broke a rib," I said, but I had something else on my mind. I turned to the two boys, and held out the sword. "I think you were taking this somewhere," I said. "The sword! You got it!" the boy with the blue eyes exclaimed as he reached out to hold it. The one with the gray eyes threw me a smile, and said "Thank you for getting back the sword. Name's Wolf," he said, outstretching his hand, to which I took, and we shook hands the old fashion way. "And you are….." "Marianna, but call me Mari," I said. Now, it felt so natural saying that. Is that bad? Anyway, Wolf gestured towards the boy with the blue eyes and said, "And that is Sparklez." Oh Sparkl- WAIT DID HE JUST SAY SPARKLEZ. OH MY GOD I THINK HE DID. Wolf must of seen the shocked look on my face, for he quickly added, "Yes, the CaptainSparklez. So, ya working in crafting?" he asked, to which I replied, "I'm trying everything, so for the next week I'm in crafting." "Oh, cool, wanna hang with me and Sparklez?" he asked, and the first thing that went through my mind was what about Crispin. So that's what I said. Wolf immediately said, "Welp, if he wants to hang, he's more than welcome. Ya know what they say, the more the merrier," he said with a wink. He was nice, I guess I could consider him a friend. He was kind of tall, with light gray eyes and ender purple hair. He wore a reddish goldish shirt under a black trench coat. He wore black pants and black sneakers, and goggles sat atop his forhead. I tried to move, but clutched my side in pain. He saw where I was holding, and took out a potion of healing. Immediately I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I was able to straighten up. I quickly turned around and grabbed Crispin's wrist, and it was at that moment that he looked up from the floor and shot me a smile. He led me by the hand to where Sparklez sat, examining the sword. My guess was he was checking for damage, because Sky told me that it took Sparklez years to get that sword to perfection. With a sigh of relief he set it down beside him, and looked up at me. He had scruffy black hair and wore a tuxedo jacket over a white shirt. He had red sun glasses and a goatee, and he was kind of handsome. He was just like Sky said, but he forgot to mention that the Sky Army Emblem was on the pocket of his shirt. I also noted that Wolf had it plastered on the back of his trench coat. Hm. Interesting. "Hey, I realized I never introduced myself fully. I'm CaptainSparklez; I lead the Crafting Hub here at The Sky Army HQ." He outstretched a hand, and we shook. "I'm Marianna, but call me Mari." "Well Mari, I can't thank you enough for retrieving the Ender Sword. I don't know what I would have done if anything had happened too it. How can I ever repay you?" he asked, and I thought for a second. "Well, first off you can stop being so formal. Its ok, I don't judge. Secondly, just get me something to do. Cause I heard most crafters end up having to go farm materials instead, and I really don't want to do that. I am bad at that." I said, causing him to laugh. "Well, ok then. I can get you a job with Wolf and I, and your friend can come too," he said, and I sighed. Speaking of Crispin, I turned around to see him standing right behind me. Literally RIGHT behind me. Like, he totally scared the crap out of me. My hand went over my heart as I staggered backwards, catching my breath, bumping into Sparklez. "Sorry," I mumbled, totally embarrassed. But could ya blame me? I thought so. Anywayz, he laughed and said, "No problem. Now, we need to get the sword back to wear it belongs. The armory." And with that, we all set off towards the armory. I was sort of relieved that Crispin and Wolf were getting along, cause I kind of wanted to hang with Sparklez. Alone. But don't tell Crispin, cause I think he just might go all super older brother on me. So would Sky, but he can't know about this. Ever. Anyway, we walked for a while until we got to the armory. There, up real high, was the empty case where the Ender Sword sat. "Will you do the honors, m'lady," Sparklez half said, half giggled, while doing an over exaggerated bow. I laughed as I took the sword and climbed the ladder. I placed it in the case and just looked at it for a second. It swirled and moved like the void. It was truly beautiful, and it made me wonder what Sparklez had done to create such a masterpiece. 'I'll have to ask later' I thought as I climbed down. When I rejoined the group, they were all waiting for me. "Now, let's get to work!" Sparklez cheered, and me and Crispin exchanged a glance before letting out a hearty "HAZZAH!" Wolf just stood there, arms crossed, smirk as wide as his face, shaking his head back and forth. Crispin and I ran down the hallway, hooping and hollering the whole way, Sparklez close on our tail. Wolf was trying to catch us as we ran through the Crafting Hub. We were having a great time, until we ran into someone I wish that we hadn't. We ran into none other than my big brother Sky. Uh oh.

(CLIFFHANGER! WAHHH?! Now guys, I'm going to be SUUUPPPEEERRRR busy this weekend, so the earliest I will update is Monday. Now, it would make me soooo happy if you awesome dudes out there totally told all your friends about this story, so I can be greeted with some new dudes when I get back. It would be friggin amazing, but if you don't want to, I get it. Just sayin I would like be the happiest author on the palnet, and I might grant you with a bonus chapter of 500 words for each of my Minecraft stories if it happened. Also, if you like or even if you don't , leave a review to tell me what I'm doing right/wrong! I'm writing to please you guys, so if you're not happy, just tell me why! I want to hear from you guys, and I always answer PM's if not immediately definitely soon after. Also, suggest a story for me to check out, even if it is on your own, because I read all entries. Also, if it is yours and I like a character, I may just ask to use him/her/it in my story! Thanks to thewolfstar for submitting Wolf, and if you have a character you like and want to see in the story, leave a review. I accept all entries, even if they don't have a big part they are guarrenteed to be in the story. Here's the form:

Name-

Age-

Looks-

Personality-

Division (woodcutting, crafting, enchanting, parkour, archery, PvP, resource farming, regular farming, hunting, scouts, random etc.)-

OK guys, see ya Monday! :P )