~Chapter 2: When Squids Talk~

Miki huffed as she collapsed on the bed. She had traveled across the desert in an easy day because it was small. Though what she came upon was a rainforest and a savanna. Both had their perks and drawbacks. Rainforests held a lot of shelters but were rather hard to traverse whereas plains had little shelter but were easy to traverse. In the end, she sheltered in a jungle tree for the night and started again in the morning across the plain.

What she hated about plains was the lack of trees and thus the lack of wood. She always kept a bit on her so sometimes she could build a small wood shack but if she lost track of time she resorted to a small hole dug into the ground. Now she had come to this mountainous area, one a bit like her own home but with more lakes. The first one, and the one she was beside was large and seemed perfect. She planned to spend the night there, catch some fish, and then continue. Her shelter was a smallish wood shelter with a single window, her crafting table, furnace, and a bed; all with little space between. She had collected fish to keep her going for at least a week; not factoring in the rest of her supplies. Finally she could watch a sunset, the first in days, without fear of not being able to keep safe during the night. Though, as soon as the sun's brilliant rays left the sky, she turned in.

She stared at the ceiling as sleep took her into its embrace, and asked herself, "Will I ever find somewhere like home?"

The morning came swift and what came after was even swifter and that was her packing up. She strode away with a last glance at the lake and smiled. With a few more mountains and maybe a waterfall or two, it would be just like home.

She barely even walked for ten minutes until she came upon another water expanse. She looked across it, and seeing no other side, assumed it was the ocean, but when she walked around its edge she found it was a colossal lake! She grinned. If there was a bit more civilization about she would consider building here. It wasn't like her original home but it was a lake circled by mountains. She sat by the edge and peered into the lake. She could barely see anything except squids. She commented, "More squids. They're everywhere, aren't they!"

She sighed and looked to the sky to see it wasn't even noon yet. She smiled until something grabbed her leg and jerked her into the lake. She screamed as she came up for air, sputtering, "A-ah!"

She used her free foot to stamp on the slimy thing that coiled around her foot and after a few of these stamps, it let her free. She scrambled to the bank as the lake exploded behind her. She turned to see, a gigantic squid, flailing it tentacles about and muttering incoherently. She stared at it for a minute, her mind still processing the phenomena of a giant squid. It turned its head, looked at here and after a few seconds started to chant, "HEY. HEY. IMMA SQUID. SEE? SEE? IMMA SQUID. ARCHER GIRL. ARCHER GIRL. SQUIDSQUIDSQUID. "

Miki scowled and stated, "And you're annoying. Since when did squids become giant talking annoyances?"

The squid glared at her, which didn't go anywhere since it's eyes re-crossed. It continued, "SINCE THE CREEPER MAN DID THIS TO ME. HE TOLD ME ONE THING BUT IT WAS CONFUSING. HE SAID TO ENACT MY REVENGE OF THE COMMANDER OF THE SHIPS OF THE SKY. THE ONE WHO KILLED MY PARENTS. AND MY FRIENDS. AND MY ACQUAINTANCES. AND MY GRADE-SCHOOL TEACHER. TEAR HIS ARMY APART HE SAID."

Miki stared at the ground, "The creeper man? Israphel?"

The squid answered, which was the last thing Miki wanted, "YES. ISRAWHATEVER. HE ALSO SAID TO ELIMINATE ANYONE WITH THE SYMBOL OF ANY ENEMY ORGANIZATION. YOU. YOU HAVE A SAPLING SWIRL. I WILL OBEY!"

The squid slammed a tentacle and used another to grab the archer and fling her into the air. Miki screamed until she landed, gladly and angrily into the lake. Gladly because she would have no broken bones but angrily because there was no way of escape from the squid. She fought her way to the surface where she screamed, "This swirl! It's just something I put on here when I was young!"

Squid didn't seem to hear, or care, as it dragged her yet again into the depths. Desperately she grabbed one of the tentacles and bit it. As planned, it released her and she swam to the surface and to the bank as fast as she could. She jumped to the bank gratefully, took her bow off and notched a bow on the string. Miki then ,wildly, let it fly at the squid where it embedded into its slimy flesh. Though the arrow did not affect the squid and Miki growled, "A waste of good arrow! Perhaps my diamond dagger will prove useful."

She got her dagger made for the sole reason she found herself in hand-to-hand combat too often. She stared at the blue blade and jumped away as another tentacle slammed just a foot in front of her. Another coiled itself around her and attempted to drag her into the lake again. She stabbed it with the dagger which caused it to recoil and release her. She turned and ran but something shiny distracted her attention. She stopped and looked into the sky to see a magnificent, why she'd even call it majestic, golden ship overhead. It was mostly gold but had accents of glass, spruce wood and the occasional iron. She could only stare and wonder...who in the world would spend the time getting that much gold to make a fully functional airship! That is until, a rope dropped from the ship and she heard someone yell what sounded like, " Come on!"

She wasted no time in eagerly grabbing the rope and scaling it. The ship was colossal and it look like it would have taken HUNDREDS of people to have built it. When she got to the top a boy met her, a boy about her age, in a gray and black uniform with shaggy red-black hair. He pulled her up and immediately asked, "Your name and weapon, ma'am."

Miki muttered quickly, "Miki and I'm an archer! Who are you?"

The boy raised his hand to her lips and answered, "Questions later. Action now. It dangerous to go alone. Take this." and handed her a golden sword.

Miki looked at it and stated, "This is a golden sword. What am I supposed to do with a GOLDEN sword."

The boy leaned towards her and growled, "IT. IS. BUTTER."

Miki rolled her eyes and held the sword out. That is until a shrill scream startled her. She looked up just in time to see a red-haired girl dragged off the ship by a sinister blue-black tentacle. After a shocked silence, screams broke out of "Recruit!" and " Carina!".

The boy didn't speak but sprinted to the mast of the ship, Miki following. He literally punched the button on it and screamed at the speaker there, "Commander! The situation has worsened!"

Suddenly they heard a door slam open and someone jump down stairs. Emerging from the stairs was a young man, with the same outfit as the others on the ship, a gold-and-purple amulet that most of the others also shared, and a pair of sunglasses. He strode down the ship towards the boy and asked, "How so, Recruit Darren?"

Darren shook his head as he muttered, "It got Carina."

It was hard to tell the Commander's expression because of his sunglasses but his frown made it very clear; he was not pleased. He looked at Miki and asked, "Who exactly are you?"

Miki stuttered, "I'm Miki and I'm an archer. That s-squid attacked me. And...it talked! That's..that's...abnormal!"

The man turned around and touched the hilt of his sword that stayed at his hip. He said, "Just a normal day for the Sky Army. Not the loss of a recruit though. Guys! We have to kill that damn squid!"

Miki muttered, "Sky Army? Would that mean you're THE Commander Sky?"

The Commander turned around again and nodded and addressed the army, "Usual plans! You distract it and I'll fly in with my jetpack for the killing strike! Get the parachutes!"

Darren turned to her and gave her a parachute. He then said, "Parachute down with us. I'll give you a boat too. Just spawn the boat and help us hack and slash that squid to pieces!"

Miki accepted the boat with glee and said, "Gladly!"

She jumped off the majestic ship with a running leap, and ,after activating the parachute, she glided into the water. She put her boat on the water and headed full speed ahead towards the beast. She noticed a lot of other recruits with boats using their swords to slash at the squid and its tentacles, coloring the water black like squid blood. She also noticed Commander Sky flitting around with his jetpack, gold sword sparkling.

She looked to see Darren drift up beside her. He stared at the squid and stated, "Something is wrong. It's entirely focused on the Commander. So much it doesn't seem to care how much it decapitated. This isn't right."

Miki replied, "Maybe because Israphel did this to him."

Darren's eyes grew wide, "Israphel? The Dark Lord of Minecraftia?"

Miki shrugged, "I can only assume."

Darren gave a toothy grin as he exclaimed, "Then let's destroy the greatest evil known to Minecraftia! One that has been further tainted by another great evil!" and urged his boat on faster.

Before he got close, he yelled to a group of recruits, "We need to reverse the roles!".

Miki followed him and they got the squid. It didn't seem to register anyone but Sky, who it was trying to ensnare in its tentacles. They were able to come straight to the squid's main body and it not even care, Miki grinned a devilish grin and stabbed the creature but it didn't register a response as its life blood spurted out. Miki blinked and her grin widened as a plan developed in her head. She drew her diamond dagger and stabbed the squid again. She then began to climb up the squid using her blades for support. She scaled to its crossed eyes. She held the sword and dangled by just her dagger as she contemplated her plan. Darren yelled, "What are you doing, archer girl!?"

She yelled back, "Probably something stupid." and thrust the sword into the cephalopod's eye.

At once the creature went into a spastic fit, arms flailing and it's mouth screaming. It didn't even realize that Sky had zoomed down to its area of where it's heart was and gave the killing blow. The squid sunk as its movements slowed and stopped yelling. The entire group there watched until the hulking body was out of sight and their commander had given the order to go to shore and that he would land the ship.

At the shore Miki asked Darren, "Will you tell me everything on the ship?"

Darren eyed her, her clothes stained black and her face smeared with the squid's ink-blood. He answered with a grin, "After you get washed off!"

AN: This is basically where the story actually takes off! This one IS a bit longer than the other chapters. Also if you didn't notice, I tweaked the summary and added a cover. A bigger version can be found on my Deviantart: SSJWildcat. Read and Review!