Chapter 12: Cold Feet
It was getting too cold for comfort.
The group was trekking alongside a mountain, with Jewel still following the compass. It was so cold, they resorted to wearing leather armor to keep the heat. Iron and diamond got cold too easily. "Why isn't there snow?" asked Texik, his teeth chattering from the temperature. "Probably not cold enough," said Madison, too preoccupied with her own discomfort to snap at him. Eventually, the sky began to dim. "Oh no, it's gonna rain…" complained Madison. And it did. But the group continued walking through the rain, sloshing through the cold wet landscape.
That changed after they reached the proper elevation.
Jewel was the first to notice the rain wasn't hitting as hard. She looked up from her compass; white snowflakes were falling from the sky. Pickaxe's leather boots made a crunch in the snow. Everyone stopped moving. They looked around, surprised to find that they were surrounded by snow. Texik made a small gasp when he noticed what was in front of them. The plains ahead were entirely covered with snow.
They leapt toward the area with open arms.
The entire group was scattered about the landscape, jumping around like there was no tomorrow. They began breaking some of the snow layers for fun, only to discover that they dropped something… snowballs. They all had a gleam in their eyes. "SNOWBALL FIGHT!" yelled Madison, hurling one of the snowballs at Texik. It was on. Pickaxe was a pretty good shot from any distance. Jewel only managed to get a hit on him once. Poor Texik would've been buried in a mound of snow if snowballs could stack. The fight lasted into the night.
The tipped arrow made them realize their mistake.
Picaxe looked toward the horizon. There was a skeleton, only...it wasn't exactly a skeleton. It was covered in green rags. It's eyes were pure white. The arrows it shot were coated with dark pale blue liquid. "Tipped arrows of slowness…" Texik muttered, his face pale. The potion brought bad memories… And this skeleton had arrows tipped with them. Wait, skeleton wasn't the right word. "Strays," muttered Madison. "A rare breed of skeleton found in the icy biomes. They're arguably more dangerous than the originals-" Another tipped arrow a bit too close to the face ended her brief lecture. "Never mind that, shoot!" yelled Texik, randomly pulling out a bow.
Eventually, they took down the stray… only to be pursued by a mob of them.
Madison was on the receiving end on some of the slowness arrows. "You've GOT to be kidding me!" she growled. Pickaxe was still trying to figure out how to get away from the strays. It looked like Texik was already coming up with an idea. "I got it!" he declared, "We just need an escape route." Oh, goody, thought Pickaxe. Where were they gonna find an escape rou- "The frozen river!" Jewel cried. Pickaxe looked in her direction. Surely enough, there was a frozen river in the distance. "Great!" yelled Texik. "Pickaxe, take this!" He threw a glowing arrow at Pickaxe, who caught in in midair. "Shoot it on my signal!" said Texik, who immediately stopped in his tracks…
...and started building a wall of TNT.
Jewel looked concerned. "Did the frostbite reach his brain!?" she gasped. They continued running, when Pickaxe heard the words "NOW! NOW! NOW!" and the sound of something being thrown. He turned around and fired the enchanted arrow, as the strays were somehow occupied with trying to get past it. It made contact with the TNT, lighting it up as Pickaxe heard a sound similar to an enderman's teleportation. He was tempted to fling his bow in its direction, but stopped when he realized it was, somehow, Texik. He was holding a black pearl in his hand. "Ender pearls," Texik called them. "They allow teleportation upon impact!"
Pickaxe heard this, as well as the near deafening echo of the TNT.
As sunlight was rising, the group was traveling on the frozen river.
It was surprisingly fast, and in a good way too. If only this lead all the way back to Jewel's village, Pickaxe thought. It was so convenient! Of course, the river had to end somewhere. Luckily, it ended somewhere worthwhile. "An ice spikes biome!?" Jewel gasped. Indeed, the group had ended up in an area of the ice biome where tall spikes of ice, packed ice, stood atop proudly throughout the landscape. "Dibs on taking them as souvenirs!" shouted Texik, rushing toward one of the spikes with a glowing pickaxe in hand. He mined the entire spike before the tool broke. "Worth it!" he declared, Madison once again showing disfavor on her face.
"You could mine a lot of other things with that Silk Touch, and you choose ice…" he thought he heard her say.
As they continued exploring, they came across a small group of polar bears. "Awwww…" Jewel cooed. "Can we keep one?" Texik pleaded. "Dude, you have a parrot," Madison reminded Texik, "Besides, the parents are very protective…" "Man…" groaned Texik. Jewel made the mistake of getting to close to one of the cubs. The grown polar bear turned to face her. She went pale. It began to approach, reared on its hind legs… and swatted away Jewel, causing her to tumble into the snow. As Pickaxe rushed to her side, Texik cried, "RUN!" "Ugh, typical…" muttered Madison, reluctantly retreating.
Eventually, they lost the polar bear, but they might have veered off from the compass' path.
They resumed their trek in the proper direction, just as the snow began resuming its fall. It started to get dark, the group couldn't build a shelter fast enough. Madison spotted something in the distance. "Doesn't look like a hill!" she yelled in the flurry. The group slowly made their way to the establishment, which turned out to be an igloo. The inside was rather homey, with a bed, furnace, and crafting table. "Nice," Jewel said in awe. Texik blocked off the exit, and Pickaxe began placing more beds.
"Lights out," Pickaxe said.
Madison was the first one awake that day. All throughout the night, there had been an annoying villager sound and zombie groans on an endless loop. She had grown tired of it. But for some reason, it sounded like it was coming from… under the carpet? Pickaxe woke up next, having heard the annoying sounds himself. He pulled out an iron pickaxe, ready to shred through the carpet. "Careful," warned Madison. "I hear some igloo blocks are monster eggs that spawn silverfish!" Pickaxe would've thought it was a joke, if Madison's tone wasn't dead serious. He began mining the carpet, which opened up a secret entrance underground. Madison and Pickaxe were intrigued.
They woke the other two miners up, and began descending to the basement.
The basement was a little creepy. There was a chest, a cauldron, some weird setup in the corner of the room… a brewing stand, and two cages on the side of the wall. In those cages were two creatures. One had an uncharacteristically large nose, was bald, and wore a purple robe. A villager priest. The figure in the next cage looked similar, except his robe looked tattered, his skin was zombie colored, and he looked FAR more hostile. Zombie villager priest. "Umm… can we leave?" asked an uncomfortable Texik. "For once, I agree with you," said Madison. Did the zombie villager scare them that bad? Well, it was a bit freaky. But there had to be a way to save it, right? It was still a villager. Not a regular zombie.
Jewel was already into the chest, looking for something that might help.
"Stone axe? No. Emerald? Save that for later. Apples? Not hungry. Oh!" Jewel gasped. She held up a golden apple in her hand. "Great, what can we do with that?" asked a skeptical Texik. Out of the corner of his eye, Pickaxe noticed that something was in the brewing stand. He walked toward it slowly; it was close to the zombie villager. "Oh crud…" Pickaxe muttered. In the brewing stand was old nemesis… a splash potion of slowness. "Gimme!" said Jewel, who snatched the potion out from the stand. She went in front of the zombie villager. "Hope this works…" she whispered. She threw the splash potion into the cell, slowing down the zombie villager. Then she threw the golden apple at him.
He began to shudder, as a terrible hissing sound surrounded him.
"Oh jeez, IT BURNS!" yelled Madison, clutching her ears. Texik was too busy flopping like a maniac to say anything. Eventually, the hissing passed. The group looked in the zombie villager's cage. But the villager was no longer a zombie. It wasn't even a priest anymore. It was now clothed in a brown robe with a black apron. "An armorer?" Madison asked, shocked. "When curing a zombie villager, it's very unlikely they'll have the same profession as they did when they were zombies," Jewel explained. "I wonder if he's up for trade…" wondered Texik. Pickaxe was interested. Trade? He looked at the villager. He didn't know how, but it was offering him something.
Eight Iron Ingots for One Emerald. Take It Or Leave It.
"Hmmm…" Pickaxe thought of the deal. He did have plenty of iron ingots on him. Take it or leave it. "...take it," Pickaxe said. He gave the villager his eight iron ingots. In return, the villager tossed him an emerald. He made a villager noise that sounded much happier than usual. "Pleasure doing business," replied Pickaxe. The group looked at Pickaxe. "Did he just…?" questioned Texik. "How did he...-?" uttered a flabbergasted Jewel. Pickaxe shrugged, "Just sounded like a good deal…" Then he turned to the priest.
He also had something to offer.
One Bottle O' Enchanting for Three Emeralds. Best Deal, Take It Or Leave It. "Do you guys have any extra emeralds?" asked Pickaxe. Jewel tossed her the one she found in the chest. Madison gave him one she had at the jungle temple. "Here you go," said Pickaxe, making the trade. The villager gave him a bright glowing bottle, which he happily took. "Can we go NOW?" asked Texik, clearly getting jumpy. "Alright, alright," assured Pickaxe, climbing up the ladder. Before Jewel left the basement, she looked back at the two villagers. "Take care," Jewel requested, leaving the basement. The villagers gave their assuring villager noises, as the duo left the igloo with loot in tow.
Once again, the group resumed their journey...