Chapter 11: Back in the Saddle
Morning felt ironically upbeat.
Reed was the first to wake up that day. Sabrina was on the other side of the room, sleeping peacefully in her slumber. Reed allowed himself a little smile, as he kissed her on the forehead. After all this, you're still with me…, he thought. He walked outside of the dirt hut. How did things get to this? Just a few weeks ago, the village was more prosperous than it had been in all of its existence. Now, he and his family were on the run from forces that planned to harm them… or worse…
Reed's thoughts were interrupted when he saw Pickaxe on the roof of his hut.
He was fiddling with his pickaxe, staring off into space. He seemed to be focused on something, whatever it may be, as the sunrise began to greet the day. Reed was impressed by this boy. Not only did he help in returning Jewel home, but he defended her from the Nether, and saved his family from being captured… or killed. What was his motivation? It intrigued Reed. It kind of reminded him of...an old acquaintance…
"Morning, Reed," Pickaxe greeted.
Reed snapped back to reality. "Oh…," he began, "Morning, Pickaxe." Pickaxe nodded, moving down his house back to the ground. "Any plans?" the miner asked. Reed thought to himself on this. He shrugged, adding, "For the first time in a while, no." Pickaxe looked puzzled. "Hmmm… well, if you can, try coming up with something. I'm gonna go get breakfast."
Before Reed could say another word, Pickaxe had already gone into the forest.
He sighed; that boy sure was… "...something else, isn't he?" Reed jumped in surprise, swiveling his head behind him. Jewel was standing there, a soft smile on her face. "Yeah, he rubbed me that way, too," she assured, "What's he doing now?" It took a while for Reed to respond, "Getting breakfast… whatever that means…" Jewel sighed. "Of course…"
The other miners began to awaken, the sunrise now fully encompassing the valley.
They sat on logs Endre had managed to gather from the forest. There was a lot to discuss. "So, what's the plan?" Texik began, wanting to waste no time in cutting to the chase. "We still have no idea what Reed or Victor wants with the village. I'd conquer it if it was me, but…" he continued, running a blank at the end. Madison faced Sarah and Endre. "Did you two come across anything that might explain what they might want with the village?" she asked. Sarah and Endre both looked at each other. They nodded their heads in agreement.
"Well," Endre started, "There was this one book in the library…"
Victor was waiting impatiently, worriedly, at the fortress.
The seizing of the village was successful. Any miners who had been on that island were either captured, escaped, or killed. The stronghold was just within their grasp. But it wasn't enough. Reed and some of his allies had resisted the takeover. They had almost successfully captured Rosetta, Parker, and Blade. Had it not been for the sheer number of soldiers present, they might have succeeded. But they still escaped. The three of his best soldiers were currently unconscious, lying in the room Victor stood in front of.
He hoped they were alright, especially his little girl.
Victor sighed, sitting next to the door. Why was he doing this, again? Why was he gathering so many resources, putting so many lives at risk? Why risk the life of Rosetta, his beloved daughter? Because there was glory at stake. Reed had the luck of settling his village right on top of a stronghold. If Victor could successfully reach the stronghold portal room, activate it, and then successfully go there and back alive, he would surely be a legend.
More so than his former friend at least.
Reed had always been the one with the fortune. Even long after Victor had left the village in a rage, all those years ago, he still heard rumors of a village on a mushroom island biome. Oh, the anguish he felt! In spite of the many struggles Victor had gone through to sustain himself, everything just walked up to Reed's doorstep. Nothing was ever good enough if Victor was somehow involved.
That was, until he met Friva.
It was all part of a sea temple expedition, in another far off village close to the ocean. The pay was good, if they succeeded. The mission was simple: killing guardians and the ancient guardian was accepted, but the gold blocks were the top priority. It was easy getting into the temple, seeing as Victor had experience with this sort of thing. Getting past the guardians was no hassle, either.
It was when they found the gold blocks that things got… complicated.
Victor and several other miners had decided to keep the elder guardian distracted, at least until the gold blocks were harvested. It wasn't easy, seeing as the mining fatigue from its laser was making the task a lot harder than it should have. When they had finally harvested all the gold blocks, they all began to make a run for it. The elder guardian wasn't going to live with that. It chased them down the corridors, and just when Victor thought it was safe…
… the elder guardian hit him with its laser.
It began approaching him, cutting its spikes into his body. He tried to call out for help, but it seemed as though no one had noticed. His potion of waterbreathing was running out. The elder guardian continued to attack. Victor's armor started to crack. His team had abandoned him. He had been left with nothing. He had made no lasting impressions upon the world. The elder guardian swam towards him again, as if it was about to seal his fate.
He blacked out before he could see his demise.
Back at the huts, the group was trying to process what Endre and Sarah had told them.
"A stronghold?" Jewel questioned. "I mean, I heard about them and all, but… one underneath the village?" "Exactly," Endre confirmed, "That's probably why they kidnapped the village…" "But why?" Madison intervened. "I get that it's the End and all that junk, but why would they go through all of that trouble?" "The End is a place few ever get to see." Reed mentioned. "To have been there alone is enough to make you a legend."
"But how will they get there?" Texik interjected, "I'm pretty sure the strongholds are crazy mazes."
Sarah held out a mysterious item in her hand. It looked like an ender pearl, only… it looked like a glowing blue-green eye with a thin black iris. "If they do find the portal room, they'll most certainly need these to activate it." Everyone was silent. Sarah tossed it into the air. It flew in the direction of the village, before hovering in midair and dropping back down. "We were lucky," Sarah muttered, "There's always a chance an eye of ender might break when locating a stronghold…"
The silence continued for sometime.
Sabrina was the first to break the ice. "Do they have the eyes of ender?" she inquired. Endre tried recalling the events back at Parker's fortress. "I saw some diamond guards holding some ender pearls in their hands," he stated, "but there were no eyes of ender…" "Well, what's needed for an eye of ender other than an ender pearl?" Madison questioned. Stan jumped, "Blaze powder!" Something clicked in Jewel's brain. "When Pickaxe and I spied on Parker and Rosetta, they said something about visiting a Nether fortress…" she recalled.
"...and isn't that where blazes spawn?"
When Victor had finally woken up, he was in a bed.
He was placed in new clothes, and was in some sort of bedroom. With some caution, he exited the house, and took a look at himself in the river. He sighed from relief. Other than his clothes, nothing else had changed… almost. He still had the same rugged brown hair, the same determined green eyes. He was in a black t-shirt and some blue white pants. There were also scars on his hands. Painful scars…
He heard footsteps behind him, slowly increasing in volume.
They stopped just before they reached him. Victor didn't turn his head around. "Are you...okay?" said a voice. Victor paused. The voice was soft and sweet. He slowly turned his head back to the voice. It was a girl. She had short dark red hair and pale blue eyes. She wore a white t-shirt and a black hoodie, as well as some grey pants. Her face held a sense of sympathy and concern. Victor knew that face. He saw it before he blacked out.
"Yeah… I'm okay…"
The months flew by like nothing else. Victor and Friva just talked at first. But as time went on, they began to visit each other more often. They grew close to one another. They gathered together, mined together, fought together… nothing like the two had ever experienced before. It was only a matter of time before Friva would propose. Not much later, they would have a beautiful baby girl. At long last, Victor was finally being accepted into the world.
The griefers would say otherwise.
Victor had just returned home from mining. He had plenty of diamonds to give to Friva, and even more to make tools and armor. With the mood he was in, he probably would have made a jukebox. The smelled the fresh air, the smell of grass and… smoke? He looked toward the village, and his heart sank. The village was engulfed in flames, which burned upon it without mercy. He quickly ran in the direction of the house. He couldn't lose his family. He wouldn't lose his family.
Friva was still among the burning remains, shielding Rosetta in her arms.
Victor cut through the burning embers, making a path for his family to escape. The began to run, anywhere that was far away from the flames. They saw the inventories of deceased miners as they ran. Once they reached the outskirts of the village, Victor could smell fire. He felt the remnants of an explosion brush against his back. He turned around, his face twisted into an expression of absolute horror.
In front of their daughter was Friva, slowly burning to death at the hands of a fire charge.
Those flames that consumed the village haunted him at every turn. He spent restless nights in his bed, thinking about those nights to no end. He resorted to teaching her daughter various fighting techniques, including archery, which she picked up rather quickly. He was done letting things be taken away from him. But what was there left to take back?
A chance visit with Parker presented him with the answer…
The door opened to the room, bring Victor back from his visit down memory lane. Rosetta, Parker, and Blade all stepped out, having fully recovered from the village. Victor stood up and embraced his daughter, relieved that she was okay. He turned to face Parker. "I know you tried…" he began, sympathy in his voice, "and I thank you for that." He headed down the hall. "Gather the troops!" he commanded.
"...it's time to raid the Nether fortress."
Pickaxe had finally returned, looking unusually exhausted.
The others gathered around the fatigued miner, who weakly attempted to push them away, wheezing, "No time… breakfast…" As it turns out, while the miner was away, he had the good fortune of coming across some eggs, some pumpkins, and some sugar cane. He had also done a bit of mining at a nearby cavern...
...which explains why pumpkin pies and milk was on the menu that day.
Reed brought Pickaxe up to speed with the recent discussion. The mentioning of the Nether fortress triggered something… "I saw a Nether fortress," he recalled, "Just beside the village base. I heard the sound of bones clacking and fire spewing…" "That was probably the wither skeletons and blazes…" Madison explained. "They would probably go there to get the blaze rods to make blaze powder…" Pickaxe followed, a thoughtful expression on his face. "But how are we going to get there?" questioned Margret.
After some silence, Pickaxe pulled out a flint & steel and some obsidian.
Everyone looked at him with wide eyes and dropped jaws. "How-?" Texik tried to question. "Mining," Pickaxe explained, "Found a lava lake when I was looking for iron. I think I'm four obsidian short, though…" Madison snatched the obsidian out of his hands. She eagerly placed the obsidian in the nether portal format, with cobblestone where the corners should be.
Everyone just looked at her with a blank expression.
"What?" she questioned, "A guy I worked with said Nether portals could be made like this, too!" Everyone nodded with a near simultaneous "Oh." Pickaxe faced the front of the portal. He looked at the flint and steel. He turned to face the group. "Won't it take a long time to get from here back to there?" he asked. Sarah shook her head. "A single block in the Nether is eight blocks in the Overworld!" she explained, "We'll be fine." Pickaxe nodded, and struck the portal with the flint and steel. It gained a familiar purple hue.
"Well," said Pickaxe, "time to go to a Nether fortress."