Disclaimer: I'm not creative enough to own Minecraft

Chapter 18: another surprise

We headed out first thing in the morning, with Blazette leading the way. As it turns out, they had already figured out the stronghold location, and even found a way into it.

"Strongholds hold silverfish, right?" Maillie asked.

"Yea, that's really the only place they spawn" Elda said "the princess usually hides unless she has a reason to come out"

"So…there's a chance we won't see her?" I asked.

"From what I've heard, she can be a bit destructive" Blazette said "so it might be better not to"

I yawned. "Yea, you're right…" the stronghold was a while away, so we had decided to take the Airship. That meant we had to deal with it shaking every once in a while from turbulence.

"Ugh, are we there yet?" Evan asked. I could tell he and Katie were getting air sick.

Maillie looked up "we should be there right about…" the ship lurched to a stop "now"

A ladder rolled down the side, into a tunnel "ok, let's go" I said

We slid down the ladder into a room. I saw a single stone in the middle "why is that there?" Aqua asked.

"I don't know, but it looks suspicious" I replied.

"I'll get it" Aqua said. Before I could stop her, she punched it. If the fact that one hit broke it wasn't weird enough, then that was topped off with a silver fish popping out.

It just looked at us, as if figuring out who to attack. "No one move" Elda said "that's how it'll figure out who to attack"

We were already taking her advice, and honestly, no one was inclined to do otherwise…except for Maillie, who was visibly scared. Maybe she had a thing with bugs?

"SILVERFISH!" she screamed, darting off. The silverfish followed "SILVERFISH SILVERFISH SILVERFISH SILVERFISH!"

I kind of found it humorous, watching her run around like she was. Unfortunately, as humorous as it was, she would either attract something else, or end up hurt.

"I got it!" Aqua said, bringing out her sword.

"Wait!" I called. But it was too late. She hit it with her sword, and it let out a loud screech.

Tons of silverfish came out of the walls, at seemingly random places. We ran, knowing we couldn't fight them all. After a few twists and turns, we got to a room with nowhere else to go. The room was like a cage without the bars, except for the roof. The roof was domed, with a hole in the middle big enough for someone to jump down. The silverfish blocked the exit, but didn't go farther than the doorway.

"They aren't attacking" I observed.

"Yea" Elda said "I wonder why…"

Out of nowhere, one of them screeched loudly. I was afraid more silverfish would ambush us, but instead, we only heard a thump from above. A moment later, a girl jumped down from the hole, landing softly. She looked about Elda's age. She had a white dress that had bulges in it, a silver hat that had black eyes, and short, silver hair that went down to her chin, a bit shorter than Maillie's.

She yawned "ok who-" she looked at Elda "Elda!"

"Shara!" Elda cried. They hugged each other suddenly; as if they were old friends "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too!" Shara replied.

It was obvious the rest of us were confused "uh…what just happened?" Maillie asked.

"I don't know…" I replied "Elda, care to explain?"

Elda let go and looked at us "sorry!" she said "this is Shara. Shara, this is Alex, Aqua, Blazette, Maillie, Evan, and Katie." She pointed to us respectively.

"Nice to meet you" I said. The others nodded in agreement.

We headed back, with Shara joining us.

"Shara is the silverfish princess" Elda said "but the last time I saw her was 2 years ago, when she disappeared"

"Well, she's obviously back now" I said "you have a practically unlimited supply of something, right?"

"Silverfish don't give anything when killed" Maillie said "I don't think she has anything"

"That's where you're wrong" Shara said "silverfish may not have anything, but I've collected quite a stash of cobblestone from digging"

"So…nothing useful" Blazette said. I kind of felt bad when it was put that way.

"Actually, it's not as useless as you'd think" Shara said "while abundant, cobblestone is tedious to collect in large numbers"

"And how does that make having tons of it useful?" I asked, hoping it sounded more curious than condescending.

"Ever heard of the Deep Dark?" Shara asked.

"No way" Maillie said "that place is almost impossible to get to, it's WAY too dangerous!"

"Can you explain first?" I asked.

"well, she over exaggerated a bit" Shara said "getting to it is just tedious, though it does become dangerous later on…you need 4 triple compressed cobblestone, one quadruple compressed cobblestone, and 4 unstable ingots. Besides that, Elda has a book that can tell you about the place itself"

"Unstable ingots?" I asked.

"using a division sigle, you can make unstable ingots" Shara continued "however, it's VERY dangerous, because if you get the ingots that way, they explode in 10 seconds, or immediately after taking them from the crafting table or dropping them. You can make semi-stable nuggets and get stable ingots that way, but you need a LOT of diamonds for that"

"Wait, why do you need diamonds?" I asked.

"We'll tell you tonight" Maillie said.

"Tonight?" Aqua asked.

"Division sigles require a…ritual" Elda said "I have a sigle ready; I just never had the proper alter"

"Just call it an enchanting table like it is" Maillie said "it can only be performed at midnight, so you guys should get some rest"

I yawned "ok, we'll talk in a couple of hours then" I said.

"Actually…Alex, you get rest, we need everyone else" Shara said.

Maillie gave her a glare, but I ignored it "ok, night"

"Night!" they chorused. The moment I got into bed I was asleep.

Yay! Another chapter done! I'll try to update regularly during summer break, but I'm not sure how regularly that will be…so sorry if anyone is disappointed! I will say that having people constantly review, even if it's only to say good job, will make me more likely to keep writing! So remember: I love criticism, reviews encourage me, and I'm open to input. Bye for now!