Battle for Time

by Winter Morgan

  Poppy started to craft the foundation for the skyscraper. She hated to admit that she enjoyed building it. Despite being captured and in another time period, she was happy as she built the skyscraper. She stopped thinking of being cold and Anya watching her as she worked with the team to construct this mammoth skyscraper, which was to be much bigger than the one she had just built. She also knew this would be hard work, but it appeared as if she had a good team.

  The girl with braids said, “Is she going to stick around and watch us build all day?”

  “I guess so,” Poppy said as she looked at Anya.

  Anya walked over to them. “This isn’t a social event. This is work, and I don’t want you talking.” Anya looked at the building’s foundation and then looked at Poppy, who was running low on energy. Poppy didn’t remember the last time she had eaten. Anya pulled out an apple and gave it to Poppy. Poppy took a bite, and her body felt reenergized. She didn’t realize how hungry she had been. She missed picking apples off of trees and eating whenever she felt like it. Now that her hunger was satiated, she was able to build faster. She wanted to finish this skyscraper as quickly as she could, but she understood these things took time.

  As Poppy placed the windows on the first floor of the skyscraper, she heard a voice call out in the distance.

  “Help!” the voice screamed.

  Poppy thought it sounded like Brett. She wanted to run to him, but Anya was standing beside her and pointed her diamond sword into Poppy’s back.

  “You aren’t going anywhere. You can’t help anyone. You are just here to build,” Anya said as she pressed the sword into Poppy’s back.

  “Help!” the voice called out again. This time it was much closer, and Poppy knew it was Brett.

  “I have to help my friend,” Poppy said.

  “You don’t have to do anything. You can only do what I tell you, and I am telling you that you must build this skyscraper.” This time when Anya spoke she pierced Poppy’s unarmored back, and Poppy felt a stinging pain radiate down her spine.

  “Okay, I will just build,” said Poppy as she placed a window and ignored her friend’s call for help.

  The cries grew more desperate, and Poppy couldn’t stand by and do nothing. Poppy whispered to the girl with the braids, “Can you help me?”

  “How?” asked he girl.

  “I told you to stop talking!” Anya walked over and slammed her diamond sword into both of them.

  Poppy was left with one heart, and she lacked the energy to help Brett. Tears filled her eyes. She had to help her friend, but wasn’t sure how until she saw Cara quietly walk behind Anya. Cara swung her sword at Anya’s back, and Anya wailed.

  “It’s over, Anya,” said Cara. “We are destroying the command blocks right now.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Anya said as she turned around and tried to swing her sword at Cara, but Pete ran over and stopped Anya. He swung his sword at Anya’s arm, and she cried.

  “Believe us,” Cara said.

  Poppy heard Brett cry for help and raced toward the sound of his voice. She hoped she had enough energy to help him.

  16

  NEW CRIMINALS

  Three people surrounded Brett, pointing their swords at him. Brett alternated between crying for help and trying to talk a group of three out of attacking him.

  “I haven’t done anything to you. I don’t even know who you are,” explained Brett.

  One of the people surrounding him said, “We are treasure hunters, and we are going to take everything from this town. This means we are also going to empty your inventory.”

  “I have nothing left,” he said.

  “Show us,” said a person in a red shirt and a hat.

  Brett showed them what he had left in his inventory. It consisted of a few pieces of wheat, one glass of milk, a diamond sword, a bow and arrow, and an emerald. “Take whatever you want.”

  “This isn’t much,” they said as they looked through his inventory.

  “Nobody has anything,” Poppy said.

  The group of three turned around, and one of them lunged toward Poppy and pressed his diamond sword against her back.

  “I only have one heart left. If you strike me with this sword, I am gone. But before you destroy me, I have a plan that can help all of us,” said Poppy bravely.

  “Plan? Why should we work with you?” a nameless member of this new criminal team exclaimed.

  “If you work with us to defeat Anya, she has a large collection of goods. We don’t want those goods. We just want to defeat her,” explained Poppy.

  “Who is Anya? And why don’t you want any of her treasures? It doesn’t make any sense,” said the criminal who still had his sword pressed against Poppy’s back.

  “Anya is in charge of this town, and she is also responsible for the ice age. She has trapped me here and is forcing me to build a skyscraper. I want to go home. I’m not here to collect souvenirs from this trip,” replied Poppy.

  The three treasure-hunting criminals looked at each other, and one replied, “Okay, we will help you defeat Anya.”

  Brett and Poppy led them to the castle. When they arrived, they saw their old friends battling Anya and her diminishing army of blue soldiers. As the gang battled the remaining soldiers, they started to feel warm. Pete exclaimed, “They did it! They destroyed the command blocks!”

  Anya let out a gasp. “How could they? I want it to be cold.”

  Poppy looked down at the grass. The icy film that covered the ground had faded, and the grass was wet and muddy. She didn’t mind fighting in the mud because she was happy the ice age was officially over.

  As their makeshift army captured Anya, Pete said in disbelief, “I am witnessing history. This is real, serious history. I am here as the ice age ends.” He then added, “I must write an article, or maybe even a book, about this event. This is one of the biggest moments in the history of the Overworld.”

  Nobody was listening to Pete. Once Anya was defeated, Carl and Alexandra started to bicker. They were in the middle of a loud argument about finding a portal home.

  “Now that Anya is defeated, it’s time to leave,” yelled Alexandra.

  “I know, but we don’t have to go home this second,” said Carl. “We should try to help the people of the town.”

  “We’ve helped them enough,” hollered Alexandra.

  Everyone stood and watched the pair argue. Even Anya had her mouth open and was aghast at the situation.

  Poppy said, “Why are you guys fighting? There is nothing to fight about. We have to celebrate.”

  “No we don’t,” said Anya. “You’ve destroyed my world.”

  “No,” said Poppy, “we saved your world. In time you will see what you were doing to the Overworld was cruel and controlling. You were stopping crops from sprouting. You were destroying nature and creating the famine that was responsible for so many people starving.”

  Cara said, “You have no idea how hard it was to live in a constant state of hunger. You never felt that because you controlled all the food, but there were many times when I would dream about an apple and wake up and realize that I might never eat one again. You have no idea how that feels.”

  Anya didn’t say anything for a while, and finally she uttered the words everyone had longed to hear, “I’m sorry.”

  Pete said, “I don’t know how you got away with this in the past. There is no record of you in our time period, but I am going to change that. I want to write an article so people can learn that one person can impact the entire Overworld and that we must work together to make sure that people with this type of power don’t abuse it.”

  “I’d like to read that article,” said Alexandra.

  “Me too,” said Carl.

  “Look, we agree on that,” Alexandra told Carl.

  As Poppy led Anya into the castle, she said, “I have one last building project, and then we can look for a portal.”

  “Are you building my skyscraper?” asked Anya.


  “No,” said Poppy. “I’m building a bedrock prison for you.”

  17

  PASSAGE THROUGH TIME

  Anya protested, but she knew it was pointless. Half of her army had turned against her, and the other half was defeated. She followed Poppy into the castle and awaited her imprisonment.

  Poppy was surprised when she heard Anya say, “Can I offer you suggestions on how to build my prison? I always wanted to be a builder, but I was never any good at it. I’d love to work with you on this project.”

  “Of course,” said Poppy.

  Poppy and Anya walked past Anya’s throne and to the changing room. Poppy said, “This is where we are going to build the prison. It will remind you that you should never force people to change skins for you.”

  Anya didn’t say anything. She just watched Poppy construct a bedrock wall. Poppy stopped. “I thought you wanted to work on this with me? I can teach you how to build.”

  Anya said, “Thank you. I’d love it if we could build a window. I would hate not to be able to see the sun rise and set.”

  “Now that your command blocks are broken, you can see everything in bloom. Before you had created a world where nothing could grow.”

  “I know I was a bad person,” Anya said as she watched Poppy build a wall with a window.

  Brett, Joe, Pete, Carl, and Alexandra sprinted into the castle. Brett asked, “How long do you think this will take?”

  Poppy looked at the wall. She still had to create a door and another wall. “Not much longer.”

  Cara and Claudia walked into the room. Poppy asked them, “Would you like to help me finish building this?”

  They replied, “Yes,” in unison.

  Poppy said, “After it’s done, we are going to need someone to help watch Anya and make sure she gets meals. Would you be able to help with that?”

  “Yes,” said Cara. “I am so glad to be home and to be able to grow wheat and be with my friends. I will do anything in order to have peace in the Overworld and live the life I always loved.”

  “Me too. I will help out,” said Claudia.

  As Poppy finished the bedrock prison, she could hear Alexandra and Carl bickering.

  “We have to find the portal now. I want to go home,” said Alexandra.

  “We will find the portal. You just have to be patient,” said Carl.

  “I don’t want to be patient. I want to be searching for the portal,” Alexandra said, raising her voice.

  Nobody told them to stop fighting. Everyone was used to it, but they had to learn how to communicate properly. The gang was surprised when Anya, who was in the middle of an interview with Pete, said, “Alexandra and Carl, those are your names, right?”

  “Yes,” they replied.

  “You can’t fight all the time. It’s rather exhausting for us to hear, and you guys probably don’t like it too much either.”

  Alexandra and Carl looked at each other. Their faces were red. They were embarrassed. They apologized for their behavior and continued to talk to each other in a normal respectful tone.

  Pete restarted his interview. “What made you build the command blocks? Why did you choose to dress in blue and have all of your soldiers dress the same?”

  “I love the cold weather,” confessed Anya, “and I wanted it to be cold every day. I didn’t care what happened to the crops because I was able to build an indoor farm. I thought everyone would be able to do the same.”

  “Just because you like something doesn’t mean everyone likes it,” said Pete.

  “I know,” said Anya. “I’m beginning to realize that now.”

  Poppy announced, “It’s done. It’s time to go into the prison.”

  Pete said, “Just one more question.”

  Anya asked, “What is it?”

  “Do you regret everything you’ve done?”

  Anya walked into the bedrock prison. “Yes,” she said solemnly, and Poppy closed the door to the prison.

  They said goodbye to Claudia and Cara and walked out of the castle in search of the portal.

  “Do you think it will be easy to find?” asked Pete.

  “We’ve been back in time before, and it’s not easy to get home, but we always get there,” said Poppy. Poppy’s heart beat rapidly when she thought about going home. She hoped the skyscraper wasn’t destroyed. She wanted to celebrate its grand opening. She laughed at how nervous she used to be to speak in front of the crowd about the construction. Now she looked forward to talking to people, to feasting, and to plotting with Brett for new pranks she could pull on her old friends. She wanted to be back in Meadow Mews.

  Alexandra stumbled upon an opening to a mine. “Do you think there might be a portal in here? You know there are usually holes in mines, and maybe we can dig something deeper that could create one.”

  “That’s a good idea,” said Brett.

  Joe added, “We have found portals in mines before, and they worked quite well.”

  Pete was writing notes for his article on time travel. He walked behind the gang as they searched for portals in the mine.

  “I think I found something,” said Joe as he banged his pickaxe against the ground and a burst of cold air rushed toward him.

  “Are you sure?” Alexandra was excited.

  “I hope so,” said Joe as he hopped in the hole and hoped he’d land in Meadow Mews in the right time period.

  Brett jumped in after him. The frigid air created instant goose bumps on Brett’s arms as he traveled through this portal. The farther he fell, the more he hoped he would land in the middle of Meadow Mews. He was suspicious because he felt they came across the portal too easily, but he reminded himself that they had become skilled at time travel and they knew how to detect portals a lot faster than they did in the past. Another blast of icy-cold air burst though the portal. Normally the cold would bother him, but today he found it comforting. He had a smile on his face. He was going home.

  18

  GRAND REOPENING

  The portal seemed to take longer than usual, and Brett was getting impatient. He called out to his friends to see if they were still close by, but there was no response. He wanted to land, and when he finally did, he wasn’t sure where he had landed.

  Brett fell to the ground with a thump and explored the area. He arrived in a swampy biome and in the middle of the day. It was hot, which made Brett happy. He’d had enough of the cold and was glad to be warm. He took out a map and spotted Meadow Mews across the Overworld. He scanned for Poppy and found that she was in Meadow Mews and teleported to her.

  Poppy was standing in front of the skyscraper assessing the damage. “This can be repaired,” she said to Helen and Nancy, “but it’s going to take a few days.”

  “We will plan for a grand opening celebration in a week. Does that work?” asked Helen.

  “Yes,” Poppy replied when she saw Brett walk toward her.

  “Do you need any help?” he asked.

  “I’d love some,” said Poppy.

  Joe, Pete, Alexandra, and Carl hurried over to them. “We’re back!” they announced.

  Alexandra said, “We have to go back to our town. We only came here for the grand opening celebration, and now that it’s over, we must go home.”

  Poppy said, “It’s not over, it hasn’t even begun. I have to rebuild, and then we will have the celebration in a week.”

  Carl suggested to Alexandra, “Perhaps we should stick around for the celebration.”

  “We don’t have a place to stay,” Alexandra reminded him.

  Brett said, “If you guys don’t bicker, you can stay at my house.”

  “That is so nice of you,” said Carl.

  “We promise, we won’t fight,” said Alexandra.

  Brett hoped they could keep that promise. He announced, “I am going to help Poppy rebuild the skyscraper.”

  “Can we help?” asked Carl.

  “The more people who can help me, the quicker we can finish,” said Poppy.

  Joe as
ked, “Has there been any damage to the rooftop farm?”

  “Let’s see,” said Poppy.

  The gang entered the skyscraper. The first floor had windows missing, and the floor was charred. They climbed the stairs, stopping at each floor to inspect the damage. The higher floors had no damage at all, but everyone was nervous when they reached the roof. They weren’t sure if Anya’s soldiers had destroyed the roof while they were in the past.

  Brett closed his eyes. He didn’t want to know what the rooftop farm looked like; he was too nervous. He finally opened them when he heard Joe say, “Wow, I forgot how nice it is to just grab a fresh apple from a tree and take a bite.”

  Poppy picked an apple from a tree and stood underneath the hot sun. “I had also forgotten how nice it is to feel the heat on my skin.”

  Pete stood next to them and took notes. He wasn’t picking apples off the trees, but was watching the gang as they ate their fruit. He remarked, “We take a lot of things for granted. I am so glad to be back. I’m also glad that people will get to read about this part of history. It’s important that Anya not be forgotten.” Pete then said, “I am going to have to say goodbye.”

  “Aren’t you writing an article about the grand opening celebration for the skyscraper?” asked Poppy.

  “I will be back in a week, but now I have to go find the town where Anya lived. I want to find her in the bedrock prison and interview her. I want to see how she feels.”

  “I can’t wait to read that article,” said Brett.

  Pete left, and the gang got to work. The group spent their days repairing all the damage. After a week of hard work, the skyscraper was repaired and ready to open. Helen and Nancy had planned a large grand opening ceremony. The day arrived for the celebration, and Poppy stared at the crowd there to hear her address them. She looked at the podium and realized that her heart wasn’t beating as fast as it normally did in those situations. She wasn’t nervous at all. She was confident and excited to tell people about the construction of this mammoth building.

  As Poppy stood on the podium and addressed the crowd, she spotted Pete standing alongside a familiar face in the crowd. He had found Anya, interviewed her, and brought her back through a portal with him. When Poppy’s speech was over, Pete and Anya approached Poppy.