by Maggie Marks
This book is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp., Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or Scholastic Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Minecraft name, trademark, or copyrights.
AQUATIC ADVENTURES IN THE OVERWORLD: DOLPHIN’S GRACE.
Copyright © 2020 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.
Minecraft® is a registered trademark of Notch Development AB.
The Minecraft game is copyright © Mojang AB.
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Special thanks to Erin L. Falligant.
Cover illustration by Amanda Brack
Cover design by Brian Peterson
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5107-4731-9
E-book ISBN: 978-1-5107-4742-5
Printed in the United States of America
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 1
Mason tugged on the oar, trying to propel the rowboat faster through the choppy water. But the boat felt so heavy!
He glanced at his little brother, who sat on a pile of prismarine blocks. They had mined the blocks at an ocean monument, but getting them home was tough work.
“Asher!” said Mason, nodding toward the oar at Asher’s side. “Can I get a little help here?”
Asher didn’t respond. He squinted into the sun. “Did you hear that?” he asked.
“What?” asked Mason, wiping a trickle of sweat from his brow.
“Dolphins!” cried Asher. He pointed.
Sure enough, a dolphin sprang from the water just beside Asher. It squealed and bobbed its short turquoise snout. Then, with a flick of its tail, it dove back into the waves.
Before Mason could speak, another dolphin popped out of the water only inches from his oar. It swam alongside the boat, dipping in and out of the water.
“It looks so … happy,” Mason said, careful not to hit the dolphin with his paddle.
Asher leaned over to look. “It’s smiling!” he cried.
It did look as if the dolphin were smiling. As two or three more of them darted and dove around the boat, Mason got the sense that the whole pod was playing—racing the boat to see who could get back to the underwater village first.
The dolphin in the lead seemed larger than the others, with a strong dorsal fin. “Is that one striped?” asked Mason, pointing.
As Asher leaned sideways trying to see, the boat rocked. A wave of water lapped over the side.
“Be careful!” Mason scolded.
Asher sat back, but he didn’t take his eyes off the lead dolphin. “It’s not stripes,” he said. “It looks like … scars.”
Mason’s throat tightened. When the dolphin popped out of the water again, he saw its head and dorsal fin were crisscrossed with scars. It had battled something fierce—a drowned, maybe, with a sharp trident. And the dolphin had survived.
As it leaped out of the water, two more followed. Then another. And then another! Five dolphins dove in and out of the waves as if putting on a show.
“It’s like they’re playing Simon Says!” said Asher, laughing. “Simon is in the lead. And …” The smiley dolphin with the rounded snout leaped out of the water. “Happy is close behind!”
Mason laughed, too. Leave it to his little brother to start naming the dolphins as if they were pets.
When a third dolphin popped out of the water, it chirped and chattered, as if saying hello. “So what should we call this one?” asked Mason, pointing.
Asher reached out as if to stroke the dolphin’s head. It gave one last squeal before ducking back underwater. “Squeaky,” Asher announced. “That one has a lot to say.” But he was leaning so far out of the boat, he wobbled. “Whoa!”
Mason grabbed Asher’s green T-shirt and held on tightly, but Asher’s helmet rolled out of his lap and plunked into the waves. Before Mason could grab it, a rounded snout knocked the helmet out of his reach.
“Give it back!” Asher cried, half-laughing and half-scolding.
The dolphins tossed the helmet back and forth like a ball. But as they darted farther and farther away from the boat, Mason’s stomach sank. “You need that helmet,” he reminded Asher. “We’re out of potion of water breathing. The enchanted helmet is the only way you’re going to be able to swim back home!”
Swim back home. The words still sounded strange. Mason and Asher had been sailing the ocean with their uncle. But when Uncle Bart was lost at sea, they’d made a new “home” with their friend Luna in the ruins of an underwater village. And Luna’s going to worry if we aren’t back before sunset, thought Mason, checking the horizon.
“I’ll get the helmet,” said Asher with a mischievous grin. “Watch me!”
Before Mason could grab him again, Asher dove off the edge of the boat.
“Asher, no!” Mason cried. But as he watched his brother swim with confident strokes after the pod of dolphins, he tried to relax. Asher had become a strong swimmer. And the dolphins weren’t hostile mobs. Mason grabbed the oars and paddled after his brother.
When Asher reached the pod, they squeaked and squealed. They darted away from him and then back, as if curious about this new “fish” in the sea. He dove underwater, and when he surfaced, he had the helmet in his hand. “Got it!” he cried, holding it up like a trophy.
Suddenly, a square gray snout popped up out of the water and knocked the helmet out of Asher’s hands.
“Hey! Give it back, Slugger!” he cried, diving after the dolphin. But “Slugger” got to the helmet first.
Mason stifled a smile as he watched his brother chase the dolphin. As the other dolphins swam alongside him, Asher suddenly had a burst of speed. He shot through the waves as if he were a dolphin himself, reaching the helmet before Slugger could take another whack at it.
“Yes!” Asher cried in victory. He didn’t hold the helmet up in the air this time. Instead, he paddled quickly back toward the boat.
As Mason reached down to help his brother in, he whistled. “That was some pretty speedy swimming out there,” he said. “You’ve gotten really good!”
Asher shrugged, but his cheeks pinked with pride. “I don’t know what happened,” he said. “All of a sudden, I felt like I could swim faster than any dolphin in the pod. Any dolphin in the ocean!”
A memory swam through Mason’s mind—something Luna had said a few weeks ago. “Dolphin’s Grace!” he reminded Asher. “If you swim close enough to the dolphins, you get a burst of speed. Luna told us about it, remember?”
Asher’s green eyes widened. “Cool,” he said. “We should tr
y it again!”
Mason eyed the waves and caught sight of a few dolphin fins. The pod was still nearby. “Maybe,” he said. “Let’s get closer.”
But as he took another strong stroke with his oar, it bumped into something. A fin shot out of the water, and the dolphin darted sideways with an upset squeal.
“What did you do?” asked Asher. “Did you hurt it?”
Mason swallowed hard. “I hope not. I think it’s okay, see?” He watched the dolphin swim away.
But the other dolphins were swimming toward the boat. Simon, with his scarred dorsal fin, knocked against the hull.
“He’s angry!” cried Asher, gripping the sides of the boat. “Because you hurt one of his pod.”
Mason shook his head. “I didn’t mean to. It was an accident!”
The dolphins circled the boat one last time, as if in warning. Then they took off with Simon in the lead. Mason watched the last fin disappear like a streak of silver in the setting sun.
“Great,” Asher grumbled. “Way to ruin all the fun.”
Mason sighed. “Sorry. But we have to get home anyway. Now help me paddle, would you? This prismarine weighs a ton.”
With Asher’s help, the boat began gliding forward again, toward the underwater village. But every few seconds, Mason checked the horizon, hoping to catch sight of the dolphins. Would they come back, or was that the last they’d see of the playful mobs?
CHAPTER 2
“Just one more!” Mason called to Asher.
They had anchored the boat next to a bubble column that led straight down to the underwater ruins. As Mason lifted the last block of prismarine from the boat, his arms ached. He hoisted it carefully over the side, trying to hand it to Asher, who waited in the water below. But Mason’s fingers suddenly slipped—sending the block into the waves with a giant splash.
“Hey!” cried Asher, ducking out of the way. He swam toward the block and guided it toward the bubble column. Glub, glub, glub … The turquoise block disappeared.
Then Asher did, too, diving into the bubble column head first.
“Wait for—” Mason started to say. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll clean everything up.” He sighed and gathered the things Asher had left behind in the boat: his pickaxe, a nautilus shell dropped by a drowned, and a bit of dried fish they’d brought to snack on.
Mason loaded up his backpack and jumped into the water, not even bothering to take a breath. The bubble column had all the oxygen he would need, at least until he hit the ocean floor.
The column sucked Mason downward at a dizzying pace. Bubbles brushed against his skin, and a school of pink tropical fish darted out of his path. Just before reaching bottom, Mason dove out of the column, avoiding the red-hot magma block at its base.
He nearly toppled over the pile of prismarine before catching his balance and adjusting his pack. Asher was swimming away—Mason could see the stream of bubbles his brother had left in his wake. But a dark-haired girl in a red shirt was swimming toward Mason. Luna!
As she eyed the pile of prismarine, she mouthed, “Wow.” Then she reached for the top block and began to lug it toward the underwater village. Luna never wasted time when there was work to be done.
Mason grabbed a block and swam after her, until he realized he could move more quickly by walking on the ocean floor with the heavy block. Even underwater, where everything felt lighter, the block still weighed him down.
As the fields of sea grass and kelp gave way to moss-covered sandstone, the underwater village came into view. Mason lugged the prismarine block beneath a crumbling stone arch, past a sandstone wall with a sleepy squid hovering near its top, and toward a stone “castle” with mossy cobblestone steps.
As Luna and Mason passed the castle, the world ahead brightened, lit by the conduit they had built. Like a beacon, the conduit lit up the ocean floor—and made it a whole lot safer, too. Anyone swimming near the conduit could breathe underwater, see more clearly, and mine more quickly. But hostile mobs were hurt by the conduit, so they stayed away.
The conduit was Asher’s idea, Mason remembered. Well, actually it had been Uncle Bart’s idea—a diagram sketched into his old leather journal. But I’m going to help Asher make it bigger and better. Even if we have to carry a hundred blocks of prismarine! Mason jutted out his chin and hoisted the heavy block higher.
Luna was already adding her block to the frame, building a new ring around the conduit like a ribbon around a package. With every extra ring, the conduit would become more powerful. Soon its protective glow would stretch out past the sandstone castle, all the way to the kelp farm near the bubble column. Maybe even farther!
Excitement trickled down Mason’s spine. As he placed his prismarine block next to Luna’s, he gazed at the glowing blue orb spinning inside the conduit. He closed his eyes and listened to the thump, thump, thump coming from the contraption like a reassuring heartbeat. As he rested his hand on the frame, he felt a vibration run from his head to his toes.
Mason opened his eyes and turned back toward the bubble column. There were a gazillion more prismarine blocks to lug across the ocean floor. But where was Asher? His redheaded brother had a way of wiggling out of work.
Sure enough, Asher was swimming up above, doing somersaults. Mason was about to wave him down when he saw a flicker of movement nearby. A drowned? His hand darted toward the handle of his trident.
No—the creature swimming toward Asher was friendly. And familiar. A dolphin!
Up ahead, Luna stopped swimming and gazed at the creature too, a smile spreading across her face.
Dolphins didn’t usually swim this close to the underwater village. But lately, they’d been curious and had come nosing around. Because of the conduit, Mason realized. The conduit had made the village a safe place for dolphins and fish to swim without running into hostile mobs.
Asher waved to get Mason’s attention. He pointed toward another dolphin hovering near the glass walls of the brothers’ underwater home. Even from a few yards away, Mason recognized the scarred dorsal fin. It was Simon. This was the same pod of dolphins that had swum alongside the boat earlier!
A wave of relief washed over Mason. Had the dolphins forgiven him for bumping one of their pod mates with a paddle? He hoped so.
He counted to be sure they were all there: One, two, three, four … five. Yes! Mason recognized Happy, who swam past with a smile. Turquoise-colored Squeaky dove low toward Luna, chirping a greeting. And Slugger was there too, balancing a tiny turtle shell on his nose. As a fourth dolphin with a long snout somersaulted through the water, Luna swam up to greet it.
She circled the pod, quick as lightning. Had she taken a swig of potion of swiftness? No, Mason realized. It’s Dolphin’s Grace! Luna had gotten a burst of speed by swimming with the dolphins, just as Asher had earlier.
Mason’s limbs itched to swim toward the pod—to join Asher and Luna in the game and to feel Dolphin’s Grace, even for a few seconds. As he swam toward Luna, she spun in the water and greeted him with a smile. But the moment he reached her side, Simon squealed as if calling out a warning. The dolphin shot toward the water’s surface, and his pod mates followed—without even a head bob or tail flick goodbye.
Luna watched them go, confusion on her face. But when Asher swam closer, Mason could see the angry furrow of his brow. He pointed at Mason as if to say, You did it again! Why do you keep scaring off the dolphins?
I don’t know! Mason wanted to cry. He drifted back down to the ocean floor like a deflated pufferfish. But when his feet touched bottom, he stood up straight. There was still work to be done—more prismarine blocks to move.
He headed back along the coral-lined reef toward the bubble column. When a shadow caught his eye, he glanced up and saw Asher swimming toward him.
Asher held out his hand, showing off the tiny turtle shell Slugger had been playing with. Except it wasn’t a turtle shell. It was an emerald!
Mason did a double take. The gem caught the light of the conduit, ca
sting a spray of green sparkles into the water. Mason raised his arms as if to ask, Where’d you get that?
Asher made a swimming motion with his hand and pointed upward, where the dolphins had swum away.
Had they given him a gift?
CHAPTER 3
“Where do you think Slugger found an emerald?” Asher asked, admiring the treasure in his hands. The gem seemed especially shiny now that they were in Luna’s underwater home, warming themselves by the furnace.
Luna wrung the water out of her dark ponytail. “I heard dolphins know how to find buried treasure,” she said, her eyes gleaming.
Uh-oh, thought Mason. Luna had just said the two magic words—the ones that would make Asher go bonkers and forget everything else. Buried treasure.
Mason swallowed hard. To hunt buried treasure, Asher might have to leave the safety of the conduit. Face hostile mobs. And maybe not return at all. Just like Uncle Bart.
“How do I get them to lead me to the treasure?” Asher asked, sitting up straight.
Luna shrugged. “Earn their trust, I guess.”
“But how?”
Mason tried to change the subject—fast. “I’ll tell you how not to earn the dolphins’ trust,” he joked. “Accidentally bump one with a paddle, and they’ll never forgive you.”
“Huh?” Luna said.
He explained what had happened in the boat. “That’s why they all disappeared when I tried to swim with you just now,” he said.
Luna shrugged. “They were probably just going up for a breath of air,” she said.
“Air?” Asher said. “Dolphins don’t need to breathe!”
“Sure, they do,” Luna said. “They need water to survive, but they also need air. They go up to the water’s surface every few minutes for a quick breath.”
Asher scratched his nose. “Huh. I didn’t know that.”
For just a moment, Mason thought his brother had forgotten about the buried treasure. Then Asher glanced down again at the emerald. “I’m going to earn the dolphins’ trust,” he announced. “If I have to swim and play with them every day—all day. If dolphins can lead me to treasure, who needs buried treasure maps?”