Gameknight shook his head as he kicked his horse into a gallop, wanting to find this creeper hive quickly and return before it was too late.
Suddenly, the sound of howling wolves cut through the uncomfortable silence. The noise seemed to be coming from behind. Turning in his saddle, Gameknight glanced back. Sprinting out across the wooden bridge was Herder on his large black-and-white horse. Surrounding him were a dozen wolves, all of them howling a loud song of pride and strength. That was no surprise, but then Gameknight saw glimpses of some other creatures with them that were hard to see through the tall grass.
“Herder!” exclaimed Stitcher as she waved at her friend.
The lanky boy waved back as he approached. When he drew near, the wolves began to bark excitedly, but Gameknight heard another sound that he couldn’t quite place. It was a high-pitched sound that seemed strangely familiar, but he wasn’t sure where he’d heard it before. Then the animals were running around them, and Gameknight smiled as Herder stopped next to him.
“I see you brought some new friends,” Gameknight said, laughing. “I’m quite surprised.”
Herder gazed down at the ground, then back up at the User-that-is-not-a-user.
“What’s the big surprise?” Herder asked. “I figured we’d need a little help, since we’ll likely be surrounded by hundreds of creepers.”
Around Herder’s horse ran at least a dozen cats of different sizes and colors, their meows mixing with the barks of the wolves.
“I remembered that creepers are afraid of cats,” Herder explained. “It seemed logical to go get a few.”
“So you just took off to the jungle?” Hunter asked with a smile.
“Sure,” Herder replied. “Why not?”
“Didn’t you think it might be dangerous in the jungle all by yourself?” Stitcher asked.
“I wasn’t by myself. I had my wolves with me.”
“Of course!” Gameknight said, then laughed again. “Well, I’m glad you made it back in time. Your cats and wolves are a welcome addition to our small party. Now let’s go. We have a creeper hive to find.”
Kicking his horse forward, Gameknight took off in a gallop toward the west, the rising sun shining down on their backs. What none of them saw as they rode away was the mottled green-and-black creature hiding in the tall grass watching them, blue sparks shimmering across his body.
CHAPTER 18
VOLCANO
Ash clung to everything as the four companions rode through the charred wasteland. The wolves seemed to get the worst of it, their fur collecting the sooty remains of the forest like iron to magnets. Many of the cats wanted to stop and clean themselves. But Herder kept everyone moving, encouraging the cats to follow along at the same pace with a high-pitched whistle.
As they moved through the burned-out forest, Gameknight saw many piles of blaze rods on the ground around them. That was strange. The golden remains of the blazes were far from where any of their fighting had been. Had other villagers been fighting with the monsters from the Nether?
“Gameknight, look over here,” Stitcher called out.
Steering his horse toward his friend, the User-that-is-not-a-user moved to her side. She had dismounted and was staring at a pile of something on the ground, the grime and grit making it difficult to identify. Stitcher took in a huge breath then blew the ash away, a dark puff billowing into the air. On the ground before them was a pile of snowballs, the icy spheres glistening in the morning light.
“Snowballs?” Gameknight999 asked, confused.
Stitcher glanced up at him, then turned and looked at her older sister.
“Whatever this is, we don’t have time for it,” Hunter said. “Let’s keep moving.”
The younger sister swung back up into the saddle and kicked her horse to a gallop; the rest of the group increased their speed to keep pace with her. After an hour, they made it through the dead forest and entered a cold taiga biome. Blazes had not attacked this biome yet, but being so close to Crafter’s village, it was sure to be high on their list.
They shifted from a gallop to a sprint to make up some time. Soon, they came to a frozen icy river. Gameknight used his pickaxe to break through the top layer of ice so that they could get to the liquid below. Each of them took their turn jumping into the frigid waters. While they were washing the horses, Herder placed a block of wood on the ground and lit it with flint and steel. They then moved the animals near the fire to get warm after their chilly bath. The wolves eagerly jumped into the water to free the ash and soot from their fur, but the cats refused. Instead, they rolled around in the snow, cleaning as best as they could, bathing themselves with their pink tongues.
“Five minutes, then we get moving,” Gameknight999 announced.
The others nodded as they rubbed their blocky hands together near the fire to get warm. They were all frozen, and the fire was a welcome relief. After the allotted five minutes, they mounted their horses. Herder leaned down and extinguished the fire, then followed Hunter as they continued to the west.
They rode through the frozen taiga in silence. Wolves howled at them through the trees, but Gameknight told Herder to keep his animals quiet. Stealth was likely their best advantage right now.
Following the spruce forest in the taiga was a desert hills biome. Gameknight always found it strange that a snowy environment could exist right next to the desert. Sheets of snow sat right up against scorching sand, and yet the temperature from the desert never seemed to bleed through into the taiga. It was just one of the strange and wonderful things about Minecraft.
As they moved through the desert, they all kept a keen eye out for monsters. Herder sent his wolves out away from the party, creating a protective ring of fangs and fur, while the cats always stayed close to their master. At one point, everyone turned as a bark was heard from one of the wolves to the right. A desert village was just barely visible through the haze, with a tall watchtower that stood high above the sandy buildings. They couldn’t tell from this far away if there were villagers in the tower; it was just a blurry spire in the distance. But Gameknight knew they were in a hurry and couldn’t stop and check on them; time was their enemy right now, and they had to keep moving.
The trek continued in uneasy silence for a couple of hours, all of the warriors continuously scanning the terrain for threats. It was odd that they had seen no creatures at all.
“I don’t like this,” Hunter said. “There should be a spider or creeper running around out here … but there’s nothing. It doesn’t seem natural.”
“There are creatures out here,” Herder said.
“Yeah, I know, your wolves and cats,” Hunter replied. “That’s not what I mean.”
“I know what you mean, and you’re wrong,” Herder added.
“What are you talking about?” Gameknight asked.
“Creepers,” Herder said.
“Where?!” Hunter snapped as she drew an arrow and notched it to her bow.
“Behind us … there’s a group of them,” Herder answered. “They’ve been following us for a while now. One of them is all sparkly and shiny.”
“A charged creeper,” Gameknight hissed.
They all turned in their saddles and glanced back.
“You can just barely see them,” Herder said, “but they’re back there. They have been staying far enough away so they can just barely see us, which means we can barely see them.”
“I don’t see anything,” Hunter said, squinting.
“Me, neither,” Stitcher added.
Gameknight strained his eyes, holding a hand over his brow to shield them from the sun. And then he saw it … a blue sparkle that looked like a flat sheet of lightning. The image shimmered for just an instant, then disappeared.
“I saw something. It must have been the charged creeper.”
“What do we do?” Hunter asked. “I don’t like having a bunch of monsters following us. Let’s go get ‘em.”
“No, not out here in the open,” Gameknight
said. “They’ll have too much time to start their ignition process. We need to trap them somehow. Let’s just wait and be patient.”
Hunter grunted her disapproval but turned back forward and continued to ride, glancing over her shoulder every other minute … watching. The presence of the monsters on their tail added an extra bit of tension to the group. They picked up the pace and shifted between a sprint and a gallop, hoping to add a little more distance between them and their pursuers.
They rode up and down the dunes as if they were sailing across ocean swells. Green, prickly cacti dotted the landscape like emerald sea serpents sticking their heads up out of the sandy waves. They added a refreshing splash of color to the pale surroundings, giving the harsh desert a sense of life and hope, something that had been lacking in the burned-out forest around Crafter’s village.
The User-that-is-not-a-user drove the horses hard through the desert. He wanted to get to the hive and get this business completed as quickly as possible, and the open countryside made traveling easy and fast.
After another hour, the party finally left the desert and entered an extreme hills biome. Steep, stone cliffs and gravity-defying outcroppings covered the landscape, most of which were impossible to scale. But up was not their destination; the creepers would be underground, hidden in dark tunnels and passages. In Minecraft, for some reason, the extreme hills biomes always had extensive tunnel systems running through the roots of the mountains. Those tunnels would lead them to the creeper hive and the secret pile of gunpowder hidden under the surface of the Overworld.
Weaving their way between rocky peaks, the party moved cautiously through the terrain, the hilly landscape slowing their progress. They could see the blue of the ocean start to creep into view, the gentle waters stretching out until they met the blue sky. But as they rode through the rocky biome, the smell of ash grew stronger and bit the backs of their throats as they breathed. With no fires nearby, Gameknight knew there must be a large source of lava somewhere close.
Moving past a large hill of stone and dirt, Gameknight was shocked at what he saw. A massive mountain came into view, with one side lit bright orange. In the dimming light of dusk, they had no trouble seeing the terrain, for a massive flow of lava was coming down one side and spilling into the ocean.
“We have to go into that?” Hunter asked.
“If you have a better idea, I’m listening,” Gameknight said.
“How are we going to find the correct passage that will lead into the creeper hive?” Stitcher asked.
“I don’t know. We’ll just have to search carefully,” the User-that-is-not-a-user said.
“This is a great plan,” Hunter said sarcastically with a scowl.
“LOOK OUT!” Herder yelled suddenly.
Gameknight pulled back on the reins of his horse, just in time to stop himself from falling into a deep hole. Steering around it, Gameknight moved to a safe distance, then stopped to wipe his brow.
“Thanks, Herder,” he said to his friend. “I think you probably saved me and my horse from getting badly hurt.”
The lanky NPC beamed with pride.
“You know, that would be a perfect place for an ambush,” Hunter said.
Gameknight stared down at the hole and nodded his head. If they could just get the creepers into the hole, he thought, they could pick them off with their bows.
“How do we get them into the hole?” Stitcher asked.
“Bait?” Hunter suggested, staring at Gameknight with one side of her unibrow raised.
“You want me to go into the hole and wait for the creepers?” the User-that-is-not-a-user asked.
“Well—” Hunter started to reply, but was interrupted.
“My cats could get them into the hole,” Herder said.
“What?” Hunter asked.
“Yep … they could do it,” Herder said confidently. “Gameknight, you stand there on the other side of the hole. The creepers will come toward you, but my cats will make sure they all are trapped.”
“You sure?” Gameknight asked. “I’ll be standing out there in the open like a sitting duck.”
“A sitting what?” Stitcher asked.
“A duck,” Gameknight replied. “You know … quack, quack, quack.”
Hunter stared at him, then looked back to her sister and laughed. “I think he’s losing it, for sure,” she said.
Gameknight shrugged and dismounted. He moved to the spot Herder had pointed at, then pulled out a torch and placed it in the ground. With the darkening sky, the light from the torch cast a wide circle of illumination, making him easy to see.
“I hope all of you are going to be ready if this plan doesn’t work,” Gameknight said. “I don’t look forward to fighting off two or three creepers at the same time. That’s not my idea of fun.”
“Whatever. Just quit your whining and stand there,” Hunter said. She had moved behind a large mound of dirt and was hiding, ready to spring out. “Now be quiet. I can see them coming.”
Gameknight999 moved next to the torch and stood there … waiting. He was sweating like crazy inside his armor and yet felt freezing cold at the same time. He’d fought two creepers at the same time before, but he knew you had to time it just right: you had to hit one while you moved away from the other to keep them from both igniting. And if there were more than two … then he might be in trouble.
In the distance, he could see a flickering blue light begin to fill the dark shadows stretching across the ground from the setting sun. He couldn’t see it yet, but the light was growing bright and brighter. And then the creature stepped out from behind a hill of stone and grass. It was a charged creeper, just as he thought, colored the normal mottled green but with a layer of blue electricity dancing around its body. This monster had been struck by lightning sometime in its past, and that electrical energy stayed with it, magnifying its explosive power. Charged creepers were very dangerous.
The sparkling monster scurried straight toward Gameknight, and as it came forward, more of its kind emerged from behind the hill. He gasped as he counted at least nine of them, every one headed straight for him.
Drawing his sword, Gameknight stood there and waited, fear nibbling at the edges of his courage.
CHAPTER 19
INTO THE HIVE
The sparkling creeper moved slowly toward him, its black eyes filled with venomous hatred.
“We’ve been looking for you,” the charged creeper said, a hiss accompanying every word.
Gameknight took a step back, shocked. The monster glowed bright with each word, as if it might detonate at any moment. He had assumed these creatures were not intelligent enough to speak, much less know who he was.
“Really?” the User-that-is-not-a-user replied slowly. “Well, uhhh … it’s nice to be wanted?”
He half-expected a smile from the creature, but only received a scowl.
The monster’s companions came forward. They were just regular creepers, with no electrical charges dancing along their skin, all looking identical from a distance. But as they neared, Gameknight could see small differences: a tilted eye here, a narrow mouth there. They were each as individual and unique as the villagers.
The monsters stopped at the edge of the sheer pit and glanced down. As the creepers stared down into the pit, the charged leader glared at Gameknight999.
“We are not stupid,” the creeper hissed, then dimmed. “We will not fall in that hole.”
Gameknight did not reply; he just smiled at the creature. This seemed to infuriate him a little.
“Go around,” the creeper said. “Get him.”
Half of the creepers moved to the right side of the hole as the other half moved to the left. Suddenly, a shrill whistle pierced the air, followed by loud meows and barks as Herder’s cats and wolves charged out from the shadows. At the sound of the cats, all the creepers instantly froze in place, including the charged leader. Creepers have an inborn fear of cats that is overwhelming, and with the sound coming from all dire
ctions, they didn’t know which way to run. When the cats ran into the circle of light cast by Gameknight’s torch, the creepers instantly backed away. Unfortunately for the monsters, more cats were coming from both sides of the hole, herding them into the center.
First one monster fell into the four-block-deep hole, then another and another. One of the creepers tried to escape and run away, but the wolves quickly cornered the monster and drove it back with its brethren. One after another, the monsters fell into the hole until the charged creeper was the last to step back.
“In the hole, and I may let you live,” Gameknight said, pointing down as he drew his two swords.
“I’m not a fool,” the monster said with a hiss. “The User-that-is-not-a-user is our enemy.” He paused again as his body dimmed. “You will not keep your word.”
“Get in the hole, or meet my two swords,” Gameknight replied.
“I would love that,” the monster said. “Come closer.”
But before Gameknight could move, a flaming arrow shot out of the shadows and struck the monster in the chest.
“Get into the hole … NOW!” Hunter yelled from the darkness.
The creeper turned to see where the voice came from, then brought his gaze back to Gameknight999. Another arrow shot out of the darkness and hit the creature in the shoulder.
“GET IN!” she shouted again.
“The next arrow will end your life,” Gameknight999 said. “The choice is yours.”
The charged creeper glared at him with such overwhelming hatred that the User-that-is-not-a-user thought the creeper might just detonate right then and there. But the creature did not explode. Instead, it stepped down into the hole. When it landed in the pit, the monster stared up at Gameknight.
The others stepped out of the shadows and came near the edge of the pit. Hunter and Stitcher put torches on the ground, then drew arrows and aimed into the pit.
“Wait,” Gameknight said, holding up a sword for them to stop.
The sisters turned and glanced at him, confused.
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