by Mark Mulle
we were his prisoners.
Jake led us to a small pond in front of what looked like giant tree. When we got next to the pond, Jake jumped in. The guys and I remained on our horses, not understanding what was going on. Jake turned around and looked at us.
“Well? Aren’t you coming?” Jake asked.
The three of us looked at each other.
“What about the horses?” Jerry asked.
“What about them?” Jake asked.
“Are we going to just leave them out here? They’ll run away or worse…we need them on our journey.”
“Okay. One of my guys will pick them up and take them somewhere safe. Don’t worry! You will get them back tomorrow morning. Promise.” Jake said.
I turned to Jerry.
“What do you think?” I asked him.
“I don’t know. We might as well leave the horses as he says. He probably wants them for safe keeping, insurance in case we do something bad.” Jerry said.
Jerry and I turned around and looked at Micah.
“What? What did I do? Don’t tell me that you blame me for this?” said Micah.
Jerry nodded his head.
“What? Come on. You two know that you want to see the inside of his base. Don’t lie.” Micah added.
Micah was actually a bit right. I kind of wanted to see these guys’ camp. People build a lot of strange things in Minecraft and some of the things that they build are quite cool. I figured that if their base was half as cool as their idea to wear that green armor was, the trip might be worth it.
“Well? Coming soon?” asked Jake.
“Sure.” I told him.
Jerry, Micah and me got off of our horses and jumped right into the pond. One of Jake’s clan men then placed a fence post on the ground and tied each horse with a lead. He then took one of them by the lead and went off into the forest.
“Come on, then. Follow me!” said Jake
Jake turned around and dove deep into the water. Micah and Jerry did the same. I looked around once more and saw that the rest of the clan men were slowly walking up to the pond. I then went underwater.
It turned out that the pond was pretty deep, but at the bottom of it there was a small tunnel. The tunnel seemed to lead into another chamber, almost as wide as the pond, which went straight up. When we reached that chamber, Jake started swimming up. Jerry, Micah and I all did the same. We reached the surface of the water just in time, as we almost ran out of breath.
It appeared that we were in some kind of tower that was made out of blocks of wood. It turned out that we were actually inside the giant tree. Jake got out of the water and walked to a nearby ladder.
“Come on, guys. Up we go.” he said.
We climbed up the ladder behind him for a good minute I think, until we reached a small ledge. The ledge was a block wide, so any wrong move would mean a serious drop. We walked along the ledge until we came across a small opening. Jake walked through the opening and we followed him closely. A moment after that and we were right in the middle a bridge that was the main hub between some of the biggest and coolest tree houses that I had ever seen. Not only were they big, but also the design behind them was really, really cool. All of them looked like variations on a single design, which gave a cool feeling to the whole camp. Honestly, the camp looked like it was plucked out from a fantasy novel. The camp even had a small stream of water running in and around it, gathering in small ponds from time to time. They even had animal enclosures and wheat and vegetables growing in several small gardens. It was like a small village but way up high in the trees, above the forest.
I had to hand it to these guys; they had really built an impressive camp. I didn’t really want to say it to Micah, but these guys’ camp was even cooler than his fortified village.
Jake led us to what looked like the town’s square within their camp. In the middle of the square was a small pond that had a tall pillar that was made out of wood. At the top of the pillar was a light green block, similar in color to an emerald and on top of that one there was a block of dirt with grass and mushrooms on top of it.
By the time we I was done looking around at the whole view, all of Jake’s clan was already gathered around us.
Jake looked around, looking as though he was counting his men.
“So, guys. Your horses are safe with us. We have several hiding spots on the ground. We don’t do much riding, ourselves, but we occasionally use horses when we scout around the forest. Tell me, are you guys from that nearby farm?” Jake asked.
“Yeah. That’s my farm, actually.” I told him.
“Wow. Nice. So why are you so far from home?” he asked.
“I told you, we are travelers. We’re out exploring.” Micah answered.
“Ok. I believe you. You’re welcome to stay with us for tonight. After that you will have to leave. We are currently not accepting any new members to our clan.” said Jake.
“Ok, we understand. We will leave your camp tomorrow, first thing in the morning.” Jerry said.
“We weren’t going to join your stupid clan anyway…” Micah mumbled.
Jake turned around to his men.
“How does that sound, guys? Should we let them stay with us for the night?” he asked.
His clan members didn’t say anything.
“Looks like they agree. Come on. I’ll show you to our guesthouse.”
We followed Jake through the camp. Our guesthouse was on the highest point of the camp. Jake led us to a small wooden house that was at the end of a thin bridge. If I didn’t know any better I would have sworn that the thing looked a lot like a prison cell.
We walked across the narrow bridge and went inside the small house. When we entered, Jake walked around the room and stood right at the door.
“Well this is it, guys, your home for the night. Sleep well.” Jake said.
“We will. Thanks again for the hospitality” said Micah.
Jake opened the door but at the last moment he turned around and closed it back up.
“Oh, I almost forgot. What was that golden thing that you were holding in your hand before me and my friends found you?” Jake asked Micah.
“What golden thing? I had an iron sword in my hand, remember?” said Micah.
“Hmm… I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that you were holding something else in your hand when I saw you – something that looked a lot like a compass, a golden compass. Am I wrong?” Jake asked.
“You’re wrong. You must be seeing things, Jake. Next thing you’re going to say that you saw Herobrine. You’re crazy. Bonkers.” said Micah.
“We don’t even have a compass, Jake. Let alone a golden compass” said Jerry.
“You don’t, huh? Well I guess that I’m wrong then. You see, I’ve heard of this treasure that’s in a mountain, far away from here.” Jake said.
“Well that sounds cool and all, but we have never heard of such a thing. All right, Jake?” said Micah.
“There’s more to the story than just the treasure in the mountain. You see, there are also some golden compasses that lead to it. It’s simple really, the player just holds the compass in his hand and the compass points in the direction where the treasure is.”
“What’s your point, Jake? Does this story end?” Micah asked.
“In a moment, Micah. In a moment. My brother Andy and his friend found a golden compass, not too long ago. They were on their way here to bring it to me. You wouldn’t know anything about that, now would you, boys?” Jake asked.
“Never heard about this weird story in my life and we definitely haven’t seen your brother or his friend. Happy now?” Micah said.
Jake looked at us for a moment than turned around and left.
“Ok, boys. Have a good night. See you all in the morning.” Jake said as he went out through the door.
The three of us stood silently for a couple of minutes, just to make sure that no one was outside listening to our conversatio
n.
“What have you gotten us into, Micah?” asked Jerry.
“What? How could I have known, Jerry? How?” he responded.
“What did you do to those guys?” I asked.
“I…well…let’s just say that they respawned, okay?” said Micah.
I started walking around the room in circles.
“Micah, do you think Jake knows?” I asked him.
“Who cares? I don’t think he knows. He’s just testing us.”
“Maybe so, bet let’s just be careful with him.” Jerry cautioned.
After the discussion was over, we ate some food to help us recover our strength and then we went to bed.
When we woke up the next morning, Jake was already inside our room, next to a wooden lever.
“Good morning, guys. I trust that you’ve had a good night sleep.”
Micah was already halfway across the room, walking up to Jake with his iron sword in his hand.
“Don’t do anything rash, Micah. I’ll pull this lever, the floor goes away and the three of you will have a pretty long way down. You’ll die, respawn but we will get all of your possessions…including that golden compass you had in your hand yesterday.”
Micah immediately stopped in his tracks, still clutching his iron sword.
“Look, Jake, we’ve already told you that we don’t have any golden…”
“Spare me your lies, Jerry. You seem the most intelligent of the group, so I’ll talk to you. You tell your friend Micah to give me his golden compass. I’ll hold onto it for a little while and I’ll give it back to you in exchange for a small favor.” Jake said.
“What favor?” Jerry asked.
“Well, there’s a small clan of players that have made camp at the