The Dragon’s Mountain, Book One: Attacked by the Griefers

by Mark Mulle

edge of our forest. From what we can tell so far, they too are here looking for the same treasure. I want you to go and find out what they know.” Jake said.

  “What? How can we even trust you? How can we be sure that once we give you the golden compass, you won’t kill us or that once we leave your camp you won’t run away with it?” Micah asked.

  “Well that’s because your friend Jerry, here, he will be staying with us while you and Mike will go and talk to those players.” Jake said.

  “Well why can’t you and your guys do that?”

  “Because the last time we saw them there were ten of them and we heard that even more are coming. It wouldn’t be that smart for us to start a war between clans. You instead, you’ll go to their camp and pretend that you’re average players and learn more about them.” Jake concluded.

  The silence that filled the room was raising the tension to unbearable levels. I found myself looking through my inventory for my own iron sword.

  “Fine,” said Jerry, completely out of nowhere. “Mike, Micah, go to their camp and do as Jake said. I’ll stay here and make sure that he doesn’t try anything funny.”

  Micah turned around and looked at Jerry.

  “And how exactly are you going to do that? He has a dozen men with him? Explain that, Jerry.” said Micah.

  “Well, Micah, my men will follow you, actually, keeping a safe distance so that they don’t get discovered by the other clan. In case you decide that you want to let those guys in on our little plan, my Greenfoot clan men will be there in order to prevent a full scale assault on our tree house.” Jake said.

  I really could not believe it. When I first met Micah in his village, I thought that surely he was the most devious leader in Minecraft. I now stood corrected. Jake was definitely the most devious, scheming and possibly evil clan leader in Minecraft. The guy was like a criminal mastermind.

  “Alright, then it’s settled! Micah, would you please throw your golden compass on the ground? No sudden moves. I’m still next to the lever. You’ll go flying in a second.” said Jake.

  Micah opened his inventory and unequipped his iron sword. He then equipped his golden compass, and the moment after that, he threw it on the floor in Jake’s direction.

  “Happy?” Micah asked.

  “Not really. Not yet, anyway.” Jake responded.

  “Now why don’t you grab your friend and get out of here. You have a lot of road to cover. My men have your horses ready down in the forest. Goodbye.”

  I walked up to Micah and together we got out of there. I looked back and saw Jerry looking back at us.

  “Good luck, guys!” said Jerry.

  The moment we walked out the door we saw that across the bridge that connected our house to the rest of the camp there were no less than seven clan men in their green leather armors, bows in hand, ready to shoot us off the bridge in case we somehow would have managed to go past Jake. The guy really was a mastermind.

  Micah and I slowly walked across the camp, escorted by the green clan men, heading for the main hub, where we knew the exit was.

  “Not there!” said one of the clan men. “Here!”

  He pointed to a small trapdoor that was near what looked like a wooden bench.

  “What?” Micah asked.

  “Trapdoor. Quick exit. We make it disappear after you leave. We always make secret entrances. Better this way,” the player added.

  He opened the trapdoor and turned around, facing the two of us.

  “Jump in. The others are waiting in the forest.”

  Micah and I looked at each other and then we each jumped in, Micah first, then myself.

  It appeared that inside the small tunnel there was a stream of water that flowed straight down to the forest. The water slowed our descent and we landed on the forest floor without any harm.

  We then saw our horses that were held with leads by two clan members. We walked up to them and without saying a word; the clan member untied them and ran into the forest.

  I looked around for a bit, to see if Jake was telling the truth about the clan men that he instructed to follow us. I tell you, if there were clan men around us, I couldn’t tell.

  We mounted our horses and started riding through the forest.

  The ride was pretty uneventful, as were almost all of our treks through this forest. We rode for about two days before managing to exit the forest. After we got out of the forest, the scenery took a strange turn. On my side of the forest, where I had built my farm, the scenery was green and had all sorts of trees and flowers and whatnot. But on this side of the forest we couldn’t see anything but sand and hills of sandstone. A great river divided the grassy outer part of the forest and what looked like a sea of sand.

  We rode for a while up and down the river and when we finally made our way upstream, we saw a small encampment in the distance.

  The encampment was on the other side of the river.

  There was no bridge crossing the river, or at least there was no bridge that we could find so we decided to cross it the old fashioned way.

  “Our horses aren’t of any use. They’ll spook once the water gets deep. We’ll have to tie them down and leave them here. We’ll have to swim across the river ourselves. There’s no point in building boats, that’s a waste of time. That’s the bad news.” Micah said.

  “Well then what’s the good news?” I asked him.

  “The good news is that the Greenfoot clan won’t risk following us across the river and into the open.” Micah said.

  “Ha. Do you think the other guys will be just as friendly as them?” I asked him.

  “I doubt it. It will depend on how good we act. Once we get there, just follow my lead, okay? I think I have a plan.”

  “I hope your plan is a good one, Micah. So far…”

  “Shut up, Mike. You’re welcome to suggest any one of your plans, you know. What? Yeah, you don’t have any plans, you noob.” Micah chuckled.

  “Yeah? Well, you’re a …”

  I didn’t manage to finish my sentence because Micah was already tying his horse to a wooden fence post and running towards the water already.

  “How typical…” I said.

  “I heard that! Get your behind off that horse and come on! The sun is already setting, Mike.” Micah said as he swam through the water.

  I placed a wooden fence post on the ground and tied my horse near Micah’s and got into the water.

  Funny thing...rivers this big don’t really have currents in Minecraft. So swimming in one is not that dangerous, only time consuming. Well, they can be dangerous if monsters follow you or if someone or something is shooting arrows at you. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.

  By the time we had crossed the river the sun had completely set and the moon was up in the night’s sky. We could see lights coming from the encampment.

  We got out of the water and made our way to the dim lights in the distance.

  When we got close to the encampment we could see that the walls were made out of cobblestone pillars and mostly sandstone and that there were no gates at all. The camp was pretty much open to any traveler. Torches were placed on the walls, preventing monsters from spawning near the camp. There were no defense towers, no watchtowers, no places from where archers could snipe intruders – the camp actually looked pretty inviting. We walked right in.

  The camp was built in the shape of a square, with four buildings in each corner, a farm and a small animal enclosure with sheep in it. Cacti were placed here and there and there was even a pumpkin patch.

  We strolled around the camp for a minute or so until someone eventually came and greeted us. The guy had a plain leather armor suit on and an enchanted iron sword in his hand.

  “Hello guys! What are you doing in our camp?” the player asked.

  “We’re just passing by. We’re travelers. We saw your camp and thought that maybe we could spend the night with you guys. We’ve never been through a
desert biome so we have no idea what’s out there at night.” Micah told him.

  “You’re cool, right? No griefing, stealing or anything?” the player asked.

  “Sure, man. We’re genuine players, don’t worry. My name is Micah and that noob over there is my friend Mike.”

  “Ha-ha. Hi Micah! Hi noob! I mean, Mike. Hi Mike! My name’s Trent. Come on in and meet the rest of the guys.”

  We followed Trent as he led us through his small camp and into the biggest of the buildings. Inside, the building had only one big room with big windows that had no glass but instead wooden fence in the form of a grate. Also, inside the room were about twenty other players, gathered around a large fire that burnt within a cobblestone trench.

  “Wow.” I said, seeing all the players.

  “What’s the matter, Mike? You’ve never seen such a large gathering, I take it.” Micah said.

  “Well we are quite a large group of players. We’re a friendly community, truth be told. A lot of us started playing Minecraft together about a month ago. I created the community when I first heard a rumor about a treasure that’s supposed to be in this particular world.” Trent said. “These are the guys that I managed to convince to join me in my treasure hunt. Most of them are noobs, but they’re nice people.”

  “Cool.” I said.

  “They seem to agree.” Trent said.

  Micah put away his sword and started walking through the room.

  All the players inside were looking busy. Some of them were teaching others how to craft things with the crafting tables; others were showing the noobs how and what to put things into furnaces.