The Quest for the Diamond Sword

by Winter Morgan

  “Together we will make the most powerful team,” added Henry.

  Suddenly Steve dodged an arrow that flew too close to his head. “Unless they get us first!” Steve said.

  “Skeletons!” shouted Max, and a new battle was about to begin.

  8

  SKELETONS

  IT SOUNDED LIKE A PARADE OF RATTLING BONES AS the skeletons raced toward them with great force and shot arrows from a hill high above the fearless foursome. One skeleton leapt down, and Max charged toward it with his sword. His powerful blow ripped the head off the skeleton. This infuriated the other skeletons, and they shot arrows as fast as they could.

  An arrow flew through the air, and Henry fell back.

  “Are you hit?” asked Lucy.

  “It hit my arm,” Henry said as he got up and shot an arrow with his other hand. “It hurts, but I’ll be okay.”

  Henry’s health level was still low from the spider bite, and now it dipped even lower as he was attacked. The battle was making him weaker.

  Steve knocked out two skeletons with his sword. When three skeletons surrounded him, he struck one with his sword. The other two had their bows pointed at Steve. He realized this might be the end. After all the battles, he would be killed, spawned back in his village, and still unable to help the villagers. His heart was heavy, and he was about to surrender. Suddenly, Lucy and Max crept up behind the skeletons and knocked them to the ground with their swords.

  “There are so many of them,” Lucy said as she looked at the countless skeletons that approached the group. The night sky began to darken. The black skeleton eyes seemed almost invisible in the charcoal-colored night.

  “We need to find shelter,” said Steve as a skeleton came up behind him and knocked him to the ground. Steve got up and struck the skeleton.

  Two pairs of purple eyes shone through the sea of skeletons.

  “It’s Endermen,” Lucy called to Steve. “Don’t stare at them.”

  But it was too late, and the Endermen were provoked. They teleported, landing in the thick of the skeleton battle.

  “There’s water down here,” said Lucy as she ran up the hill to flee from the skeletons. “We need to jump and swim.”

  “Get a bucket of water,” shouted Henry.

  “I have that in my inventory!” Steve yelled to the group, but it was too late. Lucy was trapped.

  “I can’t,” Lucy cried out as the two Endermen teleported in front of her.

  A skeleton cornered Steve. Max swung his sword into the skeleton’s head, killing it and saving Steve. But there were still six more skeletons left to battle. The foursome was weak, and their health and food bars were low. It was just minutes before it became a losing battle.

  The Endermen surrounded Lucy. “Help!” she called to her friends.

  Steve could see Lucy battling the beasts with her sword, but the blows didn’t weaken the Endermen. He saw her jump off the cliff into the water. The two Endermen dove in after her and plunged to their deaths.

  As Lucy came out of the water, purple eyes emerged from the distance. More Endermen approached.

  “This is never-ending!” she said as she jumped back in the water. The Endermen followed, succumbing to the same fate as the previous Endermen.

  A creeper lurked in the darkness. It crept toward Max. Its green body came closer to Max as Lucy screamed out from the water, “Watch out, Max, it’s a creeper!”

  “There’s one behind you, too!” Henry called to Lucy as she stood at the edge of the water.

  The stealthy green monsters had a talent for silently creeping up behind players and unleashing an attack that left both the creeper and the player defeated.

  Lucy ran as fast as she could toward Steve, Henry, and Max. With her sword out, she attacked the skeletons that battled her friends. The skeletons lunged at the group. The friends used all their might to battle these creatures of the night, and the gang pierced the bony beasts with their swords.

  “If only we had the powerful diamond sword, this battle would be easier,” Steve said as his sword hit a skeleton.

  “Do you hear that?” Lucy asked the group.

  The sound of a fuse being burnt emanated from the creepers. Something was going to explode! The group ran as the creepers moved toward the skeletons. Boom! The creepers exploded and disintegrated after an attack on the skeletons. Three CDs appeared where the skeletons fell. Steve grabbed the discs as Lucy and Max battled the remaining skeletons.

  “When we get the diamonds for the sword, we’ll also use some to make a jukebox. When we get back to my wheat farm, we’ll have a huge party to celebrate our victory.”

  The gang cheered, but before they could rejoice, an arrow flung at the group! “More skeletons!” They collectively moaned as the group spotted more Endermen approaching them.

  “How are we going to get out of this one?” Steve asked as he held the CDs tightly in his hand. He didn’t want the group to see his hand shaking because he was nervous.

  Suddenly, a loud boom echoed through the night sky. It was thunder. As raindrops began to fall, the Endermen retreated, and the skillful fighter Max was able to defeat the last skeleton. The sounds of rain hitting the blocks had a calming effect on the group, who were weary from battle.

  “We should find some shelter,” Steve said as rain dripped from his body.

  “Look at our pile of bones,” Max showed the group proudly. “We might have had a difficult battle, but we gained lots of experience, and now we can use these bones.”

  “I hope we don’t run into wolves,” said Lucy.

  “But now we can tame them,” Max held a bone.

  “Wolves scare off Endermen,” added Steve.

  A chicken came into view and Lucy hunted it and explained, “We need to get our food bars full.”

  The rain stopped, and the group sat and ate. They tried to relax as they kept one eye open for hostile mobs.

  “We need to find diamonds,” said Steve.

  “Maybe we should stop looking for the diamonds. I want to hunt for treasure,” Henry said as he ate the chicken and watched his food and health bars increase.

  “I need to save my village. I’m their only hope,” Steve said. He was angry.

  “It doesn’t matter if you don’t go home. Hunting treasure is much better and a lot more fun,” Henry lashed out.

  “What about our party?” Steve held the discs.

  “It sounds like fun, but I want to get treasure,” protested Henry.

  “I thought you guys were going to help me find the diamonds,” Steve said to the group. “I thought you wanted to be a part of my journey.” Steve had finally met friends he enjoyed being with, and now he had to leave them.

  “We did, but truthfully, the diamond sword isn’t that important to us,” said Henry.

  “Do you guys agree with him? The diamond sword is the most powerful sword. Do you have one?” Steve asked as he looked at Max and Lucy.

  They sat quietly. None of them had a diamond sword, and they wanted one. They didn’t know what to say.

  “I’m going on my own,” Steve announced. “I’m going to mine for diamonds, and I’m going to make that sword. Then I’ll use an enchantment table to make it even more powerful!” Steve began to leave the group where they sat in a field of skeleton corpses and a pile of bones.

  “Do you want any bones, Steve?” Lucy called out.

  “Steve, come back,” Max pleaded. “I’ll help you find the diamonds.”

  “You will?” Steve turned around.

  “Yes,” Max said. “I’ve always wanted to have a super powerful awesome diamond sword. I’ve never had one before. And I’ve never been to a party before.”

  “Seriously?” asked Steve.

  “Yes. I want that sword,” Max said. “I don’t care what Henry says. I think he’s afraid we aren’t going to find the diamonds to make the swords.”

  “That’s not true!” Henry said. He was quite mad.

  “Then why are you being so
difficult?” Lucy was annoyed.

  “I can find the diamonds without you,” Henry told the group, “but I just worry that you can’t find them on your own, and I’d feel bad.”

  The group didn’t question Henry, because they knew he was upset and had made a mistake.

  “Come with us,” said Steve.

  With his head down, Henry said, “I was wrong. I’m going to help you, too. It isn’t often that you run across someone who actually wants to help villagers.”

  “I want to see your wheat farm, and I want to dance to those CDs,” said Lucy.

  The group set off to go on the ultimate diamond mining experience. As the sun began to rise, they heard barking coming from the distance.

  “Good thing we have these bones,” said Max.

  9

  TAMING THE WOLF

  ARMED WITH PICKAXES, THE GANG BEGAN TO MINE for diamonds. They walked down a staircase in the Overworld and headed deep underneath the ground. The walls around them were layered with multicolored blocks. They broke away at each one carefully. The deeper they got, the more hopeful Steve was that they’d find diamonds. He knew they were only found deep within the surface. Sometimes he heard people would have to go farther than sixteen layers down to find diamonds.

  “I think I found something,” Lucy called out as she broke through a wall with her pickaxe.

  Steve rushed over, hoping he’d see a glimmering blue diamond, but it was just gravel.

  “You have to watch out for gravel,” Max told the group. “It can fall on us. Let’s try to create a mineshaft—that will help us.”

  Henry placed a torch on the wall for light while they cracked through the walls of their tunnel to create a mineshaft.

  “You have to dig really deep to find diamonds,” Henry informed the group.

  “Finding forty seems impossible,” Lucy said glumly.

  Steve used all of his strength to break through the walls. With each blow, he was careful that lava wasn’t oozing out from the other side of the wall. It would only take seconds to flood the room and kill them all. When they saw a drop of lava, the group evacuated through a hole in the tunnel.

  A cold wind swept through the group, and they emerged into a field of white powder.

  “What is this?” Steve shivered, blinded by the seemingly never-ending world of white sand.

  “It’s snow!” beamed Henry. “We’re in the arctic.”

  “I love it,” Lucy said as she ran around and playfully started to throw snowballs in the air. “I haven’t been in the Arctic biome in a long time. I forgot how much fun it is.”

  “Let’s build a snowman!” suggested Max.

  “Can we do that?” Steve asked sheepishly.

  “We can do anything we want,” replied Max. “We can build an igloo!”

  The cold air felt funny in Steve’s lungs. He had never been in the cold before, and he wished he had a wool coat. He didn’t want his friends to know how awkward the cold weather made him feel. He wondered why they all seemed to enjoy it.

  “Join us!” Lucy said to Steve. “It feels funny at first, but you’ll get used to it and have fun!”

  Steve felt like she had read his mind. Would he really get used to this cold weather? As he watched his friends having the time of their lives in the snow, he realized Lucy might be right. He had to relax and enjoy this biome.

  Steve grabbed a mound of snow and started to help his friends make a snowman when he heard something breathing heavily.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  The gang didn’t seem to hear it and happily continued playing in the snow.

  “I’m a snow princess,” Lucy said as she danced around Max and Henry, who were hard at work on their snowman.

  “Too bad we’re not at your wheat farm,” Henry said. “We could really use a carrot for the nose.”

  “I know!” Max agreed. “I wonder what we can use for the eyes!”

  But Steve couldn’t pay attention to the snowman. He could hear something panting in the distance. It sounded like a group of wild animals, and he was scared.

  “I hear something breathing,” Steve told the gang, but nobody listened to him.

  Max ran up a large hill covered with snow.

  “I can see something,” Max called out.

  “I told you!” Steve called out to Max.

  “It’s a frozen river. I bet we could slip around and skate.”

  “But I hear something breathing!” Steve screamed. “Am I the only one?”

  “Ice skating!” Lucy said. “I love ice skating!”

  Suddenly a pack of white wolves emerged from behind a snow-covered tree. Their black eyes stood out as their white fur was camouflaged in the snowy landscape.

  “I told you I heard something!” Steve shouted out as the pack raced toward the group.

  “Get your weapons,” Henry told everyone. He took out a sword, and the wolf pack away ran away, rushing through the frosted terrain. Their paws left wet imprints in the snow.

  “Good job, Henry!” Lucy said with a smile and a handful of snow. “You scared them!”

  Yet one lone wolf remained, and it approached Steve. Its menacing, sharp teeth shined in the snowy landscape.

  “I have a bone,” Steve announced as Henry, Lucy, and Max held snowballs at the ready to battle the growling, hostile wolf.

  Slowly the wolf joined Steve and inspected the bone carefully. The wolf’s nose brushed up against the skeleton bone. Steve gave him the bone, and the wolf began to roll happily on the ground. A red collar appeared around its neck.

  “It’s tame!” exclaimed Max.

  “You have a pet,” Lucy said as she walked over and touched the tame wolf, which was now the same as a dog.

  “Let’s make an anvil and use our name tag,” Henry suggested as he and Max joined Lucy to play with the dog.

  The wolf shook the snow from its fur and looked up at Steve. It was Steve’s pet, and he had complete control over it. For the rest of Steve’s time in the Minecraft world, this wolf would be loyal to him. Wolves had the ability to teleport themselves when they needed to be by their owners to protect them. They were loyal for life.

  Steve used the anvil and named the dog Rufus. “I’m going to call you Rufus,” he told the wolf. “I have a pet ocelot named Snuggles that I have been watching for a long time. You two better get along well.”

  The wolf gave Steve a nose bump as the group continued working on their snowman and igloo. Steve relaxed and played with his new pet. He tried to teach it how to sit and planned adventures with the pet wolf.

  “It likes you!” Lucy said with a smile.

  Rufus ran over to the snowman that Max and Henry finished.

  “Isn’t the snow fun?” Lucy asked Steve.

  “Yes,” he agreed.

  “Don’t you wish we could stay here for a while?” Max said as he stood by the snowman.

  “But we have diamonds to search for and villagers to save,” Steve told the group to gently remind them of their real plans.

  They agreed. This was a fun break, but they had a mission they had promised to finish.

  Rufus followed closely behind Steve as the group shoveled their way deep beneath the icy surface in search of an abandoned mineshaft that might be filled with diamonds.

  Steve took one last look at the wintery world. It seemed magical, as snow slowly dropped from the sky. He brushed the watery snow from his eyes.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Lucy asked him as their pickaxes took them farther from the surface and closer to Steve’s dream.

  10

  WITCHES!

  THE MINES BENEATH THE SNOW-COVERED GROUND were empty. Steve was beginning to lose hope, but his wolf Rufus was just happy to be on an adventure.

  “We’ll find diamonds,” Lucy said, trying to cheer him up while they made their way to the surface.

  They broke through the ceiling above them, and the sun shined. The humid air felt sticky on Steve’s skin.

  Steve steppe
d out and into a marshy pit. “Ugh,” he said as he shook the water from his boots.

  “It’s the swamp,” said Max, looking out at the water coated with lily pads. Rufus walked over to the lily pads and began to drink from the water.

  The water was a deep blue, and the sky had a purplish glow. Night was beginning to fall, and the full moon was growing brighter by the minute. Steve had never seen anything so vibrant yet spooky. In the swamp, sugar canes and vine-covered trees sprouted from patches of water.

  “Look at that yucky green water,” Steve said as he pointed to a patch of what seemed to be polluted water.

  “That’s not water!” shouted Max. “That’s slime!”

  The green blocks of slime inched toward the group. Henry took out his bow and arrow. He fired a shot at the slime. An enormous slimeball oozed through the evening sky and shot slime in every direction. The group shielded themselves from the green gooey substance.

  Henry grabbed vines and said, “We can create a ladder to escape the slimes.”

  Max piled blocks behind them to break their fall while the gang climbed high above the swamp.

  “The moon is getting bigger,” said Lucy

  “Or we’re just getting closer,” added Max

  “No, it’s a full moon,” said Henry, whose voice seemed to shake as he spit out the last few words, “and that means one thing—witches!”

  “Witches?” Steve had enough. They were still hiding from the slime, and now they had to be on the lookout for witches.

  “I’m going to—” Henry cried out as he fell from the ladder of vines. The blocks broke his fall, but he couldn’t get back on the vines and landed on the ground below.

  “We have to help him,” Steve said while he climbed down and found himself surrounded by three slimes.

  Lucy adjusted her bow and arrow as she made her way down the vines. She shot one slime. Steve backed away, avoiding being drenched with a slimeball. Suddenly a mini-slime jumped on Steve and made him lose energy. He hit the slime and it bounced off his skin.

  Max jumped from the ladder and plunged his sword into the slimes. Green guts flew through the air.

  Steve ran over to Henry, “Are you okay?”