Return of the Ender Dragon

by Danica Davidson

  “Don’t be too hard on the boy,” Steve Alexander said as I caught the milk and began drinking. “It could be worse. He could be floating into space now. It’s a good thing he’s indoors.”

  Dad paled. “In space?”

  “Yes,” Steve Alexander said. “Eventually the Levitation device will lose its power, and then he’d plummet back to the ground from wherever he was.”

  That happened anyway. After I’d swallowed the milk, gravity came back in a rush and I fell straight to the floor, groaning on impact. Here I was, trying to be smart and get myself a pair of wings while the others were fussing. And all I’d done was make myself look bad and waste some milk!

  “Keep your eyes peeled for shulkers,” Steve Alexander said, looking down at me. It would have been nicer if he’d helped me back up. I slowly pulled myself to my feet. “You might run into some more.”

  “Hey, it’s not all bad,” Yancy said. “Stevie also found treasure!”

  He popped open the chests, revealing glowing layers of gold and other amazing finds. “Here’s some pirate booty!” he said to Blue. Blue whistled and ruffled his feathers happily.

  “Some rare finds can be discovered in End ships’ chests,” Steve Alexander said, pushing his way through to also check out the chests. “Are there any good weapons there?”

  “Weapons?” Yancy said, digging his hands through gold. “No, I don’t see any weapons.”

  Alex dug into the other chest. “No, nothing here, either.”

  Steve Alexander seemed to be thinking.

  Still feeling a little weird from my floating adventure, I made my way back over. I wasn’t interested in the chests. My eyes were still on the wings. I carefully pulled them down from the wall.

  “Elytra,” Steve Alexander said, nodding his approval. “Hold on to those, Stevie.”

  “I think we’re missing the point here,” Maison’s mom said, frowning. “We can’t be looking at gold or wings when we have to get Maison back!”

  Here the rest of us were, getting distracted. Especially Yancy with his dumb pirate stuff. But Maison’s mom had haunted eyes. Not having Maison back had to be eating away at her, the way I could feel it eating away at me. This weekend was Maison’s birthday, and I was still trying to figure out what I was going to give her. It had to be something special. But if we couldn’t get her back …

  “Maison is brave,” Yancy said, closing the chest. “She’s not going to let that dragon push her around.”

  “She’s a little girl against a huge dragon!” Maison’s mom argued, horrified. “As it is, we have sulk—shulk—whatever that thing was, jumping out of blocks! What can be happening to Maison now?”

  “Maison’s great at Minecraft …” Destiny began.

  “No!” her mom shouted. “This is not normal. I know we have a family history that dates back to Steve Alexander. I know my ancestor Maya fought monsters before. But she was an adult and knew what she was getting into. We need to hurry.”

  Yancy, Destiny, and Alex looked properly shamed. I agreed with Maison’s mom, that we needed to hurry. (And I could use something to get us to stop thinking about me floating.)

  “I know the island Jean is on,” Steve Alexander said. “Unfortunately, with the veil between the Overworld and the End torn the way it is, pieces of land are moving and everything is out of whack. I don’t know how to get there from here.”

  The look Maison’s mom got on her face then was awful. It was like all the humanity melted off it, and it was a mask that showed nothing but horror.

  “I know where they are,” I said.

  CHAPTER 10

  “I can feel her,” i said. “Her evil presence.” I shut my eyes, trying to see where she was. I tried to feel Maison too. If I felt Maison’s presence with the Ender Dragon’s, I might be able to tell somehow if she were hurt.

  But I couldn’t feel Maison, and I couldn’t see anything, try as I might. All I felt was that deep, leaden feeling in my stomach, like a feeling of having ice water thrown on you.

  “I can lead us there!” I said, hurrying up the steps, back onto the deck. I ran to the hull and felt the wind whipping against my face. Across from me was a black stretch of eternity, with a few small white islands floating in the distance.

  “That way.” I pointed.

  “Aye, aye, captain,” Yancy said, turning the ship. I felt the floor beneath me shift as the creaking ship turned in the right direction and began to move.

  Something touched my leg and I looked down. It was Wolf, pawing at me gently. When I reached down to pet him, he happily leaned his head into the pet and wagged his tail. It felt like he was trying to encourage me. No wonder he had been such a great companion to Steve Alexander, especially when he was in imprisoned in the End. It was funny, how young Steve Alexander had said that he was lonely so much. He meant he was hungry for human company, and I got that. But he’d never really been alone, because Wolf had been there to love him the whole time.

  As we sailed deeper into the darkness, I concentrated on feeling the Ender Dragon’s evil power. I’d hated the connection I’d had with her ever since I’d turned into an Enderman and she’d first gotten into my head. Now it was going to have to be that connection that got us to her, so that we could battle.

  Could we actually win?

  I heard Steve Alexander muttering and groaning. What was going on? I turned back and saw he was down in the cabin, at the brewing stand. He was trying to use the brewing stand as a crafting table. He’d laid the crystal shards out and was attempting to make something of them. Dad was next to him, pulling out different items from his toolkit to see if Steve Alexander had any ideas.

  “What about my diamond pickaxe?” Dad asked. “Surely you can add that to the crystal shards and make it a superior weapon.”

  Steve Alexander shook his head. “It wouldn’t be the same. I really need all those crystal shards to do anything.”

  Alex pulled her dragon’s head out of her toolkit. “Can you use this?”

  Steve Alexander shook his head. From where he was steering the ship, Yancy called, “Alex, you just pulled that out to show it off because none of us have one.”

  Alex made a face and dropped the dragon head back into her toolkit.

  I reached into my own toolkit to see if I had anything that could help. I had some Potions of Healing, my diamond sword and a few other weapons. But if Dad’s diamond pickaxe was no good, I didn’t see how any of my items would be any better.

  “We’re going to need everyone as a group to break the crystals that give her health,” Steve Alexander said. “That should take the health crystals out quickly. But that alone won’t be anywhere near enough to stop her.”

  I tried to think. What would Maison say? We often came up with plans together, and she’d shown me tricks she’d learned on the Minecraft game that helped me in the Overworld. At the same time, I’d shown her tricks I knew in the Overworld that helped her with Minecraft. Our different levels of knowledge really complemented each other.

  “Can you try to make another sword with the crystals you have?” Destiny asked.

  Steve Alexander tried. The sword he managed to make didn’t even look like much of a sword. It was too short and it wasn’t powerful enough. Frustrated, he broke the pieces up to think again.

  “Can we use the shulker box to make something?” Alex asked.

  “I’ve played around with those before,” Steve Alexander said. “All they’re really good for is keeping things in. The most you can do is dye them different colors.”

  What kind of a weapon would I make if I wanted to catch a dragon? I wondered. There were lots of different weapons in the Overworld: swords, spears, pickaxes, arrows. Even things like wooden blocks could be used as weapons in a pinch, though they didn’t work as well.

  Maison used to tell me one of her favorite things about Minecraft was that you could create basically whatever you wanted in it. You didn’t have to follow a certain set of rules most of the time.
<
br />   A sword had forced the Ender Dragon into the End, but that was it. It hadn’t saved Steve Alexander from capture or prevented the Ender Dragon from escaping again.

  There was also how dangerous these crystal pieces could be if they were turned into a weapon. Steve Alexander had kept warning us in his book that if a weapon made from these crystals fell into the wrong hands, they could be used for the ultimate destruction. That’s why the Ender Dragon couldn’t have them.

  But what if there were other bad guys down the line, and they got their hands on the weapon we created? Should a weapon that dangerous really exist? Wouldn’t everyone want it?

  I remembered what the Ender Dragon had said when she’d turned against Steve Alexander: “If we do not take power, someone else will take the power from us.”

  We had to stop the Ender Dragon, there was no doubt about that. But what if others kept trying to take this power? Was it the greed for power that turned the Ender Dragon bad? Everyone wants a say, no one wants to be pushed down. But when someone is so ruthless they’ll do anything to be in charge and make others suffer, that’s how we got to where we were then.

  Thinking back, there was only one time that she had successfully been kept from hurting people …

  “I think I know what we should make,” I said. “And it’s not a weapon.”

  CHAPTER 11

  We were drawing even closer to the Ender Dragon, and I could feel it. I was at the front of the ship, directing Yancy where to steer. We passed by islands with roaming Endermen and more End cities. Down in the cabin, I could hear Steve Alexander working on the crystal shards, making what I’d suggested.

  “I still need the final crystal shard to finish it,” he’d said. “But if we can get the shard away from Jean when she’s not looking, I can finish this right away and we’ll be ready.”

  No one had argued with me about my idea. Dad had even complimented it, which really excited me. (Maybe it also made up for me embarrassing Dad with the shulker disaster earlier.) It had seemed like a great idea, though as we got closer to our fight, I began to doubt myself. Could we really pull this off?

  A shudder ran through me. It wasn’t much farther!

  “There she is!” I cried, pointing into the distance.

  “Where?” Yancy leaned forward, squinting.

  Destiny looked out into the distance too and said, “I can see some islands, but …”

  “It’s her,” I said, feeling it in my gut. “On that second island over there, do you see the big purple shape?”

  Alex had also rushed up to see, leaning over the front of the ship so far she almost slipped over. “I see purple shapes, but I can’t imagine anyone can make out what they are from here.”

  I stayed firm. “It’s her, I know it is. I think that’s a tall building from an End city on the island in front of her. But that second island? That’s definitely her, so that must be where Maison is.”

  Hearing all this, Steve Alexander came out from the cabin.

  “Stevie says that’s the Ender Dragon,” Dad said, as if he had to speak for me. I was pretty sure Steve Alexander had already heard what I’d said.

  “If he says it’s so, he’s right,” Steve Alexander said, nodding. “Meanwhile, I did the best I could with the crystals.” He held up what he’d made, letting us see. He was right—it was not quite finished. Still, it looked better than his makeshift sword and anything else he’d tried to create in the cabin.

  I liked that Steve Alexander had sided with me, though I wasn’t really sure why he’d done it. Before I could ask, he went on, “It’s time to make up our strategy. First, Yancy, I want you to steer the ship over so that we go up to the first island. We’ll use that island as a shield and Jean won’t be able to see us from where she is.”

  “On it!” Yancy said, steering hard. The ship shifted in what looked like outer space, taking us toward the island.

  “Next,” Steve Alexander said, “I want everyone but Stevie to work on breaking the crystals.”

  Wait, everyone but Stevie? Why not me too? Here I’d thought Steve Alexander was starting to like me because he’d agreed with my crystal idea and trusted my gut about where the Ender Dragon was. Now it sounded like he didn’t want me to even be part of this mission!

  “Each one of you will take out a health crystal,” he continued. “You’ll see them floating on columns in a circle around her. She might come after one or two of you, but she won’t be able to come after all of you all at once.”

  “I’ll do anything you ask to get my daughter back,” Maison’s mom said. “How are we going to save her?”

  “I was just getting to that,” Steve Alexander said. “Stevie, I have a special mission for you.”

  My heart leapt. What was he thinking?

  “I want you to get Maison away from Jean and grab the last crystal shard,” he said.

  Now my heart wasn’t only leaping—it was pounding. “How am I supposed to do that?” My voice sounded like a squawk when it came out. It wasn’t supposed to sound like a squawk—it should have sounded braver than that. But why was Steve Alexander giving me the most difficult mission? Breaking crystals I could do. This? I wasn’t so sure.

  “You will be doing this while the others break the health crystals,” Steve Alexander explained. “We need to do this all at once. Maison must be away from Jean for her safety, and also because as long as Jean has Maison, Jean has an advantage over us. She can use your friend as a shield or a hostage. We don’t want that.”

  I gulped. No, we didn’t want that.

  “Once Maison is in the clear and you get the crystal shard, get the shard to me,” Steve Alexander said. “I’ll use it to quickly finish the invention. By then the health crystals should have all been taken out, and we’ll all go after Jean at once.”

  “I still don’t understand,” I said. This time I didn’t sound like I was squawking—this time it sounded like I was trembling. Probably because I was. “I can’t take on a dragon. How am I supposed to get in there, help Maison and snatch back the crystal shard?” It was like going straight into a den of monsters. I didn’t see how I could get there and get back out safely!

  “Oh, I thought it was obvious,” Steve Alexander said. “Stevie, you found the elytra. You’re going to fly into the island, battle Jean in the air, save your friend and the crystal shard all without ever touching the ground.”

  CHAPTER 12

  “I can’t do that!” i cried. “I’ve never even flown before!”

  “Technically, elytra don’t fly,” Steve Alexander said. “You have to jump off from someplace high and then glide. The wings will last for about seven minutes. If you land, you won’t be able to get back into the air unless you find someplace high to jump off again.”

  That made it even worse!

  “Now, wait just a minute,” Dad said. “Stevie is right. He has no experience in this. You or I should take the elytra.”

  “I need to be ready to finish the crystal invention at a moment’s notice,” Steve Alexander said. “And if Jean sees me right away, she won’t allow that to happen.”

  “Then let me do the gliding,” Dad said.

  “You don’t have any practice with it, either,” Steve Alexander said. “You didn’t even know what elytra were an hour ago.”

  Whoa, that made Dad mad! He couldn’t argue it, though, because Steve Alexander was telling the truth. (And I don’t think he wanted to fight with the Overworld’s greatest hero, because even if Steve Alexander didn’t consider himself a hero, Dad still thought of him as one.)

  “None of us knew what elytra were before an hour ago,” Dad finally snapped.

  “I did,” Yancy said.

  “Me too,” Destiny said. “From playing Minecraft.”

  “Here’s what you do, Stevie,” Yancy said. “When I’m gliding with elytra in the game, I find it’s easier to stay in the air if you keep pulling up and down at forty-degree intervals.”

  “What?” I said, not following at all
.

  “You know how math works, right?” Yancy said. “You have to if you make all these buildings. Three hundred and sixty degrees is a circle. Half of that, one hundred and eighty degrees, is a straight line. So this is ninety degrees, half of that.” He held his arm out, with his forearm and hand straight up. “See that?”

  “Yeah,” I said slowly.

  “So half of that would be forty-five degrees, so it’d look like this.” He folded his arm down to demonstrate. “So forty degrees would just be a little below that.”

  I was swimming with details. Dad had taught me about angles for building, but it was one thing to know angles and another to pull off angles while you’re in the air and fighting a dragon. I was totally overwhelmed.

  “I … I don’t think I can do this,” I said.

  “I’ll do it!” Alex offered brightly.

  “No,” Steve Alexander said. “I see you have a bow and arrows, and we need your archery talents to take out the health crystals. Stevie has special talents that are needed here. It’s because of his connection to Jean.”

  “I don’t think that’s really a talent,” I said weakly.

  “You have seen inside of her heart in a way none of the others of us have,” Steve Alexander said. “Even I have never seen inside her to the degree you have. The reason you have the connection to her is for multiple reasons. One, you have my blood in you.”

  “So do Alex and my dad,” I said.

  “Two,” Steve Alexander went on. “You have been an Enderman multiple times. Each time was to save your friends, and each time allowed her to dig her claws deeper into you, so that you can hear her voice.”

  He looked at Alex, who was pouting. “You are a great warrior,” he told her. “This strategy has nothing to do with your lack of skills, and a lot more to do with Jean’s obsession with Stevie. Once she got into his head, she felt convinced she could turn him to her side. It has infuriated her that Stevie is his own person.”

  “Of course I am,” I said. “I couldn’t listen to her.” I didn’t want to say how many times it’d been really tempting to give in to the Ender Dragon.