The Last of the Ender Crystal

by Danica Davidson

  Until now, you have read my words, the voice said. Now you will see my life.

  At that, we were all blinded by a bright light.

  CHAPTER 4

  When the light faded, we were outdoors in the Overworld. There was no sign of Maison’s bedroom, but the five of us (plus Blue) were all still together, and Maison was still holding the book.

  “What happened?” Alex exclaimed, looking around. We were near a village, though it wasn’t a village I recognized. People were milling about, and I saw there was a sign nearby that said, in giant letters, MONSTER-FIGHTING CONTEST TODAY.

  “Excuse me!” Alex called to a man walking past her. The man ignored her, as if she wasn’t even there. “How rude!” Alex huffed.

  I watched the people walk by. You’d have thought they’d notice five kids showing up out of nowhere in a burst of light, especially when three of those kids were from Earth, and looked different from blocky Overworld kids. Even so, no one even turned their head.

  “I don’t think they can see us,” Maison said.

  Yancy walked up to a passing man and poked him in the arm. The man kept walking without missing a beat.

  “I’d say you’re right,” Yancy said. “Sooo … is this magical or creepy?”

  “Why would Steve Alexander bring us here?” Alex asked.

  “The real question is, how do we get back?” Destiny said, looking from side to side uneasily.

  “Maybe the book will bring us back after we see what we’re supposed to see,” I said. I was pretty uneasy, myself. This didn’t feel right at all. We were like ghosts here, and we didn’t even know where “here” was! If I could have asked someone for a map, I might have felt a little less uncomfortable—at least then I’d have been able to find my way back home if necessary.

  People were lining up by the MONSTER-FIGHTING CONTEST TODAY sign. Two men had large wooden swords, and they were swinging them around, looking proud of themselves. The swords looked like regular wooden swords, but bigger.

  “We’re going to win this contest, Drake,” said one of the men to the other.

  The other man laughed. “I know it, Mick!” he said.

  “No one ever thought of making wooden swords … BIGGER!” hooted the one called Drake.

  “Nuh-uh!” said Mick loudly. “We’re geniuses.”

  Yancy sighed and put his hand over his eyes. “I guess you find that type in every world.”

  “Uh-oh, Drake. Look who’s coming,” said Mick.

  “Is it our lil friend?” asked Drake. You could tell, from the mocking way he said it, that he didn’t really consider this person his friend.

  Another man was stepping up to join them beside the sign, looking uncertain. A white dog with a red collar walked next to him.

  My mouth fell open. The man’s posture was unfamiliar—like someone trying to sneak by unnoticed—but his features were unmistakable. His square beard, his dark hair. No wonder people said Dad and I looked like him. He was even carrying a diamond sword.

  “It’s our lil Steve Alexander,” Mick said with a smirk.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Oh, uh, hi, guys,” steve alexander stammered. I couldn’t believe it. Steve Alexander stammering!

  He tried to make his way past Mick and Drake, only to have Drake grab him by the sleeve. The dog let out a low growl.

  “What do you think you’re doing, showing your face here again?” Drake asked. “You should have learned your lesson last year.”

  “He should have learned his lesson when we were kids,” Mick cut in, and the two of them laughed.

  “I really should be going,” Steve Alexander said, and tried to free himself from Drake’s grip. Drake just dug in harder.

  “Hold on,” Drake said. “We’ve known each other since we were little. Don’t you want to catch up with us?”

  “Not really,” Steve Alexander said.

  “That’s so cold!” Mick said. “Why not?”

  Steve Alexander looked back and forth between them. “Well, when we were kids, you used to steal my inventions and hide them …”

  “Oh, yeah!” Mick said, chuckling again. “That was funny!”

  “Hey, remember the first time we tried to make him ride a horse?” Drake said. “He fell off, so we took the horse’s lead and strung him up with it. He was just dangling there upside down by his ankle.”

  “That was great!” Mick said. “He looked like a toy!”

  Leads were strips used to tame and ride horses in the Overworld, but I’d never heard of them being used to tie someone up like that. These guys were cruel!

  “That wasn’t great,” Steve Alexander said. “I could have gotten really hurt. Now, if you’ll excuse me …”

  “Wait a second,” Mick said. He got serious and stepped in close, eyeing the diamond sword Steve Alexander carried. “What’s this thing you got?”

  “That’s, uh, my invention,” Steve Alexander said. “It’s a sword made of diamonds.”

  Drake and Mick looked at each other for a second. They tried to keep straight faces, but they clearly couldn’t. They both burst out laughing, and Drake had to let go of Steve Alexander’s shirt to bend over and clutch his sides when he laughed too hard. Mick was slapping his knee at the hilarity.

  “A sword made out of diamonds!” Mick roared. “That’s the dumbest thing—”

  “There’s no way you’re going to beat us!” Drake said. “We made wooden swords!”

  “Wooden swords already exist,” Steve Alexander said.

  “Yeah, but these are BIGGER!” Drake said.

  “So much BIGGER!” Mick said.

  Steve Alexander turned to walk away, his dog following.

  “Hey, wait up!” Drake said as he and Mick chased after him. “You aren’t still sore about last year’s monster-fighting contest, are you?”

  “When you won the contest because you made slightly bigger wooden swords, and I lost even though I discovered the Nether?” Steve Alexander muttered. “No, not at all.”

  “We took something useful and made it bigger,” Mick said. “And bigger always means better.”

  “Whereas you made that weird portal,” Drake said. “It looked all great at first, until people started going in there and getting attacked by ghasts and zombie pigmen. What were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking the Nether had a lot to offer—” Steve Alexander began.

  “Well, you failed,” Mick said. “And we won!”

  “Don’t forget that invention,” Drake said, pointing at Steve Alexander’s four-legged companion. “What do you call that, again?”

  “A dog,” Steve Alexander said.

  “A dog!” Mick said. “Who in their right mind would want a dog?”

  “He’s a guard and a—” Steve Alexander began, only to be cut off.

  “Remember when you showed everyone your dog?” Drake said. “What happened? A bunch of people tried to tame wolves. And they just got bitten.”

  “They didn’t know what they were doing, but—” Steve Alexander tried to get in.

  “They got hurt because of you!” Mick said.

  “Gentlemen, is something the matter here?” interrupted a woman who was hurrying over with a confident stride. She had red hair and a serious expression.

  “Mayor Pandra!” Steve Alexander cried, looking awed by her. “I’m sorry, miss, I’m just trying to get my stuff ready for the contest …”

  With that red hair of hers, Mayor Pandra looked a lot like Aunt Alexandra and Alex. I glanced at Alex and could tell from her wide, riveted eyes that she was already enthralled with this woman.

  Mayor Pandra edged over toward Mick and Drake. “You understand we hold this contest every year because of our monster problem,” she said. “We are here to work together to fight monsters, not to tear one another down. This contest is about celebrating the best minds in the Overworld.”

  “Then why’d you let Steve Alexander in?” Drake said. Mick snickered behind his hand.

  Mayor Pa
ndra’s mouth curled downward in disgust. “Steve Alexander is welcome here, just as everyone else is,” she said. “I expect you two to treat him better.”

  She looked down at the dog. “He doesn’t bite, does he?”

  “Oh, no, no, no,” Steve Alexander said quickly, almost tripping over his own words. “I named him Wolf, but he was only a wolf until I tamed him. Now he’s a dog, but I’ve named him Wolf …”

  Drake and Mick were laughing in the background, unable to help themselves. Steve Alexander did sound pretty silly right then, as if he couldn’t get the right words out, no matter how hard he tried.

  It looked like the mayor wanted to say more, but another villager was calling her over. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen,” she said, walking away breezily.

  Steve Alexander watched her go, looking somehow awestruck, grateful, and embarrassed that he’d needed someone else to stick up for him.

  “She’s right, Mick,” Drake said. “I think we’ve been too hard on Steve Alexander.”

  “Yeah, Drake,” Mick said. “We should give him a present.”

  “A present?” Steve Alexander said timidly, as if he didn’t know what to expect.

  When they brought him his present a minute later, his eyes widened in horror.

  “What?” Mick said. “It’s just a horse. You like horsies, don’t you, Steve Alexander?”

  “You’re not still scared of horses, are you?” teased Drake. “You? Big, brave Steve Alexander, who discovered the Nether and tamed a wolf?”

  “I’m …” Steve Alexander started. He stopped, swallowed, and tried again. “I’m not scared of horses.”

  “Then ride it,” Drake said.

  “Hey, everyone!” Mick shouted to the crowds. “Look at Steve Alexander’s great horse-riding skills!”

  Everyone in the area turned to look. I glanced around for Mayor Pandra, though she was long gone.

  “What, you don’t like our gift?” Drake said, watching Steve Alexander’s panicky face. “You should be grateful!”

  The people began chanting for Steve Alexander to get on the horse. A number of them were laughing. What was going on here?

  Steve Alexander looked around nervously, but it seemed he couldn’t find any way out of this. Slowly, he crept up to the horse, looking at it as if it were a monster about to attack. The horse just stood there patiently. Why was Steve Alexander so scared of it? It looked just like a regular horse. Was he still scared because of what happened so many years ago?

  But when he tried climbing on the animal’s back, the horse wouldn’t have it. It threw back its head, whinnying, and knocked Steve Alexander to the ground. He landed on the seat of his pants, letting out a groan. The whole crowd burst out laughing.

  “This never gets old!” Drake whooped, holding his stomach with laughter.

  Guffaws roared all around us. His face twisted in pain, Steve Alexander jumped to his feet and fled.

  CHAPTER 6

  The white light showed up again, sweeping us along with Steve Alexander so we wouldn’t lose track of him. It was almost like watching a movie in Maison’s world. Except all of this was real. These were actual scenes from the past!

  We’d been so caught up in what we were watching that no one had spoken for a while. Now Destiny said as we moved in the wave of light, “I feel so bad for Steve Alexander.”

  “Yeah,” Maison said. “It took me a while to get the hang of taming and riding horses in Minecraft. I can see how it would be hard for him.”

  “It’s not only that,” Yancy said. “He does all these smart things and no one sees it. Then there’s one simple thing he can’t do, and the others rub it in.”

  “But what sort of hero can’t ride a horse?” Alex said, looking offended at the very idea.

  The sort of hero in front of us, apparently. After running past the village, Steve Alexander reached the edge of a jungle biome, where he stopped to catch his breath. The light vanished and we were just standing at the scene. Steve Alexander hit one of the jungle trees in frustration, slashing clear through it with his sword. “Stupid, stupid,” he said, hitting himself in the head with his free hand. Then something caught his attention.

  It was a dark mineshaft, leading down below the ground.

  The dog called Wolf had followed Steve Alexander to the edge of the jungle. He looked at the mineshaft and whined.

  Despite this, Steve Alexander started going down into the mineshaft, striking out with his sword and hitting the block walls to find his way in the dark. Wolf followed him like a shadow, watching with worried eyes. And we followed both of them like ghosts. Soon Steve Alexander’s sword hit nothing but air, and he seemed to realize he’d found an opening to another room. When he stepped inside, his jaw dropped in amazement.

  The room’s walls were lined with stone bricks, and in the center of the room was an enormous portal, hovering over an open pool of bright-red lava and connected to the ground by a small set of stairs. It was an End portal! I knew that End portals were super rare, and I guessed from Steve Alexander’s expression that he’d never seen one before this. He hesitantly walked up the steps, one eye on the lava below so he wouldn’t accidentally fall.

  The portal was framed with a dozen blocks that had green eyes in them, and the middle looked like a starry sky. He touched the edge of the portal with his hand, then jumped back with a startled bellow. An Enderman was coming out of the portal! I expected an attack, but Steve Alexander quickly ducked away, and the Enderman ignored him. Usually Endermen only attacked you if you looked them in the eye. This Enderman was carrying a small purple crystal in its hands. An Ender crystal! Then the mob teleported and Steve Alexander and Wolf were alone again.

  “So, is this where the Endermen come from?” Steve Alexander murmured to himself, rising to check out the portal again. “If so, I’ll call it the End. Maybe I can go exploring there later. I might discover new …” Then he stopped speaking, and his face clouded over.

  “Nothing I do matters,” he said, angry once more. “I could save this whole world and they wouldn’t accept me! Not even her … not even Mayor Pandra …” He trailed off sadly, until anger overtook him again. “It’s always Mick and Drake, everywhere I turn! They’ve tormented me for years. If only they knew what it felt like to suffer, then maybe they would understand!”

  He slammed his diamond sword so hard into the wall that it stuck in the stone. He stood there, panting and sweaty, staring at the sword, then looked ashamed at himself. “What am I saying?” he whispered, so low I could barely hear it.

  Suddenly, a faint voice called out, as though far off in the darkness of the mineshaft. “I know what it’s like to suffer.”

  Steve Alexander jerked back. “Who’s there?” With a lurch, he pulled his diamond sword out of the wall. And he drew a torch from his toolkit so he could see better.

  “Please,” the voice called. It sounded raspy and powerless, like whoever was speaking was too weak to come to him. Steve Alexander walked farther and farther down the mineshaft, toward the voice, with us following close behind. Minutes passed, and it felt as if he must be in the deepest depths of the mineshaft by now. “Please, please release me,” the voice continued to call.

  And when Steve Alexander turned the next corner, he discovered a dragon.

  CHAPTER 7

  The ender dragon! only … she didn’t look the way she had when I’d seen her in the End, a creature full of power and might flying over everyone’s heads. She didn’t look evil, or sound it. She was crouching low to the ground, as if she were hurt, her large body confined to the tight walls of the mineshaft. Her black form almost seemed part of the darkness, but her purple eyes glowed brightly in the torchlight.

  When Steve Alexander entered the room she was in, she tried to sit up and lift her tail. But there just wasn’t enough space, and her head bumped into the ceiling. When she moved, I saw her legs were chained.

  And there were purple crystals linked in the chains. More Ender crystals!
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br />   “I’ve heard of dragons in stories,” Steve Alexander said, shocked, “but I never knew them to be real!”

  “Yes,” she said, looking down at him. “I have been trapped here so, so long.”

  Wolf stepped up behind his master, took one look at the dragon, and started to growl.

  “Wolf, no!” Steve Alexander scolded. He turned back to the dragon and asked gently, “Who did this to you?”

  “People who did not understand me,” she said. “They saw I was different and judged me.”

  Steve Alexander looked sympathetic. “How long have you been chained down here?”

  “For centuries, I think,” she said.

  “You poor thing,” he said, stepping closer and laying a gentle hand on her flank. She heaved a sad sigh, the force of her breath almost lifting him off his feet. If I hadn’t seen it for my own eyes, I never could have imagined the Ender Dragon was capable of looking so vulnerable and mistreated. Right then, even I felt sorry for her.

  “Let me get you out of these chains,” he said.

  “Your sword will not break these,” she said. “No sword can.”

  “But I have a new sword,” Steve Alexander said. He took his diamond sword to one of her shackles. With just one blow, the sword shattered the chain.

  The Ender Dragon’s eyes glowed even brighter. “Such power!” she said.

  Steve Alexander grinned a little sheepishly as he freed her next leg. “It’s my newest invention,” he said. “A diamond sword.”

  “A diamond sword!” she marveled. “Do you have other inventions?”

  “Well, I created a portal to a new world I call the Nether, and right now I’m experimenting with redstone,” he said. “Speaking of the Nether, I found a strange thing in the mineshaft here that looks like a portal, and an Enderman came out of it. Do you have any idea what it is?”

  “It’s nothing,” she said. “An old relic from times long past. Tell me more about your redstone work, and the weapons you’ve created. What do you use them for?”

  Steve Alexander clearly enjoyed her interest and attention. “I think I can use the redstone to make things move on their own,” he said. “And so far the diamond sword is the strongest sword I’ve been able to invent.”