Blade of the Sea Book 3: A Children's Survival Unofficial Minecraft Adventure Book

by Jesse Nethermind

  Blade of the Sea: Book 3

  Jesse Nethermind

  BLADE OF THE SEA 3

  by Jesse Nethermind

  Copyright © 2016 Jesse Nethermind.

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. No people known to the author have had to fight actual pirates or save the world. Please consider leaving a review, and tell your friends about Blade of the Sea.

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  Chapter 1: Trish

  The ship’s food supplies were growing short, even though they’d only been sailing for half a day. It was Patrick—he was a big guy, but his appetite was proving even bigger. Sure, Trish’s pet wolf Sharp had eaten more than his fair share, but he was a wolf and couldn’t help it.

  “I guess you’ve never heard of rationing,” Trish said under her breath, petting Sharp behind the ears.

  “What was that?” Patrick had just found a cookie in the captain’s cabin and was about to take a bite. He looked at it, then at her, and his face drooped with regret as he said, “Oh, did you want this?”

  “No, go ahead,” she said, waving him off.

  The journey ahead would be bad enough without arguing over stuff like cookies. They’d already had fights with skeletons, ran from treasure hunters, and then taken on actual, real-life pirates! She wanted nothing more than to take a day off and just sleep, but the fate of the world was in her hands.

  “We need a name for the ship,” Patrick said, then took a bite from the cookie.

  “What? Why?”

  “It’s what people do,” he said with a full mouth. “And we don’t want it to have the same name those pirates gave it, right? The ‘Stirred Pot.’ It’s stupid, and I think it’d be a bad omen.”

  “Huh…” She thought about it for a moment, then it hit her. “Well, we’re going to save the world, right? So how about the PT Savior. ‘P’ for Patrick and ‘T’ for Trish.”

  “That kinda works,” Patrick said. “Now you just need to tell me where it is we expect to find Aziz.”

  “Wait…” She turned to him in horror. “I thought you were navigating!”

  “I have been, but you didn’t tell me where to go yet. I figured we were headed in the right direction.”

  She palmed her forehead, wanting to punch herself. Why hadn’t she said something earlier? Sharp let out an annoyed bark.

  “So…?” Patrick stood with hands on his hips and swallowed the last of the cookie. “Now would probably be good.”

  “I don’t even know exactly where it is, but—”

  “Wait, you don’t even know where we’re going? Oh, this is just wonderful!”

  “No, but wait…Aziz said something about a temple.” She wracked her brain, trying to remember. “Bonefeather Temple! Yeah, that was it.”

  Patrick choked a little, hit his chest, cleared his throat, then looked at her with angry, teary eyes.

  “Trish…” He turned to the railing and looked out at the passing waters.

  “What, is there a problem?”

  “Yes, I’d say there’s a problem.” He spun on her, hands in the air. “The problem is there’s no such thing as Bonefeather Temple! I’ve been to where it’s supposed to be, and if you ignore the fact that we’re now way off course, there’s still the fact that it doesn’t exist! It’s legend, made up, nada!”

  He stood there, chest heaving, but his expression went from angry to worried, as if he thought she might cry because of his little outburst. That showed how well he knew Trish.

  “Listen,” she said, hand on his chest to show she wasn’t going to take his bullying, “I know what Aziz said, and that’s better than anything you’ve got, right?”

  “True,” Patrick said, sheepishly.

  “So how ‘bout you get off my case, grab the wheel of this pirate ship, and steer us back on course?”

  He looked like he was about to argue, then nodded and moved to the wheel.

  “Can you tell your wolf here to stop staring at me?” he said, pretending not to be looking at Sharp out of the corner of his eye.

  “Just focus on the whole navigating thing,” she said, winking at Sharp. She wanted him to keep Patrick distracted just long enough.

  While his focus was elsewhere, she turned and took out the map. Sure enough, it still said the Blade of the Sea was with them, moving right along as they moved. This wasn’t something she was ready to confront Patrick about, so she put the map away and allowed herself one suspicious glance his way. Part of her wondered if maybe he was actually the Blade of the Sea and was just leading her on some wild goose chase. But why was he after Aziz? She had to know, so figured she’d let this play out.

  “So, uh…” She glanced around at the surrounding islands and saw vines hanging from weeping willows and swamps on the lands farther in. “How much off course are we?”

  “Enough that the stupid Pirates of Brotherhood and Justice might have had time to adjust course and pursue, if they’ve figured out where we’re headed.”

  “PB&J…” Trish shuddered at the thought of the entire pirate federation on their heels.

  The ship began to turn, making for a channel between two rocks that jutted out of the sea between islands.

  “If we don’t make it through, I’m making sure you drown first,” Trish said, feeling the ball in her stomach tighten.

  “Relax, there’re plenty of islands to swim to.”

  She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

  “Wait, you do know how to swim, right?” He waited, and then laughed. “Holy Nether, it’s practically like you just walk in water. It’s not so hard.”

  “I’m not saying I don’t know how to swim!” Trish said with a bite to her voice. “It’s just that I’ve never tried.”

  “Worst case scenario, you find a piece of wood from the ship and hold on tight.” He turned to her, a moment of compassion. “Look, being frightened is okay, if you can beat it. Got that?”

  “Not really…” She was still imagining herself sinking to the bottom, grasping in all directions and her fingers finding only empty water.

  “If you can look at your fear, tell it ‘Not today,’ and fight on, you’ll be okay.”

  For a moment she felt inspired, and then she just laughed. “Thanks, that did make me less afraid. I needed a good laugh.”

  “It wasn’t meant to be funny,” Patrick growled under his breath.

  Trish knelt beside Sharp. “You can swim, right boy?”

  Sharp barked excitedly, which could have been a yes or a no, so Trish decided to take it as a yes. Good, he could help her reach the shore, somehow. She didn’t need any stupid pieces of wood.

  A gust of wind rocked the ship, but Patrick held her steady. As they approached the two rocks, Trish found herself holding her breath. She let it go, breathing in the salty sea air and holding it for a few seconds before letting it out and taking another deep breath. If it wasn’t for the impending doom of the world at the hands of PB&J, she might have actually been able to enjoy this place.

  A creaking sounded as the ship passed the first rock. Sharp whimpered.

  “Just the wood scraping against the rock,” Patrick said, his voice edgy. “Nothing to worry about.”

  “Then why do your eyes look big as Ender Pearls?”

  “Just… tell me something,” he said. “Distract me.”

  “How about instead you tell me something, like what’s the plan when we find this Aziz
character?”

  “I don’t know, actually. All this Blade of the Sea talk, about it being a person and all that…None of it really makes sense.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  Another creak, this time for the second rock. Trish yelped as something touched her, then turned to see it was Patrick, clutching her arm, staring at the rocks in terror.

  “Um, didn’t you say we’d be okay?” she asked.

  “What?” he said, voice shaking. Then he seemed to remember himself, as he released her arm and stood tall again. “Ah, yes…But, see, it’s not the rocks that worried me that time.”

  “What then?”

  As they cleared the second rock, she saw what he was looking at—a vast graveyard of ships. Many were half-sunk in the water, others totally submerged with only their masts sticking out. It looked like a nightmare to navigate, but lucky for them they weren’t that close and there was still time to avoid them.

  “Just go left,” she said.

  “I’m trying!” Indeed, he was struggling with the wheel. “That’s the problem. Something’s stopping me.”

  Trish ran to the side of the boat and looked over to see a small army of squids pushing the ship! Sharp joined her and started barking, but it didn’t scare them off.

  “Where’s my bow and arrow?” she shouted, searching through their belongings.

  “The captain’s hold!” Patrick braced against the wheel with all his might. “Hurry!”

  A ship’s mast was sticking out of the water, aimed at just the wrong angle so that it would skewer them if they didn’t change direction fast.

  Sprinting all out, Trish burst into the captain’s hold and saw her bow next to the window. She snatched it along with her arrows and ran back to the squids, fitting an arrow into the bow as she went.

  The first arrow slid right off the side of one of the squids.

  “It’s not working!” she shouted over her shoulder, notching a second arrow in spite of the trembling of her hands. “We have to find another way.”

  “That’s not an option!” he shouted back.

  The second arrow hit the squid right in the eye and pushed it back. She shot another, but looked at her arrows—only six remained. Not enough to keep the squids off. And when she looked down, the squid she’d shot was back at the side of the ship, pushing in spite of the arrow sticking out of its eye.

  There had to be another option, and it was up to her to figure it out.

  “Steer with them!” she shouted, the idea hitting her suddenly.

  “Are you crazy? The boat can’t turn hard enough, we’ll be trapped in the debris!”

  “Just do it!”

  He looked at her, uncertainty heavy in his eyes, then released the wheel and let the pressure from the squids turn it until it stopped spinning, then he grabbed ahold and continued the momentum.

  Sure enough, while the ship wouldn’t have been able to turn fast enough by itself, the momentum plus the power of the squids pushing caused the ship to do a full circle, broadsiding the squids and trapping them between the sunken ships and the PT Savior.

  There were a series of popping sounds as one squid after another was squished between the ships, and their squishiness acted like a slime cube, bouncing the PT Savior right out of harm’s way.

  They were back in open waters, sailing for safety. Trish ran to the back of the boat, staring in disbelief as they left the danger behind them. Then she sank on to her back to stare up at the sky in amazement.

  “That was too close,” she said, in a low whisper.

  Sharp barked in agreement.

  Patrick appeared over her, the sky shining brightly behind him so that she could only see his silhouette. He lowered himself beside her and stared up at the sky too.

  “You saved our lives,” Patrick said in amazement.

  “It won’t be the last time,” she said.

  Chapter 2: Patrick

  Patrick found a spot to dock the ship and then led them to a village nearby. He’d been in the area before and remembered this area was rumored to have inhabitants that knew about Bonefeather Temple.

  Only problem was, just like the last time he’d been here, no one seemed to want to talk. A dead end.

  “You’ve gotta tell us something!” Patrick demanded as another villager shuffled away. He spun on Trish. “See, nobody knows a thing. It’s a myth!”

  “Or they’re keeping it secret.”

  Patrick considered her for a moment, wondering if it was possible that she’d never even met Aziz. But no, she knew too much about him for that to be the case. She had mentioned the bass guitar, after all, and that was way too on the nose to be a lucky guess. He still couldn’t quite grasp the idea that his old friend and pirate buddy could possibly be the Blade of the Sea, but the only way to find out was to confront him about it.

  “Maybe if we just got something to eat,” Patrick said, glancing around for a food stall or maybe some chickens to hunt. He rubbed the medallion that hung around his neck, like he always did when he got anxious.

  “Are you serious?” she said. “You just ate everything on that ship, you can’t possibly be hungry now!” Sharp whimpered, looking at her with big, hungry eyes. “You too?”

  “When I’m flustered, I get hungry, and right now I’m extremely flustered because you led us on this wild pig chase!”

  “Hey!” She stepped toward him, hand on her sword. “I’m telling you what he told me. Bonefeather Temple, okay?”

  A man looked over at them with interest, then disappeared around a building. He moved a bit too fast to be a normal villager.

  “What was—” Trish started to say, but Patrick was already running after the man. He hoped she could keep up.

  When he rounded the corner of the building all he saw was an open field with some flowers, the hills in the distance, and a tower with a beacon on it like they’d had back home. Sharp was at his side, and his bark trailed off when it became clear the man had lost them.

  “Where’d he go?” Trish asked when she caught up.

  “Wish I knew.” He scratched his head, wondering what that was all about. They’d been yelling, and Trish had said Bonefeather Temple.

  She was smiling at him, a wide, cocky smile that he didn’t much like.

  “Don’t say it,” he said, turning back to the village.

  “What, what shouldn’t I say?” she asked, following him closely. “That I told you so? That there’s no way someone would act so suspiciously unless there was a reason to? No, I don’t think I have to tell you that, because I’m guessing you already know.” She turned to the wolf. “What do you think, Sharp? Does he need me to tell him any of that?”

  Patrick spun on her, trying to come up with something smart to say, but instead just grunted. Sharp wagged his tail, looking between the two.

  She laughed. “Wow, conversation with you…I can tell this journey’s going to be a real barrel of excitement!”

  A movement caught Patrick’s eye—with no hesitation this time, he turned and sprinted across the field. He’d seen something, dark, like a cloak perhaps. Just past the beacon.

  “Patrick!” Trish shouted after him, but he was moving too fast to reply.

  He reached the beacon and looked left, then right, then up—there! At the top of the beacon, a man in a cloak jumped into a nearby tree, then vanished.

  “We have to follow him,” Patrick shouted. With a glance over his shoulder he saw Trish was far from catching up.

  He looked for a way up to the beacon, but saw none. He wanted to shout in frustration, but knew this was the time to keep his head.

  Just build, he told himself. He sure wished he had a shovel or something aside from his sword to chop at the cobblestone blocks that made up the pillar. A pickaxe would be optimal, but he didn’t have time to craft right now. He hefted his sword out and began whacking at the blocks until he had enough, then lined them up along the others to make a stairway to the top. A glance at his sword told him it was useles
s now, and with one gentle tap against the side of a block, it shattered.

  He’d have to make another later, but right now he had to figure out how to catch up with the man in the cloak.

  “Come on, slow poke!” Trish shouted, leaping up the blocks in front of him, her wolf following close behind.

  “Hey, I made those!” he said, following them up.

  “Which way?” She’d reached the top and was squinting into the setting sun.

  Patrick leaped up the last stair and pointed in the direction he’d seen the man go. They jumped onto the tree and ran all out, hoping to find any sort of clue.

  The treetops stopped abruptly, and Patrick found himself wind-milling to keep his balance. Trish shouted, nearly running right into him, and caught him by the back of his armor to steady him.

  The land before them was totally different from the open fields they’d seen on the other side of the trees—here it was high terrain, hills that rose and fell like mounds of ice cream, and waterfalls everywhere.

  “Whoa,” Trish said in amazement. She turned with a nervous look at the sun disappearing behind one of those hills. “You know, we probably shouldn’t be out after dark...especially since you don’t have a sword.”

  Sharp barked in agreement.

  “I’ll take yours,” Patrick said, eyeing her blade.

  “Not on your life, buddy.” She put her hand on her sword hilt. “You’d leave a girl helpless and undefended?”

  “I’d protect you!”

  “Ha. The day I need your protection is…”

  “Is what?”

  “I don’t know, the point is, it’s not today.”

  “So you’re not scared of the dark or the monsters?” he asked, then laughed. “Good. Let’s go.”

  They climbed down from the trees, realizing there was no way they were going to find the strange man out here, especially after dark. And sure enough, as they walked the sky turned orange, then purple. It would soon be night, and Patrick had to admit he was a tad worried.