by Cube Kid
Emerald’s stomach grumbled. "Man … I really need to remember to keep some food in my inventory."
Stump handed her a slice of cake. She almost took a bite, then stopped. "Eww. It smells like wood."
"Awfully picky for a war hero," I said with a smirk.
"Hurrmmph!"
"Will you guys be quiet?" Stump hissed.
"Whatever," Emerald whispered. "It’s not like we’re not gonna … "
Just then, there was a distant sound. Beyond the trees, beyond the tall grass and flowers, came a slight rustling. All three of us ducked down in a sneaking position and froze. We didn’t even breathe. The rustling grew louder. Soon it seemed as if it was almost beneath our tree. Yet I didn’t see anything. I looked and looked through the leaves and couldn’t tell what was making that noise.
Then it filtered into view. It had been invisible, and its invisibility had just worn off. Although the torches provided ample light, it was still hard to see through the leaves. Actually, it would have been hard to see even in plain view. It blended in with the surrounding greenery.
A creeper.
There it was, slithering toward the hole.
It looked quite ordinary, but it had to be a special type. Perhaps this monster was another one of Herobrine’s experiments. Or perhaps it had simply been given Potions of Invisibility.
The creeper looked around before descending into the hole. It did this in a calm way, as if it had done this many times before.
My friends and I sat there.
When we finally opened our mouths, the only things that came out were broken sentences.
Stump: "Did you guys just see … "
Emerald: "How was it … I mean, it was … "
Me: "Invisible. I don’t … um, how could it … so, it’s actually … "
… Real. The village creeper is real. Not only is it real, but it had been invisible. A scout. It had been watching us this whole time. Every day it slunk through our streets, observing. And every night it went back and reported everything it saw.
Our village was just now talking about having scouts … but the mobs have had them for who knows how long.
"How can it drink potions, though?" Emerald asked. "And how did it climb down the ladder? It doesn’t even have arms!"
"It doesn’t matter." I stood up. "This is the biggest discovery yet."
"We have to tell someone about this."
As we talked, I heard a voice call out, "What are you guys doing up there?"
Max and Breeze were not too far away, looking up at us. They had obviously come to see whether we were okay. Breeze glanced at the hole, then at the three of us standing in a tree.
She blinked in confusion.
"Did we … miss something?"
Last night, we told Max and Breeze what we saw. But it was so late—we weren’t able to go into extreme detail. So during lunchtime at school today, we talked so much we didn’t even eat.
Even though I was starving, you could have put an enchanted golden apple in front of me and I would have ignored it. Every second was spent going over the events of last night. Every little detail. We did this quietly, though. We couldn’t let someone like Pebble overhear us. If he found out about the village creeper, he might get his friends and go capture it himself … we’d see his posters on every village block. As if I would let that happen. Tomorrow, the village is going to explode with the news: Team Runt not only found the village creeper, but captured it as well.
"There’s just one problem with this idea," Max said. "How do we hold it prisoner?"
"Right," Stump said. "It can just blow itself up."
Hurrmmm.
There were a lot of these sounds as all five of us brainstormed. Max brought up water. Creepers are filled with gunpowder, so maybe if we drenched it, it couldn’t explode.
But we didn’t know for sure. As far as I knew, creepers were still able to blow up even while swimming.
Breeze offered another solution.
"We scare it," she said. "We make it so afraid it won’t even think about exploding."
"But how do we … "
Of course, I already knew the answer.
PROJECT DANGER KITTY II
His favorite hobbies include:
1) eating pufferfish;
2) resembling a block of wool;
3) scratching the chairs in our house.
He also has a best friend
named Sprinkles.
Despite his name, Sprinkles is quite large. In fact, Sprinkles has the distinction of being the only kitten often confused for a baby cow. I guess a diet of bread, cookies, cakes, and pumpkin pie does that to a kitten.
As you can guess,
the name of his owner is Stump.
(If I ever go on vacation, I will not let Stump take care of Jello.
Will not. Will not.)
Breeze has a kitten named Dandelion. She named him that because of his bright yellow fur. Emerald and Max’s kittens have no names, however, as they had only recently traded for them.
Anyway, I understand that scratching chairs can get boring after a while. It’s time for these kittens to try out something new. Besides, when it comes to sharpening claws, what better surface is there than a creeper’s face?
Max handed everyone leather jerkins that were enchanted with Blast Protection III—just in case. We all equipped them underneath our robes.
Project Danger Kitty II has begun.
We blocked off the tunnel. Then every member of Team Runt hid behind trees surrounding the hole. We waited. With kittens on leashes, we waited. We waited and waited for a very long time. Then the rustling came. The grass swayed. The creeper emerged into view. It neared the edge of the hole and whirled around. It was intelligent—it knew that something was wrong. Surely it sensed the trap. But it was too late. My heart was pounding in my chest at the thought of getting so close to such a dangerous creature. Even so, I jumped out from behind the tree, leash in hand.
"Out for a stroll?" I asked.
"Ehhgbzzt!"
It spoke in that strange language … but stopped once my friends stepped out.
Five villagers with five kittens (with one being very large for a kitten and quite angry looking because it hadn’t had anything sugary to eat in at least five minutes).
Max stepped forward. "Slowly, guys."
We all converged on the green plant monster. It didn’t move at all. Well, besides a slight trembling. (It was shaking like a zombie villager who’d just been given a golden apple. It was absolutely, totally afraid.)
I pushed Fluffles ahead one more block. My heart was beating so fast. Fluffles didn’t have any protective armor, and his life was but a fraction of mine. If the creeper decided to explode … I’d have to dive back and yank on the leash as fast as I could … or my kitten would be history.
But this had to be done. This green mass of living vegetation was why the mobs seemed to know so much about our village.
Even if it blew up, we could call that a victory. Still, it would be better if we could capture it, study it, learn from it … (Also, if we captured it, we could walk up to the mayor with it and get medals and diamonds and have posters with us on it and be called awesome and amazing. Or just awesome. I’m not greedy!)
Summoning the last of my courage, I got within one block. Breeze did the same. She picked up Dandelion and held the kitten in front of the creeper. She had that don’t-mess-with-me look again, like when she took out those zombies during the first battle. The creeper leaned away from her.
She moved even closer. "Can you … understand me?"
The monster moved in a way that could be called a nod. "Y-yes. I can. Please, don’t hurt me … " Its voice sounded like sugarcane rustling in the wind. "I don’t want to blow up …
"
I relaxed the grip on my leash. Max, Stump, and Emerald cautiously joined Breeze and me. We formed a tight ring around the monster.
Monster.
We had captured a monster.
A live one. Real. Much stronger than a baby slime.
"Put those animals away," it begged. "Please … the sounds they make … "
"We will," Emerald said, "but only after you promise to cooperate. Otherwise, you’ll no longer need to imagine what a kitten’s claws feel like."
It promised.
Oh, did it promise.
Surrounded by mewing kittens, it promised
more than anyone had ever promised before.
Eat that, Pebble. We captured the Eye of Herobrine. That’s the name of the creeper that once stalked our streets. Brio and his men took the monster away. Probably to the same building where Brio had once taken me. There, they will figure out exactly how it manages to turn invisible.
"Believe me," Brio said, "we’ll make it talk."
My parents were in the crowd. I could see that they were so proud of me. The mayor praised us in front of the whole village:
"Thanks to the efforts of these fine young villagers, we’ve learned of a new threat. In the past, the mobs have climbed over our wall and even blasted through it, but we never imagined that they might actually dig under it."
"To be honest," Kolbert said, "the Legion never thought about this, either. In the original game, the mobs never used tools! Their AI is really advanced here, I must say."
"This new game is so cool!!" Minsur said. "I always thought the original was a bit too easy. I beat it on hardcore mode like five or six times!"
A lot of villagers looked at them and sighed. Steve and Mike did, too. They hung out at the back of the crowd.
Anyway, the mayor was so pleased he decided we didn’t have to go to school today or even do chores. And like back in the good old days—like when I aced that building test—other kids have been coming up to me, congratulating me. On top of that, Brio gave me another payment.
"This is for the obsidian cube. The mobs are still confused by it. Last night, they covered it in dirt to hide it from view." He handed me a stack of emeralds. Then the mayor himself handed me five more.
"Those are to be split among you and your friends," the mayor said. "Good work!"
A glittering green pile. All you could hear was the sound of emeralds falling into my inventory like so much broken glass.
I’d never seen so many.
128 of them belonged to me.
Pebble, of course, was annoyed. He approached after Brio and the mayor left my presence.
"Hey, Runt."
"Hello, good sir." I patted the pocket of my robes. You could hear the emeralds shifting. "Are you here for a loan?"
"Please. You might have a lot of money, but you can’t buy skill. My scores still walk all over yours."
"Someone’s a sore loser," I said.
Pebble glared at me with a look that reminded me of Herobrine himself. "You’re smiling now," he said, "but you won’t be after that mining test. You won’t be doing anything at all."
He shoved me.
I shoved him back. "What’s your problem?"
"You’re my problem," he said. "You’re a noob. If you’re ever tasked with defending this village, you’ll be endangering us all!"
He stormed off. His words lingered in my head. Especially what he said about the mining test. That was next week. Max had mentioned something about how Pebble’s father was going to rig that test.
Whatever. I’m not afraid. Lava pools, gravel traps … no matter what he tries, I’ll avoid them all! Anyway, I’m not going to think about it right now. With no school, no homework, and no chores, it’s time to relax. I’m gonna go get ice cream with my friends, and then we’ll all head down to the pond. I know; I’ve said that before—and soon after, the village erupted into flames and smoke.
But that won’t happen this time. Not today.
No way. Today is mine. Mine.
I cast my line. The lure of my fishing rod went flying.
You thought the mobs were gonna attack again, huh?
As did I.
As did I.
This pond is located on the south edge of the tree farm. It’s more like a small lake, really. It was built to give us a place to practice swimming … and it serves as another source of food. Yes, we’d gone fishing.
We might be in the beginning stages of a war—a huge army of mobs will soon be knocking on our door—but even warriors in training need to rest. Every now and then.
The fishing lure bobbed slightly. I reeled in my line. A pufferfish. Surprise, surprise. I’ll save it for Fluffles, I thought. After last night, it’s the least I can do. Beside me, Breeze was still fumbling around with her fishing rod. She seemed a little embarrassed.
"Haven’t fished much, I take it?" I asked.
"No, not really," she said. "Can you show me?"
"Sure. It’s pretty simple, really. All you have to do is … "
It was strange, teaching her how to fish. She was the top student by far, and it was fishing rods that confused her. When she managed to send out her line all by herself, I’d never seen her so happy.
"Not too many lakes where you come from?" I asked.
"Actually, there were many. But since we lived so close to Herobrine’s castle, our village was more focused on fighting."
"A warrior village, then."
I wasn’t being serious when I said this. Yet she didn’t return my grin.
"It was."
"Wait," I said. "You’re saying your village actually had warriors?"
"Is it so hard to believe?"
"A little."
She looked away. "What you’re experiencing now is nothing new to me. My life has always been like this. We began training at a very young age."
I didn’t know what to say. She’d been a warrior even before being captured. Then whatever Herobrine did had only made her stronger.
Breeze and her father were more like super-villagers, then. If normal villagers were rabbits, the ones from her place were killer bunnies.
Pebble was right about one thing, though. His scores are better. To be honest, mine haven’t improved much lately. Then again, the same can be said for everyone else. The higher our skills rise, the harder it becomes to improve them. For example, when my building score was low, all I had to do was place a few blocks to see an increase. Now it feels like I’d need to build a castle for it to jump up a single point. I think I’m hovering between fifth and sixth place. If I can just ace that next building test … Groups are allowed. Up to seven, they said. Or a student can roll solo, if he or she prefers.
"I keep having these weird dreams," I said.
Breeze nodded knowingly. "Did see you an enderman?"
"You’ve been having them, too?!"
"Yes. Endermen can do a lot more than just teleport around. They’re like wizards, in a way."
"Controlling dreams, huh … " I recalled the dream with the strange redstone machine.
"So that enderman is trying to help us?"
"I think so. My father has had those dreams, too. He thinks the enderman is working for Notch."
"Mobs? Helping Notch?"
"Not all mobs are bad, Runt."
I nodded, immediately thinking of Jello. I haven’t spent much time with him lately.
On the other side of the pond, Emerald was talking to Stump and Max. They were arguing about whether the mayor was really serious about surrendering. It seems like some villagers actually think we should. I’m proud to say that none of my friends think that way. If Brio and Breeze are really so strong, maybe they can teach us how to fight. More than the humans already have, anyway.
Suddenl
y, Breeze’s lure bobbed in the water. Her face lit up. "Hey, Runt! I think I’ve caught something!"
"Reel it in!"
And she pulled in her line like Urkk himself. Her catch landed in the grass nearby. It was a book. Not only was it a book—it was a fake version of my diary. I burst out laughing. "It looks almost exactly like my diary!"
The more I inspected the cover, though, the more I saw the errors.
A noob had obviously crafted this forgery. The writing inside was of the same poor quality. It was so bad, in fact, I almost wondered if a zombie wrote it. Or perhaps a magma cube.
"I wonder who the author is," Breeze said.
"Pebble, most likely. Or some random noob. Who knows. If I ever find out … !!"
Breeze tossed the fake diary back into the pond where it belonged.
Two hours before sunset, the other three headed over to our side of the pond.
"We’ve been trying to come up with something to build for the test tomorrow," Max said, "and we’re failing."
"It’s like my mind isn’t working," Emerald said. "Too much stress, you know?"
Stump mentioned a few things—TNT traps, stuff like that—but he admitted that they were all pretty stale.
"We need something fresh," he said.
"What if we think of a way to stop the mobs from tunneling under the wall?" Breeze asked.
Of course, this was something the village desperately needed. But I couldn’t come up with anything besides an underground obsidian wall. We chatted for at least an hour, and nothing. At the end, Stump was strangely quiet. He was looking at something in the distance.