by Billy Miner
Essy looks down on the younger Ambro and says, “I don’t think that would do anything. I know I would beat Ambro in a heartbeat. I am older and bigger. How could he ever defeat me?”
At first, Ambro is surprised by his brother’s sudden arrogance, but then he feels some rage too. He can’t stand all this nonsense, and he is confident about his abilities, so he takes the challenge.
“Fine,” Ambro says. “Give me your best shot.”
“I will,” Essy says. “Show me what you’ve got!”
Without further hesitation he storms at his younger brother and starts beating up on him. Ambro deflects some of his attacks and avoids his fists, causing Essy to punch the floor.
“Ouch!” Essy cries. “That hurts!”
Ambro starts kicking his younger brother as their parents watch and shout and cheer them on. The two brothers both have a set of abilities that enable them to make the fight last longer. None of them are victorious but both get the inevitable injuries.
After a few minutes, the servants, startled by the noise, walk in and ask what is going on. Both brothers look up and realize what they are doing. Ambro lets go of his brother and gets up. Essy groans and gets up too. A little embarrassed by their uncontrolled impulsive behavior, they tug on their collars and try to appear dignified.
“Is there something we can help with?” one of the servants asks. “We heard noise and thought any of you were in trouble.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” Ambro says. “I was just about to leave.”
“Can we accompany you, sir?”
“Yes, let’s do that. Pack your things. We are moving out for a while. Come on, dad. Let’s get out of this wretched place.”
“Fine,” the mother says. “Go. We don’t need you here. We’ll finally be by ourselves without your oh-so-glamorous white and gold decorations and your stuck-up attitude.”
“Fine,” the dad says as he turns around and walks away. “Any place will be better than in the same building with you.”
Some hateful looks are exchanged between the brothers and parents, but Ambro’s decision to move out for some reasons doesn’t come as a surprise. It is as if one of them just had to take the initiative.
With a handful of servants, Ambro and his father leave the castle grounds. They look back one more time at what used to be their castle, holding a grudge against their other side of the family. It’s sad to leave, but it feels necessary, Ambro thinks. It was bound to happen.
They arrive at the forest. A cozy little cottage is waiting for the group to be occupied. When they get there, it is freezing inside. Ambro’s father commands his servants to fetch some wood and prepares the fireplace for a warm fire. Other servants are getting the ingredients out of their bags for some hot soup.
“Well, this is it,” Ambro says. “I am so angry at my brother right now. I cannot believe he thinks he is so good.”
“What is your plan?” his father demands to know.
“Just to sit it out for at least a few days. We’ll decide what to do after that.”
And that’s what they do. None of them know what to do now. The fight has become too big. Feelings have been hurt. It has all blown up into something ugly.
Chapter 5: Ethics
Ambro and his father reside in the cottage for days. They are feeling angry and depressed. They are confused. The wind is blowing against the weak structure, making a howling sound and creating chilling shivers into each person’s body who steps outside. The fireplace is warm and lit up 24/7, but the atmosphere is grim.
Ambro and his dad stare at each other. They have been silent for a while now and they have been bottling up all their rage inside. Ambro can’t take it anymore. He is so frustrated that he gets up, walks towards the door, opens it, and slams it as hard as he can behind him. One of his servants runs after him.
“Sir Ambrosius,” the servant says. “It is freezing out here. Please return to the cottage.”
“Oh yeah?” Ambro asks. “It feels hot to me. Besides, this will give me the necessary exercise to get all that aggression out.”
He picks up an axe and starts chopping wood. The snow from the wood sticks onto his axe, making it slippery at times, but he doesn’t care. He just wants to destroy something he won’t regret later. As he keeps hitting the wood, he expresses some kind of war cry each time the axe falls down.
“Sir Ambrosius,” the servant says after watching him for several minutes. “I have an idea. Why don’t we go inside and discuss what we will do with the situation. We all may have some valuable insights, but you and your dad can lead the discussion.”
Ambro looks at him. “That’s actually not a bad idea,” he admits. “Let’s do it.”
He follows the bright servant and tells his father of the idea.
Not much later, they do what they have planned. Approximately ten servants are sitting around the table, as well as Ambro and his father.
“So what are we going to do about this?” the father asks.
“If I may propose an idea, sir,” one of the servants says. “I think we should just go back and apologize.”
“Apologize?!” the dad asks. “That’s outrageous! Didn’t you see that Essy started fighting? He started it. He drove us out!”
“I completely agree,” Ambro says.
“But perhaps it would be better just to keep the peace, sir.”
“No,” the dad insists.
Another servant agrees. “I am right behind you, sir. I saw the way they handled the conflict. We should just drive them out. This castle has been rightfully ours for the past decades, but they act as if they can take over and do whatever they want with it.”
“Besides,” another servants says. “Their half looks awful and gloomy. Why not dominate the castle with our sense of style.”
Most of the servants seem to agree with each other. Ambro is quietly listening to the responses of the surrounding helps. After a while, he stands up. Everybody is silent, ready to finally listen to what he has to say.
“We will get them!” Ambro says. “We will show them how it should be! And we will crush their arrogance with our swords, beginning with this one.” He holds the gifted sword in the air and slams it on the table. “Are you with me or not?”
Most of the servants cheer courageously. Some of them already leave the table and gather weapons and armor. The plan to storm in and take what is theirs pleases them, especially after having been in the cold cottage for days.
Chapter 6: Duels
Ambro and the servants cut through the woods and arrive at the castle grounds. There they sneak into the back of the castle and go inside. The armory is right there. Besides the few pieces of armor and the weapons they already had with them, they now have the opportunity to be armed to the teeth. Secretly staying in the shadows, they find the treasure of armor, along with swords, bows, arrows, shields, and all kinds of other weapons.
“Get whatever you want,” Ambro says. “We will suppress these fools and show them who is in charge around here, and we’ll do it by force, if necessary.”
His father arrives after everybody else does. “I am a little out of shape,” he says. “Why couldn’t you have waited for me?”
“Sorry, dad. But you’re here now. No worries, right?”
“Actually,” his dad begins. “Something worries me about this place.”
“Oh?” is Ambro’s reaction. “And what is that?”
“See how some of these weapons have already been taken away? What if your brother and mother are armed as well?”
Ambro looks at the armory. His father is right. Some of the weapons are gone. Somebody must have been in here already. But this isn’t going to stop Ambro. He is determined to take a stand.
“Well, if they are armed,” he says with contempt in his voice. “Then they have brought this upon themselves. We will go in and defeat them.”
His father agrees and picks up a spear from the room. Together they go up the stairs and seek out their family me
mbers.
It’s quiet.
Dead quiet.
Something isn’t right. Where is everyone? Ambro tells the servants to search the castle, only to have them return and report 10 minutes later, claiming that they didn’t find anyone there.
At first, Ambro is astonished. But then he says, “Ha! No people? Easier for us to take over. Let’s go have a feast, boys!”
The whole group walks to the white side of the castle and sits down at the dinner table. They put their weapons down, and a few servants go to the kitchen to get some delicious food. They are smiling and leaning back, feeling free and happy about their decision. The threat it gone, isn’t it?
Big mistake.
After a while, even before the servants come back from the kitchen, they hear a thump.
Craaack!
The door to the dining room falls down, kicked in by Essy and his henchmen. They storm in with their clubs and axes, beating up the table and chairs, and a few of the defending servants that sat there. Ambro and his father quickly reach for their weapons and start fighting back. The chaos is immense. Everybody is beating up on each other, but fortunately, the death toll is still zero.
Ambro kicks a henchman away and stands in front of Gareth, the evil schemer. “Greetings, young Ambrosius,” he says in a sinister voice. “I knew my gift would make you think. Now, let’s see if you are really the bravest knight in the kingdom.”
“Wait, what?” Ambro asks, but before he can say another word, the sneaky snake already dashes at him and stabs in his direction. Deflecting his move, Ambro steps back and holds his shield in front of him. “What are you talking about?” he asks.
“Oh nothing, just that your ego is so big. It didn’t take much to get to you,” Gareth says as he attempts to slay his enemy again.
It all starts making sense now. Ambro has finally come to understand what happened. This guy has tried to create conflict so he could have more space and power in the castle. All he had to do, and did… was to make his brother jealous with a stupid gift. Ambro is coming to his senses. He wants this silly fight to end. Why did he fall for such a treacherous plan? But everybody around him is fighting. Then he just takes action and decides to take a risk as well.
“STOOOOOOOP!” he yells as loudly as he can.
Some of the servants stop fighting. Essy looks at him with his eyebrows up.
“Stop!” Ambro says again. “Stop fighting!” He walks over to his brother and throws his sword on the floor. “I surrender,” he says. “I don’t care. Lock me up, kick me out, whatever you think you need to do to me. But before you do, think about how all this nonsense began. It was all because of this sword.”
He points at the floor, where the sword with the inscription lies, the one he just threw down.
“This guy over here,” he continues, now pointing at Gareth, “This traitor has set this up. He gave me the gift. He wanted you to become jealous and me to become conceited. If you want to punish anyone, punish him. You can do what you want with me.”
Essy looks at Gareth, who is trying to get away but is being stopped by some of the servants. Then Essy looks at Ambro.
“You are my brother,” Ambro says. “I don’t want to do you any harm. Besides, I think you’re probably better than I am, but that’s not important at this moment. Let’s just stop fighting and get along like old times.”
Essy drops his weapon and takes off his helmet. He walks towards his brother and embraces him.
“I am sorry, brother. Let’s try to make this work,” he says.
They both turn around and command their servants to quit and clean up. The servants complain a little but then shake hands and clean up the mess.
“And as for you,” Essy says after a determined walk towards his servant Gareth. “You will be banned from the kingdom. I will see to it that you will be chained and released from your bonds only after you have crossed the border. You will pay the price for trying to break up this family.”
“It was already broken, don’t you see?” Gareth says. “All I did, was open your eyes. You’ve been hating each other from the beginning. I was helping you. Don’t you dare take this out on me. I have nothing to do with your family.”
“Yeah, sure. Take him away,” Essy says as he waves to the servants. Essy turns around and sees his mother and father stare at each other. They look like they are feeling guilty, which he esteems as a good sign.
Chapter 7: Restoration
After the mess is cleaned up, the parents decide to have dinner again, just the four of them, and nobody else. Okay, a few servants who provide dinner… okay, all the servants, just to make it a bigger feast.
Waiting at the dinner table, they watch various hard working men bring in Turkey, bowls of fruit, potatoes, rice, bread, and a bunch of delicious deserts. It looks wonderful, and it makes them smile.
Ambro and Essy are sitting next to each other. They don’t want to sit across from each other anymore. They are tired of all the little symbolic gestures that separate them. But one of the best things, is that it forces their parents a little to sit next to each other again.
“Sorry about the mess we caused,” Ambro says. “I love you, mother. I just had a hard time getting over myself.”
“Oh, it’s okay,” his mother says. “I know you practice a lot, and you’re proud of your achievements. You certainly deserve some credit, so don’t be too hard on yourself.”
“I am really enjoying this meal,” Essy says. “And now that I think of it, having a common enemy helps to create a union.”
“Ha-ha!” his father laughs. “Has the order been carried out yet?”
“Yes,” Essy answers. “Gareth is being taken out of the country. I heard from my best servants that he complained in jail all night and said he would come back to haunt us.”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha!” the four of them laugh in chorus. They don’t believe such a dumb guy will ever have the power to harm them.
“So what are we going to do about the castle?” Essy asks.
“I don’t know,” Ambro says. “Maybe we should just live on opposite sides, just to feel what it’s like to be in the other person’s shoes. My dad and I can go live on the dark side, and you and your mom in these white chambers. This way, we can both get used to each other’s taste in interiors and slowly start liking each other more.”
Essy agrees. That’s a good idea.
“Or,” their father says with a smile, “we could move into one bedroom. That would work too, wouldn’t it?”
Ambro and Essy look at their mom and dad. Both of them are smiling. Hey, are they holding hands underneath the table? That’s a first.
“Uhm… of course,” Essy says. “What do you suggest?”
“How about I move into the white side of the castle with your father, and you two can have the black side? Does that sound okay to you?”
A sense of relief comes over the two brothers. Half a castle, just for the two of them? Sounds awesome! Besides, they haven’t seen their parents like this for years. Only time will tell what will happen to their parents’ relationship, but for now, they are happy to see some sign of affection.
“Yes, of course,” the two brothers agree. “Thanks, mom.”
THE END
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Minecraft Witch
Diary of a Minecraft Witch
By Billy Miner
Copyright @2015
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Contents:
Introduction
Entry 1: That Formula
Entry 2: Boom!
Entry 3: The Counterpart
Entry 4: The Chase
Entry 5: Clumsiness
Entry 6: That Ingredient
Entry 7: The Distant Land
Entry 8: Beauty Begins
Introduction