by Billy Miner
When we went up the mountain a bit more, Tyrone suddenly stopped me and said, “Don’t… move… a muscle.”
He was staring in the distance. I tried to see what he was looking at. Then I saw it. It was a bear! It was huge! I was as silent as I could be. This bear was brown and looking mean. But it didn’t notice us. What was it doing?
“It’s eating our berries!!!!” Freddy said as if he heard my thoughts somehow.
“Quiet, you idiot,” Tyrone sneered.
But it was too late. The bear had picked up the sound of Freddy’s voice and was quickly moving towards us, growling loudly and showing its teeth.
“Run!” I said.
We all tried to run downhill, which I have to mention is really hard to do without tripping. I mean, I don’t consider myself a very clumsy character, but this time, I just got my foot stuck behind a tree branch and fell forward. I saw the giant bear coming at me. It was getting closer. It swung at me with its sharp claws and…
When we went up the mountain a bit more, Tyrone suddenly stopped me and said, “Don’t… move… a muscle.”
Huh? Is this where we were? In desperation, I had just rubbed the ender pearl a little, trying to place us back in time so we could avoid being chased by a dangerous bear. The bear was staring at us. It was looking for berries, but I already knew that Freddy was going to be stupid enough to open his mouth. So I jumped towards him and covered his mouth with my hand. I held it there and made sure he couldn’t say anything.
When I let go, he quietly said, “How did you know I was going to say something?”
“I’ve been telling you guys that I have went back in time yesterday. So that’s what I just did.”
“Wait, you went back in time tomorrow to tell me to be quiet now, which is exactly yesterday for you?” he asked.
Freddy was making things needlessly complicated.
“No,” I whispered. “I just went back to the time we were watching the bear because I was almost becoming its lunch. Now, let’s get out of here before the same thing happens all over again.”
“That’s weird, man,” Freddy said after thinking for a while.
My friends and I left and went back to the tent, which was a lot farther away. Just to be safe, we left the mountains that day, because we didn’t want the bear to find us.
Entry 5: Back at the Village
We came home and our parents greeted us. They asked about our adventures mountains and we just told them about swimming, campfires, and berries, but not about the bear, since that would cause them to be worried. Nor did we tell them about the ender pearl with its magical powers. That would just confuse them. Besides, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it yet. It sounded so powerful but so bad if it would fall into the wrong hands.
I would soon find a way to use it though.
The next day, we met in school. As we were sitting there, the teacher asked everyone what they did last weekend.
“I went on a pony ride,” one girl said. It sounded a little childish, but then she explained that she trained horses and that she learned a lot about guiding them by rewarding them with carrots and such.
“We worked on the farm,” another kid said. He told us how they milked the cows, stacked the hay, and gathered the water from trenches and wells in the ground.
“We went camping,” I said when it was my turn. I told the class about our hike up the mountain, our campfire, and climbing trees. Tyrone told a similar story, just adding little bits and pieces to what I was already saying, from his perspective.
Then it was Freddy’s turn. “We found a magical stone that turns back time,” he said bluntly.
I buried my face in my hands.
“Oh, that sounds interesting,” the teacher said. “Please tell us more about that.”
“Well,” he started. “We were attacked by a bear and then Steve told me to shut up because I was making too much noise, but the bear didn’t see me, so it was okay, and the stone looked purple. It was more like a pearl, a purple pearl. And at the campfire, Steve predicted the future because I dropped my hotdog and he just knew it was going to happen, so that’s when we decided to not tell anyone about it, but I just did…”
He realized what he just said.
I expected the worst.
“Whoops,” he said softly.
The entire class looked at me. How was I going to talk myself out of this one? Why couldn’t he just keep his mouth shut about the ender pearl? I knew we couldn’t trust him. He couldn’t help it.
“Well?” the teacher said.
At first, I looked worried, then sheepish, and then confident. I was going to pretend to lie by telling part of the truth. My sarcasm had no boundaries; everybody knew that. So I would use it to my advantage.
“Oh, he is totally right,” I said with a funny tone in my voice. “We found this magical rock that helps us turn back time. We can even travel to the future and turn your nose into a pig’s nose.”
Everybody laughed… everybody except for Freddy.
“It can do that too?” he asked with big eyes.
“Yes, I just didn’t want to tell you because I wanted to pull a prank on you. I was going to sneak up on you in your sleep and give you a pig’s nose, just for fun. But now that you discovered my secret… oh, me and my big mouth. Sorry, I spoiled it. Maybe I could still do it to someone who doesn’t know about that special feature.”
Freddy looked happy. He was probably relieved that I wasn’t going to give him a pig’s nose anymore. And the rest of the class didn’t take me seriously at all. They thought it was all just a big joke.
“That sounds very funny, Steve. I am sure you can make up a lot of stuff about all kinds of ‘magical’ objects, but we are trying to have a serious conversation about what we did in the weekends here.”
“Sorry, teacher,” I said.
“It’s okay. Let’s hear it from someone else.”
After class, I didn’t even get angry at Freddy. Like I said, I didn’t think he could help himself. He was just a little different. Tyrone came to me and told me what a genius I was for talking my way out of that one.
“Thanks,” I said. “Have you thought of what we could do with this yet?”
“We could win the lottery,” he said.
“I guess so, but I don’t know if that’s what this was intended for. Let’s think about it a little more. It’s not like we desperately need money. Besides, that would be kind of dishonest, wouldn’t it?”
“Only if you get caught,” Tyrone said.
I laughed. That Tyrone and his way of justifying everything. I knew he meant well, but sometimes, he crossed the moral line a little in my eyes.
Entry 6: Hidden Enemies
I came home and listened to my mom and dad having a discussion. They were pretty worried, to say the least.
“Endermen are about to attack the village,” my dad said. “They have been spotted outside the village terrain and some of them were particularly hostile. They attacked a couple of villager, and now the whole town is anxious and upset.”
“How many do you think there are?” mom asked.
“I don’t know. Some have mentioned a few, others dozens, and one of the villagers even said he saw hundreds of them, hiding in the forest.”
“What are they after?”
“Oh, you know. They are uncivilized, vicious beasts. They don’t have to have a reason. They simply want to destroy our town, I am sure.”
My mom looked scared, and my dad noticed he went a little overboard.
“But,” he said quickly, trying to soothe my mom’s mind, “I think that if we just leave them alone, they won’t come any closer. Maybe they just want to perform a few simple acts of violence and then head back to where they came from. Who knows? Besides, we live in the town’s center. They will probably attack the homes at the town borders first.”
“I sure hope so,” my mom said.
I couldn’t sleep that night. I just knew I had bumped into this myster
ious ender pearl for a reason, and now the village seemed to be in peril. I didn’t know how at the time, but perhaps I could make myself useful in some way. If I could utilize the pearl’s magical powers, I would be able to save lives.
Entry 7: Attacks
They came one by one. It was hard to stop because it was so sporadic. The endermen that attacked the village were vicious and ruthless. A little battle here, a little killing there… it was unstoppable.
One of the endermen that attacked the village, was a small, sneaky one. The Burgess family had been living on the town’s borders for a long time, but now they were seriously thinking about moving. When the sneaky endermen snuck into their home, it destroyed all the fruits in the basement and all the vegetables in the shed. After that, it came after them.
“Dad! Dad!” the little girl screamed. “Where are you?”
“Come on, honey,” the mother told her while holding on to their newborn baby. She came running out of the house, trying to protect her offspring but fearing for the life of her husband.
They left, looking back and seeing something happen on the window through the window. But they didn’t have time to stay. The father would meet them at his brother’s place, but he never made it.
The next day, there was a funeral, but during the ceremony, an entire horde of endermen made this moaning sound and attacked the attendants. Many were harmed, few were killed.
That same evening, a giant enderman, at least 15 feet tall, entered the village and began bashing walls and hitting monuments. When the town’s people fought back with pitchforks and pickaxes, they were simply smashed to the ground. People were kicked hundreds of feet away by this gigantic monster; others were simply stepped on or pinned to the wall of one of their homes. It was mayhem. It was awful.
Reports from deaths by endermen or losses through those assaulting enemies were all over the place. People were distressed. The village held a council meeting which my dad attended. He brought me along, just to observe what was going on, and maybe because they were so desperate they could have used advice from anyone willing to add an insight of some sort, even teenagers.
“Our village is dying,” the mayor said. “We have come together because we cannot hold back the endermen any longer. Their random riots and assassinations have become too much. This should have never happened. If we don’t do something, we will all be exterminated.”
“Let’s burn the forest,” someone suggested.
“Then they will only be forced to come out and kill more of us,” another disagreed.
“Maybe we should attack them,” my dad suggested. “They would never see it coming.”
“Sounds like an idea,” the mayor said. “But even if we could kill some of them, we wouldn’t have the manpower or the fighting skills to get rid of them completely. We have heard reports of hundreds of these terrible creatures, lurking beneath the shadows. How are we ever going to match that?”
“We should find out what they want,” I said.
Everyone turned to me.
“Who is this?” the mayor asked.
“Uhm… this is my son,” my dad said proudly.
Then the mayor turned to me and asked, “And how are we going to do that, young man? They don’t speak our language. They don’t even talk. They simply come in and start pillaging our village. How do you suggest we find out about their motives?”
I was silent.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But if we could somehow discover that, they might leave us alone after that.”
“We will keep it in mind,” the mayor said. “Any other ideas?”
Entry 8: Even Stranger
When we came home from the meeting that evening, I was sad. I mourned because of the families who had lost loved ones. People who had been brutally murdered by those disgusting monsters… it just wasn’t fair. We didn’t even know why they were attacking us. Usually, endermen would leave us alone if we didn’t look them in the eyes. We always had to make sure we didn’t bother them, and they wouldn’t respond. But this time it was different. They were angry. They were after something.
I sat there in the middle of the night, thinking about the causes of all these unusual events.
Then I thought of the only thing I could do, the only thing that made actual sense: I was going to go back in time and find out about the root causes of all this. If I could only get close to the endermen and search for a motive, I might be able to prevent all these tragedies.
I decided.
I was determined to solve this.
This was the reason I found the ender pearl.
I took it out of my pocket and rubbed it. I rubbed it hard, just to make sure it would work.
Before I knew it, I was back in the living room. It wasn’t night anymore, but during the afternoon. My parents had a discussion. They were pretty worried, to say the least.
“Endermen are about to attack the village,” my dad said. “They have been spotted outside the village terrain and some of them were particularly hostile. They attacked a couple of villagers, and now the whole town is anxious and upset.”
“How many do you think there are?” mom asked.
“I don’t know. Some have mentioned a few, others dozens, and one of the villagers even said he saw hundreds of them, hiding in the forest.”
I recognized this conversation, and it was before it actually all happened. Nobody had died yet, and I was going to make sure it would never happen. I told my parents I had to go outside and ran out. Then I went to Tyrone’s house.
“Psst, Tyrone,” I said while looking up.
He opened his bedroom window.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Want to follow me into the forest? I have the feeling we can really use this weird pearl we found.”
“Sure. Give me a second and I will be right there,” he said.
A little later, he stood next to me in front of his house.
“So what have you learned?” he asked.
“These endermen are going to kill villagers,” I said. “It already happened… well, in the future, I guess, but I went back in time, to the present time, to stop it.”
“That is so awesome!” Tyrone said. “So you are from the future?”
“Yes, well, I know what’s going to occur. And now I want to make an attempt to prevent a disaster from happening. Does that make sense?”
“Of course. Shall we get Freddy too?”
“Let’s leave Freddy where he is,” I said with a smile. “Let’s just go together, just the two of us. I am sure we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
We ventured to the forest with the ender pearl. To be honest, it was kind of spooky, with the fog and the eerie sounds we heard. We couldn’t see much, so we stayed close to each other. The fog was so thick that we could only see about 15 feet in front of us, if that. As we slowly approached the open space in the middle of the forest, which was a place where I thought we had the biggest chance of encountering endermen, we heard the sound of feet. Like I said, we couldn’t see much, but we were certain that we were being followed. We turned around but saw nothing. When we turned around again…
“Wraaah!” Tyrone and I screamed.
A creepy enderman was right in front of us, staring in our eyes from only two feet away. Where did that one come from all of a sudden? But he wasn’t the only one catching us by surprise. Before we could say another word, we were surrounded by endermen. They were all coming closer and staring at us.
Why weren’t they trying to kill us?
I didn’t understand any of this.
“Quickly,” Tyrone whispered. “Get the ender pearl. Maybe we could go back to the time before they snuck up on us.”
I took it out of my pocket, but that brought about a reaction I didn’t expect. As soon as these mean-looking endermen saw the ender pearl. They all kneeled down. What was happening? Were they worshipping this item or something?
One of the endermen wasn’t kneeling. It looked l
ike their leader. He came forward and made a gesture as to say, “Hand it over.”
Then it clicked in my mind. Perhaps they lost this precious pearl and were about to start their killing spree out of anger. Perhaps they were just looking for it in their desperate attempts to search the place. Perhaps giving it back to them would stop this nonsense before it even happened.
“What are you doing?” Tyrone asked. “Don’t give that to them. It’s our only way out.”
But he missed the point. He didn’t get it, so I ignored his advice and handed the ender pearl to the enderman. He gladly accepted my gift. When he held it, he looked at it with joy. The other endermen were still kneeling. Then he held it up and expressed some weird sounds I had never heard before; it was probably in their language, or so I figured.
When he was done talking, the endermen stood up and followed him. They were headed into the direction of the mountains, away from the village.
We both stared at the departing, black creatures, trying to make sense of what had just happened.
“This is awesome!” I finally said. “They are gone. GONE! They won’t ever come back. All they were doing, was searching for their pearl. It’s so simple if you think about it.”
“So that was it then?” Tyrone asked. “They just wanted their pearl back.”
“Yes, and remember you said you wanted to perform a heroic deed? Now you did! We just prevented the deaths of numerous villagers. We just prevented a war! Aren’t you proud of yourself?”
“A little,” Tyrone said. “I just pictured it to be different. You know, with sword fighting and swinging and picking up a beautiful girl to save her from the scourging flames of a fire, or to be carried on the villagers’ shoulders and have an after-party.”
“Oh, come on. You have to admit this was cool. It doesn’t matter that nobody saw it. We know what we did, and that counts for something.”