by Mark Mulle
backwards away from the Ender Man but the group was circling around me. To my amazement, an Ender Man stepped forward. It was holding a glowing sword. It raised it in the air, as if it was going to strike me down –
Déjà vu. That’s what I felt when an arrow struck the Ender Man. It dropped the sword. I didn’t waste any time. I grabbed the sword for myself –
But it burned me. The pain was intense and I yelped in surprise. The sword dropped to the ground.
Out of the jungle came a figure. Firing arrows from her bow, I was relieved and surprised to see who it was.
“Chloe!” I exclaimed.
She barely glanced at me, “Grab a weapon already, Carl!”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. Since the Ender Men’s sword was scalding, I scuttled over to my own sword which I had dropped earlier. The Ender Men, surprised by the appearance of a new fighter, began to clear the area. Some of them vanished completely. Others ran back into the portals.
Chloe and I fought them off together. Now that we were on the offensive, the Ender Men were terrified. It didn’t take very long for them to clear out completely.
In the silence that followed, Chloe hopped off the rock she had been standing on and sighed, “Well, Carl, you’re collecting trouble as always. Who’s your friend?”
“Liam!” I exclaimed, remembering he was unconscious and hurrying over to him.
Chloe crouched next to me as we propped him up against a tree trunk. He appeared uninjured. Even so, I didn’t like that he had hit the tree so hard he had fainted.
“I have a first aid kit in my bag,” I told Chloe, “Can you get it for me?”
She nodded and a few seconds later, she was handing it to me. I bent over Liam, gently feeling the back of his head.
As I patched him up, Chloe asked, “Why are you guys here?”
“We’re going to the capital.” I told her.
“For the portals?”
I glanced up at her, “They’re opening in your village too?”
She nodded, “That’s right. Last night, we had a bunch of them open. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I was going to the capital too.”
“That means that the Over World in general must be dealing with these portals,” I replied, “I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”
“Why would it be good at all?” Chloe asked.
“If it was just our village, then we could handle it. It would be something on a smaller scale. But if it is the entire Over World, that means something major is going on.” I said to her.
She sighed, “Great. More trouble, right?”
“I’m glad you were there though. Thanks for helping me.”
Chloe grinned, “Don’t mention it. What are friends for?”
Before I could reply, Liam let out a groan. Relieved that he was waking up, our conversation stopped. Liam swore he was okay. He just seemed to be embarrassed that he had fainted. After I made sure he was truly alright, we set off towards the capital. I suggested resting for a little bit but Liam wouldn’t hear of it. He wanted to keep going.
As we walked, Liam went ahead of Chloe and I. He had his bow out, just in case more portals opened. Walking next to Chloe, I debated telling her what I had been sitting on. The two of us had gone on a crazy adventure before. She had seen all sorts of strange things with me. Would she think I was weird if I told her about future me coming to warn me?
“So, tell me about the attack on your village.” Chloe said to me as we walked.
I glanced at Liam. He was focused on protecting us. He was probably being too hard on himself for fainting. His head had struck the back of the tree. Anyone would have fainted.
I told Chloe about the portals opening, the necklace and how it had sent the Ender Men flying backwards. When I finished, she looked thoughtful.
“The ones in town wanted to take you through the portals. But the Ender Men here on the road just wanted to get rid of you. I wonder what that is.”
She had a point. Back in the village, they had been dead set on bringing me through the portal.
“Well, we don’t know what the sword actually did. I couldn’t touch it. It was way too hot. But maybe if I had been hit with it, it would have done something to me besides hurting me.”
“An interesting theory,” She sighed, “No proof for any of it. Weird about the necklace though. I wonder what is going on.”
I bit my bottom lip. I had to tell someone! I couldn’t sit on this. And Chloe was a good friend of mine. She would understand.
“Listen, I have to tell you something. But Liam doesn’t know. You have to keep it a secret.”
“I love secrets.” She replied with a quick grin.
Before I could overthink it, I told her everything: about waking up in the middle of the night and a future version of myself coming back to warn myself about the End Guardians and crystals. When I finished, she was staring at me with her mouth open.
“Everything okay back there?” Liam asked, glancing over his shoulder, “Got awfully quiet all of a sudden.”
“Everything is fine,” I said quickly, “Thanks Liam.”
He turned back around and Chloe grabbed my arm, “Carl, are you serious?”
“Why would I lie?” I whispered.
“That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard!” She hissed.
“Do you believe me?” I asked her.
She looked at me for a few moments before nodding, “Of course I believe you. Why would you lie about that? I couldn’t even make up something that crazy.”
“The question is, what does it mean? How is it possible? We have all these puzzle pieces and no way to make them fit together.”
“You’re right about that. The most we can do is wait until we get to the capital. Who knows? Maybe someone else saw their future self before the attacks started.”
It seemed impossible that someone else would be going what I was going through. But I hoped that Chloe was right.
We finally broke through the jungle hours later. We were on a hill overlooking the capital. I had never seen the city before. It looked as if it were made from gold. The sun was setting but reflected off the top of the buildings which glowed like gems. I could see the castle. It looked as if it were so tall it could brush against the sky.
Ahead of us, Liam lowered his bow and went, “Wow.”
“Wow is right – look at the crowd around the gates.” Chloe pointed.
I saw right away what she meant. Apparently, everyone had sent someone from their towns and villages towards the capital. The crowd was massive, forming all around the walls of the city as they tried to get in.
It also appeared that people fleeing from their villages, thinking the capital city would be safer, were in the ground as well.
“Well, that lets us know everyone is dealing with the End portals opening.” Chloe remarked dryly.
“We have to get inside. We’re going to be stuck here for ages.” Liam said weakly as he stared at the crowd.
“We aren’t going to be allowed in just because we have a letter,” I pointed out, “We’re going to be here longer than we thought.”
Liam looked upset. His visions of meeting the king were dashed. With the amount of people in the crowd, there was no way we would be near the king. We might not even get into the capital.
As we made our way towards the crowd, Chloe whispered, “We can see if anyone else saw what you saw.”
“Do you think so?”
“Who knows what is going on? What we do know is the Ender Men always take a special interest in you. Either they want to bring you to the End or destroy you. Why is that? Listen, you find out if anyone has spoken to anyone from the future. I’ll ask around about End Guardians and see if anyone knows anything.”
“How do I casually ask people that?” I said, “I can’t just be like ‘hi, have you spoken to yourself from the future lately’.”
She groaned, “I don’t know, Carl. No offense but you’re the one who say you saw your future
you. Look for someone shifty-eyed or nervous. Someone who looks how you feel, okay?”
By this point, we were in the crowd. Some people were setting up camp. It was clear that we weren’t going to see the king today. Even so, Liam was determined to get us to the gates to see what was going on.
Wiggling our way through people, all who looked alarmed to see a creeper in their midst, felt like a giant spotlight was put on us. I kept my head low. At least no one was screaming. That happened sometimes. No, it was just mostly whispering.
“He’s friendly!” Chloe would randomly shout if someone glared, “Just settle down!”
Ah, Chloe. Never change. A loyal friend. After everything we had gone through with Charlie the Creeper King, how could she not be? We had watched out for each other and protected one another. That’s what friendship was all about.
Finally, we got to the gates. Liam got the attention of a guard and went, “We’re here –”
The guard cut him off, “Because of the End portals. So is everyone else.”
“We have to see the king!”
“So does everyone else,” The guard grunted, clearly tired from dealing with the crowd all day, “We’re trying to put a system in order to make sure everyone is heard. In the meantime, we are asking everyone to wait outside the gates until we can make sure it is safe. For everyone – that includes the king.”
“But we came here –”
“Sir, everyone has come here from somewhere. The king is aware of the situation with the portals to the End. But we can’t have tons of people in the capital. Some of whom can be dangerous. Surely, you understand? You appear to be a villager guard yourself.”
Liam flushed, “I am. I just