by Mur Lafferty
Freya and Alison took care of any blazes that threatened them from afar, warning Max and Nicholas when incoming fire got too close. Bunny Biter chased any encroaching mobs away.
This whole “adventuring in the Nether” thing was getting easy! All they had needed was a group of four, and some solid weapons. At the top of the hill, Nicholas pointed. “There.”
They’d seen the glow of the lava from behind the hill, but now it was a truly impressive landscape. The canyon ended in a sunken lava pool, with netherrack all around, fire geysers erupting nearby, and lava falls spewing from a wall above the pool. When a fire geyser erupted right in front of the pool, Max and Alison shouted in alarm, both pointing: an unfinished portal already stood there, one full corner created. Max wondered who had abandoned the project, or what terrible person had attacked the frame with a diamond pickaxe. Regardless, it was more of a portal than they’d had before.
“I didn’t think we’d make it!” Alison said, relief and happiness in her voice.
“And it’s already started for us!” Freya said, noticing the obsidian too.
“The only thing is, what happened to the person who started to build that in the first place?” Alison asked.
“Maybe they changed their minds?” Max said, and Alison glared at him.
“I think we have a good idea of what happened,” Nicholas said quietly, pointing to a pack and a diamond pickaxe lying next to the unfinished portal.
“So we’ll be on the lookout,” Freya said, patting her wolf. “No big deal.”
“A little late for that,” Nicholas said, “and I think we should run to get out of here as soon as possible.” He was facing behind them instead of at the portal ahead, and before they could ask why, he turned and extended his arms, shepherding them all down the hill.
Behind them, Max could hear a chilling scream. He took a chance and glanced backward, seeing a floating white body crest the hill, heading right for them.
* * *
—
“There’s no cover, where are we going?” Freya yelled.
“Right now I’d rather be close to the portal than far from it!” Max said.
“Come on, kids, stop arguing and run!” Nicholas called.
“I read what Grandma Dia wrote,” Alison said, running beside Nicholas. “This is a ghast, isn’t it?” Its scream was terrifying, sounding like wailing babies who were scratching their nails down an ice block. While a ghast was chasing them.
A whoosh sounded, and Alison cried, “Duck!” They all crouched lower, still trying to run. The fireball heated Alison’s exposed neck, but it missed them.
Their luck turned immediately when the fireball kept sailing ahead, straight for the portal.
“No!” Max shouted, but it clipped the portal on the side and bounced away to sail across the lava. “I forgot obsidian was that strong,” Max said.
Alison felt fear claw at her throat, the sheer terror of the ghast reminding her of creepers. “How are we going to fight and build at the same time?” she asked, slowing.
Max ran back and grabbed her hand. “It’s not a problem. We can split up. We’re a good team. Some can build, some can fight. We have lava, we have water, we have a pickaxe, we have people who can build. But first we have to stay alive; then we have to finish building it. Then we can get out of here,” he said, and pulled her into a run.
They ended up right on the edge of the lava pool next to the portal. Nicholas stood with his diamond sword raised, with Alison and her bow and Max and his new, unenchanted sword behind him. Freya climbed to the top of a small hill to the left and started loosing arrows at the ghast.
It shot another fireball, making them all duck. It sailed straight through the portal’s frame.
“If it was complete, we could go through it right now!” Max shouted.
“Yeah, and—” Alison said, but then interrupted herself. “Duck!”
They had taken their eyes off the ghast while looking at the portal, and now narrowly avoided being hit by another fireball.
“We have to take care of that ghast,” Freya said grimly, shooting more arrows. It was getting closer now, but at least that made it a bigger target. She hit true a few times, and the ghast deflated and went down in a pile of white flailing tentacles, and then it was no more. Max leaped into the air, pumping his fist and shouting, “Yeah!” Freya grinned at him, before turning to Alison.
“Alison, go loot the tears,” Freya said. “Before Bunny Biter eats them.”
Alison took a furtive look around, and ran out to find anything the ghast may have dropped.
“Is everybody all right?” Nicholas asked, looking them all over anxiously.
“Yeah,” Max said, panting. “Now what do we do about the portal?”
Nicholas pointed to a crack in the wall from where the lava streamed. “We need to get up there and get some water into that lava. Then mine it.”
“Oh, is that all,” Alison said, handing Freya the white tears that had hovered over the ghast’s body.
“I’m on it, no problem,” Max said, building steps to get to the hole in the cliff.
“Hey, everybody,” Freya said, her voice way too calm for Alison’s comfort. “It’s not over.”
Across the Nether landscape, they heard the screams of more approaching ghasts.
NICHOLAS’S TERRIBLE ARMOR IS USEFUL
Nicholas started to build a wall for them to hide behind so they could think of how to deal with the numerous ghasts that had decided to join their party.
Alison put her hand on his shoulder. “Netherrack is about as soft as wood. Do you really think this will stop a fireball?”
“Boots said they’re lazy. If they can’t see us, we’re safer than if they can!” he countered, and got to work. Freya jumped from her perch and joined them. Once they had a three-by-three wall, Nicholas pushed the group out of the way of one of the fireballs that came sailing toward them and they huddled behind the barrier. They took a moment to breathe.
The ghasts still screamed, but they had stopped their assault. Above them, Max had built his own two-by-two shield as he poured his water onto the lava, wincing at the steam that came out. He began hacking at the resulting black block.
“Now what do we do?” Alison asked.
“Our options are,” Nicholas said, crouching down, “…nothing. I have no ideas. Fight until Max gets what we need, I guess.” He looked at the portal and made a quick calculation. “Max, we need five more blocks!” he called up to his nephew.
“Or fight until we beat them,” Freya said, standing up and shooting another arrow before she crouched back down. “Do you always give up this easily?”
“Leave it alone,” Nicholas said. “Boots—”
“—isn’t here,” Alison said gently. “But we are. We’re trying to get you home but we need your help.”
A fireball crashed into the hill beside them, showering them with soul sand and embers. Max shouted when his leather armor caught fire, and Nicholas tossed him a canteen to put himself out.
“He’s got two blocks,” Alison said, retrieving them as Max dropped them. “But we’re going to fight. They’re pretty vulnerable to arrows. Freya and I will shoot at them, and Nicholas, those fireballs are pretty solid. If you use your sword, you might be able to whack the fireballs back at them. Max needs to build—”
“Hey, I can fight if someone else does this! It’s not like it’s enchanting or anything!” Max said indignantly.
“You stay back here,” she repeated, her voice hard. “Yes, because we want to keep you safe, but also because you need to finish building the portal. Sometimes we have to help out how we best can, not how we want to.”
“You should write a book,” he grumbled. “You sound very inspirational. Also really annoying.”
“That’s because I’m right,” Aliso
n said, pulling out her bow and arrows. “Oh, and here,” she added, tossing her pack up to him.
* * *
—
Max chipped away at the obsidian, tongue held in his teeth, wanting to argue that he could take on any screaming white clouds that spit fireballs. But he peeked inside Alison’s pack and saw, among other things, two bookcases, an enchanting table, and three more canteens of water. She had packed everything she thought they would need.
“You’re trusting me with this?” he yelled to her as she took a high spot beside Freya.
“I gave it to you, didn’t I?” she asked. “Get us home.”
Max took a long look at the enchanting table, and thought about his diamond sword, and his uncle’s sword, and how great it would be if they were enchanted.
He shook his head, hefted his pickaxe, and went back to excavating obsidian blocks. He tried to concentrate as he worked, but his friends and his uncle weren’t making it easy with their struggles.
Freya and Alison were doing well from their perch. Looking like she had learned something from their bridge adventure, Freya had built a climbing staircase out of netherrack and ascended from the hill to the top of the portal itself, to get a better shot. Unfortunately, that made them bigger targets, and right after they took one ghast down, another came straight at them with a fireball. Freya dodged, but Alison took it full-force and flew backward, flaming, into the lava. Max yelled and ran to the edge of the pool, but there was nothing he could do without burning himself and his horrible armor.
He watched, shocked, as her golden helmet appeared and she surfaced, then climbed out. She looked slightly burned, but all right overall.
“What did you—”
“I had another potion of fire protection,” she said. “Not sure how much longer I have, but at least it saved me that time.” She took a deep, shaking breath and grinned. “I don’t think I ever want to go near lava again.” She readied her bow and ran back to help Freya.
Uncle Nicholas was doing a pretty good job of whacking the fireballs away from the girls and Max, so Max was finally able to mine the final obsidian block they needed. He jumped down to the unfinished portal frame and put the first block into place. Before he could put the second one in, though, he heard Uncle Nicholas yell as he missed one of the fireballs. Max had to leap out of the way to avoid being roasted.
Another ghast scream sounded, and another enemy fell; the fighting team didn’t let up. Max looked up from where he’d landed and was dismayed; the ground was littered with ghast tears, but there were still an endless number of ghasts filling the air with fireballs. Every once in a while, someone would get hit and catch fire, but they seemed to be doing all right.
Every few hours during his time in the Nether, it seemed Max had to adjust what “all right” meant. Seeing his best friend on fire, put herself out, and then keep shooting arrows at screaming, fire-belching clouds wouldn’t have been “all right” even yesterday. Max shook his head and quickly slapped a few more blocks into place.
Only one more left!
A trio of fireballs hit Freya, and she fell back off the portal, landing hard inches from the lava. Max ran over and quickly poured a canteen of water on her and put the fire out, but she looked in bad shape. Her potion must have worn off.
“Max, finish the portal!” Alison shouted, and ran to Freya with a healing potion. Nicholas took up the post to protect them while Alison did her field medicine, but several ghasts shot at once. Nicholas tried to dodge, but tripped over the girls and went into the lava.
Max started toward him, and then glanced back at the portal, which needed one more block. “Alison, can you get him out?” he yelled, and Alison was on it, wincing as her own armor caught fire when she reached into the lava.
Covered in burns, Nicholas groaned as Alison pulled him out. Max was the only healthy one among them, and all that protected him was crappy, cursed leather armor.
The ghasts had closed in and started to surround the unfinished portal. He remembered something he had heard from Freya, and stood up. “Get everyone over to the portal, behind the shield!” he yelled to Alison, who weakly shouted back that she would.
Max sprinted toward the portal, slapping the final block into place as he passed it. He continued to run, heading straight out onto the battlefield as he yelled, jumping up and down. “Hey! You ugly fog monsters! I hear you’re stupid enough to kill yourselves, is that true?”
The ghasts circled him on every side. Two of them fired at that moment, three fireballs each, and he threw himself to the ground. One of them passed too close over him, and he felt the diamond helm on his head crack slightly. His ear got singed as the fireball flew over him. He leaped back onto his feet. He was still surrounded.
That hadn’t worked. He grimaced. He edged back a little to see if he could get the angle right, and taunted them again.
“I heard a bunch of creepers talking yesterday and they said you guys were complete wimps. They wanted to have a creeper–ghast brawl, in fact! I think they’re going to jump you at the next full moon.”
He wasn’t sure if they knew what a moon was, but he had successfully taunted them, and they screamed again and launched more fire across the circle, all aiming for him.
He leaped to the side and rolled, none of the projectiles hitting him this time, and one ghast screamed as it took an ally’s fireball in the face and deflated.
The others screamed as if Max had been the one to destroy the ghast, and they fired again. There were five left, and he had no more chances to taunt them; they were well and truly bent on his destruction. The fireballs soared toward him from all sides, cutting across the circle, and another ghast fell. He would have felt triumphant, but at the same time one of the fireballs bounced in front of him and burned away what was left of his helmet.
“Hey, I’m free!” he said, as the hated thing fell off him. But then he realized his head was unprotected, and there were four ghasts left.
He heard a thrum, and chanced a look behind him. One of the ghasts had lit the portal, and it shimmered with a purple glow. “Get through the portal now!” he yelled at his friends.
He heard the ghasts scream around him, and saw two more fall to their own friendly fire. With a whoosh, another fireball sailed toward the portal and hit it, putting out the glowing purple fire. Max let out a growl of frustration and turned back toward the remaining enemies while his friends ducked back behind his shield by the portal.
There were only two left. He could take two, right? Then he remembered he had Alison’s pack, not his own, and there were no weapons here.
Another scream sounded in the distance. More?
This trip was a disaster, he thought, but then remembered that he had done what he set out to do: rescue Nicholas. He never promised it would be a clean and efficient job. Or a job where he would emerge uninjured and not saddled with cursed armor.
The armor. Right.
Max made his decision, and then a lot of things happened at once. He jumped up and ran toward the portal. Nicholas was crawling toward it, but Max didn’t see Alison or Freya. Then Alison, looking ashy and determined, stepped out from behind the shield with her bow. She aimed above his head and shot her arrow. The ghast behind Max screamed. She shot again, and again, until it deflated.
There’s only one left. And the one that was left fired its next attack right at Max as he turned to face it.
Max stood in front of the newly constructed portal and took the full force of the fireball blast. He felt his armor ignite, and the impact threw him backward into the portal. His burning outfit activated it, and he was pulled through.
His last thought before he passed out was, I hope this gets that armor off, at least.
GHAST TEARS ARE NOT WOLF TREATS
Alison saw what Max was doing, and only hoped he could survive it, since she knew she couldn’t sto
p him in time. He taunted the ghast into attacking him, the portal activated, and her friend was gone.
Alison ran up to Freya and shook her shoulder, hoping the healing potion had worked enough. Freya opened her eyes.
“The portal’s working. You need to get Nicholas through,” Alison said simply, and Freya nodded once and sat up. Alison ran back and shot more arrows at the remaining ghast, trying to get it to target her and not put out their precious portal.
A fireball passed too close to her, burning her shoulder. Her armor had taken a lot of damage at this point, and she didn’t know how much longer it could last. She toppled backward with the impact, letting go one more arrow as she fell. She was sure it would sail wide, but as she landed painfully, she saw it go straight into the gassy bag that was the ghast’s body, and the thing screamed once and was gone.
Alison lay panting for a moment, but realized that they weren’t free yet. She still had to get Freya and Nicholas through the portal and then see if Max was all right.
She got up and ran to the portal where Freya stood, propping Nicholas on her shoulder, looking around.
“Bunny Biter. I can’t find her!” she said.
Alison wanted to tell her she would find the wolf herself, and Freya should get Nicholas through the portal, but knew that Bunny Biter would only come to Freya. She took Nicholas’s arm and nodded back to the field. “Go find her. But don’t take too long. We’ll wait for you on the other side.”
Freya hugged her briefly, and Alison winced at the pressure on her burned and bruised body, but returned the hug tightly. Freya turned and ran off, and Alison pulled the nearly unconscious enchanter through the portal.