And then Zetta saw something that nearly made her lose her balance on the wall. Actually, she’d felt it before she saw it, a thundering that traveled through the soles of her feet and shook all the way up to her molars. The stomping was from an enormous four-legged beast with a thick ash gray hide, chained armor, and horns that looked like they were made for ramming through tough materials. Zetta had never heard of anything like it.
The last blocks were going into the wall right below her. They’d finished the wall in time, but somehow Zetta knew it would not be enough. Not even close.
Zetta hopped off the wall and ran back to the mayor.
“Mayor! Mayor, you have to reconsider. They’ve got this beast! There’s still time for me to brew the strength potions.” Maybe. The raid was so close. The thundering steps made the ground rumble even more. Bits of rocks and pebbles jumped around at Zetta’s feet.
“I’ve heard. We’re sure the wall will hold. We’ve tested it. It’ll hold.” The way Mayor Maxine repeated herself made Zetta wonder if she was trying to convince herself of this lie as well.
“Why won’t you just let me do this? Why won’t anyone even consider using magic?”
The mayor frowned. “Maybe that’s a question you should ask your father.”
Zetta’s eyes went wide. Why ask her father? Wasn’t the mayor in charge of Sienna Dunes? She was about to inquire further with the mayor, but then an enormous thump hit the east wall. The entire town stood still, watching as the wall thumped again, like an enormous fist was knocking, wanting in.
“Please hold,” Zetta mumbled to herself.
Another thump. This time, a few cracks appeared in the wall.
“The wall’s being breached!” shouted Captain Zayden. He shook his head, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “I don’t get it. There’re never this many illagers. We’ve got vindicators with axes up in the front and pillagers with crossbows holding position behind them. And that beast—” He started routing his fighters to the weakening spot. After another loud thud, the air was suddenly filled with a cloud of terracotta dust, obscuring the true extent of the damage. Seconds later, Zetta heard the nasaly grunting of illagers and the clash of weapons as the raiders spilled through the gaping hole in the wall. People were screaming, running in all directions, trying to avoid the rubble from the destroyed blocks. Arrows flew.
As Zetta watched the carnage, her fingers twitched. She wished her brewing stand was warming up right now. She saw so many ways she could be helpful. Healing the wounded. Boosting speed. Giving fighters the ability to leap out of the way of danger and confuse the enemy.
“Haarrrrr!” yelled one of the pillagers. Wait, pillagers were the ones with the crossbows, right? Maybe this was a vindicator? Zetta wasn’t a hundred percent sure what all these different types of illagers were called. She only knew she didn’t want them busting up her town. The raider was standing not five feet in front of Zetta. She’d been so busy dreaming up potions that she hadn’t noticed it creeping up on her. And now it stood there, brandishing an axe, swinging it right at her.
An arrow zinged over her shoulder and hit the raider in the chest. Another arrow followed in short succession, and the enemy died right in front of her, leaving nothing behind but a puff of smoke. Zetta looked back and saw Rayne standing in the window of the bell tower, their bow drawn and notched, moving on to the next target already.
Zetta’s heart dropped to her feet, too heavy with gratitude. She should have been more supportive of her friend. But though she may have failed Rayne before, she could do better now. She ran around collecting missed arrows, and then rushed up the creaky ladder to the top of the bell tower to return them to Rayne so their supply would dwindle a little more slowly. She was on her second trip, bending down and struggling to pry up an arrow wedged in sandstone, until finally it popped loose. When she stood up, Zetta was suddenly face-to-face with Captain Zayden.
“Your friend is a great shot. Give them this,” he said, passing Zetta a bow gleaming purple all over.
“Is this—”
“Enchanted,” Captain Zayden said quickly. “Infinite arrows and a bit of extra punch.”
“But the mayor—” Zetta started.
“Let me worry about the mayor when we’re on the other side of this battle,” Captain Zayden said.
Zetta stared at the captain, her jaw hanging open. She knew he could get in trouble for this. The mayor really didn’t like any sort of magic being used, but Captain Zayden wasn’t from Sienna Dunes, and he didn’t hold their weird distaste for magic.
Zetta nodded, knowing that Rayne would be so excited to have this bow. She started making her way back to the bell tower so she could deliver it to her friend.
But as she crossed the battlefield, it became more and more apparent that the people of Sienna Dunes were peaceful folk, not fighters. Gloriana, the young woman who worked the grocery shop, was hurling carrots and apples at a couple of pillagers as she dodged their arrows. Milo, one of the town’s best miners, was swinging at a witch with his bulky iron pickaxe. They were all ill-prepared and outmatched.
Even though the illagers were fewer in number, they seemed to be gaining the advantage, tearing through the town. And every time the townspeople banded together to fight the hostile mobs, the armored beast would charge at them, causing the fighters to scramble out of the way.
The illagers destroyed everything they could get their hands on, and pocketed anything of value that wasn’t tied down. The vault held the town’s most precious resources, though. Zetta was glad about that. Hopefully the illagers didn’t have the knowledge or the patience to figure out how to operate a key-coded piston door.
Before Zetta could make it to the tower to give the bow to Rayne, the armored beast rammed through the front wall of the former library, destroying dozens and dozens of potted baby cacti. It demolished the bins in the compost center, then headed south toward the farm. Zetta winced, watching as it stomped through her grandparents’ wheat field. They needed that food. That wheat was the one precious thing they hadn’t stored away in the vault. They barely had enough to go around, let alone for a stockpile.
Zetta had to do something to save their farm. No way was she going to get close to those horns, but she did have an enchanted bow. She’d never used a bow before, but she’d seen Rayne shoot hundreds of times. How difficult could it be? The beast was almost too big a target to miss.
She notched an arrow and pulled back the string as tight as she could. Then she released. Somehow, though, she was left holding the arrow and not the bow, which flew straight forward, hitting the beast square in the forehead. The beast looked up at Zetta, annoyed. It snuffed its wide, flaring nostrils, then started trotting for her, a heavy hoof slamming down on the enchanted bow and smashing it to pieces.
Zetta gritted her teeth. Rayne would never forgive her for this.
But at least the beast had lost interest in stomping the wheat field, since it was now focused strictly on Zetta, and was charging right at her.
She shrieked. Rayne sunk a few arrows into the beast, but it didn’t seem remotely fazed. Only its pride was hurt, from being smacked in the face with a sparkly purple bow.
Zetta ran away as fast as she could toward the town square. She looked back, making sure she was putting some distance between her and the beast. Normally, she’d be able to outrun it, but there were so many obstacles that she had to go through and so much debris to dodge, while the beast just plowed through it all.
When Zetta faced forward again, she saw Mayor Maxine standing right in front of her, arms outstretched to brace for Zetta’s impact. Zetta couldn’t stop fast enough and ran right into the mayor, bowling her over. Thunder rumbled the ground as the beast came nearer. The mayor jumped back up to her feet and started running, and the beast cut away from Zetta to focus on Mayor Maxine.
Oh no. The m
ayor was not so fast. The beast bore down on her, taking arrow after arrow without a single flinch. Zetta grabbed her pack, which had fallen off during the collision, and reached in for her splash potion of invisibility. She didn’t know if it would work, but she didn’t have much of a choice now, did she? A few more seconds and Sienna Dunes would be short a mayor.
She lobbed the potion toward Mayor Maxine and hoped for the best.
The glass flew through the air in a high arc, then collided with the mayor’s shoulder. She let out an “Oof” on the impact, and then was surrounded by a fog of magical particles. Something was happening, at least. The fog near the ground dissipated, and Zetta no longer saw the mayor’s feet.
She’d done it! But as the fog continued to clear, Zetta cringed as she saw that Mayor Maxine’s top half was still there, though it was minus a head. The beast spooked at the sight, then cut clean away, eventually disappearing back through the hole in the east wall with the squeal of a panicked pig.
Zetta’s magic had evened out the odds, just not in the way she was hoping. But without their most powerful weapon, the remaining illagers were picked off by the townspeople.
They’d done it! They’d defended their town from the raid. But their win had come at a cost. It would take weeks to clean up from this destruction. Who knew if lives were lost as well. Everything was dusty and everyone was heavy with grief.
“What did you do to me?” the mayor yelled at Zetta. She looked angry, still intimidating, and somehow scowling with just two arms and a torso.
“I—I—” Zetta stammered. She was pretty sure she’d saved the mayor’s life and driven a three-ton killer from their town, but Zetta felt like saying that would be the wrong answer. “I don’t know, but I can fix it!”
She scurried off to the farm and grabbed a bucket and looked around the cow pasture. Her cousin Ashton was sitting off in the corner, a large slab of beef cradled in his lap.
“Ginger?” A lump stuck in Zetta’s throat as she said the cow’s name. Ashton looked up at her with tears in his eyes, lip quivering. The town’s only cow. Which meant no more milk to reverse the potion, and that the mayor would be stuck half invisible until the magic wore off. But Zetta wasn’t worried about that right now. She sat down next to her little cousin and placed a hand around his back and hugged him. “I’m so sorry.”
“She was such a good cow,” Ashton mumbled.
The illagers had scared Zetta earlier, but something snapped inside her. Now she wanted revenge. They’d crushed her cousin’s heart by killing his cow; they’d destroyed her town. They would pay. Zetta vowed to learn everything there was to learn about potioning and to use it to her advantage.
“Zetta, thank goodness, there you are!” her father said as he ran up to her. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m okay,” she said. “Ashton’s okay, too.”
“She saved us from the ravager,” Rayne said, running up, bow packed away. If Rayne could let their guard down and pack up their bow, then everyone was truly safe. For now. “She’s a hero!”
“She’s a menace! A troublemaker,” came the mayor’s voice. Screams erupted from wherever her headless torso passed. “Look what she did to me!”
Zetta’s dad stumbled back, unsure of what he was looking at. “Mayor Maxine? Is that you?”
“Zetta, you said you could fix this,” the mayor said. “Now fix it!”
“You just need to drink some milk,” Zetta mumbled, clutching the bucket to her chest. The mayor grabbed it and went to gulp it down, but it was empty. Zetta felt Mayor Maxine’s invisible yet fiery eyes staring at her. “There’s no milk, though. Our only cow was killed in the attack.”
“So how long will I stay like this?” the mayor demanded.
“I don’t know, ma’am,” Zetta said sheepishly.
“This is why we don’t mess with magic,” her father said. “Nothing but nonsense and false hope.”
“But Dad, what if the illagers attack again? If I practice and get better, then I know I’ll be able to help. Please!”
“Leave the worries of defending this town to the grown-ups,” Father said, puffing out his chest. “We’ll rebuild the wall, thicker this time. Potions have no place in Sienna Dunes. I told my sister the same thing a thousand times over, and look what happened to her! Rotted her brain. Now all she thinks about is nether weed and glow rocks and magma sauce, secluded up in that mountain in that hovel of hers. I lost her to magic. I won’t let the same thing happen to you.” Father put out his hand. “Give me your brewing stand. I know you have one.”
Zetta did not want to disobey her father, especially in front of so many onlookers. They’d drawn a crowd, whispers coiling through it, about how Zetta was a hero. About how she was a menace. No one knew what to believe. She handed over the brewing stand.
“Do you even know how dangerous blaze powder is?” Father asked, shaking his head. “You could have caused an explosion!”
Zetta shrugged, rubbing her eyebrow. It had been singed stubble for so long—a very awkward reminder of blaze powder’s explosive punch. That’s why it was such an excellent fuel source for making potions and for crafting fireworks for holiday celebrations. But there was just a handful of it inside the brewing stand, not enough to cause too much damage.
“Everyone stop staring and start cleaning!” the mayor demanded, breaking the strained silence that filled the now cowless cow pasture. Then Mayor Maxine stuck both her hands high up in the air and screamed, “And someone go find me some milk!”
Zetta shuffled back home, down but not defeated. A thicker wall wouldn’t help. Why was her father so dead set on doing the thing that didn’t work? Sienna Dunes may have given up on Zetta, but she hadn’t given up on her town. This was where she grew up. Where her friends and family were. And she vowed to protect it the best she could.
Her father had mentioned her aunt Meryl, his sister. Zetta barely remembered her. She’d left the town soon after Zetta’s mother had gotten a sickness and withered away. Zetta hadn’t known she had a potioner in her own family. Maybe she could get some instruction from her aunt. She had to try.
There was only one mountain her father could have been talking about. Zetta looked out of her bedroom window, where she could just barely make out the faint top of the distant mountain peaking over the terracotta wall.
Zetta scribbled a vague note to her father, then rummaged through her home, packing up food for her journey. In the hall closet sat a dusty chest filled with odds and ends. From it, Zetta grabbed a blank notebook, its leather old and cracked. The notebook had probably been her mother’s and would be great to hold all the potion knowledge that her aunt would teach her.
A pair of comfortable, well-worn boots also sat inside the chest, so Zetta snatched those, too. They would provide a little armor protection from the hostile mobs that lurked beyond the desert. She’d heard that the zombies were greener and fleshier than the husks she was used to dealing with, and who knew what other untold dangers awaited her?
Zetta shook her head to clear the worry from her mind. No time for fear. She had a long journey in front of her, a tall mountain to climb, and a town to save.
CHAPTER FIVE
When Zetta scraped her shin for the fifth time as she scaled the steep cliffs of this lush green mountain, she started second-guessing her decision to stray so far from home. She’d tried to keep her morale up throughout her journey. It had taken her a couple hours to trudge through the desert, where the hostile mobs were familiar at least, even if they were keen on killing her.
Once she had grass under her feet, everything had changed. She’d never been farther than the badlands in her whole life. While the desert was mostly uninterrupted horizon where she could see creepers and husks from a mile off, here there were bushes and trees for the baddies to hide behind. Zetta kept on her toes, walking as fast as she could.
She stumbled upon the most beautiful flower field that took her breath away, with these gentle little insects that buzzed from flower to flower. Bees, she slowly remembered. And bees made honey. Their little pollen-covered bottoms were so cute, and they seemed so happy. Zetta picked a flower and offered it to one of the bees.
The bee buzzed up right next to her and suckled from the flower! Then Zetta followed the bees back to their home. When she was close, she caught the scent of the most delicious-smelling golden liquid—honey—just dripping from the little holes in the little insect house. Zetta’s mouth watered as she collected some honey in one of her empty bottles.
Big mistake.
The gentle bees instantly became furious. Their eyes glowed red now, and suddenly Zetta remembered something else she’d forgotten about bees. They stung.
Two of the bees sunk their stingers into Zetta, and she cried out in pain. She ran away and tried to soothe the pain in the cold of a deep stream. Fish swam past her, tickling at her toes. Zetta was glad to get at least a moment’s rest and calm. She could see the whole shore, and no mobs would be able to sneak up on her.
But then that gentle tickle on her toes turned into a sharp pain in her thigh. She looked under the water’s surface and saw that some kind of underwater zombie was after her. A super- soggy version of a husk.
She swam to shore as quickly as she could, then looked down at the damage. Nothing a healing potion couldn’t mend—but she didn’t have a healing potion. She didn’t even have a brewing stand anymore. Zetta had been so mad at her father that she’d gotten out of the house as quickly as possible, leaving him a short note saying she’d be back when she was better equipped to help their people. Could be weeks. Could be months. Who knew? She’d learn everything she could from her aunt and come back with a full knowledge of potioning, or die trying. Now, with the stings and the scraped shins and the zombie bite, Zetta wasn’t sure it wouldn’t be the latter.
The Dragon: An Official Minecraft Novel Page 4
