Stitcher finished carving the hole, then lowered the fishing rod and gazed into the beast’s face. With tears in her eyes, she reached out and placed a hand on the creature’s cheek, then stroked its thick, furry mane.
A grumbling sound came from the monster, filling the air. Gameknight drew his sword, but a small, gray-skinned hand settled onto his arm.
“It is not a growl,” Empech said. “It is a purr, yes, yes.”
The rumbling grew louder, and gradually Stitcher’s tears stopped. She reached into her inventory, pulled out a piece of cooked steak, and offered it to the manticore. The creature carefully took the meat from her hand and ate it, replenishing its health. It leaned forward and rubbed its mane against Stitcher’s face, then it beat its huge leathery wings and took to the air. It soared around the chamber, getting higher and higher until it was near the ceiling. The huge manticore then shot out of the opening overhead, and was gone.
Stitcher turned, looked at the others, and then collapsed, her limp body landing on the dark floor, laying deathly still.
CHAPTER 36
WEAVER
“What did you do?!” Entity303 shouted. “You were supposed to destroy the beast, not set it free.”
The user yanked on the rope, pulling Weaver nearer to him, then moved closer to the yellow force fields and began swinging at the cracked sides with his pickaxe. After three swings, the surface shattered. The user tossed the pick aside and lifted the chest with one hand, placing it on the ground and opening it. Magical light leaked from the open box and illuminated the area as the enchanted items in the chest gave off waves of iridescent light.
Entity303 smiled, then turned and faced his prisoner.
“Looks like I don’t need you anymore,” he said with an evil smile.
Reaching into his inventory, Entity303 pulled out his glowing infused sword and raised it high in the air.
“NO!”
A booming voice filled the chamber. Entity303 turned toward the sound and found Digger approaching, the glowing battle axe in his hand.
“Ahhh, the coward has something to say?” the user asked.
“No more killing, no more killing, NO MORE KILLING!”
Digger’s voice filled the chamber with thunder as his anger overwhelmed his fear. With both hands gripping the handle of the enchanted weapon, Digger raised the battle axe high over his head and threw it straight toward Entity303. The user saw it coming and easily took a step backward to avoid the attack.
Digger just smiled.
The axe spun end-over-end, its sharp, glowing edge leaving a faint orange trail across the chamber as the enchanted weapon cleaved through the air. It hit the rope connecting Weaver to the user, cutting the boy free. Entity303 fell backward as the tension on the rope suddenly went to zero.
Weaver stumbled for a moment, then wormed his way out of the ropes and ran.
“Come on, everyone … let’s get him!” Hunter shouted.
Digger pulled out his pickaxe and ran toward the evil user, the rest of his companions following. A wave of white fur passed the stocky NPC as the wolves streaked toward their target, ready to attack, their growling voices echoing off the chamber walls.
Entity303 saw the creatures charging at him and acted quickly. He pulled something out of the chest, then placed it on the ground. It was a pedestal.
The wolves were getting closer. Gameknight was sprinting toward the user, hoping to get there before he could try to hurt Weaver.
The terrible user pulled out a book from the chest. It had a brown cover and seemed ancient, as if it had been trapped within the yellow force field for eons. He set it on the pedestal, then turned and faced the wolves as the vicious animals rushed toward him.
The wolf pack leader charged up the pile of deadrock, its jaws snapping together, sounding like a metal vise slamming open and shut. Entity303 glared down at the animal and smiled, then leaned toward the book. Instantly, he was enveloped in a cloud of purple and silver, then disappeared just as the animal tried to clamp down on his leg, the blast of magical energy knocking the wolf aside, throwing Weaver to the ground with a thud. The boy and wolf both landed hard on the deadrock ground and didn’t move.
Entity303 was gone.
“Stitcher,” Gameknight said, then turned and sprinted to where the young girl still lay on the ground.
He dropped his swords, and knelt at her side.
“Stitcher, are you all right … Stitcher, please be all right.” Gameknight was so scared he began to weep. “You have to be OK, Stitcher … come back to us.”
The girl opened her eyes and the User-that-is-not-a-user breathed a sigh of relief.
“You’re OK?”
“I’ll be better if you let me stand up,” she said with a sarcastic smile.
She climbed to her feet slowly, then bent over and picked up the magical fishing pole. The others were gathering around her, each of them asking questions at the same time. With a hand raised, Stitcher silenced them all, then stepped up to Empech.
“You were right, the price for this power was too much,” she said as she handed the fishing pole back to the little gnome. “I will never touch that thing again. You keep it.”
“Thank you, child,” the gnome replied as he put the magical weapon back into his inventory.
“Stitcher, what happened?” Gameknight asked.
“Empech’s magical weapon is incredibly powerful, but it makes the wielder feel what they are doing to their target,” Stitcher said, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I could feel everything that was happening to the manticore, all the arrows hitting it, all of that magical energy stabbing at its body … it was terrible.
“But not only did I feel its pain, I also saw inside the creature’s mind, and it saw inside me as well. That majestic creature was trapped down here by Entity303. Closed spaces terrify it beyond all rational thought. The manticore, her name is Growlarra, and she is extremely proud of her growl … anyway, she was trapped down here and was nearly driven insane. Entity303 tortured her with the darkness and all the other creatures until she would do his bidding, but she is a thoughtful, intelligent creature that cares for others … even us.”
Stitcher turned to Empech and took one of his hands in hers.
“Your weapon taught me I should think about other people; my actions have repercussions for others.” She turned to Gameknight999. “And Growlarra taught me to always be proud of myself and my actions. She asked me if I felt I was doing the right thing … and I didn’t. She was willing to accept her death at my hands, but pitied me, for I knew I was doing wrong. She taught me to consider what I was doing, and that if I wasn’t sure it was right, then it probably wasn’t.”
A tear trickled from her eye.
“All Growlarra wants to do is fly through the clouds and enjoy the wind. She doesn’t want to fight … it’s not her way, just as it isn’t our way. I think Growlarra brought me back from the brink of losing myself to my anger and hatred. She saved me, just like you all did.”
And then she wept. Hunter rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Stitcher. Crafter came forward and hugged the sisters, then the rest of the party did as well, the wolves howling loud.
Suddenly Stitcher pushed them all away. “Weaver … where’s Weaver?”
Just then, Digger walked up, carrying the unconscious Weaver. His small arms hung down, swinging from side to side like limp noodles. Carefully, the stocky NPC placed the boy on the ground.
Gameknight quickly knelt at his side and cradled his head in his arms.
“Weaver, are you OK?” Gameknight said, his voice weak with fear. He shook the boy gently, but his eyes did not open. “Why won’t he wake up?”
Gameknight looked up just in time to see a bucket of water tip and the blue liquid fall onto him and Weaver.
“Hunter,” Stitcher chided her sister.
“It’s always worked so well in the past,” the older sister said with a smile.
Weaver coughed, spitting water f
rom his mouth. He opened his eyes and peered up at Gameknight999.
“Smithy, is that you?” Weaver said in a weak, hopeful voice.
“Quick, someone give him some food,” Gameknight said.
“Wait,” Empech said.
He set his pack on the ground and reached in, pulling out a shimmering golden apple.
“A Notch apple,” Crafter said in a low, awed voice.
Empech nodded his oversized head. He handed it to the boy as Weaver’s eyes widened with surprise. He took a bite of the shining fruit. Instantly, color began to flow back into his skin, his blue eyes growing bright. He gobbled the rest of the apple, then sat up.
“Where’s Entity303?” the boy asked.
“Gone,” Gameknight said. “He opened some kind of book and disappeared. But we have you back, and that’s all that matters. Now we need to get you back to your own time and fix everything.”
“What?” Weaver asked, confused.
“Do you remember the diamond portal in the Nether?” the User-that-is-not-a-user asked. “You know, the one that Entity303 used to kidnap you?”
The boy nodded his head.
“Where did you come out?” Gameknight asked. “Where is the other end of the portal?” he asked. “I know there was a portal in the Nether when we were fighting Herobrine in the past, at the end of the Great Zombie Invasion, but where is the other end in this timeline? Do you remember?”
“All I know is that it was in a desert,” Weaver said. He stood and looked at all the people around him, his eyes lingering on Herder longer than the rest. “After Entity303 brought me through, he put something over my head so I couldn’t see, then led me out of the desert. I don’t know what happened next.”
“Do you think you could find that desert?” Crafter asked.
Weaver shook his head. “I have no idea where it was.”
Gameknight started to pace back and forth. “We must get Weaver back into the past to repair the damage Entity303 has done to Minecraft. He is the key, and he must be returned.”
“But how? We don’t know where the portal is located that will take him back,” Crafter said.
“What do we do?” Stitcher asked.
Gameknight considered all the puzzle pieces before him.
“You know what you must do, child,” Empech said. “You just need to come to terms with the decision you’ve already made, yes, yes.”
Gameknight nodded, then stopped pacing and turned to face his companions.
“You’re right, Empech,” Gameknight said. “You are wise even beyond your years.”
“What are we gonna do?” Stitcher asked, her eyes bright with hope and kindness for the first time in a long time.
“We’re going after Entity303.”
CHAPTER 37
INTO THE AGES
Gameknight led the group to the chest, which still sat open, iridescent purple light spilling out and creating an oasis of color in the dull deadrock chamber.
“This was what Entity303 was after all along,” Gameknight said. “Somehow, the manticore and the enclosure were linked. As the animal, her name was …”
“Growlarra,” Stitcher filled in.
“Right, Growlarra,” Gameknight continued. “As she became wounded, cracks formed across the force fields. I bet if we’d killed her, the force fields would have been extinguished. But Stitcher freed her before her HP was exhausted, even though enough damage had already been done that Entity303 was able to break the walls and pull out the chest.”
“What’s in it?” Crafter asked.
The User-that-is-not-a-user walked to the chest and stepped around to the open side. He peered into the glowing wooden box and instantly recognized many of the items: books, sheets of blank paper, bottles of ink, and some furniture. Pulling the furniture out of the chest, he set them on the ground. One seemed like the writing desk that his dad had in their office at home, and the other was a brown box with grooves carved in all the surfaces.
“The chest is filled with items to write books,” Gameknight said. “Very special books.”
“Why would Entity303 want a bunch of books?” Crafter asked.
“Because they will take him to different dimensions within Minecraft,” he replied, a knowing smile spreading across his face.
“How is that possible?” Digger asked with a shaking voice, his self-doubt returning after the battle.
“You see, a long time ago, some programmers made a computer game that was incredibly popular,” Gameknight explained. “It was called Myst, and it redefined computer gaming.”
“That’s really interesting, professor,” Hunter said. “But get to the point.”
“I’m getting there,” he replied with a scowl. “In that game, you used books to go to different universes, or multi-verses, as they’re called today. Fast-forward about twenty years, and a programmer came out with a mod to Minecraft called Mystcraft. In that mod, you used books to jump to new worlds, called Ages, like in the original Myst game.” He reached into the chest and lifted up a large, brown, box-like thing. “You use things like book binders and writing tables and rune-covered pages to create these special books.”
Gameknight placed the items on the ground. He then bent over and picked up the book Entity303 had used to escape.
“This is where our enemy went … into this book,” Gameknight said.
“You mean Entity303’s in that book?” Digger asked.
“No, this book is a gateway to another universe, like a portal, and that parallel universe is where our enemy fled.”
“But why would he want to do this?” Crafter asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“One time, I heard him mumble about something he’d lost in an Age,” Weaver explained. “I thought he meant it was lost a long time ago, but now I’m not so sure.”
“He must have messed something up when he added all these mods to Minecraft; something he needed to complete his plan must have become stuck inside Mystcraft,” Gameknight said. “Entity303 must be looking for the right Age so he can carry out the next part of his plan.”
“We need to get there first, before he does,” Herder said as he patted the wolves gathered around him. “And if Entity303 is the only person who knows the location of the portal that will take Weaver back, then we need to catch him.”
The others nodded their agreement.
Weaver glanced at the lanky boy and gave him a scowl, then looked back at Gameknight999. “So what are we gonna do?”
“We’re gonna follow him through the ages until we catch him,” Gameknight said. “But first, we need to make some books of our own, and the first one we need is a linking book.”
He quickly assembled the book, thinking back to a long ago when he’d first played the Mystcraft mod. The User-that-is-not-a-user combined some leather and sheets of paper, then placed it on the ground and concentrated on right-clicking on it with his mouse, back in the physical world. Suddenly the book changed from gray to green. He held it up for all to see.
“This is our linking book, and it will allow us to return here, to the Twilight Forest, after we’ve caught Entity303,” Gameknight999 said. “We’ll then go back to the Overworld, where we’ll find that diamond portal in the desert.”
He glanced at Weaver and gave him a confident smile, then tucked the green tome into his inventory.
“But how do we know where that user went?” Crafter asked.
“We’ll use his book here,” Gameknight said, gesturing to the book on the pedestal. “After that it’ll be more difficult, but for now, we just follow the trail of breadcrumbs.”
“Trail of breadcrumbs?” Hunter asked, confused.
“He’s so weird sometimes,” Stitcher added with a friendly smile.
Hunter tousled her sister’s hair, then smiled back.
Gameknight broke the writing table and book press with an axe and allowed them to flow into his inventory. He then emptied the chest of its contents and stepped up to the book on the pedestal.
<
br /> “All of you come close and hold onto me, so we’ll all be transported to the next age,” the User-that-is-not-a-user said.
His companions moved up close and held hands, the wolves in the center of the circle, each with either a paw or tail touching someone.
Empech glanced up at Gameknight from the center of the circle and gave him a smile. He could sense the little gnome was proud of him for leading the party to this point. It was as if the pech was giving him some kind of parental approval.
Gameknight looked at his companions.
“You know, there were times I wasn’t sure we were gonna make it,” he said.
“Like when we were battling the giant snake,” Hunter offered.
“Or fighting with that skeleton king,” Stitcher added.
“Maybe it was when you took us to visit the Hydra,” Woodcutter said with a smile.
“Yeah, pretty much all of those things,” Gameknight replied. “I was so afraid of failing all of you, that I started becoming afraid to try.”
“That’s crazy,” Hunter said.
“Well … I started doubting myself when I was terrified. But the faith all of you had in me kept me going.” Gameknight took his hand off the book and wiped away a grateful tear.
“Do you still doubt yourself now?” Crafter asked.
“Not when I have all of you around me.”
“Then you just better keep us around,” Digger added.
Gameknight nodded his head, then reached out and touched the book again.
“Everyone ready?” the User-that-is-not-a-user asked.
They nodded, some of them appearing a little scared. He flashed them all a smile.
“Entity303, we’re coming for you,” Gameknight said in a loud voice. Then he imagined himself right-clicking on the book in the physical world.
A cloud of purple and silver mist seemed to wrap around the party, clouding their vision, and then they disappeared, on their way to a new dimension, fast on Entity303’s trail.
MINECRAFT SEEDS
As I’m sure you are all aware now, this book involved a modded version of Minecraft. When I play mods, I like to use mod installers like Feed-the-Beast, sometimes referred to as FTB, or the Curse Client. These mod installers will load various modpacks into the correct versions of Minecraft, making them much easier to play. In the past, I’ve had difficulties finding mods that would work with my version of Minecraft, and it’s always important to be extra cautious about which mods you use and where they are coming from, as they could have viruses inside them or could cause instabilities in computer performance. As a result, I now only use FTB or the Curse Client, both of which come with mods that have been already screened. I’ve found this to be a much better way to play and experiment with mods.
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