The Quest for the Diamond Sword

by Winter Morgan

  Steve remembered the Nether fortress that had been looted. Maybe these were the people who took the jewels from there.

  “Where are you from?” Steve asked.

  “We are from the Overworld. We used a portal and wound up here,” replied one of the rainbow men.

  Rufus barked at the rainbow men, and Steve took that as a sign they might be bad. The wolf kept barking, and Steve put his hand on his sword.

  “Look out,” shouted the other rainbow man. Behind the rainbow men marched two gigantic gray skeletons.

  “Wither skeletons!” Henry cried out.

  Rufus wasn’t barking at the rainbow men, but at the evil wither skeletons. The gray beasts lashed at the group and one hit Steve with its stone sword. He held tightly to the diamonds as he dropped to the ground.

  Max took out his gold sword and hit one of the skeletons. Crunch! The skeleton’s bones lay on the ground.

  A rainbow man and the remaining wither skeleton began to fight. Their swords danced through the air as the fight intensified.

  The rainbow man knocked the wither skeleton’s sword from his hand and went in for the final blow, destroying the skeleton.

  “We did it!” Steve said as he lifted himself from the ground.

  “No, I did it,” said the rainbow man, who turned to Steve and struck him with his sword. Steve cried out in pain.

  “Now give us the diamonds,” demanded the other rainbow man.

  “We don’t have any diamonds,” Lucy said, her voice quivering.

  “You’re lying. We followed you from the mineshaft,” one of the rainbow men retorted. He moved closer to Lucy, and his sword came very close to her face.

  Two blazes flew through the night sky. They spotted the group below and their mouths opened while fireballs shot out. Lucy jumped, the fireball missing her and striking one of the rainbow men. The other rainbow guy ran toward his friend and was engulfed in flames.

  “So long griefers,” Lucy called out as the group ran through the red-hot Nether in search of Steve’s portal.

  It seemed like hours of searching when Henry pointed to a fortress. “Is that the fortress that you visited?” he asked.

  Steve didn’t know. Everything looked the same, and he was tired, confused, and hungry.

  “I’m not sure,” he replied as they walked toward the fortress.

  “Don’t worry,” Lucy said with a smile. “We need to get these diamonds crafted into swords before we can head back anyway. And first we have to—”

  Max interrupted, “Make obsidian!”

  “Yes,” said Henry, “and we all know the best way to do that is with lava.”

  They stopped. A sea of lava was before them. Lucy tripped.

  “Don’t fall in!” Max screamed.

  13

  JOURNEY TO THE END

  HENRY GRABBED LUCY TO MAKE SURE SHE DIDN’T fall into the hot lava. To make obsidian, they needed lava and water, but the process was extremely dangerous. After Lucy nearly fell into the pool, the group was worried they’d never be able to make the obsidian, which was needed to create an enchantment table.

  “If we don’t have an enchantment table to make powerful swords, these diamonds are useless,” said Steve with a frown. Rufus wagged his tail as he stood by his master, clearly not understanding the grimness of the situation.

  “I’m going to try again,” Lucy said. She bravely put her bucket by the lava but quickly pushed her hand back and said, “I’m going to get burned. This isn’t going to work.”

  “We can’t do this,” Max announced to the group.

  “I have a plan,” Henry said with a smile. “You’re not going to be happy about it, but I think we should go to The End.”

  “The End?” Lucy asked and let out a gasp.

  “That’s where the Ender Dragon lives,” Steve’s voice shook.

  He had only read about the Ender Dragon. The Ender Dragon was the head of the Endermen, and surviving an attack from this beast seemed impossible.

  “The Ender Dragon could kill us all in seconds,” Max told Henry.

  “In The End, there are pillars of obsidian. We can make an enchantment table and get a portal to the Overworld,” Henry replied.

  “It’s not worth it,” Steve protested. “We can make obsidian here.”

  Steve grabbed the bucket and tried to get lava, but he couldn’t extract the lava without falling in. It was too tricky. Rufus looked at the lava and walked away.

  “How do we get to The End?” Steve asked as he sat by the pool of lava.

  “We need to make a portal,” Henry told the group. “It can only be created in a Nether fortress.”

  The fortress was off in the distance. There was dead silence among the friends until Steve said, “I’m nervous. I’ve never been to The End.”

  “Me either,” said Lucy, “but we need to get that obsidian. How else are we going to help your villagers?”

  “I’ve never been there either,” said Max.

  Henry spit out, “This will be my first time, too.”

  “What?!” Steve was shocked. “You’re leading us to a place you know nothing about. We could all get killed.”

  “I believe as a group we have the power to beat the Ender Dragon,” Henry said to defend his plan.

  “You really believe in us,” Steve said. He was surprised.

  “Yes, look at how far we’ve come. We have forty diamonds!” said Henry proudly.

  Luckily, the Nether fortress wasn’t guarded by a blaze, and they made their way to the entrance. Inside the red fortress, they searched for blaze spawn.

  “We need to destroy the blaze spawn and get the blaze rods to make our portal to The End,” said Henry.

  A couple of Endermen walked through the fortress. Steve grabbed his sword and lunged at the Endermen. One fell onto the blocks of the Nether fortress.

  “I didn’t think Endermen were in the Nether,” Lucy said as she pointed to the Enderman who lurked through the fortress.

  “They must have followed us through the portal,” said Max.

  “Help,” Steve yelled to his friends. “Grab the Ender pearls.”

  When an Enderman was destroyed, he dropped Ender pearls. The gang needed these to make the Eye of Ender, which was essential in the creation of a portal to The End.

  Max joined Henry as they let fly arrow after arrow from their bows until the Endermen were gone and they had enough Ender pearls to get to The End.

  “It’s funny,” Steve remarked. “When I was here alone, I kept getting attacked by blazes, and now we can’t even find blaze spawn.”

  “And we need to find it fast, because I’m losing energy. My food bar is quite low,” Lucy said as she picked up the last of the Ender pearls.

  It was true, the group was running low on energy. It had been a while since Lucy had slayed the chicken for the group. They needed to make their way to The End quickly.

  “I think I see a blaze spawn,” Max said as he pointed to a room. The group went to investigate, but it was empty.

  Suddenly, two shot across the room. “Get them!” shouted Henry.

  The blazes unleashed a shower of fire, and the group jumped back, almost falling into a waterfall of lava that flowed through the center of the fortress.

  Max used his bow and arrow to knock one blaze to the ground as the other three friends grabbed the blaze rods.

  Three more blazes flew by and started firing. Steve reluctantly suggested using the Enchanted Golden Apple he was saving for Eliot the blacksmith. Now that he had the weakness potion from the witches, he needed that Golden Apple for Eliot. He thought of Eliot spending the rest of his life as a zombie. Rufus’s barking stopped his mind from wandering, and he was ready to attack.

  “I have a few we can use,” Lucy said, and the group was shielded from the blaze’s mighty blows. With swords and bows, the team beat the blazes.

  “We have enough blaze rods,” Steve said. He was excited as he picked up the last rods.

  Henry starte
d to build the portal to The End while the others watched for hostile mobs, such as slimy magma cubes.

  They built the Ender Portal in a large room in the fortress. The rectangular portal had twelve Eyes of Ender surrounding it. Black dust flew above the top of the portal.

  “I don’t want to go in!” shouted Steve.

  “We have to do it fast,” demanded Henry.

  “I thought that once you go to The End, you never come back!” Steve was shaking.

  “No, we can go back to the Overworld once we defeat the Ender Dragon,” Lucy said. She acted like defeating the Ender Dragon was some easy task. It was a death trap—an impossibility—but before Steve had a chance to run away, Henry pushed him through the portal. The others followed, and they drifted down to The End.

  14

  THE ENDER DRAGON

  THE END WAS DARK WITH FLOATING GREEN PLAT forms. The group landed on a platform, staring at a large obsidian pillar.

  “Look,” Henry pointed out. “The pillars are made of obsidian. We just need to get some blocks and defeat the dragon, and we can go.”

  “Do you see the crystals on top of the pillars?” Steve asked Henry.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “Do you know what that’s for?” asked Steve, though he already knew the answer. Everyone did. Those crystals helped the Ender Dragon get energy. Even if you struck the Ender Dragon, it had many ways to survive. Eating from the crystals was just one of them.

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Henry quite confidently. “We’re going to defeat it anyway.”

  Lucy’s legs shook as she walked toward the edge of the platform. “If we fall,” she said, pointing to the darkness beneath them, “we will be lost in the void.”

  “Stay back Rufus,” Steve told the wolf. Rufus stood faithfully by his side.

  “There’s a green surface we can walk on,” Steve said as he looked down. “We should build a bridge to that staircase.”

  The enormous green staircase was a few feet from the platform. The group began to construct a bridge while putting blocks of obsidian in their inventory.

  “We have enough obsidian to make an enchantment table,” Steve announced.

  “But we have to defeat that first,” Lucy said. Her hand shook as she pointed to the large black dragon flying toward the group.

  The dragon’s purple eyes shined through the dark skies that filled The End. Below the dragon was an army of Endermen.

  Max shot arrows at the dragon. One struck the beast in the head, and it dropped from the sky toward the group of Endermen below, coming close to the Endermen.

  “We did it!” Steve cried out joyfully.

  “It’s not that easy,” Max said as he shot another arrow. The dragon got up and flew toward the group. It was ready to attack.

  “We’ve definitely annoyed it,” said Max as he shot another arrow, but it missed.

  Henry, Lucy, and Steve also shot at the beast. “At least there are four of us and only one of him,” Lucy said, striking the flying beast with her arrow.

  The dragon made a deafening roar as the arrow pierced its scaly skin. The group wanted to cover their ears, but they couldn’t let go of their weapons.

  “The dragon’s health isn’t good. We have a chance,” announced Henry.

  The dragon slowly made its way to the crystals and started to eat. It seemed unaffected by Steve’s arrow, which struck its underbelly.

  “We need to destroy the crystals,” Lucy told the group. “If we can do that, the dragon has no way to get energy.”

  The group shot at the crystals and destroyed them, but the dragon had already eaten enough, and it flew at them with great speed.

  They ducked as the growling dragon flew above them. Max struck the dragon with an arrow. Rufus barked, but the Ender Dragon didn’t pay attention to the wolf.

  The dragon’s next roar was louder than the first. The beast was ready to destroy this crew that dared to attempt to defeat it. The powerful dragon didn’t want to show weakness, but it was in pain, and the group could see they were winning.

  “We must have hurt it. Keep shooting, guys,” Henry said as the team tried to strike the flying menace again. This time they hoped it would be the blow that killed the Ender Dragon.

  “Endermen!” Steve screamed as Endermen walked across the bridge. Steve grabbed pumpkins from his inventory. “If we put these on our heads, they won’t notice us.”

  Endermen wouldn’t notice them if they wore these masks. Wearing pumpkin heads, the group shot at the Ender Dragon. With each hit, the dragon’s cries grew louder and angrier. It flew back toward them, ready to wipe them out.

  “It’s over!” Steve shouted, wanting to cover his eyes.

  “Not yet it’s not!” Max yelled as his arrow struck the dragon right between the eyes, and it fell to the ground.

  “Is it dead?” Lucy asked.

  “Does this answer your question?” Henry said as he pointed to a portal that emerged on the green ground below. The portal signified their defeat of the Ender Dragon. They had beaten the fiercest creature in the Minecraft world. They were warriors, and once they helped the villagers, they would be heroes.

  “We need to make our way back to the Overworld,” Steve said as he looked at the portal.

  The stairs were shaky as the group walked toward the field of green blocks and down the hole, surrounded by pillars of fire. On top lay a lone dragon egg.

  “I don’t want to be here when that hatches,” Steve said. He pointed to the egg. The group nodded in agreement as he led Rufus toward the portal.

  This time, they were fearless as they entered the portal that would take them back home.

  15

  GOING HOME

  RUFUS BARKED AS THE GROUP EMERGED FROM the portal into a world of green bricks.

  “The wheat farm!” Steve exclaimed. He had never been so happy in his life. He could hear Snuggles meowing by the gate.

  It was daylight, and the group was safe from zombies. Steve gave the friends a tour of the farm.

  Lucy took out her bow and arrow and hit a pig. “Sorry, I was hungry,” she said as she offered meat to the gang.

  “I have tons of food,” Steve said as the friends feasted on carrots and potatoes.

  “This place is great!” Max said. The group finally relaxed, enjoying food and Steve’s farm.

  “We need to make an enchantment table,” Steve said. He knew it would be night soon, and they needed to get to the village and battle the zombies to save his friends.

  With obsidian, the group enchanted their diamond swords. They were going to battle the zombies, and they had to be prepared.

  “Remember, we have to save a diamond so we can make a jukebox,” Lucy reminded them. “I want to have a party with the villagers once we save them.”

  “Yes,” Steve replied. He was so focused on saving the villagers that he had forgotten about the CDs they collected during the battle with the skeletons and creepers.

  Suddenly, Steve heard barking. Rufus and Snuggles had met each other, and he thought they weren’t happy about it. He was wrong—when he walked outside, he saw them playing with each other as the gang finished their diamond creations.

  “Look at these swords!” Max said, impressed.

  Henry picked up his new diamond sword. Slowly he approached Steve while holding his sword.

  “Henry?” asked Steve nervously. “What are you doing?”

  “I want all the diamonds,” Henry replied. He put the sword close to Steve’s face.

  “No,” Steve said. He took out his sword and was ready to fight. Steve was right all along; he shouldn’t have trusted Henry.

  “Give us all of your diamonds and carrots, and we’ll be on our way,” Henry said. Henry swung his sword, and Steve retreated.

  Lucy and Max stood by. They didn’t know whom to defend.

  “Are you guys going to help me?” Steve asked as Henry began to strike Steve but missed.

  They said nothing.

&n
bsp; “Are you going to help me?” Henry asked them.

  Again, silence.

  The two fought. Each blocked the other’s moves. “Why are you doing this?” Steve asked Henry. “I thought we were friends. Are you a griefer?”

  “I’m a treasure hunter, and you have a lot of treasures,” Henry screamed.

  “This is a griefer move,” Steve yelled. “You’re attacking me, not stealing treasure. I knew I should have never trusted you, and after all we went through together.”

  “I knew if I came all this way, I’d be rewarded. Look at your wheat farm. It’s filled with so many goodies. I can live off this land for a million lives,” said Henry.

  Then Lucy screamed. She screamed so loudly that glass shattered in Steve’s home.

  “Stop!”

  Her voice was loud and piercing. Rufus and Snuggles came into the house and stared at her, and Henry dropped his sword.

  “You’re right, Steve,” Lucy said. “We weren’t only treasure hunters. We were griefers, too.”

  “Were?” asked Henry. “You mean are?”

  “No.” Lucy looked at Henry and said, “Remember how it felt when that griefer tried to steal our diamonds?”

  “Yes.” Henry looked at the ground.

  “We can’t do this to Steve. Yes, we started out wanting to steal his goods, but he’s our friend. Think about how much he’s done for us. How much we’ve done for each other.”

  “But—” Henry tried to speak.

  Max interrupted, “We need to stick together and fight the zombies with Steve. This isn’t right, Henry. Just because we used to be bad doesn’t mean we can’t change.”

  “Yes,” Lucy agreed. She was happy to hear Max agree with her. “Max gets it. We have to help Steve. Now give me that diamond sword, Henry. You don’t deserve it.”

  Steve wondered if this was all a trick. Maybe Max and Lucy were just trying to get on his good side, and then they were going to attack him once the zombies were gone. He didn’t know what to think. But he looked over at Lucy, and she smiled at him. He realized that he had to trust her, and he had to give Henry another chance.

  “Don’t take the sword from Henry,” Steve told Lucy.