Discoveries in the Overworld

by Winter Morgan

  But Jack was having doubts about reading from the journal again. “We’ve encountered a lot of hostile mobs since we started reading. Do you think we might actually be cursed?”

  Toby was annoyed. “I told you there is no way you can be cursed from reading a book!”

  A gasp came from Harriet as someone ripped the door from the hinge. “Who’s out there?”

  “Oh no!” cried Jack. “More zombies!”

  The gang jumped out of bed, put on their diamond armor, and began to battle the zombies in front of their small house. It was a quick battle, but they were going to have to do something about that door.

  Harriet looked through her inventory for supplies to rebuild the portion of the house that had been destroyed in the attack. “I could use some help here!” she said.

  When the door was complete, they all climbed back into their beds.

  “Should we continue with our bedtime story?” Toby joked.

  Harriet hesitated. “Maybe Jack was right and we shouldn’t read the journal after all.”

  “I’ve changed my mind—I don’t care if we’re cursed, I want to hear the rest.” Jack was feeling bold after the battle and eager to hear the next chapter.

  “But what if more hostile mobs spawn as Toby starts to read?” asked Harriet.

  “The zombies have nothing to do with the journal,” said Toby, and he picked up the book.

  But before he could start reading, Jack interrupted. “Do you think Charles and Thao had something to do with William’s disappearance?”

  “Have you ever heard of Charles and Thao?” asked Harriet.

  “No. When we studied the great explorers of the Overworld, I don’t remember hearing about them at all,” Jack replied.

  “Don’t you find that strange? If they were the noted explorers before William, why wouldn’t we have heard about them?” Harriet wondered.

  “I don’t know, but you’re right—that is very strange,” Jack agreed.

  “There’s only one way we’ll find out.” Toby looked at the journal. “Should I start reading again?”

  Harriet looked at the door. She crawled out of bed and opened it. There were no hostile mobs in sight. She lit a torch and placed it by the entrance of the building. “Okay, go ahead. Read,” she said as she walked back into the house and snuggled down into the comfort of the bed.

  4

  JOURNAL ENTRY: MY FRIEND OLIVER

  Trip 2: Explorations in the Desert

  Oliver and I had read about the desert for a very long time before we finally made it to that region of the Overworld. Nothing prepared us for the trip. Almost as soon as we reached the desert, Oliver stumbled upon a desert temple. Oliver is a naturally curious person, but he has a dangerous tendency to be overly trusting. He trusts a lot of people who don’t deserve his trust. I, on the other hand, trust no one. Oliver finds this rather appalling and has expressed this on numerous occasions.

  When we reached the entrance of the ornate and spacious desert temple, a man wearing a black helmet approached Oliver.

  “Who are you?” the man asked Oliver.

  Before Oliver could respond, I intervened and said, “Why do you want to know?”

  “Because this is my temple,” the man in the black helmet declared.

  I knew the man wasn’t telling the truth. Desert temples spawn naturally in the desert and don’t have owners. We had the same right to enter that temple as the man in the black helmet.

  I told him as much. “Everyone is allowed in these temples. Please move out of the way so we may enter.”

  The man took out his sword. “No. You won’t be entering without giving me at least five diamonds.”

  I noticed Oliver checking his inventory. Before he got cheated of his treasure, I jumped in. “We don’t have diamonds. I’m sorry, but we’d still like to enter.”

  “That’s impossible,” the man replied.

  “Now that’s just not true,” I said to the man. But before we could get into a proper debate about the temple, the man summoned an army.

  A large group of men dressed in blue emerged from the desert temple and attacked us with swords, arrows, and potions. In a matter of seconds, we had very few hearts left, and I knew we’d respawn if we didn’t stop them quickly.

  “We surrender!” I shouted. “I’ll give you the diamonds!”

  The man in the black helmet ordered his men to stop. “Follow me,” he said with a laugh.

  We followed him into the desert temple. Although I questioned his motives, exploring the temple was amazing. I had dreamt about unearthing treasure in the temple, but I knew they had already looted the property.

  The man was leading us deeper and deeper into the temple. “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “You’ll find out soon,” he replied with another laugh. This time it sounded more sinister.

  My heart sunk when I saw the jail cell. We had walked right into a trap. We had been so excited to become explorers and now we were probably going to spend the rest of our lives trapped in a basement prison in a desert temple. We would be prisoners. This wasn’t the amazing journey I had imagined. I wasn’t just disappointed—I was devastated.

  This was the last opportunity for me to use my wits and stage an escape. Before he put us into that cell, I needed to act quickly.

  The man in the black helmet was distracted, arguing with two of his men about something to do with the security of the cell. When he wasn’t looking, I grabbed a golden apple from my inventory and ate it quietly. Then I snuck another to Oliver. Once our energy was restored, I swung out my sword and lunged at the man in the black helmet. Oliver joined me in battle, and with a few blows, we had destroyed the man in the black helmet. The two guards fled.

  “How are we going to escape?” Oliver asked. “I’m sure the rest of his army will be here soon.”

  I splashed a potion of invisibility on us, and we sprinted toward the exit. We both stopped when we reached the door. Charles and Thao were standing in front of us, instructing the army to search the temple.

  The man in black wasn’t working on his own.

  “We need to find those two so-called explorers and destroy them!” Charles ordered the army.

  The men in blue took off in every direction. They were hunting for us. Oliver and I started running to get as far away from the desert temple as we could. When we were safely by the shore, we slowed down and eventually become visible again. “We have made some serious enemies,” I announced.

  “What are we going to do?” Oliver was worried. “Maybe we should go home after all.”

  “My dear Oliver, we don’t just give up because someone tells us we can’t do something. That isn’t the way anything gets done. We want to explore the Overworld and create a guide for the people of the Overworld, and nobody is going to stop us.”

  “But we might be destroyed by Charles and Thao.”

  “That’s a risk we’ll have to take.”

  “Maybe we should just let Charles and Thao be the only explorers in the Overworld.”

  “Oliver,” I said, “Charles and Thao have done nothing to help the Overworld. They don’t share their maps—all they do is loot temples and bask in the glory of their adventures. They’re greedy, and they’re in this for the fortune and fame. We can map the Overworld and share that information—help pave the way so others can explore the Overworld too.” We couldn’t give up.

  “Well,” said Oliver, “then where should we go next?”

  “I bet they’ll never think to look for us in the cold biome,” I suggested.

  “You’re right! They’ll never think we’d go back there.”

  Oliver and I hurried back to the cold biome, and climbed up the mountain for a third time. I was still taken by the view of our town. The longer we spent away from home, the more I missed it.

  We crossed over to the ice biome and we marveled at the fresh snow.

  “Let’s craft some snowballs. You never know when we’ll need them.” I grabbed
some snow from beside me.

  Oliver started to gather his own snow, and then I heard him shout, “Oh no!”

  Without turning around, I asked, “Oliver? What’s the matter?”

  He didn’t reply. I turned around, and there were Charles and Thao, standing right in front of us. They had their swords pointed directly at us. I threw a snowball, but I shouldn’t have wasted the ammo. The entire army was right behind them. We were outnumbered.

  5

  MAPS AND SNOWBALLS

  As Toby finished the second entry, a loud boom crashed from outside the house.

  Harriet wanted to pull the blankets over her head and ignore the explosion. Hadn’t they done enough fighting for today? But she couldn’t. Jack and Toby ran out the door to search for the source of the explosion, and she pulled herself out of bed.

  “Watch out!” she cried as she reached the door. A spider jockey had jumped out from behind a tree; the skeleton shot an arrow at Jack.

  Harriet slowly aimed her bow and arrow at the attacking spider jockey. “Bulls-eye!” she called out. But despite her great shot, the skeleton was still coming toward them.

  Jack splashed a potion on the skeleton, while Toby charged at the vicious mob with his diamond sword. Toby struck the red-eyed spider, as Harriet’s next arrow destroyed the skeleton for good.

  “Help!” a voice called out.

  Harriet moved toward the sound of the voice. “I think someone is in the smoke!” she shouted.

  Toby plunged his sword into the spider, finally destroying it, too. “What are we going to do?”

  “I’m going to find them!” Harriet sprinted in the direction of the recent explosion.

  A man stood in front of a large hole. “Someone blew up my house!”

  “That’s awful.” Harriet studied the remains of the burnt home.

  “I was fighting off zombies. When I turned around to go back home, it exploded,” the man told them.

  “Do you have any enemies?” asked Jack.

  “Not that I know of. I live alone and lead a very quiet life.”

  “You can stay at our house tonight,” said Harriet. “We can make an extra bed for you.”

  The man was extremely grateful. “Thank you. You’re so kind.”

  Almost immediately, Harriet regretted offering the man a place to stay. She thought about the journal entry they had just read. William believed Oliver was too trusting. Maybe she was like Oliver. She didn’t know this man and he could be a griefer.

  While she crafted the bed, Harriet asked the stranger some questions. She wanted to know more about the man she had invited into their home.

  “Who are you?” she asked. “What’s your name? Where did you come from?”

  “My name is Julian,” he said. “I’m a farmer. I’ve lived in this part of the Overworld my entire life. I don’t like exploring. You guys must be new here—I’ve never seen you before.”

  “Yes, we’re just here for the night,” explained Harriet.

  They all crawled into bed. Harriet had a hard time falling asleep. She was worried Julian was going to steal from them. When morning came, she woke and looked over at Julian’s bed. “It’s empty!”

  “What?” Jack asked as he woke up.

  “Julian left,” she announced.

  “Maybe we should check if he took any of our stuff.” Toby looked through his inventory. “Wait, I can’t find the journal.”

  “What?” Harriet panicked. “He stole the journal!”

  Jack searched the house, and crawled underneath the beds. “No, it’s here. He didn’t take it.” He handed the book to Toby, who placed it safely in his inventory.

  “We have to be more careful with this,” said Toby. “We can’t let it out of our sight.”

  Harriet let out a loud sigh of relief. “I’m so glad he didn’t take it.”

  “But I still wonder where he went. He doesn’t even have a house,” said Toby.

  “And he said he doesn’t like to travel,” added Jack.

  “I guess it’s going to have to be a mystery—he isn’t important,” said Toby. “We should head to the cold biome to retrace William’s steps.”

  The gang filled up on breakfast food and left the small house. They walked past Julian’s farm, but didn’t see him.

  “I wonder where he is,” Harriet mused as they looked across the wheat farm. A small ocelot meowed and rubbed up against her feet.

  “Let’s get going,” said Jack. “We want to get to the cold biome before dark.”

  “Maybe we can build an igloo once we’re there,” suggested Toby.

  The group trekked toward the cold biome and walked up a large mountain. Harriet paused at the top of the mountain. “I wonder if we could spot William’s town from up here.”

  Jack searched the landscape, looking for signs of life. “I feel just like William and Oliver. It is beautiful up here.”

  Toby stared at the icy biome that was on the other side of the mountain. “I can’t wait to slide on the ice. It looks like so much fun. And I want to have a snowball fight.”

  “We don’t have time for silly games,” scolded Harriet. “We’re here to find William.”

  The gang made their way down the steep mountain, toward the ice biome. They passed an unusually high patch of snow and Harriet was the first to go over to check it out.

  Toby took out a shovel and began to dig. “I’m looking for treasure,” he joked, but he did think the patch of snow seemed out of place and was wondering if someone might have buried something beneath it. After unearthing the journal, he was curious about what other things they could find in the Overworld.

  Harriet joined Toby. “Let’s place a hopper here for the snow to collect in.” She set one up right next to them. Jack started digging, too.

  “I see something,” Toby shouted to the others.

  “What is it?” asked Jack.

  “I think it’s a chest,” said Toby.

  “Open it!” Jack and Harriet stood next to him, waiting.

  Toby opened the chest. “Blue helmets. It’s filled with blue helmets!”

  “Huh,” said Jack.

  “Blue helmets!” exclaimed Harriet. “They must have belonged to the blue army that was terrorizing William and Oliver.”

  “That means we’re in the right place. This is the same ice biome where William was exploring.” Jack was excited.

  “We’re one step closer to finding him.” Harriet grinned.

  “Let’s keep digging and see if we find anything else,” suggested Toby.

  Everyone took out their shovels and dug deep into the cold, white snow. Toby shouted, “I see a door!”

  The others dug as quickly as they could until they were able to crawl into the hole to get to the door. Jack opened the door slowly. “There’s a staircase inside.”

  Harriet hadn’t followed the others to the door. Toby called back, “What’s wrong?”

  Harriet hesitated. “Maybe we should read the next section of the journal before we go down that staircase. It might help us.”

  “You might be right,” said Toby. “We might be walking right into a trap.”

  He started to read from the third journal entry.

  6

  JOURNAL ENTRY: SECRET ARMIES

  Trip 3: Ice Age

  We surrendered.

  “You win!” I shouted.

  “We knew we would.” Charles grimaced.

  Charles and Thao marched us through the ice biome and into a snow-covered cave. Deep in the cave was a small, dark jail cell. Charles laughed as he opened the door to the cell. “Here’s your new home.” He pushed us inside, then closed the door and left. I heard a key turn in the lock. “Good luck escaping this time.”

  Oliver was very anxious. “What are we going to do? How are we going to escape?”

  “I’m not sure,” I admitted, “but we’ll try our best to come up with a plan. At least he didn’t empty our inventories. Do you happen to have a shovel?”

  Oliv
er searched his inventory. “I only have one.”

  “I guess I’ll use a pickaxe.” I grabbed one from my own inventory and began to dig a hole in the snowy floor. “We’ll dig our way out of here.”

  Oliver and I dug for a while. We were lucky that nobody came to check on us. I assumed they weren’t worried about us just then. Of course, once they discovered we were missing, we’d become a lot more important.

  I climbed into the hole and Oliver followed. We were able to make a tunnel and escape. As we climbed out of the hole, Oliver spotted two blue men. We ducked back down and waited until they passed, then sprinted out of the tunnel and to some nearby cover.

  “How are we going to explore the Overworld with this army chasing us? We should just head back home.” Oliver was exhausted. This wasn’t the trip he had planned. He wanted to make maps of the Overworld, not fight an army led by two rival explorers. He wasn’t a fighter like I was.

  But I had to agree. I didn’t want to give up, but there was no way we were going to get anywhere on our explorations with so many obstacles. We were about to leave the ice biome when three of the blue army men passed by us. This time there was nowhere to hide.

  “Stop!” one of the blue men called out.

  Oliver and I stood still, but our hearts were racing.

  A blue soldier took out his sword. “We don’t want to attack you—we just want to talk!”

  “Then why do you have your sword out?” I asked the soldier.

  “To make sure you don’t escape,” the third soldier explained.

  The blue solider with the sword began to speak. “We don’t want to work for Charles and Thao anymore. We aren’t soldiers—we’re prisoners. They took over our town and forced us to fight. They’ve felt threatened ever since they found out that you two want to become explorers.”

  I was stunned. I couldn’t believe Charles and Thao had created an entire army just to stop us from exploring the Overworld. Of course ever-trusting Oliver blurted out, “We will help you. We were just about to go home and give up. But we’d rather help you overthrow Charles and Thao so that we can explore.”