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Copyright © 2018 by Danica Davidson
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover design by Brian Peterson
Cover photo by Lordwhitebear
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-5107-3355-8
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5107-3354-1
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-3356-5
Printed in Canada
CHAPTER 1
The worst had happened: The ender dragon was free from her prison! And now she was towering right in front of me, my whole body cast in her shadow.
“Bow to me, Stevie,” she commanded. Her black-as-night snout was inches from my face, her purple eyes burning like fire. “Bow to me or be defeated: those are your only choices.”
It wasn’t supposed to be like this! Thousands of years ago, the Overworld had almost been destroyed under the rule of the evil Ender Dragon. The monsters were her servants, and the humans were her victims. Then my famous ancestor, Steve Alexander, had imprisoned her in the End. If she ever escaped, it was up to my friends and me to stop her.
And we’d tried hard, so hard. We’d even managed to collect all the hidden Ender crystal shards Steve Alexander had left for us. Those crystals were special and could make the ultimate weapon. But when we’d found the very last crystal, it was already too late. The Ender Dragon’s Endermen guards had seized the latest crystal shard we’d found, and they’d stolen my friend, Maison. My last glimpse of Maison—my brave best friend who’d been with me through the most dangerous of our adventures—had been of her face frozen in terror.
Now I was standing outside my home in the Overworld, but the Ender Dragon’s escape had caused a terrible change to come over the land. The sunny skies and green grass were gone, replaced by dark, churning clouds and screeching winds.
My dad, my cousin Alex, my Earth friends Yancy and Destiny, and Maison’s mom were all standing with me. I kept waiting for Dad to tell me what to do. To say, “Get her with your sword, Stevie!” Or, “We’ll ambush her.”
Dad didn’t say a thing. And I knew when Dad didn’t say or do anything during a crisis, that was the scariest time of all: it meant there was nothing he could do.
What I needed was a plan. And some luck. I hoped that the Ender Dragon wouldn’t think to look in my house, where the rest of the crystal shards were. While I stood there, a group of tall Endermen made their way over, followed by armed skeletons holding large swords.
I pulled together all the courage I could muster. “Where is Maison?” I shouted at the Ender Dragon.
“Yes, return my daughter!” Maison’s mom cried. Her voice was almost lost in the wind.
“You think you can command me, pitiful humans?” the Ender Dragon hissed. “If you don’t bow to me willingly, I will gladly force you.”
I sucked in a breath. The Endermen and armed skeletons drew closer. They were obviously obeying the Ender Dragon. I didn’t know what they’d do once they got within reach.
The Ender Dragon turned her eyes back on me. “You put up a worthy fight,” she said. “I can see the blood of Steve Alexander running through your veins and the veins of your father and cousin. And the girl I took, that ‘Maison’ you speak of—I sense something in her blood as well.”
Oh no! Maison’s ancestor Maya was a woman from Earth who had helped Steve Alexander battle the dragon. I bet the Ender Dragon hated Maya too, and might take out her anger on Maison.
Then the Ender Dragon’s snout prickled into a cruel smile, all fang and slyness. “Yes,” she said. “You should be afraid for her, Stevie. Very afraid. Because if you don’t answer my question now, Maison will be the one who suffers.”
She made a signal with her tail. Just like that, the Endermen and armed skeletons came for us! Each Enderman teleported, appearing behind us and grabbing our hands, knocking away any weapons we were holding. Then they forced our hands behind our backs, clutching us by the wrists so we couldn’t run.
My first thought was to kick behind me, but these evil servants weren’t going to allow that, either. As an extra precaution, the armed skeletons stepped in front of us, holding their shiny swords inches from our faces. If I tried anything, I knew what would happen.
The Ender Dragon leaned her head into me. The heat of her breath was like standing next to a pool of lava. “Tell me where the other crystal shards are,” she ordered.
I looked frantically at my dad. His face was stony and unreadable, and he wouldn’t look at me. He couldn’t tell me to give up on Maison, could he? However, giving her the rest of the Ender crystal shards was the same as admitting defeat. That’s because those crystal shards held the key to making a weapon strong enough to stop the Ender Dragon.
Without meaning to, I must have glanced at my home. That was all the Ender Dragon needed.
“Tear the house to pieces!” she roared to her monster servants. “Don’t stop until every shard has been found!”
CHAPTER 2
“No!” i tried to jolt forward and couldn’t. An Enderman held me in place. Other Endermen broke down the side of my house block by block. I pictured the iron box where we’d hidden the shards, and knew it couldn’t be more than a matter of minutes before they found it. And then … and then …
I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. That was all I could think. I failed. I failed everyone.
“You’re not going to get away with this!” raged Alex. “You know why?” Her temper was making her face so red it almost matched her hair. “Because you’re right—we have Steve Alexander’s blood in our veins! He beat you before, and we’re going to do it again today and be back home in time for dinner! You just watch!”
I thought the Ender Dragon might go ballistic, but she just threw back her head and laughed. That evil laugh I’d heard before! Listening to it in real life sent a thunderous rumble through my insides.
“How sad that you believe those lies,” the Ender Dragon said. “I know the Overworld now thinks of Steve Alexander as its greatest hero in history, a man who can make no mistakes and do no wrong. That’s the danger in believing in heroes, little one. You will always be disappointed by a so-called hero’s reality.”
“Fat chance!” Alex shot back.
“So you really be
lieve in him, then?” the Ender Dragon mocked. “Did you know it was he who first set me free upon the Overworld? That it was he who allowed me to become powerful by his side, so powerful that it was easy for me to take power?”
“That’s not how it really happened,” Alex replied sharply. “When he found you, you were locked up in chains with crystals in them, and you told him some sad lie to get him to release you. Then you just pretended to be his friend so you could steal power and betray him!”
Alex still wasn’t done. “And then he defeated you and lived the rest of his life in peace while you were stuck in the End!” she finished triumphantly.
The dragon laughed. “How foolish you are,” she said. “Lived out the rest of his life in peace? His story ended after we both fell through the End portal. Your hero didn’t ‘win’—I took him out when it was the two of us alone.”
My heart instantly sank. No, it couldn’t be true! I had wanted so badly to believe there was a happy ending for him.
“Liar!” Alex spat.
“With only the two of us in the End, what did you think would happen?” the Ender Dragon demanded. “And when I was done taking care of him, I took his toolkit and threw it out into the void.”
Alex was breathing so heavily I could hear it from where I was standing. But she refused to look down from the dragon’s lava-spitting eyes. The Ender Dragon went on, “And the End is part of the Overworld now, isn’t it? Can’t you tell the veil between the realms has been torn? It will all be one land soon. My land.”
An Enderman came out of the house. It swung its long arms and legs, making gestures to the dragon. Whatever it was trying to tell her now had her full attention. Just like that, the Ender Dragon went into a fury.
“What do you mean there are no crystal shards?” she screamed at it.
The Ender Dragon stormed over to the house, sticking her head through the hole in the wall. I saw my cat, Ossie, had hidden under some furniture but was untouched. The dragon forced furniture over and knocked through things, trying to find the shards. When her face came back out of the house, it was snarled up into the ugliest expression I’d ever seen on her.
“Where are the shards?” she shrieked at me.
“I – I don’t know!” I stammered. It was the truth! “I thought they were in there!”
I felt a little bubble of hope starting to grow in my stomach. What was going on here? As long as the crystal shards didn’t fall into her clutches, I didn’t care where they were!
For a moment the Ender Dragon stared at us with barely contained fury. Then she struck her tail sharply against the ground, signaling her mob servants. The Endermen let go of our wrists and the armed skeletons backed up and pulled their swords away from us.
I expected the Ender Dragon to really let us have it then, not let us go! Why was she doing this?
Then I got my answer. My horrible, horrible answer.
Another Enderman appeared on the scene, holding Maison.
“Maison!” Maison’s mom shouted, and tried to run for her. The armed skeletons held up their swords fence-like, blocking her.
“I offer you one chance,” the Ender Dragon said. “Give me the crystal shards, and I will return your friend. If you do not bring me the rest of the crystal shards before nightfall, I will turn this girl into an Enderman.”
“No,” my voice broke out, barely above a whisper, even though I was panicking inside. Maison looked unhurt but wide-eyed, struggling to get loose from the Enderman’s grip.
“As you all know, once she becomes an Enderman, she will soon lose her own mind,” the Ender Dragon said. “She will become a servant of darkness, here only to make me happy.”
“Don’t give her the crystal shards!” Maison burst out. “If you do, I bet she’ll turn all of us into Endermen! Into her servants!”
I found my voice then. “You can’t do this!”
“What a pity,” the Ender Dragon said, smiling. “I learned long ago the dangers in keeping a friendship.” Her smile was much more evil than her voice ever sounded, because in the smile you could see how much she relished our suffering. “I told you, you will all bow to me in the end,” she said. “Stevie, you know where to find me.”
She snatched Maison up in her jaws, letting my best friend dangle there like a toy, and flew off into the dark skies.
CHAPTER 3
I’d been an enderman before, and i knew what it meant. It’d felt like being trapped in darkness, without a will of your own. It was first turning into an Enderman that had allowed me to really feel the evil of the Ender Dragon and to let her into my head. But my friends had saved me in the nick of time, before I’d fully lost myself. I couldn’t let the darkness win over Maison!
The mobs all turned away from us, as if we weren’t interesting to them anymore. Were they really going to let us go?
Yes, because the Ender Dragon wanted those crystal shards more than anything else. As long as she didn’t have them, we had a little power on our side.
“What do we do now?” It was Destiny whispering. I could barely hear her voice over the winds. Even so, her eyes were so etched with worry that I knew exactly what she was saying.
“We have to give the other crystal shards to the dragon to get Maison back!” Maison’s mom said.
“We can’t do that!” Yancy disagreed. “Maison was right. If we do that, we’re all done for—including Maison.”
“We’re not going to leave my daughter in that dragon’s grasp!” her mom insisted.
“We’re going to do something,” Yancy promised. “I’m saying we can’t just give up those shards!”
“Where are those shards?” Destiny asked in a low voice, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “Are they lost?”
For the first time since the dragon left, Dad’s face allowed itself to have an expression. It was relief.
“The crystal shards are safe,” he said. “I hid them.”
I was startled. “You hid them? Why?”
“I had a terrible sense of something bad coming our way,” Dad said. “So I hid the crystals and went back to the portal to tell you. As I arrived, I saw the Endermen already in the house, and then all of you came through the portal.”
That had all happened minutes ago, just before the dragon was freed.
“That’s great, Uncle Steve!” Alex said. “Then we just get those shards, turn them into a weapon, and take out that dragon!”
“I don’t think it will be that easy.” Dad shook his head. “We need all the shards in order to make a weapon strong enough to stop the Ender Dragon.”
“We’re at a stalemate, then?” Destiny asked. “Neither one of us has the upper hand?”
“Oh, I’d say she has the upper hand,” Dad said. “Look at the Overworld—look at what she’s done to it! Even without the other crystal shards, she’s far more powerful than any of us.”
“She’s not going to get away with it!” Alex piped up. “And she’s not going to get away with what she did to Steve Alexander, either!”
The mention of Steve Alexander sped up my heart. The Ender Dragon had treated him so cruelly, and they’d once been best friends. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. But the enchanted book Steve Alexander left behind had told us the whole back story, from Steve Alexander’s unhappy childhood, to the quick time he was a hero in the Overworld for his mob fights with the Ender Dragon, then to his final battle to trap her in the End after her betrayal.
If she could do that to someone she might have actually cared about, what would she do to the rest of us?
“Follow me, kids,” Dad said, leading us into the woods behind our house. The trees looked dark as coal, the winds tearing into their leaves. It looked like a haunted forest, not my own backyard. He dropped to his knees some distance out and began digging. Under the dirt he pulled out the iron box—and the Ender crystal shards still safe inside. Just seeing that box helped me feel a little better.
“I don’t know about t
his,” Yancy said, rubbing up and down his arms as if he were cold. Blue, his pet parrot, was sitting on his left shoulder, and even he was quiet. Blue was always chirping and singing, so his silence added to the unsettling mood.
“What do you mean?” Alex demanded.
“She’s offering us too nice of a bargain,” Yancy said.
“She’s threatening to turn our friend into a mindless Enderman!” Alex exploded, outraged by what he said. “That’s not a nice bargain!”
“No, but look at the fact that she’s bargaining with us at all,” Yancy said. “And the fact her servants left us alone. She could have done whatever she wanted to us back there. She’s scared she’s not going to get those shards.”
“Yancy is right,” Dad said gruffly, staring off into the cold, haunted trees. There was a mist settling through the land, almost purple in color, like the purple of the End. Or of the Ender Dragon’s eyes. “We have some advantage over her, and she knows that. But she also knows she has the upper hand. We have no choice but to give her the shards.”
“What?” Yancy said. “No, that’s not what I said! I said we can’t give her the shards! We have to think of something else!”
Dad turned his eyes away from the forest and stared at Yancy instead. “Then what do you suggest? What would you do in that Minecraft game of yours?”
“I … I …” Yancy said.
“We can use some kind of codes to outsmart her,” Destiny said. “Like we did with Herobrine.” She pulled out her cell phone and began tapping on it with her thumb. A moment later, her whole face crumpled. “My phone won’t turn on! It’s not working here!”
“Maybe it’s this weather,” Yancy said darkly.
“See,” Alex shot to Yancy. “I told you that your fancy old ‘technology’ isn’t that great. It can just blow up when you need it most.” She made a sound of TNT exploding to further prove her point. Yancy glared at her. He and Alex had been picking little fights about technology for a while, and this time it looked like Alex won.
“We don’t need any tech to stop the Ender Dragon,” Alex said.
Return of the Ender Dragon Page 1
