Return of the Ender Dragon

by Danica Davidson

  She opened her mouth and shot another fireball at me. I dove below it, inches away.

  “He tried the same fight you’re trying now,” she rumbled, “gliding around with elytra. And I’ll do to you what I did to him. I’ll clip your wings and throw you in a cage so that you’re my pet. And then, Stevie, you will finally bow to me.”

  “Not so fast, Jean,” said a voice.

  CHAPTER 17

  Steve alexander stepped onto the island. He no longer looked like the staggering ghost of a person. He had the walk and expression of a man on a mission, the same way he’d looked when he’d taken on the Ender Dragon so many centuries ago.

  In his hand he held a special chain he’d just made, using all the crystal shards. The invention I’d suggested, because when he’d first met her, she’d been in crystal chains, and it was the only thing that had ever stopped her. It might be the only thing that would ever stop her.

  For the first time during this battle, I saw true fear on the Ender Dragon’s face. “How … how did you get here?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters is that I’m here. And that I’m going to finish this.”

  Her snout puckered back in a vicious smile. But there was still fear in her eyes. “Don’t make me laugh. Finish it? You never could finish anything that mattered. And what do you call that thing you have? That’s no weapon.”

  “No,” he agreed. “You’d like it too much if I made it into a weapon. So would any other mob cruel enough to understand its potential power. I’m not going to use it as a weapon. I’m going to use it for protection, to protect the Overworld from you.”

  “You’re lying,” she said. “The real reason you didn’t make a weapon is because you can’t bear to make me vanish forever.”

  “Perhaps,” he said. “There is a reason I had to leave my time and my world. There’s also a reason these kids have been risking their lives journeying all over to get these crystals. Because no matter who you used to be or pretended to be, we know who you are now. And you must be stopped.”

  And then he ran for her!

  We all did. Coming at her from the skies, I tried to beat her down with my sword, weakening her and knocking her to the ground. Alex was filling her with arrows, making the dragon turn red repeatedly. Without those health crystals, and with so many people attacking her, the Ender Dragon was weakening fast. She tried to fly up, and soon found her wings were too weak. Snarling at us, still shooting fireballs, she sank to the ground.

  “My Endermen!” she called. “Help me!”

  In that instant, ten Endermen were on the attack.

  “I’ll get them with my arrows!” Alex shouted, turning to them. The Endermen kept trying to teleport away, but most of the time they found themselves getting hit with her arrows anyway.

  “Ah ha!” Alex said. “I’ve gotten practice with you Endermen! Feel the wrath of the best archer under twelve in the Overworld!”

  “You foolish Endermen!” the Ender Dragon raged, seeing she wasn’t getting anywhere with them. I glided down and landed on her back. She tried to buck me off, knocking me to her lower back, but I stayed on. Meanwhile, with her down on the ground like she was, everyone was able to reach her.

  In all the fray, I saw Steve Alexander leap forward, his crystal-studded chain flashing. She hissed at him and threw a fireball he easily dodged. She was so weak now she could barely put up any sort of a real fight.

  Steve Alexander knelt and snapped the chains onto her feet. She tried to bolt free and wasn’t able because the chains held her firmly to the ground. A furious, helpless shriek erupted from her mouth.

  “It’s over, Jean,” Steve Alexander said. “You should be grateful that we grant more mercy to you than you have given to us.”

  “What … what are you going to do with me?” she cried.

  “You will always stay in these chains,” he said. “The people who chained you before didn’t warn anyone of your evils, so I will, to make sure no one is ever foolish enough to free you again. You will be kept in an obsidian prison that you cannot blast through. I will guard you personally. And the Overworld will be at peace.”

  She sighed and shut her eyes, exhausted, unable to fight anymore. “I will never be rid of you, will I?”

  “No, but I didn’t do this alone,” Steve Alexander said. “The Overworld Heroes task force was with me on every step of the way. You lied to them, messed with their minds, tried to make them your servants. Others fell to your ways, but they didn’t.”

  I started to grin then. I couldn’t help it. Was all this really over? The others were smiling too. Maison’s mom came up and gave Maison a big, relieved hug.

  I knelt down in front of the Ender Dragon’s face. She didn’t look so scary now. “I came up with the idea for the chains,” I said.

  “After all that I did to you, you were the one who offered mercy?” She looked at me in shock.

  “I did it before to someone called TheVampireDragon555,” I said. “And he turned into Yancy, one of my best friends. But he knew what real friendship was, not your fake stuff.”

  “Aye, aye!” Yancy said with a salute. Blue, who was sitting on his shoulder, gave a happy chirp.

  The Ender Dragon stared at Yancy a moment, then slowly shut her eyes. It looked as if she needed to rest. “How very interesting,” was all she could say.

  “And you know what the best part is?” Alex asked.

  “What?” I said, looking at the defeated dragon. “That we did all this together? That I got to try out my elytra?”

  “Nope,” Alex said, crossing her arms. “Because we still have time for dinner. I told you we’d get this done in time.”

  CHAPTER 18

  It was maison’s birthday that weekend, and we were all over at Maison’s house for the party. By we, I mean Alex, Yancy, Destiny, Dad, Aunt Alexandra, Maison’s mom, and Steve Alexander. And the pets—Wolf, Ossie, and Blue. And Maison of course.

  Steve Alexander was baffled by how much Earth had changed. He didn’t care much for phones (“I understand using them to contact people, but don’t you overuse them?” he’d asked Yancy), and he was overwhelmed by the Internet. At first he was suspicious of the pizza, cake, and ice cream at the party because he didn’t know where they came from. But after we convinced him to try a bite, he kept asking for seconds. I guessed all that hard work made him extra hungry.

  There was food for the pets too. Wolf and Ossie were helping themselves to fish, and Blue had a bowl full of seeds to eat. Yancy started playing music on his phone and Blue began dancing to it, the way parrots in the Overworld dance to jukebox music.

  “Here, let me find some pirate music,” Yancy said.

  Destiny took his phone away from him. “It’s Maison’s birthday,” she said. “Let Maison decide what music she wants.”

  “Avast ye!” Yancy said. “Give me back my phone! You lily-livered landlubbers have no appreciation for music!”

  Blue chirped as if in agreement.

  After Maison blew out the candles on her cake, we started opening presents. Yancy and Destiny both gave Maison some video games and books about them, which I could tell Maison really liked. Her mom gave her some Minecraft stuffed animals.

  “They sure look cute,” her mom said as Maison hugged the stuffed zombies and Endermen. “But I bought those before this last week. I don’t think those things are so cute in real life.”

  “Aw, Mom,” Maison said, though she was smiling.

  “My turn to give a gift!” Alex said. Grinning, she handed a sea lantern. I knew she’d made that from one we’d gotten from the ocean monument.

  “Now that’s something you don’t see every day!” Maison said, laughing. “I’ll put it on my desk, next to my computer!”

  “May I have another piece of cake?” Steve Alexander asked, holding out his plate. He’d scraped it clean of all crumbs and icing.

  “Sure,” Maison’s mom said, taking the plate. “Would you like one or two scoops of ice cream
with it?”

  “Three?” Steve Alexander asked with a bashful smile.

  When she handed him back a plate with a slice of cake and four scoops of ice cream, he was all grins.

  “I think we need to figure out how to make ice cream in the Overworld,” Aunt Alexandra mused, polishing off the food on her plate.

  “We don’t have a way to keep it cold,” Dad said.

  Steve Alexander’s eyes sparkled. “Not yet. But maybe I can figure out a way.”

  “Your newest invention is going to be about ice cream?” Alex said.

  “It’s been so long since I’ve been able to invent,” Steve Alexander said. “I’m looking forward to it again.”

  These days Steve Alexander had moved in with Dad and me. After we’d chained up Jean, the Overworld and the End returned to being their own realms, and he’d created the obsidian prison he’d promised to keep the Ender Dragon in. Villagers from all across the Overworld had brought their supplies of obsidian so there would be enough. He still called the dragon Jean, despite everything. I wondered if she’d ever change or if she’d always be a dangerous mob who had to be locked up.

  Steve Alexander promised to move out of our house, but Dad said he was welcome to stay as long as he wanted. I kind of enjoyed having him in the house. He was teaching me all sorts of new things about the Overworld, and I bet he enjoyed getting a new family with us. It was unreal having a legendary hero living in the same house as you. Sometimes he forgot to put books back exactly where Dad wanted them or he made a new meal in the kitchen so that we could smell it from wherever we were in the house. Normally Dad didn’t like anything out of order, but he had a hard time telling Steve Alexander what to do.

  “If we beat the Ender Dragon and get an Overworld ice cream maker all in the same week, I’d call that a success,” Aunt Alexandra said. “Eh, Steve?” She nudged Dad.

  Dad mumbled something.

  “What was that?” Aunt Alexandra said, putting her hand to her ear as if she were having trouble hearing him. “Because you do remember whose idea it was to start this whole Overworld Heroes task force, don’t you?”

  Dad mumbled something else.

  “He remembers,” Aunt Alexandra said with a proud nod. Dad had been against it at the start and had fought the idea a lot of the way. Now it all had worked out, and he didn’t want to admit he might have been wrong.

  That was okay. I knew Dad’s mumbling meant he was admitting something!

  “It’s time for Stevie to give his gift,” Maison’s mom said.

  That pulled me out of my thoughts. My turn! I looked at Maison, who was smiling and eager for her gift. I was a little hesitant. I’d wanted to make her something unique, to let her know she was special to me. After all, before Maison, I’d never had a best friend.

  “Here,” I said, holding out a big, square box.

  “Is that … a shulker box?” Alex asked, peering at it.

  “Yeah, that’s what I wrapped it in,” I explained. Alex hadn’t wrapped her gift, but Yancy and Destiny had wrapped theirs. I knew there was supposed to be some kind of a surprise around birthday gifts.

  Maison gently took the shulker box and opened it. She gasped when she saw what was there.

  “I hope you like it,” I said, feeling bashful.

  “Stevie, where did you find another pair of elytra?” Maison cried, lifting the wings out of the shulker box. She set the box to the side and Ossie climbed in, claiming it again as her new bed.

  I looked down, not sure what to say.

  “These are yours!” Maison exclaimed, realizing. “Stevie, I can’t take these from you!”

  “But I want you to have them,” I said, pulling my eyes back up. “Because when I was flying, I realized something. The first time I got a friend, it was like getting wings. The whole world opens up to you.”

  Maison put her hand to her face, looking overcome. She didn’t know what to say!

  Someone clapped a hand on my shoulder. I turned, and there was Steve Alexander.

  “Stevie, that’s a beautiful gift,” he said. “I know I really put you on the spot back there, having you do all the gliding while we fought Jean. So there’s something I want you to have.”

  He reached into his toolkit and pulled out another pair of elytra.

  “Where did you get those?” Now I was totally stumped.

  “These are mine,” he said. “I put them on an anvil and added leather to fix them as good as new. This way Maison can have a pair of wings, and so can you.”

  “But why would you give me these?” I sputtered.

  “Because let’s say that by freeing me, you gave me wings,” he said. “Besides, I want to do more investigating and playing around with designs. Maybe I can design myself a flying potion or something. The sky’s the limit!”

  I took his elytra, still stunned.

  “Hey, I want to go flying, too,” Alex said.

  “Yeah, I can be a pirate of the skies,” Yancy said.

  “Stop it with the pirates,” Destiny said.

  “I can share my wings,” I said. “We can all take turns.”

  “Yeah, I’ll share my wings, too,” Maison said. She glanced sideways at a purring Ossie. “And I think Ossie should keep the shulker box. She’s claimed it.”

  I laughed. “Okay! Did you hear that, Ossie? You get to keep that box!”

  Ossie lifted her head and gave me an of-course-I-can-keep-it cat look. Then she put her head back down and went to sleep.

  “Who’s ready to try these out?” Maison asked eagerly.

  “Ooo, ooo, ooo!” Yancy said, jumping up and down. Destiny beamed and Alex said, “Totally!”

  “You kids go have fun,” Maison’s mom said. “You’ve earned it.”

  Laughing, we all ran to the portal to take us back to the Overworld. Our parents and Steve Alexander came with us. Maison and I climbed to the top of the tallest tree by our home, looking around at the sunshiny sky and the emerald green grass. It felt so good for the Overworld to be back to normal. To know that the Ender Dragon had been taken care of. To be back with my friends again, and know we were all safe and sound.

  “Ready?” I asked Maison.

  “I’m always ready,” she said.

  And we dove into the skies, flying together.

  Special thanks to James Fitzgerald, Krishan Trotman and Rachel Stark, Jeremy Bonebreak, Dalton, Tobias and Rin, Eileen Robinson, Dan Woren, Alexis Tirado, Caitlin Abber, Andrea Johnson, Deborah Peckham and Peter Davidson, and Taylor Hite.

  WANT MORE OF STEVIE AND HIS FRIENDS?

  Read the Unofficial Overworld Adventure series!

  Available wherever books are sold!

  CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF STEVIE’S ADVENTURES?

  Remember, the entire Unofficial Overworld Adventure series is available as one great box set!

  Available wherever books are sold!

  DO YOU LIKE FICTION FOR MINECRAFTERS?

  Read the rest of the Unofficial Overworld Heroes Adventure series to find out what happens to Stevie and the Overworld Heroes!

  Available wherever books are sold!

  WANT EVEN MORE FICTION FOR MINECRAFTERS?

  You can read the entire Unofficial Overworld Heroes Adventure series in a single box set, too!

  Available wherever books are sold!