Lost in the End
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Copyright © 2016 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover photo by Megan Miller
Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-0352-0
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0355-1
Printed in the United States of America
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Welcome to the Jungle
Chapter 2: Journal Entry: Dragon Battle
Chapter 3: Surprises
Chapter 4: Journal Entry: Under the Sea
Chapter 5: The Attack of the Elder Guardians
Chapter 6: Journal Entry: Old Enemies and Friends
Chapter 7: Back to the Overworld
Chapter 8: Journal Entry: Trapped Again
Chapter 9: Peaks and Valleys
Chapter 10: Journal Entry: Find Me
Chapter 11: Not the Nether
Chapter 12: Journal Entry: Landslide
Chapter 13: Surprise in the Mine
Chapter 14: Journal Entry: Reunited
Chapter 15: Getting Closer
Chapter 16: Journal Entry: We Will Escape
Chapter 17: Saving Friends
Chapter 18: Journal Entry: It’s the End
1
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
Oliver hid behind a tree. His heart was pounding. He took a deep breath and peeked from behind the oak’s dark-colored bark. He didn’t see any of his friends. He wanted to call out to see if Julian and Ezra were close by, but he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. He wondered if the others were destroyed. Maybe Charles or Valentino had trapped them? He wasn’t sure. Oliver was glad he had survived the attack, but he missed his friends. The sky was getting dark, and he knew he had to find a place to stay. He couldn’t stay hidden behind the tree forever. He was about to walk out from behind the tree, when an arrow pierced his arm. He began to cry out in pain. He was terrified.
“Ouch!” Oliver grabbed his sword, ready to fight his attacker. Oliver leapt from behind the oak tree, but began to shake when he saw a horde of bony skeletons standing in front of him. They aimed their arrows at him. There was no way he could fight back, but he tried. He swung his diamond sword at a skeleton. Before he could strike the undead mob, he was destroyed.
“Oliver’s here,” Harriet called out to the others. She stood over him as he respawned.
Oliver was confused. “What happened?”
“You were the last one to respawn. Charles destroyed us all. Luckily he didn’t set us to Hardcore mode like he said he would, or we’d be gone for good,” explained Harriet.
Ezra paced around the small house. “We need to get to the jungle. We have to find William and Sean.”
“We’ve been over this a million times. We have no idea what jungle William could be in,” Toby argued.
Jack interrupted, “Or if he is even in the jungle. He could still be in the End.”
Veronica added, “And he could have been destroyed in the End. There is a possibility that William is gone and we’ve been on a wild goose chase.”
Oliver shuddered and shouted, “How can you even say such a thing? William is still alive and we’re going to find him.”
Harriet said, “If we only had more pages from his journal, I’d feel more hopeful. It’s just that we’ve been searching for so long and visited so many jungles and we haven’t found him yet.”
“We can’t give up,” said Oliver.
“But I don’t want to be destroyed by Charles,” Harried retorted. “I feel like we battle him everyday and lose. It’s exhausting and it’s making me sad.”
Veronica looked at Harriet. “We can’t give up hope. We have come so far. Think of all the jungle biomes we visited and we haven’t found a trace of William and Sean’s house. That means we don’t have that many more to search. We will find them soon. The hard part is almost over.”
Oliver studied his maps of the Overworld. “Look at these. I’ve noted all of the jungle biomes that we’ve visited. There is another jungle biome not far from here.”
The group gathered around Oliver and looked at the map. Julian said, “I think we should head there in the morning. All we have to do is walk up a mountain and we’ll be in the jungle.”
They climbed into their beds and dreamt about finding William. They were hopeful this would be the jungle where they’d find him or discover clues that would lead them to him.
In the morning, Julian hunted for a chicken, and Jack and Toby gathered fruit for everyone. They ate an enormous feast before the journey to the jungle. When they finished eating, they put on their armor and walked into the sunny day.
“It’s just over this mountain.” Oliver pointed to the enormous mountain in the distance.
“Wow, you act like it’s so easy to get over that mountain. It’s going to take a lot of energy,” said Toby.
“But it’s worth it.” Oliver looked at the map.
The trek up the side of the mountain was slow, and they quickly grew tired. They took a break and ate some apples.
“It’s not that much further,” Oliver pointed out, showing them the map.
The mountain’s peak offered incredible views of the Overworld, but the group was too tired to enjoy it. They wanted to get to the jungle as quickly as they could, but the trip down was also quite slow.
“We don’t want to trip and fall,” Harriet reminded them as they climbed down the mountain.
“The jungle!” Toby called to the others, spotting it in the distance.
When they reached the bottom of the mountain, they were in a lush, green jungle biome.
“I’ll clear a path for us.” Oliver took out his shears.
The group followed Oliver through the dense jungle. Toby called out, “I see a jungle temple.”
The gang sprinted toward the temple, as Harriet shouted, “I hope it has treasure chests!”
As they entered the enormous temple, they quietly and carefully explored each room. They kept a lookout for treasure hunters who might want to battle them.
“It looks like nobody is here.” Harriet was relieved. “Let’s find the treasure.”
They walked downstairs toward the three stone bricks and levers. Oliver stood by the piston-trapped door and unleashed the treasure. As he opened the first treasure chest, Harriet called out.
“Come over here, guys.” Harriet was in the corner of the dark jungle temple’s basement. “I found something!”
“But we have a treasure chest to open,” Veronica shouted back. She wanted Oliver to open the chest. She was excited to see what great treasures were hidden inside.
They sprinted toward Harriet. She looked at them and with a big grin, she pointed to a book. She picked it up. “It’s the third journal. It looks shorter than the others.”
The gang was elated. “Read it!” said Julian.
Veronica asked, “Should we open the treasure chest first?”
Harriet paused. “I guess we should open the chest.”
Oliver opened the chest. “Diamonds!”
The group gathered the diamonds and placed them in their inventories.
“Good,” said Harriet. “Now that that’s settled, let’s read.” And Harriet began to read from the journal.
2
JOURNAL ENTRY: DRAGON BATTLE
Entry 1: Dragon’s Breath
The End room was the last place I wanted to be, but there was no way out of the stronghold. I looked over at Sean and asked, “We have to go back to the End, don’t we?”
Sean nodded and I followed him onto the portal. A purple mist filled the room. We could hear the people in black shouting, but the voices went quiet. We were out of the stronghold and in the End. As we stood on the obsidian pillar, we saw the mammoth scaly dragon fly toward us. It swept down and struck Sean with its gray wing.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
Sean breathlessly replied that he was fine and quickly grabbed milk from his inventory and drank it.
I grabbed a snowball from my inventory and struck the Ender Dragon, depleting a portion of the dragon’s health bar. I was beginning to feel confident that we might win the battle and respawn in the Overworld, but the dragon flew to a pillar and the Ender crystals shot a ray toward the dragon. Within seconds the dragon had a full health bar, and lunged toward us at great speed.
“Watch out!” I called to Sean.
Sean shot an arrow at the powerful dragon, piercing its side. The dragon was infuriated and continued flying toward us.
We sprinted from the dragon and tried to hide behind an obsidian pillar, but we couldn’t escape. The dragon crashed into the pillar. We sprinted further away, but the dragon followed.
“What are we going to do?” I asked Sean.
Sean threw a snowball at the dragon and hit its face. “I don’t have many snowballs left in my inventory. I’m afraid this is the End, my friend.”
“Don’t say that,” I replied, and grabbed a snowball and aimed at the weakened dragon. “We just need to destroy the Ender crystals and then the dragon won’t have a way of regenerating its health bar.”
“Good plan!” Sean shot an arrow at the Ender crystals, as the Ender Dragon was regaining strength from them.
Kaboom! The fiery purple crystals exploded. The Ender Dragon was hurt by the explosion and lost ten hearts.
Sean was saving us from the Ender Dragon! We sprinted from the weak dragon, but didn’t get very far. As we trekked deeper into the dark End, we saw a gang of Endermen approach us.
I warned Sean, “Don’t stare at them.”
“It’s too late,” Sean cried out, as two Endermen shrieked and teleported toward him.
“Sprint!” I shouted to Sean. I had no other plan and I just wanted to escape from the End.
We sprinted, but the Endermen followed us. I leapt at the Endermen, striking the lanky beasts with my diamond sword, but it takes a lot to destroy an Enderman, and we didn’t have enough energy left to put up a good fight.
Just when I was ready to give up, Sean splashed a potion of invisibility on us and we fled the Endermen. As we sprinted away, Sean said, “The only way out of here is defeating the Ender Dragon. We can’t waste our energy running away—we have to battle the dragon or be destroyed. There are no other options.”
I knew Sean was right. Running away from the hostile mobs of the End was pointless. We needed to run toward them and defeat them or at least try to defeat them. We turned around and used our only powerful weapon, our invisibility, to defeat thee mobs. As I threw snowballs at the Ender Dragon, Sean destroyed the Ender crystals.
“Shoot them now!” I shouted at Sean. The dragon was flying close to the crystals.
Kaboom! The explosion weakened the dragon.
I was hopeful. “I think we’re going to make it!”
“Don’t be too sure,” a familiar voice called out.
I almost dropped my bow and arrow. It was Charles, and he let out a sinister laugh that was so loud it almost drowned out the noise from the exploding Ender crystals.
“What are you doing here?” I asked
Charles laughed again. “I am here to destroy you. I’ve used command blocks to put you on Hardcore mode. Be prepared to meet your end in the End.” He laughed even harder at his awful pun.
“Never!” I shouted. I aimed my arrow at Charles and struck him.
“Don’t waste your time with him,” Sean cried out. “Save the arrows for the Ender Dragon. I just have one more Ender crystal to destroy and then we can corner the dragon.”
I listened to Sean. I shot arrows at the Ender Dragon as Sean destroyed the last Ender crystal. The final explosion destroyed the Ender Dragon. A Dragon egg and a portal to the Overworld spawned in front of us.
“We’re saved!” I looked over at Sean, as we walked toward the portal to the Overworld. Charles followed us.
“You’re not coming back to the Overworld with us,” Sean told Charles.
Charles laughed again. “Yes, I am.” He held a diamond sword against Sean’s chest. Sean’s energy level was dangerously low, and we were worried Charles could destroy him.
As we walked onto the portal and read the End Poem, we were happy to return to the Overworld. We weren’t happy that we were traveling back with our enemy. When we emerged in the jungle, I grabbed a potion of strength and drank it and then handed the potion to Sean. With our energy restored, we attacked Charles.
I demanded, “Tell me where you are hiding Oliver.”
Charles just laughed harder. He didn’t even try to fight back.
Sean warned, “We have to stop fighting him. We don’t want to destroy him; we want to capture him and find out where his minions are hiding.”
It was too late. I had struck Charles with my diamond sword until he was destroyed.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Sean.
“It’s okay.” Sean looked around the jungle. He was hoping it was the same biome where we had built our home, but it didn’t look familiar at all.
We didn’t have time to explore. The sky grew dark and a skeleton army approached us and began to attack. A sea of arrows hit us. In order to survive, we sprinted as fast as we could, until we reached the shore. Sean handed me a potion of underwater breathing. We both drank the potion and jumped into the deep blue water.
3
SURPRISES
Keep reading,” demanded Veronica.
“There isn’t anything else. That was it!” Harriet told them. “I told you it was short.”
“Seriously? That’s it?” Veronica was annoyed. This didn’t give them any answers. She wanted an exact location for William.
“We have to head to the shore and search for William,” Harriet told the group.
“Which means we don’t have to travel to the End.” Oliver was relieved. It was too scary and he disliked battling the Ender Dragon.
The only person who seemed annoyed was Jack. “Another wild goose chase. The Overworld is covered in water. How are we going to find the spot where William jumped into the water? This is just going to end like all the other searches have ended.”
“But we can’t give up hope,” Harriet reminded him. “We have come too far. There’s no point in turning back now.”
Jack sighed. “I’m just tired of searching for William. When we found the first journal, I was excited, but now I am growing bored. You can’t blame me, it’s been a long time and we haven’t even gotten close to finding him.”
Oliver looked at Jack. “If you gave up right away, you wouldn’t have found me.�
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Harriet stood next to Oliver. “We found Oliver. And soon we will find William. They will be reunited and the Overworld will celebrate their return and hear all about their new explorations.”
Veronica exclaimed, “And we’ll be famous!”
“Veronica”—Harriet was annoyed—“I told you. We aren’t doing this for the credit. We are trying to find William because it’s the right thing to do and will benefit everyone in the Overworld.”
“Oh yeah,” Veronica said, “I forgot.”
Ezra announced, “There’s no point in arguing about this any longer. It’s just a waste of time. Let’s start by searching beneath the sea.”
Oliver took out his map and showed it to the group. “I see a large body of water, just beyond this jungle. We should explore that area.”
“Let’s head there now,” ordered Harriet.
“But it’s almost dusk,” said Julian. “We need to build a place to stay in the jungle.”
Ezra looked around. “Can’t we just stay here? We can craft beds in this jungle temple.”
“No, it isn’t safe here. Hostile mobs can spawn in the temple,” Jack warned them.
The gang left the temple and looked for somewhere to build a house. Spotting a small patch of land in the distance, Harriet said, “That looks like a good place to build.”
The gang sprinted toward the patch of land and began to craft the house. Harriet grabbed wooden planks and constructed a wall.
“This is happening a lot faster than I imagined,” Jack said as he constructed the door.
“I know!” Harriet was excited. “We’ll be done soon, and we can rest up before our journey to the sea.”
The group worked quickly and the house was almost completed when Veronica shouted, “Ouch!”
Valentino and his army, dressed in black, stood in front of the group, attacking them with arrows, swords, and splash potions.
“You can’t sleep here now,” Valentino laughed as he ordered his soldiers to blow up the house with TNT.
“No! Stop!” Harriet pleaded.
“Blow it up!” Valentino cried to his army.
Kaboom! The house was gone.
“You aren’t going to get away with this!” Julian struck Valentino with his diamond sword.