Steve Alexander made a face. “Mick and Drake were never my friends.”
“Well, they’re people who have known you, so other people trust what they have to say.”
“Those guys never even knew me well,” he replied.
“They say you’re not very smart, the only reason you’re famous is because you have a dragon, and that you only think about yourself.”
“I go out every night with Jean to fight mobs,” he protested, clearly hurt. “That doesn’t sound like someone who only thinks of himself! Mick and Drake just like to tear down anyone who is different, especially if someone is successful through their own hard work.”
“I’m sure it will pass over soon,” she said.
Apparently, it didn’t. The next scene we saw was another annual monster fighting contest, and Steve Alexander showed up with his newly enchanted diamond sword. Anyone could tell from the look on his face that he expected to win. For the first time, I saw that full-of-himself expression.
He and Jean were shocked when the votes were tallied and the people had decided that Drake and Mick’s new invention—a bigger minecart—was the star of the show.
“You see, your invention isn’t really new,” one of the contest judges explained afterward to a shocked Steve Alexander. “It’s just the same old sword with a new enchantment.”
“But how is that minecart any better?” Steve Alexander demanded.
“It can fit more things,” the judge said. “That means people have to take fewer trips and carry less.”
“This is ridiculous,” Jean cut in. “That’s a double standard. You can’t say one object can’t win because of an improvement, yet another can.”
“Sorry,” the judge said. “You’re not from around here. You just don’t get it.”
Jean’s lips curled back and I saw her fangs for the first time. I’d never seen those fangs, even during all their battles.
That’s when Steve Alexander exploded.
“It’s all because of them!” he yelled, pointing savagely at Drake and Mick, who were holding their medals and smirking. “They turned you against me! You’d rather listen to their lies than see what I’ve done! Why?”
People were shocked by his outburst. I heard a woman say, “I don’t want my kids looking up to him, if he acts this way.” A man said, “You know, I went down to the Nether once after he discovered it. I threw a rock at a zombie pigman and a whole group of them attacked me. That never would have happened if it weren’t for Steve Alexander.”
Hearing these words, Steve Alexander whirled around. “You don’t just throw rocks at zombie pigmen!” he shouted. “That’s why they attacked you!”
“No!” the man shouted back. “I never would have known about the Nether at all if it weren’t for you.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this,” Steve Alexander said, wild-eyed. “You people should be thanking me! Why did you all turn against me?”
The crowd continued to complain. Jean said darkly, “Let’s go.” Her words echoed like thunder in the sky as the two of them turned and left.
CHAPTER 11
At dinner that night, steve alexander was still sulking. After he told his wife all about it, she said, “It shouldn’t matter if you won the award or not. What matters is helping other people.”
“You’d think they’d be more grateful,” he said, stabbing at his beef. “A few years ago, everyone loved me and built statues of me. Now … this.”
“People still love you,” she said. “You shouldn’t listen to the mean voices out there. There are always going to be mean voices, but most people are nicer than that.”
“Hmph,” Yancy said next to me.
I had been so absorbed in what I was watching that I startled and looked at him. “What?” I asked.
“It’s just like Earth,” Yancy said. “Some people choose to be nicer, and some people choose to be meaner. And when you’re successful like Steve Alexander, there are going to be some people who get jealous of your success and take it out on you.”
“Do you think that’s what’s going on?” I asked. I’d been really shocked by so many people turning against Steve Alexander.
“Well, that’s part of it,” Yancy said. “His meltdown at the contest today was something, though. It’s like he needs their praise constantly or he can’t stand it.”
“Yeah,” Maison said. “Don’t you think the reward of helping people should be enough for him?”
Maybe it should have been, but I could also understand why Steve Alexander liked all the applause, and why he’d been frustrated when he did so much for the Overworld only to have people complain about him. I thought the guy complaining about the Nether seemed especially silly. Steve Alexander had found the Nether, but it had been the man’s own careless actions that made the zombie pigmen attack him. Maybe the man thought it would be easier to blame Steve Alexander than admit he’d made a mistake.
I thought about the times I’d gotten jealous of other kids because they seemed to have it better than me. Sometimes they had better things because they’d worked hard for them, and sometimes those things had just been given to them. Either way, I knew that feeling of jealousy, and it was never a good feeling.
This whole thing—Steve Alexander, Mick, and Drake—it seemed like all of them wanted to be the number one person out there, the person who always got praise and never messed up. And they didn’t seem very happy trying to get to be number one.
I watched Steve Alexander give a big sigh and glance toward Jean, who had just returned to her corner of the room. There was a fireplace nearby and the flames were dancing shadows along her large body. The fire also seemed to glow in her purple eyes.
“What do you think, Jean?” Steve Alexander asked her.
She looked away from the fire. “I think this reminds me of a long time ago, when the people turned against me,” she said. “I’d done nothing to deserve it, but being different was enough for people not to like me.”
Steve Alexander thumped his fist on the table, making his plate jump. “Why are people so fickle?”
“I think I have an idea,” Jean offered. Her voice was soft.
“What’s that?” Steve Alexander asked.
“Let’s have an enormous party at our home, here in the jungle,” she said. “We’ll invite everyone. There will be feasting and dancing and speeches. We’ll remind people what we’ve done for them. Everyone will feel excited by the talks and the food, and they will go away remembering what a hero Steve Alexander is.”
He seemed to consider this. “Do you think it will work?”
Maybe it was just the shadow of the flames, but her smile looked sinister. “I’ll make it work.”
“All right,” he said. “As long as we don’t invite Drake and Mick.”
“Oh,” she said, dipping her head down, “we must especially invite Drake and Mick.”
CHAPTER 12
In the next scene, it was the night of the party and the jungle temple looked incredible. When my friends and I had explored the temple searching for an Ender crystal shard, it had been dark and spooky and long-abandoned. Now, it was full of decorations and tables and happy, laughing people holding their invitations that read: We cordially invite you to a feast in the temple jungle, where we celebrate the victories of Steve Alexander and Jean.
My stomach somersaulted. This was it. When we’d been searching for this jungle temple, a man from a nearby jungle village had told us that something terrible had happened at this temple. And when we’d found the temple, there had been plenty of evidence of destruction to back his story up. This had to be when it all happened.
The party was mostly taking place in the main room, the large room we’d explored while searching for the crystal shard—where we’d seen claw marks on the walls and the word HELP etched in the stone. Now the room was full of torches and happy people who were talking and eating at the long tables as we stood there, invisible.
At the front of the room, seated
at the largest table, were Steve Alexander and Jean. It was a very large table, so it could fit both man and dragon comfortably. The dog Wolf was sitting at Steve Alexander’s right, panting happily.
Steve Alexander had been sulking the last time we’d seen him, but with this big party going on, you could tell he was enjoying himself. Clearly, his mood went up and down depending on what the people were saying around him. I could understand. I felt a lot happier with my friends than I ever did around kids who were mean to me.
I noticed that Drake and Mick were seated up near Steve Alexander and Jean. Mick was gulping down so much water I thought he might choke. Drake was sticking big hunks of meat into his mouth, almost gagging. They were the only people in the room who didn’t look happy. In fact, they looked miserable to be in a room where everyone was celebrating the guy they liked to pick on.
Who else was here? I saw Mayor Pandra at another table, wearing a nice dress. Her son Steve was with her, and he was wearing a shirt with a picture of a dragon on it. He sure loved dragons—but I guess that’s what happens when you’re basically raised by one!
Even with all the happy faces, I couldn’t stop the sick feeling in my stomach, knowing something truly terrible was about to happen.
As people were finishing up their meals, someone began chanting for Steve Alexander to give a speech. The chanting spread to other people, until everyone in the room had joined in (except for Mick and Drake, of course).
Smiling, Steve Alexander stood up and gave a long speech on doing the right thing, being responsible, working hard and how much he loved to help the Overworld. All the words sounded good, but I didn’t know how much his heart was in them. It almost sounded like he was just saying what he thought people expected him to say.
“I never would have been able to do any of this if it weren’t for Jean,” he said. “I call her my ‘steed,’ yet she is so much more than that. She is my friend. She is my helper. She is my fellow hero in the Overworld. It’s time to listen to her speak.”
Everyone applauded. Steve Alexander sat back down, and Jean slowly and elegantly stood.
“Thank you, Steve Alexander,” she said. “The Overworld has changed in many ways since I was released from my prison.”
She continued, nodding toward the nearby window, through which we could see the moon. “These days, people in the Overworld feel safe leaving their homes at night. When the party started earlier, it was daylight. Now it is dark, and yet we all feel safe.
“I see diamond swords everywhere I go, and I see people benefitting from the mob raids Steve Alexander and I have been doing for years now,” she went on. “What a world we have created.”
She lowered her head as if she were being shy. Everyone except for Drake and Mick applauded. But when Jean lifted her head back up, there was a glint in her eye and I could see her fangs.
“However, tonight is when the real creation begins,” she said in a powerful voice, raising her head high. “Tonight, I will make the Overworld into the world it should always have been.”
Steve Alexander looked up at her, confused. “Jean?” he said, unsure. “What are you talking about?”
“This,” she said. Her tail slammed against the wall behind her three times. A signal. All the secret doors to the large room burst open, revealing an army of armed skeleton guards in the hidden space behind the room, their swords drawn and ready for battle. People jumped up from their chairs, screaming. They tried to run out of the room, only to find every entrance blocked by more skeletons with sharp, gleaming swords.
“For years I have worked for your world, and what thanks do I get?” Jean demanded loudly.
“Jean!” Steve Alexander cried, jumping up himself. “What are you doing?”
“What must be done,” she said. “This entire building is surrounded by mobs who work for me now. You will find there is no escape.”
“This is madness!” Mayor Pandra cried. “Jean, this isn’t you!”
Jean said, “Arrest her first.” Just like that, two skeletons were on the mayor. She tried to free herself but wasn’t strong enough.
Seeing the first arrest, the skeletons marched farther into the room, shackling everyone they came into contact with. The room was full of screams.
Jean smiled hungrily. “The Overworld belongs to me now.”
CHAPTER 13
“Jean!” steve alexander wailed. the dragon swung her head around to look at him. Her purple eyes were lit up with flames, even though there was no fire nearby.
“I did it!” she cheered, her voice raspy. “Steve Alexander, you and I will no longer be disrespected in this world! We will finally be the rulers we deserve to be!”
“You can’t do this!” he exclaimed. “Release my wife! Release everyone!”
“Why?” Jean snapped. “She never understood you. Only I understand you.” To the skeleton guards, she shouted, “Take everyone to the dungeon! I will decide what to do with them later.” Her eyes slanted down to where Mick and Drake were trying to hide under their table. “Except these two. Leave them here for my amusement.”
Mick and Drake let out loud whimpers.
“Stop!” Steve Alexander shouted at the skeleton guards. When they didn’t listen, he tried running in the direction of his family. Another skeleton guard was putting shackles on his son Steve. But when Steve Alexander got too close, skeleton guards raised their swords and put them in an X-shape, blocking him from getting through. He whirled back around to Jean.
“Jean!” he yelled. “Why?”
“Why?” she repeated.
Wolf charged through the crowded room toward Jean, barking and growling. A skeleton guard grabbed him and held him in place.
“I’ll tell you why,” she said. “Because the people here are the same as the people who chained me. Because if we do not take power for ourselves, someone else will take it from us.”
“These people aren’t like the people who chained you!” Steve Alexander shouted. “These people are here to celebrate us!”
She lashed her tail toward Drake and Mick, who were still under a table. “Pull them out,” she ordered her skeleton guards.
Hundreds of skeleton guards were in the middle of marching people out of the room. A few stopped pointing their swords at people and pulled Drake and Mick out.
“String them up,” she said.
A skeleton guard threw a lead up to the ceiling and tied Drake and Mick to it by their ankles. They were hanging upside down, totally at Jean’s mercy. She struck the lead with her tail, making them swing like toys.
“Stop this!” Steve Alexander hollered.
Jean looked at him, surprised. “You don’t like this? You can help me torment them.”
“No!” he said. “This is wrong!”
“Didn’t you say when you found me that you wished they could suffer, so they’d understand?” she asked.
He tried to answer, choking on his words. “I didn’t mean that!” he finally cried. “I said that out of anger!”
“Oh, but you said it,” she said. “Will you join me, Steve Alexander? Together, we will make the Overworld in our image. Forget the statues—statues can be broken. Heroes can be forgotten. But those in power will always have control.”
Before he could answer, she turned to the crowd and barked, “Bow to me!”
I couldn’t believe it. Dozens of people, even with their shackles held by skeletons, instantly bowed their heads. They weren’t even putting up a fight.
But I saw Steve Alexander didn’t bow. He stood straight up to Jean, his hands clutched at his sides, and called out, “The people will never bow to a cruel master!”
“She’s not cruel!” someone insisted. It was Drake! He was still hanging upside down, swinging from the lead. “She’s just misunderstood!”
Steve Alexander stared at him, unable to believe what he was hearing. “How could you say that?”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Drake said. “I think she knows what she�
��s doing. I’ll work for her!”
Some of the other people chorused that they would too. Steve Alexander took a step back, his face paling. Then he cried, “Drake, you only agree to work for evil because it will protect you! You can’t tell me that you agree with her, not after she’s done this to you!”
“You’re not seeing the big picture,” Drake said.
“Cut him down,” Jean said.
A skeleton released Drake from the lead. He fell to the floor in a tumble and pulled himself back up, dusting off his clothes.
“Arm him,” she said.
A skeleton handed Drake a sword.
Steve Alexander gritted his teeth. “I see the big picture, Drake,” he said. “Ever since I was a kid, I thought there was something special about you and Mick that I could never attain. Now I see that it was all fake—just a trick to make people like you. You’re just cowards.”
“I am disappointed in you, Steve Alexander,” Jean said. “I was hoping you would see the truth in what I’m saying and be my right-hand man. It looks like Drake will have to take your place. Unless you’re willing to change your mind?”
“Never!” Steve Alexander shouted. “I always do what’s right!”
“Do you?” she said. “You only enjoyed fighting monsters when it gave you glory. Would you do it if there weren’t people to cheer you on? Your wife was right—you shouldn’t have been disappointed not to get the medal. It should have been enough just to serve. Admit it, you’re not as high and mighty as you think you are. Why do you think people turned against you? If you do good deeds with a sense of arrogance, the people will see it.”
It seemed like those words hit close to home. It took him a second before he replied, “What about you, Jean? How could you have helped me in so many battles when this is what you wanted? You agreed to be my friend!”
“Friend?” she scoffed. “This never had anything to do with friendship. I saw the smartest man in the Overworld willing to break me free, so I watched and I learned. I was with you for every new weapon, every invention—I understand how all of them work, so none of them can be used against me. Traveling to different villages to fight monsters, I learned the new layout of the Overworld, so I knew how to best stack my armies. I’m one step ahead of everyone.”
The Last of the Ender Crystal Page 4
