An Explorer's Guide to the Nether

by Winter Morgan

  “There’s no use standing around here and worrying. We have to explore the Nether. It’s our only hope,” Toby informed them.

  Harriet took a deep breath. She wanted to go back to the Overworld. She disliked everything about the Nether. But they couldn’t give up. She followed the others as they trekked through the red lava-filled landscape. As a zombie pigman walked past her, she avoided making eye contact.

  Jack called out, “I see a Nether fortress.”

  “Yes, I see it too!” Toby ran toward the fortress.

  Three yellow blazes flew in front of the fortress and shot fireballs at the gang.

  “I don’t have any snowballs left,” Harriet announced, ducking to avoid one of the fireballs.

  Julian handed some to Harriet. “I think we’re all running low. So only throw them if you think you can hit one.”

  Harriet aimed at one of the black-eyed beasts and hit it dead center with the snowball. “I got one of them!”

  With one down, the other two were easier. The gang threw snowballs at the remaining blazes until they were destroyed. Oliver went and collected the blaze rods. “I can use these in my potions,” he explained.

  When he was finished, the group continued on to the fortress.

  The fortress was eerily quiet. Julian led them to the secret treasure room. “It looks like the treasure is still here. Everything is intact.”

  “We need to unearth it.” Oliver stood by Julian. “And we have to do it carefully.”

  Jack slowly and very cautiously approached the treasure, making sure not to set off the trip wire. “There are two chests.”

  Toby was excited. “Well, let’s see what’s inside!”

  Jack opened the chests. One contained a collection of enchanted books. “These will come in handy when we want to enchant our diamond swords.”

  As Jack handed out the enchanted books, one for each of them, Harriet opened the second chest. “Emeralds!”

  “Wow!” exclaimed Toby.

  “Perfect. Now we can use these to trade for other valuable resources,” said Julian. They divvied up the emeralds as well. Excited about their newfound treasures, they all started talking about their plans.

  “Shh!” Harriet warned them. “I hear voices.”

  The group stood in silence. They could hear someone talking in the other room. It sounded like Veronica.

  Julian peeked into the room and said in a whisper, “It’s them—Veronica and Valentino!”

  “What are they doing?” asked Harriet quietly.

  “They’ve got William’s journal,” Julian told the others. “Veronica’s reading it out loud. We need to get it from them now before it’s too late.”

  “Shh!” Harriet warned.

  The gang went quiet again. They could hear Veronica reading.

  Moving closer to the doorway, they listened as Veronica read aloud to Valentino.

  4

  JOURNAL ENTRY: LAVA LIFE

  Day 2: The Hole

  “We need to find our way out of here!” Sean said, frustrated.

  “I know,” I told him. “But we must remain calm. I think I’ve heard that voice before. I think I know who it belongs to.”

  “Who?” asked Sean.

  “I think it’s Thao.”

  “You mean Charles’s sidekick?” Sean was shocked.

  “Yes, but I don’t think he is working with Charles anymore. I think he’s another prisoner here.”

  “Why would he be a prisoner?” Sean didn’t understand.

  “I’m not sure, but that is almost certainly his voice. I think we need to find out why he’s here. But first, we need to escape. Time to make a plan. My inventory is empty—what about yours?”

  Sean looked through his inventory and took out a pickaxe. “Would this help us?”

  “Yes!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t believe that Sean had a pickaxe. I was ecstatic. I grabbed the pickaxe and began to dig a hole in the middle of our small cell.

  “Stop,” Sean told me. “I think I hear something.”

  The small hole in the wall opened again and another carrot was tossed into the room.

  “Food,” Sean exclaimed, taking a big bite of the carrot he’d retrieved from the floor. He handed it to me when he’d eaten half of it.

  I ate quickly, eager to get back to digging. I wanted to escape so badly.

  “Look out!” Sean cried. Before I’d even finished the carrot, a magma cube spawned in our little room. Sean grabbed a sword from his inventory and struck at the cube. It broke into smaller cubes. I wanted to help him, but I didn’t have anything in my inventory and felt very helpless. I was impressed with how many items Sean had in his inventory.

  “Do you have an extra sword?” I shouted to Sean.

  “Yes!” He stopped fighting for a moment and handed it to me. “Keep it.”

  More magma cubes spawned around us. I had a newfound confidence as I struck one of the magma cubes with the sword. Now that I had a replenished inventory, I could battle alongside Sean. It was also nice to have a partner in this.

  “More are spawning!” Sean shouted.

  “Don’t give up,” I cried as I struck another magma cube and it broke into smaller cubes. Sean and I had barely enough energy to fight the bouncy Nether mobs.

  When the final cube was destroyed, we sat down, desperately needing a break. We sat there a moment in silence, until Sean asked, “Are you going to keep digging the hole?”

  “Yes,” I replied. I got up and dug the pickaxe back into the ground.

  Sean took a shovel out of his inventory and joined me. Between the pickaxe and the shovel, we made a lot of progress.

  I looked down at the hole. “Oh no.”

  Sean stared at the lava that flowed underneath the floor of our cell.

  “Now we’ll never escape.” I watched the hot lava flow by in despair.

  “Help!” a voice called out.

  Sean sprinted to the wall. “Can you hear us?”

  The voice replied, “Yes! I’m being attacked by magma cubes! Can someone help me?”

  Sean grabbed the pickaxe and banged it against the side of the wall, making a small hole. He crawled through the hole and I followed.

  When we entered the second cell, we saw a girl with pink hair fighting three magma cubes all by herself. She was very low on energy and she was using all the energy she had to battle the mobs.

  I struck a cube with my sword and Sean destroyed the smaller cubes. Within the three of us working together, the magma cubes were quickly taken care of.

  “Thank you so much!” the girl with pink hair said to us.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “My name is Molly,” she replied and then quickly added, “You guys better leave. If they find you in here, they will destroy us all. I’ve heard that they set some prisoners to Hardcore mode and destroy them for good.”

  “Seriously?” Sean was shocked.

  “Yes,” said Molly. “I’ve been here a long time. I’ve seen some pretty awful things. I used to have a cellmate, but she disappeared. I don’t know what happened to her, but I never saw her again.” Molly began to cry.

  “Who was your cellmate?” asked Sean. “We can help you find her.”

  “Her name was Esther. But it’s been a long time since I last saw her. I doubt we’ll find her. Sometimes I imagine her safe and happy in the Overworld. And anyway, we’re stuck in here.”

  “Molly,”—I really meant this when I said it—“we’re going to get out of here. I know it.”

  “How?” she asked.

  “Well, we tried digging down, but there’s lava running below us. We need to come up with a new plan. Luckily Sean still has a pretty well-stocked inventory, so that should help. Do you happen to have any resources we can use?”

  “I don’t have much—just a couple of potions and a bucket.”

  “A bucket,” I thought aloud, “that might come in handy. If we put some of the lava in the bucket, we can use it to attack the person who
is bringing us the food.”

  “Why would we want to do that? We need that food to survive,” said Molly.

  “We need to escape,” I replied. “This could help us do that.”

  “I’ve been here so long, I don’t want to escape. I’d be too afraid to leave,” she confessed.

  “We are going to escape. Of course it won’t be easy, but nothing important ever is.”

  Molly thought about those words. She went through her inventory and pulled out a potion of invisibility. “Do you think this could help?”

  I smiled. “Absolutely.”

  Molly followed us back to our cell. I had a million plans racing through my mind. I had to pick the perfect one. Of course, I knew they were all risky.

  “What do we do next?” asked Sean.

  “We’re going to knock down this wall.” I pointed to the wall that had the small hole where the unknown person dropped our daily carrot ration.

  They didn’t ask any further questions. We each grabbed a tool and attacked the wall together.

  5

  THE TREASURE HUNTERS

  Can you hear them?” whispered Harriet.

  “They stopped reading.” Julian peeked into the other room again.

  Valentino lunged at Julian as he turned the corner, striking him with a diamond sword. “It’s over!”

  Julian grabbed his own diamond sword and battled Valentino.

  Toby sprinted toward Veronica and splashed a potion of harming on her, then tried to grab the journal.

  Then three blazes spawned in the room. They unleashed a sea of fireballs at the group. One of the fireballs struck Oliver, destroying him.

  “Oliver!” Julian cried. “Now he’ll respawn in the desert! Oh no!”

  The group had very few snowballs left, which made the battle against the blazes almost impossible.

  Julian struck Valentino with his diamond sword as they both tried to avoid the fiery blasts.

  Harriet shielded herself from the fireballs, but it was too late. There was no escape. She was hit by one of the fireballs and she too was destroyed.

  “Harriet’s gone, too!” Jack called out as he helped Julian destroy Valentino with his sword.

  Veronica was devastated when she saw her partner destroyed, and she didn’t notice the fireball that was headed in her direction. She was almost instantly destroyed as well.

  No longer distracted, the remaining gang fought desperately until the final blaze was defeated. Toby collected the blaze rods to give to Oliver, hoping they would see him again soon.

  “What are we going to do?” asked Jack. “Oliver and Harriet will have both respawned in the desert. Should we go back for them?”

  Everyone had a different opinion. Toby wanted to find Harriet first. Julian was still worried about Ezra. “At least we know that Oliver and Harriet are okay. Charles has Ezra, and we still don’t know if William is safe. They should be our priority.”

  “I think we have to go back to the Overworld, even if Harriet and Oliver aren’t in as much danger,” said Jack. “We have no snowballs left in our inventories. If we have one more attack from a fiery Nether mob, we will all be destroyed. We need to restock our inventories and find our friends.”

  Julian nodded his head slowly. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “Let’s make a portal back to the Overworld,” said Toby.

  The group left the Nether fortress and headed toward the lava waterfall where they could craft a portal.

  “Look!” Toby called out. “I see a bucket.”

  Toby walked over to a bucket that was on the netherrack ground. He picked it up and handed it to Julian.

  “Who would have left this here?” asked Julian.

  Jack thought about the journal. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “Do you think this bucket could be a clue?”

  “A clue?” asked Julian.

  “Yes, to finding William,” said Jack.

  “It could be Molly’s bucket!” said Toby.

  “It could be anybody’s bucket,” said Julian.

  “Okay, it doesn’t matter who the bucket belongs to. For now we need to get back to the Overworld.” Jack was annoyed.

  “All right, all right,” said Julian. “We’re making the portal. Happy?”

  “Yes,” replied Jack. But before they activated the portal, the group heard a voice call out to them.

  “Help me! Don’t leave me here!” the voice shouted.

  “It sounds like Ezra! We need to find him,” said Julian.

  Toby was ready to activate the portal. “But the portal is complete. We have to travel back to the Overworld.”

  “I can’t leave now. I’m certain that was Ezra calling for us. Let’s just leave the portal and come back,” insisted Julian.

  “What if this is a trick?” asked Jack.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” said Julian. Jack and Toby gave in. They would have done the same if the roles were reversed, if they had heard Harriet calling for help.

  The group followed Julian toward the cries. They were walking up a series of steps leading to a bridge that crossed a large lava river when Julian called out, “I see him!”

  Ezra was on the bridge. Valentino and Veronica had him cornered. They had their swords pointed at him, and his energy bar was very low. With one hit from a diamond sword, he’d be destroyed.

  Toby took out his bow and arrow and aimed at Valentino. He struck him on his first shot. Valentino turned around and ran toward Toby, ready for a fight.

  Ezra was able to break free from Veronica and he too began to run toward Toby.

  Then a loud roar interrupted them. Everybody stopped where they were.

  “Is that the—” Julian looked up in disbelief.

  “It can’t be!” cried Valentino.

  The Ender Dragon flew through the red Nether sky. Someone had summoned the beast from the End and brought it to the Nether.

  One of the dragon’s scaly wings struck Veronica, throwing her off the bridge and into the lava river. Valentino cried out. But he didn’t have time to mourn his partner, because the dragon was coming right for him next. In a matter of seconds, the dragon had thrown Valentino from the bridge as well.

  “Get to the portal!” Toby called to his friends. “I’m going to ignite it!” The gang sprinted as fast as they could. Ezra had barely enough energy to keep up.

  A purple mist rose up as they stepped onto the portal and back to the Overworld.

  The portal left them in a grassy area of the Overworld.

  “We need to find the desert,” said Jack.

  But the sun was beginning to set. The group crafted a crudely constructed house to spend the night in. As they crawled into their beds, Julian remembered that he had retrieved the journal when he was battling Valentino and Veronica. “I have the book. Should I read from it?”

  “Yes,” replied Toby and Jack in unison.

  Julian began to read.

  6

  JOURNAL ENTRY: HOPEFUL ESCAPE

  Day 3: Crumbling Wall

  As we worked on knocking down the wall, Sean suddenly went still and whispered, “Stop. I hear something.”

  A head looked through the hole. “What are you doing?” a voice growled.

  We were frozen in fear. Before we could respond, three blazes spawned in the center of the room and blew fireballs in our direction.

  Molly threw a snowball at one of the blazes, destroying the yellow beast. But I did nothing. I tried to escape the flames, but I couldn’t. I was destroyed. Again.

  I respawned in the prison cell and awoke to Sean defeating the final blaze. Can you blame me for fearing fire? It had destroyed me so many times. I sprinted toward the wall and peeked through the hole. “There’s nobody out there.”

  “They must have spawned blazes in the cell to punish us,” said Molly. She started collecting the blaze rods. “But these will come in handy.”

  Before we could even catch our breaths, a group of magma cubes spawned in the cell and bounced toward
us. Sean took out his sword and lunged at the cubes. “You’re right,” he said, “I bet they’re going to keep summoning hostile mobs.”

  I used the pickaxe to help battle the bouncy creatures. “How are we going to go on like this? I don’t want to be destroyed twice in one day. This is worse than just being trapped in here. What if they don’t stop?”

  “Then we’re in trouble!” shouted Molly as she destroyed a magma cube.

  “What are we going to do?” Sean asked, fighting to destroy the smaller cubes as they spread out.

  “Watch out!” I called to Sean. He was getting close to the hole in the ground. I didn’t want him to fall in and be destroyed by the lava.

  “Thanks!” he replied breathlessly, still battling the fiery mobs.

  “This is awful.” Molly was exhausted, battling the remaining cube. “What’s our plan?”

  “We’re going to escape,” I said. I wanted to convince myself that this was possible. I had my doubts, but I knew it was the only way we could survive. I also wanted to find Thao. Now that he was Charles’s enemy, he might be a helpful ally.

  The battle was intense, but we destroyed the final magma cube. I held on to my pickaxe and began to chip at the wall again.

  “We can’t do that!” Molly warned me. “It will draw attention to us and they will just have more hostile mobs spawn here. We need to do something that they can’t hear or see. We have to appear to be model prisoners and when they aren’t looking we can plan an escape.”

  Molly was right. Her idea sounded smart, but I didn’t know how we could escape without bringing attention to ourselves.

  “What should we do?” I asked her.

  “I think we should go back into my room and try digging a hole in the ground. We don’t know that there is a stream of lava running beneath my room too,” she said. With that, she crawled through the hole back into her cell.

  We followed Molly and began to dig.

  “I don’t see any lava yet, do you?” I asked.

  “Nope,” replied Sean.

  We dug for awhile, and we still hadn’t hit any lava. Sean crawled through the hole and began to search for a way out.

  “I see light!” he called out.

  “Should we climb in?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Sean replied. “We can dig from below.”