The Jungle Temple Oracle

by Mark Cheverton

  I hate having all this responsibility! he thought.

  “First of all, there is no place here that is safe,” Stitcher said. “And second, taking care of her doesn’t mean putting her in a box. Taking care of her means treating her with respect and letting her prove her own worth, not just to you, but to herself as well. What you’ve done is made her insignificant, and that’s worse than putting her in some danger.” She paused to pull an arrow out of her inventory and fit it to her bow. “You should have more faith in your sister, just like I had faith in you.”

  And then she spun around and ran off toward the archer tower. He wanted to go after her, but a scream from the jungle stopped him from moving.

  “THEY’RE COMING! THEY’RE COMING! THEY’RE . . .” The voice was suddenly, violently cut off.

  It was one of the Watchers. Digger had positioned them in the treetops, with mounted scouts placed throughout the jungle. The sound had caused all the NPCs to take up their arms as they fell into their defensive positions. Gameknight could see the archers in the towers fit arrows to their bows. NPCs placed torches along the defensive walls as they drew their weapons, making sure they could see well in the darkness. Those manning the cannons all picked up stacks of TNT and readied their artillery. Warriors mounted their horses, then drew their swords that shined in the light of a full moon.

  All of the pieces on their side of the game board were ready, but for some reason, it all seemed wrong to Gameknight999. He was missing something here, but couldn’t see it. Looking across their defenses, he looked for Crafter, wanting to ask him what he was missing, but it was too late.

  “THE SPIDERS ARE HERE!” a horseman shouted as he rode out of the jungle, his armor cracked and scratched.

  Gameknight could see more horsemen moving between the trees, trying to escape from the foliage, but it seemed as if some kind of dark tide swallowed them up; a clicking wave that had multiple red eyes and a thirst for violence. The riders’ yells for help tore at the defenders, but they all knew that there was nothing that could be done.

  Before them, a gigantic wave of spiders flowed out of the jungle, the shadowy bodies blending in with the darkness of night, their eyes glowing bright. The creatures emerged, but then stopped at the edge of the tree line. There were cave spiders by the hundreds intermingled with the gigantic black spiders. Some of the spiders were smaller, just hatchlings, but with razor sharp claws and venomous fangs. There were so many that Gameknight999 couldn’t even count them. On the top of the sheer cliff that overlooked the temple, Gameknight could see one spider, larger than all the rest, slowly move up to the edge and peer down on them. This spider had bright purple eyes that burned with an unquenchable hatred for the NPCs. Gameknight knew that this was the spider that had been haunting his dreams; Shaikulud . . . Herobrine’s creation.

  Gameknight could see the spider queen look down on her forces, and it almost looked as if she were smiling. Following her gaze, he could see that they were completely surrounded. There were spiders not only directly in front of them, but also on their flanks, sealing them up against the ocean shore that was maybe twenty blocks behind the temple. Shaikulud had trapped them, and the jaws of the trap were about to snap shut.

  The User-that-is-not-a-user didn’t know what to do. There were so many spiders; so much hatred . . . on both sides. He hoped that a solution would appear within his mind, as Hunter had said, but the answer was completely missing . . . he had nothing.

  So, for lack of a better idea, Gameknight999 drew his enchanted sword, moved to the front of their defenses and held his weapon up high. Drawing in the biggest breath his square lungs could hold, he yelled out with all his might, his cry joined by every NPC.

  “FOR MINECRAFT!”

  And then he gripped the hilt of his sword firmly, and waited.

  CHAPTER 20

  THE BATTLE FOR THE JUNGLE TEMPLE

  From atop the sheer cliff that looked down upon the temple, Gameknight heard a screechy clicking sound that pierced through the noise of the defenders and the sounds of the approaching spiders. It brought an eerie silence to the soon-to-be battlefield and raised the NPC’s tension to the point of breaking. All eyes shifted to the spider queen that looked down upon the villagers, her purple eyes blazing with hatred, her body lit with pale moonlight.

  Gameknight could see her multiple eyes taking note of her enemy’s defenses. She then turned and looked at the spiders that milled about near the edge of the clearing. Finally, she focused her hideous stare directly at the User-that-is-not-a-user. He could feel all those eyes boring down on him, amplifying his fear. He looked away. Suddenly, Hunter was at his side, her reassuring hand on his shoulder. And then Digger was on his other shoulder, his big pickaxe held over his shoulder. Their shoulders brushed against his own ever so slightly, and he could feel the strength and courage in the two NPCs.

  I won’t be afraid of that monster, he thought, even as uncertainty crept into his mind. What if I can’t defeat her, what if they are too many spiders, what if . . . and then something his dad had said to him long ago came back to him: “Never focus on the what if . . . always focus on the now.” And he was right—the now was all that mattered.

  Hunter whispered something, just loud enough for Gameknight999 to hear.

  “Family takes care of family,” she said, staring up at the massive spider.

  “That’s right,” echoed Digger.

  I won’t focus on the what if, I’ll only focus on the now. And the now says that I have some spiders that need destroying, Gameknight thought.

  Feeling courage start to swell within his chest, the User-that-is-not-a-user glared back up at the spider queen, then moved to the outermost defensive wall. Leaping over it, he took a few steps forward, then drew his diamond sword and scratched a line in the dirt with its sharp tip.

  Shaikulud, seeing this, screeched at the top of her lungs. The sound made the hundreds of spiders that surrounded them click their pointed mandibles together, creating a wave of noise that made many NPCs cover their ears . . . but Gameknight refused. Stepping forward another step, he glared up at the spider queen, then shouted with all his strength.

  “BRING IT ON!”

  The NPCs, hearing the User-that-is-not-a-user’s voice, yelled and cheered, drowning out the clicking of the spiders. It seemed that the battle of acoustics went in favor of the NPCs. But then the spiders charged.

  To Gameknight999, it seemed like everything was moving in slow motion. He could see a hundred giant spiders scurrying toward him, the little black hairs on their bodies moving about in every direction at once. They moved through the circles of light that were cast upon the battlefield by the many torches that had been placed by the NPCs. Their gray, pointed mandibles clicked together in front of their mouths as their burning red eyes all focused on him. He could hear the trickle of the river as they charged through the flowing water, sprinting toward him. The hum of the archer’s bows filled his ears as the monsters splashed closer. All of these sensations seemed magnified and overwhelming until Hunter grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him.

  “We must get behind the defenses,” she said, then shook him again. “Gameknight! Come on.”

  But he was beyond thought. Gameknight had moved into that place where he just reacted, where his body did what it did best . . . and in Minecraft, that was fighting.

  Ignoring his friends, Gameknight drew his other sword, and with the diamond sword in his right and his iron sword in his left, he charged at the oncoming wave of monsters, screaming at the top of his lungs, “FOR MINECRAFT!”

  The villagers, seeing him with the two swords, all charged forward with him. The two armies met on the banks of the river. The NPCs hacked at the spiders as they tried to climb out of the flowing water. The villagers had dug up the blocks in the bottom of the river, increasing the depth at the banks, making it more difficult to get out. This paid off, for balls of XP were floating down the river, getting sucked into the villagers as they tore into the str
uggling spiders. But more eight-legged creatures flowed out of the jungle and added to their numbers. Soon there were spiders climbing over their comrades’ bodies to get out of the river, the deep river bed filled in with living monsters.

  The NPCs had to fall back.

  Running back to their first defensive wall, the swordsmen drew their bows and fired at the spiders from ten blocks away, hoping to slow their advance. It did little good. The spiders flowed out of the river like a black flood, crashing onto the first wall as if it were not even there.

  Gameknight stood at the front of the defenses, slashing at the monsters with his two swords. Spinning to the left and to the right, he was a whirlwind of death, a razor sharp tornado that moved through the Shaikulud’s army with a vengeance. But for every spider he slayed, two more took its place.

  They were losing.

  “Fall back to the second wall!” Gameknight screamed.

  The villagers, having practiced this, all disengaged from battle, turned, and sprinted through openings in the next wall. After the last villager made it through the barrier, the gaps were filled in with blocks of cobblestone.

  Then Digger yelled out to the cannon tenders.

  “CANNONS . . . NOW!”

  His voice boomed out across the landscape, but was quickly overwhelmed by blasts of TNT.

  The cannons growled and belched out their blinking cubes of TNT. The explosives lit up the night sky as they fell amongst the spiders swarming over the first wall, tearing great holes in the landscape and ripping HP from monster bodies. The archers in the towers then sent a pointed rain down upon the attackers. Gameknight could see flaming arrows from Hunter and Stitcher streak down to blocks of TNT that had been carefully hidden in that wall. They blinked for what seemed like an agonizing long time, then detonated, tearing great swaths of destruction in the spider army.

  “REDSTONE . . . NOW!” Digger screamed.

  Numerous levers were flipped, activating redstone circuits hidden underground. They ignited more blocks of TNT, changing the land in front of the temple into no-man’s land. Spiders flew into the air as the blocks exploded, HP leaving their dark bodies as they were thrown.

  But even with all this death and destruction, the spiders surged forward.

  “Keep firing!” Gameknight yelled as he moved about on their last defensive wall, cheering and motivating the NPCs.

  The spiders kept coming. Wave after wave kept flowing out of the dark jungle and crashing through the river. Uncertainty started to creep into Gameknight’s mind.

  What do I do . . . what do I do?

  But before he could really think about it, he felt a tugging on his sleeve, someone shouting his name.

  “Gameknight, I know what to do. Game-knight . . . TOMMY!”

  He turned and found his sister standing next to him.

  “I know what to do!” she shouted to her brother.

  Before he could scold her for coming out of the temple, she ran to the base of the tower and yelled up at the archers.

  “HUNTER . . . STITCHER . . . GET DOWN HERE NOW!”

  Without waiting for a reply, she ran back to Gameknight and waited.

  “What are you doing out here?” he asked. “I told you to stay in the temple!”

  Monet looked at him, then raised her hand, blocky palm held outward.

  “Talk to the hand,” she said with a scowl.

  He hated it when she said that, but knew that there was no talking to her when she was in that mood.

  Hunter and Stitcher sprinted from the base of the tower and stood next to the siblings.

  “What is it?” Hunter asked.

  “What’s wrong?” echoed Stitcher.

  “Come with me,” Monet said.

  She turned and ran into the temple, then stopped and glared at the other three who hadn’t moved.

  “Follow me . . . NOW!”

  The ferocity of her tone made the trio follow.

  “Digger, watch our flanks and keep them fighting,” Gameknight yelled to the big NPC who was now on the wall, his pickaxe slashing at the foolish spider that tried to approach. “I’ll be back.”

  Not waiting for a reply, he sprinted after the others.

  Monet led them down into the temple, deep enough where the sounds of battle were diminished.

  “This will work,” she said, then laid down on the ground. “All of you lay down, we have to get into the Land of Dreams.”

  “What?” Gameknight asked. “You know about . . .”

  “Stitcher taught me,” Monet answered. “She figured that since we were siblings, I’d be able to be a dream-walker like you . . . she was right. But we don’t have time for a debate, so quickly . . . get into the Land of Dreams.”

  She put her head back and closed her eyes. Instantly, her breathing became slow and rhythmical. Gameknight laid down next to her as Hunter and Stitcher did the same.

  Closing his eyes, he let himself slowly drift into that place between wakefulness and sleep, between the conscious and the unconscious . . . to the Land of Dreams. And suddenly, the silvery fog that he’d come to know so well surrounded him. Standing nearby was Hunter, Stitcher, and Monet, each with an enchanted bow in their hands.

  Standing, Gameknight looked at his sister.

  “What now?” he asked.

  “Follow me . . . to the top of the temple.”

  She turned and sprinted up the steps, past the main entrance, and up the other flight that led them to the top floor. Using the stairs that the mason’s had placed, they moved to the roof of the temple and looked out across the battlefield. They could see the partially transparent forms of the villages and spiders, locked in a dance of death as they battled in front of the temple. But Gameknight noticed a delicate purple strand of something that seemed connected to each spider, the fragile lavender threads glowing in the darkness of night.

  “Watch the spider near Digger,” Monet said.

  Drawing an arrow back, she carefully took aim, then fired at the spider. Gameknight knew that the arrow would not hurt the spider, for the spider was not in the Land of Dreams. Besides, he could tell from the trajectory of the projectile that it was going to miss the monster completely. And sure enough, it did. Instead of striking the monster, it flew over its head and sliced the purple glowing string that was wrapped around its head. The spider, suddenly released from the grip of the purple string, looked around, then ran away, not wanting anything to do with this battle.

  Monet then turned and faced her bother, a satisfied smile on her blocky face.

  “I’ve been doing some experimenting while I was down here in the temple,” she said. “We don’t have to kill the spiders, we just need to cut their strings.”

  “This is fantastic,” Hunter said as she drew back an arrow and started firing.

  Stitcher moved up next to her sister and did the same, firing at the purple strands as fast as they could. Gameknight move next to his sister then imagined his favorite bow. Instantly it appeared in his hand. Drawing back the arrows that the Infinity enchantment gave him, he fired, then drew again and fired again . . . and again . . . and again.

  Their barrage of dream arrows were tearing through countless purple filaments, giving those on the walls a brief respite, but Gameknight999 could see another wave of spiders coming out of the jungle. The next wave was probably three hundred strong, if not more . . . There was no way they could stand up against this wave. It was the end of them.

  Gameknight noticed that the purple filaments all led back up to the sheer cliff that overlooked the temple. The silvery fog of the Land of Dreams obscured where the strands met . . . but Gameknight knew who held all the string.

  And in that instant, he knew what he had to do.

  “Keep firing,” he said to the others.

  “What are you going to do?” Hunter asked.

  “Probably something stupid,” he said with a smile.

  “I like it already!” she replied.

  Gameknight woke himself up from
the Land of Dreams and stood. He could see Hunter, Stitcher, and Monet still lying on the ground, asleep, and carefully moved down the passage and up the stairs to the temple’s exit.

  “CRAFTER . . . WHERE’S CRAFTER?!” he yelled.

  “HERE!” came a voice off to his left.

  He could see Crafter battling with a cave spider, his iron sword tearing into the Brother, rending the last bit of HP from the insect’s body. It disappeared with a pop, leaving behind three balls of XP and a ball of thread.

  Turning, the NPC ran toward Gameknight999.

  “Crafter, I need an ender pearl, quick,” Gameknight asked.

  “What?”

  “Just give me an ender pearl . . . I have something that I need to do.”

  Reaching into his inventory, he handed the bluish sphere to Gameknight, his eyes filled with questions.

  “I only have one left,” Crafter said. “What are you going to do?”

  “What the User-that-is-not-a-user is meant to do,” he replied, then ran toward the battle lines.

  Climbing to the top of the defensive wall, Gameknight looked up at the sheer cliff that overlooked the temple. Gripping the ender pearl tightly, he threw it up as high as he could. When it landed on the ground at the top of the plateau, Gameknight was instantly teleported to the same spot.

  As he materialized, purple teleportation particles sparkled about him for an instant, then disappeared as pain filled his senses; you always took damage when you used an ender pearl.

  Turning, he saw Shaikulud standing on the edge of the cliff, bathed in moonlight. She was looking down at her army, waving her claw-tipped arm in the air, directing her troops as if she were conducting a symphony orchestra.

  “It’s time for this to end!” Gameknight shouted.

  The spider queen turned and looked at her enemy, then gave him a sinister fanged smile.

  “So, we meet in the flesh at last,” she said, her mandibles clicking excitedly. “Your actionssss have caused me much grief, User-that-is-not-a-user. Many of my hatchlingssss had to die because of you.” Her purple eyes glowed brighter, each filled with an overwhelming hatred. “I will take my revenge on you, Gameknight999, and watch you suffer, and then I will kill you.”