by Dr. Block
“Savannah, what’s yours?”
“My name is Harold, and that is Zeke.”
Savannah smiled. (At least, I think she did. It is a bit hard to tell with enderfolk.) “I’ve heard of you. I know about you and your battle with Herobrine.”
“Really?” I said. “I’m a bit surprised that you would have heard about that here in the End. Especially after what Harold and I just went through to escape from those attacking endermen.”
Savannah laughed. “There are a lot of enders who don’t pay attention to current events. Those folks chasing you probably haven’t heard about your bravery against Herobrine or how the Ender King befriended you.”
“How do you know?” asked Harold.
“Because,” said Savannah, “the Ender King is my father.”
“No way!” exclaimed Harold.
“Way,” said Savannah.
“So, you are an ender-princess?” I asked.
Savannah nodded.
“Should we, like, bow or something?”
Savannah laughed. “No. We enders don’t really care too much for ceremony and formality.”
“Well, we are glad to see you,” I said. “We really need to speak with the Ender King.”
“About what?” she asked.
Don’t tell her, Zeke. You don’t know how she might react. “Uh … just another one of Herobrine’s plots.”
She put her two long black arms together and shook them with excitement. “Oooh, tell me. Tell me.”
I shook my head. “I think this is something we should only discuss with your father.”
Savannah sighed and a look of disappointment crossed her inky face. “You are probably right,” she admitted. After a brief pause, she said, “Follow me. I’ll take you to him.”
Chapter 5
We walked through the cave for a long time. The walls were barren of any items other than a few misplaced blocks. There were torches on the wall every few paces so that there was sufficient light to see where we were going.
After a few minutes of walking, I asked Savannah, “How long is this cave?”
“Oh, it's pretty long,” she said. “ I normally just teleport to the end of it, but since I'm with you, we have to walk.”
“Couldn’t you just touch us and teleport to our destination?” asked Harold.
“I suppose, but I like walking. It helps me to relax. We enders love to walk and chill. It is what we do best.”
Harold sighed. I could tell he was tired from our earlier escape and would have preferred teleporting to walking.
After a few more minutes, we came to the end of the cave. At first, I wasn't sure how we would go any further. But then, I noticed a small black crack in the wall of the cave.
Savannah stepped into the crack and said, “Follow me.”
We entered a maze of passageways. We followed Savannah as she turned left, then right, then right, then right, then left, then left, then went straight, then left, then right.
“Let me guess,” said Harold. “You normally teleport through this area too?”
“Actually, I can’t,” said Savannah. “This is the underground entrance to the Ender King’s palace. There is a special force field here that prevents teleportation.”
“So, what happens if you take a wrong turn in this maze?” I asked.
“Oh, you eventually will fall into a lava pit, starve to death or get attacked by a shulker. It would not end well.”
“A shulker?” I asked.
Savannah nodded. “Strange creature. It lives in a shell, then pops out and attacks. It has this weird levitation attack. Anyway, I’ve never seen one. I’ve just heard about them from my father.”
“Uh, couldn’t we have just gone in the front door of the palace?” asked Harold. “I mean, you are the Ender King’s daughter.”
Savannah laughed. “Where would be the fun in that?”
I shivered as I continued to follow Savannah through the labyrinth. I thought about how horrible it would be to get lost in this maze, and I was glad that we had found a trustworthy guide.
After a few more turns, we finally entered a straight, narrow passage. We walked along the passage for a short time and climbed two flights of stairs. This was very difficult because the stairs were spaced for the long legs of endermen. I had to pull myself up each step with my stubby arms.
“Are you kidding me right now?” I said, my arms aching and sweat dripping off my forehead.
“Sorry,” said Savannah.
“This is fun,” said Harold as he flapped his wings and hopped up each stair.
“Shut up,” I said to Harold as I shot him an icy look.
When I finally got to the top of the stairs, I found Savannah and Harold waiting for me in front of a locked door. Savannah pulled a key from her inventory and unlocked the door.
We entered a small room, lit only by a few small windows. We walked through that room and came to another locked door, which Savannah opened with a different key.
Behind that door was a massive, brightly lit room. It was many blocks high and straight and long. Along the walls were portraits of different endermen.
“Welcome to the Hall of Heroes,” said Savannah with an affected pompous voice as she gestured with her long black arms.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“This is where we put pictures of endermen and enderwomen who have done amazing things during our history. We open it a few times per year to the general public, but mostly it is just the royal family and a few historians in here during the rest of the year.”
“What sorts of amazing things have they done?”
Savannah shrugged. “Defeating invasions by players. Preventing the overthrow of the monarchy. Communicating with Notch.”
“What?” I asked in shock. “Endermen can communicate with Notch?”
Savannah laughed. “I can’t do that, but someone in the long lost past could. Don’t ask me how.”
I walked down the great hallway in a state of awe. I was in the presence of amazing endermen. Or, at least, in the presence of their pictures. As I walked along, I read the names and accomplishments:
Sophie – Defeating Herobrine’s Great Zombie Army after it invaded the End in 814
Luke – Preventing Herobrine from Destroying the End Nectar in 1033
Oswald – Communicating with Notch during the Great Imbalance of 1392
Matt – Attending MineCon 2015 without being discovered by humans
It went on and on.
“Amazing,” I said. Harold nodded his agreement.
“Yeah, I suppose it is,” said Savannah. “Anyway, you are here to see my father. He should be right through those doors.”
I looked where she was pointing. Two massive doors at the end of the Hall of Heroes.
I suddenly felt very nervous. What would I say to the King? How would he respond? Would he become angry? Kill me?
No, I thought. He is too wise to become angry. He will see that I am trapped between a rock and a hard place inside a Catch-22. He will know a way out.
“Ok,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 6
When we opened the door to the chamber, the Ender King was seated on a large throne. It was purple with black accents. Two other endermen were standing in front of him talking about something.
The King greeted his daughter pleasantly, but when he saw us, he gasped.
“Zeke? Harold? What are you doing here?” he said, now standing in front of the throne.
He was not the super-massive Ender King I had met when defeating Herobrine, but a normal-sized enderman. The only thing that set him apart was the shiny purple crown on his head.
“Ummm,” I muttered, not exactly sure what to say. Then, I blurted, “We’re here to kill you.”
Out of nowhere, eight endermen teleported in a ring around us. They shoved Savannah to the side and linked their arms in a circle so that we could not escape. They were grumbling with low voices. It was difficult to hear w
hat they were saying, but I think it was “Exterminate. Exterminate.”
“No, dad, no,” Savannah yelled.
Through the ring of impenetrable arms encircling Harold and me I could see the King raise an arm. “Enough, Savannah. Go to your room.”
“But, Dad!” Savannah pleaded.
“No buts. Go to your room. Now!”
“Fine, but don’t hurt them. They are nice,” said Savannah as she suddenly teleported from the room.
Now that we were alone with the Ender King and his guards, I was beginning to think that my direct approach had been the wrong one. Harold agreed.
“Maybe you should have eased into it a bit, Zeke,” hissed Harold through his clinched beak.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“No talking,” shouted one of the guards.
I sighed.
The King approached the circle where we were being held captive. I could not believe he would think we were really going to kill him. Why would he believe such a thing after what we had done to Herobrine? It hadn’t been very long ago. Why would he think we could change so much so quickly?
But, then I realized, lots had changed in a very short time. My friends and I had gone from heroes to captives to escapees and back to captives again. And now, Harold and I were supposed to be assassins.
Insane.
In the midst of my musings about the mercurial circumstances of my life – the only constant in life is change, I had finally concluded – one of the guards reached in and snatched me by the collar and dropped me outside the circle.
The guard stood behind me with a firm grip on both of my shoulders. I wasn’t going anywhere.
The King stood before me. Regal. Powerful. He had allowed his size to increase since we had first entered the room. Even though he stood several blocks away from me, he loomed over me menacingly.
“Zeke,” he began. I detected a slight sadness in his voice. “Why have you come here to kill me? After our brief time together fighting Herobrine, I thought we were allies, if not friends.”
I sighed. “King, man, I’m not really here to kill you. I was sent here to kill you though, that’s true.”
“What do you mean, sent?”
“Herobrine’s minion captured Zeb, Otis and Bob. He told me that if I don’t kill you, he will kill them.” I paused for a moment. I had to push down my tears of frustration and anger before I could continue. “I told him I would kill you so that I could come here and see if maybe you could help me.”
The King stood there for a moment rubbing his chin in thought. And, when I say “a moment,” I mean like five minutes. It was maddening. Here I was trying to save my friends, and the one dude who can save them rubs his chin for five minutes!?!
I would have interrupted, but I knew better than to lash out at my only possible solution to this mess. Instead, I just looked around the King’s chamber. It was pretty swank, if you like purple, black and gray as a color palette. Gray stone floors and walls. Purple furniture with black cushions.
On the walls hung heavily embroidered brocade tapestries that were purple and black, with just a few dots of white. Wait. White? Was that supposed to be Herobrine and his glowing eyes?
I looked again at the tapestries lining the room. Almost every one of them had small white dots. Did these depict every battle the King and his ancestors had with Herobrine? If they did, it was clear that the Protector had been busy throughout all time maintaining the Balance of the Three.
“The minion’s name was Shadow, right? A wither skeleton riding a spider, right?” asked the King, breaking the silence.
“Yes,” I said. “How did you know?”
But, the King did not respond. Instead, he returned to thinking and rubbing his chin again. Seriously? I mean, how does rubbing your chin help you think? Was his brain in his chin? Did it need a massage or something?
I’m not proud of what I thought next. I’ll admit it was childish, but then again, I am a baby zombie. I seriously and sincerely with all my heart wanted to stick my tongue out at the King. Yeah, and maybe even make a phhttt noise at the same time.
But what would that have accomplished?
Finally, when at least another five minutes had passed, the King said to the guards, “Release them, but stay close.”
I could tell the King had made a decision because he finally stopped rubbing his chin.
“We need to deal with this situation in two stages,” the King began. “First, we need to defeat Shadow and rescue your friends. Then, we need to change Herobrine’s mind about wanting to get revenge against you and your friends.”
“Change his mind?” said Harold. “Don’t you mean ‘kill him’?”
The King shook his head. “Only if it comes to that. Herobrine is a necessary evil in this world. However, I cannot let him become too powerful or else he will upset the Balance.”
“What is this balance stuff anyway?” demanded Harold. “Zeke mentioned it earlier and it sounds pretty groovy from a hippie philosophy major sort of worldview, but are you telling me we shouldn’t kill Herobrine?”
“Yes,” responded the King.
“That’s insane,” said Harold. “Herobrine is evil. E. V. I. L.”
“That is where you are wrong,” said the King.
“Explain yourself,” demanded Harold.
“No time,” responded the King. “We need to rescue your friends as soon as possible. I can sense Shadow becoming agitated.”
Now it was my turn to ask some questions. “Wait. You can sense Shadow from here?”
The King ignored my question. Clearly, the answer was yes. Instead, he turned to two of the endermen who had surrounded us. “Cricket? Andy?”
“Yes, Sire!” the two young endermen said in unison.
“You will take Harold and Zeke to the ender dragon’s lair and acquire two ender dragons to come with us to destroy Shadow. We will need dragon power for this.”
Harold leaned over and whispered in my ear. “Did he say two ender dragons? Is there more than one?”
I shrugged. I had no idea.
Cricket grabbed me by the arm while Andy put his hand on Harold’s back.
“Come on, let’s get ourselves some dragons,” Cricket said as we suddenly teleported from the throne room.
Chapter 7
After no more time had passed than it would take you to snap your fingers, the four of us – Harold, Cricket, Andy, and me – were standing at the base of a large mountain.
I looked up and saw a massive beast circling the top of the summit. It was the Ender Dragon himself. Or, herself? I had no idea.
I mean, after meeting an endergirl, I was so confused. The English language still defaults to masculine pronouns, right? So, I’ll stick with himself.
“Inside,” muttered Cricket.
I had been so awed by the dragon above me that I had failed to notice the massive cave entrance directly in front of us.
Harold and I walked in front of the two endermen. The entrance to the cave was so wide that twenty baby zombies standing side-by-side could have walked through it. The entrance was so tall that thirty baby zombies could have stood on each others’ shoulders and walked inside.
In other words, if the entrance to the cave were a perfect rectangle, it would have had a surface area of 600 baby zombies squared! Massive.
“Uh, why is the entrance to this cave so big?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” said Andy.
And, you know what? I saw.
Inside the cave were at least fifty young ender dragons!
Some were sleeping. Some were eating. Some were playing. Some were studying. Some were practicing breathing fire.
My jaw dropped at the sight.
“It’s like a scene out of How to Train Your Dragon!” said Harold.
Something Harold said got the attention of the ender dragons because they all instantly stopped what they were doing and looked at him with menace in their eyes.
“What did you say, Snack?” sai
d one of the dragons, his glowing purple eyes boring into Harold.
“Uh … nothing?” said Harold, trying to figure out what had just happened.
“No one trains us,” said the dragon. “We prepare ourselves for the great honor of being the one Ender Dragon to battle the players who come to the End.”
“Sorry,” said Harold.
“Don’t make that mistake again,” said the dragon, turning away and walking down a passage until we couldn’t see him anymore.
“Okay, everyone. Calm down,” said Andy, raising his long spindly black arms to the sky. “We need some volunteers.”
The dragons’ ears perked up when he said this.
“Volunteers? For what?” asked one of the dragons.
“For a mission to the Overworld,” said Andy.
I watched as pandemonium broke out. Dragons were climbing on top of each other to be the first to volunteer. They all shouted that they wanted to go. They never even asked what the mission was.
I admired their bravery, or was it their stupidity? It is sometimes difficult to discern the difference.
Cricket and Andy raised their arms to quiet the dragons. It took a few moments, but the dragon horde finally fell silent. Just as Cricket was getting ready to speak, I noticed something terrible out of the corner of my eye: A Wither Skeleton.
“Oh my Notch!” I screamed as I pointed at the wither skeleton who was holding a black iron sword. “It’s Shadow. He’s come to kill us!”
Cricket and Andy tensed. The dragons quickly turned, unsure who Shadow was or why I was so upset about it.
And then … the dragons all started laughing. They laughed so hard that they were collapsing on the ground. Some shot bits of fire out of their noses.
The Wither Skeleton said, “Come on, guys. Is it really that funny?”
“Yeah, Axe, it is,” said one of the dragons.
The wither skeleton stiffened. “That’s Agent Axe to you!”
