by Jerome ASF
“Yee-haw!” cried Bacca.
“Excuse me?” said the dragon.
“Sorry . . . that just seemed like a good thing to say at a time like this,” Bacca clarified.
“Oh,” the dragon said. “Then go ahead.”
“Yee-haw!” Bacca cried again.
The dragon seemed amused.
Far on the horizon was a tiny speck that could be easily mistaken for a block of snow or ice. It hovered high in the sky above the seemingly endless ocean. The dragon headed toward it, going faster and faster, gaining speed with every flap.
“Is it far?” Bacca shouted into the dragon’s sparkling diamond ear.
“Do you see that dot up ahead?” the dragon replied.
Bacca did.
“That’s the entrance to my server plane,” the dragon said.
Together they flew closer and closer to the strange hovering block. As they drew close, it seemed to expand before Bacca’s eyes, and he suddenly grew nervous, wondering what would happen when they reached it. Would they crash into it? Was this dragon going to splatter him all over the place? Bacca was acutely aware that diamonds were much stronger than fur and skin and all the other stuff that he was made of. What if the dragon had forgotten that what might not hurt him could definitely hurt Bacca? They zoomed faster toward the block, so quickly that Bacca had no other choice but to squint his eyes and hold on tight, bracing for a potentially horrible impact. In seconds they flew directly into the smooth surface, and a great blinding flash enveloped them.
Bacca blinked his eyes quickly, waiting for his sight to return. When it did, he realized that they were somewhere entirely new.
Chapter Two
A strange landscape of bedrock spread out below Bacca. Rivers of lava crisscrossed its surface. They sent out heat that Bacca could feel even from the dragon’s dizzying height. The sky above was bright blue. Clusters of stone bricks hung in the air like floating islands. Some of them had blocks of ferns and flowers, and looked altogether friendly.
Much to Bacca’s relief, the Diamond Dragon carefully landed on one of these friendly-looking islands. Bacca hopped down from the dragon’s back.
“I guess this place is pretty weird . . .” Bacca pronounced skeptically. “But I’ve seen weirder. Heck, I’ve built weirder.”
“Oh don’t worry,” the dragon said. “The weirdness is just getting started.”
“Why are we on this little platform?” Bacca asked. “Where’s the riddle? Where are the purple creepers?”
“We’ll get to that shortly,” the dragon said. “But first, we’re going to have to speak to a welcoming committee.”
“Huh?” Bacca said.
The Diamond Dragon extended a single talon toward the sky.
“Here they come now,” it said.
Three floating shapes came into view in a distant part of the sky. They gradually moved closer, and Bacca realized they were also dragons.
One was a bright sparking green, and looked to be made entirely of emerald blocks. The next was a shimmering yellow that was almost certainly gold. The final one was dark blue with streaks of gold running throughout. Bacca realize it was a dragon made entirely of lapis lazuli! Bacca had never seen anything like it.
The trio made several circles in the air, sizing up the situation. Then they descended to the platform, landing with three loud thuds! They did not look friendly. Bacca wasn’t looking for a fight, but he had brought Betty in his inventory, and was ready to reach for it if needed.
Much to Bacca’s surprise, he realized the dragons’ stern, angry looks were not directed at him . . . but at the Diamond Dragon.
“Who is this?” the Emerald Dragon asked.
“Bacca,” replied the Diamond Dragon. “He’s the one I was telling you about.”
Bacca noticed the Diamond Dragon sounded a little defensive.
“What’s a ‘Bacca’?” the Lapis Lazuli Dragon asked skeptically.
“I’m a Bacca,” said Bacca, crossing his arms.
The Lapis Lazuli Dragon arched his eyebrows to indicate this was hardly a sufficient explanation.
“I thought we agreed we didn’t need help,” the Gold Dragon interrupted. “Why have you brought an outsider here?”
“Because Bacca is the greatest crafter in all the Overworld!” replied the Diamond Dragon. “He knows how to make almost anything . . . out of almost anything! If there’s a way to get inside this fortress holding our orb, Bacca will be the one to find it!”
“Oh, stop it,” said Bacca bashfully. “You’re going to make me blush.”
The Emerald Dragon still seemed unconvinced.
“It’s not going to look good if word gets out about this,” it whispered. “We’re supposed to be dragons, after all. Dragons never need help!”
“It will be worse if word gets out that creepers stole the orb and we couldn’t get it back,” the Diamond Dragon replied.
The other dragons thought about this, and nodded in reluctant agreement.
“So, does that mean I got the job?” Bacca asked.
The Emerald Dragon snorted.
“I suppose so,” it said. “But consider this your probation period.”
That was good enough for Bacca. He leapt back onto the Diamond Dragon.
“Then let’s go get a Dragon Orb,” Bacca said. “Yee haw!”
The Emerald Dragon rolled his eyes, and the dragons took off into the air.
They flew in formation across the strange plane. Bacca saw more unusual sights and odd constructions . . . but it still wasn’t anything he couldn’t craft himself. As they flew, Bacca wondered exactly what the Diamond Dragon expected him to do, and how he could solve the creepers’ strange riddle.
Whatever it was, he was sure he was about to find out.
Chapter Three
At the edge of Bacca’s vision, a mountain began to appear. And what a mountain! It was grey and black and appeared to be made from a mix of stone bricks and polished granite. Its triangular base extended up into the sky . . . and just kept extending, seeming to go on forever. Its top was completely lost in the flat, square clouds that drifted by overhead.
“That’s the biggest mountain I’ve ever seen,” Bacca called to the Diamond Dragon.
“It’s not a mountain,” the sparkling beast replied. “That’s the home base of The Creep. A special fortress where they live. We don’t know where it came from, but it’s always been there. It’s older than us, and full of strange things.”
They flew closer. The sheer immensity of the structure began to take his breath away. That, or maybe he was getting altitude sickness. They had been flying for a long time, and Bacca was more of a land-animal.
“You’re not saying the creepers built it?” Bacca asked. “I mean, creepers don’t build things. They destroy things. By sneaking up on you and exploding like a big bunch of jerks.”
The Diamond Dragon laughed.
“No, they didn’t build it,” the dragon said. “But they colonized it. They spread everywhere inside. Nobody has bothered trying to get them to leave. But it has never occurred to us to pay much attention to them at all. Until now.”
“Yes, everybody usually ignores this place,” the Emerald Dragon quipped from his spot at the front of the squadron formation. “But The Creep changed all of that when they stole our orb!”
“It’s like they want us to come here,” agreed the Lapis Lazuli Dragon.
“We just can’t figure out why,” added the Gold Dragon.
They were now close enough to the towering fortress that it entirely blotted out the sun. They flew in its shadow. Tiny birds circled above.
The dragons landed at the fortress base, where a single doorway had been constructed out of blocks of dark obsidian. Past the doorway, Bacca could see a passageway that stretched deep inside. Across the front of the doorway were a series of glowing bars made out of a strange material Bacca had never seen, casting a reddish-bluish-greenish hue that seemed to change whenever he looked at it.
Bacca dismounted from the Diamond Dragon and approached the barrier. It emitted a faint hum. Bacca shrugged, and took Betty out of his inventory. He raised the axe high above his head, and gave the nearest glowing bar a mighty chop. Immediately, a horrible pain coursed through his arm and he could feel himself losing health. The barrier was unbroken. It continued to glow and change colors. Bacca had not damaged it at all.
The dragons started laughing.
“Don’t you think we already tried that sort of thing?” the Emerald Dragon said with a guffaw.
“Yeah, really,” said the Gold Dragon.
“Are you absolutely sure this guy was worth all the trouble to bring here?” said the Lapis Lazuli one.
Bacca tried to think seriously about the problem before him. There had to be a way in. What could it be?
“How does the riddle go?” Bacca asked. “The riddle they left when they took your orb?”
The Diamond Dragon cleared his throat and spoke the words once more:
“To open the lock, bring us the key.”
Bacca stroked his hairy chin and thought. He stared at the strange latticework of glowing bars that blocked off the creepers’ stronghold. He carefully examined the different ways that they interlaced and connected.
Then a thought struck him. Bacca walked over to the dragons. From his inventory he produced a set of fine stone, iron, and diamond pickaxes.
“Are there any good places to mine around here?” Bacca asked.
The dragons looked at one another.
“Yes, of course,” said the Diamond Dragon. “Lots and lots of them. Why?”
Bacca smiled.
“I need you to take me to the deepest, darkest place that you know,” he said.
The dragons looked at one another again.
Then they nodded.
From a secret opening high atop their towering fortress, a group of bright-purple creepers known as The Creep saw the strange, hairy creature jump back atop the Diamond Dragon and fly out of sight.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.
“That’s him?” one of the creepers said. “That hairy, fishy-smelling thing is Bacca? The Bacca?”
He was speaking in Creeper, the creeper’s natural tongue. It was very much like the language that most everyone in Minecraft used to communicate, but much, much quieter.
“Apparently it is,” said another creeper. “I thought he’d be taller. And have a nicer suit.”
“Not so fast, you two,” said another one. “You haven’t seen him craft anything yet. That’s what’s important. Everything else is secondary.”
“Like being tall?” added another.
“Yes, like being tall!” the creeper clarified angrily, with such force that for a moment it was almost—almost—audible to a human ear.
“Why did they leave?” one of the creepers wondered. “They just flew away.”
“You know what he has to do,” another creeper said. “What would you do if you were him?”
“I’d go find a mine,” said the other creeper.
The creepers exchanged a meaningful look with their perfectly square eyes.
“Do you really think our plan is going to work?” one of the creepers muttered. He said this to no one in particular. As in all things, The Creep formulated their nefarious acts collectively.
The success of their plan, they all knew, would depend entirely on what Bacca did next.
The dragons flew Bacca to a giant opening that ran like a scar across the floor of their world.
“That’s a mine?” Bacca asked sarcastically. “It looks like something that was left over after an earthquake.”
“It’s a giant hole in the ground where you can mine stuff,” the Diamond Dragon replied. “If that’s not a mine, I don’t know what is.”
The dragon had a point.
They landed next to the ragged opening, and Bacca hopped off. Then he crept forward to explore.
What he wanted very much to avoid was falling into very deep holes while mining and having to dig steps to get out again. It didn’t happen often, but when it did—boy was it annoying! Peering into the dark depths below, Bacca tried to assess the terrain, and gauge the likelihood of this happening. There were blocks of dirt and stone and ore, and even obsidian. Lava flowed here and there, but there were also rivers of water. The pathway down looked jagged and confusing. Bacca decided just to jump in and hope for the best.
Before he could make his leap, Bacca heard a flapping sound that made him pause. He turned and saw all but the Diamond Dragon flying away.
“Where are your friends going?” Bacca asked.
“They have . . . important dragon business,” the Diamond Dragon said. “But don’t worry. They’ll definitely be back.”
“Are you in trouble with the other dragons for bringing me here?” Bacca asked. He had never been a person to avoid bringing up a sensitive issue.
“Um . . .” the dragon hesitated. “Let’s just say that it will be really, really good for me if you can get our orb back. And really bad if you don’t.”
“Can I meet the Pumpkin Dragon if I get the orb back?” Bacca asked. “I really want to meet the Pumpkin Dragon.”
“I suppose so,” the Diamond Dragon said. “. . . and any other dragons you like . . . if you get the orb back.”
That was all he needed to hear.
Bacca leapt into the crevasse in front of him, tumbling down into the inky blackness below.
Chapter Four
Bacca lit a torch.
Then, after looking around at the immense size of the hole around him, he combined some sticks and pieces of coal in his pack to make about twenty more. The place was enormous. Bacca realized it was going to be a very big job.
Once he had the torches in hand, he began to mine the craggy cave walls around him. He wasn’t completely sure his plan would work—he didn’t even want to tell the Diamond Dragon what his plan was yet—but he knew he would need quite a bit of obsidian for it.
Suddenly, Bacca stopped. Had he heard something, he wondered? Perhaps, a high-pitched, shrieking sound?
Uh oh. That was never good.
Bacca tossed a torch down the dark shaft ahead of him. It illuminated the walls as it flew, and came to a rest on the rocky ground. It revealed several sets of small red eyes. They seemed to be looking directly at him.
Cave spiders. Bacca had faced them many times before. Usually they were just an annoying nuisance . . . but they were also the only creature that could crawl up the sides of walls and come at you from all directions. Also, things seemed to be a little different in this server plane. Bacca didn’t know if these spiders would pose any special challenges, but he decided the best thing to do was prepare for the worst.
Bacca put away his pickaxes and drew Betty from his inventory. Then he quickly donned his suit of enchanted diamond armor. The spiders edged closer. There must have been twenty of them, maybe thirty. Their breath radiated an evil green poison exhaust. (And because spiders breathe through their abdomens—not their mouths—this made their undersides glow green, which made the sight even creepier!)
Bacca didn’t relish beating up on cave spiders, but they were annoying when you were trying to mine. It was also annoying when they tried to kill you.
“Hey, spiders,” Bacca shouted, raising Betty high above his head, where it sparkled brilliantly in the torchlight. “We don’t have to do this. Why don’t you guys head the other way down the passage, and we’ll forget we ever saw each other?”
The spiders did not take Bacca’s advice. Instead, they moved closer and made more screeching sounds. Their little red eyes glowed. Their fangs oozed poison. They began to rock back and forth aggressively, preparing to strike.
“Oh well,” said Bacca with a grin. “Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance to call it off!”
The first wave of spiders sprang at Bacca. Their jaws hungrily reached for him as they threw themselves forward across the floor of the mine. Bac
ca began to swing his axe.
“Don’t—”
Chop!
“—say—”
Chop!
“—I—”
Chop!
“—didn’t—”
Chop!
“—give—”
Chop!
“—you—”
Chop!
“—a—”
Chop!
“—chance!”
Bacca paused. Little bits of spider-limb were now smashed all over the cavern walls. Some of the legs even scuttled around on their own, or twitched a bit before finally going still. The remains of six or seven spiders—Bacca lost count—lay splattered all around him.
But a new wave advanced on Bacca from out of the darkness.
“Really?” Bacca said. “You just saw what happened to these guys. You were paying attention, right?”
The spiders refused to answer, and scuttled forward aggressively. Bacca raised his diamond axe once more. He knew what he had to do.
Back at the top of the crevasse, the Diamond Dragon leaned forward with an expression of concern on his face. He could not see into the dark depths where Bacca was presumably mining, but he could definitely hear that something was going on down there. And what he heard was beginning to make him worry. The dragon cupped one taloned hand to his ear and leaned over the craggy opening below. The “click-clack” of the pickaxe had suddenly stopped. Then it had been replaced by the sound of things being hacked into very tiny bits.
“Um . . . hello?” the dragon called tentatively. Then he summoned more confidence and roared: “Bacca? Hellloooooooo?”
For a moment there was no response—nothing except the continual chopping. Then the Diamond Dragon heard Bacca’s voice. The master crafter sounded a little out of breath.
“He-Hello?” Bacca called.
“Erm, is everything all right down there?” the dragon called back. “I don’t hear any more mining.”
After a moment, Bacca replied.
