by Jerome ASF
“Hey!” Bacca said, jumping out of the way. “Knock it off, or Betty and I are going to give you something to actually be sad about!”
Whoosh! Another fireball zoomed past. These ghasts were not going to listen to reason. Fine, thought Bacca, maybe they would listen to being hacked apart.
Bacca took Betty out of his inventory and jumped into the fray.
Whack! Whack! Whack!
One of the ghasts fell out of the air.
Whack! Whack! Whack!
A second one fell.
The ghasts seemed to sense that they had bitten off more than they could chew. They began drifting up toward the dark ceiling of the Nether.
“Oh no you don’t,” Bacca said, taking out a bow enchanted with Power and Infinity arrows.
Zip! Zip! Zip!
Bacca’s arrows flew through the air, and the ghasts began to fall one after the other. Soon it devolved into an all-out ghast retreat. The mournful balls of tentacles high-tailed it in all directions.
“See?” Bacca said. “That’s what you get when you spit fireballs at people for no reason.”
He tried to think of other insults to shout at the ghasts, but stopped when he saw what they had been blocking.
The terrain behind the ghasts was a very strange sight. Three different rivers of lava joined, forming a great circle and creating a single island with a lava moat around it. The island rose up into the air—not quite a mountain, but at least a very large hill. And all across this hill, strange figures moved in the darkness. The glow of the lava cast strange, spooky shadows across them.
As he edged closer, Bacca realized that what he was seeing was not a trick of perspective. Some of the figures on the hill were the same size as Bacca . . . but others were enormous. As big as Gargantua had been. Giants. Real giants. They had to be. Perhaps this was what Gargantua had once been, before he became a skeleton. They stumbled around ponderously, making huge THUD! sounds with their feet. They frowned and had huge, bushy eyebrows. They did not look friendly.
The other, smaller, figures were not as aggressive. They also looked familiar. Bacca realized he had seen one of their kind quite recently. They were iron golems. There had to be hundreds of them walking around the hill beneath the giants. The two species seemed to coexist there, like animals that shared the same space but never seemed to notice one another.
Then something important caught Bacca’s attention. At the very top of the hill was a pedestal made of diorite blocks. And on the pedestal was a cloth made of woven gold ingots. And on the cloth was a large glowing orb that changed color as Bacca watched it, gradually cycling through the entire rainbow. And on the side of the orb was a giant letter “D.”
“And here I thought it would be an uppercase D . . .” Bacca said to himself.
This had to be the Dragon Orb, he thought. The creepers had chosen to hide it in plain sight . . . in a place where very few people would be brave enough to go.
Bacca walked closer, and as he neared the edge of the river of lava, the giants began to notice him. Their faces got even frownier. Bacca didn’t know what they were going to do, but it didn’t look like they wanted to be friends.
He tried to think up a plan for reaching the orb. The first challenge, he realized, would be the ring of lava. Most of the time, lava ran in thin streams that were easy to jump. But this river was as thick as ten or fifteen of those combined. Jumping was not going to be an option.
“I’ll have to build a bridge,” Bacca said to himself. “Good thing there’s plenty of crafting material down here to work with.”
But no sooner were these words out of his mouth than an enormous wave of lava lapped against the side of the moat. It sent the fiery red ore hundreds of feet into the air.
“Yikes,” Bacca said. “What was that about?”
Bacca decided to wait and watch the lava flow. Before long another great lava wave lapped up against the land. And then another.
Bacca realized that these jets of lava were going to crash up into the air at regular intervals. Any crafting blocks in the path of their spray would probably be done for, quickly disintegrated by the intense heat. As would any crafters. Building a bridge over this lava was something that would have to be done very quickly.
Bacca’s train of thought was derailed as suddenly a giant boulder smacked into the side of his head. He took two hearts of damage and was knocked onto his back. He looked up to see that the giants had started throwing boulders at him. One of them did a wind-up like a baseball pitcher and hucked its boulder as hard as it could. Bacca rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being hit.
“It looks like talking things out with these guys is off the table,” Bacca said, reaching for his bow. “And if I have to take them out, I guess it should be sooner rather than later.”
Bacca nocked an arrow and began to fire across the lava moat at the giants. The giants, in turn, continued to throw their boulders in his direction. He had never faced giants before and did not know what to expect from them in battle. It turned out that their boulders were easy to dodge. It was also not very hard to hit them with arrows. They moved slowly and were difficult to miss. The problem, Bacca soon realized, was their health. They had lots and lots and lots of it. Bacca’s arrows were straight and deadly, but the giants took all the damage he could dish out without much effect.
How many hearts of health did these creatures have? Hundreds? Thousands?
Finally, Bacca hit one of the giants enough times that it began to teeter. He grew excited. Maybe one of them would actually go down. But then his heart sank!
From out of its inventory, Bacca watched the wounded giant pull an enormous healing potion. The giant drank it down. Moments later, it roared back into the fight looking completely restored.
Bacca suddenly had a feeling that this approach wasn’t going to work. Even if he shot arrows at them for days, who knew how long it would take to defeat these giants. And if they were going to be using healing potions on top of it? Why, it could take weeks. Or months!
Bacca didn’t think the dragons had that kind of time.
Finally, he considered that even when he did defeat the giants, there would be the matter of the golems. There were hundreds of them still standing between him and the Dragon Orb. How long would it take to defeat all of them?
As he continued to dodge boulders, Bacca pondered over the best approach.
Getting the orb from this island was going to be a tough job. There was no doubt about it. But Bacca began to suspect that the task just might be possible . . . with a little help from some of his new friends.
Chapter Thirteen
The dragons eyed the Nether Portal, waiting anxiously for Bacca to return. The absence of the Dragon Orb continued to affect them. Most were now too weak to fly, and sat on branches, their necks craned hopefully toward the top of the tree.
Suddenly, there was a great flash accompanied by a sound like thunder, and Bacca emerged from the portal. The dragons looked anxiously for any clue that his mission had been successful.
The Diamond Dragon hovered near the portal, smiling hopefully.
“Do you have it?” asked the dragon.
“Not yet,” said Bacca. “But I’ll have it soon. I just need a little help.”
“I fear we are now too weak to be much help,” the Diamond Dragon said. “Few of us can fly. And we cannot go into the Nether.”
“If there are three dragons that still can fly, then my plan will work!” Bacca said confidently.
“I’m weakened . . . but you can still count on me,” said the Diamond Dragon.
“And me,” said the Emerald Dragon, swooping into view.
“And me too,” said the Gold Dragon, taking flight from a nearby branch.
“Great,” said Bacca. “Now here’s what I need you to do.”
Bacca whispered his instruction into each of the dragon’s ears.
“What?” said the Emerald Dragon. “What good will that do?”
�
�Yeah,” said the Gold Dragon. “I don’t understand.”
The Diamond Dragon came to Bacca’s defense.
“Listen, you two,” said the giant, glistening creature. “Since he arrived, Bacca has done everything he could to help us. He’s risked life and limb—and probably lots of other stuff too—in order to find our orb. I may not entirely understand Bacca’s plan, but something tells me he’s earned our trust!”
A chorus arose from the other dragons on the branches.
“Yes!” they shouted. “He has earned our trust! Follow his plan!”
The emerald and gold dragons relented.
“Very well,” said the Emerald Dragon. “We may not understand it, but we will follow his plan.” He then flew in close to Bacca and looked at him with an enormous eye. “But this had better work!”
“Don’t worry about that,” Bacca told him. “You just do your part, and we’ll have your orb back in no time.”
“Let’s get going,” the Diamond Dragon said. “We weaken with every passing second. There’s not a moment to lose.”
The Emerald Dragon and the Gold Dragon flew off in different directions. Bacca jumped aboard the back of the Diamond Dragon, and then they too flew off across the treetops.
Leaving the forest behind, they crossed new landscapes that changed several times. Soon the creeper fortress towered into view.
The Diamond Dragon swiftly climbed up, up, up to the highest reaches of the great black obelisk, until it found the skylight through which Bacca had exited earlier.
“Right here?” asked the Diamond Dragon.
“Yes, this is perfect,” he said, leaping from the beast’s glistening back.
Bacca went back through the skylight and lowered himself into the workshop of the Tinkerer. Once there, he began to gather items from the workshop’s tables and bring them back outside . . . where he placed them on the back of the diamond dragon. Bacca was a fast worker, and soon the dragon’s back had a large mound of items spread across it. When it flew, Bacca suspected the dragon was going to look like a floating garage sale.
“Okay,” said Bacca. “That’s the last of them. I’ll meet you back at the Nether Portal.”
“Yes,” said the Diamond Dragon. “I understand.”
The dragon took off and headed back toward the forest. Bacca watched it fly away and decided he was right. The dragon did look an awful lot like a floating garage sale.
The sky above began to darken.
“Perfect,” Bacca said. He jumped back through the skylight and closed it behind him.
Racing through the Tinkerer’s workshop, Bacca hurdled across crafting tables and jumped over chairs on his way to the staircase. He raced down the steps and passed through the quartz door. There, he saw the guard house with the Tinkerer still standing at attention inside it.
“Hello,” she called in a delighted voice. “Oh, Bacca! I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon. I have to thank you again—I absolutely love my new job as a guard. It really gives me a lot of time to myself.”
“That’s great,” said Bacca, racing past. “Sorry, I don’t have time to talk right now. I’ll see you later!”
And Bacca sprinted past her down the corridor to the small ledge overlooking the mammoth room where Gargantua lived. The three enormous, toppled statues were still there—with giant arrows still embedded in them—but the villagers had entirely removed the golden sun from the wall. (Bacca hoped they had acted really frightened when they gave all the gold back to the ghost.)
“Hello!” said an enormous voice. “What Are You Doing Back Here?”
“I have some exciting news,” Bacca told Gargantua. “I know that you really enjoyed our little skeleton simulation. But what if I told you that I’ve found a way you could hunt people your own size . . . for real!”
“I Would Do Anything To Make That Happen,” Gargantua said excitedly.
“In that case, pick me up from this ledge,” Bacca said. “We’ll need to work quickly.”
A giant skeletal hand shot through the gloom and hovered next to Bacca, who climbed aboard. Gargantua lifted him up to his enormous bony face. Bacca could see the giant skeleton’s newfound excitement written all over his face. Err . . . skull.
“Now that I’ve made my way through it, I have a better sense of the dimension of this fortress,” said Bacca. “I used to think this room was far underground, but now I realize it’s about ground level. And by my calculation, the external wall of the fortress is that wall there.”
Bacca gestured to the far side of the room.
“By Where I Shot The Villagers You Made . . . The Ones That Were My Size?”
“Yes, exactly,” Bacca said. “Now unfortunately, I don’t have time to carve a door that’s big enough for you. But I think if you can hold me up, I’ll be able to carve the outline of a door. Then you should be able to push your way through.”
“Good,” said the giant. “Let Us Begin. I Am Quite Excited By This Plan.”
Gargantua’s enthusiasm made Bacca laugh. He took his favorite diamond pickaxe out of his inventory and took a few practice swings.
“Okay,” Bacca said. “What I need you to do is pretend that I’m a pencil you’re holding. I want you to use me to draw a door on the wall—one that will be big enough for you to fit through.”
“Yes,” boomed the giant. “I Can Do That.”
“But don’t actually try to draw with me,” Bacca cautioned. “Because you’ll smush me if you do that. Instead, just hold me up to the wall.”
“I Understand,” the giant said.
Bacca sincerely hoped he did.
Starting at the ground level where the wall met the floor of the room, Gargantua slowly began to use Bacca to draw the shape of an enormous door. Bacca swung his pickaxe wildly, faster than he ever had before, and crushed through the blocks in front of him. Whenever a block was demolished, the giant moved him a little higher, giving him access to the next block.
As he worked away, Bacca was relieved to see that he had been right about the position of the room. It was directly against the fortress’s outer wall. Not only that, but the wall was quite thin. As Bacca chopped away blocks, he found he could see moonlight streaming in from outside.
“Keep up the good work,” Bacca cried to the giant. “We’re getting there!”
More quickly than Bacca anticipated, they were able to trace the outline of a huge door into the side of the castle wall. Bacca had never smashed blocks so quickly in all of his life. His shoulder hurt and his fingers were starting to get blisters. His once-sharp diamond pickaxe now looked blunt and dull. He just hoped that his efforts would be enough to free Gargantua.
“Okay,” Bacca said as the giant deposited him back on the floor. “Now I need you to get a running start and put your shoulder into that door we’ve made. Or your shoulder bone. Whatever.”
“Yes,” said Gargantua. “I Will Do It.”
The giant took a few thundering steps backwards, then ran full-tilt into the outline of the door. There was a sound like a cannon being fired as Gargantua collided into the wall. Then, very slowly, the piece of wall began to fall forward. Anticipating another loud noise, Bacca put his fingers in his ears as he watched it fall.
KER-CHUNK!!!
The great mass of blocks hit the ground with a force that made the earth shake. After the dust had cleared, Bacca and Gargantua found themselves staring out into the darkened biome beyond. The moon was high in the sky.
“This World Beyond . . . It Looks So Strange,” said the giant, peering out nervously.
“Now’s not the time to be timid!” Bacca cried. “We’ve still got important work to do. Pick me up and put me on your shoulder.”
The giant did so.
“Good,” Bacca said. “Now, do you know what ‘running’ is? Because I’m going to need you to run as fast as you can all the way to the forest. Don’t worry about directions. I’ll let you know where to turn.”
“Running?” the Giant said. “
Yes, I Have Heard Of This. But My Confines Were Always Too Small To Attempt It.”
“Well let’s try it right now,” Bacca said. “There’s never a better time than the present!”
Gargantua turned out to be an excellent runner. Like a horse, he was slow getting started, but really flew along once he got up to top speed. With Bacca shouting directions into his ear, the enormous skeleton ran in the direction of the forest.
Soon, the green leaves and brown branches of the trees came into view. Bacca saw that the Diamond Dragon was already waiting for him on the highest branch of the tallest tree. The Emerald Dragon was there too . . . and he had brought along another familiar face.
Gargantua jogged closer, knocking over or entirely trampling smaller trees as he did so. The multitude of dragons who were too sickly to fly looked on in amazement as the biggest skeleton they had ever seen came running up.
“Whoa there,” Bacca cried. “Stop right in front of that tall tree with the glistening portal on top.”
Gargantua obeyed. The skeleton was so tall that his head was more or less level with the Nether Portal at the top of the tree. Bacca jumped onto the nearest branch and eyed the Emerald Dragon. And an iron golem sitting next to him.
“You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to convince him to do this!” the Emerald Dragon said to Bacca. “I had to do everything but threaten him!”
“Hello, Bill!” Bacca said. “Thank you for coming.”
“I didn’t really have a choice,” the iron golem said. “When a dragon ‘strongly suggests’ you do something, they can be surprisingly convincing.”
“I know the feeling,” Bacca said.
“The Emerald Dragon said if I helped you, then you would show me the best place of all to be a hermit,” Bill related. “Is this true? You know of a place better than the ice wastes?”
“Indeed I do,” said Bacca. “And it’s just through that glowing doorway there.”
Bill looked doubtfully at the Nether Portal.
