The group split up. They banged deep into the sandstone walls, hoping their friends would be on the other side.
“Help!” the voices called out again.
“It’s not coming from the other side of this wall,” Steve told them. “I think they’re underneath us.”
The gang dug a hole in the ground with their pickaxes.
“Help!” the voices were getting louder.
The group dug as fast as they could. They wanted to get to their friends, who they now knew were trapped underneath the temple.
Steve and the gang fell through the big hole they had dug and landed underneath the floor of the temple.
Before Steve could light a torch, a spider jockey jumped at him. Steve swung at the spider with his sword, knocking the skeleton off the spider. Steve battled the skeleton while Thomas slayed the spider.
“Help!” the voices were very loud, and Steve wanted to destroy the skeleton as fast as he could. The others joined Steve and shot arrows at the skeleton.
“Help!” the voices cried.
“We’re here!” Kyra called to them.
“Kyra?” Lucy called back. “Is that you?”
“Yes!” she screamed as she shot an arrow at the skeleton, “and I brought some friends with me.”
The skeleton was destroyed. Kyra picked up the bone, and the group sprinted down the hall to their friends.
At the end of the hall was a bedrock wall.
“How are we going to break through this wall?” asked Will.
“Stand back. I have an idea.” Steve began to build a cube of destruction.
16
IT’S NOT A MIRAGE
Steve was crafting the cube of destruction with TNT when they heard the explosion.
Boom!
“Are you guys okay?” Steve called to them.
“Yes, but the side of the temple has fallen down, so we can escape,” Henry shouted back at the gang.
“Meet us outside!” Lucy told them.
The group ran through the temple and onto the sandy desert ground.
“Lucy!” Kyra shouted and sprinted toward her.
“How are you guys?” Steve asked. “Are you hungry?”
“Adam and Thomas!” Max was shocked to see them.
Adam offered them potions that would help them regain their strength.
Henry, Lucy, and Max drank the potions.
“It was awful,” explained Lucy. “They kept us trapped down there and didn’t give us any food.”
“I thought we’d never get out,” confessed Henry. “I was really worried.”
The reunion didn’t last for long. Rainbow griefers rushed toward the temple.
The gang could hear them screaming at each other.
“You are the one who blew up the treasure,” one rainbow griefer yelled at another.
The gang shielded themselves from the rainbow griefers, as they hid behind the temple.
“I don’t think they see us,” Henry told them.
“They’re awful,” added Lucy. “We have to get out of here fast.”
“What about your treasure?” asked Kyra.
“They stole it all. We have nothing left, but I don’t care. I just want to get out of the desert. We’ve been trapped here for days.” Lucy was exhausted. Despite being a treasure hunter, she missed Steve’s wheat farm.
“Do you see what I see?” Henry couldn’t believe his eyes. Just a few feet away from them sat another desert temple. He thought it was a mirage, but it was real.
“How did we miss that?” asked Kyra.
The group made their way to the temple. They needed to escape from the rainbow griefers and they wanted to find treasure.
As the entered the temple, they quickly raced toward the blue clay block.
“Throw a bucket of water and we can slide down the hole once it’s activated,” Henry told the group.
Will was about to break the blue clay block when Steve shouted, “Don’t break it!”
Steve began to break the orange clay block and jumped through the hole.
The rest of the group slid down to meet Steve by the four chests that contained the treasure.
“Don’t step on the pressure plate!” Henry yelled over at Alex, who stood very close to the dangerous plate.
Steve opened the first chest and found diamonds and gold.
Max opened the second chest and found rotten flesh and iron and gold.
“Yuck,” Kyra said when she saw the rotten flesh.
“I’m opening this one. Hope it’s not stinky,” said Alex as she opened the third chest, which was filled with golden horse armor and saddles. She offered the saddles to everyone in the group.
Henry opened the final chest, which contained an enchantment book. “Adam, you’ll love this book because you’re a potion expert.”
The group placed the treasures in their inventory and were ready to make their way back to the wheat farm when they heard a noise in the temple.
“Oh no!” Kyra said. “More rainbow men!”
Four rainbow men sprinted in. One of the rainbow men stood in front of Steve and said, “Looks like you guys got that treasure.”
“Good job, Alex. You got their friends here,” the second rainbow griefer told her.
“Now give us all of your stuff,” demanded the third griefer.
The fourth rainbow griefer said, “Don’t trust Alex. She is with them now.”
“What?” The first rainbow griefer was shocked. “Why? Don’t you want all their treasures? They are fools.”
“They aren’t fools,” Alex defended her friends. “And I don’t want their treasure. I just want their friendship. I also want evil people like you to stop terrorizing innocent people.”
The rainbow griefers laughed at Alex and then sprinted toward the group with their diamond swords.
“It’s a battle to the death!” one of the rainbow griefers said as he struck Steve with his sword.
Adam was running low on potions. He splashed them with a potion of weakness, but he didn’t have enough potion to make an impact on the griefers. They were still able to battle with full energy.
Kyra tried to get out her bow and arrow but she wasn’t fast enough.
“Ouch!” she cried as two rainbow griefers struck her with swords.
Max came up from behind the rainbow griefers that attacked Kyra and clobbered them with his diamond sword.
Dusk was setting, and a creeper silently passed by the desert temple. It was too late to move when they heard it tick and ignite.
Ka-Boom!
Two rainbow griefers were destroyed.
“Oh no!” Kyra pointed to the griefers who had been destroyed. “Alex and Will were fighting them when the creeper exploded.”
The creeper also destroyed Alex and Will. The group was upset, but they had to fight the remaining two griefers.
Steve swung his diamond sword at the rainbow griefer. Thomas shot an arrow. Adam threw potion at another griefer. Henry, Max, and Lucy also struck the griefers with their swords. The evil griefers were outnumbered and lost the battle.
“I can’t believe that creeper destroyed Alex and Will.” Kyra was really upset.
Steve wanted to tell her that it was okay, they’d respawn at the wheat farm, but then he realized that wasn’t the last place they slept.
“They will respawn in Adam’s house. I hope they can find their way from there,” Steve told her.
“Should we head over to my place near the mountain?” asked Adam. “We can meet them there.”
“Should we even trust Alex? She did confess to working with the griefers,” Kyra told them.
Before anyone could talk, Alex and Will appeared in front of them.
“We wanted to help you win this battle,” said Alex.
“How did you get here?” asked Steve.
“We teleported,” Alex told them.
Alex took out her diamond sword and said, “We have some rainbow griefers to destroy. I know the griefer who
is behind all of this and we have to find him.”
17
TREASURES AND TROUBLES
Alex sprinted toward a wooden house in the middle of the desert. “This is where the head rainbow griefer lives.”
The griefers could be seen through the window of the wooden house.
“Shh!” Steve said as he looked in the window.
“I can throw a potion on them,” suggested Adam.
“We need a plan,” Steve told Alex. “We can’t just sprint in and destroy them without a strategy.”
“Okay.” Adam started to propose a plan, but was cut short when a griefer shot an arrow at the group.
Adam told his friends to take off their armor.
“Seriously? Now?” Lucy couldn’t believe it.
“Yes, trust me. I have a plan,” Adam told his friends.
Adam only had a few drops left of the potion, but he tossed whatever he could from the potion of weakness bottle at the griefers.
He then splashed a potion of invisibility on his friends and the griefers stopped in their tracks.
“Where are they?” the head rainbow griefer—who wore a black helmet—asked the four rainbow griefers who stood next to him.
“Why are we moving so slowly?” asked another.
“They have an alchemist with them. Don’t worry, the effects won’t last very long. We’ll find them soon. But for now, just shoot arrows in their direction,” the head griefer instructed his band of griefers.
“What direction is that?” asked one of the griefers.
“Over there!” the head griefer commanded. “Where we saw them last.”
The rainbow griefers blindly shot arrows at where they thought the gang was standing.
“I don’t think we’re hitting anyone,” one of the rainbow griefers said as he was struck with an arrow from an invisible Steve.
Lucy sprinted toward the head rainbow griefer and struck him with her diamond sword. “That’s for trapping us!”
Kyra stood next to Lucy and also hit the head rainbow griefer with a powerful blow from her sword.
The head rainbow griefer’s health was diminishing. “Help!” he called to the other rainbow griefers.
The rainbow griefers tried to attack Lucy and Kyra, but every time they struck their swords, it didn’t seem to hit anybody.
“It’s too hard! We can’t see them!” The rainbow griefers were fighting air; it was an impossible battle. A barrage of arrows flew at them.
Adam knew they had to work fast. The potion didn’t last too long and they needed to damage the rainbow griefers if they wanted to have any advantage. Adam sprinted toward the group of griefers, striking as many as he could with his sword. The others joined him.
If someone was to walk by and watch the battle, it would appear almost comical, as the rainbow griefers awkwardly fought an invisible enemy.
“Stop! I surrender!” the head rainbow griefer shouted, and his fellow griefers looked on in shock and horror.
“What?” one screamed out, losing a life when a diamond sword struck his stomach. “There’s no surrendering.”
“That’s right,” Henry said as he hit the head griefer with a final blow.
“We won!” Lucy shouted.
“Not yet,” Steve said as he watched his friends lose their invisibility and get struck by the remaining rainbow griefers.
The griefers were losing energy; they had been hit too many times to fight properly. One griefer was able to escape, sprinting from the battle. Kyra shot an arrow at him, but it didn’t hit him. He was gone. The other three griefers stayed to battle. They used all their might to fight the gang.
Max, Henry, and Thomas struck one of the griefers until he was destroyed. Kyra shot a final arrow at another griefer and he was defeated. There was only one griefer left.
“Stop,” he pleaded.
The group stopped. It was an unfair battle. There were nine in their group and only one griefer left.
“Why did you steal all of our stuff?” asked Henry.
“It wasn’t my idea,” he defended himself.
“But it was wrong. Why would you listen to someone who attacks innocent people?” Lucy was upset.
“I was just following orders,” the griefer replied.
“You have to think for yourself,” Alex told him. “I used to work for that rainbow griefer, but I realized that it was wrong. You don’t follow people who are only out to hurt others.”
“Please let me go,” he begged.
“Why should we?” asked Henry.
“Because I’m innocent,” he said with a whimper.
“Innocent?” Alex was annoyed. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? When you follow bad people, you aren’t innocent.”
“Do you promise not to attack anyone and to leave this gang of rainbow griefers?” Thomas asked him.
“Yes,” he replied.
“We will let you go if you give back any treasures you have taken from my friends,” said Thomas.
“I don’t have anything,” the rainbow griefer confessed.
“Wow, you were fighting us for nothing?” Alex was dumbfounded.
Henry looked through the windows of the wooden house and saw a chest. “I think all of the treasure is here. Come in and help us open this chest.”
They followed the griefer into the house.
“Open it. I want to make sure it isn’t booby-trapped,” Henry demanded.
The group stood back. They feared the chest was trapped and the floor would open up and they’d be thrown into a lava pit. As the griefer lifted the cover of the chest, the gang held their breath. They were nervous.
The griefer slowly opened the chest, revealing all of the treasures Henry, Max, Lucy, and Kyra had found on their treasure hunt. It wasn’t a trap! It was a victory! They were excited!
“It’s all here,” said Henry.
“Yes, look at all of our diamonds!” Lucy looked down at the lost treasure.
Henry gathered the treasure. He handed a portion of the treasure to Max, Lucy, and Kyra.
“We’re going to let you go,” Henry said as he pointed his diamond sword in the direction of the griefer. “But we better not see you ever again.”
“I promise. Thank you,” replied the griefer.
“Are you also going to promise to stop following bad people and only do what you think is right?” asked Thomas.
“Yes, I will,” the griefer said.
The group went outside to see him off and he sprinted away as night set in.
The group could make out a creeper off in the distance. The rainbow griefer was headed in his direction.
Ka-boom!
“Oh no!” Kyra shouted.
“When he respawns with his fellow rainbow griefers, I hope he’ll remember to make his own decisions,” said Henry.
“It’s almost night,” Steve told the group. “We have to find a place to sleep.”
“We can stay in the desert temple. All we have to do is make beds,” suggested Alex.
The group walked toward the temple, but two Endermen crept past holding bricks of sand.
Henry accidently stared at one, and its mouth gaped open as it teleported toward Henry.
Adam threw a splash potion at the Endermen and they teleported away.
“Quick, get in the desert temple. We can build a wall at the entrance so the Endermen can’t get in,” said Alex.
As they sprinted toward the temple, the Endermen teleported back toward the group.
“Lead them to the river!” Kyra suggested.
Steve and Henry sprinted in the direction of the river and the Endermen followed closely behind.
“I hope we’ll make it,” Henry looked back.
Steve jumped in the water and Henry followed. Luckily so did the Endermen.
Steve made his way out of the water, avoiding the cacti lining the water’s edge.
“We need to get back to the temple,” Henry said and the two sprinted.
Alex was almost
done constructing the door. Henry and Steve took out their pickaxes.
“Stop!” Alex shouted. “I left a hole for you guys. Don’t destroy the door!”
They made their way through the small hole. The group had made beds for everybody, including Steve and Henry. When the door was finished, they all were relieved. It was dark and they wanted to sleep.
18
REWARDS
It was dawn and the group awoke in the desert temple.
“I think we should head home,” Steve told the group.
“Whose home?” Alex asked. “We don’t live on the wheat farm.”
“Would you like to come back to the wheat farm?” Steve asked Alex.
“I think it’s time for Will and me to go back to our home,” said Alex.
Steve looked at Adam and Thomas.
“It’s probably best if we stay away from the village for a bit longer. After everything I did to the village, I feel like we need to find another place to live.” Thomas looked at Adam as he spoke.
“I’d love to go back to the village, but Thomas is right, we should wait,” confirmed Adam.
“What about you guys?” Steve looked at Max, Lucy, Kyra, and Henry.
Steve was surprised at their response: the treasure hunters were exhausted and they wanted to spend sometime on the wheat farm to recharge.
“I want to see Jasmine,” confessed Lucy.
“I want to trade all of my emeralds and diamonds at Eliot the Blacksmith’s shop and craft a bunch of powerful swords at your house,” said Henry.
“I need to check on my house,” said Kyra.
“I want to relax and eat carrots and potatoes,” said Max.
The group said their goodbyes to their old friends Adam and Thomas and their new friends Alex and Will.
“I hope we’ll see you all again soon,” said Steve.
The new and old friends all said the same. Steve and his friends made their way back to the wheat farm.
Henry looked at the map and led the group toward the jungle. Steve looked at the green leaves that touched the sky. He knew the journey home wouldn’t be easy, but he had his friends with him.
The paths of the jungle were dense with trees. Steve thought he saw a rainbow griefer sprint past them, but was relieved to see it was only a wild ocelot. Henry held out some raw fish, ready to tame the cat.
Treasure Hunters in Trouble Page 6
