by Mark Mulle
Chapter Five
They were crossing the desert by mid-day. They had cut across the jungle and ended up in the desert, heading towards the mountain range in the distance. It was so hot that they ended up walking along the ocean shoreline to catch the breeze that came off of the water. Notch could see the mountains in the distance. James had been grumbling about the heat when Notch stopped suddenly.
"What is it?" Pauline asked.
"Do you see that, in the distance?" Notch asked.
They both looked but James shook his head, "No."
"Herobrine." Notch mumbled.
Herobrine was in the distance, but Notch knew he was staring at him. James and Pauline were each gripping their weapons, almost waiting to see what Herobrine would do. Notch waited to see if Herobrine was going to speak to him, to be angry that his plan to be rid of them had failed, but he was too far away to even make out his features.
Notch blinked and suddenly Herobrine was gone. He doubted that he was just checking in on him, so he began to look around the desert. There he saw it - a spider jockey was heading directly towards them. Before Notch even said anything, James had pulled out his bow and was getting a shot ready.
"I thought the skeletons burned up in sunlight." He mumbled.
"Yeah, but Herobrine can control and do almost anything he wants. Likely this spider jockey isn't your run of the mill one that only shows up in the dark." Notch replied as he pulled out his sword along with Pauline.
The spider jockey let his first arrow fly, but it fell short. In response, James let his own arrow fly. It connected with the spider but didn't do as much damage as it would have - the spider was wearing armor. The spider moved fast now, darting around to avoid James' next shot. The spider let another arrow soar through the sky. Pauline threw up her shield and the arrow bounced off of it.
"Any ideas?" She asked.
"James, keep trying to take care of the skeleton. Pauline, cover James. I'll try to get closer."
Notch took off, running in zig-zags to avoid any arrows the skeleton may fire at him. The spider seemed unsure of who to go after before it finally settled on Notch because he was closer. The spider lunged high up in the air and Notch swung his sword, connecting with the spider. This threw the spider off balance and it almost sent the skeleton flying off of him. The skeleton fired an arrow at Notch, but it was sloppy. He rolled out of the way. James sent another arrow flying. It connected with the skeleton, sending him flying off the spider, hitting the sand. Now it’s just the spider that was left. Notch went in to strike it down when he heard Pauline let out a scream of surprise.
Distracted, Notch looked over to her to see what was going on. A creeper had appeared - rising out of the sand like magic, clearly caused by Herobrine. It was near Pauline and James. The sound it made before its explosion rang in his ears. Suddenly, Notch was knocked down to the sand from the spider. He rolled over and shoved his sword forward. The spider fell off of him, lifeless. And then the explosion filled the air.
The explosion kicked up so much sand that Notch had to put his head down and close his eyes. His one good ear was ringing a little, but he was far enough away from the blast that he didn't have to worry about losing hearing in both of his ears. He waited as long as he needed to before he raised his head. The sand was settling, but James was face down on the sand. Pauline was running over, limping a little as she fell next to him. Notch got to his feet and ran over as quickly as he could, rolling him over carefully.
He was breathing but was knocked out. His armor had a dent in the middle from the brunt of the explosion.
Pauline, her hair wild and messy around her face, was looking down at him, "He protected me. Jumped in front of me right before the creeper blast because I wasn't wearing armor."
"He'll be okay. He's just stunned. You would have been more injured."
She was rummaging through her inventory. "He should have a potion of healing."
Notch propped him up enough so that Pauline could get James to drink the potion. A little bit dribbled down his mouth but after a minute of drinking, his eyes fluttered and then opened.
"What happened?" He mumbled.
"Creeper blast." Notch said.
James rubbed his eyes, trying to wake himself up, "Everyone else okay?"
"I'm fine," Notch said and nodded at Pauline, "So is she. Because of you."
James looked at Pauline, "You didn't have any armor on."
"Thank you." She said, and the two stared at each other for a moment.
Notch looked around the desert. "I don't see anything else from Herobrine. He's going to be tailing us, trying to get rid of us."
"Is he going to spend all his effort on us, though? He could have kept the enemies coming," Pauline pointed out. "Instead, he's gone already. I feel like he has a bigger picture this time around."
"Because of David." Notch said.
James managed to sit up on his own now, the potion taking effect. "We need to get to that mountain."
That night, they made camp, putting their backs against a large hill, hoping for more coverage. Pauline and James were resting while Notch was scanning the horizon. He spotted something in the distance, over by the jungles they had cut through previously. There was a low light, almost like a fire, with smoke rising into the sky. Notch had only his gut to go off, but he knew that the fire was caused by Herobrine. He did have bigger plans than just taking down the three of them.
