The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
King’s treasure – that’s it.”
“Oh no, Stan buddy, you don’t get it,” laughed DZ. “I’ve never been to the End … I don’t think anyone has, actually, barring the King … but I do know that it’s not a normal dimension like the Overworld and the Nether. From what I hear, there’s a specific task you have to do there, and until you do it, you won’t be able to leave.”
“And … what kind of task is that?” asked Stan apprehensively, not sure if he really wanted to know the answer.
“No idea,” replied DZ, shrugging. “Maybe a puzzle, a boss battle, a friendly game of Parcheesi … when we go there, we just have to go prepared, that’s all. You three seem like you know what you’re doing. I’m sure the four of us could tackle whatever ridiculous stuff is in the End.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” agreed Kat. “Anyway, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. What we have to do next is get twelve Ender Pearls.”
“Like these?” asked DZ, holding up a handful of several blue-green orbs.
“Yes! Oh my God!” Charlie cried out in amazement. “DZ … where did you get those?”
“Where do you think? I’ve been wandering this desert for longer than you three have been in Elementia put together. You know how many Endermen you run into during that time? I tell you, it’s stupidly annoying when you’re scanning the horizon and you accidentally look at one of those freaks.”
“Yeah, we know. We’ve fought one before,” replied Stan as Charlie took the Ender Pearls from DZ and counted them out. “They’re powerful, they teleport, and they get aggressive when you just look at them.”
“Probably the three worst qualities a monster could have,” added Kat solemnly.
“Testify,” replied DZ, as Charlie put the pearls into his inventory.
“OK, we have six Ender Pearls,” he said. “Thanks to DZ.” He shot an annoyed glance at Stan, who looked away in embarrassment. “So now we need to find and kill six more Endermen. Easy enough,” he said.
“Eh, not exactly, bud,” said DZ. “Endermen don’t always drop Ender Pearls. We’re gonna need to kill a lot more than six.”
“Wonderful,” said Charlie, hanging his head. “But where are we going to go now? We can’t stay at our current base, there’s no door and no wood around, and we can’t stay in one place too long anyway or the King’s forces will find us.”
“I know what we can do,” said DZ. “Sometimes, if I’m low on health and I need a place to stay, I look around for an NPC village. The guys that live there are nice, they know how to make food, and they’re always willing to provide you with shelter.”
“Oh, I don’t know if an NPC village is such a good idea,” replied Kat quickly.
Stan and Charlie looked at her in surprise. “Why not, Kat?” asked Stan. “What do you have against NPC villages?”
“Yeah, Kat, remember when we first met?” asked Charlie. “You said that you were looking for an NPC village because they’ll give you really good stuff.”
“Um, well, yeah, uh, about that,” Kat stammered as she fidgeted around. “Sometimes they, uh, don’t like people. I mean not all people, DZ obviously got along fine, I mean … uh …” Stan had never seen Kat look so uncomfortable before.
“Ah, come on Kat, the three of you seem nice enough,” said DZ, laughing. “I’m sure they’ll like you just fine. Besides, the King’s forces have a tendency to impose wheat quotas on the villages, so they all hate him. I’m sure they’ll take to us if we tell them we’re going to overthrow the King.”
“Well … then, uh … I sure can’t think of … uh … any reason not to go,” Kat said with an extremely forced smile. It was becoming obvious that, for reasons unbeknown to Stan, Kat wanted nothing less than to go to an NPC village.
“OK then!” exclaimed DZ with a smile, oblivious to Kat’s discomfort. “I’m pretty sure that there’s one just a day’s journey southeast of here. If we start now we should be able to make it there by nightfall, and we can start our Enderman hunt.”
DZ started walking towards the left of the rising sun, and Stan and Charlie walked enthusiastically behind him. Kat, on the other hand, had her head down and was plotting out the way she would handle being marooned in the terrible NPC village.
It was not long before Stan was beginning to seriously regret allowing DZ to come with them.
Neither his exceptional sword fighting skills nor the fact that he had already acquired half the Ender Pearls necessary for their voyage into the End made up for the fact that by nightfall of that day the NPC village was nowhere in sight. They had already exhausted the meagre supply of food that Kat and Charlie had gained through hunting the previous day. DZ was only able to contribute one raw chicken, which they could not eat for fear of food poisoning. DZ apologetically explained that his philosophy was generally to eat something directly after killing it, so he rarely had food on him. This revelation did not elevate Stan’s opinion of him as they continuously trudged through the endless sea of sand.
As the sun glowed bright over the pastel pink of the western horizon, Stan let out a shout of frustration. Charlie and Kat looked at him in concern.
“Do you have any idea where you’re going?” yelled Stan, the vein in his head pulsing and spit flying out of his mouth as he unleashed his anger at DZ.
DZ looked around unconcerned, apparently unaware that Stan was on the verge of sociopathic rage. He scratched his head innocently. “Well, now that I think about it, if the sun rises in the east and sets in the west … that means it moves … so if I keep going to the left of it … ooooh! Then I won’t be going southeast! I’ll be going in circles!” He laughed. “Wow! That was pretty stupid of me, wasn’t it?”
Only then did DZ come to the realization that all his comrades were staring at him with incredulous looks on their faces. Charlie was staring at him as if he had just stated that he was going to attempt a staring contest with an Enderman, and Kat’s mouth hung open, her eyes now wide enough to take up her entire face. Even Rex and Lemon were looking up at DZ, as if they too were aware that he had just done something remarkably dense.
Stan was the only one who was not looking shocked but about as ready as a lightning-charged Creeper to explode with rage. His eyes were closed, his teeth were gritted and the vein in his head was bulging.
“Do you mean to tell me,” said Stan in a quiet yet dangerous voice, “that we have been following you all day long, and you have been leading us in circles?”
“Apparently,” said DZ, shrugging. “Ah, quit worrying. It don’t matter much. We’ll set ourselves straight tomorrow.”
“And you are really still somehow oblivious to the fact that we have no food and no shelter, and that standing between us and daytime is night-time?” Stan yelled the last word so loud that Charlie actually fell backwards in shock. DZ just stood there with his mouth slightly agape and his eyes unblinking as Stan lashed out at him.
“You have been with us for less than one full day, and you have already caused us more trouble than you’re worth!” bellowed Stan. “We are now stuck in the middle of who knows where, and if tonight is anything like last night, we won’t survive! We have got it tough, you got that, DZ? We are trying to do something impossible! We’re fighting the King, we’re fighting nature, sometimes it feels like we’re fighting Minecraft itself as we try to do this thing! If you are not going to buck up and take it seriously,