The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
veins popping. Kat and Charlie were in awe. They had always known that Stan had a streak of recklessness and anger in him, but this display was far more violent than any they had seen from him before.
DZ stared at Stan with a new look on his face. It was a combination of shock, fear and sorrow. DZ looked Stan in the eye and sighed. “Hey, I’m sorry, all right? I’m doing the best I can. I’m used to being a nomad out here. I’m not used to finding places. I promise that I’ll try to take our job a little more seriously. But don’t forget to have fun, all right?” He gave a weak smile. “It is still a game, right?”
Stan gave a snort of derision. “This is more than a game, DZ. It gives people another life. You of all people should know that. And the King is making these people’s lives miserable, and it’s up to us to fix that. We can have fun after our work is done.”
DZ looked sadly at Stan. “I hear you, buddy. But just remember what they say: at the end of your life you regret the stuff you didn’t do more than the stuff you did do. So remember to have fun with what we’re doing, because out here, there’s no telling when our lives are going to end.”
The enormity, power, and sincerity behind this statement hit Stan like a shockwave, and he realized it was true. He could very well be dead by tomorrow in the middle of this desert, in the midst of this quest for justice.
They continued to trudge through the desert, nobody saying anything, and Stan looking downcast and humbled. The sun sank behind the desert hills, and the moon rose high into the star-speckled night sky. The optimistic view of the situation was that travelling was easier because of the lack of heat from the sun.
The pessimist’s view, and the view of all four travellers, was that they were out of food, they had no source of light, and monsters were materializing on all sides of them. The attacks of Zombies came in hordes, the Skeleton shot arrows from afar and the Spiders climbed up the cactuses that were everywhere and jumped down onto the players. Even the Creepers posed a threat. Lemon scared most of them away, but there was one point at which DZ was driven away from the main group by two Spiders and a Skeleton, and just as he managed to kill the second Spider, he heard the tell-tale hiss and was blasted into the air a second later.
DZ landed on a cactus and found himself unable to move due to a shooting pain in his right leg. He looked down and saw that the cactus had torn into his flesh. He knew that he couldn’t fight any more without food in his stomach to heal him. Instead he drew his glowing diamond sword and swung it into the horde of oncoming Zombies now upon him. The blade barely ripped the monsters’ blue shirts, but the shock emitted from the sword was enough to throw the Zombies back into a heap, averting that danger for the time being.
DZ gritted his teeth. He knew that he had to do something quickly. His thoughts drifted to the cactus beside him. He drew an iron shovel out of his inventory and quickly hacked away the sand around the cactus, pulling himself into the hole and resealing it with dirt he had on hand. The Zombies, now on their feet again, mindlessly wandered towards him, but they found themselves walking straight into the cactus with no brains to tell them otherwise. They kept trying to walk straight through the cactus until they were eventually felled by the spines.
When the last of the Zombie noises had diminished from above him, DZ destroyed one of the dirt blocks and popped his head out, confirming that all the Zombies were dead. He then looked over at Stan, Kat, Charlie and the animals, all of whom were quickly being overrun by the mobs.
“Over here!” DZ yelled, gesturing for them to come into the hole. They didn’t need telling twice. All three players sprinted over to DZ and hopped into the hole. To say they made it in the nick of time was an understatement. Lemon’s tail had just vanished into the dirt hole when a Spider leaped towards DZ. He punched it back and placed the dirt block, securing the four players and two pets into the dark hole. Too tired to do anything else, DZ barely heard Kat mentioning something about dropping her sword outside before he keeled over asleep.
“Hello? Hellooooo!”
“Go away,” muttered Stan sleepily. His exhaustion from fighting off the mobs last night did not increase his desire to sleep as much as his present dream, in which he and Sally rejoiced after the fall of the King. Whatever mundane task the others wanted him for, he was certain it could wait.
“Helloooo! Anybody home? You dropped your sword! Hellooooo?”
“Wha … what?” came Kat’s groggy voice from the other end of the hole. “Someone found my sword?” she asked in a stupid-sounding voice.
“You were dreaming Kat,” yawned Charlie, “now go back to sleep.”
“Helloooooooooooooooooooooo?”
Stan winced as the hole flooded with light. Kat had punched through the dirt roof to find the source of the caller. “Hello?” Though Stan was now pressing his hands to his ears to block out the noise, he could still clearly hear her. “Did someone say they fou …”
Kat’s voice faltered for a moment. When it returned, it was with a shaky. “Oh. He-hello, there.”
There was something in Kat’s voice that made Stan pause. Suddenly quite awake, he grabbed his axe and jumped out of the hole after her. He turned his head and asked, “What’s going …” But his voice, too, faltered.
Kat was standing, looking extremely uncomfortable, next to the strangest-looking player that Stan had seen. At least, Stan thought it was a player. It definitely looked like a player, but it, or rather, he, looked more like a Neanderthal than a modern person. He was wearing a brown robe over darker brown trousers and shoes, and he was the same size as the players. His face looked absolutely ridiculous – his head was taller than Stan’s, he had green eyes with a brown unibrow, and his nose was gigantic. It actually fell down lower than his mouth. His hands were clasped together in front of him, Kat’s sword grasped awkwardly between them.
Stan’s immediate response was to blurt out the question of what this thing was, but as long as it, or, he, was still holding the sword, Stan felt that he’d better try to be at least a little sensitive. Charlie, on the other hand, who had just come out of the hole, went wide-eyed and blurted out, “Whoa! Kat, what is that thing?”
Stan glared furiously at Charlie, and his hand instinctively went to his axe, but the thing did not looked angry. In fact, he was looking around the desert, and looking, truthfully, rather stupid. The thing looked at Charlie.
“My name is Oob,” he replied. “I found this sword on the sand early in this morning. I have looked for its owner and now I have found you.” Oob spoke slowly, as if he had to think about every word that he said.
“Hey, an NPC!” exclaimed DZ, as he climbed out of the hole after Charlie. “What’s your name, man? I’ve never seen you before, and I’ve been to most of the villages out here in the desert.”
“I am Oob,” the NPC villager said simply, and he began wandering around aimlessly. Charlie and Stan looked at Oob, wondering whether he was being inconsiderate or just extremely stupid. DZ just laughed, and then gestured to Stan and Charlie and muttered, so that Oob couldn’t hear, “Don’t worry, these NPC guys are pretty dumb, but after they get to know you a little they’ll take to you.” DZ approached the villager and tried to talk to him again. Charlie seemed very interested in Oob, but Stan had just noticed Kat.
She looked more ill at ease than Stan had ever seen her, including the time he told the Apothecary that she had tried to kill him and Charlie when they first met. The source of her discomfort was obvious. She kept acting all jittery every time the villager made the smallest move. She actually sneaked up behind him and snatched her sword back from him instead of asking him for it. He hadn’t seemed to notice.
“… because seven ate nine!” exclaimed DZ, finishing his joke and causing Oob to laugh hysterically. DZ had clearly spent a fair amount of time around NPCs and knew how to get them on his good side.
“I like you players! You are very kind to me and I become very happy when people are kind to me. Would you like to come and visit my village? We would be happy to have you with us,”