The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
something, and he looked at Kat. Her face was solemn, as he had expected it to be. He remembered that she had described a metallic clanging noise that followed her after she pillaged the last NPC village she went to. That village had undoubtedly had an Iron Golem, too, placed there to defend the village from having its citizens taken advantage of. He expected her to look scared or at least a little uncomfortable, but Kat now seemed fully at ease and it appeared that she, finally, had forgiven herself.
For an hour, the four players watched in stunned silence as the Iron Golem laid waste to all evil mobs that entered the NPC village. The last mob to die was a Skeleton. Right before it could shoot, the Iron Golem delivered a roundhouse punch to its head, knocking it dead to the ground.
The Iron Golem then stood still, glancing into the horizon, ready to defend the village at all costs. It looked very impressive, silhouetted against the white square of the rising sun, a sure indication that the siege, at last, was over.
As the sun rose over the NPC village, Stan surveyed the village to see the effects of the siege. He was relieved to find that no villagers had been injured during the siege, but he was surprised to see that the villagers seemed truly devastated when they heard of the loss of Lemon. From what Stan understood, they had never seen a cat before Lemon, and they had had great joy in petting him.
“He was so gentle and kind,” said Oob with a frown on his face and a tear trickling down his cheek. “I am so sad that he is no longer with us.” DZ was about to comfort him when the villager started wandering again, making his consoling effort moot.
The villagers also seemed very fond of the Iron Golem, who seemed to showcase a gentler side when he was around them, and especially around the children. As the newborn Stull played a game of tag with another villager child, a girl named Sequi, the Iron Golem joined in, tagging the children with a light, harmless tap on the head, as opposed to the wild, fanatical arm swings he had used to destroy the evil mobs the previous night.
Stan, Kat and DZ were all quite contented that the village was safe, and Kat in particular was noticeably pumped up with anticipation for the Enderman hunt that was now next on their to-do list. Charlie, on the other hand, was taking the loss of his cat very hard. He spent the first day after Lemon’s death sitting on the wood blocks that made up the border of Blerge’s wheat farm, staring out into the desert sky, a pensive look on his face and an occasional tear rolling down his cheek.
As the afternoon rolled around and DZ entertained the villagers with more bad jokes, Stan and Kat caught each other’s eyes for a moment and knew that they had to talk to Charlie. They went around to the back of the house, and they sat down on either side of their friend. He raised his eyes slightly to both sides in acknowledgement of their presence, and then proceeded to look down at the sand below him.
“You doing all right, man?” asked Stan.
Charlie didn’t answer.
“What’s the matter, Charlie?” said Kat.
Charlie still didn’t answer.
“Charlie, I’m really sorry about Lemon,” said Stan, “but we’ve got to keep going. We’ve got a King to take down, remember?”
“What’s the point?” asked Charlie in a dejected voice. Stan was alarmed at how depressed he sounded. “All that’s going to happen is more people dying.” He looked up at Stan. “My cat just got killed, and I feel miserable. What’s going to happen if you get killed? Or you, Kat?” he asked turning his head the other way to face Kat.
“Charlie, there’s no other way,” said Kat, a grim expression on her face. “Believe me, if I thought there was any other way to change the way things run on this server, then I wouldn’t be with you guys right now. But sometimes war is the only option. It’s a horrible option, but it’s the only one we’ve got.”
“If we don’t take down the King, then things are going to just get worse from here. You know that, Charlie,” said Stan. “The King’s been abusing the people living here for too long, and he’s not letting up. And now, we have people, a lot of powerful people, ready to risk their lives to take him down, and we’re closer than ever to getting the supplies to do it. Are you saying you just want to give up?”
Charlie sighed before answering. “No, you’re right, and I know you’re right. It’s just …” He paused as a tear rolled down his cheek and he wiped it away. “It’s not any easier.”
Kat leaned over to Charlie and gave him a hug. Over her shoulder, Charlie glanced at Stan, and their eyes locked. Stan knew from the look in Charlie’s eyes that, as much as neither of them liked it, Charlie knew that they must carry on.
Stan became vaguely aware of another presence joining them. He looked up and saw Oob looking down at them, the Iron Golem standing just behind him.
“You are doing the right thing, Charlie,” said Oob, his face more serious than Stan had ever seen him. “And I thank you for making life better for us.”
Stan smiled. This was the reason they were doing this, he thought. The lower-level players, the NPC villagers. Wasn’t this the reason that they were ready to fight? These people weren’t able to defend themselves, and while the King capitalized on this weakness by extorting them, there would always be those willing to defend them. The Apothecary, the Nether Boys, DZ, even the Iron Golem, Stan realized, were ready to defend themselves and others if the need arose, but that didn’t mean that they were vicious monsters. Hadn’t Stan seen the Iron Golem, just this morning, playing tag with the villager children?
As if in response to his thoughts, Stan heard a metallic creaking and looked up. The Iron Golem had stepped forwards and walked right to Charlie. Charlie looked into the Golem’s red eyes, and the Golem extended its metal hand. Clasped in it was a red flower, a rose: the Golem’s gift to the heavy-hearted Charlie.
Charlie smiled and took the rose. “Thank you,” he said to the Golem, and the iron obelisk nodded its head with a metallic creak in response. Charlie stood up and looked at his friends. “Come on, guys. We’ve got some Endermen to kill.”
Glad to see that his friend was out of his stupour, Stan followed Charlie and Kat back to Oob’s house, where they found DZ already waiting and ready for hunting.
“Hey guys! You ready to kick some teleporting butt?” he asked, eliciting the first smirk anyone had seen on Charlie since the siege. DZ took notice. “Hey, Charlie, you doing better, man?”
“Yeah, I’m all right. I’ve gotta say, though, I do have an odd desire to kill some Endermen right now,” replied Charlie.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about, man! Enderman huuuuunt!” DZ sang, pumping his fist in the air and doing a little dance of excitement.
“Come on, guys. Let’s suit up and get out of here,” said Kat, pulling her armour out of Oob’s chest.
After they had put on all their armour and equipped themselves with all their weapons, the four players and dog set out into the desert, with Oob, Mella, Blerge and Stull waving goodbye from their house.
“OK guys, so here’s the plan,” said Kat. “We’ll all just look around the desert. The terrain is pretty flat out here, so we shouldn’t have much trouble finding any Endermen. When someone sees one, they call out, and everyone jumps to that player’s back to defend them. How many Ender Pearls do we have again?”
“Well,” replied DZ, scratching his head, “I had six. What about you guys?”
“I got two last night,” said Charlie.
“And I got one,” added Stan.
“Excellent!” said Kat, grinning.