The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
was now lying unconscious in a bed. Charlie was in the village library, using the crafting table there to turn their Ender Pearls and Blaze Rods into the twelve Eyes of Ender that they would need to locate and enter the End. DZ, Oob, Ohsow the village butcher, Stull, Sequi and the Iron Golem were congregated around the well, talking and playing together.
Stan was aware that the next day they were to fight a great battle, and as he sat there with nothing to do but wait for the others to finish their tasks, he found it the perfect time to contemplate the thoughts that had become present in his mind over the course of their journey.
After last night, Leonidas was at the front of his mind. Stan wasn’t sure what it was, but there was definitely something off about the way that he had looked at them. He had fought Leonidas twice so far, and both times the player had initiated violence against Stan and his friends for no good reason. Stan had therefore marked him as equal in savagery to Geno, Becca, King Kev and the lot of them. Still, something about that look from the previous night made Stan feel slightly guilty about classifying him as such.
Then there was Mr A. They had thankfully not seen Mr A since their encounter in the abandoned mine shaft, but the Griefer’s self-professed motives for his hatred of Stan and his friends seemed awfully misguided. That was, assuming that anything he said was at all true, which seemed more unlikely the more Stan thought about it. What Stan had heard about Avery007 from the Apothecary was that he was a kind player, someone who stood up for the rights of those not able to do so for themselves. Stan could not imagine any scenario in which Avery might befriend a dark-hearted Griefer like Mr A.
He was definitely lying, decided Stan, and he told himself so firmly. Still, Stan believed that Mr A had fabricated the story based on a real experience. He had seemed too passionate while telling the story for it to not have some basis in fact. That being said, it was still true that Mr A’s hatred was ill advised, and Stan intended to tell him so should they ever meet again.
Stan’s thoughts eventually settled on himself. For some reason, everybody seemed to see something special in him. Crazy Steve had seen it, Sally had seen it, and Kat had seen it, too. Though he couldn’t pinpoint what it was, Stan believed that there was something, some force, some otherworldly entity, that influenced him in difficult situations. Despite the fact that he knew nothing of what that power was, how he was able to use it, or whether or not it even existed, he knew that this power of questionable reality would be put to the ultimate test in the End.
There was one more thing that Stan would definitely have liked to think about, dwell on, and consider the possibilities of. However, he refused to let himself think too heavily on it, for it might distract him in the End. No, not until he had conquered the End would he allow himself to think about Sally.
It was just as well, thought Stan as he became aware of Charlie leaving the house. His thinking time was officially over. He stood up and walked over to Charlie, meeting him in the middle of the gravel path.
“You’ve got them?” asked Stan in a whisper, though he was not sure why he spoke in this manner.
“Yeah,” replied Charlie, and he held up one of the Eyes of Ender. It was the same size and shape of the Ender Pearl from which it was crafted, but it looked like a green cat’s eye with a constricted pupil. Even as Charlie held it inactive in his hand, Stan felt a sense of electricity, as if the Eye itself was emitting energy into the air. Upon closer inspection, Stan noticed tiny wisps of purple smoke rising from the eye.
Charlie pulled the other eleven Eyes of Ender from his inventory, and he grinned. “Awesome, aren’t they? We are officially all set to go into the End.”
Stan was glad to see Charlie in such a good mood. What with Lemon’s death and Kat’s injury, their time in the NPC village had seen Charlie grimmer than Stan would have believed possible of him. Besides being worried about the state of his friend, Stan knew that Charlie would need to be confident and in high spirits for their epic foray into the End.
Stan and Charlie were still admiring the Eyes of Ender when DZ walked over to them, Oob and Ohsow in tow.
“So a horse walks into a bar, and the bartender says, ‘why the long face?’” said DZ, and the two villagers burst into hysterical fits of laughter. DZ walked over to talk to Stan and Charlie as Oob and Ohsow inquired as to what horses and bartenders were.
“So, we’ve got the Eyes, then? Excellent!” he exclaimed as his question was answered by the grins on both of their faces and the green orbs in Charlie’s hands. “So we’re going to leave tomorrow?”
“I guess so,” replied Stan, “providing that Kat is feeling up to it.”
At that exact moment, the door to Oob’s house flew open, and out of the doorway burst Kat. She wasn’t wearing any armour, and there was a leather band across her chest where Geno had cut her, but besides that, she seemed back to her normal self. She literally ran out of the house and took a flying leap, landing right next to the boys.
“Hey, Kat! You’re awfully energetic for someone who almost got herself cut open,” said Charlie with a smirk.
“Are you kidding? I feel awesome!” she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Blerge and Mella made a bunch of bread, and Moganga added some stuff called glowstone dust to it, and that stuff made me feel so much better!” She turned to Stan. “I owe you a huge thanks though, Stan. Without that potion, Moganga said that I would have died.”
“Ah, it’s no big deal,” said Stan, shrugging but giving a humble grin all the same. “You would have done the same for me.”
“Very true,” replied Kat.
“So, Kat, I take it by the fact that you’re more energetic than we are that you’re gonna be able to go into the End tomorrow?” Charlie asked.
“Are you kidding? If you guys weren’t tired, I’d be willing to go right now!”
“Well, I just finished a nap earlier. I’m not tired at all,” said Charlie.
“Yeah, same here,” said DZ.
“Me, too,” said Stan, his face lighting up with excitement. “So … are you guys ready? You want to go into the End right now?”
There was no hesitation. Kat, Charlie and DZ all nodded at the same time.
“OK,” said Stan, his eyes blazing. “Let’s get ready.”
The NPC villagers were all disappointed to hear that the players were leaving the village. According to DZ, they had all become very fond of the players, and of DZ and Charlie in particular. Nonetheless, the villagers all rose magnificently to the challenge of supplying the players with the supplies that they would need to conquer the End. While the villagers were usually unwilling to give anything up unless in exchange for emeralds, which they saw as a form of currency, the villagers gave the players everything that they could.
The farmers, including Oob and his family, supplied the villagers with a generous amount of bread so that they would be well fed on their expedition. The players also received a copious restocking of arrows from the farmers, and Charlie was given flint and steel from a villager named Vella. Leol, the village blacksmith who lived in the forge, was probably the most helpful of all. He replaced Stan’s and Kat’s weapons with a diamond axe and a diamond sword, respectively. He also gave each player a diamond helmet and chestplate. Moganga helped in her own way. She took the players’ diamond gear, and after fifteen minutes, she emerged from the church with the gear glowing with enchantments of Protection for the armour and Sharpness for the swords.
In return for all these commodities, the villagers only asked for them to do anything possible to take down King Kev.
The sun was high in the sky when the four players, suited up and equipped with weapons, lined up facing the villagers. Stan looked out onto the faces of the villagers, particularly those of Stull and Sequi, who were seated on the shoulders of the Iron Golem, and of Blerge and Mella, who were holding hands as tears rolled down their cheeks. Though it would have been normal, none of the villagers were wandering.
Oob