She’ll be back, I thought cheerfully, setting up my bed right at the entrance to the portal room. She had to be back soon. She had to sleep. And if, for some reason, she hadn’t come back the night before, she’d be totally loopy by now. She’d need to come back tonight.

But the next morning, when she didn’t return, I started to worry. Yes, she might have still been angry, portaling back to the mountain, then creeping past me to her own bed. She might have even crept past me again, back to the portal, before I woke up.

Possible, but likely?

I didn’t think so. That next morning, when I woke up to find the mountain still Summer-less, I knew something had to be wrong.

Again, running from room to room. Again, calling her name.

She was back in the Nether! She had to be! But why? Was she still angry with me? Was she trapped? Hurt?!

Nightmare scenarios floated before me, images of Summer trying to come after me, trying to apologize, but not realizing that there was a ghast behind her! What if she was…

I should have stopped, taken a breath, and really thought about what needed to be done.

And if I’d done that, this story might have ended up in a very different way.

But I didn’t.

Panic drowns thought.

Back into the portal, through the purple swirl.

Back to the heat, stink, and near-night.

I gulped a night-vision potion, waited for the gloom to brighten, then looked frantically all about for my partner.

Lava, netherrack, and the occasional distant zombie pigman greeted me.

The Ice Cube! She must be there, resting, hopefully, or maybe nursing some wounds.

I ran across the narrow bridge, bounded across the netherrack plain.

Heart pounding, panting in the heat, I followed the quartz path to the intersection, turned in the direction of the Ice Cube, and ran along the narrow cliff high above the lava.

What the…

Something caught my eye, slowing my step.

Something…some things…were out there in the molten sea. Little black dots, too far away for me to make out. Dots that definitely hadn’t been there before. Dots that were definitely moving!

Creatures? Those magma cube monsters? Or was it something new? A change in the Nether just like in the world above?

I flashed to the foxes, the sweet berries. Those might not have come along with the river fish. They might have just appeared with another, brand-new change! And if that change came as recently as two nights ago, and if it also affected the Nether…

“Hrreehrr.”

The snort turned me around, facing back the way I came.

A zombie pigman was coming toward me, one of the mini-types I’d learned to ignore.

But…

“Hrhrhreeehr!”

The sound, the sight. This one was different. No rotting skin, no exposed bones. This little pig boy or girl, or whatever it was, was alive!

“Oh, hi,” I said on reflex, hoping that, maybe, life also brought language. “You haven’t, by chance, seen a human kinda dressed like me but with long hair and a funny accent?”

The piglet—piglite?—stared up at me, snorted again, then punched me, hard, in a place that…well…that if I’d been back on my world, would have been really, really painful.

“Ay!” I yelped, more out of annoyance than actual pain, then raised my sword. If this little brat was anything like the mini-zombies up top, I’d be in for a serious fight. The small piglite came at me again, and this time met a sharp, diamond greeting.

“Krhreee,” it squealed, and then, surprisingly, fled like a bat out of the Nether.

“Yeah!” That’s right, I nodded after it. “You better run! You little—”

“Krhrorrrr.” That was from its dad, who was bigger, and armed with a golden sword.

“Now hold on,” I said with weapons ready. “I don’t want any trouble.”

It did. The shining yellow blade raised to strike. I blocked it with my shield, gave back a quick slash, then easily warded off another blow.

“Not so tough,” I said, knocking it backward with a second swipe. “And you burn!”

As the adult piggite stumbled onto a flaming square of netherrack, the flames leapt up its golden armor.

“Bringin’ home the bacon,” I said with a final chop.

I wouldn’t have eaten any bacon, of course, but I did now have the firm conviction that this broiling underworld had, indeed, changed. And not for the better.

Summer!

Down the trail, legs and mind racing.

She must have run into these piggites. Maybe they trapped her in the Ice Cube!

I expected to see a whole horde of them besieging her base. I was already planning how I’d fight my way past them.

Instead, as the Ice Cube came into view, I found myself more scared by the empty space. No mobs. No siege. Did that mean she wasn’t home?

“Summer!” Throwing open the doors. Feeling the chilled air on my face. And seeing an even chillier sight before me.

Summer was gone, and from the looks of things, she’d even spent some time cleaning up. The walls had been repaired, the storage chests replaced. But where was she now?

A golden glint, across the room. Through the window. It was rising above the black fortress. A blaze…That spawner was supposed to be blocked up! How had it gotten around, or through, the barrier Summer and I had built? Stepping closer to the window, I could see more of them, floating like vultures above the sky-scraping maze. Summer had to be there. And now she was trapped by those blazes, and piggites, and every other devil, old and new, that this world could throw at her.

“Just hang on, Summer!” I yelled, racing back out into the heat. “I’m on my way!”

The double doors flew open, and I flew back out into the dry roasting air.

Waiting for me was one of those big, fat squishy magma cubes.

“Now?”

It leapt.

I swung.

And stood back as a whole family of smaller cubes landed before me.

“Not now!” I roared with one sweeping slice that sent them reeling and separating. “I promise I’ll fight you later!”

I dodged around them and ran to the cliff stairs. Down to the beach, across the isthmus to the fortress, then up through the spiral tower stairs to the empty, nether brick hall.

“Summer!”

Running out onto the catwalk. Dodging the first volley of blaze flares.

Seared. Still running, reaching for my bow.

Thf-thf-thf!

Past my ear. Drawing back for a shot.

The arrow whistled straight into its target.

“Ha!” I cawed, downing a healing brew.

And that’s when my night vision conked out.

No problem, I thought, and reached for another potion.

There wasn’t anything there! I hadn’t brought any extra…of anything!

Back to the Ice Cube? Restock and return?

No. That would have been the smart choice. But all I could think of was Summer—alone, scared, hurt!

Panic drowns thought.

“Summer! Where are you? Summer?!”

I ran back into the hallway, into a total darkness I’d never experienced in the Nether before. It hadn’t been so bad with night vision, but now I was nearly blind.

Torches! I reached into my backpack for wood and coal.

Shclick-shclick.

Skeletons. Somewhere close.

I’d nearly stuck coal to stick when the first one clacked around the corner. I could barely see it. Those black bones. A wither skeleton!

Before I could reach for my sword or my shield, I felt it.

A cut from a stone sword that shouldn’t have been more than a minor wound. But the feeling. The drain! Muscles, bones, organs. Like air stolen from lungs, it felt like my very life force was being pulled away. Aching, dazed. Instantly exhausted, as if I was suddenly one hundred years old.

This was what Summer had tried to warn me against. This was wither!

Staggering back, turning to run, I panted out onto the catwalk. Bow in hand, I drew for a shaky shot.

Missed!

A second arrow, just as the wither effects wore off.

Thnk! Right in the skull. The impact punching my charcoal foe up onto the catwalk guard. A third shot, knocking it over the side. Dizzy, weak, I reached for another healing potion.

Out!

Just like with night vision. And this time, I didn’t have the luxury of choosing to return to the Ice Cube.

Two more wither skeletons came clattering onto the catwalk, barring my way, forcing me to flee deeper into the fortress.

Chomping down on the last of my bread, I jogged onto the next tower, then down its open stairs into another nearly midnight chamber.

Take two for torches. But I didn’t have any! I’d dropped all my sticks and coal during the attack! They were still back there, hovering, about to disappear! I could hear the clacking wither skeletons above and, through a grated window, the labored, metal breath of an angry blaze.

At least it couldn’t get me, not in here. But the skeletons sounded closer every second. I had to block the entrance, but with what? My wood was gone, and I didn’t have any cobblestone. And there wasn’t time to hack out the nether bricks around me.

The netherrack! The blocks I’d kept as souvenirs! I threw them up at the ceiling just as the skeletons clacked overhead.

And in doing so, I realized I was solving two problems at once.

Netherrack burns forever!

Placing the first crinkly cube on the floor, I ignited it with a spark from my flint and steel.

“Light,” I sighed, continuing to lay flaming netherrack down the hallway. “At least I can see where I’m going.”

And if my flint and steel wears out, I can always gather more flint from the natural gravel.

I even spied a gravel deposit from the hall windows, down on the beach next to the isthmus. Iron was another matter. I only had seven bars left. Not much good for anything else, I thought, trying to stay positive, because, at this point, positivity was one of the few resources I had left.

At least I won’t get lost, I thought, rounding another corner and placing another “rack-torch.”

Click-click.

Up ahead. Just around the next corner.

“Here we go again.” I wasn’t too worried. I had space to flee to, and even surplus netherrack to block up the hall.

And when a traditional skeleton came clickety-clacking into view, I actually let out a big “Thank you!”

Thunk! An arrow against my shield that sounded like “You’re welcome” to my ears.

“Time to return the favor,” I said, and reached for my own projectile weapon. But as I drew back the bowstring, no arrow appeared in my grip.

“Out again?!”

No wood, no coal, no potions, and now no arrows?!

“C’mon, fate!” I whined, and marched dejectedly toward the bone-built sniper.

Thunk! I deflected another harmless arrow as the skeleton wisely began to withdraw.

“Stand still,” I demanded, slicing at empty air. “Will ya just let me kill you?”

For some reason, my fleshless foe didn’t comply. Retreating, dodging, shooting, it led me farther and farther into darkness, down the hallway, past another intersection.

Always be aware of your surroundings.

But I didn’t care. I was hot and tired and really annoyed that after I’d faced all these new threats, this run-of-the-mill twerp was wasting my valuable time. “Ya know how this is gonna end, right?”

I thought I did, but clearly this world had other plans.

Just as I managed to get close enough to land a strike, another sword jabbed me from behind.

Pain, drain.

Wither!

No time to eat, no time for looking back.

On instinct, I ran forward, away from the ambushing skeleton, past its silently laughing cousin.

I remembered to zig as the whoosh of its arrow struck the floor just in front of me.

I zagged to avoid another but took the hit where I should sit.

I winced, hissed, but kept going into the inky corridor. I could hear more clacking. More skeletons behind me. Three? Four? How many more arrows could I take? How many wither strikes?

I had to get away, find a safe space. Eat. Heal. I couldn’t take any more damage!

Slowed step. Spinning head. Stinging shoulder.

Distance. Safety.

Blocked!

Another wither skeleton, this time right in front of me! Stepping into my path with stone sword raised to kill.

Did I still have the strength to fight? The speed to dodge? I gritted my teeth, raised my thousand-pound shield, and prayed, with all my might, for just one blessed shred of good luck.

But behind it, a diamond flash. An axe! Badly chipped but catching the faintest light. It smashed the wither skeleton to smoke as its ragged, huffing, utterly awesome owner stepped into view.

“Summer!”

“Guy? What in the world are you doing here?”

“Uh…rescuing you?”