5

MAPS AND SNOWBALLS

As Toby finished the second entry, a loud boom crashed from outside the house.

Harriet wanted to pull the blankets over her head and ignore the explosion. Hadn’t they done enough fighting for today? But she couldn’t. Jack and Toby ran out the door to search for the source of the explosion, and she pulled herself out of bed.

“Watch out!” she cried as she reached the door. A spider jockey had jumped out from behind a tree; the skeleton shot an arrow at Jack.

Harriet slowly aimed her bow and arrow at the attacking spider jockey. “Bulls-eye!” she called out. But despite her great shot, the skeleton was still coming toward them.

Jack splashed a potion on the skeleton, while Toby charged at the vicious mob with his diamond sword. Toby struck the red-eyed spider, as Harriet’s next arrow destroyed the skeleton for good.

“Help!” a voice called out.

Harriet moved toward the sound of the voice. “I think someone is in the smoke!” she shouted.

Toby plunged his sword into the spider, finally destroying it, too. “What are we going to do?”

“I’m going to find them!” Harriet sprinted in the direction of the recent explosion.

A man stood in front of a large hole. “Someone blew up my house!”

“That’s awful.” Harriet studied the remains of the burnt home.

“I was fighting off zombies. When I turned around to go back home, it exploded,” the man told them.

“Do you have any enemies?” asked Jack.

“Not that I know of. I live alone and lead a very quiet life.”

“You can stay at our house tonight,” said Harriet. “We can make an extra bed for you.”

The man was extremely grateful. “Thank you. You’re so kind.”

Almost immediately, Harriet regretted offering the man a place to stay. She thought about the journal entry they had just read. William believed Oliver was too trusting. Maybe she was like Oliver. She didn’t know this man and he could be a griefer.

While she crafted the bed, Harriet asked the stranger some questions. She wanted to know more about the man she had invited into their home.

“Who are you?” she asked. “What’s your name? Where did you come from?”

“My name is Julian,” he said. “I’m a farmer. I’ve lived in this part of the Overworld my entire life. I don’t like exploring. You guys must be new here—I’ve never seen you before.”

“Yes, we’re just here for the night,” explained Harriet.

They all crawled into bed. Harriet had a hard time falling asleep. She was worried Julian was going to steal from them. When morning came, she woke and looked over at Julian’s bed. “It’s empty!”

“What?” Jack asked as he woke up.

“Julian left,” she announced.

“Maybe we should check if he took any of our stuff.” Toby looked through his inventory. “Wait, I can’t find the journal.”

“What?” Harriet panicked. “He stole the journal!”

Jack searched the house, and crawled underneath the beds. “No, it’s here. He didn’t take it.” He handed the book to Toby, who placed it safely in his inventory.

“We have to be more careful with this,” said Toby. “We can’t let it out of our sight.”

Harriet let out a loud sigh of relief. “I’m so glad he didn’t take it.”

“But I still wonder where he went. He doesn’t even have a house,” said Toby.

“And he said he doesn’t like to travel,” added Jack.

“I guess it’s going to have to be a mystery—he isn’t important,” said Toby. “We should head to the cold biome to retrace William’s steps.”

The gang filled up on breakfast food and left the small house. They walked past Julian’s farm, but didn’t see him.

“I wonder where he is,” Harriet mused as they looked across the wheat farm. A small ocelot meowed and rubbed up against her feet.

“Let’s get going,” said Jack. “We want to get to the cold biome before dark.”

“Maybe we can build an igloo once we’re there,” suggested Toby.

The group trekked toward the cold biome and walked up a large mountain. Harriet paused at the top of the mountain. “I wonder if we could spot William’s town from up here.”

Jack searched the landscape, looking for signs of life. “I feel just like William and Oliver. It is beautiful up here.”

Toby stared at the icy biome that was on the other side of the mountain. “I can’t wait to slide on the ice. It looks like so much fun. And I want to have a snowball fight.”

“We don’t have time for silly games,” scolded Harriet. “We’re here to find William.”

The gang made their way down the steep mountain, toward the ice biome. They passed an unusually high patch of snow and Harriet was the first to go over to check it out.

Toby took out a shovel and began to dig. “I’m looking for treasure,” he joked, but he did think the patch of snow seemed out of place and was wondering if someone might have buried something beneath it. After unearthing the journal, he was curious about what other things they could find in the Overworld.

Harriet joined Toby. “Let’s place a hopper here for the snow to collect in.” She set one up right next to them. Jack started digging, too.

“I see something,” Toby shouted to the others.

“What is it?” asked Jack.

“I think it’s a chest,” said Toby.

“Open it!” Jack and Harriet stood next to him, waiting.

Toby opened the chest. “Blue helmets. It’s filled with blue helmets!”

“Huh,” said Jack.

“Blue helmets!” exclaimed Harriet. “They must have belonged to the blue army that was terrorizing William and Oliver.”

“That means we’re in the right place. This is the same ice biome where William was exploring.” Jack was excited.

“We’re one step closer to finding him.” Harriet grinned.

“Let’s keep digging and see if we find anything else,” suggested Toby.

Everyone took out their shovels and dug deep into the cold, white snow. Toby shouted, “I see a door!”

The others dug as quickly as they could until they were able to crawl into the hole to get to the door. Jack opened the door slowly. “There’s a staircase inside.”

Harriet hadn’t followed the others to the door. Toby called back, “What’s wrong?”

Harriet hesitated. “Maybe we should read the next section of the journal before we go down that staircase. It might help us.”

“You might be right,” said Toby. “We might be walking right into a trap.”

He started to read from the third journal entry.