3

IN THE NETHER FORTRESS

I wonder where William is trapped. We need to find him as soon as possible. We have to free him and the other prisoners,” Harriet said to the group.

Oliver was thinking about the cries that William and Sean had heard. “That wasn’t my voice,” he said. “I wonder who it was.”

“We’ll find them.” Julian sounded extremely confident.

“How?” asked Harriet, skeptical. The Nether was so big.

“We need to read more of the journal,” said Toby.

“We need to find Ezra,” Julian reminded them.

“We will find Ezra. But first we need to read the journal.”

Julian flipped open the journal again and was about to read from it when an arrow struck him. “Ouch!” he cried and then he dropped the book.

“It’s Veronica!” shouted Harriet.

“And Valentino!” Toby cried as he took out his bow and arrow and shot in the direction of the two treasure hunters. They were going to be trouble after all.

The duo ran toward the gang. They put away their bows and arrows and took out enchanted diamond swords. With all their might, they began to attack the group.

“There are only two of you!” Toby shouted at Valentino and Veronica as he fought back with his sword. “You guys will never win.”

Then, Valentino called out. “Help!”

At his signal, a group of red men emerged from behind a lava waterfall. They sprinted toward the group. They carried diamond swords and descended upon the gang.

Veronica laughed as she struck Toby. “You guys are never going to win.”

“What do you want from us?” asked a terrified Jack.

“We want the book you’re reading,” Veronica told them. “Give it to us now and you won’t get hurt. Otherwise we’ll destroy every one of you.”

Toby fumbled with his sword as Veronica struck him again. His health bar was dangerously low. Harriet sprinted toward Toby’s side and hit Veronica with her diamond sword. “You aren’t going to get away with this,” she shouted.

“Look at our red army,” Veronica laughed. “We have many people working for us. You won’t be able to escape the Nether, and you’ll never be able to find your friend.”

“Don’t threaten me.” Harriet plunged her sword into Veronica’s side.

“Watch out!” Oliver called to Harriet.

A ghast flew through the sky and shot a fireball at Harriet. Thanks to Oliver’s warning, she jumped back just in time. The fireball hit Veronica instead. She was instantly destroyed.

“Veronica!” Valentino called out, running to where she had stood.

The ghast shot another fireball. This one hit Valentino, destroying him as well. Harriet hit the next fireball with her fist, obliterating the ghast. The red soldiers fled.

“We’re safe!” Jack was relieved. Toby drank a potion of healing and was happy to see his energy restored. Oliver picked up the ghast tears that the ghast had dropped. They would be useful for making potions.

Julian announced, “But William’s journal is missing. One of them must have grabbed it during the battle. How are we going to find him without it?”

“We need to find Veronica and Valentino. I’m sure they’re the ones who have the journal.” Harriet was upset. She had no idea where Veronica and Valentino might have respawned. It was hard enough having to find William, and now they had to hunt for the devious treasure hunters.

“If they have the journal, they might be able to find William before us. And who knows what they would do to him. They will treat him like a treasure to be sold.” Oliver was upset.

“There’s no use standing around here and worrying. We have to explore the Nether. It’s our only hope,” Toby informed them.

Harriet took a deep breath. She wanted to go back to the Overworld. She disliked everything about the Nether. But they couldn’t give up. She followed the others as they trekked through the red lava-filled landscape. As a zombie pigman walked past her, she avoided making eye contact.

Jack called out, “I see a Nether fortress.”

“Yes, I see it too!” Toby ran toward the fortress.

Three yellow blazes flew in front of the fortress and shot fireballs at the gang.

“I don’t have any snowballs left,” Harriet announced, ducking to avoid one of the fireballs.

Julian handed some to Harriet. “I think we’re all running low. So only throw them if you think you can hit one.”

Harriet aimed at one of the black-eyed beasts and hit it dead center with the snowball. “I got one of them!”

With one down, the other two were easier. The gang threw snowballs at the remaining blazes until they were destroyed. Oliver went and collected the blaze rods. “I can use these in my potions,” he explained.

When he was finished, the group continued on to the fortress.

The fortress was eerily quiet. Julian led them to the secret treasure room. “It looks like the treasure is still here. Everything is intact.”

“We need to unearth it.” Oliver stood by Julian. “And we have to do it carefully.”

Jack slowly and very cautiously approached the treasure, making sure not to set off the trip wire. “There are two chests.”

Toby was excited. “Well, let’s see what’s inside!”

Jack opened the chests. One contained a collection of enchanted books. “These will come in handy when we want to enchant our diamond swords.”

As Jack handed out the enchanted books, one for each of them, Harriet opened the second chest. “Emeralds!”

“Wow!” exclaimed Toby.

“Perfect. Now we can use these to trade for other valuable resources,” said Julian. They divvied up the emeralds as well. Excited about their newfound treasures, they all started talking about their plans.

“Shh!” Harriet warned them. “I hear voices.”

The group stood in silence. They could hear someone talking in the other room. It sounded like Veronica.

Julian peeked into the room and said in a whisper, “It’s them—Veronica and Valentino!”

“What are they doing?” asked Harriet quietly.

“They’ve got William’s journal,” Julian told the others. “Veronica’s reading it out loud. We need to get it from them now before it’s too late.”

“Shh!” Harriet warned.

The gang went quiet again. They could hear Veronica reading.

Moving closer to the doorway, they listened as Veronica read aloud to Valentino.