5

THE TREASURE HUNTERS

Can you hear them?” whispered Harriet.

“They stopped reading.” Julian peeked into the other room again.

Valentino lunged at Julian as he turned the corner, striking him with a diamond sword. “It’s over!”

Julian grabbed his own diamond sword and battled Valentino.

Toby sprinted toward Veronica and splashed a potion of harming on her, then tried to grab the journal.

Then three blazes spawned in the room. They unleashed a sea of fireballs at the group. One of the fireballs struck Oliver, destroying him.

“Oliver!” Julian cried. “Now he’ll respawn in the desert! Oh no!”

The group had very few snowballs left, which made the battle against the blazes almost impossible.

Julian struck Valentino with his diamond sword as they both tried to avoid the fiery blasts.

Harriet shielded herself from the fireballs, but it was too late. There was no escape. She was hit by one of the fireballs and she too was destroyed.

“Harriet’s gone, too!” Jack called out as he helped Julian destroy Valentino with his sword.

Veronica was devastated when she saw her partner destroyed, and she didn’t notice the fireball that was headed in her direction. She was almost instantly destroyed as well.

No longer distracted, the remaining gang fought desperately until the final blaze was defeated. Toby collected the blaze rods to give to Oliver, hoping they would see him again soon.

“What are we going to do?” asked Jack. “Oliver and Harriet will have both respawned in the desert. Should we go back for them?”

Everyone had a different opinion. Toby wanted to find Harriet first. Julian was still worried about Ezra. “At least we know that Oliver and Harriet are okay. Charles has Ezra, and we still don’t know if William is safe. They should be our priority.”

“I think we have to go back to the Overworld, even if Harriet and Oliver aren’t in as much danger,” said Jack. “We have no snowballs left in our inventories. If we have one more attack from a fiery Nether mob, we will all be destroyed. We need to restock our inventories and find our friends.”

Julian nodded his head slowly. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Let’s make a portal back to the Overworld,” said Toby.

The group left the Nether fortress and headed toward the lava waterfall where they could craft a portal.

“Look!” Toby called out. “I see a bucket.”

Toby walked over to a bucket that was on the netherrack ground. He picked it up and handed it to Julian.

“Who would have left this here?” asked Julian.

Jack thought about the journal. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “Do you think this bucket could be a clue?”

“A clue?” asked Julian.

“Yes, to finding William,” said Jack.

“It could be Molly’s bucket!” said Toby.

“It could be anybody’s bucket,” said Julian.

“Okay, it doesn’t matter who the bucket belongs to. For now we need to get back to the Overworld.” Jack was annoyed.

“All right, all right,” said Julian. “We’re making the portal. Happy?”

“Yes,” replied Jack. But before they activated the portal, the group heard a voice call out to them.

“Help me! Don’t leave me here!” the voice shouted.

“It sounds like Ezra! We need to find him,” said Julian.

Toby was ready to activate the portal. “But the portal is complete. We have to travel back to the Overworld.”

“I can’t leave now. I’m certain that was Ezra calling for us. Let’s just leave the portal and come back,” insisted Julian.

“What if this is a trick?” asked Jack.

“There’s only one way to find out,” said Julian. Jack and Toby gave in. They would have done the same if the roles were reversed, if they had heard Harriet calling for help.

The group followed Julian toward the cries. They were walking up a series of steps leading to a bridge that crossed a large lava river when Julian called out, “I see him!”

Ezra was on the bridge. Valentino and Veronica had him cornered. They had their swords pointed at him, and his energy bar was very low. With one hit from a diamond sword, he’d be destroyed.

Toby took out his bow and arrow and aimed at Valentino. He struck him on his first shot. Valentino turned around and ran toward Toby, ready for a fight.

Ezra was able to break free from Veronica and he too began to run toward Toby.

Then a loud roar interrupted them. Everybody stopped where they were.

“Is that the—” Julian looked up in disbelief.

“It can’t be!” cried Valentino.

The Ender Dragon flew through the red Nether sky. Someone had summoned the beast from the End and brought it to the Nether.

One of the dragon’s scaly wings struck Veronica, throwing her off the bridge and into the lava river. Valentino cried out. But he didn’t have time to mourn his partner, because the dragon was coming right for him next. In a matter of seconds, the dragon had thrown Valentino from the bridge as well.

“Get to the portal!” Toby called to his friends. “I’m going to ignite it!” The gang sprinted as fast as they could. Ezra had barely enough energy to keep up.

A purple mist rose up as they stepped onto the portal and back to the Overworld.

The portal left them in a grassy area of the Overworld.

“We need to find the desert,” said Jack.

But the sun was beginning to set. The group crafted a crudely constructed house to spend the night in. As they crawled into their beds, Julian remembered that he had retrieved the journal when he was battling Valentino and Veronica. “I have the book. Should I read from it?”

“Yes,” replied Toby and Jack in unison.

Julian began to read.