7

SIDETRACKED

So the bucket did belong to them.” Toby was excited. They had a clue and they were a little closer to finding William and his friends.

“That could have been Molly’s bucket,” said Jack, “but we aren’t even in the Nether anymore. We have to find Harriet and Oliver and get back there. Even if we were right near them it doesn’t matter, because we are far from them now.”

Everyone agreed—they had to find Harriet and Oliver quickly and then get back to the Nether. But now it was time to sleep. They drifted off one by one, and the group dreamt about finding their lost friends and finally meeting William the Explorer. Toby dreamt of the parties they would attend in the Overworld, once they reintroduced the world to its lost explorer. The people of the Overworld would be overjoyed to see William.

When the sun came up, Jack walked outside in search of something to eat. He spotted a chicken in the distance. With his bow and arrow, he destroyed the chicken. He retrieved it and then went back into the house and offered the others some food.

“We need to fill up our food bars, before we embark on this journey,” he said, handing each person some chicken.

The group devoured the chicken as they plotted their path to the desert. Toby asked, “Do you think that Harriet and Oliver are still there?”

“Yes,” said Jack. “That’s where they will have respawned and they’ll stay there because they’ll know we’re looking for them.”

The group made their way to the desert. Ezra suggested, “I know this is a bit out of the way, but I think we should take a detour to the cold biome and replenish our supply of snowballs.”

Everyone wanted to get to Harriet and Oliver quickly, but they realized this was a good plan. It would all be for nothing if they returned to the Nether without snowballs.

Jack looked at the map and led the group up a mountain and toward the cold biome. As they climbed the mountain, Julian looked out into the distance and spotted his town. He missed his wheat farm and the comforts of home. He imagined returning to the town with William and Oliver. He remembered the last time they had visited his town. William’s fame had transformed him and he had acted like a different person entirely. Julian had been very upset with him. Julian hoped that when he found William, he would be more like the old William he had known.

As they made their way down the mountain on the other side, Julian noticed the piles of snow. Just what they needed.

The group ran toward the snow and began to craft as many snowballs as they could fit in their inventories.

“I think we have enough,” said Toby after a while.

“Yes, and now we really need to head to the desert,” said Jack.

The group climbed back up the mountain. Julian stopped again to look out at his town. It made him happy to think about home, and that was something he wanted to share. “I can see my town from the top of the mountain,” he told the others.

“When this journey is over,” Jack promised Julian, “we will all go back to your town to celebrate.”

“I’d like that.” Julian smiled.

The trip to the desert was long, and the sun was beginning to set. The group had to construct another house to spend the night in. They didn’t want to battle the hostile mobs that spawned in the middle of the night.

They picked a patch of grass in the middle of the jungle and began to construct the house. As they were building it, Ezra spotted a jungle temple. “In the morning we should go to that temple and search for treasure.”

“We don’t have time. We already lost valuable time getting snowballs. We don’t want to keep getting sidetracked,” argued Jack.

The others didn’t agree. Julian said, “I think we need to fill our inventories with as many resources as we can. We don’t know when we’ll be back. We can’t pass up searching for treasure in the jungle temple.”

They all climbed into bed. When they woke up, they dressed in their diamond armor, and prepared to travel to the jungle temple. They made their way through the jungle in hopes of finding a trove of useful treasure.

They entered the grand temple and headed to the room with the treasure. When they reached the treasure room, they spotted two people wearing sparkly purple helmets. They were already there trying to unearth the treasure.

Toby shot an arrow at them.

“What are you doing?” hissed Jack.

“I want the treasure,” said Toby, unapologetically.

“But they got to it first. Let’s just go. This isn’t how we behave.” Jack was upset. Things weren’t the same without Harriet around.

The others agreed with Jack. Julian said, “We’ll find other treasures. These people have discovered the treasure before us, and it’s rightfully theirs.”

But it was too late. The two people in the sparkly purple helmets turned around and began to shoot arrows at the gang.

“See what you did?” Jack shouted at Toby.

“I’m sorry,” Toby said to his friends and then called out to the purple helmets, “Please. Stop. We surrender.”

The purple-helmeted duo approached the gang. “What do you want from us?”

Toby replied, “We are going to leave.”

“Not so fast,” said one of the purple-helmeted people.

“Please, we have somewhere we need to be,” Jack tried to explain.

“You attacked us,” said the purple-helmeted treasure hunter.

The gang knew it wasn’t going to be an easy escape. They had attacked these people and now they were going to pay the price. Jack was very upset. He didn’t want them to get sidetracked and now they were about to be in a completely unnecessary battle with these two strangers.

“Please, just be happy with your treasure and let us go on our way,” Toby tried to reason with them.

One of the purple-helmeted people took out a bow and arrow.

Toby grabbed a potion of invisibility and splashed it on his friends. They sprinted out of the temple.

When the potion wore off and they reappeared, they were in the desert. “That was a close call,” said Julian.

Then Toby spotted Harriet in the distance. “Harriet!” he called out.

She ran toward him. “What are you guys doing here? I thought you’d still be in the Nether.”

“We came to get you and Oliver,” Toby told her.

“I don’t know where Oliver is. I haven’t seen him at all,” Harriet told her friends.

“Well, we have to find him,” Jack told the group.

Before the group could enjoy their reunion and strategize about finding Oliver, Veronica and Valentino appeared in front of them.

“How did you get here?” asked Julian, caught by surprise.

“We TPed,” replied Veronica. “Now give us the journal.”

“No. Never!” shouted Julian.

Valentino struck Julian with his sword. “If you don’t give it to us, then you better start reading from it.”

The gang didn’t want to give the journal away. They also didn’t want to fight again. So Julian read.