17

SLIMES AND SURPRISES

They are in the End!” Harriet called out.

“We can’t be sure,” said Jack. “Maybe they defeated the Ender Dragon and respawned in the Overworld.”

“At least we know that William probably isn’t in the desert. I don’t want to go back there to fight Valentino,” commented Toby.

“Did somebody say my name?” Valentino stormed over to them. He lashed out at Toby and struck him with his sword.

Ezra rushed Valentino, splashing a potion of weakness on him. Harriet hit Valentino with her diamond sword and he was destroyed.

“We have to be on the lookout for the two purple-helmeted treasure hunters.” Oliver told them. “They’ll be around here somewhere.”

“Look!” shouted Harriet.

Everyone looked, expecting to see the two purple-helmeted treasure hunters. Instead they saw five blazes flying through the Overworld sky.

“He’s summoned more Nether mobs!” cried Veronica.

“Get your snowballs out!” Julian ordered.

The group battled the yellow mobs. They threw snowballs as they dodged the fireballs that rained down on them.

Valentino must have respawned nearby. He was back, and this time he was with the two purple-helmeted treasure hunters. They attacked the group with a potion of weakness. It looked like all was lost. Weakened, they didn’t have a chance against the yellow beasts from the Nether.

Harriet grabbed a potion of healing from her inventory and drank it quickly, then passed it off to her friends. With her newfound energy, she lunged toward Valentino with her diamond sword.

“You have no clue where William is,” she shouted at him.

“Neither do you.” He laughed. “But I know where Charles is hiding.”

“What?” Harriet asked, surprised.

“Looking for me?” Charles called out.

Now they were up against Charles and Valentino together. This was their toughest challenge yet. As Harriet struck Valentino, she said, with disgust dripping from her words, “I knew you two were working together.”

“Where is William?” demanded Toby, joining in the fight.

“Stop,” roared Charles.

Surprised, everyone did as Charles had asked.

“Everyone, please put down your weapons,” he continued.

Confused, it took a moment for everyone to comply. They watched each other, unsure. But Charles was the first to drop his own sword, and the others slowly followed suit.

Harriet was the last to drop her weapon. She wondered if she should strike Charles while she was at an advantage. But she didn’t. That wouldn’t be playing fair. Still, she was shocked that everyone had listened to him and that the fighting had stopped.

“I never saw William after he traveled to the End,” Charles began. “But you have his journal. You have proof that he returned. Give us the journal.”

“We did have the journal,” Julian replied. “I mean, we do have the journal, but it’s missing pages. We don’t know where William is. We don’t know if he’s still in the End.”

Charles looked at the group and took out his sword again. “You had better not be lying to us. If you know something and you aren’t telling us or if you’ve hidden the missing pages, you will all suffer.”

The moment of peace was broken. Harriet retrieved her own sword and struck Charles. He grabbed a potion of harming and splashed it toward her, but she jumped back. Jack gave Charles a push and Charles fell right into the potion he had intended for Harriet. He called out to his soldiers, “Help me!”

But the gang was too fast. They leapt at Charles and destroyed him. Then they battled the soldiers, Valentino, and the two purple-helmeted treasure hunters. When everyone was destroyed, Julian picked up some pages that had fluttered to the floor.

Julian said, “I think these are the final pages from the journal.”

“I wonder who had them. If it was Charles or Valentino,” Veronica asked.

Oliver, who was known to be extremely trusting, shocked everyone when he said, “I bet Charles and Valentino didn’t even know someone had those pages. It could have been one of the treasure hunters or someone from the army. Or maybe it was one of us?”

They looked at one another suspiciously. Was one of them keeping secrets? Had one of them been hiding the pages?

Harriet broke the tension. “Before we start questioning everyone about the journal pages, we should read them.”

And once again, Julian read out loud.