Minecraft Monarchies – #13

The next morning they woke up and left the place, refreshed and well ready to finally recieve their quest reward. With Dean in the lead and Dad following close behind, they climbed the stairs of the chasm.

When they finally reached aboveground, the sun was already past the midpoint in a clear blue sky. The smell of flowers was in the air and everything was really quite pleasant.

“Well, it looks like we won’t be able to get back to Port City before night,” Dad said, sighing. “Maybe we should set up beds in the outpost, hunt for the rest of the day, then sleep?”

Dean frowned. It wasn’t that it was a bad idea, or even that it sounded like it’d be boring. It was more that he was tired of waiting and he just wanted to get to the city and get his emeralds.

Dad looked at him, reading his face. “Yeah, okay, I get it,” he said. “I want to get those emeralds and go shopping too. Alright, how about we push on. Rando mobs at night won’t be that tough anyways if we keep to the torchlight of the trail.”

They pushed forward, rising above the grassy hill and stopping briefly at the outpost to watch the golem prance around. It was still yelling, “Free! Free!” as it ran back and forth across the grassy field.

Dad and Dean made sure to stick around for a little bit so they could catch a glimpse of a newly-spawned pillager before lightning turned him into dust. Then, grinning broadly, they turned and left.

The two of them continued on, the land around them changing from grass to sand. They past the old mummies’ tomb, waving at the sign of the FisherKing in fond memories of battle.

They reached the biome crossroads of Haberdash Smithing just as things were getting dark. Josh was there, standing next to the door to his Smithing Inn. He waved to them, smiling happily, his old look of tired fear gone from his face.

No doubt because all of those spawners had been defeated and mummies weren’t trying to eat him anymore.

It got dark and they kept on walking, getting back to the hilly city of Asbury. There were small battles going on here, with the golems of The Kingdom of Kanterberry Blockdom moving about here and there to fight them.

Dean and Dad stood a bit, watching the golems pierce, punch, and pummel zombies and skeletons as they got too close to the city limits. Then they started walking again.

One of the golems saluted when they moved on by.

The moon was full in the sky by the time Dad and Dean made it to the outskirts of Camp Hazington, atop the large hill between Asbury and Port City. The place was full of figures, and lots of groaning. Some deep, some high-pitched.

Dad sighed.

“This is going to be another fight, isn’t it?”

Dean and Dad watched, seeing an army of zombies attacking the fort. Even though they were far away, they saw the camp golem fall over and pixelate, turning into iron and a rose.

The zombies turned towards the buildings, heading for their doors.

“Yep. It’s a fight. And that is a lot of zombies,” Dean said.

The two of them ran, covering the distance between them and the camp quickly. And then they were in the thick of battle.

“I’ll go stop them from breaking down the door to the farming house,” Dean said, splitting away to the left. “You go keep the rest of them from coming over here. Get them to chase you.”

Dad split right, walking behind the building, hitting one zombie after the other as he did so. By hitting them he drew their aggro, forcing them to follow him away from where Dean was busy saving the villagers from their doom.

Jumping and delivering critical attacks over and over again, Dean had his doorway cleared in no time. Then he turned and saw that Dad was in trouble. Over 20 zombies were chasing him, and some of them were the fast zombies known as baby zombies.

He was getting hit on the front, side, and back. He’d stopped fighting back and he was just trying to get away while eating some pork.

“Help Dean!” Dad said, jumped and eating. He looked quite silly and Dean would have laughed if it wasn’t such a desperate situation.

“I’m coming,” Dean yelled back. He ran forward. While he was running, though, he had an idea. Just fighting with a sword probably wouldn’t work well. There were too many of them. And he didn’t have a lava bucket, as fun as that would be. But he did have something else . . .

He had his flint and steel.

Dean ran forward, setting one then the other on fire. Zombie turned towards him and dad quickly criticalled the baby zombies, leaving only the slow-movers. The mobs burned brightly, lighting up the entirety of the landscape as they tried to catch the both of them.

Dad breathed a long sigh of relief. “Thanks, Dean. I thought I was a goner for sure.”

Dad laughed. “Yeah, that could have been really bad. If you had died you would have woken up in the Croatoan Camp. I’m not sure how long it would have been before we got to meet up again!”

Dad shivered. He hadn’t even thought of that. Meanwhile, the zombies were dying. Some of them went out, but then Dean would just jump back in and set them on fire again before hopping back out.

It wasn’t much longer before the zombies were all dead.

“Well, wasn’t that fun?” Dean asked.

Dad narrowed his eyes. “We probably better check in with Brian the Blacksmith. This smells like a quest to me. And not one that we can avoid doing.”

Dean nodded. “First I’m going to go check up on the villagers though. Those zombies were about to break through the door, and I bet they got very scared.

The two of them went to the building and opened the door gently. Inside they could see the rest of the villagers at the far end of the building. They were on the second floor, just up a flight of rickety wooden stairs. And they were shaking, making scared villager noises.

“Aw,” Dean said, pointing. Dad looked closely. There was a small baby villager among them!

“You can all go back to sleep,” Dad said. “You are safe now.”

“The heroes are here!” one yelled.

“The Heroes of Camp Hazington,” yelled another.

The villagers all surged forward, grabbing and hugging their heroes. Dean and Dad laughed and smiled. It was a game, sure, but it felt so real. And when the little villager ran up the stairs and did a flying jump onto Dean’s head, well, there was a single person in that house who was gasping from giggling just a bit too hard.

“Feel like spending the night with the villagers?” Dad asked Dean, watching him jumping around with the cute little baby villager riding his head.

“I do!” Dean said. “I really do!”

Minecraft Monarchies – Table of Contents