Chapter 1 School
The school bell rang. The loud sound made Austin jump in his seat. No other sound followed, but Mrs. Williams’ fifth grade class all were hiding cries of excitement inside. They had just been through the paradox of what Mrs. Williams called “an interesting history lesson on the Inuit tribe of Hawaii.” Jake stood up and let out a whoop of jubilation. He was the class clown. “Mr. Johnson, please take your seat. I have one more page to read on the development of kayaks.” Jake sighed and sulked back into his seat. “Now…” Mrs. Williams went on about how the Inuit developed the kayaks. Everyone except Austin was slumped in their seats, occasionally glancing at the clock, which was useless because they were already out of class late. Austin was staring intently at Mrs. Williams, writing notes in his black notebook with a 3D image of the Minecraft character of Steve on the cover. Luke Ramirez, the boy who sat next to Austin and also one of his best friends, slipped a sticky note onto Austin’s desk. Luke was a troublemaker. The fifth graders often teased him for having the world record for the amount of times he went to the principal’s office. Austin glanced at the note it said in Luke’s bad handwriting, Minecraft today after school? Austin looked at him and gave him a quick nod, then went back to his Steve notebook. Meanwhile, Sam was sitting, his head on the table, staring unfocusedly at the chalkboard behind Mrs. Williams. After a minute, which for everyone except Austin felt like hours, Mrs. Williams said, “Alright everyone, you’re dismissed,” The contained cheers finally left the mouths of all the fifth graders. They stood up, slung their backpacks over their shoulders and dashed out of the classroom. Out on the asphalt basketball court, Richie was already waiting outside near one of the goal posts, dribbling a basketball in place. Richie was Austin’s younger brother. He was in third grade. Austin, Jake, Sam, and Luke were all together, like they normally did. Now that they had Richie, the whole group was together. The five were all best friends, and they hung out every day. “Minecraft today?” Austin asked. “Right after school,” Jake said. “After I finish my chores!” Richie added. The group moved off toward the door in the fence that surrounded their school. All the students at Apple Orchard Elementary where gathering around that door, all squeezing together trying to get through. The boys all walked together, until they had to go different ways to get to their separate houses. Luke, Sam, and Jake turned right on Mulberry Street to get to their houses, while Austin and Richie went to the left. After they were all home, (and Richie had finished his chores) they logged onto their favorite Minecraft server. Austin had opened a server for the boys to play on and called it “Apple Orchard Fifth Grade.” The other boys protested and asked for a cooler name, but Austin had created the server and nobody else knew how to change it. Austin found the server and clicked the “Play” button. When he logged on, the other boys were already on. Instead of their real names, their pretend Minecraft usernames hovered above their heads. Luke’s was “ShadowMaster123,” Jake’s was “BabyShark222,” Sam’s was “MyNameIsTotallyNotSam,” Austin’s was “Einstein22,” and of course, Richie had insisted on “RichieIsRich567.” They attached their microphones and joined the group audio chat. “Everyone here?” Jake asked. A series of “yep’s” followed. They moved on to the normal stuff they did on Minecraft, mining, enchanting, farming, the occasional PvP battle when Austin and Richie got into a fight over a piece of enchanted armor, et cetera. They had been playing for about an hour when the game began to glitch. The blocks didn’t break, they couldn’t pick up items, nothing too bad. That was until things began to get creepy. Pictures of tall built towers made out of iron blocks and even an occasional picture of Herobrine, the community-made creature that supposedly haunted Minecraft began to flash across their screens. Eventually, Jake said, “Alright, Austin, enough hacking. We don’t fall for your pranks anymore!” “It’s not me!” Austin said frantically. He was reminded of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. He had hacked the game many times to scare his friends, but this time, it wasn’t him. “Then what’s happening?” Richie whimpered. “I should restart the server,” Austin said. “We’ve been playing for a while; I think it’ll help Minecraft if we shut it down for a few minutes.” Austin pressed the escape button, which normally opens the screen in which you can close Minecraft, but nothing happened, It just made the mysterious pictures flash more frequently. Suddenly, the room began to shake. “Um, guys?” Austin said. Rattling sounds responded from his headset. “THE ROOM IS SHAKING!” Richie screamed in horror. Then, holes opened on their computer screens. “Wh-at… th-e?” came the glitching voice of one of his friends. It wasn’t just a hole; it was a portal. A swirling, blue-green vortex that seemed to go on forever. It was pulling them in, like a piece of metal being drawn toward a magnet. Austin dashed to the back wall of his room, but the tug just became stronger, like a twisting black hole of terror. Finally, they got sucked in. Each of them went down a tunnel, until all of the passages came to form one, giant one, looking around, they each were glitching. It was like they were in Minecraft. Their bodies were being morphed into blocky ones. Cubes danced around them, transforming them. Then, as suddenly as they had opened, the end of the portals that lead to their world closed, preventing their escape, but it was hopeless anyway, it was like they were being dragged downward, like an asteroid plummeting to Earth. When Austin’s parents burst into the room responding to the horrified screaming, Austin was gone. Nothing except the face of Herobrine staring back at them from the computer screen.

Chapter 2 Minecraft City
They kept on falling. Now their bodies were all blocky. They resembled themselves but like a Minecraft skin. Could it be? They had all read about it in their favorite fictional stories but being sucked into Minecraft never crossed any of their minds (except maybe Richie’s) as actually being possible! After what felt like hours, they finally saw bright light at the end of the vortex. Sunlight streamed into the tunnel they were relieved until they realized they were plummeting straight toward the top of an iron skyscraper, two hundred feet below them. The end of the portal was only a few feet away from the top of the tower, which didn’t seem like reassuring information at the time. They all yelled as they were dragged down by gravity toward the roof of the tower. They closed their eyes and waited to reach their imminent demise. There was a loud Crack! and a wave of harsh pain crashed down on them. But they hadn’t met their fates. Sam groaned with pain. They all copied him. The five boys stood up with effort and looked around. They gasped when they saw the view. Tons of buildings stretched out, the orange light of the sunset illuminating the city. “Where are we?” Jake asked. “We’re in Minecraft,” Luke said. “Not just in Minecraft,” a voice said. The boys whirled around. “You are in Minecraft City!” The voice had come from a man, also in a blocky Minecraft skin. He wore a fancy business suit with a red tie. He had a black beard that seemed painted to his face, which was what the skins looked like in Minecraft. “Huh?” Richie asked. “You are in Minecraft City,” the man repeated. “I understand you, too have come from the real world?” “Yes,” Jake said. “But can I ask you something? How the heck did we get here?” “The same way we all have,” “All?” Luke asked. “Yes, all,” the man gestured to the many blocky figures of people walking around below. None of them had thought about the fact that this place had to be civilized, but a million other thoughts were rushing through the boys’ heads at the moment.  “Why, I forgot to introduce myself,” the man said. “I am the mayor of Minecraft City! But you can just call me the Mayor.” The boys each introduced themselves. “Um,” Austin said. “How do we get back?” The welcoming smile on the Mayor’s face vanished. “That,” he sighed. “We haven’t figured out yet. Nor has the mystery of why we came here, but we all came through the portals, just like you did.” The five exchanged nervous looks. If they were stuck in Minecraft forever, what then? Their parents would be worried, probably call the police and cause some kind of crisis. The boys had heard of the mysterious disappearances around the world of people who had nothing in common, except the fact that they were gamers. “So, until we figure out how to get back, you’ll have to get settled into Minecraft City, here, let me give you a tour around. So, the five boys followed the Mayor down tens of flights of steps until they finally reached the bottom. “This is city hall,” the Mayor said. “And when we step out here…” the Mayor stepped on the iron pressure plate, and the iron door opened like the automatic doors you can see in stores. Warm beams of sunlight hit the faces of the boys, which puzzled them, because when they had arrived, it had been dusk, now it seemed it was around noon. Around them, an assortment of buildings was placed along the black concrete street. “Here is Main Street,” the Mayor said. “Where the most important buildings are placed, such as the Factory, and of course, Minecraft City Tower, whichd we just exited.” “That’s the factory?” Austin asked, pointing to a red brick building with smoke billowing out from the top. “Yes, indeed it is…” said the Mayor. They kept walking along, Austin guessing most of what the buildings were and deeply impressing the Mayor. “You know Minecraft very well! I assume you play a lot?” then he muttered to himself, “Hmm… yes… you would be perfect.” The boys had a mental exchange. They were all thinking the same thing. Perfect for what? They decided not to ask and went along with the tour. After a long while, the Mayor stopped. “That’s pretty much it!” he said. “Though I feel like Austin was the guide most of the time!” The Mayor chuckled. “Which leads us to our next point. Austin, I believe you would be perfect.” “Perfect for what?” the five boys asked in unison. “Perfect to be my mayor’s assistant.” Something inside Luke boiled over. He had always been jealous of Austin. He was the smartest and best at Minecraft of the friends. Luke always felt like he didn’t have a place in the group. Austin was smart, Jake was funny, Sam was a good athlete, and Richie was really good at helping people in a block away from a hard place. Luke didn’t feel like he had anything special that helped everyone. And now, Austin had just stolen his chance at doing something important in his life for once. Yes, yes. That hatred is good… said a raspy voice inside his head. “What the…” Luke said. Everyone fell silent. They had just been talking about what a mayor’s assistant was, when Luke had suddenly interrupted. “What is it?” Austin asked. “It’s… it’s nothing.” Luke said. But the raspy voice came back. You have a chance to get back at them for neglecting you. Accept my help, and you will never be looked down upon again. It was tempting, but Luke wasn’t sure why. But what am I supposed to do? Luke asked the voice, thinking what he wanted to say, but no answer came. He looked back at the others. “We must have a ceremony in your honor, Austin! The people of Minecraft City need to know of your new position!” Position. Luke felt like Austin had just stolen some kind of promotion he was promised. “Anyway, it’s time I showed you to your new homes,” the Mayor said. “Our new homes?” Luke asked, suddenly back in their conversation. “Yes,” the Mayor replied. Ask him, the voice in his head was back again. Ask him where you can find a store. For some reason, Luke obeyed. “Um… Mr. Mayor, where can I find a store around here?” “Oh! That’s easy!” the Mayor gave him directions to a nearby department store, which apparently “held everything from A to Z.” Then the Mayor escorted everyone to their new houses. But as soon as the Mayor was out of sight, Luke snuck out. Good job, very, very good job. the voice said. Once Luke had arrived at the department store, the voice began to speak again. You will need to buy these things… the voice instructed him to buy an assortment of redstone items, brewing tools, and enchanting materials. Go back to your house, get some rest, you’ll need it. You have a big day coming up.

Chapter 3 Zephyr
Sam awoke to rapping on his door. It was so fierce that it scared him up. He was suddenly on his feet. “What is it? I’m coming!” he said. The sound continued. When he got to his door, he realized it wasn’t knocking. Crack marks were beginning to form on the door’s surface like they did when a block was breaking. Sam dashed over and opened the door. But instead of the Mayor, who he’d been excepting, there was a decaying green creature, that smelled of rotting flesh standing right in front of him. A zombie. It growled and slashed at Sam with its sharp black claws. Sam stepped back just in time to avoid the razor-sharp weapons. Suddenly, there was a flash of glowing purple light. The zombie flashed red with damage, then vanished in a puff of smoke. Where the zombie had been a second before, there was a pile of rotten flesh hovering above the ground. The Mayor was standing there, an enchanted diamond sword at the ready. “What do you prefer,” he panted. “Sword or bow?” “Bow,” Sam said. “Definitely bow.” He was exceptionally good at archery when he played Minecraft, he just hoped he was just as good when he was in it. The Mayor tossed him a bow that glittered with purple light and a handful of arrows. He put the flint-tipped shafts back into his inventory but kept his enchanted bow in his hand. “I apologize I forgot to warn you,” the Mayor said. “But we have monster sieges nightly,” He dashed off into the distance, right toward the horde of zombies, creepers, skeletons, spiders, and endermen. That’s all you have to say? Sam thought to himself, then he followed. When he arrived in the grasslands that surrounded Minecraft City, Sam’s friends were already there, fighting. They each held an iron sword, with the exception of Austin, who was holding a diamond sword. Sam notched an arrow and pulled back the bow string. He aimed at a creeper that was advancing on a man who had nothing but a wooden sword. He let loose the bow string. The string hummed as the arrow shot through the air, making a whistling noise as it flew. It struck the mottled green creature. The creeper flashed red with damage, then vanished with a hiss. The man who had the wooden sword looked over at Sam and gave a grateful nod. Sam smiled, then jumped back when he heard a clicking noise. He looked over. A spider was charging toward him. The noise was the huge creature, clicking its mandibles. The giant arachnid hurled itself at Sam. The monster was too quick and too close. He couldn’t shoot his bow, and he had chosen that weapon instead of a sword. The spider hit Sam. He fell backward as the monster’s sharp claws tore into Sam’s side. He whacked the creature with his bow, trying to confuse it, but it just kept on attacking. He flashed red with damage. Pain erupted throughout his body. It was so painful he could barely think, but he managed to come up with something. Sam pulled an arrow from his inventory, then stabbed it with the projectile. The spider flashed red and was sent sprawling backward, landing on its back, its legs writhing. Sam walked over to the fuzzy arachnid and stabbed it once more. It flashed red for the last time, then disappeared in a puff of smoke. “Whew,” Sam said. “That was close.” But he had no time to rest. An arrow whistled past his ear, narrowly missing his head. He looked over and saw a bony creature with a wooden bow in its hand, an arrow notched. It let lose another shaft, which Sam narrowly dodged. The skeleton moved to the side. Sam knew this trick. Skeletons liked to circle their victim, confusing it. But he also knew the way to avoid it. Sam strafed, moving side to side so that the skeleton didn’t have a clear shot. He feinted a move, then quickly drew his own bow and launched a volley of arrows. In seconds the bony creature had vanished. He looked around. No more monsters were advancing on him. The people of Minecraft City had driven back most of the monsters, but a few remained. It was then that a cloud of lavender particles appeared directly in front of Sam. An enderman appeared, but it wasn’t it’s normal pure black. It was deep red, with lines around his body that reminded Sam of the pattern on a magma block. “What the…” Sam said. “What are you?” “I am an enderman, you fool!” it screeched. The voice was so cold and high that it sent a shiver down Sam’s spine. He never would’ve guessed monsters could talk in Minecraft. “Yeah, I can see that,” Sam said. “You just look… eh, well… different.” Sam didn’t want to offend the enderman, but the monster seemed pretty agitated. “I understand, endermen are normally black, but I am not just any enderman,” the creature said.’ “I am Zephyr, king of the endermen. The Master has called me here.” “The master? What?” Sam asked. But instead of replying, in a split second, Zephyr landed a series of hard punches. Sam flashed red with damage and was flung backward. He staggered to his feet, then drew his bow and shot an arrow. Zephyr vanished for an instant, then reappeared where he had been just before. Bad Sam, bad! You can’t shoot an enderman with an arrow! “You can’t shoot an enderman with an arrow!” Zephyr screeched triumphantly. “Yeah, I kinda figured that out already,” Sam said. Sounds of yelling came from the surrounding area. He could make out the voices of some of his friends. Austin said, “Sam, are you okay?” Luke said, “Hrrmph.” And Jake said, “Sam, are you consulting with the endermen again?” Again? What? Sam decided not to dwell on the thought. His friends drew their swords and charged. Zephyr snarled. “We will meet again, Sam,” then he vanished in a puff of lavender mist.

Chapter 4 The Ancient Prophecy
Sam stood there in shock as his friends ran over to save him from the nonexistent enderman. “What happened?” Austin asked. “Enderman… king… attack… danger…” Sam couldn’t get all the words out. “The enderman king attacked danger?” Jake asked. “Or am I bad at translating muttering.” “I think the second option,” Richie said. “Guys, enough!” Austin chided. “Sam, what happened?” Sam took a few deep breaths. “I was fighting, when suddenly, this enderman guy appeared, he called himself Zephyr, the king of the endermen,” Sam explained. Luke looked startled at the name. “Zephyr…” he muttered. “What?” Sam looked over at Luke. “You know something about him?” Luke looked around frantically. “I— ah… um… no, it’s nothing,” Sam went on with his story. “Then he said something about the Master sending him here—” Luke flinched at that. “Okay, out with it,” Sam said. “I told you, it’s nothing! I don’t know anything!” When Austin gave him a skeptical glare, Luke huffed in anger and stormed off back toward Minecraft City. “What’s up with him?” Jake asked. “Ever since you became mayor’s assistant, he’s been acting weird.” “Yeah,” Austin said. “He’s jealous, he’s always been jealous.” Sam cleared his throat. All eyes swiveled back to him. It was honestly kind of creepy, but he went on. “He said the thing about the Master, attacked me, and teleported, and then…and then here we are now!” “Zephyr…” the Mayor had been silent until then, and Sam had almost forgotten he was there. “That name does sound familiar. I have something to show you. Something very important. Follow me.” The Mayor led them in silence to Minecraft City Tower. When they were inside city hall on the first floor, the Mayor finally said, “The city hall isn’t really the bottom floor,” “What?” Austin asked. The Mayor said nothing, but walked over to a corner where a two leaf blocks sat on top of a cauldron, a classic potted plant block hack. The Mayor drew a pickaxe and destroyed the cauldron, leaving the leaves floating in midair. There was a one block hole under the cauldron. The four friends gasped. The Mayor reached down and pressed a button. The sound of pistons filled the air and a hole opened in the middle of the room, which had a staircase leading down a torchlit tunnel. “Come on,” the Mayor said. “Follow me,” They followed him down the stairway until they reached a large stone room dug out underground. Tens of enchanting tables lined the bookcase walls and lit up the room. The Mayor walked over to one enchanting table. Symbols from the intergalactic language floated around the book on the table, whose tables turned themselves. He flipped through the pages until he found what he wanted. The four friends walked over. The words were all in the same unfamiliar language. “What is it?” Sam asked. “It is one of the texts we found when I first was sucked into Minecraft. I found it when I was exploring a stronghold library. It says, To good or to evil Minecraft must fall, Zephyr shall start it, Mieds shall turn the tables, and a friend of Minecraft shall end it all.” “That sounds… sort of lke a prophecy of some sort,” Austin said. “It is,” the Mayor said. “Those who know of it call it the Ancient Prophecy. And what it tells have begun. It says that Minecraft must fall at the hands of good or evil. This will surely be some kind of battle. A war, even. Zephyr has started it. Come.” The Mayor led them back up the dimly light stairway into the city hall. The sun was rising. A new day was upon them, which really wasn’t saying much, since it had only been six minutes since Zephyr had vanished.
But it was nice to have the sun on them. The crisp morning air bit at the friends’ faces. The citizens of Minecraft City were already hustling to get to their jobs. A few waved at the Mayor but didn’t slow their pace. They had jobs to do, and only eight minutes to do them.

Chapter 5 The Update
Austin was in his house that he had grown situated in. It was large, situated on the fourth story of Minecraft City Tower. It was all white, with tons of windows around the whole thing overlooking Minecraft City. He didn’t get any rest, because the nights were only eight minutes long and that was about how long it took to fall asleep. It was the next day after the morning when they“Hey, Austin,” said Richie. Earlier, Austin had insisted on letting Richie stay up in his house, too. He was a third grader and still wasn’t used to sleeping by himself. “Yeah?” Austin replied. “This is amazing, but it’s also kind of scary,” his little brother said. “It’s amazing because, where in Minecraft! I mean, who can say they’ve been inside a video game! But it’s scary because we don’t know when, or if we’ll ever get out again. I’ll miss everyone.” “Don’t worry,” Austin said. “We’ll get back. It’s just a matter of time.” By that time, the sun was already rising, the pale-yellow glow beginning to peek up above the horizon. “I guess we should go,” Austin said. “Minecraft time is weird,” Richie replied. Austin nodded. He walked over and flicked the lever to open his iron door. “You coming?” he asked. “Yeah,” said Richie, who stood up and ran out the door. Austin followed. Later, when the five boys, along with the Mayor, had gathered at the foot of Minecraft City Tower, the Mayor said, “Did everyone had a good night?” “Yeah,” Jake said. “If you count not getting any sleep because the nights are eight minutes long, then yeah!” Everyone laughed, except Luke, who seemed like he wasn’t in the greatest of moods. “All right,” said the Mayor. “The ceremony is in two days, so we have about half an hour to prepare, which means Austin, I need you to come with me. The rest of you, you can do what you please.” “I saw a cool archery range over there! Do you guys want to hang out?” Sam asked. He had pretty much recovered from the attack that had occurred two nights before, and he wanted to do everything he could to get better with his bow. “Yeah, that sounds cool!” Jake said. Richie insisted on going with Austin and the Mayor, while when Luke was asked what he wanted to do, he just said, “I already have plans,” They all were skeptical, but let him do what he wanted. They were about to split up into their groups, everything froze. It was like Minecraft was about to crash. They couldn’t move, but suddenly, words began to scroll through the sky, reminding them of the beginning of Star Wars movies, which they loved to watch together. They said, Updating… Estimated time left: 3 minutes. And about 3 minutes later, the words changed and began to scroll through again: New: 7 new items: Essence of Fire, Essence of Darkness, Essence of Undead, Heart of Fire, Heart of Darkness, Heart of Undead, and Fire. New mobs: Ogre, Fire Ogre, and Bat Horse. Heart of Fire is obtained by killing Fire Ogre in the Nether. Heart of Darkness is obtained by killing Bat Horses in the Nether and nighttime in the normal world and Endermen during in the nighttime in the normal world. Heart of Undead is obtained by killing Zombies and Ogres during nighttime in the normal world or Zombie Pigmen in the Nether. Fire is obtained by killing Fire Ogres in the Nether. Essence of Fire is crafted with Blaze Powder or Fire, Heart of Fire, and Glass Bottle. Essence of Darkness is crafted with Ender Pearl, Heart of Darkness, and Glass Bottle. Essence of Undead is crafted with Rotten Flesh, Heart of Undead, and Glass Bottle. Then, Minecraft went back into motion. The people who had been walking around looked up at the sky where the words had been, seeming mildly annoyed. “What was that?” Richie asked. “That was an update,” the Mayor said. “You know, when Minecraft gets new fixes and new features. We have them every once in a while, but that seemed like a big one. That much new stuff is only added in major updates, like 1.14 or 1.15. It’s nothing to worry about.” But the look on his face said that there was something to worry about. Then, they split up as they had been planning. Luke went off toward the place that the Mayor had called Mount Minecraft. Apparently, it was the largest natural mountain in Minecraft they had discovered so far. It was also an active volcano, filled with lava, but thankfully, the mechanics of Minecraft didn’t allow volcanoes to erupt, otherwise Minecraft City would’ve ended like Pompeii ages ago. In his inventory, Luke held all the stuff he had bought at the department store. He had no idea what the raspy voice planned to do, but it had said, I’ll tell you when the time comes. So, Luke just followed what it said. He didn’t really know why he listened to it, but he felt it was because he related to it so much, holding so much hatred and jealousy. But as he walked toward Mount Minecraft, he didn’t care. He just did what it said and waited for the time to come when it’d tell him.