THE GREAT PILLAGER RAID

Book #1 in the Blockhead Brothers Series

“He who has no crossbow has no honor.”

–Pillager proverb

1
Emeralds, and diamond golems

It was a hot summer day when Dominic, Patrick, and their old crabby dog named Lazy Bones were out by the village well getting a drink.  Dominic had dark brown hair, a blue sweatshirt, black pants, and was Patrick’s younger brother.  He even had emerald armor and three emerald swords.  All of his weapons and his armor were enchanted.  His three swords all had the enchantments of Knockback II, and his armor had Protection V.  Patrick also had brown hair, but had a green shirt, and purple pants, and owned a diamond sword, and iron armor.  He didn’t have any enchanted stuff because he used his two diamonds to make his sword, instead of saving them for an enchanting table.  You couldn’t blame him for not having as many materials for weapons and armor as his brother though, because he didn’t go mining that much, and spent most of his time at the village library, or just trading with the villagers in general.  Lazy Bones had a red collar and was twelve years old, and even though he was their pet wolf, he never hunted.  They lived in a three-story cabin made out of oak planks, oak logs, and cobblestone, on the far side of the village.
When they were done drinking, Patrick wiped his mouth and said, “Hey, let’s go trade with the villagers, I’m running low on iron ingots.”  
Dominic agreed, saying, “Yeah, I need three more emeralds to make another emerald block.”  He had been remodeling his bedroom with emerald blocks for two months now.
First, they walked over to the blacksmith shop.  Allen, the blacksmith in the village, came out to greet them.  “Hello,” he said, smiling.  
He probably got some awesome trading goods from Ben, thought Dominic.  
Ben was a silly guy that came through the villages once every year to trade and get resources for his travels.  He told tales, and sang silly songs, making him more of a favorite of the villager kids.  He was staying in the village tavern that day and planned to leave tomorrow.  
“What can I help you with?”  Allen asked.  
Patrick stepped up and said, “I would like ten iron ingots, please.”  
Allen pulled out ten iron and handed it to Patrick.
“What will it cost?”  Patrick asked.  
“Two emeralds please,” Allen said, still smiling.  
“Here you go,” Patrick said, giving Allen the two emeralds.
“Thank you,” said Allen, “Anything else that I can help you with?”  
Dominic walked up to the blacksmith and said, “Can I give you fifteen coal fo–”
Allen butted in, saying, “Yes I will give you three emeralds for your fifteen coal,” he said.  
“How did you know what I wanted?”  Dominic laughed.  
“We have been doing this for two months now,” Allen said.
“Oh,” Dominic said, “Have we really been doing business for the same thing for that long?”  he asked.  
Allen chuckled, “Yep,” he said.  
“Okay, well here,” Dominic said, giving Allen the fifteen coal.  
“Thanks!” Allen said, “I could use this for business later on.”  Then he gave Dominic his three emeralds.
“Anything else?”  Allen asked.  
“Nope, that should be good for now,” Patrick said, putting the iron ingots into his inventory.  
“Okay,” Allen said, “See you next time.”  
Dominic and Patrick waved.  “Bye,” they said, and started back to their house.
As soon as they entered their cabin, Dominic went into the crafting room, where he turned his nine emeralds into one emerald block.  He then went to his bedroom and placed it on one part of the wall that was being remodeled.  Then he stepped back and admired his work.  “I need five more emerald blocks to complete my wall,” he said scratching his chin.  
“Here,” Patrick said, stepping into the room, “You can have my three emeralds”  
Dominic looked at Patrick.  “No,” he said, “You keep ’em.”  
Patrick laughed, “I know that you want them,” he said.  
“Fine,” Dominic said, reaching for the three emeralds in Patrick’s hand.  “I’m going to go trade with the librarian for three more bookshelves,” Patrick said, heading for the door.  
“Waite!”  Dominic said, stopping him, “You gave me your emeralds, how do you expect to trade without one?”  
“I’ve had an extra emerald for a while, and so I plan to use it,” Patrick said, and left the house.
Dominic decided to go to his potion lab and brew something to take his mind off of emerald blocks.
…
Patrick walked through the streets of the village, and after a while of hard searching, he came to the library.  Even though Patrick had lived in the village for almost eleven years, he still had a hard time finding his way around without the help of someone.
Patrick opened the door to the library and walked in.  The town librarian saw him enter and walked up to him.  
“Hello, Tim,” Patrick said in a hushed voice.  
Tim smiled, “What can I do for you?” he asked.  
Patrick shrugged, “I would like to know if you could give me three bookshelves,”  he said, still in his quiet voice.  
“Yes,” Tim said, “I do have three bookshelves, but you will have to pay me one emerald for them.”  
Patrick fumbled around in his inventory to retrieve the gem.  “Here,” He said, handing the emerald to Tim.  
“Thanks,” Tim said, and gave the three bookshelves to Patrick.  
“I want to know if you had a book on–well…I don’t know, just a book on something interesting,” Patrick said, putting his bookshelves in his inventory.  
“Well,” Tim said, moving over to a chest behind a chair, “Well, I do have this,” he said, opened it and pulled out an old book.  
“What is it about?”  Patrick asked.  
Tim closed the lid and handed it to Patrick.  “Find out for yourself,” he said.  
Patrick blew the dust off of the book and read the title aloud.  “The secret to diamond golems.  Diamond golems?”  Patrick asked.  Before the librarian had a chance to answer, a villager called him over who was having some trouble finding a book.  As Tim was going, he whispered to Patrick, “The book is due in three weeks.”
Patrick waved goodbye and walked out of the library.  As he was going home, he flipped to the first page:
An introduction to diamond golems
The normal iron golem you would think, is extraordinarily strong.  True, it is, but diamond golems are unbelievably strong!  Normally, an iron golem would have to hit something twice to kill it.  The diamond golem, however, is different.

It will barely punch something and that thing is destroyed on contact.  They are overly aggressive, even to its creator.  Unless you put on a full suite of diamond armor that is new, and that has not seen any combat, the diamond golem will be your servant.  For as long as you have it on, you are safe.  But if you don’t have a set of diamond armor that has seen better days, expect to be killed.  But if you do have a perfect set of diamond armor, and you spawn a diamond golem, (See page bellow) DO NOT TAKE IT OFF WHILE IN ITS EYESIGHT!  OR YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!

How to spawn a diamond golem
Normally, an iron golem would be spawned by making a “T” shape with iron blocks, and putting a pumpkin head on top, but you spawn a diamond golem by making an entire body out of diamond blocks.  

You start with the legs: three diamond blocks for each leg should be placed vertically onto the ground in front of you.  The legs should be placed one block away from another.  Then put a diamond block on the top of the legs in the middle.  Then build two more diamond blocks on top of the middle block that connects the legs.  This serves as the torso.  After all that, put two more diamond blocks on either side of the body, to make arms.  Then put a pumpkin head on the remaining diamond block, and pretty soon, you’ll have a diamond golem getting to its feet!  (See top page on how to stay safe!)

“Wow,” Patrick said, placing a piece of paper as a bookmark, “That is AWESOME!”  
Then he realized that he had been wandering about the village, instead of going home.  He looked up into the sky and saw that it was sunset.  He ran to the village well, taking a right down the street, and toward his and Dominic’s house, tucking the book under his arm all the way.  
…
Dominic entered his brewing stand, placed a piece of Nether wart on the top square, and his awkward potion started to brew into the three bottles of water.  While he waited for his potion to brew, he refilled the cauldrons with a bucket of water.  Finally, the awkward potions were done.  Dominic entered his brewing stand again and placed some sugar where the Nether wart had once been, until it entered the bottles of water.
The sugar went down into the three bottles of awkward potion and it made three potions of swiftness.  Dominic took the potions out of the brewing stand and placed them in his potion chest.
He still felt unsatisfied.  “I’ll just go search the basement chests for six more emeralds,” he said, walking out of his potion lab, and down the hall.  Pretty soon, Dominic had made his way to the basement door and opened it.  It was pretty dark down there, but he had been down there many times, and knew his way around.  He walked down the cold, and mossy cobblestone stairs leading down into the ground.  When he reached the bottom, he placed a torch on the wall above the first chest that he saw.  He then opened it and found seven obsidian, flint and steel, and five iron pickaxes.
Hmmm, he thought, Patrick must be saving up to go to the Nether.  
Dominic had been to the Nether once before long enough to collect some Nether wart for potions, but that had been a long time ago, before he and his brother had stumbled upon the village and decided to live there.  He had also collected some soul sand to farm the Nether wart back home.  But he had to destroy his Nether portal soon after, because it had been built on top of a Nether Fortress, and wither skeletons kept coming out and into the Overworld, trying to attack those who got to near.  Many villagers, some they knew, and some they didn’t, had died that way by coming to close to the portal.
Dominic closed the lid and opened another chest.  He found the ten iron ingots that Allen had given Patrick earlier that day, and one iron sword.
He went to the last chest that was in the room and opened it.  He found his old suit of lapis lazuli armor and his lapis lazuli sword, along with nine lapis lazuli.
Rats, Dominic thought, I was hoping that there was at least one emerald.
He closed the lid and walked back up the stairs to the living room.  Patrick was coming through the front door at that moment and smiled when he saw Dominic.  
“Hey,” Patrick said, walking over to the kitchen.  
“Hey,” Dominic echoed, looking at a book under Patrick arm.  “What’s that?”  
Patrick turned around to face Dominic.  “It’s about diamond golems and how to make them,” he said, raising the book so Dominic could see.  
Dominic burst out laughing.  “Diamond golems!”  he said through tears of laughter, “Absurd!  Only iron golems exist!”
Patrick opened the book to the first page and said, “No, seriously, it says so right here!”
Dominic took the book from Patrick and looked it over.  “Huh,” he said handing it back after inspecting it, “Why do you want to read that anyway?  We already have Shark, the iron golem.”  
“I know,” Patrick said, walking over to the kitchen chest, “I just wanted to read about, and make one.”  
“What are you doing?”  Dominic asked.  
Patrick opened the lid.  “Looking for something to eat, my energy levels are low,” he said, taking out two loaves of bread, and some sweet berries.  Then he closed the chest and walked over to the counter.  Dominic watched Patrick make a sandwich by mashing up the sweet berries and then putting them between the two loaves of bread.  
Patrick then started for the stairs that led up into the bedrooms.  “I’m turning in for the night,” he said, shoving the sandwich in his mouth, “You coming?”  
“Yep,” Dominic said, and went after Patrick.  
When he was in his room, Dominic, put his armor on his armor stand, and climbed into his dark blue bed.  He stayed awake for a long time thinking about what his room would look like when he was finished placing emerald blocks.  Soon, though, he fell asleep, and dreamed of trading with Allen the blacksmith for emeralds.