Chapter 7 – Poison

        Gameknight999 was surrounded by light. 

He yawned and stretched, blinking sleepily. When he realized he was not in his bed, and that the light around him was sunlight, he almost leapt out of his skin. Then he remembered what had happened and laughed. After his speech last night, people had run back to their homes and grabbed all the food they had. The entire village stuffed themselves with food from all over the Overworld, ranging from pumpkin pie to dried kelp. He had no idea how somebody had gotten their hands on kelp, he only knew that here had spit it right back out. Wonder had laughed at him while guzzling beetroot soup and almost choked. “How do you eat that?” He had asked her. “It’s good!” She had said. “Ick,” He stuck out his tongue. 

     They next thing he knew she had splashed him with the rest of the dark red liquid. “Hey!” He yelled, frantically spiting. She laughed even harder, but quickly stopped when Gameknight had smashed an entire cake into her face. Herder had screamed “FOOD FIGHT!” And the next thing either of them knew everyone was laughing and throwing things at each other. That was around midnight. Then, around one, somebody had turned up with a jukebox and a music disc. Monet surprised everyone by pulling out two more of the CDs, which she had said she had found in the stronghold they had gone to so long ago. Finally, around three, people slowly started trickling back to their houses. Gameknight had literally collapsed against the wall of the home next door, exhausted. 

      As he shakily stood up he looked sadly at the horrible remains of Blacksmiths shop. Sower and Chopper had been showered with gifts before they excused themselves and went home. Closing his eyes, he did the Salute for the Dead once more. The he walked around and stretched his legs.

    Other than the crick in his neck from sleeping against the hard wooden wall, he had slept well. In fact, looking at the sky, he guessed it was around ten in the morning. 

   He had slept well, except of course, the nightmare.

In his horrible dream, a girl had been crying on the mountainside. Gameknight wanted to help her, but he couldn’t move. His limbs were stuck to his sides. The girl sobbed and sobbed and there he was, standing helplessly. In between gasps for air, the girl had muttered to herself. “Stupid,” She said. “Tool. Waste. Useless.” Gameknight had tried desperately to get closer, to console her, but nothing. “You’re not useless!” He had screamed, but the wind was getting stronger and stronger and his voice was carried away. Then he saw it. A deep, black, oily mass with red eyes hovered over the girl; and, as he watched, the black cloud reached out and touched the girl. She screamed, a sound that was no longer human. She sounded like a scared animal, like a small fawn left writhing on the ground in the prest agony. The blackness hissed in a almost predatory voice, “You’re nothing. You’re trash! Filth! You will waste away and no one will ever know!” It growled and grumbled, its hateful words seeming to cut her. Far off in the distance, on yet another peak, someone else that was no more than a dark shape stared at the girl with glittering green eyes. The girl screamed one last time, and this time Gameknight could feel her pain. It worse than anything he had ever felt. It was worse than Erebus picking him up and squeezing, crushing him, so long ago, and it was worse than Xa-tul’s golden broadsword biting into him, or Herobrine smiling evilly down at him and lifting his sparkling blue blade, and it was worse than when Empech, Trupech, and Forpech’s magical weapons seared through him all at the same time.  The pain overwhelmed him as the snow whipped him all over his body, as it burned his eyes and stung his cheeks. Then he crumbled away in to nothing and floated away.

    Gameknight shook his head. “It was just a dream,” He said. “Just a dream. Probably yesterday just catching up to me.” He stared up at the mountains. The golden sunlight made the snowy peak glow like yellow frosting on a spiral shaped cake. Still, it had felt so real. Especially the girl sad crying. That had felt like it was ringing in his ears like a snare drum. Snapping back to reality, he followed the sound of voices through the village until he came upon Wonder and Crafter standing in the road. Crafter saw him and waved. “Hey Gameknight!” He called. Wonder saw him and grinned. “Good morning, beet mouth,” She said. He smiled back. “Morning, batter face.” She burst out laughing. “Yeah, yours is better.” “Huh?” Crafter asked, a puzzled look on his face. “Nothing,” Gameknight said and then cracked up. Crafter rolled his eyes, but he smiled. “Anyway, we were just talking about our little visit to Aquaspear. Here’s what we need to know- who’s coming?”

    Gameknight thought for a moment. “Well, I don’t want to force anyone to go,” He said. “I’m thinking we should have around five people, not including Erebus.” He shrugged. “I say we gather up the gang and see who wants to do it.”

    A few minutes later, all of his friends were gathered around him. “OK,” He said. “Here’s the big question; who’s going with me?” Hunter glared at him. “Don’t even try and leave me out,” She snapped. “I’m going. Who will stop you from doing stupid things?” “Yeah, I’m going too,” Wonder spoke up. “That way if you both want to do stupid things, I can stop you.”

    Gameknight sighed. “Fine. That’s two. Who else? Digger?” He looked the stocky NPC right in his green eyes. “We might need some muscle on this trip. We have no idea whats going to be waiting for us when we get there.” Digger nodded. “I’ll follow you to the end of the Overworld,” He boomed. Gameknight smiled. “I’ll remember that,” The User-that-is-not-a-user promised. He turned to Stitcher. “I want at least one of the sisters here in case something goes wrong. Do you mind staying?” She nodded. “All right,” She agreed. “Just promise me something.” “What is it?” Gameknight asked. The red headed girl smiled. “Punch my sister if she gets to sarcastic for me, alright?” “Hey!” Hunter snapped angrily. Gameknight laughed. “Promise,” He said. “Alright… I trust you…” Stitcher said with mock hesitation.

     “Crafter, you’re my best friend, and I know you are the best person here to take care of this village. Wait,” He said, putting up his hand before the boy could speak, “Hear me out. I know you want to come and help, but we’ll be fine. I would feel much better if you were here helping everybody.” Crafter eyed him for a minute. Finally he sighed. “Alright,” he grumbled. “Perfect,” Gameknight said, rubbing his hands together. “That leaves one more person. Herder? The spot it’s yours if you want it.” Herder shook his head. “Sorry, Gameknight,” He said. “I’d go, but I know my wolves would never be able to come and we all know I’m not very good when it comes to swordplay.” 

    “Can’t argue with that,” Hunter said. “Be nice,” Stitcher chided and punched her older sister on the arm. “You punched me,” Hunter argued. “You call that nice?” 

“You see?” Herder said. “Go on. I’ll stay here and guard everybody with my wolves.” Gameknight sighed. Before he could say anything, the youngest of the group piped up. “I’ll go!” 

     “Monet, you’re not coming,” Gameknight said automatically. “What? Why?” She glared at him. Gameknight groaned. “Monet! We’ve been over this a million times! You’re to little. You don’t have enough experience.” 

      “How am I supposed to get experience if no one will let me do anything?” She yelled, throwing her hands in the air. “She has a point,” Hunter added. “Monet, stop, you’re making a scene,” Gameknight hissed. “I don’t care!” She exploded. “You never let me do anything! YOU didn’t have ‘experience’ when you first came to Minecraft, and that didn’t stop you!” Gameknight’s face burned. “That was different,” He said. “How?” She asked, a hurt look on her face. “Because I’m just the younger one? Other other child, the one that only messes up and constantly needs saving? Because I’m the useless one?” 

      That last sentence struck a chord somewhere in him and caused fear to rise up in his chest. That was what the girl in his dream kept saying. Could Monet be the girl? “Monet, wait!” He started.  But she had already stormed off. His mind whirled with different thoughts and worries. Had it just been a coincidence? Or had it meant something? And if it did mean something, what did mean? 

    He was still thinking through the options when he felt someone shaking him. “Gameknight! Gameknight!”Wonder yelled. “I, um, yeah,” He said. “Are you listening?” Wonder asked. “I was asking you why you’re being so hard on her.” “I’m not being hard on her!” He snapped. “She’s just little. She doesn’t understand how serious all of this is.”

     “She does understand,” Stitcher argued. “She saved your life, remember?” Gameknight put his hands on his hips. “There is no way that I am letting my little sister go to a endermen prison in the ocean. I can’t control what you guys get yourselves into, but I can stop my sister. And I will. This discussion is over.”

   Monet avoided him for the rest of the day. Whenever he tried to talk to her and make her listen, she would glare and flounce away.finally, after the third time this happened, Gameknight gave up and went to find Wonder. He found her once again talking to Crafter.  “Well, how will you get Erebus down there?” He heard Crafter say. “I mean, its the ocean, and he’s an enderman. Isn’t the point to keep them out?” “He’s right,” Gameknight added as he sidled up next to them. Crafter gave him a reassuring smile. Gameknight turned away. He didn’t need his friends sympathy over what happened to Monet. Wonder grinned at them. “I have just the thing.” She said proudly. Gameknight groaned. “It’s another potion, isn’t it?” She nodded. “It’s called Water Resistance,” She proclaimed. “I have to go find somebody to go with us, so can you guys go tell Harvester? Thanks. You might want to write this down.” Before either of them could say anything, she began rattling off a list of instructions. “First, take a bottle of water breathing and brew one thing of magma cream. The brew that with bubble coral, then a sea turtle egg, then sea grass, kelp for consistency, raw cod, a ghast tear, blaze powder and the pieces of a smashed nautilus shell. Then shake it all up. We’ll need about ten of those.” Crafter was frantically scribbling the directions in a book. “Shell, shake, ten,” He mumbled. “Got it!” “Great.” Wonder shoved a neatly folded piece of paper into Gameknight999’s hands. “That needs to go to Harvester. DO NOT read it!” She scrambled away. Crafter looked up at him and shrugged. “I guess we should go?” He asked. “I suppose so,” Gameknight replied absentmindedly. They trudged past the well. “Does it seem kind of, well, hot to you?”Crafter pointed out. “Actually, yeah,” Gameknight said. The old NPC squinted up at the sun. “Weird,” He whispered. 

    It got a little cooler as the pair headed through the village gates. As they neared the castle, the constant breeze brought the smell of melon and the squeaks of rabbits towards them. “This way,” Gameknight said, and took the lead. They soon came to the right staircase and they headed downward. This time Harvester was stirring something in a cauldron somewhat apart from the others and Morgana was inside, tending to a brewing stand. “Hey guys!” She called out cheerfully. “What’s up?” 

     “Wonder has another potion she wants you to make,” Crafter said. “The directions this time are, well, see for yourself.” He handed her the book with the directions in it. She read along and nodded. “Well, Crafter, I would love to do this, but we don’t have these things just lying around.” She stated, gesturing towards the page  from the with her hand. “I’ll have to get supplies from the village storage.”

    Crafter nodded. “I get it,” He remarked. “Get whatever you need.” Her eyes lit up. “Thanks!” She bolted from the room. Gameknight moved closer to the cauldron Harvester had been working on. Next to the cauldron was a small one block wide shelf that was empty except for a silver spoon and a half full bottle of harming potion. Crafter reached out to touch it. “I wouldn’t do that,” Morgana warned suddenly, walking over towards them. Crafter snorted. “Yeah, right. What could it do?” He stuck in the tip of his finger. “Yah!” He yelled, pulling it back into the air and shaking it madly. “Ow! Ow! Ow!” Morgana sighed and handed him a bottle of water. He paused jumping around for a moment to take it. “What’s this?” He asked, confused. “Healing,” Morgana said as if it was obvious. 

     Crafter tentatively sipped it. His eyes widened. Wordlessly he handed it to Gameknight. The User-that-is-not-a-user took a swig. Warm relief from all of his sore joints flooded through him and he stood up taller. “How?” He gasped. “Harvester has been playing around with this for a while.” Morgana explained. “She figured out one day that by adding a certain bit of a potion to water and then mixing it, the water would stay the same color but take on the properties of the potion. She’s been testing the limits and such, so we have dozens of “Holy waters,” as she likes to call them, lying around.”

     “How do you tell if something is Holy water or not?” Gameknight asked. “I asked her the same question,” The old witch crowed. “She answered ‘You can tell by the smell, and also it will give off wisps of smoke; so Holy water with leaping in it will have green smoke but it will look like water.” 

    “How will we use it?” Crafter asked. Morgana gave him a stern look. “What do you think? Water can easily be obtained, and a spoonful of potion will easily cover a entire bucket. Then that Holy Water will equal three bottles. One bottle of potion could end up getting used for thirty people. We won’t have to make nearly as many potions to satisfy everyone.” Crafter nodded. “That will be useful,” He said. “Of course!” Morgana said. “Anything that dear Harvester does is amazing. The girl is the sweetest thing. She reminds me of…” She trailed off. “Never mind,” She said. “Those are just distant memories now.”

   Gameknight looked carefully at the old woman, but her expression showed none of her emotion. “I can already think of uses for this,” He said after a moment. “If we poured just a bottle of Regeneration into the well, and everyone drank that, then the effects might stick and pretty much everyone would be superhuman.” Harvester burst back into the potion chamber, her arms full of ingredients. “We didn’t have enough bubble coral, so a most of these are going to have horn, brain, or tube instead.” She gasped. “Do you think it will make much of a difference?” Gameknight shook his head. “Nah.” She beamed. “Alright, then. I’ll get them to you in about an hour, ‘kay?” She got right to work, bustling around and grabbing potions and magma cream from chests.

     Later that day, as the sun began to sink below the horizon and the moon rose like a perfect white pearl from behind the mountains, Gameknight sat on the edge of the well. Wonder had rushed by him and told him to wait. Oddly, he wasn’t cold. The tempature by the well had stayed the same all day- hot and dry. Wonder appeared with a NPC even more muscular than Digger. “Gameknight, this is Grinder,” She declared. “He’s gonna go with us to Aquaspear. The villager bowed his head respectfully. “It will be an honor to fight by your side, sir,” He said with a hint of excitement in his voice. Gameknight smiled at him. “Hopefully, there will be no fighting,” He said. Wonder laughed. “Why do I doubt that?” She teased. Gameknight laughed, then wiped sweat from his brow. “What is with this heat?” He questioned. Grinder shrugged. “I don’t know,” He said. Suddenly a sound reached Gameknight’s ears. It was the sound of a bubble popping beneath them. His heart sank. Lava. 

    Grinder pulled out a bottle and dipped it into the cool clear waters of the well. At that instant, Gameknight noticed something else. A dark green wisp of steam floated off the surface of the liquid. Everything suddenly clicked together. He remembered what Morgana had said. “You can tell by the smell, wisps of smoke, will look like water, With just one bottle, and if everyone drank that…”

    “DON’T!” He screamed. He tried desperately to knock the bottle out of the mans hands. But it was to late. Grinder gave a nervous laugh at his sudden outburst and Wonder stared at him with a alarmed look on her face. “Are you feeling okay?” She asked worriedly. “I, yeah,” He stammered. “I just thought-“ Grinder suddenly moaned and fell to his knees, clutching his stomach. Green spirals floated off his head. “Poison?” Wonder said dumbly. “Poison! POISON!”

    The next few minutes were a blur. People came rushing out of their homes, and somebody gave milk to Grinder. The spirals stopped, but he continued to shake and moan. Harvester and Morgana appeared from nowhere. “Give me that,” Morgana snarled, and she snatched the bottle away from where it had somehow ended up in Gameknight’s hand.  She sniffed in and narrowed her eyes. “Witches poison,” She hissed. “The real kind. The kind that instantly takes the XP of zombies and kills cave spiders. Someone has poured it into the well.” Herder and Stitcher appeared, their hair in a mess from sleep. “I don’t believe it,” Herder said fearfully. “Lava,” Gameknight spoke. They all turned to him. “What?” Stitcher asked. He pointed at the ground. “Look, but don’t fall in.” Taking out his shovel, he quickly dug into the ground. Cracks appeared on the surface of the dirt block, then it shattered and fell with a sizzle into the molten stone below. His friends stared at it in disbelief. 

    “Herobrine poisoned the well, and then he placed lava around it,” Gameknight said. “Why?” Crafter, who had also just fought through the crowd, asked. “For traps? Everyone, look out for pressure plates and tripwires!” Gameknight shook his head and pointed at the hole with his shovel. “To make us hot.” They all stared at him, dumbfounded. Then Hunter pointed out, “He’s lost it.” Smiling, Gameknight saw that all his friends were now around him. “Think about it,” He said. “He poisoned the well so that he could maybe kill off a few of us and so we would lose our water supply. And what better way to make sure we drank it than place lava around where we couldn’t see it? Because what happens when you get hot?

     “You get thirsty,” Wonder said slowly as the realization dawned on her. “Exactly,” He beamed. “What he didn’t expect is that we know how to fix this.” Harvester grinned and steeped forward, a potion of Healing in hand. “You might want to step back,” She warned. They all backed away as she dumped the bottles contents into the well and then ran. Steam billowed from the well like a cloud had been trapped in the waters and had suddenly been freed. It shot upward, shooting into the sky. There was much more than what had come from the cauldron Gameknight and Wonder had seen the day before. Morgana smelled the water and nodded, showing that it was clear. Wonder moved next to Gameknight. “There’s no way Grinder will be able to come,” She said worriedly. “And we leave tomorrow.” Gameknight sighed. “I know what to do.”

     Walking cautiously over to a girl standing next to the crowd with a fearful expression, he tapped her gently on the arm. “Hey, Monet,” He remarked as she turned. “We have a spot open… want to come?” A smile quickly spread across her face. “Maybe I could squeeze you in,” She said calmly. Gameknight smiled back and, grabbing her arm, brought her over to the rest of the group. “OK,” He said, the puzzle pieces falling into place. “Here’s what we’re gonna do…”

     “I see it!” Monet yelled from the front of the group two mornings later. Steering his horse towards the sound, he waved for the rest of the group to follow. Erebus shifted uncomfortably in the saddle, leaning as far away from Hunter (or as he likes to call her, the bucket dumper) as possible. Monet waited from them impatiently at the crest of a hill. The scene took Gameknight’s breath away. Below them, the oak forest they had been traveling through for the past day fell away to a gentle slope leading to sandy dunes. The blue ocean water glittered like a beautiful wavy blanket in the dazzling sunlight. A bit later, Gameknight finished tying his chestnut brown horse that Herder had given him to a post and headed to the others, who were standing by the surf. “Everyone remember the plan?” He asked. “Of course,” Monet bragged. “First we-“ 

    “You don’t have to say the whole thing,” Hunter interrupted. Gameknight gazed out at the water. He could barely believe that underneath the beautiful waves something as horrible as Aquaspear resided. “Maybe I should stay up here,” Erebus peeped. “You know, stand watch?” Gameknight shook his head. “Monet will,” He said. “What?” Monet blurted. “But you promised-“ Gameknight leaned down in the sand beside her. “Monet, you’re the fastest one of us. As soon as Herobrine realizes I’m gone, he’ll go looking for me. And he knows we have Erebus, and he also knows we’ll do anything to get someone to help us fight. Erebus says that Herobrine was the one that put his friends there, so he’l come here. And when he does, we’ll need someone to tell us. Please?” He looked hopefully into her face. She sighed. “All right,” She mumbled. He grinned at her. “OK,” He said and stood up. “Let’s go.” Then he added to Erebus, “And you’re coming.” The enderman groaned. “You’re right,” He admitted. “I owe it to…” Instead of finishing his sentence, he just snapped “Give me the potion, girl.” Wonder handed him the Water Resistance and he chugged it down. Grayish blue spirals floated about his red head. Casting the bottle aside, he looked warily at the ocean. “Do you think it worked?” He asked tentatively. “Let’s find out,” Wonder said. She jumped forward and shoved him into the waves head first. He screeched, then toppled in. For a moment, he was nowhere to be seen. Then he popped back up like a cork. “YOU’RE NUTS!” He screamed. Wonder grinned. “I’m smart,” She said. A confident expression spread across the monsters face. “Let’s go!” He yelled. “FOR-“ The rest of his sentence was cut off when he submerged.

     Wonder grabbed a potion of Water Breathing and downed it. (Erebus’s Water Resistance already did it for him) Gameknight and the others except for Monet did the same, then drank one of invisibility. Out of the corner of his eye, Gameknight saw Wonder drinking a second potion as well, this one milky white. “What are we waiting for?” The User-that-is-not-a-user said to the group. “You heard the enderman!” He turned and dove into the glacial blue sea, heading for things unknown lurking in the depths below.