Excerpt from Multitasking, a HappilyEverAfter1 story

Chapter 1

Hunter scowled. Just days before, he had been the star of the village. The star. A little villager, barely fourteen, yet somehow a great hunter, better than anyone else in the village. Always bringing back so much- loads. And not just meat, either. Leather, milk, and feathers, and eggs, and wool, and even string, spider eyes, bones, rotten flesh, and gunpowder from monsters he came across. Even fish, which made everyone but Fisher happy. Whenever he was praised from that, he simply said he sometimes came across rivers and while he swam across he killed fish. This was… sort of true. What actually happened was he kept a cat in his little hunting cabin a ways into the woods by a river and whenever he went off he always went inside and leashed it. Milky never cared. She would just look up at him with her pretty blue eyes and purr. Then, as he headed off he would instruct her to stay by the river. When he was little, he had taught her to catch fish and chicken for him but not eat it. Milky was actually his cat from childhood, but when he turned ten and started to get better at his job his father made him throw her into the woods. Literally. His exact words were actually, “Son, go into the woods and blindfold and gag that creature and throw it into the nearest river. If she’s still here by sundown, you and that cat will know the sting of my iron sword, and that thing will know the true way to suffer to death. But Hunter couldn’t do it, so he left her in his cabin nobody but him and Milky knew about. That night he told his father he had done it. He even showed him a collar he claimed to be Milky’s. Thankfully, his father took the bait. Hunter felt awful that night.
Sometimes it felt like Milky was his only friend. The only thing she wanted out of him was love and, at the end of the day, after it was time to head back to the cabin, some fresh salmon and still-warm milk. Then he would carry her home and give her one last cuddle on his wool couch in front of the tiny fireplace he made and, eventually, sadly set her down on the carpet and walk back to the village. Then he would paint a fake charming smile on his face and hold his iron sword up high as he boldly marched back to the gates. They always swung open before he even knocked and he would instantly start handing out his loot- meat to Butcher, feathers to Stringer, monster stuff to Supplier, etc. And he would proudly hand over his huge amount of fish Milky caught to Fisher, who always looked jealous.
But now something was different. It had all changed. Because just a few days ago, a awful night had taken place. A huge collection of skeletons, zombies, and creepers had snuck up on them from the woods. They usually came from the plains, so nobody expected it. The battle started like most- the archers took out the creepers and skeletons, then the Calvary came out followed by the swordsmen. As usual, Hunter got the privilege of being in the front of the Calvary charge. And then the wolves came out and spread around the horde in a circle and started fighting towards the middle. But something else happened.
Suddenly, another horde of zombies came out. But they were acting really strange. All of them stayed in clumps of five and then the clumps would suddenly scatter. Nobody could understand what was going on.
And then was the first boom.
All the sudden, there was an explosion and Stringer and Harvester flew into the air, flashing red. Hunter instantly ran to catch them, and they both fell onto his steed with a thump. A cheer rang out from the NPCs, and Hunter gave the crowd one of his famous smiles. But all the sudden, booms echoed all around the battlefield. More and more screams pierced the night air, and wolf and human bodies started falling so fast Hunter couldn’t get there fast enough. Then he realized.
The zombies were protecting creepers inside the clusters. And now they were surrounded. At first all the NPCs were silent. All of them knew what they wanted to say, but were scared about what it meant. And then, a single voice rose up through the growls and hissing of the mobs. “RETREAT!!!”
There was a stampede for the gates. Warriors dragged the wounded and the woundeds horses behind them. Archers on the walls kept shooting at zombies as the escaping wolves howled their anger at the monsters.
Once everyone had gotten back inside and the wounded had been laid on cots placed around the small area by the stairs to the walls and Healer and the nice village witch, Hia, had been let loose on them like wild wolves that liked to hand out healing potions instead of slaughtering everyone, everyone stampeded for the archer towers. Once everyone was on the wall, we had a great but gruesome view of the mob of death past our walls. It was a sea of green and blue, like a rotting ocean, with creepers that never got a chance to end their fiery lives strewn around like dead fish.
All the sudden, Catcher GASPED and ran to the edge. He pointed right at the middle of the hoard. “LOOK!!!” He yelled. There, right where he was pointing, was a lone wolf that hadn’t made it.
It was fighting with all its might but there was just to many. All we could do was a stand and watch it die. Catcher looked heartbroken. HappilyEverAfter1, who had rode just behind me in the charge, and was the one who yelled retreat, since she was basically the leader and was the only one who could make others listen, put her hand in his, but it didn’t help.
The usual ebb of jealousy stabs at me. A month ago, dad caught me staring out the window at Happily while she was waving to people on the street. “Got some love in ya, huh, son?” My father said in his usual gruff voice. It startled me, and I spun around so fast I almost fell over. “Huh?” I ask.
“Go get her, tiger.” My dad said. “Your giving me enough power and position in this old place already, but get married to HappilyEverAfter1? I’ll become the next preacher once that old bone bag finally knocks out.” He grins at me. “From now on, I want to see you really going up to her. No point in trying to hide it. Is that clear?”
I glance down sheepishly. I had actually been staring at her best friend Warrior, whom I’d been crushing on forever but had never approached. “Is it?” He says in his warning tone. “I guess,” I say sadly.
“What’s so awful?” He asks. I instantly jump on the chance to escape this predicament. “Well, its just, I’m only fourteen, and she’s, like, sixteen, and I heard that in her world she’s only about ten-“
“Why’s that so important? I don’t care about her, just who she is. If she was two I’d be fine with it. Just get her to like you and I’ll be satisfied.”
“But what about Catcher?” I blurt out. “Everyone knows their hopelessly for each other. There’s no way I can go against him. I’m actually pretty positive she doesn’t even know I exist.” Dad rolls his eyes. “So? Even if you have threaten her into it, I don’t care. Even kill if you have to!”
Hunter jerks back to reality when a scream echoes across the landscape.
He turns just in time to see a tiny figure wearing an elytra launch off the side of the wall and soar over the monsters. It’s Brewer, this little kid that just happens to be one of Happily’s best friends. He’s supposed to be good at basically everything. Not just at potions, but archery, horse riding, swords, farming, hunting, fishing, even animals like him. I’ve never given him much thought- in the evenings I just dump whatever spider eyes I have in his arms and walk off without giving him a glance. But lately, I’ve been giving him a forced smile and thumbs-up whenever I pass him, so he might put in a good word with Happily (or Warrior).
As he soars over the quickly exciting mob of mobs, he dives down straight to the wolf. Hunter has to admit, he does do it perfectly. That brings him back to a week ago, when he had another “talk” with his dad.
“That boy is getting on my nerves.” His father growls. Hunter looked up in  surprise. He had been gazing out the window again, and Happily joked around with her gang. He hadn’t even noticed Brewer, who was skipping in circles around the group. His father shook his head. “He really is good at everything. I’ve been watching em. Make sure you stay better than him.” I stare down at the chicken that’s supposed to be my dinner. Instead, I keep remembering how earlier that day, when I had snuck up on it when it was still alive I had yelled FOR WARRIOR!!!!.
But right as Brewer stretched out his arms for the dog, a creeper exploded, and Brewer and the wolf flew into the air. Brewer grabbed the wolf, but as he fell zombies reached up and raked them both with their razor sharp claws. A second blast threw them both up again, and this time Brewer, still holding the wolf, blinked and then never reopened his eyes. “NO!!” Happily screams. Hunter turns his eyes to her just in time to see her launch herself off the wall, her own wings snapping open. She swoops down and scoops up Brewer (and the wolf) right as they stop ascending and slowly drift towards the ground. She yanks her body up and spins like a top in the air, getting higher and higher until she’s about ten blocks higher than the wall. She slows down, and then seems to stop in mid air before zooming back towards us. She was still pretty far away, though, and she has a lot of weight dragging her down. I can tell she won’t make it. Catcher searches his inventory for his wings, but Warrior all ready has them on. She zooms off, and I marvel at her waist long black curly hair. At first she goes into a light dive, but then jerks up just like Happily and twirls with her arms stretched up straight into the air, as if she’s trying to grab the sky itself. She shoots up like a rocket, and just like Happily she seems to hover in the air, but she puts her arms out to the side of her and it feels like the Angel coming down to carry me away. Then she dives in a graceful arc and grabs Happily’s wrist and drags her the last five blocks. Happily’s so weighed down she hits the ground hard but Warrior straightens up right before she hits the ground and lands on her feet, like Milky when she jumps off that three block high shelf in my hunting cabin.
Happily instantly jumps to her feet and screams, “HIA! GET DOWN HERE!!!” For a moment, everything down at the base of the wall is quiet. Then, an ender pearl shoots up into the air, hovers, then arcs and lands two blocks from Happily. Instantly, Hia appears, a Potion of Regeneration already in her hand. She doesn’t even notice when she takes damage.
Her eyes widen when she sees poor Brewer in Happily’s arms and Catcher nursing a wolf on the edge of conciseness. She immediately grabs Brewer and holds her ear to his chest. “Quarter of a heart left,” she says.
“WHAT?!?!” Happily yells. “Don’t worry, he’ll be okay.” Hia says, but her voice is doubtful. “Follow me, we have to go see Preacher right now.” She runs off back down the staircase, Brewer still cradled in her arms. Catcher signals for another of Happily’s gang, Builder, to continue pouring a Healing potion down the hurt wolves throat. He also hands Builder a piece of cooked steak and a water bottle for when the potion runs out.
Then he and Happily run after Hia. I feel awful. Poor kid and dog. The dog had just trying to work for the master it loved, and all the sudden it’s abandoned in a sea of zombies. Brewer had just been trying to save the wolf, only to barely not get blown to bits.
Then I see my dad, nodding to the couple. I glance down, but he gives me one of his laser glares that drills straight into my skull. I sigh, but sprint to catch up.
Happily’s crying, and Catcher has his hand on her shoulder. I open my mouth, but don’t know what to say. Finally, the only thing I can think of spills out- “I am so, so sorry, Happily.”
Happily’s crying so hard I don’t think she hears, but Catcher spins around and turns on me. He’s eighteen, and a foot taller than me. It’s scares me almost to death- the only reason I don’t turn around and run is because the fear of my father is much, much stronger.
“Why don’t you just leave her alone, Hunter? Give her a break. Now go away. You aren’t wanted.” I’m shocked. No ones ever talked to me like that before. The only thing I can think to do is scoff and march away.
Now, a week later, Brewers still alive and so is the gossip. All I hear now is “How’s Brewer? Is Brewer okay? Is Brewer still on two healing potions an hour, or has Hia been able to jack it up to one Rejuvenation potion every three hours? Brewer was so brave- I wish I was like that. Brewers so talented at everything he does, we can’t lose him! He’s the only reason the mobs haven’t clawed us to bits already! Is Brewer doing okay? How is Happily taking it? I can’t believe he went to a quarter of a heart and made it! I didn’t even know you could go so low! Is he getting any better? Is Brewer going to die? I heard he’s up to three hearts now! Well, I heard he’s at a fraction of a heart now! How is his hearts coming up soooo slow, when he has all those potions and bedrest? Hia told me having a quarter of a heart is super rare, and it makes getting back to full hearts super long. It could take weeks, or even months. Oh.”
Hunter was so sick of it, he couldn’t take it any more. Now when he came home in the evenings, he had to go and get everyone in their houses and shops, where they were always, always, always talking about Brewer. And now Hia took his spider eyes. No one ever gave him any praise anymore. This was also making his dad frustrated, and every time he saw his son he lectured him on not being good enough, and even bullied him about not jumping to get the wolf himself, which was completely unfair because Hunter didn’t even have elytra and he was so much heavier than Brewer that even if he had managed to fly down and get close enough to grab the wolf, which he definitely couldn’t, he wouldn’t even be able to open the wings, he would have gotten closer than Brewer to the creeper and the blast would have instantly killed him. And his dad was forcing him harder than ever to get to Happily. According to him, Happily was so distract that she would have turned to anyone for comfort.
Tonight, he was going to put a stop to all of this. Hunter put an arrow to his bowstring and aimed right into the middle of the street. He fired, and the arrow turned into a blur before becoming solid again and sinking deep into the ground. But he was surprised when a voice yelled right behind the block he had shot at, just where the edge of the watchtower blocked his vision. He jumped off the small hill that the watchtower sat on and came face to face with HappilyEverAfter1.
“Why are you shooting right into the middle of the street?” She snapped at him.  “I- uh,” Hunter stammered as he stared the girl that was supposed to fall in love with him. “So I guess now assassins are after me to, huh?” She said. She rolled her eyes and walked off. Not knowing what else to say, Hunter continued toward the front of the watchtower. He mined the stair block that led to the hideaway and climbed down the ladder, stopping on the third rung and replacing the stair. He reached the bottom and ran into the hospital room, where Brewer was staying.
Hunter gently opened and closed the oak door and peered into the hospital room. It had oak wood walls and red carpeting. It was small, and it was brightly lit with only two torches.  Against the wall was a red bed where Brewer was sleeping and there was a stair acting as a chair against the other wall, where Warrior, with bags under her eyes, sat. “Oh, Hunter!” She said when she saw him. “I thought you could use a break,” he said. “Being awake all night.”
“Oh, thank you.” She said, looking relieved. “What time is it?” “Five A.M.” He replied. “No wonder I’m tired!” She laughed. “I’ll be back soon.” She went outside. Hunter paused for a minute. Then, quietly, he took a green vial out of his inventory. It was a poison- an extra strong one he had bought from a witch he had met when the slime king, Shaun, brought him and his army to the village when Herobrine tried to steal Preacher. It was sort of shady, but it was what he needed. It made him shudder to think that Herobrine was still out there, though, cooking up another malicious plan. Just like him. He shuddered again, but he uncorked the bottle and poured a single drop into Brewers water bottle sitting by the bed. Then he put the bottle back and waited. About an hour later, Warrior came back, looking much better. “Thanks,” she said. “Anytime,” he replied, but he was thinking, I’m so, so sorry Warrior.
That night his sleep was full of nightmares of millions of Brewers screaming and falling towards a zombie hoard with shredded wings flailing behind him.

Chapter Two – Minecraft

        Mary sat up, painfully aware of the ache in her head. She rubbed her forehead, trying to stop the hollow thrums. When she did, she found her hand much rougher. Not hard, just, rough. She sat up and shook her head, her long golden curls catching the sun and gleaming. Gold curls? What? She snapped to. This wasn’t right. She had short brown hair. She jumped to her feet, fully focused now. What had happened? She tried to remember.
She remembered laughing. Mark yelling. Something yellow. Feeling pain…
Wait. What yellow thing? She thought hard on the yellow thing, but not to hard, because as everyone knows, thinking hard about memories just makes them slip away, like butter-covered toothbrushes (very good prank, Mark went nuts.)
But she thought about the yellow thing and like puzzle pieces it all came together. She could she could feel the bumpy texture, see the silver blade…
And it just clicked.
All of it flooded back. There was running past Mark, and clicking the lock, and studying the chip in her palm, and jamming it into the computer open to HappilyEverAfter, and that horrible, sucking feeling. Every time she used a chip, she felt that, but a little trickle and sort of nice. Here, it was a full blown blast of power, like it was going to kill her. Maybe there was something wrong with her chip.
She didn’t know, and that was one of the things she hated the most. Sophie, one of her only real friends, said so herself. Mary liked to take control of everything they did and their friendship, too. She liked being in charge. With such famous servers, she got a lot of control. That’s why her username had a one. HappilyEverAfter1. 1. She was number one.such a beautiful number. Mary’s  favorite. But her power just made her thirsty for more, so she created a multitude of servers all over the Internet, each getting better every day. She was really a smart and kind girl, but that was her one weakness- power. In Minecraft, she was cruel.
For example, when Caves was in its prime at number 9 in the the most popular servers, she looked around one day and saw TONS of people had amazing caves and caverns, some people even had mountains. People would want to keep that, she knew. People would pay to keep that.
That gave her an idea. An evil one. That weekend, she created a tax on everyone with land- half a stack of either diamonds, redstone, emeralds, gold, or lapis lazuli. Three stacks of iron or coal would work too. Stone, dirt, granite, etc, she considered worthless. She didn’t need it all the wealth, but she liked it. Soon after collecting all the weekly taxes for a month, she owned five biomes and half an ocean. See what I mean? Cruel.
But wait. As she thought more, she realized the animals around her were MineCraft animals. And she was in Minecraft. And best of all, she was in HappilyEverAfter.

Chapter Three – Skeletons!

  For the first time, she noticed that instead of being on a grassy plain with a walled village in front of her, she was facing what looked like a square, the area being filled with cactus. In front of her was a Nether Brick castle, a diamond block wall with emerald bock edges surrounding it. To her right, there was a big brick building with other, smaller building behind it. To her left, there was a HUGE square castle made of Dark Oak logs. A lava moat surrounded it.
Behind her was an arena like area, where she could see seats three block off the ground on a bedrock platform, the front of the platform cased off in iron bars. There was a glass roof, as if to keep something from flying out. The ground was bedrock, too. Behind the arena was a bedrock wall, with magma blocks on top. She could hear villagers inside. This wasn’t HappilyEverAfter! This was CastleDuengonFortressGo!
But how was this possible? She had tapped HappilyEverAfter!
Except… no she hadn’t. She had clicked the world at the top of her list, which should have been HappilyEverAfter, because she had logged on yesterday afternoon. But wait! She had logged onto CastleDungeon last night after dinner, to check on the construction of the new amusement park! ARG.
But she could still fix it! On all of her servers were portals leading to other servers. The one here were on Sky City, which was a huge city in the sky, also home to her second castle. It wasn’t even that far. This would be easy.
She was just starting to stroll off, when something brown- a stick, it appeared- flew towards her and stuck into the ground beside her. Puzzled, she reached down and yanked it out of the ground.
It had something white sticking out of the back- feathers?- and a black, pointy thing on the tip. What was that thing? And then her stomach sunk down so far, it must have fallen through the ground.
It was an arrow.
Suddenly, they were flying all around her. She was confused. What user would shoot at her?
They all knew that meant being banned from all her servers, which was total humiliation. It wasn’t a user shooting at her.
It was a skeleton.
It’s pale skull gleamed in the daylight. It’s whole dead body rattled as it pulled the bowstring back quickly, its finger bones a blur.
With a bow and arrow, the skeleton could attack from afar, which they usually liked to do, making mele combat nearly impossible, unless you decide to brave it, have a shield, or are in creative mode.
HappilyEverAfter1, though, had none of these things. She had nothing, actully. Her inventory was empty. All of this was going through her brain, when an arrow suddenly pierced her shoulder. For the first time in Minecraft, she felt pain. It was awful. Waves of agony flooded through her and she screamed, a high, shrill scream that was so loud her own voice scared her, causing her to hold it a second longer. It also startled the skeleton, causing it to drop its bow. It fell to the ground and scrambled after its weapon. The yell also reached the ears of a group of friendly looking users. They had never heard anyone in Minecraft scream except in chat, and that had no actual sound. They knew something was wrong instantly, and ran over to the still flashing girl.
“Help!” She yelled. “I’m actually hurt! I got in here with a digit chip and I need help!” She realized that was the first time she had ever said that- I need help. She had always felt so above everyone she knew she never asked for anything, even in her own family. One sweet spring morning, her father had gone upstairs to wake her up for school only to find her unconscious on the floor. Later she told him last night she had felt sick for hours and couldn’t sleep. At about 3 a.m she realized she was a bout to throw up and tried to get out of bed, but instead had past out.
There were five users in total. Four of them spread out in a tight circle around her. The fifth crouched down next to her. Unable to stretch out her hand for Happily, she did the next best thing.
“Here,” said the user. She switched from holding her sword to a piece of string. While the other users fired back in response at the skeleton, Happily grabbed the string. Suddenly, the user uncrouched, jerking Happily up so fast she almost fell over again.
For the first time, she noticed how pretty the girl was. She was dressed like a teenager, with an orange hoodie over a black shirt, a tan skirt, light purple irises, and a sort of half smile on er face. Her light brown hair flowed past her shoulders, and her bangs covered the left side of her face. She wore a purple beanie on her head.
But the thing that shocked Happily the most was her username floating above her head- WonderWriter2000. It gave Happily a start when she first saw it. It’s just her name, dummy! She scolded herself. Still there was something strange about it, like it hadn’t been there a minute ago.
“HOW IS IT NOT DEAD?” Wonder yelled to the other users, snapping HappilyEverAfter1 out of her thought. It was unnerving, she could hear the users talking to each other through chat, but their lips didn’t move.
“We can’t get past its armor!” Another girl user yelled. “Well, where the armor?” Wonder called back. “Chest? Legs?”
“ALL OF IT!” A brown haired boy user a little taller than Happily yelled.
Happily and Wonder spun around so fast, they got kinks in their necks.
It was true. She hadn’t noticed it earlier, but the skeleton was covered in iron armor. Iron? Happily thought to herself. That was unusual.
But she was distracted by Wonder nudging her. The user only said one word, but Happily couldn’t have said it better with a thousand.
“Run.”

   Find out what happens in chapter four soon! Thanks for reading (And finishing!)