MINECRAFT: Enders

Chapter Five - At First, You Don't Succeed

The town of Cobrose was only one or two Chunks from where the camping tree was, and Ender Peak was hundreds. Steve splashed water on the Campfire to put it out, then gathered up his gear and got on his horse.

"Alex," said Steve.

"Mm--Yeah, Steve?" Alex asked with her mouth full of breakfast Chicken.

"I'm going to go look for your horse, I'll be back in a while," Steve explained as he turned his dark-bay-colored, armored steed toward a clear path. "Can you watch Maribel for me?"

"Maribel... who?"

Steve and his horse stopped and he sighed. "Maribel, the Mule."

"Oh... Okay, I will," Alex complied as she got up from her spot on the Log, just finishing her Chicken.

"It shouldn't take long, I'll be back in a split," Steve said, then spurred his horse. It neighed and reared before dashing off toward the Path.

Alex looked at Maribel who was fixed to a Lead attached to a post. She had a heavy sack of food upon her back, but it didn't appear to be much of a burden to Maribel. Maribel moved, then picked at thin strands of grass with her teeth. Both her and Steve's horse had already eaten most of the grass by the post.

Alex was quick to the case.

"Are you hungry, Maribel?" she asked as she unfastened the Lead. "Let's find you some Tall Grass."

Maribel bellowed and followed on Alex's heels as they headed over to a Grass patch not far from the Campsite. With an excited honk, Maribel dashed forward, and her surprising strength took Alex off guard and pulled her along as she mowed and ate the Tall Grass. By the time she was done eating, most of the Grass patch was devoured and became another clearing. Alex scratched Maribel behind her long ears.

"Better now that you're full, huh Maribel?" Alex asked with a smile.

Maribel looked over, then upon the sight of movement, bolted.

"Whoa--Maribel!" Alex shouted as she was pulled along again by the Mule on a mission to find the source of movement among the bushes.

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Steve was right! Finding Alex's horse was the least of his worries and was even easier than he had originally planned. Now, he was bringing it back to Cobrose, where it truly belonged. Him and both horses marched the Gravel Path through Cobrose's gates, and they were immediately noticed by the guards.

"Hey," snapped one of them as he climbed down from atop the Wall. "That's my horse!"

"What are you doing back?" asked another. "And why do you..."

"Have his horse?" Steve finished as he got down from his own horse. "Did somebody happen to charge the Walls last night?"

"Yes--how did you--"

"I need one of you to assemble a bounty and follow me," Steve, again, finished.

The guards straightened to duty and one dashed off for the bounty. Steve handed the guard his missing horse, then walked with his own into the small town, right into the mass of the Square where his eyes focused on a scurrying woman asking various people some questions and then moving on to the next set. Steve could've sworn he recognized her.

The rattly wood cage cracked up beside him as two black horses pulled it, the driving guard hopped down from the Slab seat and saluted Steve.

"The bounty you requested, sir," the guard told Steve as two extra guards joined his side.

Steve turned back to the woman to look at her one more time before heading out, but she had already disappeared into another district.

"Let's go," Steve said, then he climbed up onto his horse's back.

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"Eee-haw!" sounded Maribel as she crashed into the bushes, rushing through foliage with the ease of a quarter-horse--which was remarkable in and of itself. She had broken the Lead attached to her and lost Alex at some point tromping through weeds, grass and flowers. She now stood in thick grass up to her knees with not one clue of where the mysterious figure darted off to.

Maribel began to turn around, then a rustle came from beside her and she quickly turned back then stood completely still. Maribel watched on, frozen in that place as the rustlings came nearer, and nearer, and nearer...

Bursting out of the bush was something colored black and white, too fast for Maribel to see a shape before it jumped up onto her back. Maribel panicked and stood up on her hind legs before turning and running back in the direction she came, which also happened to be barreling toward Alex.

They crashed into each other and the little black and white thing hopped down over by a Dandelion.

"Maribel!" Alex shouted as she rubbed her head, only to look at what Maribel had been staring at. It was a rabbit, just one small rabbit. It picked up the Dandelion in its mouth, then proceeded to hop off into the bushes again. Then Alex got up and put the Lead back around Maribel.

"All of that over a rabbit, Maribel, really?" she asked the half-donkey, half-horse creature as she led them back to the Campsite. "Now I understand why you need to be watched."

They cut through the last barrier of grass and walked the smooth terrain of the campgrounds, but Alex had to stop abruptly before they could reach Maribel's Log. She couldn't believe what was going on in front of her.

Cobrose guards, she could distinguish them by their cyan colored pants and yellow-rimmed shields. There was even a Cobrose flag hanging off the side of the large, bulky wagon being hauled by two horses. And right there in front of them sat Steve upon his horse.

"What's going on?" Alex asked with confusion upon her face. Steve didn't respond.

"Steve, why--Hey!" The Cobrose guards first took Maribel's lead from Alex, then they apprehended her. "Let me go--Steve!"

"The Dragon is too dangerous, it would destroy you," Steve finally spoke as they carted Alex past him, walking toward the wagon. "This was for your own good, Alex."

"Eee-haw!" whined Maribel as the guards pulled Alex away and closed her inside of the wagon cage.

"Change your mind, Steve!" Alex pleaded, wrapping her hands on the wooden frame of the carriage.

He simply shook his head and looked at the driver of the wagon then nodded.

"Heh-yah," the Cobrose guard vocalized as he gently whipped the horses into moving. Steve watched from atop his horse as the wagon hauled Alex away. She was still looking at him for a long while down the Gravel Path before she finally let go of the frame and sat down in a corner.

"So much for the Dragon... and what a backstabber, sir 'Steve from Ironguard,' right," complained Alex after a long moment. They were outside of Cobrose's gates and about to enter, and when they did, the whole wagon stopped. Then a guard climbed into the wagon with her.

"I need every item you have on you," he told her, but Alex wasn't paying attention. There was a whole open door right behind him!

"I think I'll keep my stuff--thank you!" Alex said right as she darted past the guard and dived out the exit, rolling onto the ground. She hastily got up as the Cobrose guards began to pursue her. She ran offward in some direction, and managed to end up right in the midst of the guard horses' stable. The horses neighed upon Alex entering, startled by the strange face, but she quickly hopped upon one's back and rode it through and out of the stable.

The horse frantically ran into the Square, nearly clashing with the water fountain if Alex hadn't jerked the reins back. The horse reared and whinnied, then when it got back down, Alex found herself in front of her very own mother.

The one face that she didn't want seeing her act like this.

"Alex?" she asked quickly. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to bring back Dad and make things better, Mom!" Alex shouted as she turned the horse and readied it to run. "Keep growing flowers, okay?"

"Alex--no!" her Mom shouted after her, but it was too late. Alex and the horse had blazed off and out of Cobrose, and Leah watched as the guards attempted to catch her, but they all seemed to fumble short.

"Am I growing flowers for your funeral?" Leah asked herself with devastation.