Minecraft: a Novel

Chapter 8

 My eyes blinked open. I was expecting to be in my room, at my house with my mother or sister yelling at me to wake up.

Nope. I was still in this small box of a room at the HH.

Hugging my pillow, I tried to fall asleep again, but the sounds of cows and pigs outside wouldn't let me. 

  Seconds later, the door was opened.

"Gregor? Are you awake?" It was Ben's voice. It reminded me that he had been talking about what to do with me the night before.

When I didn't respond, he walked to me and shook me. I pretended to be just waking up.

"C'mon, buddy, let's go," encouraged Ben.

I grumbled as I slumped out of bed and was lead out the door.

We walked into a large room with a sign above the door that said "Mess Hall." Inside, tables lined the room. Lora and Grace were sitting together at one and Jane was pulling food out of a chest.

"Look who finally woke up," laughed Grace.

I followed Ben as he walked to the chest with the food. He pulled out a couple steaks and gave me some. With our food in hand, we sat down at the table where my kidnapper sat.

"Hey, Gregor. Are you ready for day one of training?" Asked Jane.

I suddenly remembered what she'd said about training last night. "What kind of training?"

  "Combat training," Ben said in a matter of fact tone. "It's important if you want to take down Herobrine."

  I nodded, although I wasn't sure what taking down Herobrine entailed. If it meant getting my family back though, I was in.

  Taking a bite of steak, I asked how long training was going to be.

  "It depends. Since there's so few of us it doesn't take very long. If you do well," said Jane, "it should only take about a month."

  "A month?"

  Ben smiled softly. "You're lucky it isn't a year. Anyways time flies. It'll be over before you know it."

  In silence, we all finished our foods. "I think we can go ahead and begin Gregor's training," said Jane.

  Ben nodded. "Sounds good to me."

.  .  .

  Training turned out to be harder than I had expected. We started on one side of the training room where there were punching bags and straw dummies, the kind of stuff you see on TV.

  We started our combat. Ben handed me an unusual wooden sword enchanted with sharpness -III as not to do any damage. 

  Together, Ben and I practiced sprinting, sprinting attacks, sprint-jump attack, jump attacks and basic blocking. Not too far in my legs were screaming for a rest as I leaped and stabbed the poor dummy.

  After thirty minutes of this, Ben said we could start dueling. I learned how to duck a blade, stab a person under their armor, slice them off their feet, and make a few pars. I imagined using this new knowledge on Herobrine and I suddenly enjoyed fighting so much more.

  Squatting and raising my sword in an attack position, I sprinted towards Ben and jump and sliced down towards his shoulder. As quickly as I was, he raised his sword in a block that threw me to the ground. My sword was a few feet away and his was pointed to my chest.

  "Nice try, Gregor," he said, helping me up. "It may not seem like it, but you're making great progress."

  I nodded a thanks.