Minecraft: The Marvelous Adventures of Steve: The Invasion Trilogy

An Insightful Situation

"You've got to be kidding," Forester said. He looked at Steve. "Is this all true?"

"I wish it wasn't," Steve said. "I lost my home because of it."

Forester shook his head.

"This can't be happening. It shouldn't even be possible. No one can resurrect the Ender Dragon! It's scientifically impossible!"

"The villagers wouldn't stop talking about it," Sam said. "It has to be true."

"A villager's intuition isn't something to ignore," Forester pondered.

Forester carried his own torch. It illuminated the narrow tunnel, but not very far. He led them ahead.

"This is the way?" Steve asked.

"Yes. I mined it myself."

"You did all of this yourself?" Sam asked.

"When you don't have much else to do, mining can be very relaxing."

"But... you're a Forester."

"Just because it's in my name doesn't mean it's the only thing I enjoy. I was born into the role, anyhow."

The tunnel was long and dark. It seemed to go on forever.

"So, you went from a Forester to Engineer to Exiled," Steve said. "Sounds like there's more to that story than you let on."

Forester grunted.

"I'm still a Forester. I just haven't chopped down any trees for a while. Our leader asked me to replace the Engineer. I don't know why. I didn't have the slightest bit of experience with redstone. I worked tirelessly to learn it. He kept pushing me and pushing me to learn more. He said we were falling behind on projects because I was too slow."

"Learning redstone takes time," Steve said. "What little I learned took me a while."

"Instead of putting in the work I needed to learn how redstone and TNT behaved, I spent the time experimenting my own methods. To help out the workload of chopping down trees, he also had me train a younger Forester. He was a good kid. He would eventually replace me, and I would be an Engineer full-time. It never happened."

"Sounds like this leader doesn't really know what he's talking about," Sam said.

"Either way, I deserved the punishment. I should have been more careful. Harvesting trees was what I was used to, anyway. Forestry was supposed to be my job for life. I don't know why he thought it was a good idea for me to take his place. He wanted the village to easily adapt between roles, so he started switching people around. It was a little chaotic. At least no one has died. Not when I was there."

"Despite your history," Steve said, "we're grateful you're taking us to the village. You didn't have to do that."

"Whether I wanted to or not, it seems like we don't have much of a choice," Forester said. "Those mobs were going to kill me in my sleep if you didn't show up. It's you I owe, young adventurers."

Forester looked at Steve.

"Tell me more of how you came to be here."

Steve and Sam traded back and forth with pieces of their story. Steve would add in smaller details that Sam had missed or didn't know. Forester, now growing with more knowledge of where they came from, seemed to feel rejuvenated. It had been so long since he was on the receiving end of a conversation. He would talk to blocks sometimes when he was really lonely. It was like a flame was lit inside of his mind. It took a couple of hours for them to explain everything that happened to them.