Tales of Minecraft: The Curse (Remake)

2: Hunting

8 Years Later

Luke's POV

"CAUSE BABY TONIGHT, THE CREEPER'S TRYING TO STEAL ALL OUR STUFF AGAIN!"

"SO BABY TONIGHT, YOU GRAB YOUR PICK, SHOVEL AND BOLT AGAIN!"

"BOLT AGAIN!"

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT IT!"

"Awwwwwwwww," my brother and I chorused. "But Zip-"

"No buts. You two are scaring off all the animals with your singing!"

"I thought we were actually pretty good," I muttered to my brother, just loud enough for Zip to hear me. She turned her serious brown eyes on me. In her black shirt, grey pants, tall brown boots and with her brown hair in a plait, she looked like someone who would happily beat you up if you made her annoyed. The iron sword at her side and bow and quiver of arrows on her back only made her look more dangerous. I grinned back, completely undisturbed by her fearsome appearance. She huffed and looked away. I smirked at my brother, who grinned back at me.

My brother, Jade, wore a bright green jumper with grey pants and a black shirt. On the back of his jumper was a slime face and his jet black hair was messy, just like mine. Our matching green eyes met each other and I winked. Like my brother, I wore a green jumper, but mine had a creeper face on the front. I had black pants and a single green streak in my black hair. And yeah, we're twins.

"There's cow tracks here," Tim called from up ahead. Out of all of us, he was the oldest, although only by a year. He had blue streaks in his black hair, which he tied back. He stood up and wiped the dirt off his black and red pants. "Probably about four of them, one only young."

"We'll follow them," Zip said. "We'll leave the calf and its mother and take down the others."

We nodded. This was normal for us. Once every week, we go out hunting for food to bring back to our village. Cows, chickens, pigs, you name it. We followed the tracks behind Tim, staying close and being silent. Pretty soon, four cows came into view, three fully grown and one baby. We all froze, waiting.

"Alex, you take the one of the right, I'll take the one in the middle," Zip said, slowly taking her bow off her back. "Leave the mother and calf on the left."

Alex, a boy with blond hair, nodded and copied Zip's movements. Together, they picked an arrow, loaded their bow, drew back and fired. Both of the cows fell, one squealing, the other dead before it hit the ground. The mother and its calf bolted away. I ran forward, drawing my stone sword and cut the poor cow's neck to put it out of its misery. I still felt slightly bad for doing this, but we had no choice.

"Tim, Jade, strip those two cows of their meat," Zip said.

My brother and Tim nodded. While they started the pretty disgusting business, I turned away and scouted out the forest a bit. Not that I needed to, I just wanted to get away before Zip could give me a job. Zip is actually an awesome person and leader, but I was feeling a bit slack that day. So I wandered the forest, being sure to stay within shouting distance of my group. I looked up at the sky and saw orange streaks lining it. Was it that late already? I ran back to the group, just as Jade and Tim were finishing.

"We need to get back, it's almost dark," I told them. It would take us at least an hour to reach our village.

"We'll have to run if we want to make it back in time. You guys got the meat loaded in the sacks?"

They did, so we started jogging back to the village. The sun was setting faster and faster.

"We're not going to make it before dark," Jade said.

"We will, just-"

Twang!

I jumped as I felt something fly just past my arm, thudding into the tree ahead of me. A skeleton arrow.

"SPRINT!" Zip yelled. We sprinted through the trees as the forest came alive with the monsters of the night. Zombies stumbled after us, skeletons shot their arrows and spiders crawled. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw skeletons with iron swords in the distance, but they were gone in an instant. Up in front of me, Alex was firing shots at the skeletons. Almost all of them found their mark.

We slowly gained ground on the mobs and their sounds faded until we could barely hear them. We paused, gasping for breath.

"Do... you... think... we're.... safe?" I asked, panting.

"Not until morning comes," Tim said, only panting slightly. He shifted the sack he had on his back.

"Oh... great," I said sarcastically.

I looked around at our surroundings. Forest on three sides, a stone wall on the other. We could only go in two directions, although we could really only go in one if we wanted to get away from the mobs. Night had descended fully now, and stars twinkled above us.

"You... okay, Luke?" my brother asked.

I smiled back. "Yeah, I'm fine Jade." I leaned against the nearby branch of a tree... and immediately fell down. A large CRACK echoed in the dark forest and my friends spun towards me.

"Luke, shush!" Zip hissed.

"I'm sorry!" I hissed back, standing up.

A grating sound came from the stone wall as part of it swung open, revealing a previously hidden cave. Where had that come from? I heard a bow twang from behind me and an arrow thudded into the ground at my brother's feet.

"INTO THE CAVE!" Tim yelled and we all sprinted inside the cave, narrowly escaping the monsters.

"How do we close the door?" Jade asked.

"Here!" The door closed as Zip pressed a button, sealing us off from the monsters outside. We were stuck in pitch darkness. All I could hear was the sound of my friends breathing. One of them seemed to be breathing rapidly, as if they were afraid of something.

Then a redstone lantern flickered on.

So, what do you guys think so far?

Chapter in original book: 2 and 3