Tales of Minecraft: The Curse (Remake)

27: Mistakes

Fury's POV
I sat in the branches of the tree, my hands wrapped around an apple in my lap, watching the monsters stalk below. I felt numb inside, hollow. Nothing seemed real. During the day I had kept turning around, expecting to see Wolf running along behind me, his tongue hanging out and his eyes wide. But I never saw him. I knew that he was.... Gone, but it didn't seem real. It was starting to hit now, though. For the first time in my life, I was cold, I was lost and I was alone.

And I felt scared.

I had lied to Zip, I knew it. I couldn't find my way home and I did care if I got hurt. But I couldn't just go back to them. I had hurt them by what I had said because they had hurt me by forcing me to leave Wolf behind in the End. They just didn't understand that he was the last bit of family that I had left, the last thing left of my brother. And to have that torn away from me...

But I hated this. I hated being alone. I hated not having anyone to cover my back, to watch out for me when I was sleeping... but I hated the loneliness of my thoughts more than anything else. I sighed to myself and put my head back to the rough bark of the tree. I didn't have much of a choice. I would be able to survive out here on my own, but I didn't like my chances of living a long life in an unknown forest, especially if the monsters stayed as strong as they were. I had to go back to the group, just to help them finish what they started if nothing else. And if they wanted me to leave after that.... Well, I deserved it anyway.

Holding the apple between my teeth, I clambered up to the tops of the trees and looked around. The moon that had just fully risen was large and a fair amount of light reached the tops of the trees. They would have moved on from the camp we had by now and were probably at the Nether. But how would I get there? I gave a huff and took a bite of the apple, catching it in my hand as I chewed the soft flesh.

I scanned the horizon as I ate and I saw the shadow of something large in the distance. I recalled Alex saying something about a mountain on the map that Luke had found way back when he had first found it. There was a one in a million chance that that shadow was the same mountain, but since I had nowhere else to start, it was a good a place as any.

The passage across the trees was a lot quicker than travelling on the ground. It was something that I had missed while I had travelled with the group. Everything was so slow if you walked. I could move twice as fast by the treetops than they could on the ground. It was getting close to dawn when I reached the edge of the trees that surrounded the mountain. I couldn't see anyone there so I slowly started going around the base, still jumping on the treetops. After about half an hour of moving, I came to a stop, staring at the mountain base.

"Pretty sure that mountains don't have doors in them," I muttered to myself.

But this mountain did. I cautiously got down from the tree and walked towards it, not drawing my swords just yet. There were scribbles in the door that I assumed to be words of some kind, but I couldn't read them of course. I carefully opened the door, my heart beating fast. I didn't like this, being alone in a new place, but something told me that this was where the group would be. I don't know if I was still allowed to call them my friends.

"Zip?" I called softly through the door. "Alex? Tim? Jade? Luke?"

The room inside was very bright and the ground was a maze of green and blue. There was no one inside from what I could see, but when I stepped into the room and closed the door behind me, a beam of light shot from the pillar in the centre of the room and disappeared into the dark. I jumped a little and stared at it. I didn't like this, this was magic of some kind. But it might lead me to my friends. I drew both of my swords and I followed the beam at a jog. It ended in a rectangular frame thing that was similar to the portal to the End, but purple, not black.

A shiver of fear went through me as I saw it. I had seen it before, just once. The last time I had stepped through it, my brother had died. But if I didn't go in this time, I was worried that my friends were going to die, because now I was certain that they had gone through it. And if Herobrine was really behind all this, I wasn't just going to stand by and let him kill the only people in the world who I considered to be my friends.

Without letting myself think anymore, I jumped into the portal. The red and black world appeared around me and again, I felt a shiver of fear go through me. I suddenly felt eight years old again, in a place where I shouldn't be. I glanced to my left and I saw his castle, standing there as proud and as glowering as it did before. I shut my eyes and gripped my swords tighter. The Elite Skeletons weren't here this time. He wasn't testing them. This time was different. I was older now, and more trained. He wouldn't kill anyone this time.

I opened my eyes again, the fear subsiding. My friends were there, in the castle. And if they weren't, then they had to get here eventually. I started heading towards it.

Chapter in original book: Second half of 30

There are about 3 chapters left, plus an epilogue if all goes according to plan. Then this book WILL FINALLY BE FINISHED.