Tales of Minecraft: The Curse (Remake)

Epilogue

And it's only now that I realise that the first chapter really should have been a prologue. Oh well, I'm not changing it now.

The stones of the street crunched under Zip's feet as she walked down the main road of the village. The smell of freshly-cut wood drifted to her nose from the half-built houses that made up most of the village. As well as the calls of the workers, Zip heard the sharp and brisk commands of whoever was training a group at the moment. It had been Fury's suggestion to train the common village people to defend themselves, and Dax had readily agreed.

Only a few days after they had stumbled out of the Nether, they had come across Zano camping in the forest. He had been slightly skinnier than when they had first met him so long ago, but he still handled his axe like it weighed nothing. He had taken them to the new village that they were building. Just over half of the population of the village had been killed in the Nether monster attack, including Dax's father, and the rest had migrated farther inland to build their new village.

Zip saw Tim walking down a street to her left, a large backpack on his arm and his Axe at his side. She jogged up to him, her hand resting lightly on the dagger at her waist.

"Are you and Zano off exploring again?" she asked, settling to a walk beside him. He had grown a lot taller in the past few months and she felt like she had to crane her head to look up at him.

"Yeah," he replied. "Zano wants to check out the mountains again. He thinks we missed some caves."

"And some lost people?"

"Who knows? All sorts of people get lost out there. The least we can do is bring them here and look after them."

"And some of them have very handy skills," Zip said, looking at one of the houses that was slowly being built with a dark-skinned man organising the workers. "You'll be back in a few weeks I suppose?"

"Probably. Or sooner, if we find someone."

"Alright. Safe travels."

She waved goodbye and turned down another street, heading straight for the heart of the village. On the way, she passed a shuttered house that looked uninhabited. She slowed, her heart dropping as it did every time she passed this house. Jade almost never came out now. From the few times Zip had seen him, he seemed to have a permanent limp in his stride. Even though Luke's death had been close to three years ago, Jade still hadn't moved on. Or he couldn't, Zip thought. Luke had been his twin brother after all. And they had been forced to leave his body behind without a proper burial.

The centre of the village was a bustle of activity as per usual. Food was being sold, workers were taking a break, young kids were playing and a fountain was being built in the middle of it all. To the left was the library with a train of miners coming in and out of it. Almost all of the books had been burnt in the fire that the Nether monsters had set, although Dax was hoping that some could still be salvaged. The minders were busy creating underground caverns that mimicked that of the old library. Appropriately enough, Alex had become the head librarian almost by accident and there were grave consequences for anyone who dared to damage a book when he was around.

"Thinking?"

Zip jumped and spun around to a smiling Fury. The young girl was older now but Zip barely remembered that Fury was just over 4 years younger than she was because she barely ever acted like it. Around the feet of Fury sniffed a small white dog with black fur on the top of his head that ran all along his back like a cloak. He looked up at Zip and barked, his three-toed front leg raised quizidly.

"Hey Swift," Zip said to the dog. She then looked at Fury. "Yes I was thinking and it's still annoying when you sneak up on people like that." Fury's smile became slightly wider.

"Old habits die hard," she said simply. "I want to go somewhere."

"Tim and Zano are about to leave for the mountains, you can go with them if you want."

Fury made a face that Zip took to be uncertainty and said "I don't really want to go searching, I want adventure. Like the old days."

"The old days?"

"It feels like the old days."

Zip gave her a suspicious look. "You've already got a place in mind, don't you?"

Fury couldn't stop a grin from spreading on her face. "There's supposedly an Ocean Temple in the Atlantis Ocean. Apparently, it's impossible to get into and it's well guarded."

"Well guarded by what?"

"No idea. According to Alex, there's no more information on it."

"Will it be dangerous?" Zip asked.

"Oh yeah," Fury answered. She tilted her head sideways. "Admit it, you miss the adventure and the feeling of being a mistake away from death."

Zip stared at her for a moment and then grinned. "Alright, it was fun while it lasted."

"Who said it has to stop?" the younger girl challenged.

Zip nodded slightly, the grin still on her face. "When do we leave?"

IT'S DONE, IT'S OVER, IT'S COMPLETELY REWRITTEN, OH MY GOODNESS THAT TOOK WAY TOO LONG. 

Okay, I'm good.

So thank you very much for struggling your way through this long (106 pages on Google docs) book, I hope you enjoyed it. In the original version, there is a chapter at the very end called Extra #1 which I will probably eventually rewrite for here, but check it out if you would like to.

Until then, I'll see you in another book!

Stay awesome

~Storm