Ender Kingdom (On Hold for Shadows of Mianite)

Chapter Three: Desert Dreams

DiamondBlade28 wiped the sweat off of his brow. He had been mining so long that he had pretty much destroyed the rock outcrop. He had in fact found iron ore, but he didn’t have a furnace to smelt them, nor did he want to make one right now. But what he did have was three stone swords and five stone pickaxes, which would be much better than the wooden supplies. But I should keep them, DiamondBlade reasoned with himself, just in case.

The sun was just starting to touch the horizon, and the mobs were starting to appear, starting with the spiders. DiamondBlade snorted and twirled his stone sword. “It’s not much,” he admitted to himself, “but I can still do some damage.”

He looked up as he observed the sand and the mobs out in front of him. DiamondBlade squinted and saw the mottled green head of a creeper on the other side of a dune in front of him. DiamondBlade narrowed his eyes and scoffed, “Creepers — you’re mine. Now I can show you who DiamondBlade28 really is. You won’t forget me. Bring it.”

DiamondBlade snarled and darted forward. He quickly climbed the dune and vaulted over the surprised creeper, who immediately started lumbering towards him. “Let’s dance!” DiamondBlade dared. The creeper hissed and lunged. DiamondBlade swung an arc in front of him, grazing the creeper’s skin — or was it scales? I DON’T CARE. DiamondBlade hollered and fell on the creeper, imagining Dragonwing instead. That filled him with anger once again, and DiamondBlade slashed at the creeper so quickly and angrily that the creeper didn’t even have time to try to explode. Within seconds the creeper was dead, leaving a pile of gunpowder and XP. DiamondBlade grabbed the spoils at war and looked behind him. There were even more mobs before, and DiamondBlade saw a few skeletons among the zombies and spiders. “COME ON!” DiamondBlade shouted at the desert mobs.

Not waiting for the slightest response, DiamondBlade hurled himself recklessly at a zombie, impaling the sword into its back. The zombie flared red and collapsed underneath him. DiamondBlade wrenched the sword out and turned on the next monster, a skeleton. He ducked underneath an arrow and jumped up, his sword seeming to flash in the moonlight. He sliced off the skeleton’s hand and rammed his elbow into its ribs, knocking it down. DiamondBlade growled, “Stay down,” and kicked its head off, killing it. He didn’t want another ‘Dragonwing0123 episode’. 

He wheeled around to face the other mobs, who were now agitated and were making their ways towards him. “Who’s next?” DiamondBlade demanded. Then his blood chilled as a low, haunting chuckle floated around him. What was that? He straightened up, his heart pounding louder than it ever had before. Only one thing can make that noise…no…not now… As the chuckling kept swirling around him like a tornado, the other mobs seemed to retreat. Yes, DiamondBlade confirmed to himself grimly, it’s them.

Then the laughing abruptly stopped, and the other mobs started to recover from their momentary submission. DiamondBlade allowed himself a second of relaxation, and then groaned when the laughing started again, louder than before. This time it seemed…right behind him.

DiamondBlade felt all the blood drain from his face, making him look like a ghost. He wanted to scream, get out of there, do anything to get away from the monster he knew was standing an inch away from his back. But he was petrified all the way down to his smallest nerve, and he couldn’t move. DiamondBlade squeezed his eyes shut as the enderman stopped his laughing and started to go even farther into his nightmare — the enderman began to speak to him. “So,” the enderman whispered in his ear, “you have finally arrived.”

DiamondBlade struggled to find his voice. “What do you mean, I’ve finally arrived?” he squeaked out, bowing his head. He had no intention of provoking the enderman if it suddenly teleported in front of him.