A Minecraft Story

Chapter 12

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" a familiar voice said from above. Steve looked up. The gray of dawn lit the ravine.

The Skeleton with the gold helmet walked out from a doorway onto a ten block high ledge. It was on the same side Steve had exited from.  The ledge seemed to run the entire length of the ravine.

"The intruder," the Skeleton said. "Allow me to introduce myself. The name's Beta. I am the commander of the Skeleton unit for Mojang."

Steve didn't reply. He just stared at the Skeleton's evil red eyes. Then he noticed something. Beta was still holding the diary!

"Ah, yes, you see the diary?" Beta said with his raspy voice. "Does it belong to you?" He didn't wait for an answer. "No, of course it doesn't. But, we know it has some useful information about Mojang in it. It'd be a shame if something...happened to it."

Beta took out an especially sharp-looking arrow from his quiver and held it over the diary. Steve knew what he was going to do, so he had to act fast.

"Why do they call you Beta?" Steve called. "Are you not good enough to be Alpha?"

The gold helmeted Skeleton stared at Steve, still holding the arrow over the diary.

"Unfortunately," Beta spat. "The name Alpha has been taken by the commander of the Zombie unit. Pretty soon, all the letters of the Greek alphabet will be taken by the Mojang commanders of every type of monster in existence."

Steve tried not to show any facial expressions, but something must've shown, because Beta seemed like he realized he shouldn't have said that. But, he recovered from it quickly.

"You're stalling," Beta's evil voice said. "Let's get this diary destroyed, so we can get rid of our real target."

As he was about to stab the diary, something charged at him from behind. It shoved Beta, and he fell off the ledge, dropping the diary and arrow as he went. The diary skidded over near Steve. He looked at it, then up at the ledge.

Standing there triumphantly, was Porkchops.

Oh no, Steve thought. That dumb pig's macho act is gonna get him killed!

Beta recovered from the fall and stood up. He looked up at Porkchops.

"What do we have here?" Beta asked, readying a bow and arrow. "Is this your pig?" he asked, looking at Steve.

"Nope," Steve said quickly. "Never seen him before in my life."

"Really?" Beta asked. "Because it seems to be wearing the exact same helmet you were wearing earlier. Is that not true, fellas?"

The Skeletons surrounding Steve made clattering noises. They seemed to agree with Beta.

Steve had to act fast. "I swear I've never seen that pig before," he said. "I lost my helmet in the lava. Maybe this pig is controlled by Mojang too."

Beta laughed. So did all the other Skeletons. "If this infernal pig was controlled by Mojang," Beta said. "Then why did it push me off that ledge?"

Steve opened his mouth to reply, when he heard a loud hissing noise. A loud, familiar hissing noise. The Skeletons looked around, bewildered. Even Beta looked confused as he lowered the bow he had been pointing at Porkchops.

Something dropped from the sky and landed in front of Beta. Then a bunch of similar figures dropped in other places, some in front of Skeletons. They outnumbered the Skeletons two to one.

It was the Spiders.

The one that landed in front of Beta, which seemed to be the leader—and the one that knocked the pickaxe out of Steve's hands earlier—hissed at Beta.

"Shoo, pests," Beta said to the Spider. "This is important Mojang business."

The Spider ignored him, and hissed loudly again. All around Steve, the Spiders attacked the Mojang Skeletons. The leader waited a few extra seconds, then leaped on Beta.

This was all Steve needed to escape. He scooped up the diary and ran out of the circle of battling Spiders and Skeletons. Once again, he didn't have time to wonder why these Spiders attacked the Skeletons. Maybe they didn't like Mojang.

A Spider leaped at him, and Steve sliced it with his sword. Apparently they were fighting anyone who got in their way.

Steve dodged another Spider-Skeleton battle, and sadly realized the Skeletons were fighting back. They were using their arrows as daggers. The one he ran by stabbed the Spider it was fighting in the back, and the Spider died. The Skeleton looked up at Steve as he ran by, and shot an arrow at him. Steve dodged it and kept running, and another Spider leaped on that Skeleton.

Then Steve remembered Porkchops. He couldn't see the pig from this angle, but the ledge was in front of him. So, Steve got out his cobble and pillared up to the ledge.

From this high up, Steve had a good view of the battle. The Spiders were losing, but they were putting up a good fight. Many Skeletons lay dead.

Steve saw Beta stab the Spider leader with his arrow. Beta searched the ravine, and his eyes met Steve's. Steve stared back triumphantly, knowing there was no way Beta would be able to get up to him. Or so he thought.

Beta grabbed a piece of string from a dead Spider nearby--not the leader, since it crawled away slowly--and tied it around his arrow. He tied the other end to his bow. Then he aimed above Steve.

Steve realized he was going to use it as a grappling hook! But he didn't have time to react.

Beta shot the arrow, but before he could ride along with it, a different flying arrow cut the string. It must've been a misfire from a Skeleton. The arrow sailed up to the top and wrapped around a branch of a tree. Still attached to the string, the arrow came back down and hung a few blocks away from Steve.

This would be his escape route. If he grabbed the arrow and jumped from the ledge, it would slingshot him to the top. But first he had to get Porkchops.

Steve saw Beta get jumped by another Spider, and he looked around for Porkchops. Then he found him.

Porkchops was still on the ledge, staring at Steve. But, there was a six block gap from his ledge to Steve's ledge.

"Porkchops!" Steve yelled. The pig squealed to let him know he could hear him. "You're going to have to jump! I'll catch you!"

The pig looked at him like he was crazy, then snorted. "C'mon Porkchops!" Steve yelled. "Trust me!"

The pig looked at him with his adorable eyes and snorted. He then backed up about ten blocks. He was going to get a running start. Steve held his arms out over the gap, ready to catch the pig.

Porkchops started running. But, about five blocks away from the gap, an arrow lodged itself in the wall right in front of him. Porkchops skidded to a stop.

The arrow was attached to some string.

Porkchops looked at Steve. But then, his view was blocked by a Skeleton that had used the arrow as a grappling hook. It wasn't just any Skeleton.

It was Beta.

Beta grabbed Porkchops around the neck and turned to look at Steve. The pig was on his rear end, his four legs facing Steve.

Porkchops squealed as Beta got out his last arrow. The commander looked at Steve with his fiery red eyes.

"Let this pig be an example of what you will become once Mojang is through with you, Steve," Beta said menacingly.       

And with that, he plunged the arrow deep into Porkchops' heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What better way to celebrate Easter than with a pig's death, am I right? Heh heh...sorry.

Thanks for reading, and remember to vote, comment, and follow!

~Radishologist