Path to Redemption (BoD Book Two); Camp Minecraft AU

Chapter Four; Henwy

You fall, you die.

Henwy didn't know that they literally meant it.

The four hooted with laughter and just-.

Climbed.

"What?" Sigils yelped as the four pulled a Tarzan and started swinging through the treetops.

A roar behind the two snapped them out of their daze and they started to scramble after the group, gripping the bark and vines and pulling themselves up.

"Trust the nature around you!" Cherri called, about thirty meters above them. Henwy was clutching the side of a tree, his feet planting firmly on a branch about twenty meters off of the ground.

"You guys are crazy!" Henwy exclaimed.

"You bet we are!" Ian called from somewhere far ahead.

Henwy grasped a vine in one hand and turned to Sigils who was looking quite pale from another tree over, eyes fixated on the ground below.

Henwy jumped. The vine threw him upwards and he caught another vine. He arched and swung, landing on a man made platform.

Cherri dropped down beside him from a branch above him and soon after, Sigils tumbled onto it.

"I hate you guys for this. Why not somewhere under ground?" Sigils barked at Cherri.

She smiled, a dangerous twinkle in her eye.

"The dragon claimed the ground, we claimed the skyline."

"The dragon is still alive?" Henwy and Sigils both yelped.

"Why else would Ian say 'You fall, you die?'" Cherri grabbed another vine and swung away after the other three who were long gone.

"Follow the paths! They lead you up to the haven!" Cherri called as she disappeared into the jungle.

"We are going to die," Sigils said, almost cheerfully.

"We have survived quite a bit of hell, this isn't any different," Henwy grasped another vine and swung.

The next few minutes were a blur of reflexes, excitement, fear, and adrenaline.

Sigils and Henwy swung and practically flew through the jungle side-by-side.

Parrots of bright colors flew and soared past them, mocking the foolish humans trying to be like them.

The two friends tumbled onto a platform just above another where Cherri, Crainer, Garry, and Ian were searching the trees for the chaotic duo. The four jumped when they landed square on their feet with a thud.

"Ha! I expected you to be less agile!" Garry called.

The four swung off again, the gang and duo quickly merged into a group.

This is what Henwy had missed. He and his friends being idiots and enjoying life.

Then it hit him again. Like the force of the ender dragon slamming him into the ground, and then the feeling of his heart clenching like Nico's chest being torn open.

He nearly slipped on the branch as he switched from swinging to jumping.

Nico and Biffle had died trying to save the mayors. Why? He and Sigils were the worst members, the center, the reason, of every conflict.

He landed and tumbled on a wooden platform. Sigils was on a similar platform on a tree across from him. Ian had stopped, poised and coiled dangerously, and was staring darkly where the group had come from.

"Remember your special pet, Henwy?" Crainer called down, crouched between two branches far above Sigils on his tree.

"Hide!" Cherri called, a bit further ahead. Ian tucked himself into the brush, Cherri was already hidden, Garry tossed Crainer an invisibility potion and the two instantly disappeared.

Henwy noticed then that the four survivors were wearing dark green clothing and scarfs.

Henwy nestled close to the tree and the large, damp leaves and pressed himself to the platform. Sigils was gone as well by the time Henwy was situated.

There was a growl and a rumble that shook the forest. Leaves shook and fell from the canopy and drifted to the ground hundreds of meters below them.

Henwy sucked in a breath as a large, black, scarred snout entered his line of vision.

It's nose was scratched and scarred completely over. It was twisted and looked like it had been burned. Skin and scales were warped and wrinkled.

Then it continued to a large, beady black and purple eye. It's pupil was a long, midnight black slit. The iris surrounding it was a bright purple-red streaked with indigo and blue. The sclera around it was a dull grey.

The hideous, yet somehow beautiful, eye was bigger than Henwy was.

The head lifted to show its tightened and also scarred mouth. The beast's lips parted and revealed its teeth. They were long, shimmering white and bloodstained.

Henwy's thoughts flicked back to the day he summoned the beast.

Henwy watched the dragon grow and claw its way out of the hole it had been born in.

There were shouts and screams around him as he clutched the golden rod. Arrows and tridents flew at the monster, but they all bounced away, harmless.

Henwy slowly raised the rod. Those purple-black eyes fixated on him. The lips parted into a snarl.

"I," Henwy murmured quietly, the tip of the golden rod pressed to the corner of his mouth, "am your master."

The dragon's snarl quivered and twitched. It bounced uneasily on its feet and lashed its tail.

"I want you to kill them. Kill all of them."

The dragon tasted the air and then continued on.

Henwy let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding.