Of a Flock

Chapter Thirteen

Dream stared at the dark square in front of him, riddled with purple, blue, and white dots. Never before has he come to an End portal, and felt like this. A mixture of worry and fear, but also of hope and happiness. And never before has he gone with wings. The void watched him right back, giving him two options; to jump inside and be sucked away into it, or to walk away now and admit defeat.

He lifted his chin. He wasn't one for failure. Anything is possible, if he just makes himself do it.

The world around him cracked and hummed. The water surrounding the portal pushed against the structure, and the endermen cooed in their language, peeking around the corners for the four people that had just strolled through the hallways, in search of them, their metal, diamond, or purple flashing weapons drawn out.

He took a breath and glanced down at his cast of numbers. He briefly touched them, reading them out loud in a small voice, "Zero, eight, one, four, and nine." It had taken a lot of time to get all of the numbers that everybody needed. But, it had also been faster than if they hadn't hunted down every enderman they saw. But they had done it. They were the first three groups to make it into the End; Speedrun, Alien Victory, and Captain Sweet.

It felt good to be first.

So, without another thought, Dream leapt into the portal. The wind rushed past him, allowing him to sink down into the void. Black was everywhere in front of him, along with the colorful little dots that jumped up and down excitedly, almost like a cheer just for him. He smiled to himself and landed carefully on the endstone.

"—it's a maze," Puffy said, turning around with her pickaxe in hand. "We have no choice but to just do it." She put her tool away to the sound of Purpled groaning.

"Who knows how long this maze is!" he argued, kicking at the walls. If he wasn't wearing the netherite armor they had collected from the nether, his foot would have hurt. "I feel like it's here to stop us from killing the ender dragon sooner."

Niki pursed her lips. "Well, maybe it could be that. But then again, other people have to go through this maze too after us. This might actually give us a chance! We can kill the dragon and then give the finishing blow to Dream so he can get out of here faster!"

"That depends," Dream said, looking around. Tunnels branched off in multiple places, and he felt his hope hardening into a sinking rock. "Some people might be faster than others. We still have to be quick, regardless."

"Well, I think we need to dig our way out of here," Purpled continued firmly. "We've done that in every other type of Minecraft game. What's so different about this one, besides the mazes?"

"He does have a point," Dream relented. "I mean, we can't see how long the tunnels are. I would rather dig out, because there is no chance for a dead end that way, than waste our time in the maze and possibly be the last ones to reach the dragon."

The two women looked at each other, before turning back to the teenagers. "Puffy, you can stay with them," Niki said. "I can fly around, see which way is better."

"Good idea," the pirate-avian agreed, flapping her large wings. "I honestly feel like these mazes are designed to make us believe we'll waste our time, and we would dig the long way out, when we could have just gone through the simple maze."

Purpled cracked his knuckles and looked around. "All right! Does anybody have an enchanted pickaxe? I've been meaning to steal one, and it would have come in handy right now."

Puffy raised her eyebrow again, and took out her diamond pickaxe, while Niki flung her black and white wings out, and took off. "Nope. Did you know that money exists?"