1 Raiding the Castle

Kingdom of the Plains, OverWorld

Nightfall

"Stay quiet," Romeo, the towns Blacksmith, as he looked over his right shoulder, "the one thing we don't need right now, is for her guards to hear us."

The castle was made entirely of cobblestone. The only source of light in the Castle were faint redstone chandeliers, which were hanging from the curved ceiling. There were paintings hanging on the cobblestone walls of the Queen.

Wearing her casual red coat with fox fur wrapped around her neck. Her signature golden, pointy crown shined in the paintings.

Romeo was accompanied by four other villagers. Julian the dog breeder, Amelia the cat hoarder, Freddie the Warrior, and Hayley the Cartographer. Everyone was equipped with full iron armor, iron swords, and wooden shields. All necessary when it comes to defending themselves if anything were to go wrong.

The floor was made up of light oak wood planks, with gray and black carpet covering the center of the hallway floor. Hayley was holding a map in her hand, guiding the group throughout the castle. Earlier in the day, she had completed creating a map of the layout of the castle.

"There's a hallway coming up on our left," Hayley said quietly, "go down this hallway here."

Romeo stopped walking, putting his back up against the cold, cobblestone corner wall. He peaked around the corner. There were two guards patrolling the castle.

"Two guards. Fully armored," Romeo whispered as he looked over to his right at Freddie. "Care to do the honors?"

They were equipped with Netherite Armor, the strongest armor known to blockheads. The armor was black. How they got that kind of rare and strong armor is a mystery. Before the group could move on, Freddie needed to take care of these guards.

"Put them to sleep Freddie," Romeo said as Freddie grabbed his crossbow out of his inventory. He also grabbed an arrow that was dipped in a sleeping potion.

He pulled the string on the crossbow back, and set the arrow onto the crossbow carefully.

"Wish me luck," Freddie said as he sighed.

He walked out into the open. The guards abruptly stopped in their tracks, staring at Freddie. Freddie gulped as he aimed his crossbow.

"Intruder!" The guard shouted, "stop right there! Don't move! You're coming with us!"

"I am?" Freddie said as he smiled. He lifted his crossbow up and aimed it at the guard on the right. "Sleepy time, buttheads!"

The arrow was launched from the crossbow, flying in a straight fashion. The arrow pierced the armor of the guard on the right. Pink bubbles began appearing around his body.

"I can see little puppies, Donnie," the guard said as he fell to the floor, fully asleep.

The left guard began running towards Freddie quickly. His Netherite sword was in his hand. Freddie reloaded his crossbow and aimed it at the incoming guard.

"Go to sleep, go to sleep," Freddie said as the arrow launched from the crossbow and hit the guard in the right arm. Again, pink bubbles started floating upwards from his body.

"You're a pretty kitty, aren't you?" The guard said as he collapsed to the floor. Freddie glanced over to the others, putting his crossbow away and taking his iron sword back out of his inventory.

Romeo peaked around the corner again to make sure the two guards were fully asleep. Freddie waved his arm, signaling that the coast was clear.

"C'mon," he said, "they won't sleep forever, you know!"

Romeo, Hayley, and Julian all came walking into the open. Hayley and Julian looked at the two sleeping guards.

"After all that time creating that potion, I didn't think it would work," Hayley said.

"Well it did," Freddie said, "good job by the way."

"Why thank you, Freddie," Hayley thanked Freddie for the nice compliment.

Romeo, again, started leading the way down the hallway. Everyone followed close behind. Julian looked down at one of the sleeping guards.

"Your feet are so shiny," the guard said while he continued to sleep. Julian poked the guard with the tip of his sword, triple checking to make sure they were still asleep.

"C'mon Julian!" Romeo whispered loudly. "Stop poking the guards. They're asleep, okay?"

Julian caught back up with the group. Everyone was walking a single-file line. Hayley glanced back down at her map, examining where they needed to go next.

"At the end of the hallway, go right. Her private quarters are down that hallway. And by the looks of it, she's in her suite," Hayley mentioned.

As the group continued forward, the sleeping guards that laid flat on the floor, began to wake up. The sleeping potion was starting to wear off.

"We need to hurry. If those guards wake up, and we're still here, they'll alert the Queen," Romeo said as he was growing more concerned. Those guards could wake up at any given moment.

"Stop!" Hayley said, looking down at her map, "four more guards coming our way."

On the right side of the hallway, there was a room. The door was made up of oak wood. There was a sign above the door that read "Queen Scarlet's Private Library. DO NOT ENTER!"

"Everyone. Get inside this room," Romeo said as he ran over to the door and opened it. Hayley, Julian, Freddie, and Amelia all entered the dark library room.

Once everyone was inside, Romeo closed the oak door. Running footsteps were heard as the four guards approached the end of the hallway.

"Do not say a word!" Romeo whispered, "and don't move an inch."

The light from outside in the hallway, shined through the top half of the oak wood door's glass frame. The four guards stopped as they caught sight of the two sleeping guards passed out on the floor.

"Donnie? Andrew?" One guard shouted, "why are you two sleeping? You're supposed to be patrolling the Castle!"

Donnie and Andrew were the names of the two guards that were shot by Freddie's sleeping arrows. The four guards ran down to assist Donnie and Andrew.

Once the two guards were back up on their feet, they were still drowsy and half asleep. The sleeping effect hasn't worn off just yet. But it wasn't going to last much longer.

"What happened to you guys?" A guard asked curious to know why they were asleep on the job.

"I was—I was—shot by a—rabbit," Donnie answered.

"Okay," the guard said, "clearly you've had too much swiftness potion. I'm going to bring you two back to your rooms. You're done working for the night."

"I like—butterflies," Andrew said.

"Butterflies?" The guard said. "But you hate insects."

"No—I don't. I—love everything," Andrew argued. "My best friend—is a—butterfly."

As the six guards approached the room where the intruding group was temporarily hiding in, Julian accidentally stumbled. He tripped and fell to the floor.

The guards abruptly stopped in their own tracks.

"What the hay bales?" One guard said. "What was that?"

"I don't know," another guard said, "it was probably just one of the Queen's books falling off of its shelf. I wouldn't worry."

"Lukas," the senior guard said, "open the door."

"Uh oh," Amelia said, "this isn't going to end well. We need to hide!"

"And where are we going to hide?" Romeo whispered loudly enough to where the guard was standing just on the other side of the oak wood door.

"Who's in there? Come out this instant!" The guard ordered.

Romeo looked at everyone and slowly shook his head from side to side. "No! Do not move!" Romeo ordered.

"That's my—butterfly friend Willis," Andrew mentioned, "did I mention he was a butterfly?"

"Yes. Now can you shut up? You're annoying me!" The guard told Andrew.

"Sorry papa," Andrew said, "I'll shut up now."

"Good!" The guard responded.

Lukas opened the oak wood door. He grabbed a torch out of his inventory and held it straight out in front of him. Lukas entered the room. He looked around, waving the redstone torch around too.

"Aha!" Lukas said, "there are intruders in this room!"

"Oh bubbles!" Romeo said as he sighed in anger and frustration.

"Get out of this room now!" Lukas said, "all of you. Out now!"

Romeo didn't hesitate to leave the room, mainly because he was out powered. His iron sword and armor would never stand a chance against these guards.

Julian, Amelia, and Freddie followed Romeo willingly out into the hallway. Lukas came walking out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

"You're all coming with us," Lukas stated, "the Queen is going to want to meet you guys. Now begin walking!"

Four Days Earlier

Kingdom of the Plains, OverWorld

Dawn

"Good morning your majesty," Amelia said as she was walking all right of her cats. They were all attached to ropes to prevent them from running away.

Daniel smiled and waved to Amelia.

"Good morning, Amelia," Daniel said happily, "I see you're walking your cats again?"

Amelia and Daniel stopped walking to chat for a moment. The square shaped Sun was shining bright as it continued its journey into the sky.

"I have to. It's part of this diet I'm testing out with them. As you can see, they're a tad bit—well—fat."

"Ahh, I see," Daniel said as he slowly nodded his head. He put his hands behind his back. "I was just on my way to go and see Freddie. He's going to teach me a few self-defense tricks."

"Sounds oddly fun," Amelia said.

"It does," Daniel said as he smiled, "I must be going now. It was nice chatting with you. Bye kitties."

Amelia looked down at all eight of her cats and briefly stared at them. She then turned around and shouted at Daniel.

"The kitties said goodbye too," Amelia shouted loudly.

Daniel didn't look back. Amelia was the crazy cat lady of the town. It almost seems like she's obsessed with cats. Just the other day, for example, she only had five cats. Her collection of cats keeps growing. Can't you tell she's obsessed?

In a field just outside of the town, Freddie was practicing his masterful fighting moves with his iron sword. Daniel walked up to him and greeted him with a simple "hello."

"Good morning, your majesty," Freddie said, "are you ready for your first lesson?"

"I am," Daniel said as he nodded his head up and down.

"Very well then," Freddie said, "let's begin. Take out your sword. Show me what you got tough boy!"

"With pleasure."