Adventure Through the Nether

Heat and stale air.

Everything swam before my eyes.

On stiff legs, we stumbled out of the portal and waited for our vision to adjust to the twilight that surrounded us.

Despite the lack of light source, it was not too dark here. The obsidian portal stood in a spacious cave formed with unusual red tinted stone. Light and fragile, it easily crumbled at even a casual hit of the pickax. The vaults of the cave, the ceiling, everything around seemed to consist of this material.

Steve lit his lighter to the ground and flames spread across a small patch of the floor, burning, yet not consumed.

"Not that impressive." Steve noted. Trampling out the fire, he headed to the exit from the cave.

"Let's see what's outside."

A shadow appeared up ahead, blocking the passage. It did not move. Cautiously, we approached and faced what looked to be an unusual variety of a zombie.

"A… pigman zombie?" I muttered, puzzled. "Hey, Steve, looks like your portal took us to the wrong underworld."

The undead creature, vaguely resembling a strange combination of a man and a pig, grunted and indifferently turned, hobbling away along its business.

"At least they do not attack first." Steve sighed with relief.

We walked past the zombie pigmen outside and paused, gazing at a new landscape.

"So, that's what the Nether looks like…" I said.

We stood on the slope of a large hill that towered in the middle of a huge cave. The endless ocean of magma splashed below, fed by majestic lava falls flowing from somewhere above. Countless paths pierced the ceiling above our heads, clearly leading to numerous other layers of this multi-tiered cave.

The Nether was a giant labyrinth of cavities and caverns, merging and tangling together.

I went down to the slope to the ocean. A wave of unbearable heat breathed in my face. The molten stone seethed and splashed right at my feet. I walked along the coast a bit and came across a narrow strip of beach. The sand here was dark, almost brown and very viscous. My feet kept sinking in and sticking, so it was hard to make a step.

Looking down, I could not contain an exclamation of surprise. The surface of the sand moved, folding into faces distorted by suffering. They silently gaped their mouths, writhed, trying to grab my hills, slowing my every step.

"Soul sand… I read about it in that book." Steve said.

"It's said that the souls of vengeful and greedy people get pulled in and become trapped in it. And even after death, they envy the living, trying to somehow annoy us."

From the coast we went up the slope, entered the next cave and thoughtlessly traveled through several more passages. At that point, we still felt that we could easily find our way back. We came across small groups of zombie pigmen, who watched us with dim expressions, not trying to hinder or approach.

Still, the Nether proved to be not a safe place. We learned that soon enough, after we reached the end of narrow path that took us to a ledge projecting above the ocean of lava.

Suddenly there was a moaning scream. And an explosion. We stood stunned, gaping at a hole filled with flame that appeared behind us where we just passed. A sobbing sound drew our eyes up to our new enemy. Among the high-ceilinged vaults floated a strange, white creature, which slowly descended toward us. Its entire body consisted of a huge head, under which dangled short, wriggling tentacles. The creature's face was a frozen mask of pain and suffering.

For a moment, it watched us. Then, it made a familiar prolonged scream, and another small ball of fire flew toward us. I prepared to jump out of the way, just as an arrow whizzed past me. It was Steve, fearlessly trying to knock the monster out. The shot struck true, but the flying creature remained soaring in the air. Meanwhile, the action left Steve no time to get out of the way of fire. The explosion would throw our ledge and him along with it straight into the lava below!

"No!" My body already moved before I could think. Bursting to shield Steve, I faced the coming ball of fire and squeezed my eyes shut as I waved my sword like a bat. As if it could reflect the deadly blast back! Dimly, I knew that it was pointless, but the only thing I wished was to protect my only friend.

… No explosion followed.

Carefully, I opened one eye, then another, and with astonishment watched as the ball of fire flew back straight into the white monster. Hit, it made a loud hiss. Tipping to one side, it began to descend into the ocean of fire.

I stood motionless, not quite able to believe what just happened. Talk about a "return to sender"!

"Ha! Take that!" Behind me, Steve mockingly shook his fist at the beast drowning in the lava.

We withdrew back. And that's when we realized that we did not know how to return to the portal. All the caves we went through looked the same! We did not even think to leave torches, which could have marked the path, since there was enough lighting.

"We did not walk that far. That slope we came out on will be right there!" Steve declared confidently, turning a corner. I followed him, only to bump into his back as he stopped.

No, we did not make it back to the portal. Right ahead towered a massive wall made of brick, so dark brown that it seemed black. Far above our heads stretched bridges leading to other towers. And above one of them, in the distance, I spied the movement of small, fiery creatures.

"The Nether Fortress! That's exactly what we need." Steve exclaimed and right away grabbed his pickaxe, starting to cut a passage within. I hesitated. On one hand, guests are supposed to enter through the front door, rather than force their way in. But on the other hand, the local inhabitants seemed not in a hurry to warmly welcome us.

The fact that the meeting would be not only warm, but hot, I did not yet know.

…

The Nether fortress greeted us with dark, silent corridors.

According to Steve, we came here to get two things – Blaze rods and Nether wart.

The Nether wart we discovered as soon as we got into the inner part of the fortress. Large red wartlike growths protruded from the beds of soul sand next to the stairs. Steve carefully collected the seeds of this unusual plant.

Depositing the loot in our pockets, we continued in search of the so-called Blazes. Reaching the top of the stairs on highest floor of the tower, I examined our surroundings. From here it was clear that the fortress was much larger than it seemed at first. Numerous staircases and passages wove into an intricate network of tunnels. Bars on the windows made it seem like a prison. Flocks of zombie pigmen gathered in many places.

On one of the bridges that connected the towers I noticed an unusual skeleton. Unlike the bone archers, he was tall and ashen-black, his dry hands clasping a sword. Carefully, we skirted the skeleton, making our path to the second tower, where I had seen the flickering lights. The closer we came, the more distinctly I could see the creatures soaring in the air. Those Blazes were the fire spirits that Steve mentioned. Around their bodies, woven from smoke and flame, hung vertical hot rods. And that's what we came for.

Trouble started right when we got to that tower.

Their lights flickering faster, one of the creatures flew towards us. Steve readily pulled back the string of his enchanted bow and fired. The arrow pierced directly into Blaze, but did not kill him. The flaming creature returned fire. Three clusters of flame burst from it and rushed in our direction.

Hoping that the same trick would work as it did with the white-headed creature, I tried to reflect them back with my sword, but failed. Fireballs of the Blaze did not explode when they hit. They seemed to splash around the objects, igniting them on fire. I almost cooked within my armor while I tried to cast off the chest plate, which burst into flame!

Steve's second shot missed completely. Instead of the Blaze, it hit one of the zombie pigmen that stood on the side of the bridge. Squeling, the pig like creature crashed down into the lava and its friends rushed toward us. Suddenly, we had a whole lot more enemies to deal with!

"Watch where you shoot, Sniper!" I yelled with indignation, trying to restrain the onslaught of a crowd of zombie pigmen and avoid falling off the bridge while the Blaze continued its fiery attacks.

"It's not my fault! It flew too low!" Steve retorted, doing the same.

Despite their slowness, the pigmen made formidable opponents. My armor barely stood against the blows of their heavy swords. I was hoping that my sword with its Fire Aspect might make a difference, but, of course, the creatures of the Nether proved immune to it.

"Got it!" Steve cried out and a Blaze crashed near me. Immediately, Steve jumped toward it.

The creature of fire disappeared, its body dispersing in the air, but the glowing rods remained lying on the floor. Steve collected them and then joined me in the extermination of pigmen zombies.

Soon, the last of them fell. We paused, heavily breathing.

Numerous grunting noises sounded from beyond. Jumping to the edge, I glanced down and saw hordes of the undead pigmen gathering from all around the fortress! It would take them some time to reach the top of our tower, but still.

"All right, nice seeing you all, time to go!" Steve said in a hurry and we ran, diving into the web of the little isles and corridors. Only the pigmen didn't even think of abandoning the chase. A couple of Blazes joined them.

The next path we took led us to a dead end.

"Back!"

"No! We do not have time!" Steve warned. Clearly, I understood that if we faced this battle head on, it would be our last.

"Try to block the entrance. Win me a few minutes!" Steve set to work, pulling out obsidian stones from his store of supplies and starting to frame a portal. I rushed to the entrance and blocked the narrow hole with boards.

"Curses! There is one missing. We are done for."

The boards blocking the entrance began to crack before the pushing crowd of zombies. The attack of the Blazes already set my improvised fortifications on fire. It was about to collapse! I prepared to meet my death in battle, when a bright thought lit up in my mind. A vivid memory.

A couple of days ago, on our way to visit the villagers, we came across a little lake of lava, where I first saw obsidian. The little piece of dark stone still lay in my pocket!

"We are saved!" I closed the portal frame.

With joyful exclaim, Steve clicked his lighter and a familiar purple film appeared between the obsidian pieces.

The wooden barrier at the entrance collapsed, the enemies broke into our little room, but it was too late. We already stood inside the portal, the noise grew in our ears, and our head span more and more. Farewell, Nether! We were returning home!

…

We stood surrounded by a dense snowy forest. Rare snowdrifts stirred above white surface and tiny snowflakes slowly descended from the cloudy sky. Frost pinched the skin. It was Summer when we went through the portal to the Nether. I looked around in bewilderment.

"Where are we now? Where do we go from here?"

"One step in the Nether makes eight steps in the Overworld. And we ran around a lot." My friend explained. "We must be many days from home…"

"Should we try to return back through the Nether?" I asked, feeling a bit lost.

"Oh, no. I would suggest that we make do here for now. Explore around. One day we might find a way back."

Without further words, Steve took out his ax and began to cut down trees. I joined him. Then, I grinned.

Well, I suddenly remembered, when we still lived in his small mud dug out, he once dreamed about a large mansion made of wood. I guess now we had the opportunity to make that dream come true!