[CH.005] Shriekers

OVERWORLD | Cave

Midnight

After fleeing to a cave located on the island, everyone was safe for now. Miraculously, everyone survived NetherBrine's surprise attack.

Months passed since they'd made landfall for the first time. New lives were going to begin here. No evil or dangers threatened the Kingdom and the people. At that point, they were safe.

None of this would be reality if it weren't for the Minelantians' help. Raising the DreamChaser, and giving it a second chance at life at sea.

The cave was dark and poorly lit. The only sources of light were from Ceres and Merlin's wands, and a torch. Still, however, the cave was darker. Walking in a close huddle, they trekked carefully.

Ava and Annabelle were holding each others' hands, comforting each other to remain calm. Merlin was leading, while Ceres was following. They continued wandering lower and lower into the dark abyss.

Afar, Zombies groans echoed. Endermen screeched and blipped in and out in different places. It appeared to be following everyone, keeping its distance.

"Woah!" Merlin said as he was spooked. "Darn Endermen! Keep your heads down. Don't look up at them."

Annabelle was shaking from fear. Ava put her other arm around the back of Annabelle's head. She faintly smiled. Speaking in a whispering-tone, she pulled Annabelle closer.

"Don't be scared," Ava whispered into Annabelle's ear. "I won't let anything bad happen to you."

"Really?" Annabelle asked as she looked over at Ava. She faintly smiled.

"Yeah!" Ava responded, "you're my younger sister. It's what I told my dad I would do."

"I don't want to be down here," Annabelle muttered with fear. "I want to go home."

"We will…soon," Ava assured.

In her head, Ava knew that it would be awhile before going back to the surface. But that was the part she left out when comforting Annabelle.

At the rear of the group, Ceres overheard their conversation. But he didn't make it blatantly obvious. Instead, he smiled and watched them embrace.

"Awe, that's adorable!" he mumbled under his breath.

"It looks like the cave ends just ahead," Romeo called out to inform everybody. "Almost there. C'mon!"

"See?" Ava asked as she looked down at Annabelle, "I told you everything would be okay."

"I'm still scared," she replied.

As continuous footsteps clicked and tapped on the stone ground, those sounds turned abruptly into mushy sounds like walking on wet sponges.

SHH!

"Stop!" Romeo said as he held his arm out to his side to stop everyone else.

"Stop!" Romeo said as he held his left arm out to his side. Everyone's attention peaked.

Unbeknownst to them, Romeo had spotted what appeared to be an Ancient City. Romeo kneeled down, grabbing his spyglass out of his inventory. Extending it, he surveyed the roaming inhabitants of this mysterious city.

Another Enderman blipped into existence behind Ceres. It tapped his back to get his attention. He turned around. When he did the Enderman teleported a short distance back in the way they'd come from.

It walked over to a specific block. One that had flailing tentacles moving back and forth. In the middle, something was swirling around in a continuous circular motion.

"What about it buddy?" Ceres mumbled as he looked up at the Enderman. He did exactly what everyone was told not to do. But the Enderman didn't become hostile. It remained calm. The other Endermen that were following everyone blipped next to and behind Ceres.

It looked down at Ceres and shook its head. The other Endermen teleported over closer to the group. What are they doing? And why are they doing it?

"What does that mean?" Ceres asked.

The Enderman looked away and teleported over to the other side of the cave. The stone block it was holding was placed down. And when it was placed, the tentacles on the block lit up a bright teal blue.

"Woah!" Ceres mumbled as he took a step back. When he did, it shrieked and screeched again. "What is that?"

"Oh hay bales," Romeo mumbled, "I think they saw me."

Ceres turned around and tiptoed back over to everyone else. He put his wand away into his inventory. As he crept through everyone, he held his hand up to his mouth.

"Stay down, stay quiet," he whispered.

He crept past Ava and Annabelle. They both looked up at him, as he looked down at them.

"Shh, don't move. Don't speak," he warned them as he approached Romeo and Merlin. But just as he mumbled Merlin's name, he fell into a hole that seemingly appeared in the ground. But after he fell through it, the hole disappeared too.

Romeo and Merlin turned around, looking back over their shoulders.

"Where's Ceres?" Romeo asked in a loud enough tone that the skulk shrieker picked up the sound and shrieked again. This was the third time it was set off. "Has anyone seen him? Where'd he go?"

RRROOOAAARRR!

Ava and Annabelle jumped as pebbles and chunks of stone began falling from the cave ceiling above them. Everyone looked up. A large creature with curled horns that glowed teal blue began forming out of the skull blocks that surrounded it.

"Get back!" Merlin shouted, setting off the shrieker for the fourth and final time. A large creature fell from the ceiling, landing on its feet. Ava put her arm in front of Annabelle and pushed her back up against the side cave wall. An Enderman blipped next to her, picking Ava up and setting her down next to Annabelle. It then stood in front of them both, protecting them from the wrath of the Warden.

SNIFF, SNIFF!

It's head wobbled back and forth as it sniffed around for the culprits who'd set the skulk sensors off.

"Annabelle?" Ava whispered in a shaky tone.

"Yeah Ava?"

"You can be scared now!" Ava whispered as they curled their arms around each other.

"Go—,"

AHHHHHHHH!

The warden roared as it swung its arm at the Enderman standing in front of the girls. It took the hit, and absorbed it. It looked over its shoulder and down at them. It raised its arm and pointed in the direction of the Ancient City.

"There's water down there!" Romeo mumbled as he gestured his hand, "everyone jump off the cliff. There's a pool at the bottom!"

"Ava! Annabelle!" Merlin whispered loudly as he crawled over to them. He held out his hand. Annabelle took it and he pulled her towards him. The less sound they make, the better.

Down in the City, the blockheads noticed the commotion coming from one of many cave entrances to their city. They were shocked to find that the Warden had been summoned. This was something they've worked around over hundreds of years of living amongst it.

Wool carpets were in place of gravel pathways. Anything that made sound was forbidden from the city. The fighters leapt into action. They were going to help the mysterious strange visitors from above.

"Someone distract the Warden! Don't let it follow them down!" A blockhead shouted out.

There was no point in being quiet now. The creature was here. Even if they're quiet, he could somehow still sense their presence, hence why he sniffs around.

"Sound the other shriekers if you have to! They need our help!" The same blockhead called out.

A group of armored blockheads were running down the carpet paths towards other shriekers located around the city. They were armored with netherite armor and swords.

As for Ceres, he reappeared in a cave. But it wasn't the same cave as everyone else was in. He leapt back up onto his feet, grabbing his wand out of his inventory. The tip of it lit up, emitting light to see around him.

"One of three Elder Wizards left, Ceres," a female demonic voice said. "Who would've foreseen this? You and I are meeting again 300 years later! Aha, this is exciting. I can sense you've changed. You've grown quaint, your powers weakening as you age."

A gust of wind blew towards him from behind. He turned around. But when he did, he didn't see the entity talking to him. He recognized the voice though.

"Nightmare?" He said.

"Ew no! How dare you say that name to me! She's nothing compared to me. Think again, Ceres," the female entity told him. "Think long and hard, Ceres. You and I used to be friends. You were my mentor, someone I idolized."

"But I threw it all away when…."

"Yes, keep going," she told him in anticipation. "You're on the cusp, right on the ball."

"What's a ball?" Ceres asked, being distracted by that phrase.

"Just a metaphor dumby!" She said, "you threw it all away when….?" She reminded and refocused him.

"But I threw it all away when—-when I joined the Elder Wizards?" He questioned.

"BINGO!" She said in an ecstatic tonal voice.

"You and I worked side by side, keeping the Brines in check. We protected the OverWorld, you and I. When you left and took my magic away, I turned my back on you. I closed that door, never to be opened again."

"I don't remember," Ceres said.

Out of the darkness surrounding him, a face flew towards him. It was the female entity's face that was talking. She had eyes and a mouth. She had overgrown fangs sticking out of her mouth, with the tips of them being coated in a red liquid.

"Allow me to enlighten you," she said as she slammed into the side of the cave wall. He dropped his wand. It went tumbling down. She held him up against the wall as she began using an ability she'd learned from learning dark magic. She began projecting flashes of her memories into him to jog and jumpstart his memory.

"Entity 303?" Ceres mumbled, but very quietly.

"303," she corrected, "the Brine family came to me and promised me great power and wealth if I joined forces with them. I didn't resist and took their hand."

Entity 303, or also known as Sasha is 100 years younger than Ceres, and they're both around the "same" age, spread 100 years apart.

"They showed me who I could be and become. I was given extraordinary abilities and was even promised an entire dimension to rule over like my brother NetherBrine."

YAWN!

Sasha slapped him to wake him up and prevent him from falling asleep.

"You will not fall asleep on me, mister! We have a lot of catching up to do! I've watched you from afar. Wherever you were, I was there with you. It was me who told that witch to curse your magic when you went to her for help to stop Mineaggedon from destroying your precious world!"

"That was almost four years ago!"

"Your point?" Sashabrine asked.

Elsewhere, back in the Ancient City, Ava and Annabelle had leapt off the cliff and down into the pool below. Down there waiting for them in boats were habitants of the city. They pulled the girls out of the water and into the boats, wrapping them up in dry wool blankets to dry them off. They began rowing their boats back towards the end of the pool to drop them off and go back and get others.

"AVA!" Annabelle yelled as she jumped out of the boat, running over to Ava. Ava got out of the boat and ran over to Annabelle. They hugged and asked if they were okay.

"Are you hurt?" Ava asked as she squeezed Annabelle in a warm embrace. "Did that thing hurt you?"

"No, I'm okay," Annabelle said as she repeated the same question back to her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Ava took a step back to fix the blanket that Annabelle was wrapped in to dry her off.

"Oh gosh," Ava said, "I'm just glad you're not hurt. I love you more than you know!"

"I love you too," Annabelle replied as they hugged once again.

Above, the Endermen were keeping the Warden in place by distracting him by picking up and placing blocks around. They teleported every few seconds to confuse the Warden. By doing this, they kept him from advancing on the escapees.

This was behavior the Endermen never expressed in all of history before. They've always been known to be hostile if a blockhead looked them in the eyes. But what no one knew was that EnderBrine could still communicate with them, even from the afterlife. After all, he was their King: King of the EndWorld.

Even though he's dead, he was still looking out for those whom he called friends and family. It's a miraculous thing to witness. An enemy becoming an ally or even a friend. Sometimes bad people do good things in the end. They change their behavior. That's exactly what HeroBrine and EnderBrine did. Enemies in the beginning, allies in the end.