Ami sat on the top of the snowy roof, staring up at the stars and breathing out small clouds of air. She watched the warm vapors dissipate into the endless sky, her face illuminated by the small lava pool that cast an aura of warmth across her body. She thought to herself about events to come, and found herself sinking further into her own thoughts. Worry and excitement mixed together to only create confusion and panic that swirled like quicksand, pulling her down. There was so much that could go wrong, as well as so many things that could go right.
She eagerly looked forward to possibly returning to her home, her real home, but honestly didn't have the faintest idea what it looked like or even felt like to be in such a place. The only home she really knew was the Sky House, the small, wooden house a little ways away, and that odd desert bunker that Michael made. Ami couldn't piece together what she thought a proper homey feeling should be. Every time she pictured a warm, vivid fireplace, the only image that came into her head was the giant pillar of lava that stood dead center of the wooden house.
The memory brought her lip into a small smile. Michael's face was priceless, not to mention that it was great to see Jack trying to stifle his laughter...Ami stopped herself. An ache became present in her chest. She really did miss Jack. It wasn't so much of a tear-jerking pain in her heart now, but more of a sore that had been present long enough that it still hurt - but not quite at the same time. She couldn't particularly explain it herself, but she could trace back memories of Jack and still be able to smile fondly at them.
But what if things were to go awry? Sure, she had memories to look on, and she had had time to recover from Jack's death...but if more of her friends were to die when they were so close to freedom...she didn't know what she would do. The very thought terrified her. Ami shook her head vigorously. No. She wouldn't let that happen.
Ami stared hard at a particular star that shone quite dimly. She imagined that that star was her. They would all come out of this just like every other time. The only reminder of their experience would be the bruises and scratches that would inevitably come from such a physical task as this. That star would shine brighter if it simply tried enough and put just a little more into its effort. But the effort was another thing she didn't feel quite ready for.
The fight itself against a dragon of all things was something Ami could only think of belonging in a fairy-tale. If such a thing were true, she would be a character in a story herself. The thought troubled her. Ami sighed, thinking of her average fighting skills. True, she could kill off a zombie or two and even a few spiders, if she was lucky, but a dragon? Such a fierce, majestic beast that was untamed, wild, and especially dangerous wasn't anything like what she had already faced. Not to mention the creature was probably gigantic. The horrors twisted themselves in Ami's brain, contorting themselves into what was an unrealistic, unfair fight that would inevitably end up with everyone getting hurt. Her daydreams haunted her, and Ami had to shake it off again to think sensibly once more. But the nagging thoughts never left her troubled soul.
As Ami stared out into the stars, the sky began to slowly lighten. Sunrise beckoned, and Ami fell prisoner to its stern yet ravishing gaze. Beams of a dull, cantaloupe colour washed over the world, and the very sight was astounding to the eye. Warmth spread from the sun's rays, and the firepit became as useful as a warm sweater in the middle of summertime. Needless to say, the heat became a little too much. Ami decided that this was a good time to head back down and get herself ready. Though she knew already that all her items and gear were already in her inventory, her sword sitting loosely in its slot, ready for action. Ultimately she figured that it might be rude to tread upon the others as they were enjoying the last bits of sleep they may have for a while.
She went to climb down the path of vines, but stopped, her leg drooping down the side of the house and firmly clenching the vines themselves. The perfect picture of the sunrise burned itself in her memory, and she so desperately wanted the image to stay with her forever. She couldn't be sure when she would ever see such a sight again.
Ami silently crept through the front doors, not at all surprised when she found the tired face of Michael sitting at the table, wordlessly leaning on his arms, deep in thought. He must have snapped out of it when she arrived, for he heaved a great sigh.
"Couldn't sleep?" he asked.
"Not a wink," Ami replied. The corners of Michael's eyes wrinkled into a smile. "Neither could I. The idea of returning home just wouldn't give me enough leeway to rest up before the big day."
"I had the same thoughts." Ami went to sit across from him. "But the results were a little different." Michael's smile faded, the wrinkles disappearing and a more serious tone returning.
"You know I can't guarantee anyone coming out of this unscathed, right?" He fixed his docile, perturbed eyes on her. Ami bit her lip. "I know," she said. "but that doesn't mean that we won't make it."
"But it also means that we'll have to accept any...casualties that may occur during the final battle. It's not going to be easy."
"We can cover each other's backs - I know we can do this. There's five of us, not including Luke or anything, but if we can figure out a way, which I'm sure you came up with something, then we'll just have to hope for the best and keep our wits about us." Ami didn't know where she got it, but a rush of hope pumped rapidly through her. Somehow, she was obtaining such an ideal to hang onto. Something dark crossed over Michael's face.
"Y-Yeah." His eyes darted to the side. An ice cube slowly sank its way through Ami's stomach, replacing the hope with dread.
"You do have a plan, right?" Ami asked nervously. Michael gave an anxious laugh.
"Less of a plan and more like a really hopeful idea. I-I'll explain once everyone's awake." With that, he skittered off into the secret chest room, not looking back as he hastily climbed the vines. They didn't have a plan. No safe, somewhat secured Michael-knows-all handicap that they had all previously become accustomed to. Ami held her face in her stubs. What were they going to do?
"Alright, everybody gather around." Michael motioned for everyone to gather in a circle. Dawn had broken, and the group was slowly gathering their bearings and preparing their armour and weapons. Michael pulled out his large stash of Eyes of Ender. "These," he said. "are what will lead us to the Ender Dragon. When we're all ready to go, which looks like it will be momentarily, I'm going to throw one of these in the air, and it should fly in the direction we need to go. This could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. We have enough food to last us all a lot longer, but be warned that the next couple days won't be easy. We may have to dig underground to make shelter for the night, or we can take a vote when the time comes if we want to persevere the night." Michael gulped.
"There's...also something I need to say that I'm sure you're aware of. This is the final boss - that means that it's not going to be as easy as a normal horde of monsters. I can almost guarantee that some...some of us will die." He had to stop to take a deep breath before he continued. The stress of his comrades seemed to be affecting Michael heavily, and Ami was sure that many of the others felt the same way. "But," he tried to recover his usual gusto, but it came out as more frail than anything. "all we can do is stick together and watch our backs. I won't let anyone here die so long as there's a way to save them. B-But, anyway, we should make sure we have everything ready and be ready to set out in a few minutes. Er - that's all." The grim atmosphere left an unsettling feeling in the pits of everyone's stomach.
Slowly, the crowd dissipated to their last minute preparations; Izzy and Steve poured over the enchantment table, reinforcing their weapons, Michael sat at the table with Charlotte, who seemed to be giving him emotional support. Ami had an odd idea, and quickly pulled out a stack of steaks, apples, and porkchops, topped off with a cake and set off for the roof.
She shivered from the constantly falling snow, but still waddled her way over to the deeply violet obsidian cube. Ami climbed to the top where the trapdoor lay, high enough so that Luke didn't have a hope of reaching it.
"Hey," she said, her teeth chattering. She heard the great sigh from within, and a drawling voice followed.
"What do you want?" Luke asked, his tone filled with dread.
"I came to bring you enough rations to last you a while. We're leaving...probably for...forever."
"I guess the time finally came," Luke sighed, pulling himself into a standing position and stretching. "I bet you're going to face the Ender Dragon, huh?"
"Yeah," Ami said, opening the trapdoor and tossing down the rations. Luke caught them one by one, soon stacking them in the corner of his cell. "I thought I'd give a last farewell. Er - I don't know if it really means anything, since you'll eventually run out of food, but I thought it might be nice to do something, at least. I'm pretty sure the rest -"
"Forgot about me? Yeah, I'm used to that." Luke scowled, sitting back atop his bed and leaning against the violet wall.
"Hey, at least I didn't!" Ami tried to cheer him up. She wasn't quite sure why she was doing this, but it somehow seemed right to give a last hurrah to everyone, even if they were jerkwards.
"One in a million, Ami," Luke said. "Will you ever come back?"
"If we win, no. We should get transferred or something to the real world - wherever that is."
"And if you lose?"
"We all die." Ami fixed her eyes on a section of the sturdy obsidian. Luke fell silent. "I suppose I'll end up dying in here, then, no matter which way I look at it." Ami shook her head. "Not necessarily. If Steve gets K.O'd then he'll come back here; he can take care of you."
"And if he wins?" Ami opened her mouth to instantly spout out that he would come to reality with them, but then stopped. Would he?
"I don't know," Ami said truthfully. "He might come with us, he might not. He is, in all technicalities or whatever, an NPC or something, so maybe not. You shouldn't be so over-dramatic. You most likely won't die."
"Most likely," Luke chuckled a little. "I suppose I don't have a choice, then. We'll just wait and see how things play out."
"I suppose it's all we can do," Ami sighed, the warmth of her breath seeping into the air. She watched it go, over and over again, and sat in silence with Luke, who didn't seem up for insults or rude conversation this time around. Before long, Charlotte's booming voice could be heard from the front doors, calling for her. Ami yelled back and prepared to leave, closing the trapdoor as she stood.
"Wait," Luke called before she set foot down on the roof. "If this is the last time I'll ever see you...thanks. Maybe we'll see each other in the next life - I bet things would go a lot smoother." Ami was surprised at first, but then felt her face grow into a warm smile.
"You bet," she said. "See you in the next life." Without another word, Ami dropped down to the roof, and soon came back into the house once again, her face set and body ready. The rest of the group must have been waiting for her, for when they saw her they instantly waved her over. Ami stood in a circle, which ultimately looked more like an oval, and gazed around at the friends she had. Michael, Charlotte, Izzy, and Steve. The only ones that remained. She took a deep breath, prepared to fight until the end.
"Take a last look, lads," Steve said, walking backwards as he craned his neck to see the top of the Sky House. "This will be the last time you ever see it." They all did so, and Ami's eyes lingered the longest. She was finally going to leave her home in search of something new. The very thought terrified her. She hastily picked up her pace to catch up with Steve and the others, and watched as Michael pulled out one of many Eyes of Ender. He stood on a small hill, where there was plenty of room to see the astonishing view on the horizon. A forest was present to their right, but to the left was a mountain and further more a destination of mystery.
"Here we go," Michael said nervously. He took a deep breath, and then with a mighty throw, sent the Eye of Ender high in the sky. Instantly, as if the Eye had a mind of its own, it took off in the direction of the forest, guiding them with a small trail of purple bubbles.
"There!" Michael exclaimed, a new-found excitement in his eyes. "Let's go!" The group eagerly followed, chattering as they went. Every couple minutes or so, Michael would heave another Eye into the air, in which it would mostly follow the same direction. Occasionally, it would veer another way, and the group would follow. It was a good thing Michael had obtained so many of these, for Ami lost track of the staggering amount of Eyes he had thrown.
"What do you think The End will look like?" Izzy pondered.
"I think it'll be essentially like Hell, minus the fires and all. Maybe like Limbo?" Charlotte shrugged.
"So really dark?" Ami asked.
"Somethin' like that," Charlotte nodded.
"But then how would we see the Dragon?" Izzy pitched in. "It has to be at least a little fair, right?"
"You'd think," Ami said. "I figure it'll just be this barren wasteland, you know? Maybe like a desert. I mean, the name even sounds like the afterlife. Maybe it is like Limbo, but bright enough to see."
"Huh," Izzy blinked. "Here I thought it might be like heaven, and we'd get to walk on clouds. Boing, boing, slash!" She mimed a karate chop. The girls laughed, and Steve hung back a little, shaking his head.
"You three really have no idea, do you?" he grinned.
"And you do?" Ami raised an eyebrow. Steve's grin seemed to only grow wider. "Yes, actually. I went there, once, to see if I was up to the challenge. By this point I'd already figured out there wouldn't be much consequence to me dying, so I geared up and soared in."
"And?"
"Oh, I died. Many times. To make it even worse, I lost all the gear I had on when I went. So I had to start all over - or just raid my stash and put on a new set of armour and have at it again. But I was also alone, so it was crazy hard. With all of us, we stand a fighting chance." Izzy gulped.
"I-It's really that hard?" she stuttered.
"Oh, definitely. It's not called the final boss for no reason." Ami hit him on the shoulder. He gave her a look before noticing the quivering figure of Izzy. He then tried to ease her fear. "Oh! Er, like I said, we have a really good chance! There's so many of us! Going alone is crazy! See, we can do it!" Izzy seemed to be too far gone to hear a word he said. Charlotte sighed, wrapping her arm around the shaking girl and reassuring her. Steve looked like he was about to cry.
"I shouldn't have said that," he said blankly.
"No kidding." Ami shrugged. "But you tried to bring it back. I count that as an attempt."
"Thanks," he said sarcastically. Ahead, Michael seemed to be getting agitated...with himself.
"Why won't the Eyes go somewhere where I can see them!" he fumed, as the second Eye he threw went directly through a tree, defying any laws of physics that could have been present.
"Michael." Steve went up to him. Michael made a noise that seemed somewhere in between anger and sadness, but could not easily be placed on a scale of normal absurdities. Steve continued on as if he hadn't 'said' anything. "Do you want me to take over? You deserve a break before things go down." Michael nodded solemnly, passing him the stack of Eyes and slowly sinking into the back of the group, where the chatter continued. Steve smirked to himself, following the Eyes to a new direction.
"You seem tired," Izzy remarked, her concerned eyes scanning over Michael.
"Nothing new," he said. "I'll be happy when we can rest. Right, Rufus?" The wolf that had been keeping close to his ankles gave a little yip, happily trotting along. "At least one of us has energy," Michael smiled at the dog fondly.
"Hey Michael," Ami started, her thoughts wandering around in her head. Michael looked at her. "What exactly is our strategy for killing this thing?"
"Oh!" Michael blinked. "Oh. I was planning on explaining that when we got to the End Portal, but I suppose I could do a quick run-through now. So, when we get there, there will be these pillars everywhere, and on top of them are he -"
"Woof! Woof!" Rufus barked loudly, interrupting Michael's probably important strategy. A little annoyed, but curious, Michael directed his attention to the wolf.
"What is it, Rufus?" He knelt down to the dog, who was scampering around excitedly. Without warning, it took off into the dimming light with haste.
"What's up with him?" Ami asked worriedly.
"No idea," Michael seemed bewildered himself. "He's never run off like that before." He skipped on ahead, chasing after the dog. "Rufus!" he would call, searching for his friend. A small bark told him where the wolf was hiding, and as soon as he found him, Michael instantly yelled for everyone to come.
"What's going on?"
"Is he hurt?" The questions stopped when the group caught up with him. Before Michael was a pack of wolves, all alike to Rufus. Their snow-white fur was ruffled and long, and their tame, coal eyes were lax. Rufus happily trotted up to Michael, his tail wagging furiously.
"Michael, you don't think..." Izzy gazed at the pack.
"It couldn't be his family," Michael said. "I...I found him all alone, how could they...? ...Rufus, where do you want to go?" Ami thought that it was a bit weird that he had asked the wolf such a question, when it would seem incapable of answering such a thing, but Rufus truly seemed to understand what Michael had said, for he seemed to look indecisive. After a long pause, Rufus went to the rest of the pack and barked something. The entire scenario felt out of this world to Ami, despite everything she had experienced so far.
This didn't feel normal, much less possible for a canine to understand human speech. And yet, what Rufus had barked must have meant something, because the other wolves glanced at each other, as if confirming something with the entire group. After another pause, Rufus' tail reached an astonishing speed, and he came over and brushed himself against Michael's leg. This gesture seemed to say 'I'll stay with you!'.
"Aww, buddy..." Michael bent down and pet the wolf. "I suppose that means he'll have somewhere to go when this entire ordeal is finished. Take care of him, okay?" He directed the last sentence at the wolves, who now seemed wiser than originally thought. Soon, the wolves disappeared into the night, and that's when Michael made a painful revelation.
"It's dark!" he exclaimed. "Gah! We need to get shelter - or, or, something! G-guys, are we pulling through or sleeping?!" The group snickered.
"I don't think we have anything to worry about, Mike." Charlotte clapped him on the shoulder. "Rufus', er, family seem like they're going to see us off. Let's keep going. Are you still good to go, Steve?"
"Ready as I'll ever be!" Michael's worry was instantly relieved, his shoulders relaxed and he seemed to walk with more ease than before. Though they had protection, the group still wandered around the forest with caution, traversing hills and continuing on their final journey together. They paced themselves with bated breath and awaited the last minute that they would see of their cubed world.
(So! Our journey is finally coming to a close, dear readers. Now, before the ending truly strikes, which will be in two, maybe three chapters, who do you think will survive? How many, who, and why? I'm just curious, so let me see your crazy theories!)
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