The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay
Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message - Sean Wolfe Fay страница 47

СКАЧАТЬ to finally have his choice of weapon back, while Kat pulled on the iron helmet, leggings, and boots. Charlie picked up everything else: apples, fire charges, TNT blocks, redstone dust, a redstone torch and a compass.

      “So, do you guys know what you’re going to do now?” asked Bob.

      “Yep,” replied Stan. “Thank you for all your help. We’ll rendezvous with you guys and the others back at the Adorian Village after we’ve made our way to the End.”

      “All right, see you guys then,” said Ben, and the three Nether Boys turned and ran back towards the looming jungle trees in the far distance. As they were running off, Ben turned around one last time. “And be careful in the End! I’ve never been there, but I hear it’s way more dangerous than the Nether!”

      “We will! Thanks!” cried Charlie, and the Nether Boys ran off into the distance. As they did, Stan, Kat and Charlie ran in the opposite direction, back towards their old campsite. Even without the compass, Charlie knew the way back, and they had reached the sand abode before the sun was at its highest point in the sky. Needless to say, the animals were very happy to see their owners again.

      “Hey, boy! How’ve you been?” Kat laughed as Rex pounced on her and started licking her face, and she fed him some rotten flesh she’d picked up from a passing Zombie. Charlie stroked Lemon behind the ears, and he purred affectionately, rubbing up against Charlie’s hand. Stan went over to the chest and took some things out, readying for their departure. They had decided as they walked over that they would leave some nonessential things in the chest to give the illusion that the base was still in use. Stan put the Ender Chest and the book on entering the Nether and the End into his inventory. The rest of the items they decided to keep in place. They also decided to leave their beds – as they would be travelling a lot, they would have no need for them.

      The three players resolved to spend the time until dark – when the Endermen came out – to hunt for food. All three players went in separate directions, but they stayed fairly close to the sinkhole. Stan went to the far side of the hole, and he saw a herd of cows wandering around the oasis where they had got the water for the obsidian, eating the grass and drinking the water. He walked up to them and started downing them with his axe, one after another. He was chasing one cow with an axe, ready to kill it, when he noticed something. About twenty blocks in front of him was a straight line of train tracks stretching in both directions as far as the eye could see, with one end headed towards the jungle and the other headed out into the desert.

      Intrigued, Stan walked closer to examine the tracks, but he stopped when he heard a rumbling sound coming from the jungle-end of the railroad. He noticed something in the distance coming down the tracks. Fearing it to be the enemy, Stan dived into a shallow trench near the edge of the tracks that was deep enough to conceal him yet still allowed him to see.

      The train passed Stan at high speed. It consisted of seven mine carts, four of which contained chests and two of which contained what appeared to be furnaces. In the remaining mine cart, which was situated in front of the two furnace cars and behind the chest cars, sat a player with pale skin in an army uniform. The train thundered past and into the distance. Stan was incredibly curious as to where this player was going. Resolving to be back before Kat and Charlie noticed he was gone, he ran down the railroad tracks after the train.

      The train was much faster than he was, and before long it had disappeared from view, but Stan kept running, following the tracks. He was wondering how he was ever going to catch up to this player when he heard another rumbling behind him. A lone mine car with a furnace was chugging down the line, spewing black smoke as the two before it had. Stan supposed that this cart must have fallen off another train. He had noticed that on the previous train the carts hadn’t fastened to each other very well. Willing to accept the gift, Stan let the mine cart catch up to him and he jumped on, riding it at full speed towards the end of the line.

      The sun was showing it was about noon by the time Stan saw the buildings in the distance. They were simple wooden huts, and they were the lone structures in the middle of the endless miles of desert. Wondering why in God’s name anybody would want to build their house in such a barren land, Stan jumped off the cart just before it entered what appeared to be a train station.

      He snuck over behind two chests, and he noticed the train that he had seen before. The player that had been riding it stepped out, and he appeared to be talking with another player who was dressed like Abraham Lincoln and had a distressed and desperate look on his face. Eager to hear what was happening, Stan crawled underneath the station platform so that he was right below the two men and could hear every word they were saying.

      “… is no excuse for you not producing your quota,” said the player in the army uniform in an angry tone.

      “But, sir, please, as I’ve been trying to explain, our miners have run into problems,” responded another desperate voice. “We were mining out the areas that you had requested, and we hit a rather large lava spring. We are going to have to slow production until we can fix it. Otherwise the environment would not be safe …”

      “Do you think the King cares about your safety?” barked the soldier. “He needs all the resources he can get his hands on, especially in these troubled times. As I’m sure you’re aware, there is an assassin on the loose.”

      Stan gulped. He sincerely regretted coming this close to the soldier now.

      The soldier continued: “And the King needs all available resources to put the assassin out of commission! It is my responsibility to make sure that the town of Blackstone, as Elementia’s primary coal producer, generates more than its share, not less! If there isn’t enough coal, the King gets angry with me, and therefore, I get angry with you! This is your last warning, Mayor. If you fail to produce your quota one more time … well, you can imagine …”

      There was a clinking sound and the mayor cried out in terror. Stan jumped up to come to his aid, forgetting that he was under the wooden platform. He hit his head on the underside of the plank above him and he saw stars. When his vision came back into focus, he saw the soldier leaving on his train, and he realized in horror that the block of wood above him had been burned away. The clinking had been a steel ring against flint! And it was a wooden station …

      The mayor was doing all he could to punch out the flames, but they were spreading too fast. Throwing caution to the wind, Stan stood up through the hole and helped the mayor put out the flames with his fists. The mayor’s eyes widened in surprise, but he did not question Stan’s sudden appearance. He was simply grateful for the help he had miraculously received, and within a minute all the flames were extinguished.

      “Thank you, kind stranger,” said the mayor, bowing his head in respect. “Without your bravery, we might have lost one of the few respectable buildings we have left in this city.”

      “No problem,” said Stan. “I’m glad to be of help. So what is this place, exactly?”

      “This, my friend, is the humble town of Blackstone, population twenty-three, and Elementia’s chief producer of coal,” replied the mayor. “And may I ask where you come from, my good sir?”

      So he doesn’t recognize me, thought Stan. That’s good. Generally attention doesn’t work too well in my favour. “I’ve lived in a lot of places,” Stan said.

      “Well, if you are in need of a place to stay for a while, we would be happy to have you here,” said the mayor. “It is rare that anyone shows such kindness to the people of this town, and on the rare occasion that it happens, they deserve to be rewarded.”

      “That is very kind of you, sir,” said Stan, “but I have СКАЧАТЬ