Quest for Justice. Sean Wolfe Fay
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Название: Quest for Justice

Автор: Sean Wolfe Fay

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Детская проза

Серия:

isbn: 9780008152871

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ Wish me luck,” said Stan with a nervous catch in his voice, and he jumped over the wall and closed his eyes.

      Nothing happened. Stan opened his eyes. The Spiders were still minding their own business, as if Stan had never scaled the wall. As Stan tiptoed tentatively among the Spiders, none of them even acknowledged his existence. He did this as hastily as he could, not wanting to take any chances, and he didn’t stop until he came to a portion of the road not littered with Spiders.

      “It’s OK, Charlie, they’re not hostile. You can come over now.”

      Charlie was petrified, and his blocky hands were shaking as he collected the string from the dead Spiders within their fort (perhaps they would find a use for it later), scaled the wall and sprinted through the pack of Spiders to join his friend.

      “Well,” Charlie said with a sigh. “I’m glad that’s over.”

      Stan nodded. “Amen to that … hey, look!”

      He walked over to a pile of bones and arrows. He picked up one of the bones.

      “One of those Skeletons must have dropped this when it burned up in the sunlight.” He handed the bone to Charlie. “Do you think it could be useful?”

      “Check the book,” Charlie replied, now examining the arrows. “Look up bones and arrows in there.”

      Stan opened the book to the Items section and read aloud:

       BONES

       Bones are items dropped by Skeletons when killed. Bones have two main uses. One can craft a bone into bone meal or use the bone to tame a wild wolf into a dog. This may take multiple bones.

       ARROWS

       Arrows are items that can be either found when dropped by a dead Skeleton or crafted from flint, sticks and feathers. Arrows can be fired as projectiles out of either a bow or a Redstone Dispenser. They are also shot by Skeletons.

      Stan closed the book. “Looks like the bones will come in handy if we run into a wolf. And we’d better get a bow so we can use these arrows.”

      Charlie agreed, and the two broke their shelter down, saving the materials for later use. They began walking back down the path, en route for the Adorian Village, with plenty of daylight and the prospect of a day of smooth sailing ahead of them. They had just stopped to eat their last pieces of bread when something jumped out of the woods.

      It was a player holding a sword, made out of what looked like stone, pointing right at Stan’s heart.

       CHAPTER 3

       MINES AND CREEPERS

      This player had the same body as Stan and Charlie, but Stan could tell by the appearance of this player that she was a girl. She had blonde hair that extended beyond her blocky head to create a ponytail behind her. She was wearing a leather tunic, neon-pink shorts and blue shoes.

      Stan then thought, Why am I thinking this? She’s pointing a sword at my chest!

      “Give me all your materials,” said the girl in a monotone, “or your friend gets a blade through his chest.”

      Charlie, who had been paralyzed with fear up until now, quickly scrambled to get out all their materials. He laid them on the ground: his own damaged wooden sword, a piece of bread, a pile of dirt, a piece of rotten flesh, a bone, five arrows, some wood and a whole mess of Spider string. The girl looked at them with a distasteful eye.

      “I should have known. You two don’t have anything good, do you.” It was a statement, not a question.

      “I don’t know. I have … this!” And Stan, who had remained perfectly still up until this time, suddenly whipped out his wooden sword. Taking advantage of the girl’s diverted focus, he cut her across the chest, knocking her backwards. She fell to the ground and cringed; the cut had not actually hurt, but the leather armour on her chest had fallen off, revealing an orange T-shirt with a heart in the middle that was the same neon-pink as her shorts.

      Stan stood over her, his wooden sword now pointed at her, and Charlie quickly joined him, his quivering hand pointing his sword at her also. Stan, sounding much braver than he felt, said, “I wouldn’t try anything if I were you. There’s two of us and only one of you.”

      She pulled herself up and, to Stan’s surprise, looked almost bored as she said, “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna try. There’s no point. Killing you two, which I could easily do, would accomplish nothing. You’re just a couple of noobs. Let me know if you decide to attack me or let me go or whatever. I’ll just sit here.” And with that, she sat on a nearby tree stump, put her hands behind her head, crossed her legs, and closed her eyes as if she were lounging on a beach chair by the sea rather than being held at sword point. Stan felt himself flush.

      “How do you know that we’re new at this?” asked Charlie defiantly, his hand still shaking as he pointed his sword towards her heart.

      “Yeah, what if we’re, like, complete masters at this game who are just carrying around bad stuff to fool people like you?” spat Stan bitterly.

      She opened her eyes and looked at Stan.

      “Well, one, you’re on the road to the Adorian Village, which is for players under level five. And two, any smart player would carry around any weapons he had for self-defence, now that the King passed that new law.” She closed her eyes again.

      “What new law?” wondered Charlie.

      She opened her eyes again. “And three, only noobs don’t know about the law that bans you from this server after you die once, instead of just losing all your stuff and going back to the spawn point like you usually do in Minecraft.” She closed her eyes again.

      “Hang on a second,” said Stan. “If you aren’t new, then why are you carrying around a stone sword? If I had to guess, I’d say stone is pretty common around here.”

      She opened her eyes and a bitter look came over her face. “Oh, that. It’s, like, the stupidest thing ever. I was on this server called Johnstantinople once – run by a guy named John, go figure – and I was doing really well. I found an abandoned NPC village with an iron sword and a bunch of apples in the forge chest, and I was going around killing monsters, when this Griefer came up from behind me and killed me! I went back to the spawn point, I killed a bunch of Creepers, and I got sand and crafted a ton of TNT, and I traded a golden apple for some fire charges that this guy got from the Nether, and I griefed the house of the guy who killed me by blowing up his house! Unfortunately, turns out that that guy was John, who ran the server, and he banned me.

      “It is so unfair! So now I had to join this stupid server, and there’s no NPC villages anywhere, so I had to kill this sleeping guy, take this lame stone sword, and … you’re not following anything I’m saying, are you.”

      Again, it was a statement, not a question, and again it was true. The boys stood there with a look of bewilderment on their faces; they had not СКАЧАТЬ