Battle with the Wither King

  BATTLE with the WITHER KING

  By

  Mark Cheverton

  This book is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp., Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or Scholastic Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Minecraft name, trademark, or copyrights.

  Copyright © 2016 by Mark Cheverton

  Minecraft® is a registered trademark of Notch Development AB

  The Minecraft game is copyright © Mojang AB

  This book is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp., Mojang AB, Notch Development AB or Scholastic Inc., or any other person or entity owning or controlling rights in the Minecraft name, trademark or copyrights.

  All rights reserved.

  Books by Mark Cheverton

  The Gameknight999 Series

  Invasion of the Overworld

  Battle for the Nether

  Confronting the Dragon

  The Mystery of Herobrine Series: A Gameknight999 Adventure

  Trouble in Zombie-town

  The Jungle Temple Oracle

  Last Stand on the Ocean Shore

  Herobrine Reborn Series: A Gameknight999 Adventure

  Saving Crafter

  The Destruction of the Overworld

  Gameknight999 vs. Herobrine

  Herobrine’s Revenge Series: A Gameknight999 Adventure

  The Phantom Virus

  Overworld in Flames

  System Overload

  The Birth of Herobrine: A Gameknight999 Adventure

  The Great Zombie Invasion (September 2016

  Attack of the Shadow-Crafters (November 2016)

  Herobrine’s War (January 2017)

  The Mystery of Entity 303: A Gameknight999 Adventure

  Terrors in the Forest (March 2017

  Monsters in the Mist (May 2017)

  Mission to the Moon (July 2017)

  Box Sets

  The Gameknight999 Box Set

  The Gameknight999 vs. Herobrine Box Set (October 2016)

  Note from the author

  This is another of the short stories that I’ve been writing recently. I’ve found I like writing these short stories a lot, though they don’t seem to stay very short. I’m glad you found this story online. Check my website, www.gameknight999.com, for information about more stories coming soon.

  This story is actually part of some tutorials I developed for use in schools. Though I am no expert when it comes to writing, and I learn a little more every day, I decided to put what I’ve learned together in the form of videos for aspiring young writers to look at. I taught a few workshops at libraries and at conferences and used these materials to teach what I’ve learned, and they were very warmly received. You can find these materials and video tutorials on my other website, www.markcheverton.com under the For Teachers tab.

  On the website, there is the example story as well as the worksheets called Write your Own Minecraft Story. In these materials, I demonstrate how I outline a story and break it down into different components. Well, this story is the outcome of all that work outlining and defining character flaws and setting and plot and . . .

  I’ll be writing more books, of course, but also more short stories. It is my hope that some of you read this story, and enjoy my writing, and then look at some of my other books. Keep checking www.gameknight999.com and www.markcheverton.com for notices about new short stories.

  Teachers, please go to the For Teachers tab on www.markcheverton.com. I’m trying to put a lot of resources there for you. It is my sincere hope that we can work together to inspire many new young writers. Teachers, check the bottom of the Introduction tab for information about a video Q/A for your students as well as information about getting a set of bookmarks for your class. Any of your students can send the stories they write to www.markcheverton.com. I post every story I receive that is more than 1 sentence long, so please encourage your students to send them to me. Every email I receive is answered, personally, by me.

  Keep reading, keep writing and watch out for creepers.

  Mark Cheverton (Monkeypants_271)

  Being who you really are, inside, is much easier than trying to be something others want. If those around you don’t like you for who you are, then maybe you’re trying to impress the wrong people. Surround yourself with authentic friends and you will always be accepted.

  Chapter 1 – Isolation

  The community that surrounded him felt so far away, he thought he'd never be able to feel its embrace.

  Watcher looked down at the village from atop the watchtower. Warriors were celebrating their recent victory over a zombie-attack that had raged all throughout the night, and now the rest of the villagers, or NPCs (non-playable characters) were standing around the central well, congratulating the soldiers.

  At the center of the celebration was Carver, the biggest and strongest of the warriors, Watcher's own personal bully. Villagers patted the big NPC on the back or clanked their weapons against his iron armor in appreciation of his bravery. Some of the NPCs were singing, others dancing. Food was being distributed to the village defenders as cake was set out on wooden tables.

  His stomach grumbled.

  Watcher stared down at the party, a chilling sense of sadness and isolation filling his thin, lanky body. He wanted to be a soldier more than anything, and could think of nothing better than going out with the other warriors to protect the village, but he was small and weak. Recently, he'd tried to join the army. Carver had personally dressed him in full iron armor, then given him an iron sword. The stocky leader had chosen a blunted stone sword to test Watcher's fighting skills. It had been the most humiliating experience in his life. The iron armor was too heavy for his scrawny legs and he could barely lift the iron sword. All of the villagers saw it was too much for the young boy, but Carver continued anyway. He charged at Watcher, slapping him across the stomach with his sword, then spun around and hit him on the back. Watcher’s helmet, which was too big, slipped down over his eyes; he couldn’t even see where Carver was standing. He had stepped forward, swinging his sword only slicing through the air. After three or four swings, the blade dropped from his tired hands as he fell to the ground, exhausted.

  “You see,” boomed Carver. “I told you that being a soldier was the job for a real villager, not a puny little boy like you. You even dropped your sword. A real warrior never loses his weapon. You are an embarrassment.”

  The big NPC pushed Watcher onto his back so that the fatigued boy was staring straight up at the sun like a turtle turned upside-down. He struggled to stand but was just too tired.

  “Remember this, Watcher, next time you think about trying to be a defender of the village. This is for NPCs with strength and muscles that can wear armor and wield a sword.” He stepped forward so he was staring straight down upon Watcher. “Go take your puny little bow and get back up into your watchtower. All you do up there is daydream. You are useless as a watchman for the village, but at least you’ll be out of the way. I’m done with you.”

  Then Carver walked away and left Watcher on the ground, baking in the noonday sun. Once all the warriors had left, some of the other kids in the village helped the humiliated NPC out of the armor. He’d been up in the watchtower ever since, sulking.

  Now, the sun was beginning to rise in the east, a deep line of red splashed across the horizon announcing the coming of a new day. Watcher stared off to the east as the sky filled with reds and oranges and yellows, the curtain of sparkling stars slowly drawing back to allow the square face of the sun to reclaim the heavens. The tall spruce trees in the mega taiga biome extended their dark shadows across the brown and green ground, cutting across the many leafy ferns and clusters of mossy cobblestone
that dotted the landscape. Large boxy clouds overhead cast dark shadows upon the ground, creating perfectly rectangular regions of darkness amidst the incredible tall trees and the brown podzol soil. It would have been a beautiful scene, if Watcher didn’t feel so alone. Instead, it just felt more distant and untouchable.

  Suddenly, something moved through the forest, something dark. At first Watcher thought it might just be the shadows of a large cluster of cobblestone, but the dark shape moved from east to west, trying to stay within the shadows cast by the clouds, only darting through the sunlight to a new gloomy rectangle on the ground.

  Watcher pulled out his bow and notched an arrow. Waves of lavender light ran up and down the length of the weapon, his Infinity and Punch enchantments casting a sparkling purple hue across the top of the tower.

  He knew he couldn’t fire at the shadowy presence; it was much too far away. But if anyone could make a long shot with a bow, it was him. Watcher was probably the best archer in the village, though no one valued his ability. ‘Real soldiers used swords’ . . . that’s what everyone told him.

  Regardless of how far away that shadowy creature was, he felt better with the bow in his hand.

  He watched as the shadowy thing moved closer to the village. It seemed to float smoothly across the ground as if it was flying, and not using legs.

  What kind of creature could fly across the ground like that? he thought.

  It wasn’t a ghast or a dragon, he was sure of that. Watcher leaned forward, over the edge of the tower to get a better look. As it drew near, more details came into view. It was broad across the shoulders, much wider than a villager, but very narrow near the ground. And there seemed to be some kind of bumps above its shoulders . . . three of them.

  “That’s strange,” Watcher said to the empty tower.

  He leaned out a little more, peering into the morning light that bathed the landscape.

  “Hey, what are you doing up there Skinny?” boomed Carver’s voice. “You looking to jump?”

  Watcher glanced down at the NPC. He was pointing up at him with his sword, an annoyed sneer on his boxy face. The other warriors snickered and threw their own mocking comments up at him.

  “Don’t worry,” Carver added, “I don’t think you will hurt anyone if you land on them.”

  The soldiers roared with laughter as they pointed up at the tower.

  Watcher ignored them. Sadly, he was accustomed to this from Carver and the other soldiers. It used to get to him and spark his temper, but after years of this torment he’d learned to just ignore them; arguing with them never accomplished anything.

  Concentrating on the forest that surrounded the village, he scanned for the dark creature. The shadows of the tall spruces now merged into each other as the sun climbed higher into the sky. It was difficult to see into some of the shadowy patches as they were very . . .

  There it is!

  The creature was now getting closer to the defenses that surrounded the community. Moving from shadow to shadow, the dusky monster slinked ever closer to the gates that stood open in the fortified wall. It passed through a wide area of sunlight and stopped for just a second.

  Suddenly, Watcher recognized the creature; it was a wither. Three dark heads sat on its broad shoulders. A blackened spine ran down its back with ribs sticking out its side, a stubby bone protruding out the bottom.

  The monster floated upward just for a moment, then turned its central head toward Watcher. Light from the sun sparkled off something gold and shiny that sat on its evil head; it was the Crown of Skulls. Instantly, Watcher knew the identity of the intruder. It was the creature of legends, the monster of nightmares; it was Karkan, king of the withers.

  Am I really seeing this, or is this just another of my daydreams? Watcher thought. I have to say something to the others, but if I’m wrong, I’ll be ridiculed even more than usual.

  It didn’t matter. Karkan was clearly up to something nefarious and evil, and it was Watcher’s job to protect the village and warn them.

  “QUICK, CLOSE THE GATES!” Watcher shouted as he looked down at the celebration.

  The warriors looked up at him and laughed.

  “There’s a wither near the gates,” he continued before any of the soldiers could shout their insults. “Karkan, the king of the withers is out there and he’s up to something! Close the gates before he gets in.”

  “Is this another of your imaginary attacks?” Carver called up at him.

  The last time, Watcher had called for the gates to be closed because of an impending attack, but he’d imagined the whole thing. Instead of it being an army of spiders, it had been a small group of pigs; that hadn’t helped his reputation very much.

  “No, it’s real!” Watcher shouted. “Karkan is out there, just past the tallest spruce. If you move quickly, you’ll see him.”

  Some of the villagers looked at the reluctant Carver with concerned expressions on their faces. They all knew that withers could be lethal; their flaming skull attacks difficult to survive. Some of the NPCs grabbed their children and rushed them to their homes causing an avalanche of fear to crash down upon the community.

  With a sigh, Carver glared up at Watcher, then gathered his soldiers and headed for the gates. They sprinted out of the village then spread out in a defensive formation with shields in their left hands, swords in their right. They advanced through the forest, ready for the dark creature to show its three heads.

  Watcher pointed to where he’d seen the monster, but it was gone, only shadows of ferns and trees remained. He sighed, knowing what was coming.

  The warriors reached the base of the tall spruce and looked around, then started to laugh.

  “Watcher, where’s your monster?” one of the warriors shouted.

  “Is this your mysterious creature?” another shouted, banging on a cluster of mossy cobblestone with his shield.

  The villagers laughed as the headed back into the village, mocking comments being fired up at Watcher like poisonous arrows. Carver, though, said nothing. He just glared at the lanky NPC, an expression of furious rage in his dark brown eyes. After passing in through the village gates, the stocky NPC pointed up at Watcher with his sword and shook his head, then turned and made for his home, the other warriors doing the same.

  “I saw him, I know I did,” Watcher said in a low voice. “I couldn’t have imagined Karkan out there in the forest . . . it looked too real.”

  With a sigh, he put away his bow and climbed down out of the tower. But as he descended the ladder, Watcher failed to notice the flash of something shiny at the top of the tallest spruce tree. Sunlight reflected off a ring of gold with a dark inset skulls, the crown sitting slightly askew on an ashen skeletal head. Karkan’s eyes, black as pitch and filled with a thirst for violence, glared down at the village, a hateful sneer on the monster’s three faces.

  Chapter 2 – Greed

  Karkan floated out of the branches of the tall spruce, a maniacal laugh coming from the left skull, his right and center still sneering down at the village.

  “Those foolish villagers don’t know what lies beneath them,” the middle skull of the wither king said.

  He closed all six eyes and inhaled. The scent of gold wafted into his senses, the aroma filling them with a feeling of power and strength. To the wither king, gold was everything. He craved the precious metal, thirsted for it as if it were the last cool drink of water on a parched desert. Karkan could sense when gold was near, and when he detected its presence, he had to have it. Nothing could sate his hunger for the shining gold.

  “I must have it,” Left head, always the impatient one, said.

  “We must plan carefully and be patient,” calm and thoughtful Right skull said. “Perhaps we can scare them away.”

  “That will take too long,” said Left. “We need that gold . . . now!”

  “We will try to scare them away as Right suggests,” Middle commanded; this was the skull that was in charge. “But if they do not scare easily
, then they will be destroyed.”

  Middle was the more vicious of the three skulls, which was why he was in command, and wore the Crown of Skulls. The golden circlet was a relic passed down through the wither society, going from wither king to wither king throughout Minecraft’s history. No one really knew who had made it, or when; it had always been with them and was the sign of leadership and power within their society. Few villagers had ever seen it and lived.

  Shaking his head to adjust the angle of the crown, Middle commanded the rest to descend from the tree. All three skulls could command the body, but if they gave opposing directions, then movement was difficult and, at times, impossible. To move quickly and efficiently, all three skulls had to agree.

  “Let us go back to the wither temple and bring more of our brothers and sisters,” Right suggested. “We will scare them into leaving their village, then we can destroy it and take the gold that hides underground.”

  “No, we cannot wait,” Left objected. “We should attack . . . now!”

  “That would be foolish and you know it!” Middle snapped. “We will do as Right said and collect our troops. If these villages will not be scared away, then they will be destroyed.”

  “Destroyed . . . I like the sound of that,” Left said with an evil child-like cackle.

  Middle looked at Right; they both rolled their harsh white eyes.

  “What of the NPC warriors?” Right asked.

  “You mean the armored fools that came out of the village with their swords?” Middle replied.