Mystery on Mushroom Island

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  Copyright © 2018 by Hollan Publishing, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Morgan, Winter, author.

  Title: Mystery on Mushroom Island / Winter Morgan.

  Description: New York : Skyhorse Publishing, [2018]

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018006608 (print) | LCCN 2018016292 (ebook) | ISBN 9781510731981 (eb) | ISBN 9781510731929 (pb)

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.M6698 (ebook) | LCC PZ7.1.M6698 My 2018 (print) | DDC [Fic]--dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018006608

  Cover design by Brian Peterson

  Cover photo by Megan Miller

  Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-3192-9

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-3198-1

  Printed in Canada

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1: All Aboard

  Chapter 2: Strange Night

  Chapter 3: Seabound

  Chapter 4: Mooshroom Stew Festival

  Chapter 5: Questions and Curses

  Chapter 6: Dragon’s Breath

  Chapter 7: Creepers in the Cave

  Chapter 8: Night Fight

  Chapter 9: Wither or Not, Here I Come

  Chapter 10: Doppelgangers

  Chapter 11: No Umbrellas Here

  Chapter 12: Reunited

  Chapter 13: Nether Said That

  Chapter 14: Home Again

  Chapter 15: On the Shore

  Chapter 16: Discoveries

  Chapter 17: Mooshrooms

  Chapter 18: Mooshroom Stew

  1

  ALL ABOARD

  “She’s here,” Billy called out when he spotted Amira strolling down the sandy path outside Edison’s house.

  Billy had been waiting for Amira to return to Farmer’s Bay all day and couldn’t stop staring out the window to look for her. Amira hadn’t been in Farmer’s Bay in a while. She was living aboard a boat traveling around the Overworld. She had returned to Farmer’s Bay only to pick up her friends for her big birthday celebration on Mushroom Island.

  “She is? That’s great!” Edison was in the middle of adding ingredients to potions at his brewing stand when Amira walked in the door. He rushed from the stand and raced to see his friend.

  Amira asked, “Are you guys ready to go? The boat is docked, and I want to set sail before it gets dark. Erin and Peyton are already on the ship.”

  “Almost,” Edison said as he pointed to a chest on the ground. “I just have to replenish my inventory. I also have to pack your present. That means you’re going to have to leave so I can do that.”

  Amira giggled. “I guess I can do that,” she said and walked outside with Billy. As they stood in front of the house, Puddles meowed at them, and Amira reached into her inventory for some fish.

  “I think this ocelot knows I live at sea,” Amira joked. “Puddles always seems to seek me out and beg for food.”

  Edison walked out of the house. “I’m ready for the birthday trip,” he said with a smile.

  “Great,” Amira exclaimed. “Let’s go. We also have to meet Omar and Anna on the ship. They are also joining us.”

  Edison was excited to go on a vacation with his friends. He felt as if the only time they left Farmer’s Bay was when they had to solve a case or for a competition, and he was thrilled to have some time to just relax. He hadn’t spent a lot of time on Mushroom Island, and he was eager to explore the scenic landscape and to gorge himself on mooshroom stew. He had only eaten it a few times, and each time he savored each bite. Mooshroom stew was hard to find in Farmer’s Bay. You could only get it if someone you knew had visited Mushroom Island.

  As they approached the shore, Edison noticed Anna’s new ship. It was a small wooden ship with a sail. For a while she had been traveling on a massive boat, but this one was much smaller. “When did you get the new boat?”

  “I built it when I was staying on Mushroom Island. Do you like it?” she asked.

  “Yes, you did a great job,” Edison said as he climbed aboard and looked around the immaculate ship. It was the ideal size to travel to Mushroom Island with his friends.

  Amira wanted to set sail, but Anna and Omar had yet to arrive. She pointed at the setting sun. “This isn’t good.” She explained, “If they don’t show up soon, we’ll have to stay here for the night.”

  “You can stay at my house,” Edison suggested. “I have more than enough room.”

  “Thanks,” Amira replied, “but I really wanted to set sail tonight. There are people on Mushroom Island that are getting everything ready for the big party, and I wanted to be there to help them.”

  Edison had another idea. “Should we TP to Anna’s house? Maybe they’re still in Verdant Valley.”

  “That sounds good,” said Amira. “What do you think, Billy?”

  They agreed that TPing to Verdant Valley seemed like the wisest decision, and they TPed to Anna’s house. When they arrived, she was pacing the length of her small home. She was shocked to see her friends spawn in front of her. “What are you doing here?“ Anna asked them.

  “Did you forget about the party? I have the boat docked in Farmer’s Bay. We’re supposed to celebrate my birthday,” Amira reminded Anna.

  Anna’s voice shook as she spoke, and her eyes filled with tears. “I didn’t, but something awful has happened.”

  “What’s wrong?” asked Edison.

  “I can’t find Omar. It’s been over two days,” she explained. “Omar had been staying at the castle for the past month while he worked on adding an addition. I usually meet him at the end of the day, and we have dinner together. Two days ago, I went to see him, and he wasn’t there. I figured he had something else to do and had forgotten to tell me, but it’s been two days, and I haven’t seen him anywhere. I’m really worried about him.”

  Edison replied that he would help, but before they had a chance to concoct a plan to find Omar, there was a banging on Anna’s door.

  “Omar?” Anna rushed to the door, but as she reached for the handle, the door ripped from its hinges, and a horrid odor filled the room.

  “Zombies! Stand back!” Peyton hollered.

  Edison and the others quickly suited up in their diamond armor, grabbed their swords, and l
eaped toward the three beasts that stood in Anna’s doorway.

  Anna pulled her sword from her inventory and struck a zombie that grabbed her arm. She fumbled with her sword and watched her weapon drop to the ground. Anna tried to pick it up, but she felt an incredible pain in her leg. An arrow had been shot through the open doorway and had struck her calf.

  She tried to ignore the pain and pick up the dropped sword, but the zombie lunged at her again, and she lost her last heart. Anna respawned in her bed in the midst of a zombie and skeleton battle in her living room. She pulled milk from her inventory to regain her strength while she lunged toward her sword, but it was missing. She had forgotten that when you drop something and are destroyed, you lose your item.

  Anna plucked a wooden sword from her inventory and joined her friends in battle. She wanted the battle to end soon so they could have a meeting to find out what had happened to Omar. Sweat formed on her brow as she slammed her sword against a zombie.

  Edison pulled potions from his inventory and splashed them on the undead, vacant-eyed creatures of the night filling the room while Billy, Amira, Peyton, and Erin sped toward the crop of skeletons that approached Anna’s house. Anna fought alongside Edison using her wooden sword to weaken the zombies that Edison had doused with poison.

  Edison splashed a zombie, and Anna delivered the final blow. Then they heard a familiar voice call out, “Help!”

  2

  STRANGE NIGHT

  The residents of Verdant Valley heard Omar’s cries through the sounds of battle. They crowded in the darkness on the grassy terrain as they defended themselves against the legions of zombies, skeletons, and creepers that now filled their town.

  Anna could hear Omar’s cries, but she couldn’t see him. “Omar, where are you?” she called out to her friend.

  “Help!” Omar hollered.

  “We have to find him,” Edison told Anna, but three zombies circled them, and they had to battle the smelly, undead mobs before they could search for their missing friend.

  Anna slammed her wooden sword into the zombie. She knew she had to work twice as hard because she didn’t have her diamond sword. The wooden sword lacked power, but she took a deep breath and used all of her force to plow the sword into the zombie’s oozing stomach. One zombie was annihilated, but they had two more to destroy. Anna worried more would spawn and she wouldn’t be able to find Omar in time. He needed help.

  Edison swung his diamond sword into the second zombie and grabbed a bottle of potion to splash on the next beast. Anna was surprised when she destroyed the final zombie. The battle was easier than she imagined, and she bolted toward the sound of Omar’s voice. However, the deeper they traveled into the dark night, the farther they seemed to be from Omar’s voice. His voice grew fainter.

  “We must have gone in the wrong direction,” remarked Edison.

  “How can that be?” questioned Anna. She was perplexed. They had run toward the sound of his voice.

  “He must be running from someone,” said Edison.

  “But who?” asked Anna.

  “We’ll find out,” Edison replied as five skeletons sprinted toward them and a barrage of arrows overwhelmed the duo. The skeletons instantly obliterated both of them. Anna respawned in her bed, but Edison was back in Farmer’s Bay.

  He looked up to see Puddles meowing, and he was shocked to see Omar in his living room. Omar stood by Edison’s brewing stand and was taking potions and placing them in his inventory.

  “What are you doing here?” questioned Edison. “Anna and I were trying to help you.”

  Omar was surprised. “Do you mind that I am taking some potions? I was going to leave a note and some emeralds.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Edison. “We’re friends; you don’t have to pay me. I just want to know who was attacking you. Anna and I heard you crying for help.”

  “Where?” Omar was shocked. “That wasn’t me. I wasn’t crying for help.”

  “In Verdant Valley,” answered Edison.

  “I wasn’t in Verdant Valley. I had a quick job to construct an igloo in the cold biome, and I left town. I knew I had to be back for Amira’s trip, and when I came back here, I found myself in the middle of a serious night invasion of hostile mobs. I had limited resources, so I came here to look for you. When you weren’t here, I started to look for potions I could use to battle the hostile mobs.”

  Zombies ripped the hinges off Edison’s door, and Puddles meowed. Edison sprinted toward the zombies armed with potion in one hand and his sword in the other. He splashed the first zombie that lumbered into the small living room and then pierced it with his diamond sword. Omar doused the zombie with potion until it was weakened and destroyed. Edison picked up the rotten flesh the zombie dropped to the ground.

  Omar used the remainder of his potions to splash the two zombies walking into the dark living room. As he sprayed the zombies, the sun rose, and the zombies faded.

  “That was a crazy night,” Edison said as he let out a breath. He was exhausted. He added, “Anna will be happy to see you. She was worried about you. She said you were missing.”

  “Missing?” Omar looked confused. “Why did she think that?”

  “She had been looking for you in town and didn’t know where you were. She said you’d been hanging out after you finished your work on the castle and one day she went to look for you and you were gone.”

  “I went to her house to tell her I was leaving for the cold biome, but she wasn’t there, so I left a note. The note said she should meet me on Amira’s boat. She must have not seen it,” explained Omar.

  “Let’s TP to Anna’s house. They are all there. We should get ready and head to the boat. I know that Amira has a lot of different activities planned for the party on Mushroom Island.”

  “Yes,” Omar said, “I want her to see I’m okay. I feel bad that she was worried about me.”

  “Before we go, we should fill up our inventories with some potions,” said Edison as he grabbed a bunch of potions from the case where he had stored the potions for his brewing stand. He wasn’t going to work at the brewing stand this week because he was going on vacation. Since he wasn’t planning on working at the stand, he hadn’t brewed that much, and the case was almost empty. “I didn’t realize I was so low on potions. Maybe I should brew a few before we leave?”

  “Do we have time?” asked Omar. “We should really TP to Annie’s house. I don’t want her to worry about me.”

  “Annie?” questioned Edison.

  “I’m sorry, I meant …” Omar paused, and he never had a chance to correct himself because his name was being called.

  “Omar!” Anna exclaimed. “You’re here!”

  “Did you save him?” asked Peyton.

  Billy, Erin, Peyton, Amira, and Anna stood in the living room. They were excited to be reunited, and they all spoke at once. This irritated Omar, and he screamed, “Be quiet, everyone! You’re so loud.”

  “Are you okay?” asked Anna.

  Edison thought this was unusual behavior. Omar was always very laid back and never shouted at anyone.

  Omar apologized. “I’m sorry, I’m very tired. I haven’t slept for two days. I was very busy trying to finish an igloo that I was asked to construct. I was trying to finish it before we had to leave for Mushroom Island.”

  “Don’t worry,” Amira said. “Soon we’ll be on Mushroom Island, and we can all relax.”

  The gang walked to the boat. Edison couldn’t stop thinking about Omar’s unusual behavior. He had never shouted before, and he had worked tirelessly on other projects. They had been involved in very intense situations, and Omar had always been the calm one. He also had forgotten Anna’s name. He called her Annie. Edison thought this was very strange since they were very close. They had been living as neighbors in Verdant Valley the whole time Omar worked on the castle, and Edison couldn’t imagine Omar forgetting a friend’s name.

  Edison decided to keep a close eye on Omar. As they walked down
the sandy path toward the shore, he walked alongside Omar, trying to see if there was anything strange about his behavior.

  “We have to hurry,” Amira informed them as they reached the shore. “The trip is a lot longer than you think, and I want to get there in time for the mooshroom stew festival.”

  “The mooshroom stew festival?” Billy questioned. “That sounds like fun. What’s that?”

  “It’s an annual festival where people from all around the Overworld celebrate the tasty mooshroom stew. I specifically timed my party to occur during this festival. It’s so much fun.”

  They hopped aboard the boat, and as they set sail toward Mushroom Island, Edison stared at Omar chatting with Anna. He wondered if Anna noticed anything strange about her good friend. He made a note to ask Anna.

  Erin and Amira walked over to Anna and Omar and started talking about mooshroom stew. Amira asked, “Have you guys ever had it?”

  Anna told them about a large portion of mooshroom stew she had once stored in her inventory. She remembered how sad she was when she finished it off. “It’s one of my favorites,” she declared.

  “Mine too,” said Amira. “This festival is going to be so much fun. I hope this boat can travel a bit faster. It’s hard to guess when we’ll get there because so much depends on the wind. Remember when we were sailing across the Overworld returning all of that stolen treasure and we got stuck in the middle of the ocean because the boat broke down?” she said to Omar. They had once traveled around the Overworld together for many months.

  Omar smiled but didn’t say anything. This bothered Amira. “Do you not remember?”

  “I do,” he said. “Of course I do.”

  Edison was listening to their conversation as he looked out at the deep blue ocean that seemed endless. He tried to relax, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Omar.

  Billy walked over to him. “Are you excited for this vacation?”

  Edison smiled and replied, “Yes.” He reminded himself that this was a vacation and he should stop playing detective. He had to stop questioning if something seemed suspicious with his old friend Omar. Instead, he should enjoy the view, soak in the sun, and feel the ocean breeze in his hair. He was starting to relax when he heard Anna correct Omar. “Her name is Erin, not Arlene.”