The Secret Treasure Read online

  “Because I said so.” The blue and red griefer was annoyed.

  The pink and purple griefer reluctantly moved across the living room. “You make me do everything.”

  As the pink and purple griefer walked into the bedroom, Hannah and Ben leapt at him with their swords. The griefer cried out and tried to fight back, but their powerful enchanted swords destroyed him.

  At the same time, Violet and Noah lunged at the griefer that stood in their living room. They defeated him quickly, but not quickly enough. Noah was struck by the griefer’s sword before he was destroyed.

  “Are you okay?” Violet asked her friend.

  “I’m very weak,” Noah replied faintly.

  Hannah and Ben walked into the living room. Hannah handed Noah some milk and he drank it slowly and began to feel better.

  “Well, that worked well.” Hannah was proud of another small victory.

  “This is just the first of many griefer battles. We can’t stay here. Daniel is going to keep sending griefers to find us. And we can’t help anyone from here.” Violet paced around the living room.

  “That’s right, we have to head back to the village. It’s the only way we can actually help change things,” Ben agreed with Violet.

  “When I was trapped in the bedrock room making potions, I was actually being held in Daniel’s palace, and I have an idea how we can get to Daniel and defeat him,” said Hannah, slowly.

  “That’s great!” exclaimed Noah.

  Violet said, “I built that palace. It wasn’t always Daniel’s. He stole it from a friend of mine.”

  “Then you probably know the inside of the palace better than I do. I spent most of my time trapped in the bedrock room.”

  “There weren’t bedrock rooms when I built it. I bet Daniel added all sorts of sinister additions to that house,” said Violet, “but I do have a good idea of the overall layout.”

  “We have to head to Daniel’s palace,” announced Ben.

  Noah hoped his friends couldn’t hear his heart beating as they sprinted back toward the village and straight for Daniel’s palace.

  7

  STORMING THE PALACE

  The group hurried into the village with Hope trailing behind them. Violet looked up into the trees and couldn’t spot her tree house. It was gone.

  “Noah,” she cried, “they destroyed my tree house too.”

  “Oh no.” Noah looked miserable.

  “We have to hide,” Hannah warned, as an army of rainbow griefers came marching through the village.

  The group hid behind a tree. The rainbow griefers marched in a line, chanting a steady, deafening song. “We are powerful and strong. Nobody stands in our way,” their voices boomed. Townspeople ran in terror. Violet watched as a rainbow griefer ripped an apple from a person’s hands. She wanted to rush to the person and help them, but she knew it was best to hide. They needed to figure out their plan of action and stage an attack that would destroy these monsters and rid them from the town for good.

  When the last rainbow griefer was no longer in sight, Noah said, “We need to get to the palace.”

  The grand palace stood just across from their hiding place. The entrance had two large columns and marble steps leading to the door.

  “Are we going to enter through the front door?” asked Ben.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” replied Violet. “Hannah, where were those secret tunnels?”

  Hannah looked at the palace. She tried to remember how she escaped from the bedrock room. “I think the tunnel exit is right behind that tree with the flag.”

  Right outside the palace, there was a large oak tree where Daniel had placed a flag that read: RAINBOW PALACE. KEEP OUT.

  Violet squinted her eyes at the ground behind the tree. “You’re right—I think I see a hole. But it’s still too far away, so I am not one hundred percent sure. We have to go investigate.”

  Hope began to bark.

  “Oh no, this dog is going to give us away. What should we do?” Hannah was nervous.

  Ben told the dog to stay, and Hope began to whimper. Ben had tears in his eyes when he said, “Hope, you’re going to have to stay here. It’s too dangerous for you in that palace. Stay here and protect my town.”

  Hope’s tail wagged as he sat.

  “We need to go to the palace now,” instructed Ben.

  “How are we going to do that?” Noah asked.

  “Here.” Hannah splashed a potion of invisibility on the group. “This is the last bottle I have, so we have to hurry.”

  The gang sprinted toward the hole behind the tree. Since they were invisible, nobody was able to see Ben look back at Hope. He wasn’t sure he’d see his dog again, but he hoped he would. As he raced toward the palace, he heard Violet shout.

  “It’s here!” Violet crawled into the hole and the others followed.

  The group found themselves in a dark tunnel. A creeper was floating in the distance. Violet was about to take out a bow and arrow to destroy it, but realized the explosion might alert the rainbow griefers to their presence. “Guys,” Violet said in a soft whisper, “just hide from the creeper. We don’t want it exploding.”

  The group walked in the opposite direction from the green, fiery, hostile creature. The bedrock hallway had a series of doors along the wall.

  “Should we open one?” asked Noah.

  “I bet they are jail cells, like the one I was kept in,” Hannah said as she passed the closed doors.

  Violet could make out a faint cry.

  “Help!” a voice called out from behind one of the closed doors.

  “Do you hear that?” Violet asked the others.

  “I’m trapped. Help me!” the voice cried a bit louder.

  “Yes, it’s coming from behind the door.” As Noah spoke, he could see his arm.

  “Oh no,” Hannah’s voice shook. “The potion is wearing off. And I don’t have any more left. Now the rainbow griefers will be able to find us.”

  “Calm down.” Violet grabbed her armor out of her inventory and suited up. “We have to protect ourselves. Get your weapons out.”

  “I can hear someone coming.” Violet looked down the hall.

  Kaboom!

  A rainbow griefer exploded with the creeper.

  “We have to run,” Ben told them.

  “No, we have to help the person who is trapped behind this door. I know how it feels. I was once trapped in this palace and it’s awful.” Hannah opened the door.

  A woman wearing a green helmet was hiding in the corner. “Who are you?” she called out. “Are you going to harm me?”

  “No, come with us! Quickly, we have to go!” Violet called back.

  “How do I know you aren’t bad?” asked the woman.

  “You’re just going to have to trust us,” Ben shouted, as the gang sprinted down the hall and away from the rainbow griefers that had gotten too close.

  The woman with the green helmet followed the gang toward a large room at the end of the hall.

  “It looks like we’re trapped.” Noah banged his pickaxe against the bedrock wall, but it didn’t even make a dent.

  “There has to be a way out of here.” Violet looked down the hall. “I think if we go back, I saw another tunnel we could take.”

  Noah looked up and saw light. “Look!” he called out happily. “We can crawl through that hole.”

  “But we were just outside. We need to come up with a plan.” Violet wanted to overthrow Daniel.

  The woman wearing the green helmet looked at Violet. “Crawl through the hole. I have a plan.”

  “How do we know you’re not going to harm us?” Noah asked her.

  “You’re just going to have to trust me,” the woman with the helmet said, as three rainbow griefers came down the hall toward the group.

  Noah, Violet, Ben, and Hannah followed the woman through the hole and into the sunny day.

  The woman cried out as soon as she reached the surface, but it was too late.

>   Violet could see an army of rainbow griefers surrounding them.

  One of the griefers smiled cruelly as he looked over Violet and her friends. “Daniel is waiting for you guys.”

  Another rainbow griefer looked at the woman in the green helmet, “Kyle, you can’t escape. Daniel needs you to craft swords. We need to bring you back to your room.”

  The group was trapped. They followed the griefers back into the palace. This time they would be going through the front door.

  8

  STAYING ALIVE

  Night began to set in before the group entered the palace, and a group of zombies made their way toward the palace door.

  “Zombies,” the head rainbow griefer called out to the pack. “We have to battle them, but don’t let the prisoners escape.”

  “Don’t worry, we have this covered. I don’t even need to use a diamond sword,” one of the warrior griefers boasted as he approached the hostile creatures of the night.

  Violet was glad she didn’t have to battle this hostile mob. Instead she watched the rainbow griefers lunge at the mass of zombies lumbering toward them.

  The zombies were stronger than the rainbow griefers predicted. Two rainbow griefers were defeated.

  “Wow, they aren’t great fighters,” said Kyle with scorn. “They forced me to craft swords all day, but they don’t even know how to use them.”

  Another rainbow griefer was hurt. The head griefer looked over to the griefers that held Violet and her friends as prisoners.

  “This is our chance.” Noah and Violet’s eyes met. “They need these guys to fight the zombies.”

  Violet leapt at the rainbow griefer in front of her, striking him with her diamond sword.

  The griefers were shocked. Noah, Ben, Hannah, Kyle, and Violet used the opportunity to escape. They sprinted as fast as they could out of the town.

  “Don’t stop!” Violet called out when Hannah started to falter.

  “We need to head back to the igloo,” Noah decided.

  “No, we need to go somewhere far away, where they won’t find us. There we can work on a new plan.” Violet took a deep breath as they continued running through the night.

  “Stop!” Kyle yelled. “I’ve been hit by an arrow!”

  “Skeletons!” Violet screamed, looking around for the bony creatures. But she couldn’t see them anywhere.

  “No!” Noah cried. “It’s griefers!”

  Two rainbow griefers were hiding behind a tree. Noah shot an arrow at one of them, but it bounced off his armor.

  “Leave us alone,” begged Violet. “We’re far past the town limits. What do you want from us?”

  “You think we only control just this town?” The rainbow griefer laughed. “Soon Daniel will control the entire Overworld.”

  The other rainbow griefer smirked. “You townspeople are so small-minded. You think this is the only town we have taken over? Yes, Daniel is in your town, but he has taken over dozens of villages all over the Overworld. He is the most powerful in all this world.”

  “We know he’s powerful,” said Violet, “but can you let us go? We never tried to harm you.”

  “Liar!” shouted the rainbow griefer. “Do you think we don’t know who you are? Violet the famous builder!”

  Kyle looked over at Violet. “Wow, I remember touring your tree house.”

  “Stop talking, Kyle!” ordered the rainbow griefer. “Daniel is very upset that you escaped. He needs you back in the palace to craft swords.”

  “Please let us go,” Violet begged the griefers.

  “And you, the builder! You are a thief! You stole the enchanted book. Daniel wants that book back. Hand it over now,” he demanded, pointing a sword at Violet.

  “Daniel will never know you found us,” continued Violet. “Is there anything we can give you in exchange for our freedom?”

  “I love watching you beg,” the blue-faced rainbow griefer laughed loudly.

  Noah didn’t warn the griefer, but a creeper was silently lurking behind him.

  Kaboom! The griefer exploded. The remaining griefer was taken by surprise. Noah leapt at him with his diamond sword, striking him until he was destroyed.

  “We need to get out of here. This forest is probably crawling with griefers by now,” Noah called out as he sprinted through the green forest and toward the desert that lay in the distance.

  It was still quite dark, and the group had to be very careful as they headed toward the sandy terrain.

  “Be sure to look out for hostile mobs and griefers,” Noah told them.

  The sun began to rise.

  “I guess that’s one less thing that we have to worry about now,” Violet said, as the sun shone brightly in the sky.

  “Look what the daylight revealed.” Ben stood at the entrance of a desert temple.

  “We have to go in.” Kyle was excited. “I’ve never been in a desert temple before. I bet there’s treasure inside.”

  “I’m sure there is,” said Violet. “That could be very helpful. We need to stockpile resources. This isn’t going to be an easy war to win.”

  “Instead of wasting time treasure hunting in a temple, we need to come up with a plan to take over Daniel’s palace,” argued Hannah.

  “You’re right, we also need a plan,” Violet agreed, “but we can’t pass up this opportunity to restock our supplies first.” She walked through the door to the desert temple.

  “We need to stay alive,” Noah said. He joined Violet in the temple, and the others followed.

  “They usually keep the treasure on the ground floor,” Violet explained as she led the group to a room that contained a block of blue clay.

  “Isn’t this room booby-trapped?” Kyle asked. “I heard that there’s TNT here and that it’ll explode if you take out the treasure.”

  “I think you’re right, but I know a lot about booby traps. We just have to avoid the pressure plate,” Violet told them, and then she unearthed the treasure chest.

  “Open it!” Kyle was excited to see what was inside.

  Violet opened the chest. “Diamonds!”

  “I can craft swords out of them!” Kyle told the group.

  “And we can use the enchanted book to enchant them,” added Violet.

  The group gathered up the diamonds and placed them in their inventories.

  “I think I hear something,” said Noah. His heart began to pound again.

  9

  THE VIEW

  The group saw a flash of rainbow pass by them and began to run. They held onto the diamonds as they raced out of the desert temple and onto the sandy biome ground.

  “I see a forest up ahead. Let’s hide there,” cried Violet.

  “I have a great idea,” Noah said as they entered the tree-filled forest. “Let’s build a tree house and use it as a fort.”

  “That’s brilliant, Noah.” Violet smiled. “The rainbow griefers are so obsessed with moving ahead, they never look up. They’ll never think to look for us in the trees.”

  “And we’ll have an advantage from high above. We’ll be able to see them coming. They can’t hide, they’re so bright,” said Kyle.

  The group gathered wood and helped Violet craft a tree house high atop the trees in the jungle.

  As they built, they began to reminisce about the days before the griefers. “I don’t understand why Daniel wants to take over the world with evil. It was so nice before the griefers invaded,” said Kyle.

  “What did you do before the invasion?” asked Noah.

  “I was a farmer, but I was known for crafting extremely powerful swords. My husband and I made swords for people all around the Overworld. When Daniel found out, he separated us and forced us to make swords in a small bedrock room. He gave me hardly any food.”

  Hannah jumped in. “He did the same thing to me. Except I was making potions.”

  “I wonder how many other people he has trapped in his palace,” said Violet.

  “I want to find my husband, Will. He must be in one
of those rooms.” Kyle’s eye’s filled with tears.

  “We’ll find him,” Violet reassured Kyle as she placed the final wooden board on the tree house.

  “Thanks,” said Kyle, quietly, and then she went inside the tree house.

  “You did an amazing job.” Noah looked out at the tree house’s view. “I can see the palace from here.”

  The others joined him and looked toward the palace.

  Ben said, “We have such a great view—we’ll be able to study the griefers from here. We can see if they are on a schedule. Maybe there’s a break when one set of griefers stops guarding and the other group begins that we can use to our advantage.”

  “Good call. This is the perfect spot to stage our attack.” Noah watched Daniel’s headquarters. He wished he could just fly right into the palace and take Daniel away forever. He didn’t want this evil dictator destroying his town. He looked over the village, gazing on the familiar iron golem and the streets lined with shops. He scanned the waterfront with its sandy beach. Despite being taken over by an evil man and his army of rainbow griefers, the town was still beautiful. As he stood and stared, Noah vowed to destroy Daniel.

  “Look below,” Violet said in a quiet whisper.

  The gang looked down to see rainbow griefers sprinting through the forest. The griefers stopped.

  “We lost them,” an orange griefer called out.

  “Where can they be?” growled a green sparkly griefer.

  “They must have run very fast,” said the orange man.

  The sparkly griefer walked over to the water. “They have that potion expert with them. Perhaps they used the potion for underwater breathing and are escaping by sea.”

  “Should we look for them?” asked the orange griefer.

  “I don’t have any potions left,” the sparkly griefer grimaced, “and now that the potion expert is gone, we have no way of getting more. Daniel is outraged. He wants that potion expert back.”

  “Let’s keep moving. If they’re not in the water, they couldn’t have gotten very far. And it’s almost dark. We’ll need to build a shelter soon,” said the orange griefer. And so the colorful men moved on through the green leaves and the sun began to set.

  Noah whispered, “Did you hear what they said? They don’t have any more potions. We have to use that to our advantage.”