Probably mitsakes.

K bye.  

•    •    •

~ Sky ~

"Wenechenca City?" I asked. "Why do these cities have such weird names?"

Amber shrugged. "Not sure. But it's the biggest city in the world. Basically the capital city. First town ever made in Minecraft. Why would our dude go there?"

"He could have a boss there." Rae said.

We both looked at her.

"What?" Her face flushed. "Look, there's a lot of important people there. And if that man visited you in your town just to do... something, then go all the way to Wenechenca, he's there to report to his boss-"

"Or go home." Amber said.

"She's got a point," I agreed with Amber, "there could be multiple reasons."

"Okay, okay, fine." Rae looked slightly bothered, but I didn't understand why.

"Either way, we aren't going to find out if we're here." Amber got up and shut the laptop. She walked out of the cafe.

Rae frowned. "That's my laptop."

"We'll get it back." I sighed.

•    •    •

I found Amber in the apartment. She was packing up her stuff.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Where's Rae?" She ignored my question, not looking at me.

"I told her to go home." I had no idea how she knew Rae wasn't there. She didn't even glance up. "Again, what are you doing?"

"Packing, obviously. Going to Wenechenca."

"We're leaving now? But we just got here!"

"No. Not we." She put her sword in her inventory and finally looked at me. "Just me."

"Just you."

She exhaled. "Sky, this is my quest. I brought you into it. Now I'm letting you get out of it. You have Rae here— an old girlfriend that knows about your past. That can tell you about your friends and family. Heck, she could take you to them. Meanwhile, I'm just a girl chasing some hunch. You'd clearly have a better life if you just stay."

I was shocked. She was telling me to stay. To be with Rae. To not go with her. Not going to lie, it stung a little bit.

"Amber, I'm not just going to let you go on your own."

"I can handle it."

"No offense, but I doubt that. If what you said is true, and Wenechenca is a big city, how are you going to find him? We barely found him with Rae's help."

She looked down at the bed, unsure what to say.

"Hey." I took a few steps closer. "You didn't bring me into this. I brought myself. I knew what I was doing. And I still know what I'm doing. I'm coming with you."

"But Rae—"

"Will still be here when we finish."

"Your family?"

I didn't exactly know what to say at first. Finally, "They can wait."

She looked at me. "You're... you're picking me over your family?"

I nodded.

There was a ghost of a smile on her face at first. Then, it turned into a warm smile, and she came over and hugged me. "Thank you."

I wrapped my arms around her, enjoying the embrace. "We'll find that guy."

"I really hope so." She said as she pulled away.

• • •

It was hard saying goodbye. I still had so much I wanted to ask Rae. It also felt like we were leaving too soon. I didn't want to bring it up to Amber since it wasn't a good excuse to stay, but I wanted to go sight seeing. Oh well.

We were at the train station later that day. Rae was seeing us off. It took a lot of convincing to make sure she stayed. She really wanted to come with us. However, I finally put that thought to rest.

"When are you coming back?" She asked me, her voice raised slightly because of the loud crowd.

"Soon. This'll all be over soon." I assured her.

"What about your family? Should I..."

I never thought about her telling my family about my return. I didn't want them to think I was still missing; it seemed horrible to do. However, they would want me to come home immediately after hearing that I was back. I couldn't go back yet. I had a job to finish.

"We'll have to wait."

She was silent, but then nodded. "I understand."

"But..." I took a deep breath. "Can I ask you one last question?"

Her face brightened. "Oh?"

"Yeah. What's the name of the town? Of my hometown?"

Her excitement deflated faster than a punctured balloon. She looked disappointed at first, then forced a smile. "Riverville. It's in a forest biome."

I smiled back. "Thank you."

She hesitated for a second, and leaned forward. She kissed me on the cheek, and whispered, "Be careful, Sky."

I really hoped I wasn't blushing. "You too, Rae."

After she left, Amber walked up. It was such perfect timing, I assumed that she waited for us to say our goodbyes. "Ready to go?"

I watched Rae blend in with the crowd. "Ready as I'll ever be."

~ Cole ~

I barely had time to register what happened.

I felt the ground break from under us, and we fell through. My stomach dropped as the reality hit me: we could die if I don't do something.

In a time span of a split second, I grabbed onto the edge of one of the more stable blocks on the bridge. I also grabbed for Lily. Luckily, she had her arms raised (why), so I managed to grab her hand.

The blocks fell, breaking through the bridge that was under us. We were hanging off the edge, staring down at the ground below through the hole.

I frantically looked for a solution to the problem. There was no way I could pull myself and Lily up with one arm. The fall could either kill us or break most of our bones. I didn't want to take that risk.

Instead, I looked at the bridge below us. It was broken in half from the fallen blocks, but I could swing Lily over to one side to safety.

"Lily." I gritted my teeth. "You gotta help me with this. I'm gonna swing you over to the edge, and you let go and land on the bridge below us."

She looked down. "That's crazy!"

"Can you think of a better option?" I exclaimed, exasperated.

She didn't speak for a couple seconds, trying to think of one. She eventually gave in. "Okay."

I started to shift my body back and forth. It was hard considering I was holding a whole other person, but we finally built up enough momentum.

"When I say now, you let go." My arm was starting to hurt. "Three... two... one... now!"

We let go of each other, and Lily fell downward. She just barely landed on the bridge, missing the edge by a block. She stumbled forward trying to regain her balance. When she was steady, she turned and looked up at me.

I grabbed the block I was holding onto with my other hand, and pulled myself up. I laid down on the bridge with my lower legs dangling off the edge, catching my breath.

A few seconds later, I heard footsteps.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked from above me.

I sat up, and ran my hand through my hair. "Fine. You?"

"Fine..." She mumbled. "Thank you for catching me."

"You're welcome." I finally stood up, and assessed the area. "It doesn't really make sense."

"Gravity sometimes works."

I shook my head. "Not that. GATU. They came through here, burned my... my home, and left. Why would they leave? Why wouldn't they... stay?"

Lily walked up next to me. "Do you think they left?"

My eyes scanned the wooden rooms in the trees. They then examined the ground, searching for anything suspicious.

"Follow me." I turned around.

• • •

The storage room was empty. The remaining chests lined up on the walls were all ransacked. The rug that went around the donut shaped room was burnt to a crisp, as well as the paintings. There was no way that the GATU people could hold all of the items that were in the chests, unless there were twenty of them with empty inventories. They must've burnt it all so I couldn't get the supplies.

"Nothing." I slammed a chest shut in frustration.

"It's going to be okay." Lily put a gentle hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off. I knew she was just trying to help, but she needed to stop. She didn't know if what she said was true, so she didn't need to say it. There was no room for false hope.

I thought about the situation for a second. "I have another place I use for extra storage. I don't think they found it. We can go there."

"Perfect." She sighed. Then, a puzzled look arose on her face. "Hey Cole, how did you know that GATU was coming here?"

As soon as she finished the question, and as I was trying to come up with an answer, I heard a whoosh, then a thud. I blinked, not moving at all. I was too busy staring at the arrow that had just appeared in the wall mere inches from Lily's head. Her face paled.

I whipped my head around to where the arrow came from. On the bridge was a creeper mask in a dark green hoodie. They held a bow, but there was no arrow notched (probably because it almost gave Lily an unwanted facial piercing). Next to them was the same outfit, except this person held a diamond sword.

"There they are." I grabbed Lily's arm, and ran to the other bridge. However, there was another creeper couple waiting for us with matching diamond swords.

"Do you know how to fight?" I asked Lily.

"Uhhh..."

That answered my question. I turned around and hurried her and myself to the stairs. There weren't any that went down, so we went up.

When we made it to the top of the spiral staircase, we were at the very top of the tree. It was a circular ground of jungle leaves that held our weight. It was also the tree in which I had put the flag on. It "waved" proudly above us.

I cursed at my stupidity. They didn't burn the flag so I could fall right into their trap. I was so easily duped.

I looked around for an escape route. To the side, there were trees that were a little shorter than the one we were on. They weren't too far away, and a jump wouldn't kill us. If we aimed right.

"Follow me again." I braced myself.

"You have to stop sayi— wait!"

I had done my running start while she continued to talk. At the last second, I jumped off of the leaves. I was airborne for a second, then gravity caught up with me. I fell, but not for more than a few blocks. The landing was hard, and I nearly toppled over, but I made it. I turned around and looked up at Lily. "Jump!"

She stared at me, and at the jump. Finally, she backed up for a running start. Then, she charged forward. As she did, a GATU member appeared right behind her. She leapt into the air a split second before the creeper mask could snatch her.

As she made her descent, I got worried that she wouldn't make it. I held out my arms, and she fell right into them. We both collapsed from the weight, with her on top of me. She looked down at me, then rolled off. I got up, ignored the awkward moment, and started to run.

The tree tops around us were luckily around the same height, so jumping to them didn't take much effort. (#MeJumpingToConclusions)

I skidded to a stop and almost fell off the edge of a tree to the ground far below. All the trees around us were farther below; too far to jump to. A small opening was in front of us. We reached a dead end.

"They're coming." Lily warned me.

I glanced back and saw all four guys running after us.

Turning around, I observed the area for an exit option.

"Okay. Yeah. We're going to jump and grab those vines." I pointed to a group of long vines hanging off of a tree about fifteen blocks away, and about ten blocks down.

"I thought you said jumping off of high places was a dumb idea if there are plenty of more options to go with."

"Do you see any options besides risking breaking a leg?" I gestured around. "I've done this before. It's okay."

She exhaled. "Fine."

I glanced behind me again. The GATU people were almost at our tree.

"No time for a countdown." I grabbed her hand, and jumped.

We fell through the air, heading straight toward the vines. There was no problem being able to grab them, but I was more worried about them holding our weight. One person would be light enough. Two people? I wasn't so sure.

I reached forward and grabbed the vines with both hands. They managed to hold me, and I swung forward. Lily was right next to me, her eyes tight shut.

"Let go!" I shouted two seconds before I followed my own advice. I let go of the vines, and fell to the floor. We grabbed them at about ten blocks above the ground, and we were swinging toward a steep hill. So when I hit the ground, it was so close that it didn't even hurt.

I heard Lily land next to me with a grunt. She was out of breath, and her eyes were wide, but she didn't seem scared. Just taken aback.

Once I steadied myself, I said, "Come on."

"Wait," she breathed, "are we just going to try to lose them?"

That was going to be my plan. After she asked that question, however, I realized how flawed it was. Losing them in a jungle wouldn't be too difficult, but it would be risky since we were going to a  jungle temple, a place they'd probably check out. "No. We need to slow them down." I started to walk forward quickly. "I'm going to stay around here and make sure they won't follow us for a while. You go ahead; go straight, and you should reach a jungle temple in a few minutes. Wait for me there."

She shook her head. "Not an option. I'm not leaving you alone."

I almost groaned. "I'll be okay."

"Cole." Lily grabbed my shoulder and turned me so I was facing her. "I'm staying. I can help."

I looked at her serious expression. I highly doubted that I could convince her to leave in the next few seconds. But I also doubted she could help.

"Fine. You can stay." I sighed in defeat, and looked back. So far, I didn't see anyone.

"What are we going to do? We're not going to kill them, are we?"

I actually wouldn't have minded doing that. Lily probably wouldn't have approved, though.

"No, no, we're not going to kill them." I looked around at all the resources we had. "We're going to play a little game instead."

•    •    •

Games sound fun. This next part is going to be interesting to write. I actually wanted to just have Cole take the GATU people on alone, but Lily's PoV is up next so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ guess she's a part of it now.

Sky and Amber are going to Wenechenca City now. What will they find there? Why did the guy go there? When will Sky actually see his family?
What is Cole planning? Where are they going next?

¸,ؤº°'°º¤Ø,¸¸,ؤº° ⓡⓞⓒⓚ ⓞⓝ, ⓜⓨ   ⓛⓘⓣⓣⓛⓔ ⓡⓔⓑⓔⓛⓢ °º¤Ø,¸¸,ؤº°'°º¤Ø,¸