S.S DreamChaser
Afternoon
"And up you go little one," Daniel said as he carefully pulled Annabelle up onto the main deck of the ship. Daniel had to throw a rope ladder over the side of the ship so that everyone could come back aboard the ship.
Daniel let go of Annabelle's hand, looking down at her thereafter. He didn't recognize her much less ever met her before. Notch was standing alongside Daniel.
"Daniel," Notch said as he glanced down Annabelle and smiled, "this is Annabelle; Henry's adopted daughter."
Daniel kneeled, resting his right arm down on his thigh. He kneeled so that he could be at the same height as her. He smiled faintly. She raised her head and looked over at Daniel. She put her hands behind her back and began kicking her right foot forwards and backwards nervously.
"Hi Annabelle," Daniel said in a soft and non-intimidating tone. He held his left hand out so that he could shake her hand. "It's nice to meet you. Notch here was just telling me about what your father did."
In a quiet and mumbling kind of tone, Annabelle responded back to Daniel. "Hi," she said, "I'm—I'm Annabelle."
Daniel sighed lightly as he continued to smile at her. From what Daniel could tell, she's been through a lot recently. In a way, he felt sad that she went through what she did. No child, like herself, should have ever experienced what Annabelle did.
"Well Annabelle," Daniel said, "you'll be safe here, I promise. You have nothing to worry about sweetheart. I, along with my friends, will keep you and everyone here safe and sound. That includes you as well."
"Okay," Annabelle responded.
Daniel then stood back up straight. He glanced over at Notch very briefly and then over to his right. When he looked to the right, he saw Natasha, Frank, and their daughter Ava standing close to one another. Frank was holding Ava's left hand and Natasha was holding Ava's right hand.
"Hey, Annabelle!" Ava shouted over to Annabelle. She let go of Frank and Natasha's hands, starting to wave her hands. She was waving to Annabelle to get her attention. Her tactic worked. Annabelle turned her head to her left and looked over at Ava. Daniel and Notch did the same as her. "Come over here."
Daniel glanced down at Annabelle and smiled at her for the final time. Annabelle looked back over her left shoulder and over at Daniel once more.
"Go on sweetheart," Daniel said.
Annabelle smiled at Daniel as she looked away from him and walked over to Ava, Natasha, and Frank. Once she was standing by them, Ava began talking to Annabelle. From where Daniel and Notch were standing, they couldn't hear what Annabelle and Ava were talking about. That wasn't important nor was it his business.
"Hey Daniel," Calvin shouted from where he was standing on the bow, "Lola and Maximus are ready."
Daniel looked over at him and nodded his head, to acknowledge that he had heard what Calvin had said to him. "Let's get going then," Daniel responded in a shouting voice.
Calvin nodded his head once as he turned around. He walked over to the railings, leaning over the side of the ship slightly. Calvin looked down into the murky water. Lola and Maximus both had a rope in their mouth.
"Take it away guys," Calvin said as he leaned back onto his feet. Lola and Maximus started squealing as they began flapping their tails as fast as they could. The both of them exhaled out of their blowholes. As they began to swim, slowly but surely, the DreamChaser started moving again for the first time in three days.
Lola and Maximus were extremely strong. Pulling a heavy ship like the DreamChaser on their own was very hard, but the two of them managed to pull with all their might and energy, giving it their all. When Calvin turned around, Daniel and Notch were standing next to each other. They startled Calvin. He wasn't expecting that once so ever.
"How long until we arrive at the Trench Kingdom?" Daniel asked Calvin, hoping Calvin would respond with a good answer or decent estimate. However, on the other hand, the Trench Kingdom couldn't be far from here. Sirens' Cove wouldn't be named Sirens' Cove if no Sirens occupied it.
"Not too much further from here," Calvin said, "we're close."
"What's going to happen once we arrive?" Notch asked, "what's the plan?"
As the ship slowly picked up speed, the faster it sailed. As for everyone else on board, they were cautiously making their way around the main deck. Because the deck was covered in slimy and slippery algae, everyone made sure to be very careful with how fast they're walking around.
"Robert and Elena, we believe, have been kidnapped by the Sirens and taken as hostages," Daniel began to explain, "They both went missing. The last time anyone had seen them was when they were heading down to the bottom deck. Nobody knows what happened to them after that."
"But you suspected they were kidnapped, didn't you?" Calvin questioned as Daniel looked to his left and over at Notch. He nodded his head once.
"That's right," Daniel responded.
"So why not go after them? Why'd you just leave them behind? I would've gone after them immediately thereafter if I knew they had been kidnapped," Calvin explained.
"We would've gone back for them, but it was too dangerous to turn around," Daniel said.
As Daniel, Notch, and Calvin continued to converse amongst themselves, Ava and Annabelle were standing behind the railings on the left side of the main deck. They were looking down at the water, pointing out all types of different tropical fish.
"Look Annabelle," Ava said as she pointed down at the water, "it's a clownfish."
Annabelle looked down and saw the clownfish swimming around. It was accompanied by a baby sea turtle and a small pufferfish. Suddenly though, a large black creature swam underwater right next to the boat. Ava and Annabelle stared down at the water, trying to find out where the big black creature was swimming to.
Then, it reappeared. This time, instead of being entirely underwater, it came up to the surface. It was revealing itself to them. The creature had sharp, grey scales all over its back. Ava and Annabelle screamed as loudly as they could. Everyone else on deck stopped what they were doing and quickly stared over at Ava and Annabelle.
Natasha and Frank rushed over to where Ava and Annabelle were standing. They grabbed Ava and Annabelle both and quickly backed away from the side of the ship. When they put Ava and Annabelle back down, the two of them walked back over to where Ava and Annabelle had stood.
They both leaned over the side of the ship so that they could look down at the water. Whatever Ava and Annabelle saw a moment ago, was long gone...or was it? As they continued to wait for the creature to reappear. And then it did!
"What is it?" Daniel asked as he walked over to the right side of the ship near the bow. He grabbed onto the railing as he leaned over. He too looked down into the water but wasn't seeing anything alarming or out of the ordinary.
The fish that were swimming around in the water just a moment ago, was seen swimming away as fast as they could. That was strange. Whatever was causing them to swim for their lives, it must be big. It could also be something very, very dangerous.
"Holy hay bales!" Daniel shouted as he saw the large black creature swim around just below the surface. He quickly took a few steps back, then turned around to look at Calvin and Notch. They looked back at him. Calvin tilted his head slightly. Lola and Maximus suddenly squealed. Their squeals were heard by Daniel, Notch, and Calvin.
Calvin ran over to the railing. He grabbed onto it and leaned over to gaze down into the water. When he did that, he noticed that both Lola and Maximus were gone. They had let go of their ropes. Where did they go swimming off to anyway? What were they scared of? Is it something everyone else should worry about?
"Everyone," Daniel shouted as loudly as he could, "get back from the railings! Now!"
Everyone quickly backed away from the sides of the ship. They all huddled together in the center of the main deck, remaining silent and scared. Daniel and Calvin glanced at one another as they both reached behind their backs and into their inventories. When they pulled their hands out, they were both holding their tridents. Daniel was holding the black netherite one, while Calvin was holding his shiny golden trident.
"What is that thing?" Natasha asked in a loud voice so that everyone could hear what she had to say, including Daniel, Calvin, and Notch.
Martin, Thomas, and King Xavier were amongst those who were huddling up close in the middle of the deck right next to the base of where the main mast once stood. There was so much chatter going on that it was disrupting Daniel's train of thought. He was trying to come up with a way on how to get everyone to safety.
"Can't Lola and Maximus swim any faster?" Daniel asked as he glanced over at Calvin briefly.
Calvin looked over at Daniel. He had a worried expression on his face, indicating to Daniel that something was wrong; very wrong. Daniel ran over to the side of the ship, grabbed onto the rails, and leaned over. When he looked down at the water, he saw that Lola and Maximus had left, leaving their ropes and the ship behind. Where'd they go? Daniel leaned back and turned around to look over at Calvin.
"Where'd they go?" Daniel asked.
Calvin shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I don't know. But whatever's in the water, it definitely spooked them. That's why, I'm assuming, they fled."
Daniel suddenly lost his train of thought. He didn't know how to react to that. He looked over to his left at everyone. They were all still huddled up near the base of the middle mast. Most of them were sitting down or holding each other's hands tightly. Daniel knew they were scared and frightened.
"This ends today!" Daniel said as he turned around. He reached back into his inventory quickly to grab something out. What he pulled out was the turtle shell that Calvin had given him yesterday. He set the shell down on top of his head. After that, he proceeded on to ran over to the railings. But instead of grabbing onto them, he leaped over them; jumping overboard. Calvin ran over to the railings and leaned over. He shouted down at Daniel as Daniel splashed into the murky water.
"DANIEL!" Calvin shouted, "what are you doing?"
Daniel chose to ignore him as he dove beneath the waves. Calvin turned around. Notch was standing right behind him. Calvin looked him right in his eyes. "Protect them, will you?" Calvin asked.
Notch nodded his head as he reached into his inventory and pulled out an enchanted diamond ax. Unlike everyone else, he didn't have a sword. But an ax would do just as much damage to the enemy as a sword would.
"Thank you," Calvin said as he then glanced over at Martin, Thomas, Nathan, and King Xavier. He shouted their names at them to get their attention. They all quickly turned their heads and looked back over at him. Calvin waved his arm around in the air, signaling to them that they needed to follow him. He was going to go after Daniel.
"Common guys!" Calvin said, "he's in danger. He's going to need our help," Calvin mentioned.
Without any one of them hesitating, they all grabbed their tridents out of their inventories. The only one that didn't have a trident was King Xavier. We can thank the Sirens for not having his trident. Pesky, annoying creatures!
They all ran over to Calvin. When they approached him, he turned around and walked over to the railing. He leaned over and looked down at the water. What he didn't notice was that Notch crept up behind him, pushing him overboard and into the water. He fell down into the water headfirst, causing a big splash to occur.
When he surfaced again, he was very angry. He looked up at everyone, including Notch. They were all looking down at him in the water. He was looking back up at them. Calvin started talking to them, but none of them could hear what he was saying to them.
"Who did that?" Calvin asked in a shouting, angry and frustrated tone up at Notch, Martin, Thomas, Nathan, and King Xavier. They were still all staring down at him. But as Calvin was expressing his anger at them all, he was suddenly pulled and dragged underwater.
Nathan and Martin shouted his name. "CALVIN!" They both said in unison as Nathan leaped over the railing and down into the water. Once he splashed down into the water, he immediately dove underwater to try and find out where Calvin had gone off to and who dragged him underwater.
The water was cloudy and murky. It was hard to see anything near or far. The Sun was beginning to set, making things even harder to spot out or see. This worried Nathan. But he had only one job he needed to do. That job was to find Calvin and make sure he was okay.
As Nathan began swimming away, he heard faint splashing noises nearby. Those noises were being made by the others jumping into the water. To think that Nathan wouldn't be doing what he was doing right now if Notch hadn't pushed Calvin overboard. That was not cool. That was rude and mean. Notch knew the danger everyone was in, so why would he push Calvin into the dangers of the murky water below? Nathan would soon get the answers to his questions.
"Calvin!" Nathan shouted. But there was nothing. No one responded. What he did hear, however, was faint wooshing sounds as something swam eerily close to where he was. Nathan stopped swimming and began looking all around him. He held onto his trident as tightly as he could, readying himself to throw it at any moment.
"Where are you?" Nathan mumbled quietly to himself as he raised his right arm. He retracted his arm slightly. As he continued looking around, faint hissing sounds were heard. What the heck was making those sounds? Nathan was surrounded by the massive boulders that stretched from the seafloor to the surface.
The water continued to get darker and darker as the sun continued to set. Nathan wasn't going to allow himself to become scared. He was a MineLantian for pete's sake. When he turned around, he noticed a small blue orb moving vigorously around. Up, down, and all-around really fast.
"What the--?" Nathan questioned as he began to swim closer to the shiny blue orb. He lowered his arm, letting his guard down. As he got close enough to the light to where he could touch it, Nathan realized that there was something very off about this blue light. Suddenly, materializing from out of nowhere, a mega angler fish appeared. Its mouth was fully open. Its body was bulky, almost like a balloon. Its eyes were all white, reflecting the blue light that was shining right in front of its face.
Its long, pointy and sharp teeth frightened Nathan. The angler fish jerked forward, almost like it was trying to act intimidating and scary. Sure, its tactics were working, but Nathan held his ground. He quickly raised his arm up and retracted it.
But just as Nathan threw his trident, the humongous angler fish turned slightly, It hit Nathan's trident, knocking it off of its trajectory. It went falling straight down towards the seafloor. Nathan watched as his trident slowly disappeared into the murky depths of the ocean. When he could no longer see it, he slowly raised his back up to look back up at the angler fish.
"So you're the trench monster, huh?" Nathan asked in a shaky, scared voice. He held out his hand. When he did, the angler fish snapped its mouth shut. It had tried to bite Nathan's hand off. Luckily, he pulled his arm back just in time. He narrowly avoided a severe injury.
"You're not as scary as you sound," Nathan said. The angler fish was staring at him the entire time, growing ever so hungry. This was his only shot at snagging a delicious meal for the night. He wasn't about to let Nathan get away that easily. "Is there any way we can talk about this?" Nathan asked as he shrugged his shoulders.
He knew the angler fish wouldn't respond. It didn't talk.
"Whatever you do," a familiar male blockhead voice whispered from behind the trench monster. Nathan tilted his head to his right so that he could get a better look at who had said that to him, "no--sudden--movement."
It was Daniel. Nathan saw that he was holding his trident in his right hand. "He says stop talking. You're annoying him!"
Nathan shrugged his shoulders and scoffed. "Well, what am I supposed to do? Let him eat me?!"
"No!" Daniel whispered back.
"Good!" Nathan said as he looked back into the trench monster's eyes. He smiled confidently at him. "So you want to play, don't you? Well then, let's play!"
Daniel shook his head frantically back and forth. "Nathan! Don't!"
"Watch me!" Nathan responded as he quickly turned around and began swimming extremely fast. The trench monster, or also known as the angler fish, began chasing after him.
"Nathan! Nathan!" Daniel shouted as loudly as he could. Nathan didn't listen.
As the angler fish continued to chase after Nathan, Daniel looked down at the seafloor. He saw Nathan's trident sticking straight up out of the sand. He swam down to retrieve Nathan's trident. He reached out to pull the trident out of the sand. When he did, he reached behind him to put the trident into his inventory.
"Am I always picking up after you MineLantians?" Daniel mumbled to himself as he then began swimming as fast as he could so that he could hopefully catch up to Nathan and the angler fish. As daniel chased after Nathan and the angler fish, Martin and Thomas were had swam all the way down to the bottom of the trench.
Because they were so deep, everything around them became very, very dark. There almost nothing that could help them see where they were, or if there were any Sirens around. The trench seemed eerily quiet. Thomas looked over at Martin. Martin looked back over at him. After they exchanged looks with each other, Thomas and Martin both noticed a faint light nearby their current location.
Just up ahead of them, a bright white was glowing. On the right side of the spooky and scary trench, there was an entranceway. Martin and Thomas both decided to go and investigate, while also being mindful of their dangerous surroundings. The Sirens could be anywhere, watching them silently in the shadows.
"Go," Martin said, "Robert and Elena have to be in there. Where else would the Sirens keep them hostage? They can't breathe underwater. If the Sirens were smart, they would have locked them up in that cave."
"You're right," Thomas said as he glanced over to his left at Martin, "just be careful."
"Don't worry about me. I'll keep a lookout as you investigate. I can manage on my own, I promise," Martin replied confidently.
"Are you sure?" Thomas asked.
Martin nodded his head slightly and smiled. "Yes," he responded.
"Okay. Just yell if you need help?" Thomas stated, "I'll hear you."
"Got it. Loud and clear," Martin responded as a Siren appeared from the darkness, swimming right into Martin. The Sirens hissed at Martin as she carried him back into the darkness.
"MARTIN!" Thomas shouted.
In a faint and almost unhearable voice, Martin shouted back at Thomas. He said one simple word. "Go!" he said.
Thomas hesitated for a brief before making up his mind on what he should do. Should he go after Martin and the Siren? Or should he swim over to the cave entrance? In the back of his mind, he was scared of what harm the Siren might do to Martin, but on the other hand, he knew that Martin would overcome his hurdle. So, he decided to head over to the cave.
Once he arrived at the cave entrance, he stared briefly into the cave. It was empty from what he could tell. As he looked over to the left, spotting a female blockhead chained up against the cold mossy stone wall. Other than the single female blockhead, the cave looked empty. How dumber could these Sirens be? Leaving their hostage all alone, and vulnerable for being rescued. Do the Sirens even know anything about being a villain? If they did, they were executing their skills poorly and stupidly.
Thomas entered the cave. When he did, his entire suit of armor began dripping as water ran down his chest, arms and hands, and legs. His hair also began dripping wet as well. This female blockhead must be Elena, Daniel's friend. But if Thomas recollected correctly, wasn't there another blockhead that needed saving too? He couldn't remember at this time. But instead of just standing around, he rushed over to Elena.
Her head was down, and her arms were being held straight up. Her hands were still chained, making it seemingly impossible for her to escape on her own. But even that wouldn't do her any good. How could she free herself if she was still unconscious?
"Elena?" Thomas questioned, "my name is Thomas. I'm a friend of Daniel's."
She didn't move at all, much less respond to what Thomas had said to her a second ago.
"Elena?" Thomas said her name once more, "are you--?" He continued as he was suddenly interrupted by another blockheads' voice. He quickly turned around. When he did, he found out that he wasn't alone after all. And that the cave wasn't unoccupied either.
Sitting on a small boulder over on the other side of the narrow and damp cave, was a Siren. She was staring right over at him, smiling evilly as she stuck her reptilian-like tongue.
"She can't hear you, you know," the Siren mentioned as Thomas grabbed his trident with both of his hands, holding it out straight in front of him. He was signaling to the Siren that he wasn't here on friendly terms. While showing her that he meant business, he tried to be as intimidating as possible. His goal was to plant fear into this Siren.
As Robert took a step closer towards the Siren, the pointy forks at the end of his trident were only inches away from the Siren's face. She stared directly at it. "I'm Vicky by the way."
"Don't care!" Thomas responded.
Vicky chuckled sarcastically as she looked over at Thomas. "No need to be rude or intimidating. You don't scare me."
"That wasn't my plan at all," Thomas mentioned, "now you're going to listen very closely as to what I'm about to tell you."
Vicky shrugged her shoulders and then folded her arms near the top of her stomach area. "I'm listening," she said.
"You either let her go or else," Thomas demanded.
"Or else what?" Vicky responded.
"You know what!" Thomas said.
Vicky unfolded her arms and then held her hands up in the air. She began waving them around, acting like she was scared of the threat Thomas had made. In reality, though, she was nowhere near becoming frightened. She was resilient, refusing to let her guard down.
"Kill me? Take me hostage?" She questioned, "do your worst."
"I won't have to unless you--," Thomas said as long claws appeared from out of his stomach. He gasped and began breathing in and out heavily. He yelled out in pain. Turns out, Vicky was only stalling so that Alana could inflict wounds on Thomas. When she pulled her sharp claws out of Thomas's stomach, he glanced down at the three tiny holes he had in his armor.
After that, he glanced back up and over at Vicky. "I'll give you credit for that--," Thomas said as he suddenly fainted and fell to the mossy stone cold floor.
"What took you so long?" Vicky asked.
"I had to deal with his friend," Alana answered. "Boy did his friend put up one heck of a fight."
"Did he now?" Vicky said in an impressed and shocking way. Alana nodded her head once. "But I took care of him."
Vicky smiled evilly back over at Alana. She began rubbing her hands together and started laughing in a creepy way. "Do you think they even considered that they'd be outnumbered? They think we're dumb, just look at them. They're fighting a fight they won't win. That's for sure."
"I wouldn't hold your breath on that. They have the MineLantians on their side. Who knows, the entire army of MineLantians could be on their way as we speak. If that's the case, then what?" Alana questioned.
Vicky glanced over to her left and over at Alana. "We fight until the very end. We aren't giving up this easily. Not without a fight. If it's a fight they want, a fight they shall get."