Desert Biome, OverWorld
Dawn
"Ceres," a familiar voice said from a short distance away, "dear friend. How are you?"
Ceres was sitting down near the campfire on the sand. He was meditating when Merlin arrived. It was something Ceres was known to do from time to time.
The campfire was still burning. The sun was still rising, shining brighter as it continued its journey into the sky. The sky was blue.
Merlin was wearing a white coat, black pants, and black shoes. He had a long, pointy hat on. The patterns on the hat were golden stars.
Ceres opened his eyes and saw Merlin standing before him. He got back up onto his feet. He reached out to shake Merlin's hand.
"I'm doing fine nonetheless. Glad to see you're not a chicken anymore," Ceres said.
Merlin laughed. "Me too. All thanks to you of course."
Ceres smiled, glancing down at the ground. He kicked his foot around in the sand. "Unfortunately, we both know why we're here," Ceres mentioned, "we need to tell Daniel and Petra."
"About how you changed me back from a chicken?"
"No. About the attack last night," Ceres said as the oak wood door opened. Daniel and Petra walked out of the small house to be greeted by Ceres and Merlin.
"Good morning Ceres," Daniel said as he stretched. When he opened his eyes, he saw another man standing next to Ceres.
"Holy hamburgers!" Daniel shouted. "Are you—the Warlock?"
Merlin laughed. "I am. It's nice to meet you."
Daniel and Petra were surprised to see the ancient warlock. Only ever hearing about him in those enchanted books.
"Wait a minute," Petra said as she began to connect the pieces of the puzzle as to why Merlin was here. Last thing she remembered, was that they were on their way to the Jungle biome to ask him for help. Something seemed off about this strange introduction. "What's really going on here?"
Ceres and Merlin looked at each other. They knew that they needed to tell Daniel and Petra what had happened.
"We have some bad news," Ceres said.
"What's the scoop?" Petra asked.
"Last night—my home was attacked."
"Attacked?" Daniel questioned.
"Let me guess...HeroBrine and EnderBrine and NetherBrine?" Petra said.
"Indeed. They found out about your plan to come and ask for my help. They arrived unexpectedly. I didn't see their attack coming. I tried to flee before they could hurt me or my apprentice, but failed."
"What all happened?" Petra asked.
"Long story short, I lost the fight. I was outnumbered, my apprentice was killed. She had all of my spell books, potions, and everything necessary to stopping those evil entities. Hope you guys have a backup plan."
Without knowing he said it, Daniel responded, "we do actually."
"Oh good," Merlin said relieved to hear that the heroes had a backup plan.
"Please tell us," Petra said.
"Don't mind if I do," Daniel said he handed her an iron axe from out of his inventory. She took the axe but gave him a weird look. Daniel smiled.
"Remember our bet. Yeah well you lost so…..," Daniel said, continuing to smile. "Now go break some oak wood."
Petra rolled her eyes and stomped away with the iron axe in her hand. She began hacking away at the oak wood with the axe, taking down the house they had slept in.
"A bet?" Ceres questioned.
"I'll explain later," Daniel said.
"I'd like to hear this plan Daniel," Merlin mentioned.
"Well to start off, we know we are going to battle them soon. We need to be ready. But our only problem is, we don't have the book or coordinates to the Forbidden Cave. How they found the Forbidden Cave is bewildering even for me," Daniel said.
"Have you ever had the thought that maybe there's another book out there?" Ceres said.
"A second book?" Daniel said, "no. It's never crossed my mind."
"There is," Ceres mentioned.
"When were you going to tell me this?"
"It wasn't necessarily important until now really."
"We'll talk about this later. For now, me and you will return to OasisVille to prepare our friends for battle," Daniel said, "as for Merlin and Petra, they'll be going back to HeroBrine's Mansion to retrieve this second book and the crystal."
"How do you know that the book is at his mansion?" Merlin questioned.
"I was in HeroBrines private library when I awoke from my sleep," Daniel said, "how I got there, I don't know."
"Excuse his short term memory loss," Petra said as she continued to tear down the small house, "he's just like my grandmother. She forgets a lot of things all the time."
"Speaking of which," Merlin said, "I forgot to mention that Mineaggedon is approaching its final stages of destruction."
"How do you know that?" Ceres asked.
"Haven't you all noticed?" Merlin asked, "the ground rumbling. Shaking perhaps? The OverWorld is collapsing in on itself. And when it's done, there won't be any part of the world left to live on."
"Then we must hurry then," Daniel said, "Merlin and Petra will go back to HeroBrine's Mansion while Ceres and I will head back to Oasis-Ville to prepare an army."
Ceres and Daniel grabbed each other's hands and closed their eyes.
"Good luck my friends," Daniel said, "May the Goddess Athena be with you always."
"As to you two as well," Merlin responded, "we'll meet again soon."
Ceres and Daniel then vanished into thin air, teleporting back to Oasis-Ville to prepare the village for a brutal, tough battle against the notorious HeroBrine and EnderBrine. Who will win? The good guys? Or the bad?