Desert Kingdom, OverWorld
Night
"So that's how you guys ended up here?" Sam questioned, "pirates attacked your village, forcing you to escape?"
Steve nodded his head. Sam and Steve were walking down the hallway of the castle next to each other. Victoria was following behind them. Alex was still with Sedrick at the Health Clinic. Steve wondered how Sedrick was doing, how he was feeling and such.
Sam frowned as he glanced over at Steve. "I'm so sorry that they did that to you all. I assure you, you're all safe here."
"I knew that the moment I saw your Kingdom," Steve responded.
The hallways walls were made entirely out of grey cobblestone, the floors were made of dark oakwood planks. The ceilings were arched with large candle lit chandeliers hanging down. Paintings were hung on the walls of past King and Queens. There was even a painting of Sam.
On the left side wall, a large map was hung. It showed the lands surrounding the Kingdom. To the Kingdom's north, there was the Snowy Tundra biome, to the south was the Jungle Biome. There was so much green on the map, tan and blue colors present as well. Tan was for the sandy desert, and the blue was for the water and rivers.
"If you want to protect yourselves, you'll all need to train," Sam mentioned as he approached a guard standing at the end of the hallway against the cobblestone wall. The guard was wearing heavy iron armor from head-to-toe. He was holding a weapon in his hand. Steve wondered what the guard was holding. He had never seen one like that before.
"What's he holding in his hand?" Steve asked, curious to know what the name of the weapon was. Sam approached the guard and politely asked him to hand over the weapon. The guard gladly did so.
Sam took the weapon and turned to face Steve. Victoria smiled as she noticed the look Steve had on his face. He was fascinated with how the weapon was shiny and pointy at the end of it.
"This, my friend, is a sword," Sam said, holding it out in front of him. Steve slowly walked up Sam, gazing down at the sword. The light from the bright candles reflected off of the sword. "Take it."
Steve looked up at Sam. He was at a loss for words. Steve slowly raised his arms up to grab the sword. Once he was holding it, he felt just how heavy it was.
"More durable than bow and arrows and more deadly," Sam said, "if you know how to properly use it, you can deal heavy damage to your opponent."
"I've never heard of such a weapon before," Steve said.
"That's because an old friend of mine named Francis created the sword. You can use wood, iron, gold, or even stone to forge one of these weapons. Our Kingdom has been putting these to good use ever since. They've worked wonders for us. I'm sure they'll work just as well for you. Once you learn how to use one of course," Sam said.
"Show me how," Steve said, "I would like to learn please."
"Tomorrow morning we'll begin our training," Sam said, "but before we go to bed for the night, I would like to show you something. Follow me."
Steve walked over to the guard. He offered to give the guard his sword back. The guard shook his head.
"Keep it," the guard said, "you'll get more use out of it than I will. I'll get a new one."
Steve smiled. He put the iron sword away in his inventory. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," the guard responded.
Steve walked away from the guard and ran down the hallway to catch up to Sam and Victoria. Once he caught up to them, Sam walked over to a closed oakwood door. There was a sign hanging on the wall above the door. It read: Library. Sam opened the door, walking in. Victoria and Steve followed behind him.
Inside the Library, bookshelves towered over them. There were hundreds of different books on the shelves, all collecting dust.
"Franklin?" Sam said, "are you here?"
"Over here. At my desk," Franklin responded.
Sam walked down the aisle and over to Franklin's small, wooden desk. Hanging on the wall over his desk was a single torch. Was it really wise to have a torch burning in a room full of paper? Franklin was sitting in his chair. He had a quill in his hand, with an open book resting on the surface of the desk.
He put the quill back in the ink cup. He turned around in his chair, lowering his glasses to get a good look at the company Sam had with him.
"Victoria. Always good to see you," Franklin said.
"Nice to see you too Franklin," Victoria responded with a smile on her face.
Franklin got up out of his chair and grabbed his wooden cane to help him walk. He limped over to Steve, Victoria, and Sam. His leg was bandaged up with white cloth. Under the cloth was a wooden stick. It was helping him keep his leg straight while it also prevented him from bending it.
"Hello," Steve said as he waved his hand at Franklin, "I'm Steve."
"It's nice to meet you Steve," Franklin responded.
"If you don't mind me asking, what are you writing?" Steve wondered. Franklin turned around to quickly look back at the open book on his desk.
"Just a story is all," Franklin answered, "but if you really want to know what it's about, the title of my book is The Legend of the Brine Family."
"Brine Family?" Steve questioned, "who are they?"
"Blockheads you don't want to come in close contact with," Victoria said, "they're dangerous and power hungry entities. It's better if you don't know about them."
Steve frowned. He thought it was necessary to know. What if he did come into contact with them one day? If he didn't know anything about them, he wouldn't know how to stop them. Or better yet, fight them. Knowing about these evil blockheads was key to his survival in the future.
"I'm sorry but you're wrong Victoria," Steve mentioned as he looked at Franklin's injured leg. He pointed at it.
"How did you hurt your leg?" Steve asked.
"I tried to fight EnderBrine and NetherBrine off, failing to accomplish that. I was trying to protect my son from them. They wanted to take him away from me and my wife. In the end, I failed and they succeeded," Franklin answered.
"What were your son and wife's names?" Steve said, "I hope you don't mind me asking."
"It's quite alright son," Franklin said, "my wife's name was Carlily. My son's name was Hero. After Hero was taken, Carlily thought it'd be best to move to a new land. She had discovered this new, wonderful and beautiful world. I called it SkyWorld. She thought that by moving there, we could forget about our past. In the end, I chose to stay here. I had hoped that one day Hero would come back. To this day, many years after Hero was taken, Carlily still lives in SkyWorld."
"Is that why you're writing that book?" Steve questioned, "to tell people how dangerous the Brine family really is?"
"Exactly. That is my goal with this book at least," Franklin said.
"Tell you what," Steve began to say to Franklin, "I'll help you find Hero and bring him home. That is of course when I learn how to fight."
"You'd do that for me? You barely know me," Franklin said.
"Your story really struck me. And I'm a nice blockhead. I'll help you whether you're a stranger or not," Steve said.
"Thank you so much, Steve," Franklin said as he glanced over at Sam and smiled. "He's going to make a noble warrior one day. A fighter he will be."
Sam looked over at Steve. He faintly smiled. "Indeed he will."
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the ground started rumbling and shaking violently. Sam looked at Steve. Victoria looked at Franklin. Steve looked at Victoria.
"What is going on?" Steve questioned.
A guard came barging into the library. "They're here. It's the Brine family! They're back!"
Sam, Steve, and Victoria quickly ran out of the Library. They all ran down the hallway and back outside. Once outside, the entire Kingdom was panicking. The Villagers were scared.
Hovering in midair were the notorious EnderBrine, NetherBrine, and Franklin's son Hero. Did he still go by that name?
"Now that we have everyone's attention, we would like to formally introduce ourselves to your new friends Sam," EnderBrine announced. Sam held his arm out in front of Steve.
"Get behind me," Sam said.
Steve backed up and stood behind Sam. Victoria stepped in front of Steve alongside Sam. They were protecting him. Coming out of the castle was Franklin. Right when he stepped outside he looked up into the night sky. He saw EnderBrine and NetherBrine. Also in attendance was his son Hero.
"Hero?" Franklin mumbled to himself. "Is that really you?"
"I'm EnderBrine, king of the End dimension. This is NetherBrine, leader of the NetherWorld. And last but not least…," EnderBrine said as he paused. He looked down to see if Franklin was watching. He was. EnderBrine smiled. "Meet HeroBrine. The newest addition to the Brine family. To put things simply, you bother us we'll bother you. Leave us alone and we won't hurt anyone else. Anyone who tries to step in our way will truly regret it. Have a wonderful evening everyone."
EnderBrine again glanced down at the ground. He saw Steve standing behind Victoria and Sam. He laughed hysterically, wiping away a tear from his cheek.
"It was a pleasure meeting you….Steve," EnderBrine said, "tell me. How was the voyage?"
Before Steve could react, HeroBrine held his arms up into the air. Three bright bolts of lightning struck the ground. When the lightning bolts disappeared, they were gone. They were nowhere to be seen. Sam and Victoria turned around to look at Steve. They wanted to make sure he was okay.
"How did he know we came here by ship?" Steve questioned as he began thinking for a moment.
"He's playing with your mind. Don't listen to him," Victoria said, "playing mind games with us is what he does best."
"Is that so?" Steve asked.
Before Sam or Victoria could respond, a panicking and frightened blockhead came running over to Sam. Everyone looked at him with a confused expression on his face. Sam could see the fear in his eyes. Something was very, very wrong. It didn't sound so good by the looks of it.
There was no chance at calming him down. Sam tried. Victoria tried. Both were unsuccessful.
"What's going on Lukas?" Sam questioned. Steve and Victoria were curious to hear what Lukas had to say.
While Lukas was catching his breath, he answered Sam's question. He was breathing in-and-out heavily. Lukas glanced up at Sam, Steve, and Victoria.
"The—pirates are—coming," Lukas said in between breaths.
Lukas and a dozen other blockheads were scouts. Keeping a keen eye out for danger was all part of his job. Another aspect of his job was to warn Sam of any danger should it come about. This time it did.
"How long until they arrive?" Sam asked Lukas.
"By dawn," Lukas said.
Sam sighed heavily as he slowly shook his head. Acting fast is something he must do. Protecting the kingdom was one of Sam's top priorities.
"What are we going to do?" Steve asked Sam. He was beginning to get scared again. It had almost seemed that like no matter where he, Alex, Annabeth, and Sedrick went, the pirates followed.
"Prepare the battleships," Sam said, "if they want a fight, we'll give 'em a fight."