Chapter 14 - Blazes
As soon as I entered the fortress I found myself in front of two patches of strange, red, wartlike plants, both on either side of a staircase placed in the center of the room. I remembered the book mentioning them, but they didn't have a name, so I decided to name them nether warts.
I took the warts and chose to climb up the stairs, but soon found myself at a dead end, so I turned back and went down the stairs, and instead walked into a hallway in front of the bottom steps. I explored the fortress, and it was filled with winding hallways, turns, and intersections, but no monsters, other than the occasional zombie pigman.
Continuing through the maze, I realised that I was lost, and running low on food. I also managed to lose track of time, although I doubt that mattered in the nether. I tried retracing my steps, but that didn't work, so I tried simply finding an exit, any exit, but none were in sight.
After running around for some time, I heard a slime off in the distance, and decided to look for it. I mined around until I found another hallway, and was soon attacked by a giant slime that seemed to have been made of lava, not at all mentioned in the book. I attacked it, and it, like slimes, split into smaller versions of itself. I continued to hack at the monsters until I finally managed to kill it, and picked up one of its balls, which were identical to that of a slime's, except it was made out of lava.
I marked my spot now, in order not to get any more lost than I already was, and continued on through the fortress, until I heard, in the distance, a skeleton. Surprised that there were such creatures in the nether, I tried my best to avoid it, as I did not want to be sent plummeting to my death thanks to a skeleton. Finally, I saw in the distance a cage, not unlike the one in which the mother spider was in.
I ran up to the cage and waited for the monster inside of it to reproduce. The book told me about these monsters, called Blazes, which dropped blaze rods, needed for tracking down legendary Stronghold, which hosts the portal to the end. Blazes were, according to the book, flying monsters which set you on fire when you came in contact with them, so I waited from afar with my bow and arrow ready.
The first Blaze came, and I immediately shot it, but it didn't die, so I shot it a second time, and it fell to the floor. I ran up to it, picked up its rods, and ran back to my safe spot, again waiting for the Blazes. The next time, two came at the same time, rather than one, I managed to kill one before the other one through fire at me from a distance.
Completely unprepared, I ran away, but the charges were too fast, all three caught me from behind, and soon I found myself caught on fire.
