Watched (a MCSM fanfic)

Chapter 19: Worlds

Jess's POV.

I landed hard on the ground. The rest of them landed next to me, Griffin flapping her wings to prevent collision.

"I hate you," Petra #2 muttered.

Griffin grinned. "Welcome to the Flame Spikes world."

I glanced around at our surroundings. We were all standing on a patch of glowstone, surrounded by magma blocks.

"Oh, com'on!" Lukas complained.

"Which is exactly why I brought this," Griffin said, pulling out a splash potion of fire resistance. She splashed it on us. "This should give us about three hours, I think.  Let's go."

We walked through the fiery landscape, admiring the lava flowing down in cascading falls. In a way, it resembled the Nether, with the fire and everything, but instead of the reddish colored air, it was more of thick clouds with reddish-orange tinges. I realized why this world was called Flame Spikes: there seemed to be lava spikes protruding from the ground, the lava beautifully suspended in midair, as if it could drop on us immediately. The area, like the Nether, was lit with glowstone. It had a mythical feel to it, which sent tingles up my spine.

We walked along in silence. "Doesn't it seem...too quiet?" Petra #2 interrupted.

"It does, doesn't it?" Lukas agreed. We moved along faster.

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" I asked Griffin.

"No."

Jesse's POV.

We jumped through the portal, as I felt the familiar sensation of portal traveling flow through my body once more. I was excited to see what this world was like, and to say I was surprised when I looked around was an understatement. Either we landed in the wrong world or I was having a very strange sense of déjà vu. We had landed on a floating island, much like Sky City. The difference was that there were actually multiple floating islands around us. I looked down, expecting to see sky, but instead, it was a giant smoking pit. I caught a whiff of sulfur before pulling my head away.

"What the heck?!" Petra yelled in my ear, making me wince.

"What?" Axel asked, confused. Then he noticed the floating island and the pit of death. "Ohhhhhhhh."

"Umm......is this where we're supposed to be?" Olivia asked.

"Yep. Welcome to the Skylands," Kitsune said.

"So......how do we......uhhh......move around?" I asked.

"We fly...oh wait." Kitsune rubbed her head sheepishly. "Well, I suppose we could use Elytra...I don't have flying potions with me right now..."

"Elytra? What's that?" Petra asked.

Kitsune looked at her strangely. "You don't know what elytra are?"

We shook our heads. Kitsune sighed, then pulled out a set of gray wings─ or rather, gliders.

"Put these on your back, then, and when you jump, they'll kind of open behind you, and you'll sort of glide downwards instead," she explained.

"But then won't we land in there?" Olivia pointed towards the smoking pit.

"Well, you could do the forty degrees thing..." she trailed off, looking at our confused expressions. "Oh wait, I forgot." She pulled out a few firework rockets. "If you get too low, launch one while facing upwards and you should be propelled up. But don't waste them, because I don't have many." She handed us each twenty fireworks and the elytra.