The Darkness

First

When we got out to the prairie, we looked to the sky to see the sun peeking over the trees of the distant forest. We quickly stood in a circle, trying to win the race against time.

"Okay, this potion will be really powerful, so you need to time your jumps early so that you don't trip, got it?" Bodil instructed. We all nodded in agreement. Then Bodil threw the potion the ground, causing it to shatter and spray the magic liquid on us. Then we started across the prairie, the shadows growing longer.

"Woah, Starlight, you're glowing!" Ez yelled. I stopped to look at myself, causing Husky to scream and smack into me, making us summersault over and over. When we stopped tumbling I unsteadily stood up, the world spinning around me. I looked down to see that I was glowing, small sparkly particles floating around me. Everyone soon came back, light blue trails following them.

"Are you two okay?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah, just took me by surprise, that's all." Husky replied.

"Why am I glowing?" I asked catching a particle, "I don't usually glow, especially not at night." Then Dave tapped my shoulder and pointed at the sky, a full moon coming into view. We all looked skyward at the glowing sphere.

"Maybe it is the full moon?" Samantha asked.

"It would make sense, this is the first full moon since we've gotten here." Ant replied. Then we heard a screeching noise from our left. We all turned to see a group of seven spiders running at us at full speed.

"Run!" Bodil cried and everyone turned and sprinted towards the village, the spiders hot on our heels. They started to shoot webs at us, so I turned, levitated their webs and threw them back at them, sticking them in place. I continued to run after my friends, their angry screeches echoing behind me. When we got into the woods we stopped, panting, the potions had worn off. We waited for Ant to pull out the map, who was frantically looking through his items.

"Dang it! I can't find it, I think I forgot to grab it when we left." Ant sighed.

"Don't worry, Clash taught me his tree climbing skill. I'll find it, just follow the light." I said, winking and jumping up into a tree.

"Ha, ha. Very funny." Jordan mocked. When I got to the top I looked around and saw a group of lit buildings. I hopped and glided through the trees until I reached the area just beyond the village wall, allowing the group to catch up to me. Unfortunately, my glowy-ness alerted them of our presence, causing the skeletons to take aim and the zombies to walk towards us threateningly. Then Dave jumped out in front of us, shielding us. The other zombies stopped and walked up to him. They started making a series of groaning noises.

"What are they saying?" Bodil asked, whispering.

"I don't know! I don't speak zombie!" Ant replied. Then the other zombies waved at the others and they continued on as if we were never there, Dave waving us over. The zombies then walked us past the creepers and into the village.

"Thank you." I said to Dave who nodded in reply.

"Hello, Strangers! I welcome you to our humble village!" A villager in a white tunic said, "Where are you from?"

"We are from Glowstone Pond." I replied. The villager stared at us in shock. "Are you guardians of the temple?"

"Well, kind of." I replied.

"We live there with a lot of other minecrafters, in tree houses around the pond." Samantha replied.

"How did you find it?" He asked appalled.

"Well when Starlight here was embedded with the Light energy, a lot of us thought the blinking was a distress signal, so we followed it." Husky replied.

"You...you're the Light?" He asked in excitement.

"Well...yeah." I replied. He walked over and vigorously shook my hand.

"No wonder you are glowing! It's a pleasure to be in your presence, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Don and I'm the leader of this village." He said motioning to the area around us.

"My name is Starlight and these are my friends: Samantha, Ez, Dave, Ant, Jordan, Bodil and Husky." I said, pointing to each person in turn.

"So what have you come for? It must be important if you made such a daring trek at night." Don asked, concerned.

"Yes, our friend is sick and we were hoping you guys would have a doctor that could help him." Ant replied.

"We do, but which one of you is sick? You all look like the definition of perfect health." Don asked, confused.

"He is back at our village, we were planning to link your village to our base with Star portals, so we could easily get him to and from." Ant explained.

"It would also help us if we had trade opportunity with your village and the portal would allow a quick way to get to the safety of the light field nearby in case of an emergency." Jordan added.

"It's a nice thought, but what if the darkness gets into the village through the portal?" Don asked.

"They can't because it's made of my energy, it won't allow them." I explained.

"Oh, well in that case, I think it's a brilliant idea!" Don exclaimed. "I have a good place to put it, follow me." We followed him as he walked through the village, weaving between houses and farms filled with wheat, carrots and potatoes. Eventually we came to a large tree in the village's center. It was at least five blocks thick and it's branches spread out over the clearing, keeping it in a shadow. He stopped and looked up at the large tree. "We planted this tree when we founded this village, and now it serves as our town square. If you put it here, your people will have an easy way to get back to the portal incase they get lost."

"Thanks! All right, lets do this!" Ez exclaimed, taking out the roses. I turned each one into a star flower and Samantha placed them in the correct shape as I levitated them in place, as Don watched in curiosity. Then Jordan took out the flask of my energy and threw it in the middle, causing the portal to glow with light grey light.

"That's so cool!" Bodil cried.

"Indeed it is." Don agreed.

"So...who's going first?" Samantha asked, shakily. None of us had ever been through a portal before. Everyone just looked at each other.

"I vote for Starlight all in favor say 'I'!" Ez quickly said, raising his hand.

"I!" Everyone but me replied, also raising their hands. I face palmed.

"Fine." I replied, stepping up to the portal. I slowly stuck my hand through, not feeling anything different I placed a foot in and fell into it. The inside was pure white and it felt like I was falling. I opened my wings, trying to slow myself down, but to no avail. I looked down to see a four pointed star shape with a moving picture of the glowstone lake that showed people walking around the clearing. I closed my wings and fell into the star, getting launched out of the portal at the pond, landing on my face. I got up and shook my head, grass falling out of my hair. Then I ran and jumped into the portal, but this time I was going the direction I was moving when I entered. I came to the conclusion that the portal responded to the direction you are moving when you enter, which is why it felt like I was falling the first time I entered since I stepped down. Before I knew it I was launched out of the portal, everyone screamed as I crashed into Ez.

"Oww!" Ez cried as I landed on him.

"Sorry, but that's Karma for you." I apologized, standing up.

"Yeah, I guess I deserved that." Ez replied, brushing himself off.

"So what is it like?" Ant asked.

"Well, the gravity changes based on what direction you're going when you enter it." I tried.

"What?" Husky replied, everyone stared at me, confused expressions on their faces.

"You'll get it once you try it." I stated, "come on, lets go get Seto."