It was pouring with a heavy rain outside his bedroom window, and the house smelled of fish more than anything else much to his annoyance. His parents and younger sister had decided to go fishing on Christmas Eve and had brought home various bait and fish the night before, which explained why his home now reeked of a fish market. Collin sighed and collapsed onto his bed feeling bored out of his mind. He figured his family would probably arrive home late and as their family tradition, they were not allowed to open any presents until Christmas morning.
He thought about logging into Minecraft and finding a snow biome to create his perfect Christmas home and that was when an idea had popped into his head. In a hurry, he jumped out of bed, retrieved the ender dragon egg from the corner of his wardrobe hidden behind some clothes and placed it on the end of his bed. Collin also reached for his phone on his bedside table and vigorously began texting his friends.
Hey guys, can u drop by my house tonight after dinner? i have something i wanna show u, he texted to both Scarlett and Sam. He smiled knowing that they were all in for some fun tonight. He had waited for the perfect moment to show them the egg and what it can do, and tonight would be the perfect opportunity.
🎄 🎄 🎄
"Holy nuggets! Are we seriously trapped in Minecraft again?" Sam asked with astonishment.
When Sam and Scarlett had arrived at Collin's home after dinner, he had enthusiastically shown them the ender dragon egg and had asked them all to place their hand on it. Within seconds, they had teleported to the world of Minecraft and conveniently, into a snow biome.
"Yes and no... I mean, we are in the world of Minecraft, but this time, we have an easy way back to the real world." Collin brought out the ender dragon egg from his inventory and showed them. "We can activate this egg and it'll send us back home whenever we please."
Sam's mouth dropped opened. "No. Freaking. Way. You mean that dragon egg is a teleporter in-between the real world and the world of Minecraft? How cool is that!"
Scarlett was not as excited. She raised an eyebrow at Sam in question. "Why didn't you tell us this sooner? It's been over two years since we were trapped in Minecraft."
Collin scratched his head. "I don't know, to be honest. I guess we were all so busy with school and life that I kinda forgot about the egg at times. And I guess I wanted to find the right moment to show you guys." He gazed up at the sky, which was snowing peacefully but starting to darken.
"Hey, that looks like a house," Sam said as he pointed at something in the distance. "It's getting dark, so we better find some shelter. I say we check that building out." He began running through the snowy fields towards the faraway building whilst being careful not to run into any snowy trees.
"That's actually not a bad idea," Scarlett said with a shrug as she grabbed Collin's hand and dragged him towards where Sam was going. Even after two years of dating her, Collin could not help being mesmerised by his girlfriend's beautiful long red hair that trailed behind her whenever she moved. Except, Scarlett had decided to cut her hair short last month and although it now only reached to her shoulders rather than past it like it used to, he still found her hot.
As they continued running through the snow, they soon came across a festive-looking wooden house with snow golems guarding the area from aggressive mobs. It was now night time and Collin nervously walked to the front door and knocked with Scarlett and Sam following closely behind. They heard a rush of footsteps coming from inside and sure enough, the door was swung open to reveal someone in full enchanted gold armour.
"Collin!" Greg shouted in surprise and grabbed him in a hug. "You came just in time for Christmas Eve." He let go and looked past Collin to see who the other two guests were. "Is that?"
"Yup, that's Scarlett and Sam. You remember them, right?" Collin asked with a grin.
"Of course I do! How could I forget?" he admitted as he gave Sam and Scarlett a warm hug as well.
"Wow, it's good to see you again," Sam said as he hugged him back.
"Yeah... it's been so long since we last met. What have you been up to?" Scarlett asked.
"Nothing much to be honest. Well... I've actually been working on this Christmas house for the past month and was just about to cook dinner. Are you guys here to stay the night? We could celebrate Christmas Eve and fight skeletons and zombies after dinner like good old times."
Collin shared excited glances with Scarlett and Sam. "Sure, we'll stay the night and we can help you prepare dinner. In fact, we should make a Christmas feast!"
"Excellent, I'll work on the Christmas turkey and you guys can sort out the rest of the food," Greg announced proudly.
"There are turkeys in Minecraft now?" Collin asked.
Greg smiled sheepishly. "Well actually... I meant Christmas chicken. Close enough, right?"
🎄 🎄 🎄
Having Christmas Eve dinner at Greg's place was the most fun Collin had had in a while. Sam shared horrifying stories of high school whilst Greg told them of his lonely but epic adventures across the many different Minecraft biomes. Scarlett then promised him that they would visit him more often and blamed Collin for not telling them of the ender dragon egg sooner. After stuffing down baked potatoes, roasted chicken, buckets of milk and a cake, Greg had announced that they should head out and hunt mobs together in the night as he needed some bones and gunpowder for a new project he was working on.
As Sam and Greg charged into the dark snowy fields with weapons ready, Scarlett and Collin snuck off towards a nearby hill to admire the view. A snowy forest stretched for miles as they stared down the hill and Collin enjoyed the moment as he held Scarlett's ever-warm hand. There was just something magical about spending Christmas Eve with the people he loved.
"Do you remember our first date in the real world?" he asked her.
Scarlett turned to look at him and smiled. "You mean when you asked me out and bought me ice cream from that new café? Yeah, I remember that. It was sweet of you to do that when I was actually feeling kind of sad because my parents were always fighting during that time."
"Your parents were fighting? I didn't know that... I hope it never happens to us."
They continued to enjoy their view in silence before Collin spoke up again, "hey... did you notice that the creepers are wearing Santa hats now? Do you think they'll explode confetti?"
"Why don't you test that theory out by walking up to one?" Scarlett teased as she pointed at one of the creepers in the distance.
"Um on second thought, never mind." Collin turned to face her and his brown eyes met her amber-coloured ones. "Have I ever told you that you have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen?"
"Yeah, like about a hundred times," Scarlett replied with a laugh. She then brushed back her hair, closed her eyes and leaned towards him. Collin also closed his eyes and began leaning towards her.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS LOVEBIRDS!" Greg and Sam suddenly shouted out of nowhere and began pelting them with snowballs.
Collin glanced down at his watch and noticed that it was indeed, 12 am in the morning in the world of Minecraft. A snowball then came in contact with his face and he could hear Sam and Greg laughing like maniacs. He wiped the snow from his face and gave them disapproving looks.
Scarlett was even more furious. "Oh my gosh you freaking stalkers! How dare you interrupt us and throw snowballs at us!" She brought out a blaze rod and it lit up in her hands as if becoming enchanted. Rapidly, she began swinging the rod at Greg and Sam and it was not long before fireballs began flying towards them.
"Run!" Sam yelled as he and Greg started sprinting away from Scarlett's fiery snowballs.
Their wild laughter could still be heard as they ran down the hill with a furious Scarlett chasing them. Collin could not help smiling as he tried to catch up with his girlfriend to try and calm her down. "Merry Christmas everyone!" he yelled loudly through the snow biome as he ran after his friends.