Chapter 5
Potions and Planning

  Gameknight and Monet ran back inside the village. “Crafter, where’s Crafter?” Gameknight yelled. “Here!” His friend yelled, waving. The siblings sprinted up to him and both started shouting at once. “Woah! One at a time! Start from the beginning,” Crafter said. Gameknight took a deep breath and explained everything. Crafter was silent the whole time, listening carefully.
          “Has there been a pattern?” Monet asked when they were done. “Like, in the attacks.” Crafter looked at her, surprised but pleased a at her question. “Actually, yes.” He said. “Good idea, Sister-of-the-user-that-is-not-a-user.” Monet beamed. Crafter took a piece of paper out of his inventory. “I noticed something, so I wrote it down here.” The paper was covered in neat writing.
      “Basically, the first week it was zombies and skeletons, then it would be zombies and spiders. On Sunday the monsters wouldn’t come. The next week, that’s what we prepared for. But instead, it was skeletons and enderman, then skeletons and creepers. And on Monday there were no attacks.”
        Gameknight cocked his head at the paper. “What about the number of monsters?” He asked. “So far, its been adding ten monsters every week. So, now we’re up to fifty. The types of monsters are split evenly. Void must be pretty good at math.”
     Monet looked worried. “I don’t like that she knew so much about our world. She’s smarter, too.” Gameknight looked worried too. “Monet’s right,” he said. “She knew a lot.”
     Crafter shrugged. “Who knows what Herobrine taught her? Anyway, these week it’s spiders and creepers and spiders and skeletons.”
   “Gameknight, have Crafter give you the paper,” he heard WonderWriter2000 say. “Crafter, can I see the paper? Gameknight asked. His friend handed it to him. Suddenly, WonderWriter2000 appeared out of the middle of the air. All the villagers around them dropped everything they were holding and crossed their arms across their chests. “Hand me the paper,” Wonder keyed in the chat. Gameknight tossed it to her. She studied it.
    “Okay…” she said after a while. “So, this week it should be Wednesday she doesn’t come. And it looks like… next week she’ll come in full circle! It’ll be back to zombies and skeletons.” “But how does that help us?” Gameknight asked. “Easy,” she said. “All we have to do is surround the front of the village with hidden dispensers. We’ll put arrows in them first, then healing potions. We’ll put tripwires all around them, sending out the arrows. They’ll think it was only arrows and they used them up, go in the middle of the circle, and BAM! We activate them again and they’ll die a miserable potiony death.”
      Everyone was staring at her. “I need a book and quill,” she said. Monet gave her one. Wonder wrote down all her plans and handed the book to Gameknight. She disappeared in a blink in a eye, her server thread shooting upward into the sky. All the villagers dropped their arms and picked their tools back up. “Well,” Crafter said. “She’s… energetic.” Gameknight laughed. “Yep,” he said. Crafter frowned, looking down at the book. “The idea is not bad,” he said. “Tricking the mobs into thinking they had used up all our traps so they would surge forward. I can’t wait to crush Void. It won’t just be a attack on her- Herobrine needs to pay for what he did.”
          “This isn’t about Herobrine,” Monet snapped. “And look at yourself! Your excited about destroying her. She’s just a girl! For all we know, Herobrine told her we’re trying to wipe out all the creatures of the dark in Minecraft or something.” Crafter looked at his feet, ashamed. “Your right,” he said. “But  she’s definitely evil. Once we heard her scream about taking Minecraft for herself. She’s young, but she still has to be stopped. She’s probably a virus just like her father.”
    Monet sighed. She knew he was right. “I’m going to go ask Builder about these plans,” Crafter said. “Can you guys go see if Morgana can get us those potions?” Gameknight nodded. “Follow me,” Monet told her brother. They wound back through the village, through the tunnel into Castle Gameknight. Monet pushed open a door on the side of the cobblestone passage, and they stepped into the basement.       Morgana had turned the whole place into a dark potion brewing lab. Torches flickered in the corners and at least twelve brewing stands were bubbling like mad. “Hello, dearest,” a scratchy voice said from the darkness.
            Morgana stepped out of the shadows. Her robes were wrinkled and her hat was crooked. “Gameknight999,” she said. “Nice to see you again.” “Hi, Morgana,” Monet said, running up to the old woman. “We need healing potions for a new battle strategy.”
   “They have to be splash potions,” Gameknight added quickly. Morgana looked thoughtful. “Hmm,” she said. “Luckily for you, I just made a new batch. Their not splash potions yet, but I can add in some gunpowder. There’s also some extra in storage. Monet, you know where it is, can you go get it?”
   Monet ran off. Morgana moved to one of the brewing stations. She carefully took potions off and set them in a chest. Monet came back a moment later, with Harvester behind her. “Gameknight!” Harvester yelled. She ran and hugged him as hard as she could. He laughed and hugged her back. “It’s good to see you, to, Harvester,” he said. Monet stepped forward, grinning through a armful of bottles. “Me and Harvester have have been down here a lot,” she said. “She told me all about the Far Lands and how you guys got out.”
         “Yep,” Harvester said. “Where’s Smithy and Fletcher?” Gameknight asked. “Smithy’s helping out with rebuilding the wall and other things,” Harvester said. “He loves building. And Fletcher-“
  As if on cue, the door opened. “Harvester?” Someone called out. “Harvester, are you down here?”
     Fletcher stepped out of the doorway, the dim torchlight glinting off her waist length black hair. “How do you see down here?” She said, laughing. She caught sight of Gameknight. She froze. “Uh… hi,” she said. “Hi,” he said.
    “What do you need?” Harvester asked. “Uh, Smithy and I need your help,” she said. “We’re getting the beds today, remember?”
   “Oh, right.” Harvester said. “Bye, Monet!” She ran out the door, Fletcher right behind her. Gameknight turned to his sister. “Beds?” He asked. “Crafter gave them a old house to stay in,” Monet told him. “Their still not sure if they’ll stay or go back to the Far Lands.”
    “How would they do that?” Gameknight asked. “No idea,” she said. “I hope they stay,” Morgana sighed. “Harvester has been a big help.”
     “Well, they don’t know. Harvester really likes it here, Smithy isn’t really sure what he wants, and Fletcher is having problems getting used to being around people again.”
    Morgana walked to a brewing station. She scowled. “Great!” She sighed. “Another mix.” “Huh?” Gameknight asked. “Sometimes when I’m trying to make, say, a fire resistance potion, a scrap of blaze powder will still be there. It’ll be a mix of both potions. I always throw them away, it’ll probably poison someone.”
    She handed Gameknight a bottle. It was mostly red, but he could see bright pink streaks. “Huh?” He asked. “It’s Rejuvenation and Healing,” she said. Gameknight studied it, holding the bright liquid up to the light. Click. The puzzle pieces were starting to fall into place. Hope was starting to blossom in his chest.
    He knew how to stop Void.
    Gameknight took a deep breath. He tilted his head back and- gulped down the potion. Morgana and Monet gasped. Part of him thought he was going to fall over dead. But instead, a warm feeling spread through his body as healing searched for any pain he had. He suddenly felt stronger and faster, and like he could sprint through fire.
            He looked up and saw bright pink spirals above him. The girls looked at him with huge eyes, mouths wide open. He grinned at them. “Do I look poisoned to you?” He teased. “It WORKS?!” Morgana yelled.
    “I know what to do now!” He yelled triumphantly. “I know how to stop Void! And the monsters! We’ll use potions of weakness and healing for the zombies, and I’ll figure something out for Void! I gotta go get Crafter!”
       He bolted out of the room, the potion helping him sprint with ease. Monet laughed. “You heard the User-that-is-not-a-user!” She said. “Let’s go!” She spun around, but Morgana yelled “Wait!”.
   Monet stopped, her blue curls still bouncing. Morgana smiled at her, and handed the girl a potion. Orange and silver spirals looped around and around in the glass bottle. “Fire Resistance and Swiftness. In case you need proof.” Monet grinned. The old woman smiled back.
    Monet ran after her brother, hope blossoming in both their hearts.