April's Problem
April summoned her horse with a whistle, and swung herself up into the saddle. We imitated her, and she took off at a gallop with us riding in her wake.
She skidded to a stop in a shower of red pebbles outside a ramshackle stone house. She bundled us all inside and slid six bolts into place across the door. She sank onto a battered old chair and looked at us. Ali looked out of the window.
“Ah, is the army of evil mobs normal?” she asked, curiously, her backpack morphing slowly into her quiver.
“Yes, that’s my problem,” sighed April. “They’re hunting me,” Ali turned away from the window, smiling hungrily.
“We’ll take care of them,” she promised, her eyes glittering. April stared at her.
“Really? You can fight that?” She pointed out of the window and we all looked. Advancing slowly on the house was a horde of mobs – ghasts, skeletons, zombie pigmen, wither skeletons… all the mobs of the Nether. Ali pulled out her bow.
“This is going to be fun,” she laughed. Glancing at her, I spotted the trademark Ali battle face – eyes half closed, grinning like a Cheshire Cat. April looked nervous, and I put and arm around her shoulders.
“We’ll teach you a few moves first,” I pointed out, and she half-smiled.
We pushed all the furniture to one side of the single room, and gathered in the centre.
“Okay, April, you can leave most of the mobs to us, but you need to defend yourself. It a ghast – the white ones – tries to fireball you, hit it back with your sword. Okay, Nat, throw the ball,” Natalie tossed the ball we were using for practice towards April, who smashed it away with her sword. Sami ducked it neatly and grinned.
“Nice one!” she complimented, and April blushed. We practiced dodging arrows, blocking fireballs, and fighting techniques for five minutes, then climbed a ladder out onto the roof. Ali crouched at the edge and aimed her bow, nocking an explosive arrow. She fired, the arrow landing square on target, lodged in the ribcage of a wither skeleton, before exploding, shattering every skeleton in a ten-foot radius into a pile of bones, which crumbled into dust. A ghast spat a fireball at April, who deftly smacked it back, hitting the culprit between its glowing red eyes with its own fireball.
“Returned to sender!” she laughed gleefully, ducking an arrow, and she leaped off of the roof. Cass dived after her, and together they slashed their way through a troop of zombie pigmen, neatly dodging the retaliation of the angry mobs. Prim sprang off of the roof and started fighting, cutting down the advancing mobs.
I ducked a couple of arrows, returned a fireball and somersaulted down into the fray, landing beside Prim, just in time to cut a skeleton in half as it aimed an arrow at Ali. Sami and Natalie were fighting side-by-side, kicking their way through growing piles of zombie-pigman-dust.
Fair exchange is no robbery...