Rift wake up to the sound of an explosion. His head jolted up as he woke up and grabbed his sword instinctively off the ground next to his sleeping mat and held it in a defensive position. After realizing he was in no immediate danger, he was outside of his red tent. He looked around for the source of the explosion, but the forest he was in looked just like it was last night.

Was I just dreaming? he thought to himself. But then it happened again. This time it was definitely real. He could see the smoke rising in the distance behind a hill covered in oak trees. Making sure to put on his iron chest plate and grabbing his shield, he dashed to the foot of the hill and began climbing. It was only fifteen blocks tall, but Rift quickly ascended to the top.

He stood atop the tree looking out looking for any craters. There was only one that he could see. It was still smoking. Rift quickly slid down the hill slope riding his shield like a surf board and onto a small clearing surrounded by forest. Suddenly, a young girl came running out of the trees. She wore a dark pink T-shirt with blue jeans and a backpack on her. She had a look of fear in her eyes as she quickly drew a wooden sword. A creeper jumped out of the woods, too. The girl flailed her sword around, trying to hit it. The creeper got hit once, but it was only annoyed. The girl went running again with the creeper in hot pursuit.

Rift sprinted past her, slicing the creeper with his sword and pushing it back. The green creature started hissing and flashing, but Rift smacked it with his shield and stabbed it through the head, killing it and leaving some gunpowder behind.

After sheathing his sword, he turned to the girl. She had her eyes wide open.

"Whoa..."

Rift approached her. "Are you ok?"

The girl snapped back to reality. "Oh, yeah. It's just...wow..."

She seemed unrealistically impressed.

"Do you have a house or shelter? We're miles from any town or city."

"I know, I was supposed to be somewhere by now, but I tried to travel at night. A few mobs started chasing me so I ran. Then I slept in a tree for the night, only to wake up to a creeper on top of it. You know the rest."

Rift realized she looked afraid of just remembering the events of last night.

"Hey, I'm going somewhere too, wanna tag along? I might be able to help you with your quest after mine."

The girl's face lit up.

"Thank you! My name is Sydney by the way."

"No problem, the name's Rift."

Rift and Sydney started back to their shared route, with Rift running over to his tent. He opened his personal chest and took back his supplies and a wrapped package. Rift stepped out and kept walking with her back to Town.

"I'm heading to Azure city. You going there or anywhere else?" Rift asked. Sydney tried to put her parrot back in her bag, but he kept flying out and back to her shoulder.

"I'm supposed to be at a convention near Azure City, but I'm not sure where it is. Maybe you can show me after you get done with, well, what are you doing?" Sydney said while her parrot nuzzled her head.

"If I told you that, I would have to gut you..." Rift said menacingly to her. Sydney looked legitimately afraid for a moment.

"Nah, just kidding. I'm supposed to deliver something. You?"

She wiped off her scared face off when she heard that"I'm just going on family terms."

"What kind?"

"My father works up there and is showing off some kind of machine he's been working on for years. I need to see it in person after hearing about it in letters."

"I think I know what your talking about... Tomorrow I'll show you around the city, maybe we can find it."

"I hope so. I haven't seen my father for a year."

Rift put away his chest plate and sword, "Redstone, huh? Very profitable profession. You any good?"

"I'm alright", Sydney replied,"My father is waaaay ahead of me."




***




Amber city sat upon a giant mountain, surrounded by a huge and thick stone wall lined with yellow terracotta lining it. The city was mostly made of yellow bricks and clay with palaces and castles. The city seemed to be made of gold which reflected how much wealth the guild had.

There was a festival at the center of town, celebrating the return of a hero. The actual center was a fountain twelve blocks long with many sprouts. Dozens of people cheered as a dark skined man rode onto the city streets on a horse with diamond armor on it. The man had orange and black armor with an enchanted diamond sword on his back. His jet black hair moved with the wind as he waved to everyone there.

This was Topaz. The leader and best fighter of the Amber Guild. Behind him were many other soldiers on horses leading big cages on wheeles that held inprisoned rebels and rogue warriors with a vendetta against the guild.

However, all of the cheering stopped when a shadow desended upon the city. Everyone looked up when they noticed it, realizing there was more than one.

There was a fleet of floating ships armed with cannons pointed at them all.

"You think squids have feelings?" Sydney asked.

"What? Well, I've never considered it before... I always thought they were too derpy to feel"

Rift and Sydney bot slowly walked across a huge fallen tree that made a bridge across a crevice twenty blocks long. They were coming out of the forest and into a desert. A few desert villages and towns could be seen over the golden hills in the distance. The end of the ancient tree led into the sand at the edge of the sand.

A few skeletons and zombies hid in the shade at the bottom, nearly hidden in fog.

"Ugh," Sidney groaned.

Rift looked at her. "Don't worry, you get used to the heat eventually."

"No, I just hate sand. It's dry and coarse, and gets everywhere...How much longer do we have to go?" she moaned.

"We're almost there, about an hour away. Besides, there are some towns we might visit for supplies. I'm getting hungry, and I know a place that has the best pork chops in the biome."

As they kept walking through the sand getting closer to a town, a large structure rose in the distance, dancing with the ripples of heat.

"Is that it? I thought it would be in plains...or something, ya know, because of the water theme or something." Sydney wiped sweat off of her forehead.

"It's on a mountain. Wait until you see it, It has a lot more than what you can see from here. There's a marketplace, battle arenas, anything you could want. There's also a convention center underground. That's probably where your father would be."

Then Sydney noticed something in the distance. A villager in a brown robe kicking some redstone contraption halfway in the sand. yelling at it for being stupid. It seemed to be made of some pistons and slimeblocks.

"Hey! You need any help?!" she called to him, the villager turned at them while waving at the to come closer.

Rift squinted his eyes at the man and his machine.

"Huh, he looks familiar... Wait..."

"I'm going to see if I can help him. I'm good at redstone." She started running towards him.

By the time Sydney ran up the man who was only ten blocks away, Rift suddenly realized something.

"Sydney wait!"

Rift sprinted up to them, drawing his sword and getting ready. The villager's eyes widened for a moment, before bringing out a dagger and a spear from his bag. Rift blocked his attack and kicked his dagger from his hand.

"Rift, what are you doing?!" Sydney yelled as she backed up from them.

"This guy isn't who he seems!", the villager slammed his fist on Rift's head, making his vision blurry for a second. Rift backed up and away from his reach to recover for a moment. The villager stopped for a moment, realizing something.

"Okay, you got me. But that's only because we met before!"

"Huh? How do you know each other?"

Rift finally got his vision relatively normal and stood his ground.

"He's a killer. He poses as an inventor with a broken flying machine while luring travelers to him. Once they try to fix the thing.... He stabs you in the back. Me and some friends tried crossing this desert at night once, and saw someone seemingly just needing help. He nearly killed us just for some easy loot while we lowered our guard."

Sydney was shocked by this and moved away from the villager more. The villager snickered for a moment.

"Honestly didn't expect to see you again, I thought deserts were too dirt to heroes like you!"

"Shut it!" Rift slashed his spear in half and punched him straight in the jaw. The villager fell to the sand while Rift quickly took out a lead. He knelt down and tied his hands together. Rift brought him back up and made sure his hands were tightly bonded.

"You're coming with us to Azure City for your crimes. Sydney, stay away from this guy until he's off our hands."

Sydney went back to the machine in the sand. "Hey, this thing looks like it could work! If I can get this thing working..."

She placed a slime block and used a flint and steel on the side of a piston.

"Sydney, I'm not sure if it-"

Suddenly, the machine started up and towards the city, moving a few blocks at a time. Sydney turned to him and smiled.

"Ok... Might as well", Rift said as he and the villager tried to keep up with it.




***




Topaz stumbled through a forest, hurt and battered. He limped through a river, Climbed up a mountain, and shuddered through a tundra wasteland. But he would not give up... He needed to find someone, anyone to spread the message that Amber City had fallen.

His friends, family, and fame had been stripped away when he was nearly killed in the invasion, and he needed to get the word out. The only problem was that the nearest town or city was miles away. Amber City was born as a mining colony, so naturally it was remote city with a lot of wealth.

He finally made his way into a foggy forest with tall and thick trees. His armor charred and scratched, he would not quit until he found someone, then he would write a letter to all of the other guilds, detailing what happened, if there was paper that is...

Then he saw it. A cabin in between a few trees huddled together. A soft glow came from the windows, but nobody seemed home. He knocked on the door a few times, but no answer. He then noticed a note on the door.

'Went out fishing, I'll be back by the weekend.'




No luck. Topaz kept going, though. This was his mission, and he would not give up no matter what...

He suddenly heard a whining sound. Topaz went behind the house to see a small fenced off area behind the house with a few blocks of hay inside with a beautiful black horse. It seemed so alone here, and looked very bored.

'Why would someone just leave their horse here?', Topaz thought as he grabbed the note from the door and wrote a note on the back. He posted the note to the fence explaining that he would need the horse to help him get somewhere, and that he would be back eventually with it.

Topaz opened the gate, and the horse moved backwards away frightened.

"Hey hey, it's ok. I just need your help, is that alright?"

The horse looked back at him, suspicious.

"Look, I just need a ride, then I can take you back. Deal?"

The horse whined at him, still backing away.

Topaz looked around, trying to find something he could use to coax the horse to letting him ride it. He noticed that the trees around him were growing apples, but the pen was too far away for the horse to reach them. Topaz went out and picked a few from the trees and held them out to the horse. The horse slowly walked forward with it's eyes locked on him, then took a big bite out of one of the apples.

Topaz let him eat some more while petting him, then he slowly climbed on his back.

"Ok, if you help me out with this, you can have as many apples as you want!"

The horse neighed to the idea and they rode off and out of the forest.




***




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