recognize his extremely distinct appearance.
The two friends and councilmen gave each other a quick nod and returned to marching. Jayden shivered in excitement. This was it. The plan had worked, and now the two of them were marching their way toward Nocturia, with the Noctem Alliance none the wiser.
“Do you honestly need to be so loud?”
Kat halted in her tracks, her foot falling to the ground with a loud squishing noise. She clenched her teeth even tighter than they had been, to the point where she imagined that they were near shattering.
“Cassandrix,” she said, trying to keep her head on straight, “this is a swamp. Because we are in a swamp, the ground is very soggy. Therefore, it is difficult for me to walk on it quietly. Do you understand?”
“Well, I seem to be managing just fine,” Cassandrix trilled in reply. “And, of course, considering that we are attempting a sneak attack here, well, I think that we should practice being as quiet as possible. But if you’re not capable of handling that, Kat, I understand… I’m not surprised, but I understand.”
Kat clenched her fists. She wanted to kill the arrogant, stuck-up player who trudged through the swamp in front of her. However, she held herself back. As annoying as Cassandrix was, Kat knew that she had to be the bigger person and deal with it. They were on a mission that might decide the fate of her best friends, and Kat knew that she had to stay focussed.
Nonetheless, she resented the fact that the two of them were being forced to bushwhack their way through miles and miles of swampland instead of simply sneaking a pair of boats out of Diamond Bay Naval Harbour. That was how Stan and the others had gotten to the Mushroom Islands in the first place, and, despite the fact that the Noctem Alliance now had control over the Northwestern Ocean, Kat saw no reason that she and Cassandrix couldn’t do the same thing. However, the police chiefs had overridden them and demanded that the rescue mission stay a secret. Therefore, Kat and Cassandrix had been forced to take a different route, which involved trekking down a long peninsula of uncharted swampland and then sailing to the Mushroom Islands from the north.
Honestly, it wasn’t the prospect of the uncomfortable trek through the swampland that bothered Kat, though. Quite the contrary, she was thrilled at the potential for danger and excitement that the swamp held—it was a far cry from the boring council meetings and debates that had consumed the last few months of her life. Rather, Kat had been turned off to the adventure because of the prospect of dealing with the constant stream of whininess and unbelievable snootiness that would surely be pouring out of Cassandrix’s mouth the entire way.
And sure enough, the trip thus far had lived up to her expectations. The night before, Kat had gotten the opportunity to fight off skeletons, spiders, Creepers and an endless horde of Zombies (she suspected that the Zombies in particular had gotten smarter and stronger during the recent update to Minecraft) with Rex the dog by her side, defending Cassandrix as they set up their shelter for the night. It was great fun, and Kat relished the adrenaline rush of the fight; it felt just like old times again. On the other hand, the entire rest of that night had been nothing but Cassandrix yelling at Kat for letting a Zombie or two reach her and complaining about how gross it was to be spending the night in the soggy and putrid swamp, while Kat had been demanding that she just shut her mouth.
Still fuming, neither one of them had had anything to say to the other all day. Occasionally, Cassandrix had made a snide remark to Kat, which Kat answered with stoic silence, but beyond that they had kept largely quiet. The two simply walked single file, stopping occasionally for a silent meal of bread, as the hours slowly ticked by.
Now the sun was finally beginning to set. The two players continued to trek onwards through the saturated grass and occasional pools of water, but it was becoming more and more difficult to see. Kat was about to suggest that they make camp when she heard a voice from not too far away.
“Ey, guys! Dat spot looks kinda dry! We should camp dere!”
“Shut up!” a second voice hissed, barely audible over the natural ambiance of the swamp.
Cassandrix whipped around and looked at Kat. They locked eyes, saw the panic in each other’s face, and glanced around the swamp, trying to locate a place to hide. As the arguing voices grew closer and closer, Kat’s gaze fell on a stone hole in the moist ground. She drew an Ender Pearl from her inventory and pitched it towards the mine. Kat reached over and grabbed Cassandrix’s arm, and before she could question what was happening, the two girls warped to the inside of the cave.
Cassandrix glanced around wildly, trying to piece together what was going on as Kat waited desperately for Rex. By the time he magically warped beside her, Cassandrix had realized what Kat had done. The two of them scurried downwards into the cave, tailed by Rex, and halted where they were no longer visible from the cave entrance. Hearts pounding, the two girls listened as hard as they could, trying to catch the conversation that was going on above them.
“Why do you always have to talk so loud?” an enraged male voice sounded out from above. “Are you familiar with the term ‘stealth’?”
“Ey, don’t you yell at me!” a stupid-sounding male voice continued loudly on. “I don’t have da control ober how loud by boise is!”
“Shut up!” the angry voice hissed again. Kat was taken aback by the sheer level of harshness in the voice. “Good Lord, you’re useless…”
“Cut it out,” a third voice ordered, this one female, sounding slightly annoyed, yet still deadly serious. “Lay into him all you want later, but right now we have to find a place to stay for tonight.”
“Omigosh, Arachnia, I am, like, so not sleeping in this disgusting suh-wamp!” a fourth, ditzy-sounding female voice replied. “It’s all, like, soggy and stuff, and the Slimes out here leave these, like, icky puddles of goo all over the place! Ew! It’s, like, totally guh-ross.”
“Oh, get over yourself,” spat the third voice, apparently named Arachnia. “Hmm… you’re right about one thing, though… we shouldn’t camp up here—it’s way too out in the open. Come on, guys, let’s head down into that mine over there… That should keep us hidden.”
And, to her horror, Kat heard a symphony of footsteps slogging their way through the grass above and getting louder and louder. Kat realized that Cassandrix had already taken off, running deeper into the mine, and Kat turned on her heel and sprinted in pursuit, Rex hot on her tail. Kat barrelled down the natural stone steps of the mine like a cart on powered rails, sending a few bats flying out of her way in surprise. As the footsteps above suddenly turned into the sharp echoes of feet against stone, Kat dashed faster, finally catching up to Cassandrix, who was standing directly in front of a pool of lava. The cave had led them to a dead end.
Immediately, Kat whipped out her sword and sank into a fighting stance, praying that, whoever these people were, they were peaceful, or at the very least bad fighters. As the footsteps grew louder, another sound registered in Kat’s ears—a rhythmic tapping directly behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and realized that Cassandrix was swinging an iron pickaxe and digging a hole in the wall, just tall and wide enough for them to escape through. Feeling a combination of stupidity for forgetting this option and hope that their escape would go without a hitch, Kat glanced forwards again.
“This spot looks good.” Arachnia’s voice echoed down into the cavern as the footsteps came to a halt. “Creeper Khan, would you mind making the area a bit more… spacious?”
“It would be my pleasure,” the enraged voice,
