Chapter 4

Chapter 4 It's a Video Game Rule: Always Climb to the Tallest Point! Jodi was pretty sure Eek left the Nether. The doors were all open on the way to the portal, and Eek had promised them he wouldn't explore the Nether alone. Eek wouldn't break his promise, but he might bend it. That left the Overworld. Without any obvious clues, Ash, Po, and Jodi split up to look in different directions.

"Eek? Eek, are you out here?" No answer. There was nothing in her headset but the sound of her footsteps, Minecraft's gentle music, and the other two saying the same. She couldn't remember the last time she had played like this—wandering around in the quiet, just exploring. At the edge of the forest, she looked around. Where would Eek go? To her left was a wide river, flowing away from their base toward the ocean.

To her right was a snowy mountain, stretching up toward the sun. In the real world, she was shivering and wrapped in a blanket, but in the game, everything was still and calm. She could almost feel the sun. She looked between the two paths—river or mountain? Jodi couldn't say what it was, but she felt the answer. Something about the way the blocks of the ground were stacked or the way the music changed when she looked. Maybe a mob in the distance wiggled in a particular way, or she'd noticed a tree chopped just a bit out of place. She'd felt something like this occasionally since the day she saved the foundation stone from the

Evoker King. She'd touched it for just a second and briefly connected to everything in Minecraft. The foundation stone didn't give Jodi secret cheat codes, make her an amazing fighter, or give her an encyclopedic knowledge of crafting recipes. But sometimes she'd have a feeling, and right now she felt that Eek was on the mountain. "Good idea!" Morgan said as she turned. "You'll have a better view from up there."

Jodi nodded. The taiga ended at flat snowy plains, and the plains continued until the base of the mountain. There, trees sprang up all around the base—a grove! A rabbit and its baby hopped away from her as the sun set, casting the forest in darkness. "Eek? Where are you?" Jodi called. No answer. And the feeling was gone—she would have to find him the regular way. She ran in a spiral up the mountain, pausing every minute or so to listen for anything unusual. "Eek?" Two-thirds of the way up, she heard a snarl. And then a hiss! A wolf and a spider, fighting? Ready to defend the wolf, she raised her sword

and stepped toward the sound. Snarl! Keeowwww! And then quiet. "I am sorry, spider. Thank you for your eye." It was Eek's voice! As Jodi came closer, she found him kneeling on the ground by a dropped spider eye, a snowy wolf sitting patiently beside him. "I do not know what it is for, but I am sure that it is useful." "Mostly potions, I think," Jodi said. "You have a wolf?!" "JODI!" Eek cheered, scooping up the eye and rushing over to her. The wolf trotted lazily beside him. "I am very lost!"