Chapter 4

Chapter 4 DONT BUILD WALLS BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS. DO BUILD HALLS BETWEEN YOU AND HOSTILE MOBS OF UNKNONN ORIGIN. Po stepped out of the Shack in time to see the Evoker King splitting apart. Po was usually quick with a joke. He didn't take many things seriously. Even when Minecraft got scary, he usually remembered that it was a game. But this wasn't funny. What if the Evoker King crumbled to dust before their very eyes? What if their new friend was just…shattered? Broken? Destroyed? Po had to do something! He crossed the grass in a hurry. Then he wrapped his arms around the Evoker King's stony surface.

Maybe if he squeezed tightly enough, he could hold him together. Maybe not. There was a great flash of light and a sound like breaking pottery. Po flew backward—wings and all —and crashed into his friends. They tumbled to the ground in a heap. When Po lifted his head off the ground, the air was thick with curls of smoke and something bright and colorful, flickering and flitting. Butterflies? There weren't supposed to be butterflies in Minecraft, but Po could swear he saw them fluttering through the smoke. Maybe he just had butterflies on the brain.

He strained his eyes. Just barely, he could see something else moving in the smoke. Something much bigger than a butterfly… "Is…is that you, E.K.?" he asked. There was no answer except a low growl. "That sure didn't sound like him," said Morgan. Po still couldn't make out many details through the smoke and dust. Was that…a wing? A huge rocky fist? A pig snout? Something was very, very wrong here. Po started laying down a row of blocks. Stone, dirt, brick—anything and everything he had in his inventory. "Wall. NOW!" he shouted.

Harper quickly joined him. They didn't stop until there was a low wall between them and…whatever was out there. "What did you see?" asked Morgan. Po just hushed him. They all waited in silence for a long minute. They heard grunting and growling and a series of wet snorts. Then they heard flapping wings and trudging feet. All the sounds began to get farther away. Finally, there was silence. Po waited another minute before he poked his head above the wall. There was nothing there. Just a crater where the Evoker King had once stood.

"What in the world was that?!" Jodi cried, leaving the safety of the wall to peer into the crater. "That shouldn't have been possible," said Harper. "I GOT THE ENCHANTMENT RIGHT…I KNOW I DID." "Maybe someone else should take this thing," Theo said, setting down the glowing pickaxe. "I feel sick." "I don't understand what happened," Po said. He looked around. "Did the Evoker King just explode? Is he…gone? Forever?" "Maybe not," said Jodi. "LOOK OVER HERE. FOOTPRINTS!" Po saw what she meant. There was a line of little squares leading away from the crater, across the grass, and into the nearby forest. Those squares looked like small, blocky footsteps. Morgan seemed suspicious. "Since when are there footprints in Minecraft?" "Well, I can explain that one, at least," Theo said. He snuck a guilty look at Morgan. "It's a mod."

"DOC MADE A FOOTPRINT MOD?" said Po. "Why haven't we noticed it before now?" "It's not one of Doc's," Theo said. "IT'S ONE OF MINE." Morgan frowned. "I thought I told you not to add any new mods," he said. "But I did this before you said that," Theo said quickly. "And this mod is harmless. And helpful!" He smiled. "I did it for Ash. This way, if we ever leave our Shack without her, she can just follow our footprints to find us." "Sure," said Morgan. "But what else might follow our footprints? What if this mod leads monsters right to us?" Theo's smile evaporated. "I don't think that will happen." "You don't think so," said Morgan. "But that's the point. You aren't sure. You're being reckless!" "Morgan," said Jodi. "Don't be mean." "I'm not being mean!" Morgan argued. "Unlike Theo, I'm being a team player. When you're on a team, you talk about this stuff before you do it." He turned to face Theo. "Okay, Theo? YOU CAN'T JUST DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO, BECAUSE IT AFFECTS US ALL."