Continuing around the corner, the rest of the tunnel was pitch black. THEROS lit a torch and gave it to UOPETA to illuminate our path ahead. The tunnel went on for some time; despite the obvious excavated way in which the stairs had been that led down to the tunnel, and the way the spring had been avoided, the tunnel itself was surprisingly random. Maybe a tunnel had been dug randomly to find the portal, and the tunnel had merely been something that had already been here... There were no signs of tool markings on any of the stone, so it was likely that was the case. After some time, we could see a light up ahead, and UOPETA extinguished the torch. The light was too bright to be emanating from a portal, nor was it giving off a purplish hue. It was flickering though which suggested more torches, and possibly a guard! We all took out our blowpipes, ready for anything! We edged closer and closer. When we were within a few metres of the entrance, we could hear sounds... Not the sounds of a guard... Or even a human! A Creeper maybe? We would have to be careful. We reached the opening where the light poured from, to be met with a horrid sight! Embedded into the wall on the far side was an active secondary portal, with an Affinitas cage close by. But what was the most horrifying of all were the two figures standing with their backs to us in the corner... SKELETONS!!! The animated bones of two dead humans were standing within metres of us, holding primitive bows!
We all backed off, not wanting to draw their attention. I was terrified! I didn't know what to do, but UOPETA seemed to have a plan, regardless of the alarming situation we had found ourselves in:
"Right... Skeletons... They had no flesh so the blowpipes are useless! We need brute force and speed! They are likely to be slow. I can't back that up, it's just a hunch. Syeonyx, give me your pickaxe. I have an idea. Get your bow ready. When I give the signal, fire an arrow into the head of the skeleton I don't hit! Got it?"
I don't know why, but I nodded immediately. Had I got it? Was he attempting to attack them head on? I unslung my bow, and readied an arrow, and then passed the pickaxe to him... What was he going to do? Use it as a club? We moved back up to the entrance, my heart in my mouth and my pulse racing way above normal! THEROS remained behind us, whilst I stood a few feet behind UOPETA. He knelt down, and then signalled a countdown on his hand. When he got to one, he threw the pickaxe at the skeleton to the left. Without hesitation, I fired my arrow. The skeleton which UOPETA had attacked, fell to the floor, the pick embedded into it's skull. I had aimed for the socket of the upper arm that carried the bow, and surprisingly I hit home. Just as intended, the arm fell to the ground, totally defenceless. It turned around to attack regardless of the missing arm, it's empty sockets staring me down, it's jaw twisted into that horrid grimace. UOPETA acted quickly, removed the pickaxe from the other's head, and tore the ribs from the remaining one. The skeleton buckled slightly, but remained standing, and attempted to attack UOPETA, swinging it's one good arm. It missed, and UOPETA span and took out one of it;s legs. It tumbled to the floor in pieces, creating the sound of an out-of-tune xylophone! For good measure, UOPETA smashed his foot into the skull, and it shattered, spraying bone fragments across the chamber... UOPETA stood there panting slightly.
"That was eventful..."
After killing the skeletons, we quickly destroyed the Affinitas cage. We assumed that the skeletons were indigenous to the Nether as well as the Creepers, and destroying that will stop them from being lured into Minecraftia through the portal. We then destroyed the portal using the Solus stone, and sat in silence for some time, collecting our thoughts... I had never seen a skeleton before. I had only heard of them from my father, who said my mother had been killed by one... The other two had never seen them either, and we were beginning to wonder if HoN Co. had had a part in their arrival too!
"Maybe they're not letting on that we're as big a threat to them as we initially thought... Maybe they see as a big threat, and they're willing to throw anything at us to stop us! If they're willing to genetically alter Creepers..."
"OROTHO never said that had been proved! He still maintains the possibility that someone else could have done that!"
"So what now? Are HoN Co. animating the dead against us? Or is this the illusive person again?"
"I don't know... I don't want to know... Skeletons give me the creeps, they always have... It's their skull. The fact that under all of that flesh and muscle, is a constantly grinning face, with empty eye sockets! We all look the same, deep down under our fleshy outer parts..."
"That doesn't matter now. We need to get to the next one, and staying here could mean more trouble for us! his could still be a trap! Those skeletons were likely to be part of it. Why else would there be an Affinitas cage next to an active portal?"
UOPETA was right. We had to keep moving. We had a job to do, and sitting around in a dark hole was tempting fate. If what dad had said about mom was true, I didn't want to go the same way. In fact, helping to kill two skeletons was an incredibly uplifting feeling, and despite the constant fatigue, that one moment had rejuvenated me! I stood up and started to head out of the hole, with the other two following close behind.
The next one was even less of a journey, just off to the West for a short walk. It had begun to rain since entering the first portal location, but we had been rained on enough times for it not to be a problem any more. We got there in good time, but the location was very deceptive. We had arrived at a small sandy beach area, way inland, surrounded by tall cliffs... What now? Was the portal in one of the caves that were dotted around the cliff edges, or did we have to dig? Again... I stayed high up to look around in some of the caves, whilst UOPETA and THEROS made their way down to the bottom of the cliff floor. We decided to do a thorough search of the area before attempting any excavation.
Despite the initial enormity of the task, we eventually found the portal after a few minutes of searching. It was indeed in one of the caves, and quite close to the entrance too! It was good as well, because THEROS was ready to begin digging up the sandy area hoping to find it there. This one was also active, but it was not protected by Creepers, guards or skeletons. In fact there wasn't even an Affinitas cage, despite thorough searching of the entire cave. What was odd was the lack of the moss that had appeared at almost every other active portal site so far... Maybe the moss and lichen were coincidental... We had never proved that the moss came from the Nether anyway.
We quickly destroyed the portal, staying for awhile to have something to eat, allow the Solus stone to recharge, and to cross off the three portals we had destroyed so far. It wasn't easy going; it was mentally and physically tiring, and I had had enough encounters with creatures from the Nether to last me a lifetime! Creepers, skeletons, giant spiders, and the undead! Hoping that there were no more was a lot to ask. Hoping that they'd all go away was impossible!
"We need to inform OROTHO about the skeletons. We've never encountered them before, and if that was HoN Co.'s doing, we may need to be a LOT more careful in the future! We got lucky today; they didn't see us, and they looked like they were ready to attack us if they had seen us first. Let's just hope if we do run into them again, we either catch them off-guard, or they're atrocious shots! Come on, let's get to the next one. It's a lot farther than the other two..."
Syeonyx signing off
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