Welcome back craftlings to the Minecraft a short stories
podcast. This is episode 75 and is the
second part to the 1,000,000 Play Special, which the main
segment with all the fun little bonus parts, quizzes and all
that was in the last episode, episode 74.
This episode is special for two reasons.
First of all, it's the second part to the 1,000,000 Play
special. And this episode I will be
telling the second part to the end of the hunt, which is a
story submitted by listener Zechariah.
And it's also special because it's episode 75, which means we
are exactly 3/4 of the way to 100 episodes.
So that will be a huge milestone just like the 1,000,000 Plays
was. Anyways, quick updates on the
announcements for the intro of the last one, so the player is
not alone Part 4 it is still in the works is getting close to
completion that will be out soon.
And then the second part to the Patreon story, which is called
the Noble Quest of Salamar. It's a part of the series called
the Hidden Stories, which is a new series on the Microsoft
Stores Prologue podcast and that's one is also getting a
second part and that is also in the works.
So look out for those sometime soon.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this episode and let's get right
into the story. The end of the Hunt, the second
part by Zechariah. Through the darkness of sleep, I
heard faint screaming, like somebody was calling my name.
I felt a rhythmic on and off breeze against my body, which
was now barely awake. I felt a jolt, a rush of wind,
then the smack of hitting the ship deck from 13 blocks up.
My mind went to go back to sleep, but my body ached.
Did I fall out of the nest? I wondered, painfully picking
myself up. Then I heard a blast that came
from below deck. That has to be the cannons, I
thought. But why would Snout set them
off? That's when I saw it.
The biggest dragon I'd ever seen, wings flapping and
nostrils flaring, rushing straight out of ship to strike
it. Most Dragons we came across were
around 7 meters long, this one had to be at least twice that
size. The behemoth rammed our ship
with its powerful snout and sent a jolt through the deck, once
again knocking me to the floor. I weakly got up and remembered
my crew mates. Ridge stood at the helm,
shouting while brandishing his sword.
Pearl fired a barrage of arrows which erupted into flames on
contact with the beast. Another blast came from below
deck and the block of Teensy hurtled towards the great
dragon, exploding some distance from its face.
It let out a cry of pain as those temporarily blinded by the
flash. I watched these things in
terror, shock, and awe as they stood motionless, paralyzed by
the sheer amount of action that was taking place mere meters
before my eyes. I didn't know what to do.
Ridge shouted to me from the hall.
Mike, don't just stand there and watch.
Grab a weapon and give us a hand.
I snapped to my senses, nodded, and ran below deck to find my
sword and bow. I had to dodge Snout, who was
dashing about like a frightened ocelot as he frantically dove
into chests, grabbed TNT and shoved them into the dispensers,
fired, and ran back to the chests.
I quickly found my weapons and rushed up to the deck right in
time and their jolt from the dragon.
The force of the impact knocked my bow from my hands and over
the edge of the ship. I shouted in anger as I watched
my bow fall into the deep. I had just lost a critical form
of combat. Without a bow, I'd be forced to
use melee. The battle raged on for what
seemed like an hour. We fired cannon after cannon and
arrow after arrow at the dragon, but it wasn't like the others.
It was stronger, much stronger. As it would ram into our ship, I
noticed many scars on its body, scars that were much older than
the ones we were putting on it. This dragon had evaded many
hunters, even in the heat of the battle.
One question stuck out to me, why was this dragon so
persistent? Eventually, through many arrows,
explosions, and cuts, things looked to be turning in our
favor. The dragon, which used to charge
at our ship with alarming strength, was now too weak to
attack. However, it hadn't quite given
up hope. The great beast started to
weakly fly away from us, and we cheered.
We had it on the run. Rich shouted below to Snout, and
he left another round of TNT. We watched the dragon slowly fly
off a bit and wait to hear the bang of the cannons, but it
never came. Snout ran onto the deck,
frantically exclaiming that we were out of TNT.
The mood of the ship changed. The dragon, now even farther
away, had the advantage. Rich punched the mast and stared
into the void opposite the dragon.
Snout looked down at his shoes, feeling that he was the cause of
the failure. Pearl disappointedly watched our
lost prize as it limped through the air towards an island.
I looked closer. There was an island with a few
smaller ones near its edge. All of a sudden, an idea emerged
from my mind. But in order for it to work, I
need to act right away. I ran below deck, fished around
in a chest, and pulled out a smooth blue-green orb, no bigger
than a snowball. This was an ender Pearl.
I grinned and sprinted back, ran towards the edge of the ship to
quick aim for a small islands, and threw the Pearl as hard as I
could. In a puff of neon purple ash, I
found myself right in the middle of one of the smaller islands.
I turned to find the great dragon, now seconds before
flying straight over my head. I knew exactly what to do.
Taking a deep breath, I raised my sword, ready to strike.
The dragon came closer and closer until this is it, I
thought to myself and firmly swung the sword over my head,
making a long deep cut in the Dragon's underbelly.
As it flew over, it let out a scream of near unfathomable pain
as deep purple blood gushed out of its wound.
The beast landed violently on the larger island behind me.
I heard cheering from our ship and looked forward to face it
from the deck. My friends and crew mates were
ecstatic with joy. Pearl smiled with a surprise but
impressed expression. Snout was jumping up and down,
fists in the air with excitement.
Ridge, my captain and best friend, had the biggest and
proudest current I'd ever seen on him.
I grinned back, let the tears come down from my eyes.
I looked down at my body. I was covered in bruises, ash,
and Dragon's blood, but I felt better than ever.
Moments later we landed the ship and ran over to where the dragon
crashed. It was a glorious sight.
The dragon was covered in arrows, bruises from TNT,
scrapes and scars from the crash and its past fights, and finally
the great wound the eye had inflicted that ran straight
across the Dragon's belly. Yet even after all of this, the
dragon was not quite dead. It was close to death, but was
definitely still alive. It's chest slowly expanded and
contracted. It was just strong enough to
keep breathing. Snout gaped at the sight.
Wow. He exclaimed.
After all that, it's still not dead.
Rich looked to me. Mike, I think you deserve the
honors and gesture to my blade. I understood I needed to end the
hunt. I looked back at the dragon,
which looked back with a sorrowful expression.
Most Dragons that faced a similar fate would simply close
their eyes or give up. This dragon was different, but
it didn't matter. It was going to make dozens of
Electra, enough to supply the rest of the city for a long
time. I stood over its head and raised
my sword. This, I thought, to the dragon,
will be a message to the rest of your species.
I paused. Where was the rest of your
species? Why had nobody seen you guys for
a while? Then it clicked.
It all made sense. It made sense why we hadn't seen
dragon for so long, why this dragon was too stubborn to die.
I lowered my sword to my side and turned to my crew mates.
This is the last one, of course. They looked at me with
confusion. Mike.
Pearl said. What do you mean, the last one?
Don't you guys see? I asked.
Just think about it. We've been hunting Dragons for
years, probably faster than they can recover.
This dragon has resisted nearly every attack we've thrown in it,
and knows that species is coming to an end, and knows that all
their survival relies on her. I'm not sure if it knows through
instinct or through some other worldly inclination from the
Great Hosts, but it knows it's worth.
We can't kill it. Think about the Transdimensional
War, how the Picklins invaded our world and killed thousands.
It was devastating to our society.
Think about when our ancestors were forced underground and
accidentally unleashed the Warden from another world and it
killed thousands. Ridge, I know you were alive for
that. A solemn expression came across
Ridge's face, and he looked away.
He'd lost somebody to the warden.
I continued. Consider this from the Dragon's
perspective. A new species enters their land.
They colonize, they explore and do what?
They kill thousands, maybe millions.
Also, they can fly around for a bit.
That is almost the exact same scenario that we've been in
twice before. All these years of hunting the
pounds upon pounds of Electra we've crafted have been a
mistake. We've done this world of
terrible wrong. We can't kill this dragon.
My friend saw our mistake and felt the guilt that I had
discovered. Pearl was the first to speak.
Mike, you're right, we shouldn't have killed so many.
But this one is far from saving. It's going to die in pain in a
few hours. You'll be inhumane not to kill
it, and we don't have the materials to heal it.
I looked at her. But what if we do?
I have an idea, but I need your help, all of you.
If we work together, we might be able to craft something to heal
this dragon. Will you help me?
Harlan Snout nodded with serious looks.
Rich had tears trickling from his eyes, but a proud smile on
his face. He nodded as well.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
OK. I began.
We'll probably need some gas to tears.
Through trial and error, we discovered the right recipe.
We took an inter Pearl, sprinkled it with blaze powder,
and fused it with the gas to tear.
The result was stunning, sparkled like a crystalline
geode with a pearly white color upon its completed craft.
It branched for regenerative beams, one at each of us, and
our scratches from the battle were mended before our eyes.
We inspected ourselves, and sure enough, we were spotless.
Snap was nearly trembling with excitement, as the addition of
blaze powder was his suggestion. We had crafted an entirely new
object. Rich hardened his expression,
which beamed beforehand. Others will not understand as
much as we have. We need more of these and with
more protection. Rich was right.
We encased the new crystalline glass and grab the nine more in
case of its destruction for further protection.
Pearl cast enchantments on each one so if one became fractured
it would explode to warn the attacker.
She also cast enchantments on them so that would heal the
dragon and only the dragon. We built giant pillars of
Obsidian to place them upon and even built cages around some.
Nearly everything was completed except for one thing.
There was 1 crystal remaining that Rich handed to me.
He grinned. You deserve this honor, man.
I held the crystal with both hands and carried it over to the
dying dragon. When it came in range, a beam
shot out of the crystal and hit the dragon straight in the
chest. I watched as the wound I had
inflicted was mended, closing up and disappearing, just like the
countless other scars and attacks that had endured.
The creature, once weak, rose up and let out a roar of triumph.
Its legs were strong, its wings were steady, and its eyes were
rejuvenated. I watched the dragon stretch and
flex its wings, overjoyed to feel no pain, and couldn't help
but laugh. This caught the creature's
attention, and it turned towards me with a glare.
I froze and turned white. While he remembered no pain, it
certainly remembered me. The dragon snorted, its hot
breath rushing against my face. It reared back on its hind legs,
glared at me once more and roared, the sound with ears
splitting. I shut my eyes and waited,
knowing that if I went down, I'd preserved a species.
I waited to feel something, a huge chomp, a clot to my face,
the sheer pain of its acidic breath, but it never came.
I opened one eye to see the dragon, back on all fours,
looking at me. It was no longer angry, but
understanding. Once again.
I was unsure of how it knew, but the dragon seemed to understand.
The eye and the three who were watching this fold out from a
distance had helped preserve it. It lowered its head, nudged me
softly, and flew high into the air.
I watched as it circled the island, ready to continue its
life for much longer. I smiled.
Good luck, dragon, I thought. May the hosts be on your side.
Then I noticed something I hadn't seen before, just a few
meters in front of me. My friends noticed it too and
ran to join me. Sitting before us was a podium
made of a scratchy black and grey substance.
We approached it and we're taken aback at what we found.
And the dip of the podium was a pool of stars.
We looked inward. It wasn't a pool, but a pit.
It appeared to drop forever, with no walls visible on any
side. It looked strangely familiar,
Ridgecaped at the pit. This is the same kind of pit
that I jumped through when I was a young child, we realized
before we entered this world. Pearl recognized it as well.
I could barely remember anything from those days, and Snout
wasn't even born then. We gazed into the pit for
several minutes, taking in what we were seeing.
Snout piped up. Do we?
Do we jump in? Pearl looked at him.
We don't know where it leads. It could take us anywhere, like
the Warden's World, the Picklings, Fire Domain, or or
the Overworld. It's now interrupted.
That's our real home, right? Rich looked over at me.
Well, Healer. He said with a grin.
What do you think we should do? I looked back, shocked.
I looked into the portal, ecstatic.
I looked back at my crewmates, my family.
I gestured for them to follow and jumped in the end.
Thank you guys so much for listening.
Another, another thanks to Zechariah.
Just cannot thank you enough for submitting this amazing story.
And also all the other stories you've submitted, such as the
uncanny tale of Hollow, another one that I forget the name of
about a sniffer. I'm sorry to remember that one.
And then also, if you were wondering where the shout out to
the people who got the quiz rights and then also what the
right answer for the quiz was. Also, you can still participate
inside that quiz. The question was what's mobs
change when struck by lightning or transform when struck by
lightning? That is a quiz on the previous
episode. If you're in Apple Podcast, you
can swing your answers at the comments.
If you're on Spotify on mobile, you can just input it in the
quiz or inside the comments on the episode.
I will not be telling you the answer in this episode because
it's only been like a little bit more than a week since the last
one. I want more and I want to give
more people the opportunity to participate, but I will be doing
that sometime soon. Probably not on the part four of
the players, not alone, just because I do want people to be
able to answer that before I shout it out, but sometime
within the next few months. Anyways, thank you for listening
to this episode. Thank you for being with this
podcast for 75 episodes and 1,000,000 plays, and I hope to
see you inside the next episode.