Sizzle

You don’t ever want to get trapped in the Nether, for the sake of your life.

She shouldn’t have lit that portal. She shouldn’t have taken one step into this smothering affliction. It was slowly occurring to her now, a pack of ebony skeletons stalking the hallway. Yet she did anyway. Sonata sat with her sword on her lap. Labored, strained breaths wrecked her chest. Why had she come in here in the first place? Was it..yes. It was to gather quartz for Aurora, a friend. And now, Sonata was trapped.

At least she convinced her friends to stay out of this dangerous mess of a dimension.

Bones rattled and echoed off the claustrophobic maroon walls of the fortress. Sonata surveyed herself. She wasn’t as hurt as she had thought. The skeletons patrolling the hallway hadn’t noticed her. They held their stone swords out in front. Sonata wondered why they even needed them. The wither effect alone was enough to leave a person clinging to what precious life they have left. She smothered out the remaining flicker of a flame from her iron armour.

“This stupid, cardboard armour,” Sonata mumbled.

It happened as Sonata foraged through a few chests collecting a saddle, ingots of priceless materials, and a golden chestplate. She smiled at the single shimmering diamond inside one chest. Stairs appeared from the corner of her eye. Above, a platform of nether brick surrounded a cage. A creature spun around inside. Sonata recognized the cage. A spawner. The next thing she knew, fire engulfed her body.

Black smoke filled Sonata’s lungs as she coughed. She could make out flaming abominations in front of her. Blazes, she recalled. They wasted no time making Sonata their prey as fireballs zoomed from their bodies. Sonata swung her sword aimlessly and struck one hovering creature. The fire scalded her body and singed her dark hair. In the middle of the chaos, the fire broke Sonata’s leggings. A horde of fireballs swished past her head. Then she ran.

And now, she was here. Amid a gang of filthy skeletons. Sonata’s nose flared. To her right, the fortress dropped off into a pool of bubbling and sizzling lava. Lava flowed from the hill outside the fortress into the pool. To her left, an endless maze of nether brick hallways stretched on. Sonata noticed a few Blazes standing guard.

She winced. Weak, useless. Escape was unlikely without a fight, impossible in this state. Sonata brought her heavy backpack in front of her, Food, items, and potions were sorted neatly inside. Supplies were running low now. She opened a pocket of food and brought an apple up to her lips. It fell from her trembling hands to the hard ground with a thud.

“Come on, Sonata, conseguirlo juntos.”

Terror stabbed at her stomach. She held her breath. Footsteps, ratting bones. She raised her sword and counted down the seconds, waiting for the searing pain of the wither effect. Then, they stopped. Sonata’s heart rammed against her rib cage. The footsteps got quieter. Sonata let her muscles ease and breathing became easier.

Sonata picked up the apple and nearly swallowed it whole. She inhaled a second one and ate until her strength returned. Pain ceased. She then arranged 7 iron ingots into a new set of leggings. She pushed herself off the ground, applied the leggings, and inspected her sword.

“For heaven’s sake,” Sonata said.

The iron blade of the sword was littered with cracks, charred by the abuse of the relentless flames. Chips broke off and fell at Sonata’s feet. How she hadn’t noticed before, she wished she could say. One hard-fought battle, she knew, and the sword was bound to shatter. She had no iron left, using almost all to craft the leggings. The gold ingots were no good, given its infamous reputation of breaking easily.

Before she could think of a solution, a fireball shot past Sonata’s head like a bullet. It exploded beside the flowing lava outside the fortress. Sonata swiftly pulled out her bow and fumbled with the bowstring. She shot an arrow that embedded itself into the wall. A second whizzed through the air into the Blaze’s head. It collapsed and vanished in a billow of smoke. A small grin tugged at her lips.

“We’re back in action, baby!”

Sonata remembered the battered sword. The bow, while a handy and trusted weapon, could only do so much. A second fireball ignites the nether brick at her feet. Two came at once. Sonata dodged to the left and then forward as one vanished into the lava fall and the other into the wall. Three more arrows penetrated the bodies of the Blazes. Sonata ran ahead and grabbed the few rods on the ground. A sound made her regret her last movements. Bones.

“¡Diablos! You idiot!” Sonata muttered to herself.

The skeletons came at her in droves. One, two, three… at least six bloodthirsty mobs were heading into battle. Sonata shot a few arrows that stunned the skeletons. They didn’t stop, advancing at a faster rate. Sonata took out her sword without thinking and slashed a skeleton that fell to pieces. The sword then shattered.

“¡Diablos, diablos!”

Sonata backed towards the lava fall, looking behind her. Her stomach sank. The heat was like a furnace on her back as dancing waves scorched the air. Sweat poured down Sonata’s face in streams. A stone sword slit her chestplate. It crumbled as Sonata struggled to regain balance at the edge. She held on tight, almost tasting the heat. A second swing of a sword nearly sent her into the lava. With a grunt, Sonata rolled and pushed through the skeletons into a new hallway of the fortress.

With some space between her enemies, Sonata threw on the flimsy gold armour. It was as good as it was gonna get. She fired a few arrows at the skeletons. Only two dropped dead. She had to think of something, and quickly. Sonata wracked her brain for an idea, any idea, that could save her. A voice in her head spoke. A male voice, low and accented. “When push comes to shove, a few good hits with an axe can get the job done!” That was it.

“Gonna have to thank Flare for that one later.”

Sonata threw her bag to the floor below. A sharp, unbreakable gold axe from a ruined portal was strapped on the side. She never knew why she kept it. Maybe it was the enchantments or the way it shimmered in the light. But she was now glad she did.

Sonata clenched it in her hand. She leapt at the remaining skeletons and brought the axe down, striking them in their bony arms, chest, rib cage, anywhere the axe could hit. Their bodies began gradually falling apart. Sonata kicked at a skeleton that went for her arm. The kick blasted the skeleton apart. Sonata ducked under the swing of a sword from a second skeleton. A punch to its chin shattered its head into shards of pointed, black bone. With a thrust of the axe, another skeleton's head cracked and collapsed into dust. Sonata picked up the stone sword it left behind.

The battle moved through the fortress hallway until Sonata was standing out in the open. The axe was proving to be a great alternative to her sword. Although she could feel slowly wearing away. The Warped Forest below crawled with Endermen that Sonata prayed would leave her alone. She plunged the axe into the chest of a skeleton that swung at her neck. A vast pool of lava stretching for miles bubbled and hissed. The portal had to be nearby. Sonata remembered, having landed what seemed like days ago inside a Warped-

A skeleton Sonata swore wasn’t part of the original pack, lunged and stuck her hard in the stomach. Cracks spread through the gold chestplate. Tearing, gnawing pain radiated through her entire body as the wither effect pumped through her veins. Her lungs could barely draw in a breath. Sonata collapsed onto the fortress floor using what energy she had to crawl away. Milk. She needed milk.

A throbbing headache clawed at her skull. Sonata weakly grabbed a bottle from a side pocket on her backpack. She could barely bring it to her lips, a single drop sliding down her throat. Drink. Drink!

“Just drink it, you imbecile!” Sonata wheezed.

The faces of Sonata’s friends flashed in her mind. Their eyes, the way they smiled, their voices in her ears. The moment they each waved, high-fived, or hugged goodbye before her venture through the portal. Keep fighting.

Life drained from her being as the world began to go dark. The effect had diminished, yet the weakness did not. Not a muscle, not a limb, could move. Just keep fighting. The skeleton wasn’t satisfied. This suffering wasn’t enough for its twisted mind. With a push, Sonata felt herself leave the nether brick floor.

The blistering heat of the lava was enough to bring Sonata back to her senses. It swallowed her whole like a whale. The tentacles of the molten rock pulled her deeper into its deadly void. Pressure, so much pressure. And the pain. The thought came quickly. She was dying. That was what she needed. Sonata quickly reached inside her backpack and let the liquid of a fire resistance potion pour down her throat. The burning stopped.

Sonata kicked against the thickness of the lava. She shut her eyes, the lava dispersing around her body as she emerged from the depths. The potion wouldn’t last long. Sonata looked around. Land was too far away to swim. Off to the side, a strider walked across the lava most entities would sink into. Sonata had a saddle from the chest, one out of two required items. She combined a fishing rod and a fungus to lead the strider to land. Sonata swam against time towards the oblivious strider. The lava, dense and jellied, proved difficult to travel through.

Sonata could feel the slight burning sensation of the lava as the potion started running out. She reached towards the strider. As the potion exhausted, Sonata flung the saddle over the back of the strider and hopped on. The red creature didn’t seem bothered, staring off into the distance as if deep in thought. Until its eyes met the warped fungus dangling in front of its face. Its eyes widened with intrigue and hunger. It followed the mushroom, unaware of the puppet master on its back. Sonata smiled. Land approached. The portal of refuge seemed closer.

Sonata hopped off the striders back onto the blue surface. The strider returned to its blank stare, ambling away. She looked ahead and saw the shining portal amidst a clearing of warped trees. Enderman populated the surrounding area. Sonata kept her head down as she ran through the trees. She stopped for a moment when a vein of quartz caught her eye. She mined each mineral as the thumping against Sonata’s chest slowed and her breathing relaxed. Her throat tightened and her chin quivered as she went. Tears pricked in her eyes. She hardly noticed the sting until her vision blurred.

“No llores, no llores.”

Sonata grabbed the last of the quartz and fled toward the portal. A hand wiped at her eyes and she rapidly blinked. Standing in front of the portal, she pondered. Was it the near-death experience that brought on the emotions? Or even the thought of leaving her friends behind in a world always out to get them. Sonata thought of them. How they amazed her, made her laugh, and were there for her. Sonata imagined them sitting by the portal worried sick waiting for her arrival. If she was gone…Sonata didn’t want to think how they’d react. And it would all be her fault.

Wiping away one last stray tear, Sonata plastered on a smile. Everything was fine, she’d tell them. She’d give Aurora the quartz, she’d thank her gratefully, and would move on. Even if the events of this trip would weigh like brinks on her mind. Sonata took one last look at the flaming world around her, feeling no sense of longing to return. She stepped through the swirling portal, purple overtaking her vision, awaiting the loving embrace of her friends.
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Spanish translations:
- Conseguirlo juntos = Get it together
- Diablos = Dang or Damn
- No llores = Don’t cry