Exploring the Overworld, Book 1: The Jungle Temple Read online

fight, to save the villagers, and to protect the temple. Diary, wish me luck! I am going to need all of it to make it through this fight!

  Day Sixteen: Forgot Something...

  Dear Diary,

  So, yesterday I mentioned finding the pictures and making a pretty vague plan about saving the whole village and Ghast and whatnot...but the thing is, I never actually got around to telling Ghast about what I found. I figured that I should probably mention something about it, especially since the pictures had him in them too.

  Today I told Ghast, “There’s something that I need to show you.” He was confused at first, and he got more confused as I walked down the hallway with all of the pictures in it, and then he was probably the most confused when I showed him the new picture.

  “What is this?” He asked me.

  I explained to him what I thought the picture was trying to show. I told him that I thought it predicted that we were supposed to be the ones to lead a battle against who or whatever the other tribe was made up of. As I was talking to Ghats about this, he seemed to get really nervous. “Ghast, what’s wrong?” I asked him. He was sweating and he looked shaky too.

  “I can’t fight in another war. I just can’t do it.” Ghast started to float down the hallway, heading back towards our room.

  I chased after him. Ghast had fought in a war before, so I didn’t know why he couldn’t fight again. Maybe it was because he had already fought in a war that made him unable to fight. Maybe it was all just too much for him. When I finally caught up to him, I asked him what was stopping him from fighting.

  “I can’t do it again. War is a terrible thing. Sure, there’s rush that comes with winning a battle, and that lasts for a little while. The hurt that comes with a loss...that doesn’t fade away so quickly.” He zoned out for a little bit, shook his head like a dog shaking water out of its fur, and then looked back at me. “Can we leave tomorrow?” He asked me.

  I still felt like I had some duty towards these villagers, but I have a larger sense of duty towards my friend. It looks like we are going home after all. I’ll write more tomorrow.

  Day Seventeen: Ghast, Interrupted

  Dear Diary,

  Ghast and I knew that the villagers wouldn’t take too kindly to us just walking out of the front door since they loved having us here so much. That’s why we made a plan to get out of the temple in the dead of night. By the time the villagers noticed that we had left the temple we would be miles away and hopefully on the train out of there. They wouldn’t be able to catch us even if they tried.

  We packed our things and we were ready to go. Everyone else seemed to be asleep. We had planned this for the perfect timing. I tiptoed out of the room while Ghast floated. We made hardly a sound as we roamed through the stone halls of the temple. I picked up a torch from a wall to better guide us as we walked.

  Eventually, I found the hallway that led to the entrance of the temple. I had Ghast open the large stone door, as it was too heavy for me to get on my own. Once I was out of the temple, I stood frozen, and not because of the cold night air.

  From the top of the temple, I could see about a hundred torches in the distance. The other tribe was already on its way and I could only guess that they were ready to fight. “Ghast, I don’t think we can leave now. We have to stay and fight.”

  I thought Ghast was going to try to fight me on this, but all he said was, “I know,” in a sad voice. I felt bad to hear him sound this way, but we both knew that this was bigger than us.

  “We have to warn the villagers!” I must have sounded frantic as I said this. I felt frantic, anyway. I rushed back inside of the temple as Ghast slowly closed the stone to the entrance to the temple as he slowly floated behind me.

  It looks like we have a battle to fight, whether we want to or not.

  Day Eighteen: Preparing to Fight

  Dear Diary,

  Last night I ran around the temple, yelling as loudly as I could to wake all of the villagers up. I knew the villagers wouldn’t be able to understand me, but I knew I only needed to be loud enough to wake them up to show them the danger that was coming towards them.

  The villagers seemed confused when I woke them up, which I guess made sense. I motioned for them to follow me as I headed towards the entrance of the temple. I had Ghast open the door for me again. Once it was open, I pointed to all of the torches. The villagers instantly knew what was going on.

  One of the villagers pulled me by the arm. This time it was my turn to be confused. I followed the villager as they lead me down a hallway I hadn’t been down before. It led to a large room filled with bows, arrows, and supplies to make bows and arrows.

  The villager that had brought me into the room sat down and started to craft more arrows. She gestured to me and patted the floor next to her. I sat down next to her and started crafting arrows, which made her seem happy.

  Since then, I have pretty much been building arrows all day. It looks like we are preparing for a battle now. I just hope I have the strength to survive it.

  Day Nineteen: The Beginning of the Battle

  Dear Diary,

  It was the middle of the night when the banging noises started. It was a dull banging at first, like the sound of someone hammering a nail into a wall. Later, the banging grew louder. It sounding more like trees falling in the forest. When I finally looked outside, I noticed that neither of these things was happening. Instead, the troops that made up the tribal army were marching up to the temple. There were so many of them that their feet stomping on hard ground sounded like an earthquake that could put the temple in ruins. Even though it wasn’t a real earthquake, I had a bad feeling that the army could destroy it just as easily as a natural disaster could.

  One of the villagers handed me a bow and a sleeve full of arrows. He then walked down the stairs leading up to the temple door, heading towards the ground to fight. I wish I could be as brave as he was. He knew he might get hurt, but he still walked confidently into battle. I didn’t have the guts to do that. Luckily, I didn’t need to do that either.

  There was, what I imagined to be, an elite group of fighters that stood on the top of the temple, all aiming their arrows down at the enemies below, sniping them before they could get near the temple. I decided to join this group. I would be safe from the enemy up there, but I could still help to fight.

  Meanwhile, Ghast was floating around the outside of the temple, zapping any enemy that got too close. He looked nervous as he did it, or maybe it was a look of just pure misery instead. Either way, it was clear that Ghast wanted to be anywhere but here.

  Today, it didn’t matter how Ghast and I felt. All that mattered was how we fought. Diary, wish us luck. I’ve got some arrows to shoot now and he’s got some lasers to fire. Let's just hope that we don’t end up getting caught in the crossfire.

  Day Twenty: Battle Day Two

  Dear Diary,

  Well, the battle continues on today and we are...not doing so hot, to be honest. Sure, the temple tribe are great shots, but there just seem to be more of the other tribe. I thought that Ghast might be able to scare some of them away or something, just by looking like a Ghast and all, but it hasn’t seemed to work. Maybe the temple villager thinks he is some sort of all-powerful prophecy player or something. I don’t know. The point is, the other tribe don’t seem to be afraid of him.

  I would much rather scare off the enemy than having them all get hurt --or worse-- so I talked to Ghast today about amping up his scaring powers. I told him something like, “Ghast, you need to scare the other tribe. I’m too small to do much, but you’re big and you can shoot lasers. Do you think you can strike some fear into them?” I thought this would make Ghast excited to fight, but it didn’t.

  “How am I supposed to strike fear into them without actually striking one of them?” He asked me. “I don’t want to hurt them if I don’t have to.”

  “I don’t want you to have to hurt anyone either,” I said. I didn’t really know how to explain wha
t I wanted him to do in a better way. If we wanted to win this battle, then the other tribe was going to have to get hurt. There was no way to get around it. That’s just how war works, whether we liked it or not.

  Ghast seemed to know that there was nothing I could say, but he somehow still understood the message I was trying to get across. “Okay, I’ll do it,” was all Ghast said before floating away. He floated to the battlefield while I walked back up the temple to get back to my sniping spot.

  I just hope that Ghast can scare those other villagers away. If he can’t...then the temple just might be doomed.

  Day Twenty-One: A Forgotten Weapon, Remembered in the Nick of Time

  Dear Diary,

  I’m writing from the comfort of my beanbag-bed right now. Yesterday, as I was shooting arrows from the top of the temple, I was shot with an arrow from the other tribe. I’m not badly hurt or anything. I only got shot in the arm, so it’s not that bad. After I got shot, the villagers carried me to my room. One of them wrapped my arm up in a bandage. While they were doing that, I looked around through my backpack to see if I have anything that would help the pain. That’s when I found the potions that the witch dropped that I collected weeks ago.

  I found a healing potion, and drank it. Sadly, some of it had spilled, so there wasn’t a lot left. I drank what there was. My