Refugees from all over the world came to the Crastle for defense and materials.

Grian and Scott stopped prancing around in the daisy fields and finally came out to the battlefield. Tango gave up on his cow monopoly and moved in permanently. And Joel came in from Dead Bush Hill, and I finally got to meet him.

Joel had brown eyes and brown hair with a bright green streak in it. He got along great with Scott, and the familiarity about him made me think he was from X Life. And it was a good thing I liked dogs, because he had tons of them.

One of them, which he had named Helena, seemed to like Ares a little too much. So the Crastle People got a litter of puppies that we had no idea what to do with. Impulse and Bdubs excitedly volunteered to adopt them. From then on, all we heard was barking and the occasional yell when one of the puppies did something unexpected.

The new seriousness of the situation forced us all to share our skills with the group so that we knew what to do. Scott was an archer. Grian and Tango could make traps, as long as they weren't caught. Impulse had access to a villager trading hall and all the resources that came with it, and he was also a good redstoner. Cleo, Bdubs, Joel, and I would be best fighting up close, but Bdubs and Cleo could use crossbows and would if we had to.

Since there were eight people there, chaos could only be expected. One particularly funny encounter occurred between Grian and Bdubs, when Bdubs was down in the secret tunnel that had been built between Dogwarts and the Crastle, back when the two were still solid allies. Now that we were harboring "criminals" and "traitors," it was only a matter of time before we became official enemies.

Bdubs had widened the tunnel so that a lot of us could go through at the same time and invade Dogwarts. But while widening it, it was exposed, so Bdubs had covered it with a haphazard dirt pile. It was pretty obvious that there was something under there because the grass hadn't spread to that pile yet.

Anyway, Grian walked up to the dirt pile and said loudly, "Surface level to secret tunnel, come in?"

"Hey, Grian," Bdubs whispered loudly, his voice seeping through the dirt.

"Is it okay if I just sit here and mock your tunnel because I'm bored?"

A long silence. And then, "...No!"

"Nice tunnel, Bdubs!"

Bdubs whisper-yelled back, "Be quiet! I'm almost there!"

"I wonder where it leads!"

"Ggah! Shut up!"

Despite the ongoing war with Dogwarts, Grian still managed to lighten the mood. And making Bdubs mad was a classic.

On the subject of the war, I didn't want to go against Martyn. But most of my allies were. And that's what I told them.

"I don't think I trust anyone here but you four," I told Impulse, Bdubs, Cleo, and Grian one day. "I don't want to kill the Red Army. Especially not Martyn. So I'm going to leave the Crastle and fend for myself out there alone, but if anyone wants to come with, they can."

They all agreed, or Grian, Impulse, and Cleo did. Bdubs was only coming because Cleo was. He was a little angry that he had to leave his home that he had been in since the beginning.

We left under the cover of night, when everyone was asleep. Bdubs, Impulse, and Cleo cast longing glances back at the Crastle.

All three of them were leaving something behind, whether it be builds or friends. I gave them one last chance to leave.

"I don't know... I mean, first day crew and all, but Tango's in there," Impulse stressed.

"It's okay," Cleo assured him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You can go."

He nodded and did. I didn't blame him.

I looked at Bdubs, half expecting the red name to turn back as well, but he didn't.

By the time we got to my old house in the dark forest, it was daytime.

Grian touched the door frame before going inside. "Remember how Scar and I tried to chop this all down? Then you dropped from a tree and chewed us out."

"I didn't know where you lived before. I thought you were just wandering around," Cleo said.

"I miss the Crastle," Bdubs pouted.

That made us all laugh.

We worked together to expand the house to fit more beds and storage, being wary of traps the entire time. We dug under all my chests before we opened them to make sure there was no TNT under them, waiting to be triggered.

But nobody had found the place yet. So we were safe.

Bdubs and Cleo distrusted Grian, no matter how much I tried to tell them he was trustworthy. But they got along, and I was sure that someday Grian would save their lives or something and then they would help him in a heartbeat. But in the meantime, maybe tests of loyalty weren't such a bad idea.

Before we got in the habit of using the main entrance to the house, Grian set a trap for anyone who tried to intrude. He told us about it and eventually we started using another entrance instead. He assured me that it was a deep pit, not TNT, so the house wouldn't blow up if the trap was triggered. There were even hoppers at the bottom to collect their things so that we could have access to better materials.

It was a couple days before we left the dark forest, just because we were so busy building, crafting, and mining. By the time we came out, everyone had full diamond armor, tools, and weapons. Except for Grian. He had full diamond armor, tools, and weapons except for his sword, which of course was Netherite. We also had visited the Nether and gotten blaze rods and powder for potions, which discovered that I was terrible at.

Grian told us about his and Scar's Netherite swords. Scar's had been lost during the Battle of Skizzle Point, and Grian's in the Battle of the Hobbit Holes. All he wanted was to kill Skiz and Ren, get them back, and then hopefully murder the rest of the army in their sleep. We managed to convince him not to go alone. I also managed to convince him not to kill the entire army, which probably saved a few lives that didn't deserve to be saved, but I didn't care.

The last thing we did before we left was build a secret bunker under the house that we all set our spawn in and left extra gear so that if any one of us died, we would be off to a pretty good start. Grian, Bdubs, and I saw no need to leave gear in there, because if we died again, we wouldn't be able to take any gear we had left. But it was still useful for Cleo.

Then we set out to get the swords.

We all had our reasons. Grian wanted to avenge Scar and himself, satisfying his red life thirsts. Cleo wanted one to use, and so did Bdubs. I just wanted to keep them out of the Red Army's hands. But we all wanted those swords, so we all went for them.

Our plan was that we would go to Skizzle Point and steal something that was important to him. He would come after us, and we would kill him. We would go after the one Ren probably had later. Simple.

But I still wondered how Martyn would react to that if I killed his colleague.

Cleo pointed out a flaw. "The Red Army likes to stay together. What if we steal something of Skiz's and the entire Army comes after us?"

"We'll figure that out if that happens," Grian said, anxious to get going.

"She has a point," I acknowledged. "We want the swords. Not the people. But I think we can take them."

"It's five versus four," Bdubs argued. "And three of the four are red. We need more people."

So, we stopped at the Crastle one more time.

We were honest with them. We told them that the Army had a Netherite sword and we needed to get it from them. All four of them decided to help.

All of us were yellow except for Grian, Bdubs, and me. This would either get us a sword, or a whole lot of new red names, or both.

We headed to our positions to put the plan into action.

-----

We changed our plan now that we had numbers.

Grian and Tango went to the Wool Fortress and set it on fire, in typical Sand People fashion.

Etho came home from something and called out for help stopping the fire with his communicator. When all five members of the Army were there, the waiting game began.

Grian said go with his communicator and started travelling back to the Crastle. Cleo, who was stationed near Dogwarts, snuck inside. Later she said done in the chat, signaling that she had the Enchanter. She arrived back at the Crastle around the same time as Grian did and the seven of us (Tango was still spying on the Army) got ready to defend. Then I typed into my communicator, We have the Enchanter, come get it!

From the moment I pressed send, chaos unleashed.

We got a message from Tango that said BANANAS. That meant they were on their way.

Grian had come up with the code word, saying it had something to do with his previous life. Flashbacks.

I was surprised and kind of sad that I hadn't gotten any yet.

It seemed like minutes before the Red Army was within bow range of the Crastle. Scott got the most hits, but Cleo and Bdubs were close behind. They shot back at us, but the small windows were made to shoot through and they didn't get any kills. We did, however.

Bigb Statz was shot by Scott Major

We cheered at the small victory. That was one less person to help the Army, because Bigb was probably back at his bed at Dogwarts or his house.

The Army was small enough that the drawbridge and moat didn't faze them. They got caught up a little at the door, but that was only because it had fence gates on top of the normal door. It was hard to open - a true Pearlescent Moon door (wait, was I having flashbacks?). When they finally did get it open, we were all on the second floor, because when they walked in, a trap triggered.

Martyn Littlewood tried to swim in lava

I winced at my former ally's death. He wouldn't be able to get his stuff back. The only thing that would have survived was the Netherite sword, if he had it.

Nothing survived lava. Not even certain axes that start as gifts and then are used to kill certain people's allies.

The rest of the Army, down to three people, came up the stairs.

We had really good melee fighters, but so did they.

Bdubs Onehundred was slain by Etho Slab
Scott Major was slain by Ren Dog
Etho Slab was slain by Cleo Zombie
Joel Smallbeans was slain by Skizzle Man

They still had Skiz and Ren. We had Cleo, Impulse, Grian, and me. Tango and Joel were still alive, but Joel's spawn point was not at the Crastle. Tango was on his way. On their side, Bigb and Martyn were still alive and probably at Dogwarts. Etho, Bdubs, and Scott were gone for good.

I didn't know how Ren and Skiz had survived so long, but they were still alive. Eventually they saw their situation and retreated. We let them go.

I dug down into the lava pit to see if the sword was there. It wasn't. Martyn did not have either one.

I looked outside at the remains of BigB. There were no swords there, either.

They were not among the jumble of items upstairs. Which left two possibilities: Ren or Skiz. Of course the two who had the swords got away. Grian was not happy.

I assured him that it was four versus six. They couldn't win this war.

~~~

HOORAY now we're actually in the war part! 🎉

-Indigo