"Ugh! I can't believe we're in prison again! And I thought they were rescuing us!" I cry angrily when I and Ay are left alone in the safe room.

"I know!"

"Well great job spouting off about Juzoos! Even we would be suspicious of anyone from there, and we're from there!" I yell at Ay.

"Well, I didn't know, okay! I didn't think-"

"Obviously not," I snap, stomping off to the chest of food and comfort eating a slice of cake to fill my half a hunger point. But when I finally turn back to Ay-

"AY!? WHERE ARE YOU!?" I cry frantically, "AY! AY!?" 

"S, up here!" a muffled voice answers my calls. 

"Ay!? Where are you!?" 

"Look up!" I look up perplexedly and my jaw drops open. Ay is sitting in some sort of... air duct...? Way above my head. "I pillared a few blocks and got rid of them, but this is our escape!"

"Ya, well what do you think will happen if we're caught?"

"We'll get scolded and brought back here and then we'll try again. C'mon, I've already mined through the bars, hurry up and get up here!"

"Fine! But if this goes wrong it's all your fault!"

"Whatever," Ay leaps recklessly forward - I hope I have the minecraftian Ay and not the minecrafter because otherwise, it will be very, very difficult to escape.

"Okay, so now which way?" I ask when we reach a crossroads. 

"I think we came right, so this way." Ay turns sharply and I scamper to keep up. We take a few turns and jog a little way before we reach a dead end.

"Now what, genius?" I ask drily.

"We mine down through the bars and continue through the hallways." Ay says easily, reaching into her inventory - "oh, darn, right they took my pickaxe. Oh well, bare-handed it is." Ay grumbles, punching through the bars with a loud clanging and rubbing her fists in pain. But eventually, the bars come loose and we jump down safely.

"I hope nobody heard you," I say annoyedly.

"This place is huge! Trust me nobody heard a thing-" the sound of running footsteps and yells echo through the corridor. "Darn!"

"Okay, my plan now! RUN!" I yell, pulling Ay in the other direction.

"Okaaaay!" Ay obliges fearfully. Left, right, left, right, right, left- but everywhere we go we hear our pursuers louder than ever.

"I see them!" Sierra's familiarly unwelcome voice echoes from not far behind us. No way we can outrun her. Then without warning, we're yanked around a corner and a sharp liquid is splashed over our heads. 

"AAH, WHAT-" Another liquid splash on us and I find my mouth opening and closing soundlessly. A potion of silence? That's a pretty high-level potion!  

"Where did they go!?" I see Sierra look right through us angrily, "They can't be far, come on!" Sierra and five others run right past us obliviously. 

"Shh," a disembodied voice comes from behind us. I and Ay startle in fright - but when I turn around I can't see Ay or the person who spoke. "Come." the voice says, so I have to assume hopefully Ay's here somewhere and whoever's speaking is good. Suddenly I feel a hand touch mine and I squeeze it back and exhale. Ay's here, and whoever's talking to us has probably just saved us - but who? We can't really follow the disembodied voice for long since it's, well, disembodied. 

"Ahem," I feel my voice return, "could you make it so we can see you if you're still there?" I ask when we reach a crossroads. Thankfully the voice is still nearby, and whoever it is grunts and I feel another potion splash over me and our savior materializes-

"Chadd!?" I feel another option of silence splash over me startlingly, "Can you not keep splashing potions on us without warning!" I yell soundlessly, fuming. We follow Chadd, fully clad in Knight's armor, ironically, past twists and turns until he suddenly disappears behind a painting,

"Um, did he just walk through the wall!?" Ay cries,

"I don't know, but I guess there's only one way to find out," I say, walking deliberately forward - and bonking my nose on the wall. "Ow, where did he go!?" then suddenly a hand reaches from inside the painting and pulls me into an opening I didn't feel before. A second later Chadd returns clasping a shaken-looking Ay. As my eyes adjust to the dim lighting I gasp in wonder. 

Before us lies a beautiful cavern-like room with a netherrack floor, sloping blue and red nether wart block walls and ceiling, and about seven or eight brewing stands and barrels scattered along the sides of the walls. Chadd paces over to the third brewing stand and reaches into the barrel, taking out three nether warts, an awkward potion, two ghast tears, and a tiny, tiny pinch of sugar. It's mesmerizing to watch him stir and mash the ingredients together, pouring in various liquids and combining each ingredient uniquely. Anyone can see he's an expert. I finally break the awkward silence,

"What are you brewing?" I ask awkwardly,

"Just experimenting." He answers shortly,

"Do you have a result your aiming for?" I ask, trying to make some headway, it's like I've pushed a button and all the sudden I'm talking to someone totally unexpected,

"By adding awkward potion to nether wart I hope to create a feasible base to contain the desirable effects of the other potions, ghast tears naturally regenerate the player's health and restore points over time, however, the sugar jumpstarts the natural residue stages and may provide a rapid inductive stage to induce the regeneration effect," Chadd says, suddenly sounding incredibly knowledgeable.

"Did you understand any of that?" I mouth to Ay. Ay shakes her head and shrugs while I try to mentally translate Chadd's reasoning. 

"So, um, you want to make a bigger awkward potion and regenerate... more, um, something?" I ask to clarify,

"No." Chadd answers shortly. 

"Okay, then what does it do?" I ask, beginning to become impatient, Chadd just shrugs and moves over to a few cauldrons, drawing out liquids and measuring them into the fifth brewing stand. It takes all my self-control to remain quiet and try to figure things out visually. Seven of the nine brewing stands are going, they puff their beautiful golden clouds and lots of different smells circulate around the small room.  It's enchanting but hard to not sneeze.

"Why did you rescue us?" Ay interrupts my thoughts. We both turn to Chadd. Chadd simply shrugs. 

"Can you talk!?" I cry louder than I expected,

"Yes."

"Okay, tell us why you saved us and how to get out of this darned place."

"Are you evil or not?"

"Of course we're not! Obviously, the only reason we were in Juzoos is that we accidentally landed on their beach and they captured us!" Ay cries,

"Come," Chadd says, giving his potion a final stir and walking through the back of the painting. This time Chadd hands us drinkable potions, which I accept gratefully and swallow down. There's the same nostalgic salty metallic tang edged with a musty sweetness. But I love it. We run down hallway after hallway, and while Chadd remains visible me and Ay stumble into each other every now and then. We finally reach an unfamiliar door, which Chadd pushes open and gestures us through, simply saying, "Sit down." and pointing to an oak bench.

"What now?" I whisper to Ay as our potions dwindle and run out, and Chadd disappears through the door to get something or another. 

"I don't know, but I hope Chadd comes back soon," Ay whispers. We're sitting at a bench in front of an empty dark oak desk with a tall thronelike chair. 

"I wonder who works here." I puzzle out loud.

"Chadd?" Ay replies dubiously,

"No, me." The tall figure rises from behind his desk, the torches illuminating his dark face epically.

"Warden!?" I cry.

"When I heard you escaped I decided to see if I could trust you, and Chadd once and for all. If Chadd followed my orders exactly, he will be admitted to the Minecrafters fully. His mission was to find you, see if you could be trusted, and then bring you to me without breaking his cover or slipping anything to you the whole time. But it was probably easy for him considering he doesn't talk much, anyway." 

"So, are we trustworthy?" I ask,

"What you told Chadd when you thought I was trying to capture you matched up with what you told me, and honesty under pressure, fear and different... ahem, circumstances, is easier to obtain. For instance, if you were from Juzoos you would have probably told him you were born in Juzoos and you were lying because he was rescuing you. But you didn't, and I applaud you. I do apologize for locking you up, but I had to see... never mind," Warden breaks off abruptly.

"Okay, so what does this mean?" Ay asks,

"This means, ahem, welcome to the Minecrafters," Warden announces,

"Oh, thank you!" I cry, 

"Do you know if you can get us to Spots?" Ay intervenes seriously.

"Spots? Of course, we can get you there, but why you would want to go I have no idea... strange thing happen there." Warden warns uncomfortably.

"Things?" I ask breathlessly, an eerie silence stretching across the room.

"Well, nobody who has ever walked through their gates has ever walked back out."

Dun dun dun, that was unexpected. Not the 'ever walked back out' bit, but otherwise the test... it was kind of abrupt. 

I'm so sorry I couldn't write another chapter, I may be able to do a full second today and finally catch up!

Please consider voting!

Comment any ideas and suggestions, also tell me if I've left any plot holes!

Just Be!