//------------------------------// // New Bonds // Story: Minecraft: A New Adventure // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// It took some time for them to return to the village, once more finding that nothing seemed to stop them, meaning either the monsters wanted nothing to do with them or they weren't spawning at the moment, though as soon as Pinkie stepped inside she headed to the workshop. "It would seem that your adventure was successful." the Forest Elder remarked, as he and the Desert Elder had been talking since the newcomers arrived in the village, mostly sharing information while figuring out how to spread the division of labor, for all of the more mundane duties so Steve and his friends could focus on their adventures. "Indeed, we found those creatures and soon we'll have the table you told me about." Steve said, though he knew that they didn't have too many enchanted items to use with the new device, meaning they would need to go on more adventures to gain either items possessing all sorts of enchantments or find villages with libraries to obtain tomes, "We still need to find a number of things, since we don't have a lot of enchanted gear, so it might be some time before we can put it to use." "There should be a larger village to the north, on the edge of the forest before it becomes a plains," the Desert Elder stated, as he had been thinking about what they were up to and realized that he might have some information for them, though Octavia was interested in the fact that so many villages were so close to each other, even if she was worried about the black dragon that happened to be unaccounted for, "I remember some travelers mentioning a great library, so you might be able to find some enchanted books inside it and use them to empower yourselves for the future." Octavia glanced at the others for a moment, finding that they might have their next destination, though to be honest she had no desire to walk all the way to the location in question, before she spotted one Villager looking at something with what looked like a green stone of some kind, causing her to walk over to him. "What are you doing?" Octavia asked, though as she reached him she discovered something interesting, one of the Warg, no doubt from the Blood Moon they had overwhelmed, was stuck inside one of the storehouses of the village and she figured that no one had told them because she and the others were always busy, plus it seemed docile. "I'm taming her. I asked Pinkie for some treats, though with how busy she's been she likely forgot to tell you guys," the boy said, sounding happy as he tossed a meaty treat into the makeshift pen that the Warg had gotten stuck in, who tore into the meat as Octavia and the others found that she seemed more docile than those they had seen so far, before he raised the stone and used it, where it disappeared in seconds, "Can one of you open the building for her?" Alex said nothing as she carefully removed some of the stone in the walls, opening the way for the Warg to walk out of the building, who proceeded to walk over to the Villager and lick him, showing them that it had been tamed, though in that very moment Octavia realized the solution to their problem. They didn't have to walk all the way to the village in the north, they just had to find monsters that were tameable, like the Warg for example, and feed them some sort of treat to make them neutral to them, and while they might not be able to obtain the same beast as the Villager this was still good news for all of them. It did, however, come as a shock to the other Villagers and many slowly inched their way over to where the beast was sitting, almost acting like a big puppy, causing Octavia to head to the smithy to ask Pinkie what she knew about treats and the various monsters of this world, as she clearly knew far more than she let on. Of course the answer she had for them came from the books they had found in the desert village, one that allowed her to see what monsters could be tamed, such as the Ventoraptors, and which ones weren't, and, sure enough, she was already in the process of making all sorts of saddles, for them and anyone else who found a mount. As night fell upon the village, however, Octavia found something interesting off in the distance, beyond the wall, and that was four Ventroraptors, two blue, one green, and one icy blue, glaring at the wall, though when she told Pinkie her friend crafted a mountain of treats for them and informed them that she already had saddles at the ready. Steve and Alex, after hearing her plan to boost their speed on land, gathered some materials and started to craft little pens so they could trap the creatures inside them and protect themselves while they offered them the treats Pinkie had put together. As such the four of them carefully set up their traps, making sure the monsters didn't see what was going on since they seemed much smarter than Zombies and Skeletons, though the same couldn't be said for those in the Nether, which seemed smarter than the Overworld monsters. Fortunately it looked like they were more interested in something else at the moment, since none of them were looking in the direction of the village, though with night falling they had to be careful, since all sorts of monsters were bound to come out and attack when they were least expecting it. When darkness settled over the land, and more monsters started to appear in the surrounding area, the group headed out and found the four Ventoraptors hanging out, without a care in the world, and when they spotted them each one just leapt forward and rushed at the group. Such a thing caused them to turn around and rush back to the edge of the village wall, each one quickly slipping into the traps they had set up and found that maybe they had misjudged the monsters that had rushed after them, as they didn't seem to care about the traps at all. Once all four of them were contained they pulled out the pile of treats Pinkie had crafted earlier, being careful not to let them snip at their hands as they tried to bond with the monsters, and, sure enough, the group of Ventoraptors understood what was going on and calmed down, leaving the group to hand over the treats to see if they could mimic what the one Villager did. Of course the monsters snipped at the food that was being offered to them, which was why they were grateful for the bones they could use to hold the meat out and not endanger their hands in the process, giving all four of the monsters more room to chew on their food. Eventually, after using between seven to nine treats apiece, the Ventoraptors calmed down and Pinkie passed out some of the green stones that the one Villager had used, allowing them to, as Octavia discovered, bind the monsters to them as mounts, and, sure enough, Pinkie had saddles ready, so each could be outfitted in no time. With that done they quickly took down the temporary holding cells they had created for the monsters and walked into the village, discovering that the barriers Octavia had set up with her magical stones earlier recognized them as allies and welcomed them into the village as well. Such a thing told them everything they needed to know, any monster that was against them would be repelled by the barrier she had set up and any monster one of them befriended would be allowed in with no problems, like it scanned each one or something before determining what to do to them. Once they were back inside the village, and the Villagers got used to the idea that they could befriend certain monsters in this world, instead of kill them all the time, everyone went to bed for the night, as once morning arrived they were going to do something new. Sure enough, when morning arrived, Pinkie, Octavia, and the others left the village again, though this time they climbed onto the Ventroraptors and rode off into the distance with their incredible mounts, which seemed to understand them a lot better than what they expected. Octavia found that she got lucky, she got the icy one, Steve got a blue one and Alex ended up with the green one, leaving the other blue as Pinkie's, though at the same time she was also amazed by how fast the creatures were, as they were able to quickly cross the land with ease. In addition to that they seemed to have some sort of leaping ability that allowed them to rapidly move forward, an attack designed to hurt whoever or whatever one or more of them happened to be hunting at the time, and she found that they could cross a gap with ease with such a power, to which she had to wonder what might happen if they found some flying mounts. If they got their hands on some sort of flying creature, not a dragon since that would freak everyone out, they would be able to rapidly fill out the rest of the map and learn where more stuff was located, to fill up their atlas and whatever maps they had of this world. Steve and Alex had some experience in this field, due to the fact that they had steeds in their previous world, while both she and Pinkie didn't have any, but that didn't seem to be bothering her friend in the slightest, as she was exploring to her heart's content, leading the way north with ease. They ended up passing by a couple of structures, more Battle Towers, a Battle Fortress off in the distance, a tower Pinkie stopped at to loot for more items and armor, and a few floating structures, before they found a large village that seemed to be the one they had been told about. When they approached the village some of the Villagers met them and found out the reason behind their visit, that they were looking for enchanted books, possibly gear that could have their enchants taken off by Pinkie's new table, before discovering that the Elder was perfectly fine with them looking around. They left the Ventoraptors outside the village and found that they simply wandered around, like sentries or something, allowing them to head to the library, where they discovered something interesting, the librarian suspected that they were after special books and beckoned for them to follow him. The Elder had told him of their arrival, while the group was dealing with their mounts, and he already had copies of certain tomes that they could take with them and add to their own collection, but, due to them being Crafters, he was perfectly fine with Steve, Alex, Pinkie, and Octavia looting the place, as they had pieces to replace the bookshelves or whatever else they took. He also showed off the hidden chest that some libraries were supposed to have, including the mechanism to reveal where it was hiding, and Pinkie found that it was locked with a padlock, to which she pulled out a small pair of diamond lockpicks, an item she made after they discovered the tome that revealed the existence of the Lost Cities, and carefully opened the chest. Of course Octavia knew that she must have broken the lockpicks a few items, as these locks seemed hard to solve, but Pinkie didn't seem to care and solved it in no time, finding an enchanted sword that could set enemies on fire and had a rather sharp edge, even if it was made of iron, so she stashed it with everything else they were gathering. One thing that Octavia was worried about was the fact that most Villagers were willing to bend over backwards for Crafters, as if those who possessed the power were servants of the Builders or the Admins, but they didn't mind, rather it looked like some of the Villagers were hoping, praying, for someone to take down those who had replaced the Builders. She also asked if they knew of a dragon shrine that was located in the southern part of the forest, near the village they had come from, only to find that the Villagers had no idea what she was talking about, save that it might be a sign of another Admin, an ally that might be able to aid them in taking out the other three. Octavia had no idea what was going on, save for the fact that it looked like they might be gearing for war with the Admins, a force they really knew nothing about, but decided to focus on the fact that this trip gave them what they were looking for, a number of enchantments to improve their abilities, and made her eager to see what they might do next.