Chapter 17[]
It was the Eve of Hostile Mobs. Zetta, Ashton, Rift, Rayne, and the ender dragon had been preparing for this day for the past few days, and even then, Zetta had nightmares about the ender dragon getting overexcited and destroying Sienna Dunes. She tightened her grip on the bamboo stick she was assigned to: the one with the lead tied to the dragon’s tail. The ender dragon "float" was at the end of the line as it was a last-minute addition to the parade. After the two floats that were ahead of them went, being a ghast and wither skeleton, respectively, the five started forward, with the ender dragon doing most of the work, responding to cues from Ashton. Zetta, Rift and Rayne all moved their bamboo poles in sync to make it look like to the crowd that they were operating the "float", who oohed and awed. At one point, Rift’s grip on his bamboo pole, which was one of the ender dragon’s wings, had come loose, causing the ender dragon to flap its wings so hard that its front paws had come off the ground. Although the cheering of the crowd intensified, Ashton helped the ender dragon calm down. Though the crowd had clearly chosen their favorite float, it was up to Mayor Maxine to decide. As the floats line up on a stage in the town square, Carl congratulates Zetta despite him being worried at first that she was keeping something important from him. Mayor Maxine then makes a speech, explaining how the Eve of Hostile Mobs was important despite the illager raid that had occurred. She then places the last sandstone block that was sitting on the stage into the gap on the bell tower, making the crowd erupt in applause. Mayor Maxine then announces that the ender dragon float had won the parade, and Zetta delivers a thank you speech, specifically thanking Rift, Rayne, and Ashton for their help. She then tries to mention something else, but Mayor Maxine had already pushed her away from the podium, instead listing off the sponsors for the parade. As she concludes, Zetta practically shouts into the microphone that their "float" was a real ender dragon, but by then, fireworks had already gone off, causing the ender dragon to get spooked. She thrashed and bit the poles that were tethered to her body, overturning several food carts. Her tail struck the repaired bell tower, obliterating a huge area of blocks. Just then, the crowd begins to scream in horror. Ashton tries to take off after the ender dragon, but his grandma grabs him by his shirt collar, scolding him. Carl was running toward Zetta, so she began running toward the ender dragon. Eventually, Zetta orders the ender dragon to stop, in which it surprisingly does. Just then, Zetta hears the townspeople charging toward the ender dragon with their swords.
Chapter 18[]
Ashton practically yells at Zetta to fly the ender dragon out of Sienna Dunes. Zetta then tries to use a potion of invisibility on the ender dragon, which it refuses to drink. Just then, the ender dragon’s wings flapped, causing store windows to shatter. The grocery store had several cartons of eggs that were destroyed by the flapping, causing some chickens to spawn from them, greatly distracting the townspeople. Zetta then grabs a shovel from the display in the blacksmith’s shop, holds it up to the ender dragon, and then begins running away from Sienna Dunes. Incredibly, the ender dragon follows her back to the caves, far away from Sienna Dunes. Zetta takes it upon herself to apologize to the ender dragon for what happened, but it just snorts at her. Zetta then takes the shovel named Meechie out of the shovel thrower and begins singing a song, which makes the ender dragon come closer toward her. Eventually, the ender dragon is in front of her, and the two regain their trust with playing fetch using the shovel. By then, it was starting to get dark, and Zetta notices some townspeople with torches off in the distance. She and the ender dragon then fly away to find a place to hide, eventually coming across "a large building, several stories high, with a large dome up top". Diving toward the building, she then realizes that there are several illagers.
Chapter 19[]
Zetta and the ender dragon then hide behind a large hill in the desert, with the former determined to show proof that the illagers were preparing to raid Sienna Dunes again. She gives the ender dragon a shovel to keep it busy, and then downs an invisibility potion, of course putting the boots that she was wearing into her pack. Zetta then runs through the desert until she was close enough to the pillager outpost, keeping her eyes open for anything that could be used as proof. At first, she considered the axes and crossbows from a nearby chest, but realizes that those would be too easy to craft. She then spots a banner "decorated with an angry gray face and beady blue eyes", but it is soon hoisted away by a raider. She then decides to use a ravager harness, knowing that it can’t be crafted. Sneaking inside a ravager pen which had five ravagers in it, Zetta takes the harness off of one very slowly to avoid suspicion, and then quickly folds it up and stuffs it underneath her shirt, which was still invisible. Just then, a horn trumpets, causing the illagers to gather attention around the one holding a large banner, which allows Zetta to sneak out easily. Just then, a witch notices her thanks to the faint particles, and throws a potion of slowness. Zetta quickly ducks from another potion that the witch had thrown, but the illagers soon fire arrows in her direction. Nevertheless, she makes it back to the ender dragon safely, and they begin to fly back toward Sienna Dunes. Knowing that she needed to hide the ender dragon from the townspeople, Zetta decides to hide the ender dragon in the desert pyramid half-buried inside of the Great Rift. She gives the ender dragon a scratch on its horn before ordering it to stay, backing out of the pyramid slowly to be sure it wasn’t following her. Zetta then heads back up to the surface, downing potions of swiftness to quickly head back to Sienna Dunes. Knocking on the door to her home, Carl greets her, allowing her inside. She explains everything that had happened, from the early brewing attempts to cracking Aunt Meryl’s dragon egg. She then shows Carl the ravager harness as proof she was at a pillager outpost, and says that she needs to convince Mayor Maxine to get ready for another raid. Carl hesitates at first, but he allows Zetta to use her brewing stand. He also shows Zetta a nether star, saying that she can use it for something, and assumes that she has Aunt Meryl’s book of inventions. Zetta says that she does and apologizes, but Carl says to her that he is proud that she is brave and determined.
Chapter 20[]
Mayor Maxine objects to using magic, but Carl mentions to her about the ravager harness that Zetta had found. Mayor Maxine is determined that the wall will hold, and that Captain Zayden and his crew will be able to defend Sienna Dunes. Zetta mentions that she is just trying to help as she is a part of the town, making Mayor Maxine have a change of thought, asking her as to what she needs. Zetta shows her a page from Aunt Meryl’s notebook, containing instructions on how to build a beacon, saying that she needs all of the ore blocks she can get from the town vault. Mayor Maxine objects at first, but Zetta explains that the beacon would be able to grant strength and regeneration if built high enough. Mayor Maxine allows her to do so. Zetta then explains that she needs some blaze powder for potions and brewing stands, lots of glass bottles and water, and materials for Rift to make a an automated arrow machine and a TNT cannon. Mayor Maxine calls in Captain Zayden to divide the assignments among his crew, and then brings Zetta to the town vault. The mayor puts something inside a chest, allowing the vault to open, revealing several chests with the ores that had been found in the mines. They needed 164 ore blocks to make a four-level pyramid, but even after counting everything and making the ore blocks, Mayor Maxine says that they are going to be short, but also says that she’ll go door-to-door to ask for ingots if she needs to, not before giving Zetta some blaze rods to craft into blaze powder. Just then, Ashton and the twins, Rift and Rayne, meet Zetta at the entrance to the town hall. Zetta mentions that the ender dragon is in the desert pyramid at the Great Rift, making Ashton and Rayne go retrieve it. She then asks Rift to make four automated arrow machines and a TNT cannon, saying that Captain Zayden will lay out where to place them. Rift obliges and gets to work. Zetta also gets to work in the town hall, crafting eight brewing stands and filling them with water bottles as the assistants to Mayor Maxine kept on delivering the bottles. Eventually, Zetta makes lingering potions, which she uses with arrows to craft into tipped arrows, followed by splash potions as a means of defense. She then gives the rest of the potions she made to Captain Zayden, who in turn gives her a bow enchanted with infinity to give to Rayne. The pyramid for the beacon is also completed, with Cora, the blacksmith, placing down the block of gold to complete it, followed by Carl placing the beacon to activate it. The beam shines up to the sky, but it doesn’t seem to be working. The notebook also doesn’t show anything on how to activate it. Atop the beacon pyramid, Zetta notices that the raid had arrived.
Chapter 21[]
Seconds later, the bell tower had rung. Screaming and crying came from all directions throughout Sienna Dunes. Just then, Rayne and Ashton had returned, with the latter saying that they couldn’t find the ender dragon. Zetta wonders if it went looking for him, with Ashton also thinking the same thing. Zetta then gives Rayne one tipped arrow of poison before giving him the enchanted bow with infinity. She then wonders about how to activate the beacon, but Ashton shows her a page from his notebook about it. Zetta dismisses it at first, thinking that it’s a mob sketch, but upon further inspection, it contained instructions on how to activate it. She runs over to Carl, who looks at the instructions and then places an iron ingot in the beacon, giving everyone else around it a strength boost. Rift runs over to his contraptions, while Rayne climbs one of the watchtowers. Zetta asks for Ashton to send anyone who isn’t fighting to get inside the town vault, including his parents. He reluctantly complies. Rayne, calling from the watchtower, wonders as to how many illagers there are. Zetta climbs up to take a look, noticing that there were over two hundred of them, along with at least a dozen ravagers. Nevertheless, the two felt confident that they would win like last time. Captain Zayden then orders Rift to fire the TNT cannons. The TNT exploded at the raid, but it was still heavy in number. Zetta then notices some witches, which were splashing healing potions left and right. Rift then fires the TNT cannons again; this time, the illagers were prepared, spreading out to avoid taking damage, but it still killed at least twenty of them. As the raid moved closer, Rayne fired three arrows at them, killing a vindicator in the process. Zetta wonders why he isn’t using the tipped arrow, and he says that tipped arrows don’t work on bows with infinity. Rift then runs over to the four arrow launchers that he built, simultaneously activating all of them. The arrows fling toward the raid, but more were hitting the ground than the illagers as they were so spread out. Just then, Zetta gets hit with an arrow to the shoulder, but she barely notices it as the beacon immediately heals her. The raid was so close now that the arrows of the other archers were hitting their targets. Zetta starts throwing splash potions of poison at the raid, but it doesn’t work as the witches throw healing potions, canceling out the effect.
Zetta then asks Captain Zayden to target the illagers "in the robes", in which he orders his army to do so. Just then, the illagers "in the robes" began summoning fanged teeth from the ground, and the sky was being filled with "creepy little winged demons carrying the tiniest of swords". Rayne and the other archers took aim at a few of them, followed by Rayne firing an arrow at a robed illager in the middle of casting another spell, killing it. Rayne then says that his bow is down to half of its durability. Zetta begins tossing potions at the robed illagers, aiding Rayne in killing them off. Just then, a ravager crashes through the terracotta wall, causing the entire raid to spill into Sienna Dunes. The beacon was helping, and despite Zetta using the last of her healing potions on Captain Zayden and his army, she knew she was just delaying the inevitable, knowing deep down that they were "outnumbered and outmatched". Captain Zayden starts calling for a retreat. Just then, a ravager rams it’s head into the base of the watchtower, causing it to collapse.
Chapter 22[]
Zetta had blacked out from the collapse of the watchtower, but was being dragged to safety by Rift, who was bringing her to the town vault. Rayne was right behind them, feeling okay despite being bloody and scraped up from fighting. As the three head inside the town hall, making their way toward the town vault, Zetta begins to frantically search for Ashton. She spots Captain Zayden moving closer to the town hall while still ordering a retreat, but is soon relieved when she finds Ashton, pulling him into a tight hug. Zetta asks if he is okay, and he says that he is, but that he can’t find his parents. As the doors to the town vault begin to close, Zetta, Ashton, Rift, and Rayne decide to head over to Ashton’s parents' farm to look for them. They quickly zip out of the vault, with Zetta mining out a path underneath the town hall, going about a hundred blocks or so, before heading up to the surface, greeted by a wheat field. They notice a few illagers lurking about, so Rayne takes out two of them with his bow before it breaks. Rift then takes out the third to avoid it warning the others. The four then run over to Ashton’s parents' farm, being greeted with a plate and bowl being thrown out the window, as Ashton’s parents think that the four are pillagers in disguise. Ashton begins naming the chickens that they had as a way of proving they aren’t, but his mother immediately scolds him for yelling. His father mentions to Zetta that Carl is outside collecting seeds from the beetroot field. Just then, Carl arrives, saying that they need to get to the town hall. Zetta mentions about the path she mined, but Rayne notices that some illagers had arrived, blocking it. Zetta, Ashton, Rift, and Rayne all do a weapon check; Rayne’s bow is broken, Rift’s sword has a few uses left, Ashton’s dad says that he has hundreds of raw potatoes, and Zetta says that she only has the shovel named Meechie. Just then, Zetta realizes that Rift can pull off some pranks on the illagers, and after some hesitation, everyone agrees to go through with it. Rift has Ashton’s mother give him some anvils, while ordering Ashton to dig a pit over by the carrot field. Within fifteen minutes, everyone had gotten into position. By then, more illagers had shown up, but they were prepared to take them down.
Chapter 23[]
Zetta was set up as bait for the illagers. Carl and Rayne were still assembling their traps, and Rift was still busy in setting up his trap. Zetta shouts at the illagers that they had missed an emerald, waving one at them. They charge toward her, but five of them fall for the sand trap, just deep enough so they wouldn’t be able to escape. Zetta then runs toward the pig through, which was empty, except for twenty pressure plates. Zetta carefully steps on them, trying to remember the path that Rift had given her, but she instead jumps over the last few safely. Three illagers fall for this trap as a sandstone wall appears from underneath, however one of them has a crossbow, firing an arrow that sinks into Zetta’s thigh, making her scream out in pain. Just then, Ashton’s father throws some potatoes at the illagers, causing some of them to charge at the potato field. His mother also gets into the fray, killing one with a garden hoe, making it drop its crossbow and arrows. Ashton’s mother then fires some arrows at the illagers chasing after his father, killing one with it, and the other two with the garden hoe. More illagers soon appear, so Zetta has a change of plan and decides to head back to the house. Opening the door, Rift immediately pulled her away as three anvils fall from the ceiling to the floor. Zetta points toward the barn, noticing that twenty illagers had gathered there. Rift then orders everyone to come inside the house, in which they do so. Zetta plans to create a diversion, but soon notices that Ashton is still outside with only a shovel to defend himself. Zetta races toward him, ignoring the pain in her thigh, but soon, the air "whipped and cracked" around them. Zetta and Ashton look up at the sky, noticing a pair of purple eyes that had blended in with the stars. The ender dragon had returned, about twice as big as before, and it began to breathe poison on the illagers, making them fade away. Another one was slammed by its snout. A vindicator then breaks Ashton’s shovel, so the ender dragon decides to plow that particular one deep into the ground. Flying back up, the ender dragon then levels the barn, and flys toward the horizon. Zetta is immediately worried about Sienna Dunes as the dragon appears to head straight for the town hall.
Chapter 24[]
The ender dragon plows through Sienna Dunes, killing off the remaining illagers despite destroying everything in its path. Half of the town hall was destroyed, the bell tower had fallen, and the well in the middle of the town square was destroyed. The ender dragon then takes aim toward the town vault, ignoring Zetta’s shout for it to stop. Just then, Aunt Meryl swoops down toward Sienna Dunes with a pair of elytra. Landing gracefully, she lets out a screeching whistle and begins to talk to the ender dragon like a screaming enderman. The ender dragon then flies toward Zetta, but Aunt Meryl tells her to not show the dragon any fear. Zetta does so, and the ender dragon responds by gently bopping her on the head with its tail. The ender dragon then lands on the rubble that used to be the bell tower. Aunt Meryl continued to speak to it like a screaming enderman until it finally calmed down, albeit ashamed. Aunt Meryl then asks Zetta as to why there is an ender dragon in the middle of Sienna Dunes, and Zetta says that "it was a series of very bad decisions". Ashton then mentions that Zetta had saved him. His mother also commends Zetta for saving their farm. Ashton’s father also commends Zetta for saving the town as a whole. Carl has a change of heart, saying to Zetta that magic does have a place in Sienna Dunes, and that the town does have room for someone, or some people, that are into potions. Aunt Meryl then explains that the ender dragon will need to leave, although she is lucky that the ender dragon didn’t go through its final molting. She turns to leave, but Zetta says for her to hold on a minute as she runs to the tool shop. Zetta takes a stone shovel out of it, not before leaving an IOU note, and runs over to Captain Zayden. She whispers into his ear before he runs off with the shovel. Zetta then delivers a speech, saying that she couldn’t have fended off the raid without everyone’s help, but also apologizes to Carl and Aunt Meryl for her actions. She also promises that she won’t be leaving until every block is replaced and that every building is fixed. Just then, Captain Zayden sprints back at Zetta with the stone shovel, now enchanted with Mending IV. She takes the shovel and uses a lump of coal to draw a smiley face on it, and then apologizes to the ender dragon. Zetta then gives the shovel to Aunt Meryl. Aunt Meryl then says to Zetta that she hopes she doesn’t mind checking on her place for a bit, to which Zetta asks if Carl is okay with it. He replies enthusiastically, saying that there is a spot at the table for Aunt Meryl if she decides to come back. Aunt Meryl says that she’ll think about it if she is back by then. Ashton then asks as to where she’ll be coming back from, but Aunt Meryl says that he knows, winking at him.