“Ollie,” she said, clutching the straps of her enormous backpack as the path beneath our feet shuddered again, “I want to be extremely clear that this is not one of your accidents.”
“I KNOW,” I said, very relieved. “I haven’t even tripped yet today.”
“It’s nine in the morning.”
“It’s a personal record.”
The Rumbling Ridges stretched out ahead of us — a wide, rocky landscape striped with deep orange cracks where warm light pulsed up from somewhere far, far below. The rocks were dark and jagged like giant broken teeth, and little wisps of steam shot upward without warning, making the whole place look like a pot of soup coming to a boil. A very large, very dangerous pot of soup. The Champion’s Crown on my head buzzed with a warm, steady hum — the kind it had made right before we’d found Captain Cactus’s fortress, and before we’d walked into the Ender Earl’s courtyard, and before about seventeen other moments I’d rather not think about too hard.
Four villains down. The crown glowed brighter than I’d ever seen it.
But right now, something else was glowing too.
“Seven vents,” Biscuit announced, unrolling a map she had drawn herself — in four different ink colors, with a legend, two scales, and a small drawing of a sad snowman in the corner labeled “what happens if we fail.” “We need to cap all seven before the whole ridge becomes one enormous lava bath. I have calculated that we have approximately—”
A tiny cackle interrupted her.
It came from somewhere near vent number three, which was — according to Biscuit’s very thorough map — already supposed to have a cap on it. We had seen the sealed vents from a distance on the way in, seven sturdy iron caps pressed down over the glowing cracks by the Ridges’ maintenance crew.
Except vent number three’s cap was currently spinning through the air, and a small creature the color of a freshly lit campfire was zooming away on tiny boots that left little scorched circles on the rock.
“FIZZWICK!” Biscuit shouted, which told me she’d read ahead in the situation.
Fizzwick was about the height of my knee, shaped a bit like a blocky little flame, and absolutely DELIGHTED with himself. He had round yellow eyes, stubby arms, and a grin so wide it nearly went off the sides of his face. He tucked the iron cap under one arm, waved at us with his free hand, and disappeared into a crevice between two boulders.
“He’s already got four caps off,” Biscuit said grimly, consulting her map. “Which means only three vents are still sealed. We need to recap the open ones AND find the last two before—”
The ground shook again, harder this time.
“Before that,” I finished.
Here is the part where, a few months ago, I would have sprinted after Fizzwick immediately, tripped over a rock, and somehow made everything worse. I know this because it is more or less what happened with the Endermites in chapter eleven, and also with approximately every situation involving things that move fast.
Instead, I stopped.
I crouched down near the crevice Fizzwick had vanished into, and I listened.
Inside the crack, there was a tiny sound. Not cackling, not zooming. Just a small, high noise, almost like — humming? And underneath the humming, something else. Something that sounded a lot like a very small creature doing a very big job and feeling very important about it.
I knew that feeling. I’d had it every single day since Sproutville.
“Fizzwick,” I said, keeping my voice gentle the way I used to talk to Snatcher the rogue sheep back at Rainbow Meadows, “I can hear you in there. You don’t have to hide.”
Silence.
“I’m not going to chase you,” I said. “I just want to understand why you’re unscrewing the caps. Because honestly? That seems like a really hard job for someone your size, and I’m wondering if someone asked you to do it.”
A very long pause.
Then one round yellow eye appeared at the edge of the crevice.
“…Queen Mira says the vents must OPEN,” Fizzwick said, in a voice like a small crackling fire. “She needs the heat. For the building. The GREAT building. The tallest one EVER.” He puffed up slightly with pride. “And I am her BEST unscrewer.”
“You are clearly an excellent unscrewer,” I agreed honestly, because he really had gotten four caps off very quickly. “That’s impressive work.”
Fizzwick went, if possible, slightly more orange. He shuffled out of the crevice an inch.
Biscuit made a small strangled noise behind me that I think was her physically stopping herself from interrupting.
“Here’s the thing,” I said carefully. “If all seven vents open at once, the Ridges are going to flood. All the rocks, all the villages nearby — gone. There won’t be anything left for Mira to build with. She’ll have collected all those blocks from everywhere, and then she’ll have nowhere to put them.”
Fizzwick’s other eye appeared. He looked uncertain.
“She wants to build something the whole world notices,” I said. “But if the Ridges flood, the whole world will just notice a lava lake. That’s not the same thing.”
There was a very long pause.
Then Fizzwick slowly held out the iron vent cap.
“…I am still her BEST unscrewer,” he said firmly. “I am simply choosing not to unscrew right now.”
“Completely understandable,” I said, and took the cap with both hands.
What followed was honestly one of the more chaotic twenty minutes of my life, which is saying quite a lot. Fizzwick guided us — at high speed, on those tiny lava boots — to every open vent, grumbling the whole way about how he had done very good unscrewing and it was a shame to waste it. Biscuit solved the matching puzzles on each vent with terrifying efficiency, calling out color sequences before I’d even read the first sign. I did the actual capping, which involved kneeling on hot rock and pressing iron down over glowing cracks while steam shot sideways at my ears.
I only fell once. Into a steam puff, which bounced me six feet sideways and deposited me neatly next to vent number six, which was actually helpful.
“That counts as intentional,” I said.
“It absolutely does not,” said Biscuit, “but I’m writing it down as a success anyway.”
When the seventh cap clicked into place, the ground gave one enormous shudder — and then went still.
The orange glow faded from the cracks. The steam stopped. The whole Rumbling Ridges let out a long, deep, rocky sigh, like a very large creature finally going to sleep.
Fizzwick stared at the sealed ridge for a moment.
“Queen Mira will be very cross,” he said.
“I know,” I said. “But she’ll still have all the blocks she collected. She just can’t have these ones too.” I paused. “And for what it’s worth — I think her idea of building the tallest structure ever is actually kind of amazing. She just needs to build it somewhere that isn’t going to flood.”
Fizzwick looked at me for a long time with his round yellow eyes.
“You are a very strange hero,” he said.
“Everyone says that,” I agreed.
The grateful villagers of the Ridges threw us the most enthusiastic Block Party I had ever attended, complete with ice cream that was finally cold again and a snowman that was no longer drooping sadly in the corner. They presented us with the Frostcap Helmet — a beautiful sparkly blue helmet that hummed with cool air — and made a very official speech about bravery and teamwork and one particular moment where a hero had been bounced sideways by a steam geyser and called it strategy.
I kept that part in. It was my favorite part.
But as I held the Frostcap Helmet and looked out at the now-quiet Ridges, I thought about Fizzwick zooming away on his little boots, doing a big important job for someone who just wanted to be noticed. I thought about Mira — dramatic, glowing Mira — gathering blocks from every corner of the world, building toward something the whole world would finally see.
One more chapter to go, said the crown, glowing so bright it lit up the whole party.
I was ready.