last few days, all Stan wanted to do was sleep, and escape from his cares in the world.
If Leonidas wants me, thought Stan as he drifted off into sleep, let him find me.
âStan?â
Huh? Stan thought stupidly.
âStan? Stan, is that you?â
Thatâs funny, thought Stan vaguely, through the cloud of exhaustion in his mind. I could have sworn I heard a voice. . . .
âStan! It is you! Oh, fantastic, Iâve been trying to contact you for ages . . . come on, wake up, noob!â
âWait, wha . . . ow !â Stan exclaimed, sitting up quick as a bolt and feeling a massive rush of blood from his head because of it. âUgh . . . Sally, is that you?â
âYeah, itâs me,â Sallyâs voice replied out of the ether, crackling and punctuated by static. âListen Stan . . . Iâve got way too much to tell you . . . and not enough time . . . I need you to follow my instructions and fast, okay?â
âYeah, of course,â Stan replied, trying to force himself towake up in the midst of his reconnection with Sally.
âOkay,â Sally continued, her voice fluctuating greatly in volume as she spoke through the terrible audio. âHereâs what you need to do, Stan . . . . I need you to leave Elementia and join the server that I am about to invite you into.â
âDid . . . did I just hear you right?â Stan asked, bewildered. âYouâre asking me to leave Elementia?â
âJust for . . . little while . . . ,â Sally replied, her voice now a consistent volume but barely audible over the outside interference. âYouâll . . . able to get back . . . into Elementia . . .â The static was getting worse and worse. âTrust . . . Iâll explain . . . when we . . . to meet . . . other in . . . my server . . . called . . . SalAcademy . . . See . . . soon . . .â
And then, with a loud static crackle, Sallyâs voice disappeared.
Stan was stunned. He had been beginning to doubt that he would ever hear Sallyâs voice again, and now, here she was asking him to leave Elementia and join her in a different server. Stan didnât even know if it would be possible. He didnât know much about Minecraft servers, but he did know that Elementia still had mods that King Kev had put in place. He didnât know what these mods wereâin fact, nobody really didâbut Stan knew that they made going in and out of Elementia a risky business.
There were two things that Stan was sure of, however. Oneof these things was that Sally knew much more about computers than he did. It took skill to bypass King Kevâs leftover defenses against hackers, as well as the efforts against her by whatever tech junkies the Noctem Alliance had on their side. The second thing was that he trusted Sally. She had never led him wrong before and, with her superior knowledge in the subject area, Stan was sure that he wouldnât regret listening to her now.
And so, Stan sat down cross-legged on the dirt beach of the island, took a deep breath, and focused hard on his desire to leave Elementia. For a moment, nothing happened, and Stan began to wonder if he was doing this right. Then all at once, a question appeared in his mind, written out as clearly as if it were actually visible.
DISCONNECT FROM SERVER?
And with a deep breath, and a sense of disbelief that he was actually doing this, Stan answered out loud.
âYes.â
And with that, Stan2012 disappeared.
From his place treading water in the ocean that surrounded the dirt-block island, Leonidasâs jaw was slack, his mouth hanging open. What did he just see?
Leonidas was surprised that he had managed to catch up to Stan at all. For starters, Leonidas had given him a prettygood head start. After Leonidas had resurfaced from his underwater hideaway, he had immediately begun to swim toward the Elementia mainland, sure that Stan was headed in that direction.
And now that he finally had