two british boys meet [DISCONTINUED]

[CHAPTER 14: DAN]

Watchers? What are the 'Watchers'?! I think, as Grian tells us. I notice a strange symbol on the leaf of the flower, which is where Grian's attention is.
"Hold on, what?! Let me see that-" I can see he looks terrified, so I instinctively switch from an indignant voice to a calm one. "Sorry, that was uncalled for." He gives me the flower and I look at the symbol in more detail. It's a rectangle, but with cut off corners. A weirder symbol indeed.
James peers over my shoulder and I can hear him gasp.
"I knew I recognised that name, I've heard of those guys!" James looks less scared than Grian, more vindicated.
"Hold on, hold on, slow down you two! What are the watchers?!" I interrupt.
James launches into an explanation, but is quickly cut off by Grian.
"Oh, they're basically folklore-"
"Uhh, let's explain back at the lab, it'll be easier to explain there."
"Oh, okay."
"Right...sounds like a threat, but okay." I say. I'm mildly nervous by these sudden revelations, but either way, it could lead to a conclusion to the experiment! Which would be ideal.
We head back to the lab, and while the silence may have been awkward for some, for me it's a time to reflect and think. Grian, eh? An interesting character. I like him, he likes me, but he isn't acting much like how he acts in the stories he's told me. Maybe I'm not catching onto it yet. There's a lot of things I haven't been catching onto, if Grian was able to tell from one close look at the flower.
We get back to the lab, and I yell out to the others.
"Hey guys!"
"Hey." Justin appears almost out of nowhere, waving at us. His viewpoint goes to Grian's face, which is still a bit shocked. "Didn't go well, eh?"
"No, it did go well! Sort of." I cover up for the blonde. "We managed to get Sam to stop harassing Grian now! Well, not on good terms as I would've liked, but...he's gone now, at least."
Think raises an eyebrow. I don't think he trusts my judgement.
"Yeah, Dan said it right." Grian says, sighing. "But another threat has come into play."
"Oh great." Justin's face...yeah, I don't think he likes that news.
"The Watchers. Uhh...I'm gonna have to explain, aren't I?"
"You're going to have to." Trayaurus yells from the testing chamber.
"Thanks Trayaurus for the input." Think remarks, sarcastically.
"Hey, he didn't say anything wrong!" I retort, but not angrily. "Either way, this might help with the experiment, or even help us come to a conclusion!"
Think sighs.
"Anyways!" James interrupts, before yet again, launching into explanation. "Basically the Watchers are gods, mainly talked about in folklore and the like. They watch over every action every player does and even control certain worlds, stepping in when things get bad. That's basically them. The symbol that they're present is that broken nether portal in the flower G's holding. You don't mind me calling you G, right?"
Grian softly smiles. "No, I'm fine with it. But uh...that's not exactly correct. The watchers are gods, that's right, they're folklore, but the thing is, they actually exist. And they don't always step in when things get bad either. Sometimes, they just want to take over worlds. And...people."
James shrugs. "Well, I said what I was told by my parents. That sounds...really bad, that last part."
I see why Grian was calling these guys a threat.
"Yeah, could you elaborate on that?" I pull out that notebook and the pen, and begin writing in it.
"Right, uh, another part of my life! After my high school years, I went to a place called EVO! A server with many people who grew to become my close friends. Including Taurtis! I told you all about him. He was there. But one day the watchers came and ruined it all by saying either one of us had to join them or the world we lived in would be destroyed. And uh...I, well, I gave myself up. Little did I know they'd destroy the world anyways." Grian sighs. "So yeah...I stuck with them unwillingly for a few years as they terrorised other servers, doing odd jobs while sometimes hanging out in a private server of my own. I soon enough was tasked to watch over another world called Hermitcraft, and I ran away there. They're here looking for me."
Jeez, this guy's gone through a lot. He knows it too, cause the next thing he says is "Huh, I have a pretty tragic backstory now that I think about it in detail."
James points at Grian for some reason.
"You're an anime protagonist."
Grian points back at him with an agreeing smile on his face. Justin and I are left to exchange glances of concern and confusion.
"Anyways!" I interrupt James and Grian's moment of mental connection. "So, you're saying the Watchers caused all of this."
"Yeah, that's the likelihood. And, they're a threat, so, since they want me, I'll stay for a bit longer to keep you guys safe. Consider it a repayment. For all you've done for me."
"Noooo no no no no no no no no. You don't have to stay! We can fight against them, plus if you leave they'll just go follow you there." James quickly gets out before anything sentimental happens.
"Well, he has to stay here anyways, we have to wait for the train." I remind them.
"Train to the city? Why? What about his communicator?" Think questions.
"Oh, right. His comm got destroyed." I explain. Think nods in understanding. "Right...okay."
"So...how do we defend against them? Grian, you were a part of them at some point, so-" I ask, but I'm cut off before I can finish my sentence.
"Thing is, there is no real way to defend against them, per se. You just have to deal with them when they come. They're all powerful and whatever, so you just have to do what they want or have everything you love destroyed. That's it."
"I'm sure you can bargain with them." James says, evidently trying to comfort Grian. "After all, they can't be that bad."
"Hmm, maybe you're right, James." Grian says. That's James for you, giving out hope. Thank god.
"But uh...this does come to a pretty satisfactory- well, no, but at least it comes to a conclusion to the experiment!" I chime in, and it's an exciting prospect really. "Mysterious gods that are only existent in folklore coming into our world, and for what? And leaving small hints, for that matter! Hey, with how powerful you said they were, if we could extract their power from our sources, use it against them...oh, this could be absolutely insane if it goes well!"
James and Grian look at each other with concern.
"So come on! Let's try and get as much as we can out of these watcher flowers, and figure out how to fight with an ironic sword!"
"What?" I hear Justin question, as I run into the testing chamber to tell Trayaurus what we have to do.
~~~
A/N
Hello everyone! Shorter filler chapter as I wanted to get back into the swing of writing and this chapter really isn't event filled. This was supposed to come out much earlier, but unfortunately, a few days after Chapter 13 came out, Thinknoodles' dog died. Due to that, I didn't want to write until he felt 'better', per se, and since he's on the road to recovery, I began writing again. Sorry to dampen the mood, I know it's stressful at the moment, especially to the Americans (at time of posting). Hopefully a chapter will help lighten things up! Hopefully, I don't really know. Anyways, thanks for reading!
- YanDan