Stress Cookies! (Hermitcraft mini story)

Chapter 3 ♥︎

The next jungle hermit on the list was the admin himself, Xisumavoid. Who, unlucky for her, lived in a bunch of tall towers, with no way up from the ground without an elytra that she could find. She could go fix her elytra back at her base and just fly, but the cookies would get cold by then, so she had to think of a quicker way up. She looked around for loose vines or something she could use as a rope, but instead found a walkway slightly hidden by the trees.

"Well this looks like as good a place as any to drop it off." She thought to herself. "I'll just text 'im in chat so he doesn't miss 'em."

She placed down the cookies by the entrance to the tunnel, walked over to the side of the walkway and sat down to text since her legs were tired from walking around so much as opposed to flying.

The bushes rustled and Stress leaped up ready trying to scrabble out her sword in case it was a creeper. One hand was on the hilt while the other held her communicator.

"Ooh goes there?" She said with a bit of a shaky voice, since she didn't have an elytra to fly away with like normal. She saw a red flash in the jungle, a huge contrast to the bright green of the bushes and trees

"That you Xisuma?" She couldn't remember if he was wearing the strider suit or if he had switched back to the bee suit.

No answer.

She quickly texted Xisuma about the cookies to see if the stranger's communicator buzzed or not.

Stressmonster101: Hey X are you at your base right now?

Xisumavoid: No, at the shopping district. Need something?

Stressmonster101: Nah just wondering.

She put her communicator down and held out her sword defensively with both hands for a better grip.

"Who are ya?!"

The red figure leaped out from the bushes on the other side of the walkway, grabbed the basket of cookies, and bolted away.

"AY those aren't for you!" She ran after them. These were the cookies she worked hard on for X. Surely whoever stole those would get their own soon enough, right?

They ran in an unlucky direction, right to Stress's base. While they were trudging through the snow which was slowing them down, Stress easily gilded around on the ice with her frost walker boots.

"He's a feith!" Stress called to her brown panda eating bamboo still. The panda jumped out of her pen and tackled the red suited figure, pinning them to the ground easily.

"Fanks luv!" Stress called to her panda.

"Who are you? And why ya stealing X's cookies?" She asked the man pinned to the ground.

"I'll tell you, I'll tell you! Just call off the beast!" The stranger said, covering their head with their arms in defense. They had let go of the cookies to shield themself, and a few had fallen into the snow.

"Good job sweetie, you can let go of 'em now." She smiled sweetly to her panda, who happily trotted back to the comfort of their fort before giving one last growl to the cookie thief to show who was boss.

"The smell was so nice and I couldn't resist, I just wanted some holiday cookies..." The guy said. Now that Stress could see him better, she noticed he was wearing a suit that looked a lot like Xisuma's, but a deep red, and it looked more worn out. He didn't have an elytra, which explained why he didn't just fly once he got the cookies, and his helmet covered his face just enough to cover his ashamed look.

"Well then why didn't ya ask for some? I'm making all the hermits cookies this year! Didn't cha get a note?"

"Uhm.... no..."

"Oh did I miss ya? I thought I got everyone on the list but I might've accidentally skipped over someone?"

"No.. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be on any lists, and if I'm not there, you couldn't have missed me." He shrugged.

The snow was falling harder. Stress picked up the cookies and the baskets of the ground and offered a hand to the stranger sitting in the snow.

"It's warmer inside, and the cookies are cold anyway so I'll make a fresh batch later. Let's go inside to talk."

Being caught red handed, the guy figured he had nothing to lose so he took her hand, stood up and followed her into a giant skull base with flowers on it. Despite being pretty creepy, it was also cute, and comfy inside.

"So what's ya name, luv? And why aren't ya on the list X sent me?" Stress asked once they were inside.

"You keep asking questions two at a time don't you? Well you can call me Alex if you want, but you probably know me as "Evil X". I'm not on the list, because X made it, and he's kinda the only one who knows I'm still here, other than you that is. And If those cookies are too cold for him, can I have them?"

"Sure luv," She tossed the basket to him and ate one herself. She hadn't actually tried them yet and was pleasantly surprised by how they turned out. The dark chocolate she'd gotten from Keralis's shop was really good.

"If only X knows about ya, don't ya get lonely?" She asked. She knew she would get pretty lonely if she only talked to one person and only one person even knew she existed!

"Eh, not much. I like living in the shadows and stuff, and I don't really want the whole server to know about me." He said, starting to stuff his mouth with the amazing cookies. He didn't care if they were cold. He considered them the best cookies he had ever had.

"Why did you steal the cookies from X?"

"He probably wouldn't mind or question it as much as the average hermit, and it was close to where I hang out, so I could smell them. They smell amazing, and taste even better. Thanks for these." He gestured to the basket he had already half finished.

"Ya welcome."

"Well I don't want to be much of a bother, I'll head out know. Thanks," He said it with so much sincerity in his voice and a tad bit of sadness that Stress could hear.

"Ya not a bother, ya company!" She said. Stress had a thought, "Ya know, I can't just give those cookies to ya for free."

Alex had a really sad but understanding look. He set the basket down and started to head out empty handed staring at the ground slumped down.

"That's not what I meant, you gotta help me remake the ones you ate, as payback!"

Alex turned and looked at her in surprise. No one had ever asked him to help them with something. They'd always assume he'd make the problem worse than it was.

"O-oh I'm not that great at baking I'd probably just get in the way of everything and screw it up..."

"Nonsense! Anyone can bake with some help!" She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the kitchen. 

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