The Past Ahead - an Empires SMP AU

Chapter 4 - The ghost, the collector, the elf, the llama, and the Copper King

           Pix sat in the llama gardens fondly patting and feeding one of the colorful camelids. Despite whatever anyone ever said about llamas being annoying or that horses were better, they always had a place in his heart. They were definitely the best animals to wander around and trade with, in his opinion anyway.

           "Hey, Pix." He looked up. It was the Scotts. He couldn't tell which one, their voices sounded identical. "Yeah, llamas are the best, aren't they?" Okay, so that was definitely the Scott with the yellow eye. "They are my favorite animal," Pix admitted. "I know we just got here, but what do you do for fun around here?" Elf Scott interjected. "Other than pet llamas?" The other Scott shrugged. "Well, annoying Jimmy's on the list of tourist must-dos, but do you want a tour?" "Might as well, we have nothing else to do." "Okay, all aboard the llama express!" Scott of Chromia shouted gleefully, and as if on cue a llama riding a minecart zoomed by them with a placid expression on its face like this happened all the time. Scott of Rivendell and the Copper King looked at each other. Well, this was going to be interesting.

           "So that's the nether portal, that's the fountain, you already saw the llama gardens, that's the empanada stall that Sausage illegally put up here, that's the tavern, and that's my megabase. Come in, I'll show you my collection." Scott said, stopping the minecarts and letting them get off. Pix almost stumbled and the other Scott looked quite green. This was going to take some getting used to. They walked into the megabase and were astounded by the collection that the Chromian Scott had piled up. 

           Hats, elytras, weapons, they all lay in assorted combinations across a few rooms. "Where'd you get all this stuff?" Pix asked, picking up what looked like a toy Jimmy. "Nicked it," Scott said casually. The elf Scott looked at him with a newfound respect. "Really? All of it?" "Most of it. Some of them I got honestly. I have kleptomaniacal tendencies." "If Jimmy's supposed to keep the law around here, he's not doing a very good job." Scott noted. "Yeah, there was this one time I ran an underground black market, he was literally the last person to find out about it. 'Course, that was the whole point."

           The three of them were on the outskirts of Chromia by now, and they suddenly heard a banging noise from a nearby village. That can't be good, Pix thought. They went down to the village to investigate. It wasn't hard to find where the sound was coming from. The village was kind of small and it was coming from the first house they came across. It looked like an ordinary house. The door was shut but not locked, and the banging sounded like someone panicking and knocking very hard on the door from the other side. Scott of Chromia's eyes widened. "No way. Oh boy." "What's the matter?" Pix asked, just as a voice from inside the house cried out, "Scott? Scott, is that you? Oh I hope it's you, none of these villagers will open the door for me." Scott sighed and opened the door.

           Out barreled a boy with fluffy ears and tail and a llama nose. He leapt up to his feet. "Well, took you long enough." "Owen, how long have you been here?" "Since I left." "Since you left?! That was ages ago!" "Well no one would open the door for me. How's it all going in Llama Land anyhow?" "Well, there are still some orange roofs but I've changed the colors of most of them." "Of course. You did a good job of minding the empire in my absence. Knew I could count on you, Scott."

           "Uh, Scott? Who's this and what's going on?" Pix asked. Scott blinked slowly, yellow eye first then blue eye after. "That's gonna take a while to explain." "What's going to take a while to explain?" All of them jumped except Owen who was sniffing a butterfly that had landed on his nose. They whirled around to find the ghost Pix, who had an apologetic expression. "Oh, sorry, I forgot how easy it is to sneak up on people when your feet aren't tangible and don't make footsteps. Oh, who's this? Another time-displaced emperor?" "Time what?" 

           "Uh, this is Owen. He was my llama bartender until Shelby turned him human and he took over Chromia while we were gone in Hermitcraft and he's been apparently been stuck in a village this whole time because he doesn't know how to open doors, and that's the abridged version." Pix nodded, his ectoplasm writhing. "Okay." He said, acting like it was completely normal. "I was just coming over to see if any of the new arrivals could tell me anything interesting about their time period. There's a bit of a thing with the history books so I'm adding to my collection of random history facts through hearsay."

           They ended in Pix's museum somehow, with Owen tagging along because Scott claimed he couldn't be left alone in Chromia or everything would turn orange again and beds would be broken, which the past Pix and Scott both agreed were very specific worries that they were surprised worried him, considering what this time period was normally like already. The ghost Pix took them on a little museum tour, outlining everything he had in his collections. "I'm a little surprised we aren't bored to death already; aren't museums supposed to be boring?" Elf Scott whispered. 

           "Then again, Owen's wandered off and been found in the wheat fields again for what, the fourth time already? This place is weird, and I don't just mean the Ancient Capital." "I'm pretty sure that's what our server would have been like if Xornoth hadn't disrupted everything, Scott," Pix replied. "Speaking of the demon, should we tell my future self about him? He just wants to know about our time period but I understand that it's a... sensitive topic with you." Scott shrugged, trying to make it look like he didn't care. "We don't have to mention that bit."

           Their discussion was cut short by the fact that the Scott with the yellow eye had somehow lost Owen again and they spent at least fifteen minutes looking for him before finding him nibbling on the historian Pix's precious deepslate emerald ore. "Not the emerald ore!" Pix yelped. He grabbed a broom and used it to try and pry Owen off of it. The Chromian Scott instantly yanked the broom away with a stern look on his face. "Hey, that's my best friend, no whacking my best friend with a broom," He ordered. Pix backed off. Owen got up, still nibbling the emerald ore. 

           "Mmwats wif de bwoom anywes?" He asked, before Pix grabbed his ore back and started wiping off the llama drool. "What's with the broom anyways?" Owen repeated. "I was just eating seeds." Seeds? Everyone looked at each other. Scott facepalmed. "I knew teaching you wheat came from seeds was a bad idea. Owen, that's emerald ore, not seeds." "But they're both round and green." "The ore is embedded in the rock, and seeds don't always come in chunks like that, they're like tiny pebbles." "But all big rocks are made of tiny pebbles." "Who taught you that?" "I think you did."

           They spent the rest of the day explaining to Owen the difference between ore and seeds, and after that he asked what redstone ore was and how it turned into redstone dust, which looked like red sugar. Eventually Scott managed to lead his llama friend all the way back to Chromia before they had to spend the night in the Ancient Capital. The Copper King glanced at his elf companion and he realized that they had never given his future self the lecture he had wanted on their time period. Well, guess we're putting off the awkward Xornoth discussion, then.