[Today, were gonna learn how to face your fears. Now, the first step to facing your fears- *Techno and Phil appears* Tommy: AAAAAAAAA]
Tommy woke to a comfy bed, unlike his in exile.
He wasn't in exile. His brain supplies, which wasn't wicked helpful.
Shooting up from the pillow he took in his surroundings, in the corners of his bedroom, beautifully constructed pillars made out of stripped jungle wood and a lanterns hung from inside a trapdoor cage.
Tommy remembered Grian, and how he had offered to take him away from exile. Dream's gonna be so mad. He snickered at that thought.
He creeped out of his room, his gaze sweeping over the hallway. Grian must of done some more work on the place, more decorated pillars with lanterns lit the man made cave. The carpet lay on the now wooden floor, where did Grian get spruce? Tommy questioned as he walked into the kitchen/ creating room or whatever it was called, he spotted the adult in a red sweater, pale tan jeans and even more surprisingly- white and gold tipped wings.
The soft looking feathers were a beautiful white with a slight golden tip to the edge of them, and he couldn't help but snort. "Are you a chicken?"
Grian's head snapped up, he stared him down for a split second before chuckling. "No Tommy, I am not a chicken." He paused thinking, turning thoughts over in his head before adding on, "I'm not too sure actually."
The teen eyed him before peering at what he was doing at the cartography table, the map on it seemed to show where a jungle temple or two would be. Tommy arched an eyebrow, looking up at Grian with a curious stare. "Whatcha doing?"
"I'm looking for jungle temples, these appeared on the map that I'm working on." He replied smoothly, continuing his work.
"Why though?"
"To get totems Tommy."
"Why do we need those?" Tommy questioned, though he seemed to have a good guess.
"You're on your last life, are you not?" Said Grian, huffing as he studied the map more.
The teen suddenly found the floor very intriguing, "Y-yeah... I am." He looked up at Tommy- Jesus he was tall- and extended a wing.
"You can come with me, so you don't have to stay here."
Tommy glanced at Grian, "Really?" He asked as if he was joking.
"Mhm." The winged man nodded. "I'd suggest grabbing a few things- oh and by the way here's a new chestplate. I found some diamonds to craft it and enchant it a little."
Tommy practically snatched the precious piece of armor like it was a lifeline, Grian tossed over some iron boots and a helmet- which Tommy put on almost immediately.
Within a few minutes Tommy was bounding out the door, Grian following close behind. The energy the teen had was bounding back, his eyes brightening. He smiled as they set off by foot to the first temple.
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Raiding the structure was fairly easy, all the traps were disabled within less than a minute. They had been unlucky; no totem there, but some gold and a few emeralds and diamonds.
Tommy had practically broke out in a sprint to the next one, Grian ended up having to glide to catch up. His wings were happy to breathe, the semi-cool air flowed around the feathers in a soothing way. Grian realized he would need to preen them soon, maybe he could teach Tommy how to preen wings; however, he had a feeling feathers would get pulled in the process.
Grian was shaken out of his thoughts as Tommy waved at him, he was standing on top of the temple making a little to much noise for his liking. But hey at least the kid was having fun.
As the two entered the temple, Tommy used shears to cut the tripwire; arrows launched into the wall- poison arrows.
Grian happily took them off the wall, searching through the chest- he let out a cry of victory.
A totem.
A real totem of undying.
Tommy cheered, "Hell yeah!" He pumped his fists and whooped- only to be shushed by Grian.
Two voices echoed through the walls.
"-he last one was empty, someone must of raided it. I hope this one has some good shit." Someone spoke up.
A monotone 'hmm' bounced around the chest chamber, Grian shoved the totem into Tommy's hands and unsheathed a sword; putting his armor on.
Tommy hid behind Grian, who had his wings ready to open and help him take off in case he needed to grab Tommy and run- well glide away in his case. Two people stepped out into the chest room.
The first he recognized as Technoblade, but the other he didn't know. He had dark wings, his right had burn damage, Grian kept a scowl on his face. He had high respect for Technoblade, but he would keep Tommy from having to been seen so early.
The conversation stopped then and there, everyone's breath held.
"Oh, uhm. Hello mate." The man with the striped bucket hat said, breaking the awkward silence. "Who are you..?" He asked with a questioning look.
"Grian." Grian answered, "I'm Grian, you?" He asked while Tommy clinged to the totem with a death grip.
"Philza- but just call me Phil- and behind me is Technoblade." The winged man- Phil- responded, he was eyeing Grian over, like he was assessing the threat he posed.
Technoblade looked flat out disappointed, and honestly that man didn't show much emotion- and that freaked Grian out just the slightest.
"Grian?" Phil asked, "Why are you out searching jungle temples?"
"For totems..." Grian said slowly, as if he didn't want to offend anyone in the room.
Phil looked over at Techno, who shrugged and turned around. Phil just extended a wing and stopped him, "You have three lives right? Me and Techno are looking for totems to revive my son."
"I do, but the totem isn't for me." Grian answered, "It's for a- a friend."
Phil arched an eyebrow, "Oh, are they on their last life?"
Grian nodded, he turned to Tommy- who tried to make himself smaller. His smile turned to a frown, mostly a worried expression; "You okay Tommy?" He asked softly.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Phil stiffen. Uh oh. He thought looking over Tommy, who very clearly wasn't comfortable with the duo standing in front of him.
"Toms..?" Phil said, his voice light; Grian flicked his gaze back onto the man with the striped bucket hat.
"Just perfect." Technoblade grumbled in annoyance, "the little gremlin still lives."
Phil blinked before taking a step forward, Tommy flinched away from him; he started to cling to Grian rather than the totem. "Toms, what are you doing out here?"
Tommy didn't respond, he simply buried his face into Grian's sweatshirt.
"I'm not sure if your son likes you Phil." Technoblade spoke up, he was sharpening an axe out of pure boredom.
"Techno, your his brother for goodness sake."
Grian blinked, "Your his family?" He tilted his head in confusion.
"Yes, I have three sons. And I'm currently trying to revive one." The dark shimmering feathers shifted behind Phil as he processed on what he should say next. "Toms, come home." Phil settled on that.
Looking from Phil and Tommy- back and forth, just studying Phil and Technoblade for a moment. "No." Grian spoke up, "I- I don't think he's comfortable with you here."
Phil's eyes narrowed.
Grian hadn't wanted people to find him so early, he felt like 'Phil' would be a nice guy to get to know. But if Tommy wasn't okay with him, then Grian wasn't okay with Phil being around his little bird.
Phil sighed and lifted his wings up to make himself intimidating, "Tommy is my son, I would prefer to ask nicely; but if I need to I will take him back home-" The words by force were silently spoken. "Where he's safest."
Techno just shrugged and agreed with Phil, putting his axe into his tool belt- not to mention the netherite sword there; it gleamed with strong enchantments.
Grian followed with an annoyed tone, "If he's your son then why'd you let him rot in exile?" He lifted his hands and gestured towards a few scars Tommy most likely received from the nasty beach. "If he's your son, then why is he afraid of you?" Grian countered, barely keeping his wings from flaring out in his growing fury.
Phil was lost for words, "We didn't know where exile was-" Which may of been true, but honestly, it would be hard to miss a nether portal that gleamed in the distance. The place also looked dead, unkempt and sad.
"He's right." A small voice rasped, cutting the winged man off. "You killed him, you took his last life. You had a choice Phil." Tommy didn't look up, his posture was screaming I'm not okay, I am not okay.
The winged man shook his head in disbelief, "Toms, just come home to your family." The last bit of what Tommy said clearly dug deep and it stung too.
Grian stood up, eyeing the exit to the temple. "He said what he said, if you just wait until he's healed enough then he can come home with you." He glowered, "Do you even know what happened in exile?"
"No..." Phil said slowly, blinking... "was it- was it that bad..."
Grian gritted his teeth and picked the teen up- he had seen enough. Grian aimed to storm past Phil and Technoblade, he already knew he'd have to run, fly even. One of Phil's wings looked too damaged to fly, the flight feather burned to a crisp; the only thing left behind was the fragile structure of the feather.
Breaking out into a sprint he heard shouts behind him as he booked it, only glancing back to see an angry father and a blood god wielding a sword.
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[1.5k words lets gooO! mmM typing go brr- sorry this chapter a bit long lmao. I hope you enjoyed! <3]