Tws are in the description, check them.
Grian knew he wasn't safe, buy hey, he needed a source of adrenaline to run, and he knew that he desperately needed water, or at least something to drink. He sighed, pulling out the bucket of water and taking a sip, instantly tasing how the cold liquid drizzled down his throat, like the waters draining from a sink.
The feeling was absolutely sickening, making him gag. It probably wasn't a pretty sight.. but it was fine, he didn't vomit too much, it was just ew.
Double ew, triple ew.
God, if he could do it easily, then he would have gone back home. But did he regret doing what he did? No, not really. Sure, there were moments, but overall he did what he had to. Even if that was eventually planning to vanish off of the face of the earth. It was all honestly just a big headache.
He didn't even know if the other hermits had noticed his sudden disappearance, or if they had even thought to look for him.
Goddam this was confusing. He could have just disabled the tracker on his communicator, but it was too late for that now, lets be real.
Dusk was beginning to fall upon the sky, as the tweets of birds quietened, and the familiar sound of spiders arose from the caves nearby, it was now time to sleep unless he wanted his head chopped off and the respawn back at his base amidst his friends' houses.
-
The Hermits (minus Gem and obviously Grian) came flying towards Zedaph one by one, varying from who was closest to who was the furthest away, and they all gathered in a group around the object in question.
The communicator was still buzzing animatedly against the trunk of the tree, covered ever so slightly by the autumnal leaves that had fallen from the branches, the oranges and yellows graciously laying over it like a fuzzy blanket. Aside from the connotations and the obnoxious shaking, it was beautiful.
"So," X asked, "I know i usually control these sorts of stuff, but what do we do now?" He turned to all the other hermits, wonder lingering in his heart, as well as a saddening feeling lacing his chest. It was kind of bittersweet really, they had basically no leads as to where their friend could be; yet here they were, having found the metal piece of technology.
Ex leant down, kneeling on the leaf-covered ground, he picked up the fragmented communicator in one hand, holding it carefully - as though it could break further at any given moment. "We camp here for the night, its getting late, we wont find him when we're tired"
The hermits nodded, all in agreement that they should take a break. They'd been searching for quite a lot of the day, eating on the go the entire time. They were all very tired and needed a proper sleep.
They placed down their beds from their inventory (if it meant anything then Mumbo's was red and Scar's was cyan) and set to making a campfire, they'd be sleeping under the stars tonight. Well they'd be building walls as protection from monsters, but that was only for incase Grian didn't sleep to speed up the night. If Grian was still there.
But he couldn't be dead, it would have come up in the chat. Even if he didn't have his communicator with him, a message would still be sent to the server chat. Because that was just how it worked.
-
A few hours had passed, and Hermits slowly drabbled into unconsciousness (sleep), the amounts of hermits who sat at the campfire in [mostly] silence lowered until there was only a small number, until it was just Ex, X and Mumbo.
The latter of which, looked like he was about to say something, but was struggling to find the perfect wording.
Until he finally must have, "We- we will find him, right?" His voice was quieter than the usual Mumbo Jumbo tone, and wasn't quite so jolly. He sounded drained.
Ex frowned, opening his arms to invite Mumbo for a hug, which he took, "Of course we will, Mumbo. Of course we will."
He was lying. He didn't know if they were going to find Grian. But he couldn't let the others lose hope, even if that did mean that he had to lie.
Xisuma, however, was simply observing. Having been with Ex all his life, he could read him like a book. Sometimes it was a bit more difficult, but right now it was rather easy. Ex wasn't seeming too hopeful, but X was feeling great, he knew for a fact that they'd find him eventually. If that took days, weeks, months, maybe even years, they would keep looking to the best of their ability.
But if it got too long, then they would have to go home, but a few would stay out; and he knew for a fact that Mumbo, Scar, and also Ex would be adamant that those three would stay out.
Finally, the last three went to sleep, unaware that both Ex and Grian were having a shared dream, equally baffling the both of them when they woke up.
~ (this is Ex's POV of the dream) ~
The familiar orange tinted leaves fell from the sky around them as Grian stared at Ex blankly in his eyes from the other side of the tree's openings.
"Grian?" He breathed heavily, his lungs feeling as though they were being compressed, it becoming harder and harder to breathe at each passing second.
"Why are you here?" Grian's responsive voice echoed airily around them as his grip tightened on his diary, "You shouldn't be here"
"G-Grian, I'm here to take you home, come on" He responding, his voice slightly breaking as he stepped forwards as if to grab his hand, only to feel himself to hesitate, to pause when Grian flinched away.
"Ex, oh Ex. I don't want to be found. I want to be alone. You all know. I can't have that, please don't make me go. I need to stay here I don't, I can't, I-" Tears fell from the emptiness of his eyes.
"Grian, come on-" Ex grabbed his hand this time, only for his friend to fade away before him, dropping the book as he disappeared, leaving Ex in chokes of sobs, now clutching the other's dairy.
~ (Now Grian's pov of the dream)
The familiar orange tinted leaves fell from the sky around them as Grian stared at Ex blankly in his eyes from the other side of the tree's openings.
"Grian?" His friend breathed heavily, sounding as though it was slowly becoming harder and harder to breathe at each passing second.
"Why are you here?" Grian's responsive voice echoed airily around them as his grip tightened on his diary, "You shouldn't be here"
"G-Grian, I'm here to take you home, come on" He responding, his voice slightly breaking as he stepped forwards as if to grab his hand, then he hesitated. Grian felt himself flinch away.
"Ex, oh Ex. Trust me, I want to be found. But at the same time I don't, I want to be alone. You all know. I can't have that, please don't make me go. I need to stay here I don't, I can't, I-" Tears fell from Grian's eyes uncontrollably.
"Grian, come on-" Ex grabbed his hand this time, but before they actually touched Ex faded away into darkness, as well as the autumnal surroundings, leaving Grian in an isolated darkness, whispering over and over again the single word 'no'.
-
Another day of searching went by, though this time the hermits stayed in one group together, because they were stronger in large numbers, and still they found nothing, so once again, they grouped up again around the make-shift campfire, and dwindled off to bed as a repeat of last night. Though Ex was the last one sat at the campfire tonight, shakily holding a book.
The book was Xelqua's diary. He'd forgotten to take it out from his inventory before he set off to look for his friend, so now he had it with him. He flipped it over in his lap, his fingers smoothing over the fancy inscription.
It was certainly something, knowing that this very overfilled diary belonged to none other than his missing friend.
He flipped over the cover, reading the date of the entry on the first page, this was from way before Grian joined hermitcraft.
Of course, he wasn't going to actually going to read any of the diary, he was just curious of how someone could write so much in a notebook that they had to actually add extra papers. They were all unordered and quite messily placed in, which probably meant that they'd been placed in a rush, maybe after some had fallen out.
Alas, Ex's eyes grew tired quite quickly as he cautiously placed the diary back in his inventory and went towards his bed to rest, this time his night being dreamless.
As for X, he simply observed from the view of his bed, until he too fell asleep.
-
Grian had had another empty day filled with nothing, soon falling asleep, but he was awoken hours later by the noise of a skeleton firing a bow, when the corner of his eye caught something orange out of the window, like a glow, like a fire. That could quite literally mean limited things.
A) it was just lava.
B) his 'friends' were nearby.
And the lava pool was in the other direction.
So kindly, unless he ran now, he was completely and utterly fucked.
-
Hi!! Happy Sunday folks! I think chapters will begin to get a bit longer now lol, just you wait
PREDICTIONS FOR THE STORY:
How are you guys today?
Also omg I bought a fluffy sloth hot water bottle yesterday and it is actually amazing (:
Sunday the 9th October 2022
1669 words