[Trigger Warning (TW): This chapter contains some mentions of gore. I have tried to minimise the amount of description about the gore but with me being me I may unintentionally go into a lot of detail about certain things.
Like I did in a prior chapter about a single book...
~echo star]
POV:Grian
Location: Admin HQ
The floor beneath me was no longer cold and hard but it wasnt comfy and warm either. I tried to open my eyes so I wasnt looking into the black emptiness of the void around me but I couldnt move them. I tried to bring my hands up to my face to see if I could force them open but they felt as though they were too heavy to move. I tried to sit up but it felt as though I had been chained down. I couldnt move yet I felt as though the desolate void around me was swirling in all kinds of distorted patterns eventhough everything around me was pure darkness.
Where am I? What's going on? I though to myself as I gave up trying to move around. There was nothing to see anyways so I wasnt too bothered about the fact I couldnt move or see anything.
...
It felt as though hours had passed while I was just float in this bottomless void space when inaudible muttering becan to echo around me. The void was no longer pitch black darkness but a deep purple that let out a soft glow around me. Yet, I still couldnt move any part of my body, I was forced to watch as the void around me gradually changed colour and brightness.
After what seemed like another couple of hours my body suddenly felt light, as if I was floating around in space. Well, technically I was floating around in some form of empty space but now I had a lot more control and my movements felt effortless.
Carefully I moved my hands up to my face and to my surprise they were both my usual skin tone, there were no signs of discolouration at all. I pulled the sleeve of my right arm up to my elbow to check and there were still no signs of discolouration. I wasnt sure what to be think at this point, it was hard to think with the constant distorted muttering floating around me all the time. I couldn't really make out anything that was said but I could tell there were quite a few different languages mixed in with the muttering. There was some English, French, German, Galactic, Ancient Nether languages, Endarian and some other languages that I eigher didnt recognise or didnt know the name of.
As I was trying to focus on the speech around me, I barely noticed the shift in colour of the void around me slowly darken before turning to a very pale, dull purple colour very similar to grey except with hints of reds and blues creating the muted purple that filled the surroundings.
It seemed like I had been trapped in the void for almost an eternity when I started to recognise one of the muffled voices around me.
"Grian? Grian? You there? Hello?"
The voice was soft and warm, despite there clearly being a concerned tone present in the voice it was still soothing to hear. The sound if the voice drowned out all the other muffled and distorted voices lingering around me as my eyes began to slowly open.
After a few audible signs of tiredness and a small amount of shuffling around I had finally managed to slightly sit myself up in the bed I had now been placed in. The room around me was bright and it took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the light.
"I'm glad you're awake now. How are you feeling?"
After short pause while I was trying to get my eyes to readjust to the light I saw Tertiary Admin-Healer Celeste standing over me. I noticed that we weren't in the hospital wing but instead I had been placed on my own bed. The blankets had been pushed off the bed and piled up on a nearby chair and the pillows had been shifted around to support my back, wings and head properly.
I tried to reply to Celeste but when I opened my mouth no sound seemed to come out of it. Instead I let out a frustrated sigh and flopped back down onto my bed so I was fully lying down again. I glanced across at Celeste to see if she'd noticed my struggle with speech but she seemed to be too preoccupied in arranging a few potions, which I'm assuming her apprentice had given her.
Celeste is mine and Astra's designated healer, she is the only other person beside me and Astra who knows what the Primes look like. However, since Celeste specialised in surgical related healing (so things such as cuts, stab wounds, scratches and other blood-related or physical injuries) whereas her apprentice Admin-Healer Electra specialised in the potions and medicating side of healing. They were both good at wound sterilisation and dressing but they each had their own talents within the field of healing.
After shuffling through the box of potions and other medications and reading through a couple pages in her medic book, Celeste turned around to face me with a vial of some strange vibrant blue liquid inside it. She walked up towards my bed and placed her had across the right side of my face before flinching slightly and removing her hand from my face. After, she took the same hand and placed it across the left side of my face before removing it. Her face didnt give away any hints of what she was thinking about at all, she just continued on with her work as if nothing was unusual and half my face and body wasnt strangely discoloured and burning at a ridiculously high temperature.
After a few more minutes of studying the difference in each side of my face she took a damp cloth out of a small dish she had placed on the table beside my bed and pour the blue liquid onto the cloth. The cloth was then placed over the right side of my face while she muttered a few words under her breath. She then quickly turned around and placed the now empty vial back into its slot in the box and turned back around to look at me.
"Could you please place your right hand over your right eye to keep that cloth in place while I try and sit you up?" Her soft voice echoed through the empty room, like a soothing lullaby as she picked up the empty dish from the table and placed it back in the box while she grabbed a small glass bottle from her potion box.
With a small bit of struggle to try and forcefully raise my right arm up off of my bed I was able to let it drop on top of my face so I could hold the cloth in place. I didnt question anything Celeste did, she seemed to know what she was doing or at least she always acted like she knew what she was doing...
She placed the small bottle on the table where the bowl and cloth used to be and started waving bother her hands above me like some sort of elegant hand dance. Meanwhile, a soft blue glow appeared around her fingers as my body began to slowly rise and was moved into an upright position.
"I want you to open your mouth and drink this potion, it should ease the burning effects slightly but I'm not entirely sure how long it'll last for or how strong it is. I didnt have enough time to go over everything with Electra earlier as I had been urgently called to come deal with you... again..." Her delicate voice, that danced around me revealed an underlining tone of annoyance and sarcasm.
She seemed to be tired of having to constantly heal me because of how clumsy I can be with things and how seriously I take battles and how stubborn I am about not wanting to give up and I end up injuring myself more. I'm pretty sure I am Celeste's most regular patient, although she tells me she doesnt mind healing me as it is part of her job, I do think she gets a but tired of having to constantly deal with all my injuries.
My worst injury must've happened about 2 and a half years ago now when I was in a battle against a small watcher group which had started terrorising central minecraft and attempting to perma-kill random players that they caught. During the battle a perma-kill enchanted arrow had been fired at one of the nearby players and I was unable to reach them in time or put up a shield so I had to dive from approximately 150 blocks in the air to try and catch the arrow. Unfortunately, I was too quick and instead of grabbing the arrow like I had planned the arrow went straight through my upper arm. I then grabbed my own sword and used it to cut the arrow out as fast as I could and I had to use a couple of my own spells to try and stop the effects of the arrow from passing through my body any further than my arm.
Thankfully, I was successful but in the process I lost the use of my left arm and it had to be replaced by a metal arm. The metal wrm was comprised of different components that acted like a real arm and was placed inside my own arm as a replacement for all the damages that had been done on the inside. The only way you could seen the injury now is through the scar that runs from my left shoulder to around the centre of my upper arm when I had used my sword to cut out the arrow and that same point had been used to place my metal arm inside of my original arm.
I remember how it took Celeste ages to do it bu herself as no-one else was allowed to come and see me to help out. I'm not entirely sure how long it took her to finish it as I kept going in and out of consciousness the entire time she was working.
"H-hello? Grian? You there?" Despite the concern the words came out elegant and delicate. "Are you able to speak now?"
I managed to open my eyes slightly and raise my head as she took the away from my face and my arm fell down, back by my side.
"I- I... Wh- at's go-..." I tried to speak but my words kept getting mixed up and now my throat felt as though it was burning as bad as the right side of me was.
"Its alright is you cant speak, I'll just do the talking as long as you're alright to listen?"
I nodded my head slightly, Celeste then pulled up a chair and sat beside me with the box of potions now placed on the floor beside her.
"I'm not sure what is wrong with you or how I can relieve your symptoms. I've tried using a cooling agent mixed with some water and regeneration potion to try and reverse some of the discolouration around your eye and decrease the burning your feeling. It was the only thing Electra could come up with he limited knowledge we have on your situation." Celeste tried keeping eye contact with me while she spoke but it seemed difficult for her to.
Despite the fact I could barely sit up myself, she seemed to look at the floor with an almost defeated and upset look plastered across her face at the fact that she is supposed to be the most experienced healer in Admin HQ, yet she didnt know how to help me. She seemed to be trying to desperately think of ways she could potentially help me and I could see the frustration growing across her face as she struggled to come to any kind of conclusion on what she could do to help me. It hurt me to see that she was tormented by this and I didnt want her to feel guilty for not being able to do anything.
"C-Celeste it's alright... y-you dont need to wo- worry about me."
"But it's my duty to worry and care for everyone within Minecraft! I couldnt possibly just leave you like this!" She cried as tears began to form in her eyes.
"Celeste, you should take a break. I've no idea how long you've been working and you look exhausted and stressed, please go relax." I replied, trying my best to speak clearly through the pain and sitting myself up a but more in my bed. "Honestly, I am starting to feel better and I'm not just saying this to make you happier."
"I dont want to feel like I'm neglecting my duties though, you looked like you were in so much pain, you could barely speak, half of your face and body is discoloured and your right doesnt look normal either! I cant just leave you like this, I dont deserve to be the Head Healer if I cant help you!" She managed to say before tears started to fall down her face.
"Celeste, you cant expect yourself to be perfect at everything. You specialise in surgical-healing and at the moment my issue isnt related to any kind of cut or open wound or amputation. It's some sort of purple, most likely magic related, burn. You may have some knowledge about magic-wounds, that is not your main healing speciality, therefore you shouldnt beat yourself up about not being able to cure, fix or heal everything." I said in an attempt to comfort her, while a sharp pain through my right eye, down my throat and across my right shoulder made itself known.
"I thank you for trying to comfort me and I will do as you say and take a break. Are you sure you're gonna be alright on your own?" Cesleste replied with sounding defeated as she knew I would have my way in the end.
After dismissing herself, she left me with a couple of healing potions and a regen potion and left the room, leaving me on my bed alone. Astra had already left me earlier when she went to get Celeste and wasn't able to come back as she had to continue with her duties as well as mine as she had forced me to take the rest of the day off to rest.
However, I didnt want to spend the rest of the day in bed so I forced my legs off the edge of the bed and pushed myself off the bed so I could stand up. After a little bit of struggling I managed to put on a clean red jumper, bandaged up my right arm and pulled my sleeves down to cover my arms. For my face, I had managed to make a makeshift eye patch out of the remaining bandages and materials that had been left by Celeste. Finally I pulled my Prime Admin Cloal over myself and secured the hood over my face with a spell.
I then csrefully made my way out of my room and the Prime Admin quarters and made my way through the Admin HQ, trying my best to avoid Celeste or Astra from seeing me leave the building. After a lot more walking I finally arrived at the portal room, quickly I hid behind one of the pillars in the room and got changed so I looked like my 'normal player self' with the bandages covering the purple magic burns on my skin and walked to the console at the 'Private and Whitelisted Server Portal'. I typed in the code and walked through the portal, finally arriving back in Hermitcraft.
The sun seemed to be just starting to set, so I quickly ran in the direction of my house.
"Grian! You're back!" A familiar voice called to me from somewhere in the almost darkness around me. "Where've you been? I've been worried about you."
I turned around to see Mumbo running towards me, seemingly out of breath as he was shouting while running as fast as he could to get to me.
"I just went to see some old friends and I guess I just lost track of time." I replied with, to the now worn out hermit.
"Well, at least your back in one piece." He said, "Geez, these nights seem to get dark quicker and quicker each week. How about we go in your house where theres more light?"
Mumbo clearly hadnt realised the fact that half of my body was covered in bandages when he said I'd 'come back in one piece'. I reluctantly, led Mumbo inside my house knowing that he'll definitely see all my bandages we go into the light.
"That's better!" He exclaimed, "I can actually see you clearer now in this light."
I closed the door behind us and Mumbo went and sat on my bed, still not noticing the bandages. However, as I turned to face him to continue our conversation a shocked look became plastered across Mumbo's face.
"W-what happened to you?!" He blurted out, without thinking before he spoke.
I subconsciously took a step back into a corner of my house without even thinking about what I was doing. My arms fell in front of me as I grabbed my right hand with my left trying to cover the other bandages and I flicked my head to try and get my hair to cover the bandages across my face.
After a few moments of awkward silence and the odd glance across to each other, Mumbo finally broke the silence.
"Sorry... I shouldn't have reacted like that..."
"Its alright, I dont blame you for being shocked. I suppose the sudden shouting kinda made me panic and back up into this corner." I said with a slight chuckle to lighten the mood.
"But seriously, what happened?" Mumbo asked again, this time in a calmer more concerned tone than before as I stepped out of the corner and towards my friend.
Before I got the chance to respond, a harsh shrieking sound could be heard from above us. Then, four phantoms then swooped down towards both of us, their sharp teeth showing as the horrifying shrieks continued. Out of instinct I pulled out my diamond sword and swung at them, while Mumbo ran and hid behind me.
After a few swipes of my sword, I had successfully killed the phantoms and a couple of phantom membranes lay on my now blood splattered floor. Phantom blood is a weird murky yellow colour and is hard to remove from things. You usually just have to leave the blood where it is and wait for it to evaporate and on it's own, which usually takes a few hours and the smell of the blood usually lingers for a week unless you do something about it yourself.
"You're allowed to help me in these situations Mumbo."
"Well, they weren't my phantoms, you're the one who hasnt been here in ages and therefore hasnt slept. I've made sure to sleep every night to avoid them." He said, following up with, "Anyways, I wouldnt be sticking to my 'Peace, Love and Plants' motto if I did hurt them."
We both sighed before laughing a little and making our way over to my bed. Mumbo sat on my bed while I placed down another bed beside it so we both had somewhere to rest.
"Now Grian, you cant keep avoiding my question. What has happened to you?"
"It was just a prank gone wrong, nothing too serious. I'd attempted to set up a TNT trap on one of my friends and I messed up the redstone and blew myself up, which resulted in half of my being covered in burns." I lied.
I hate lying to one of my closest friends but I didny have much of a choice. I dont know what's causing the discolouration on my skin the burning pains I keep experiencing. The only conclusion me, Astra and Celeste could come up with was that it was some sort of magic burn, eventhough we dont know anyone with purple magic that could cause something like this and I havent actually been in any dangerous situations recently.
"I get the feeling that either isnt the entire truth or that was just a complete lie, but I wont pressure you into sharing anymore. So, why dont we get some sleep before more phantoms arrive?" Mumbo said with a concerned look on his face.
"Yeah, we best get some sleep and I'll finish my wall at some point." I replied.
[This is definitely the longest chapter so far. I know not a lot has happened yet and it's already Chapter 10 but this should be starting to build up to drama a lot quicker now.
I hope you havent gotten bored of the story due to the lack of drama but as I've said before I'm still new to story writing and I'm just learning. You're all welcome to leave constructive criticism, ideas and tips on how to write stories if you'd like to :)
~echo]